Dread Champion

The writers of the Bible gave us some lovely images of God, don't you think? And then there is this one. It has stuck with me all day in a somehow humorous yet comforting kind of way.
"But the LORD is with me like a dread champion." Jeremiah 20 somewhere

So I immediately get a mental image of a huge boxer, standing behind me complete with mouth-guard, sweat and red leather boxing gloves. Not exactly the image of God we usually hear, but comforting all the same don't you think?

Happy Birthday Elijah

A few days late because of internet difficulties, but a birthday message nonetheless. Dear 7 year old boy we love you. You keep us laughing, thinking, listening and loving daily. We are amazed at all of the ways you've grown this year. You have fallen in love with nature in whole new ways. You would spend every spare minute outside- digging in the dirt, finding rocks, uncovering bugs, inspecting leaves, searching for spiders, climbing, riding your bike and having a great time. We started homeschooling your this year and it has gone very well so far. You are learning lots- improving things that were really difficult for you at school and enjoying learning about things that interest you. We've done a unit on space, one on habitats and we're about to start simple machines.

Your brothers love you and you show such patience with them much of the time. We love you Elijah and can't wait to see who you become as a 7 year old.

Rock Boys Band

This morning, after our school work part 1, our home saw the birth of the Rock Boys Band. Right now, I'm listening to them discuss options for tour dates, advertising, audiences, and of course who will be the star. Stuffed animals will be the audience. They need a microphone. "We need suits!" Micah exclaims. It is a big day! Elijah is working on posters. I asked him what he thought should be on the posters- his response- "Our band's name "Rock Boys Band," a picture of our band and when we're playing." Now, they're planning dance moves. The music they will sing and play seems to be secondary somehow, but adults often fall into the same trap, so can you blame them?

Happy Birthday Micah

We love you little man! We'll post birthday pictures of the big day soon. I just wanted to pay tribute to our very special middle child on his birthday. Praise the Lord for an incredible 5 years, and I pray that we have many many more to enjoy with you.

The Superhero Book

Elijah writes in his journal every day and we try to pick something to type and "publish" every so often. Today was publishing day and he chose a little story he'd written about a super hero. He typed his story himself, picked out a picture to accompany it and printed it out. Micah did the same, typing the story himself with a little extra help from me with spelling. I typed Isaiah's story for him, but I typed it word for word as he told it to me. The video is Elijah reading their finished product to everyone.
"The Superhero Book- By Elijah, Micah and Isaiah Crisp. Illustrator- Google.com
Super man jumped off the window. Oooof he said. He landed in the bushes. By Elijah
Optimus landed on Mars. He saw a giant alien. By Micah
Green Lantern lands on the moon. He saw the giant alien drink a pack of juice. The giant alien has plastic in his belly. By Isaiah"

Only in Cape Breton

If you know about the Maritime provinces, you can skip this little paragraph, but if Canadian geography is somewhat foreign to you, read on. There is a tiny island off the coast of Nova Scotia called Cape Breton Island. As you can see from these photos, Cape Breton is a beautiful place. Steep hills, ocean scenery, meadows, trees; truly it is beautiful. Until winter.
This is actually a bus being pulled out of the icy water by a crane of some sort. My mom has worked for years with a lady named Marian who is from Cape Breton, and Marian recently told my mom this story about her brother. She says, "The road he took to get there (to work) was pretty iced up and he lost his car over a steep embankment with the front end stuck in the snow and the back end up in the air. He went to get help from a wrecker and when they got back to the car, the car was missing its back tires.....there was a note on the windshield and two old bald tires sitting beside the car, and the note read 'didn't think ya would be needin yer tires for the rest of the winter seeing as where you vehicle is, so took them and left ya my bald ones for summer."

Ahhh the homeland.

Micah...



Elijah and Micah


Micah and Isaiah collided and continued down the hill, laughing hysterically. Our neighbors joined us too.

Icy day to play

Our deck- treacherous, and the seminary was only on a 1 hour delay today.
My favorite picture of Elijah in the last year. We had a great homeschool day and play day today.
Icy grass and Isaiah's boots. I haven't bought winter boots since we moved to Kentucky. They just wear their rubber boots from Grammie with 2 pairs of socks in them.
Isaiah, refusing to look at the camera, and my fingers were freezing so I gave up.
Micah and Isaiah, Micah looking very much like Esther with his wrinkly nose, don't you think?

Kung Fu Panda

A picture to commemorate the 2 days we spent closed up in our bedroom with space heaters while the furnace was being fixed.

TODAY- the boys have full run of the house and they are enjoying it. The boys are in love with Kung Fu Panda currently. Every day is an adventure for the Furious Three. Each picks a character and they make up their own adventures together. Isaiah is Tigress, Micah is Crane and Elijah is Monkey. This morning they were making their own Kunf Fu Warrior Pie. First they went shopping for ingredients together, then Elijah cooked while requesting ingredients from his brothers. "Isaiah, pass me the flour. Micah we need some chocolate." Finally the pie is complete and Elijah says, "Now for the apple butter Kung Fu icing." They ate the pie, moved on with playing and decided that after the pie the warriors all needed a nap. Micah said, "Hey, good think we all still have our jammies on!" And they all got back in bed, turned the lights off, woke up, turned the lights on and started a new adventure.

I love it when they play together like this. No arguing. Everyone included. It makes me want to analyze every possible element that might have led to this morning with intentions of recreating this goodness every day. Not possible I know, so I'll just revel in their fun boyishness this morning.

In love

I love it that Elijah isn't too old to giggle while trying to hide from me among the rows of books at the library tonight.
I love it that Micah run to me pouting about not getting to go with us, then squeezes my legs and is all better after a big hug and some tickles.
I love the streams of laughter that erupt from Isaiah over every crazy thing when he's over-tired. I love how no one is ever in a hurry to do anything- except play of course.
I love watching them wrestle with each other.
I love how we all whisper during quiet writing time each morning- respecting the thoughts of each other.
I love it that Micah is totally excited about being invited over to his friend's house to play.
There is a lot of love around here these days. Just thought I'd share it in case I get a case of the nasties sometime soon. :)

Kiva- Micro lending

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

Two Front Teeth

Micah's self portrait when he "borrowed" our camera today.
Isaiah- such cutie.

Elijah is now missing his two front teeth. The huge gap is making it difficult for him to speak normally, but his new teeth are growing in nicely. Homeschooling is going great. He is so much more relaxed. He is going to sleep more easily at night and just seems to have much less anxiety. I've just watched him relax more and more every day.

Quote of the Day Courtesy Isaiah

On the phone with Papa this evening:

"I learned about God today."

Pause...

"Yeah... His name is Jesuuuuuus... and he has a yellow shiiiiirt... and he has hair kind of like mine."

New Years Pics

Elijah, Olivia & Gideon, Micah, Garrett, Esther, and Isaiah- our traditional fence picture- taken annually to track kids' growth. We had a wonderful time with cousins, aunts, uncles, Nana, Papa and grandparents. Thanks so much for all of the warm conversation, tasty food and laughs.
Gift opening at Uncle Rex and Aunt Lynn's this year.
Grandpa (great-grandpa to the kids) Uncle Rex, Uncle Ron, Eric, Papa.
New shirts and transformers from Nana and Papa.
Opening gifts with Nana and Papa.

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.