Donut Day

Happy Saturday, dear friends! I can't believe it's been two and a half weeks since I last posted. Life has been SO BUSY! My word. I told Evan last night that it's sad how little time I have to read now, my favorite leisure activity. Oh, well. Someday there will be plenty of time for reading again, and then I'll be missing the noise and interruptions. . . Nah! No, seriously, I probably will miss having little ones around someday. Right now a little peace and quiet sounds heavenly. Actually, that's what I'm getting right now! Evan and Lindsay have taken the kids for their weekly trek to Dunkin Donuts. As soon as I'm done blogging I'm going to hop back in bed and make the most of this time by sleeping!

Today is the first sunny day we've had in who knows how long. It's one of those gorgeous crisp fall days. We're going to Sears this afternoon to get our family portrait done. If you're on our Christmas card list we'll be sending you one! And if you think to tuck in a prayer for us today, please do. Chloe and Tucker are hard to get pictures of these days, being the little strong-minded wiggleworms that they are.

This past Thursday night I started a Bible study for mothers of young children that we're going to have every other week. It was a raving success, judging from the comments of some of the moms afterwards. We have a plethora of young families in our church, with moms who are, typically, giving out more than they're getting back. I wanted to have a time when they can get out for a few hours to talk and laugh and cry and be fed by God's Word. Alison Sandford was our "speaker"--and let me just say it was obvious God had prepared her to bring us a message from Him. She has had a burden for mentoring young moms for a long time but because of the needs of her family has not been able to make it happen. She is excited that it's finally happening, and we ladies are all thrilled to be able to sit at her feet, so to speak, and drink in her wisdom. Several things she said the other night really ministered to me. For instance, many moms are not in a place in life where they can spend an hour in Bible reading and prayer as they'd dearly love to, but Alison encouraged us that God doesn't hold that against us and that we can be constantly talking with Him throughout the day--as we wash the dishes, nurse the baby, any time and every time we feel a burden on our hearts. This has given me tremendous freedom! Ruth Bell Graham calls it "praying on the hoof." What a loving God we serve! He understands our infirmities!

Let's see, what else has been happening. Oh! How could I forget! Last night we went to see Lindsay's play. It was fabulous! If any of you reading this are going tonight, be prepared to laugh your head off. Lindsay is an absolute hoot, especially as the mentally handicapped woman Clara. I laughed so hard I cried, and afterward she said she could hear us laughing in the audience and had a hard time not laughing herself. Boy, it's going to be extra hard tonight to control herself with all her "gang" coming to see her.

Tuesday evening ramblings

This evening after dinner all of us packed into the minivan and headed to Home Depot and the health food store. Evan had to pick up a few things for work, and rather than face the evening without him, the kids and I chose to tag along. Chloe is big enough now that she can walk through the store without having to be in the cart (well, when there are two parents anyway), so she felt pretty special. It was interesting to see the people that noticed the kids and smiled at or talked with them, and those who were intent on their shopping and the kids totally missed their radar.

Evan and I have come to the conclusion that Chloe has three different styles of dressing. She's the queen of dressing up. I'm not exaggerating when I say she goes through at least five outfits a day. That's not getting them dirty; that's just enjoying the power of choosing her own clothes and the ability to dress herself. So, what are her three styles? Grunge, princess, and nude. Grunge consists of a pair of Jed's shorts, which hang past her ankles, and one of his shirts. Princess usually includes a frilly princess dress and matching headband and shoes. (Someone Evan works for gave us a big bin full of the stuff.) And when she's between outfits and hasn't had time to put anything normal on, she just wanders around in her Pullup. The other day I finally had the brilliant idea of putting her normal clothes at her own level in the closet (hers were on a higher rod), on the same rod as Jed's. So now we're finally seeing our little girl wearing normal little girl clothes more, even if the same outfit rarely lasts more than an hour!

Evan has hit upon a brilliant plan for Bible time in the evenings. Since Chloe is so energetic it was hard to get her to sit still for a Bible story, so Evan has started doing Bible skits with them. They LOVE it! Their favorite skit is the story of Noah. Chloe is usually Mrs. Noah, and it's her job to load all the animals (stuffed animals) onto the ark, a.k.a. couch in the playroom. The other day as the kids and Evan were wrapping up the skit, Evan asked what God sent as a sign that He would never allow another big flood. Chloe pointed up at the ceiling and said " 'ainbow!" It tickled us to no end to see that she's catching on!

Another funny thing happened recently when Evan and Jed were talking about the Noah skit, hashing out who was going to play who. Jed said, "I'll be Noah. You be God. Sometimes it's hard to be God!" Amen, buddy. Thank you for that reminder to just let God be God in my life.

My aunt Ellie and uncle Don recently moved to Georgia. Aunt Ellie has been the primary caretaker of her mother, my grandma Sweet, who lives in a nursing home in Peterborough. Grandma stayed behind, and I have the privilege of being her caretaker. (I don't know if caretaker is the correct word here but I'll use it for lack of a better.) The plan is for me to visit her about once a week, make sure she has all her supplies, be the contact person if there's an emergency--that idea. I love my grandma. If any of you have ever met her, you know what a fun person she is. It's amazing how sharp and alert and young at heart and fun-loving she is for a woman in her mid-90s. I just wish I could get over more often.

Thank God for new computers!

Yay! We finally have a new computer! Now I can blog again. I've missed you all! We have this great new Compaq with a cool keyboard and flatscreen monitor and bells and whistles that our ancient 3 1/2-year-old computer didn't have. Derrick (a.k.a. Ryusoma) came over Thursday night to help me get it set up. Thanks, Derrick! How kind of you to give up an hour of your evening to help us out.

Last night Evan and I watched an incredibly intense movie. Actually, Evan fell asleep halfway through. He must have been exhausted because it was anything but slow. Have any of you seen Timeline? Oh, my word. Talk about edge of your seat. I won't bore you with a description, except to say that it's about seven people who go back in time to 1357--right during the 100 years' war between France and England--and only three make it back. They even changed history, which totally weirds me out. All night long I had dreams about going back in time and getting stuck there because the device that was supposed to bring me back to the future didn't work. Argh.

Lindsay, Evan, and the kids are out enjoying their weekly Saturday morning trek to Dunkin Donuts. Not as much as I am, though! Think I'll go crawl back in bed and read a book before they come home. Because once they're back there won't be much chance to rest. Ah, the sacrifices of parenthood. One thing that's taken some getting used to about being a mother is the 24/7/365 constancy of it. There are no vacations or days off with this job! So thank the Lord for a kind husband who gives me Saturday morning and for babysitters who help me maintain my sanity.

Tonight our good friends Dan and Ruth Murray are coming for dinner. They're leaving their kids with a babysitter, and as soon as we put our kids to bed we can have some uninterrupted time to visit. It's so wonderful when a husband and wife can find a couple they both feel close to. That's how it is with Dan and Ruth for us. Unfortunately, there haven't been many times when we've been able to visit without needing to attend to our little ones, so tonight looks awfully good to us!