December 22nd - Part One

I have two stories to tell this morning:


My four year old jumps on my bed... the first of my children up and the boy that bursts constantly with joy was wanting breakfast.

"Can I make it, Mom?"

We are out of cereal -- as I only buy a few boxes a month strictly for those mornings when making a real (aka: nutritious) breakfast is impossible -- and that is usually the breakfast that he makes himself.

The other children begin stirring and my oldest boy wants to make it, too.  (He's already better at fried eggs than I am!)  So I tell boy 1 and boy 2 that they can make scrambled eggs and toast.  They ask me about every step along the way and it sounds like all is going well in the kitchen.

Enjoying my morning "off", I begin to smell something that isn't the fragrant aroma of gently cooking eggs... I jump up and run to the kitchen just in time stop our eggs from being cooked in blackened butter.  Literally.  He had the bowl of beaten eggs in his grip, readying the bowl to be pour over the pan...  Both looking at me like, "What?  Is something wrong?"

I'm laughing out loud now... but at the time, I pulled the plug on them chefing their own breakfast this morning quicker than a... <I am woefully unable to complete this sentance with anything resembling "wit". If you know of a good "quicker than a..." phrase, please let me share in your wisdom via the comments below!>  Anyway, it was fast!  He's great with a griddle... maybe a few lessons on the stovetop are in order.

We got our breakfast in record time and how could any of us help but smile...

Our tummies were full and our hearts were happy.

Most of all?  Mine. 

Christmas Calm

It is Christmastime.

Amidst the bustle of days and days, there is a driving need for time and peace. Slow down the frantic to see the King of Glory in everyday. In every minute.

Eligh twirls to The First Noel played by a children's toy... like that moment.

But neccessary life?


Errands and lessons and groceries and visits with friends.  Housekeeping and quiet-times and getting presentable-looking.  Schooling and meal-creating and time to just be.

In-between that which must be done there ARE -- precious moments.

Oh, beware my time-wasters.  Joy-killers.  Life-suckers.
 
... I attempt. I'll call it intention. (Here are seven ways to help ensure your ability to see those moments in your day.  And tomorrow.)

Live unharried to see the sweet moment recurring this day.  To see the opportunities to make someone else's day... to reach beyond and reach through and affect their eternity.  Becuase Jesus came. The infinite God made small babe. Christmas. The one  Precious Moment offered you and me.

And eternity awaits.  Remember this each day and in-between what must be done... there is awe. 

Slowness to rush through and miss it.  It is in the effort of calm and intent these days -- the expectation of something sweet...

Kisses for mama.  Dances for Eligh.

(Google images)

Farmhouse life...

We wake up to a chill in the air.

Oh, for the boy that is not yet a man, keeping his family warm.  He slides from his bed, hazy, I am sure.  Throws on his boots and coat and heads out to the white of the frigid morning.  The outdoor wood stove needs filling and The Man is gone to work for hours already.

That kind of farmhouse living.

I had visions of fences, a welcoming drive, a few cows, a herd of chickens and a real homesteaders spirit.  Children building and milking and making.

But this is the life we are living...
We opt for days we can do. Days that include: homeschooling and Internet, whole foods cooking and store bought food, trips to town and a debit card, evenings with our family and movies on Netflix.  Children play in a child's paradise and with a Wii.  Chores, yet don't be surprised if you stop by to a home in chaos.  Time in the hard copy Word and stops by an inspirational blog or two. 
Though, family... working together for the good of each other.

 It may not be the thrashing and grinding of our own home-grown wheat, but the principles remains the same:

wonder, sacrifice, effort, grace, love, service.

family.

Reassessing to live today.  It's not a three week project -- a fleeting finishing... it's the project of a lifetime that will take our lifetime. 

Moving beyond the renovation.

In the Beat of a Heart

Here we are, now on the brink of Autumn.

Not for even a moment does life grant us a stand still.  And as much as I know life  must be on the move, I, almost daily, try my best to freeze frame my favorite sights and sounds of the day.  Those priceless moments with my gifts from God. Though, I can't recall them even five minutes later, I hope the Lord is preserving them in my mind for precious recollections down the road.

I look forward to holding our newest gift for the first time -- March can't come soon enough. But from the same place in my heart, as I watched my three-year-old walk away, obediently to bed last night... oh, my heart...  someday, sooner than I wish it, my little boy will be a great big man.  No longer with the greatest little boy's belly laugh that I've ever heard... though, I reckon it will just be the greatest great big man's belly laugh I've ever heard.

I look so forward to being old with my husband... but what about when it finally hits us that we are getting old too?  When we look back on how many Autumn's of our life together have passed?  When the day arrives that our children start off on their own journey's apart from us?  A lifetime lived in but the beat of a heart. What a life we will have lived together, Lord willing.

 (I so completely adore that man the Lord made for me.)

"I look forward to each new season with the anticipation of what it will hold. But as I go, I can’t help but look over my shoulder with the warmest sentiments toward the season I am leaving behind." -Stacie at Beautiful Things

My sentiments exactly.

12 weeks.

It is all His grace that has given me twelve weeks.

...and all the more grace when I make it to thirteen.

My dearest friends...

We are having another baby

-Nevermind the tired Sunday afternoon appearance!-

What could be more "100 Years Ago" than having a baby...

Well, that is, having a baby the way we have babies.

At home

 with an experienced midwife.

It has been hard for me to tell people.  I'd much rather wait until I was 20 weeks for the majority of the world to know, but as it is, I already look... well, I don't know how far along I look exactly, but --people are starting to talk...

So there it is.  I've told.

There is this mama, for those of you who are thinking,

"Well, that's just nuts!!  5??" that says,

"If you think my hands are full... you should see my heart."

I love that.

My difficulty with telling people so early stems from five years ago...

I lost two babies (separate pregnancies) about that long ago, both at the 2nd trimester mark (which is what I've hit today, although it appears as if the professionals have moved that mark to 13 weeks...), but since have had two healthy births.  However, even those last two pregnancies were troubled in those transitional weeks from the 1st to 2nd trimester, which contributes to my hesitation to let the world know, for fear that I may have to un-let the world and then some know only weeks later.

This one is the smoothest of the three, but I've been so deeply scarred and conditioned for trouble and dooms-day events, that it is making it difficult to relax and enjoy, while not the morning sickness, the knowledge that there is a precious little life, now around three inches from crown to rump, growing inside me.

I do have one consolation. 

 The Lord has given our baby a name.

"Light"

I take that as a promise of God that my baby will be given life.

And not only that, but that he, or maybe she, has a clear and defined purpose for his life.

I began jotting down names that popped in my head as soon as we found out we were having another baby.  And as experience has proven, Ben and I have a slightly differing preference for names. 

This time he said, "I don't care what the name is as much as I care that it means something."

Probably because our girls names are picked out of thin air just because "I like it!"  So, I thought that before I go any further with the list making, I should make sure of what the names-so-far mean so as not to have a child whose name means, "beast" or "..." well, I can't think of some of the other's I've come across now... I am pregnant remember?  On #5 no less... I have no mind left at this point!!

Anyway!  Point being... I had one boys name on the list, first and middle, along with four girl firsts and middles (girls have always been so much easier for us to agree on!).  I started looking them up.

(Actual names will be revealed later -- these are just the meanings)

Boy: First -  Light  Middle-  White

Girl #1: First- Protected by God (Is he trying to tell me something here?)  Middle-  shining brightly with light

Girl #2: First-  Light  Middle-  Light

Girl #3: First-  Light  Middle-  Light

Girl #4:  First-  Light  Middle- Jewel (and who here knows that precious jewels are nothing with out light?)

So our baby was named.  We (I) stopped looking there.  His or her name is on this list.  We don't know boy or girl yet, nor will we until the birth.  But the Lord gave me a verse for our, presently 3 inch long, Light.

Isaiah 42:6-7 

 I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,

And will hold Your hand;

I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,

As a light to the Gentiles,  

To open blind eyes,

To bring out prisoners from the prison,

Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

I think our baby is just fine.

  Armfuls of gratitude to the Giver of Grace

and Life.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder - Wild Wednesday

The torrent of bird calls outside bids the windows to open despite the still unfriendly temperatures.  I can't stand the sound when it spills from speakers playing "nature sounds", but the trueness of nature, flooding in through the open windows, is a pure delight. 

We welcome you, Spring, with all your splendor!

We did our best to put the rush on Spring... we made pinecone bird feeders and planted flower seeds.  With warmer temps and rain, rain, rain, instead of snow, snow, snow... I'd say we're getting there! 

__________________________________________

This week will be an adventure!  The family that explores together, soars together... (like it?)

 

Meet in the driveway with a picnic, a sweater, and a sense of adventure. 

Load up and head off (or, if you are walking -- just head off) into the "Wild Blue Yonder" (how far and for how long will depend on your whim and schedule -- and perhaps gas tank!).  Decide once you are on your way where you are headed!  Aim for somewhere you've never been... a tour of the city or head for the hills and scout for your first camping spot of the season.  Lord willing the weather is good and you can dine on your picnic when you "arrive" at your destination.  Be sure to regale each other with strange travel tales along the way!  Not that creative??  I'm not!  Make sure to take some fun travel books, or tell a make-it-up-as-you-go story where everyone gets a turn telling a portion of the story... 

ENJOY EACHOTHER! 

Be blessed as you make an effort to focus more on the joys of being a family vs. the struggles of it...

Come back and share where you ended up... I'd love to hear it!

-Alicia Grace

Transforming Grace

 The rose was once but a shoot of thorns.

The violin was once not in tune.

The home was once under construction.

The butterfly was once a caterpillar.

The work of art was once a blank canvas.

The gold was once unrefined.

Anything of beauty, of worth, of value... has not always been.

It takes doing.  It takes time. It takes grace.

It takes seeing it before it is.

We just inserted three beams in place of a wall that needed removing.  The beams came  from an old barn on our property that was torn down years ago.  Old, raw, precious wood -- wood with a history -- that has been sitting in piles just waiting for someone to see the worth in it again.

I took to the sander.  Sanding and sanding.  Revealing, beneath the years of weather, between the marks of the saw blade, light. 

Beauty.

And I thought...

What if I hadn't taken this time?  What if I began this work but did not finish it?  What if the task was so big I chose to take an ax to the imperfections instead of the tedious work of sanding?

It's beauty would remain unbeheld.

It would never be appreciated for anything more than old, dirty, unfinished barn wood.

Sure it would be appreciated for what it represents.  Time and purpose...

But would it radiate of freshness, newness, and the splendor that comes only from undergoing transformation?

What if I did hack at the imperfections with an ax?

Scarring the wood.  Deeply.  Undoing not possible.

Are we more than old barn beams... Unrefined gold... Mere caterpillars...?

Like the polishing of river rock under the current of the river, we can lead one another, and our children, to the smoothing waters of Him who made us.  Who made us to be

beautiful.

Refined.

In love...

In love with each other, with life, with Him.

We have got to stop rushing the process with a chain saw when all that was needed was a simple chisel. 

We can no longer jump to the end of the book -- and hope for it to mean something -- with out putting in the time to get to know the story. 

When we say what we see... That is taking an ax to what's un-lovely.  Wounding deeply.

Can we choose to see through God-filtered lenses and speak only His truth?  Will we love -- love intensly what God loves, refusing to see our children/each other any other way? 

And speak that love.

We have the power, in Jesus name, to speak away, like a gentle sanding, that which is harsh, raw, hard, and ugly.

Patient persistence pierces through indifference; 

gentle speech breaks down rigid defenses.   Proverbs 25:15

"Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words that make these children feel strong. Grace words. Grace is the only non-toxic air. All other words I breathe are death words."  Ann Voskamp

Let us be patiently persistant in our dealings with those young or old and speak only words of life...

It is in this practice of GRACE that you will see those raw beams in your life...

tranform.