swords

In My Head

/ amylynw / Leave a comment

Yesterday, Elsie came down to the kitchen with a coonskin hat on her head, and a silky pink polka-dot cape around her neck.  In a very serious voice she asked me what I too have been wondering lately:  Mom, is it going to rain every day?  We’ve been caught in so many deluges the past two weeks!  I’ve hung up clothes, only for them to be washed a dozen times in the rain before finally bringing them inside to the spin cycle and clothes dryer, because I really needed that shirt.  I’ve gotten showered while running to move the car.  Finally, today I was able to bond with the dirt once again and discovered my first daisy!  Zucchini growing, flowers planted from seed, now blooming.  It does my soul good.

On Wednesday we made out with a huge bin of K’nex for $5 from a used sale.  Elijah has been skipping breakfast for the past two days in order to build this amazing contraption.

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He often leaves me notes on my phone, can fix bikes, and loves anything electronic.

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He also loves apricot jelly.  When he was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for himself he saw me about to say something and interjected: I know, I know.  No more jelly.  That’s what you always say when there’s an inch of jelly on my bread.

I have a knack at going grocery shopping either dangerously close to lunch time, or at midnight.  This particular time it was right around noon.  Everyone was hungry.  As Elsie remarked, her tummy felt backwards. To make up for it, I let the kids pick out a few special items to eat, and we had a spontaneous picnic at the splash park.  As we sat on the grass, eating, Elijah looked at me with his orange fingers and said, The one thing that makes me think I’m dreaming is that you would never say yes to Doritos.  He grinned and licked his fingers.

Matthew’s youngest brother just graduated from highschool.  I’ve known him since he was three years old, which makes me feel very old.  What a wonderful young man Jacob has become.

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The other day Elsie asked me: Does God hear you when you talk in your head?  It’s a wonderful thing that He does, because most of my talking to Him is done that way!  While wrestling wet babies out of the kiddie pool.  While putting certain children on time-out steps and wondering what on earth to do next.  While wiping tables, bottoms, and countertops.  While slicing onions and running through a few recipes in my head.  While picking up again and again and again.  While driving with the background noise at a deafening level.  While running a few city blocks in silence.  While peeking in on sleeping cherubs in their beds.  While doubting, fearing, rejoicing, and giving thanks.  He hears our silent prayers.

The past week it seems like our kids have fallen asleep in the weirdest places.  While watching a movie, the boys fell asleep like this:

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The other night Elsie fell out of bed and kept right on sleeping.  I couldn’t lift her back onto her bed, and thought Matthew would before we went to bed.  He forgot, and the next morning Elsie informed me that she slept on the floor all night.  I felt bad, but it didn’t seem to bother her!  Then, one night Jack was determined to wait up until Matthew and I came in from the front porch where we were talking.  When I came inside to get something, I almost tripped over his sleeping body.
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Both Elijah and Jack had the privilege of going to work with their Daddy one day the past week.  Jack created a few things out of scrap wood.  Here he is, holding his “Goliath Sword”.DSC_1271-001
Besides all of the usual keep-the-house-clean-feed-the-bellies-do-laundry-pull-weeds-kind-of-days, I’ve been burning the midnight oil and writing papers to finish up my doula recertification.  I am one credit away from mailing in all my paperwork that I’ve been working on for the past three years.  I am so excited to check it off my list and delve into school planning for next year.  I sold all of my books which we used the past two years, and am excited for our new ones to arrive next week!  I am hoping to plan out the bulk of the year before truly relaxing for a couple of months.    Matthew has been an incredible support for me as I have pursued my dreams and goals.  We are enjoying doing cross-fit together and eating 100% paleo!  More on that another time!  I do just want to say how incredible Matthew’s health has been since zeroing in on his diet.  I have finally come alongside him in eating a disciplined diet and it’s such a blessing to be united in this area.  God is teaching us many things as we wait on Him and trust Him with our unknowns.  When He says, This is the way, walk in it… we have no choice but to obey.  It might just mean eating more vegetables.  It might mean how we do school.  It might mean staying put.  It might mean moving forward.
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Highlights of Today

/ amylynw / Leave a comment

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!

Highlights of Color and Love

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Last night I was playing through the events of the day and picking out my favorite ones.  One of the highlights of my day definitely was when I was playing the piano with Betty on my lap and she kept laying her head down on the keys.  That is her signature move for love.  In words, if she could speak them, she said, “Mom, I love the piano and I could sit on your lap and listen all day.”  The second highlight came while I was sitting at the piano and turned to see a dear friend standing at my door and hoping to find the tea pot on.  Friends, my tea pot is always on.  It was 2pm and I was still in my PJ’s:  red fleecy pants with valentine hearts, and a green Ocean City sweatshirt.  I looked like Valentine’s-Day-still-clinging-to-Christmas.  It was groovy.  For an instant I felt embarrassed, but that quickly left me when I remembered that real friends step inside your house, no matter how it or you look.  And somehow nothing matters except their presence blessing your home.  It was truly a highlight.

Sometimes I want to jump inside of Jack’s head.  He thinks deep thoughts, but can’t always express them.  Like yesterday when he told me he just can’t wait to get to heaven.  He is pretty sure that God is going to lower a sheet from the sky and haul us all up there.  I just listened as his wiry strong body tried to fit on my lap.  I like to talk about heaven with my kids, because they have such peace about how good it is.  The unknown is fearful and a bit insecure for us.  Often our “knowledge” gets in the way of our faith.

Jack thinks in straight lines.  He thinks a lot like how he laid these cards out on the table the other day.


Methodically.  Carefully.  A bit wildly at times.  Notice the sword at the ready in the backpack?  Have I mentioned before how big his hands are?  They’re almost my size.  Carrots and the color orange rock his world.  Why not turn them into works of art?  Yesterday he did just that:


Yes, he did that with his teeth.

Another highlight of my day was cozying the whole family up in the living room to watch Kung Fu Panda 2.

  I love my kids.  I love that all four of their blankets are from when I was growing up.  I love that Jack’s special Pooh blanket was actually a baby gift for Nadine and that he somehow adopted it for himself.  I love that Elsie has the most ginormous blanket and the littlest bed and that her Aunt Heather had it on her bed before she got married and moved away.  I made Jack’s blanket when I was about 13, my first and only attempt at quilting.  I was going to give it to my brother for Christmas that year, but thought maybe the roses were a little too feminine when it was all said and done.  Sorry, John!  We have never had the whole matching nursery/bedroom ensemble and it’s pretty obvious with the medley of colors hugging the kids in that picture.

Our color scheme is a coordination of memories and love.  That makes me want to do a Betty move and put my head down on each cozy nook in that picture and say, I love you.

/ amylynw / Leave a comment

>Who would have thought one dollar could stretch so far? Last week each of the kids got a dollar from Grandma, so Matt took them to the dollar store for a treat. Nadine picked a jumprope and the boys each picked a gun. Those guns have already been taped together, but they’re still going strong! Right now they are marching around the house in the hands of two warriors. They sleep on top of the refrigerator when things get out of control, but for the most part they are in active duty.

Swords have also been a constant love for my warrior boys. I found a really cool book at the library about swords and this morning Jack was on his tummy, knees tucked under him, bottom in the air, looking intently at the pictures. So cute! Last night I went into the boys’ room to look at them while they were sleeping. Jack was all curled up with a big smile on his face and he said in his sleep, “Hi, Levi!” I guess he was dreaming about his friend! =) So cute! Today he and Nadine have been inseparable and Nadine told me that it’s a “me and Jack day all day!” as they danced around in a circle. Then Jack told her, “Let’s get married, deen! Let’s get married!” So they danced again. The other day Jack decided to jump out of his bunkbed. He landed on the trundle bed below, that happened to be pulled out, so he didn’t hit the floor at least. I heard a loud thud then a loud cry. I thought for sure there was a broken bone in my future, but amazingly he only bumped his ankle on the side of the trundle bed and it made a bruise. He learned that trundle beds are not trampolines and that you can’t jump that high unless you have a parachute.

Elijah is persistent in things he wants to do. Like figuring out how to fix things or find things. His prayers are so cute. One day they were pretending to be puppies ALL day. He prayed, “Thank you SO much for helping us to be puppies. Thank you so much for making me a Christian and help us to have a GREAT day for Mommy.” Yesterday he and Jack found a HUGE puddle and went jumping, swimming, dunking and dancing in it. They shed their shirts and every care in the world while dousing themselves in brown muddy water. It’s hard to dampen that kind of joy when a mere washing machine cycle and warm bath will wash everything dirty away. The memories will stay with them forever, though.

Everyone has been into horses afresh after getting to ride them on Sunday. After church we had a huge fall fest complete with hayrides, face-painting, candy, horse-riding, and sunshine! Nadine was thrilled beyond words to ride a horse for the first time! She was all smiles and loved every minute of it, riding her “dreamer”, as she calls any horse that is brown with a black mane and a white spot on its nose. She was looking at pictures of them and said that the way to tell the difference between a girl and a boy horse is to look at their nose to see if they have any white on there or not! Cute! =) I love seeing their dreams being fulfilled! I love how their dreams can be so big, yet not impossible. I love how they are persistent about fulfilling their dreams and have such faith, that hasn’t been tainted yet by other people’s doubts and unbelief.

Elsie is repeating everything we say. She LOVES to sing “This little light of mine” and holds her finger up so we’ll start to sing it. She starts to giggle and smile. She also gets pumped up singing, “the B-I-B-L-E” and shouts, “BIBLE!” at the end. She is a precious darling, especially today as she wandered around in her rainboots and pink fairy-wings.

Besides all of the regular “dailies”, life continues. We are thrilled as we work with the new college/young adult group at our church. It’s been a real joy and we’re excited to see God growing us all up in Him. Our house is still for sale and we continue to trust the Lord that He knows the best timing for every single detail of our lives. We know that as we do the “little” things in front of us and obey His whispers, He will shed light on our next steps at just the right time.