Deliberate Victories? (Part 4)

Yes.

I was deliberate in executing a "little victory" today.

During school, we took a break to played Hide and Seek! Momma would hide and all the children would look... screaming hilariously when I roared as found! Then all the children would hide (in pairs, until Olivia thought she'd rather count and seek with me) while Carolina and I searched around every crack, crevice, and corner.

It was a hoot! That Zack is especially good at thinking up original hiding spots, and Susanna faithfully relied on the same one - under the bed - every time;-) (Hey, if somethings working for ya, stick with it!)

It was a good thing for me to play WITH the children. It was wonderful to laugh together! It was also a nice treat to stop in the midst of doing duties to do something fun and unexpected.

I doubt I could do it every day, but then that's what makes deliberate little victories like these so special.

Oh... you want to know where I hid? With Carolina and a pregnant belly? Hmm.. Let's see...

First the Shower:-)

Then the closset,

and finally under the bedroom desk. (It's a big enough desk) (Okay, I squeezed!)

Amazingly Carolina was a very cooperative participant! We had a good time:-)

How We May Sometimes Aquire Our Theology... (but hopefully not often!)

Overheard today:

Gramsie: "What are you doing Susanna?"

Sue: "Making biscuits for dinner."

Gramsie: "Oh! Pops is going to be in HEAVEN!!"

Sue: "Pops is going to be in Heaven because of biscuits?"

See what I mean?

Deliberate.

That is a word that I might do to put into practice more.
It's felt like we've been on vacation staying with Grandparents for the last weeks - even though AJ works and we attempt to get in some school during the week. We've had so much FUN! Lots of rest, and many opportunities to enjoy family and beauty in the Lord's creation.

But it would seem that in the midst of a little school, a little work, very few chores, sipping hot tea on cold days and ice tea on the porch on warm ones; snuggling into bed late and rising late too as the fancy strikes... deliberate is a word in my vocabulary that is gathering dust.

What is there to be deliberate about when you have extra hands for a change, or a dishwasher?
What happens when you go with the flow for too long?
You lose momentum. You lose ground. I know because I am getting slower by the minute. I have been flying by the seat, giving the children "stuff" to do as I see fit, and keeping them occupied in between the romps that thrill their little hearts... rather than having a plan.
Oh some days there's a plan, but mostly we have taken life as it comes, freeing ourselves for that instant stopping and smelling of the roses.
Unfortunately, some of us have forgotten discipline. Wha...? Huh?
Discipline.
Follow through.
Work.

Yes work. Did you know that to "spoil" something is to plunder everything of value from it? You know, spoils of war? Have you ever thought of spoil in those terms when you think of "spoiling" your children? Typically we think that to spoil is to give them an excess of everything they want.
Did you know that doing that can strip away everything of value that they already have?
Patience.
Contentment.
Thankfulness.
The satisfaction of successful toil.



Here's my thought.
Perhaps if I decided to be deliberate in dealing with my children (ie. planning their school and work, and then helping them follow though) we might all value the tea-sipping, Rose-smelling, garden-walking, lego-playing, slipping-into-bed-late, Rocky Road-eating moments even more than we are right now! We all feel so much more accomplished when we make a plan, work through it, and look back over the day knowing we have been faithful.
Deliberate.

I LIKE seeing those little Bugs have fun! I like doing nothing! But I know that too much of a good thing really truly isn't good for a body. At least if it's not tempered by a a little hard work and elbow grease. I guess that's what I aim to do. Balance our indulgence with some intention.
I intend to be more deliberate.

Already I am being successful with my little victories; I just want to add another bite to that.
The goal here is to build virtue, integrity, and character - in ME as I sand away my children's rough edges and attempt to instill those things in them. I doubt it matters WHAT we do, as long as we purpose to do something and then DO it!
Deliberately.

Little Victories (part 3)

We played Chicken Foot for some of our schoolwork today. It was the right kind of weather for gathering around the kitchen table with the dominoes - wet and overcast.

After eating soup and crackers for lunch, we sat on the front porch to listen to and smell the rain.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This morning I woke up feeling weepy. Ready to crawl into a hole. By myself. Those two things are a little hard to come by right now, a lonely hole. But somehow, with gentle kindness and tender compassion the Lord picked up the pieces of me and redeemed the day. A day which had hardly begun, but appeared lost from the outset.
Not to be.

After our traditional Fried Egg Friday breakfast, with something hot to sip on and some instructions for a boy who needed work to do...
I read up on Elderflower blossoms (more pleasurable schoolwork for us all), and over the course of 30 minutes plans and aspirations were popping into my head one after another. The children were already drawing at the kitchen table when I wanted to sing hymns, so I allowed them to continue drawing as we sang today. We also managed to clean out the car in between light rain showers. That was long overdue, but will be much appreciated by the hard-working dad of our family! We napped this afternoon. In silence. Another two things hard to come by, a silent nap.

Now at 5:00 the pizza fixings are ready to go, only needing the whole wheat dough to be made.
There's a fire in the fireplace, rain on the windows, and happy voices that are neither too soft nor too shrill.
We eagerly prepare and await the arrival of daddy!
And I shake my head slowly in amazement that beauty indeed, came of ashes. The God of all heaven and earth met me today, and found mercy to scoop me up and give me more than one little victory.

"Blessed be the Lord: for He hath shewed me His marvelous kindness..."

Psalm31:21

One Full Day, and Two Sweet Memories

One morning spent on schoolwork.
Rest of day spent fully enjoying precious friends at their home.
Quiet evening home (everyone else out still), and a dinner of whole wheat bread sandwiches and bananas!
Everyone in pajamas before seven.
An evening walk together through the Rose garden, and here's my delight...

Zachary takes me on a tour. Gently fingering the petals of first one Rose and then another he tells me: "Mom, this one is our Las Lina's Red. Isn't it beautiful? Gramsie loves this one over here; and this one is called Sun Sprite! That one mom? That's Abraham Darby - just like the bigger bush in the front. I LIKE this tree rose mom, it's called Baby Blanket. I'd like to take a cutting of it to Idaho, but it won't be a tree of course, just a shrub if we take a cutting. Oooh! I think this might be another Splish-Splash! My Rose is The Fourth of July - isn't it spectacular this Spring?!"
He has a green thumb, that boy. And his Gramsie is out in the garden every morning at the crack of dawn with her coffee in hand enjoying each new specimen. Zack is an early riser and is usually at her side asking a million questions, and soaking in every piece of information. If we take some starts with us to Idaho I will be relying on my Zachary to know how to care for them and which one is which.

One more short story: Not ALL my children have an eye for which growing thing is which.
Today my children discovered that Auntie Heather's front "flower bed was entirely full of Peppermint. It was one of four things growing in that space and covered every square inch that the one large shrub and two spindly plants did not.
Zachary and Clayton grabbed several handfuls of the dark aromatic leaves and began to chomp away at them. Before long all the children were putting mint leaves in their mouths, and the boys even collected some to make tea with at home.
I noticed that Susanna was ripping of a bite of something with a larger, brighter green leaf.
It turned out to be one of the two tiny survivors in Auntie Heather's "flower" bed - a Hydrangea plant.
Every
last
leaf
and stem
were in Sue's hand and mouth!

I don't understand at all. I really don't. The ENTIRE bed was full of Peppermint, and she pulls out the only Hydrangea bush that was growing there!
I am SO glad that Auntie is quick to laugh because it was worth a good chuckle. Chuckle we did! I guess some have it, and some do not :-P

I'm glad AJ will be home tomorrow night. I'm ready.

WHAT little victories???

I don't know ladies. This evening I would say there weren't any little victories today. It feels that way anyhow! HA! A certain one of mine was pushing the envelope all day and others were tattling, whining, provoking, antagonizing, and foot-dragging (translated: not responding to mom with immediate and cheerful obedience).
Judging by the new picture displayed on my header I know you are shocked! "Not Momma Bug's children - oh NOooo!"

Technically it's probably not true, and to prove it I'll think of something nice to say. Here goes:

-------------------------------------------------
My little victory for Wednesday April 29th

This evening when I tucked my children into bed (early, and after a somewhat monotonous lecture) I attempted to end the day on a sweet note by commending each one for something they had dome today worthy of praise.

Susanna,
I sure appreciated you holding Carolina when I was trying to get a picture of you girls. That was certainly a big help!

Zachary,
Thank you for writing out place cards for everyone at the dinner table. I felt so loved to have a heart on mine!

Clayton,
Thank you so much for getting Olivia's clean pillow and bedding from outside and putting it away for me without being asked. What a guy!

Olivia,
It was a pleasure to see your smiling face when you woke up from nap this afternoon. Thank you for your happy heart!
---------------------------------------------

I am grateful to the Lord for reminding me of just a few of His gentle mercies today. I sense that the night is far from over from all the action taking place in a room that should be quiet and still by now, but to end on a sweet note...

Lord,
thank you for the beauty of the day and an opportunity to be outside enjoying your creation and watching my children play.

Thank you for helping me follow through with the bread-making plan. It was such another little victory to accomplish three new loaves with the doubled recipe!

You are far kinder than I deserve, that I have time still, for some Rocky Road ice cream and some Agatha Christie before getting to bed "early"! :-)
Thanks Lord for having a delightful sense of humor, and such patience with me. Please help that to overflow onto my children that they might delight in you too. I love you!

-me

Well YEEEE-HA!

Look what my beloved bought for me!

To be truthfull, it's been sitting out on the porch for a couple weeks waiting for me to give it some loving care. With the expectation that everything I try for the first time will be difficult and time-consuming, I followed my usual form and procrastinated. It IS true that I wanted to try making bread again when I ground the first wheat berries so the time constraints on that endeavor (reading the manual, breaking in the mill, and attempting bread all in the same fell swoop) made me leary to start one hour before lunch and nap!

Today was the day though! AJ got on an airplane once again, and I decided not to wait for hand-holding. I knew he'd be thrilled if I actually USED his gift - especially since I begged and pleaded for it!

We dutifully read the manual, first Zack and then Clay (I wouldn't miss an opportunity to turn a project like this into school!)

Then we put the pieces together and ground our first two cups of wheat to clean out the mill. It sounded like we were in a rocket leaving earth!

Then we got serious and made bread. We used Auntie Hannah's tried, tested, and tweaked to perfection recipe. It is really amazing how few ingredients there are in it!

Auntie Hannah's Bread

4 Cups unmilled wheat (hard red) milled.

Combine:

2 Cups warm water

2 tsp. salt

1/4 honey (more or less)

sprinkle over top, 3 and 1/2 tsp yeast and stir.

Add a little flour at a time until too stiff to stir, then dump out on counter and knead in the rest of the flour. Knead in only enough flour to leave the finished lump of dough a tiny bit sticky.

Put a bit of oil on counter or in bowl, place lump of dough on it and then turn dough to lightly coat in oil.

Cover with towel and rise until double.

Once risen, cut in half and knead into two loaves.

Place each into a greased bread pan (small size: 4 x 8 1/2"?).

Score the top three times, and brush with egg white.

Cover and let rise one more time until dough peeks over the edge.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.

Let cool. eat.

So there you go. I was not counting on an edible loaf, but when we taste-tested it one quickly disappeared!

Everyone agreed that it was a success and are ready to try again tomorrow.

We'll see about that, but since I do think practice is in order there's a good chance;-)

I am SO THRILLED!
Will you all please post or comment your own favorite bread recipe's for me?

Little Victories

I had a brainstorm last night.
I have been thinking how much I'd like to do a better job being my children's friend. I want to let them participate more in what I'm working on - be it dinner, sewing, or making the bed (which at this innocent, unbiased age they still ASK to help with). I am just so often tired. The job is faster completed without "help" and I aways graciously offer to let them watch... Humph. They don't want to watch, they want to HELP! And I know I should let them. AND I know I will regret it one day if I don't.
The thing is I have not been able to bring about all the change as fast and efficiently as I want to see it. More often than not I fail so miserably that my quiet evening hours are filled with regret (somewhat due to pregnancy hormones) and as my guilt grows, my resolve weakens.

So... that brings me to my brainstorm.
I am going to start posting little victories. As often as they occur or I want to record them I am going to post the thing I did with my child/children that went against my flesh, but I did because I knew it was best. Something I did because it was the right thing to do when I may not have felt like doing it.
For instance, today: While I was getting breakfast on this morning, Susanna asked if she could help, so I pulled over a stool and let her stir the scrambled eggs on the stove.
Then she scooped the blueberries into each bowl of oatmeal and squeezed the agave nectar over the top.
My goodness how she glowed at the breakfast table!

"...Yes, mom did let me have a blueberry already, but I was one of the cooks, and the cooks get to have tastes..."
"Mom and I have the biggest bowls because the cooks get to have the biggest bowls if they want..."

That was one of my little victories today - letting Sue help me.
When I made a quick trip to the dryer to take out a few clothes, I took Olivia with me and she did the job for me while I gathered clothes out of the washer.
Another little victory.
I know these are the things I am supposed to be doing all the time and throughout the day, but this one area is a real weak area in my life and daily routine. Rather than trying to "eat the elephant" all in one bite, I am going to take a forkful here and a spoonful there and a sliver after that as I can.

If you are inspired to attempt this challenge too, leave me a comment on my Little Victories posts and we can enjoy each other's exploits and glorify the Lord together!

I Had an Ultrasound And...

...And there's only ONE perfectly beautiful, and precious baby stretching out sideways in my womb!

Everything I could see gave me reason to think twins. I had a divine appointment with my dear friend and former midwife Janice who looked me over and didn't discount my premonition, so I couldn't stand it any longer. I HAD to know.
The Ultrasound place was booked for a couple weeks, and their "First Look" fee doubled after 20 weeks, so I called and asked (pleaded, begged, gave my sob story) if they could squeeze me in that day (Saturday).
They called back and set me an appointment for later in the day and I took Olivia with me for the first peek! I was really expecting to see two babies by this time, so before I arrived I asked the Lord to help me not be disappointed, and that if He was willing, I would be thrilled to see even just one healthy little baby in there.

This Ultrasound place is a really neat business. The Lady who owns it is also the sonographer, and has plenty of room in her "office" to fit all your family, friends, strangers, and maybe even enemies too, right in where they can watch baby with you on a big screen TV in front of your bed. It is really very neat, and Olivia and I fairly rattled around in there just the two of us.

The Technician could determine only one baby right away, so there was no room for even guessing. I kept thinking "Don't you want to do a better job looking? Maybe he's hiding!"
For novelties sake I was disappointed.
After I watched in awe for a while and fell in love with that dear little figure, I was sensibly relieved for logistics sake! HA!
The logistics of twins are probably better left to the imagination;-)

I have to tell you that as I watched the ultrasound technician take measurements and show me the baby's tiny heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, and other functioning parts, I felt overwhelming gratefulness that my little one measures exactly in accordance with the dates I had been sure of.
He or she is 18 weeks, 6 days.
Weighs 9 ounces right now.
The paperwork says in effect, that every little thing is normal, normal, normal.
There are times in my life in which that word is the very music that carries me. Normal.
My baby is normal, and has enough brothers and sister's ahead of him to have made that dark nest a very roomy apartment! The U.T. said Little Bug was stretched out, and "very high" (so I had noticed!), and I told her that this is the most space and quiet this baby is likely to EVER have, and I hope he is taking full advantage of it and enjoying himself ;-P

I'd love to post one of the pictures I have, but my computer has been commandeered for a time and I'm grateful to be borrowing another.
Thank you for your kind words and encouragements. The Lord is so good to me. He has blessed me beyond my dreams and expectations, and certainly beyond what I could ever deserve.
I am very, VERY thankful!!

Two Pictures

Tell me this isn't the most precious thing you've seen today!
Little Carolina likes to stop and smell the Roses. My, she looks so sweet with her nose stuck in the fragrant blossom!
Carolina Candy:-)








Zachary caught this fella today (I would wear gloves too!) and Gramsie wanted ol' Lizard Lips removed as faaaaaar as possible from the house:-) I was proud of his exploit!