Book Training

My older two children have always easily sat with their Daddy (usually) or their Grammi or Grandma or anyone really to read books. Whether it was their idea or someone else's idea... they have usually sat and listened from a very early age.

My third child is different. Who is surprised!?

We have been making a more focused effort these days to help her learn this skill. I truly think it's important. But it's NOT always pretty...

 

Was doing okay, then decided she didn't want to be there.

 

Big sis is always trying to comfort her. Such a sweet little Mama she is.

  

Another day...

 

 

This sort of counts? Even if she's in a confined space?

 

But the victory came today. I don't think we're done with the process entirely, but today she brought me three books which she then sat and listened to for half an hour! It was a lot of

 "All of Baby, Nose to Toes"

"Personal Penguin"

and

"Time for Bed"

But I didn't mind, those are three pretty good books to read over and over if it means Lil' A is slowly learning to sit and listen to books!

 

A Few Randoms

Have you noticed I haven’t been blogging much? Ever?

Ugh.

In the meantime, here’s a few randoms for the sake of posting something, ANYTHING, on this blog o’ mine.

Sweet N was so tickled with herself the day she decided to wear her sweatshirt backwards! I’ll be honest… she tickled me too…

One has long hair and one has a crazy curly full mop of a head of hair. Needless to say they don’t enjoy having me brush their hair each morning, poor babies. But for whatever reason, this Saturday morning (cartoons!), Lil’ A decided to comb N’s hair. I dunno how long it lasted, but it was sweet!

Another time recently when I was doing A’s hair, N was holding her and comforting her through ‘the pain’. Then when I was done with her hair, they swapped, and A comforted N through the same process! Sweet sisters, for sure.

A month ago there were still a few ‘safe’ places in my house where I could trust that Lil’ A wouldn’t get to. Now there are less and less! She can now climb up on a tall stool in the kitchen. And I often find her on top of the island if I turn my back even for a moment.

The one good thing is that she can’t yet GET DOWN by herself. So if I put her up (for now at least), she’s stuck until you get her down. I might find her standing on the table or on the floor cause she fell off the stool (not often, ha!), but usually she just sits there until she yells at me to get her down…

But who can be frustrated with this busy little whirlwind for long. This girl. She’s precious.

Midnight Chuckles

I haven’t been sleeping very well lately, which is not fun at all.

But the ONE silver lining to the cloud is that I get to hear some of Mike’s midnight delerium. More like 3am delerium… cause he’s never in bed as ‘early’ as midnight.

Like so:

“Do you want a cube?”

“Wayne’s World is just like Les Miserable”

and the once I was awake and heard Mike laughing in his sleep…  “Ha ha ha ha ha… your student loans!!!!” He said. 

Funny stuff to me, what would I want a cube for? Wayne’s World is definitely NOT just like Les Miserable, and we’ve never had single student loan in all of our lives!!!

From the Club Lounge

Today I embarked on a solo trip.

I know. Amazing!

I’m on the way to visit my sister in Charlotte for five whole days.

A special shout out goes to my frequently flying husband who racks up miles and scored me this free ticket.  Another shout out goes to United, because they like to send us lil’ perks… like passes to the United Club Lounge!! Especially appreciated today, since my flight is delayed… booooooo.

So I’m writing today from this United Club, which is a rather interesting place.

One of my first discoveries is that thirty-something wearing leggings, a cardi and carrying a floral purse seem to be a minority here? A rare occurrence? An endangered species? Okay, okay, I’m the only one. Seems I should have worn my suit and brought my briefcase and have saved all my important business-sounding conversation on the phone for these few hours. Then I might fit in more. Also I should use phrases like “please make them aware of my concerns”, “we’re splitting the trips”, “in the books” and ask the question “Do you still have that article I was quoted in?” Also, words like “testify”, “assessors” and “renewals” and “TJ12” (?!). Also, I’ll need to legitimately be interested in the Wall Street Journal/Darn. Well, maybe next time.

Meanwhile there were a couple of men sitting nearby and one of them had tennis shoes on. So that made me feel better. And then before he left he brought three cups jammed full with complimentary cheese and crackers around the corner and jammed them into his backpack. Then he departed.

While I don’t agree with his behavior, I was comforted by his casualty. Even if he was talking businessey ON SPEAKER PHONE a few moments before. Oh well.

I have helped myself to some complimentary snacks myself. Three packets of baby carrots with one tiny container of ranch dressing. Two cups of decaf coffee with flavored creamer. One small cup of cheesy chex mix and a few yogurt covered raisins. A few sips of wine. Oh, and a single-wrapped lifesaver that was sitting in a candy dish at the welcome counter. I couldn’t help myself. I haven’t ventured to the cheese and crackers yet… the jury is still out on whether or not that should count as dinner.

Ack! And on that note, I should get to the gate. No cheese and crackers for my dinner! I should pay more attention to the clock…

In the Snow

Here are too many pictures for you of my dear fam enjoying the gorgeous snow…

Quote of the Day- Sweet N Edition

Kids say the darndest things. Here is a collection entirely dedicated to my older girlie from probably the last year or so…

Driving down the road she sees these birds on the wires… ‘Yook Ma! Da birds are having a resting party!!”

Here she is wearing her ‘Tee-raw-ra”.

“Yook! Popcorn honey balls!”

This place has been “Old McDonalds” for a very long time…

“Meatbobs”

“Present rolls”

Naturally, this is “white broccoli”.

“Orange sugar” (that’s fairly appropriate)

This is not a Slip ‘n Slide, but a “swipping swide”.

And last but not least, we were both in the living room one day at least a year ago, she was cutting paper (still one of her favorite things to do) and I was folding laundry.  She said “We are bof doing fings!”

I replied, “Yup, it’s good to work with our hands, the Bible says that!”

She said “Yeah… and not wif our feet!”

Haha!  Well I guess she’s right!

I love her so!

And Back Again…

Change is headed our way. Again.

It has been sought after. It has been chosen. It has been welcomed.

But it is not easy.

In fact it might be the hardest change I have ever chosen.

---------

Back in the summer, we were feeling ready for a change. We have this tendency to feel a little too comfortable sometimes and seek out change. Seek out challenge. This is definitely true for me and you can see it easily because I move my furniture around every few weeks if I can. I like a change. I like things to feel different. I like the challenge of adjusting, reorganizing, creating new systems. Geeky, I know.

So this summer we were just praying. Praying for guidance on which path to take. The path that would lead us to several more years Stateside? Or the path that would lead us back overseas.
I could see myself walking down either path. Neither path would have been easy. Even the staying path definitely had some challenges in it.

The past two years we have had in our current home is the longest time we have been settled in a place since Mike and I were married over 10 years ago. We lived in Africa for 7 of it, but it was NEVER stable. Much of it was wondering whether we’d be there by the time the seasons changed (oh wait, the seasons never changed, ha!) or spent coming back and forth .  These couple years of stability in our home have been a true gift for me. It’s been deeply healing and restorative.

In the meantime God has been teaching me so much about eternal perspective. He put this topic deep in my spirit and it’s shaping who I am. I think a decent strategy for resisting the pulls of this current life and maintaining an eternal perspective is to live in a place that you normally wouldn’t and to intentionally make decisions that don’t lead to an ‘easy’ life. When things are too easy we tend to get too comfortable and turn our eyes inward. Those are two great ways to stay focused on our true purposes. This life is a mere speck on a borderless canvas of forever-life.  I don’t want to forget that. I want to remain focused.

Comfort, safety, long worry-less days with dear friends and family, time to pursue passions and hobbies, endless time to explore God’s creation, writing, reading, creating, laughing, relaxing, enjoying the work of my hands… that is all in my eternal future. A lot of that is in my present life too, but I see those things now as TASTE of what is to come… not what I put my main effort towards in this life. Those things (in their true, full expressions) are part of the paradise that I’m headed for. I don’t want the shaping of those things into a paradise for myself NOW to be what I put my life towards.

These past two years have given me the tiniest glimpse into the loving community we will have with fellow believers in heaven. And I’m inspired. I live in community that truly feels like doing daily life with a bunch of brothers and sisters. It does have it’s difficulties (like in any family), but I feel like I’m truly a part of the body of Christ. I may have the sort of community around me now that many search their entire lives for and never find.

I’m a blessed, blessed woman.

Blessed to be a blessing.

All this blessing has motivated me to push on towards eternity. It’s given me a taste of what's to come. And it’s challenged me to resist the comfort and say “See ya later”  to it all for now and step into the unknown.

Leaving is going to hurt. It already hurts. Deep, tear-pouring, body-wracking hurt that hits me in waves. What we have now I may never have again this side of eternity. But I do have full confidence that it’ll come again for me after I pass from this life to this next, because of what I believe Jesus did for me on the cross. 

It’s the depth of love that I have for community now that makes it hurt so badly to leave.

It’s the taste of this blessed season that is my fuel for stepping back into the desert.



Sahara Desert to the Rocky Mountains… and back again…

(move planned for the fall of this year)