Sing with me.... "and not sit on the kitty..."

100% of the children who enter my home are drawn to the piano. It has the ability to make some pretty loud noises. So much fun for young and old (as long as us old people are wearing ear plugs and don't want to have a conversation with each other). I don't mind at all if the little ones want to play on the piano under a few conditions: there is no one trying to sleep, there are no adults trying to carry on a conversation, and no banging, please -- it is a very girly piano.

Last week, my nephews came over for a little bit and of course played on the piano because no one was trying to sleep and I was the only adult around. The children were very good and did not bang or pound on the keys. Emma is quite particular about the rules and just loves to tell her cousins how to play the piano. The thing I love about boys is that they ignore the talking girl and go about their business. It is insticual. 

Mandy played the piano a little, but quickly got bored with that and went back to the baby on the floor. This was the first time I observed her taking a real interesting in another baby. She pet Josiah like her kitty and blabbered to him in a high voice. It was really sweet to watch, and just like a boy, Josiah ignored her and tried to get the toy behind her.

Their 6 month age difference will matter little in the years to come, but for now Josiah is a little frightened of all that 1 year old action.

The following look says to me: Seriously, kind lady, please put down the camera and protect me from all the flying arms and legs around this place.

Baby Josiah is the sweetest little guy and all 5 of the baby/toddlers/preschoolers got along famously for the short duration.

Speaking of the piano, I was playing earlier and trying to teach Emma a song to sing. She has a lot of trouble remembering things, so I am earnestly trying to work on it with her. I am afraid she got that from me. I've always done quite poorly with memorization. While others in my family can sit down and memorize whole chapters of things in 10 minutes, I can study for hours and still not remember a thing the next day. Since Emma seems to have inherited my memorization challenges, I am hoping she can use music to remember things, especially Scripture. We are working on "Be Still and Know", the song and the Bible verse (Ps 46:10). 

With her short attention span, Emma quickly bored of that song and flipped from one song to the next in my old spiral bound praise book from the early 90's. It was like favorite hymn night at church from 1992. I loved playing through songs like "Seek Ye First," "Cares Chorus," and "As the Deer."

One of the songs Emma requested I play was "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful." I love Keith Green choruses and soaked up the words as I played the familiar tune:

Oh Lord, you're beautiful

Your face is all I seek

And when your eyes are on this child

Your grace abounds to me

Help me Lord to take your word and shine it all around

And when I am doing well, help me to never seek a crown 

for my reward is giving glory to you.

Oh Lord, please light the fire

That once burned bright in me

Replace the lamp of my first love

that burned with holy fear

That song has great words and was a sweet encouragement to me as I sang. My spiritually rich moment was brief as I praised my God, the God I have known for most of my life. I let my fingers fly across the keys on easy notes I almost know by heart. Emma sang her own words to the melody:

Oh Lord, let Mandy obey

And not sit on the kitty

There's no room

no room

no room

no room in the inn

Kitty Baby Blue

Blue

Blue

Let's see, I am sure I can find some way to turn this around to have a wonderful spiritual application. How about this? Find little moments in your day to praise God. And, glorify God by teaching your children Scripture. There you go. 

Now you can go on your way humming, "Oh Lord, let Mandy obey and not sit on the kitty..." to the tune of Keith Green's "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful."

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Refreshed

As I've whined about said before, summers are hard for me. With my husband working long hours on the farm, it is easy to get lost in the  overwhelming tasks of being a mom and wonder why I do it all. I was worn thin physically and mentally.

Every year, we try to go away for my birthday at the end of September. It is a nice end to the summer and a much needed rest for all of us. We've always taken Emma with us and haven't actually had a night away from her since she was born. Well, we were not with her the night I was in the hospital after birthing Mandy, but I really don't count that as a restful break. When my kind husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday (tomorrow), I said, "Some time away without my children!" He made it happen and we were able to schedule time for 2 nights at the beach. Thanks to my parents for watching the girls and to Jeff's mom for finding a place at the World Mark in Ocean Park, WA.

The reason we look so ridiculously happy in the picture above is because we were (and my husband kept doing unphotographable things while the camera's timer was going). The time away was everything I needed. It was a break. It was relaxing. It was perfect. 

Ocean Park, WA isn't probably on your list of top places to visit because there isn't a lot to do there. It is at the end of the Long Beach Peninsula and has quite the strange culture. We drove passed this ornate gate and had an idea for the entrance to our driveway. What do you think? We'd be the talk of our farm community.

Just down the road was this quaint place. We were thinking about doing something like this for a guest house at our place: "Scenic Pastoral Views."

It was a lovely little resort community where some of the neighbors didn't see the need to impress the tourists. 

Laura and Hillary should recognize this guy. I exclaimed to my husband as we were driving passed, "Look, there's the Indian from the millennium!" I was in Long Beach with my friends for the 1999 New Year's Eve celebration. Some of our adventures included taking pictures with this carving and also meeting a huge crowd of real drunk Santa's handing out condoms on the beach. Some things you never forget.

Also on our trip, I enjoyed indulging in lots of calories. We ate grandly and I have no regrets. Oh, my jeans are quite snug. And I don't care.

The girls did great, by all reports. Our drive to Olympia and home had us convinced we should leave them more often. They are kids who do not like being cooped up in the car. And who would when you have Grandma and Grandpa's house at camp to enjoy?

They played hard. And wore there grandparents out.

Keeping Mandy out of the Lake was a difficult task.

The best part about the time away is that I am renewed and refreshed. I needed the time off, but I was also anxious to see them again after 2 days. They are my first priority again, instead of my a burden.

We returned home late, late last night and we were up and running (with much more energy) today. I did a photography session in Olympia and then one this morning in Dallas. I have them posted on my photography blog.

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Life's cluttered memories

Children attract and extract clutter. It is evident in the random things I find piled around my house, behind the bathroom door and strewn across my kitchen. I noticed it what my first child became mobile. Whatever she found to play with would magically transport itself from room to room until I would find a ribbon and a paper clip in the bathroom. Now with my second child going here, there and everywhere, I find it is even worse. The floors of my home are filled with stuff that was entertaining for a few moments, only to be discarded for something better, something of mommies.

Just today I stumbled into my pristine (I am dreaming) office after tripping over Cocoa the rocking horse in the hallway. When I created my office space, I vowed to keep it clean. I vowed to keep the children out. I vowed a lot of really unrealistic things. The office is now the favorite place for the girls to play. They love my things. I took a moment to take an inventory of the clutter on the floor: an ipod charger, WOW 1999 CD, a grade school picture of my friend Amanda's brother Brad, a chain belt I thought would look cool worn around my hips, my Greek flash cards, a hair scrunchy I haven't seen in about 9 years, and a mini rolling pin. Some of those things don't take a lot of wondering to figure out where they came from. Playing with the ipod charger is a huge "no" in our house, so that makes it a favorite toy. And the rolling pin was no doubt used for the play dough I see that someone left out. The other articles, circa 1999 caused me to think there was a breech in security on my box of keepsakes from college.

Seeing the WOW CD that I used to listen to over and over, the picture of Brad, the chain belt, the Greek flash cards, and the hair scrunchy, took me back to a time before clutter and kids; a time before the things on the floor held a mystery to their origin. Understandably, my life has gone through some changes in the last 9 years or so. What has changed the most though, and not just my taste in music, is what I find important. I compiled a list of what I held most dear to me from my college years, when I was 18 or 19 and life was relatively easy.

1. friends
2. my green wool sweater
3. Amanda's jeans, they looked better on me anyway
4. Gravy Boy, he looked so cute in a hair net
5. how to wear a hip belt properly

I miss those days sometimes, but mostly I don't. Life was good when I was 19, but I didn't know it could be so much better. Now my top five would be my husband, my girls, my extended and in-law family, our home, and my friends. I don't have any clothes that would make the list and I never figured out how to wear that belt so that I looked cool. So now the belt, along with other memories from my past litter my present pristine office. I'm okay with it, because the memories are good ones. And I love the little hands that extract clutter and place it in the child-free zone. It is just what I find important.

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Update of bike tricks, fashion, and rock puking...

My posts lately have been all about Mandy, so here is an Emma update with a Mandy update at the end.

Emma continues to amaze and baffle me with her fashion creations. I am able to manipulate her somewhat if she is wearing something completely inappropriate, but for the most part, it is all Emma. Like it has been since the day she was born.

We received a large sack of clothes from a friend with an older daughter and Emma really loves the new stuff. She doesn't care that they are not new from the store. I put the bag in the back near Emma on the way home from MOPS last week and I could hear Emma discover it because she was overcome with glee, saying, "Oh, I just love it!" "OOh, so cute!" The yellow outfit above is one of her new favorites and she calls it her dancing shorts.

She still rides her bike everywhere and makes the 2 mile trip to the park and back easily now. She is prone to frequent stops for anything and everything. If she spots a pop can in the ditch, she is off her bike in an instant. If she see blackberries, she skids to a halt and runs to pick some. She also stops for wheat, to hold in her mouth while biking. The other day she just stopped her bike, got off, tipped it over and said, "Ah, the bike is tired. It needs a rest."  I am not sure what kind of workout I am getting when we stop for a break every 100 yards, but we manage to have a good time.

She is silly and doing tricks all the time. She is a fun girl to be around.

Now, on to Mandy and her curious ailments.

I've blogged before about her love for eating dirt. She eats a lot of things that most would deem nasty. My opinion thus far has been that she couldn't possibly eat enough organic material to hurt her. On Saturday, she tested my theory when she ate rocks in the morning and then puked them up while being watched at Kelly's in the afternoon. She apparently had quite the belly ache from the pebbles and threw-up on Kelly's bed while she was trying to sooth Mandy to sleep. Poor Kelly, to not only be vomited on, but to then find rocks in the puke! She is a good aunt and sister-in-law and I hope she watches my children again someday.... when they are 15 and 12. ... And not eating rocks.

So, besides rock eating, Mandy is generally grumpy these days, but I think I have determined the cause. Teeth. I can now see a swollen bottom gum and she constantly has her hand in her mouth. She is cranky and sleepy and waking up at night frequently to wail and carry on. It is not a fun time had by all, but this too shall pass.

PS No more rocks have evidenced themselves either out the top or the bottom.

I took Mandy's height and weight on her birthday. She is 29 inches tall and 19.9 pounds. That is the 75th percentile in height and 25th percentile in weight. She's really thinned out in the last few weeks and stands tall, although not walking. Her first steps were 3 weeks ago, but she doesn't take more than two steps before reverting to her fast crawl. She is more toddler and less baby every day. It is pleasing to see her grow and change, yet I love her sweet babyness so much.

She is also very verbals these days. Here is a list of words she can say:

Dad

Mom

More

All done

Wastha? (what's that?)

This (while pointing)

Em (Emma)

Ccc (Kitty)

Ddd (Dog)

Animal sounds for:

cat (low scream, very strange, but it is her sound for a meow)

cow (prefect mooo)

bird (a high chi, chi sound)

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My House in the middle of the night

Wednesday night was pretty awful at our house. Mandy was up screaming most of the night and I had no idea what was wrong with her. As a mom, I think undiagnosed illnesses are the hardest to bare. If she's hungry, feed her. If she has a belly ache, give her some Mylicon. If she is in pain, give her Tylenol. But I had no idea. She continued to be fussy all day Thursday as well. So, here are the symptoms and I'll let you give your best shot of Mommy MD (if you don't have a child, imagine the frustration of being up all night and tired and not having a clue and give you best guess). This is sort of like that medical drama, House, where the main guy needs the joy of the Lord in the worst way.

• Intermittent mad crying and restless occasional sleep only while held by mommy
• When the lights were on, she was less cranky and wanted to play
• Alone in her bed she was mad and screamed the hardest
• Seemed comforted when I rubbed her belly
• She wasn't hungry and shoved the bottle away
• Runny nose
  

Thursday night she woke up at 4 am, but went right back to sleep after a bottle and rocking her. She still has the runny nose and is CRANKY today.

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Potent Prayer

I am often confused by time zones. It happens all the time where I will read something followed by the distinct time zone code and then I spend the rest of my thought time on trying to figure out what time the writer meant and what time it is for me. This problem is the main reason I once called my friend at 1 am in the mid west and woke her whole household up. (So sorry Skeldons. I think I have it figured out now).

This very thing happened when I opened my email this morning at 8:55 am. A good friend who lives in Georgia said, "I need your prayer at noon today," and in parenthesis she put, "that is 9 am for all of you west coasters." Seeing the time was near, I felt humbled that I had the opportunity to pray for this request and that I didn't have to waste any time trying to figure out what time zone she is in and what time that really makes it here.

I say all this to only point out that time zones don't mean diddly to God. But my prayers mean everything. He hears my prayers at any time I choose to speak to Him. We are studying Revelation, teaching it to our Jr. Highers at church. There are some really random symbolisms in that book and it has always been tricky to me, but my husband pointed out something cool to me that has really stuck with me. It is in verse 8 of chapter 5, ".... the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." The prayers are like incense. When it is burning, it permeates every corner of the room, as I recall from my suite-mates who burned it in our college dorm room and then tried to lie about it. The cent of incense is powerful and potent. I love the thought that my prayers fill the place where God is (without breaking any college codes of conduct).

I am in awe that my prayers are like incense to God and that I was able to pray this morning, not distracted by time zones. 

(Please tell me I am not the only one who has trouble figuring out what time it is other parts of the world, ok, United States in general).

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Birthday parties

Mandy is a blessed little girl and the family gathered to celebrate her life. Sunday was the first party, outside on the deck with plenty of cake, toys in the yard, and fun gifts for Mandy.

Check out Emma's expression in the next photo. I have no idea what she is doing, but I laughed out loud when I saw this photo upload onto the computer.

Want a pink cupcake?

Life is much different for Mandy on her first birthday than it was for Emma. While Emma opened her gifts by herself, Mandy has lots of help from her older more experienced sister and cousins.

Left in peace, Mandy found a gift she could enjoy.

Aunt Janice gave the kids glow in the dark stars to remember her by, explaining that they could look at the stars and know that she was looking at the same ones. That opened a debate about whether or not we really do see the same stars as she does in Africa. We decided that probably we weren't looking at the same stars, but I really like the sentiment and Emma is enjoying her glow in the dark star from Aunt Janice.

Birthday party number 2 was on the big day, Mandy's birthday with my family including grandparents. Mandy is quite the social animal and loves being the center of attention.

Mandy received some cool shoes, books, sweatshirt (that I want to wear), some other clothes, a toy dog, puzzle, pj's, and a rolling horse.

It is fun having family around and the girls monopolize the time with Bama and Papa -- someday Emma may learn to call them Grandma and Grandpa. But probably not.

This is a really busy week. In between parties, I canned pears with Odessa. We did 27 jars in 6 hours. The kids did great and I decided I really do enjoy canning; the demanding children being my #1 reason for avoiding the task. There is something very rewarding about preserving food, especially food from my own trees. I plan on canning apple sauce and some jam in the next few weeks.

I have 2 different senior photo shoots this week.  I am looking forward to them a great deal. I love taking pictures of people who don't run off, eat the props, throw tantrums, or need snacks to get through the 1 hour session. I'll post pictures when I get them done. :)

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Happy Birthday, Mandy!

Mandy is 1 year old today. The last year has been so fun and I can't believe how far we've come. From a drunk guy trying to steal our car in the night, to going to the hospital to finally have our baby girl a week late, to suffering through labor and delivery, and being ecstatically happy to have Mandy Rose healthy and in our arms. If you weren't around last year, you may want to click on this link to read about last year's drama. Or you may just want to remember it all again. It was really crazy. 

She was born around noon last year and I am seriously thrilled that I am not pushing a child out of my contracting uterus today. Instead, I will think about my beautiful baby and how blessed I am to be with her every day. She is such a happy girl and brightens my world with her breathtakingly beautiful smile.

Sunday, we had a party for Mandy with Jeff's family. It isn't that our families don't get along that we see the need for 2 parties, but it just worked out that the Peters' bunch could attend a Sunday party and my parents (in Olympia) could come down for a Tuesday party. And the fact that just inviting immediate family is 35 people. It gets a little crazy around here. Not drunk-guy-stealing-our-car-while-I-was-in-labor crazy, just 10-children-3-years-old-and-under-with-pink-cupcakes crazy.

She loved her pink cake, although she tried to act like she got to do that kind of thing every day. Oh ya, pink frosting in the hair.... I do this all the time That's how I get the height, in case you were wondering.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby. I look forward to each day that leads to a new year and a special birthday for you. I love watching you grow. 

Mandy's 1 year old portraits are on my photography blog.

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Goodbye

If I had a list of my life's most disliked tasks, saying "goodbye" would be at the top of the list. We said "goodbye" to Janice today. Janice is Jeff's aunt who is a missionary with SIM in Mozambique and has been on home assignment (here) and is now returning to her home in Africa (there).  I got to know Janice quite well when we stayed in her home for nearly 2 months on our first trip to Africa and again a year and a half ago on our month long trip to Africa. She is kind and gracious, hospitable, generous, pleasantly blunt, and loads of fun. Over the last few months we've had the privilege of sharing many meals with her at the farm. I loved calling her up on our shared minute cell phones and seeing what her plans were for the next meal. Emma also shares a special bond with Janice and talks about her constantly. Even though she doesn't remember our trip to Africa, she clearly remembers Janice and can't comprehend that she will be gone now for a very, very long time -- probably until Emma is 6 years old.

People ask me often whether we plan on visiting Janice again in the future and I always say, "We'd love to!." With 2 children, a trip of that distance becomes increasingly expensive and difficult, but it is not impossible. God worked out the details for both our previous trips and we remain open to the possibility of returning for a visit and to help in any way we can. In the meantime, we will just miss her, pray for her and use Skype to talk to her more often.

Last evening Emma told me she wanted to fly through the stars in an airplane. Our conversation went like this:

Emma: I want to fly in an airplane tonight, okay?

Me: But you don't have a ticket to go on the airplane. Tickets are very expensive. Do you have any money?

Emma: I have lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of money to buy a ticket.

Me: Where did you get lots of money?

Emma: Grandma Sherri.  And I already have a ticket to go on an airplane.

Me: How did you get a ticket? (I ignored the fact that apparently Grandma Sherri gave her lots of money)

Emma: On mommy's computer.  I bought it. I want to go with Aunt Janice on the air plane.

So we see Emma's imagination is working quite well. Or maybe I should check my credit card balance just in case she did get on my computer and book a ticket to Mozambique.  She is going to miss her Aunt Janice a lot.... and I will too.

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Manure Madness

Take a deep breath and be very, very thankful I do not have the scented feature turned on for this blog.

Yesterday brought dirty work for my husband. He was spreading manure on the field by our house. It is free fertilizer, but it sure is gross.

Mmmm. Isn't it pretty. Some call it liquid gold. The cows work hard making it and it is full of nitrogen that the crops love. I didn't have my telephoto lens on, so I had to run through the manure to get that picture. I hope you're happy.

You are breathing out of your mouth right now, aren't you?

So, this is how the process works since I imagine the majority of you have never heard of a manure spreader. I had never heard of a manure spreader before I said, "I do." There are things the farmers keep a secret otherwise they would never marry. This is the ugly side of farming. And stinky too...

First, the hardworking guy whose nose does not work scoops the manure into the trailer/manure spreader.

Listen for the splat, splat, slosh noise as it slides and tumbles out of the bucket and into the trailer.

Then the hard working farmer whose nose does not work slides through the manure to climb into the tractor. He pulls the manure spreader into the field where he wants to spread the liquid gold.

There is a beater at the top of the trailer that flings, yes flings, the manure into the air. It makes a terrific splattering sound as the tractor chugs along in a straight line.

That manure really gets flying. I wish you could smell this.

The hardworking farmer whose nose no longer works finishes the row when all the manure is out of the trailer. He is off for another round. But first he stops to talk to his favorite girls.

And he has a smile on his face because his nose does not work and because cow poop is free.

See those spots on his shirt? That is some manure that spattered on him. There is more on his hat. 

He hates it when I take his picture and came at me trying to kiss me right after I took this. Evil man. I ran screaming. We have a strong marriage and I would do almost anything for this guy; just not kiss him when he is covered in manure.

A highlight of the manure spreading exhibition was finding Baby Blue in the barn. He followed us over there the other day and isn't smart enough to come home. We love that cat, but he isn't too quick, if you know what I mean. The house and the barn are about 200 feet from each other. Yesterday, I made roast beef and stood outside with a bowl full scraps of fat and bones and I called to him. He watched me from the barn, looking around blankly. But we love him.

The smell didn't bother the girls too much, they just enjoyed having Baby Blue back and watching the show of flying poop. Who needs PBS?

I hope your day is enriched by learning about manure, like the soil we spread it on.

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4 year old pictures for Benton

On Tuesday I set off to the big city to scout a location for a senior portrait session that I am doing next week. The customer has a specific shot in mind and I am looking for an eye level dock-like structure with wide wooden planking in a public setting, but not too busy of a location. Minto won't work, but I found something at another park that is promising.

While I searched, I figured I could take pictures along the way of my nephew, Ben, who is turning 4 years old in a few weeks. Although he is crazy talkative, he is also very obedient and came along with me while I posed him and tried to get him not to say "cheese." At some point all parents think it is a great idea to teach our kids to saw cheese to get a smile. I think it starts when they are babies, but we regret it for years to come. "Cheese" smiles are very hard to undo.

Along the way, I also took pictures of Benton and Nathaniel together. They are so cute and will do absolutely anything for Yo-Go's.

Emma tried to get in most the pictures as usual. It is beyond her realm of thinking why I would not want her in all the pictures. She loves her cousins so much. We are really blessed with cousins on both sides of the family and Emma doesn't know how good she has it with play mates her age at every family gathering. She lists her cousins all the time and says after each one, "He is my cousin and my friend." 7 out of her 8 cousins are boys and she loves them all.

We even got a few pictures with Stitches, the favorite dog. I took more pictures and have some posted on my photography blog if you want to jump over and see them.

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