Livvy Gracie

I forgot to add this photo to my last post. She is just unbelievably squishy and sweet. And busy. We kind of like her.

Here it is! The new toy for Gabe. The small fry are convinced we got it for the sole purpose of giving them rides.


And here is a reminder from God to us that He will never lose track of us. Can you imagine? One of these sparrows will not fall to the ground without Him seeing it. How much more valuable are we? I like to check on these fledglings in our shrub and just think about the amazing fact that our God is great enough to tenderly care for us all.




And lastly, some "eye candy". This picture just tickles me and I thought you might enjoy it too.

Small Boys and Their Toys

This year the landscaping that I have babied and weeded and fertilized and trimmed and mulched for about 5 years is really repaying my work by blooming and growing vigorously. I love gardening, especially ornamental stuff.

One morning this past week, my very busy sons had an especially energetic stirring of creativity. They made a huge puddle with water and mud and pretty much anointed themselves with the smeary stuff, so I had forbidden them to come into the house until I had time to clean them up. I blithely finished my project inside the house, and stepped outside to check on their activities. Imagine my pained surprise to discover that they had turned into nesting birds on the front porch. The nest consisted of a butchered pampas grass that had been the cornerstone of my landscaping. Around it were strewn many clematis buds for food. There were plastic eggs in the nest and the birds also felt compelled to make wings and tails out of hemlock boughs. It was actually kind of cute in a destructive kind of way. Thankfully they had enough pricking of conscience to do most of their picking on the back sides of the plants. So you can't really see the damage, except for my poor pampas grass, which is reduced from a glorious round bunch to a skinny, straggly plant.




There are days when I think wistfully of "Farmer Boy" and his sun-up to sun-down chores with his father right beside him. Oh, he had a grand life, but just not as much time to get into mischief as the modern small boy. Since school is out and the warm weather has come, Alex and Greg are out the door as soon as their chores in the house are done. Which is great, mostly... They only get those clever ideas once a week or so, and usually they are harmless enough, like building space ships in the back yard or rearranging all the swings on the playset so they have a jungle gym.

Nevertheless, I was delighted with the brilliant purchase Gabe made at a yard sale this weekend. Three cases of K'NEX!!! Hundreds and hundreds of pieces to make amazing stuff. They have afforded hours and hours of play already during the rainy spots of the last few days. They are a super way to get the creative juices used up in a constructive way. Nate, you would absolutely love them. Come play with us! ...Just don't step on the connectors barefooted.

Mom's Day

Here's our annual Mother's Day picture, with 3.95 children all ready for church. I feel so blessed and honored to be their mother, although a bit overwhelmed at times. It is probably a good thing that they don't know how often I feel like I don't really know what I am doing! I have discovered that most of my fellow moms feel the same way. Just as soon as you get one stage about figured out, you hit another one. I need much wisdom, on a daily basis... and how I honor my own mother for her years "in the trenches" and all that she poured into my life when I had no clue how much she was actually doing for me.

I have discovered that a sense of humor is a great way to deal with some of the everyday crises that mothers face in caring for their offspring. And since I like "you might be" lists, I have collected my own. Some of these I e mailed to my friends, and some are their contributions.

You Might Be a Mother...

...if you know that a band-aid and a kiss are better than a doctor most days.
...if you don't flinch when your child uses his shirttail for lack of a tissue.
...if you can meditate in the same room as a toddler with a xylophone.
...if you can enjoy reading "The Biggest Bear" for the twentieth time.
...if you can see the eternal value of wiping things all day long.
...if you have little teeth marks on your chap stick.
...if you plunge things deep down under other stuff in the trash can to keep them from being rescued.
...if you absentmindedly eat the food you just scraped off your baby's mouth with the spoon, and hope nobody else at fellowship meal noticed.
...if you can keep a straight face and sympathize with a child's distress at not being able to get his buttons into their cracks.
...if you consider it all in a day's work when there is panic in the bathtub.
...if you feel vaguely hungry at 3:00 P.M. and realize that you fed everyone but yourself at lunchtime.
...when you scrape the syrup off your child's plate onto your French toast because you can't stand seeing it go to waste. contributed by Ellen Stoltzfus
...when you can recover after seeing your child dip a spoonful of toilet water to drink. E.S.
...if you have dandelion and chickweed bouquets for a centerpiece on your table. contributed by Wilma Schlabach, one of the most joyful mothers ever, who went to be with Jesus 6 mo. ago
...if you carry stuff in your purse like bits of colored paper and strands of doll hair. W.S.
...if you hardly ever go to the bathroom without someone knocking on the door and wondering if you are in there. W.S.

and lastly,

...if you scorn the world's idea of fulfillment and choose to make a lifework out of the oldest and noblest of professions for women, you might be a mother!

Blessings to all the other ladies out there who have encouraged me in my career! If you think of more good "you might be's..." leave them in the comments! Go ahead, make my day!

The Tyranny of Things

No one has ever catagorized me as a sentimental person. I don't tend to hang onto stuff because of the feeling it gives me. When my dried roses become too dusty, I pitch them. If my favorite piece of pottery smashes, I don't glue it; I throw it away. Of course, there are exceptions to this, and I save special things the children make, scrapbook their pictures, and journal the milestones in life. I have a very special mug that Gabriel gave me during our courtship. When the handle broke off, I saved the mug and use it to store chapsticks. I am not totally devoid of the feminine impulse to cherish stuff!

But here is what I really do. I save things. I think maybe I will need it someday, so I squirrel it away. And I like to feel frugal and repurpose that old pair of jeans, those baby food jars, or that magazine with nice pictures. The necessity of making space for a sixth person in our small house helped me see just how much of a pack rat I can be. I have been rearranging furniture, going through closets, spring cleaning and finding stuff that I haven't used in ages. A bottle of lotion that I bought before we got married, over seven years ago. I never used it because I hated it, but I have faithfully stored it! Old worn clothing that I thought would make good rags in a puppy box, or something like that. Too many books that we never read, picked up at second hand stores, with titles like "How Is My First Grader Doing in School?"

It has been revealing and amusing for me to go through the house and purge. My tendency to save stuff has nothing to do with a past childhood of want or neglect, let me hasten to say! I think it is genetic, like my Grandpa who saved glass insulin empties since about 1982, according to the labels on the bottles. And my Dad who can't chuck an old National Geographic into the trash can. And my Grandma, who washes her plastic wrap. And my Great Grandma who went out after Halloween and rolled up the toilet paper that the rowdy kids had used to decorate her yard. It must be hard wired into me.

But I believe that this can also be what Tozer called "the tyranny of things". When God made the world, with all of its beauty and blessings for us to enjoy, He simply called them "things". They were meant to be useful, to enhance our lives, but never to occupy the huge space that they so often do. We are created to enshrine God in our hearts, and keep His gifts to us outside, where they belong.

I have been helped in culling through our stuff, to remember that if something is merely cluttering up our lives, it is holding us in a sort of tyranny that we do well to break.

...Does anyone out there want a bunch of cassette tapes of long ago messages? Speak up within the week!

Chiclet Is Coming. But Not Yet.

If I had known how much fun an ultrasound can be, I would have wanted one long before this! Gabe and I had a consultation with the OB who is the new backup doctor for our midwife, and for the first time in any of our pregnancies, we had an ultrasound.

It is always hard for me to picture our babies before they are born, and this time around, I am so busy I don't even have much time to think about the new baby coming along. But wow! When you see a 4D image and recognize family features, it gets pretty exciting! Chiclet is really chubby cheeked already, although only about 5 pounds yet, and definitely not ready to come out and meet us.

The tech who did the scans said she is only supposed to give people 2 photos per ultrasound, but if she likes them, she gives them more. We walked out with about 20! Most of them have the baby's hand in front of the face, but there are a few really good ones.

It is a miracle, Psalm 139 all over again. A heart with four chambers. Two kidneys. Ribs. Hair. Little hands waving five fingers. A person with a destiny...

And here's what we liked really much. We only have to pick one name! We have to be among the worst undecided parents ever when it comes to choosing names. Our first baby was 12 hours old before we settled on his name, and this is three children later. We have pretty much exhausted our store of favorites! It doesn't help that Kenny and Carma used two of them. But at least this time we are not struggling through both the blue and pink sections of the naming books.

So what's your guess? Sammy or Sally?

Gaze of the Soul

"Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do."

"The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer