Thursdays

On Thursday mornings, it's just me and this little man-

Someone recently defined joy to me like this-You have joy when you know someone is delighted to be with you. I like that definition. Jack loves his momma. And he loves spending time with her. And holding her hand. And telling her he loves her. And his momma feels the same way. Our joy cup was overflowing this morning.

Together. On the horse farm that is in walking distance from our house.

On a cool fall morning.

It was perfect.

somewhere between platinum blond and gray

Today was a first for our family-we attended an annual event in our city for the second year in a row! It seems crazy to me that we are starting to do things a second time around. Last year everything was new and still a lot of things are new to us even this year. But it feels nice to begin to have some "familiars" in our life. When I told Emma Grace and Jack that we were going to the Fall Festa, as Jack calls it, at Daddy's work, they immediately remembered last year's event. Their mental wheels starting turning and they were full of excitement thinking of the bounce house and the maze and the free pumpkin. (I was excited about the amazing dessert table!) It's nice to start a sentence with something like, "remember last year when we...." instead of everything being new and unfamiliar.

I hung some more pictures on my wall today-these really groovy hand stitched minority patches??? not sure how to describe them, that I bought before we left China. I framed them today and hung them in our entry way. I had the thought, "wow, those will be there for a while." who knows the next time we will pick up and move again. There is part of me that misses the adventure of moving apartments every few years, getting a chance to pick new paint colors, and discover life in a new place. But quite honestly, it feels really good to be staying for a while. I am sure I'll get restless a some point, but for now, staying put is really nice.

Today I talked with the kids about why Andy is going back to school. He and I have dreams about what the Lord would call us to do one day and it was fun to share them with our kids. We talk about them a lot but I have neglected to ever tell our kids. Emma Grace really tracks with most of our adult conversations so it was fun to share with her a little more about our hopes and dreams.

By the time those dreams are realized though, I am worried I will have a full head of gray hair. Perhaps we will be old by the time we get to do our dream job. Andy and I often talk about being 65 years old bopping around a certain city in China doing certain things that make us want to dance with excitement. I seriously can spend hours daydreaming about this one particular dream I have for my job after my kids are on their own. And we might be old and gray before it happens. Or we might not be old, but just gray. At the rate Andy and I are graying, we might be totally gray before he even finishes his masters degree, much less have our kids grown and out on their own. Today I pulled about ten gray hairs from the front of my head and then just gave up because there were too many. DRATTS. I definitely think gray is hip so I'm looking forward to rocking a full head of it when the time comes. Plus gray goes great with blue and black, some of my favorite colors to wear. (As did my college days platinum blond color!)

The reality is this-the last few years of my life have been the most stressful of my 30 years and my body is really starting to show it. "Outwardly we are wasting away, but inwardly we are being renewed day by day." This sums up the last year of my life for sure. Every strand of gray hair and every wrinkle on my face has been hard earned. But I wouldn't trade them for a dip in the fountain of youth for one second, though I may be tempted to buy a bottle of platinum blond once they really start to take over. Just kidding.) Every gray hair and every wrinkle on this pilgrim's body represents a thousand opportunities I've had to see the Lord come through for me, to know his love for me in a deep and real way, and to have my heart be made more and more ready for the resurrection that is to come!

Just call us Swamp People

To live in Florida is to live in a swamp. It rained for about 2 days straight recently and the field behind our house became a pond. Literally. We had 20 ducks, 3 sand hill cranes and about 47,000 frogs appear out of no where. Emma Grace and Jack love the wildlife in this area. And we love the blessing of our yard/swamp which is home to lots of this wildlife. We have a speckled hawk that visits us each morning. We've seen deer, a white owl and we had an armadillo living in our bushes for a while. There are even ARRRRGUANAS here. (Lizards really, but I don't correct Emma Grace because I love hearing her pronunciation of Iguana.) Our most recent wild life adventure-During the two day rain storm, our drains overflowed into our street and 5 catfish came up! You can imagine the delight of a 3 and 4 year old "scooting" the catfish back into the drain with their dad! They loved the rescue mission! Now if we'd cooked them, you could really call us swamp people!

China Moment

Our Home Owner's Association has some rules. Most of which I think are for the good of all of us. But the "no clothes line" rule is just so...."not green" of them! Well, we are abiding by the no clothes line rule. But they never said anything about this!

Anyone who has walked an apartment complex in China on a sunny afternoon knows this familiar sight! At the first sign of warm weather, Chinese grannies are competing for bush space to dry their linens. Thankfully we "own" these bushes so there is little competition. HEHE. I am sure our neighbors already think we are weird, but this might have sealed the deal! To my China friends, definitely jump on this bandwagon if you haven't already...the quilt dried in no time! And to my American friends, you should try this at home!

Saving the Animals...two by two

Emma Grace's first homework! Last week in her class they talked about Community helpers-policemen, doctors, teachers, etc. They had to construct a building from the community with boxes from home. She and Andy made an animal hospital. Andy was pretty into it, maybe more than EG. He'll be great for all the projects in our future!

Here they are constructing "Noah's Ark Animal Hospital"

"Saving the Animals two by two" was the slogan for their hospital and they glued animals walking in the door two by two! Wonder if the teachers got it??!!!

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Emma Grace. I have been thinking a lot lately about the meaning of her name, Grace. I started a post about how God is using her in my life to teach me about grace but it feels too weighty and too personal to share right now...maybe one day I will be able to articulate all that God is doing in my life through this dear child to help me really understand grace. For now here are a few things God has been doing in my heart through her lately...

Emma Grace and I role play, ummmm, a lot. You see, I have this salon in our upstairs bathroom and everyday I (Lemonade) do the hair of whatever little girl comes in...it's usually "pink girl" but occasionally Blueberry will show up (think Strawberry shortcake characters) Emma Grace is really creative and she and I usually come up with some pretty creative hairstyles. We love them. But unfortunately one of her classmates didn't like them and it really hurt Emma Grace. I was reminded of how a teacher once told me my hair was nappy-ok, I admit, it was a little messy, but that was the 80's style I was going for and any fourth grade teacher should know better. Not bitter here, just saying, I was really hurt. Anyway, this past week Emma Grace came up with a wild idea for her hair... purple and blue braids of fake hair wrapped around her pig tails. I was a little hesitant. Honestly, I was worried about what the girl at school would say. I started to find myself suggesting other things. But then I thought, this is so silly... Emma Grace is who she is and she is expressing herself. I should be glad for the person God has made her. I think I hid my panic well enough but then EG remembered the voice at school making fun of her hair and she got really upset and started to worry about her do. I talked to her about what I wanted her to think about if that little girl said something again. "Emma Grace, I want you to remember what the Bible says about you. It says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made you just the way he wanted you and he loves how creative you are." So many times in my parenting the things I am teaching my children are the exact lessons God is wanting me, his child to learn. It was a sweet time of rejoicing in who my little one is. She is fearfully and wonderfully made. She is left handed. She likes to tell me which countries are her favorite. She currently loves Mexico, Haiti and Zimbabwe. She worries about the weather. She perfectly color coordinates her outfits everyday-girl's got style. And her shining quality that comes through in almost everything she does...She is incredibly creative.

Andy and I are really trying to encourage her creativity. (which can be tricky-one of her latest ideas was to decorate our whole house in yard sell knick kancks that she has collected) One thing we are doing to embrace her desire to create is our "craft cabinet". (the bottom half of our china cabinet...it works since we own no china) It's in our dining room and full of supplies that she can access anytime she wants. Again, tricky with a 2 year old brother. We've had one near haircut, but overall, it's going well. EG is constantly creating things-beach scenes with little drink umbrellas, homemade kites with tissue paper, cards, butterflies, puppets, puppet stages, etc. She usually comes home from school and heads straight for the craft cabinet. Recently she and I made this funky tree with homemade playdoh. It was nice until the playdoh melted.

Andy and I are often amazed at the things she comes up with. She is fearfully and wonderfully made. God, your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Recently we gave the kids a reward for filling up a stay-in-bed sticker chart. We have a terrible time keeping our kids in bed, so this was our newest attempt. It worked and they were allowed to choose their reward. We gave them a number of fun places to choose from-Chuck E Cheese and several other similar kids joints. Jack immediately decided he wanted to go to go Chuck E Cheese. EG thought for a few days and then decided that instead of all those kid places I mentioned, she preferred to go "to cafe." What she meant was she wanted to go to a book store and read books and get cafe. How adult of her! I love it. (we often say she's our 30 year old trapped in a 4 year olds body!) She and I had such a peaceful little visit to the book store. We sipped our hot teas, had pumpkin cheesecake, and read books while Andy braved Chucky's with Jack on a Saturday! I was glad I got to take EG! She and I are so alike. Andy laughs at how I love to hang out in artsy coffee shops. So glad I have a pal to go with me now!

Jack Attack