Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer moments- Precious and Few!

Last night the children went out together to play baseball and other sports together.  That gave Ben and I a moment, in the house together.  Delightful, whether complaining or encouraging eachother, we are attempting to build "Cherish" into our marital vocabulary.  As we struggle with the vicisitudes of this season.  Health challenges, emotional challenges and financial, we are struggling together.  God is there and He is building our large family, for himself and that is the work and pain that we are feeling.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Cuts and Scrapes will happen

I remember sadly the scrapes of my early life. The older I get, the further back in my remembrance, the pain. Dr. Smith, on Lost in Space was always crying, "Oh, the pain, the pain, the pain!" Today, it is my Ethan who is crying "oh the pain of it". He is old to have this kind of pain. We've been through a break of a bone with him and now he decided to scrape up his body and take off a "whole heap of skin", in the process. This, I hear is a manly rite of passage. I heard him screaming and began to pray. I cannot tell you the long process of the week that led up to this rite. All of heaven, came to comfort me and some of earth. Pats on the back in the exact place where the cut would be and I remember, this is what makes a man out of him. I know that you would have placed your body underneath him to protect his very skin. Love said, it is for his own growth process. He is not a baby and God ordains even these things. Last night we used the cleaning of the wounds to remember my daddy's rite of passage through switchblade play. Thank God that this is not the naughtiness that we are cleaning up. I sat with my grandma, years after and saw the agony on her face as she recounted her son's torn skin. Here I was following her agony to clean up the wounds of "war"? Not war but disobedience. Praying that this will be part of beating our swords or switchblades to plowshears. The stories flowed in the night and the bar-mitzva continues.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

When Mu comes over?

Every year, Heaven surprises me. 29 years married and our house got in such a tumult that they had to send Mu to calm it down. Elyse didn't get the memo. We have all been on High alert about En's condition and he is sometimes walking and we are always watching him. We took our anniversary drive and took Enoch with us. {he hasn't been well for a while} We forgot to tell the household. It wasn't raining where we were. We went to the park. We saw En smile for a minute. The house was in a tumult. The hawks told us, a cardinal came and said it to us. We had no idea. We drove back in the pouring rain that always reminds me of Mu and Sunken Meadows park when we were kids. When we got home Elyse had been out searching for her brother, outside with a dear neighbor. She was soaked to the skin. We all felt loved. We all felt God's blessing in family. If he was out there walking, she would have found him. She is his oldest sister. I know how she feels. I have lived to love baby brothers and sisters and husband and children. That is what life is all about. Nothing is like the passion that makes you leave the comfort of home to search for the lost. We know she has a missionary heart of prayer for different people groups, but her charity begins at home and Mu's torrential reminder of rain was an anniversary gift to remind us what love is all about. Heaven and earth collide in family.

Title- The Studious One!

Title-  The Studious One!
artwork by Elyse

Of biscuits and syrup

Of biscuits and syrup
tasty treats

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!
a day at the Raptor Center.

Widdle Emmie in outer space school

Emmie jumped on the bus and off it flew out into the atmosphere. There was a set of clouds with turbulence right above the house and it took a few minutes for my Emmie to buckle her seatbelt. They hit the bump hard and it knocked my Emmie out of her seat and she bumped her head. The video camera came on and the monitor looked through and stated, Ms. Emmie, where are you? You are not in your seat. Where are you? I am alright I fell because I hadn’t buckled correctly. Well jump up Emmie we have a long way to go and you have to be buckled there is entirely too much turbulence in the stratosphere for you to unbuckle now. As soon as we are through this weather system there will be straight sailing but right now you must buckle. Emmie scrambled into the seat with intensity and purpose now. She watched every cloud pass her window and her nose was pressed to the window trying to see the top of the house as it drifted slowly out of sight. Soon they were not only out of sight of the house, the sun came out brightly and just as quickly they were putting on the atmospherical breathing apparatus and the outerspherical lights. The ABA and the OL. These precautions were to make them appear to be satellites to the radar as they were out in the ionosphere. Emmie knew all about this now. She had gone to the orientation and had a good breakfast and it took them 20 minutes for her to get out past the atmospherical pull and to feel the zero gravity. It would be 15 minutes before the gravity simulators would take effect, a glitch in the system which was being worked on. Until then, they enjoyed the couple of minutes of floatation, while being connected to the seats by belt. The first thing they saw everyday was the strataflotsam. The items which had been dumped into the atmosphere by earlier generations. What would their generation do about this ecological waste area that remained floating above their heads? This was a question for the generations. For now it was the area that they had to guide through on the way to school.

Midnight at the OASIS

Midnight at the OASIS
Sunset in Huntersville

My little Emmie

ran to the bus on the first day of the last year of school. 2 buns on the side of her head. She kissed me and ran at dawn to the bus. She was starting the adventure of a lifetime. I would never see that little girl again, she was going to woman school!

My Father and I 1989

My Father and I 1989

to the tune of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

A VISIT TO PAPA











Are you going to Mary Immaculate?

Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Remember me to the one who lived there,



He once was a true love of mine,



Tell him to buy me an acre of land,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Between the muddy Hudson in Jamaica Bay,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,

Tell him to sow in it seeds of pure cream,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And build Ice cream mountains and buildings of whipped cream,

Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,



Tell him to reap them with sickles of M&M’s,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And chew bubble gum and eat till we’re done,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine.



Tell him to run it off down the motor parkway,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



After your done 50 pushups



and jog down the West Side Highway,



Then he’ll be a true love of mine…

(Don’t wait for me today dad, The kids are sick again, My tummy’s bulging again, My heart is aching again, And now there’s no love there…)





He once was, a true love of mine….So, Girls, I do beg you don't miss your Daddy,Apricots, Chocolate cherries and Pie,You have one short chance to see him on this side, Go visit him and let your light shine.