Abundance

~ our neighbors' pumpkins in the early morning sunlight

By the way, Josiah requested that I change my blog to a fall color, so this new background is the result. :)

You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. (Psalm 65:11)

This and That about Mr. J

~ crafts, crafts, and more crafts -- one thing I can cross off my worry list is that Josiah might possibly be deprived of the kindergarten experience of doing lots of crafts -- between a husband who loves pottery and eagerly shares the experience of working with clay, from molding to glazing to painting to firing, with Josiah...and a son who asks to do crafts every day...and me getting pushed over the hump of being intimidated by--gulp--crafts, somewhere we've crossed the line from reluctantly doing crafts once a week to now doing them on basically a daily basis -- here is the latest example: an Egyptian pyramid (although Josiah's colorful version makes the real ones pale in comparison!) -- in the fall of 2003 when Josiah was just one year old, we had the incredible experience of actually being in Egypt, hosted on a wonderful long weekend by my friend (and Egypt's greatest tour guide) Jackie -- every time I think about pyramids now, a mental picture springs to my mind of Josiah sleeping in the Snugli while we traipsed around in the Egyptian desert, admiring the pyramids and the Sphinx -- what a privileged life we've had!

~ lullaby update: it appears that all that emotion I poured out upon the news that I would no longer be singing Josiah's lullaby was wasted -- Josiah seems to have had a change of heart, and now occasionally asks me to sing him his lullaby -- sometimes he does; sometimes he doesn't; and that's fine with me; the choice is up to him -- but I'm so glad that the end of an era which I envisioned did not possess such finality after all! :)

~ Sunday school: Josiah gets to start going to a new Sunday school class tomorrow morning, and he is THRILLED -- many times today, he has spontaneously exclaimed, "I'm so excited about my new Sunday school class; I can hardly wait!"

~ generosity: one of the things that the children do during the first part of their Sunday school time is to gather with all the children from all the classes to sing a few songs, celebrate birthdays, and take up an offering for a special project -- tonight I told Josiah about the offering and told him that he could decide how much of his money he wanted to give -- I got out his bag holding a few dollar bills and some coins, and he looked through it to see how much he had and how much he should give -- I wondered to myself if he would decide to just give a little bit, or even resist the whole idea of giving, and if so, how I was going to deal with it: convince him to give, command him to give, let him not give? -- imagine my delight when he said, "What is the biggest one in here?" -- I told him the dollar bill was worth the most -- he unhesitatingly pulled one out to give, but then he said, "What if I give two? That would help a lot, wouldn't it?" -- I don't know if you've ever heard the Ray Boltz song, What If I Give All, but Josiah's generous heart reminded me exactly of the boy in that song -- like I always do when I hear it, my eyes teared up -- and I gave Josiah a big hug and kiss and told him that giving $2 would truly be wonderful -- I'm so proud of him I can hardly stand it!

Pregnancy Dreams

From all that I hear, it's extremely common for pregnant women to have strange, vivid dreams...or, at least, to remember them more often--probably because we wake up half a dozen times during the night to go to the bathroom so the chances of waking up in the middle of a dream and having the opportunity to remember it improves dramatically!

Off the top of my head, I don't remember any special dreams that I had when I was pregnant with Josiah. But, wow, do I ever remember a lot of dreams from being pregnant with David! I dreamt--repeatedly--about water. I had so many dreams about water that, later on in that pregnancy, I wasn't the least bit surprised when I went to sleep and had another one. So I fully expected to have water dreams during this pregnancy, too.

Not so.

In this pregnancy, I seem to have dreams that center around two themes:
1. fear/conflict/bad guys--i.e. me being shot, people that I'm close to being crucified, etc.
2. being late, unprepared, behind--i.e. running a relay race through a mall and being so far behind everyone else--I must go faster...must go faster...go faster...faster

Not exactly the kind of dreams that make for restful sleep!

Another thing that's frustrating is when I go to bed early (for me), confident that when I wake up in the morning, I will feel rested and have a sunny disposition as I face a new day. And then, the morning comes, and I drag myself out of bed, feeling exhausted--simply exhausted. How did that happen??? I might as well stay up until midnight; at least I get something done in those late night hours.

My fatigue level seems to rely on so many factors, not the total number of hours I spend in bed. Obviously, the number of times I have to get up in the night and the frequency and intensity of my dreams affect it. I also find that my mood/energy level is especially affected by the events of the coming day. Do I feel pressure or stress about anything? Do I feel completely behind in all areas and overwhelmed by the thought of catching up? Do I not even have one area of accomplishment that I can look to for a feeling of satisfaction? Then I'll feel tired. Am I happy about something in the schedule, maybe something that I've been looking forward to? Do I feel relaxed, knowing that no deadlines are pressing? Am I enthusiastic about a project that I plan to begin/continue that day? Those things help me feel cheerful and energetic. Another cause for my sunny or cloudy moods is what kind of interaction I have with Josiah and David first thing in the morning--whether it be a conflict or attitude problem which shows up immediately v. happy voices, smiles, and cuddle time to begin the day. Other things as simple as feeling good about what clothes I'm going to wear or having something delicious to eat for breakfast can affect my mood--and thus, my energy level--so much.

But other days I wake up and have no rational explanation for why I find myself dragging--physically and emotionally--through the day. Sigh... At least I'm enough of an optimist to realize that "this too shall pass" and tomorrow will probably be completely different from today! I can always hope, right?

To Have the Heart of a Child, Part Two

David's prayer a few nights ago...(as best as I can transcribe it) :)

Me: Dear God

David: Dear God, bless Day-dee [David], bless I-yah [Josiah], bless Mommy, bless Daddy, bless--ah, ah--Mama [Grandma], bless Baby, bless Mama [Grandma got double blessed!], bless Bah-paw [Grandpa], bless...

Josiah: Wilma

David: bless Wilma, bless Wani-

Josiah: bless Doug

David: No!

Josiah: hey, hey, don't take a picture of me

David: bless Wanita, I love you, A-

Josiah: MEN!

David: Amen, bless Doug. [laughs, walks towards me, starts to put thumb in mouth]

If this brings a smile to my face, I wonder what kind of a grin God gets when He sees it. How He must laugh sometimes! :)

To Have the Heart of a Child, Part One

Josiah has really been enjoying SINGING his prayer to God at night, and it's such a pleasure to hear his words and melody. So creative, so much from the heart. Last night I asked him if I could make a little video of him, and he was willing. In case you can't understand the words, this is what Josiah is saying...

Thank You, God, for all the things that You give me.

Thank You, Lord, for just everything You give me.

But the special things are my friends and family.

I love you, Lord.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Fringe Benefit

One of the many benefits of living next to my parents is their willingness to occasionally babysit. I try very hard not to take advantage of this! I often tell my mom, "What do you think about this or that? Could you help me out? But please tell me no if it doesn't suit you." And then if she says yes, I say, "Are you sure? Because you really don't have to do this!"

Anyway, last evening Jeff had pottery class, and I had an extremely messy counter that I was itching to deal with. So I called my parents to see if they wanted two little boys to keep them company, and sure enough, they did! Josiah and David got to spend an evening watching tennis on TV and playing with tractors...and, oh joy! eating popcorn. And I got time--thinking time when I could mentally concentrate on projects, like lesson plans--to clean and organize this counter. I still need to deal with the things in the basket, but this area is so much better than it was. Last night after I finished, I felt like I had come up for air and could breathe again.

A huge thank you to my incredible parents for this gift of time!!!

~ before - what a mess!
~ after - ah, much better!

Start 'Em Early!

One of David's latest and greatest pastimes is going into our garage and climbing up on our lawnmower to pretend to drive it. He thinks this is so much fun!

Disclaimer #1: I know letting a 2 year-old play on a lawnmower is not highly recommended as far as safety goes, but the lawnmower is not on (and can't be turned on) and we don't leave him unattended to wander around the garage and play with whatever looks fun to him. Plus, we have a doctor on the premises, and he can fix anything, right?

Disclaimer #2: I know our garage is a horrible mess, but I decided to post this picture anyway--it's good for my humility. Anybody want to come help me clean out our garage???

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like...Fall?

Our neighbors experimented with growing pumpkins this year on part of their land; and after months of us seeing the plants grow and hearing about various dangers from pests and weeds and the like and wondering how it would all turn out, the pumpkins are ready now--and have done very well! So now our neighbors have a neat wagon with a very attractive display of pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, etc. out by the road...and LOTS more pumpkins in the field. Some of their pumpkins--the biggest ones--will be sold to a man from a town across the mountain from us who has a pumpkin patch. Our neighbor told me the funniest thing tonight: this man buys pumpkins from the farmers around here, takes them back to his farm, and every night when it's dark, restocks his pumpkin patch with pumpkins from here!!! So every day, new people can come to his patch, have the experience of going out into his field, and "picking their own pumpkin." I had no idea pumpkin patches got re-stocked!

One thing I love about this area--you can set up a roadside stand, leave your produce out there, put a jar for money, and TRUST that people will...a) not steal your produce, b) not steal your money, and c) actually pay for whatever produce they take. What a town! Although in our neighbor's case, since he is a welder, he has welded a nice big, strong money box to the wagon so I don't think anyone could get away with his money no matter what!

~ Josiah and David with the pumpkin wagon in the background
~ I'm not sure what was going on with David here...not his greatest picture...oh, well...Josiah got to help our neighbors with the pumpkins in the background of this picture: washing, drying, and polishing them

Week 20

This picture was taken at Reddish Knob shortly before we left. As Jeff took it, he said, "You won't like this picture because your hair is blowing all over the place." Oh, well, I gave up trying to look picture-perfect to impress the world long ago, and now I just try to be real. :)

A few nights ago, I was writing in my pregnancy journal, trying (in vain) to get caught up completely in it. As I flipped through the pages and saw the pictures from each week, I was so glad that I had decided to take these weekly pics. I'm not even close to being done with this pregnancy yet, but already I love to look back and see how my body has changed...and also remember the different events and places that are reflected in the pictures. Sweet memories!

So...besides getting used to the fact that we're having a boy, this week has been filled with lots of discussion about names. At this stage of the game, our discussions usually end in riotous laughter as we try to out-do each other with absurd names. My latest thrill is reading through an ancient "Bible Names and Their Meanings" book which sat on my parents' bookshelf for many years before they bequeathed it to us. So far, I've gone through A-F, and have found such gems as...
~ Ezion-gaber - which means "backbone of a giant" - from Numbers 33:35
~ Eliel - which means "God is God," a very good meaning - from I Chronicles 5:24 (can you imagine telling someone, "my name is Eliel," and in their head they think, "oh, L-E-L, that's...different")
~ Dodo - which means "loving," another very good meaning - from Judges 10:1
~ Crispus - which means "curly, curled" - from Acts 18:8 - not to be confused with...
~ Blastus - which means "sprout" - from Acts. 12:20 (perfect for boy twins, Blastus & Crispus!)
~ Ahisamach - which means "brother of support, brother has supported," a very nice thought for our third son - from Exodus 31:6

Obviously, I'm not having much success with this book!

Jeff looked a little further to the "H" section and found some...oh, yeah!...real gems. I can't even duplicate the names or his pronunciation, but he had us all in stitches today as we set out on our road trip.

I did see one name in the "A" section that I really like: Asher (which means "happy"). But with our last name, it just doesn't work. Asher Fisher. Nope, not gonna cut it.

One of my latest obsessions is asking everyone who has girls what boy name they would have used if they had had a son. Yesterday, Michelle, a fairly new friend to me, said, "You'll laugh, but we would have called our son "Hunter'." I assured her that I wasn't laughing, that I thought that was a great name, and that we had friends from California who had named their son that. Today as I was remembering that conversation, I thought how funny it would be if we named our son "Hunter." Hunter Fisher. He would be the envy of countless men, I'm sure; but really, we're not that crazy. But if it were a certain friend named Chris whose-last-name-starts-with-M in our shoes, he'd probably go ahead and name his son that. :)

And so, the search continues...

David in the Setting Sun

I'm delighted with these pictures from our trip to Reddish Knob--the way the setting sun reflects on David's face and blond hair, the way he's clutching his chocolate milk possessively, his serious look in the top picture and hint of a smile in the bottom one--most of all, the fact that he's my son. What an undeserved gift from God!

Party All Weekend

Agenda for the weekend:
~ Friday evening: Jeff's family night
~ Saturday evening: family trip in the Jeep (an adventure in and of itself!) to Reddish Knob, a spot high in the mountains that has gorgeous views to both east and west (a first for all of us)
~ Sunday: church service, baptisms, and potluck outdoors at a beautiful church camp
~ Monday: family (including my parents) trip to Meems Bottom Covered Bridge, an old historic but still-used bridge north of here (another first for all of us)

It's been a busy weekend, but very fun. Lots of good family time, outdoor time, picnic time, memory-making time. Not very much cleaning-the-house time or doing-laundry time, but you know, there's always tomorrow! :)

~ "lean on me" - David & Jeff at Reddish Knob - this is one boy who seriously loves his daddy
~ Jeff & Josiah at Reddish Knob - another boy who loves and adores his daddy - it was COLD on top of the mountain, surprisingly so; we took jackets but were still quite chilly - we ate a picnic supper, enjoyed the view, took a few pics, then headed home
~ God's artwork which cannot possibly be improved upon

First Gift

In Friday's mail, I was shocked to see a very special package for me from my friend Valerie: Baby Brother's first gift, warm little slippers to keep his toes cozy--a perfect gift for our first winter baby! The slippers say, "Thank heaven for little boys." :)

Valerie is such a special person. The daughter of my well-loved kindergarten teacher, she is a homeschooling mom who was highly influential in our decision to homeschool Josiah. She is the kindest of mentors and, if she was a boy, should be named Barnabas because of how encouraging she is!

Thank you, Valerie! I treasure this gift--and even more, I treasure your friendship. I hope to be like you when I grow up! :)