relative

we discovered today

that my youngest and i have

yet another thing in common with each other.

he asked for popcorn.

i said, ‘ok, but just one bowl’.

he agreed so i went about my business.

i shouldn’t have been surprised since i left him the whole bag…

IMG_4053cropreturning, i found this:

him happily stacking the kernels as high

as he possibly could into his one little green bowl.

and you know what?

that’s exactly what i do when

i tell myself that i’m only going to get one bag of yarn.

seems the apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree.

‘high’ taken from 7:19 in genesis.

suspension of disbelief

“if i wear them, it will come.”

this was my 7 yr old’s philosophical argument for why she should be allowed

to wear these today.

IMG_3889bright

did i mention that although we had temps in the mid 50’s yesterday,

that it’s honestly snowing today?  yup.

and the ‘it’ she is referring to is spring.

i said, ‘not today, baby.  it’s snowing.’

but, i so admire her pluck

and am happy to breathe in deeply all the hope for spring that she throws my way.

‘hope’ taken from 5:16 of job.

emotional

after an appointment for my youngest,

we’re too far away

from home to get back in time for dinner.

i say, “hey, as a special treat we’re going to stop at mc d’s

and get you a happy meal. what do you think?”

and,McDonalds-Happy-Meal

being the kid that he is,

he says,

“but, what if i’m sad.

will they give me

a sad meal instead?”

“no.” i say,

“no matter how you feel they’ll give you a happy meal.”

“oh, that’s a good deal.  let’s go,” he says.

how cute is that?

and so it will be stuck in your head, too,

how’s about this for today’s soundtrack?

‘happy’ taken from 15:13 of proverbs.

it does a body good

when my kids ask for yarn,

i give it to them (along with some adult supervision)

and i try not to lead or censor, i just watch and see what they’ll do.

our last ‘yarn day’ (because

once i give them a little, they want more and more…sound familiar?)

looked partly like this:

IMG_3558shade‘hey mama, i knit myself!’

IMG_3559rota‘psst, let’s scare mama…hey mama, can you come upstairs for a minute?’

IMG_3569crop‘shh, please.  i’m fishing for a kitten.’

(i only tell you what they tell me.)

fyi: we don’t have a kitten, because papa & i said ‘no’.

IMG_3570cropdeveloping the urge to save some for later (aka: stashing).

eventually, i sent them outside,

yarn in hand.

wanna guess what they did?

they built a ‘laser field’ worthy of a good spy movie

about 2 feet high that covers most of the back yard.

IMG_3749shadeyup, and they involved a young neighbor in the outdoor construction,

so now there’s probably a mom nearby who

can’t figure out why her kid

keeps asking

for yarn.

ha.

‘outside’ taken from 10:29 in matthew.

the sevens

i remember her brand new tiny little self

weighing in at less than seven pounds.

now she’s big and strong and turning seven years old.

i know that growth happens gradually,

still some of her personality

bursting forth in big ways seems to have happened

in large leaps, very recently.

IMG_3646cropmy happy baby girl…

IMG_0655sepiaand still, my happy baby girl.

it’s an amazing journey and so much left ahead.

wow.

‘happy’ taken from 15:13 of proverbs.

#2 pencil

my two youngest laugh themselves silly

every time they make little piggy noises.

the ‘oink, oink’ tickles deep inside their noses.

today my girl drew me this pig:

IMG_3525brightand it struck me

how very little it takes

to distinguish one thing from the next.

i mean this piggy has ears like a bear,

an odd artistic smile that is almost human

and a round head like you see in almost every 6 yr old’s drawings,

so it must be the nose alone that makes us see it as a pig,

but clearly it is a pig.

a circle with two pencil tip dots inside

and its whole species is defined.

this afternoon i read about designers who pare down

so they can pare down some more etc until

what’s necessary to make their point

is all that is left of the design.

isn’t that the place we all start out at as kids?

focused on only the basics that allow us to say

what we want to say.

perhaps adulthood, true maturity,

is really about getting back to some of the simplicity of that clarity.

that and allowing ourselves to laugh deeply

over how funny it feels to say ‘oink’.

‘pig’ taken from 8:30 of matthew.

good for you?…good for me?

healthy eating.  theoretically i’m all for it.

and somedays i do it fairly well.

somedays, however, i miss the mark nearly completely.

still i’ve managed to raise an almost 7 yr old

who really loves vegetables

(way more than i do).

to her,

fresh pepper strips

and raw green snap beans

are the most requested school bag snack.

and tomatoes?  just get outta town.

she eats these whole, apple-like,

gently cradled in the palm of her hand

(this is all that’s left of this morning’s snack).

30ZZTop_294634ksince i am a person who eats vegetables

because i know they’re good for me

(not because i much like them),

i little part of me

fears the day she ‘finds me out’.

you see she is strong willed, loves big, and

i’ve no idea to what lengths she will want to go to

in helping me learn to love what she already does.

mamahood is a wild ride,

on so many fronts.

today i’m just happy that eating her greens

is not a battle we have to fight.

hanging up her coat is another matter

altogether.

‘whole’ taken from 1:29 in genesis.