Bits and Pieces #20

• Sanuks.  Sanuks are sandals that are like heavenly pillows on your feet.  The sole is called a yoga mat (having never touched a yoga mat, I'm gonna take their word for it), and the top of the shoe is just fabric that lovingly cradles your foot whilst you walk miles with nary a care.  Seriously.  These shoes are the. best.  I bought a pair on Amazon and a pair at DSW.  Check them out and tell me if you buy some so I can do the happy dance for you (with my feet encased in heavenly pillows, of course!).    Neither Amazon nor Sanuk are paying me for this ringing endorsement, though compensation would be welcomed. 😊
• Sigh.  Bath and Body Works is indeed not going to be paying me for enjoying their products.  In fact, the direct opposite seems to be more likely.  When I like a scent at BBW, it is the kiss of death.  Without fail (that may be a slight overstatement), all the scents I like get discontinued.  Mango Mandarin?  GONE.  Spiced Cider (hands down the best fall scent known to man)? GONE.  And the latest casualty -  Limoncello.  Luckily I happened to see it clearanced out and bought several tubes of body cream at a fabulous price.  But seriously!  Can I be the only one who liked these scents?  I'm not sure what's happening in their marketing department, but they have not consulted me for some reason.  #firstworldproblems
• The following is a picture of Shadow babies (our latest nickname for him).  It is hard to see, but  I am giving him a hug (can you see my messy bun at the top right?).  Shadow is displaying what we call "crazy eyes".  It can't be that he is not enjoying my overture of love, or that I am disturbing his personal space, right?  He must be thinking of a life without tennis balls or something, and is a bit spooked at the thought. 

• This, my friends, is the deuce.  It's our Astro van, which we bought in December of 2008, when I was newly pregnant with our fifth child.  This van has taken us on cross country trips, back and forth to school and sports and theater and scores of shopping trips and doctors visits.  This van has been with us for a long time, and now it is no longer ours.  Yes, the deuce has been sold.  A friend of ours sold it for us, and he reports that the guy who bought it is going to trick it out and make it into a hippie van.  Yep, the family truckster is now going to be touring the country like her Volkswagen predecessors did before her.  The ol' Astro is about to see a a whole lotta changes! 😳

Three Teenagers in the Hooooouse!

Today marks my third child's entrance into the teen years.  We now have more children in their teens than not - we have a teen majority.  This basically feels crazy to me.  How on earth so much time has passed literally boggles my mind (not a hard task, btw).

We have had thirteen years to love this child, and each day feels like a gift.  He is funny, generous, passionate, loving, kind and sincere.  I am unable to imagine our life without him.  As I generally do on my children's birthdays, I've spent the day pondering his birth and his years with us.  And after I tucked him in tonight, I laid down with him (which he still allows, even welcomes) and stroked his cheek after he fell asleep.  I looked at his face -- his nose, his eyelashes, his cheeks, and thought of all the times I had done that very thing - gazed into his precious face.  And as I always do, I recalled the story of his birth:

Thirteen years and three days ago, I was admitted to the hospital at 31 weeks into my pregnancy.  I was huge and looked ready to deliver. An ultrasound had shown there were complications, and no one knew exactly what was going on, but it certainly wasn't good or routine.  The plan was to admit me, monitor the baby, drain some excess amniotic fluid and send me home to try to get baby to wait until closer to his/her due date.  Since all of this hospital staying/major test administering/very sick baby was very stressful and worrisome, we decide to find out the baby's gender so we could name him/her and be able to pray for the baby by name.

We were delighted to be told our sweet baby was a boy, but a bit stymied on a name for him.  Since there was a very real chance that he would be coming early, we knew we needed to decide soon.  We had been going back and forth with a few options, but nothing was seeming quite right.  I vividly recall laying in my hospital bed discussing names with my husband, who was sitting across the room. Slightly hesitantly, he told me he had thought of a possibility.  Looking vulnerable, he made his suggestion:  Isaac.  As I thought about the name, he went on to explain why it had come to him.  He recounted the story of Abraham and Sarah in the bible, who had longed for a child for years, and were given their son Isaac.  But when Isaac was a boy, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, and Abraham was obedient.  But just before Abraham went through with the sacrifice, God told him not to hurt the boy, for He knew now that he feared God, seeing that he had not withheld his son from Him.

Through tears, we decided to name our precious son Isaac, and prayed that if God saw fit to take our son home to Him, that we might have faith like Abraham and Sarah's.  And that was our prayer -- as he was born before I ever left the hospital to wait it out.  As he was born not breathing and was immediately put on a ventilator.  We prayed that prayer while he was being sent that day by ambulance to the nearest children's hospital, three hours away, my husband driving behind the ambulance in the night.  We prayed that prayer as he stayed 7 weeks in the NICU at that hospital, and when we brought him home with all manner of medical paraphernalia we never thought we'd be able to handle.

And as we prayed for God's will, God's will for our baby began to take shape.  It seemed God's will was that our sweet boy grow and get healthier as the years passed.  And as he grew, we discovered another facet to his name -- laughter.  The name Isaac means laughter we later realized, and nothing could fit this child more perfectly.  He exudes happiness and joy and brings that to those around him. Laughter indeed -- so very fitting.

So thirteen years ago today was a pretty scary time.  We were holding on by faith, not by sight, and we didn't know what the future would hold. Thankfully, God knew all the time the plans He had for this child.  We have seen thirteen years of His plans and I'm in awe.

 I can't wait to see what else God has in store for Him.

Seize the Moment

Within the last 2 months, my husband and I have gone to six funerals.  We've witnessed (and felt) lots of sorrow, pain, laughter through tears, memories shared, and ultimately -- hope.  Each of the services we've attended focused on the victory Christ gave us through his death and resurrection.  Each pastor pointed us to the cross and the reunion we will have with our loved ones in heaven.  What comfort and hope we derive from those promises!

These passings have been hard.  But I've watched a beautiful thing happen, and I've seen it happen many other times over the years.  This:  a massive outpouring of love.  On Facebook and social media, and then in person at the visitation and funeral services, those whom we've lost have been showered with an overwhelming amount of love.  These friends were beloved, respected and cherished.  Their families were flooded with hugs, prayers, memories and love.  I was so thankful to witness such a testament to who each of these people were, and what they meant to so many around them.

But what I kept thinking, was. . . I bet he had no idea just how much he was cherished.  I bet she had no idea what she meant to those around her.  I bet he had no idea how many lives he changed.  I bet she had no idea how much she will be missed. And while I was thankful the family was able to see all of these things, I felt this pang that, in life, the friend who had passed was not aware the difference he had made to those around him.  And it made me so sad, but also resolute.

I have pondered this subject before - the concept of building one another up.  Of taking a moment (or two or 500) to tell a friend what she means to me.  Of pausing my life's busyness and getting together with a friend.  When I value something in a person (a good friend or a virtual stranger) I need to voice it. Life is fragile, and I am renewing my vow I made in the link above to tell people how much I value them.  I don't know why, but sometimes this is hard!  Fear of rejection; of sounding silly or over-emotional?  Fear of embarrassing yourself or the other person?  I don't know, but I need to get over it.  Because when someone goes out of their way to encourage me, compliment me, or build me up, I am buoyed by it. I'm guessing others feel the same.

So let's not wait, my friends.  Let's cherish our friends and family members.  Let's let them know how much they have impacted our lives.  Let's take a moment to tell someone what they mean to us.

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving

 one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 

Ephesians 4:32

The (last couple) Week(s) in Pictures

Here are a few visuals from our house the last couple of weeks:

I recently switched over my (very small) closet from winter clothes to summer clothes.  These, dear reader, are my winter clothes.  Do you notice a theme? Black, gray and brown are great colors - with a small splash of denim and burnt orange!  Don't be a hater! Neutrals are my friends!

Look at that large even number!  This is the odometer of our suburban, which we are hoping has lots and lots of more miles left in her.  We have a few more adventures planned and we hope the old girl can hang on to take us on them!

Tuesday night, my middle son got the game ball at his game.  He had possibly the best game of his life - a triple (to the fence!!), great pitching, and several infield plays.  I was not able to see it (I was watching my older son's game at a different park), but my husband gave me some play by plays as the game progressed.  My son's coach is great - he encourages my son and gives him opportunities to learn and grow.  We couldn't be happier with all his coaches and his team this year.  But his coach told my husband that I couldn't come to his games anymore - apparently mom is bad luck (this seems to be a common theme for me and my kids' achievements)

Our Blessing Chapel is a tradition at our Lutheran School.  In the top picture, I am blessing one of my students, and in the bottom, my youngest daughter is being blessed by her teacher.  These blessings are amazing.  As a teacher, I am incredibly moved as I bless each child at this last service of the year. What a joy to give my little ones God's promises as I tell them good-bye.  And as a parent, what a privilege to witness the same between my children and their teachers.  Our Lutheran school is a partnership between parent and child, and I am ever so grateful for it!

Hello Summer!

School is out, though things haven't quite slowed down yet.  I just finished up a heaping dining-room-table-full laundry marathon, which featured two items of note:  FIVE sweatshirts that my middle school son unearthed from his locker on the last day of school, and the last of the school-year uniforms.  This means fewer hanging shirts and more folded T-shirts, fewer socks and fewer khaki pants.  Woo to the hoo!  But the school uniforms have been replaced by baseball uniforms. . .pants, shirts, socks, special baseball boy undies. . . I don't mind - it's a nice change!

Speaking of baseball, have I ever mentioned that I love watching my kids play?  On average, we have  about 10 games a week between the four kids who play.  Add in practices and actual other life things, and it makes for a nutso schedule.  But that aside, I really, really love watching them play baseball.  Until they started playing four years ago, I hated baseball.  I thought it was so ridiculously boring and slow.   But from the first moment my boys stepped on the plate, I was hooked.  It isn't slow at all (well, the younger kids' games can sometimes be a bit laborious--), and watching my boys grow as players and young men has been a gift.  They've learned from their coaches, both good and bad, and they've learned valuable team skills.  I'm thankful for all the time we've spent on ball diamonds in the last four years -- and I'm also super glad they aren't into soccer!  Play ball!

Since school has been out, we've also had a few conversations with our kids about screen usage.  We are really trying to encourage them to self-regulate -- to watch their own activities and make healthy choices. We are also trying to make some changes ourselves:  be less reliant on our phones and more present.  We have seen a lot of good already -- brothers playing blitz ball, lots of books read and art created.  I am hoping for some long-lasting shifts in all of us.

So hello summer!  Here's to sleeping in, late(r) nights with the kids, reading a book (or two or twenty), vacations, camping, family reunions, and togetherness. Cheers!