She's at it again...

Summer seems to be the one in our family who is always saying things that crack the rest of us up. There's one in every bunch.
Here's a recent conversation that took place in the car on our way across town:

Summer: "Mommy! Look at that bird in the road!!"
- I see it as it flies up onto a telephone wire above us-
Me: "Ooh! Summer, that's a dove. Isn't it pretty?"
Megan: "I thought Dove's were white."
Me: "Not all the time. I had a dove when I was a kid."
At this announcement, all the kids say in varying ways with equal amazement (As if I've just told them that I previously owned a water buffalo), "YOU DID?!"
Me: "Yeah. And mine was grey with a pretty brown band on its neck. But I hated it."
kids: "Why?!"
Me: " Because it cooed ALL the time! Constantly! It never stopped!! It was horrible!!" I start imitating the cooing noises of the bird in question with exaggerated enthusiasm. I hated that bird. Thinking about it still irks me...but anyway...so, I say "It was like a cooing alarm clock going off day and night! It was terrible!"
And Summer says...

" Well, maybe he wanted you to take the band off!"

Making Cupcakes and Singing Opera

Making Cupcakes and Singing Opera

When I look back over my marriage it seems impossible that nine years have passed. Just crazy. And to have been able to stay home rather than working, care for my kids, homeschool them when necessary, have coffee dates with friends or just read a book when I felt like being quiet- has always felt like somehow I was cheating the system. I won't lie to you- there have been moments of guilt.

Now, one could argue that raising children is work and I agree. But in my case, I actually like my children quite a lot and would rather hang out with them than just about anyone. They're funny, respectful, sweet tempered little people and I can honestly say that I enjoy my role in their lives. It is one of very little difficulty, to be honest.
So when Ryan called the other day at two in the afternoon and asked what I was up to, it seemed totally natural to respond, "I'm making cupcakes and singing opera." But you know- it got me thinking. Aside from the literal work it takes to hit those high notes in Pie Jesu, I live a pretty charmed life. I garden. I read. I go to the river and sit in the sand whenever the mood strikes me. I bake cupcakes and sing opera and have coffee with girlfriends and play the piano. I go to the zoo and the movies and...and...and...
Now, thrown in there are several thousand loads of laundry, household organization, cooking (which doesn't count because I'd rather be cooking than just about anything- so that has to go in the 'playtime' column), PTA meetings, Book Club meetings (Megan's, not mine), menu plans, grocery shopping on an increasingly tight budget, sick kids occasionally, more laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing toilets and coping with children whose natural tendencies are to be little teeny sinners. But still, even with the majority of my day taken up with those mundane tasks, I can't help but think I'm wonderfully blessed not to have a nine to five to worry about.
I won't say that I wake up every day thinking that I'm the luckiest person on the face of the earth, because typically I hit the alarm and am running the moment my feet hit the floor, making sandwiches, packing lunches, brushing hair, inspecting clothes and teeth and attitude before shoving the kid's in the car and hustling them off to school. But there are moments, like tonight as I fussed with plants in the garden or this afternoon when I sat reading in the sun or Wednesday when I baked cupcakes and sang Pie Jesu in my kitchen, that I think of the marvelous ways that The Lord has blessed my life and taken me from the literal homelessness/familylessness of my past and given me the world on a postage stamp lot in a tiny orchard town. These things bear consideration and contemplation and it would be wise, but probably unlikely, to remember these rich and colorful blessings as the years go on. So, this post is meant to honor those blessings, to show my thanks to a God who has an eye for detail and never fails to bring things full circle, and to let everyone in on what we've been up to lately...just as an added bonus;)

Our school's spring performance

One of our pretty girls

Summer's 7th Birthday



coupla cute chicks, if I do say so myself...




aria-inspired creations



sharing a dance

a picture from last summer just to mix things up



It's my ever increasing prayer that God will teach me to "Number my days correctly, that I might gain a heart of wisdom", to see them for the fleeting breezes that they are and fill them with all the things that are most important.

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”.
-Frederick Beuchner