Just Playin'

Saturday Morning

On Saturday morning, Silas had his first real soccer experience.  We signed him up at the last minute (Friday) and went out on Friday night to get him some shin guards.  It was fun to be in the store shopping for them with him.  He kept talking about how I used to wear them when I was a little girl.  High school doesn't seem like such a "little girl" to me, but he definitely thought it was cool that I used to play.  And he really thought it was cool to get all dressed early Saturday morning.

Shane took him and right as they were walking out the door Shane looked over at Simeon and said, "Oh, wow!"  In all my dressing and picture-taking of Silas, I had no idea that Sim was using his yoghurt as a hat...

Messy baby!  And because I had planned to give all the kids baths after naptime Saturday afternoon, I just cleaned him up as best I could and we went on with the morning.  In the meantime, Silas had fun at soccer with Daddy...

And when they got home, one of our sweet high school girls came to stay with Sim and Lieren while we went to Silas' last tumbling class.  It was fun to watch him again.

Silas seems to like, not love, tumbling.  As we were leaving Shane asked if he liked tumbling or soccer better.  He answered "soccer" pretty quickly!

We got home just in time for lunch.  Simeon's hair had turned to crazy by this point, which prompted Shane to get pictures up close of everyone, including the dogs...

After that busy morning, we stayed in and watched a movie Saturday night...after the kids had baths, of course.

Be Still, My Heart

Early this morning I signed our firstborn up to start preschool in the fall.

At this point I cannot even fathom having him away from us, even just two mornings a week.  I do think he will really enjoy it and grow from it and will again help our family carve our own path into a place we have never been before.  It will be a good jumping off point for all of us into the big decisions about education.  But for now, I have some time to process it all before he becomes an official student in 4 year-old preschool at a sweet little religious school close to home.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and took Silas with me.  He got to meet one of my favorite nurses and one of the midwives, who I was also meeting for the first time.  Silas was excited and interested in the whole thing.  I knew it would be a good time to take him because it was a quick routine visit where all we did was chat and listen to the baby's heartbeat.  Silas said later that the "doctor put glue on that thing so we could hear the baby."  Right after we listened to the baby he said in wonder, "That was the baby's noise."  It was so sweet.  He has been talking about his littlest brother a lot, saying he is still growing, and telling us how he will share his toys with the baby.  He also likes to point out that the baby does not yet know how to talk or know his letters, but that "my babies (Simeon and Lieren) are learning to talk and are learning their letters.  They also can walk now."  He will often give my tummy a pat and say, "He's so little.  He's so cute in there!"  It is fun to see this journey through his eyes.

On a different note, we often go to a recreation center/indoor soccer field in our town and play.  They open it up to little ones a few weekday mornings during the winter.  It is a great place to run off some energy and spend time with friends.  I finally took my camera a few weeks ago so we could remember it.

The Reality of Four...

...And How You Can Be Praying

We almost always have someone say to us, "You sure have your hands full!" when we are out with all the children.  People say it when I am alone with the kids and they say it when Shane is with us.  Before I was really showing with this pregnancy, Shane loved to remark back, "And we have another one on the way!" It delighted him to watch the shocked reactions.  Recently I had an older gentleman come up to myself and the children when we were in the grocery store.  I had all three piled in the cart along with an assortment of food items.  He smiled gently at me and said, "You have the most valuable cart in the store."  He didn't linger to chat but walked on, as if he knew I was on a mission to get out as quickly as I had come in.  I thanked him, but wish I could have thanked him more.  He'll never know what that one little comment meant to me.

Four years ago I was about 5 months pregnant with our first child.  We had just moved to Louisville for Shane to start seminary and our hearts ached from leaving Missouri.  I was working full time.  Shane was on staff at our church part time.  We didn't know much back then about what God had in store:  how Shane would finish school, how I would be able to cut back on working, what it would be like to have a baby, where all the "stuff" we needed for our little one would come from, and if we would ever be able to have another child beyond this one.   Little, little did we know.

We found out about each of our pregnancies in different houses, different towns, different states.  I remember each moment perfectly.  Sunday afternoon in Ozark, right before Shane and I headed out to lead our My3Six group, the reality of Silas appeared.  On a Wednesday night after church in Louisville, Shane stayed to be part of a parent meeting and I went home with Silas after telling Shane I thought we might be expecting another.  After I got home I sent him a text saying we were.  Two weeks and two days later we found out "another" was "another two."  Then in Illinois, Shane came home for lunch one quiet Thursday afternoon when the three were napping and I said we might be about to have the surprise of our lives.  "God is good," was his response.  And I agreed.

I honestly don't know what it will be like to have four children.  We never got to have what I call the Blissful Two-Child Phase.  At least, when I look at people with just two, it appears blissful.  From what I've observed and lived and heard, three is definitely the tipping point.  With three you're outnumbered even if both parents are around, you can't hold everyone's hand when you're alone, and there's just never enough lap space to adequately hold all the little people who inevitably want to be held at the same time. Since our family has already tipped, we are taking the plunge into this next phase knowing it won't always be easy, but with some tools under our belt that have helped us thus far.

A few different people have asked me how they can be praying.  You don't know how much I appreciate that!  Here are some thoughts that might guide your prayers:

1.  My back has really been bothering me.  Pray the pain eases so that I can continue to lift and haul and love on our three.  And if God chooses to let me live with the pain for now, pray I have the grace to care for Silas, Simeon, and Lieren as best I can.

2.  Pray that the Lord gives us wisdom to parent the older three through the transition of having a new baby at home.  I will be honest and share that I think Simeon will have the hardest time.  But I am praying we know how to meet the individual needs of all three.

3.  Family and ministry spread Shane and I thin at times.  Pray that we would remain gracious through the final weeks of this pregnancy.

4.  And if you want a specific time to pray for, Sunday is the day.  The majority of Shane's responsibilities heap onto Sundays so that leaves me as the primary one with the children, including numerous transportings back and forth to church, home, and ministry events and/or friend's homes.  By Sunday night Shane and I are both exhausted and haven't seen each other much.

Just like four years ago before we met our firstborn, there is little we know.  But this one thing I do know:  God is Able.  Recently I was doing a spiritual exercise that a beloved mentor of mine taught me.  I have practiced it off and on through the years and have found it to be really valuable.  She taught me to simply go through the alphabet and recount characteristics of God for each letter.  A - Almighty, awesome, Alpha, all-knowing; B - bread of life, beginning, banner; C -  creator, counselor, Christ, consuming fire, etc.  The other night I stopped with A.  Able.  He is Able.  I hadn't ever thought of that one before in all these years.  But He is.  As much as I am not, He is.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you

so that in all things at all times,

having all that you need,

you will abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8

The pictures in this post are from a couple weeks ago when the weather was uncharacteristically warm.  The zoo had a free day so I took the children by myself.  It was wonderful and just what we all needed.  The babies loved seeing the animals and they all loved getting to run around a bit.  I did think I might birth this baby boy at the end of our outing, right there by the Australia exhibit but obviously that didn't happen.

While Daddy's Away

Shane is home tonight.  When he walked in the door I felt myself immediately begin to let down after the whole weekend with him gone.  I am thankful to say we can survive a weekend without him, but even more thankful to say that life is always better when he's home.

Shane left on Friday afternoon and on Friday night a big group of his family were getting together for dinner at a restaurant I had never been to.  They of course invited me and the children along.  Let me interject here that there are lots of times when we (or just I) do the work to get the kids out to some or other event and on the way home I think, Well that wasn't worth it.  Friday night had all the makings of being a night like that:  it was frigid outside, with snow flurries falling.  I was getting the kids out by myself for dinner at an unfamiliar place without Shane's help then had to get them back home and to bed.  But you know what?  It wasn't like that.  It was totally worth it.  And the children did exceptionally well.  I mean, someone else might not have thought so (what with Silas spinning in circles at one point and almost running into the table of strangers next to us, Lieren having a majorly uncharacteristic meltdown right when we got there when I handed her to an aunt she hadn't seen in a while, and Simeon dumping a very large basket of crayons on the floor repeatedly) but I think they did great.  They sat in their chairs, ate their dinner, interacted with people, and I actually got to eat and carry on a bit of conversation.  Silas may have thought I had already lost it on the drive home as I gushed over how well they did.  To make it all even better, everyone was in bed on time.

Simeon woke me bright and early at 6 on Saturday morning so we were up and going like any other day.  I took the three of them to Silas' tumbling class, which was fun.  There is a little indoor playground where the babies love to climb and slide.  It was crowded on Saturday because indoor soccer is going on, but we managed the crowd and said quick hellos to people we knew.  Here is where I will admit I was the mom in sweats who didn't realize she would see so many people on this little outing.  Thankfully I had showered and had gotten ready a bit.

We spent the rest of Saturday at home.  I put chili in the crockpot for dinner.  We played in the loft in Silas' room.  I gave the children baths.  It was quiet and low-key and the children were as happy as can be.  I was in bed at 10 after getting as much ready for Sunday morning as I could.  I sent Shane a text at about 9:30 that night saying I had just finished vacuuming and did he know how much he was missed.

Sim was up just after 6 again on Sunday but the Lord was gracious and he happily played while I got ready.  I just had a couple more things to do when Silas got up so the two of them watched a few Elmo clips on YouTube while I finished.  They looked so sweet tucked in bed between pillows watching their videos.  Then Simeon asked for "Gabba" and he said it so clearly that I couldn't resist but let them watch one or two Yo Gabba Gabba clips while I grabbed a necklace or something.

I prayed (out loud mostly) all morning that the children would have happy hearts so that we could make it to church with a sweet spirit about us.  The Lord graciously answered and when I asked Silas to get his shoes he even said, "Sure, Mommy.  No problem!" and scurried off to get them.  When we got to church, I was so glad to see my friend Trisha and her family pull up right behind us.  Lieren walked in with them, holding hands with Trisha and Silas' friend Haley.  Sim walked holding my hand then Silas took his other hand and I had one of those moments where I love my children more than ever.

I was blessed to be at church (we didn't get to go last week because Sim had a fever) and while there was a mild fuss amongst the three as I was picking them up, it was not a big deal.  Silas requested Steak N Shake for lunch and I decided a treat sounded good so that's what we had.  Silas got his own strawberry shake and I shared a chocolate one with the other two.  Believe me when I say they ate most of it.  They aren't always much for sweets so I was surprised.

I won't say that naptime was a success this afternoon.  But everyone was down off and on for a while.  When they were all up and had a snack, I got out our slide and they burned off some energy for over 45 minutes on that thing.  They are all learning to wait in line and take turns.  It is the cutest thing.

Then I let them watch Little Einsteins while I made breakfast for dinner.  We never do that but I didn't have much else sitting around and they all ended up loving it.  When we were about to eat at 5:30 I realized that Shane's group would be driving into town soon.  Just knowing he was close was enough to give me the boost I needed for the last leg of the weekend.  And when he walked in way earlier than I had thought, it was a gift.

It has been fun to recount the weekend with Shane and hear about his time away with our students.  

I didn't take too many pictures but here is proof that sometimes our children really play happily together. In an effort at full disclosure, though, what I wanted on video (and missed) was Simeon yelling, "I want it!" while chasing after Silas who was holding some ball Sim coveted.  What Sim does say over and over again is "My turn" then he says "Here Sissy" when he takes her the ball.  She says "Thank you" pretty softly.

On Monday It Was Nearly 60 Degrees