Treasure

A family walk on a warm February day...
Hunting for treasure, hiding in camouflage...
And one day, hopefully, they will know that the real treasure found on that day was each other...
The gift of shared memories and God-painted canvas forever etched...
And knowing that despite the daily grind of life...bickerings..and working things out...
they had what was most important.

Can you find Sam?
He bought a ghillie suit with his birthday money...

The prize.....

Sparkling Water

      It had been a long day of groceries and errands. The mist shrouding us begged for a camera; beauty is never wasted on these hungry eyes. Leaving town, we crested the last hill, revealing our mountains and flooding me with peace. Still eighteen miles to go. Home.

5:00. Nothing planned for dinner. I go to the freezer and get out some pork chops to grill. Why didn't I get these out this morning? Oh well. It will give me time to sautee the apples and brussel sprouts. We manage to get the groceries put away, amidst the chaos of eight hungry children and bags everywhere.

I treated myself today. I'm going to be forty soon, and I bought a special drink to celebrate.

photo credit: Emily Smithdeal

My mother fixed this for me when we were at the beach this summer: sparkling water, cranberry juice, all sweetened with a little homemade sugar syrup (sugar boiled in water to make a syrup). YUM!
I had the sparkling water up on the counter (as a muse? I don't know). Anyway...it was there...waiting for ME! Ninety-nine out of  a hundred days, I rarely give a thought to the fact that nothing is really *mine* in our house. With ten other people, half of them ten and under, "mine"  is a non-existent word.

As I was typing this, John Paul walked in and said with a distressed voice, "Mother, I just made the horrible discovery that people just 'take a brush' when it's time to brush teeth. Can you please buy me a toothbrush? That's not asking too much to have my own toothbrush!!!" Dare I admit he was being serious? And do you realize that long ago we should have bought stock in toothbrush-making companies, because we own so many? It's not my fault he didn't do a better job hiding his toothbrush!

Back to the sparkling water. There it sat on the counter, undisturbed, when WHOOOMPF! Faster than lightning, one of my sweet children (one who is old enough to know better), grabs the sparkling water from the counter, looks at it, and opens it, all in a matter of a milisecond.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!"  I scream. Yes, SCREAM, "THAT'S MINE! CAN'T I HAVE JUST ONE THING THAT DOESN"T GET TAKEN OVER?!!!"
I am embarassed to admit how childish I was acting. I mean I just blew a fuse. As in, you would have thought he was touching a hand grenade about to go. He hightailed it so fast out of the kitchen, he probably thought it was a hand grenade!

Within two seconds, I felt the shame. The shame of being so impatient. The shame of getting so upset over a little bottle of seltzer water. The frustration of once again failing to model a Christ-like attitude to my children. The pain of failure.

I called a shocked little boy back into the kitchen and apologized. I hugged him and explained as best I could why the 'outburst.' There was a time in my parenting when I really struggled with impatience and frustration, but over the years, I have gotten so much better- in fact so much better that I didn't think I would ever get upset over something so little.

Back to humility. Back to realizing that it is only through God's amazing grace that I'm not a mess with the children every day! Back to thanking God for his infinte mercy that allows us to start fresh every moment. I am learning all over again, that apart from God, I AM NOTHING!

So what happened next? I decided to make my celebration drink right then and there! Emily joined me, and she actually wanted to take these pictures...and even set up a little cheese and cracker plate.



photo credit: Emily Smithdeal

 As I was making dinner, the children were getting a little antsy, and I felt frustration surging...so...I let them paint! Sure, it was a little messy, but it kept them happy and quiet until supper was ready, and no more tears!

Tommy paints "a jail"

Emily helepd me fix the dinner. "My favorite smell in the world is cooking Brussel sprouts!" (How do you like that, Pa Pa?)

We had a delicious meal, sparkling water and all!

Finding Knuffle Bunny

Knuffle Bunny, one of our favorite books, tells the tale of Trixie, the little girl who leaves her beloved "knuffle Bunny" at the laundromat.
Our washing machine died last week, hence we ventured to the laundromat this morning to do some washing.

The children have never been to a laundromat, and Tommy was very excited to see that it was just like the laundromat in Knuffle Bunny!
In an effort to really fan the flames of Tommy's excitement, Ben said: "Tommy, I think this is the exact laundromat where Knuffle Bunny stayed. Maybe we can find him!"

I can't remember the last time I've been to a laundromat, and there was a very helpful gentleman(Fred, I found out) telling me how to run the new washers. He didn't work there, but he said he frequented the laundromat often.

I was off to load the laundry, and I heard Tommy come up to Fred and say, "Where is Knuffle Bunny?"

"What?"

"Where is Knuffle Bunny?"

Somehow, Fred caught on. "Oh. I'll tell you what happened to Knuffle Bunny. I think somebody left that door open and Knuffle Bunny walked out to find some of the juicy little leaves and carrots growing in the middle of the parking lot."

Tommy looked at Fred with definite understanding and headed out the door. Two minutes later he was back.
"Excuse me. I didn't find him out there. Do you know where he went?"

"Actually," Fred patiently replied, "I think the bunny moved across the street into the Pet store. I'll bet you could go visit him there!"

All the laundry loaded, we headed across the street to Pets n' Pals. Wow! What a great little field trip. So many animals they had: fish, dogs, ferrets, snakes, love birds, giant frogs and turtles, and even a sailor-mouthed parrot ...but best of all bunnies! We found Knuffle Bunny nestled in a cozy home in the back of the store. Tommy and Anna were amazed!

Later on I heard Tommy telling Oliver that: "Knuffle Bunny lives at the pet store now. We saw him today!"

I just love when the day unfolds and we go off onto unplanned "rabbit" trails (couldn't resist). Somehow the learning always seems richer and more exciting when it hasn't been all planned out!

Do You Understand?

I love listening in to the children's conversations. Here's a classic:

Tommy: Mary Margaret, What does understand mean?

Mary Margaret: It means, like, well you know how Lucky and Roy (the dogs) can hear us but they don't know what we're saying? That means they don't understand us. They can hear us but they don't know what it means.

Tommy: Oh. I know. Like, "I can't understand you." That's what people say when they don't know what you mean.

Mary Margaret: Yeah.

Growing Up

When I was growing up, my parents wrote down some of our(us kids') funnier or more clever sayings in a notebook. ( By the way Mom and Dad, wasn't Erin's notebook the one with the owl on it?) Well, now we've moved onto blogs. So here are two funny things said to me this past week, just so I can remember:

Tommy(age 3): "Mommy, when I grow up to be a baby again, I'm going to nurse like Anna."

Mary Margaret (age 5-said with a huge 'Eureka' tone of voice'): " Mommy-I just realized something. When you grow up and get big, the things you had when you're little are still yours. See, I had this blanket with the stars on it when I was a little girl, and now that I'm all grown up, I still have it. Isn't that amazing?"