Sometimes It's Simple

She's the first one up today and it's still quite dark.
After a hug she sits across the candlelit table from me.

I push aside my Bible and look.  "Are you excited to go to school today?"

She looks down at the table and doesn't say anything.  I assume my counseling
stature.  "How are you liking your new Kindergarten teacher?"  It's been over two weeks
now since her new teacher came.

She says she's fine.  So I probe further.  "Are you looking forward to class?"  She shakes her head no and looks at me.  "The snacks aren't very good anymore."

Snacks.  That's really what it's all about.  No deep teacher transition issues or disappointment with new expectations being dashed.  Just a poor snack that's not as exciting as it once was.

It really doesn't take much to speak a child's heart language.

I pull down the gigantic bag of M&Ms the man behind us in line at Costco saw fit to buy the kids.

"How about if we bag up some of these for you to share with your class today?"

She smiles and walks excitedly into her classroom.

I stop to talk to the secretary.

Ms. Secretary asks what my cat's name is, then reports that he jumped into her chair yesterday.  After she got over being startled, he made her day by sitting in her lap while she worked on the computer.

Pets.  It doesn't take much to speak a secretary's heart language.

Sometimes it's not hard to put a smile on someone's face.  It gets me smiling to see someone smiling, too!

Here are a few more pictures of some things that have made me smile lately:

Cowboys together

My newest beautiful nephew!

On Her Own

The fourth to learn on the little red bike.  She's riding, full of life displayed in scrapes, bruises and tangles.

Pausing to enjoy....

Ode to June and Other Birthday Thoughts

Oh lovely June,
The month in which I entered
Over thirty-four years ago.

Little did I know that
You would also be the month
Conceiving three of my greatest gifts.

So now in March
We gather in joy
To thank God for life begun in you, June.

The other night we sat around the table eating fudge cake made entirely by two of the boys.
Brian read Psalm 139:


For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.


Life-giving words.  David knew God's works are wonderful.

And His most wonderful workplace is in the womb.  

Each of us, knit together by God's hands: the womb His workshop.

I pray God helps me believe this is truth about myself....and that I impart this truth to my children--how wonderfully He has made them.

Unconventional Tea

She, my one daughter amidst four true boys, captivates me.

I learn about girlhood from her...and still, it's a mystery.

How her eyes can sparkle and leap like a trout jumping in a sunlit brook.  How she can turn her head a certain way and her pink cheeks and soft hair make her beauty more breathtaking than a snowy Mount Hood on a clear day.  Yet in a moment it can all be over and a dark cloud has filled the room, leaving the rest of us to wonder how it got there without us noticing.

I took her to tea.  We were on a family holiday.  From an example set by a friend (I have very little natural intuition into what a girl needs), I decided just she and I should go to tea.

The tea house in the city near where we were staying was closed for the month of January.  But there was a small store nearby with a wooden sign shaped as a tea pot that looked promising.  A sign in the window boasted $2.00 for a cup of tea.  It also advertised books.

The boys dropped us off and went to look for sea lions.  We admired the tea pots, cups, and other pretties. I then asked the man of the store if we could get a cup of tea....this seemed reasonable since they advertised tea.  The other half was books, of course.

He told me the woman who made tea was out and would I just feel free to go make it myself?  So my little daughter and I went into the kitchen and attempted to make our own tea.

The dishes were dusty and musty so we washed our tea cups.

While we waited for it to steep we had fun trying on old masks.

I was terrified of dropping or breaking something, but I pretended to be confident.  The man came to see how we were doing and offered us a handful of chocolate covered raisins out of a plastic jug to go with our tea.  He took a handful of animal crackers for himself.

I carefully carried our tea through the kitchen doors and out to a sitting area.  Noelle loved her tea.

We drank and talked and looked at books.  It was quiet and cozy and weird.

When the boys came to pick us up, they each had a gigantic, colorful, swirly lollipop.

At least the lady next door in the glass shop had given me a to-go cup so the princess had something sweet and yummy to hold, too.

I'm trying to provide ladylike experiences.

They never quite turn out like I hope!

When Do We Start?

It's past bedtime for the four and six year old but we couldn't quite reach the blankets for the mess.

After a lengthy clean they crawl in and I tell them a story about when I was a girl.  When I celebrated Easter at Grandma and Paga's home. 

Their eyes shine thinking about searching for eggs in the pasture and closing all the windows up while we waited for the uncles and Grandpa to hide.

Little girl then asks a very common question around here.  "Where was Conner and Raleigh and Dawson and Timmy and me then?"

And she can answer it herself, too.  "Were we a thought in God's mind?" 

Yes, yes, dear one.  A thought in God's mind.  Waiting, waiting to bring the gift of you to me.  A much better gift than an Easter Egg hunt.

Before the beginning of time, she, the boys, me, you, all a thought in God's mind.  He purposing time, place, people, characteristics, all.  For Him.  For His purposes.  For a plan larger than fathomable.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. 
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. 
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Indeed.  How easy it is to flippantly encounter others, live my days, involve myself in me when God ordained each one.  Each one a thought in His mind before I ever came to be.

...he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made every nation of men; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.



Dear little daughter, believe.  Your life is full of purpose.  Ordained by God exactly.

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Seek Him.  Reach out for Him. Know He is not far from any of us.

text: Psalm 139.15,16, Acts 17.25-27, NIV

Boys...

As a little girl I thought boys were very mysterious.  I wondered what it was they did with their time.  What did they do for fun when they played together?

Understandably so.  I am the oldest of three.  A younger sister and then a brother eight years younger than me.  We have three girl cousins who lived right down the road.  Another two girl cousins as well.   The three boy cousins lived far away until I was older and busy with my own life.

So when we played, we played house, doctor, school, travel agency, dolls, had our own store, P.A.S. (If I told you what the initials stood for you'd know my maiden name and then you could steal all my stuff).  And the brother, well, we dressed him up as a girl and named him Jennie.  He kind of had to follow along. 

Poor boy.  When I brought my future husband home for the first time I was telling him about my brother, how even though he was raised with so many girls, he was totally a boy.  We entered my parents' home and he came to meet Brian donning a tutu.

My friend Amanda was born on March 19th.  Every year she'd have a slumber party at her house.  Garrett, also in our class, was born on March 17th.  He'd have a slumber party a few houses down on the same night with all the boys.  Sometimes we'd meet up for a bit, but mostly I just wondered what they did while we watched Girls Just Want to Have Fun and painted our nails.

Now I know.  Six boys in my living room this morning (which is not terribly uncommon) and the mystery is solved.  It's not nearly as romantic as I thought it might be.

And my little daughter?  Well, she'll never look with rose-colored glasses on the life of a boy.   More likely, she'll wonder what all the little girls do with their time.