Overheard in an Orchard

Judah’s memory poem:

OVERHEARD IN AN ORCHARD

Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow tothe Robin:
“Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”
Elizabeth Cheney

A good daily reminder [...]

Why I don’t trust “fashion”…

What lovely woman did to herself was nothing compared to the eccentricities of male attire. Consider one of the illustrated manuscripts still in existence which gives a picture of the young king (Richard II).  His robe is of blue, lined with ermine, and his legs are encased with a trimness which led at this time to [...]

Contentment

Written by a woman who had been captured by Indians and seen her youngest child (6 years old) die a slow lingering death from a gunshot wound and spent several months nearly starving in captivity until she and her remaining 2 children were redeemed:

The Lord hath showed me the vanity of these outward things. That they [...]

For the Environment's Sake..

Homeschool!

As I caught a whiff of exhaust from a passing school bus today, I thought of another way to sell homeschooling! Do it for the environment’s sake!  Think of it… if one parent from every two parent household stayed home every day, rather than commuting to work – think of all of the gas not burned [...]

Better than Galaxy-Quest..

I just read this post at the Femina blog: An Uplifting Memory.  The post itself and the reader’s comments had me almost hyperventilating! Good to know that all of one’s day-to-day small child related disasters are eventually a source of great entertainment – and that eventually one is OUT of that mode of life!

(The title is [...]

To mail or not to mail?

Nothing like a family photo that didn't quite turn out

We send Christmas letters every year, generally including a family photo. Or, more likely, a picture of our beautiful children. Whom the people we send photos to have possibly never met, and really don’t appreciate as much as we do… but hey, it beats trying to [...]

Organization Update

Mystie posted on her blog yesterday: “I know Elly began before I dared to start but when the longing was on me (39 weeks), but I don\’c3\’a2\’e2\’82\’ac\’e2\’84\’a2t know what has come of that fit yet.”\par
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Ah, yes, well… ahem.. my 6:00 initiative has been sporadic at best – every evening meeting/party or out of town visitor has [...]

Spam

I just moderated 385 comments on my site. I marked them all as spam and ushered them out, only glancing at the comments made in the last 5 days. I don’t want to read any more of them, because I think perhaps I’m not old enough or gross enough to want to read them all! The [...]

Future Men

Yesterday, while my friend Mystie was still here my mother-in-law, brother-in-law (same age as Judah), and sister-in-law came over to meet Mystie and to have a play-date for all the boys. We had 5 boys, 3 and under at our house in the morning. It was rather chaotic and noisy, you might say. To put it [...]

Christmas Day 2006

What a blessed holiday! This morning Judah woke up around 7:00, but we didn’t get up until around 7:30. Ezra wasn’t awake yet, and there was a large surprise in the living room so Michael played with Judah in his room while I made breakfast (raspberry buckle – blueberries were too expensive).\par
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When the breakfast was in [...]

Christmas Party

Another Christmas related social event! Last night we went to a Christmas party at some friends’ up in Washington. The event could’ve been highly unpleasant, with the prospect of shepherding two crabby, tired boys around all evening keeping them out of things, but it turned out surprisingly well! Ezra had a nap in the car, and [...]

What is Death to 3-year-olds?

I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with explaining my grandmother’s passing to Judah. He’s nearly 3 years old now, and he doesn’t seem inclined to merely forget Grandma inside a few weeks. Which is good, I think, but it leads to interesting misunderstandings and odd feedback. When she first passed away I explained [...]

Goodbye Grandma.

Yes, my grandmother, Mildred, passed away at 12:30 am Wednesday morning. My mom called in the morning as I was getting breakfast for the boys. I had been planning on going to see her that morning. She passed peacefully, and one of the employees was with her at the time.\par
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There’s a curious sense of finality about [...]

End of Life..

My grandmother is failing pretty rapidly right now. She’s living at a retirement facility in Molalla, OR. I go and see her every Wednesday, though I think I’m going to go and see her today (Monday) as well. It’s a very odd thing in a way to have a grandparent die of old age. I feel [...]

An urge to spend..

I remember a man in Les Miserables who married unsatisfactorily and proceeded to cheat on his wife whenever the opportunity arose. Peace with his neglected wife was therefore bought at the price of releasing the financial reigns to her hands, which lead to his subsequent penury. At least, that’s how I remember the story, although at [...]

Picture Taking Lull

I feel like I haven’t posted pictures in quite a while. But I really haven’t taken many recently, either, so I haven’t felt the desire to come down and download them off my camera. Sometimes it just seems like nothing is particularly picture-worthy. Not because the kids aren’t cute… just for some reason I don’t find [...]

Life Planning

I tried to do some goal-setting for this next year last week. I read a book Michael got out of the library and used the do-it-yourself workshop at the back of the book. The book was all peppy and me-centered, but I thought the idea of sitting back for a moment (or a day) and trying [...]

Self-Defense

I was asked to teach a Women’s Self-Defense Class last Thurdsay at our Women of Hope camp to the assemblage of girls at the camp. Boy was it a lot of fun! I did about a half an hour of lecture (be safe, be cautious, trust your intuation, think ahead, that kind of thing), and another [...]

The Wonder of McDonalds

“Mommy” was feeling a little antsy this morning and decided to take the boys on an outing. So we bustled into the car and drove down the hill to a local coffee place. I had a 50% off coupon for a coffee drink so I bought a 16 ounce mocha breve with whipped cream (heart attack [...]

Finally Grown Up

I bought a bottle of wine at our local grocery store today, and for the first time that I remember, I wasn’t carded! (Keep in mind, I’m not sure I’ve bought a bottle of wine in the last year)\par
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Either the clerk was feeling lazy, I now look over 28 or 29 (that’s the criteria for carding, [...]