Thanksgiving

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish each other with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. --Colossians 3:15-17 (emphasis mine)

In these moments that pile up and build on each other, that stretch and multilpy and form into this grand tapestry I call my life, I am grateful for many things. I am grateful for infinite chances to be grateful. To remind myself of all the things I am blessed with day in and day out, now and on into eternity. I am grateful that my blessings are not dependent on my gratefulnees, for I know I have far more to be thankful for than I even realize. I am grateful that God, in His infinite wisdom, saw that I am utterly inept to save myself, and so He sent his son to do the saving for me. And I am grateful for this life He has given me in which I get to learn, and relearn, and learn again of His richness and blessing, and I get to do it with my husband and kids and friends walking the journey with me.

I am grateful that the turkey I made turned out tasty and moist.

I am grateful that my kids are learning how to talk, and that their voices bring me satisfaction and their words bring me joy.

I am grateful that Garrett loves me. I am grateful that he is a good man who loves the Lord and is faithful to his promises.

I am grateful to live in a state that offers incredible early intervention services so my kids get the best possible therapeutic assistance.

I am grateful that Amelia loves to snuggle with me.

I am grateful that my kids helped decorate our Christmas tree this weekend. I am grateful that it's the time of year for Christmas trees.

I am grateful we had good friends with whom to spend Thanksgiving.

I am grateful I have wonderful parents who are willing to fly across the country to visit my family and build relationships with their growing grandchildren.

I am grateful for a beautiful home that keeps me warm, dry, and comfortable.

I am grateful that people who meet my kids compliment me on how well behaved they are. I don't know all the reasons why they are good kids, but by golly I am grateful to have good kids.

I will be grateful when I find my missing video camera.

I am grateful to have so many experiences worth capturing on video--to have moments so wonderful I know I'll want to relive them later.

I am grateful for life.

Here's hoping you and yours had a Thanksgiving weekend full of joy, love, and gratitude.

Happy cake!

Yesterday was Garrett's birthday. We had a few busy evenings scheduled over the weekend so last Thursday I made him a steak dinner and a homemade carrot cake. Amelia, Abigail, and Gabriel loved watching me ice the cake and helped add the finishing touch by sprinkling roasted nuts on top. I coached them all to say "Happy birthday daddy!" when Garrett walked through the door, but somehow the sentiments were lost in translation. I did hear Amelia exclaim "Happy cake!" when he got home. I thought that was pretty appropriate, if not exactly what I had in mind.

Unfortunately our plans for Saturday night to get a babysitter and go out just the two of us didn't work out so well. The kids have been sick for almost a week now with coughing and some inconsistent fevers. Thankfully Garrett and I have not come down with anything yet and we were still planning on going out, but Saturday evening when the kids woke up from their nap I went in to find Abigail had thrown up all over herself and her bed and was clearly distraught about it. We thought it best to call off the sitter in an effort to keep from spreading the misery. As it happened, Garrett ended up enjoying his birthday dinner with Gabriel at McDonald's after Gabe threw a mighty fit over a not so obvious injustice and Garrett decided to just get him out of the house. Not exactly what we had planned, but then again life is hardly predictable with three two year olds all aiming monkey wrenches at our paths.

Today was a bit of an improvement from yesterday. The kids are still sick and feeling lousy in fits and spurts, but the weather was amazing and we thought it would be fun to get out for some fresh air. We've discovered a lovely park just a few miles from us with a great playground and lots of picturesque hiking trails, so we packed up the crew and spent the afternoon outside. It was beautiful!

Happy crazy birthday to the love of my life!

Luke 12:32

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom."


Little flock. How adeptly Jesus speaks to our need to be nurtured, cared for, watched over, protected. We pretend to be big strong individuals, autonomous, brave, untouchable. We are not. And yet he loves us still. He loves us because. He is pleased to give us the kingdom. I am pleased to take Gabriel and Abby and Amelia to the playground, knowing what is in store for them. How much more is our father pleased, delighted, overjoyed, satisfied, to offer us His very best. He stopped at nothing to give us this gift. He stops at nothing still.

(Gabriel taking our friend Olivia for a drive during Mt. Kisco's "Touch a Truck" community event)

Finally... apples!

We finally made it to the apple orchard this year and came back with a half bushel of fresh from the tree appley goodness. My hunger has been satiated. I got the ingredients last week to make some lentil soup. I figured I'd plan a day this week to have a dinner menu of homemade lentil soup, corn bread, and apple pie from scratch. Garrett said he thought that sounds ambitious. I agree. I won't hold myself to it, but the thought is nice.



A lot of nice thoughts run through my mind these days, though I feel like I have time to get just about none of them done. I can hardly plan time to make a quick phone call during the day, much less anything more bold. Naptime has all but disappeared with the kids switching to toddler beds a couple weeks ago. Did I even mention that? Once they were climbing out of bed with reckless glee every day we decided to take the rails down. I actually bought crib tents to see if I could keep my little monkeys contained for a while longer, but it took about seven and a half seconds to confirm that crib tents were not going to be a safe alternative. As soon as the first tent was set up I had one kid getting trapped between the tent and the crib bars while trying to climb into the crib, and another trying to hang from the zipper on the inside. I'm lucky Garrett got the thing off in one piece so I could send it back for a refund. Transitioning to toddler beds has been a breeze at nighttime, but naps have been a whole different story. I've spent a few weeks being quite worked up and stressed about it because there are two things that are clear to me: 1) my kids still need naps; 2) my kids are not willing to stay in bed to get them. I've spent many naptimes policing the little runaways and taking them back to bed each time they escape, but I am slowly coming around to the idea that I may just have to let them run wild. I hate that because it means there's only about a 1% chance of a nap happening and about a 90% chance of someone getting hurt or something getting broken, or both. So far Abby has come out of "naptime" with mysterious scrapes, cuts, and bite marks; Garrett walked in to find about a gallon of water seeping into the carpet because they tipped over the mini basketball hoop that has water in the base to keep it steady; they have climbed on the window sill numerous times and pulled the window shade down to the floor; they pull out the cords to the clock and lights in their room; and they have started playing with the framed art pieces above their beds, which means we need to secure them to the wall in a much sturdier fashion if we don't want someone to bring a frame crashing down, glass and all. It's very hard for me to get any downtime when I am policing wayward toddlers. It is also very hard to get downtime when I am trying to ignore wayward toddlers who are swinging from the rafters in the next room. But, I am beginning to think that the latter is still better for my sanity in the long run. So I keep praying that one of these days the novelty of freedom will wear off and my kids will realize just how tired they really are. How can they not need a nap when I feel like I could fall asleep in five seconds if someone just offered me a pillow?

It's hard to believe it's already November. I feel like the fall has just begun and I am still adjusting to our new busy schedule. With the start of Amelia's PT and MOPS and the continuation of speech therapy it feels like we are constantly busy, and yet I am also constantly looking for things to do and ways for us to get out and about because this apartment just can't contain us all anymore. We've met a great new playmate this year. I've made friends with a woman named Kelsey whose daughter, Mackenzie, is two and a half and has a new baby sister due any day now. Kelsey and I have started getting together with some regularity and it's been great to have another home to go to and to have Mackenzie add a little socialization. Everyone makes comments about how we have a built in playdate at our house, which in some respects is true. I realize it's nice that my kids have playmates in each other and they have one another to interact with. But playing with and around siblings does not offer the same socialization as interacting with other kids. There are different skills to learn with kids from other families--lessons about sharing, respecting other people's space and toys and decisions, communication. I love having them around other kids and Kelsey loves that having my kids around means Mackenzie is learning how to accommodate and share with others. So far it seems to be a win win.

Speech therapy is going very well and Sharon is really pleased with how far the kiddos have come. They are quickly catching up with age appropriate communication skills and our house is full of chatter now. We are still working out some kinks, like generalizing what they learn in session to use in everyday life. And they are still inclined to make some very random mispronunciations that seem to originate from nowhere. A couple weeks ago I finally realized that Amelia has been trying to say pajamas. We use a lot of variations of that word--jammies, jammers, jam-jams, pjs. But her approximation was something like "sh-shems." Not real close. Since I was finally able to figure out what she was trying to say she has made some real progress, thankfully. We are still trying to figure out the word playground. They can say something close to "play" and an approximation of "ground." But when they clamber for the playground I hear three little voices insisting "keymond, keymond, keymond!" It's a little odd. But besides the hiccups here and there, they really are becoming quite verbose. They are saying please, thank you, and you're welcome, and they're learning to answer questions. They love talking about "Kenzie's house" and they're well into identifying colors and learning to count. Gabe can consistenly get to five, if you don't count his tendency to leave out the number four. We're making progress!