Go with what you know...

A recent walk around our house revealed:
Our oldest curled up amongst every blanket and pillow he could get his hands on, hidden behind a chair, reading a book.

Our daughter on the table surrounded by playdough, content to "cook" for all those in the family.

Our youngest, taking a brief break from his destruction...long enough to lull mom into thinking she may catch up. I know it's not true, but a girl can hope, right?

What I should be doing...

the list is endless: laundry, sweeping, baking, washing dishes, folding clothes, Sunday School prep. But, it's a sunny 75 degrees, there's a light wind and the laptop and I have moved outside. And I watch and listen: my oldest two children are on a nature hunt in our backyard. Each carrying a simple plastic box, I can hear the oldest say to his sister: "This is nature Marc. God created everything, even this leaf. A feather...Mommy, what type of bird does this feather come from? Is this a seed from a tree? Look, purple flowers."

The laundry, the cleaning, the baking...that's not going anywhere. But these moments with my little ones are fleeting and so I sit and enjoy.

"Where's the Entrance to Get Out?"

Asks Andrew of his little mouse house.

Thank you, Laura Joffe Numeroff, for entertaining my son for a full hour as he painstakingly built his very own mouse house, complete with desk.

All we're missing is the mouse....so for now, Farmer Jed will have to suffice.

Overheard this afternoon:

"Andrew, baby Jesus crying. Sing."
"No, Marc. I don't wanna sing."
"Andrew, baby Jesus crying. SING."
"Oh all right. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he..."

I forgot...

...just how much fun two year olds can be. Marky's vocabulary feels like it has exploded overnight; just yesterday she pulled a blanket off the sofa and asked me to snuggle with her. It's almost as if she's been blind and is now seeing the world with renewed vision. She's funny, opinionated, charming, flirty, caring, sincere and a complete mystery to her father. In some ways she is so much like her older brother and in others, she is the complete opposite. I never knew parenting could be so much fun, so humbling, so frustrating, such a blessing.

A belated Happy Valentine's Day. We spent ours nursing colds, one of which turned ugly and sent us to the ER, and replacing a toilet -- the romance never dies, does it? :-)

thumbprint hearts on salt dough clay ornaments for each family member graced our seasons tree

homemade heart shaped doughnuts were a special treat during the blizzard of 2010

Outside the snow is falling...

...and falling and falling and falling. The media is referring to it as snowmageddon, the snowpocalypse, a blizzard of epic proportions. Washington, DC, has shut down; the postal system is not delivering mail; our church services for tomorrow were cancelled as of 9 am yesterday, before the first flakes fell. It's a little piece of heaven, if you ask me. The wintery white world forces us into a gentle rhythm of life. Yes we'll continue to attack the shoveling even as the snow falls, but already, we find ourselves slowing down to just enjoy.

It's homemade bread (from here: http://morganmoore.typepad.com/one_more_moore/2007/03/amish_country_b.html) and potato soup, fires in the fireplace, reading books while munching monkey bread, movies and sewing, just sitting and staring at the precious babe in my lap. Oh my, how I love this snow that forces us all into a slower pace of being.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Enjoying this blog...

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/

...now, if only the maid would show up to finish the laundry, cleaning and cooking, I could go on a creating spree. Alas, I am the maid, the nanny and the owner of the laundromat and so, I will file away some of the projects found here until I have a spare moment or two to discover myself once again. :-)

25 Random Thoughts on this rainy day

Extremely random thoughts all swirling around in my head at the same time...don't you wish you were me?

1. I miss my camera. Daily I would reach for it to snap pictures of my growing brood...and I wonder if I should pay to repair the lens or just buy a new one. Will it be the same camera when the lens is repaired?
2. Why is it that my four year old son can be standing on top of something and never find it while my 2 year old daughter can find something downstairs, two rooms away and buried under couch cushions?
3. I really should go dig out our snow clothes for the youth ski trip tonight.
4. Sometimes I miss the days of sleeping in, reading books till all hours of the night and eating junk food for lunch.
5. On the food note -- I miss chicken too!
6. I'm feeling convicted to keep Andrew in worship with us but can't get him to sit still for five minutes at a meal.
7. Sometimes a homemade chocolate chip cookie makes the day so much brighter.
8. Why is there a roll on the floor under the table?
9. And why don't I have a canine vacuum cleaner?
10. There was a Sunday School coloring project in my freezer this morning.
11. Can a woman drown in dirty laundry?
12. There are two marbles, a lego, candy hearts, some loose change and two receipts in my pocket right now. Oh, and a pacifier.
13. Still chuckling over the episode of "The Office" last night.
14. Does eating Gobstopper Cookies at 11 am count as breakfast?
15. I still have a gift certificate to CBD to spend...the problem, it's not enough for my ever growing wish list.
16. In all things, moderation, except books!
17. How can I quickly defrost a ham?
18. I'm not really fond of my new haircut.
19. My children make me laugh (daily!)
20. WOW! I need to find the broom and sweep before the day is done.
21. its hard to type onehanded
22. my children make me laugh -- daily!
23. I would love a Sonic cherry vanilla Dr Pepper right about now!
24. "Do everything without arguing..." -- this song keeps running through my head.
25. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for me, for me -- How cool!

11, 13, 3...

What do these numbers have in common? They are, from oldest to youngest, the age in months at which my children slept more than, say, three hours at a stretch at night. I still recall to the day (September 18) the first time Andrew slept seven hours at night...I woke up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, thinking he was dead. Marcail may have actually slept through the night because I forgot to turn on the baby monitor and made her cry it out. Most likely I was pregnant with our third and so exhasuted that I just never heard her!! But Ethan...sweet little Ethan...born five weeks early, weighing almost a pound more than his brother...sweet Ethan is a great sleeper. And this week, we've been averaging six-seven hour stretches of sleep at night. Now, if I could only learn to stay on top of laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. and get to bed on time!!