At four years of age (almost five!), Moriah is at the very fun stage of verbal development in which I can understand almost everything she says, but she occasionally says things in unique ways, revealing the sometimes-humorous way children learn language . For example, earlier today she said, "I'm make-suring..." And that makes sense! Why shouldn't we say that instead of "making sure"? ;-)
A couple days ago, she was thinking ahead to her future and asked a question that sounded to my ears like, "When I'm seven, will I be in Olive Garden?" When I repeated it to her to confirm that that was indeed what she said, she told me it was--but I really think she meant "kindergarten." ;-) But hey, if she ends up doing kindergarten when she's five, working in Daddy's garden when she's six, then going to Olive Garden when she's seven, that would be fine with me! :)
Recently, Moriah was wondering what my middle name is. Since her middle name is Davene, she thought my name might be Davene Davene Fisher. :) I told her that it is actually Grace, and she repeated my full name aloud. Later however, when we were riding in the van, she was trying to tell Shav about her discovery. "Just to let you know, Shav," she began, "Mom's real name isn't Mom."
"I know," he said, a little wearily; but undeterred, she marched ahead with her proclamation.
"It's actually Mom Grace Fisher!!" :)
I sure do love her and all her funny little mix-ups! :)
~ Moriah with all her little monkeys...she wanted me to take this picture to send to her Uncle Mike Fisher because he loves monkeys, too ~
Last Saturday, we went to one of my favorite places on earth, Riven Rock; and as a bonus, we got to go with some friends.
The kids--13 total, I believe--had a blast playing in the river and climbing on the rocks...
...and the adults had a blast sitting back, relaxing, and watching them. A win-win situation. :)
I didn't take many pictures, just a few quick snaps with my cell phone; but that's enough to document in blurry pixels, for example, that Shav (wearing the green shirt below) was brave enough to climb up on this tall rock he's never been on before. :)
In the middle of the fun, exciting, hey-mom-look-at-me moments came an occurrence that cracked me up big time. Moriah needed to go to the bathroom, so I took her to the outhouse there in the park. That particular outhouse is never particularly pleasant, but it was particularly UNpleasant on this day, so I was hurrying Moriah along--NOT a particularly easy task, by the way, for a girl in a wet swimming suit who has to struggle to get it down and then up and put arms in the right holes and so forth. Guys have it so much easier. ;-)
As we were finally ready to make our hasty exit from the outhouse, Moriah was chattering away, and I was only half listening...until she remarked about the automatic flusher.
Indeed, it did sound like the sound of running water; but everyone knows there's no flush mechanism--automatic or not--in an outhouse.
What Moriah didn't realize--but I did, much to my amusement--is that the thin walls of the outhouse, although sufficient to prevent sight, did nothing to diminish hearing; and the "automatic flusher" that she heard was actually a gentleman relieving himself in the men's part of the outhouse, directly adjacent to the women's part!!!
Oh, dear me, I could barely control myself as I fought the urge to just hoot and holler about her mistaken impression of the refinements of that bathroom. Automatic flusher indeed!!! :)
Since we don't have a TV, we haven't been glued to the Olympics (like I probably would be if we did have a TV!); but one evening last week, we went down to my dad's house and watched some of the Olympics with him. The kids got an education in what modern-day Olympics are like, and I got an education in HOW MANY COMMERCIALS THERE ARE ON TV. My goodness, we would watch the Olympics for just a few minutes, and then there would be a commercial break which seemed to last longer than the segment of the Olympics had just been! Then back for a few more minutes of action, and then another long commercial break. I wasn't impressed with that aspect of it.
I did, however, enjoy watching the various track and field events and some of the swimming competition. But as impressive as the athletes were, I couldn't help but think that it would be a lot more impressive if, during each race, a "normal" person would be allowed to compete so that we could see just how fast the Olympians actually are!! :)
~ 2 ~
During one of the days the boys were taking swimming lessons a few weeks ago, Moriah and Benjamin and I ran a quick errand before we needed to pick the boys up. As we were pulling into the Target parking lot, Moriah spoke up from her seat two rows behind mine. "I'm a good looker, huh?" she said.
I was about to agree with her that yes, she is very lovely (although perhaps an admonition about humility was forthcoming, too) when she continued, "...because I saw a slug bug and an axi taxi."
Aha! She wasn't speaking about her appearance at all! Rather, she was complimenting herself (still might need a lesson in humility!) about how well she looks at things and notices what is around her. That's different! :)
~ 3 ~
When I was growing up, we called VW bugs "punch buggies"; but in Jeff's family, they called them "slug bugs," so that is what our children call them; and sure enough, whoever is the first to spot one and say "slug bug" gets to hit someone else in the car as we're driving along.
But why stop with just "slug bugs"?
In our family, when we see a taxi, we call out "axi taxi" and are then allowed to chop someone like an ax.
When we see a tractor that is moving, we say "tractor compactor" and are then allowed to squeeze someone's arm very tightly.
At one point when I felt like the boys were too competitive and were slugging and axing and compacting each other too much, I declared that we needed something more loving, so when they would see a mail truck, they should blow me a kiss. :)
Then we decided that when we see a police car, they should blow Daddy a kiss. :)
Some time ago, I read somewhere that it is wise to teach your children to notice motorcycles when they are small, so when they are old enough to drive, they will already have a habit of seeing motorcycles, thus making the roads safer for bikers. I couldn't come up with a clever way to incorporate this into our game of looking for various vehicles as we drive, but fortunately, Jeff was. He had the idea to say "like bike" when we see either a motorcycle or a bicycle in motion, and whoever is the first to say "like bike" gets one round of protection from any "slug bugs" or "axi taxis" or "tractor compactors" that someone else sees. :)
Hey, if it helps my kids be more careful drivers when they grow up, I'm all for it! :)
~ 4 ~
From time to time, I think ahead to the future years when I will be riding alone in a car much more often than I do now. As tedious as I sometimes find the "slug bug" etc. game, I know I will miss it when it's gone...especially the kisses I'm given when the kids see a mail truck.
It dawned on me recently that, whenever I see a mail truck when I'm alone, rather than lamenting the fact that I no longer have someone small to ride with me and give me kisses, I can turn that around and use it as a reminder to give thanks for all the years that I have been blessed with a multitude of kisses from my children. Oh, sure, I'll be sad when they're gone, but sad and grateful is much better than sad alone!
~ 5 ~
I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to be both a prepper and a minimalist.
There's a part of me that takes after my mother with her raised-by-country-farmers-right-after-the-Great-Depression-so-they-never-threw-anything-away mentality. Mother's motto was "always be prepared," and she always was. :) When Y2K rolled around, she and Dad were well supplied with a woodstove for heat, propane for cooking, a cistern for water, a generator for electricty, and plenty of rice and beans (as well as lots of home-preserved food in the cellar and the freezers) to stave off possible starvation. She was a prepper before the word was invented, and we have had fun by gently teasing her many times through the years. :)
I have her inclination towards preparedness within me.
There's a part of me that is drawn towards the simplicity of the modern minimalist movement. Throwing off the shackles of possessions and living light and free sounds SO appealing (I've written some about that before). If we're not currently using something and haven't in the past year or so, why hang onto it? Let it go, so it can bless someone else, and so that we can live unfettered by the accumulation of extra stuff.
I have an inclination towards this free-spirited, God-will-provide mentality, too.
It's an uneasy coexistence, one that doesn't really work very well. But I still try to straddle the middle line between being a prepper and a minimalist, mostly by trying to accurately assess how valuable a particular item might be in the future, especially if that future includes a hardship like a bad storm that knocks out electricity for a while...or worse. If the item would be quite helpful in a crisis scenario, I don't mind stocking up. Dry beans? Sure! Triple antibiotic ointment? Absolutely! Three boxes of cheap plastic toys from fast food restaurants? Negative! They can go!! ;-)
~ 6 ~
It's not as if I've gone around to all the neighbors' houses, sniffing outside their garage doors; but even without that proof, I think it's safe to say that about a week ago, we had the smelliest garage in the neighborhood. :)
This is the reason.
After we harvested the onions from our garden, we needed a space to lay them out to air and dry a little. Because of all the rain we've been having this summer, outdoors under a tree wasn't an option, so we parked the minivan outside for a while, and into the garage the onions went.
I'm really grateful for the abundance of this harvest, but wow, did they ever give off a strong fragrance!! :)
~ 7 ~
These days, one of Benjamin's favorite things to do is sit on my lap while I play the piano and bang on the keys, too. If I get in his way, he's quick to let me know by pushing my hands away. ;-)
It's a joy to spend time with him like this, making music (errrr, noise!) together! :)
~ 8 ~
Benjamin LOVES to swing his legs up and down, and one day recently, big brother David was imitating him. The things that are cute when a baby does them sure look funny when someone older does the same thing! :)
~ 9 ~
Life right side up can get boring.
It's a good thing Benjamin has a daddy...
...who occasionally turns him upside down. :)
Ah, the view is much more interesting this way!! :)
The other day, we were at Walmart to pick up a few things; and we happened to be in a checkout line behind a gray-haired Mennonite lady. I didn't recognize her, and we didn't have time to chat, but she spoke kindly to my boys as they started to put our items on the counter as she was finishing up her transaction.
When we got out to the parking lot and were loading ourselves into our big white van, I spotted her again. She was perched on a bicycle, her bonnet atop her head, a backpack (loaded, I'm sure, with items she'd just bought) on her back, bags of groceries strapped onto a rack behind her seat, and other bags on a rack (or basket, I'm not sure) in the front. I don't know how old she was, but at any rate, I hope that when I'm her age, I'm in good enough shape to pull off such a feat! :)
~ 2 ~
Summer isn't quite here yet, but we're acting like it is. These evenings are made for being outdoors!
~ 3 ~
There's something about walking out the door of my house and going to the garden to pick fresh food for our meals that makes me feel positively rich! Last evening, for example, I went out to the garden to cut a head of broccoli so I could make broccoli salad for supper, and having such delicious, healthy, abundant food growing at my fingertips made me feel like I'm living in the lap of luxury! :)
~ 4 ~
Every so often, I add something to my list of Favorites. The most recent addition? The movie Follow Me, Boys.
I had borrowed that from our local library recently, and a couple of nights ago when the kids and I had a bunch of peas to shell, we put in that movie and sat down to watch it while we shelled all the peas. It was such an enjoyable evening! The work sped by as we laughed (and I cried!) as we watched the movie together. It's an oldie, but a goodie! :)
~ 5 ~
Moriah has been busy recently--her latest project, a family portrait of sorts.
It started this way, with Dad being the one-armed, hairless, skinny guy on the left and me being the, well, not-so-skinny, square-faced, long-armed one on the right. :)
Later she added three more of our family members to the board.
I could be wrong (I mean, there must be something wrong with my eyes, because surely the resemblance is clear) ;-), but I believe the figure on the left is Benjamin, the one in the middle is Shav, and the one on the right is the artist herself.
One very sweet thing that Moriah says these days: "Where are my brudders?" If she wakes up from a nap, for example, or if she's been off somewhere busy with something else, when she returns to me, she often wants to know where the boys are. Sometimes she'll call, "BOYS! BOYS!" But other times, she'll ask sweetly, "Where are my brudders?"
And I smile. :)
~ 7 ~
File this in The Things that Make Moms Die of Laughter while Trying to Appear Normal to Their Kids!
A couple of weeks ago, the younger kids and I were all in the upstairs bathroom. I was probably giving Benjamin a bath while they were brushing their teeth or something like that.
The door of the closet in the bathroom was open, and the contents were visible to the kids, which is not unusual because it's not as if I try to hide things there; they've all looked in that closet hundreds of times, I'm sure. But on this particular evening, one certain box caught Tobin's attention.
"WOAH!" he exclaimed, "Where'd we get that box of HUGE band-aids?"
I'm pretty sure if you asked either Josiah or David how old I am, they could give you the correct answer. But the other day during lunch, one of the boys asked Moriah how old I am, and her answer was quick and confident. "Two hundred," she said. :)
Of course, you wouldn't necessarily expect a three-year-old to remember her mother's age, right? But what about a six-year-old? Would you think that he would be capable of saying, in all seriousness, what Shav asked me tonight: "Mom, when you were a little girl, was there electricity?" :)
The family laughed when he said it, but then Tobin spoke up indignantly on my behalf. "There was CARS, dude!" he said to correct his little brother. Never mind the incorrect grammar, at least he had my birth placed in the correct century. :)
I can't blame them too much, however, because I well remember one of my favorite teachers during elementary school. Whenever we would ask her how old she was, she would laughingly say something like, "Oh, a hundred and three." Well, I knew good and well she was teasing; but I wouldn't have been surprised if she had been close to that, as old as she seemed to my young mind. Now that I stop and figure out how old she really was back then, I realize that she was probably right around my current age--if not a little younger. And yet she seemed so ancient!
I used to be more faithful at recording little bits and pieces of my children's conversations that made me smile or somehow touched my heart in a special way, but I've gotten out of the habit of jotting those things down. About a month ago, I decided that it would be worthwhile to get back into the habit of that, so I started paying a little more attention to what my kids said and made a little more effort to write those things down. I'm not saying this is the start of a new series of blog posts (series make me nervous because they seem SO HARD to keep up with), but maybe I'll do better at remembering to record these little blurbs for posterity!
Tobin, 4/2/15 - We were looking at a picture of ancient coins (see below), and Tobin blurted out, "Those are weird-looking nickels!" Well, yes, they would be indeed...if they were nickels. But since the nickel coin wasn't invented until 1866 and these particular coins date from roughly 2,200 years before that, I don't think we can exactly lump them together. ;-)
Moriah, 4/3/15 - While riding in the van, Shav had referred to Moriah as a baby, and Tobin had corrected him by saying she was really a toddler. Her response? "No, I'm a MORIAH!" That you are, my dear, and there's no one else like you! :)
Moriah, 4/4/15 - Moriah has heard Josiah and David call shotgun numerous times as we're getting ready to go somewhere (which puzzles me somewhat, because I don't remember calling shotgun ever being a big deal for me as a kid, but it sure is for them!). On this day, as we were heading out the door, she called out, "I ride in the shotgun!" Which is not quite the same as calling shotgun, but in either case, the sweet girl wasn't allowed to ride in the front seat nor ride inside a gun. ;-)
Tobin, 4/9/15 - The kids had emptied all the laundry out of the laundry chute and were digging through it; when Tobin reached the floor under the pile, he said, "I've hit bedrock!" I knew excavating under the laundry pile was a pretty huge endeavor, but I didn't quite realize until then what a massive undertaking it really was! ;-)
Tobin, 4/9/15 - Because it was Moriah's birthday, I had given each of the kids three M&M's as a special treat after lunch. They were discussing the colors they had been given; and Josiah said, "Yellow and red make orange!" Five or so seconds later, Tobin said, in all earnestness, "And red and yellow make orange!" He's brilliant, he is. ;-)
Tobin, 4/17/15 - It was David's birthday; and as we sat around the table eating ice cream from Kline's, our favorite local ice cream shop, we were discussing Josiah's upcoming birthday. "He's going to be a teeny!" Tobin exclaimed. Uh, do you mean a teenager? ;-)
And then there are the ones that move my heart...
Sometime back in March, Shav said this about his sister: "Moriah's probably the cutest -- that I've ever seen -- two-year-old in the whole world!" I'm inclined to agree with him. :)
Shav, 4/24/15 - One evening at bedtime, I was spending a little extra time chatting with Tobin and Shav, and it was one of those their-hearts-are-soft-so-don't-waste-this-opportunity times. At one point in the conversation, Shav asked in a forlorn voice, "What if I get lost in heaven?" At first, I wasn't sure what direction to go in my response: maybe I should mention that I would likely die first and be there to greet him when he arrived, or maybe I should point out that in heaven we will know fully so there wouldn't be any chance of getting lost, or maybe something else. But I finally decided to simply point out that Jesus would be there to welcome him and take care of him. Surprisingly to me, Shav wasn't tremendously comforted by that; after all, Shav has never seen Jesus and seemed afraid that he wouldn't recognize Him. But then Tobin insightfully reminded Shav that Uncle Jay will be there, and that--more than anything else--brought sweet comfort to Shav's anxious heart. :)
Finally, to end, here's one that my kids have taken great delight in reminding me of during the past few days because I guess it's fun to see that Mom makes mistakes, too. ;-)
Moriah, 5/2/15 - It was a Saturday with a number of errands to run, which means lots of in-and-out of the van. The day was going along pretty smoothly, and we were taking David to gymnastics (and had been traveling during that particular trip for maybe 7 or 8 minutes) when Moriah piped up, in a concerned tone of voice, from her seat directly behind me, "Mommy, I'm not buckled!" REALLY? I thought for sure I had buckled her, but I guess I had buckled her so many times already that day that it seemed like I had done it for that trip when, in fact, I had not! (And it wasn't because Moriah had unbuckled herself because the buckle in that particular car seat is HARD to do.) I felt terrible, of course, but couldn't do anything about it at that point while I was driving; but we happened to be stopping at a stoplight, so I asked David to unbuckle really quickly and scoot back to sit beside Moriah and buckle her before returning to his seat. He did so, and we went on our way. A couple of minutes later, Moriah called in a voice that expressed even more concern than her original comment, "Mommy, my Craisins are buckled!!" :) Sure enough, in his haste to buckle her, David had put the straps right over top of the paper towel that was holding her snack of Craisins in her lap. She couldn't get them out, and I wasn't willing to take the risk of having David unbuckle again, just to help her rescue her Craisins, so they rode snugly between her and the seatbelt, all the way to gymnastics. But hey, at least the Craisins were safe!! ;-)
Oh, it's not something that would bother anyone else; as a matter of fact, no one else would even know about it. But I do, and it's this.
There are 67 unfinished blog posts in my Drafts folder.
Some are barely begun--just a snippet of an idea I once had about a post I'd like to write. A few are mostly written, but need to be revised and finished before posting them. And at least one is completely done, but I decided not to post it (but couldn't bring myself to delete it either!). But all of them bug me as they lounge around in their unfinished state.
Besides those 67, there are numerous other posts that I want to write and sincerely intend to someday write; but that day hasn't come for them. I'd estimate that I could easily find 100 topics or events to write about; and based on that, you can see why, when I was in a bookstore recently and saw a special journal-type book that included a writing prompt for each day, I had to laugh.
If there's anything I don't need, it's writing prompts! :)
Tonight I wanted to do a blog post, but could not be enticed to leave the computer in the warm living room to go downstairs to the computer (which has my photos) in the cold library, so I decided to look in my Drafts folder and see what the oldest post in it was...and, if possible, finish that post, regardless of the fact that I wouldn't be able to add photos. I'm not making any promises that I'll continue this trend and work my Drafts folder significantly down to a much lower number, but maybe I'll rest easier if there are only 66 unfinished posts, rather than 67? ;-)
At any rate, what I discovered was that my oldest draft was a collection of things my children had said--things that had put a smile on my face, things I wanted to remember. Sadly, it's been so long that I can't remember the context of each quote I had jotted down; but quite a few of them were so memorable that I at least have some idea of what was going on when the comment was made.
I used to write this type of thing down in my posts in a category called Tiny Talk Tuesday. In my old blog, they can be found here; and in this blog, I discovered as I searched the archives that there were two such posts: here and here.
Well, now there is one more. :)
Here then are some funny things that my kids said. Never mind that they might have been uttered five or six years ago! ;-)
********
David, perhaps four or five years old, happened to be wearing a tie one day when the subject came up of him going over to visit our Old Order Mennonite neighbors. His response? "I'm sure I can't wear a tie over there. They'll think I'm the President!" Although I'm *pretty* sure they wouldn't have mistaken him for the president, it was considerate nevertheless of him to want to avoid any unnecessary confusion. ;-)
********
Several times through the years we've lived here in Virginia, we have been privileged to take a short family getaway to Massanutten Resort, usually in the off-season, staying in a condo there (made affordable by the generosity of a friend) and enjoying a day at the indoor waterpark, one of my family's all-time favorite places.
During one of those mini-vacations, we decided not to take dry clothes to change into after our time at the waterpark, since we were staying nearby and could very quickly get back to the condo to change where it was more private and convenient. David was wearing his wet swimsuit and was wrapped in a towel, sort of stumbling along as we left the waterpark, still entranced by the sights and sounds around him, oblivious to our decision to wait for the condo to get into dry clothes...that is, until we walked out the door, and the cold air hit his legs. "WHERE'S MY PANTS??" he exclaimed; and I'm not sure who laughed more: Jeff and I or the other waterpark guests who were standing right outside the entrance and who were amused by this little boy who had suddenly realized, to his great shock, that he was missing pants! :)
********
Also during that getaway, we ate out as a family at a delicious restaurant not far from the resort, the kind of place where you inevitably get messy as you pig out on BBQ ribs with all the yummy side dishes. As we got close to the end of our meal, I was doing my motherly duty of getting baby wipes out of the diaper bag and passing them out to whoever needed them--and also assisting, of course, in the scrubbing of smeared faces and sticky hands. When I got ready to pass a wipe to David, he indicated that he didn't need one. "I keep a wipe in my mouth!" he chirped; and to prove his point, he opened his mouth and began to use his tongue to clean up his hands and as much of his face as he could reach. Imagine that: those built-in wipes sure are a handy invention! ;-)
********
At some point, we must have had Mozilla Firefox on our computer as a web browser (I don't know enough about computers to even know if I said that right). One of the boys--I seem to think it was Josiah--used to call it Mozzarella Firefox. :)
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David, professing his great love for his youngest brother who might have been a year at the time, give or take a year ;-), once said this: "Shav, I still love you, even though sometimes you're a little stinky and you don't want anybody to get too close to you." Is this what the Bible means when it talks about speaking the truth in love? ;-)
********
This is a more serious one that I jotted down and wish I would remember more of the context because I always treasure the conversations we have about heaven, but sadly the details are lost in the sands of time. Apparently we were talking about drowning in a river, and one of the boys said, "Maybe heaven would pull us out!" And I thought, "Well, yes. That's exactly what would happen if we drowned in a river."
********
Another one without context, although I did record the speaker. Tobin asked, "Who stole my river?" Seems to me that's a pretty tough thing to steal, but sure, son, I'll help you look around here and see if we can figure out who the culprit is. :)
And another time someone said, "There's something in my nose. I think it's a chicken!" :)
Maybe someday when the boys read this post, their memories will be jogged and they will be able to remind me what was going on when these comments were made. :)
********
I had written down this phrase--"Maybe this milk feel me better."--and I'm pretty sure it was Tobin who used to mix up his words and say it that way.
********
David was talking with me about some plastic figurines we have from the Narnia series, and he said, "I haven't played with these in a LONG time! I didn't want you to get rid of them, so I played with them." He knows me well. Unused items around here sometimes tend to disappear. ;-)
********
And speaking of disappearing, this post in my Drafts folder is soon to be gone, Pushing the "publish" button means I get to knock down that absurdly high number by one.
That's almost as much fun as throwing away unplayed-with toys!! ;-)
Having young children means the conversation around the dinner table is usually boisterous, loud, and--to say the least--rather unpredictable. We just never know what they're going to say! Like tonight, for example...
Jeff was reading from the Bible before we started eating, as is his custom; and these days he's reading from the book of Acts. This evening, he picked up where he had left off the last time, and it just so happened to be chapter 15 about the council at Jerusalem that discussed which of the Jewish laws the Gentile converts would need to be accountable for. Jeff read verse 5: "Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, 'The Gentiles must becircumcised and required to obey the law of Moses'." Before he had even had time to draw a breath and say another word, David loudly blurted out, "I hate that rule!" :)
Laughter all around. So much laughter, in fact, that it took Jeff a minute to recover his composure so that he could continue reading. :)
Later on in the passage, when we heard how the apostles and elders decided to not include circumcision in the requirements for Gentile converts, David pumped his fists jubilantly in the air. Oh, that boy! He makes me laugh. :)
He's not the only one though. Another laugh was provided this evening by dear, sweet Tobin who, while I was helping him clean his hands after supper, pointed to a small brown spot on his hand and said, "Look, Mom! I have a nipple!"
My face broke into a smile, but I tried to suppress my laughter a little so as to not hurt his feelings. "Well, Tobin," I began, "you're right that you have nipples--in fact, you have two on your body. But this is not one of them." :)
I believe the word he was searching for was "freckle." ;-)
Meanwhile, nature is putting on a splendid show outside the walls of our house. Fall is a glorious season here in the Shenandoah Valley, and I savor the sight of such dramatic color appearing where formerly there was only green.
From the living room, I look northwest and see the neighbors' flashy orange-leaved tree rising above our maples. The orange comes first, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Then when its branches are bare, our maples hit their peak of beautiful crimson splendor.
How lovely that not all of the trees change color at the same time!
* It does NOT feel like August. This cool, rainy weather is a far cry from the image I have in my head of August being hot and dry. But mercifully, there is joy and beauty in cool and rainy, just as much as in hot and dry. Wouldn't it be dull if our weather was the same all the time? :)
* Tonight, for our date night, Jeff and I drove clear over to the other side of the county--the Eastern Wilds ;)--to drop off part of a barber chair that needs welding. Not the most romantic date night, but I learned long ago that all I care about is just being with Jeff. Finding our way through back country roads to a welding shop or eating dinner in a candlelit restaurant, it makes no difference. I love that man for who he is, not for any other reason.
* While getting ready for bed tonight, Shav was wearing a Superman mask; and I was reminded again how hard it is for me to take any of my boys seriously when they're wearing that mask. If I ever have to talk intently with them or correct them, they'd better not be wearing that mask, or I'd be in some serious trouble. I find it nearly impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of a pint-sized Superman. :)
* Once upon a time, my dad gave my daughter a bottle...
...and I had to capture the moment. Moriah is loved more than she'll ever know.
* When we lived in San Diego, seeing aircraft in the sky was so commonplace that it became insignificant.
Here in our corner of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, however, it doesn't happen nearly as often.
But when it does, it captures our attention enough to make us raise our eyes skyward to see what is passing over.
Sometimes I think of the verse, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest..." (Psalm 55:6).
* Back in April, I printed out the letters of Moriah's name and let the boys color them however they wanted to; then I cut them out and taped them onto the side of the armoire in her room, right at the foot of the changing table.
The amount of pleasure I get from simply seeing her name is slightly ridiculous. ;)
Which reminds me... Jeff's mom is coming next month for another visit, and I want to print out the letters of her name and let the boys color them, then cut them out and put them on the door of the room where she'll sleep. If tomorrow is rainy like today, that might be a good late afternoon project for them. :)
* David lost another tooth today: his second. It had gotten so wiggly over the past few days that I was sure it would fall out sometime today. When he was complaining about it hurting this morning, I offered to help him get it out; when he reluctantly agreed, I made a loop out of dental floss to try to hook around it and yank it out. It didn't go so well, and he didn't want me to continue, so I acquiesced. There was no hurry.
At lunch, he took one bite of his peanut butter & jelly sandwich; and out came the tooth. :)
Since David has been losing his baby teeth, he knows very well that other teeth will grow in to replace them; but he couldn't remember what those teeth were called. One day recently he said, "When my parent teeth grow in..." ;)
* I am extraordinarily tired. Maybe it's the cool, rainy weather--perfect for snuggling under a blanket and reading a book. I think I'll do just that. :)
* There's a boy in my bed. It's David, who came over a while ago to say good night but then crawled into the bed and pulled the covers up under his chin...and now he's asleep. I'll let him stay there until Jeff comes up.
* Good night, moon. I'm remembering Neil Armstrong tonight and appreciating his contributions to our knowledge of God's wonderful creation. Praying comfort for his family...
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! :)
Tonight at the dinner table, one of those "foolish and stupid arguments" broke out - all because of a beverage my parents brought to share. You see, they have a wonderful bed of mint growing beside their house, so my mother often makes mint tea and brings it up to our house for whoever wants to drink some. This evening, one of the boys called it mint tea, but another boy said, "No, it's peppermint tea." They started to go back and forth about it; but my mother, peacemaker that she is, jumped in and started to explain that they were both right, one of them was just being more specific in the name, and that there are different kinds of mint. "There's peppermint and spearmint..." she began, then was cut off by Shav's cheerful little voice, happy to have something to add to the conversation, exclaiming, "Like cement!"Oh, dear. Not exactly. If anyone tries to serve you cement tea, you'd better turn and run as fast as you can! ;-)
On another note, here are some pictures from David's family night about a week and a half ago. I mentioned in this post that Jeff took the boys bowling, and I stayed home to can peaches. One thing that I appreciate about Jeff is that quite often, when he is out with one or more of the boys, he'll take pictures with his cell phone and email them to me; I love being connected in that way and having a glimpse of whatever they're doing together! :) On the night of the bowling adventure, these are some pictures he took on his camera and sent to me.
David bowling...
...and Josiah...
Even Tobin had fun rolling the balls down...
...but Shav didn't want to do it. His fingers in his ears show what he really thought of it: it was too loud! ;-)
What is Tobin doing in this picture? I really couldn't say.
But one thing I can say is that I'm crazy about these boys. Whether they're hanging out as a band of brothers at the bowling alley or cracking me up at the dinner table with a quip about cement tea, they make me a very happy mommy!
