September

It’s November.

This blog-turned-family-journal is woefully behind. I thought once a month was bad. This once a quarter thing is really bad! Before a new baby comes and life takes turns that I can’t fully predict, some catching up:

September was warm and beautiful.

It was peaches and apples.

It was babies really starting to grow.

It was school! Rediscovering the magic of books, loving new math programs, discovering a whole new world called Ancient Egypt.

And it was Jameson turning nine. Nine.

A special shopping trip for taco fixings and ice cream cake ingredients and even lemonade. Lobbying to invite three friends instead of the customary two, and why not? Waking up with so much thankfulness for a day of forecasted sunshine. And finally, a yard full of running and laughing and ambushing and nerf-dart-shooting, light-saber-wielding boys and little sisters. Kind, happy, thoughtful young men.

We celebrated this boy who sits politely and listens intently as we share things we appreciate most about him. A boy who can think of nothing better than to share his candy with each birthday guest, even Mama and Daddy. Who bursts when he opens a sling shot and brand new fleece. Who stays up late poring over new books about Most Famous War Campaigns and How to Tie Knots and Severn Wonders and Famous Explorers.

He sings and hums his way through life. He cheerfully does any job asked of him and is growing to be not just a contributor, but a reliable and needed piece of this family puzzle. His eyes show love and concern for me, and the deepest of admiration for his daddy. He just likes to be with us and finding out he can go to work with Dad is the best news ever.

He’s playing piano and banging away on a new-to-us drum set (can you imagine how exciting it was to open those boxes??), reading the books I borrow from the library faster than I can pay the late fees to get more. He loves his soft and worn sweats and chamois shirt at home, and a tie and sports coat every chance he gets. His favorite outdoor activity is football, of course, because it’s football season and that’s how he rolls. Hands-on projects are his favorite, and sewing buttons is his newest skill set. He’s inquisitive, he’s sensitive, he’s loving and loves life.

More and more I truly mean that sharing life with him is a treat. I can’t believe I get to live all these years under the same roof with someone so great. Maybe the next 9 years will slow down a bit? Somehow I don’t think that’s at all how it works. So, fleeting as they may be, I will invest in these days together, by the grace of God.

I love this boy of mine.

Fiona’s 2nd birthday

Second birthdays are just so much fun. They are finally old enough to get it, but more than just getting it, these little people revel in being celebrated! Fiona doesn’t have a lot of words to say yet, but when I would say, “It’s almost your birthday!”, she would respond very clearly and excitedly with, “CAKE!”

So when she woke up on August 25 and I was pouring chocolate batter into cake pans, I’m pretty sure she couldn’t have gotten any happier if she’d tried!

We were in the middle of painting the kitchen floor, so I brought our cake and our pjs over to my parents’ house for a quick birthday party.

Pardon the number of similar photos. Her expressions are, to me, absolutely priceless!

august

August blew in fast and furious as Ryan and I worked with our friends to open the newest shop. This new life of business-owning-and-expanding is both exhausting and wonderful. We all roll up our sleeves together — even the kids, whose daily routines change constantly as the seasons of our family ebb and flow.

Along with that, August was also:

Trying very hard to get dinner on the table once in awhile!

The excitement of new curriculum trickling in via big brown boxes.

Little girls in Mama-made pjs that they just loved wearing. (Already too cold at night, for the most part, to wear such summer frippery!)

Celebrating my mom’s 60th birthday with a lovely outdoor evening.

Quick errands and getting to catch a glimpse of him training.

Backyard picnics!! Finally!

One serious garden day. Oh, it was wonderful!

A few crazy house projects, finished quickly, thanks to my trusty sidekicks Jameson and William, and dear friends Liz and Carol.

Bubbles.

Exhausted little girls who would nap anywhere (since I was oiling our hallway floor and we couldn’t use the bedrooms!)

A paint-spattered, growing belly.

26 weeks and growing an Olympic gymnast, I think.

This guy.

And so flew August.

July

It was a fly-by summer, like no other I’ve ever experienced. June days that hovered wet and cold around 50* made way for the months of July and August which were busy. But we did live, and since this blog is my family journal of sorts, I would feel badly to just pick up in September as though 10 weeks of our lives pooled away into thin air! So, a blog blitz of sorts.

I wrote this at the end of July:

We’ve been slowly ramping up since spring, heading toward what we knew would be another busy summer. And it has been. No garden days — I’m just happy to mow the lawn and pull out the most offensive weeds, planning what I will do “someday” this summer. No beach days — somehow the super hot ones seem to fall on the days that find me sitting with phone and laptop ALL DAY LONG. Not even many picnics in our own yard! BUT. Sounds of kids playing for hours and hours on their bikes, with their balls, picking wild berries and catching butterflies. Evening strolls around the house, inhaling the air and sight of whichever new flowers have opened (because perennials are just too forgiving when it comes to a lack of garden days!)

In the middle of days that just fly by and I’m lucky if the laundry is caught up, there are opportunities to pause. Isn’t that wonderful? To hold a chubby three-year-old hand as you walk down the hall; to sweep the toddler-baby off her feet as she runs ecstatically, calling your name; to pull my too-close-to-7 year old boy in for a hug which he always gladly reciprocates; to caress the still-soft cheek of my lanky oldest as he tells me a story. To embrace my husband when he walks in the door long after dinner, kiss him deeply and feel some of his tension melt. And for me, for us: to cut flowers after my walk and slip to the bakery for a treat of a breakfast, turning an empty-cupboard morning into a huge treat.

Besides trying my best to be all there and not miss those few precious moments of connecting and making home for my little family, July was also:

Parades with the best of children!

Childhood summer happening around lots of quick trips to Potsdam.

A trip to Maine with all of us.

Wide expanses of ocean, and family time.

A most-laid-back week for me and the kids on the St Lawrence river with my parents.

I was so thankful for those days away after (and before!) months and weeks of intense work on business endeavors. What a blessing!

full days, full heart.

Don’t let him fool you. My boys call for me every night to come tuck them in (even though they already have their quilts up to their chins) and kiss them good night. The arms that lock around my neck are strong and wiry and all boy. I love my boys.

I love/hate that every meal would look like this if I let it. I can tell if the book I assigned them is good by how long it takes them to get hungry for lunch. Poor Beatrice. She can’t wait until I teach her to read so she can be part of that world, too. They love to read.

And I never get tired of watching them together. ALL DAY LONG. They love each other so deeply. They are such opposites, and already, I can see iron sharpening iron. They’re learning how to interact through differences, how to point out weaknesses in an encouraging way. I wonder what their future together holds. Maybe just a deep connection each time their paths cross? Or will they be shoulder to shoulder, pursuing Jesus together?

*****

We’ve had a few PJ morning walks, when my little sidekicks wake up before I can slip out of the house. Are they the cutest? I really think so. And isn’t summer all about fresh mornings spent in pajamas?

She sings. All the time, everywhere. Her favorite theme is “When the storms come, You will be there.” Yesterday, as we drove to do errands, her chatting turned to, “When I’m a big girl, I’ll sit up next to you.” I smiled and nodded, imagining trips together and long conversations and a life of having that wonderful person for a friend. She chatted on about, “And I will fill up the car with gas for you! And go into the store and buy the things. And I will order the bagels!!” Apparently ordering bagels is quite the milestone in her eyes.

*****

I know it’s almost July, and I’m still trying to realize summer has started. I’m surprised to look at my gardens and not just see daffodils — in my mind, that’s where we still are. But no. A sea of evening primrose, the start of lilies, baby gooseneck loostrife ready to pop, delphinium waving tall and proud (unless this current rainy day does them in.) And yarrow. Deep, sunshine-yellow yarrow. I’ve never fully appreciated how many perfect little flowers it takes to form one of those beautiful heads of gold.

*****

And food. The food tells me it’s not April anymore. We will eat lots of salad, in place of winter’s pb&j. Along with our CSA’s generous shares of greens, I also planted plenty of kale this year. I hope it does well, because I can certainly eat my way through a LOT of kale in a week.

She enjoys it all as much as I do. She’s a bottomless pit! While the boys sit and read, she quietly eats all of the food. ALL of it.

Sautéed garlic and spring onions, baby kale, lemon juice, and heaps of fresh basil and parsley. It makes my mouth so happy. I forget what fresh herbs taste like!

Making pretty food does something for me. Nothing fancy, just pretty. Edible sweet pea flowers, golden yellow eggs, deep red strawberries, ta-da. Even with a fridge that is bare, it feels like we’re eating like kings.

*****

Growing.

Suddenly, last week, overnight, I went from feeling round and lumpy to being quite clearly pregnant. Funny how that happens. Ryan, the boys, my friends tell me it’s true as their eyes widen and they exclaim, “Hey! Your belly!”

Sixteen weeks of baby growing in there. Already! It’s flying by. Maybe that’s why I’m so surprised to suddenly not fit in my clothes? Perhaps pulling out some stretchy-waisted pants will help me remember: there’s a baby coming.

(I love getting a peek at what this avocado-sized baby looks like. Astounding.)

*****

Even more astounding is realizing ten years of marriage has come and gone. June 25 ten years later was a much more temperate day. It also came and went with much less fanfare, but a quiet shared remembrance that Hey, today is special. This covenant is special.

*****

And this man is special. He’s talented in a hundred ways that I am not (and therefore am all the more impressed by.) He grows. Stagnant and stubborn is not his style. He wants to grow. There is always a sense that we are moving towards eternity as we live life together, because he just wants Jesus. Sometimes it’s hard, this calling to build something that is so here, but with our eyes continually lifted to then, but he crunches numbers hard because it’s faithfulness, and he treats each person like they’re deeply important because they are, and he comes home and gets smothered by adoring children because he needs space but they need love and they’re the most important to him.

He makes the most of life’s moments. He’s not a “at 7pm every night, we’ll have devotions in this particular format” kind of guy. He grabs the teaching moments and sits down right then and helps them learn how to hear from the Lord, and how to process life by His word.

So he grabs paper as soon as he walks in the door and draws a diagram to teach about executive, legislative, and judicial branches, their powers, and the breaches thereof. He talks about the American Constitution. But he talks mostly about kingdoms rising and falling, and our God reigning forever. About living lives that are sown in death and raised to life. This is “home schooling” at its best.

April, May, a bit of June.

I’ve never been two months behind in this record of our lives. I’m thankful for a real journal that continues to give glimpses into what’s going on in my heart, and for pictures, capturing days that just pass too quickly.

Today, June 9, is one of the first real rainy summer days. The green of still-new leaves on trees glows in the strange combination of sun and cloud. The scent of freshly cut peonies fills the kitchen, and a vacuumed floor helps make a cozy spot. We happily read and play and research as the sound of rain quiets. When the sun appears, the children will all run outdoors as though they’d been trapped inside for years, but for now, they all are happily content with a hemmed-in day.

*****

Two months of highlights (in no particular order) looks sort of like this:

FedEx dropping off an anticipated box.

Watching Papa Bruce assemble the basketball hoop.

Special stories with just my baby, after the big kids went to bed.

The start of William’s first baseball season.

Freedom, after months and months of record breaking lows.

Breaking out the mower for the first go-around, and loving that exhilarating feeling of wide open spaces.

Lots of baseball practices, many of which were wet and freezing cold.

Finally resuming my early-morning walks. So, so much better than indoor workouts!

Watching baby grow to girl right before my eyes.

The perfect colored peonies that were deep-down joy to me for many days.

Boys and hoses. Laughing and shrieking and having so much fun.

Missing front tooth.

Watering baby plants.

Fiona leaving my bed behind and learning to share a room with Beattie.

Beautiful baby.

Watching this one discover the outdoors for real.

Walks about town, just because.

Marvels.

Ice cream, just because.

Hot sun, lawn mowers, swim suits and hoses.

My gardens sort of accidentally grow by 6 inches every year. Gotta keep up with those spreading perennials!

God likes HOT pink, too. A lot.

Lunch for two girls at William’s restaurant.

An excursion with the whole family with an end goal of business, but that included a picnic and walk in the woods, too.

Church wipes me out, too.

This, almost every day. Because #5, you know.

Setting out taco stuff (98% of which required me to open a package and stick in a spoon) resulted in, “We get to make our own??! You’re the best Mom EVER!”