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Yesterday as I was driving to the YMCA, I passed this delightful “Cars” couch. I pulled over and threw it in the van! It has furnished a lot of love on its first day here!
>Trash to Treasure
Author: amylynw
>Quiet, Please
>This is how homework gets done in our house when you have three little siblings that make a lot of noise!
>Strawberries and Cherries
>This morning while Elijah was waiting for the bus a truck passed by and he said, “Is that a strawberry truck?” He meant a cherry-picker. Cute!
>Star Struck
>Tonight when I was tucking Nadine in bed we were looking the stars outside her window. I told her that God knows the name of every single star. She said, “What?! Wow. He is really good at things.”
>No training is easy…
>In two weeks we will be running the Broad Street Run in Philly! So, on my training schedule I was up for an 8-mile run today. I donned my bright green shorts and a jacket and headed off in the 53 degree windy morning. I wanted to quit at mile 1. Matt & Nadine drove past me on their way to her soccer game and cheered me on! Then I wanted to quit around mile 3. There were so many hills and I really really wanted to give up and walk. I kept thinking of the end and how I’d have to say I had stopped “x” many times and so I decided to not quit. I wanted to say I did it, so I did it.
The reward of seeing Nadine hooping and hollering “Mommy!” when I ran up to the soccer field was worth the pain.
>Twenty-Four Panties in a Row
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It’s always such a wonderful feeling to wake up to the sun’s smiling face and the blue sky beckoning you into the day. Spring has officially sprung and it’s exciting to see the bulbs that I divided last year come up in their new places, and the butterfly bushes and lavender starting to bud. Flowers make me so happy.
I’m so glad that everything God says is true. It really makes me trust Him more! Yesterday when one of our kids told us that they had been lying to us about something for a couple weeks it broke our trust in them a bit. It’s also been exciting to see that trust building back up as they’ve told the truth again! A good reminder of how we need to be honest, even when it hurts. The hurt of walking in the dark is worse than the pain of coming into the light. What lightness in their step and what peace in their eyes now that their conscience is clean!
As I type, Jack is sitting next to me at the computer desk, pen industriously in his hand, bent over his paper, concentrating on making neat, even scribbles across each line of the paper. He is “writing a story” he says. He is “busy, busy.” Nadine and Elijah both are into copying books, word for word, and Jack is following suit! I LOVE to see them writing! Now Jack is leaning his head on his hand and drumming his fingers on the desk with his other hand. He has really been in to writing these days. I have a file of scrap paper, where little hands can reach in at any time they feel inspired to pen or draw something. He also has a notebook of his own that he carries around everywhere! It is so cute. He has found another outlet for his warrior-like nature. He conquers with sword AND pen!
Also as I type, Nadine has been busy sweeping the fireplace, organizing the bookshelf, fluffing the cushions on the couch, and vacuuming the floor. I didn’t ask her to do any of those things, but she loves to work and be busy! Earlier this week we were at a park with a mile-long track. Matthew was jogging with a friend. After a while Nadine decided to jog alongside him. I knew she was a good runner, but we’ve never ventured past our backyard to run. Well, 11 minutes later, they came running back around and I cheered her on. She was wearing pink crocs and a pink sundress. Without breathing hard she said, “A mile? I ran a mile? I didn’t know I ran a mile! I’m not even tired! I think I’ll run two!” And so she did! Then she walked the 3rd with her cousins. We need to get that girl some running sneakers!
The past 10 days have been spent with cousins and more cousins! We had a great visit from Beck and Heather and Sherry too!
Elijah has been doing REALLY well in school. He writes neatly and thinks creatively. His prayer tonight was very long as usual, but part of it was, “Thank you for everything that I can imagine! Thank you for our imaginations!” He truly has a sweet heart. A sentence he wrote for his homework tonight said, “She is beautyfoule.” He was so proud of the fact that he thought of getting the “Beauty and the Beast” movie case out so he could copy the word “beauty” to spell the word “beautiful”. Then he said, “It’s talking about YOU, Mom!” I was so touched. He often does and says things like that.
Elsie is a walking dresser. In the past three weeks she has decided to potty-train herself. So we haven’t bought anymore diapers and we HAVE gone through a lot of panties. I pulled all of Nadine’s old ones from the attic box where they were stored and am very glad for each and every one! On Monday when I had just hung out wash on the clothesline, Rachel pointed out that there were “24 panties in a row”. I guess that gives you a bit of an idea! =) Elsie also likes to change clothes even if they aren’t wet, or if they are barely wet. During “nap time” (which she is quickly giving up, oh help) she often goes through five outfits at a time while she is supposed to be “sleeping”. She has her favorites and since there are so many favorites, it is way more fun to wear them ALL each day! She is a master trampoline-jumper. She climbs up the ladder and jumps with all of her little heart. Then she thinks she’s really tricky when she knocks the ladder down, hoping to deter anyone else from jumping WITH her… even though she is the only one who actually NEEDS the ladder to get on the trampoline. So cute!
Matthew & I have been running a lot, training for the 10-mile Broad Street Run in Philly in a couple of months! It’s fun, and we’ve pulled a few friends into it, which makes it even more fun! We are so thankful to do this together.
>Exciting Surprises!
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Two days ago I turned 30. Matthew stayed home from work in the morning and made me breakfast and bought me roses. Then he left for work and I pretty much just cried. I might as well be honest here: I was a bit upset about this momentous day happening without too much fuss. What a selfish little girl I am! Little did I know, that Matthew’s seemingly “distant” feel was really to hide any emotions from peeking through about his excitement for what lay ahead!
The rest of the day passed, the most exciting thing being that I ran 4 miles! That afternoon I received a phone call from someone at Lancaster Women & Babies hospital (so I thought) telling me that my birth class this weekend was going to be postponed. I was scheduled to take this last class to finish my doula certification. It struck me as odd that the teacher of the class didn’t call me directly, but just as quickly it left my mind. I found out today that Matt had one of his old co-workers from Starbucks call me from her cell phone, because it has a Lancaster area code, and pretend to be someone from the hospital. He had to have me free for the things he had planned! Then he had his mom call the hospital to let them know I wouldn’t be coming. So funny.
So, Saturday morning dawned gorgeous and bright. Matthew got in early that morning from a lock-in at church. After he woke up, he was pretty laid back and chill as I “made plans” to go into Philly with Rebecca. He had her write me an email the night before to suggest the idea, but then it seemed like I planned it, so didn’t think anything weird about the fact that we were going into the city. After all, my class was cancelled and it was a gorgeous day! We arrived at Rebecca’s apartment and about five minutes later were swiftly ushered OUT of the building with a packet of clues and a sheet of instructions for “Amy’s Amazing Race”. Matthew looked at me and said, “Surprise!” =) I laughed. So, for the next two hours or so we raced all around the city from Ikea, to Reading Terminal Market, to the Ben Franklin Bridge. We found someone who spoke Swahili, took pictures of red dishes, daisies, and a boyscout. I bought a mango, and we ran across the Bridge to Camden NJ and back! That clue told us not to cheat, because they would be watching us! Sure enough, a couple minutes into the run we heard cute little voices waaay below us and we saw our kids with Grandma Weldon, Heidi, Jacob, Rebecca and Hannah all waving madly and cheering us on. So fun! We found someone who ran the Broad Street Run in Philly and got an extra point. The entire day was exhausting and fun. We ended the night by looking at all the pictures and reliving funny moments… like when Matthew drove THROUGH Liberty Park (along the side, but still through it) to cut off 15 minutes of traffic before we got to the Bridge.
THEN, today after church we were taking SO long to leave and I was getting tired and hungry. Then, we locked our keys in the van. So, Matt caught a ride with someone from church, but I thought he was AWFULLY cheerful about it, as I sat in the parking lot with all four kids, getting a little bit grumpier by the minute. I wondered how he would get INTO our house, since it was (I thought) locked, and after all, the keys were what he needed. When he got back and I asked him if he managed to get in the house he answered, “Yep!” so authoritatively that I didn’t even think to ask him how! He was glad he didn’t have to lie, because the truth was, the door was open and there were about 30 people in our house waiting for us! =) So, then he drove the OPPOSITE way to Walmart, where at this point, I swallowed my grumbling words and pulled out my Sodoku puzzle and kept quiet. He told me there was something he wanted to buy me for lunch at Walmart. I thought that odd, since we don’t usually buy lunch at Walmart on Sunday or any day for that matter. I kept quiet though because I was afraid of what nasty things I might say in my low-blood-sugar-level-state. He was stalling for time and I had no clue.
We made it home, where I lingered in the van to finish a really good run I was on in the Sodoku. He called to see if I was coming and so I got out of the van and entered the house where I was bombarded with, “Surprise!” It was very very very unexpected. I shamefully looked at Matthew and repented of all my bad attitudes. It was a delightful day, full of friends old and new.
It’s been a monumental week! Before all of this, Wednesday was Matthew’s last day working at Starbucks. We are looking forward to adjusting to having him back for supper and having more family time. We both signed up for the Broad Street Run in Philly in May. The kids had a full five day week of school, with no snow days, and survived! Jack continues to prepare for his possible future of being a stunt double, by performing dangerous and daring feats throughout the day. Elsie is becoming proficient at changing outfits multiple times a day and putting many words together to express her thoughts and feelings. When words don’t work, she resorts to emotions, which almost never get the hoped for results. So, we continue to work on “our words”… including Mommy!
It’s so exciting to be surprised. I’m thrilled to watch and see how God surprises us this year!
>Snow
>One-hundred Snowflakes
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Tonight Nadine and I sat in front of the fire, cutting out 100 teeny tiny snowflakes for her 100th day of school project. It’s actually only been her 3rd day of school, but on Friday it will be 100! That is, we’ve been homeschooling up until this past Monday. I’ve not been feeling right about my homeschooling skills and so Matthew and I went to the local elementary school and took a tour. It is a brand new building and we were very impressed with all of the teachers and faculty, etc. So, we registered Nadine and Elijah and on Monday off they went! The first day, the bus missed the memo that we were going to drive them in to school so we could meet their teachers. Jack was the only one who cried. The second day, the bus came and Nadine was SO excited that she tripped over herself, twisted her ankle, was crying and couldn’t move for a minute. So, the bus waited for about 30 seconds and then off it went, as Elijah was about to race outside to tell it to wait! We piled in the car and I drove them to school, both of them crying that they had missed the bus. Once we got there, everything was fine, and Nadine’s ankle was fine too. Today, the third day, we were standing outside and ready 10 minutes early, stomping our feet in the snow, feeling more than ready with the 2-hour snow delay. It finally pulled up and there was MUCH excitement and I took some pictures of their momentous achievement.
Nadine is into big words right now. The other day she said, “I’m so flabbergasted that flabbergasted is a word!” So funny!
Elijah likes to always think of large, hypothetical situations. Like, “What if the bus driver is so tired and fell asleep on his way here?” Or, “What if on my next birthday I turned ten!” Or many other what-if-such-and-such-happened questions.
Jack is a constant whirlwind! He is excited to be five and go to school, but for now he’s three, almost four! He picks his clothes carefully; to be sure his pants have belt-loops so he can hook his carabiner to them, and his own set of keys. He loves keys. Having just him and Elsie at home reminds me so much of when Nadine & Elijah were that age, playing together.
Elsie is going to be two next month. She is strong-willed, strong-bodied, and has a strong appetite. She loves to read books now and settles down on your lap for as long as you’ll give her! She has favorited a pink blanket and loves to hug, hold, and have near her, soft things. She is quite fearless when it comes to going outside without a hat, gloves or socks on a 32-degree day, just so she can quickly sneak in a slide down the sliding board. She isn’t so fearless when it comes to an ambulance siren or other disturbing noises.
Matthew’s work continues to be steady. The beginning of the week is always harder since he works double-duty and the kids usually don’t see him. Sometimes we drop by Starbucks to surprise and kiss the best barista we know! When he is home in the morning, we are pretty sure there will be chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast!
I’ve been exercising with friends from church, four days a week, and a few of us have a little program we’re doing together. It’s been a really good discipline to weigh in each week, and encourage eachother to push hard and watch what we eat. The accountability has been the key to success. I’m hoping to run the Broad Street Run again in May with a bunch of people! =)
One night I crawled into bed to find a tissue on my pillow. There was this note written on the tissue, “Dear Dad and Mom, I love you so much. I have a vare bad cofe. Love, Nadine” (Trans: “a very bad cough”) I love little notes on my pillow. Sometimes I wake up to find a note on my window sill in the kitchen. I usually don’t notice it until later in the day when I’m more wide awake…and when I need it most! A little boost from Matthew that reminds me to keep on keeping on… even when it seems like I’ve picked up that same toy car twenty times that day, or had to wash an extra load of laundry because someone decided to make a mess of themselves, or even when the crumbs that I swept up after breakfast seemed to mutate themselves at lunch. At the end of the day, there might not be a note on my pillow, but I know that everything done for Him will count for eternity.
Jack telling me something very dramatic.
Grow Old With Me 