Perfect Timing

This thing has been running through my mind, over and over... I'm really awed by it and last night, instead of talking to the kids about the real meaning of Christmas and Jesus being born as a little helpless baby and isn't it nice that we're celebrating His birthday, I went off on a different tangent.

Time, patience, waiting for the exact right moment.

Here's the thing. Adam and Eve sinned pretty much right way, they didn't wait too long to get the first sin out of the way. God created a beautiful garden, perfect for them to live in, and they didn't take very long to go out and ruin it. Ok, they were like kids in their innocence and we know how kids are, they don't believe their parents when they say "you're going to get hurt..." I'm not trying to make light of it, but it seems to me that's pretty much what happened. So, they sin. God has a plan to fix all that, to undo it, but does he send Jesus the next day? No.

God waited. He had the plan from the very beginning but He waited. Through thousands of years of people faithfully following him and even more people defiantly turning away from Him, ignoring Him, on and on. Thousands of years.

From Matthew 1:
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah...
   Abraham was the father of Isaac...
   Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David,
   fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon,
   and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

That's 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus. Plus all the years before that. That's a lot of waiting for the right time. And THEN, did Jesus come as a man, ready to preach and then give Himself up for us? No. There were the nine months of waiting for that baby to be born, the 30 or so years waiting for Him to grow up...

As a mother, I know the torment and joy of waiting to conceive a child. The torment and joy of those nine months while I can't think of anything else but seeing that precious face and holding that beautiful baby in my arms. And yet I waited, there was no other option but to wait for God's timing, His perfect timing to bring forth those beautiful lives into this world.

God waited centuries and months and days for the right time to bring Jesus to us, and then for Jesus to grow into adulthood and lead the world into knowing the Lord. What an incredible story. What an incredible example to us. If He could wait to choose the exact right moment in history to bring Jesus to the world, can we learn to trust His timing? Can we learn that even when everything seems lost, or the daily grind seems so mundane, that God really does have perfect timing? That He really does have a plan that's a million times better than anything we ourselves could think of?

I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and he heard my cry.
~ Psalm 40:1

Cinnamon

As you know, this friend joined our family years ago, when Archer was just one and still too small to ride. Beautiful Cinnamon was carefully crafted by Grandpa Craig and has a source of great joy for many children through the years.

Cinnamon has suffered great injustices, but continued to serve us faithfully. There are the dents in the walls where the kids rocked too close. There are the missing parts (saddle blanket? where?) and moments of coloring (is that crayon or marker?) on his pretty white nose. The worst was the haircut. I walked into Archer's room one day to find that Cinnamon's mane and tail had been completely sheared off at the hands of a young boy who said, "But his hair was in his eyes! He needed a haircut!" There were pictures shared with Grandpa. To spare Cinnamon further humiliation, we won't share those here.

But Cinnamon has always been a faithful friend, quietly enduring all abuse, trick riding, tipping over and climbing upon. Cinnamon has strongly stood up to the increasing size of the kids on his back, and never with a single complaint.

He has now been adopted by a new Mom, a Mom who calls him Rosie. She will teach him to cook (in case you couldn't tell, he's wearing an apron and chef's hat here), and tell him all about the latest fashions, probably share with him her secret Christmas plans and wishes. And in return, he'll keep her company at night when she's all alone in that dark bedroom, he'll wait for her to return home from school for more cooking lessons, and he'll faithfully stand by her side as he has done for Archer for so many years.

Mr...

Mr. Expression. Mr. Attitude. Mr. DO WHAT I TELL YOU TO DO!

Mr. E.
Elijah Graham is getting a little bossy, and a LOT of fun. He's talking more very second, the funny thing is that I would expect him to have names for his brother and sister but nothing yet. (Although, Archer would say, he just screams and hits you to say your name.)

Trying to decipher what he's telling us is getting easier as he gets better at expressing himself, but also harder as he tries more and more words.

But. This actually means bus.
Hot. This means hot. Sometimes hat.
Baba. Interchangeable for all grandparents.
Wet. Interchangeable for wet but also water.
Diaper
Boat. Meaning broke.
Mot. Mess - and he's not afraid to point out EVERY mess he makes.
Hide. Yes, he bosses me around and tells me to hide. The we run around the house and scream when we catch each other. Oh the fun we have when the rest of the family is away!
E. Eat.
Ooo. Food.
Every kid's favorite word - NO!
Dote. Coke, or diet coke, whatever's around. Also can mean coat, depending on the context.
Maymay. Excuse me!
Beep beep. Get out of the way!
M-A. Lemonade, juice or water.

Little Daddy

Elijah has started taking care of the new baby in the family. He started by putting her down for a nap. In the cupboard in the bathroom. On top of the supply of diapers and wipes. Hey, its warm and dark, perfect place, right? I gave him an empty box for more suitable sleeping accommodations and he promptly moved Baby to the new spot, and pushed the box all around the house, never leaving it behind. "Baby! Nap!" he kept telling me. When he'd leave her for awhile, he'd suddenly announce "Baby!" and go find her. She'd woken up. He fed her cereal for breakfast.

I told E that he would be a great daddy, he's getting in lots of practice now. "Did I play with dolls when I was E's age?" Archer asked. No... No dolls in the house when you were little. Archer's face fell. "Then I won't be a good dad." I told him he gets to practice on the real thing, two younger siblings. Poor Elijah only has dolls to practice on. Archer got a kick out of that and went off to school happy.

Baby wears two hats to make sure she's extra warm. She gets covered with a blanket during nap time, and gets to try on snow pants when the other kids are trying on theirs. Hers are pink. It will be awhile before she grows into Shelly's old snow pants. Yesterday she took a nap with E. Today she's in a heap in the corner. Forgotten for now, but not for long. I'm sure her little daddy will discover her again soon, and make sure she's warm and comfy once again!

Pie!

In celebration of the snow

And anticipation of Christmas vacation

And because this is our fifth day in a row of ham and turkey sandwiches and I'm tired of leftovers

It's pie night. All we can eat pie. Nothing else but pie. And egg nog and coke to wash it down.

And all E will say is "pie." Pie? Pie pie pie! PIE!
And now it's all gone. 

So tomorrow back to ham and turkey sandwiches.

(Dear Children, Someday when you read this just think - I didn't always make you eat your veggies. We ate fun stuff sometimes!)

Fox Hunt

We were all sitting around, relaxing on a weekend afternoon when suddenly, what was that flash by the door? Is it a cat? Too big... wait... FOX! We saw a fox on our deck, right up next to the back door. I think it was looking for the bacon that we had for breakfast, he wanted his share. I was surprised to see him so close to our house and out in the middle of the day. Of course, the kids were surprised too and went running and shouting to the door to get a closer look. Which sent the fox running away.

They grabbed their shoes and coats and went running out the door after it. A real fox hunt! Archer took his phone so he could get pictures if they spotted it again, and he spent a couple of hours wandering around the field looking for tracks. The fox was not seen again, but the kids had a good time out there on the hunt. And I was the silly one who thought my kids couldn't have great adventures outside because we live in the suburbs... I'm so glad I was wrong!

As the fox hunt wound down, they started collecting ears of corn off some stalks that a neighbor had put out, they're planning on taking them to Grandma and Grandpa's for the squirrels.

Elijah couldn't be left behind, and when I glanced outside I realized he'd escaped the house with no coat and NO SHOES! Fearless little E traipsing around the tall grass with the fearless leaders, thankfully it wasn't too cold out. Or too muddy!

Eventually we did get a coat and shoes on E and the boys spent some time together exploring, all in all, it was a good afternoon.

Puppy!!

We have a puppy that comes to visit sometimes. And sometimes he brings a friend or two. They're very good puppies because they know the rule - only nice puppies are allowed in the house. Any puppy that's too noisy, or growling, or playing too rough has to go outside, and they REALLY don't want to go outside. A typical conversation in our home goes something like this...
  "Aww you're such a good puppy! I love you puppy!   Archer, work on your homework, please. Shelly, go clean up your room. No licking the walls puppy!"

My friendly little puppy follows me around as I work in the kitchen, then the bedroom, he tries to entice Archer and Shelly to play but sometimes... Well, "I don't want to play puppy right now E." He steadfastly continues on, no care for sore knees or crumbs from the floor sticking to his hands. He loves the little pats and cuddles he gets from me, so the game goes on.