Love that Belly!

Another fun pic from Sunday's photo shoot that I love... :)

Week 35

The highlight of this week of pregnancy is easy to identify: a photo session we had with a professional photographer on Sunday to shoot some maternity pictures. This was a dream come true for me--literally, something I had wanted "forever" and had specifically been planning for a very long time. Even when we were still living in Israel and making plans to move back to this house, I knew exactly which walls I wanted to hang these pictures on, and what else to surround the photos with...but I just didn't have the pictures yet. Now I do!!! :)

Our original plan for the photographer we were going to use fell through, so we went to Plan B. But it all worked out very well, and we were pleased with the photographer's manner, expertise, and price. We also were thrilled that he gave us a disk with all the pictures he shot, along with permission to edit in any way we wish and print it whenever and however we desire. He took the pics on Sunday, and gave us the disk today--sooner than we expected--and now comes the fun part: the editing. Jeff is actually much better at that than I am, but I think we'll both have fun playing around with it in the days to come.

For now, I thought I'd share these two pics just for fun, since I was really pleased with how they turned out even without editing.

On the other side of the coin, the hard part of this week has been fatigue. I am so tired. I have had to really push myself to accomplish anything this week. I'd much rather stay home, "sit on my egg" til it's ready, and enjoy my nest...but duty calls, and I must answer. Fortunately, our schedule really is getting lighter, with things more spaced out; and every time something ends (like Josiah's swimming lessons or like our Friday night potlucks), I feel a sense of relief that I've made it through one more thing and can take a break from it and focus on this upcoming birth.

I have to remind myself often that I won't feel this way forever. Someday I will have energy. Someday I will feel excited again about a project. Someday I will make big plans for planting flowerbeds...or organizing the closet in the guest room...or even simply accomplishing all the laundry. But for now, I crawl along at a snail's pace, maintaining what absolutely must be done (but not doing a great job with anything, I feel) and counting the hours until I can either take a nap or go to bed.

This too shall pass... :)

Brotherly Love

One of the joys of life at this stage is seeing how well Josiah and David can interact with each other...and how much amusement they get from each other. ("Can" being the important word here, since it implies that it's possible, not that it always happens!) But my cup runneth over when I spy these two little munchkins hanging out together and creatively entertaining each other.

~ Josiah and David looking at a toy catalog that came in the mail...they have gotten hours of enjoyment out of looking at this catalog and telling each other what they like the most!
~ Josiah giving David a ride in our laundry basket...David's co-passenger is a reindeer in a rocking chair

Mommy's Little Helpers

This past Saturday was a lovely day, with only one item on the agenda: making cookies. Josiah, David, and I stayed in our pajamas all day long...and took advantage of a very relaxed day. Bliss! :)

"Everyone" says to start your children helping you when they are very young to train them in good work habits and service to others. But "everyone" knows that more times than not, their "help" only succeeds in making more work for their mother in the end! I have experienced that many times, but now I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and am actually realizing that my children's help can truly be useful! :)

Case in point: Saturday morning, Josiah had a great time sitting at our table and unwrapping Hershey Kisses for one of the kinds of cookies that we made. He could sit there and do it all by himself, without me having to be involved or come behind him to secretly "fix" it; and I could be busy doing other things in the kitchen. It was a genuine time-saver for me to have his help in that way.
And when we were mixing the cookie dough, Josiah could count and measure the amount of flour we needed--all by himself--and I was free to get the eggs out of the refrigerator, get the vanilla from the cupboard, grease the cookie sheets, etc. Another real time-saver!

Not to be outdone, David "helped," too...the old kind of help that needs cleaning up afterwards. Yes, he spilled flour on the counter as he mixed the dough a bit too vigorously...and yes, he smeared peanut butter on the counter as he randomly decided to set his wooden spoon down when he was tired of stirring, etc. But he was a happy camper to be involved in this project; and from seeing the example of his big brother, I was again inspired to let David participate, knowing that one day, he too will be a genuine help. And, anyway, maximum productivity is not the goal. Joyful, loving memory-making is a much higher achievement, for sure!

The finished product: 4 of the 70 cookies we made for our church's outdoor nativity. We, of course, had to keep the "broken" ones at home since we couldn't give less than our best. Those broken ones sure tasted yummy, and for some reason didn't last very long around here. :)

The Beauty of Ice

As winter storms pound much of the nation, we are fortunate to only have had some freezing rain during the night...which, for us personally, meant that we had a new kind of beauty to see in the morning as the ice coated every branch, every blade of grass, every leaf, every wire in our fence, etc...but the temperature warmed up enough today to melt all the ice, and none of our plans for today got cancelled. A perfect storm--with all benefits and no disadvantages? For us, maybe, but there have definitely been lots of tree branches downed by the ice and wind in this area--and perhaps even more serious damage of which I am unaware.

The most exciting part of the storm for us was the power outage we had during the night last night. I woke up around 12:30 a.m. and was so disoriented by the lack of normal night appearance in our room that it took me a minute or two to figure out where I was! Later in the night, Josiah had the same thing happen to him when he awoke suddenly in his pitch-black room which seemed so different than his normal room with Christmas candle in the window, lit clock on the dresser, etc. He called out, "Mommy!" And I woke up and hurried to him to explain what was going on and let him know that everything was OK. He said, "I thought I was inside a fish!!!" :) He was quickly comforted and was reassured even more when I suggested that he keep his special flashlight in bed with him so he could use that if he needed it.

~ icicles on a tree branch...I found it challenging to take good pictures of the ice, but at least these pics convey the idea of the winter wonderland we had this morning
~ more little icicles

~ ice on holly leaves

~ after we got home from our church service, Jeff took this picture of the view of the mountain we see from our front window...the trees on the mountain all looked silvery and frosty, and the clouds were so interesting as they swept across the mountain

A Pepper Mill and Peppermint Cake

Jeff's birthday was this week; and as is our custom, the celebration happened on several days, rather than just one. On his actual birthday, my parents joined us for dinner, and we gave him a few "small" gifts...including this pepper mill. When we had been shopping in a discount store recently, he had noticed this and had expressed his liking of it--a rare thing for him to do--so I snuck back and bought it for him. After all, everyone needs a pepper mill that's literally 20 inches tall, right??? Some freshly ground pepper on your dinner, anyone? :)

Last night we had some friends over for our monthly Friday night potluck fellowship night, so we got to sing "happy birthday" to Jeff, watch him blow out some candles, and eat peppermint cake (aka, "Shank cake," which I may explain in another post) together.

I am unspeakably grateful for the gift of this past year of life with my beloved husband. It was his birthday we celebrated, but I'm the one who gets the gift of living with him day by day and enjoying all that he adds to my life.

Spotted on a Blog

"Could I climb the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim, 'Fellow citizens! Why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children, to whom one day you must relinquish it all?'" ~ Socrates

An old friend Julie recently reconnected with me through the world of blogging. It's always a special joy to pick up with someone in this way, especially during this season of life when there is not as much time for actually visiting with real live people in person! :) The quote above is from her, and I find it worthy of prolonged thought.

The Story about Ralia

Ralia is a woman that we knew in Tel Aviv. In her mid-80s at the time, she lived in a nursing home; and Josiah and I (and later David when he was born) would visit her every week--every Tuesday morning. She had one childless daughter who lives in California, but no other family. Her stories, when I could pry them out of her, were amazing; her life was far from easy, but extremely interesting as far as the turmoil she had lived through in the land of Israel and all the "drama" her life had held, as well as all the people she had met. Despite her age, she was very sharp mentally. She spoke Hebrew, German, English, Russian, and I can't remember what other languages. But she was lonely. With her only daughter living far away and able to visit just once a year, Ralia's life, which had been so full and exciting, was reduced to her room at the nursing home...and her crafts with which she filled her time. She was so talented and creative. She loved to make these little dolls (in the picture below are a set of her 7 dwarfs which I have on a bookshelf in our guest room and which never fail to put a smile on my face as I see their perky little faces), and she would come up with endless ideas for various dolls: cowboys, clowns, soldiers, dancers--you name it, she could make it--all without a pattern.
She also crocheted beautifully, and she made this baby afghan for David before he was born which was very special since she had been carefully following along during my entire pregnancy with him. Such an intricate design in this afghan, but her aged fingers still managed to do outstanding work.

Ralia became a grandmother-figure to Josiah and I during our weekly visits to her. She was not afraid to speak her mind. :) But I loved her for it, because she was literally the only person I had in that role at the time: the person who could reassure me that despite Josiah's developmental delays (not crawling til 16 months, not walking til 18 months, etc.), he was just fine and I didn't need to worry...the person who would say when I worried aloud that Josiah was so very shy, "he's not shy; he's just choosy about who he's friendly with." Though it wasn't always easy to make those Tuesday morning visits, they became a valuable part of our time in Israel and a treasured memory now.

Ralia did NOT like having her picture taken, and she absolutely refused to look at pictures of herself. Well, I could make her have her picture taken, especially when I posed her with one of my boys; but I couldn't make her look at the pictures afterwards...or, even more, keep one and display it in her room.

That is, until Jeff got involved.

Jeff, being the computer guru--and kind soul--that he is, decided to fix up a picture that Ralia would actually like. So he started with the picture below (Ralia holding David when he was just a few weeks old)...

...and morphed it into this picture (below). And you know what? Ralia loved it!!! :) It was a little tricky because she had no idea the photo had been tampered with, and I didn't dare breathe a word of Jeff's scheme to her when I presented her with the picture. But I could hardly contain my joy when I saw how surprised and happy she was with how well the picture had turned out! She visibly brightened when she saw it, then she studied it carefully before finally proclaiming that she actually liked the picture. Whew! What fun to encourage her...and leave her with a picture of her and a special little boy that she loved almost like a grandson.

I was so grateful for Jeff's computer knowledge--and his willingness to take the time to add some sparkle to the often bleak life of dear Ralia.

Week 34

Week 34 is over and gone, but I wanted to get this picture posted before this moment of time becomes too much of a distant memory! Once again, I'm in awe of Jeff's picture-taking and picture-editing. Gotta love those photo programs that enable a picture to be changed quite a bit! One of these days, I'll tell you about a woman named Ralia and some picture-editing that encouraged her...

As I think back to this past week of pregnancy, the overwhelming impression for me is how strongly my mental attitude affects my physical feelings. I had a few rough weeks--of discomfort, fatigue, eagerness for this pregnancy to be over, etc.--but this week, God has graciously given me a positive outlook again...and it's truly made all the difference. I feel grateful again for each day of this pregnancy...I feel like I can really enjoy this time...I feel content with this phase of life. I'm sure a variety of factors contributed to this change of heart, and maybe one of these days I'll take the time to write them down. But for now, I'm simply happy--happy to be pregnant, and happy to be happy to be pregnant! :)

A Few of My Favorite...Decorations

To continue the theme from the last post... :)

~ I received this cute wall-hanging years ago in a gift exchange in San Diego...I like the quaintness it brings to our hearth area as I hang it above the woodstove (especially when I have various gloves, boots, and jackets of my boys hung by the fire to dry after a fun outing in the snow...which, by the way, is far from happening at this particular moment since our temperature today was 65 here!)
~ some sparkle on the mantel...so easy and inexpensive, but I love it...small gold, silver, white, and clear glass balls randomly placed in an assortment of wine and champagne glasses (gotta make those glasses useful somehow!) :)

~ this is quite possibly my very favorite Christmas decoration, which I bought as a newlywed, working part-time in a Hallmark shop...I was glad to use my employee discount to get this!...but the thing that makes it so very special to me is that it is a pictorial representation of the dreams I had even then (and still have) for my family: an in-love Papa and Mama Bear, and four children, all together, peaceful, loving, joyful...I have a few other Christmas bear decorations, but this is by far the preferred one of all for me...and when I see it, I'm reminded of the gratitude I feel for God helping us get this far along the path to this dream coming true

A Few of My Favorite...Ornaments

One of the most nostalgic events of the year is getting out Christmas decorations. I often feel like everything in our house has a story behind it; but I REALLY feel like every single Christmas decoration has a story, something that gives it meaning and beauty beyond face value. Don't you love the memories that wash over you when you unpack and hang up your ornaments?

Here are a few of my favorites that are hanging on our tree this year:

~ this Cape Hatteras lighthouse ornament was given to me by Jeff's sister Kim...who has never seen the lighthouse but knew how special it is to me
~ obviously, Josiah's hand print from last year, special beyond my ability to express because of how much he means to me

~ a glass pineapple ornament...if you know me well, you know that I LOVE pineapple stuff...I'm not a huge collector of anything specific; but if I was going to collect something (as far as household items/decorations), it would be pineapple things...pineapples are the symbol of hospitality, after all! :)

~ I remember the first time I saw an ornament like this...it was in a storefront window in Coronado, California, the one-of-a-kind, gorgeous town where Jeff and I both worked when we were first married...in that particular shop, there was a Christmas tree decorated simply and elegantly in white lights and these angels...I fell in love with these beautiful angels that day; and although my tree has colored lights this year (in deference to the wishes of my husband and oldest son) instead of the white that I prefer, and even though my tree doesn't boast the multitude of snowy angels that the shop tree did that day (but instead has randomly-scattered-and-bunched ornaments that don't exactly match), I'm still glad to have this little angel on my tree as a reminder of the beauty that stood out so vividly to me on that long-ago day in that far-away place

Two Books

I finished reading two books today.

One of the books is Supernatural Childbirth by Jackie Mize which has given me much food for thought, leaving me in a state of not having digested it enough yet to even comment much about it. If I had to say something about it at this point, it would be, "Hmmmmm..." Since that is not too profound or helpful for anyone, I'll skip ahead to the next book.

The other book I finished today is Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. To be honest, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I have read other books in the series (Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul, Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul, etc.) and found them fascinating and inspiring, so I had high expectations for this one, too. But I was, frankly, disappointed. Oh, there definitely were touching stories, which I fully expected; however, the thing that surprised me was how humanistic the whole book seemed. The taste that it left in my mouth was that it was all about how great I can become, how I can reach my full potential, how I can achieve anything I set my mind to, etc. What's up with that? What about "I must become less so He can be more"? Or "whoever wants to save his life must lose it"? Or about how all of us are sinners, unworthy of God's grace? And the whole idea of setting my mind to achieve the things of this world--like a fancy home, an expensive car, a million-dollar income, vacations to the Caribbean, etc.--literally disgusts me. Even the references in the book to God seemed very off-base to me--things along the lines of "God will give you the desires of your heart, so dream big and post a picture of your new, expensive furniture on the mirror of your bathroom until it comes true." Why should the desires of my heart be earthly possessions? Was that the heart of Jesus??? Why would God honor such a stinkin' self-centered desire? Don't these silly religious Americans realize there's a whole world out there that God created, intimately knows, and longs to see evangelized? Why should I set my sights on a six-figure income (if I "worked") to buy a new yacht when millions of people are starving, physically and spiritually? Again, I return to Jesus--what kind of example did He set? Isn't the answer obvious???

Can you tell I feel strongly about this? :)

On a more positive note, it was truly challenging and inspiring to read specific stories of people who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve great things. But, for me, may it never be said that I overcame any challenge so that I could be raised up...only that the glory would go to God.

Now that I've completely criticized this book, I actually want to share two short stories from it that have stuck in my mind--one humorous one, and one tender one--in an effort to "eat the chicken and spit out the bones." The first is "The Animal School" and partially explains our decision to homeschool Josiah this year. :)

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of "a new world." So they organized a school.

They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact better than his instructor, but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He also developed a "charlie horse" from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb, and fly a little, had the highest average and was valedictorian.

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.

Does this fable have a moral?

~ by George H. Reavis

And the second story, which God is using to remind me to be gentle and overflowing with affection with my children--"The Gentlest Need."

At least once a day our old black cat comes to one of us in a way that we've all come to see as a special request. It does not mean he wants to be fed or to be let out or anything of that sort. His need is for something very different.

If you have a lap handy, he'll jump into it; if you don't, he's likely to stand there looking wistful until you make him one. Once in it, he begins to vibrate almost before you stroke his back, scratch his chin, and tell him over and over what a good kitty he is. Then his motor really revs up; he squirms to get comfortable; he "makes big hands." Every once in a while, one of his purrs gets out of control and turns into a snort. He looks at you with wide open eyes of adoration, and he gives you the cat's long slow blink of ultimate trust.

After a while, little by little, he quiets down. If he senses that it's all right, he may stay in your lap for a cozy nap. But he is just as likely to hop down and stroll away about his business. Either way, he's all right.

Our daughter puts it simple: "Blackie needs to be purred."

In our household he isn't the only one who has that need: I share it, and so does my wife. We know the need isn't exclusive to any one age group. Still, because I am a schoolman as well as a parent, I associate it especially with youngsters, with their quick, impulsive need for a hug, a warm lap, a hand held out, a coverlet tucked in, not because anything's wrong, not because anything needs doing, just because that's the way they are.

There are a lot of things I'd like to do for all children. If I could do just one, it would be this: to guarantee every child, everywhere, at least one good purring every day.

Kids, like cats, need time to purr.

~ by Fred T. Wilhelms

Today I was reminded of this story when Josiah woke up from his nap. I was standing at the kitchen stove, fixing a cup of hot tea, when I heard his footsteps at the top of the stairs. I turned and gave a little wave to him; but then he said wistfully, "Remember the old way? Remember when you used to come to the bottom of the steps and give me a hug after I woke up?" Well, that was all it took for me to immediately abandon my cup of tea and go to the steps to not only give him a big hug but also scoop him up (not an easy feat for me these days) and carry him to the couch for more cuddling. "Yep," I thought, "Josiah needs time to purr right now."

And David also had his moments of wanting to snuggle today. In fact, during the past few days, he has said, "Carry me," more than I remember him saying it for a long time! So I joyfully comply and delight again in the feeling of him curling up into a little ball in my arms.

I didn't feel much stress today so it made it easy to take the time for extra moments of tender nurturing. But even as I patted myself on the back for my "good mommy" day, I couldn't help but think of this quote from Nan Fairbrother: "There are so many disciplines in being a parent besides the obvious ones like getting up in the night and putting up with the noise during the day. And almost the hardest of all is learning to be a well of affection and not a fountain, to show them we love them, not when we feel like it, but when they do." Yes, it's easy for me to occasionally bubble over with love and splash my affection all over them; but to be a constant source of that kind of reassuring and devoted love--despite my personal busy-ness, discomfort, stress, etc.--is much more difficult. Simply put, it's the call to have God's love in my heart, available at all times to the little ones He's entrusted to my care.