{ pink ballet slippers and sparkly mouse tales }

spark·ly  (spärkl)

adj. spark·li·er, spark·li·est

1. a. Giving off tiny flashes of light; glittery: a dress with sparkly sequins.

b. Lively; vivacious: a sparkly personality.

2. Effervescent.
 

  At 7 how well that describes our Anniebelle girl! We just wrapped up year # two of ballet for her with a recital this past weekend. She delights in all of it and that is our delight. But what girl wouldn't with gilttery mouse tails tied in pink satin bows and frilly tutus! She is so lovely and the pictures at the end with her Daddy make me cry. 

Quote from this mornings sermon.

"The sin underlying all other other sin is not finding joy in Jesus."

This morning in church, those words hit me hard, and resonated. And they have stuck with me throughout the day. 

Also, I wanted to share with you two blog posts that are penetrating my soul this week. You can find them here and here.



" We die daily. Happy those who daily come to life as well. "

-George MacDonald

{ rainshine + sundrops }

Four beautiful years of you sweet girl. And how it has flown. You came to us on a bright and sunny springlike day in February and ever since then you filled our hearts to the brim with your sweet sugar and spice, deep love, spunk and passion for life, followed up by silly peels of laughter. You are rainshine and sundrops to us.

Anniebelle, as the song says, if God made you then He's in love with me.

I am so happy to get to be at your side as you to discover all the delights of being four years old. I have this little feeling, we'll call it a hunch, that it's going to be a grand year for you.

And can I just say, how very dearly I love being your Mommy.

It is one of my very most favorite things in the whole world.

All my love,
Mommy

{ a pocketful of grace }

My first-day-of-October collection of thankfuls.


My $ 2.00 bargain bouquet of the most gorgeous dahlias from a nearby roadside stand.

Morning and evening's necessity to " run and put on a sweater."

Annabelle's delight in learning. You should have seen her excitement over learning the the word polliwog today. We are reading Charlotte's Web out loud. A real chapter book. She sits perfectly still and stares at my face, spellbound. But then she also argues with me like a practiced 15 year old. Right now she's equal parts heart-melting + hard.

Dreaming of baking up something spicy and comforting. And then sharing with loved ones and neighbors, over a big steamy mugs of good earth tea. Now if I only I could decide either apple or pumpkin?

Giddy, so giddy at the thought of moving at the end of the month...knowing that friends are waiting with open arms, ready to love us. Also giddy for our friends who have over the summer become man and wife or welcomed sweet new babies, for friends who are moving + settling into their new homes. As the answered prayers unfold around us and your heart aches with gratitude. Still we continue to pray and pray for friends that are still waiting for it to be their turn.
Annabelle rosy-cheeked and twirling as flame-tipped leaves swirl around the yard in the wind.

Our little evening visit with Granny Annie. And how wonderful it is to really truly see her back to herself again.
Snacks of perfectly crisp apple slices + juice-down-your-chin pears.
Recent cravings for the company of a good book. And have been staying up into the wee hours of the morning curled up on the couch reading to the the soft beat + rhythm of the rain against the window as background music.
Stretching out the early morning under the cover giggles, cozy + snuggled up together...
Loving the schemes and plans and brainstorming sessions with David, over ideas for the house. And our future.
Jack's delicious roly-poly-ness. His unbelievable squishy kissy cuddle-bug cuteness. Oh and did I mention, he's sporting not just one but two (hard earned) wee pearly whites. That and he's had his first taste of real food? Pumpkin pie. Straight off Daddy's fork. First he loved it...and then he puckered up and made terrible faces and we laughed so hard, and then after he got used to the texture, he loved it again and clamored for more. He is dying to crawl and gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. Once he figures out how to move his arms he will be everywhere.
Longing to grow. Keenly aware of my insecurities, of how ugly the selfishness in me is.
" Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. " Rom. 5: 20
The fear is like a blister. Doubts tug at me.
Until I remember Jesus. Then I am overwhelmed by His goodness. Overtaken by love.
Perfect Love.
" For perfect love casts out fear." 1 John 4: 18
And then my smile returns. And it is huge.

{ all in a day }

Today. Today they had baths. And then we built a quilt fort and made bread and cuddled on the couch and read our new stack of books from the library. While the rain poured outside our windows.

See.

Just another ( blissfully) ordinary day.

{ digesting }

Reading in James this morning. And these words reached off the page and grabbed me as I prayed that they would become the heartbeat of my day to day life:

Count it all joy.

Count it all joy.

Count it all joy.

Count it all joy.

And then there is my sweet little grinning baby boy,

who of course I " count" and recount as one of my greatest forever joys.

I swear this grin of his is unstoppable...

and I can't stop taking picture of his dear little full of light, precious smiling face.

Mostly a matter of perspective.

( Waterlilies picked from yesterdays trip to " Me-Ma's lake"


Or an alternative title this post might be: Blogging with a baby on your lap. (While his big sister runs in and out the door with a handful of baby carrots to feed the imaginary baby bunnies that live in our yard...she is wearing her pink ballet leotard and white church shoes with golden curls that match the bounce in her step. )

A very dear friend sent me a email yesterday asking me, hows your summer going? Hows your heart doing? I adore her for that because she sees beyond the day to day, " Hi how are you, " that is asked without a pause taken to hear the reply. She notice's peoples hearts. She intentionally looks beyond the surface, not that she wouldn't be the first to notice a cute pair of earrings, just that she wouldn't stop there...that she would keep going... down deeper, and peer into your very heart. I long to grow in the habit of caring for others hearts. Especially the hearts of my husband, daughter, son, my family and my friends.

Also, I have been thinking a lot about the future and how it is built one day at a time and about how the future that I am looking into now, my children will look back on someday as their past, and how these days are so quickly turning into the years that make up their childhood. I ran across a quote yesterday that stopped me in my tracks and made me do some serious thinking. It's one very simple and yet profound sentence that struck a deep chord, and I have asked that the Lord would use it's truth in my life because more than anything in the world I the rhythm of my heart to beat in unison with His . And lately it feels like I am being reminded daily just how much of life has to do with perspective. That " What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”— John Lubbock. That the out come of a day, or a life, has so much to do with how we chose to perceive it. That you can see deep, unparalleled joy in the weak smile of the nine year old leukemia patient, who despite all she suffers sees each new day as a gift and lives with gratitude and appreciation...or you can hear the hollow misery in the voice of the woman with the flawlessly beautiful face, complete with designer car/bag/clothing/shoes/who has everything she could ever want, materially speaking and yet her life is frighteningly empty and she is obviously unhappy.

I wonder what would happen, if you were able to take two people, with similar temperaments and personalities and make their circumstances and environment identical...I am guessing that after such a experiment those two individuals could come up with very different views on the quality of their experience and whether it was positive or negative. So much hinges on perspective. That's why I want learn how to value what is lovely and good true... things like, cheerfulness, and humility, and patience, unselfishness, hospitality, kindness. Because I so desperately want Annabelle to be able to look back and on these days that are her childhood and be able to say...we might not have had the latest or best of anything , but that never kept us from being happy,and there was one thing we did have in abundance, the love of Jesus.

{ Fun things to do at Poppy and Nana's House }

For instantce, you could climb the ladder with Poppy to pick cherries out of tree.

Sample Cherries.

Help Poppy pop out the pits with the cherry pitting machine.

Eat cherries till your face turns purple.

Or you could spend hour after delightful hour playing dress up

and pretend with your cousin. The two of you girls had so much

fun together are a very sweet and at times rather dramatic twosome.

You could enjoy the sights and sounds of Nana's bird house village, as the swallows and wrens swoop and sing, and the humming birds zip back and forth and butterflies gracefully flit from one pretty petal to another.

Or you could gobble up handful after handful of Nana's better than candy, sugar snap peas.

You could not quite resist the temptation to pick and bring pretty flowers to Mommy. Every 3 minutes.

You could go to town with poppy and get a popsicle and a lollipop all in the same outing.

You could jump on the trampoline and squeal with glee while Poppy sprays you with the hose.

You could be graced with the honor of getting to taste the very first cherry tomato of the summer.

You could help Mommy help Nana plant a border of cosmos.

You could sit on Nana's lap and let her read the books to you that she used to read to your Mommy and your Uncle Nate when they were your age.

You could come inside and watch Mr. Rogers on T.V. during the afternoon, instead of having "nap time"

You could spend time together with me in the attic bedroom, the one I used to call my own, thw one with the walls that are covered with pink roses and blue swirly ribbons, pouring over the trinkets and treasures of my childhood.

You could miss your Daddy and ask a dozen times a day when he was coming to see us.

You could watch as Nana helps your Mommy sew you your very first piece of clothing, a red and white polka-dot skirt, with blue ric rac, for the 4th of July.

You could consume the half a dozen lemonade popsicles that Nana made just for you.

You could run around all day in nothing but your swim-suit. Or just nothing.

You could participate in all the flirting sessions one has when one has ones very own irresistibly cute, smiley faced baby brother.

You could smile and laugh and giggle as you run around the yard in bare feet and golden curly pig tails and be a pure delight those around you. How I love getting to relive these wonder filled, care-free summer days through the sparkling eyes of a three year old. As my Dad turns to me and says with feeling, " and just a few short years ago, that was you."

{ a slice of sweet conversation }

Mommy ( to Annabelle) : Hey Sug. ? ( short for sugar)
Annabelle : Yeah, Mommy?
Mommy: Who loves us the most?
Annabelle : Daddy.
Mommy (Smiling) : Yes Daddy. And who loves us even more than Daddy?
Annabelle ( without hesitation ): Oh Mommy, Jesus does.

That's right, Sugar. That's right.

{ For Whom The Bell Tolls }

I sat on the floor, in the corner of our living room, observing the empty space and the eerie way my voice bounced off the walls in an echo when I called out to my husband. In the mad rush that was filling and loading all our earthly belongings into boxes and the miles of bubble wrap and packaging tape that come with such a ritual, my little five week old son let it be known that just because we'd forgotten about our dinner, he had not forgotten about getting his. So I scooped him up in my arms and settled with him down on the floor, the flurry of moving day put on pause for a little bit, and then it all began to hit me. I could hear myself think and it scared me because I dreaded the deep surge of emotion that I had tried so hard to bury in box after box being loaded onto the U Haul, to be moved over the mountains, and across the state to a new home.

Then the bells from the Catholic Church adjoining the back corner of our yard began to ring out, their last call for Saturday night mass. As I sat there I thought about how much I'd grown to love those bells over the last five years of my life and remembered how I would always stop whatever I was doing to listen to their happy sound whenever they would ring, and I thought about how much I was going to miss those moments of peaceful reflection. Those bells expressed so well all my feelings toward this home sweet home we were about to leave...they summed up almost six years of memories made...hours of accumulated laughter, some tears, the birth of both our children and many beautiful milestones, great and small, along with the millions of just regular, ordinary sort of moments that make up life.
And as I listened to the familiar dong....dong...dong...the tears that had been pooling up in my eyes spilled out over my cheeks, as I felt an overwhelming pang of sadness knowing that I was hearing those bells for the last time.

The next morning as I stared out the car door window, familiarizing myself with the streets and houses around my future home, half pinching myself inside as we pulled up in front of the towering blue, circa 1909 house that we'll someday call home, half terrified at the task that lay ahead in making this house a home, I stepped out to the car, with a hopeful heart. It was then that I realized I was I hearing bells. Lood and clear, these glorious bells rang out around me. Goose bumps popped up all over my arms as, awestruck, I whispered my thanks to Him. In that moment I felt seen and known and loved as I listened to the bells ring in a new season as they had rung out an old,  His faithful love stunning me afresh.

But isn't that just like Jesus to send us little reassurances, like that.




P.S. - I cannot tell you how glad I am to have a blog full of memories to look back on, of the years we spent in our first home. It's one of greatest blessings of keeping a blog. That, and having the love and support and encouragement of each of you.

{ finding our rhythmn }

We are all settled in to the sweet little cottage. It's been a crazy full week with unpacking and setting up our life here, including evenings out, friends over, and the bridal shower of one of my dearest ever childhood friends that I got to decorate for and attend this weekend.
Go, go, go and rush, rush, rush, has been the rhythm of our life. But I am
looking forward to the rest of the summer, to a little slower pace of life as we are tucked away in our little one bedroom cottage without phone, internet, a debit card ( which I have handed in, as we have made the switch to a cash only budget this summer, in the hope that it helps with saving money) or even an oven to cook on. I am enjoying my little one burner hot plate and a toaster oven and I am going to attempt baking potatoes in it for dinner tonight. Starting yesterday I am being more intential about how I spend my days...incuding reading more, to Annabelle and in general. ( This book being our favorites of the week), taking longer walks, spending quiet moments alone with Jesus and my bible at the kitchen table in the mornings, devoting my days entirely to my children and to playing out in these sunny summer days. To spending our evenings just being together, taking long walks and have lengthy conversations, and cuddle sessions, and soaking up every single moment, so many of which are magical with our beautiful growing children. To seeing this particular chapter in our life as more than just a transition period or temporary, and not missing the sweetness each day holds...