Keeping Up with the Joneses: November 2007

Sneak peek

Many of you will be receiving this picture soon as a Christmas card, but I thought it'd be fun to go ahead and post it here. Do you know how incredibly hard it is to get six people to have decent smiles all at the same time with a digital camera with that fatal four-second pause?! We had quite a time of it the other day. Dear Lindsay got the unpleasant task of taking about 25 pictures of us. Not one of them turned out perfect. This one was the closest to perfection, which tells you a lot considering Jed forgot to smile and Chloe is making a goofy face. At least she looks cute and didn't accidentally stick one of her fingers in her nose like one of her brothers. And Jackson looks so cute I want to eat him!

I have been full of joy these past few days thinking of my younger sister's happiness. She is courting! For more information check out her blog. It's beautiful to see a girl wait patiently for God's best, trusting Him to bring along the one He has for her in His own perfect timing, not jumping ahead of Him in any way or trying to "help" Him find a husband. I'm proud of my little sister. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Big Mama

Most everyone who knows me and Evan knows that I am slightly taller than he, a fact that has never been an issue for us. But apparently it deeply disturbs Chloe. A month or so ago she said to me, "I thought daddies were supposed to be taller than mommies." To her it just wasn't right that Mommy was taller than Daddy. So I assured her that even though daddy is a little shorter, he's a whole lot stronger! That seemed to appease her for the moment, but Evan told me later that day that she had talked about it with him too, and she's mentioned it a number of times since. Funny how it really bothers her.

As if that wasn't enough, Tucker has somehow picked up on it too. He has some creative ways of communicating since his vocabulary is so limited. So things that are little are "baby" and things that are big are "mama." Not daddy--mama. So his potty chair is "baby kee" and the toilet is "mama kee." Other things are baby size or mama size. Very flattering.

Had a wonderful visit with my dear cousin and friend Penny last night. She was up here for Paige's memorial service and was free to spend the night with me. It was so good to get caught up! We stayed up till 11:00 talking and laughing. I so appreciate her friendship. Thank the Lord for friends that you can bare your heart to and know you're safe with, who love you no matter what. Sure wish she didn't have to live all the way down in Georgia!

Also had a fabulous week with Evan's mom. Once again she blessed us with her presence, washing dishes, babysitting--a lot!--taking me out for dinner, playing with the kids.... Happy times. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I absolutely lucked out in the in-law department. I used to pray before I met Evan that I would like my future husband's family. Wow, the Lord answered that prayer big time!

Another busy week ahead--homeschooling, housekeeping, proofreading, Thanksgiving! We're having Derrick, Wesley, Lindsay, and Lindsay's friend Stephanie for dinner on Thursday. Sounds like fun!

Evan read this to me yesterday as we were grieving the loss of precious Paige.

"You need never ask 'Why?' because Calvary covers it all. When before the throne we stand in Him complete, all the riddles that puzzle us here will fall into place and we shall know in fulfillment what we now believe in faith--that all things work together for good in His eternal purpose. No longer will we cry 'My God, why?' Instead, 'alas' will become 'Alleluia,' all question marks will be straightened into exclamation points, sorrow will change to singing, and pain will be lost in praise." --Vance Havner

God is good. He can handle our questions. He is utterly worthy of our trust.

Jack is a huge fan of Baby Einstein. His excitement when he watches it cracks us up. I wanted y'all to see this. My apologies if you don't find it as amusing as his family does. At least I think the grandparents will appreciate it. :-)

Note: Please ignore the obnoxious high-pitched voice speaking motherese in the background. Goodness, I had no idea I sounded like that. My poor children.