Lean on Me

Shav fell asleep yesterday afternoon while the boys were watching a movie.

 Good thing he had Tobin to lean on.  ;-)

We all need to lean on someone sometimes.  :)

He's No Shakespeare...

...but my paternal grandparents loved his poetry; and I currently have a volume of his work on the little table by the chair where I nurse Moriah in the night.  During those times of sleepiness, I can't seem to wake up enough to read anything too heavy, but his writings are just right for such times.

I'm talking about the poetry of Edgar Guest, a poet with whose work I was not well acquainted at all.  But a week or two ago, as my hand was moving along the bookshelf, searching for the next book to read during night nursings, I chose to pull an old volume off the shelf; and when I opened it, I saw the inscription "The J.S. Huffmans" written in my grandmother's handwriting.  The book is copyright 1919, and the poems are sweet and sentimental.  Many of them extol the value of home and family and faithful, simple living; but this one just made me laugh, especially because my granddad was an old country doctor, and I can easily envision him doing a trick like this Dr. Johnson did.  ;-)

Dr. Johnson's Picture Cow

Got a sliver in my hand
An' it hurt t' beat the band,
An' got white around it, too;
Then the first thing that I knew
It was all swelled up, an' Pa
Said: "There's no use fussin', Ma,
Jes' put on his coat an' hat;
Doctor Johnson must see that."


I was scared an' yelled, because
One time when the doctor was 
At our house he made me smell
Something funny, an' I fell
Fast asleep, an' when I woke
Seemed like I was goin' t' choke;
An' the folks who stood about
Said I'd had my tonsils out.


An' my throat felt awful sore
An' I couldn't eat no more,
An' it hurt me when I'd talk,
An' they wouldn't let me walk.
So when Pa said I must go
To the doctor's, I said: "No,
I don't want to go to-night,
'Cause my hand will be all right."


Pa said: "Take him, Ma," an' so
I jes' knew I had t' go.
An' the doctor looked an' said:
"It is very sore an' red--
Much too sore to touch at all.
See that picture on the wall,
That one over yonder, Bud,
With the old cow in the mud?


"Once I owned a cow like that,
Jes' as brown an' big an' fat,
An' one day I pulled her tail
An' she kicked an' knocked the pail
Full o' milk clean over me."
Then I looked up there t' see
His old cow above the couch,
An' right then I hollered, 'ouch.'


"Bud," says he, "what's wrong with you;
Did the old cow kick you, too?"
An' he laughed, an' Ma said: "Son,
Never mind, now, it's all done."
Pretty soon we came away
An' my hand's all well to-day.
But that's first time that I knew
Picture cows could kick at you.

Hands-On Love

I used to wonder how children in a large family ever got enough time and attention and TLC and love.

 As my own family grows, I'm learning that I needn't have worried about that.

 In fact, I had things a little backwards.

 Children in a large family have even more people to love and adore them, to give them all the time and attention and cuddles and hands-on love that they need.

Maybe it's children in small families that we should worry about!  ;-)  

(Lest anyone be offended, please rest assured that I'm only teasing.  I fully believe that children can thrive in small families and in large; families are not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.  God constructs so many different shapes and sizes and varieties of families!)

David is such a hands-on kind of boy that it's no wonder that he's the one to most often ask to hold Moriah...and that he's the one who comes over to her multiple times a day and gives her kisses (always seven kisses, because that's how old he is)...and that he's the one to make up a funny little act with her.

It started when he saw her one day in the guitar-playing position that she automatically winds up in sometimes - her left arm outstretched and her right arm bent as if to strum the strings.  He started making her arm move in a guitar-playing motion, and then he added the "I'm a rock star, and I love God" words, and it grew from there. 

In case you can't understand the lyrics of David's song, here they are.  ;-)

I'm a rock star, and I love God,

And I think it's time to praise God.

Yeah!  Yeah!

Now it's time to pray.

I thank You, God, for this day.

Thank You, God!  Thank You, God!

I thank You, God, for this day.

Sweet boy.  

Sweet girl.

Such sweetness is honey to my soul.  :)

The Birthday "Boy" {and an Afternoon I Don't Want to Forget}

My dad last night, getting ready to blow out the candles on his coconut cake.  

Jeff teased that if we had literally put 72 candles on the cake, I wouldn't have even needed to bake it; the heat from all those candles would have done the job.  ;-)  So we settled for a 7 (used quite recently for David's birthday) and a 2 (used last July for Shav's birthday, when he, like his grandpa, had a coconut cake); and not surprisingly, Dad had no trouble blowing them both out.  I wonder what he wished for.  ;-)


As I've gotten older and as Dad has gotten older, I have often thought that he looks very young for his age.  I still think so.  That man in the picture?  72?  It's really hard to believe.  I think he could pass for at least 15 years younger than he is.  ;-)


********


Wednesday morning was one of those good, full, but-I-know-I'm-going-to-be-exhausted-later kinds of mornings.  First thing on the agenda was my six-week follow-up appointment with Barbara, the midwife who delivered Moriah; and it was a very pleasant appointment.  Barbara is so friendly that any appointment with her feels more like a visit with a friend than anything else!  Then Jeff and I ran a few errands before heading home; when we got here, I fed Moriah, and then headed out--this time with all the kids by myself--to go to a park where some other homeschool families were gathering.  It was a beautiful day, and I loved watching my boys have fun on the kids' castle at that park.  Shav, in particular, impressed me with how fearless he was; he climbed up and down and all around and acted just like a big boy.  The only thing he did not want to go on was any kind of swinging bridge or platform that moved or anything like that.  He balked just like a stubborn mule any time I tried to get him to go on one--even if I was holding his hand or supporting him in some way.  So I simply let him navigate his way around the play structure in a path that avoided all of those moving surfaces.  Problem solved.  :)


That afternoon, after we returned home and had eaten lunch, I finally got everyone settled down for naps/quiet time; and since I was so tired, I decided to lay down on the couch for some rest, too.  Moriah was sleeping peacefully in the swing, and I was so looking forward to getting some shut-eye.  I laid down, and...you can probably guess what happened...almost immediately, Moriah began to fuss.  "You have got to be kidding me!" I thought. "How is it that babies have this sensor that detects when their parents are desperate for sleep and are wishing with all their might that their offspring will sleep, too?  And then when the parents are at that point, the babies suddenly wake up and cry as if to say, 'Oh, no, you don't.  Don't even think about going to sleep when we're around'!"  ;-)  I can type a happy face there now; but believe me, that afternoon, I wasn't feeling so cheerful about the situation!


I dragged myself up off the couch, stopped the swing, picked up Moriah, and sat back down on the couch with her to nurse her.  "Maybe," I thought, "I'll be able to finish feeding her and then she'll go back to sleep and then I'll still be able to get some rest before quiet time is over for the boys."  But here's what happened...


She ate and then fell asleep, and I--my heart having changed by that point--continued to hold her.  I scooted down on the couch into a reclining position and she snuggled on my chest like a little koala and we had a wonderful nap together.  We hadn't gotten to do that for a while, and already I feel like she's growing up so fast and I miss that sleepy newborn stage when babies are so content to nap on their parents' chests.  To be able to do that with her again was a treasure, and I--knowing well that it might be the last time (but then again, it might not)--savored it deeply.  It was a very sweet time of bonding, and I would have missed it entirely if I had had my way when this whole episode began and I was practically begging her to go back to sleep in the swing.


As I contemplated how I almost missed such a special time with my girl, I thought of two things:  the old song "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks ;-) and Romans 8:28 which reminds us that "in all things God works for the good..."


In ALL things.  Even in our babies' fussy times.


I'm so glad my original plan for the afternoon didn't work out.  Plan B was much, much better.  How grateful I am that I didn't miss that opportunity to cuddle with my baby girl and take that nap...


...together.

In Case They Ever Find Themselves in Narnia...

 ...it would be good if they knew how to defend themselves.

Sword-fighting skills would certainly come in handy...

...so my boys practice a lot.

Just in case they ever walk through a wardrobe...

...or find another door that opens into the land of Aslan.

 After all, one never knows when He'll call.  ;-)

Meanwhile, Queen Susan (or is she Lucy?) watches it all.  Does she long to meet the great lion, too?  :)

As My Dad Turns 72...

...it seems like a good time to take a stroll down Memory Lane.  I can do this with these old pictures, thanks to my dad who painstakingly spent hours this past winter scanning old slides and photographs into the computer to distribute them to my siblings and I.  That was a project I had wanted to do ever since we moved back from Israel.  Lo and behold, I never got around to it.  Thankfully, my dad did.  :)

Here is a look at this incredible man through the years - the man I'm so grateful to have as my father.

He and I when I was a newborn...

The family - Nov. 28, 1976 - I was almost 8 months old

The family - about 1979

The family - about 1980 

The family at my grandparents' house in Dayton - June 14, 1980

The family inside my grandparents' house - probably 1980

The family - December 1980

With extended family on my dad's side - in the Dayton Church of the Brethren

Eating a meal in the Bopp's beach house in Buxton, NC - our FAVORITE vacation spot, by far

Dad praying for me at my baptism - 1983

The family on my birthday - April 1, 1984

The family - November 21, 1984 - notice my drastically shorter hair?  somewhere between April 1 and November 21, my sister Donna decided that I should have short hair; so one day while my parents were gone, she cut off my braids - at the time, I didn't think much of it; but now as a mother, I CANNOT IMAGINE how my parents must have felt!!!  :)

With extended family on my mom's side - at my grandparents' farm in Pennsylvania - 1986

With my grandparents - 1986

With my Grandma Huffman at my Granddad's retirement reception (he was a well-loved, old-fashioned country doctor...hmmmm, reminds me of someone else I know!) ;-)  - January 11, 1987

A small group Bible study my parents were part of - summer 1988 - Dad is the tall one in the middle of the back row

My high school graduation - June 1993

Visiting friends in Florida - August 1993

With those Florida friends - August 1993

As I look back through these pictures and journey in memories through the years, I'm reminded of what a good life my dad has helped to provide for me.  And I'm grateful - so very grateful.

Happy birthday, Dad!  72 looks good on you!!!  :)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday {Cute Little Monkey}

Her serious look...

A smile beginning...  :)

(Thanks, Aunt Helen, for the cute outfit!!!)  :)