now he is 8

 

 

On Saturday we had a little party for Jeremiah who turned 8 on Monday of this week. The one thing he wanted to do this year was play laser tag with some friends. So we kept it nice and simple with cake and icecream at our house (and presents of course!) and then we all loaded up and went to play laser tag. Nathaniel was picked up and taken to another friend's birthday sleep-over so we took Jeremiah out for dinner. Then we spent the evening back at home building new Lego sets and watching documentaries about space. It was a perfect way to celebrate our growing boy.

I am loved

 

It has been a rough week for me. But how can I not feel loved when at the end of a long day I come home to pretty flowers and written words of affirmation and encouragement from this man who knows me well and loves me steady? How can I not feel loved when the morning light streams in and the two tousled boys at the breakfast table are full of chatter and fun? How can I not feel loved when I do a concordance search of "love" in the Bible and start writing down the hundreds of verses?

Tree Climbing

 Jeremiah loves to climb trees. But we don't have any good climbing trees in our yard. That is until Aaron put a ladder in our beloved magnolia tree so that Jeremiah could get up to where the climbing is good.

 

 

 

 Cay you spot him up there?

Stretching our legs

It has been a long, dreary, wet, dark January. We have all been cooped up in the house for too long which doesn't always bring out the best in us. This morning when the sun beamed bright and burned away the fog it seemed the best thing to do was to ditch our school books and "to-do" lists and head outside. We went to one of our favorite spots and spent a hour traipsing through the woods, soaking up the sun, listening to the rush of water, slogging through mud, and watching minnows dart in the creek. I lay on a bench in the sun while the boys roamed. I could hear their voices ringing as they went on their own adventures and made their own discoveries. Boys need space to run and wander. They need to blaze their own trails and make their own way. Yet one of my boys always returns to me and takes my hand to help him down the rough parts.

We needed this gift of a day. We needed to stretch our legs, fill our lungs with fresh air and soak up some Vitamin D. We needed to laugh and see beauty in the world around us. And we got home pleasantly tired and ready for naps.

the lost month...

Last week Wednesday I began to slowly feel better and more like myself. Since then my appetite has been returning and with it my energy. It was very strange and frustrating to feel so unlike myself for so long. It feels good to be catching up with friends, getting the house back in order, serving healthy food, and getting back to doing our school work. It feels like we kind of lost the month of January and here we are starting February already. We ate a lot of processed food, watched a lot of television, got behind in some of our school work, stayed at home, and let the bathrooms get disgustingly dirty. Yet we survived and in some ways even thrived. Jeremiah was so helpful, from helping make meals to entertaining Nathaniel. The boys played for hours together. Aaron was so loving, kind, and generous in his care of me.

So we are jumping right in to February which promises to be a busy month for us but full of good things.