Functional Beauty

It's a wonderful thing when an object is not only functional, but also beautiful...and when it also reminds us of someone we cherish, that's icing on the cake!

One tiny part of God's body gathered in our home today for fellowship, worship, and encouragement; and I used this bowl for the apple salad I made for our lunch together. As I was putting it away this evening, I asked Jeff, "If this bowl was a person, who would it be?" He thought of the bowl as Mexican sunshine, so his answer was Maggie Arellano--an excellent choice--but I was thinking of the colors of Italy, and that brought to mind Charlene Lisi with her beautiful home with its rich shades of color and its continual warm welcome. I wonder...if I was a bowl, what would I look like?

David's First Chocolate Milkshake

Everyone talks about the well-known firsts of childhood: first step, first word, first tooth, etc. But today we celebrated another first--true, it's a lesser-known first--but it was still very exciting for one small member of our family. This evening Jeff made a homemade chocolate milkshake and was kind enough to share it with David who, not surprisingly, quickly became a huge fan of chocolate shakes!

Sunrise

This is the way my day started...with a beautiful sunrise through the trees of our neighbor's woods. What a way to start a new day!

What a Difference a Year Makes

Last Sunday when we were watching the Super Bowl at a friend's house, Jeff remarked to me about how last year when we were watching the game, David would cry from fright every time the people watching clapped and cheered for a good play. I had forgotten about that, although I was aware of the fact that I had not really enjoyed last year's Super Bowl party...but I didn't remember why until Jeff's reminder. Ah, how it comes back to me! I remember walking with David in my arms, trying to soothe him...I remember that I couldn't even sit down and enjoy a good bowl of chili because of holding David...I remember wishing that everybody would stop cheering and just watch the game silently...I remember wanting to just go home! But this year--what a difference! Most of the time, David was as jolly as he could be...walking/running around the living room...climbing on the people who were lying on the floor...wandering into the kitchen from time to time for another chip...being tickled and entertained by a number of people, especially his new pal Leanna. I actually got to sit down between Doris and Matt and eat a bowl of Trey's delicious (ahem--last-place finish) chili! It was eye-opening to realize how much David has changed in a year.

And that got me thinking about Josiah... A year ago, we were in the very final stages of potty training with him--only, at the time, I didn't realize they were the very final stages, and I envisioned his potty training stretching on into infinity. His big hold-up was a real reluctance to poop on the potty, and what a celebration we had when that hurdle was overcome! Anyone who was here that night for our home fellowship/potluck probably still remembers Josiah coming out of the bathroom, running into the living room, and exclaiming loudly, "I went kaka on the potty! Now I get a train!!!" We were all rejoicing that night! And now here we are a year later with those moments simply a distant memory for us, and our present reality in the day-to-day of life is full of new challenges and new joys. Isn't growth great?

Further Insight into the Mind of My Son

Last Monday, I wrote about Josiah's falling-in-the-toilet incident. Yesterday something happened that helped me understand the reason for the sheer terror that Josiah was oh-so-loudly demonstrating as he sat dripping wet and waiting for me to come rescue him.

Before we left the house to go grocery shopping yesterday morning, the boys were with me in the upstairs bathroom where we were brushing teeth, doing hair, etc. David, being curious, peered over the edge of the toilet into the water below until Josiah said, "David, don't touch that water. It will kill you!" A lightbulb went on in my head, and I asked Josiah, "When you fell in the potty a few days ago, did you think you would die from that?" He replied affirmatively; and when I asked him why he thought that, he said that he had heard someone say that the water in a toilet would kill a person! Well...now I get it...no wonder he was so scared on that day!

Learning Time Letters

Today in Learning Time, Josiah practiced writing the letters "o" and "c." Then he wrote words using those two letters, plus the letters "l," "i," and "t" (he had reviewed those letters in a previous Learning Time). It was a fun exercise for my brain to think of all the words I could that used those letters (I'm sure there are more, but those in the picture are all I came up with this morning), then explain the words to Josiah if he was not familiar with them. I'm so proud of him for how well he writes!!!

Makes Sense to Me!

Josiah says a few things these days that make me smile.

First, he thinks that stoplights should be called stoplights when the light is red...but when the light is green, he calls them go-lights. Makes sense to me!

Second, he knows what shortcuts are, but he also thinks we should use the word longcuts to mean the long way around. On Tuesday morning, we were visiting my great-aunt Lorraine at a retirement home near here, the same place where we went Christmas caroling in December. When we went caroling, we took a very circuitous route through the building, visiting all the different floors and wings of the floors...but when we visited Aunt Lorraine, we went directly to and from her room. As we were leaving, Josiah asked if we could take the longcut through the building. Makes sense to me! :)

Scenes from a Snowy Day

We were blessed with about 3 inches of snow which fell during the night. It's so much fun to wake up to a winter wonderland! I had to get out the camera this morning to try to capture a bit of our world.

A Man of His Word

Josiah discovered this Labyrinth game in our closet today; and when I told him that Grandpa used to play it a lot, Josiah got really excited about showing it to Grandpa and playing it with him. When my parents came up for dinner this evening, Josiah brought up the subject of playing it together; but after dinner, my parents had to go to a farm for milk (we drink raw milk straight from the farm--it's delicious--my favorite drink in the world!) and so Grandpa couldn't play with Josiah then. After they returned from getting milk, it was cold, dark, and snowing; and I felt sure that Grandpa was anxious to get back to his house; but he said, "After I drive the truck down to our house, I'll walk back up and play Labyrinth with Josiah." I told him he didn't need to worry about it; I could explain to Josiah that Grandpa needed to go and would play with him another time. But my faithful-to-his-promises dad said, "No, I told him I would play with him, so I'm going to do it." And then he came back up to our house through the cold and snow, just to keep his word to a four year-old boy. I admire that so much. Thanks, Dad!

Information Overload

Today as I was reading Finding Your Purpose as a Mom, I read this: "A related contributor to our cultural time crunch is the deluge of information that pours down on all of us every day. It is said that an educated man in seventeenth-century Europe could know everything then known to Western culture. Today, the total quantity of available information doubles every 18 months. No one can know all or even a substantial portion of it."

Isn't that amazing? I often wish I had more time so that I could just LEARN more stuff...I feel so uninformed in so many ways. Maybe when someone invents time travel, I'll zoom back to the seventeenth century to catch up!

Uncherished Moments

I think one of the challenges that every mother--in fact, every person--I know faces is to appreciate the here and now of life. It's easy to long for what's coming; we can paint the future in rosy tones. But to embrace our lives now and to have eyes that are open to the wonder of it all seems to be a constant issue.

This morning I was reading a mommy journal that I follow regularly, and I read this:

Every now and then, I look at my family and realize, with heart-stopping
clarity, "This is beyond phenomenal." And then I get caught up in something
distracting — the fact that Anna's shoes are too small, or that the dishwasher
isn't actually getting things clean anymore. Life churns on, uncherished moments
fluttering behind us like confetti.

Just then, I heard Josiah screaming--literally, at the top of his lungs. I don't know if I've ever heard him scream like that so loud for so long. I ran up the steps to check on him, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, wondering what on earth was wrong. I knew it must be something absolutely dreadful. Was there a snake in the house? Had Josiah had an aneurysm? Had someone with a gun broken into our house? I could not imagine what it was.

I found Josiah in the bathroom, standing on the stool in front of the toilet, with the back of his shirt wet, still shrieking away. I assumed that he had tried to get to the bathroom in time but had not succeeded so had wet his pants. I wasn't sure why the back of his shirt was so wet, but I didn't have time to figure it all out. I tried to calm him and take his clothes off while he was yelling over and over, "I don't LIKE being wet!"

It took a while to decipher the sequence of events, but apparently the seat of the toilet had been up, so when Josiah tried to sit down...he fell in! As I write this, I cannot stop laughing; but it was anything but funny at the moment. He was in such a panic; and although I can't get inside his head, I wonder what he was thinking as he slipped down into the water. My poor Josiah! Anyway, the wetness of the back of his shirt was not from him not making it to the bathroom in time, just from the wrong placement of a toilet seat.

By the way, if anyone is reading this, please NEVER mention this to Josiah!!! I have not talked with him further about it today. He hasn't brought it up, so I've let it drop. So please, please do not embarrass him with this! :)

After I got Josiah cleaned up and in dry clothes, I came back to the computer and finished reading about uncherished moments--and thought, "Yep, one of these days I'm not going to have a little boy falling in the toilet anymore, so I'd better be grateful for it while it lasts!" :)

To Help Us Appreciate Winter

These pictures are from that hot July afternoon I referred to in my last post. It's true--July will come again, probably with very high temperatures; and when it does, we'll all be wishing for a little cold. So to help my own perspective on this very frigid night to be thankful, I'm remembering hot July!