Dishwater Song

Completely Undeserving
of clean water from the faucet,
of soap that cuts through grease and grime,
of turkey scraps floating in bubbles.

Thoroughly Undeserving
of life-giving children who play and fight,
of thoughtful friends who share a meal,
of a roof that protects us from rain.
Utterly Undeserving
of a kind husband who sits at the kitchen
table building K-nex with our boys
patient. loving. did I mention, patient?
Oh yes, I am undeserving.

It isn't because of
where I live
what I do
who I hang with
what I read
how I act
why I react
when I act or neglect to act.

I am not entitled to these blessings because of
how much I pray
what I read
what I write
how I think (or don't think)
where I worship or
what doctrines I believe.

It is grace. Good, crazy, I'll-never-understand-it-fully
Grace.
The grace of a loving Father who delights in giving.
So I'm humbled and more than thankful-
I'm undeserving.

Movie Makers

The boys spent half an hour this afternoon making up this scary movie. Elijah directed, of course, Isaiah's main role was to call for help, and Micah was the monster slain. Make sure your sound is all the way up. Isaiah is supposed to see the monster and yell to Elijah, "Spearo" at the very beginning. He forgets what to do every time though, so Elijah tells him, "Scream Spearo" and Isaiah yells, "Scream Spearo." They had fun!

Merry Christmas in KY

It was a warm Christmas here today- 65 or something like that. We had a relaxing day opening gifts from Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Garth and Grammie. This is the perfect age for enjoying Christmas gift giving. The reaction to every gift was, "awwww, this is awesome!" Elijah is thrilled with his MP3 player, Micah loves his flying toys and remote control truck, and Isaiah plays with everything that belongs to everyone, but his main gift was Black Hole from Planet Heroes. No one got up until almost 8:00am, so we even got to sleep in a little. We read the Christmas story and ate a big Christmas dinner complete with turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, scalloped corn, roles and cookies. Our friends are coming over tomorrow evening to help us finish off leftovers. :) We hope that you, our friends and family, had opportunity today to celebrate, remember and rejoice at the miracle of Jesus birth.

Cookie Baking

Holidays Day 1

Everyone was home all day today (except for either myself or Eric). I worked early this morning buy came home to work because there was no heat in our offices- BRRRRRR- so Eric went to work instead. I decided it was a good day to go "unplugged" because the boys had enjoyed lots of weekend TV for 2 days. We turned off the TV soon after I got home and I told them there would be no TV or computer for the rest of the day. After minimal whining (from Micah mostly) they were fine with that.

Then, predictably, the fighting started. It is a regularly occurring phenomena with our children that after several days of heavier than normal screen time (2-4 hours I'd say) they have forgotten how to interact with one another. I'd compare it to what happens to me when I drink 3-5 cups of coffee every day for 5 days and then go a whole day with none. And it's not your normal kind of fighting either. It's the kind of fighting that has no reasonable cause. It's the kind of fighting that makes me wonder what savage beasts invaded the brains of my intelligent sons.

To illustrate this point, picture the following scenario. I'm folding laundry in our bedroom, and I can hear Elijah in the spare bedroom, screaming at the top of his lungs, "It's a tree! It's a tree!" (Pause) "Ahhhhhhrghhhh, NO MICAH! IT's a TREE!!!" This continues for several minutes.

I let it go for a bit, hoping they could resolve on their own. But again, "ARRRGHHHH! MICAH, It's MY TREE!... You're making me REALLY REALLY MAD Micah. ....(Pause, calm words from Micah that I can't hear) ARGHHHH, I REALLY want to PUNCH you right now!"

OK, time to intervene before I end up cleaning up blood or bruises. I walk into the room, "What's going on?"

I'll pause here briefly to describe the scene. Elijah is stretched out on the bed. There is a quilt on the bed that has leafy, flowery print, and he is covering as much of the design as possible with his skinny 6 year old body. Micah is curled up at the top of the bed, sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees.

Elijah: Mommy! (Tears, angry red face, he is ticked!) This is a tree!
Me: OK, the bed is a tree. Great! So why are you screaming at Micah?
Elijah: Micah is sitting in the tree!
Me: Can't you share your tree? It's a pretty big tree for 2 little boys.
Elijah: But he can't sit in the tree. He's a duck. Ducks don't sit in trees.
Me: Micah? Are you a duck?
Micah: Yeah, but I want to sit in the tree with Elijah. He's a monkey.
Elijah: See Mommy? Monkeys live in trees and ducks don't sit in trees. They can't. They have webbed feet!

Hilariously enough, Elijah is still fuming mad at this point. Furious that his duck brother would dare try to sit in his pretend blanket tree while he pretends to be a monkey.

Me: Well, technically ducks are birds, so maybe Micah is a special duck that can sit in trees.
Elijah: No! No! No! Look Micah, you have all that water down there. No get off! (Pointing to the blue blanket on the floor)
Micah: Elijah Elijah... wait... can I be a different bird- not a duck so I can stay in the tree?
Elijah: (Immediately sits up, tone changes completely, sweet as can be) Sure. Maybe you could be a hawk. Hawks are awesome, they....

I just walked away- back to the laundry. Of course! Why hadn't I thought of that. Just be a different kind of bird so that you can sit on a flowery blanket that is apparently an anti-duck tree. Micah has already learned to deal with Elijah's imagination better than I do sometimes.

By 1:00, all fighting had ceased and everyone played wonderfully for the rest of the day. No more screen withdrawal. I wish I could recover from caffeine addiction that quickly. :)

Winter fun

Hot chocolate after sledding.
The boys played outside in our 4 inches of icy snow for almost 2 hours on Tuesday. Then yesterday, we were riding bikes in short sleeves-66 degrees. Kentucky weirdness.
I tried to get a picture of Elijah with his hot chocolate too, but he had it finished before I got the camera back to the kitchen. Check out those pink cheeks- one of my favorite things about cold weather!
The little video is Elijah on the front of the sled, Micah on the back. We get so little cold weather here that I haven't bought any snow pants or winter boots for 3 years. Elijah is wearing size 3T snow pants, Micah has 2 pairs of pants on, and all 3 of the kids wear their rubber boots with 2 pairs of socks on underneath. It works.

First and Last

At breakfast this morning. Micah says something to Elijah about being cool. Elijah's response:
"Micah, God's Word says the coolest are the lamest and the lamest will be the coolest."

Eric looked at me and said, "Did he just say what I think he said?" Yup! I think it's a pretty apt paraphrase. What do you think?

Snow (kind of )

Isaiah Speak

Some of my favorites lately-
- He can't remember the name of Elijah's YMCA drama class on Thursday evenings so to him it's Wijah's Pajama class, and he smiles when he says it because he knows it's not quite right.

- When he changes his mind, it always starts with, "Actualllllyyyyyyyy.. I think..."

- Today he noticed the tiny rainbows painted on the carpet from the sun shining through the sidelight window by the front door. First he yelled, "Mommy, come see the rainbows!" We talked about the colors and where the rainbows came from for a few minutes, and I went back to making potato soup in the kitchen. Several minutes later, I peaked in to see him sitting in the middle of the rainbows, doing a puzzle quietly, and I went back to the kitchen. Several minutes after that, I heard him yelling from the bathroom that he needed help, so I went to help him.

As soon as I had his pants buttoned, he went racing out of the bathroom ahead of me, full speed, yelling as he ran, "I'm coming little rainbows! Please still be there!"

And when I caught up to him, sure enough, there he was sitting in the rainbows on the carpet, playing with their colors on his little fingers.

Reflections

I thought I'd take some time tonight to think about these last few months. They've been a whirlwind and taking some time to reflect is never a bad thing. So what's been going on?

* I am learning to cherish the precious time I have with the boys. I've moved out of overwhelmed-and-stretched-thin (juggling a crying kid in one arm, while shooing the angry dog away from the mail man at the front door, while keeping a 2 year old from slipping out to join the mail man, while a four year old yells from the bathroom, "I need help wipingggggg!") into overjoyed-and-full. We still have our moments, but overall, I want these days to tick by one... second... at... a... time.

I want to somehow have the superpower that would allow me to absorb every word, glance and giggle. Every one of these three children has such lovely unique gifts. Oh God that I would continue to learn how to nurture them!

* I am so proud of Eric. He manages work, school, housework , being a dad and a husband like the finest of jugglers. He rarely, if ever, drops a ball and when he does he blames only himself. I've watched him catch a vision for his future, learn about his gifts and desires, and actually put words to the dreams he has for himself and our family. Lord God, continue to draw him near to you and strengthen his sense of You in him.

* Living with our Nigerian friend and our American friends, all under one roof has taught me about myself. In a nutshell, it is making me more generous. Generosity isn't giving when I have something to spare. It is giving when someone else has a need- even if it's a need that I don't see. Generosity is not in the business of judging one man's need as greater than another's or greater than my own. It simply gives.

* I like my work. I took on a few more hours in my job at the seminary this semester, and I enjoy my work there- mostly because I love the people I work with.

On the more shadowy side of life:
* I miss my family- my Canadian family. I miss crunchy snow and mom's big warm hugs. I miss my brother's smile and the smell of mom's homemade bread. I miss snowmobiles and crackling wood fireplaces. I miss conversations that are real and deep, that turn into arguments and then back into conversations, then laughter.

* I want to know our future- our post-seminary future. I want to have a picture to look forward to when right now I have the current pleasant movie playing out on ahead and then ..... nothing.... or at least something very vague. It's still a long way off, I know, but I want hope for something wonderful. :)

Enough of that. It really has been a great semester overall. I love our little family with all of its quirks and mishaps. We are learning, growing, experimenting, apologizing to each other when we mess up, but most of all loving each other through it all, and that's what life is all about isn't it.