A New Hobby for David

For a couple of years, David has been watching his big brother do counted cross-stitch (you can see Josiah doing that in this long post, if you scroll down far enough).  Josiah isn't quite finished with his first project, so obviously he's taken extended breaks since his start in 2012; but every once in a while, he'll pick it up again and work on it some more.  I'm pretty sure he'll finish it this summer.

For a couple of days, David has been pestering persistently asking me ;-) if he can do counted cross-stitch, too.  I said yes, of course, but didn't have the time to immediately help him when he asked me; but finally last night, the process began.  First, we looked online for a pattern, but then after I pulled out a book of patterns I have from many moons ago, he chose one from that book rather than any of the online patterns he had seen.  It was late enough in the evening that we didn't get any further with our project, but this morning we made more progress.  I pulled out my box with lots of thread in it, and David chose the colors he wanted to use; then I got a piece of cloth, a hoop, a needle, and so forth out of my cedar chest.  We were ready.

And so we began!  David was a quick learner, and has spent quite a bit of time working on this already today.  I'm really proud of him!  :)

 When I think back to my own childhood, one of the things I appreciate is how my brother David and I had such a close relationship and loved being together so much that we got to do all the "boy stuff" and all the "girl stuff," too.  We'd play football together, then come into the house and sit on the couch and crochet.  I was glad to be active and outdoorsy with him, and he was glad to do cooking and needlework and so forth with me.  There was no reluctance to participate in something because "only girls do that," for example.  I LOVED that.

I also love the fact that my son David, who does flips on the trampoline like nobody's business, who chases his brothers around the yard yelling battle cries as he goes, who jumps at the opportunity to tell his jokes to someone new, who rolls his eyes when I get teary-eyed while reading Miracles on Maple Hill aloud, who wears his roller blades to zoom around the barber shop and sweep up hair on Friday afternoons, who is all-boy...  This same boy was thrilled to learn how to use a needle, some thread, and a piece of cloth to create something of beauty.  The fact that he chose a pattern with a Scripture verse was icing on the cake.

Did I mention I'm proud of him??  :)

Moriah's Big Accomplishment

When the weather began to get warm this spring, I helped Moriah get on the trampoline, thinking that she was going to LOVE it and was going to enjoy SO many hours of jumping on it and wasn't it going to be GREAT?  The first few times on it, she did NOT love it and didn't think it was great AT ALL--and forget about HOURS on it, she didn't even want to spend a couple MINUTES there!

But then...

I suppose you could say she got used to it.  The rolling, unsteady-on-her-feet motion didn't feel so strange, and she even began to--gasp!--enjoy it!  :)

She still needed help to get on and off the trampoline, and I didn't mind so much, but it definitely limited me in what I could do while outside if I needed to be right there at the trampoline with Moriah.

But then...

She learned how to conquer that without my help.

Yesterday morning, while the kids and I savored homemade pineapple popsicles outside on the patio, we watched Moriah perfect the art of getting on and off the trampoline by herself.  A sliding board attached to a trampoline is a wonderful thing, and a little girl who conquers her fear of going down it without holding to someone's hand is, too.    :)

It's one more small step towards independence!  :)

My Parents Today

My mother picking up sticks, one of probably her two favorite activities these days (the other is playing the piano)...

My dad, posing for a picture that will be hung on the volunteer wall of a local thrift store where he helps out as a cashier one or two times a week...

Have I mentioned recently how grateful I am to be the daughter of this incredible couple??  :)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday {First Strawberry from Our Patch}

I cut it into five little pieces, and each child got a taste.

It was perfect.

.Now we're even more eager for the next ones to ripen!  :)

My Thoughts about Jen Hatmaker's 7

I wasn't planning to read this book.

After all, except for a post or two someone linked to on Facebook, I've never read Jen Hatmaker's blog; and really, all I remembered from what I did read was that she's a master at self-deprecating humor.  I didn't even remember what she looked like or where she lived (I thought Florida, turns out it's Texas).

Besides, there's something in me that pushes back with quite a big shove when I hear about the Latest and Greatest book to come down the Christian publishing pipe.  When I start to hear the buzz and see an abundance of blog and Facebook posts about a new book that's SO GOOD and EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT and it will REVOLUTIONIZE your life, that's a pretty big clue for me to make a mental note that I don't want to read that one.  I'm not exactly sure why that is.  I guess I have a little bit of a rebel in me.  ;-)

But as I was saying, I had no intentions whatsoever to read a book called 7: An Experimental Mutiny against Excess.  It sounded a little weird...and extreme...and, well, entirely too popular for me to be interested.

I'm really not sure what changed my mind.  I wish I could remember because that would be an interesting part of my story, but alas, I do not.  What I do know is that one night a vague little thought, "Maybe I would like to read that book," entered my mind; then I thought, "Well, I definitely don't want to BUY it. I'll just look online and see if our library has it."

It did.

"Well, I guess I'll go ahead and reserve it."

I did.

It took a while for the library to contact me that it was ready to be picked up; I suppose someone else had it checked out for several weeks.  (That's what happens when you try to read POPULAR books.)  ;-)  But eventually I got the email that it was at the library, I went by and got it, and then I started to read.

It didn't take long for me to realize that I had grossly underestimated the book.  Now that I've read it once and am reading it again, I think it's safe to say that I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be one of the most influential--if not, THE most influential--book I read all year.

Two things worked together to heighten the impact on my heart.  First of all, the timing was perfect.  May is a fairly open month, schedule-wise, for me; and each year when May rolls around, I find myself automatically shifting into a lower gear than I was running at during the school year, which leads to wonderful times of re-evaluation--of my home and the way I keep it, of our homeschool and the way I teach it, of my children and the way I mother them, and, in general, my life and the way I live it.  If I had read 7 back in October or in March, at the heights of busy-ness in each semester, I would have likely felt overwhelmed and wouldn't have seen my way clear to making many changes.  Even if I had read it in January, I don't think I would have taken it to heart as much as I have now, because the rush of good intentions that come at the beginning of the year tend to die out as soon as the regular school-year schedule picks up again after Christmas break.  I wonder if God delayed the return of that book to the library so that I would end up receiving it at a time when I was most receptive.  :)

Second, I love books that challenge me.  I crave that.  I don't want to read books that just tell me how much God loves me (I know He does, and I'm eternally grateful for that) or how beautiful I am (I know that, too--not at all that I'm beautiful in a this-is-the-next-Mrs.-America way but in the God-made-me-and-that-makes-me-beautiful way) or what a great purpose God has for my life (thank you, that's great, but I already know that, too).  Please understand: I'm not putting down those messages.  They are vitally important, and for the place that some people are at on their spiritual journey, they are the most important lessons to be learned.  But I've been walking with God long enough that it's easy for me to be complacent, so when a book (or a sermon or conversation or whatever) comes along that opens my eyes to my sin and gives me a kick in the pants to do something about it, I actually LOVE that.  Why?  Because I'm crazy about growth.  I don't want to stay the same as I am now.  I want to continue to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus; and by God's grace, that is what is happening.

And so, I began to read 7.  For the sake of this post making sense to more people than just me, let me summarize the book in this way.  While hosting people displaced by a hurricane, Jen had a wake-up call that her family was actually quite wealthy compared to most of the people in the world.  She began a process of re-evaluation in seven specific areas: food, clothing, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress.  She spent a month on each of those areas, making radical changes in how she and her family live life--not with the goal of simplifying for the sake of simplicity, but always with the goal of how to better follow Jesus.

From the beginning of the book, I admired Jen's courage to bite off such an ambitious project, but I was still pushing back some against the idea that I needed to do the same.  For example, I thought...

"Is it necessary, when we see someone do something like this and be so moved and changed by it, for us to replicate the experiment?  Is it the call of God for us as well?  Or can we simply say, 'That's great that they are hearing God's voice in that way and being faithful to obey, but that's not what God is asking of me?'  Or is that just making an excuse because we don't want to do that hard thing?"

...and also...

"Similarly, is it enough to read about her experiences and come to the same conclusions as she does (that our lives are filled with excess and need to be reduced so Christ can be more)?  Or would the impact on my own heart be much more deep and lasting if I were actually to do what she did?  Can I get the convictions second-hand, or do I have to learn by doing?"

Can you tell that I wasn't immediately fired up to make the sacrifices that Jen had made?  :)

I'll jump ahead far enough in the story to tell you that I haven't taken the same actions Jen did, but I have made some changes, and in the days to come I hope to write about those things.  I think in the future, I'll enjoy looking back on these posts and reading what I was feeling challenged by and how I was changing here in the late spring of 2014.  And who knows?  Maybe I'll be able to look back and see how the course of my life changed--maybe ever so slightly, but still a difference--because I read Jen Hatmaker's 7.

Let me end with an excerpt from the Introduction.  Jen writes...

How can I be socially responsible if unaware that I reside in the top percentage of wealth in the world? (You probably do too: Make $35,000 a year? Top 4 percent. $50,000? Top 1 percent.) Excess has impaired perspective in America; we are the richest people on earth, praying to get richer.  We're tangled in unmanageable debt while feeding the machine, because we feel entitled to more.  What does it communicate when half the global population lives on less than $2 a day, and we can't manage a fulfilling life on twenty-five thousand times that amount? Fifty thousand times that amount? 

It says we have too much, and it is ruining us. 

It was certainly ruining me.  The day I am unaware of my privileges and unmoved by my greed is the day something has to change...

(This series of posts continues here with the First Seven and here with the Second Seven and concludes here with The Rest of the Sevens.)

Making a Day of It {Air & Space Museum}

This morning we headed north for a church service in the DC area; but rather than returning home directly after it, we took a little detour and made a stop that we've been talking about doing for a really long time.

Here.  (You just gotta love free museums!)  :)

It was fun to announce to the boys, while we were riding along munching on sandwiches and pretzels and applesauce in the van, that we would be going to this museum--they had no idea--but what was REALLY fun was seeing their faces, especially Tobin's, when we got inside the museum.  I wish I could have a videorecording of his expression after we walked in.  He was looking to the left, at all the items in the gift shop, and was exclaiming about the model airplanes and other things displayed in the windows.  Then Jeff told him to look the other way; and when he saw the expanse of the museum FILLED with real airplanes, his jaw literally dropped.  He had the most surprised, delighted expression you could ever imagine.  That moment made it all worthwhile, even if the rest of our time there had been worthless.  Which it wasn't, of course...  :)

 There were SO MANY airplanes there.  A true aviation enthusiast would have wanted to spend all day there, reading all the informative signs and so forth; but we kept strolling along, with occasional pauses when something interesting caught our eye.  What I appreciated most about it, from an educational standpoint, was how the things we were seeing connected with the things we've been reading about: i.e. seeing swastikas on planes from WWII (which we're currently studying in history), seeing the plane of a man who tried to fly it just a few days before the Wright brothers successfully flew theirs (earlier this year, Josiah and David read a book about Wilbur and Orville, and we've also been to Kitty Hawk to see where their first flights happened), etc.  To tell you the truth, I'm not really hard core about getting the most information possible out of a field trip.  I don't prepare a checklist ahead of time.  I don't give a quiz afterwards.  We just go, have fun, see what we happen to see...and then the best part?  The dots get connected between knowledge we've acquired at other times and in other ways and new knowledge that we're gaining on that field trip.  The fun of seeing those connections "just happen" is a powerful motivator for me to keep homeschooling.  :)

 At one pause, I asked Tobin and Shav if I could take their picture, and they said they wanted to do a silly picture...

 ...then a serious one...

 ...then a scary one.  (Admit it: you're terrified.)  ;-)

 While I was trailing the family and watching all of them walk ahead of me, I suddenly realized how tall Josiah looks compared to Jeff.  It's a highly-anticipated rite of passage when a boy surpasses his mom and his dad in height.  I have a feeling that day will be here before we know it!  :)

 One neat thing about the museum was the walkways on various levels, so you could end up seeing each aircraft from different angles--sometimes even directly above it and directly below it.  As we made our way through the museum, we circled back around and saw some of the same exhibits, but in a new way...which explains why there is a picture of a space shuttle here, and you'll see more of that in a little bit because each time we went by it on a different level, I took more pictures.

When we were walking along this top walkway, I was literally getting dizzy and had to hold onto the hand railing as I went along.  The combination of being up pretty high in the building with that huge space below plus reading about various planes and gliders and how high each one went and world records for ascents and things like that--well, it made my head start spinning and my stomach start feeling topsy-turvy.  I'm such a wimp when it comes to heights!  :)

Shav made me laugh when he looked over at this display (below) and said, "That looks like a roll of toilet paper!"  :)  (It sorta does!)

 The last thing we did before we left was to go up to the observation tower that has a wonderful view of Dulles Airport; but by this time, Moriah had HAD it and was being generally uncooperative and feisty (I had assumed she would nap in the car between the church service and the museum, but she very decidedly DID NOT).  Jeff kindly stayed below and entertained her while the boys and I went up the tower.

 It was so much fun to watch planes come in to land.

 I think I probably got more excited about it than the boys did (although they enjoyed it, too).  ;-)

 You could not have ordered a more perfect day weather-wise for this little field trip.  The sky was gorgeous, visibility was perfect, and...oh wait! here comes another airplane!  :)

I finally tore myself away, and we went back down the elevator to meet Jeff and Moriah for the trip home.

We got home later than we usually do, of course, but it was so worth it to make a day of it and include this destination.  I'm already thinking of other places we can visit when we once again travel north on a Sunday.  :)

In the Big Ol' Net, Vol. 6

Would you like to know how many unfinished blog posts I currently have in my Drafts folder?  53.  That's peanuts compared to the 1,169 posts that I have published, but still.  Seeing that many drafts reminds me of the old adage my mother used to say when we kids had piled our plates high with food at Country Cookin's buffet, then complained that we couldn't eat it all:  "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach!"  In this case, I feel like my head is bigger than my fingers, meaning I get all these GREAT ideas that I just HAVE to write about, so I jot something down in a draft so I don't forget it completely, but then... *sigh*...I never find make the time to come back and finish it up--or in some cases, I just don't feel inspired about that particular topic anymore.  Meanwhile, my Drafts folder bulges, then bulges some more as another unfinished post gets dropped into it.

Well, I can't deal with all 53 of those posts today, but I can quickly finish up this one and get it out of there!  It's a start!  :)  Here then are some things I've particularly noticed and appreciated as I've been wandering around the internet recently...

(Vol. 1 is here.  Vol. 2 is here.  Vol. 3 is here.  Vol. 4 is here.  Vol. 5 is here.)

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There's a bunch I'd like to say about the topic of friendship, especially because I had the privilege of enjoying a Mom's Night Out (yes, it included watching the movie by the same name) :) last evening with a group of wonderful new friends.  Rather than say more about this topic now though, here is an article about women and friendship that I found insightful.

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A different perspective on Proverbs 31 - so helpful in those times when I think, "There's no way I can possibly measure up!"  (Which also relates to the movie I watched last night with the ladies.)  :)

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These examples of kindness make me want to find more ways to reach beyond myself and make a difference for others.   (By the way, I HATE the ads in the sidebar of Viral Nova's website; I think they're getting worse all the time because I remember showing my boys some neat things on that site in the past, but I wouldn't do so now.  Anyway, I almost didn't link to this because of that.  Proceed with caution.)

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Insight into how to answer the question, "How many children should we have?"  I like the balanced approach to this often controversial, emotional topic.

Something else about that same topic..."I know the notion of leaving our child-bearing up to God can be scary~ to some (even me) the notion of 21 kids and counting can be daunting.  But Michelle Duggar is not what happens to every woman who leaves the matter of child-bearing up to God."

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And finally, two stories that made me go "awwwww..."  :)  Love is a beautiful thing, especially when it's laying down its own life for others.