Author: amylynw

The Law of Disorder

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It’s inevitable.  The messes.  The laundry piles.  The law of physics which says that even when things are left perfectly alone, they will eventually deteriorate.  Order must always decrease.  It should be called the law of home-making.  This is a typical laundry day in our house:

That doesn’t include sheets that have been accidentally wet during the night.  Thankfully those sheets and blankets were already on the laundry room floor when I heard Elijah frantically yelling, “Mom!  Mom!  The sink is doing it again!” The sheets were quick to soak up some of the gallons of water rushing out of our small sink in the bathroom, but the flood was pretty extreme.  The plug will sometimes fall into ‘closed’ position and is very difficult to pull back up again.  Unfortunately, the water was left running at the same time.  So… an extra little mopping was done here today.  Ah, entropy.

Speaking of things being left alone… yesterday we had somewhat of a scare.  Again, I heard a rather desperate call for me from upstairs.  Betty was in the bathroom with the door closed (she can do that too) and she had reached the lock with her little hands and locked the door.  The lock is only able to be opened from the outside of the door with a skeleton key, as the doorknobs are those old-fashioned giant diamonds.  I immediately freaked out and called Matthew.  I needed the skeleton key, which both of us saw recently but couldn’t remember where, or a locksmith.  With visions of disaster speeding through my head, I prayed and then did the only reasonable thing I could think of doing quickly: climb onto the roof.  So, out the boys’ bedroom window I crawled, walking carefully to the adjacent bathroom window, the hot slanted rooftop toasty under my sandals.  I pried open the screen of the bathroom window and gave Betty a startle when I called her name.  She was sitting in front of the door, playing with the other kids’ fingers under the door, looking unfazed by the whole ordeal.  I unlocked the door and everyone cheered.  Jack said, “Mom, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen you do!”  I really, really hope that I never have to climb out on the roof again.  The kids all had a crash course on why putting Betty in the bathroom is NOT a good idea, and we are on the lookout for our skeleton key in case anything like that happens again.  Thankfully it was such a warm day, so the windows were all open!

My fourth load of wash is on the clothesline, school happened, and we have laughed entropy in the face by all of our vacuuming and putting away.  I’m desperately hoping to do better than cereal for supper tonight.  Cooking is one thing that does not fall into any law of physics.  This is called the second law of home-making: supper, if left completely alone, will not just happen.

Exceptional Reminiscence

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This weekend goes down in history as one of my favorites in a long time.  I knew it would be fun, but an hour after arriving in Syracuse, my sides were already aching from laughter.  It was great to be with my blood sisters and African sisters.

My sister, Sherry, graciously hosted all of us in her home.  She is an artist, with touches of beauty all throughout her house.  We spent most of our time around her kitchen table, looking at these sweet things her son picked for her.

Mugs of tea and coffee warmed our hands as we told story after story after story.  We finally unglued ourselves from the table to enjoy a gorgeous day at Green Lakes State Park.

We took a leisurely 3-mile walk around the uniquely green-colored lakes, with the backdrop of tree blossoms just about to pop, all around us.  Our photographers included strangers pulled from their own walks.

Also, a handy log and camera self-timer make for a good shot!  I almost got impaled by a branch running over to the group for this one:

There were more funny things that happened or were said than there are legs on a centipede.

More even than the amounts of time a bumble-bee can buzz in its entire life.

Sisters, indeed, are the best.

After our lovely walk, we pampered our toes with some beauty and whimsy.  Bonnie skillfully painted flowers, designs, and filigree on our toenails.  Can you tell which ones are mine?

Saturday night we made an African meal, complimented by more stories.  On Sunday, before we left, we took a series of photos.  I gave my camera to my nephew, Nathanael.  When I told him he could take as many as he wanted, a small chuckle escaped his throat, and we heard a constant stream of “click, click, click,” coming from his direction.  I deleted over 50 shots, kept quite a few, and am sharing my favorite four.

When Ruthie and I first met, we were more like friend-emies… a mixture between best friends and enemies.  For over twenty years now we’ve visited back and forth, been in eachother’s weddings, marveled at eachother’s children, laughed, cried and prayed for one another.  What a blessing friendships grown with time are.  Like the most delightful wine.  Aged to perfection.

I love how this picture captures the fact that, no matter how many years have passed, we’re really still just kids deep inside.

I will relish these memories for the rest of my life.  I treasure these friendships even more.

Broken Tulip and a Road Trip

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This tulip was accidently smooshed the other day.  I thought it really had died, but with a little love it now sits happily in a vase on my kitchen table.  I’m thankful it got broken, because now I can enjoy its beauty whenever I walk into the kitchen!  It’s brokenness forced me to embrace its loveliness and not miss out on it while it grew in the garden where I looked maybe once a day.  So much like our own lives.  Sometimes we have to be broken in order for the beauty of Christ to shine brighter.   Sometimes we are moved to the kitchen table to bring more blessing and joy to others than if we had remained where we were more comfortable.  Now that it’s in a vase of water, it is actually growing more, because tulips never stop growing, even after they’re picked.  Brokenness leads to growth.

Easter was a special day with family.  Betty was in on the action this year.

Cousins always add an element of delight to any day!

I’m not sure what Betty was doing.  It seemed like she didn’t want to touch the grass with her knees.  Nope, she’s still not walking.  Just doing yoga.

This weekend I’m super duper excited to drive away to Syracuse with my sister and enjoy a weekend away!  We will be relishing time with my other sister and 3 friends we grew up with in Africa… I can already feel my stomach hurting from the laughter, my eyes stinging from the tears, and my heart filling up with once-a-year-maybe-more kind of memories.  What amazing husbands we have to happily let us go and enjoy time with our sisters!  It’s going to be grand.  Happy Friday!  May it be beautiful.

Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick

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The other day Jack tried explaining that he wanted me to take a picture of him floating away, just like he had seen in a photo once.  We had the sidewalk chalk out, and he had drawn a balloon.  So, I climbed the tree and tried my best to to capture the image of him being pulled into the sky by a single balloon.  Super fun!

Jack likes to say things like, “Oh, grateful,” instead of “Oh, great.”  When Matt asked him if he had a high metabolism he answered, “I forget.”  I purposely don’t really watch them on the trampoline, because their bravery exceeds my own.  However, when I’m hanging laundry on the clothesline, they are drawn to the black circle of bounce and I’m forced to watch their aerial flips and daring leaps.  He is a regular ninja when it comes to the trampoline, and it’s both frightening and exhilarating to watch him.  When he runs, he looks more like a gazelle.  Every few steps he flies through the air in a leap and keeps on going.  Higher is better.  Harder is better.  Pain is weakness leaving the body.  His legs are more bruised than not.  He never wakes up during the night, so when he came stumbling into our room one night I knew something was wrong.  Turns out he fell out of bed… which means he fell from the top bunk.  Ouch!  I have no idea how his wiry body slid out with the side rail on, but I’m glad he was okay.  He loves oats, life, and everything in-between.  For him, every day is about as exciting as being swept away by a single balloon.

Good-Bye Twenties

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My palms were sweaty when we drove up to my sister’s house on Saturday.  For weeks now, I have been sneaking around behind Matthew’s back.  Since I’ve only ever known him as a teenager or a boy in his twenties, his thirtieth birthday was a big deal.  I jotted all of my notes down in Jack’s notebook, drove here and there picking things up and dropping them off.  One day we had a “craft day” at Heather’s house to make these beautiful creations:

They weren’t exactly the highlight of the party decor, like in my minds’ eye, but the tree they hung on looked festive anyway.  The entire day wouldn’t have been so fabulous without my family.  Everyone was amazing.  Matthew eventually stopped asking me questions about our “surprise date”, and later he confessed that he did have suspicions.  But nothing dampened the mood of that day, and it was delightful to see friends and family and hang out together.

There was much swinging and baseball to be had by all.

We have arrived in the thirties with much celebration and gratefulness.  I love my husband so very much.  A lot of things have happened since I filled up his attic bedroom with balloons on his 17th birthday.  We’ve been up and down and all around, yet I can confidently say that I love him more today than I ever have.  It’s an exciting thought to anticipate loving someone more each day.  It’s exhausting sometimes to work at marriage and keep it growing.  We’ve been doing a lot of gardening lately.  Just tonight, in one of our egg carton starters, all of Matt’s little seedlings got knocked over and spilled.  We could give up when things like that happen.  Or we can pick up the dirt, mend the broken pieces, water, love, and nurture those seeds and expect to see growth.  Maybe those beans will be that much more able to withstand a violent storm, because of the test they’ve been through tonight.  Every hard time in life, in marriage, in parenting, is growing us into stronger men, women, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers.

Every day I’m reminded of how beautiful life is.  It’s not always exactly how we wish it would be, and oftentimes it’s much harder than we’d like, but it is always, always beautiful.

The Temperature of My Heart

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I’ve always said that my day often turns out a lot like my cup of tea in the morning.  This isn’t a rule, just an uncanny observance.  When my mug gets popped into the microwave multiple times in a morning, it is just not as desirable.  I’m rushed, flitting here and there, not focusing my attention where it needs to be.  This morning, I sipped the entire mug of hot delight before it cooled, and while it remained fresh.  As the last drop went down I peered into my cup a little bit surprised.  This hasn’t happened in awhile.  There is something beautiful about sitting in a quiet spot at the kitchen table with my tea and Bible.  The day stretches out before me with no mistakes in it.  I love getting to the end of my tea, realizing that I haven’t gotten up once to do this or that.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Today is going to be a good day.

Oh My Tacky Yard

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This week, our neighbor was cleaning out his basement.  The kids happened to be outside, and he happened to offer them bags of his old treasures.  I agreed to them accepting the gifts as long as they stayed in the back yard.

I haven’t seen so much excitement over plastic in a long time!  They went hog wild, hanging eggs on the trees, bushes, and my favorite: the alley fence.

Jack specially put up the black cat (not sure where that fits in the Easter theme going here), to scare away the ever-dreaded “Alley Cat”.  The very first day we moved here, I woke up hearing a meowing sound, only to find a black and white cat standing in our bedroom looking up at me.  I screamed, thinking it was a skunk at first.  Learning it was only a cat, I escorted it downstairs to the basement, where I shooed it outside through the outside doors which we had forgotten to close the night before.  Mystery solved.  Ever since then, however, we have spotted it here and there in our yard, and the kids get all in a tizzy.  I’m glad Jack came up with this idea.

Pretty scary!

So, even though I’m pretty much anti-plastic-decorations, I felt it was worth it to see the joy on their faces as they arranged each egg carefully throughout the yard.

Tacky to the enth degree, but perfect as well.

Willow’s Day

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Life is so beautiful.  Today I had the privilege of going to the smallest funeral I have ever attended.  The baby was in a tiny wooden box, about the size of a man’s hand.  Inside, a life that just one day ago was warm and cozy inside her mother’s womb, lay still, but spoke volumes to our hearts.  Sixteen weeks old, her hand barely covered half of her mama’s fingernail.  Her feet, about the height of a penny, never touched earthly soil, but now they skip and play on golden streets.  The beauty of the spring sunshine and barely green willow trees framed the morning perfectly.  We all gathered under the weeping willow tree which marks her earthly tie.  Friends and family who mourn, stand, hope, and love.  There is courage on her parents’ faces, as they trust in the Maker of life who gave and took away.  On the faces of her two brothers and two sisters, there is pride in their baby sister, who made it to Heaven first.  We’re told to mourn with those who mourn, and my heart aches with these amazingly special friends.  Yet, what joy and comfort we have, knowing she is being kept safe in Heaven for you.

Irregular Aberrations

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There are many unusual things around our house.  Out of place.  Puzzling.  Strange.  Aberrant, not typical sights, but more common than I realized.  I actually never noticed these peculiar highlights until my friend Susan pointed out a marker stuck in the candle jar inside the bathroom.  Ever since then my eyes have been peeled for such irregular sights.  This happens to be one of my favorites.  Tea bags left in the flower pot by a nameless guest.  They’re still there, because they make me smile when I think of her.

This week I looked up to find this sight:

Nerf gun fights have been in full array here these days.  It must have been a fun target to hit, jingling with each shot.  This reminds me that it’s high time for the mistle-toe to be lovingly tucked away into the Christmas bins.  I’m not sure how it missed being packed for so long.  Must be that I have other things which keep me busy.

Highlights of Today

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Although spring has sprung, today the fuzzy sweaters and cozy moccasins were pulled out for another encore.

Elsie somehow manages without too many layers.  Her accessories of late include this prized necklace that Nadine bought for her with her Awana Bucks, and a sparkly home-made headband from Aunt Heidi.  Her motto is: never leave home without them!

There was a full-out battle today with bow, sword, marshmallow blaster, and old tv-video game gun cut lose from its wires.

I think we won.

Highlights included: chia seed pancakes at supper, vacuuming the living room, memorizing verses in Jack’s bed with him and Elsie, sitting in the sunshine, listening to Jonathan Antoine, soaking up Betty’s baby browns, and sipping some hot tea numerous times throughout this colder day.

Happy Tuesday!