memories for a rainy day.
I remember sitting here.
Doing this.
Look through the archives of my blog. Look at how many entries there are for each year.
For every one of those entries there's an unpictured messy woman sitting at her computer screen.
Her teeth are unbrushed and her feet are cold.
As that woman sorts and edits and ponders and reflects she ignores the dirty dishes.
For each of the hundreds of posts on this very blog there are small stories behind the stories.
It doesn't make much sense that doing something like this over and over, sitting here in pajamas, putting off daily tasks of living, letting kids run amuck would be the best choice.
But it is. Not always. But often it is.
It is because we are too loud, crazy, busy, wild to enjoy our blessings in the moment.
These posts are a collection of choices. Each post represents a choice to let demands wait for a bit so that I can count each blessing and preserve precious memories.
The other night the kids were crowding the computer giggling at old posts.
Matthew and I came to join them as we read about their births and the funny things they said when they were toddlers. They laughed when they read that Bald Baby Finn used to find dirty laundry, toss an article onto his head, and keep right on crawling like it was a make-shift wig. They chuckled when they discovered we'd listened through the baby monitor as Liam gave Ossi speaking lessons in the middle of the night. They smiled so big at the pictures of newborn Evy with all her bows.
As they scrolled I definitely did not think to myself, "Oh, I should have done the dishes on October 11, 2012."
So I'll let the dishes pile up and instead I'll tell you that...
When we leave the YMCA after swimming the kids run up the stairs before me and hide in alcoves around the lobby. Workers at the front desk keep the hiding spots a secret but laugh and come clean after the first child jumps out. They apologize for not warning me, which provides the perfect distraction for a patient hider to come up behind me and almost make me pee my pants.
Finn smashed aunt katie's lighter with a hammer. When he was caught he cried, "I don't know what happened! I saw it and I just had to smash it." He also chewed the erasers off of every pencil in his class at school. When the erasers were gone he chewed the metal off of them. When the teacher asked who'd been doing it he fessed right up. His came home with a backpack full of eraserless pencils and a request for a school donation of new ones.
On Thursday Ossi wrote the "i love____________" all over his arms with about six different girls names filling in the blanks. He also claimed he was compelled beyond self-restraint.
Liam formed a group for the Battle of the Books at school and has been reading in every spare moment. One of the books on the list is called "No Talking" by Andrew Clements. So now instead of telling people to be quiet Liam says, "Andrew Clements!" in true bookworm fashion.
Speaking of books, I ought to mention the lovely adventures we've been having.
In fall we took a trip to Narnia and stayed for a long while.
After that we met Mary Lenox and Colin Craven, but Dicken was our very favorite.
We traveled back in time for a while to visit Daniel in his fight with the Romans.
I can't say what was scarier about our adventure with Aerin, the dragons or that part with a man's bare chest.
Sam Gribley taught us how to run away and live off the land.
And now we're back to see what Brandon Mull has been cooking up.
Eveleen can swim underwater. She plugs her little nose and takes the plunge. She insists on wearing the locker key pinned to her suit every time we hit the pool. I love to throw my goggles on and dunk under to watch her little body bob around.
Yum, pictures. Yum, words. Yum, memories for a rainy day.
Doing this.
Look through the archives of my blog. Look at how many entries there are for each year.For every one of those entries there's an unpictured messy woman sitting at her computer screen.
Her teeth are unbrushed and her feet are cold.
As that woman sorts and edits and ponders and reflects she ignores the dirty dishes.
For each of the hundreds of posts on this very blog there are small stories behind the stories.
It doesn't make much sense that doing something like this over and over, sitting here in pajamas, putting off daily tasks of living, letting kids run amuck would be the best choice.
But it is. Not always. But often it is.
It is because we are too loud, crazy, busy, wild to enjoy our blessings in the moment.
These posts are a collection of choices. Each post represents a choice to let demands wait for a bit so that I can count each blessing and preserve precious memories.
The other night the kids were crowding the computer giggling at old posts.
Matthew and I came to join them as we read about their births and the funny things they said when they were toddlers. They laughed when they read that Bald Baby Finn used to find dirty laundry, toss an article onto his head, and keep right on crawling like it was a make-shift wig. They chuckled when they discovered we'd listened through the baby monitor as Liam gave Ossi speaking lessons in the middle of the night. They smiled so big at the pictures of newborn Evy with all her bows.
So I'll let the dishes pile up and instead I'll tell you that...
When we leave the YMCA after swimming the kids run up the stairs before me and hide in alcoves around the lobby. Workers at the front desk keep the hiding spots a secret but laugh and come clean after the first child jumps out. They apologize for not warning me, which provides the perfect distraction for a patient hider to come up behind me and almost make me pee my pants.
Finn smashed aunt katie's lighter with a hammer. When he was caught he cried, "I don't know what happened! I saw it and I just had to smash it." He also chewed the erasers off of every pencil in his class at school. When the erasers were gone he chewed the metal off of them. When the teacher asked who'd been doing it he fessed right up. His came home with a backpack full of eraserless pencils and a request for a school donation of new ones.
On Thursday Ossi wrote the "i love____________" all over his arms with about six different girls names filling in the blanks. He also claimed he was compelled beyond self-restraint.
Liam formed a group for the Battle of the Books at school and has been reading in every spare moment. One of the books on the list is called "No Talking" by Andrew Clements. So now instead of telling people to be quiet Liam says, "Andrew Clements!" in true bookworm fashion.
Speaking of books, I ought to mention the lovely adventures we've been having.
In fall we took a trip to Narnia and stayed for a long while.
After that we met Mary Lenox and Colin Craven, but Dicken was our very favorite.
We traveled back in time for a while to visit Daniel in his fight with the Romans.
I can't say what was scarier about our adventure with Aerin, the dragons or that part with a man's bare chest.
Sam Gribley taught us how to run away and live off the land.
And now we're back to see what Brandon Mull has been cooking up.
Eveleen can swim underwater. She plugs her little nose and takes the plunge. She insists on wearing the locker key pinned to her suit every time we hit the pool. I love to throw my goggles on and dunk under to watch her little body bob around.
Yum, pictures. Yum, words. Yum, memories for a rainy day.
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