The Week in Pictures

A little sum up of our last week-ish:

Toilet Paper!  This picture was taken early on in the quarantine.  But don't jump to conclusions -- I'm not a hoarder, or at least not a conscientious one!  I buy all our toilet paper from Amazon's subscribe and save, and somewhere in late February (I think. . . time seems a bit foggy these days and late February feels like 6 years ago) I accidentally received two giant shipments.  As I was putting it away (in our ottoman - don't YOU store toilet paper in YOUR furniture?), I was siltenlty chastising myself for not catching the double shipment.  Oh well, I thought, as I found new places to store the extra pacakges, I know it will all get used eventually, so I guess it doesn't matter.  HA!  When everyone began freaking out about toilet paper, I just smiled to myself and knew we'd be okay for awhile.  Well. . .now we're starting to run low.  All the bathrooms are stocked, but the ottoman is bare.  I stopped into Dollar General the other day and found some paltry DG brand TP, but I gotta say, I'm a little concerned now.  Amazon has failed me and is not sending out any of my shipments that were normally scheduled.  What's a fam to do?  I don't know.  Stay tuned.  Or better yet, tell me where to buy toilet paper please.

New appliances!  After more than two months without a dishwasher, with most of that time being during the quarantine, we bought a new dishwasher.  (And stove.  Because why not have multiple appliances die and therefore dump more money into them all at once?  Stimulus money in, stimulus money out.)  You might recall that I blogged here about my romantic visions of hand washing all our dishes.  And, while the kids might not admit it, I truly think it was a great experience.  I certainly wasn't expecting the quarantine to happen while we were without a dishwasher, but because it did, we were able to maintain a great schedule for dishwashing, and the kids got some quality time together after every meal. The singing and razzing and general sibling bonding made my heart happy.  I'm glad we have the new one, but I'm also a little sad that our hand washing days are over.

Shadow's birthday!  Shadow turned ten and my kids made him a doggie banana cake.  They plopped a big blog of peanut butter on top and stuck a doggie bone on top.  It was the most glorious meal Shadow has ever been given (this does not include all the meals he has stolen from the counter, dinner table, end tables, unsuspecting guest's laps and the like).  The peanut butter stuck to his tongue and mouth, making him hilarious to watch.  I snapped a bunch of pics as he worked to enjoy his treat.  Also,  I think he was truly moved by our rendition of Happy Birthday.

Smoke alarms.  Do they EVER chirp for low battery during the day? The answer is an unequivocal NO.  And if they do at your house, don't tell me!  I don't wanna know!  I woke up the other night at 1:30 am to hear the dog's strangled bark downstairs (where he rarely is at night - he usually doesn't leave my side of the bed all night).  I bolted up and downstairs, certain he was hurt or something.  He was at the bottom of the stairs with his ball in his mouth, a sure sign he was hearing a noise that hurt his ears (one of the reasons we had to replace the stove was because it kept beeping and turning off, also causing Shadow to whimper and run to grab a ball to hold).  Sure enough, the smoke alarm chirped and poor Shadow whimpered again.  Sigh.  Because 1:30 am, groggy, without my glasses on, seems like a good time to dismantle electronics and look for 9 volt batteries.

The Week in Pictures

In late February, I did a quick redo of our bedroom.  New quilt, rugs, curtains etc -- and these pillows.  The whole thing made me so happy. . .navy and gray, my new faves, which my husband noted seem to be taking over the house (I'm okay with that!).  But these pillows!  Who knew, when I bought them, that "let's stay home" would be the defining theme of 2020! 

We did a puzzle swap with some friends a few weeks ago and this is the puzzle we received.  It is obvious that our friends actually hate us, as this puzzle was created by the devil himself.  After 1.5 hours, my daughter and I had only the outline done and were experiencing feelings of anger and frustration, and also neck pain. We left it on the island for about two days, my daughter having high hopes for our abilities and also our patience level, but then I scrapped it.  I couldn't stand how it was taunting us, with its pink and red leaves, so horribly monochromatic. It's still in our house, but after the quarantine is over, I think I'll regift it to our "friends" in a very special way.

Aldi candles!  During the quarantine, I have only been doing grocery pick up at Kroger.  For the first 3+ weeks, I had not stepped foot into a store, and I was having serious shopping withdrawal. But I felt it most responsible to continue with only pick ups, even though I was desperately missing lots of our Aldi favorites (Aldi instacart is too expensive for me - I just couldn't pull the trigger).  But when my husband asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner, I chose salmon, which Kroger was out of (quarantines cause a run on salmon?).  SO - one morning last week, I braved the general public and went to Aldi promptly when they opened.  I got my salmon, and $150 worth of other Aldi faves, and was in and out in 13 minutes (I'm no amateur!). While it didn't exactly appease my shopping desires, being so quick a trip, it did garner these two fabulous candles! Recommended highly by a friend, I was thrilled when I saw them in the special buy aisle (a dangerous aisle, and also my favorite) and let myself buy two.  They smell fabulous, and help me pretend that it's springtime, even though it's snowing today.

Our family altar, during our worship-at-home services.  Since last week was Holy Week, we had services every day, and the altar was well used.  Sitting on the bench just under the TV, where we airplay the services, it brought me great joy and added such depth to our family room church.  Our houses are indeed "little churches" - the domestic church, and having this as a focal point as we worshiped was much appreciated. 

Holy Week at Home

We all experienced a unique Holy week and Easter this year.  No extended family gatherings, no community Easter Egg hunts, and no worship in our church building. This last one was the most challenging for me, as the Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil) are my three favorite days of the church year. But, among the tears and sadness at being apart from our church family, communing together, and simply being in our church, I noticed some unique blessings come from our at-home worship experiences.

• Washing my children's feet.  On Holy Thursday, we participated in the foot washing at home, as the pastors did it in the service.  Our church does a foot washing each year, with several people going up for the washing, a sort of representation of all us.  This year, though, we were all encouraged to take part in our homes, and the result was that one of my children washed my feet; lovingly and tenderly.  After that, I was able to wash the feet of one of my boys;  giant, man feet that I don't routinely touch.  And it was lovely.  As I washed his feet, I thought of those same feet when they were small, and how I had washed them in the tub more times than I can count.  As I washed his feet, I pondered what a gift I have in serving these children.
• For the whole week, we've had our crucifix sitting on the bench just under our TV.  It's a beautiful antique crucifix which our friend gave us last year for our birthdays.  Having it there, just under where we watched worship, was a great focal point for us at home.  On Good Friday, we had a moment during the service to venerate or adore the cross.  Each of the kids and I came up to the cross and touched it, knelt before it and prayed by it.  We do this at church each year, with the big wooden cross there, but this was different and special.  We had candles lit by the cross and the room had darkened as dusk approached.  It was very meaningful.
• The vigil was especially poignant for me. This service is always so special to me and so moving.  Our first four children have all been confirmed at this service, and this year my youngest daughter was going to receive early communion at the vigil. During the opening songs, as the church was dark and the candles all lit, I was unexpectedly weepy.  Oh, how I longed to be in that place, surrounded by our extended family, and our larger church family.  To be singing those vigil-specific pieces while holding our candles.  I was overwhelmed with desire to be in God's house, with God's people.  But as the service continued, I settled in, once again, to the beauty of being in my house, with God's people.  And by the end of the service, as we sang the final hymn together, with gusto, I thanked God for the opportunity to worship in this way, for this time. 
• And finally, Easter morning.  Candles lit again, water prepared for our baptismal remembrance ritual, I praised God in my heart for his great sacrifice on the cross.  Singing those time honored hymns and songs --"O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your vicotry?" -- my heart was stirred in love for my Savior, who gave his life for mine. 

Holy Week and Easter at home, while not what I hope for in the future, turned out to be greatly moving and meaningful to me and our family.  God works through everything, and His timing is always perfect. 

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 

Things I’m Learning During the Quarantine

So we’re on day 12 of the quarantine, and I’m learning a few things.  Here’s a little sum up:

• Seven people, eating EVERY meal in the house, EVERY day, eat A LOT of food.  I’m not allowing much grazing, but even so, it is amazing how much we are going through.  I usually go to the grocery once a week, but this week I had to make another grocery pick up order to keep us stocked!  
• Regardless of the amount of food being eaten, I am absolutely loving setting the table for seven literally every night. During normal life, we try to eat together, in the dining room, as many times are possible each week.  But now, we have eaten all dinners together, in the dining room, for the last 12+ nights.  Each night, it makes me so happy to count seven plates out for the table.  In the history of marriage and family life, I don’t think we have ever had this many meals together in row, with the exception possibly of vacations.
• We have just enough rooms in our house to facilitate remote learning/working.  We have kids and parents working in the dining room, bedrooms, basement, living room and family rooms.  Everyone is plugged into a various device, which we just have enough of, and now and then we hear preschool music or teaching or a zoom/google meet meeting burst out of someone’s computer. It’s been fun to hear the kids’ classmates talking to each other, and see my college daughter’s profs teaching her classes.
• Schedules are my jam. All right, I already knew that one, but the quarantine has definitely reiterated it to me and our family.  We have rhythms in place now for work, school, meals, chores, family game and movie time, and free time.  Everyone balked at the loose schedule we decreed, but I think everyone has settled into it now.  I have gone back to my two-days-a-week laundry schedule, just like in  days of yore when I stayed home, and I love it.  The dishes are being washed by two happy begrudging children (more on that below) each day, and everyone is vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms weekly as well.  
• Just before Ash Wednesday, our dishwasher’s motor went out.  My last blogpost waxed eloquent about the joys of hand washing dishes and how doing so would bring us closer together.  Soon after it went out, I decided to give up the dishwasher for Lent.  The kids cried foul, citing that THEY didn’t give it up, and they would be put to work.  I was undeterred.  It would be good for us all, said I, and led us forth into Lent.  Aaaaaand cue the quarantine.  Remember what I said about seven people eating a lot?  Well, they also use a lot of dishes each day.  It probably hasn’t been the greatest timing to be dishwasher free, but I still maintain that the two kids assigned each day to the dishes (and the duo changes every day - each kid washes three days a week)  are enjoying quality sibling time.  And I’m still doing a lot of dish duty myself, but I don’t really mind it.
• And finally, in addition to all the glorious family time, I am being reminded daily, hourly, that God is one step ahead of us (ok, He knows the entire path ahead of us!) and that He never leaves us or forsakes us.  This slower pace has granted all of us more personal devotional time (every morning for everyone, first thing) and family devotional time after dinner.  While I am sorry for the circumstances of the quarantine, I am thankful for all the blessings God has provided us during it. 

Let's Dish!

Our dishwasher stopped working several days ago, and I had a repair man out today to diagnose the issue.  He was a very nice man, who I paid $85 to tell me that the motor is bad and will cost $400. 

Sigh.

A new, basic model is about that price, so it seems unlikely that we will put that much money into this one (which is only 3-4 years old!).  So now we will be thinking about getting a new one I suppose.

But since the repair man left this morning, I've been thinking about doing dishes.  At the sink, the old-fashioned way.  And perhaps I'm romanticizing this chore, but doing the dishes several times a day doesn't sound like the end of the world to me.  Doing the dishes by hand can:

• create opportunities for conversation.  Some of my best holiday memories as an adult are those of doing dishes with my extended family.  We laugh, talk and spend time together over the hot soapy water.  When we go camping, the kids/adults assigned to dishes each night often end up messing around, laughing and having fun.  
• take me down memory lane.  Growing up, we didn't have a dishwasher, so my sister and I dutifully washed and dried them each night.  Drying was the much preferred chore (because sometimes if mom and dad weren't paying attention, you could skip the chore, and let them air dry).  I can have countless memories of my sister and I at the sink.  When we used to whine and beg for a dishwasher, my dad, ever the comedian, would say "Why do we need a dishwasher?  We have two beautiful dishwashers already!". 
• create opportunities to serve.  When we were first married, my husband and I lived in an old upstairs converted apartment.  It had been converted ages earlier, and had no dishwasher -- only a shallow one-basin sink.  Doing dishes was a tedious chore in that ancient kitchen, and one I put off often (I have changed a lot since then, regarding what I can handle being left on the kitchen counter!).  One Saturday we had a large group over for dinner, leaving a mess in the kitchen.  For some reason, we didn't do the dishes on Sunday (re: apparently I didn't care about a mess back then!!), and when I left to teach and my husband left for classes on Monday morning, they were still sitting there, taunting me.  All day long, I kept thinking of those dishes, lying in wait for me when I got home.  But when I arrived home after a full day of teaching middle schoolers, the kitchen was clean, and all the dishes washed and put away.  My husband had had some unexpected time in his day and was able to get them done. Seeing that clean kitchen was like a Christmas gift to me!
• provide some quiet time for contemplation.  Over the last few days, I've found doing all the dishes by hand to be somewhat therapeutic.  Just as I feel about folding laundry, I haven't minded the repetition and the moments for quiet retrospection.  
• provide quality time with my children.  As I said earlier, doing the dishes can provide opportunities to talk.  Every time I have washed a batch this week, I've grabbed the nearest child and had him/her dry them with me.  And each time, we've chatted - sometimes about nothing important but other times about weightier things.  I look forward to more conversations like these, and of course, more laughter -- always so much laughter.

I'm sure in a week or two I'll be weary of hand washing dishes for 6-7 people multiple times a day.  I may be ready to beg a Best Buy employee to give me a good deal on a new dishwasher.

But until then, I'm going to relish the opportunities doing the dishes provides.

Four Teenagers in the Hooooouse (second edition)

Last summer, my fourth child had his 13th birthday, thereby bestowing on our family the honor of having four teenagers in our family. 

Does that sound terrifying?  I suppose it could be!  But it hasn't been.

It's been awesome.

And the four-teenager-run is about to come to end, never to happen in our family again (we will miss it by about 10 months with the last four kids). 

I have to say, I'm a little sorry to see it go.  Before we had teenagers, when we were in the throes of diapers and tantrums and toys underfoot constantly and no sleep and chasing toddlers and general exhaustion, everyone said "Oh, just wait till you have teenagers!", with an air of impending doom. 

But people, I'm here to tell you: there has been no doom impended upon us, only joy*.  Having teenagers has been a learning experience, to be sure.  I've learned:

• how funny my children are! I never dreamed these little people we created would make me laugh so. dang. much.  They crack me up with their crazy voices and accents and commentaries.  Regardless of what we're doing, their antics are likely to have me in tears.
• to change my dinner table expectations.  Dinner at our house is a sight to behold.  Some kids are stealthily feeding the dog, other kids are asking philosophical questions, others are laughing with a sibling across the table and others might be simply talking louder than the sib next to them. It's loud and crazy and fabulous.
• to appreciate them for who they are.  As the kids get older, their perspectives are becoming more pronounced, and I am learning to embrace how they think and look at life.  My husband and I continue to shape, teach and direct them, but more and more they are making decisions on their own.  It's been so lovely to watch them turn into independent young people.
• how grateful I am.  Every day, every moment is a gift.  When the kids were young, I often felt like I was lucky to be keeping my head above water.  Now, though life is at full tilt all the time, it's different.  I am able now, because I see the end of the family years looming ahead of us, to better appreciate all the beauty I see in front of me.  Every vacation, holiday, game night, and special dinner feels weightier to me.  While I always knew my children were a blessing, as they get older, I more fully see the gifts that they are to us.  

Next month, my eldest daughter will turn 20, and a new era of parenting will be upon us; parenting young adults.  A new set of skills will be required of us.  It's always hard for me to let go and accept change, but at the same time, I'm excited about this next chapter ahead too.  The last 20 years have been full of joy and blessings, and I know God will continue to give us just what we need in the years to come.

*Well, okay, not 100% joy all the time, because they are still indeed humans, and therefore tend to be peskily sinful.

Hymn Sing

Tonight after dinner, we sang our nightly hymn for our family devotions (#676 LSB Behold a Host, Arrayed in White - one of my favorites).  When we were done, I invited commanded one child to do the dishes and the rest to clear, as per our nightly custom.  After the usual silly complaints, the table was cleared and the dining room vacated.  Under the back drop of children's antics, I sat and flipped through the hymnal, singing the occasional stanza of a favorite now and then.  Within a few moments, I grabbed a post it and penned the following list:

Hymns/Songs for my Funeral Concert

For All the Saints

Jerusalem, My Happy Home

Behold, a Host Arrayed in White

The Church's One Foundation

I Know that My Redeemer Lives

Christ is Risen

Alive, Again

Untitled Hymn

Perhaps this is morbid?  I don't know.  I'm always telling my poor husband,  "When I die, you should have this hymn (song) at my funeral". I finally realized that I wanted so many pieces that maybe we better call it a concert. :) 

These hymns and songs are so meaningful to me.  The saints! Christ's resurrection!  The Church! Heaven!  My faith is strengthened and I am often moved to tears literally every time I sing any of them.  What joy and hope and comfort they all give me!

What are your favorites?  What hymns/songs speak to you?