I love, LOVE picking fruit with the kiddos.  Apple picking in the fall and strawberry picking in the spring are two of my favorite annual excursions with them. 

I was delighted when I found out that a family from our tutorial owns a pick your own blueberry patch.  The younger three and I went Monday morning while my oldest was a day camp with the cub scouts.    

I hope to go back with all four of them and really stock up on some berries. 

Mmmmm…..mmmmm good!

Exactly one month ago today we had a Superman birthday party for my youngest.   In addition to a slew of crepe paper, we hung a giant poster of Superman on the hutch in our dining room.

Last night I noticed that Superman still hangs in my dining room.

He’s hung there for an entire month.

We let him hang there until we moved it up to the boys room.  This way it wouldn’t wrinkle or rip until we got around to it, and maybe by leaving it hanging in our dining room we’d be more motivated to get around to it sooner than later.

Well, clearly that didn’t happen.

As I went to bed last night, I pondered that Superman hanging in my dining room.   See at first I saw him all the time.  Every time I walked in the room I’d see him and think, “We gotta take care of that.”   But a few days after the party we went to St Louis.  I was busy washing clothes and packing suitcases.  Then we got home and I was busy unpacking and then life happened.  Practices, banquets, belt tests, get togethers with friends.  Life is busy for a family of 6.

And though Superman still hung prominently in our dining room.  I stopped seeing him.   I have literally sat across the table from him for a month, and I don’t notice him anymore.  He’s become a semi permanent fixture at our house and I no longer notice his presence. 

Except when friends would come over.  Just last week a friend stopped by, “This looks like a job for superman,” she said. 

“Oh yea…. Superman is still there”, I thought.  I gotta get around to that.  Slightly embarrassed, I laughed it off .

This week I hosted friends on two different occasions.  I didn’t go crazy with house cleaning, but I did make sure to straighten up.  I did the dishes so my sink was empty, swept the dust bunnies off of the floor, and made sure there was a clean hand towel hanging in the bathroom.

And not once did I give a thought to Superman in the dining room.

That’s just how used to his presence I’ve become.  I don’t see him anymore.

And I couldn’t help but ponder last night how this is a picture of sin.  How often do we have a sin in our life, one we know we need to deal with and yet we ignore it so much that we just fail to see it anymore?  What was once glaringly obvious has now taken up residence in our heart, in our life, until we don’t even notice it at all.  

My prayer today is that the Lord would open my eyes to the sin in my own life that I’ve grown too comfortable with.  And instead of ignoring it as I’ve down in the past,I pray that I would see it for what it is… sin.  And then I ask for strength to confess it, repent of it, and allow the Lord to free me from it’s grasp on my life.  

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

A few weeks ago, the kids spent a long weekend at my parents while Scott and I enjoyed St Louis.  While they were there, my parents took the kids to a friends farm.  The kids had a blast.  Seriously, a day doesn’t go by that they don’t mention the horses or the chickens or the barn cats.  They even got to ride on the horses. 

Right up there with all those memory making experiences, was another new life experience for my 4 year old.

Peeing outside

Let me just pause here and say that I have no problem with little boys peeing outside.  And I have a lot of friends who let their boys freely let it go in their yard whenever they want.  Personally, that has not been our style though.  If my boys have to pee, they come inside and pee in the bathroom just like the girls.  (unless we are camping or it’s an emergency or something) 

Well, while he was at the barn, my four year old had to go potty and since their wasn’t a potty at the barn, he got to pee on the rocks.

He thought this was the coolest thing ever and was so excited to tell me about it when we got home.  “Mom, I got to pee on rocks!” 

Well a few weeks go by and one day the kids were hanging out at the house.  I noticed the front door was partially open and that my youngest at gone outside.  I went out to check and saw some water on my front steps and a big puddle on the sidewalk below.

I didn’t think a whole lot of it, but wondered where he was trying to haul water to and what he was up to. 

He then comes up to me with a big grin and tells me that he peed on our front steps.

What?

Yea Mom, I stood up here on the top step and peed all the way down.

(said with such joy and satisfaction)

When I questioned why in the world he would do this his response was, “What?  Mom, I didn’t get any on my clothes.”

So…. yes, that was my four year old son who walked out my front door, dropped his drawers and peed on my top step for all to see.  

I can only imagine what this looked like for my neighbors.

They saying becoming a parent changes you.   It does.  Truly, nothing can prepare you for it. 

I remember so well the day our first born child entered the world.   I remember all the nerves and excitement. One of the things that surprised me the most about becoming a mom was how much I fell even more in love with Scott on that day.  I already loved him to pieces.  He was already all I could have wanted and more in a husband. 

And then he held my hand and coached me through child birth.   

And my love for him grew to heights I didn’t know existed. 

Seriously, I remember sitting in my hospital bed that night, holding my baby boy and thinking, “Scott is the most amazing man I know. I could never have gotten through today without him.”  

And now, 10 years and 3 more children later, I feel the same way.  I can not imagine going through the journey of parenthood without Scott by my side.   

His is the voice of reason, when I want to veer more towards irrational.  He is wise beyond his years and so intentional in all he does.  I appreciate that so much about him. 

He’s the dad who sings silly ballads to the kids when they come down with sleepy eyes at breakfast.  He’s the dad that you can hear yelling above all the others when the girls are competing in a gymnasium full of people.   He’s the dad that comes home for lunch more times than not, just so he can spend some time with the kids in the middle of the day.   He’s the dad that will use his vacation time to go with us to see the Elephant Parade in Baltimore or the Blue Angels in Annapolis.  He’s the dad that will buy his girl a cat and put up with a liter box in his master bathroom, when he really doesn’t like cats at all.  He’s the dad that lets his kids treat him like a jungle gym.  He fully embraces the chaos that is our life at this stage and all that entails and he cherishes every minute of it. 

I am so grateful to have him by my side as we raise our children.  I hope and pray that our sons grow up to be just like him and that our daughters are as fortunate as I was to find such a man to marry and raise a family with.  My heart is full of gratitude at the immense gift and blessing he is to our family.

It seems to be that when you have more than one child… their differences sometimes seem to shine out, and they can kind of fall into different roles.  The peacemaker, the organizer…. not that I am advocating type casting your children or anything.  I know they can all play different roles at different times.

However, when I asked the kids to pose for a picture at the strawberry patch the other day, my youngest displayed his true colors…

“Kids, gather together with your strawberries in front of the strawberry patch so Momma can take a picture.”

And this is what I get.

That would be my little class clown on the left.

And judging by the smiles and laughter he got from his siblings, he got exactly the reaction he was going for and all the encouragement he needed to begin his career as comedian.

Scott and I started dating our senior year of high school, when we were both 17.  A few years ago we were out for an anniversary date and realized that we were approaching the point in our life when we would have been together as much of our life as we weren’t together.  We decided we wanted to celebrate such a momentous occasion and so we (and by we, I really mean Scott) calculated out when exactly that would be… our dates are different since we don’t share the same birthday.  My half life mark was this past weekend, Friday May 30th marked the day I had been with Scott as many days of my life as I hadn’t… I’m happy to say I’ve now been with him MORE days than without… Since my “half life anniversary” coincided with the weekend of our wedding anniversary, it seemed to make the most sense to go all out for my half life anniversary… Scott’s is in July and I already have the date marked on our calendar so we can go out for a special date. 

We had earned some free miles with Southwest and so we could fly anywhere Southwest flies for free!  This was kind of overwhelming as we tried to figure out where to go.  I could think of some places I wanted to go that SW didn’t fly… I thought of several places that SW flies, that we’ve been to and loved, but we wanted to go somewhere we hadn’t been and somewhere where we wouldn’t have to rent a car. Since I try to avoid the sun as much as possible, we opted out of a beach location….

We decided on St Louis, Mo.  because I have been wanting to see that arch for years. 

 

We had a really relaxing, laid back, fun weekend away.  It was like a giant date weekend… We visited 2 microbreweries while we were there.  Microbreweries are a favorite date spot for us.  We enjoyed the art museum, Forest Park, the zoo, the arch, and the museum of westward expansion.  We made good use of the metro rail system and got lots of miles of walking in.  I even read a book this weekend and started another on my flight home. 

  I truly enjoyed the unstructured, unrushed time alone with Scott.  I greatly enjoy sharing life with him.  I am grateful to have him by my side for the hustle and bustle of life as we raise four kids… drive them to and from practice, educate them, feed them and enjoy them.  I love embracing the chaos with him.  But, I also greatly enjoy stepping away from the chaos for awhile and just enjoying him and I am grateful we were able to do that this weekend.