Tis the Season

Tis the season--for turtlenecks! I've been working on laundry today; and I've washed, dried, folded, and put away the following clothing items of mine: a white turtleneck, another white turtleneck, a chocolate brown turtleneck, a navy blue turtleneck, a dark green turtleneck, and a black turtleneck. I think the only turtleneck I didn't wear this week was my light green one; I'll probably wear it soon. Oh, and guess what I'm wearing as I write this? A turtleneck!

It was 7 degrees this morning here at our house--and that's 7 degrees Fahrenheit (-13.9 degrees for you Celsius folks). Tonight it is once again 7 degrees, and I'm sure it will get lower than that during the night. I can hardly wait to fly to California next week--not just for the weather, of course--but I am looking forward to higher temps!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how our bodies adapt to our climate, wherever we may be. Whatever is cold for our particular climate seems cold to us, and the same thing is true with heat...but when we go to a different climate, it all changes. I remember when I was a senior in college and I flew to San Diego to visit Jeff (to whom I was engaged at the time). It was December 1996. I was enjoying wearing summer dresses and going barefoot as I sat in the porch swing on Jeff's sister's patio, but all the California folks thought I was crazy. I had come from the cold and snow of my college in Pennsylvania though so the weather seemed really warm to me!

It also amazes me that the weather can change so much so that during part of the year, we are so hot that we wear as few clothes as possible and still sweat like crazy, but during another part of the year--the same year in the same place--we are so cold that we bundle up as much as we can and still feel cold. I was looking at pictures today from a HOT July Sunday afternoon volleyball game and thinking, "I can't believe we were really that hot; I remember feeling on that day like I would simply melt like a pat of butter in a hot skillet!" And now here I huddle in my turtlenecks, shoving as much wood into our woodstove as will possibly fit in an effort to stay warm. What a contrast!

This doesn't just happen in Virginia. When we lived in Tel Aviv which has a more temperate climate than here, the same thing was true. I have vivid memories of dressing Josiah in a onesie, than a sleeper, than a sleeping sack before putting him to bed in the winter--and I still worried that he might be cold, and sometimes even put blankets on top of him (after he was old enough to be safe with blankets). But during the summer, he would wear just a diaper to bed and would still be hot!

Well, enough reflections on the weather. This cold snap certainly makes me grateful for our warm home. I can see how people could easily die in this weather.

Craziness

A favorite game of the Fisher boys, invented by our very own Josiah! I'm not sure why he picked the name "Craziness" for it, but it certainly has stuck--and it seems highly appropriate!

Chef Jeff's Chili

This was Jeff's entry into the chili competition last night. Isn't it lovely? Speaking completely free from bias, I must say that the taste is excellent, but you really have to appreciate highly spicy foods to truly enjoy this chili to its highest potential. I would say it definitely deserved higher than the 7th place ranking it received. Like I said, I'm not biased at all in that...just speaking the truth in love!

For dinner tonight, we ate some of the leftover chili; and if I diluted my bowl of chili with roughly half sour cream/half chili, I could eat it with only a manageable amount of tongue-burning.

Suppertime

This is how us folks eat our supper out here in the country. But if you're from the city and you come 'round here looking for this kind of tomfoolery, ain't nobody gonna show it to you...not 'afore you done lived here for generations. We generally try to keep up appearances 'round them city folk.

Turtles

Tonight we are going to a friend's house for a Super Bowl party; the Camerons will once again host a chili cook-off with a spectacular prize for first place. Rumor has it that the prize awarded the winner last year actually broke the very first time it was used, but I'm certain the quality of prizes has improved drastically since then!

In any case, I decided not to enter chili this year--I'm still recovering from my dismal finish last year. After all those burning tongues of fire, I figured we're gonna need something sweet--and sweet, I can do. So this afternoon found me making a mess in my kitchen, whipping up brownies, congo squares, and turtles. As I was making the turtles, the sight of the pecans standing in rows like soldiers, awaiting their baptism of boiling butter and brown sugar and chocolate chips, caught my eye, so I decided to snap a picture of them. Sometimes we miss the beauty of ordinary things--ordinary moments--and although I'm not saying this picture is particularly beautiful, there is something pleasing about it to my eye.

Wake-up Call

Every once in a while, God gives me a wake-up call; sometimes, it's more like a slap in the face. It's as if God knows that every so often, I get complacent and unappreciative of the rich blessings of my life, so He gives me a glimpse of how life could be for me, but for His grace. This time, the wake-up call came in the form of a blog (http://weloveyoujoel.blogspot.com) that I found through another blog, and now I can't even remember exactly how I did find it! But it's a heart-breaking--and heart-warming--story of a little boy named Joel who had cancer and died. Joel had a twin brother named Josiah; and any story about a Josiah grabs my attention immediately. In this case, I found tears coming to my eyes numerous times as I read; and I could so easily imagine cancer striking our family and one of our boys being struck down. I can't even come close to imagining the pain that would cause; and as I tuck my boys in bed these days, I give them extra hugs, kisses, and squeezes, not even wanting to let go and say a final good night, knowing that but for the grace of God, these lives that are so precious to me could slip away so quickly.

My New Favorite Quote about Heaven

I just read this today and immediately attached myself to it; it's a profound thought on which to meditate.

We are not citizens of this world trying to make our way to heaven; we are citizens of heaven trying to make our way through this world...we live as those who are on a journey home; a home we know will have the lights on, and the door open, and our Father waiting for us when we arrive. That means in all adversity our worship of God is joyful, our life is hopeful, our future is secure. There is nothing we can lose on earth that can rob us of the treasures God has given us and will give us.

~ The Landisfarne, via The Anglican Digest, as quoted in Finding Your Purpose as a Mom

Mommy's Family Night

Tonight was family night in honor of--me! I took the opportunity to get some acts of service for myself, one of my love languages. :) Actually, Jeff is great about acts of service--always willing to give the boys a bath, build a bookshelf, help me with the computer, or even help our "northern neighbors" with various projects! :)

Fairly recently, Jeff painted our old church pew and moved it into the kitchen, then the black bookshelves were added, and tonight it was time to do something to the wall. So Jeff moved a painting that was in the living room into the kitchen; and on either side, hung plates that had belonged to my great-grandmother, Grace Ellen McKee. She was the only great-grandparent that I ever knew, and I am named after her (my middle name is Grace). I love these old plates and thought they were much too special to simply sit in a cupboard. On another blog recently, I saw a picture of a woman's house with special, old plates hung to decorate the walls...and I thought, "Hey, I could do that!" Usually when I see things like that--whether it be on other blogs or in home magazines--I feel like it's too difficult, expensive, or doesn't fit my character. But this idea was a good one for me to grab, and I'm very happy with the results!

Other highlights of this day for me:

~ Josiah exclaiming as I was brushing his teeth, "I'm so happy you're my mother!"

~ Jeff sending me this quote today...

I love you not only for what you are

but for what I am when I am with you.

I love you not only for what you have

made of yourself but for what you are

making of me. I love you for the part

of me that you bring out.- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

~ having the following conversation with Josiah:

Josiah: I just wish we could all go to heaven NOW.

me: Yeah? What would you like to do when you get to heaven?

Josiah: Give God a great big bear hug!

~ sitting on the couch this evening reading to the boys by our cozy wood stove, while Jeff hung a different painting in the living room (since we took the one from the living room to put in the kitchen)

~ being silly with Josiah as I was putting him to bed--which involved pretending to fall asleep while I was singing his lullaby and him having to waken me, "rapping" a prayer to God (when I finished and got up to leave, Josiah said, "You forgot to pray!" I said, "I DID pray!" :) Then he wanted to do it, too. It's good to expand his concept of what prayer can be!), and also intentionally mixing up a little ritual we have...it goes like this...

When Josiah was going through the "no" toddler stage, we would turn the tables on him when he started saying "no" and would ask him, "Do you know how much I love you?" He would then say, "no," and we would get to say, "I love you THIS MUCH!" and stretch our arms as far to the sides as we could. Then we would say again, "I love you THIS MUCH!" and reach as high in the sky as we could. Once more we would say, "I love you THIS MUCH!" and wrap our arms around him and give him as big a hug as we could.

So tonight as I was leaving his room, I did that ritual with him; but when it was time to hug him, I hugged the wall, then said, "Oh, no, that doesn't feel like Josiah!" Then hugged the door and said the same thing, then the bedpost, then his teddy bear, acting more and more confused all the time. By the time I actually got around to hugging him, he was literally doubled over laughing. It's such fun to crack him up!

Like Big Brother, Like Little Brother

"I'm gonna do such a good job of coloring this picture!"
"OK...now how did Josiah do it?...I know he holds this pencil and does something with it...let me see if I can do it, too!...hmm, maybe I should just eat the pencil."

Life in Community

One of the things we appreciate about living here in our town is the sense of rootedness that we have and are building. After living for the first 9 years of our married life with only shallow roots (as related to the communities in which we were living--NOT our relationships with God, each other, or friends), it's a joy now to see much deeper roots already in place and continuing to stretch and grow. Case in point--today Jeff was able to slip away from the barber shop for a little while to go with me and the boys to Walmart to grab a bite to eat at the Subway there and do a little shopping. (As an aside, that last sentence would be extremely tough for a non-native English speaker to understand. It has too many expressions. "Slip away; what does that mean; did he fall?" "Grab a bite; are you really grabbing a bite; who are you grabbing it from?") As soon as we entered Subway, Jeff saw someone he knew; and before he was even done ordering our food, another man he knew entered the shop. It's an odd reversal that here in this community in which I grew up, my husband is the one who knows so many people now! It used to be that as a child, I couldn't go anywhere with my dad without somebody that he knew stopping him to talk--and now it's that way when I go out with Jeff. But instead of growing tired of it like I did growing up, I now find a lot of satisfaction in it. It reminds me of how God created us to grow and develop and live life in community. I hope that in our lives, through our home and our friendships, we can help others to find that sense of community that leads to healthy growth and shared joys.

On a related note, I remember something our friend Gabe Santos from Charlottesville said one time about how connected we are to so many other people. He encouraged us to think about a jar of peanut butter, then think about how many other people were involved in the process of making that jar of peanut butter and getting it to us. I don't know exactly how many people that would be! But it's obvious that our lives are intricately connected with hundreds and thousands of people that we don't know and won't ever meet, but they still affect us. I think it should bring a sense of humility to us as we realize that none of us are an island--none of us really pull ourselves up by our bootstraps without a lot of hands tugging along with us. It sobers me to think how grateful I need to be for the contributions of countless people to me, as well as how conscious I need to be of my impact on countless others.

A Falling Star

One thing I forgot to write about our museum trip yesterday was that on the way home, I saw a falling star!!! Now I think maybe I've kind of seen a falling star before, sort of, perhaps...I'm usually the one looking east when everyone else sees one falling in the west; and by the time I get my head spun around to where everyone else is looking, the star is gone. But I really saw one yesterday, and Jeff saw it, too--right out in front of us as we were driving on 64 West to come home.

Good to the Last Drop

The snow from our big storm is almost all gone, and has been for quite some time. And although we were hoping for more today, the weatherman's predictions didn't come true, and not a single flake was seen falling at our house. But that didn't stop Josiah and David from having some snow fun today! This big pile of snow is very slowly melting; but because it's shaded by a row of pine trees, it's taking a while; and the boys discovered that it was really fun to kick it, stand on it, slide down it, and roll a ball down it. They were doing this while I was beginning the massive project of cleaning out the garage. Ugh! I got one little corner of it done today, and managed to throw out a few things while nobody was looking. :)