A Saturday in May

Everything is growing so fast!

Tomatoes. Herbs. Peaches. Garden. Boys.

J's tomato plant, ready for transplanting.

Hot Box for hardening seedlings. Never fear the cold nights again, just close the lid.

Teeny weeny strawberry plants. I may go buy some mature ones- I want garden strawberries this year!

Sow your carrots atop the soil lined in a row, ordered the directions.
I complied.
Down comes the rain to distribute the carrots everywhere.
Ah. Well.

Salad greens! I'm having success with everything except that kale...

Arugula- sooo good!

Fence in progress. Then probably some gravel down and more stepping stones.

Future melons and pumpkins. Just gotta finish digging it out and add the top soil. I'm waaay behind on it! Eecks!

Fields of clover- best thing about May.

PEACHES!!!

Should be ripe in June!

We have an apple tree now too, but there were no blossoms this year. Maybe next year...

Mommy's helper.

J running.
("RUN! RUN!")

L running.
"RAH! RAH!"

Races.

I weeded this little path way and showed the boys all the worms I found.
The little one (L) said, "Ssssss!" every time.

Somebody's graduated to the top of the tire swing...

Daddy's shoulders.

Since he's now a big boy, he's a bit resistant to going back under the tire swing.....

Gorgeous day in May!

Our Saturday Started Very Poorly

Here's an excerpt from an email I wrote my cousin about our Saturday morning. I decided it was blog worthy. Enjoy!


"Here's my Stupid Saturday story and it's only 8:37....
I wake up and immediately am struck with nausea. Bleh, I roll over and try to sleep it off since Seth is up with the boys. They're too loud to fall back asleep, so I just lay there and the nausea fades and settles into queasy, then finally makes it to unsettled. Unsettled I can do. Until Seth comes in the room with a pancake and I open my eyes to him sticking it under my nose. I sharply inform him of how I feel, the Unsettled jumps back to Queasy, and I roll back over and listen to the commotion again.


Jet is yelling and calling and hollering because his movie is nearly over and Seth doesn't know that you have to hover over the button for 5 minutes before the end of the movie to shut it off in an approved fashion before it hits the credits (he hates credits, he'll miss the last bit of the movie to keep the credits from rolling. Weirdo...). 


So, Jet is carrying on, and Seth doesn't get what his point is so he's hollering back for Judah to "calm down" and "knock it off" and "yada yada". Then I hear Leviathan the Snarky one cough-cough-gag-spill-splat. Seth demands to know "What happened?" from the next room, despite Leviathan not be able to respond for language reasons. I could tell him though: Leviathan puked. But I don't, I lay there and realize I have to get over my queasy sensation to help Seth, who has now discovered the puke. I enter a scene with pale, pancake and snot puke all over the table, the chair, and the floor. Leviathan has miraculously managed to keep himself puke free, except for his pancake which he is wrestling towards his mouth as Seth attempts to snatch it away. 


"You *can't eat it*, Leviathan! You can't!" 


Then Seth, poor Seth, keeps taking breaks and holding his shirt over his face because of "the smell" (he mutters again and again). Me? I don't smell a puke smell (to my relief). I smell pancake. Just very strong pancake. So I tell Seth to go to work and I begin cleaning up pancake puke. Leviathan, meanwhile, has received a puke-free pancake and is cramming his mouth and running around the house. He's had diarrhea for a few days now because of his allergies/runny nose and I guess he just had too much snot in him to start the day with a load of pancake. I was apparently queasy because I was extremely thirsty. We both seem to be doing fine... Leviathan is hanging out on the bed next to me, being adorable and very squishy, and I'm thinking about eating pancakes. :) I think I need a bit more water first. 

Okay, that got tangenty. The point is, our Saturday started very poorly. I guess it's all uphill from here. Unless I'm struck with Nausea again. Leviathan the Puker is bouncing on my bed and talking about cars and blue and byebye. :) "

Small Celebrations

Last Sunday was Easter. I plopped some eggs in various bushes around the yard and watched the boys hunt them. 2 boys, 27 eggs (2 remained unfound until this morning), 10 minutes. Done. Then came the feasting. 

"Momma! Take a picture of my candy!" 

It didn't take long for them to distrust the Jelly Bellys. And who can blame them? I've said it once, I'll say it again- those suckers taste how shampoo smells. Yum, let's chow down. Or spit them out, saliva coated and half chewed, in a blob on the concrete. As long as you miss mommy's yoga mat, all is fine.

The stickers were not a hit. What was I thinking? M&Ms or stickers? Stickers discarded. They're now stashed in my purse for desperate moments at the grocery store.

Honestly, holidays are not a big deal for our family. We're not against them, and I get why others get involved and love the festivities. But to us, making a big deal over Christmas, New Year's, Valentines, Easter... even birthdays... they just don't make sense.

I guess our family style gravitates toward taking simple moments throughout the days and week to celebrate, to draw attention to, to be thankful for. 

I love snuggling up on my purple chair, listening to NPR whilst crocheting some squares and slurping my coffee.

I love just sitting outside and watching the birds swoop and soar, hearing the wind woosh through the leaves and seeing them dance across the brilliance the blue sky is offering today. 

I love interviewing Jet and having no idea what answers he'll be shooting out today. 

"Hey, Jet, what are you thinking about?"

"Mm, I was just thinking about how beautiful the sky is. Look at that, Momma! Is that a blue sky?! Yes, it is!!" and then off he dashes, to go dig in the dirt and wack at my azaleas with sticks.

I love resting in bed and opening my eyes to Leviathan's pitter-patter feet slapping across the floor. I love seeing his eyes bright and dazzling and the grin that breaks on his face as he exclaims, "Mom-MA!" I love that his only reason for popping in the room is to give me a hug, receive a kiss, and then he gleefully scampers off.

I love when Seth comes home for the day and immediately insists we go for a walk. I love walking with Seth and talking with Seth about altogether everything and nothing. 

I love the energetic buzz that fills my house just after I've cleaned it all day and just before friends and visitors arrive. 

I love driving with the windows down, the sun shimmering across everything, the smell of Virginia in spring, and the breeze making my hair a disgraceful mess. 

I love doing yoga outside. That doesn't happen enough. But it happened on Sunday.

(Plank...

 Upward facing dog...

Downward facing dog.)

The world is beautiful upside down. Everything looks bigger and somehow the colors become dazzling. Just something else to celebrate.

"The heavens are telling the glory of God;

and their expanse is declaring the word of His hands."

Psalm 19:1

Taste and See...

Yesterday our family experienced epic moments of simplicity.

I'm reading a book called "This Beautiful Mess" in which the author (Rick McKinnley) speaks of the paradox of the Now & Not Yet-ness of the Kingdom of God. His message heavily rests in ways we experience the Kingdom now- in this lifetime, while the Kingdom is Not Yet. (Jesus said "the Kingdom of God is within you.") The way we interact with this message affects how we interact with our world and the people in it.

So today, on our scenic route home from meeting, I pondered and bantered with Seth over the various ways God allows us to experience Him and feel Him and know he exists. 

Here are our musings. Not all are true for everyone. We're all unique.

We can experience God through the natural world; through rivers and woods, through mountains and hiking trails, through star gazing on summer nights, or catching fireflies with our children. We can experience him while we fish, or boat, or run by the seashore. We can see his beauty and his intricate, perfect composition of the cosmos by peeking through telescopes. God is in nature.

We can experience God through our family; through the love a parent is struck with when first meeting their new son or daughter. "Wow. God loves me like that," were some of my first parental musings. It's a staggering love and so deep and powerful it's impossible for me to describe it fully. God is in family.

We can experience God through relationships; through close friends, familiar strangers and old acquaintances, the barista who works the Sunday morning shift at the coffee house, the woman who held the door open for you when your hands were full of babies, diaper bags and groceries, through the people in our church and our next door neighbor, the voice on the other end of your business call. God is in people.

We can experience God through meditation; through careful consideration and reflection on our life. Through questioning and rationalizing. We can wonder and pause. God is in our thoughts.

We can experience God through play; through long rambling walks or quick runs, through marathons and living room dance parties, through amateur sports or the yoga class at the gym. During afternoons in your friend's pool, or kicking the ball around for the dog, chasing birds on the beach, creating towers of blocks for the sole purpose of crashing them to the floor again. God is in play.

We can experience God through creativity;  through crafts, arts & craftsmanship. While piecing together a quilt or crocheting squares for a blanket. While we create works of pottery, or build playgrounds in our backyard or reviving an old car, or while making impressionistic paintings of the scene before our eyes. If we write poetry, tell stories or act out dramas from long ago, God is in creativity.

We can experience God through children; through their laughter and persistence, through their unquenchable desire to know, whenever they accept and love regardless, their complete innocence and blindness to our social rules, the way that they seem to default back to happiness and playfulness and immediately forgive wrong-doings in others. God is in children.

We can experience God through music; he moves us with melodies and tunes. Music inspires emotions within us and speaks when words fail. Music gives simple words new life and truer meaning. It brings us together despite all flavors of differences. God is in music.

We can experience God through care-taking; through service to others (organized and unstructured alike), through keeping chickens, putting the cat in at night, through work with the local soup kitchen or     cleaning Chapel floors. Anytime we help or assist another person or living being, whether directly, in a hands-on approach, or by ensuring our kitchen table is cleaned for their use. God is in caring.

We can experience God through learning; when we read historical accounts from eras now past, when we study biology and earth sciences, learning about lava rocks and geography, through various cultures and while striving to understand the perfection of mathematics. God is in learning. 

We can experience God through gardening; being connected to the earth and our food, through the realization that life springs from death, through the patterns of sowing, growing and harvesting, through a reliance on the weather and the natural world: the sunshine, the rain, the bugs, the birds, the earthworms, the dirt. God is in the garden.

God has given all of us unique, quirky, independent individuals, countless moments of epic simplicity, to experience Him, to see His beauty, plan, and love for us. Living a life for God and allowing all of our senses to be aware of Him is living a full life. 

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good."

Psalm 34:8a

[Jesus] came that [we] may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10b

Day by Day

The boys are resting right now after their big morning of outdoor activity. Going out with them reminds me of how simple and fun life is. Leviathan ran here, there, everywhere and nowhere in a very adorable toddler sort of way, while Jet asked a million questions in a very adorable pre-schooler sort of way.

I found a variety of chores while they wandered and explored. I water the seeds after an embarrassing struggle with the hose (the hose won, I used a watering can), picked up some bits of trash around the yard. Then I set my kale out to harden off before planting (grow, kale, grow!) and stretched my arms out every time the breeze picked up. I guess that last one's not a chore, just a weird thing I like to do.

The morning's soundtrack included birds chirping and singing, honeybees buZZing around the peach tree's blossoms, chickens squawking -not the most relaxing of noises-, Jet's chattering and Leviathan's few but consistent words. And one other sound... a constant meow. Out came the cat to explore with us!

Well, not with us. Just near us until he found something better to do- like chase a brown leaf blowing towards the ditch and then unsuccessfully hunt a bird. Since he was down by the road and I keep the kids towards the back yard as much as possible, I let the jungle-cat do his thing and led the kids to the tire swing.

The day stretched into the afternoon. We popped inside for an epic lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then back out to see if we could locate the missing kitty. 

"Jet, where's Ringo?"

"I don't know. I think the chickens ATE him!"

I have no real reason for writing this today other than to express how much I love these little moments and these kinds of days. Part of my ponderings while I putzed around the yard was how little of our life we actually remember. The day-to-day routines and the choresy parts and the time when Ringo the Cat went *missing* for nearly an hour when he was actually under the shed probably napping. Remember when Leviathan threw rocks for 20 minutes and called everything "blue" regardless of it's color? Remember when Jet insisted that the chickens ate the cat (morbid, but yet adorable), and smiled so sweetly when he asked if I was married to Daddy?

Truth is, I wouldn't. I'd remember big moments, wedding days, family vacations, and birthday parties. But this part of life that I love so much, this part that takes up the bulk of my time, it just slips past me and it's gone.

As for man, his days are like grass; 

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 

When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, 

And its place acknowledges it no longer. 

But the lovingkindness of the LORD is 

from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children, 

To those who keep His covenant 

And remember His precepts to do them. 

Psalm 103:15-17

This seems a bittersweet end to a lovely day. It's not meant to be. I try to be in the moment, in the day, experiencing it as it comes to me. I want to hold this time with my sons close to my heart, but not obsess over it and let it paralyze me from embracing tomorrow. I'm blessed in so many ways and I hope I'm forever aware of God's goodness to me, day by day. 

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