Mom

Over the past few days I have found myself speaking a lot about my mom. Sherry that is. It can be kind of confusing when I talk about her, because I have a mom now, and I have a mom then. A good friend of mine, Jodi, has told be that she can tell the difference when I talk about my moms, even when I don't say which mom I am talking about. That's something. But it's not the point.
The point is, it seems like I am entering the time of year that is most conducive to reminiscence.

Many of the memories I have of my mom (Sherry) seem to center around this time of year. For instance, Josh, the boys and I carved some pumpkins this year, and I insisted on toasting the seeds "cause mom and I did it and I loved it when I was little!".

Well, turns out, I sort of hate pumpkin seeds. The memory tastes better than the now.

As Jackson gets older and Noah becomes a more active (super active actually) part of our family, I find myself wanting to create the same memories that I have with my mom.
I hope that they grow up thinking that they like pumpkin seeds because what they really like is the special time we shared.
I hope they take their kids to KFC on Sunday after church, because you can't have a Sunday picnic in the park without chicken.
I hope they love fried cheese.
I hope that when they get to heaven, and meet my mom, they'll say, "I know you! You're just like my Mama."
And if I've done my job right, she'll say, "I know you! You're just like my girl."

Because... Who DOESN'T Want Five Pumpkins???

Oh, October.... What an innocuous sounding month... But, I know better. I know you are full of preschool, and home group, and dr. appointments, and meetings, and band practice, and hay rides, and pumpkin patch visits at least five times, and costume buying, and costume wearing, and coat buying and coat leaving-in-the-car-so-what-good-is-it-anyway?, and oh CRAP! last minute rent check mailing, and engagement ring inspecting, and so forth.

October, the gateway to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
October, the orangest month of the year.(Go Beavs??? Nah.)
October, the month in which I buy candy "for the kids" and then eat candy in front of the kids.

No longer, October, will you best me! Surely, I will be in charge of this month! I will buy costumes in the first half of your 31 days! I will not leave my dealings to the last minute, AND I will begin Christmas shopping, and I may even print and address some Christmas cards!!!

Rest assured, October, I will do this! After I have some candy.


There. I got that out.

On a more serious note, I went to a meeting tonight about the CASA program. For any who don't know, (I say like there's more than five people who read this) CASA is Court Appointed Special Advocates. They are the voice of children in the foster care system. At this meeting, I was startled to learn that there are over 1,000 children in the foster care system in Lane County alone, and of those 1,000, only about 300 have a CASA. This is because of the lack of volunteers. The idea of becoming a CASA has been swirling about my brain for a while now, and just the fact that it outlasted all my other harebrained ideas must mean something right? (BTW, I found some GREAT Thomas the Tank Engine fabric at Wal-Mart and almost bought it, until I remembered that I'm NOT taking up sewing. Dang!) Anyway, the application process is fairly lengthy and intensive, so if you want you can pray that I will be accepted and that this will be a good fit for me. And you can pray about becoming a volunteer yourself, after the application and training process it only involves around 10-12 hours a month. Check it out.

And lastly, I just want to take a minute to remember Olivia Ray. Olivia was born shortly after I arrived on the YWAM base in Elm Springs. Her parents were on staff there and I remember seeing some of her first months. She was 10 years old when she was hit and killed by a car on Saturday, and though I haven't kept in touch with her parents, my heart breaks for them and their girls right now. John and Jane raised their daughters to love Jesus, and I hope that knowing Olivia is with Him now brings them some comfort in this time. Please pray for the Ray family if you think of it. Your prayers are heard in Heaven and felt on Earth.

Some Thoughts For Fall

Septemeber has arrived. And with it comes the cooler weather (sooner than I expected, but not unwelcome), the return of the dreaded footbal season, cold season, pre-school, and soup.

Josh and I were on a walk with the boys the other day, and we were talking about the weather, and I realized (again) how much I LOVE Autumn. It seems that every year, I forget about my favorite season, and every year I vow not to. Then it rolls around again, fally as ever and I am struck by my affection for the crisp air, the crisp apples, the crisp... I can't think of any other crisp things I like, besides apple crisp, but I already said apples.

Fall brings out my lesser used domestic desires. Like the ones to make elaborate soups, and breads and other warm comfort foods from scratch. Or, indoor crafty things. At homegroup last week, I launched into my plans to aquire a sewing machine and teach myself how to sew and begin making wonderful home funishings. My very good friend, Karen cut me down to size with, "Don't you think you have enough hobbies? Do you really need one more?" She's like the string on my kite. Needless to say, I have abandoned (for now) the sewing machine adventure.

Fall has also brought a new change to our house. Today was Jackson's first day of Pre-school. I did not cry. Neither did he. Noah did, but only 'cause I didn't get him out of the car fast enough. It was a sucessful day at school. He had fun, didn't punch anyone (as far as I know), and I had an extra set of clothes packed in his backpack, which I hoped he wouldn't use, but did. He towers over the other kids, but to me he looked so small. it makes me wonder if I'll cry when Noah goes to school. Prob'ly not. It's not my style.

There were other big changes happening all around me in the last month and I found myself all riled up over them. I spent a couple days in a terrible funk, and then (duh!!!) I went to the Lord. I had been complaining about all the things in my life that change when I don't want them to, and letting Him know what I thought of His actions, when I realized that I'm not the boss of Him. That was sort of huge. See, I'm the boss in my house. So if there are changes to be made, they go my way and in my time. Not to say that Josh is the un-boss, but kinda. So, to look at the things around me that I always expected to always stay the same, and know that that wouldn't always be, was a little scary. But I think the Lord spoke to me. I was reminded that He DOESN'T change. He's always faithful. He's constant. It's not the deepest concept to dig for, but I needed it right then and it was good.

Here's a picture of us at the beginning of a wedding this summer. I had this great plan to have candy and crackers at hand to keep the boys quiet during the ceremony. That didn't work out. Maybe we'll get to see the video. But we all looked pretty good. Note, if you will, my "just returned from Hawaii" glow.

So, there's that.

Summer is in the air at the House Full of Boys! As I write this, it's 11:30 pm and all the windows are open to let the cool air in.
Jackson is now into maps. He has a map of Sodor Island (The Island on which Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends reside) in a book, and he loves it. So, last week while shopping at Walls, I found a map place mat. Perfect! He can't rip it, tear it or otherwise harm it! He can only learn! Well, we've been learning the West Coast states and their capitals. "Jackson, where's Waasshhiinnnggtooonnn?" I say slowly. He points lackadaisically as thought this is already old hat and he'd rather be anywhere else. "and what is the capital of Washington?"
"O-limpEeaaahhhhh!" He says with some enthusiasm. "And what state is this?" "Californyaaaahhhh" I think that my son watches Paula Deen while I'm not looking. He can make any word into a 3 or 4 syllable doozy. "Now, what's the capital?" "I DON'T know." "Remember.... it's Sssssssss......" "Tell me." "Come on, it's got toe in it...." "Toes?!?!?!" "No, it's Sacramento." "Oh, right, Sacramehntooooooo. I'm all done Mama."
If I had to homeschool, we'd be in trouble.

This One's Hat Fell Off, Mama!

This was Thursday's Most Used Phrase. My ferociously happy 3 year old repeated these words a million times at least. On Thursday, the boys and I went to the strawberry patch with my good friends Anne, along with her daughters, and Jessica and little Siennalee. Who, incidentally moves enough to be two daughters. Into this pool of estrogen my boys and I heartily threw ourselves for a day of fun, sun, and berries. I have no pictures to share with you. Anne did that duty, and better than I ever could.
We gave the kiddlets a veritable playbook of rules to ignore; which they did admirably. The primary one being: pick the berries at the stem, so their hats stay on. Next was: Only pick the dark red ones, the white ones are babies and need to grow, plus they taste yucky. Well, my son, being the smarty that he is would pick the berry and then, as he was showing me the perfect strawberry with its hat still on, he'd pull it off and utter those words... This one's hat fell off Mama! So now I have to eat it!" The scurvy dog!
After a while, he tired of the monotony and began looking for other interesting things to do.
There was a marker flag sword fight with Noah and Siennalee.
He ran off with Noah in the stroller... I have no idea where he thought they were going to go, we were next to a cemetery.
And last, he started picking the white, unripe berries.
"Oh, no, Jackson" I told him. "Those berries are not ready yet and they taste SOOOOO sour. You won't like those! We need to save them for the next people that come to pick berries."
"I'll just have a little taste." He replied. "Oh, I like there Mom. I'm just gonna keep eating these!"
Whatever!
That was near the end of our adventure, and if it wasn't so late, I would regale one and all with more witty "Jackisms".
G'Night!