Better be one strong stork!

Mermaid Princess: When I grow up, I'm going to be a singing nurse.

Flash: When I grow up, I'm going to be a builder!

Mommy: Someday, when I want one, will you build me a new house?



Flash: No, Mommy. Don't be silly. You're going to live in this house forever.

MP: Unless you pray really hard for another baby. You should do that. Then maybe God will send you another baby and a new house.

Let's just say this isn't a prayer I'll be sending up in the next couple of weeks.

Glider going gangbusters

We did get the glider operational on the swingset and it is now a Chambers family favorite. A huge, huge thanks to my sister, her husband, Grandpa, Grandma, Oma, PopPop, Jake and Max, and of course, Big E, who made this possible!

Doesn't that look like fun? I want a turn!

Woodland rhapsody

Flash and Mermaid Princess are often inseparable - they get each other's games, feed each other plot points in their imaginative dramas, they create elaborate situations in which only they - Dash and Violet - can rescue the world (or their stuffed animals).

This is a common picture:

This often leaves JackJack on the outside. All in all, I don't think he minds. He's delighted when they include him, but he knows that when the big kids are off doing their own thing, that leaves Mommy available for a good game of chase.

Or just some meandering on the road less taken.

Movie Star, redux

First, Blair Witch. Now, Gloria Swanson.

Her name, should you care to ask, is Luau Girl.

I have no idea where the idea for being a luau girl came from, but I must admit, she put it together quite nicely.

When you give a kid a camera...

expect some crazy photos. About once a week, I let the kids borrow the camera for 5 minutes each. Out of the 100 photos they take, 95 are black, out of focus, or are perfectly in focus photos of my bum and get deleted for the sake of posterior, er umm, posterity.

Most of the shots are something like this:


But then, I found these. Not sure what to do with this budding talent just yet, but as I have not taken the time to figure out how to take a decent picture, I'm praying that it's intuitive for her!

To her, a comment on growing up and leaving girlish things behind. To me, a note to do a better job teaching them to leave their boots in the garage.

A commentary on the medieval conditions for children in other parts of the world? Or a family room that appears to have been hit by a tornado?

Stating an affection for the French? or a reminder that I need to mend this guy?

Trifecta

I had a mommy hat trick yesterday. Read on...














1. Flash came running into the family room to inform me that he had dropped an important piece to a game and it had slid under the oven. I checked with a flashlight. I found a long handled spoon to fish under the oven. I pulled the oven out (which I hate doing because then I feel compelled to clean under there.) No game piece.

I looked at him, and asked if it could have gone anywhere else. He very solemnly looked at me and told me it had gone under the oven. I wrinkled my nose and prepared to check under other pieces of furniture in the kitchen.

Then I stopped, looked at Big E and said, "If this were Mermaid Princess, I'd give up, but this is the kind of thing Flash knows. I'm looking again." And sure enough, a thorough search turned up a little green game piece tucked halfway into the foot of of the oven.

Hey, I think I'm momentarily getting the hang of knowing my kids!

2. Less proud of this one... Brand new ivory damask tablecloth from Big E's mom. We don't have much in cash reserves right now, so little gifts like this mean a lot to me. It was sitting out in the family room, waiting to be put away. I sat down to read Milly-Molly-Mandy to Mermaid Princess and Flash when my mommy sense kicked in and I looked up to see JackJack drawing lovely orange lines with a NON-Crayola washable marker (which means I have severe doubts about whether it will actually wash out).

Now JackJack is highly aware that markers are allowed only in the kitchen and only for drawing on paper. This was done because he was peeved that he did not have my full attention. I swept up the marker and the tablecloth and went into the laundry room to count to ten. I was HOT.
In the meantime, Big E had slid over to JackJack. I emerged from the laundry room to hear Big E telling JackJack to walk over to me and say he was sorry. I sat on the step into the family room, and here came my littlest boy, looking truly repentant.

He looks up at me sorrowfully, and says, "I'n torry, Mommy. Hug me?"

I went from steamed to melted in 1.2 seconds. There wasn't even the littlest bit of frustration, anger, or irritation left. In fact, I loved him more, if that's possible.

I have to wonder, is this how God forgives us?

3. Finally, as I was putting Flash to bed last night, we played the "I Love You" game where each of us says I love you and tries to get a kiss in before the other does. Suddenly, he stops, pulls back and says to me, "But you really love Daddy."

"Well, honey, I do love Daddy as my husband and best friend. And I love you because you are the sweet boy that God specially picked for our family."

Flash looked grieved, not the reaction I was expecting.

"Mommy, don't be sad 'bout this, but I love Mermaid Princess most of all."

Is this not cause to head to the family room for the mommy merengue?

I know that someday, this conversation will be about his wife-to-be and it will be a little more bittersweet, but today, it completes a mommy trifecta.

And now I have it recorded for those days when I am resisting the urge to jump in the car for a mad dash to Starbucks before anyone notices I'm missing...

Movie star?

Seriously, doesn't she remind you of the girl in The Blair Witch Project?
(she took this picture herself, by the way)

Ideology

At the end of lunch today, Flash asked to be excused and went to wash his hands. After he came out of the bathroom and was clearly trying to decide what he wanted to do next, we had the following exchange...

Mommy (talking as if to herself, tapping her lower lip): "Hmmmm.... I'm thinking it's time for sneaking up on Flash. And the best part is, he'll have no idea what's coming..."

Flash: (with a screech and a mad dash to the family room): "I have ideas! I have ideas!"

For the rest of the day, anytime he thought I might be plotting something, he's jumped up and down, calling out, "I have ideas! I have ideas!" You sure do, kid.

Now is the winter...

of our discontent. Well, it started out being Mermaid Princess' discontent, but rapidly became a lesson in just how easily I succumb to that wintery vice.

In the post below, you'll read about our new swingset. Eight people came to help us clear the site, assemble the set and move it to its new home in the back corner of our yard.

I cannot begin to count the man hours involved, including my father's prep time, and Big E.'s trip to purchase the lumber 48 hours after Christmas when no lumber trucks were making runs that week. A huge investment of time and effort from so many.

My father actually modified the design of the swingset so that we could add a two-seat swing onto one end. Not original to the design, it ended up that we were going to have to do some revamping of the set up to make that work, and it wouldn't be ready on the day of the swingset raising.

Mermaid Princess was devastated. Nevermind that we had three perfectly good swings where none had existed just 8 hours previously. Nevermind that we promised to have the glider operational within 3 days. Nope - she sobbed and sulked about the one part of the entire set up that wasn't perfect.

And I will admit that, in the moment, I got mad. Anger flooding up my spine mad. Now, I knew she hadn't had her nap, and I knew that she was overstimulated from Christmas and parties and visitors and everything else that December had held. And still, as I sat and talked with her, her repeated choice to focus on the one piece that would have to wait instead of the tremendous gift she had just received really, really got under my skin.

We went inside to each write lists of three things that we were each thankful for when it hit me... my little princess wasn't doing anything here that I haven't done to God a thousand times (at least). He has given me gifts too outrageous to even list, grace when least deserved, mercy when completely unwarranted, sweet children, a lovely home, and a husband whom I think many women would consider killing me for. And yet, how often do I spend a part of my day disgruntled and ornery over the one thing that I think is keeping me separated from 'happiness' or maybe 'fulfillment' (generally the unfinished laundry)?

Ugh. For a moment there, I truly contemplated how many days a month, okay, days a week, that probably is and I am now sick to my stomach.

Thank goodness, THANK GOODNESS, I know from Phillippians 4 that contentment is a learned trait, because if it were merely doled out, I would know I didn't get any and give up. But if it can be learned, then I will be stubborn about learning it until I too can state that I have learned "in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

I think I'll start with being thankful for being a parent, for the unending joys it brings, the character it develops (can I get an amen?), and the illumination it casts on my relationship with my Father in heaven.

And on Monday morning, when the laundry needs to be done and the bathrooms mopped and the kids are squabbling and I am trying to get our homeschool lessons underway... well, Lord, what a good time for me to head back to Your school and re-learn some lessons of my own.

"Barn" Raising

I have always wanted to be part of a barn raising. There is something so cool to me about a whole community coming together to do something BIG - the hard work followed by a huge celebration. Unity of spirit, unity of action, and the gratification of seeing your hands actually produce something...

We had our own ECHO Chambers version... a swingset raising! My parents', with overwhelming generosity, gave their grandchildren a swingset for Christmas. So on Dec. 29th, my parents, my sister and her husband, Dan's parents and Dan's nephews all arrived to assemble and raise the swingset.

Mermaid Princess raked the site for over an hour in true barn raising spirit!


PopPop (engineer) and Grandpa (homebuilder) assembled the structure. And thank goodness, because I heard the following phrase more than once:
"Hmmm... this doesn't seem like the most structurally sound way to do this. (out come pencils and paper). Let's try reconfiguring it this way..."

There aren't any pictures of the swingset being hauled from the driveway to its new home because we were all too busy carrying to man the camera. But here it is, fully raised.

First pic of all three kids on the swings.

The swinging went on and on and on. JackJack would happily stay in the swing all night if someone just came out to push him a couple of times every 30 minutes.

We are SO blessed by this gift of time, of swings, and of priceless memories. How 'bout you? Gotta favorite "pull together" moment in your life this past year?

A few of my favorite things

Well, the Christmas bubble is over. And it always surprises me just what turns out to be their favorite Christmas presents.

JackJack loves his bowling set, the cards from our Dora game, and his set of wood blocks. After each block gets placed, he puts his hands in the air and shouts, "I did it!" Then he looks at me and says, "Kew-l?"

Flash wears his firefighter gas mask all the time, even though it is clearly uncomfortable for him. And we have read his new Dash book to him about 40 times.

Mermaid Princess loves her new tutu. She also loves her new puzzles and books galore. We've been doing a lot of blanket snuggle reading - a mommy's dream.

This is my favorite photo from this Christmas, taken at my parents' house.


Below is a collage of photos of the boys throughout Christmas.

The Wii is my brother-in-law's, not ours. The best memory of Christmas by far was when my brother and brother-in-law held the shooting control while the kids held the driving control and they tried to fend off tank attackers. I don't think the kids are going to be allowed to get their licenses until they are 30!