Hanging Out POP

Here's a POP (Post of Previosity) from Thanksgiving weekend 2009.

Our family tries to take an annual Thanksgiving photo and has totally given up on any kind of dresswear. We try to all wear the same color tops at least, to give the appearance of some kind of photo session foresight, but it's truly all about the casual with us. It was a liberating moment for me when I figured out some years ago that photos are about the people, not the attire...from then on I much better enjoyed taking family photos, rather than dreading the process (and pomp) of them.

The photo above shows our hometeam pride...Baltimore Ravens BABY (Craig is a self-described "Ravenoid"...his personal term for a rabid Ravens fan!). The kids were clowning around in my parents' backyard and their grandfather captured this fun shot of them. We used it on our emailed invitation for a 2010 New Years Day gathering, inviting folks to "Come on over and hang out with us!"

That was fun.

Much Love. Take Care.

 

Early Morning Collaboration

I awoke to a beautiful sight early one morning last week. The boys were all up and already outside, working on the treehouse together.

Job had a work-related activity to attend that evening and wasn't going to be able to work on the project after he got home from his camp counsellors job, so they had gotten up early, like 6:00 a.m.(!!) to try and finish the look-out platform's base.

It warmed my heart to see them cooperating and valuing each other's input...and even hearing the youngers so cheerfully following Job's instructions. Everyone had a job to do and was eager to do it. Brotherly love abounded.

In the lulls where there was nothing readily available for an 8-yr-old to do, Johngideon would take a swing break.

Then he'd be right back in business when there was a job for him.

Just awesome.

Take Care. Much Love.

 

 



Beautiful, Beautiful Hydrangeas

These are the flowers gracing my dining table this week. Beautiful late season hydrangeas that are more sagey green than blue. Aren't they glorious!

I used to enjoy the luxury of extravagant hydrangea blossoms overflowing in vases throughout our old home, without even realizing how much of a special treat it was. We had two huge old hydrangea bushes at that house, and they treated us to such a wealth of blossoms!

These hydrangea are cut from the bushes of a neighbor kind enough to let me fill vases as often as I please. So, this season I've enjoyed them in their glorious periwinkle blue-est several times, and now am so delighted to enjoy their sagier late season hues. I'm blessed to have them not just gracing dining tables and nightables inside our home, but also beautifying tables outside on our front porch as well. I'll try to get around to posting those photos also.

Hydrangeas just make me smile...in the summer, that is. In the winter, the poor bushes are so bare and scraggly and bereft I can hardly stand to glance at them. Then again, the huge (and I do mean HUGE) brown spider that crawled from the porch table hydrangea arrangement just after I'd finished handling it nearly made me rethink their benefit to my summer life...

...but then nature's beauty won out. Who can resist the beauty of hydrangea blossoms?

Thanks, Arnice, for the kind, generous sharing of your hydrangea bushes. I am truly grateful.

Next year Craig has promised me bushes of my own...I can't wait.

Take Care. Much Love.

 

Delighted to Have Her Home

Maia returned home this week after more than a month away at two different college summer programs. We were all so glad to have her back, and her siblings rushed her at the door as soon as she and Craig got in from the airport.

The arms you see around Maia's waist are Johngideon's, who is lost somewhere in the middle of the group hug. Wait, here he is...

Her brothers even cheerfully carried her bags upstairs.

It is our comfortable household pandemonium once again. (By the way, Josiah's not injured (thank goodness!)...just having fun with Maia's old crutches.)

It is so good to have everyone home again.   Such a luxury...and I am grateful.

Take care. Much Love.

     

Working on The Tree House

My children have wanted a tree house since several years before we moved from our old house...and we moved three years ago. We knew immediately which tree it would have been at our old house, and then again knew exactly which tree here at the new...well, three years ago "new." So, with Job heading off to college soon, and with him loving to design and build, I thought it would be wonderful if he built the treehouse for his siblings before he left...as kind of a daily legacy of love to them. Fortunately, he thought so too. So, after a few delayed starts (life, work, you know), he got off to the building, and just this past weekend secured the supports for the swing beam, which will swing no fewer than 4 children! Which is awesome, as there are usually at least four children outside wanting to swing at the same time, between our two youngest and our neighbor friends, and our current swingset only accommodates two.

When the initial framework was finally secured, Job climbed up and gingerly inched along the brace, wanting to make sure it was as sturdy as he thought it was before he got too comfortable up there.

No worries...its rock solid...even by my over-the-top cautious mother standards. Craig is helping Job as he goes with extra hands and advice, as is our highly talented neighbor Todd, who is a builder by trade but an artist by birth. I think for Job the planning and research has been the most cumbersome, especially because his mother keeps saying to him things like, "I just need to know it's going to be safe" and "If you're going to err, err on the side of caution" and "Be careful with that saw...are you sure its turned the right way?" and "The question to ask yourself is will it hold up ten years from now?" and "Trust me, it can never be too strong; I see what the plans call for, but why don't you use the thicker wood instead." Needless to say, I think Job much prefers Craig and Todd's advice. To his credit, despite my running peanut gallery commentary, he seems more determined than ever to finish, and hasn't walked out on the job yet.

These pictures are from just the successful swing beam support structure attaching. Turns out the swing beam itself is a special order piece of lumber, so that will be several days coming. Today, he added on by affixing the first support for the cantilevered platform, which will be a 4'x5' lookout deck on the south side of the tree, and also the highest point of the whole thing, which hopefully will end up with several levels, an enclosed "house" section and a few other goodies. I was on the front porch and heard a shout from him and looked in the backyard to find him jubilantly swinging from the cantilevered beam (not yet pictured here). He was thrilled to have successfully designed and attached it so quickly.

Not that Job will be able get the whole kit and caboodle built before he ships off to school, but I think he'll have some good, solid, playable railed platforms completed, which will truly delight his youngest siblings throughout the fall.

(By the way, its the camera that was tilted here...not the tree and braces!)

Here's to a project well-begun!

Take Care. Much Love.

 

Such Beautiful Skies

Craig and I spent a lot of time this past weekend driving through upstate New York to pick up kids from camps and summer programs. Along the way we saw these most beautiful skies.

They almost didn't seem real.

What a glorious luxury to live with such uncompromised beauty above you. With the mountains ranges all around us, and the air so clear, and the dense and absolutely lush forests at every turn, and the people so straight-forward and sincere, and eventually (when we reached Josiah's camp) the lake so sparkling and expansive, and the breeze so refreshing, I wondered why we aren't all making our way there...to live.

God is truly palpable in this place.

Take Care. Much Love.

Just Ducky Returnings

We've lived a lot of life since my last post 51 days ago.

Children have graduated high school...and Pre-Kindergarten!...prom-ed...
zoo-ed...spelling bee-d...performed...celebrated...cried...won awards...
doctor-ed and orthodontist-ed...headed off to colleges (at least for the summer)...and to camps...mural-ed...berry-picked...pool-ed...
firecracker-ed...firefly-ed...lemonade stand-ed...and even become adults
(Job turned 18 today!)...to say nothing of what the "older" adults have been up to.

Somewhere along the way I lost my blogging rhythm, but would wistfully glance this way every few days with a sigh. I missed you little blogging outlet. I missed the way you slow life down for just a short while each day, and encourage reflection and contemplation. I missed the way you allow me to tangibly celebrate the journey, with all of its wilds and wonders. And so I did return...

There is so much to share...I truly don't know where to begin. So I thought I'd simply start with a front porch evening meal shared with Baby Ducky.

And why not?

Take care. Much Love.

 

Gommy In Charge?

Today on the way to school, just after we dropped off Johngideon, Montgomery said to me:

"Mom, have I been a good listener this morning?"

(This is a pretty important Gommy-girl question because mornings are just not Montgomery's thing, and it can get pretty rough and rocky...pretty often. This morning, however, was rather fluid...at least for her!)

So, I replied, "Yes, Montgomery, you were a veerrry good listener this morning."

Two minutes or so later, Gommy piped up again, "Well, since I been a good listener, can I be in charge of the house?"

Chuckling to myself, I gently responded, "Well, no, Gommy, Daddy is in charge of the house."

To which she immediately replied (with matter-of-fact casual cool), "Well, I want to make a different choice."

And what she clearly meant was a different choice of who is in charge! Hahahahaha.

Just thinking of a "Gommy-in-charge" house gives me great comical pause!

...and then makes me more than a little afraid!    ;o)


Take care. Much love.

Cycles

Nature has its regular cycles and I am recognizing more and more that I have mine too. This end of school year rhythm is chock full and overflowing with activity, from ceremonies and inductions to summer program applications to special field trips to concerts and stage productions to school festivals to open houses to dances and proms and on and on and on...and that's in addition to the regular rhythm of doctors appointments, sports practices, dance classes, swimming lessons, music classes, volunteer activities and the like. My heart starts to palpitate a bit just thinking about it all. My normal boundaries of time and place simply do not seem able to contain it all. Yet, this is the stuff of life, and what a joy and privilege to live it.

I am full to overflowing, or should I say our laptop is, with photographs that chronicle all of these special and wonderful moments of life. How will I ever find the time in this season to share them all? How will I ever find the time to contemplate and reflect on them, to cherish and savor and really emotionally process them? I really don't know. What I do know is that I am grateful and so very blessed. Thank you, Father.

Even now as I think of the thick beauty and rich wonder each day holds, despite its often frenetic activity, I am also sharply aware that many around our world and even more closely, around our nation, live in fear. Fear of rising flood waters from unbound loved rivers and what that means to their home-spaces and community places and family futures, fear of terrorist and ethnic violence and just plain agonizing war misery, that never seems to have an end. Fear of debilitating lack, fear of uncontrollable storms, fear of staggering loss and fear of inevitable change. I ache for those who ache in fear. I wonder why I am privileged to live in relative security. I wonder why I have been granted space to live free from oppressive, daily, tangible fear.

Sometimes I long to see Jesus return with His peace and His ultimate end to fear...yet...not yet...not just yet. So many still need to know Him. So many ache to love Him, not even knowing that their ache and gaping gashes of suffering have remedy and balm. So, not yet, please Lord, not quite yet.

Meanwhile, I love and soothe, I work and press, I pray and live. And sometimes the cycles of my life roll through these rushed and hurried and filled to the over-brim places, and sometimes they meander through quieter, contemplative, reflective, watchful spaces. Balance often seems unattainable, yet perhaps the balance of the rhythm of the whole thread of life in its entirety is indeed balanced? I'm not sure. It probably doesn't matter. What matters is that we live, grateful for life, that we love, grateful for love, that we worship, grateful for the one we worship, and that we share, grateful to have the something...and the someone...to share.

Love Much. Care.

  

Dandelion Love

I think God created dandelions just to delight the hearts of young children.

Montgomery loves and can't get enough of them. She picks them carefully and carries them gently like precious treasures. Then she selects her place to blow them and huffs and puffs until every fluff-let is floating in the breeze...even in the car!

During a walk she is disappointed if she passes a spot where "somebody wished all the dandelions," and overjoyed when she happens upon a patch of grass where there are many clusters of both dandelions and their yellow flowers (I have been the beneficiary of soooo many yellow "flower bouquets" this spring).

Nevertheless, she has learned -- much to her initial shocked amazement -- that Daddy (in his quest for beautiful green weed-free grass) does not like dandelions, and so when she catches the fluff-lets floating in our front yard, runs around trying to capture them scolding "bad dandelion! bad dandelion!"

Craig is afraid our grass will end up looking something like this...

...disclaimer: this is not a picture of our yard  :o) ...but it would be if Gommy had free dandelion-love reign!

Much Love. Take Care.