Introducing... Micah! Our adorable nephew who visited with his sweet mama for two weeks in July. Erik's brother Adam is serving in Afghanistan with the Army, and brave Kristen is serving on the homefront as Micah's faithful mommy. We loved having them here and wanted to share some pictures!







Pictures of the four cousins turned out as horribly as you can imagine. :) But I'll include one, anyway. We tried to have Erik do manly things with his little nephew. He helped with tools, and barbecuing, and enjoyed the Land Cruiser. :) Come back soon, Micah!

Close Call

It doesn't show up clearly in the photo, but there is a new safety feature in our home. I have always been afraid that a small child would decide to climb through the railing that looks out over our brick entryway. Sadie was my docile baby who never tried anything dangerous, so we never needed to block it. Enter Raina - my mischievous daredevil. Last week, I was cooking dinner and Erik had all three girls upstairs. He came down with Elisa for a quick chat that became a very involved time of discipline. Sadie emerged on the stairway, saying, "Daddy?" to which he answered, "Don't interrupt, please." Sadie, again, said, "But, Dad? Raina's on the railing." I heard her announcement and bolted up the stairs. Erik ran to the brick and stood below her in case she fell. One of the pictures shows where she was. Not on the carpeted area, but on the wood strip on the outside of the railing. A full story over hard brick. Praise God for her big sister. And - we now have a plastic guard.

A Thousand Gifts

In June, I requested a book from the public library: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I savored each beautifully written page, then renewed it twice to savor it all over again. Last night I scrawled a few more quotes in my journal so that I could reluctantly hand it in this morning - no renewals left.

Ann is a farmer's wife and mother to six... and she has written a book so wonderful and challenging and inspiring that I don't even know how to describe it. It is lyrical and poetic, and she writes in a sort of fanciful stream-of-consciousness style without adherence to normal sentence structure or word choice. It might actually drive you crazy if you aren't someone who enjoys the magic of words.

The theme of the book is the word eucharisteo. She discovered the word in the passage of Scripture where Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, and offers His disciples the cup symbolizing His sacrifice of blood. The "thanks" is eucharisteo, and, while the meaning is thanksgiving, the word also encapsulates the Greek words for grace (charis) and joy (chara). When we receive God's grace with thanksgiving, we experience joy.

Ann responded to a simple challenge: write down one thousand gifts of God's grace. Writing gifts sent her on a journey of discovery, joy and closeness with the Giver of each gift. She doesn't ignore the heartache of our broken world, but chooses to see God's grace in the brokenness - in "taking the pain that is given, giving thanks, and transforming it to joy." In her journey of chronicling daily gifts, she learned to give thanks for the beauty and the miraculous, and for the mundane, to enter fully into the noise and clatter and mess of her daily work. She also learned to give hard eucharisteo for the hurt. And she learned that the blessings she was given so freely were hers to then give away....

"I murmur eucharisteo thanks in a pile of laundry and the world expands and heightens and surges with the glory of God... Eucharisteo makes the knees the vantage point of life....

When the eyes of the heart focus on God and the hands on washing the feet of Christ - the bones, they sing joy, and the work returns to its purest state: eucharisteo."

I have started my own list. I am loving the art of capturing moments of seemingly unimportant God-glory with my pen. I haven't figured out how this practice of thanksgiving can so permeate my heart that is a way of life.... how I can give thanks and slow the current of busyness by being fully, joyfully present in each messy moment. When a carton of yogurt topples and strawberry goo slimes the just-mopped floor, and the kids jump in the pool fully clothed and I watch the laundry pile higher, and mugs shatter on tile, and vomit pools on crib sheets.... and, impossibly harder, when families lose loved ones, or jobs, or homes. When orphans sleep lonely, hungry. When famines and earthquakes steal life and livelihood. How to see God's grace in ALL things and give thanks because He is good.

I want to learn. So I am writing down thanks.

Today:

#95 - pushing little ones on the swing
#96 - two kids clambering for my lap
#97 - two ripe red tomatoes on the vine
#98 - my husband bent over index cards, writing verses for his far-away brother
#99 - blueberry ice cream

Three Mommies in Training

Miracles in the Mundane

Today was a quiet day. A normal day.

It started at five minutes before 6:00. I was about to hop in the shower in hopes of a few quiet moments before my little girls awoke. But at 5:55, my towel-clad husband carried in my very awake one-year-old. As I snuggled and nursed her in bed, the other two came clamoring in. So much for morning quiet time! :) Erik needed to be at work early, so after a quick shower, I helped him put together breakfast and lunch before meeting the needs of the girls. By 7:00, everyone was settled at the breakfast table with eggs and toast. I read about two pages of Beth Moore's "Praying God's Word," while sipping PG Tipps tea.

After breakfast, I managed to clean up the kitchen(including a massive cinnamon and sugar spill which occurred while I was trying to read :)) while simultaneously playing "driver" for the older girls' morning adventure of "traveling to Nana's." For this adventure, Elisa was dressed in a sleeveless white blouse, long john pants, and corduroy jacket. Sadie was wearing her blue Cinderella dress over the top of a watermelon print swimsuit. Raina was still in her pjs - and a stinky diaper.

After arriving at the imaginary Nana's house, we headed upstairs. Big girls were instructed to make beds, brush teeth, and finish dressing while Mommy settled Raina-bean for a nap. After Raina was asleep, I sat my Sadie-girl down for some instruction and correction regarding the fact that her bed was unmade and she was still wearing a swimsuit. This time, we got the job done right, with a little help from Mom.

School-time! First - our morning calendar, shapes, weather, and counting reviews. Devotions. Elisa's phonogram writing practice. Reading. While I worked with Elisa on her reading, Sadie got to write in a pan filled with white rice. Yup. That required vacuuming when we were done! :) Sadie reviewed the letter E with me, singing the alphabet song and reading an elephant rhyme. We played a rhyming word matching game. Then, we located Bolivia on the world map and read about a boy named Oscar who lives there.


Ziggy Zebra joins us for Sadie's alphabet lessons. He makes things fun!


Right about then, Raina woke up. It took some time to clean up, and the girls worked on some coloring as I changed Raina and put last night's chicken carcass in a pot to boil into broth.

Outside! We checked out the progress in our greenhouse, noting new arugula and cucumber shoots and then lightly watering. Raina loves dirt! We splashed in mud puddles, and swung, and Mom pulled the wagon around the yard. We found a bird's egg and speculated about how the fragile shell had made it's way into the middle of our grass. We went for a short walk - Raina on my back.








Lunchtime. Bananas and peanut butter. Another mess. :)

Stories. We read a few more chapters in "The Long Winter", #6 in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. Raina sat in my lap and read a board book upside down.

While the younger two slept and Elisa rested, I checked email, quick-cleaned from lunch, folded a load of laundry,



and started dinner.



Elisa got up, and we finished the book. My throat was hoarse, and I somehow burned the edge of my cookbook. :)

Raina joined us, and found the pan of rice from school that I had left in a too-accessible spot. Vacuumed again.

Sadie woke up, and it was time to head back outside. This time, we loaded up the stroller and walked down the road about 1/2 a mile to a neighbor's. "Miss Patty"'s kids are junior high and up, now, and she invites us to use her swing-set and sand box.



Back at home, we rode bikes in the driveway until 6:00.






Dinner. Erik pulled in just as the pasta was going on the table.

Okay. So you're probably thinking - if you made it this far :) - "I get the mundane. Where's the miracle?"

You know what?

It is a miracle that I have three healthy children to love and nurture.
It is a miracle that I have food to nourish their bodies with and clothing to wrap them in.
It is a miracle that I have materials to teach them with, and Bibles to read.
It is a miracle that the sun was shining today and we could play - safely - outside.
It is a miracle that our bodies are strong and we can run and jump in puddles and explore.
It is a miracle that I have a husband who loves me and who adores his three daughters. Who provides for us and protects us.
All of these mundane, simple, quiet, and normal things are made possible because of miracles.

Memorial Day

We are thankful for the men and women who valiantly serve our country today - and those who have served in the past, from the Revolutionary War until the present. Especially remembering those who have given their lives as a sacrifice for our country's freedoms. This photo is a message for Uncle Adam and his group of brave SF men as they faithfully serve in Afghanistan. We love you and pray for you! The video is the girls trying to tell you. Elisa kept saying "save" instead of "serve." I guess that applies, too!

Small Town Life

So... sometimes when my husband leaves for work in the morning, he slips a CD in the player and turns the volume up loud before walking out the door. (I know, can you believe it - we don't have n Ipod. It's still CDs around here.) Usually it's MXPX or POD or any number of other 90s punk rock bands he knows I can't stand! :) This morning, it was Dixie Chicks. Not my favorite, but there are a couple of songs on the album "Fly" that I like. So, I let the girls boogie for a little while as I washed the breakfast dishes. It was pretty funny: three little girls dancing away to "Ready to Run!" I sang along loudly to "Cowboy, take me away!" I love those lyrics, actually. They remind me of why I like Jackson. Now, Jackson is not the pristine, untouched wilderness it once was. But, there is a small town, rugged feel even amid the hustle and bustle of a thriving tourist industry. It is beautiful here, and quiet, and peaceful, and safe.

Here are some reasons why I love living in small-town Wyoming.

1)There are mountains. I can see them from my windows, and we can drive to them within 35 minutes.

2)We have snow and sun! Sometimes I bemoan the late onset of Spring, but we truly love all four of our seasons here. Granted, some of those seasons are short. But it is so easy to be outside any time of year!

3)We can see stars.

4)And sunsets.

5)And elk, and moose, and deer, and bison, and foxes, and trumpeter swans, and bald eagles, and even wolves and grizzly bears...

2) In the off seasons, the national parks are fully accessible - and nearly devoid of other visitors. We can do things like go camping in Yellowstone - without dodging hundreds of slow-moving tourist vehicles. (We did this last weekend. Pictures below!)

5)There is no Target. Or Wal-mart. Or mall! I seriously love this. It may sound inconvenient to you to lack those things, but I am so grateful. We do have K-Mart, and I am forced inside about once a year to purchase something the grocery store doesn't carry - but I cringe.

6) There is little traffic, and no freeway to navigate. Ooh... I am a nervous wreck driving on freeways.

7)My husband loves it here. He would be so happy living the life of a cowboy - but he settles for working indoors at a computer, and spending the weekends enjoying the wildness all around him.

8)We love our small-town church and close-knit community.

Anybody want to move here? :)



Sadie chasing a bluebird. You can see the bird if you enlarge the photo. She kept saying, "Where did the blueberry go?"

Erik at Old Faithful. The patch is Adam's ranger patch. He takes it everywhere to remind him of his brave brother!

Sadie posing on rocks overlooking the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Best friends at Grand Prismatic Spring

Pumping water. My big helpers!