Family – Page 6 – Joyful Domesticity

March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

Fun as a Family

Sometimes you just have to have some fun with the people you love most, no matter what other crazy things are keeping you busy or distracted. 🙂
And that’s what we did recently, as our little family went out on a bowling & pizza date! We had a blast, and it was wonderful to embrace some “now” which is fleeting and sweet.

We’re about to go down some really big roads, which are going to be flanked by some great giants. I expect many of them to be taunting me, throwing things at me, maybe even grabbing at my hair or tripping me with unseen sticks. But even in the midst of walking a road flanked by giants, I want to make sure that I am focusing on some marvelous things: like a delightful husband, and three little children whose lives are inexplicable miracles (that’s redundant, but too true). Time is flying. And I want to enjoy life now. I want to laugh. I want to be thankful. I want to make a difference. I want to effect kingdoms and generations through the lives I shape now. I want to leave a wake. Lord, help me. Help me to see what you would have me to do, and take my eyes off the giants and focus them on You, Your kingdom, Your people, Your work given into my feeble hands.

Clichés are true.
Time flies.
You can’t take it with you.
You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.
Dust to dust.
In the ground, we all have empty hands.
Enjoy life now.
And now.
And now.
Before the nows are gone.
See the gifts. Savor the food, knowing that you will have to swallow.
~N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, p109~

Drink your wine.
Laugh from your gut.
Burden your moments with thankfulness.
Be as empty as you can be when that clock winds down.
Spend your life.
And if time is a river, may you leave a wake.
~N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, p117~

February 24, 2014February 24, 2014

Remembering MomMom

My husband’s grandmother has joined the heavenly choir. While I did not know her long or know her well, I loved her for the things I heard about her, and for the fruitfulness I daily glean from the fruit which dropped from her faithful boughs.

We grieve the loss of this Christian woman who faithfully toiled, who victoriously labored, who successfully blessed ~ without her, my children would not be, my husband would not be, my mother-in-law would not be. I pray for her children who most keenly feel her absence, for her grandchildren who mourn the only grandmother they ever personally knew, for her great-grandchildren who will never get to sit on her lap and hear her stories.

We rejoice for her gain, for her rest, and praise God for the faithfulness He shows in bringing His children home to His bosom.
Rest in peace, MomMom; we will see you again in the Choir.

December 16, 2013December 16, 2013

Moments

I may not have a professional camera or Photoshop or anything else to remotely make my photographs anything officially *nice* but hey, I snap shots of my family and our life… and I love it. It’s the only way I can really stop time (even for a moment!), relive time, remember moments ~ so I do love it. And I love to share it. 🙂 Because it’s so true that these moments are constantly slipping back into the rear view, and I am a total & complete amnesiac.

Snap a photo or two. Read verses about futility.
Watching one’s small humans age and grow up packs a serious punch.
It’s like being stuck in a dream unable to speak,
like being a ghost that can see but not touch,
like standing on a huge grate while a storm rains oiled diamonds,
like collecting feathers in a storm.
Parents in love with their kids are all amnesiacs,
trying to remember, trying to cherish moments, ghosts trying to hold the world.
Being mortals, having a finite mind
when surrounded by joy that is perpetually rolling back into the rear view
is like always having something important on the tips of our tongues,
something on the tips of our fingers,
always slipping away, always ducking our embrace.
~N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, p107

I may have served the best chicken soup ever. Just saying. The rolls, pumpkin cheesecake, and gingersnaps were pretty delish too.

Mister Handsome enjoys our Advent liturgies, especially the toasts and chocolates and time with grandparents!

Mister Happy-Boy loves “cheers to the King!” more than anything. Ever.

December 13, 2013

Overwhelming: How Like God

Jesus was a baby, a material gift. We do not celebrate Christmas by trying to back-pedal away from the world of material things. … The story includes the world, and everything in it. He came to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found. ~Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry, p33

My wife and I tend to overgift to our kids at Christmas. We laugh and feel foolish when a kid is so distracted with one toy that we must force them into opening the next, or when something grand goes completely unnoticed in a corner. How consumerist, right? How crassly American. How like God. ~N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, p108

December 2, 2013

Some of the seasons blessings thus far

Asher Timothy turned two! We celebrated family-style with vehicle themed decorations and activities and food, and a milk bar to boot.

After a relaxing “jammy day” as a family (complete with sweet potato cheesecake for lunch!!), we had a lovely birthday-Thanksgiving celebratory feast out at one of our very favorite places. What delight!

And while we seek to bring some tangible realities and especially joyful activities into our family’s routine during Advent this year, here we are, setting out on a family hike around our property at the end of which we victoriously dragged a 12-foot-tall pine tree into our home to deck with lights, sparkle, and bobbles.

What are some of the ways you are bringing Advent “to life” this year in your home??
Besides decorations, we’ve got Advent calendars, chocolates, readings and Bible stories, candle lighting each Sunday, Sabbath meals with family at which we sing boisterously (perhaps, after all, there will someday be a family band… because we’re already showing fruit!), plans to have people over for more singing and eating of good food, gifts for the kids, and continual talking about Jesus and His birth and His life and His death and the redemption He accomplished and so. much. more.!
What blessedness this is, to use these things to remind one another of the bigger glories at work through God’s redemptive plan and the material things He bestows upon us as well.
And what joy to have a generation after us to be teaching about all of this. I’m so humbled by that.

June 20, 2013June 22, 2013

Smoke, Sky, and Sea

Hannah, Gabriel, and Noah: three peas in a pod.

A filmy western sky of smoky red,
Blossoming into stars above a sea
Of soft mysterious dim silver spread
Beyond the long gray dunes’ serenity;
Where the salt grasses and sea poppies press
Together in a wild sweet loneliness.

~from “Twilight in Abegweit” by L.M. Montgomery~

June 15, 2013June 15, 2013

Family on the Oregon Coast

We had a lovely week on the Oregon Coast with my side of the family. We had fantastic times at the beach, hours and hours in the pool, explored the tide pools, squeezed in a few fun dates, played games and played with cousins… it was a fantastic time. What good little travelers our sweet children are too! It was a blessing. Here are a couple quick glimpses of our super duper fun.