Author: amylynw

The Bay Island Experience

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In all of our almost ten years of marriage, Matthew and I have moved fourteen times.  
A few of those times, it was “just” moving a bunch of suitcases from one place to another as we switched apartments, while the rest of our belongings were in storage.  I love reflecting back on each move, and how God miraculously provided for us at just the right time.  Before Elijah was born, we lived with Matt’s parents.  I was on bed rest, so his mom was helping me out with Nadine while I lived in their attic and kept busy trying to keep a little baby cooking as long as possible.  When Elijah decided to come two months early, he spent five weeks in the NICU.  That’s another story.  A month after he came home, we moved to Honduras to live for five months.  It was a huge highlight of our married life.


We lived in one room here, one room there, moving with the missionaries we were visiting, until we reached the island of Roatan, just off the Honduran coast.  When we arrived, Matthew was literally puking his guts out from sea-sickness.  The short ferry-ride to the island had done him in completely.  While he threw up over the side of the deck, I was stuck below with both kids.  No children were allowed on deck, and instead of having the support of my husband, I sat next to some wacko guy who told me stories about his fire-breathing tricks.  It was a very tumultuous beginning.

 


When we moved into our own apartment, it was one room, with a small divider that separated the kitchen from the bedroom area.  We rigged a curtain around Nadine’s bed, and Elijah started off in a suitcase before moving to a pack n’ play.

It was the magic pack n’ play, that literally fit in every space we ever needed it to fit.  The legs fall off every time we put it up, but we still use it all the time at Grandma’s house.

That apartment had two burners in the kitchen, and a sink.  That was it.  I learned how to make homemade tortillas, and shrimp that could make your mouth dance.  Lobster was like chicken, and we ate it every week.  I made no-bake cookies a lot, and I really started to miss having an oven.  Almost every day we would buy “pan dulce” (sweet bread) from a lady who came to know we would buy her delightful  bread whenever she came knocking.  We spent our days studying Spanish, swimming in the Caribbean, and praying about what we should do next with our lives.  A very definite close in chapter was going on back home, and we were headed off to California that summer.  So, in those few months, we read a lot, prayed a lot, and walked a lot!  We had two sweet babies who were 13 months apart, and whom everyone thought were twins.  
We walked to get our groceries, walked to check our email, walked to visit our friends.  It was beautiful there.  At night, when the kids were asleep, we would lock up the apartment, and walk down the pier of the motel and sit on the end, listening to the ocean below us and looking at the stars above us.

Then, one day, a family that was living in the one big apartment of the motel, moved back to the States.  Matt asked the owner if we could live there instead.  It was worked out, and we quickly packed up our bags and carried them up the stairs to the HUGE apartment.  My favorite feature?  The oven.  I also loved the winding stairs that brought you up to the living room, and the windows that were everywhere so you could see the ocean.  The bedroom was window-less, but housed a California King-sized bed in which I got lost every single night.  The living room and bedroom were basically connected, but the kitchen was not seen from the bed room.  The bathroom got so hot around mid-day that you had to dance while you peed so your feet wouldn’t burn!  But I loved it there.  I loved the crazy deck with completely unsafe measurements between the slats.  I loved how you could watch a storm coming from miles away, and how I could hang my laundry to dry in the salty breeze.


Thankfully neither of my children ever fell from that deck.  We would drag mattresses outside and play, while the ocean breezes kissed our faces.  I would make pizza twice a week, just because I could.  We also bought cheap chocolate cake mix and would sometimes make a whole cake in the oven and eat it for supper after the kids were asleep.  The other huge blessing about that apartment was that our friends before us had rigged a satelite dish onto the roof where we could connect our laptop to the internet.  No longer did we have to walk to the Yacht Club to check our email.

 I felt like we lived the life of kings.

It was so much fun when my parents came to visit us for a week.  We weren’t too homesick for anything American, but we did miss our family.  Then something changed in our schedule that made us think it would be better to come home two weeks earlier than planned.  We decided to only let my parents in on it, and to surprise everyone else.  The day before we flew back to Pennsylvania was full of craziness.  Nadine had a special little blanket that she called “Dee Dee”.  For some odd reason, she decided to throw Dee Dee into the ocean.  I was holding Elijah on the deck, so I yelled for Matt to go get it!  I knew the next day of flying would be disastrous without it.  So, he jumped in, clothes and all, to fetch Dee Dee from the sea.  Since there were no dryers, we used a friend’s hair dryer to get it as dry as possible.  Nadine loves to hear the story of Dee Dee in the sea.


Tonight  I’m awed by the countless blessings God gave us, specifically during our short time in Roatan.  I never knew how much I needed that time.  After living a whirlwind two years of marriage, with two babies born during that time, and not living on our own for at least eight months, it was God’s perfect timing to give us some undivided family time to seek Him together.  As I look back, I’m reminded in a fresh way about how God just loves to bless us with details.  Like cake mixes and ovens and Dee Dee’s.

The Boy with the Nametag

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Fourteen years ago I had met him around a campfire.  Eight months later I saw him again and craned my neck to read the name tag associated with the smiling eyes and handsome face.  Weldon.  I liked it.  I used the rest of my summer conniving ways to be with that boy, and I haven’t really ever stopped.  When I found out he was barely sixteen, I knew it was going to be a long wait.  But it sure was fun, and life has never been more sweet than when Matthew has been a part of it.  We dated pre-text, pre-facebook, pre-cellphone, and almost pre-email.  I remember going through the phone bill, highlighting all the time spent calling Philadelphia, and writing my dad a check to cover that portion.  I remember the weekly letters that arrived with a stamp, a hand-written note, and often something else fun or creative to woo my heart.  Once he sent me a mango because he knew it was my favorite fruit.  We did cutesy things like learn Morse code so we could write secret messages to each other on woodwork and trees.  When I was twenty, I left him for Kenya and he let me chase down my wild dreams and be on my own for six months, so I could hear what God was telling me to do with my life.  We talked on the phone twice during that time, for two minutes, because it cost four dollars a minute.  When I came back with a hundred braids in my hair, my heart was a lot more settled.  I had doubted our future together, only to have it confirmed even stronger than before.  When it became very clear that the time for us to get married was here, my sister demanded that he have a job, a driver’s license, and a place to live, even if it was a tent.  He bought a tent.  Then he did get a good job and a driver’s license.  Eight months later, we were engaged, and five months after that, we were married!

I love how I’ve been able to experience life with Matthew.  He’s so simple and uncomplicated.   He hates it when I write about him.  So I won’t gush.  But I do want to reflect on God’s hand in our marriage.  He has meshed two imperfect people together and handed us one experience after another in which to walk together.  We have had a few times where I honestly had no idea how we would ever patch things up again.  Before Nadine was born, I was so mad at him one night because he fell asleep when I wanted to stay up in bed and talk.  I got so steamed up that I jerked myself out of bed and slammed the bedroom door as hard as I could.  Anger turned to remorse when the bookshelf above our bed fell off the wall and landed on his head.  Strong’s concordance woke him up with a bang.  I’ve been selfish and mean, but he still hugs me close every night.

When I think about how I dreamed that I would marry that boy with that name tag and those eyes, I am simply amazed.  God blew me away.  I’m living with the dream of my life.

Cinnamon of Life

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Today Jack asked me to put “that brown salt” in his oats.  We know it as cinnamon.  Cinnamon.  I’m so happy to write that without a little red line underneath it, to tell me that I’ve misspelled it yet again.  At 31 I have finally mastered how to spell cinnamon.  Anyway, thinking about cinnamon and every other spice jammed into my spice cabinet, I was thinking how bland food would be without them.  Also, how boring my life would be without aspirations.  Dreams are what give my life spice.  They are the cinnamon in my oatmeal.  (I just had to spell it out one more time).

I have a lot of dreams.  I dream of my room looking like the most romantic getaway at all times, instead of just a place to sleep.  I dream of showing Matthew the cities of London and Nairobi and taking a second honeymoon in Hawaii.  One day I will run a marathon.  One day I will write a book.  Why does God give us dreams?  Tonight Matthew & I were discussing this very thing.  One reason is so we can be doing.  We don’t generally wake up, realize a dream, and fulfill it all in the same day.  It takes years of doing that thing we love to do.  So do it.

Dreams are God’s way of writing down His goals for our lives.  I think He puts them there in our hearts for reasons beyond our present understanding.  When He inspires people to do things for His glory, we have no choice but to see what amazing things He will do through them.  We can either excuse ourselves, out of fear or doubt, from plunging in, or we can buckle up for the ride of our lives.  I feel the urgency of time running out.  I feel the increase around me of time-wasting nonsense.  No one has been blessed in this century with more hours in their day than the folks before us.

Some dreams are there for fun, and we should never use them as an excuse to compare or complain. I could get frustrated that I won’t be going to Hawaii for my anniversary, or I can be incredibly joyful that I have such an amazing husband, that if we spend our anniversary eating soup in our kitchen over a game of yahtzee, I will be thankful.  I could get frustrated that my dream of having a constantly clean house will not be seen in my lifetime, or I can be amazed at the energy and imaginative genius going on all around me every day.


A beautiful moment of five children loving books and each other all at the same time.  

Some dreams are put in our hearts for a reason.  We shouldn’t ignore them or think they’ll never happen just because they seem so impossible.  I could doubt that I’ll ever run a marathon, or I can get off my butt and run a mile today.  I can say, “Such and such will never happen,” or I can do what God has put before me to do today.  With my God all things are possible.  Every day my dreams are expanding, but today is what God has given me to unwrap.  Just like reading a book, we both wait to see how it will turn out, and we are in it.

For the next few days, maybe weeks, I will be reflecting on some things that were possible with God.  Some things were providential.  Some things came about from plain old hard work and persistence.  But God is in each and every circumstance.  I tend to forget that as I  wash dishes, fold laundry, break up fights, dish out oatmeal with cinnamon in it, fill up my car with gas, make supper, sweep the floors, check email, exercise, read, then fall into bed.  We need to reflect on what He’s done, enjoy what He’s doing right now, and be excited about what He’s about to do.  I need to stop being afraid of what I can’t see and plunge gung-ho ahead with what’s in my today.  With a dash of cinnamon, of course.

Fall or Snow Fall?

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There’s an old Cosby show line that my family likes to quote to eachother whenever the first snow falls.  We call someone up on the phone and say, “It’s snowing outside my window, is it snowing outside your window?”  It’s cute.  Unless it’s October.  
I certainly did not expect to see those white fluttery things while colorful leaves still hung on to their branches with all their might.  It was determined, that fall foliage!  The orange wasn’t quite ready to let go quite yet.  The green, not yet even having a chance to show off, clung with hearty strength through the entire day of snowfall.  
In our household, the bins in the basement that were not on the agenda to be surfaced and dumped and dug through in order to find gloves and hats and snowsuits to fit growing children… were indeed brought upstairs.  The snow was softly falling, but loudly called them outside to play.  
It teased the kids into thinking, winter is here!  
This mama was not fooled, however.  I, who think two months of cold is plenty enough cold, am not about to embrace even one more month of winter than what is on my calendar.  I was just starting to give fall a gentle hug hello, tentatively yet, as summer crocs and colorful flowers are still within sight of my reluctant wave goodbye. 
But there is no way that I will skip the glorious hues of fall just because one tricky snowfall tried to cover them all up in its white blanket.  Nope.  We have survived the blizzard of October and are on to a fall-ish November.  The winter bins went back down to the basement and will have their proper ceremony of unveiling when I’m ready.  It’s fall outside my window.  Is it fall outside yours?

The Three-Minute Tour

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It took me a year to walk to this place.  That is, it has taken me a year to actually do it.  It really only takes about three minutes to get there.  So, today, for the third time in one week, we headed over to the baseball field that is on the next block.  This time we pulled the wagon.  Yes, it is as dirty as it looks.  The girls obviously didn’t mind!  Betty was chomping at the bit with her two little teeth.


After discovering this place which has fences to scale and a big field in which to run, the kids beg every day to go to “the park”.  About one minute after we got there, Jack discovered his hidden (or not so hidden) Ninja self.  After all, it is what he wants to be when he grows up.


Not to be outdone by her big brother, Elsie scaled right up the fence.  She was so proud of herself when she succeeded in going up AND down without any help.
 Here is another face of accomplishment.  Jack hopped on Elijah’s big bike and took off with a grin.  He zoomed around the field like he’s been riding big bikes his whole life, promptly pushed it up to the top of the highest hill he could find and raced down without a flinch.


Then he discovered that riding with one hand is pretty cool too.


I think I see his manhood seeping out of this picture.  He so proudly showed me the hair on his legs the other day, and thought they looked like a man’s.  He’s still a little boy, though.  I don’t know too many men who would walk around with used bubble wands attached to their belt-loops like it’s the coolest thing in the world.


Elsie is a little runner.  She runs back and forth tirelessly, with just her shadow to spur her on towards faster speeds. 
That and her fancy shoes:


Then there’s my not-so-little girl who is wearing my shoes now and borrows my jacket because the ones from last year go up a few inches from her wrist.  


Elijah and Nadine love to play kickball, soccer, or whatever they think of at the moment.


Elsie is so close to mastering the two-wheeler.  She had me in fits of laughter with all her giggling and accidental slamming on of her brakes.  It is a really good workout to push a three-year old on a teeny bike that requires a constant squat while running.

Then there’s this little munchkin who just goes with the flow.  If the flow happens to hit the decrepit swings for a few minutes, then she’s all smiles.  She doesn’t care how nasty the chains look, or even if they hold her up.  She is consumed with smiles and the new feeling of her tummy tickling inside her as the air whooshes by her face like a big breath.  
 
Every single day the kids remind me to make time for fun.  Hold all calls until the book is finished.  Turn up the music and dance.  They don’t care if they have matching shoes, matching clothes, or a beat-up soccer ball.  They do care about feeling loved.  They want us to notice how cool they are with their imaginations.  Like when playgrounds become castles and bubble wands become keys.  They want us to see them in action, laugh at their silliness, and cheer their accomplishments.  So leave the clothes pile stacked high and grab the dirty wagon.  Don’t wait a day, a month, a year… remember, it might only take three minutes to get there.

Romance

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Today I am thrilled to write this guest post on my good friend, Jessica’s blog.  She is an amazingly creative person.  I remember being her staff parent at camp one summer when I was still pregnant with Nadine.  She showed me this tiny photo of a guy she liked.  Her eyes just shone when she talked about him, and I was so impressed with her level head and strong spirit.  I just knew she would marry him one day.  She did marry him, and now they have two handsome boys.  Jessica is someone I wish was my neighbor, but since we can’t be right now, I enjoy getting to know her more by reading her blog and emailing.  

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If we are seen kissing, it is anything but romantic. But it doesn’t stop us. “Eeeeew!” our kids exclaim, while unable to peel their eyes away from our embrace. Ten years ago I was told, “Just you wait.” Dire warnings engulfed us, that this romance thing wouldn’t last. I can’t say my idea of romance has necessarily changed since I was “young and in love”, as much as it’s been simplified and yet expanded.

I have found that romance grows and takes shape when we fill our spouse’s heart with the knowledge of how much we love them. We show it off when we do things we know they will love. I know Matt loves it when I have a little lunch ready for him in the fridge the night before he has to work. I also know that he likes to go to bed with me, not before or after me. He in turn knows that I turn to mush when the house is picked up or if my shoulders start getting massaged. Romance doesn’t just belong under the pretense of candlelight dinners and expensive chocolates. A few weeks ago I woke up to a tired Monday morning, opened the fridge, and found a huge bowl of pancake batter all mixed and ready to go, with the griddle sitting on the counter, ready to accept the challenge of five hungry children. That was more meaningful to my heart than a great many red roses.

Romance, in its pure essence, is really just knowing what the other person loves or needs and making every effort to fulfill those longings or needs. Kids are good at this. They make things that will touch the sweet spot in a person’s heart. Our kids are always giving away their toys to their friends or eachother as an expression of love. They know I love mail, so I will often receive little letters and cards on my pillow, or hand-delivered when it looks like I’m having a rough day. The other night my oldest daughter cleaned the bathroom without being asked… at nine o’clock at night. The next morning it was such fun to secretly unload the dishwasher for her, then say, “Nadine, can you please unload the dishwasher?” I could see the difficulty rise in her eyes as the twinkles grew in my own, but she walked over and opened it anyway. I said, “Surprise!” She broke out in a huge grin. “That was the BEST surprise EVER!” Little things we know will touch and fill up someone’s heart.. that to me is romance. It can be in the form of loving your kids and knowing what makes them smile and feel loved.

Of course if you need inspiration, all you need to do is look to the Creator of romance. He has given us the ultimate example of knowing what our hearts needed and fulfilled that need through Jesus. He knew how deeply we yearn for nearness and peace. He came, died, rose again, and now offers to lift the heaviness of guilt and sin off our shoulders and replace it with peace and joy. He always knows what we need before we ask. He sends us romantic gestures every day by perfuming the world with flowers, touching our skin with breezes, and kissing us to sleep with moonlight. He knows how much I love color and I know He paints the sky and changes the leaves to make me squeal with excitement. He knew how I loved this boy named Matthew, and then He let us get married! He knows my need for humor and so He gave me five kids to keep me laughing every day. He not only knows about me, but He is the one who created all these crazy quirks and needs and loves and longings that I feel every day. He made and knows all about yours too!

I hope your life is full of romance. Not the sappy, chocolaty romance everyone gags over. Rather, the kind that spends a few extra minutes tucking in your children at night, or prepares your love’s favorite meal. It’s making pancakes with extra chocolate chips. It’s filling up her gas tank for the week. For some, it’s making the bed. For others, it’s leaving it messy once in awhile. I, for one, will never stand around and wait for romance to die. I will keep on kissing my man, especially in front of my cootie-loving children.

Puzzles and Parties

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So for about two hours this morning I sipped tea and did a puzzle with Elsie at the kitchen table.  Every time she would finish she yelled, “YEAH!”  Then said, “Let’s do it ONE more time!”  In addition to that, she said a great many funny things.  She has a dry sense of humor and I just love to see it developing naturally more and more.  As you read her quotes, try to read them in a little high-pitched cute voice.  Just imagine Cinderella’s mice and she sounds so much like one of them.

When we walked into the kitchen to do the puzzle she breathed deeply and said,  “It smells like a birthday party!”  I realized that I had just lit a scented candle, so she must have picked up on the lingering smoke smell of the match.  I love how strong our sense of smell is, and how that tiny scent conjured up an entire birthday party in her mind.

As she ate grapes, she would take a bite, and start to move all around.  “I’m shaking my food,” she said.  “Why?”  I asked.  “So it stays in.”  Of course.  We should all shake our food.

When I asked her what she wanted to do on our date next month she said, “Get a shot.”  I made sure I understood her correctly.  “I wish you could be a doctor and give me a shot.  I wish you could be a doctor with pretty shoes.”  It was said so mournfully.  I must have missed my calling… in both departments!  Career and style.

She looked out of the window and sighed, shaking her head.  “Nope, it’s not Christmas yet.  It has to snow tomorrow.”  Christmas is on the brain, folks.  I’m barely ready for the leaves to fall, let alone snowflakes to fall!

On about her seventh time around on the puzzle, she was chuckling to herself.  I said what a great job she was doing and she said, “It’s because I’m a good girl.”  She kept chuckling then said to herself, “Ok.  Ok.  Stop laughing.”  She had me busting out laughing!


I love the creativity of this outfit.  A puffy tutu is underneath the dress.  

On maybe the tenth time of doing the puzzle she suddenly realized that the buckle to the booster on her chair wasn’t buckled.  “I have to put my buckle on so the policemen won’t get me!”  Yes, we have this struggle in the car.  Never in the kitchen, however.

During all of this massive puzzle-making, Jack & Nadine were busy little beavers.  As Jack sat down to get a drink of water he checked off his list like this:  “Well, we shutted the door (aka: shut the door.  Very important around here when the weather dips below 70 degrees), raked the leaves, brought down our laundry, and now we’re filling the water bottles.  Then we’ll clean up the bathroom and make it sparkly!”  They really did!  I was so impressed.  They used every single washcloth in my closet, but the bathroom was sparkly!  I wasn’t allowed in until it was finished.

This morning, Elijah was whisked away by Grandma Weldon for a day and night away, so he wasn’t around for all the humdiggity cleaning and puzzle-building.

Let me go on the record to say that yesterday was nothing like today.  It’s so refreshing, though, when they take the initiative to do something they’re not asked to do… just because.  I gave them a quarter for raking the leaves, but the rest was just thank-you’s from a happy mommy.  Our kids are just kids.  They might not see the gigantic mess on the livingroom floor at the same time or in the same way that I do.  Ninety percent of the time I still need to ask them to pitch in and help.  It’s in those ten percent moments that I am encouraged that they are growing, learning, and showing responsibility.  Because believe me, some days I wonder!

So, I think that since our house smells like a birthday party today, we will have to celebrate with something special tonight!  Happy Day!

I Heart Fall

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I wish I could peel back the roof and turn my walls into glass on certain days like today. The sky is stunning again and the leaves are in a crescendo of colors, almost ready to max out to their peak performance. What is it about this weather that makes me want to bake cinnamon rolls and apple crisp and wear orange and brown? I didn’t have this growing up as a little kid. When I was an older kid, fall pretty much just meant I had to rake leaves until my hands were blistered. Now that I have my own kids, fall isn’t that bad. I still prefer to sweat while sitting down and don flip flops my entire existence, but I’m embracing fall more and more. It’s something special that God made for me and I’m looking at it that way.

We’ve been visiting the farm each week, and it’s so fun to plop Betty down in front of the baby bunnies and see her smile at them. We got to introduce Daddy to the farm last week.

 

Yesterday the baby donkey took quite the shine to her and kept walking back to the fence and putting her nose right next to Betty. It was darling.

 


What wasn’t so darling was when we got home from the farm an hour later. Elijah went to the bathroom downstairs then bellowed, “MOM! There’s a flood!” Floods are never good. There was certainly no rainbow with this one. Some little person had decided to plug the drain in the sink while washing their hands… and left the water running. Elijah and I had a pile of dirty towels and we mopped up the flood and squeezed the water right into the washing machine. Never a dull moment!


A heart-shaped butternut squash .  I heart fall!

We also baked bread last week for a school project. We were learning about Jesus being the Bread of Life, and also the scientific properties of yeast, and so we made bread! It was a lot of fun and tasted great! What helped me deal with the mess was knowing the day before that I would be baking bread with the kids. I mentally prepared for flour all over the kitchen. You know what? It all cleaned up just fine. The kids made a memory. They learned a skill. It was worth the mess.


Since Betty was born, I’ve been on the look out for a rad highchair. Something vintage and cleanable and with a shiny tray that makes a fabulous noise when little hands bang on it. Well, this weekend I found it. It was a sweet $12 deal. She loves it and bends her head way over to look at her reflection in the metal tray. Pancakes even taste that much better in it.

For some reason, ever since we went away for the wedding weekend, I just haven’t gotten my act together in the laundry department. Something happened. I’ve been washing clothes, but they don’t really get through the entire cycle of wash/dry/put away. Everyone’s drawers are empty. Today I am determined to remedy that. I will not sleep until everyone’s clothing is PUT AWAY. I have four perfect little helpers for that. Since school is finished, I think we’ll walk to the baseball field for a catch before Betty’s nap. Then it will be time to fold and conquer!

My Crumb Catcher

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Betty.  She truly is the whipped cream on top of my highly caffeinated life with children.  She’s into so many things now, like touching the toe kick in the kitchen, where the counter top and floor meet and every crumb collects.  Somehow cheerios taste better after they’ve been lodged underneath the dishwasher first.  She is my swiffer.  Her two little teeth love to chew!  She’s a big fan of beef stew and lasagna.  She’s such a little peanut, with 6-9 month clothes still a bit roomy.  She waves “night night”, signs for “more please” and “all done”.  Her resident stylists love to slick her hair up into a cute “Jack Jack” impression.  It’s funny, except when one of said stylists licks his hands before applying them to her hair… gross.  She takes everything in stride, even if Mommy doesn’t.
I’m so thankful for this bitty girl who makes our life more full.  Her nicknames include, “Punkin’ Pie”, “Little Snunger” “Cutie Pie”, and my personal favorite that Elsie likes to sing, “Betty is a little hut ho.”  Not sure what that is, but it’s pretty cute when she sings it.  

She is my only brown-eyed child, just like her name-sake, Grandma Betty.  I often wish they could have met.

 

Apples and Horses and Monkeys, oh my!

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There’s something glorious about a blue October sky.  Especially one that begs you to go apple-picking.  So today we did just that!

It’s been a whirl-wind kind of week.  It’s very hard to fathom that a week ago we were down at the shore, finishing up our rehearsal dinner in the rain, under a tent!  Matt’s brother Jon got married.  It was an honor to take photographs for the wedding with another girl.  Until bride and groom have seen the pictures I won’t be posting any on here, but it’s been a fun week of going through the photos!

So, between doing that, school, and other not-so-exciting things like laundry and dishes, this week went by with a zoom!  In fact, I had done so much laundry and was so excited to have seemingly “caught up” (ha, ha, when does that ever happen?)  Then Elijah told me he didn’t have any more clothes in his bin.  I brushed it aside and chalked up his selection of outfit as a typical boyish not-too-caring sense of style: exercise pants and a polo shirt.  Until I noticed later on that day that their bins were indeed, empty.  The mysterious pile of boy laundry was found piled high behind their door, masked by the cluttery feel the entire house has given off the week after a big event has taken place.  Ah well.  Five more loads of laundry never hurt anyone.  I know better than to ever think I’m “caught up”!

On Wednesday our big girl turned nine years old.  I still can’t believe it.  We had a great day celebrating at the farm with friends, fresh apple cake (her choice) and a big surprise:


Her love has always been horses.  It was such a treat to bless her with the gift of an hour of her dream.  She did an amazing job.

There is so much more I could write.  I have virtual post-it notes of funnies and random thoughts that are quickly losing their stick in my brain.  I’m a bit hesitant to go to bed.  Well, not really.  You see, last night I got awoken extremely quickly by a very strong elbow slamming down onto me.  I exclaimed to Matt, “What on earth were you dreaming about?!!”  It was quiet.  I knew he was awake.  I could hear the quirky placement of his mouth and the hesitation in his voice.  I prodded again.  “What were you dreaming??”  I expected a very high building-jump, or maybe a run from some robbers.  I just wasn’t expecting his quiet reply: “A monkey jumped on me.”  I busted out laughing at 3 o’clock in the morning.   I still hurt from the elbow jab, but boy was that funny.  It’s kept me laughing all day too.

Hopefully I’ll be alright tonight.  You never know… as Matt said, “It’s a jungle up there!”