My Ebenezer

I instructed Noah to pick up the phone books that had been delivered in our driveway, and deposit them directly into the recycle bin. "What is a phone book, anyway?" He asked. And just like that, I felt old.

Because everyone climbs into the sink when you leave them for "two seconds" while they're brushing their teeth, right?

I came across a quote by C.S.Lewis the other day:   “Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."” I love moments like that!  I experience them often when reading, and actually in my opinion, that is what makes a good book...well, good .  We have been reading aloud in the afternoons, The Trumpet of the Swan , by E. B. White.  I can still remember my second grade teacher (Hi, Mrs. Bogert!) reading that book aloud to my class, and I can remember not wanting her to ever stop.  Now, reading it to Noah is bringing up all my old fondness for the book.   "To be all alone in a hotel room gives a person a cozy feeling and a feeling of importance." (p.134) When I came to that sentence, Noah tapped my arm and said, "Wait, wait, WAIT !  I know what he means!!  You do feel important in a hotel room!"  I would have to agree.  And there is something very satisfying when...

We got back a week ago from a trip to Connecticut, and I'm suffering withdrawals.  My life was beautiful there: get up when I wanted to, go for a leisurely walk with my husband, ride some four-wheeler, don't worry about planning supper (I did help, but it was nice that the planning wasn't on me), shop at consignment stores with my mother-and-sisters-in-law, go to Cape Cod for two nights without the kids... Great. Vacation!

Few things call my name quite as persistently as this blog does; not that you'd ever know it from my posting frequency!  The fact remains, that at this season of my life, there are More Important Things (or maybe just Louder Things) that vie for my attention.  My husband and kids.  My house.  The impending responsibility of homeschooling Noah (gulp) and all the preparation that goes into that. Et cetera. Even so, this blog is important to me, and I find that I can't ignore it indefinitely no matter how many more floors need to be scrubbed and loads of laundry need to be folded.  Documenting our lives is important too, and so I have finally sat down to write about it. I'll start with a cliche':  The boys are growing up so fast!  Everybody's kids grow up so fast, but these are ours, and I don't want to miss it! Noah still talks almost incessantly about anything and everything, and asks dozens (feels like millions) of questions each day.  He h...

One week ago, I found out I was pregnant.  Yes, you read that right.  And yes, this is still me we're talking about here.  The me who has been trying for more than 10 years, who so far has only been successful with the aid of intense medical help and God's tremendous grace.  The very same me who had been told by doctors that it would never happen.  Just woke up one day, miraculously pregnant. I had been feeling strange in the days leading up to it, had even told Josh, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was pregnant."  Just kind of queasy for no apparent reason.  On Tuesday at 10a.m., all I could think about was how heavenly a nap would be, and I took a long one that afternoon.  Unheard of.  Wednesday morning at 5a.m. I decided to take the test, just so I could go back to sleep and quit thinking, "what if?"  Only, I saw two beautiful pink lines and never went back to sleep anyway. Me , PREGNANT?!?! What a gift!  What ...

There comes a point after restraining the kids from playing in the almost constant mud puddle at the end of our driveway, that you just have to give in and Let Them.  And take pictures.  And enjoy the fun. :)

This was us attempting to take a family picture while being attacked by no-see-ums.  Fun times! :) A camper I am not.  Last weekend, we had the opportunity to go camping with our church family, and while we had a great time pitching the tent, cooking over the campfire, and getting all rustic, I have to be honest and say the sleeping was The Pits.  Our air mattress went flat around midnight, which was about the same time that the people who had rented the campsite adjoining us decided that midnight would be a perfect time to show up and loudly set up their campsite.  I kid you not.  Call us wimps, but we hightailed it home to our quiet and fluffy beds.  Out of the two times I have been camping, both times I have left the campsite in the middle of the night, seeking sleep in any form.  So.  I would have to chalk up camping as For The Birds, and resolve next year to be sensible and just leave the camping business for the stouter-hearted folks. ...

I am not a social butterfly or the popular type, surrounded by close friends.  I have had maybe 10 people over the course of my life that I would qualify as really close friends, so I was really thankful this month to be able to catch up with not one, but TWO of my BFFs (Best Friends Forever)! Last weekend, Carrie and her family stayed with us... And this week, Holly and her family were in Gainesville for a night. I count it a great blessing to have seen both of these dear friends, and hope it's not as long between visits next time! (I hadn't seen Holly in 13 years!!)

Whew! It's dusty in here.  Life's been a little crazy the last month or so, and my blog has become back burner again. For the last couple of weeks I feel as though I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing real estate, as I finished my course and prepared to take the final exam, and then the state exam.  Good news!  Through nothing but the Lord's grace, I have passed and will now be a licensed real estate agent.  Not that I plan to have a career, but there are certain perks that come with being licensed that will help Josh big time in his work.  And now that that's behind me, I feel liberated enough to return to being me; hopefully the Me who has time to blog. Noah is growing fast!  I can't believe he's almost done with first grade.  We are looking at Big Changes for him next year.  Lord-willing, we plan to homeschool him next year.  This has been a decision almost 2 years in the making, and we hope and pray that it's the right one fo...

There are these witty little one-liners that get passed around Facebook.  No one really knows who comes up with them, and I'm sure they get modified depending on who is passing them on, but entertaining they are.  I have my favorites; for example, I love this one: "Cleaning the house with children around is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos."  or on the subject of marriage, "Just a tip: No woman ever started an argument with a man while he was dusting, vacuuming, or washing dishes." But the one that has resurfaced in my mind repeatedly because of its profound truth and perfect summation is this one:  "Having a toddler is like having a blender with no lid."  How true that is. And life has become even more...shall we say, "lid-less" since Seth learned that stools and chairs can be used to reach anything , and bonus: that stools and chairs can be moved to any location , allowing the possibilities of destruction to multiply exponen...

I awoke this morning in the middle of the night to these Valentine's Day gifts from Josh.  While normally I'd be all mushy and swoony over the flowers and chocolates, I have to say the Robitussin outranked them all this year.  Noah and Seth were sick last week, and now I have "it" too, only "it" seems to really, reeallllyyyy like me because I'm still sick.  Among other things, I've been coughing for several days, and that Robitussin was enough to make me all weak in the knees for my sweetheart this morning.  Yes, the flowery, gooey, sentimental, up-in-the-clouds, twitterpated kind of love is great for the early years, but what you really need over the long haul is someone willing to go out and buy you Robitussin at 11:00 at night.  I'm just saying.  So here's to love; all kinds, on this Valentine's Day. I love you, Honeybear!!!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Several weeks (months?) back I posted a prayer request regarding Noah and his utter lack of respect for our authority in his young life.  Josh and I have been praying daily for him, and over the last couple of weeks we've seen a real change in him that I had to write about!  One day a different management method just seemed to dawn on Josh, and he told Noah that for every time he was told to do or not do something, he must say "Yes, Daddy (or Mommy)."  If he did not, he would get a strike.  Three strikes and he would be "out" and we would jump to a new level of discipline. Unbelievably, it has worked!  We have only had to go to the higher level of discipline about once a week for this offense, and now we do not have to remind him repeatedly to show respect; he just does it.  This has translated into a night-and-day difference in our parenting experience with Noah.  Not only that, but Noah seems generally happier too.  I can only give credit to G...

It's been a while since I posted a recipe, and I have to say, this one was worth the wait!   Pssst! Do not attempt these if you are like me and have little to no self-control; they're made with cream cheese and you will eat each and every one!  (the recipe calls for apricot preserves, but I substituted raspberry.  You can decide for yourself..) Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies 1 1/2 cups   butter, softened 1 1/2 cups   white sugar 1 (8 ounce) package   cream cheese, softened 2   eggs 2 tablespoons   lemon juice 1 1/2 teaspoons   lemon zest 4 1/2 cups   all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons   baking powder 1 cup   apricot preserves 1/3 cup   confectioners' sugar for decoration In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Combine the flour and baking ...

I feel safer at night knowing this little man sleeps prepared! 

"What are SpaghettiOs?" Noah asked me the other day. "You've never heard of SpaghettiOs?" I asked, incredulous.  I thought that was one of the requirements of being a kid.  Shocked that my son had never before experienced the admittedly-overly-hyped goodness that is SpaghettiOs, we bought some today at the grocery store (on sale for 89 cents!).  Both Noah and Seth gobbled them up and loved every bite.  Me?  I'm so over it, but I did enjoy my turkey-and-cheese-on-multigrain-bread. :)

This past weekend I had the stomach flu.  What started out as a fun date with my husband quickly went south as halfway through our meal I began to realize that things were not going well for me and my stomach.  We returned home, where I promptly locked myself in the bathroom...and stayed there until morning.  There's a certain clarity that comes to you as you're lying there on the bathroom floor all night, pale and miserable; Normal Is Good. Have you ever stopped to consider how often we take Normal for granted? That's even inaccurate.  We don't take Normal for granted; we complain about Normal .  Normal, everyday life, which is such a blessing from God; the fact that we are hungry, the work we have to do, the people we serve, the messes we clean up, the time we have or don't have--I have complained about all of it. So I consider it a great blessing that, for 24 hours this past weekend, a lot of my "normal" life was taken away so that the Lord could re...

Today at lunch, after Seth tried to pry the spoon out of my hand, I decided to see how he would do feeding himself.  Remarkably well, it turns out!  See for yourself!

1.  Receive the World's Most Beautiful Poinsettia from your neighbors at Christmastime. 2.  Place it outside on the front porch to bring a little cheer to your entryway.  3.  Water and admire it. 4.  Forget about it during a deep-freeze of 24 degrees overnight. 5.  Voila! Poinsettia should be sufficiently dead with no hope of revival.  The moral of this sad-but-true story is:  Never Give Live Plants To Me.  They Just Won't Make It.   Fresh-cut roses, however, I will take since I can't damage those. :)

I mentioned in my previous post that we had two straight days of rain last week.  We did.  And we had lots and lots of mud.  Seth was going batty from 2 days of being cooped up in the house, so I let him outside on the condition that he not get too wet or muddy.  Yeah. Right.  I guess that's what washing machines are for!