Love Their Imaginations

For an hour they sat contentedly picking the bark off of a large stick that John Caden found in the woods.  I wondered, but didn't dare interrupt their sibling bonding time (or my mommy alone time) to ask why.  Then I heard Anna running around saying, "Baa, baa" and John Caden chasing after her with his "staff" saying, "My little lamb you must stay on the grass."  Who would have thought that one simple stick could turn into two hours of imaginative play! 

Momentous Day

Haircuts are quite a challenge for a child with sensory processing disorder.  We have tried it all--taking him to kid friendly salons, playing movies, giving lollipops, having neighbors sing and dance, wrapping him in a cape, covering him with a towel, offering numerous rewards--new trains, ice cream outings, etc.  Nothing has ever made it any easier--Tim usually ends up having to hold him in a headlock in our backyard and we just have to let him cry and throw-up and get it done. 

Well, on Monday night without me even mentioning that he was due for a haircut, John Caden just randomly said, "I have an idea...let's give me a haircut and surprise Daddy."  So we kept trying to find a time this week but rain and other circumstances kept delaying us.  All the while though, John Caden kept making random comments throughout the week about how he was going to try to be brave and try really hard not to cry when we did it.  Knowing that this was something that was really on his heart that he wanted to achieve I began praying that the Lord would enable him to do it.  God was gracious and answered my prayer!  Although Tim was home today, I told John Caden that I would go on a run and as soon as I got back I would come in and sneak him around back and we'd get it done.  So John Caden waited anxiously by the window (of course with his little buddy) for my return.

And although it wasn't easy on him, he did it without any tears or throw-up!  So proud of my boy!  Daddy of course was very proud and surprised {wink, wink} too!

Counting Graces

Dog throw-up, boiled over grits, spilled apple juice, and a screaming boy who fell off his stool--all on the floor before 8am.  What do you do?  If it had been left to me, I would have just continued to fume in my head.  But my internal fuming and external silence were broken by my 4 year old's determination to "count graces."  "Mom, aren't you glad Hudson wasn't right under me when my juice went everywhere...he would have been such a sticky mess you would have had to give him a bath..."  and "At least I didn't drop my waffle too..." and "I'm glad we have extra juice in the refrigerator..." 

A much needed reminder to me  this morning to "wrestle to name graces...to see glory in the moment…”  "How do I see grace, give thanks, find joy in this sin-stinking place?...How did Jesus do it again?  He turned His eyes. ‘And looking up to heaven, he gave thanks...’ (Matthew 14:19).  Always first the eyes, the focus...Give thanks to keep the gaze on heaven.” (Ann Voskamp)

"If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.”

C.S. Lewis

On a Day When...

...you get to start your morning with a tea party...

...and then head outside with your kids to play all afternoon...

...and you collect the very last rock that lines the pathway...

...that leads to the creek..

...and around the backyard that you've been working on for years... 

 ...you find and get to replant your missing hydrangea that still has a touch of life in it that the fence installers had discarded several weeks ago...

  

...and all the while the children continue to play...

...and laugh...

...as you sip sweet iced tea outside in January until sundown...

...then all seems well with the world...

and your heart confers with the words of G.K. Chesterton: 

“Here dies another day

During which I have had eyes, ears, hands

And the great world round me;

And with tomorrow begins another.

Why am I allowed two?”

Grace...yes, all is grace.

“Bless the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits.” Psalm 68:19

Happy 100 Days of School

Warm Sunday in January

Tim and John Caden enjoyed the 60 degree afternoon by playing in the woods.

This little fellow wasn't too happy about being left behind at the gate. 

 But a puppy nestled snugly in a Gardenia bed makes for a much happier mommy at the end of the day than a puppy coming in from the creek with wet, muddy paws!