... so, yeah, parenting is hard & beautiful,
and very, very hard & very, very beautiful,
and sometimes you just get down on the floor & weep
& there's no shame in it -- tears just saying we're loving deep.
Parenting is hard, not because we're getting it wrong, but because we're getting to do holy work -- holy work *is* hard work.
That's the miracle of parenting:
labor never stops & we never stop having to remember to breathe.
And even the sound of our breathing is saying His name - YHWH.
And all the parents exhaled... and our every breath calls for You to come, Lord, please come -- Come help us to labor over these beloved children, that they'd deliver into the wide expanse of Your fulfilling grace --
& never forget their name: Beloved.
- Ann Voskamp (www.aholyexperience.com)
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Monday, February 23, 2015
The Winter of '15
It was a winter to remember. (Still is, actually. Although a 38 degree day yesterday--which felt like shorts weather--did a little damage to the piles.)
When your kids can stand on top of the piles after the 38 degree day and still tower over you, you know you've gotten 100" of snow in a month.
When you take your life in your hands every time you turn out of your driveway (not *really* being sure that oncoming traffic is absent, seeing as the drifts at the curb are too high to permit visibility), you know it's been storming.
When you hold your breath passing by oncoming cars on a road that was way too narrow *before* snow was encasing it, you are ready for spring.
When you live in the 'burbs rather than the city and your city friends actually have nowhere else to physically put the snow and have to shovel what they can well over their own height, well, you're more content with that long commute you make to church every week.
There is a swingset under there...and that is not trick angle photography...
The mail comes...sometimes.
Owen has taking to sliding down the sides of these...there's a tall rhododendron bush under this pile!
Ice dams are a problem. We haven't had leaking yet, but many have.
The boys go into their cave under the patio table.
"Where's Eden???" says mom. Oh, there she is; just shinnied up the snow mountain!
Even the littles can climb trees with a snow stool!
Double decker yard
When your kids can stand on top of the piles after the 38 degree day and still tower over you, you know you've gotten 100" of snow in a month.
When you take your life in your hands every time you turn out of your driveway (not *really* being sure that oncoming traffic is absent, seeing as the drifts at the curb are too high to permit visibility), you know it's been storming.
When you hold your breath passing by oncoming cars on a road that was way too narrow *before* snow was encasing it, you are ready for spring.
When you live in the 'burbs rather than the city and your city friends actually have nowhere else to physically put the snow and have to shovel what they can well over their own height, well, you're more content with that long commute you make to church every week.
There is a swingset under there...and that is not trick angle photography...
The mail comes...sometimes.
Owen has taking to sliding down the sides of these...there's a tall rhododendron bush under this pile!
Ice dams are a problem. We haven't had leaking yet, but many have.
The boys go into their cave under the patio table.
"Where's Eden???" says mom. Oh, there she is; just shinnied up the snow mountain!
Even the littles can climb trees with a snow stool!
Double decker yard
Friday, January 30, 2015
Christmas 2014
Christmas Eve meal
Owen with his 'Red Remote Control Helicopter' (Oh for a nickel for each time I heard that phrase before Christmas morning!)
Eden inspecting her glow-in-the-dark Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty
A warm Christmas!
Wagon rides
60 degrees on Christmas?! The snow was a little late... :)
Catchup
I just experienced a horrific evening with my children; the kind that makes you wonder if you've done anything right as a parent at all, and fear that the entire rest of the world knows something you don't about children and how to care for them and love them properly. A truly rough debacle. Anyway, rather than lay a major guilt trip on them (which is really just my frustration at my own parental ineptitude), I am hitting the photos and reminding myself of better moments, while catching up on unrecorded moments. Hope it takes the edge off!
3rd bday breakfast
Princess for a day
Birthday supper
Cake!
Gifts. If the amount of Hello Kitty items that the child received were lined up edge to edge, they might reach to California...ugh! Probably not good. But boy, was she PLEASED!
Xmas Eve and back from church
3rd bday breakfast
Princess for a day
Birthday supper
Cake!
Gifts. If the amount of Hello Kitty items that the child received were lined up edge to edge, they might reach to California...ugh! Probably not good. But boy, was she PLEASED!
Xmas Eve and back from church
Eden 3yrs
37"
30lb 10oz.
No fan of needles! Repeat of 1 yr. inability to draw blood. Repeat of phlebotomist outcry, "Wow, she is a STRONG twister!"
30lb 10oz.
No fan of needles! Repeat of 1 yr. inability to draw blood. Repeat of phlebotomist outcry, "Wow, she is a STRONG twister!"
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