Monday, June 27, 2011

Monday morning prayer

This poem was in our hymnal next to one of the hymns we sang on Sunday. It spoke to my heart and became my prayer. . .Lord, may my children see me leaning hard on You. . .

The Teacher

Lord, who am I to teach the way
To little children day by day
so prone myself to go astray?

I teach them knowledge, but I know
How faint they flicker and how low
the candles of my knowledge glow.

I teach them power to will and do,
But only now to learn anew
My own great weakness through and through.

I teach them love for all mankind
And all God's creatures, but I find
My love comes lagging far behind.

Lord if their guide I still must be,
O let the little children see
The teacher leaning hard on Thee.

Leslie Pinckney Hill

Saturday, June 18, 2011

For Josiah

Hi Josiah!
Since you are spending a few days at Grandpa and Grandma Bundt's farm, and I know that you wanted details of the work that occurred on the acreage while you are gone, here are pictures and videos to look at. Here is the finished trench that Daddy dug to the basement and your brothers and sister playing in the basement:



And a few videos too -- the first link is Mr Vore cleaning out the basement with a borrowed skidloader. The second link is Daddy and Mr Vore working together to clear debris.


On a side note, I thought you might like to show Grandpa and Grandma the picture of the
first meal that you planned and made
with me this summer. I sure had a lot of fun making this with you. The hamburgers and milkshakes turned out great!


Have a great time with Grandpa and Grandma! I miss you!
Love,
Mom

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Happy Birthday Evelyn!


Evelyn is three today. She commented all day that she "likes her birthday!" Where in the world does time go? It feels like just yesterday that I was bringing home my precious bundle and knee deep in shades of pink. Today her favorite color is purple and she continues to bring life to our home. She wakes up smiling and goes to bed singing. She is not a girly girl, but bounces about and sings all day long. She loves horses, calling them "coppers" like Grandpa Bundt's horse whose name is Copper. She always wants to help me and recently wants to wear her hair in a pony "just like you Mommy." She has a unique ability to lift my spirits when things are going a bit rough. Evelyn likes to do things herself and often mothers her brothers, echoing phrases that I use. She loves to swing. These days she is always filling her "water bottle" which is her sippy cup and tells me it is full so that she can take it to the acreage with her. She oozes life and draws everyone around her into it as well. What a joy and a responsibility it is to have a little girl. I am so thankful God chose to give her to us.

My dear Evelyn, I pray that you will come to know Jesus as your own Savior so that your sweet joy may continue to run deep and true as you engage the world around you. Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Random news

Wow! I tried to prepare myself for having two more home from school for the summer. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure it is impossible to remember how much more noise, more "interpersonal conflict," more food consumed and more mess comes with just two more home. On the flip side, there is also more laughter and more funny comments.

One of the things I keep reminding myself these days is that this cleaning up, making messes, cooking, laundry, etc, is life. It is not something that we get done so that we can do life. It is life. My prayer for the summer especially is that I can live this life abundantly, with joy, so that my children work and play with contentment and joy. I don't want to miss it because it is a lot of work.

We've been hard at work at the acreage.
Our fabulous "hired" help demolished the upstairs bathroom.
We discovered that the insulation was not very good, so we are also in the process of tearing out plaster in the other rooms upstairs to more fully insulate the exterior walls.

The other afternoon, I went out in hopes of helping Joel a bit by cleaning out some of the torn down plaster. That had already been done, however, so I ended up weeding around the rhubarb plants while the kids played. It was so fun to see the kids disappear and play. They embarked on a covert operation to sneak around me, starting behind the pine trees and then crouching in the tall grass and dashing across the lawn when they didn't think I was looking. And there it came. Peace in my heart. Whenever I start to think that it's too much work and maybe we shouldn't even try to get out on an acreage, God gives me a glimpse of my hearts desire when I started praying for an acreage. . .the simpleness of living and growing as a family, together.

Some random reports:
  • Josiah thanks God every night, in some way, for the acreage.
  • Ezra told me today that my hair looked nice, "since I combed it". Apparently, the way I've been doing my hair hasn't looked so combed. . .because I really do comb my hair. . .every day. . .
  • On Sunday, we took the kids to Sioux Center, picnicked and played in the park, and got icecream as a treat. The icecream was a special treat for the kids working so hard on Saturday at the acreage. The conversation in the backseat on the way home started with that fact and then someone said something along the lines of "well, Mommy shouldn't get icecream because she didn't work." To which Simeon replied, "Mommy works every day." Thank you for noticing my dear son!
  • In typical competitive fashion, the three older boys were dividing up people for teams for something the other day. As I recall, Mommy and Evelyn were put on one team, to much dismay and then Simeon yelled out, "Oh yeah, baby. . .we have Jesus on our team!"
  • I bought an air freshener this week. It's for the basement. That's where the older boys sleep. I'm sure it is the first of many I will buy attempting to mask the smells of boys. Sigh.

Well, off to bed. The morning comes quickly. . .