The Home Stretch

Well, Daddy has been gone on his trip for 8 days now. Counting today we have 3 days left before we can see him again! He will arrive in the middle of the night Sunday night/Monday morning, and we can't wait! I must say that my boys have done remarkably well for only having one parent around, particularly the not-fun parent. :o) We had one day-from-the-pit where they got in trouble for everything and I had little to no patience for anything - not a good combination. But most days have been pretty good. I've really been impressed with how Joshua has stepped up on several occasions to help me. Daddy had a talk with him about how he was the biggest boy in the house when Daddy was gone and how he really needed to help Mommy. Joshua has mentioned it several times, so I know he's thought about it. He has had his moments off and on, but this week Joshua has really shown more maturity than I thought was there. It's been a delight. And I can even tell at times when Luke is following his lead. Luke has been more challenging this week, but he is 3 (which naturally explains it all). I've been so grateful that we've all been healthy (except for Micah's runny nose) and safe so far. There were several projects that I'd hope to get done while Daddy was away, but I've pretty much stuck to surviving and haven't really worked on much extra. Oh well, it'll all get done someday. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us this week. We are so thankful for you!

Cha-os

Having multiple children proves to be rather chaotic at times (okay, pretty much ALL the time with my kids, but sometimes more than others). See, each child has a mind of his own and each child has something to say that MUST be heard. Let's take this morning at breakfast, for example. We were just finishing asking the blessing on our food, everything is ready to eat, Daddy has just said "Amen". Then the noise and chaos ensue. Micah has gotten into the habit of yelling, "Aaaaaaaaaaa-men" after we pray. He holds the first syllable out so long that you think he's just yelling to make noise, but he always adds the "men" to the end of it. It's really funny, even if a bit loud. So, Micah is doing that, while Luke immediately starts asking for help with pouring the milk. This also is not unusual, but Luke asks in his own special 3-year-old way by stuttering a little and repeating words until he gets what he needs. And at the same time as all this, Joshua is telling Daddy all about how the South Americans grow potatoes in the mountains, and they also grow corn, which is good because he likes both corn and potatoes. I'm so not kidding, either. So, Daddy looks at me and I look at him and all we can do is laugh through the chaos. The nice thing is that it was only for about a minute until we could start getting food into all of them, then the table quieted down a little. :o)

Trying to get out the door with the entire family is also a rather chaotic time, but that deserves its own post. Hopefully some other time... Until then I'll leave you with a few pictures...

Sighing

There are two moments in the day when I sigh that deep sigh of relief mixed with exhaustion... The first moment comes around 3:30 in the afternoon when I'm just about to lay down to rest/nap. I've been going hard all morning, preparing 2 meals (simple though they are), cleaning up after those meals, teaching Kindergarten, protecting Micah from imminent danger (i.e. his older brothers), breaking up spats, training my boys in the way they should go, doing special Luke-school time, sometimes preparing things for supper, etc., etc. You get the picture. Then around 3:00, it's time for Micah's afternoon nap. After he goes down, it's time for Luke's "rest time". Sometimes he sleeps, sometimes he just looks at books in his bed. I get Joshua settled playing his computer learning games so that I can finally get to that wonderful moment. I go to my room, close the door, set my alarm for about 20 minutes, snuggle under the covers, put on my headphones playing lovely piano music, and the sigh inevitably escapes my lips. It's only 20-30 minutes of peace and quiet (well, most of the time), but it is a beautiful part of my day. And it helps me get geared up for everything else that comes after it. Now, to be honest, even when I do get a good nap in, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm #1 mommy all evening. In fact, there are often days when I can't wait for Daddy to get home from work so he can take over things with the boys, particularly training responsibilities. You know, there are some days when patience seems to abound, and there are days when it's not so much. But I digress... The 2nd sighing moment happens around 8:45 or 9:00 when we've finished family devotions and the boys are all down in their beds. Daddy comes back into the room and we just look at each other like, "Wow, I'm exhausted, how about you?" Raising 3 little ones will always generate such a response, trust me. By this time of the day it's really hard to be motivated to get anything else done that day. Unfortunately it's about the only time we can get any tasks done, so we press on. That is, on the days when we can push ourselves to do anything. :o) There are the evenings when we just watch Cosby Show episodes (we own all 8 seasons), then go to bed. All in a day's work of being a mommy, I guess... I wouldn't trade it for anything else in all the world!

The Progression of a Name

When we chose the name for our 2nd born, it did not occur to us how hard it would be for him to say his own name correctly. Of course, this shouldn't be a problem after 3 years old, so it's really not that big of a deal. But since Luke is only just now 3, he's still learning how to say it right. :o) For a long time he introduced himself as "Woot". Then eventually he was able to pronounce the "k" sound so it turned into "Wook". Just in the last few days we've been really working with him to pronounce his "l" sound, which until now, has proven very difficult for him. Now, today, however, he's all about the "l" sound (when he's trying and thinking about it). So he can actually say "Luke" - Yay! Since this is such an accomplishment for him, and he's quite proud of himself, he goes around saying every word he can think of that starts with "l". "Luke loves lions and leopards." Last night when saying his verses after supper, he kept saying "The Lord is my leopard..." (as opposed to shepherd, that is). Anything to show off his new skill! I'm proud of my Luke!

Special Tummy Issues

WARNING: Um... when you have small children, talking about vomit is a normal thing. So if you don't really like to discuss things like that, you might not want to read this post. :o) I tried not to be too graphic...

My children seem to have their own style of stomach issues. Well, that is, in comparison to other little kids that I know. Maybe this is a normal thing with other kids (that I don't know) as well. Anyway, every once in a while one of the boys will wake up saying he's sick to his stomach. You know they're for real when they are all lethargic and can't get out of bed, since, you know, not much slows down a 3 and 5 year old. So, they lay around, eventually throw up, then they're fine for the rest of the day. There are variations on this. Sometimes they end up laying around for a few hours and throw up several times. But, almost always, by lunchtime they are fine and running around like nothing ever happened, even eating normally. Joshua did it Sunday before last. Woke up, laid around, fell back asleep, threw up once, then was fine for the rest of the day. Luke did it this past Friday morning, except he didn't really want to lay down, but couldn't help it. He threw up like 4 times because he kept saying he wanted to eat crackers. Then he was fine by 10:00 that morning and never showed a trace of sickness after that. Last night Micah wouldn't eat anything for supper, which is very strange for him. He wasn't acting sick; he just wouldn't eat. So I was waiting for it today. He was fine this morning and ate breakfast like normal. But at lunch he wouldn't eat again. He eventually threw up his water and little bit of food that he had eaten. After that he seemed perfectly fine. We'll see how he does at dinner tonight. This whole cycle is kind of normal for Joshua and Luke; it's not the first time they've done it. And they often seem to do it around the same time. I am thankful that they at least the whole thing doesn't drag on all day long. I wish I knew what caused it, though. Our close friends here (who have 3 kids the same ages as ours) recently dealt with almost 2 weeks of awful sickness that went through all the kids and the father. We thankfully didn't get that bug! The Lord is so gracious to us in taking care of our health, especially in a place where it's hard to get good medical care.

Our Daredevil

Yes, Luke has been at it again. On Saturday at the park, he was hanging from some monkey bar type things (not quite the same playground equipment here as in the States). He decided that he wanted to drop to the ground, so Daddy was right there ready to catch him. But he tells Daddy that he wants to fall by himself. Now, this is about a 6-7 foot fall, but Luke's pretty determined. So Daddy decides it can't hurt him that bad, right? Let him be brave! He falls. Boom. Crash. Skid. Screaming ensues. Thankfully there were no broken bones or teeth. Somehow he landed then hit the ground face first and slid a little bit in the dirt. It tore the little piece of skin on his gums just above his two front teeth so he had blood coming out of his mouth and nose. We are SO thankful that we didn't have to take him to the doctor here. There are American doctors who live here that we could have seen, at least. Where we lived before, that wasn't even an option. Anyway, he ended up with strawberries on his nose, upper lip, and chin. And, you know, the determining factor as to whether or not an owie is really serious is if there is blood. There was definitely blood. But we had him swish water in his mouth and spit it out, then tried to clean his face off a bit and he was off and playing again within 15 minutes. The funniest thing was when we got home and he saw his face in the mirror. He started counting his face owies and was like, "Mom, I have 1,2,3,4...5 owies!" Like he was proud of them. Just as long as he didn't break anything... Here's a commemorative picture of Luke sporting the face owies. This is actually the day after, so they look a little better than the first day. Crazy kid.

Little Boy Spirituality

I've been wanting to write a post about this for some time now as the boys come up with new things all the time. For starters, for some time now, one of Micah's favorite words has been "amen". He especially likes to say it when we are praying before we eat a meal. Of course, sometimes he's so hungry that he will start saying it while the person is still praying. It sounds kind of like, "aaaa-muh" - very cute. Sometimes when I sit down next to his chair he will say amen because he knows he doesn't get to eat until after we pray. He's a hungry boy pretty much all the time.

Now Luke seems to be more spiritually sensitive to things than the other two. Sometimes when we're praying, whether before a meal or during devotions or at house church, he will murmur, "Yes, Lord" or "hmmm-mmm, yes". It's so cute! The interesting thing is that he seems to do it at the proper time. He's not just making noise or mimicking others, he seems to be making his own comments on the prayer at hand. So sweet, really. Also, recently we were praying for the people of Indonesia because of an earthquake they experienced. Ever since the first night we mentioned it Luke has asked about the people of Indonesia and wanted to pray for them. His prayers are something like, "Lord, please, please, please make the earthquakes and mudslides in Indonesia stop and please help the people know Jesus there." Though Luke is my hyper one, he is also very tender-hearted.

Yesterday, I gave Joshua something and he asked me why I gave it to him. I explained that it was "grace" which is when you receive something you don't deserve. You know, you never know if your kids are listening to anything you say. But then last night I asked Joshua to put his toys away and go put his pajamas on. He politely asked if he could have a few more minutes and I told him 2 more minutes, but then he needed to put everything away. He ran over to me and said, "Thank you, Mommy. You gave me grace! I didn't deserve to play longer, but you let me! Thank you!" It was very sweet. Oh that I could always exhibit grace to them!

Finally, we have recently been stepping up the scripture memory in our home, so we've made some charts and have stars (you know, the colored foil stars we used in VBS growing up) and everything. The boys love the charts and they love getting stars next to their names. Anyway, both boys have started making up their own verses - it's so funny! Luke today said, "Mommy, my list says, 'Brothers should be kind to each other and work together to get the job done.'" (Yes, it's Bob the Builder that works together to get the job done.) Then he told me where it was found, Proverbs 20:3,4,8,9,24. Joshua then said his verse was, "Brothers and sisters should always help each other." Proverbs 52:20,8,9,34. At least their "verses" are good things for them to be doing! But the references are the funniest part. We'll keep working on learning actual proverbs along with other verses. :o) I love my boys!