Malaprops

Here are my current favorite words from my trusty trio.

JackJack: Pepperpony (pepperoni)

Flash: Blessoscope (stethoscope)

Mermaid Princess: 46 20 3 and a half (anytime I ask her how much she thinks we could charge for her artwork)

Big E.: To this day, he will call a quiet person a "shirking violet". How awful to be simply an introverted personality and get accused of a lack of work ethic! He does say it with that pained look of knowing he's wrong but helpless to fix it...


As for me, well, those of you who are around me a lot, post your favorite curly redhead blooper for all to enjoy. (E., Sis and Bro, you are limited to one each!)

Fort-itude

Within 10 minutes of being up and at 'em, these three

had done this:

to my tidy family room.

Realizing that it was clearly a lost cause today
to keep a semblance of order,
I gave in and we played train:
and then completely rearranged the family room so we could build this:
(complete with kitchen and bookshelves, thanks to Flash)

I've wondered when the fort-building passion was going to kick in -
today was its official arrival at the Chambers house.

Couldn't let THAT pass without a blog mention!

Crafts gone bad

I had promised the kids a cake. So Sunday afternoon, Big E. played with the kids while I whipped up a gluten-free sour cream cake. The kids were inspired to make masks - I pointed Daddy in the direction of paper plates and other craft materials.

The cake turned out moist and delicious.

The masks turned out... well, here, see for yourself:

FRANKENPUPPY

EVIL MISS KITTY

Seriously, click on the pictures to see up close just how disturbing they were.
Notice the past tense.

Vanilla with Rainbow Sprinkles

As you will see from this post, a love of reading is on the very short list of legacies we are working to pass onto our children.

(Looking at that list now, I would add two more things:
an inclination for music and enjoying physical activity.)

So when Mermaid Princess finished her first big girl book (no pictures - complex language structure - somewhere around 40 pages), she received:

her very first certificate of accomplishment,

a date with her Daddy,


and an Ice Cream Cone
(a huge treat in a home with dairy allergies).

I'll let you guess what flavor she chose.

It was a hallmark day for all of us, and I can't think of a better reward than some special time with Daddy over a delectable treat. My turn next!

Swing time

Swing, Swing, Swing, Swing...

Everybody start to swing!

La-dee-la........whoa-ho-ho, now you're swinging while you sing!
(Frank Sinatra)

Big E and I did a swing dance as our first dance (the wedding was in the morning, then we had a barbecue with a live band at night.... so our first dance was 9 hours after the ceremony). Dancing ain't Big E's thing - so that was the most significant wedding gift he could have ever given me.

Looks like two of our own are following in our footsteps:

This little guy will always have a soft spot in his heart for his "Bean".

Big E loves a snuggle from his littlest boy, and he does get them.... until Mommy walks into the room. It is ironic to me beyond measure that my older two kids, who spent their early years pretty much with me while Daddy worked, still will choose Daddy above all. While JackJack, who has always had Daddy here in the house, really only wants Mommy. Oma and Granny and Daddy will do satisfactorily unless Mommy is somewhere nearby.

I flip-flop between finding this to be his most endearing quality and hiding in closets to get a few minutes to myself.

Here are some photos of my JackJack Einsteins::

A Giant Kangaroo has invaded our house!

Quick, call the fireman to get it out of here!

Phew! What a boy needs after a kangaroo evacuation is a good meal.

Delightful or delusional?

Optimist or spin-doctor-in-the-making, that's the question we are here to answer.

The following exchange occurred during a model clay sculpting session with the big kids. I stepped out of the kitchen for a moment to see if Big E needed a snack. Upon my return:

Mermaid Princess: Mommy, I have some good news and some bad news.

Mommy: Okay... I'd like the good news first, please.

MP: Well, the good news is that I broke your sculpture and now you get to make a brand new one!

Mommy: Uh-huh. And what's the bad news?

MP (considering for a moment): Oh! I guess there isn't any.

I'm still trying to decide if this newly developed approach to life is an asset or a liability... thoughts?

Nippers, Clippers and Chainsaws

I know. I haven't really posted in a month or so. And this post won't have photos in it, so it doesn't count. I've looked at all the photos of this past month, relished the sweetness of my blessings, but couldn't find the spirit in me to draft the conversation that goes with those photos.

This post is my effort to dump the muck and mire that has clogged my writer's flow. I am a Christian and so it deals with God. If that's not interesting to you, please skip it.

It's been an interesting year. Never have I been more intimate with God. Spent more time with Him. Heard Him more clearly. Fallen more and more deeply in love with His word. And never have I been so privileged to see Him working in so many lives.

And never has He pruned me so severely.

Bruce Wilkinson, in Secrets of the Vine, talks about how drastically vinedressers have to prune back the branches in their vineyards in order to create vines dripping with the exquisite, abundant grapes.

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self Control. That's the fruit God promises us, and I crave every part of it. Somehow, I thought that I could get there just by living in the fullness of His Holy Spirit. I am learning that, to bear that fruit, I am also going to have to be pruned. Which hurts. And I am having a hard time keeping my eyes focused on the promise of an abundant crop as branch after branch comes off. I really was quite attached to some of the branches He seems to think are unnecessary.

Poetic, eh? Sweet words. Lovely metaphor. So Christian - such a positive spin on the hard things of life...

Will you walk with me here for a moment?
Think of your very favorite thing to do. Is it reading? Exercise? TV? Crafts? Decorating? He has taken my top three favorite things to do and turned them so that pursuing them leaves me with the sense of ashes in my mouth and mud in my hair.

Think of your favorite ways to serve others. Phone calls? Food? Notes? Gifts? Entertaining? Those ways that I most love to serve Him have been removed for an undetermined amount of time -- perhaps forever. I know Him well enough to know that He will turn my heart towards whatever He would have me do next, but for the moment, that branch was a biggie and it's been chain-sawed off.

Who are your favorite people to hang out with, those who restore your spirit and who just know you? I have lost two of those this year, and God has just told me to close the door to a great group of women that I was hoping to get to know a lot better. My darling husband, fortunately for me, is cleaved to me and cannot be removed unless God takes him to his eternal home. Sometimes however, a girl just needs a girlfriend. I have no idea what God is working out here, and oh, does it hurt. But I trust Him to know that whatever it is, it will be indescribable.

There are deeper cuts than this (!!), and many, many more clipper nips all over my vine. It is far easier for me to count the days in the last year that I have not felt the clippers than the days I have. I have stopped thinking that the day will come when this pruning ceases - it is my new way of life.

I would love to end here on some great upbeat note about the harvest to come and that He has plans for me, plans to prosper me, plans for a hope and a future. About how those that sow in tears shall reap in joy. About how the ashes will be turned to beauty and praise exchanged for this spirit of heaviness.

All true. In fact, some days, these are the truths that make it possible for me to smile and sing as I hear the clippers coming near again. But the pruning hurts. And to deny the pain is to rob God of the glory on the other side.

As I stop and consider, I realize that I have deep peace as this pruning continues. There is grief with the removal of each branch, and yet such deep contentment simply being in the presence of the Vinedresser. He is my Father, my Lord, my Counselor, my Knight, and my Best Friend. And at the end of the day (no matter how many branches came off), I trust Him. He has proved Himself worthy of such trust -- in my life and in the life of His Son.