Date Archives → September 2012

jameson: six

This boy is six.

SIX.

We celebrated his birthday on the actual day (the 15th), but then had a “big” birthday party this past Saturday. This was his first big party, and BOY was he excited! We decided on a knight theme, and then had so much fun finding plates and stickers and prize gifts with knights and castles. In classic Jameson style, he had every moment of this party mapped out in his mind — knew just how he wanted this and that to look, what games he wanted to play, and even drew an elaborate tunic (after a style he noticed on Guy of Gisbourne, which I sadly did not have time to execute). Planning, preparing, and celebrating with Jameson is just so much fun.

And that fully-clad knight in the photo above? Well, that’s how he appeared in my room before dawn the morning of his party. So much fun.

He’s also tall and lanky. He constantly acts without thinking, yet is extremely thoughtful. On his birthday, he blessed me by making my bed. (Since my sisters are wondering: Yes, I had to go back and re-make it before actually sleeping in it.) He’s full of life and brings that vivacity with him, everywhere he goes. It’s amazing. His humor is developing into that of a young boy — teasing, sarcastic, puns, you name it. He loves to talk about what it will be like when Jesus comes back, and about heaven. Will he go back to being a baby in heaven? Does it rain there? Hearing him practice piano is my recent favorite thing. Having someone play the piano while I’m washing the dishes — even if it just Hot Cross Buns — is such a blessing, and he loves to play. He’s also catching onto the reading thing, breezes through math, and could care less about proper penmanship. He’s super sharp, and hears and remembers everything I say — with the grand exception of, “SIT ON YOUR CHAIR, YOUNG MAN.” That one thing gets repeated at every meal, numerous times. Oh, he makes me want to pull my hair out, and then laugh until I cry. He is a great, great kid.

I’m trying really, really hard to just stay in the moment. To give myself completely to the things God’s asked me to today, but can I just say, the end of this past summer has been sad for me? My firstborn son enjoyed his last truly little boy summer. And he was the best little boy.

Jameson, you make me love being a mama.

pursued.

“If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” Psalm 139

I think about that last week. I ponder the fact that God will go to the darkest depths to find me, to find you.

See, I don’t know what your ideas about Jesus are. Most people think He’s just sitting in line up there with every other world religious leader — somewhat unattainable, but they love to sit and watch us try. Be this, be that, do more, go there. Maybe it’ll get you somewhere in the end, maybe it’ll just make life more good.

But no, that’s not Jesus.

He doesn’t sit, watching us try, knowing we can never succeed. He came. He comes.

My dad said once: we have this idea that the farther we walk away from God, the more steps we’ll have to retrace in returning to Him. But that’s not true, because the most anyone ever has to do is turn. And there He is.

Even if I make my bed in hell, still there You will find me.

I think about that, and then I hear this. This says it all. Give it a listen.

new things

It’s Friday evening. Inside, there’s the peace of sleeping children; outside, a chorus of crickets. (I love that so much!) Tonight, I’m tired. My feet ache, my eyes burn, tired. But that’s okay. You’re supposed to be tired on Friday night. Especially when it marks the end of a packed-full-of-new-starts week:

On Monday, Beatrice started walking. She’d been taking a couple of steps here and there for several weeks — and then Monday morning, she just got a fire in her eyes and walked across the room. We’ve been highly entertained by her adorable, tipsy walking all week long. Do I have any videos of this adorable walk? Of course not! She drops to her hands and knees the minute I pull out my phone. It really is cute. And shocking — I’m still caught off guard when I look up and she’s walking down the hall. My baby is growing up.

On Tuesday, we implemented a new fall routine. I’d worked on it a few weeks ago, trying so hard to sort out priorities for this year and make room for it all. I finally got it all squeezed into 5 24-hour slots. Phew. Then Ryan casually said, “As long as you still have plenty of time for Bible reading,” and I read somewhere that one should consider “starting your day slowly.” Ugh. I knew I hadn’t quite gotten the priorities accurately sorted. So I went back to the drawing board, asking the Lord to help me let go of the unnecessary “good” things — and I feel like He really did. Granted, it’s only been a week, but still — I’m shocked by how much “slow” time there has been each morning. Time to smile, to wake up a bit slowly with a book and an afghan, to eat a real breakfast, to slip in a few minutes outdoors before gathering at the table. Starting our days with that sort of pace just seems to help us.

I am walking. Thirty minutes, early in the morning, I have been slipping out the door for some exercise. It’s working. There are some seasons when fitting in any form of exercise has seemed like an insurmountable impossibility. But right now, with these three kids at these ages, it’s working. I’m really happy.

Wednesday was our first day of school. Books have been arriving via UPS for weeks, but I kept them tucked away in my closet. On Tuesday night, I tied them up with ribbons and slipped a card for each boy into their stack. It was like Christmas. They couldn’t wait to start! Jameson is in 1st grade, and is eager to learn to read. William is happy to be included at the table with all sorts of pre-K activities. Along with reading, math, history, and science, Jameson is starting piano lessons. He is over the moon excited about that! He slips away to the piano all through the day, happily practicing his two-black-key songs. It’s pretty cute!

This isn’t exactly new this week, but it’s still relatively new: Ryan’s got a beard. He’s very worried I’ll get him mixed up with George Clooney, but so far, I’ve been able to keep them straight. I think he looks very handsome.

The best new start of the week, by far, was the one that happened every morning — or even more often, depending on how regularly I needed to stop and start over. How thankful I am for grace that never gets old, for mercy that makes all things new.