Post Category → just life

ramblings

Tonight, my feet are sore. They protest when I require they carry 40 extra pounds around all day.

Ryan has been trying to juggle many things this summer, including our slow but steady bathroom reno. This week, floors are oiled. Tonight, a toilet is installed. Tomorrow, the sink arrives.

We took a walk after dinner this evening. Well, more like a romp through our fields. The mosquitos finally drove us back to our neatly mowed lawn, but watching boys and toddler girl run willy-nilly, laughing and yelling, was worth a few [dozen] bites.

I’m feeling the squeeze to be ready for a new baby — not just the birth, but the life that comes after, which in this case includes birthdays and school year beginnings. I’m trying to stick to my list of what is actually important, since hormones inspire me to do random and crazy overhauls.

I’m also realizing that the squeeze I feel needs to be harnessed and used to bless my family, rather than be allowed to take over and steal joy, peace, and time. We will do our best to pull together and get some things organized. But in the meantime, time does not stand still. My freckled boy is about to turn 7. Seven! And William is going to be 5 right after that, leaving “little boy” status behind. And Beatrice has grown so tall, talks so much, and is so happily independent that I have to go out of my way to snuggle her for a few minutes here and there. Their lives are being lived, and each day is an opportunity to sow Kingdom seed.

I’m thinking lots about being a wise woman who builds her house, and of being a pillar, sculpted in palace style. Strength. Stability. Shelter. Even in the ebb and tide of ninth-month hormones, I am called to be those things. And if I daily choose to abide in the life-giving Vine, the grace and power to fulfill that calling will be there.

I’m also thinking lots about sleep. Which is what I will now indulge in — and my aching feet will thank me!

from our field

20130730-214454.jpg

today

Today I woke up to a morning of breeze, sunshine, blue skies, and clear, cool air. Fresh. Refreshing. After a long and humid heat wave, I am very thankful. Throw open the windows and breathe it in.

Today I sat up in bed slowly, stretching my stiff body, moving slowly toward a standing position. There is no more springing out of bed these days. I do my little exercise and laugh when she tells me to “Pull in your belly button till it’s touching your spine.” I’m afraid that’s just not going to happen. Not today.

Today it is Sunday. Children sleep late after a long week of summertime fun. We will get ready for church, but we will not worry too much about morning routines of laundry and such. We will let our souls rest and focus, let our hearts ready themselves for worship. More refreshing.

Today I am 37 weeks along. I feel in my body and know in my head that I’m nearing the end, but still. I can’t quite wrap my mind around how quickly this has all gone, and how soon there will be a new person in our family.

Today my mind flits from one area of my life to another, all in so much need of growth and improvement. My brow creases, my heart feels heavy, and I wonder Will I ever get this? And today, faithfully, just like every other day, the Holy Spirit firmly reminds me of Jesus. So much — all — will be added to me, if I will but let those things fall into their place, and let Jesus take His. His yoke is easy, His burden is light: “Come to Me.”

Today, I come to Jesus.

this week, i…

This week was a rather quiet, at-home week. (The kind I like best, really.)

I cut yarrow and added its sunshine to a corner of the kitchen:

I enjoyed the pink geranium on my kitchen table:

I made a blueberry pie, and put the rest of the 20 pounds into the freezer — the first round of frozen goodies from 2013:

We ate the first tomatoes of the year, thanks to the diligent Kent Family, and they did not disappoint. Yum.

I had a couple of genuinely-exhausted days. A boy took this picture — Mama on the couch. It happens more and more:

I made roasted beet and goat cheese salad for dinner. It was delicious:

Beatrice stayed happy forever, and would have played for another hour if I’d let her:

blessed

We did errands this morning, haircuts at lunchtime, and barely made it home before I had a total hunger meltdown. (I used to skip lunch and not care. Hard to believe, but true. Now, I shake and jitter and get grouchy. Well, I try not to get grumpy. I really do try.)

Then I fell asleep on the couch — out like a light — and when I woke at 3:15 to two handsome little faces watching me, I had enough energy to oblige their request for some beach time.

Three kids. Just me. This equation scares me on paper, but in reality, it works. They play together, they listen and respond quickly, they curb their desire for adventure in order to honor my requests… I am so blessed by these three fun, sweet, full-of-life kiddos.

There are so many times (like yesterday, for example) when I’m feeling pretty stretched by three not-perfect kids who need more grace and wisdom than I, in and of myself, can give.

Then there are afternoons like this one, when their sunshiny attitudes and happy demeanor just bless me. So this is my little note-to-myself. A memory quickly captured. These three kids: they are treasure.

photo dump

In no particular order, some random things that have made it onto my camera roll:

Kefir. Every night, and sometimes morning, too, I make new batch of kefir. Primarily it’s for Ryan, but the kids and I have had our share of blueberry smoothies, chock full of live cultures. It quietly grows in a mason jar on my counter, and I’m a little in awe. I did it. I didn’t kill it. It’s multiplying, in fact. Actually, would anyone like some kefir grains? I’m starting to feel like Strega Nona!

But with kefir every day, vegetables becoming our main stay (thanks to our awesome CSA!), and other efforts I make at healthy eating, a little balance becomes a necessity. Thus, dates to the Hometown Cafe. Where we order burgers and french fries and ice cream and smile all the way home.

Speaking of food, a Williams-Sonoma catalog came this week and this page jumped out at me and begged to be made.

Lemon and thyme: how can you go wrong? It’s been very hot and even more humid, and I am actually thankful for our central air. Generally I am very, very opposed to closing windows in the middle of the summer — don’t we do that all winter long?? But today, when late afternoon rolled around and I was actually happy to turn on the oven and get cooking? Awesome. This pregnant girl will take a few days of A/C. Just this once.

I’ve been “shopping the house” for Beatrice’s bedroom, since that’s what’s in the budget right now, and found a few bits to add here and there. Like this cross stitch piece that used to hang in my little girl bedroom (shared with lots of other little girl sisters!), which was done by my grandmother. All three of my kids just love looking at the colorful pictures.

A couple of buntings made from sewing scraps, a beautiful music box bought in Colonial Williamsburg, but best of all, that itty bitty teapot that I brought home from China. Beatrice loves it. “Teatop! Teatop!”, she says.

I walked out the front door to call to the boys, and when I looked down, saw this: cheerful pink geraniums. It made me smile.

So do these gigantic white clematis! I salvaged a couple of clematis from a very overgrown old perennial garden that our home’s previous owner had planted. I wasn’t sure they’d make it, but they sure did — this one, especially. Plants that manage to persevere against all odds: things that make my soul perk up and listen.

Beatrice spends many, many moments sitting in the middle of the floor with this, her favorite book, opened on her lap. Her little lap that is just big enough to hold the book — if she stretches her toes! I love it.

The End.