Summer Time
There are several problems with living in a four season area of the world. One is that you have way more clothes than you have storage space. When I lived in Haiti I had one pair of pants and one long sleeved shirt which I wore on cold December nights when the temperature dropped to 60 or so. Everything else was always wearable. How simple. Secondly you have the problem of adjustment to the new temperatures. It never seems to happen gradually enough. One day it is hot and you wonder where you packed the shorts, do they need to be washed and will they still fit? In my case, though I found the shorts and they did not need to be washed, they do not fit and therefore I will have to go shopping. Beyond that of course there is the problem of your big hairy white legs sticking out beneath those shorts. Mine have a newly acquired spider vein courtesy of Josiah Daby in-utero. And why is it that toe nail polish chips after it's been on for about 30 minutes? Then there is the dilemma of bare feet versus sandals. In other words do I work at peticures to have nice sandal feet, or give it up and allow myself the indulgence of a bare foot summer?
On the other hand we are getting out the baby pool today for the kids and I look forward to their delighted squeals. Josh is going to grill our dinner, and we are putting in the garden this week. Besides living in a one season climate has it's draw backs too, like Christmas without snow. I don't understand that myself. Or how about enjoying a thanksgiving dinner without that certain snap in the air and a walk afterwards with hats and coats. It just wouldn't be the same.
Soap Box Again
"Unless children are trained to recognize duty as more binding than inclination, they will suffer all their lives through from their lack of dicipline in this direction." H. Clay Trumbull,
Hints on Child Training.
My friend Sarah loaned me this book and it is very encouraging. I like this quote particularly because it seems like so many people these days don't think about what they will have to do in life to survive. They just think about what they want to do, what sounds fun and nice. Well life is fun and nice, but it is also hard work and often times we don't get to do what we want to do, but what we have to do. My husband is a great example to me because he works very hard at a job he doesn't really love because we need the money and the benefits. Through prayer and discipline he has found a kind of satisfaction in his work, but it is a mature satisfaction, that of knowing you are providing for those you are responsible for, not that of being excited to go to work. Anyway, I want to teach my kids to be hard workers, not dreamers. There is a place for dreams and ideals, but I want my kids to work for those things and do what is right, not just what is easy and fun.
My Girl
As I type this Emma is running back and forth across the guest bed beside me flailing her arms saying, "mommy, I dance!" Yesterday when we were cleaning her new purple room to get it ready for her furniture (today, praise the Lord) she was running in circles on the wood floor and fell right on her face. She came up screaming and covered in blood. Her teeth had cut her lip pretty deeply so I took her to the doctors. I was so scared she would need stiches. Thankfully he said she was OK and I was able to bring her home. She's been gorging herself on popsicles ever since. I am so thankful that she was OK. The doctor told me over the phone that if she needed stiches we would have to go to the emergency room because they didn't have the restraints needed for two year olds. That word "restraints" is a scary one. I'm hoping for a much less exciting day today, but with such an active little girl you never know.
The Struggle
"Therefore as God's chosen people Holy and dearly loved, clothe yoursleves with commpassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievences you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14
It is hard to be motivated by love. How many things I do are truly motivated by love? I think more than when I was 20, but still I can decieve myself. I know because I get that uneasy feeling in my heart. I have come to realize that that feeling is the Holy Spirit feeling grieved. I hate that, I just want to live with peace in my heart, I hate the feeling of having gone out of God's will. It's like when Josh and I liked each other but we weren't dating and I would say something too forward, or do something to throw myself in his way, then I would feel so awful about it because I wanted to wait on the Lord. I would pray, Lord can you please fix this? Ofcouse he did but we didn't get married for three years and we had to work through our feelings about those three years for quite a while afterward. All that to say that when we don't listen to the Holy Spirit God can bring it back around but there are still consequences. These verses remind me that I need to operate out of compassion (For Emma when she pees her pants or unrolls all the toilet paper), Kindness (when Josh is tired and wants a specific meal for dinner), humility (when I think I know what's best for other people), gentleness (when telling people the truth) and patience (when things are not going the way I want). This passage tells me how to relate to others. I want to. Help me to walk in the Spirit Lord.
"Manje Lakay"
Tonight I made a Haitian dinner for my family and I must say that my rice was perfect. The key is to use dry beans, the canned ones don't give the real flavor. I made plantains too, yummy, and avacodo. Maybe some of you aren't salivating as you read this, but that is because your taste buds just don't know. Well, I painted an awful lot of trim today and Josh fixed the bedroom floors, so if I can finish the trim tomorrow hopefully we can hang it and get these kids upstairs. My exciting thing this week is that my friend Lisa is coming over tomorrow and She will watch Anne of Green Gables for the first time! It is so exciting. I wish I could watch it for the first time again. Also I have to comment on my big survivor let down. I was really rooting for Terry. I was very dissapointed he didn't win, bt I will say that I don't think it was his fault. The only way he could have won would have been to stay on the lily pad and he was at a disavantage with Danielle who wieghs 12 pounds and Aras the Yoga guy. The big surprise for me was that Danielle thought she could beat either of them.
House Chaos
We have been under construction for about two weeks now and there are many good lessons wrapped up in the chaos which has now become "normal." Josh's dad and grampa and he tore out our upstairs and insulated and sheet rocked it. I cannot say that the project is almost done exactly. Those of you who have been through this kind of process know that it probably won't be completely done until we move out of this house. The rooms are painted now though and "all" that remains is to paint the trim, hang it and move the kids in, also fix a part of Josiah's floor. Anyway, more interesting to me:
The kids and I spent a wonderful week with my mother in law and the kids while the guys were hard at work down here. We were hard at work too, don't get me wrong, keeping up with my beautiful and curious daughter is a full time job. Emma was so excited to be at Ima's house that she would not go to bed. She continuously got out and we would find her in the bathroom or on the stairs or getting into things in Elna's room. She colored herself regularly with pens and markers as she found them, She twice spilled the entire dish of sewing pins all over the floor, she dipped her hand and wash cloth into the toilet while "helping" to clean. She loved being allowed into Aunt Amber's room to "paint" with water or play with shells. She promptly fell irrevocably in love with uncle Micah (which I understand is quite common:) and followed Elna around like a little puppy. Elna was the funniest. She isn't used to toddlers and would come to me and say, "Liz did you want Emma to dump the pins on the floor? And such things. We all had a fabulous time though. (When I say we I mean me and my kids, Jody and her kids would have to give their own answer.) We are very glad though to be home now with Josh. I knew that Emma was starting to miss her daddy because she would get out the Mr Potato head, put glasses on it and say she was playing "daddy." (insert your own joke here) We really missed him.
As of now Josh and I are still sleeping in the living room and we finally split the kids up and put Josiah upstairs because they were sharing a room and not sleeping at all. Well I admit it, I am a control freak. When it comes to my kids I like schedules and predictability. I remember watching the footage of the people misplaced by hurricane Katrina and thinking I could never do that. My kids couldn't sleep on cots in a room with thousands of people. I had become so uptight about the way things had to be and I just needed to let go, so this project has been really good for me. I've realized that kids are more flexible that I am. They sleep when they get tired for the most part. I'm thankful that we are going to have bedrooms for each of the kids, but I was reminding myself the other day that
Haitians often have an entire family in one bedroom. So we are learning to be flexible. Speaking of Haiti, my father in law, Amber and Micah are going for a week and taking a team from their church. I am jealous. I'm so glad that I went though when I was free and single. I don't know when I'll be able to leave the country again. If anyone is reading this and is single and unencumbered let me encourage you to check out YWAM or the HAFF internship that I did or something, have an experience for yourself before you settle down. Let's have some richness of experience to offer our daughters (and sons, and husbands, and anybody) I'm glad I did.
I am now off of my encouragement soap box where I tell you how to live your lives, but in conclusion I would like to say that chocolate chip cookies are definitely of the Lord. Have a lovely night everyone.
