My Ebenezer

  We were finally seen by an orthopedic doctor Friday: one week after Seth's accident on the one wheel. What a long week spent on the phone with those On Hold Recordings ("Your healthcare is our top priority!" = a big fat syrupy lie), insurance customer service reps, orthopedic schedulers and switchboard operators... You know that scene in The Princess Bride where the Count puts Westley on that machine and then calmly reports, "I've just sucked one year of your life away." I felt just like Westley felt too.   I know now what took so long for Seth to be seen. Are you ready for it? The insurance company had Seth's birthdate wrong in their information. One little number--a 0 instead of a 9--meant the difference between an appointment early in the week and one on Friday. Yes, we still would have needed a referral and prior authorization, but No, it did not have to take so long except that things got hung up with that wrong birthdate. The authorization was se...

  So, this happened. (This will be my fifty-first explanation, but that's okay!) Seth was riding our one-wheel on Friday. He was admittedly going too fast (the machine was actually beeping at him!) and he fell off, wrecking himself on the asphalt. Besides the mean road rash you see in the picture, he also sprained his left wrist and broke his collar bone on the right side. Broke. His. Clavicle. "What's a one-wheel; is that like a unicycle?" is our most commonly asked question. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, this is a one-wheel:  We are so thankful Seth was wearing his helmet, that I was out for a walk on the same street with him at the time it happened, and that it was not worse.  What I am having a harder time being thankful for is insurance. Since when does an insurance company get to tell me that we can or cannot be seen by a doctor?  Let me back up. We went to the ER shortly after the accident. X-rays happened. The x-ray report for his upper tors...

 We homeschool on Thursdays and Fridays, and lately I've taken to using a safari illustration to try to motivate my kids--especially Seth--to stay focused. I'll say to Seth, "Come on, chase down that gazelle! Stay hungry!" or "Your gazelle is getting away from you, Cheetah! Chase it down! Don't let it get away!" What I mean by that, of course, is, "Pick up your pencil, stop daydreaming, and Do. Your. MATH!!!" The other day after I encouraged him to go get his gazelle, Seth said, "Yeah, but I'm a vegan cheetah." LOL!

For the first time in over 9 years, all of my kids are now in school. Three different kids, three different schools; this can get logistically complicated, but that's just how we're rolling. Noah rides his electric scooter to and from his high school (!!! When did that happen?), Seth is attending 3rd grade at GRASP Academy (his last year there, perhaps, before he switches to Harvest?), and Eden is enthusiastically enrolled in morning Preschool at a church down the road from us. But my point was that for the first time in nine years, I finally feel like I can breathe again for a minute. Like I can come up for air. Maybe mop the floor and listen to classical music, a sermon, or an audio book while I do so. Draw, paint, blog, dust the furniture (I think I remember how to do that?), purge a closet, shower uninterrupted, and b r e a t h e. It's magical.  I think it's marvelous how the Lord works differently in different people's lives, giving them graces and even person...

 In this plate-spinning life I lead (and I admit, I'm not as busy as some other moms I know) it's easy for me to let months go by without updating what is going on. Well it's time for a check-in! This (above) is how I spend most mornings after the boys have gone to school (I should post my routine sometime--that's always a scintillating read! Ha!). Eden and I have what we call Eden and Mommy Time. Original and clever, I know. This is time that is largely spent doing what Eden wants to do, whether that is building with blocks, playing with play-doh, coloring, painting with watercolors (my favorite!), baking a dessert, going to the park, or whatnot. She enjoys the undivided attention immensely.  So many things to say about the simple picture above: My kids go through phases and are into forts these days. Specifically, pillow forts. They frequently summon up all the pillows from every corner of the house and make divided forts in the living room. It's great fun for the...

Though dyslexia has ushered into our household many tears and much frustration over reading and writing, I have to be honest and say that it can also be the funniest thing. I asked Seth for permission to post this story, and he said yes. So here is a chuckle brought to you by dyslexia: It was lunchtime. Seth was searching the cupboards for peanut butter. Not just any peanut butter; the smooth kind. In his opinion, crunchy peanut butter looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Much too weird to look at and therefore unthinkable to eat. I had a small jar of crunchy peanut butter in the back of the shelf, and a very large jar of creamy peanut butter in the very front which, if it had been a snake, would have bitten him it was so close.  "Where's the peanut butter, Mom? The smooth kind?" Seth asked in agitated frustration. "It's right there, Seth." I admit, my voice was also laced with frustration. He heaved a huge sigh, tromped over to the table, and ploppe...

Have you ever been to a restaurant with a menu so extensive that there are multiple pages and maybe even a table of contents? Or a buffet which offers everything from surf and turf to Chinese to pizza to Beef Stroganoff and everything in between? Do you know what is usually true about these places? They dabble in so many offerings and varieties that they don't do any of it really well. How is the steak at these places? It's ho hum. How about their pizza? Same.  You want a good burger? You probably don't order it here. No, you should go to a restaurant that specializes in burgers. And for pity's sake, don't go to a Burgers-and-Fries restaurant and order a salad; you'll be disappointed for sure!  Wilted iceberg, mealy tomatoes, and some anemic cucumber slices, anyone?  Where am I going with this?  Well, in a lot of ways I was that restaurant these last two years; specializing in so many things that I wasn't doing any of them well. Cooking, cleaning, trying to ...

Eden is finally able to sit and watch a movie for a while. Usually she prefers to watch the same movie over and over until the rest of us can't stand it anymore and try to find something else for her to watch. Her current favorite is Toy Story. Well, we may have seen that one too many times, because today I caught Seth in full stealth mode, sneaking around the corner of the hallway to his bedroom. "What are you up to, Seth?" I asked. "sshhh," He whispered. "I'm..." He tiptoed some more and then, giving up, reverted back to his normal voice and said, "Oh, Whatever."  He came back into the room where I was. I didn't think he was going to tell me what he had been trying to do, but I assumed it had something to do with Eden, whom I had just laid down for her nap. Then he said, "I was trying to listen to my toys to see if they were talking."

Seth, age 7

Seth is hilarious. His strong point is definitely not school work of the worksheet variety, but he is always thinking on a creative track. For example, check out his mad fort-making skills:   Oh that we could find a way to harness that creativity and still accomplish the worksheets' objectives! Today during math class (online with BJU Press), his teacher Mrs. Lawson was trying to teach the concept of counting coins for correct change. They were pretending that they were trying to buy a baseball for $0.28 (by the way, on what planet could you buy a baseball for that price? I know, suspend your disbelief!). Mrs. Lawson told the students to pick up two dimes, then said:  "Okay, you have twenty cents in your hand. Is that enough to buy the baseball? Remember the baseball costs twenty-eight cents..." *long pause* "Noo-o! That's not enough to buy that baseball; how much will you need to pick up to have enough money?"  *another pause* At wh...

Seth is my creative kid. While that has presented many a challenge in homeschooling(!), the flipside is that it provides great entertainment to all. He is funny, and just thinks differently than the rest of us.  Case in point:  Seth went out to collect the clean laundry from the dryer. I thought it was taking a little long, and then he came in like this! And it's even funnier from the back! I had to take a picture quickly because Seth said he was really hot in all those clothes!  Still laughing over here. I needed a little comic relief today!

My little Seth. My outside-the-box thinker. I have to write about 2 things that happened in school with him recently: His online class teacher, Mrs. Lawson, was talking about the weather and how we dress differently depending on what the temperature and weather are. The point was to show all the variety of clothing choices and how to choose appropriate ones. She said that she was going to go on a hike, and came prepared with all of the things she would need, whatever the weather was going to be. She cheerily hefted her big bag onto the table and began to sift through the contents, holding up first one thing, then another and talking about each one. "Here are my gloves in case it gets cold, and here is my coat. Oh! I also have sunglasses in case it's really sunny, and an umbrella with me in case it rains..." At this point, Pep rolled his eyes, and said, "Mom, she just needs an Alexa! Then she wouldn't have to bring all that stuff!" Ba-dum-bum. Later...

"Everywhere I look I see a mess," I lamented to Josh this morning. "I wish I had some time to do some cleaning." Had I prayed those words, I would have expected the answer to come in the form of a whole day, or at least a whole morning, without anybody in the house; just me and our disorganized mess and some cleaning supplies. Maybe a little Vivaldi and some coffee thrown in for good measure. The Lord in His goodness and matchless sense of humor did answer my unprayed request, but here's how it looked instead: Five minutes after that conversation with Josh, I was preparing for another day of homeschooling my brood. Seth had just meandered into the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of cereal. Eden was just starting to call for me to come get her up (she's still in a crib, and we like that very much thank you!), and I was dialing a dentist's number to make an appointment quickly before the day got out of hand.  Too late. As I waited for the girl at th...

We love a good read-a-loud over here. This year I have tried to be more intentional about reading aloud, especially to Seth, for whom books are generally considered to be anathema. We're trying to change that, so I've been on a quest to find really funny books if possible, or ones about animals. I read aloud Mr. Popper's Penguins at the beginning of the year, remembering the rolling-on-the-floor laughter Noah and I shared when he was younger. You can read about that  here.   Seth liked it okay, but it didn't elicit any laughter at any part. Not even a smile. After that we jumped into Winnie the Pooh, which also was a huge success when Noah was little. Still, even when I read aloud the passage about Piglet popping the balloon that he intended as a gift for Eeyore, Seth sat stone-faced while Noah and I doubled helplessly over with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. You have to take a minute and read that part:  "While all this was happening, Piglet had g...

I just love this picture above. We were at Friendly's in June, during our family trip up north for 3 weeks. We had all ordered ice cream sundaes for dessert because, well, Vienna Mocha Chunk with Swiss Chocolate sauce. That's why. So we were all spoons-deep in our ice cream, and I happened to glance over. Seth wasn't eating his, he was crafting a masterpiece right next to me; arranging his M&Ms and Reese's Cups so meticulously you would have thought he was entering a contest. I love this picture because it reminds me that not everyone is gifted in the same way. Noah could memorize the phone book if he had to. Eden could organize and delegate an army of employees. Seth? He's creative.

I was nine years old when The Little Mermaid was released in theaters, and it quickly rose to the top of my list of favorite movies. I could sing every song, and in the summers ever after--until I grew too old to admit that I was doing such a thing--I pretended to be a mermaid. Swam underwater with my legs tight together and everything. Now I have 3 kids, and though they have no idea who The Little Mermaid is, the water seems to allure them just as much as it did me. They can't wait to get their swimsuits on and jump in, though they aren't pretending to be mermaids, I guarantee you. They're boys, after all, and have much more in common with Indiana Jones than Ariel. But I digress. I love pictures like the one above because it's like a digital time capsule. I'll file it away and then in five years, revisit it and not be able to believe how little they were. I love/hate that feeling. These are my kids with Matt and Jen's kids, and also some friends from chu...

Seth is my bug man. He loves trapping them, catching them, playing with them, trying to feed them... Today we were out in the yard, trying to make it to lunch time without snacking (honestly this is a rarely-attained goal in our house!) and I suggested we try to catch some grasshoppers. This was met with excitement and so, if you had looked over the fence into our backyard about 11:40 on Monday morning, you would have found Seth, Eden, and I alternately stalking and then pouncing on the little green bugs. Most times we missed, but occasionally we came up victorious. Eden begged to hold one, and then would squeal and jump back if we tried to actually pass our grasshoppers to her. Seth caught the most, and I got a little bit of exercise chasing them down. I am so glad to be out of school for the summer so I can do these kinds of things! Also on an unrelated note, I attempted to show Seth how to do a cartwheel in the backyard and almost pulled my back out. Don't try that a...

The irony in a Mother's Day picture like this one is that the most influential contributors to my motherhood are not even pictured! Those would be God and my husband, as well as my own mom. Years I spent at God's feet, asking for children. Look at how He's answered! These kids are far from what I imagined in terms of personality, and also I had No Idea what I was getting myself into with parenting in general. God knew that. But when I see this photo, I see myriad answered prayers. Thank you, God! God is still giving me grace and strength each day. I pray He will turn my messy efforts into something beautiful one day. Josh is the one who snapped this photo. And the other 5 before it. Truth be told, he could have kept going! I know we're not the only family who can't get a decent photo the first time. He's also the one who helps keep my sanity when, by 8:30pm, I'm about to lose it. He's an excellent putter-to-bedder, the best jungle gym and airpla...

Yesterday about this time, I let out a sigh of relief that rivaled any of the previous ones on record. WE FINISHED SCHOOL WITH GOD'S HELP!! Noah finished 6th grade, Seth finished Kindergarten, and hopefully Eden finished her turn as my loose cannon, though I can't say for sure on that one yet. We did go out for milkshakes to celebrate the victory God gave. About mid-September last year, a mere 2 weeks into school, I didn't think I could or even should go on homeschooling. Almost every day since then, I fought a battle in my mind. I can't do this. God can equip me to do this. I don't want to do this. I must do this. Isn't there another way? Big yellow bus, where are you?  I can say, looking back, that God is the only one to whom credit is due for completing this year. It is only by His grace. I'm not really ready to comment beyond that on this past school year. We'll see what God has in store for next year!

The artist in me and the mom in me frequently do battle, and I must admit it is usually the mom side of me that wins. I value No Messes at the cost of Artistic Expression almost every time. Good thing I didn't know Seth was getting out paints and paintbrushes, because in the midst of my dinner-prepping, I would have said no to painting right then for sure. But look what we would have missed out on!