A Little Bit of Catch Up....

M.I.A.

Yep, that’s me.

I unintentionally spent a little time away, which led to a longer time away, which has made it REALLY hard to return. It’s not like anything crazy has happened – life has happened. That’s all. And life is great! But life is busy, and my blog (and all my other hobbies) get sorely neglected when life gets busy.

At the end of the day, I blog for myself – to preserve my memories and the things our family does. So I’m really only hurting myself. I use this cool “slurp” function on blurb.com at the end of each year to pull all my blog entries into a book. Then I add photos or scrapbook pages from the year to complete the book. And that’s all fine and good – except when I go M.I.A. And now I’ve got a 2 month “gap” in my memories. And we all know my memory alone isn’t enough to fill in that gap!

So… my last entry was July 30. What has happened since then? Let me catch you up quickly….

In July we had Jon’s whole family come to visit – which was a blast! We had 17 people and 2 dogs under our roof. It was such a blast that I spent a bunch of time pulling together the photos, but no time putting it on the blog. Probably should’ve done that! We also had our neighbors and wonderful friends from Baltimore come visit us for a long weekend. What a breath of “home” their visit was to us! Again… should’ve put pictures up and shared about the time…. But didn’t. And we went to Kansas City for the weekend – met my parents halfway and let the kids have a fun time with them. Again – no pictures on the blog. Not a good track record going here! And then we had Amara starting Kindergarten, Amara starting piano lessons, Amara turning 6, both kids starting soccer again, a family trip to Denver, and Dominic starting a new preschool. And there you have it – 2 months in one paragraph. Now you’re caught up on our life!

During the past 2 months, I have been adding goofy things the kids have said to Facebook. They really need to have a “slurp” feature on FB, too, so I can pull from there for my annual book…. Hmm….

So I’ll troll through my old FB status updates simply to be able to add these to the book. If you’re my “friend” on FB, these will be old. But still funny. So feel free to read or skip. They’re most recent first.

9/26: Amara’s talking to Grandma W on the phone. Grandma W lives in Wyoming. We live in Arkansas. She says, “Grandma, it’s FREEZING in Arkansas.” Somehow I suspect they’d consider it balmy here.

9/26: I do believe the kids got their fashion sense from me. And that’s NOT a good thing. We sent them to get dressed so we could head to Sam’s. They both had full dressers, as laundry was just completed. So they essentially had their entire wardrobe from which to choose an outfit. Dominic entered our room wearing a red Lightning McQueen t-shirt with turquoise, green, and yellow plaid shorts, navy blue socks with basketballs on them, and I think black shoes (not sure if his shoes were on yet). As I was laughing at him and telling him to go put on jean shorts, Jon said, “Just wait, another one is coming.” Amara walked around the corner in a bright purple butterfly t-shirt paired with a teal, yellow, and green skirt (inside out no-less – which doesn’t work when the skirt has built-in shorts), black and pink socks with ear-muffed monkeys on them, and black slip on dress shoes. She said she matched her colors in groups. I confess I was laughing so hard at their choices that she actually started crying – and I felt terrible about that. But I did let her keep on everything but the skirt – and just helped her select a skirt that matched. I think Jon needs to give lessons in fashion to them.

The kids were talking about ankles and bones. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what they were talking about within that context, but my ears perked up when Dominic said, “Mom, sometimes my bones bite my ankles and I scream like a girl.” I laughed at the “scream like a girl” part – which for whatever reason really amused him, but I think also embarrassed him, so he had to backtrack on himself and remove the “scream like a girl” from his statement.

9/23: You know it has been a long week when the kids wake up with the following comments. Amara: I wish it was Saturday. Dominic. I wish it was a day where everyone had to go to school except us.

9/20: Dominic: I saw a car without a bottle cap! Me: You mean a hub cap? Dominic: Yeah.

9/10: (Dominic’s last day at LSP) Dominic just informed me that Miss Clara and Miss Trista are his girlfriends. (They’re his teachers.)

9/5: Conversation in the backseat. Dominic: Amara, what do you want to do? Amara: Let’s dance! Dominic: I don’t want to dance. I want to fight coyotes!

9/5: Dominic: Sometimes I eat jellyfish for breakfast.

9/4: Dominic at 7:30am: Mommy, it’s morning. Me: I know, but we’re still sleeping. So is Amara. Dominic through a tear cracking voice: Why do you always do that? You always sleep too long. I don’t like people who sleep long.

9/3: For Amara’s birthday, we went to the Japanese Hibachi grill. They turned down all the lights and turned on strobe lights. Amara said, “I think they’re going to come sing Happy Birthday to me in Spanish.”

8/31: Dominic: Mommy, when I can ride my bike without training wheels…. I can have a motorcycle.

8/25: Dominic: I know why King Kong is mean. He’s really, really hungry. (Must be a Wxxxxxxx!)

8/22: Amara has a baby doll who is lacking in the clothing department (she’s got 2 outfits). So I took one of Dominic’s old sweaters and made it into a dress. Amara ended up with legwarmers out of the deal – the sleeves worked nicely for such a purpose. The funny thing: She wouldn’t take them off!

8/14: One of the sweetest things… Both kids are supposed to be napping. They’re both in their own beds. But they’re not napping. They’re singing. And they’re not just singing, they’re essentially singing a duet with each other – each with their own words and melodies, but definitely together. This is the good stuff.

8/7: Upon picking Dominic up from his Sunday School class tonight, Jon was told by his new teacher, “He’s a blast!” Why thank you. Yes… he is.

8/5: Amara mastered the art of tying her shoes!

8/3: I find it ironic (or poetic justice) that Dominic obeys the shoes in the closet rule at bedtime – by gathering up ALL his shoes from the house instead of getting jammies on and teeth brushed like he was told to do.

Furrks

Yesterday morning, Dominic came hopping into our bed, as he does every morning. There was a random loud noise, that sounded much like the passing of gas, and I jerked up and looked at Dominic wide-eyed.

Dominic dissolved in a fit of giggles and said, "It wasn't me, Mommy! I promise! It wasn't me!"

I knew it wasn't, but it was fun to mess with him.

As he laid his head back down, he said, "Mommy, sometimes my toots are furrks."

I laughed inside, knowing that he thought he was pulling one over on me, and that he was going to educate me. But I asked anyway. I had to ask what a furrk was.

He said, "Sometimes a furrk comes out of my bottom, and sometimes it comes out of my mouoth." I must have had a skeptical look on my face, because he nodded vigorously and said, "For real, it does." I said, "OK" and laid back down.

But I didn't want to let it die, because it was such a funny conversation. So I kept asking question, asking him to pronounce it more slowly, asking him to repeat it for Jon.

I finally had to tell him, "Dominic, a furrk is really called a Fart - it's just another word for toot, but 'toot' sounds better. And I guarantee you, it will never come out of your mouth."

Happiness

Today is a work day, as we are preparing for company tomorrow. The kids are typically pretty helpful, but understandably get tired of it after a full day.

I went to the basement for a coloring break with the kids, who were half cleaning, half playing in the coloring room. We colored a bit, then when we were done, I asked D if he wanted to help me fold laundry.

Dominic responded in his "excited" voice, which is airy and about an octave higher than his normal voice. He said, "yeah, sure!" and he took off up the stairs, racing me to the top.

As I brought the basket to the couch, he made some other excited remark. I laughed and asked, "Dominic, why are you such a happy boy?"

It was a rhetorical question, and I really wasn't expecting an answer. But he answered.

"Because I like to be happy," was his immediate response.

It's truly both as simple and as profound as that.

With a few exceptions (ie depression, etc), I truly believe happiness is a choice. And I also believe that most people prefer happiness to the alternative.

Thanks for the words of wisdom, happy, sweet, 4-year-old.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Prayers of a Mama...

It all started several months ago. Amara would wake frequently with bad dreams. We have a Veggie Tales book that says, "God is bigger than the boogie man," so I tried to use that as a reference.

I told her that God is bigger than the monsters in her dreams.

I told her that the monsters are afraid of God, and they're afraid of her, too.

I told her to tell those monsters to scram and leave her alone.

Oh... and I told her there's no such thing as monsters anyway. Why is it that line of logic never works?

Over the next few nights, weeks, and months, those comments turned to prayers. The prayers were for God to clear her head of all the bad and help her think of only good things, only pure things, only happy things.

And she slept.

On the night before his birthday, Dominic came sobbing into our room at about 3am. I asked him what was the matter. He cried, "Mommy, I need you to pray for me." I asked what for? He said, "For Jesus to take all the scary thoughts from my head."

My heart melted right there. I hugged my little guy close, stroked is soft fuzzy head, and prayed for the Lord of his heart to clear his mind to sleep soundly and peacefully.

With each prayer I offer with the kids, I follow it with one of my own, "Lord, please answer this prayer so that they can see You, so that they can feel You, so they can know You."

On the morning of his birthday, the two kids met in the hallway. Amara told Dominic she dreamed of his birthday and all the fun they'd have. Dominic responded, "Oh yeah, well Jesus gave me lots of great things to dream about."

Again my heart swelled. I whispered a prayer of thanks to Jesus for answering their prayer, for showing Himself to my children.

That relationship they have now. That tangibility that they feel. The conversations that they have with Jesus at the drop of a hat as if He's right next to them -- because He is.

Isaiah 11:6 "A little child shall lead them..."
Matthew 18:3 "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mark 10:15) (Luke 18:17)
Matthew 18:4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 19:14 "But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Mark 10:14) (Luke 18:16)

Is there any doubt how much Christ cares for His children? Before our children were born, we committed them back to the Lord. They are His children; we've been entrusted them. But they are His.

My prayer is that the relationship that they have with Jesus right now continues to grow. It is so strong right now, so real, so tangible, so innocent and pure. The part of me that knows the world knows that their faith will likely be shaken several times over throughout the course of their life. But the bigger part of my cries out to my Savior asking for their little hearts and minds to continue to be molded and shaped by Him and for Him. I pray that He gives me wisdom to lead them and to point to Him.

Acts 13:33 "that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.'"

1 John 4:4 "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world."

I feel as if I've talked in circles and not properly expressed how important these prayers, these overheard conversations, and God's responses have been to me. It's quite amazing and humbling to watch your child's faith literally bloom and develop before your eyes. I could feel myself choking up as I tried to explain it to my Mom, and even as I type, I feel the tightening of my throat.

At this point in my life, this is my most important purpose: to show them Christ. My prayer is that they know Him, love Him, and serve Him with all their heart, soul, and mind.

I'll close with the camp song I've recently been reintroduced to. When I was a camp counselor we closed every campfire with this song. I believe it was written by our director at the time, Layne Nelson. The words and melody were poignant then, but have since taken on a new and deeper meaning as I insert my children's names and pray it over them each night.

"May the Spirit of God descend upon this place. Keep us safe inside Your arms; fill us with Your grace. Put love deep within our hearts and peace within our souls. Guide us wherever we may go, for You are in control. Sing alleluia! Alleluia! And guide us wherever we may go so we may humbly serve You."

Moving?

 

Overheard in the backseat this morning:

Mom, can we move to China OR Maryland?

No, we're not moving anytime soon.

My vote is Maryland.

Sometimes....

We went out to Red Lobster tonight for dinner -- it was Dominic's choice for his birthday celebration.

During dinner, Dominic asked Jon to take him to the bathroom. On their return trip, they ran into someone that Jon knew, but Dominic had never met. As they stood their talking, Dominic became his normal assertive self. This is the conversation I overheard from my seat a couple booths away.

"I'm Dominic! It's my birthday. I'm 4 years old! Sometimes my dad toots on my face."

Um... where in the world did that come from, and how does it apply to the conversation at hand.

Hi...lar...i...ous!

Now you tell me... does this look like a face to be tooted upon? I think not!

Oh my though... I'm still in giggles over it! Poor couple, they just didn't have a clue what to say. But really...what does one say to that?

I Don't Feel Well

On Sunday afternoon, I gave Dominic a haircut. He was LONG overdue, so a complete buzz cut was quite a drastic difference. He wanted to look like daddy! So we went all the way short -- to the point where his teacher now calls him Mr. Clean.

Last night he used his haircut to support his latest stalling tactic.

Seriously...I thought I was a master staller. But I might have to concede defeat to this kid. (Mom, I'll let you be the judge.)

After the kids had been put to bed, Jon and I went downstairs. I heard the pitter patter of little feet, Dominic crying, and then his voice at the top of the stairs, "Mama, I don't feel well."

Knowing his history of stalling, I didn't move from my seat, and instead yelled upstairs, "What hurts?"

His response, sobbing all the while, "My hair...where you cut it."

Oh boy...

Storms

On Monday night, we had quite the thunderstorm come through our area. The thunder was quite loud, and of course it it right at the kids' bedtime. We were taking bets on which kid would come in first, how long it would take, and who would sleep with who if both kids were needing some extra snuggles.

After one especially loud boom, probably at around 9:00, Dominic came sobbing into our room. He was all hunched within himself, visibly shaken. In a very quivery voice he said, "I had a terrible dream! It was terrible!"

I scooped him up and hugged him close, walking him back into his own room. I told him it was OK, and asked him what made him so scared. He kept repeating, "A terrible dream! Terrible!" I had to rearrange my question and instead ask him what his dream was about. He said, "It was really, really loud. Lots of loud noises."

I smiled and said, "Baby, that wasn't a dream, that was thunder! But you don't have to be scared, because thunder won't hurt you. I always like to think it's God bowling. You really love bowling right? Remember going bowling with Ryan and Allison, and how loud it was when the balls would hit the pins. Well just imagine that it's God bowling - and He's probably loving it just as much as you do!"

He was calming down a bit and added, "And the lights are fireworks?"

I hadn't heard that one before. But I went with it. I said, "That's a good idea - yes! When God gets a strike, He gets very excited and shoots off fireworks to celebrate."

Then I added, "You know what I always used to pretend it was -- I pretended the lights were God taking my picture."

Dominic laughed.

I told him, "So it's just a storm -- and it's loud -- but we're in a big strong house, and we're safe. So you don't have to be afraid."

Dominic said, "But mom, I like storms. And I'm not afraid of bowling. I'm afraid of thunder!"

Hatched

 

Amara tonight at the dinner table:
Mommy, did you know that Dawson's baby brother hatched yesterday?

Um... Dawson is a boy in Dominic's class.

Spiders

 

The kids found a spider in the house the other day. Not completely uncommon - we do live in the woods.

Here is what I heard them saying....

It's really a real spider.
Yes it is.
It's really alive.
Time to get some toilet paper.

*smash*

There.
Now let's look at it!
It's all squished!

As she runs to the garbage can, Amara says:
Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!
Disgusting!
Mommy look at this!

Um...no thanks!

Then Dominic prayed that God keeps the bugs away from him.

After all that craziness, the kids told me how they killed the spider. They added that in addition to the toilet paper, they used the throw pillow from the couch to kill the spider. I thanked them for killing the spider, but asked them to kindly refrain from using pillows in the future.

Here's the conversation that followed....

But there was no blood on the pillow.
No, there wouldn't be blood, there would be guts.
What are guts?
Guts are slimy stuff -- kinda like boogers.
Ew.
Mommy, do spiders have noses?

Yes... we digress.