Tag Archives: kids

connectivity

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when my kids say they want to ‘make music’

i pull out all the cables and gear

that was once the trappings

of my nights singing

on local stages.

they love it

and i figure, really,

what harm can they do

other than blow a few amp tubes

which they have already managed?

they’ve no idea

what they’re doing

which is why it is such fun

watching them plug things in willy nilly.

and it always

strikes me how

great it would feel

if simply putting forth

your best effort at connecting

(this to that, & that to some other thing)

always resulted in success and loud applause.

‘effort’ taken from 36:19 in job.

just right and then some

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my 5 yr old son likes to ‘read’ to his little sister and he does a very nice job of it

getting the gist of the stories without actually reciting word for word,

but there are some books that he will carry to me, crestfallen,

saying, “mama, i can’t remember what this page is about”

with tears hanging at the corners of his dear eyes

that break my heart into sad little pieces.

this never happens to him with joanna and eric johnson‘s books.

in freddie’s blanket they have once again found the perfect balance

between her sweet, memorable story lines and his richly detailed drawings.

not only do they tell a good story,

but at my house

they also plant seeds that are

the beginnings

of beautiful

family

conversations.

while reading

freddie’s blanket,

it came to light that

i swaddled them

each in blankets,

though theirs

were “not

nearly as cool”, they informed me, nor as cleverly shaped as the  ‘baby envelope’.

it also surfaced,

among other things,

that their uncle ken

was quite prone

as a young child

to sleep in odd spots,

just like freddie does

throughout the book.

as i was looking for my own copy

just this morning,

i found it in the hands

of my 4 yr old girl

as she sat quietly

‘reading’ to her baby brother.

after telling the story on page 2, she points and says,

“papa rocked me in a cradle when i was a baby like you”,

when she came to page 15,

“your hands have to be this (holding up her hand for size)

for mama to let you hold her guitar all by yourself”,

and “i think this beetle plays the trumpet just like our big sister” at page 25.

right near the very end, she leaned up close to him and said quite solemnly,

“when you are as old as me you will sleep in a big boy bed like freddie, too”.

then she ‘read’ through the patterns at the end of the book

with awe in her voice saying, “patteren.  patteren…”

as she turned each page

and i thought to myself, this is

the kind of book we need more of.

want one of your own?

leave a comment on this post

saying which of the book’s patterns

(pictured above) is your very, very favorite.

i’ll draw a name randomly on monday, the 16th.

‘morning’ taken from 5:3 in the psalms.

diligent

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: characterized by steady and earnest effort
: painstaking <a diligent worker>

the story goes something like this.  it is 6am

and despite the fact that i have 4 kids

i am still convinced

that this is way too early in the day

to be expected to be functional.

i can hear the water

running in the shower.

d is up and starting his day.

this is not quite as

impressive as it sounds.

he is a morning person,

after all, as are

both our sons

the oldest of which

is now quietly headed

down the hall to me

making the strongest effort

that a 5 yr old can make

to be gentle

as he leans his face

right up to my ear

and says, ‘mama, i need a stapler.  please!’.

this makes no sense to me,

but it’s morning

and i am the friend

you should call

round about midnight

as i am seriously

at the top

of my game

at that time of day

or i was

before i had kids

who woke me for staplers at 6am.

‘what is it that you want,

big boy?’

i ask my son

who diligently repeats,

(this would be the

earnest part)

‘a stapler, mama’.

‘what, praytell,

are you going to do

with a stapler?’, i say

with a great effort at

early morning logic.

he tips his head

thoughtfully and says,

‘i’m not sure yet,

but i know i’ll figure it out once you get me the stapler’.

i want to tell him that it does not work this way.

to explain how you get

the tools you need

for certain tasks,

not the other way around.

but a memory forms,

almost hovers,

before my eyes.

i am at my lys,

(even now

i can almost feel

the sweet fibers)

and i remember thinking

‘buy this and take it home,

only then will you know

what it will become’.

…like mother, like son.

this is what i am thinking, as i diligently

(and this would be the painstaking part)

separate myself from my bed, and hand in hand we go downstairs to get the stapler.

‘diligent’ taken from 10:4 of proverbs.

road trip: day seven

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we spent a good

part of today

driving alongside

the blue ridge mountains

‘why are they blue?

trees on mountains aren’t blue.’

this was backseat commentary

from my 5 yr old boy.

who after a little quiet

continued on with,

‘i feel so small when we are

driving beside them.”

and today

i relate as i

am feeling so very

unworthy of having been given

the gift, for that is what it is,

of being allowed to raise another

woman’s infant son.

“oh Lord

am i good enough?

when this world

spins

as hard

as it does

and we both know

how it shakes some people up.

so how did You decide to give me so much love?”

‘raise’ taken from 8:1 in proverbs.

soundtrack of the day: ‘lorraine’ by lori mckenna.

sts on the road: coriandi and some hush, hush project knitting.


road trip: day three

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no road today,

(which is great)

and still no snow.

even brown leaves

are shocking in lieu of

what we left just two days ago.

snapped these playing in the yard

while the kids darted here and there.

oh how i can miss what is buried

so deeply under the

drifts at home.

my oldest and her cousin

cozied into the couch

to knit tonight.

such fun.

love seeing them

starting up-

so intent, so new.

i was (almost) exactly

their age when i first knit.

taught them today to

add beads w/dental floss.

what a breath of fresh air

as i watched them

with the endless

possibilites

spinning

around

inside their

young heads.

‘seeing’ taken from 15:31 in matthew.

sts away from home: played with openwork in berroco ‘remix’. kitchenered ‘tamarisk’.

stormingly

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more snow arrived as we slept.

it’s beautiful and shiny new and exhausting with all the

sliding, tromping, building, shoveling, throwing, & just breathing it all in.

my kids minds are still all abuzz from it’s allure

long after their bodies are happy and ready to sit.

so we flip ottomans

rev up our respective

imaginations

and go, go, go

to  places both far

and wide.

see the big turn being made here?

that’s because he decided

his youngest sis

was ‘driving’ much too slow

so he morphed his ‘car’

into a ‘rocket’.

‘you really have to

turn the wheel

on a rocket’, he tells me.

as simultaneously

his sister

was doing her best

to go faster.

‘see mama’,

she said,

‘see my hands?

i’m going so fast!’

if only my hands

moving fast

today

could have caused

my thoughts and muscles

to follow suit.

i would have been

much more productive,

but i sure did enjoy the trips we took in the ottomans this morning.

‘snow’ taken from 37:6 of job.

by the numbers

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ok, so my kids don’t ‘paint by number’.

the times we’ve tried, they swap all the colors

-intentionally-

so their art looks nothing like the box.

i suppose that i’ve encouraged this

by my own example

as i’m not one to follow a pattern or

a set of directions to the letter.

my mum and i are notorious

for going shopping, only to return

with the ‘perfect’ thing.

‘perfect’, that is, once

the sleeves are reworked,

the hem narrowed and shortened,

and the collar removed to rebuild the neckline.

so i guess i come by it naturally, too.

all that to say,

one of my favorite things about creating a pattern

is to see each knitter making it her (or his) own.

changing the length,

adding a second yarn for texture,

or personalizing a mouse’s sweet ears.

my huge congrats to lisa (karmaperdiem)

who won her own copy of moses

and the upcycled yarn to knit him (or her)

from carol over at taddiebeeknitting.

i can’t wait to see who your little mouse turns out to be…

‘example’ taken from 13:15 in john.