i love flowers

i will miss camelias. they don't grow in the north.
i look forward to flower and vegetable gardening this spring/summer.
i hope we will have our own place by then.
it's so hard to plan when you don't know what the plan is!
but we trust fully in the Planner. He is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
happy worship tomorrow!

i love peter

i love that he has jammies that match mine (and mike too!)
i love his hands--the last set of pudgy toddler hands i will have.
i love that you can tell he's smiling even when you can't see his lips.
i love that he make us laugh by doing funny things.
like falling asleep with goldfish in his mouth.
he's got the best manners any 3yo could have.
he even says please, thank you and excuse me in the middle of the night.
i love his constant motion (blurry photograph anyone?)
he keeps us on our toes.
he is a lovely end to our perfect number 7.
i love how he loves his older brothers and sisters.
he has a unique relationship with each and every one.
right now he's really into jack. hugs and kisses him for no reason.

i love his focused attention (if you're fortunate enough to see it).
he loves to help--rake leaves, cook, clean, decorate--you name it, he likes to do it with you.
and he's good at it! he used to sweep our big back porch or the kitchen until the job was done.
i love pete's funny faces.
he has lots of them (you should've seen the number of pictures i weeded through to find just one).
i could fill a whole blog of pete's pictures.
i heart pete's faces.
i love that God has seen fit to bless me with the most unique, good natured,
one-of-a-kind kids.
and they are healthy, mostly happy and bring such joy to our lives.

love you pete!

we love our beds

and we miss them terribly. what can i say? it's been almost 7 weeks since we've slept in our own beds, and some days are better than others. prayers appreciated.

i love mike--who is six years old today!

i love mike's smile.
it's almost the only thing we ever see.
he smiles all the time.
he's fearless. he learned to dive in the deep end of our pool when he was 2.5.
(here's a rare moment without a smile)
he's technologically savvy.
he learned to use a laptop (and use it well!) when he was 2.5.
the doctors told us at 18 weeks in utero that he had no brain, just a fluid filled cyst and we should abort and try again.
the doctors were wrong.
everyone we knew prayed for 4 weeks.
the doctor said he'd never seen one of these completely go away.
but mike's did.
he was so proud that he earned his vest at awana.
he likes the games the best, but he's good at memorizing the verses too.
too good, his teacher told us. "slow him down," she said.

he likes half day kindergarten even though he's already reading on a 3rd grade level and knows his time/numbers/shapes/money.
but he's learning compassion towards those with disabilities in his class. he's also learning diversity, and how to obey other adults.

i love to listen to mike read.
he'll stop sometimes and just think things through.
and then he'll ask a deeper question.
you can almost see the wheels turning in that brain of his.
(that's a snowflake in front of his one eye).
mike loves the outdoors.
any sport or new activity and he. is. there. loving it.

we love mike's zeal for life.
he's always so full of it.
he reminds us to live it to the full too.
and at night, when it's time for bed, he crashes.
lights out. before the electric lights go out.
we love you mike.

i love monograms

(some of the kids' pillowcases)

and have for more than 25 years. the kids and i joke that i married their dad so i wouldn't have to change the pink monogram on my lime green espadrilles (that have been in the dress up box since about 1994). ha!

i love my puppies

juliet loves to take a nap with pete. in a rare moment of alone-ness here at the in-laws house, i let her sneak up there long enough for me to take a picture.

isn't she the sweetest?

always motivated by food.....

she's not doing what it looks like she's doing. there were people out in another backyard that they were both looking at, but when i called romeo's name, he looked, but she didn't and that made for a bad picture, but i only have a few of them.

elisabeth elliot has this to say about whether dogs will be in heaven:

The Bible does not speak specifically of the destiny of animals, but there is a promise in the letter to the Ephesians which surely must include them. Ephesians 1:10: "Everything that exists in heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in Christ."

you can read the rest of that article (a good one!) here.

i love sunsets

praise the Lord! praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise Him in the heights!
praise Him all His angels;
praise Him, all His hosts!

praise Him, sun and moon;
praise Him, all stars of light!
praise Him, highest heavens,
and the waters that are above the heavens!

psalm 148:1-4

i love field trips!

we had the distinct pleasure yesterday (due to an extended weekend for president's day) of going down to philadelphia to visit one of the favorite museums of my childhood, the franklin institute. as in, ben franklin. fascinating man, and philadelphia is full of so much history. they have a special narnia (as in chronicles of) exhibit going on right now that the kids were anxious to see.

what kind of seats do you expect to see inside a science museum? bones, of course.
mike had to turn the crank to "pump blood" through the blood vessels. he looks pretty good here considering he decided to throw up in traffic on the schuykill expressway when there was nowhere to pull over.
pete inside a blood vessell. like the shirt, grandma? found it at a goodwill store here for $1!
jack enjoyed being a blood cell inside the vessell too.
pete was entranced with the electricity room. here, he could push a button and send an electric current to slide a ring high across to the other side of the table.
nick took pete up into a real fighter jet in the flying room.
this is the part i remember most from my childhood---the giant heart. you can hear it beat throughout the room. the staircases are much narrower than i remember (or perhaps.... i've just gotten a lot bigger since i was 9). it still beat loudly but the kids really enjoyed it.
they come out an aorta and go back in by ventricle....
this is what your left ventricle should look like if it was healthy....
we were so disappointed that there was no photography inside the narnia exhibit. the people who went in ahead of us didn't care. they took pictures anyway. no one but me noticed when a large security guard woman came and quietly escorted them out of the exhibit.
the girls enjoyed the rock climbing wall in the sports competition room.

also in the sports competition room, the boys enjoyed testing their reflexes while "driving" dragster cars.

karis was afraid of getting a giant jug of gatorade dumped on her by an eagles player.
the statue of ben franklin as you enter. the building itself is an architectural wonder. built in the 1930s, it was only the 2nd planetarium built in the united states at the time.
they have a dramatic presentation every 15 minutes or so about the influence ben franklin had on the world. he invented many things and was always thinking outside the box. the boys liked how the colors changed on the statue.

we had a great day, though it was our first field trip in 18 years to not have a stroller to hold all the coats and bags and stuff. we've entered a new chapter, i believe!

i love vegetables for breakfast

usually mixed in with eggs. here it's asparagus (my fav!), green pepper and onion.

i love nick

i love nick-15 because he is different than every other 15yo boy i know.
he's never liked bugs.
he loves to read.
he's into any and every sport (well, except synchronized swimming).
i love nick's metabolism.
truly. the boy's hunger is never-satisfied.
he has a keen sense of justice.
yet he is sensitive (he read the book sounder as an 8yo, and started old yeller but could see what was coming and decided then and there that he would not read another book about a dog).


he loves his little brothers and they adore him.
he is not always patient with them.
but that will help them later in life when others are not so kind.


he's very competitive.
he may be cautious in new situations, but he is not afraid of them.
he has a strong sense of who he is, and doesn't bend easily.


he's fun to play games with.
he's game to try new things (i can't wait to see him on a snowboard).
he makes friends easily (even though he says it's harder than it is for girls because girls make friends by commenting on each other's nail polish).

although he's got serious skills as a drummer on rock band, he knows his limits and never tries vocals.
i don't think he'll be a rock star as a grown up, but i can't wait to see how God uses him.
he told his family/consumer science teacher (that would be home-ec to the over 35 crowd) that the best decision he ever made was accepting Jesus as his Lord and Savior (to which his teacher said, "amen"). robin and i pray daily for his walk with the Lord, and that he would continue to serve Him.

we love you, nick.

i love happy mail

it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it brings a smile to my face.

(bottom to top: new shoe inserts for my morton's neuroma and one new night splint after the dogs ate one, videos to keep little boys out of trouble entertain little boys, sandpaper letters to help teach pete since he's interested and my hand made ones are in florida, and a book for me from used amazon-so cheap!)

we interrupt our month of love to be reminded

you've got to watch this.
and listen to the music.
because sometimes we all need to be reminded of where we've been and where we are.

(originally found on randy alcorn's blog)