June 1 - Moriah is old enough that she looks at every spoonful approaching her sweet little mouth and quickly discerns whether she's going to open said mouth and allow admittance to whatever food is on the spoon...or keep her mouth tightly closed and turn her head away. She usually opens; but if she decides not to, it really is a lost cause to try to get any of that particular food in her mouth. She used to LOVE beans--black beans, kidney beans, etc.--but now has decided they're on her no-go list. Today I put some kidney beans from my taco salad onto the tray of her highchair; and she left them there for a while before picking them up one by one and hurling them overboard. I decided to see if I could get her to eat one by camouflaging it, so I put a little piece of one on the end of my spoon, doused it in ranch dressing, and lifted it to her lips. It passed inspection, and into her mouth it went. Oh, my! You should have seen the look she gave me as she tilted her head in her usual way. So reproachful! As if to say, "Mommy dear, WHY did you trick me and put that awful bean in my mouth?" She's a hoot, that girl is!
June 1 - (Jeff posted this, along with these pictures that he took with his cell phone.) A group hike for Date Night... the kids were so jealous of our mommy and daddy hike we decided we would all go. Davene packed great stuff to eat, and we had a meal on the top of Mole Hill.
June 2- I just realized something about myself: in almost every comment I leave on FB, whether it be on a picture someone posts or on a status update, I leave a smiley face. I wonder what the exact percentage is. If Josiah were still awake, I could have him figure it out. Oops, there I go again with another smiley face. I think this proves one thing: I don't write much when I'm feeling blue.
June 2- Josiah came excitedly into the kitchen this afternoon and exclaimed, "Only one more dollar and I'll have fifty dollars!" OK, fifty dollars for what? "I'm saving money to buy solar panels for my house someday!" he explained. I must have given him a funny look because he said, "What?? I LIKE to plan ahead!" Well, that's for sure. A 10-year-old boy who's saving money for solar panels could certainly be placed in the "likes to plan ahead" category!! Josiah may very well go into banking someday because his system of organizing his money is already more complicated than I understand. Besides his regular save/spend/give to God allocations, he also has a fund to buy an airplane ticket to California whenever we are able to go...a fund for Heifer International...a fund for future trips with the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir...and he owns some stocks. More than likely, he also has other funds about which I know nothing! He might have come from my body, but he sure didn't get his head for numbers from me!!
June 2 - I read something earlier today that struck me as terribly funny. Maybe I only think it's hilarious because I've sat in Old Order Mennonite meetings...on hard benches...and have knelt for prayer with those kind-hearted but sober-faced, black-bonnetted women and black-vested men. So I can easily picture this scene, and it totally makes me want to hoot and holler with laughter! Anyway, without further ado, this little anecdote, written by an Amish scribe from Farmington, New Mexico, and recorded in Amish Values for Your Family by Suzanne Woods Fisher.
"I have to write about the split in our church. That has been interesting. It happened on Sunday morning a few weeks ago and involved some very solid brethren. Naturally, there were signs a long time before it happened, but everybody was busy and must not have communicated sufficiently." {Let me add that by this point, I was feeling so bad about yet ANOTHER church disagreement that led to a split and just felt my heart sink. But I kept reading...} "So, when we turned around and knelt for prayer and there was a loud report from somewhere toward the back of the church, we didn't know what had happened. What happened was that the split in the bench seat had become a break, and when the brethren sank to their knees, half of the bench seat descended with them. To their credit, after prayer they preserved their sobriety" {I'm SURE I would NOT have been able to do likewise!!} "and perched on the remaining half of the seat until the service was over. Lateral rifts have appeared in other bench seats, including the one on which I sit. Sure hope it gets fixed."
Oh my lands, this absolutely cracks me up! I'm horrified that if our neighbors ever invite us to one of their church services again, I will think of this when it's time to kneel for prayer; and I won't be able to contain myself. It just might be the first time the walls of the Old Order church have ever heard the sound of holy(?) laughter ringing out!!!
June 3 - There is something altogether HOLY about putting fresh sheets on a bed in preparation for overnight guests. My head knows that ALL of life can be worship, but my heart so quickly loses that awareness in the hamster wheel of "unload the dishwasher...this cup didn't get clean....somebody needs me to pour some milk for them...what IS that red stain on his shirt anyway?" Today I'm grateful for the veil being lifted for a moment as I caught a fresh glimpse of the glory of pouring myself out in service to God and His children. (And, as a side note, I do believe that listening to Kristyn Getty sing while I changed the sheets helped to create an atmosphere of joyful worship in the midst of the mundane!)
June 5 - I was going through some photos from my wedding (because SOMEBODY'S 16th anniversary is just around the corner!) and I found this picture of Juli, one of my college roommates my freshman year. We very quickly became close friends, and I thank God for using Juli to make the beginning of my college years a great thing. Then she left after one semester, and I missed her...sniff, sniff...but she had a good reason. His name was Bryan. We kept in touch through those years; and when I got married, Bryan & Juli were the guest book/program attendants.
June 12 - The chimney cleaner is coming today, and apparently that was on Tobin's mind this morning when he woke up because as he came down the steps, the very first thing out of his mouth was, "Mom, did the vacuum cleaner come yet??" I suppose a chimney cleaner and a vacuum cleaner do have a few things in common...with a few key differences. Like being human v. a machine, for example.
June 12 - While I was finishing my lunch a little while ago, Moriah crawled over to my chair and stood up, then grunted--her customary way of stating that she was tired of crawling around on the floor and would someone pick her up please? I obliged and held her on my lap as I finished eating my salad. It had green olives in it, and I held up a spoon with an olive on it to Moriah's lips, to see if she was interested. Open went her mouth, and in went the olive. This was repeated quite a few times; but because she was facing forward and I couldn't really see her mouth, I did not realize that she wasn't actually swallowing! After lunch, I took her up to my room so we could wrap some birthday gifts for Josiah. A little while later, I discovered a nice pile of chewed-on green olives on the floor - lovely! (I don't *think* any got on the gift bags I was using for Josiah's gifts, but if we catch a whiff of green olives tomorrow when he's unwrapping his gifts, we'll know why.) I looked closely at Moriah and realized she still had that puffy-cheeked look; she had MORE olives in her mouth. What a little chipmunk! I wonder how many she had stuffed in there. Oh well, at least that's not as bad as the time my dad was feeding my brother Doug Cheerios in church...and was actually putting them up his nose!! I will be sure, however, to pay more attention the next time I give Moriah green olives.
June 12 - My heart sank when we pulled up in front of Massanutten Waterpark this evening and saw the line stretching down the sidewalk to the parking lot. I knew it would be busy, because of all the people--like us--using free kids' passes from the library through the summer reading program; but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad. However, the wait was actually much less than I first thought, and we were able to have about 4 hours of fun in the waterpark before dragging our weary bodies home. I'm so glad we were able to go. I'm even gladder that I have a comfy bed to fall into now.
June 13 - It's 2:38 now - 11:38 California time. 11 years and 15 minutes ago, I gave birth to my firstborn, and my world changed forever. Because of a precious boy named Josiah Jeffrey, I've never been the same since! Today we celebrate him and all that he means to us. And we also eat grape pie - his special request, rather than cake.
June 13 - Are you familiar with the music of Keith Green? It influenced both Jeff and I separately, long before we knew each other...and after we met, too. Keith Green wrote this song for his son Josiah, and it was oddly prophetic, since both Keith and Josiah were killed in a plane crash when Josiah was only 3 years old. Melody, Keith's wife, was not in that crash. I wonder what she thought as she listened to this song after the crash. Even though it wasn't written for MY Josiah, I still find the words intensely moving.
June 15 - Today I took my kids to watch my niece's son (who could either be called my grandnephew or my great-nephew...apparently a great linguistic debate rages about this issue) play baseball. Being a great-aunt (or grandaunt, to use the newer term) makes me feel a little on the old side...but now that I think about it, I was a great-aunt before I was a mother. That's what happens when you're the baby of the family. At any rate, it was lots of fun to watch Christian play, and I'm glad we made the drive to the opposite side of the county to see his game!
June 16 - Moriah's too young to say it, but I'll say it for her. "Happy Father's Day, Daddy! You're the BEST!!"
June 18 - Doing dishes late at night doesn't usually land anywhere close to the top of my list of favorite activities, but tonight I found it uncharacteristically enjoyable to do just that. The windows at the sink were open, letting in summery breezes...I was listening to an old cassette tape--a mix I made during my early high school years (it was rather laughable what I saw fit, in my young teen wisdom, to include on that!) ...and best of all, Jed, our faithful collie, was lying by my feet. When I went downstairs to the laundry room to get some clothes out of the dryer, he followed me over to the top of the steps and laid there til I came back up. When I went back to the sink area, he did the same. It was a time of sweet contentment. I finished washing the last dish, shined my sink (I'm trying to climb back on the FlyLady wagon again), patted Jed's head, then climbed the steps to bed, a sense of richness accompanying me. With Browning, I can say, "God's in His heaven--all's right with the world!"
June 27 - After weeding the blueberry bed, the strawberry bed, and part of the rose flowerbed earlier today, I was a hot, dirty mess. There was no way I could go to the boys' VBS program tonight like that! So, while my two little ones slept, I gave instructions and made sure my three big ones were productively and happily occupied, and then I seized my chance to take a shower. I thought, "Surely no one will need me for the next 10 or 15 minutes, right?" (You can guess how this is going to turn out.) After a couple of minutes in the shower, I heard footsteps approaching the bathroom door and--sure enough--someone calling me. Because of the noise of the water, I couldn't tell for sure who it was, but I figured I'd better find out, so--with my internal frustration rising--I turned off the water and answered the "Mom? Mom?" question outside the bathroom door with a question of my own. "Is it absolutely necessary that you speak to me right now?" I queried in what I hoped was a normal tone but which I was afraid was not. "Well..." the voice outside the door said, and then I knew it was Tobin, "I brought some flowers for you." Hardly any other words could have effected such a change in me. My heart turned to mush, my eyes filled with tears, and I very nearly escaped turning into a puddle on the floor (which would have been tragic since I was in a bathtub and would have gone straight down the drain). "Awwww, thank you," I crooned to him. "Could you put them on the table please?" He happily went off to do so, and I returned to my shower, a prayer on my lips for God to forgive me for my impatience. It was one of those times when I thought, "I am not worthy of their love." Truly it is a gift to be a mother.
June 27 - I was just looking through the pregnancy journal I kept during my pregnancy with Josiah. (It is, by the way, COMPLETELY filled out with all kinds of info jotted down and pictures actually developed(!) and pasted in and other mementos, etc. Ah, the benefits of being the firstborn!) One thing I made a note of in the journal was that the price of gas was $1.36. It's hard to believe it's changed so much in just 11 years!
June 28 - This morning I did something I haven't done for probably close to 30 years. Any guesses as to what it was? (The answer was actually "climbing a ladder to pick cherries"--Josiah, David, & I picked 19 pounds from a local orchard--but the guesses ranged from "caught a butterfly" to "did a cartwheel" to "played hopscotch" to "ran in the sprinkler" to "jumped on the bed" and more.) :)
June 28 - The canning season of 2013 is off to a good start, with 7 quarts of sweet cherries in the canner right now! (WHY doesn't Facebook recognize "canner" as a real word? They keep putting squiggly red lines under it.) All those years I helped my mom can when I was a young girl have come back to me, and oddly I discover that I take GREAT delight in canning now. I didn't so much back then. Funny how things change...
June 29 - Tobin just came into the living room, looked out the window at the nine little plum and cherry trees we planted earlier this year, and said, "I can't wait until those baby trees become daddy trees!" Me either, my boy.
June 29 - After Jeff got home from work today, he took the boys swimming for a while in our pool before supper. When they traipsed into the house, wet and chilled, Tobin exclaimed with his characteristic exuberance, "I NEED hot chocolate. The swimming pool was FREEZING!" Shav immediately jumped into the role of Mr. Opposite and came back with "It was BURNING to me!" Then in a quieter voice, he added, "But it sure was wet." I laughed softly as these old words floated through my head: "We hold these truths to be self-evident," dear Shavi boy!
June 30 - On the way to take Tobin and Shav to the first day of their Musikgarten camp this afternoon, I was only half listening to their chatter as we drove along. "Look, Mom, there's some cows!" Tobin said (as if we don't see cows any time we drive anywhere around here!). Although I hadn't noticed those particular cows, I wanted to show him I cared about what he said, so, hoping to extend the conversation, I asked, "Were they eating grass?" "No," was his reply, "maybe having church." I happen to know that Glendon, the man who owns those cows, is a regular church-attender, but I'm not sure he's taught his cows to do the same!
