Early Weeks This and That

(Edited to show the correct "publish" date. Started this on 5/6, but didn't finish until 5/11)

Have I told you lately that I have the most wonderful husband on the planet? God sure knew what He was doing when He overruled our shared thought that we would Never end up together. From his gentle encouragement while I was giving birth to Andrew, to the countless ways he has served me without any complaint, I am thankful.

The first couple of weeks after birth are often challenging for me emotionally. I'm doing pretty well this time. I think one reason for that is the realization that staying bouyant is not accidental for me. If I do not make the conscious choices that help me stay bouyant, I will begin to sink. I'm thankful that the Lord is helping me remember to make those needed choices. Perhaps I'll write more on this later.

Dad and Mom Smith were gracious enough to come get the Blessings in the middle of the night Thursday night (Friday morning) and to take care of them until they brought them home Sunday afternoon to meet their new little brother. Many thanks to them.

My beloved Mama arrived last Tuesday, May 4. She is such a blessing to me! It is a treat to have someone who knows me well enough to anticipate my needs/wants, who sees the "tired" in my eyes and sends me to bed, who is a bosom friend, and... who is such a good cook! The Blessings have loved having G'ma around as well. Lots of game playing happening at our house these days! We are so thankful to Mama for coming to take care of us, and to Papa for doing without her while she's here.

Grace had been asking for weeks about when "our newborn baby" was going to be born. She still sometimes calls Andrew the "newborn baby." So sweet.

Stephen must have caught the "newborn baby" label from Grace. When they came home on Sunday afternoon, it took him a bit to warm up to this new person. But before long, he was sitting on our bed with Andrew in his lap. He looked up to tell me, "This is our newborn baby." Then again, with serious eyes, "Where did you find it?"

Stephen has already started bringing gifts to the newborn baby. I guess he knows Andrew is a boy... he brings me flowers, but he brings Andrew rocks.

Andrew has hair that is almost auburn (brownish with blond and red highlights), with a very interesting hair growth pattern. He has multiple cowlicks, two of which send his hairline above his forehead in two different directions. He also has some wave, so it will be fun to see how his hair looks in a few years.

The older Blessings are always ready for a turn holding Andrew. It is sweet to see their love for him.

Another interesting feature of Andrew's is his eyes. I realized several days ago that Andrew doesn't have blue eyes! Though the other Blessings eye color varies, they all started off with blue eyes. Not Andrew! It's hard to tell what color they are/will be, but they're not our typical deep baby blue. How fun!

Last week, Mama and the Blessings helped me with replanting our pepper seedlings. They had outgrown their peat pots, and it's a bit too early to put them out in the garden. They should make it till transplant time just fine in their new pots.

Enough of random thoughts... time for a snooze.

Mothers Day Thoughts of Gratitude

Years ago, I realized that Mothers Day was much more fun if I focused on being grateful for the gift of motherhood instead of focusing on what recognition/admiration/gifts I might receive. To me, Mothers Day has become "Thank God I'm a Mother! Day." It is also a great time to express my thankfulness to the mothers in my life, from my own Mama (the best on the planet!) to my mother-in-love, to the many women who have mothered me and/or taught me about mothering by example.

This morning, Andrew and I stayed home from meeting to rest, and I made some special bookmarks for our Blessings. Andrew doesn't have one yet, but I don't think he'll mind if I'm late. I thought I'd share the text from the bookmarks in a gratitude post.

Davey
I love watching the young man you are becoming as you grow toward manhood. Your love of reading and thirst for knowledge is a joy, and you are a terrific big brother to your siblings. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and consideration. I pray that you will continue to yield to the Lord and become a godly man who follows Him with all of your being. I thank God for the blessing of being your mother, Davey. I love you.


Barak
What a joy it is to watch you grow and to see your character develop. Your love for justice, your gentleness with the Littles, and your entrepreneurial spirit are just a few of the things I like about you. From the day you were born, I have looked forward to seeing what God will do with your lightening bolt spirit as you submit yourself to Him. I pray that as you grow into a man, you will give yourself even more fully to your Heavenly Father & His will for you. It is a blessing to be your mother, Barak. I love you and thank God for you.

Elanor
Your sweet and tender spirit is a delight to my heart, dear daughter. I love to watch you nurture your younger siblings. It is a joy to watch you growing into a young lady who wants to follow the Lord and who is learning to yield to Him and go to Him for help. To hear you singing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” in the lovely voice the Lord has given you has encouraged my heart countless times. I pray you will yield to Him as He continues His work in your life. I thank God that He blesses me with being your mother, Elanor. I love you.

Josiah
What a delight it is to have your “ray of sunshine” self in our family. I enjoy your bright spirit, your love of fun, and your affectionate nature. As you grow toward manhood, I see God growing you into the man He wants to you be, teaching you the balance between the fun and the weighty. I pray that you will submit to Him as He makes you more like Jesus. You are a joy-bringer, and I thank God for the blessing of being your mother. I love you, Josiah.

A few of my favorite things about you, Katie:
~ You have a lovely smile that you share often.
~ You love to be outside enjoying God's creation.
~ You like to read, both to yourself and to your younger siblings.
~ You surprise me!
~ Your cuddles
I'm blessed to be your mama, Katie.
I love you!

A few of my favorite things about you, Grace:
~ You love to hug and cuddle.
~ You are funny.
~ You're a good helper.
~ You have a sweet smile and a loving heart.
~ You tell fun and interesting stories.
I'm blessed to be your mama, Gracie.
I love you!

A few of my favorite things about you, Stephen:
Your smile
Your hugs
Your kisses
Your voice - the way you say words like Amimal and Cupchup
Listening to you sing songs about Jesus
Stephen, I love you and I'm so glad to be your Mama.

I also made one for my precious Mama:

Mama
I am blessed beyond measure to have been given you for a mother.
Thank you for the example that you are to me of godly womanhood: as a wife, mother, sister, and daughter.
I see Jesus in and through you and am blessed & challenged.
Thank you for your unconditional and sacrificial love.
Thank you for being my friend, for lifting me up countless times, and being on my cheering squad no matter what.
I love you, Mama
Happy Mothers Day
May 9, 2010

What a Week!

Monday, I planted 49 tomato and pepper plants, as well as the winter squash. I also got a whopper of a sunburn on my upper back, due to wearing the tank top part of my new swim suit. My arms and face have gotten a lot of sun this year already from working in the garden and running, but I kinda-sorta forgot that my back hadn't seen sunlight in who-knows-how-long.

Tuesday, we had fun at Grant's Farm with Mama Byrd, Dad & Mom Smith, Aunt Joyce, Sarah & her Blessings. It was a beautiful day, and there weren't many people, so it was very relaxing.

I also learned a lesson Tuesday about sunshine and shirts. When you already have a sunburn, a t-shirt doesn't keep it from getting worse in the sun. Tuesday night was much more painful than Monday night had been, and on Wednesday I actually felt ill and spent a good portion of the day in bed. The burn is finally starting to feel a little better today.

Thursday was the last day that we got to see Papa and Mama Byrd before they left to go back to North Carolina and Florida. Aunt Joyce very sweetly brought Mama out to the house while Papa worked in St. Louis, and he came out in the evening.

One fun thing that Mama and I have enjoyed this visit is looking through old slides together. When they were missionaries in Spain (where I was born), it was much less expensive to get slides than to have pictures printed. In my memory, I had never seen pictures of me as a newborn, and only a few as a small baby. I also had seen few pictures of the city of my birth, Valencia, Spain. So it was a thrill and a delight for me to see pictures of where we lived when I was born, of our family at the hospital when I was a newborn, of the team of missionaries with whom they worked, of a time when my Bubba still thought I was wonderful and cute, etc.

Something high on my technological wish list is the gadget they've come up with that can turn your slides and negatives into digital images at home. It's not in the budget yet, though, so I contented myself with taking a few pictures of the slides on the wall. I'll post those separately.

Last night, after a yummy supper of quiche, we let the kids stay up late playing and reading while Jonathan & I and Papa & Mama played Scramble (speed Scrabble). We all had a great time savoring those last hours together for a while. I feel so blessed that we are good friends with both sets of our parents and we thoroughly enjoy spending time with them. This was a sweet visit, and I'm already back to missing them. Love you, Papa and Mama!!

A quote

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

~John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994

Stephen's Late Christmas

On January 5, I was chatting with Mama via google chat.  She asked how Stephen had liked his Christmas present from them.

*puzzled pause as I tried to remember what they had gotten for him*

*Kodak moment as the light bulb goes on in my head*

*mad dash to the living room to look in the back corner of the boxes of books stacked in the future reading nook*

I sheepishly reported to Mama that I had totally forgotten about Stephen's present hidden away back there, and proceeded to fetch him to open it. 

Present opening is serious business for Stephen.




But he likes them a lot!

In Case You Missed It

I just have to make sure that you see this lovely picture of my beloved Papa and Mama.

Pictures!

I have at last uploaded some pictures from December to my Picasa albums. Click on the slideshows to see them individually, etc.

The Byrd Visit:


The Bloom Visit - did I even mention this?!? It was such a treat to have John and Ruth in town for a couple days! We ate together and played Rage at the chapel on Saturday night Dec. 20th, then on Sunday John shared about Immanuel Mission as well as sharing a very challenging and encouraging message about being a Refresher. They joined us for lunch on Sunday and visited some more before heading in to St. Louis. We were so blessed to have them with us - they have been such an important part of our lives over the years, and they are refreshing people!


Christmas Day:


And New Year's Eve at Believers Bible Chapel:

The Byrd Visit

When we abruptly went off line in mid-December, some of our favorite Byrds had just gotten into town. Actually, Beka and The Cousins were on their way to Kansas City for a visit with family there. We enjoyed having Papa and Mama with us on Thursday and Friday, and Beka and the kids got back to our area on Saturday evening. We treasured every moment until they left on Tuesday morning!

Saturday night, we had seafood chowder for dinner, at the special request of Beka and Ethan. Seafood chowder became something of a hobby (obsession?) for Jonathan and I this last year, and Beka and Ethan were eager to taste the fruits of our experimentation. I think they liked it! I'm working on cutting down the recipe to a reasonable size so that I can post it on Love You Can Eat. For now, here's a teaser...



Sunday morning at chapel we got to show off Beka and The Cousins; then Sunday evening we also got to show off Papa and Mama (they went to meeting in St. Louis in the morning). We don't usually have a Sunday evening meeting, but Dec. 14th was our Christmas Supper and Program. It was neat to have some of the Byrds with us for this special evening. One of the highlights from the Christmas program (at what would generally be considered a pretty conservative church) was the Henkel twins playing their electric guitars. They played their own arrangement of a couple of Christmas classics. I couldn't get the video upload to work, or I would share it with you.

As always, it was such a joy to see our kiddos enjoying their time with their cousins. The deep down, soul-satisfying kind of joy. My brother and I didn't have cousins our ages with whom we could really fellowship, and it is a delight to my heart to see my children play with Ethan, Isaiah, Abigail, and Chloe.

I haven't done a good job of capturing the "little moments" in this post, but I'm so thankful that Papa and Mama came to visit, and that Beka decided to come as well with The Cousins. I wish Eric could have pulled away from work and come, but we are all so thankful for the time we had together. And I'm thankful that they didn't let the possibility (which turned into the reality) of them getting sick from our leftover germs keep them from coming!

Here are some more pictures (you can click on the slideshow to get to the pictures individually/download the full sized files, etc):

The Joys of Motherhood

~ The adoration in your 18 month old's eyes as he flies across the room to your arms.

~ The hilarity of listening to your 7 year old read knock knock jokes to you that she doesn't understand.

~ Sharing moments of genuine companionship with your 11 year old.

~ Enjoying the affection of your still-huggy 9 year old son.

~ Girl talk with your 10 year old.

~ The beauty of your 5 year old's heart shaped face - and of her lovely heart.

~ Enjoying a good laugh with your 12 year old.

Please note:  Cleaning up vomit is not on the list.  If you have a means of communicating this to my children's digestive systems, please let me know!

Happy Father's Day!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Papa and me. It is so reflective of us.

In the late night hours of this Father's Day Eve, I've been thinking about (and missing) my Papa. On Mother's Day, I had the privilege of enjoying Mama's presence - what a treat! I didn't really have the opportunity for a thoughtful post about her at the time (but I'll get to you too, dear Mama).

I don't know for sure when the above picture was taken, but I will admit that I snagged it from the KBC photo album many years ago. I love Papa's smile. And when I look at my face here, I see complete and utter trust.

They say that your relationship with your earthly father is a significant influence as you develop your view of God, our Heavenly Father. Not only did Papa teach me Biblical principles that were foundational to my theological understanding of God, but he gave me a living example of God's love and faithfulness that deeply influence my view of God relationally.

A few things for which I'm thankful about my Papa...

**Papa lives by principles and taught us how to apply Biblical principles to every day living.

**He showed me what it was like to be treated like a lady... and pounded it into my head that as a child of the King I should act like a lady and be treated as such.

**He helped me to understand the sovereignty of God on a deep and personal level (though I don't claim to "get it" entirely!).

**He gave us an incredible of example of patience in parenting. If I were half as patient as Papa, my children would be so blessed.

**He shows us a living example of what "husbands love your wives" looks like with skin on. This is a great accompaniment to Mama's example of "wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord."

**He does a terrific monkey impersonation! Which leads to the more general fact that he's a whole lot of fun.

**He prepared me for a husband who loves trouble! ;-)

There's so much more, but I'd best get some sleep.

Happy Father's day to the Papa side of the best parenting duo I've ever seen!

Love you!

Super Cute

Don't you think?

Fun with the folks on Mother's Day

We so enjoyed having my parents here with us for almost a week! We were given a terrific excuse to have them for a visit when Mama was invited to speak at the Mother Daughter Tea and Papa was asked to speak at the chapel on Sunday.

We are blessed that our folks are some of our best friends, and we had a fun time playing Rage with them on Sunday night.

Birthday Pool

On a cold and drizzly day in May, the Blessings' birthday present from Papa and Gramma Byrd arrived - a virtually indestructible pool (aka stock tank)!


And a few days later, on a slightly warmer (and sunny) day, some of them got in!


Our own little Polar Bear Club.

Fathers and Daughters

On my way home a couple of weeks ago, I heard a song that made it almost impossible for me to drive. It was more than a poignant reminder. It was actually very revealing to me, and made me treasure my Papa even more.

Here's the video. Embedding is disabled, so I can't put it directly in the blog, but go take a listen.

It brought to my mind this picture of our wedding day. It's a shot someone caught of Papa walking me down the aisle. It's always touched me deeply - me glowing, and Papa... well, not so much.

(This also reminds me that I need to get our wedding pictures into digital format... sorry about the ink spot on Papa's cheek!)

There's so much more in my heart for which I'm not finding words..

Ladies, be sure to tell your fathers you love them today.

Papa, I just want to say again how thankful I am for you and how blessed I am to be your daughter. Thank you for teaching, training, and guarding me all those years, for leading me to the Most Important Love of all, and for being such an amazing example. You and Mama, with lots of help from the Lord (of course!!), are blame for most everything good about who I am today. I love you both dearly.