after dressing my youngest in her fav green khakis

and a brightly colored sweater,

i knelt to put her socks on.

as she looked

happily down

at her dangling green pant legs,

she said to me, “you are the captain

and i am your parrot.”

so i’m thinking,

“cool, i’m the captain.

which is as it should be since i’m the mama…”

then she continues,

“your boat is over there (firmly pointing to the next room).  go.”

‘captain’ taken from 1:6 in job.

early this afternoon, my son excitedly carried to me

on the flat-ish surface of his outstretched hands

his latest lego creation:

*

“who is that

up front?”

i asked,

“the driver?

the papa?”

*

“no,”

he said,

“it’s the mama.

can’t you tell

by the smile

on her face?”

*

my eyes welled up and my heart pounded with joy.

after two days of stomach bug at our house,

i love that my boy thinks of me as the one with the smile.

today, that’s as good as it gets.

‘driving’ taken from 25:4 of isaiah.

my son

( my middle child)

has a lot to say these days

about everything.

he’ll hardly take a breath

unless you interrupt to tell him to.

i love his enthusiasm,

but i am the mama

so i do feel the need to teach him not to talk over others

and even to let them get a word in edgewise occasionally.

he did take a rare (unprompted) breath the other night at dinner

so i jumped in quick to tell ‘papa’

about some knitting related thing that had been part of my day.

i got 5 words into my story when my boy started in on the details of his next thought.

‘excuse me, mr.e,’ i said, ‘i was talking.’

‘yes, i know mama. i heard the sound of that.

i heard every single word that you said when you were saying.’

‘oh,’ says i, ‘what was i talking about?’

immediately and without doubt he said, ‘knitting.’

and i was just so happy that he had heard me and was taking it all in.

so, i stepped out on the limb to ask one more question.

‘what was i saying about knitting, e?’

and his face got very serious (but not added drama serious) as earnestly he replied,

‘mama, i sort of forgot to remember that part exactly and what do you think about this thing i was thinking today while i was swishing my milk and pb&j together in my mouth and my little sister was crying and the phone rang, after you gave my big sister the 2nd bandaid…?’

and if you’re interested,

you can read the opinion of all 3 of my kids about the new book phoebe’s sweater over here.

‘question’ taken from 18:17 in proverbs.

there are lots of things in life,

expensive things that sparkle and shine,

one-of-a-kind things which seems like ‘must haves’,

and antique things that bring to mind other days, other times.

but i must say, quite honestly, that no thing had more worth yesterday

than these precious gifts.

there’s something about the wrapping paper

being the curled fingers of one of my ‘babies’ that ups the value, exponentially…

‘good gifts’ taken from 7:11 in matthew

it has been one of those days when every strong emotion that can be felt,

i have felt in full.

the harder ones have repeated themselves.

the urge to scream or cry has floated just under my not so thick skin

at every moment.  then tonight

my youngest grabbed a big fat gray marker

and sketched this:

it almost looks to have wings, doesn’t it?

and it surely has strong emotions by the bin full.

i thought she captured the very essence

of the struggle that was

my day

and

did i mention that her canvas for this piece of art was my kitchen table?  yup.

and you guessed it.  i had strong emotions…

‘almost’ taken from psalm 73:2.