Grace

God is just SO kind to us.
I am ridiculously thankful for an offer on the house this week. Hadn't realized how weighty the wait was was until the relief of a buyer happened. Hopefully inspections will be smooth and uneventful and I will have time to go dig up plants from our darling backyard....as I doubt the single guy cares that much.
It has been a rollercoaster of emotions for me, period. The physical ailments left and the emotional upheavals began. Not surprising, in reflection, that to process the adding of another life and all it's assorted energy to our family is unwieldy and complicated for me. It seems rather normal to be overwhelmed and unsteady about it for a bit, but I couldn't see that when I was in it and I still get that pregnancy confusion of forgetting what I already know. Mostly I come to the conclusion that God is overwhelmingly gracious and as I depend on the Spirit, life is lovely, but when I get all wrapped up in my own efforts, I fall hard, fast and get stinkin' mean! This idea of worship has made complete sense to me in the last year : that what/who we worship is our functional savior. I am such an idolater. When I asked Jesus a year ago to show me my idols I had no idea what I was in for. What a blessing to have my misdirected worship shown to me.
But it is off to vacation and time to pack!

It's Beginning to look alot like Spring.....

The new yard is blooming with Magnolia, cherry, pear, and perhaps a scanty five plum blossoms. (Stefan was a pruning maniac). We have an abundance of lovely pink tulips scattered about and a Ceoanthus that should start blooming soon. The early spring welcomed a huge flush of daffodils in the front yard, hellebores, and camelias. It really is the yard I had hoped to make at our old house, but about ten years ahead in size. We scored huge terracotta pots off craigslist at a killer deal and I am seeing veggies, vines, herbs and some summery flowers in the sun next to the deck. The drowning hazard (aka hot tub) is slated for pickup to some happy sot who likes to lounge about half naked in his backyard. "Not I!" says the Megan.
Speaking of growing, I am eleven weeks pregnant and .....whoops. Someone needs a bottom wipe. okay. back from the bathroom to my random thoughts....yes, eleven weeks and starting to not be sick everyday....Hallelujah. It is amazing how debilitating the first trimester can be and this was a doozy: neck problems, flu virus, colds, teething. I have barely kept up the child rearing or food on the table....forget school...that went away for three weeks too. Lots of fresh air when it wasn't spring showering, outings to Goodwill (how can the smell of that place not gross me out when pregnant I don't understand), whining to my mother (not that I got her to visit), praying to not be so irritable to the kids and my husband, falling asleep on the couch for an hour while Gideon napped (another reason for no school...that is our prime time). So now we have a on and a half inch baby to speak of and for that I am grateful and trying to be reasonably sympathetic to the actual work my body was doing.
Quick notes (since these will apparently be the only record of my children's lives...pathetic and infrequent)
Tryn is growing like a fiend. Her two top teeth remain to pop in, although they popped out long ago. I think I should be taking more calcium. (It really is all about me). We are having an actual Medieval birthday party with more than just family guests. We are doing it every seven years....as this every year party for kids seems to grow adults into a personally exhausting birthday fetish which I cannot quite understand. Or maybe some folks just get told when they are 18 to "grow up, no more jumpy castles for you!" Being that we are having more than four kids it is not sustainable to have a party for them every year...nor wise....at least for the person their mother is. Every seven years because every kids birthday is a multiple of seven....tada.
She is not busy enough. I had her make scones from the Usborne Fairy cookbook and suddenly her entire demeanor changed to delightful. Lack of school for her is not healthy for her brain.
Annika is so much bigger and actually listening occasionally to stories read out loud and discussions we have. If candy is mentioned it is a magic memory elixir. She is tons of fun with Tristan and they play fairly splendidly together. She is fast. She is intuitive. She is practical. She LOVES food network and then playing food network. She might just grow up to be a chef. Oh, wait, or a hair designer....Tristan had his bangs remodeled care of Annika this week. She will play sports.....like her mother she has to get the energy out to focus. Yeah, I haven't gotten any energy out lately (once again, all about me:)
Tristan. Currently his favorite phrase is "yeah, but....." which leads me to ask him if he wants something done TO his butt. But beyond that he is remarkable cheerful in the morning, even when listening to Gideon yell from his crib, "MAAAA, MAAAMA......MOM. ...mom....?" He is the kid that actually plays sincerely with toys. He is constantly building with Duplo or dressing up the Playmobil knights or zooming around the house on the plasma car. He is very affectionate to school, asking plaintively "Mom, can I do my schoolwork now?" Which is usually cutting or tracing....now I am going to start with his letter sounds. He is learning to be a big brother even if that means sometimes giving a little back to Gideon to make sure he knows his place. He loves going on walks and running, although not being as fast as his sisters is dissappointing he is learning to encourage them and stay ahead of mama.
Gideon. Whoa. What a bullhead. Adorable, quite charming bullhead. Only gives up if the consequence is serious. I remember this same malady myself (I would like to say it was when I was a child, but it persists). He only speaks in one word sentences and even those are hard to decipher. However, if I give him a two step direction he has no trouble following through. He LOVES to do the hand motions to "Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus," "Jesus Loves Me," and raises his hands and chimes in on the last word of each part of "Glory Be to the Father." Blues Clues is his favorite show. He keeps all the kids laughing at the table as the entertainer of the family.
Well, time to make a lemon cake for Tryn's birthday. Signing off, hopefully for less than six months!

Three Books that Inspire My Mothering

What Is A Family

Hidden Art of Homemaking

both by the lovely Edith Schaeffer

A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
by Karen Andreola

Publish Post

Isn't it funny that it has the same address number as my childhood home? Obviously the one WITHOUT SNOW is the new house. When we walked up to it I paused and thought..."now this is weird!"

New House

Breath deeply, sigh. The new house is really big. Bigger than I ever could have imagined I wanted. Bigger than my childhood home where six kids ran around. Big enough to have to search for little children. The kitchen is enormous. I have NO excuse not to be hospitable. It is delightful to be able to spread out as I cook and not every surface is dirty by the end.
God is so gracious and kind. I feel the bounty :"and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. " Not that in anyway do I feel like I have given enough to deserve this.
It has been a long hike. I feel today a bit like we are looking over a vista before the next trailhead.

Reasons to sell your house

Because trying to keep a house show worthy while living in it with four kids is absolutely hysterical. It is the definition of losing your sanity. But then I remember Romans 8:1
" There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,^[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
But my flesh is longing and thirsting for the pride that accompanies getting everything spiffy so that I can congratulate myself on the early sale of our house rather than God's gracious providence. Ow, die to self, OW!
After the baby broke the lamp ten minutes before we were leaving, my flesh cried out, "yell at the children, it is all their fault!" and yet the Spirit calmed me and I said, "it's okay, it's only a lamp....we could live by the flesh and holler, but we are going to live by the Spirit." My daughters, in astonishment at this unpredictable turn of attitude from their normally angry mother, responded with a relieved "yeah mom!"
So the pressure mounts as the engorged stomach of the economy is ready to vomit up it's excess and fast for awhile, and yet I am trying to sell a house. It is the Lord who steadies my husband....and I keep feeling nauseous as I quell waves of anxiety from thinking about it at all.

Who is Doing What

Annika is taping and poster goo sticking her multi-media artwork in choosy, obvious spots at about the three foot level around the house.
Tryn is reading everything, including chewing up four Encyclopedia Brown books in one day. She is thoughtful and pondering alot in her head, trying to make connections between facts, often interrupting my instructions as she seeks to clarify a fact.
Tristan is matter of fact. And he wails when he doesn't get his way, which is quite spoiled of him and I am a wee bit embarrased that it slipped under my radar so long. He knows all his colors, the Apostles Creed, and more about trains than I ever have.
Gideon climbs up the ladder, sits up on the top of the slide, lies down belly to the slide while holding on to the rail, then lets go. All very deliberate and and dexterous. I am nervous....Annika wasn't even as agile at that age.....and she is my most coordinated.
Gideon was chasing the chickens back and forth through the backyard. He also signs milk, please, more, and the most effective: point and grunt
Tristan, to my chagrin, is still not potty trained. But I am falling back on that old when we move he might regress so why start now.
Tryn is so very busy. I just bought the girls school uniforms for next month. She wants to wear them now.
The best part is that in September, all the uniforms are on sale at the Gap...teehee.
Annika is a lovely hostess and asks guest politely if they would like a cup of coffee and then brings them one. She has sweet people skills, until she kisses their arm or something weird which makes me worry that we are raising those kind of homeschool kids. ;)
We are busily and determinedly working on the house, preparing it for sale and hoping it sells sooner rather than later. The move to the northside is shocking in that God's means really bumped us into action, and then he took the motivator (a new baby) away, and now we are just moving and nothing is standing in our way of getting this crazy house by the freeway with a little yard? You know Stefan loves me when he buys a house with no garage.

Bittersweet

Bark Mulch. Isn't it great. Should have done it at the beginning of summer. Now we only have two weeks to enjoy it. Then, then we move.