Flips

Parents of young children beware! This post contains content that might inspire other young adventurers to try things in your home that might not be considered safe by all!

Consider yourself forewarned.

The new setup in our house, the girls' kitchen is now out in the main living area:

I put the coffee table close to their kitchen, a surface for them to play and cook on.

Or a surface for them to climb on, as the case may be:

And climb higher from:



And do flips:

Victorious!

Anna in action:

Yes, inspired by little Ruthie, that coffee table ladder has meant hours (literally) of play for three little girls as they climb, flip, run around to the back of the couch, and climb and flip again.

No injuries yet.

Here's a little video of Ruthie in action. You might want to turn the sound off, it doesn't add anything to the video. Anna had a sore throat and ear ache for a while this afternoon and you can hear her crying in the background. She feels fine now, but she had a rough afternoon. Thankfully for me, Ruthie and Josie were completely self-entertained (by a coffee table and a couch) and I was able to focus on Anna. Anyways, enjoy the video of a cute Ruthie doing her flip:

Sweet Sister Spirit

With three of the four girls in this household feeling under the weather today, Anna voluntarily became our nurse. She was amazing, bringing us water, puke buckets, washcloths, Becky blankets, dolls, instruments, making cozy spots for us to lie down in, taking care of Ruthie and reading to her when Ruthie was starting to feel better but Mommy wasn't... You name it, she did it. Thank you, nurse Anna, for all the little ways you showed us love today and took care of us.

While I was making them some food this afternoon Anna told me "Mommy, I was a nurse today, but you are a nurse everyday. Mommies are always nurses." So true, Anna. That is my joy and privilege as your Mommy.

Anna Visits the ER

Yes, that was the excitement of our day, a trip to the ER! It was a rainy day here today so we were playing inside all morning. As Anna says it: "I was playing around with a blanket on my head that I couldn't see through and I fell. My head hit the blanket chest (right on the corner) and it was bleeding. I cleaned it and cleaned it and cleaned it (she held a towel on it while I called the doctor). And then I went to the hospital. At the hospital they put stitches in it. First I put my head on a washcloth, like a little one (that was their first step to clean it). They opened the stitches up and then they put them in my head. I liked it. I liked every part. You know what my faaaavorite part was? I liked being close to you! (I held her while they did it)." Yup, cracked her noggin open. And she didn't even cry! Not when she did it, not when they cleaned it or numbed it or stitched it. "Not anything!"-says Anna. Now she's telling me "Numbing was my favorite part!" (That was the part that actually did hurt). Crazy brave kiddo! She really was fine and did great through it all. Mitch came home from work and went with us, I can't imagine trying to go to the ER with all three kiddos by myself, plus he had the car. Here's a picture Anna drew of her day:It's "Anna at the Hospital." The squiggly lines going up from the bottom she said were the doors, one to the hospital and one to the room we were in. The littler circle in the middle is the bed we laid on while they stitched her up.

We also wanted to say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COUSIN JACK!!!


And Anna also wants to tell you 'we like this drum' (the djembe drum we have).

Surrounded by Love, Support in the Hard Times

What do you do when you have a sick kid, an intense week filled with caring for kiddos with no built in mom time or down time? Call a friend! I have a friend who is incredibly gifted at creating space for people to worship God. She called me last week and asked if she could come over and tell the story of the Good Shepherd and Psalm 23, using props, and help create a space for me to worship and pray amidst the chaos of our week. It was a wonderful time. The girls got into the story because of how appropriately she told it, connecting it to them and using the props to keep their interest and draw them towards God. With them engaged, I was able to find some space inside my head to turn towards God again, instead of constantly engaging in their care. I was even able to sit in one place long enough to finish an entire cup of tea! Mitch wonders why I ever bother to try and make tea because he finds my cup still sitting on the counter in the evening, a marker of my failed attempt to find some quiet time in my day. So you can see why it meant a lot to me to actually be able to finish an entire cup of tea.
We created a 'feast' on our coffee table as part of our story telling and I was able to use elements of it to pray and sink into the presence of God. A much needed soaking. Here is a picture of the table and my almost empty cup of tea. Thank you, Michelle, for listening to the Spirit and investing in my life, for creating a space for me to pray.

And what do you do when you, the Mom, are sick and your kiddos are healthy, full of life and unquenchable kid energy? Call a friend! Yesterday I was feeling quite under the weather and had a fever. I just needed to sleep and didn't think I could make it until nap time, especially given the unlikely probability of all three girls sleeping at the same time. (Mitch, I'll leave figuring out the exact probability to you). But my friend Gina was wonderful and took the two older girls for 2 hours in the morning while Ruthie and I slept. They came home just in time for their naps, Ruthie stayed asleep, and I got to keep sleeping. Then Gina took the girls to a Family Housing activity in the afternoon for another hour. Blessings on your head Gina, that had to be quite an interesting time trying to guide 3 kiddos in a painting activity. Hats off to you. Our girls loved it and I needed it. Thank you.

I feel so lucky to have this kind of community around me, people who are willing to be family to me when Mitch and I need it. People who can step in when Mitch and I are failing to make ends meet and can hold us up. People who can turn us back to God, who can be a window for us to see Him more clearly. People who in the past couple of months have taken over some of the logistics of life for us so that we have been freed up to focus on the needs of our girls and spending time with them. For all our talk about independence in the USA, I'm not sure that is my value. I'm pretty dependent on those around me. I need them. Hopefully, maybe not until another season of life comes along, but someday hopefully I can be that kind of friend to those around me. Hopefully we can teach our girls by our words and our example of giving and receiving what it means to be true community to those around us.

An Afternoon's Activities

This day was not off to a good start when I was awakened at 2 in the morning by Josie puking all over me, a scenario which was repeated every 30 minutes for the next 8 hours. Poor girl. You feel so bad when your little ones are sick. They look at you with their sad, tired eyes and ask you to make it better and you want to but you can't, and they don't understand why you can't. But then Josie was finally able to get to sleep for a while and when she woke up she was much perkier and wasn't losing all the water she was trying to drink. By the afternoon it felt like there was a little more order and activity to our day. We were able to plant some seeds in seed flats (which, if you haven't figured us out yet, means we were engaged in one of our favorite activities!). Here Anna and Mitch are planting the lupine seeds that she chose at the store in a seed flat made from an egg carton:

Anna and Josie had fun painting with watercolors:

And then by dinner time all Josie's energy from her nap was gone and she just wanted to be held, along with Ruthie who was taking a nap on my back.