Breathe

I breathe him in. Sweet, freshly scrubbed little boy, a lingering scent of shampoo on his slightly damp hair. I rest my lips on his round, still baby-ish cheeks, so soft and smooth, free of the bumps and blemishes that will come someday with puberty. I kiss him gently, not wanting him to stir, but once I start I cannot stop the kisses. Cheeks, eyelids, forehead. I whisper a prayer of thanks and blessing over my sleeping, youngest boy. He is not so little anymore. Only a few more months to be six, and so tall for his age. How hard he tries to keep up with his older siblings! Yet as I watch his chest gently rise and fall with the measured breathing of peaceful sleep, he looks every bit the youngest. Curled in a familiar sideways fetal position, he reminds me of all my babies, and how I watched them sleep when they were little and new. I savor the moment, storing up this memory, and thank God for giving me one more.....

One more baby. One more child of my heart. One more who is still young enough to want to hold my hand, and sit on my lap. Someday all my boys will be grown men, and it will be difficult to distinguish who is younger and who is older, but for now I revel in having one who is so obviously the youngest. One more whispered prayer. One more kiss. One more "I love you."

One more long inhale of his sweet little boy-ness.

Thank you, Lord.

I have a new family room.... :0)

Pictures coming tomorrow!

Currently Reading.....

"Same Kind of Different as Me". Wow. What a great book!

Overheard.....

Some of our neighbors put sealant on their driveway over the weekend, so they blocked off their portion of the sidewalk with caution tape. Son C, in an effort to avoid the caution tape/driveway, accidentally rode his bike across a small portion of their lawn. And got yelled at. He felt badly about getting yelled at, and as we were talking it through later he made a very insightful comment:

"They don't have any kids to take care of, so they put all their attention into their grass."

Lord, help me to give careful attention to that which lasts!

Happiness Is.....

A new first grade math book!

First Day of School - 2011

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you can guess what we did our first day of school....

Our traditional breakfast out! I have noticed that each year one more child orders off the adult menu..... which means the breakfasts are getting a bit more expensive, but mostly means that our children are growing up (sniff, sniff).

We came home and began our other first day of school tradition - making cookie dough maps! We are doing Tapestry of Grace Year 2 this year, which covers the middle ages through the year 1800, so we made our maps of the Byzantine Empire (for those of you who may have forgotten, that is what we now call the eastern Roman Empire which did NOT fall in 476 but continued to thrive for hundreds of years). See the pile of Twizzlers in the middle of the table?! For complete directions on how we make cookie dough maps, go here.



It was challenging to make this empire, because it spanned many different countries, all bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Med could leave a huge hole in the middle of our cookies!


Here is how son G did it:


The other children chose to fill in the Med and sprinkle it with blue to show the water.



Son C really went to town on those Alps! :-)



Little Man.


Son C.


Son L.


Son G.


Daughter G.


I'm so thankful I can spend another year learning with my children at home!

She's Home! She's Home!

Daughter G is home from her fabulous trip to WA!!! She looked so much older and grown up when she walked off that plane.... I couldn't believe it was her! She had a WONDERFUL time, made some incredible memories, and brought a box full of goodies to all of us. :0)

Today she is still sleeping as I type this, but when she wakes up she'll have a bit of schoolwork to do, an open house for one of her on-line classes, and then tomorrow is our official first day of school. Bless her heart, she's got to hit the ground running so to speak.

Thank you, mom and dad, and Gayle and family, for giving her such an incredible time while she was with you. I did not worry about her AT ALL (truly ~ I did much better than I thought I was going to do!) because I knew she was with you having a great time. Thank you!

I'm so glad she's home!!!