Help Up

I took this video of the girls playing yesterday on the back deck (please pardon the badly-needed paint job, and also the fact that the girls are wearing their church clothes for play.  I have to pick my battles.).  They had been doing “Ring around the Rosie” until Becky suddenly lacked the muscle power to get up for the next round.  Susie did her best to help:  

While watching the above scene unfold, I realized the dynamics were uncannily similar to those I witnessed a year ago.  The girls were playing in the back yard and Susie found herself called upon to assist a helpless Becky to her feet.  The girls now have better verbal skills (and better hair), but the rest is about the same!  

Pals and Pups

Last weekend (pre-storm), the kids and I went over to my friend Maria’s house to spend the evening with her and her mom.  As always, we were treated to an amazing dinner and wonderful hospitality.  We all can’t wait to go back – especially Jimmy, who was quite enthralled by Maria’s dog!

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Maya (the dog): “I didn’t think the kid would take ‘Get a grip’ literally!” 

Makeshift Tent

Think someone enjoys the baby toys more than Jimmy?

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Or maybe she’s just going through camping withdrawals!

Storms of Life

We’re back from our in-house “camp out”!  Hurricane Irene (or more accurately, Tropical Storm Irene) knocked out our power early this morning, but it was just restored a little after 9pm.  I’m so thankful we didn’t have to be without water and electricity for more than a day.  I had stocked up on enough water and food (read: bananas, cereal, bagels, donuts and pop tarts) to get us through a few days, but I wasn’t looking forward to having to take cold sponge baths from the water we had pre-filled in our bathtub before losing power.  Boy, am I a wimp!

Before the storm hit, and during the night when the wind and rain were pummeling the house, I spent a lot of time thinking about two things: how dependent I am on modern conveniences, and what a huge responsibility it is to provide for and protect three young children.  As I shopped for emergency supplies, I had found myself going through worst-case scenarios in my head, trying to figure out how I could manage to keep our family safe.  Could I split this pop tart into five pieces to make it last?  It didn’t help that I had recently read only part of the amazing book “Unbroken” about a WWII airman’s survival story.  Thanks to very little time to read, and a restrictive library return policy, I only read the first portion.  So as far as I know, the protagonist is still stranded in a life raft battling sharks and catching birds for food.  I don’t think I could do that.  Especially not with three kids (Can you imagine Susie peering over the edge of a life raft, pointing at the sharks, exclaiming, “Yook, yook, Mama!  It’s yike “Nemo!”).

But in all seriousness, having kids makes me very conscious of the frailty of life.  I can get overwhelmed when I think of how dependent our kids are on Jim and me.  I’m so thankful that the Lord has temporarily entrusted their care to us, but I need to remember that ultimately, the Lord is in control of our lives.  I cannot protect my children from every danger, and trying to do so would be detrimental to us all.  I need to trust that the Lord, the One who commands the wind and the rain, is able to see His children through the physical and spiritual storms of life. 

“And [Jesus] said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:26, ESV).  

Ready, Set…

We’re all ready if/when Hurricane Irene decides to grace us with her presence.  As of right now, we’re expecting to get 5-7 inches of rain (we’ve gotten a few inches already) and high winds.  So it’s likely we’ll lose power for a while, given the number of trees around here.  But we’re all set with our flashlights, extra batteries, food and water.  We’ve told the girls we might be “camping” for a while in our house, and they thought that sounds like fun – as long as we make sure we have marshmallows!

Water, mud puddles, flashlights, and marshmallows – what’s not to like?  

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Just Sew

Domesticity is not my strong suit.  And I have no one to blame but myself.

I recently spent a half an hour trying to mend a 2-inch ripped seam on a pair of pants, and although I think the seam will now hold, it’s not a pretty sight.  And it took a seam ripper, two different colors of thread, and countless needle re-threadings to accomplish that not-so-pretty sight.

Sigh.  

I should have paid better attention to my mom growing up.  She offered again and again to teach me to needlepoint, machine sew, hand sew, cross-stitch, quilt, craft, do ANYTHING involving a needle and thread.  But I either declined, or only gave it a half-hearted effort that trailed off as soon as I could convince myself that there was a pressing need to tend to my homework.  I must have figured that my mom would always be there to hem my pants and attach my buttons.  And she is always willing – as long as the task can wait the 2-3 months until her next visit out to Connecticut (and yes, I have pondered mailing pants to her, but I haven’t gotten that desperate yet). 

I hope I can be patient with my girls when they show a similar disregard for their domestic future.  Come to think of it, I wonder what skills I can fail to pass on to my girls.  The fine art of “cleaning” by shoving all papers into a corner?  My ability to “fold” a fitted sheet so that it looks like a crumpled ball of tissue paper?  I know – my gift of baking cakes so that they’re good and burnt on the outside and runny on the inside (I still don’t know how I manage that).  Oh well.  At least I hope they learn some humility. 

Jimmy on Vacation

One of the best parts of our vacation was introducing Jimmy to my dad and sister, and watching my mom get re-acquainted with her grandson.  Jimmy provided endless smiles (and drool) for us all. 

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Jimmy even got into vacation mode, thanks to a little inspiration from his dad.

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Deep Waters

Of course, since we were at the lake all last week, we were also ON the lake quite a bit (although never as much as Jim would like – I think he’d sleep on that boat if I’d let him).  Here are pictures of our watery adventures with our family and some visiting friends:

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Reading and Relaxing

As befits a week at the lake, we spent lots of time reading books with my family.  The house we rent comes stocked with loads of children’s books, which meant the place was pretty much heaven on earth for us all!  

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Home from the Lake

We arrived home on Saturday night from our yearly family trip to a lake in Maryland.  It was beyond wonderful to be with my parents, sister and her boyfriend, and to see them interact with the kids.  We are so blessed to have such a loving family, especially one that’s willing to travel across the country to be with us.  I’ll post pictures of our time together as soon as I sort through the 300-plus photos I took.  Until then, I’ll leave you with the last images from our trip.  The three kiddos’ naps didn’t overlap for long on the drive home (Jimmy’s naps were all too brief), but we were grateful for any reduction in the noise level we could get!

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