It was a beautiful evening: clear skies and warmer-than-average but still very comfortable temps. I had a lovely time walking and talking with Adam, L, and B, and watching the kiddos as they scurried from house to house collecting sweet treats.
To put it in the simplest possible way, it's a huge blessing to be in community with others, and to watch our kids have fun together. (And if you're looking for Lambie, he's there too, in Abby's hand. :) )
I've been a crazed shutterbug ever since Abby was born. My kids are very well-trained when it comes to the art of smiling for the camera. But it fills me with such glee whenever they stop and smile when their friends are looking. I'm sure Isaac won't always be so responsive to my clicky-whims, and one day, the idea of mom snapping photos of him with his friends will be mortifying. And he may even say something like mo-om, you're embarrassing me! Stop!.
So for now, I'm thankful that I can be me --and chronicle his quickly-passing childhood-- with no fear of the eyeroll.
Glue moves very, very slowly, so the activity is just as tedious as it sounds. And I could hardly wait to be done with the task. But honestly, as I watched the last drops drip, drip, drip their way into a bottle, I was surprised to find an almost soothing beauty in what I saw. (I know, weird. But roll with it.) It was still a slow and time-consuming process, but when I paid attention to what it looked like as it traveled, it actually wasn't all that bad.
Life is the same way, I think: we have to slog through plenty of boring, uneventful, like-watching-paint-dry (or glue-drip) experiences, but if we look for the beauty hidden within those activities, we're sure to find something that catches our fancy.
Memories can be painful at times --goodness knows, sometimes I think of the harder days with Logan and my heart winces-- but they're also a tremendous blessing. So today, I'm thankful for my memories and for the earthly things that help to jog them.
It's just the Little Boys, enjoying a cuddle and some screen time after dinner. They are, most of the time, the picture of cooperative effort. They sit together, and play together, and laugh together. They have their less-than-stellar moments, too, of course, but for the most part, they're sweet. And as a mom, seeing two of my babies get along so well is a huge blessing from God.
It was just so nice to sit with my hunny and talk and eat (a lot of) food. We haven't done that particularly often in recent years, and it's always a blessing when we're able to carve out the time in our usually busy schedules to make it happen. It's nice to take the time to remember how we became us in the first place.
To be completely honest, I was a little disappointed when he handed me my cocoa-y bounty; after all, I'd just spent a week alone managing the house and the kids and all of their activities. I wondered if maybe he couldn't have come up with something a little more... I don't know, fun? Unique? Something that I couldn't run to Target to pick up myself?
And then this evening, I opened that giant dark chocolate bar and oh. My. Gosh. It's delicious. Maybe the best I've had.
And I was immediately humbled. As it turned out, my gift is definitely something that I'll enjoy for some time to come. (Because like I said, it's huge.) I judged it before I peeled back the wrapper, just like people so often judge others before getting to know them. Certainly a good reminder for me --to treat others as I'd like to be treated-- as we start a new week.
We've never been completely awesomesauce about teaching our kids to ride bikes, so Brady still makes a lot of rookie riding mistakes: he looks down at the pedals and brakes by accident (with relative frequency).
But this evening, it was all about a team effort. Adam had a hand on his back to offer guidance, while Isaac walked in front of them and walked backward as he acted as his little bro's cheerleader and Abby tried to help him steer.
It's a blessing when we can all come together to focus on a single goal. Family is an amazing thing, and a united family is a super amazing thing. We are, after all, designed to care for one another.
The kiddos were thrilled to have dad with them as they flitted from one game to the next. Truth be told, I probably would've sucked it up and taken them by myself, but he pulled up his bootstraps and came along without a word of protest.
The Captain America shirt he's wearing in the pic may be silly, but he really is a Super Hero of sorts: our super hero. And we're blessed to have him on our side doing both mundane and heroic things for us every single day.
We dined at a local panini place that before today, I didn't know existed. Tasty food (brie and blue cheese? Uh, yes, and a totally kid-approved peanut butter and jelly sandwich that Brady gobbled up), great company, amusing conversation, and a very patient four-year old make for a quadruple blessing. It's just that simple!
After pick-up, as I drove toward home, I half-listened as Abby read portions of Isaac's library book to The Little Boys. It was a remarkably peaceful ride, and I was half-sorry to see it end. But end it did, and after I did a quick trash clean-up in the car, I headed to the front door to unlock it and found them like this, with Isaac taking a turn reading to Abby and Brady. I smiled and snapped this photo (because quite predictably, the sound of the shutter snapping prompted a big eyeroll and 'mo-om, that is SO embarrassing!' from my pre-teen).
These aren't the most common moments at our house, but they're definitely the most harmonious, and I'm unendingly thankful for those precious moments of peace.
And it made me think: God wants us to live so that we have space at our tables; so that we're open to meeting and interacting with people from all walks of life. He wants us to be in regular fellowship with one another, sharing our joys and fears and worries and hopes.
Is there space at your table? Do you work to include everyone, or are you inclined to make excuses to shut others out? Give it some thought. I know I did, and I'm going to strive to keep open spaces at my own table.
Yup, that's a bar code. (And yup, now you all know about my weird habit of taking photos of bar codes so I can avoid lugging items to price scanners.) Anyhow, each product in a store has its own unique set of bars and numbers. Some shops carry a lot of products, so it's necessary to develop a system that features lots of these codes. And keeping them organized has to be nothing short of a full-time job for some (un)lucky person.
Now let's look at God for a sec. There are far more humans on the face of the planet than there are items in the store, but God doesn't need bar codes to keep track of where we are or what we're doing. (Or to assess our value, for that matter. Good news in that department: we're all priceless!)
Given that I can hardly keep track of my kids some days, I think it's pretty amazing that God just knows us.
(Quick note: I realize that it may be hard to not think of the atrocity that was the Holocaust when it comes to the notion of numbered, coded human beings. Understand that I'm saying here that God does the opposite: he doesn't need to number us physically because He made us, and knows and cherishes us without weighing us down with digits or special, homogeneous markings.)
Brady colored this sign during his Sunday School class this morning. After the kids were released, he promptly taped it to his chest: a sweet little nugget of wisdom for anyone who looked at him.
A few of the babies and of course, Logan, aren't pictured (though Abby is holding Lambie), but for the most part, this is the gang (to date) with their great-grandparents (and a few errant grandparents and parents, too).
It's an amazing blessing that two people can create such a legacy, isn't it?
The first thing I noticed when I looked at it was Abby's face: she complies well when told to be silly. And then I looked to the back of the picture and busted out laughing at Isaac and Brady's crazed embrace. They crack me up sometimes. And since laughter is a good cure what what ails ya (and because family is awesome!), I'm grateful for the nice evening we had, even if it was too brief.
I've said it a number of times previously but it still holds true: there's something so stunning about cloudy skies; sunny days are beautiful, but there's nothing quite as beautiful as rays of sunlight bouncing from one cloud to the next. They make me think of Heaven, and as always, that's a very good thing indeed.
And even beyond that, the dark lines in the clouds in today's sky looked, to my eyes, like roads, so they made me think of Logan tooling around above in a perfect little car. And that's a happy thought as well.
I remember sitting with my Samantha doll and scouring the Pleasant Company catalogs whenever they arrived. There was something so thrilling about looking at the new historical dolls and their tiny accessories.
It's fun to see shades of myself in my daughter. I cherish that very special blessing.
Then we stopped for a quick coffee (well, and water for Brady) before heading off to check out a store we hardly ever visit. I saw a post on a website claiming that the one Planes character Brady had been asking about for more than a year now --that I'd been unable to find anywhere-- could be found at this particular store. And surprise! It was there. And Brady was giddy.
I headed home feeling victorious. It's just stuff, but to find both of those things during the same trip was a blessing to me. One made me remember my Sunshine, and one made his littlest brother really (really) happy. Little things always matter, and sometimes the seemingly trivial little things matter, too.
When I got home from retrieving the kiddos from school this afternoon, I walked through the family room, saw this, did a triple take, laughed aloud, and went back to the kitchen to get my phone. There's something both sweet and comical about the cat plunking herself down with Abby's dolls and stuffed animals. And now, as I sit here thinking about it, the way she stuck herself in that unlikely spot is probably how God inserts Himself into my days sometimes: He settles right into a spot where I'd be sure to see Him --and smile in response-- if only I'd take a split-second to look. Kind of sobering, I guess, but I'm not above admitting that some days, I just plain miss the boat.
Deliciously chewy ginger snaps. I ate more than I should have, but they're goooood. And I never turn down a goooood cookie.
They're just cookies, but they're also an expression of love and care, and there's a great deal of God in that kind of expression.
They were playing some sort of game that involved multiple stuffed bunnies. (I didn't ask about it because I didn't want to pop the magical peace bubble that had clearly formed around them.)
But all joking aside, it's such a blessing when they decide they're all friends. We're intended to love one another, after all, so it totally rocks my socks when it actually happens.
And today, Brady and I got to hang out with a lot of pumpkins as his class took its annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It's a cute little excursion to a cute little farm: snacking, running around a maze, posing for (lots and lots of) pics, feeding sheep, listening to a story, and, of course, picking out a pumpkin to take home.
Some good old fashioned one-on-one time with any of my kiddos is always a blessing, and it happening during pumpkin season? Bonus.
It's hard to see, but there's a little squirrel right there in the center of the picture. That little guy stared down at me while I stared up at him. Neither of us moved a stitch, and by the time I broke our shared gaze a minute later, I was quite amused.
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about animals --especially not about squirrels-- but there's something so calming about watching them do their thing in nature. They're like little worker bees, happily going about their business and keeping on schedule no matter what's going on around them. Seeing their industriousness in action is a blessing, especially when modern conveniences make it very easy to be lazy and non-motivated.
With errands in mind, I first went to Walmart, where I saw a friend I hadn't seen in some time. I was sad to hear that her mom is ill, but hope that my feeble words were of some small measure of comfort to her. From there, I went to the mall, where I bought some little die-cast cars that I'll donate to Children's Hospital at some point in the near future; I'd been kicking around the idea of starting a little not-for-profit in Logan's memory, and it seemed like as good a time as any to get started. The store wasn't busy and the cashier asked if I was going to make someone happy with those cars, so I told her my plans. And she, in return, shared her own struggle with her daughter's unspecified but frustrating illness. And again, I had the chance to be an encourager.
And then it was on to Bath and Body Works for some hand gel. I shook my head and almost chuckled aloud when I walked in and saw yet another familiar face. I hadn't really met this person before, but we run in similar circles and I know she's been working with an amazing ministry, so I felt compelled to stop and thank her for her work and dedication, and for heeding the call on her life to do something great. My third chance to encourage in a two-hour period.
I walked out of the mall feeling a sense of elation that I hadn't felt in quite some time. If God directs you to do something --to talk to someone, to buy someone a coffee-- don't ask questions or make excuses: just do it. Do great. We all have the ability to be a blessing to someone else, and I hope that's what I did today for those placed in my path.
We'd been talking about her day at school when she suddenly paused, jumped topics and said 'you know what's weird? In my math class, there's an Abby, a Logan, an Isaac, and a Brady.'
I was startled, and looked over at Adam, who looked just as amused and surprised as I felt. How weird and unlikely is it that of the 30-some kids in her class, all four of our kids' names would be represented in the mix?
Anyway, it felt like a God-moment: a strange little 'I see you' kind of experience. And another way in which our kids are --symbolically, of course-- still all together.
Before school most mornings, the Little Boys have a chance to play at the park. This morning, they decided they wanted to take a ride on the spin-y chair, and they wanted to do it together.
So that's just what they did, and the giggles were infectious.
Simple but true: they are a huge blessing to me, and one of the best kinds of medicine for whatever it is that may ail me.
There's something about fall that usually improves my mood. The pleasant temperatures, how the leaves change color (although they don't really do that here...), memories of hot cider and hayrides and snuggly flannel shirts. And also how the beginning of the season signals the approach of winter and Christmas. (Don't worry: I'm not decorating just yet.)
It's always a blessing to watch the seasons change, if you ask me, because along with every new season comes a sense of renewal. And I can only speak for myself, but I like the idea that I'm always forgiven and always able to start anew.
And then, just before we left, we stopped to take "a selfie" and hilarity ensued.
Adam clicked away as we moved in and out of view on the screen, capturing all sorts of expressions, from confusion to happiness to, by the last frame, unabashed glee.
Although days like this make me long for my Logan, I'm thankful to be able to experience them with the other four people in this world who love and miss him as much as I do. When we're all together having a good time, it makes him feel not quite so far away, and that's a blessing to all of us.
On the way home, I was sitting at a red light when I looked over and saw a long line of Corvettes waiting to turn from a side street out onto the main drag.
When their light changed, I watched in awe as Vette after Vette passed by. I could imagine Logan sitting in one of the seats behind me, observing and admiring every yellow, red, black, silver, and grey car as it coursed by. I enjoyed the scene both on behalf of him, and in a way, with him.
Those moments when I feel an extra special connection my Sunshine are so special to me.
I didn't notice it at the moment, but in hindsight, the small, bright spot in the middle looks like an angel; a glowing angel illuminated by the sun --and the Son.
And on days when things seem a little heavier and a little more serious than I might like, those reminders of Heaven are much-welcomed treats.
