July Was a Long Month

A few days before July ended, I was looking at the calendar to check the day's activities when my gaze drifted to the beginning of the month.  With a start, I realized that in that same month, we had celebrated the Fourth of July.  "Well, of course we did, silly," I can hear you thinking.  But it seemed so long ago!  

It's not as if July was packed full of activities, but I guess there was enough happening in it that the 31 days seemed longer than 31 days and the beginning of the month seemed far distant from the end of it.  

Here's the month of July, according to what I posted on Facebook...

July 4 -We have internet service again - yippee! :) Because of that, I can jot down one little snippet of conversation that made me smile recently. As we were riding around in the van recently, we were listening to the Wee Sing America CD, and the famous quote by Patrick Henry came on. "Give me liberty, or give me death!" Tobin piped up and said, "I'd rather have liberty, because death is badder." Very true, my boy...very true. :) And then the voices of Josiah and David rang out nobly with a hearty "give me liberty, or give me pizza pie!" I thought it was from VeggieTales, but turns out it's a quote from a Scooby Doo movie. They snickered at me when I didn't know that. :)

July 4 - This morning we have a dead skunk on our lawn, killed, I'm sure, by the dog I happened to see coming through our yard last night. Ah, the joys of living in the country! :)

July 4 - I just finished reading this book to my little guys, and I can't recommend it highly enough. The illustrations are gorgeous, and the love of family and home is beautifully touching. I especially liked the three-generation aspect of it because it mirrors my own current situation with my parents living so close. When I got this book from the library, I KNEW it would make me cry when I read it to my children...and sure enough, it did. Right after I read it, Josiah and Jeff got home from their monthly breakfast date; and to explain my tears, I handed the book to Josiah for him to read it. He complied, sat down on the arm of the couch to read the book, then got up after he was done and casually tossed it onto the couch. "Well," he said matter-of-factly, "there's nothing to cry about in THAT book!" Oh, men. They just don't get it! ;-)

July 6 - The green bean harvest has officially begun! Jeff picked the first batch last night, and this morning found all four of my boys, plus my mom and dad, around my kitchen table working on beans. (We let Moriah off the hook...this year.) ;-) So far we've canned 14 quarts, and that's just the beginning. It is SUCH a good feeling to be filling the cellar shelves with home-canned food!!! :)

July 9 - Loved this sentence from a blog post I read tonight: "It's good to feel needed, productive, and to fall into bed dog tired at the end of the day." Yes! I get this. :)

July 9 - In Genesis 18:25, Abraham asks, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" To that I say, "Why, yes, folks, I believe He will. As a matter of fact, I'm SURE of it!" (And can I just say what a great comfort that is when it seems like the world has gone completely topsy-turvy and what is considered right is actually what is wrong and what is called wrong is truly right?)

July 10 - A moment from today that I want to remember and treasure: this morning I walked into Moriah's room and found her still sleeping. I needed to go ahead and get her up and fed, because of other events that were occurring today, so I softly sang out, "Good morning!" Her eyes didn't open, but she smiled. Seeing as how she was still sleeping, I sang out again, "Moriah!" Again, her eyes remained closed, but her lips curled in a grin. I find it incredible that even in her sleep, when she heard my voice, she knew it was me...and she smiled. You'd better believe she wasn't the only one smiling in that room!! :)

July 11 - Something must be wrong with my brain. Try as hard as I can, I am utterly unable to remember more than the very basics about Star Wars. I know Luke, Yoda, Darth Vader, and a few others. But compared to Josiah and David - who know not only characters, but also intricacies of plot - I am a real ignoramus. I wouldn't mind, except that I do get tired of asking for the umpteenth time, "Is Count Dooku good or bad? What about Storm Troopers - are they good guys? What about clones?" My boys probably get tired of answering me! Because it means a lot to my boys, I try to be interested in what they tell me about Star Wars; but good grief, my brain turns into a sieve as soon as they start talking about it! Maybe Star Wars knowledge is carried on the Y chromosome! ;-)

July 12 - It's no wonder that David - with the way he adores his little sister and with his penchant for entertaining people - was the second person to make Moriah laugh. He got her giggling last night by tickling her under her arms. Or maybe she was laughing in delight because of his joyous face. Either way, it sure was fun to watch them. :)

July 13 - The big project of the day was canning dill beans, and I discovered something. 14 quarts of dill beans is so much more than 14 quarts of dill beans. It's actually 14 special meals when we gather with extended family or beloved friends, 14 times of making memories and enjoying fellowship around our table. As much as I'd like to, I don't open a jar of dill beans for just any ol' supper. It's always for a special occasion, and the anticipation of those coming meals makes all the labor of canning dill beans so worth it!

July 13 - Hearing your two-year-old laugh so hard he falls down is priceless. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Kind of makes up for those OTHER moments...you know, like when you ask him to do something simple like sit in his chair for breakfast, and he refuses and cries for five minutes. The laughter and the tears, the good and the bad, the easy moments and the difficult - all part of life in a family. :)

July 13 - A little while ago, while I was changing her clothes, Moriah spoke. Clear as a bell, she said, "Abba!" Maybe she was calling for her daddy. ;-)

July 13 - (Jeff posted this on his Facebook, but I'll include it here because I enjoyed it so much!) - Not many clients ago, a woman came in who I did not recognize and said, do you cut David Fisher's hair? The David that does Suzuki Violin? Yep, I do I am his father. Well, my son Silas would like a haircut just like his.... wow... that felt strange! David is only 7 and he is already a trend setter!

July 14 - Moriah's fauxhawk gets plenty of attention, but believe it or not, it's NOTHING compared with the hairstyle Tobin was sporting when he was a few months old. Wanna see? ;-)

July 14 - While folding clothes in the laundry room, I just overheard this conversation from the boys in the kitchen...  Tobin: Could the Incredible Hulk lift a house?   
David: No, but three Incredible Hulks could.   
T: Oh.   
D: But do you know who could lift our house, Gaby's house, and Grandma and Grandpa's house - all at THE SAME TIME?   

T, triumphantly: God!   

D: Uh-huh. God is STRONGER than the Incredible Hulk.   

I love when my seven-year-old teaches theology to my four-year-old. ;-)

July 16 - I dropped Josiah off this morning for the first day of his fencing class. He's been waiting YEARS for this and was, needless to say, VERY excited...and also a little nervous. In his class, there were a dozen or more boys...and one girl. I miss him being here at home today, but I'm thrilled that he has the opportunity to do this. I am, however, very much looking forward to 3:30 when I can pick him up today and hear all about his adventures!! :)

July 16 - Quick question for all the canning folks out there: do you boil the lids (the flats) before you put them on the jars? My mother always did (and I'm sure her mother before her and her mother before her, etc., probably all the way back to Noah's wife!) ;-). Jeff, being the results-oriented, let's-get-the-job-done-fast kind of guy that he is, does NOT boil the flats when he cans salsa. I've always boiled them, being the dutiful daughter that I am. :) Tonight I'm canning green beans, and I didn't boil the flats. Shocking, I know. ;-) I hope all the jars seal, or I'm going to be disappointed. So, should I boil the flats? Do you? :)   -   (A lively discussion ensued, by the way, with 46 comments being left about this.  As far as I can tell, there's wide disagreement about exactly how to do it: some people don't boil anything, some boil the flats, some boil the flats and the rings, and some boil the jars, too!  Seems to me that we all just do it the way we first did it, the way our mothers - or whoever else was teaching us - taught us!)

July 17 - Day 2 of Fencing Class for Josiah, and my little warrior woke up with sore muscles. He was still enthusiastic though; and when we dropped him off and stayed to watch the first part of class, I could tell that once the action started, he wasn't giving his muscles a second thought. I'm proud of him. :) I also have to say that David has been doing a phenomenal job as Leader of the Pack here at home with his little brothers. They have had so much fun, and I love to see his creativity and leadership abilities shine!

July 17 - It's after 10:00 PM, and Tobin just came out of his room and ran over to me where I'm sitting in my rocking chair nursing Moriah. "Hey, Mom," he began. "Will my freckles ALWAYS be on my nose?" Knowing that he's fond of his freckles (at dinner, he wanted me to count his freckles, and he informed me that he thinks he has five on his nose), I responded in the affirmative. He gave me a big grin, then ran back to his room. Whew, glad I could clear that up for him! ;-)

July 17 - It was David's turn to pray before supper this evening. He glanced around the table at our food: spaghetti, Italian bread, fresh cucumbers and green peppers, chips and salsa. Then he began to pray. "God," he said, "thank You for the bread. And thank You that Mom and Dad are so kind that they won't make me eat any peppers. Amen." Do you think God laughed as much at his prayer as we did? ;-)

July 18 - It's official: Moriah discovered her feet today. Although I noticed her paying attention to them several times today, I really saw it when she was on the changing table this afternoon; she was intently watching her feet as if they were the most important, marvelous things in the world. I'm not sure who gets more pleasure: Moriah as she discovers things, or me as I watch her make the discoveries. :)

July 19 - The night before one of my children has a birthday, I always find myself in an especially nostalgic mood. Tomorrow Shav will be three years old. It's hard to believe that much time has passed since we brought home this sweet bundle from the hospital. On the other hand, haven't we always had Shav? How could we have lived without him? Tonight my prayer of gratitude to God for my children is particularly heartfelt.

July 21 - July 20 is Shav's birthday, but now we'll remember it as the day of the awful shooting at the movie theater in Colorado. January 12 is Tobin's birthday, but the world remembers that date as the day of the horrendous earthquake in Haiti. David's birthday is April 17, just one day after the horrible shooting at Virginia Tech. The juxtaposition of events occurring on such special days in my family remind me that every single day, at any given time, there are some in the world who are experiencing great joy...and others who are enduring heart-rending loss. And above all, God still reigns, and His hand is still on each one of us.

July 21 - My paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 4:9-10... :) "Two are better than one, because when one has a little bump on the back of his/her head, he/she can ask the other to look at it and tell him/her if it's simply a bug bite or more ominously a tick burrowing its way into his/her skin. Pity the person who feels a bump but has no one to look at it for him/her." ;-)

July 22 - Tonight I'm giving thanks for the two dates I've had in two days. :) Last night was date night for Jeff and I, and we ended up eating at a restaurant called Thai Flavor which isn't very impressive as far as location and decor, but I had a yellow curry dish there that was SO delicious. I enjoyed every bite of what I ate in the restaurant, and then I brought the leftovers home and ate them for my breakfast today. I wish I had some more right now...and am trying to figure out when I can go back to get some. ;-) Tonight I had a mommy-son date with Josiah: we exercised on the EMU outdoor track (he ran 1.75 miles while I walked 1), got frozen yogurt at Sweet Bee, then went to Kohl's for some new tennis shoes for him. More than all of that, however, we had a great, great talk. I genuinely enjoy conversation with him. What a blessing to have had these two special evenings out!

July 24 - What would your last words to your husband be, if you were in a mass shooting? "We're going to die, I love you" would be mine apparently, at least according to a dream I had earlier this morning in which Jeff and I - and, horrifyingly, several of our children - were in a mass shooting, and I only had a split second to say anything to Jeff. What a relief to wake up from that! What a heaviness on my heart as I thought of the families who can't wake up from the tragedy of last weekend.

July 25 - Now that Shav is three, he's old enough to begin the tradition of monthly father/son breakfast dates; and today was the first day he got to do this. He was rather excited, to say the least. :) When Tobin asked this morning if he could go along, Shav immediately spoke up and said firmly, "It's MY date." So it is, my dear boy. Watch out, everybody; from now on, the fourth Wednesday morning of each month belongs to Shav and his daddy. :)

July 26 - Josiah received a letter in the mail yesterday that had both he and I in tears as soon as we read it. It was from Julia White, announcing that she is resigning as the director of the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir. What sad news for us. Josiah and I sat on the floor of his bedroom and cried together, wiping our tears on my apron. I sure love that boy. I love his tender heart, I love his love for music, I love the way he loves people, I love his appreciation of the SVCC. We're saddened by the news, but curious to see what the future holds, knowing that God is already there. This is no surprise to Him, but a huge one to us

July 30 - This evening was supposed to be my mommy/son date with David; but because I had to can the peaches that were starting to go bad, I stayed at home and Jeff ended up taking all the boys to McDonald's. When they got home, I smiled as I heard the stampede of little feet up the stairs from the garage to the kitchen where I was working. Tobin was the first to reach me, but David and Shav weren't too far behind. "Mommy, look what I got!" "Mommy, look at my new toy!" "Watch this!" "Do you see what happens if I press this?" "Mommy, I can take this apart!" I smiled to myself as I watched their excitement over a trip to McDonald's and a new Happy Meal toy. Someday they won't be so excited just by going to McDonald's. Someday they won't order Happy Meals. Someday they won't race to me as soon as they get home so they can show me what they got. Someday I'll wonder where my little boys went... It's already happening with Josiah. He didn't care about his toy, and that's good: it shows his maturity. I wouldn't want him to be any different. But still, I'm glad I have little ones. I'm not quite ready for them to all be grown up. :)

July 30 - This morning we dropped Josiah and David off for their first day of summer classes at a local community college (this college has a great kids' program each summer with lots of choices of fun classes to take). When Tobin, Shav, Moriah, and I got back to the minivan to drive away, Tobin said somberly, "I miss Josiah and David." :) A few minutes later as we were driving down the road, his thoughts had gone in a different direction. "Could God eat dirt?" he asked. "Well...uh...I suppose He could...um...if He wanted to...err...do you think He'd like it?" was the way I stumbled through that one. What would you have said? :)

July 31 - Ran across this old picture tonight...it's of my siblings and I, along with some of our cousins, at my grandparents' farm in southern Pennsylvania...I'm incredibly fond of this photo, and even more fond of the many sweet memories I have of happy times spent on the farm...most of all, I'm extremely fond of the people in this picture! :)