Happy Birthday, Mimi!

As I've mentioned before, my Mimi is awesome.

I love snuggling under her quilts.

I love drinking her sweet tea.

I love crashing driving her golf cart during kumquat wars.


I love, love, love listening to her tell stories.

I love beating her at cards! (Hahaha...haha...ha...please don't hurt me, Mimi)

I love my Mimi.

And while Nutmeg didn't end up sharing Mimi's birthday, they split the difference with Christmas--Mimi two days before and Nutmeg two days after. Instead of sharing a birthday, they share a name.


Love you, Mimi!

Happy Anniversary!

Every year, our anniversary comes in the midst of Christmas preparations, Advent celebrations, and End-of-Semester stress and chaos.

Over the past thirteen years, our anniversary has been celebrated on both coasts and in between.

Advent has grown richer and more meaningful.

And the end-of-semester stress has shifted from that of student to that of teacher and professor.

Occasionally we talk about celebrating on the anniversary of the day we were engaged, which is in August.

No matter how busy it feels, no matter who may need to travel, J always insists that we celebrate. On the day. At least a little bit.

And he is right. It is something to celebrate. I am happier to be married to J now than I was as a newlywed--and I was an overboard romantic then. God has been so good to us, and we are in particularly sweet season right now. I love him so, AND I have the warm fuzzies and deep affection. And, oh, we laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

Sometime this fall, out of the blue, he sent me a poem. In a year of romance and sweet messages and great dates, the poem still stands out (maybe because I immediately printed it and put it on the refrigerator, where it remains).

I never knew the title before tonight, though.

To a Long Loved Love

Because you're not who I would have you be
I blind myself to who, in truth, you are.
Seeking mirage where desert blooms, I mar
Your you. Aaah, I would like to see
Past all delusion to reality:
Then I would see God's image in your face,
His hands in yours, and in your eyes his grace.
Because I'm not who I would have me be,
I idolize Two who are not any place,
Not you, not me, and so we never touch.
Reality would burn. I do not like it much.
And yet in you, in me, I find a trace
Of love which struggles to break through
The hidden lovely truth of me, of you.


Madeleine L'Engle

One of my favorite love letters from the man I adore.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart! I'm thrilled to be on this road--and in the midst of this construction project--with you.

PSA: Santa Claus

It may not be Christmas quite yet, but...


We're excited and getting ready!

Sunday of Joy

You know what? I'm working on a blog post. The kind where I write. But I'm not feeling it tonight. So I give you pictures instead.

Tonight, J and the children added white lights to the front porch. I went to take pictures. It was already dark out--and for some reason our crazy kids decided that my camera flashing was musket fire. They hightailed it away from me, shrieking. And I gave chase.

Oh, did I chase.

My camera's pretty smart and it was pretty dark, so there was much flashing and not so much shutter opening and closing. But I did capture a few shots, between hiding around corners of houses, sneaking up between cars, and suchlike.

My lungs are still a little sore from the all-out running in the cool night air. In flip flops. In the dark. With a really nice camera around my neck (clearly, these added up to give the kids enough of an advantage that it was a pretty fair game).

Bud "surrendered" the few times I got close--he was the most elusive

J joined in, too. We had a lot of fun.

Held up by my "musket"

Sweet, sweet laughter. Children whose legs are so tired they can "barely move!". A mom who accidentally fell into a game and had the delight of remembering how fun it is to play.




Happy Third Sunday of Advent, everyone!

Body Language

It appears that Nutmeg is adopting a signature pose. You know, something like Madonna's "vogue" or Michael Jordan's dunk.

I'm not sure that I can shed any light or interpretive assistance on these moments I caught her doing her thing, so I'll just share the images. I'd love to know what you would name this pose!



Good thing it was date night tonight; that's all I'm sayin'.

Advent, Week 2

Oops. This week got away from me. We are hurtling through Advent...Bud checks the dry erase board every morning for a fresh look at how many days until Christmas. And the slowing down isn't happening as much as I'd like.

This morning in school, Bud journaled a little bit about the season we're in. He can't wait to open presents--and to give them away. He also loves looking for the Elf.

Ah, the Elf.

The kids' aunt and uncle gave them their very own Elf on a Shelf a couple of years ago for Christmas, and it has bloomed into a tradition all their own. We don't really follow the original intents and purposes of the Elf; we don't have a little spy who goes and reports to Santa whether they have been good or not. Mainly because we don't tie Christmas presents to good behavior. As a friend in our Wednesday night group pointed out last week, "That's blatant works-righteousness. Plus even bad kids almost always get presents anyway, so what they're really learning is that whatever they do is good enough." Not exactly the gospel, eh?

(That friend was NOT talking about the Elf, by the way. Just generically about Santa Claus.)

Our Elf's name is Tompton. His last name is "Elf-on-a-stick" in German, which I can pronounce but cannot spell, so you'll just have to take my word for it.


Every morning the kids come out and try to be the first to find Tompton. He hides all over the place, trying to blend in. With his bright red it doesn't usually work for very long.



At first, we said that whoever found him first was entitled to light the candles in the Advent wreath during our worship times that day. This did not work out very well in Wombles' favor, so we came up with an elaborate civil code with various contingencies and exceptions.


That didn't work either, not least because I couldn't keep track of it all or decide what was fair.

Turns out, there didn't really have to be a reward for the kids to love combing over the house looking for our little SchtechelElf. They actually DO very much enjoy just hunting and finding. Who knew? (We do give a candy treat, though, for the first winner. Often that's Bud before anyone else has gotten out of bed, so no hurt feelings.)



One of the delights of parenthood is getting to help build what will be our children's memories and traditions. Along with special family worship morning-and-evening, we have our Elf on a Shelf. It's fun to play.


And although I don't think the kids are conscious of any parallel, I like the idea of incorporating a bit of hoping and searching into our Advent traditions. I like to think that there's some little heart muscle getting exercised that will be ever more ready to hope and search for the returning King.



During our worship times, the format is the same as last week. In the morning, we have switched our prayer to the following:

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

And our memory verse to the next two verses in Revelation, 22:14& 15 (12-13 were last week).

In the evenings, we've switched around our original plan for singing. This week we're doing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" in order to stay ahead of what we're doing in corporate worship. Instead of saving it for last, we're doing it now so that the children will know the words when we all sing it together. A fun element has been that it's one of Pixie's pieces for her recorder recital next week, so she has accompanied us once and I hope she will again.

Happy second week of Advent!

Advent Evenings

We have a fabulous group of people who come over on Wednesday nights. We eat dinner, all of us together crowding around two or three tables and seated in a mismatched array of chairs. We catch up, fill in, and introduce. We laugh.

And very occasionally cry.

We celebrate. We are learning to celebrate together--God's goodness to us, His majesty, His faithfulness, His gifts.

We are learning to imagine together--imagine what it looks like if God means (as we believe) what He says; imagine the best and not the worst. Why is it so easy to imagine all of the troubling scenarios and such hard work to imagine what could be? In truth it will be better than we can imagine. Some day. And our imaginations were not given us in order that we might cherish fear or our own self-sufficiency.

We are learning to confess. to rejoice. to pray. to wait.

On these nights we also discuss the sermon from the previous Sunday together. And, guess what? All of our sermons from now until Christmas are about ADVENT! And so I get to learn and reflect on and during this time with our friends.

So that's the evening that's on my mind right now--now, when the dishes are (mostly) washed, the chairs (mostly) put back in their various locations. But I did want to share what we're doing as a family for week one, before it gets away, since I know some folks are walking through this along with us.

For evening worship, the Covs start by singing; we'll do a different hymn each week. This week, we're singing "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus." We sing it with the traditional tune, which I treasure. But this Advent I'm really loving this version, too:




I think it will always be on the "Advent 2011" soundtrack of my life.

And guess what? This performance happened in my baby sister's stomping grounds! Bonus!

Anyway, after our hymn, we'll do the Jesse tree (beginning tomorrow--Advent is loong this year).

Then we say the Lord's prayer together--ending, "Amen--Come, Lord Jesus!"

And we snuggle and say "the peace" and give piggy-back rides to bed. At least that's how it wrapped up tonight.

Happy Fourth (day of Advent)!

Advent Mornings, Week One

This morning was our second day using our family liturgy for Advent. When we were about to gather early, J called my attention to the beautiful purple sunrise. Bud rushed to look, and exclaimed, "Dad, I think God did that on purpose for the second day of Advent!"

Our family liturgy is something that J planned out, pulling from a variety of sources, including the Book of Common Prayer. He was also responsible for compiling our Advent playlist on the iPod. Having an Easter playlist last year was one of my favorite things about the season; I still pull it out from time to time. And I'm glad we'll have one for Advent, as well.

It really opened up our musical choices to think of Advent as a time to look forward to the King's return, and not just the baby coming to a manger!

Anyway, the structure of our times will remain constant over the next four weeks, although the content will shift slightly. Here's what we're doing in the morning this week.


We pray together:

"Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever." Amen.

We work on our memory verses for this week (reciting it together twice):

"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Revelation 22:12-13

And we bid each other farewell:

"Let us go forth in peace, to love and serve the Lord!"

Pink on the water reflecting the sky

Next time I'll either share what we do in the evenings or another of our morning Advent traditions. It involves an Elf.

Welcome to Advent 2011

Last Night!

It is finally here.

We have been counting down since sometime in October. Next year I won't start counting until fall break, I think. Eight weeks will be enough!

I am not as "together" about some Advent preparations as I was last year, when I had all of my Christmas shopping done save two gifts. But we are probably more together regarding liturgy, and decorations, and music.

For those of you who wonder why I am making such a big deal out of Advent, I give you an excerpt from our pastor's Advent letter this year. (This is the first time he's sent one-- our church historically hasn't done much with Advent besides a wreath up front). Here is a pretty good introduction to help explain what we're about here this year:

"I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday. I like Thanksgiving because it means that basketball season has started. My favorite team was on the other day. As the game clock was winding down, I was due to board a flight. After missing the end of the season opener, I realized two things: First, I need to plan my trips better; second, games that don’t have an ending aren’t very good. We watch sports because the game has a destination, a purpose, an outcome. Without that, the game just doesn’t make much sense.

The Church year is similar. Without Advent, the Church year would be like a game without the ending. If we had Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, but not Advent, we would go through the great events of God's purpose for the world – the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus, and the coming of the Spirit – but would miss the conclusion to which all these other events have been building. We would miss the end of the game.

To put it another way, our understanding of Jesus’ own story would be incomplete: we would celebrate his birth, his death, his resurrection, but not the end of his story when he will be revealed as the world’s rightful and loving Sovereign. And without that event, this story doesn’t make much sense. Of course, the conclusion to the story hasn't happened yet. Thus on Advent Sunday we are not remembering, as we do when we tell the story of Jesus at Christmas and Easter, nor are we focusing on our present experience of Christ and the Spirit as with Pentecost; on Advent Sunday we are looking forward to Jesus Christ's future, which is also our future and the future of the world."

Late-night preparations

"As I have reflected on the culture in which we live, I have become more and more convinced of the value of the Church calendar for forming and rooting Christian communities in a biblical view of reality. Let me explain. While recent advances in technological communications have brought real benefits (as anyone who has ever skyped their parents or grandchildren can attest), they also provide troubling dangers in that they distort our sense of space and time. But the Church calendar works against these difficult social realities by rooting Christians in time and reminding us that God has been pleased to act in time for us and for our salvation.

The calendar in general, and Advent in particular, reminds us that Christian lives have direction. We're involved in that uncompleted story. We're living between Pentecost and the coming of Jesus at the end. We live in the certain hope that God is going to have the last word: not evil or suffering or death or meaninglessness, but God and God's good purpose for his whole creation are going to prevail finally and forever. Advent is a time to look forward, forward to God’s promised future. It is a time of longing, expectation, and hope. So once a year at least, during Advent, we remind ourselves where the story is going and reorient ourselves in that direction."

"In light of that, we will be doing some exciting things this Advent season to help direct our thoughts, practices, and imaginations towards the coming of Christ. First, shaping our thoughts, our sermon series during Advent will be entitled “In Light of His Coming”. We will be looking at different ways in which the Bible says that the coming of Jesus informs Christians today. Second, shaping our practices, the orders of worship in our services will be thematically developed around the certainty that Christ will come again. Third, shaping our imaginations, our worship space will be artistically decorated in blues and violets. Both colors have been used by the church during Advent to capture people’s imaginations with the second coming of Christ. Blue represents the sky, from which Christ will come. Purple is the color of royalty; for when he comes all will know that he is the world’s one true king."

I had bought purple ribbon for our little Advent wreath. I went out last night to cut oak from our trees, and rosemary and cotoneaster from the shrubs. To my delight, I found the rosemary already adorned with purple blooms. Consider the lilies. The ribbon will keep.

This Advent, I hope to chronicle our family traditions and attempts to train our hearts to keep in mind our certain future and hope.

Happy Advent!

Ten Months of Nutmeg

We have a song we sing around here:
"Her name is Meg-gie
And She's Deli-cious
Her name is Meg-gie
She's surrep-ti-ious!"




Well, maybe not exactly surreptitious, but it's really fun to say; and not many things rhyme with "delicious."

Nutritious, I guess.
Vicious? Ambitious?
They don't really work.

But increasingly, surreptitious might just fit. This little girl is scooting around quick as lightning (although still on her belly. Just picture a snake whipping through). She can get play clay or pencil shavings in her mouth awfully quickly, so we have to be pretty careful about what gets on the floor. So, yes, there are times when she's surreptitious.

She didn't quite get that fourth tooth cut through by her ten-month pictures...but it made it a few days later (finally). You can almost see it here:



What else is new? The girl loves some pasta. LOVES. IT.

She likes to flip over onto her tummy in the middle of diaper changes. Very quickly. She is so strong--I can barely flip her back over. She reminds us more of Bud every day.

Like yesterday when my plastic canister of PG Tips fell out of the cabinet and landed on her somewhere. I don't even know where it hit her (but it didn't hit the ground first). She just picked it up and started chewing on it.

She loves playing with the alphabet train. So what if she falls off?

She waves nite-nite and even says it:






Oh, Nutmeg. I can't believe we're approaching your first birthday!

It's such a gift to see her personality developing, unfolding, shining. I don't think I could bear the sadness of losing this:


if it didn't mean gaining this:



...along with everything that will come after! As it is, we're thrilled to be getting to know her. Happy tenth mesaversary, Nutmeg!

Post Script

An English friend shared this video with me yesterday, saying that "the little boy in the video reminds me of Charlie." He was quite right. And so, as a follow to my last post, I'll share it with you.





Love that Bud!

Only EIGHT DAYS TO ADVENT!

AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

More on Whiteboards

Monday, as I wrapped up math with Pixie, I looked around for Bud. I have developed an internal timer for when one of the boys has been off the radar for too long. Fully expecting to find him down on the terrace (good) or hanging out at a neighbor's (not-so), I looked out the sliding glass door.

And then I saw him, his back to me, sitting on the top step with his back hunched over his Home Depot Kids' Workshop whiteboard. He was fully engaged with whatever it was he was writing: he would write, then wipe off the word with the mistake, and then carry on. Finally I opened the door, telling it was time for him to get his shoes on and head up to Chinese (there is another homeschooling family a few houses up the street where he and Pixie go twice a week to take Chinese. How amazing is that?!?).

By that time, I had already seen what he was working on. Knife to my heart.




I probed, trying to figure out what was behind this. He decided he wanted to talk about it after Chinese, so I let him go. I figured it was our most recent interaction, when I was in the garage shifting laundry. He threw a stick into the garage from outside (blindly, apparently) and it hit me. In response, I was not very nice.


When he returned from Chinese he jumped right back into the conversation, saying no, it had been a little while since I had hurt his feelings. What usually hurt his feelings was when I was harsher than I needed to be.

(Which was the case in the garage. But he didn't say so.) He did say that he didn't like to tell me when I hurt his feelings because he didn't want to hurt my feelings. (Yikes.)

But that's just like my empathetic Bud.


I should probably mention at this point that he wouldn't leave for Chinese until he had finished the "I still love you..." bit of the message. Even though it made him late.

I am grateful for his generous spirit. Bud is more quick to forgive than anyone I know. He paints a picture for me of what grace looks like; and he holds no grudge. I am so grateful to have this sweet, strong-hearted boy with us. Grateful that he wipes out his resentment like his mistakes on a whiteboard.


And I am also glad to be reminded that this tough little guy is tender inside. Which is just how I would like him to stay. Tender towards his family, tender to those in need, tender to the whispers and shouts of the Holy Spirit.

And yes, glad to be called to be called out, to have the opportunity to apologize and be forgiven, glad for the restoration that brings to relationships. Glad for the incredible resiliency my children demonstrate.


And other things they demonstrate, too.

Sunday Snapshot

Today's Sunday Snapshot is brought to you by...whiteboards.


J regularly takes the kids to Home Depot's Kids' workshops. they learn how to use tools to build things...Pixie had been going for almost six years now, and that girl can swing a hammer. But here is Bud with the white board they made in September.

Yes, it has about seven pieces. It seems that whenever I take the kids alone (which has been maybe twice) there's a twenty-piece biplane to build. We now preview online to see what we're getting ourselves in for. And by "we" I mean J.

Last week Wombles called me in to see his latest drawing:


I was soooo excited! He still doesn't know all of his letters, true, but that's a pretty good artistic representation of his name. I'm so proud.

Even though since then I've found his name-picture carefull penned all over. On the table. on plates on the table. Inside random gift boxes I find.

Happy Sunday!

The Next Day

So, it's been a while. J went out of town, the computer died, he fixed it, we recovered. Except that we're both reeeeealy behind in our work. So. I should be planning and prepping my Spanish classes for this week. Until next time, for all of the Mimis, Nonas, and Grandmas out there, here's a peek: some photos I took the day after my last post.




One of the great joys of the past week has been watching Pixie, Bud and Wombles really engage Nutmeg and play with her. The more her personality is revealed, the more fun they have with her. And she has a personality to reveal! Yowza.


I love watching the affection grow and bloom!

Wombles

I missed a post about Wombles' fourth birthday. But today, nearly a month later, he had his 4-year-old check-up. He was AWESOME.

He always is.

He had two shots, and is by far the bravest of the three "bigs" about that. He barely sniffled. And he took them so calmly, squeezing my hands and looking the other way...at the lollipop jar.




He chatted up the doctor:


Dr: "What are you going to be for Halloween?"
Wombles: "A blue ninja named Jae." (and on, nonstop, re: the ninjas, for a long, long time)

Dr: "What do you like to do with you mom?"
Wombles: "Play GAMES!"
Me: (inwardly): Is now when I worry about the ethics of stacking the deck in CandyLand? So that I lose...quickly?


Dr: "What's your favorite food?"
Wombles: "Pepperoni PIZZA!"
Bud: "What about strawberry shortcake?"
Wombles: "Oh, YEAH!"
Bud: "He actually has lots of favorite foods."
Me: (inwardly) C'mon, his favorite foods are all fruits! That's what he eats! Won't somebody PLEASE bring up in front of the doctor that we call him fruit-bat at home? NO? Thanks a LOT.

Dr: "What do you like to do with your dad?"
Wombles: "Play checkers!"

Dr: "Can you jump? Good. What about hop on one foot?...the other foot?"
Me: (inwardly) "Can you stop hopping? Please? She knows you can do it now."

He aced his hearing and vision screenings. And he gave the required sample-in-a-cup.

HE'S GROWING UP!




This afternoon, he may or may not have had a tantrum that included ONE of the following*:

• I won't eat broccoli!
  
• I'm running away to live at the Joe-Joe's factory!
  
• If you put me in time-out in my bed, you have to make it. AND pay me.
  
• You're not my mother. You're just an ORDINARY WOMAN!

Can you guess which one it was?


Good thing he's pretty cute!

Reason #8,412

HE loves ME.


I am spoiled. Big time.
We all know it.
He brings me tea in the mornings.
Every. Morning.
And by "morning" what I really mean is usually before I get out of bed.

And by "tea" I mean PG Tips.

He makes me want to get up and get going.
That may be part of the plan. We do have four children who like to get up early.

This is a man with a sense of humor.

The kind that comes in with steaming hot tea and whispers, "I'm sorry. I went to make your tea and we were all out of PG Tips. I had no idea we were so low!...but I thought maybe you could make do with Fortnum and Mason?"

That is wrong on so many levels:
(1) sorry
(2) went to make your tea
(3) responsible for keeping up with the Tips
(4) "make do" and "Fortnum & Mason" in the same sentence


But before I can even respond, he says, "Don't worry. I've already ordered more PG Tips. It should be here day after tomorrow. And I've signed us up for a subscription, so it'll be automatically delivered from now on..."

Oh, he makes me laugh! And happy to get up in the morning.

Nine Months of Nutmeg

Oh, Nutmeg. What did we ever do without you? And what a splendid ninth month you had!



This month you became a maniac for cheerios.
You outgrew everything but your 12-month clothes.
You pretended --for a few days--that getting up at four a.m. was the new black.

You enjoyed playing peek-a-boo.
Your two bottom teeth really came in.
You fought to hold your own spoon at mealtimes. I finally gave you your own to hold while I fed you.

You learned to sit up all by yourself. Without falling over.

Congratulations! It's a whole new world!

This is not the most flattering photo, but it may end up being the last to show her gummy upper gums:


The past few days have been a little rough as far as teething goes, and I expect her two little top "teefies" (it's a technical term) to break through any day now. I don't know whether I'm hoping they will or not...I will miss the gums...but not the grumps.

And this? We love this look. It usually means she's heading for a sloppy, drooly nip at whoever's nose she's aimed at.

*Baby kiss incoming! Repeat! Baby kiss incoming!!*

I would like to say that almost all of the photos I took on her ninth mesaversary were smily ones. I think this had something to do with it:


We love our Nutmeg!


I would also like to point out that she is currently only 9.5 months old. :)