Races and Places

This is William's favorite trick right now: to crawl into small baskets, small baby doll cribs and sit a while. He is especially fond of the small basket full of books in his room; a cozy place to read.

Last week I ran a half-marathon. The first chance I have had to run a race in seven years! (YIKES.) My kids were so excited when they learned I was running a "race". I think visions of sprinting and wearing medals were stuck in their heads. I slowly explained the reality of long distance running, running in your thirties, and the vast abyss that lies between the normal runner and the professional runner who actually wins. After a lot of patient listening, my six year old son asked with great concern, "Will there be anyone slower than you?". I appreciated his concern...it is a concern of my own. I was just trying to finish the race, but I assured him that there would be a few behind me. My kids were with cousins the morning of the race and so they asked me about it afterwards. Sure enough, the first words out of my six year old's mouth:"Were there people behind you Momma?". I proudly answered yes.

A Generous Heart

God makes us each different. To me, that is one of the greatest joys of being a parent...watching each child grow and develop with their own unique personalities. Right now, one year old William loves crawling into baskets and sitting in them. Our first child to take such pleasure in baskets. It's a little thing, but I know it's a small hint of the ways he will be different than the four before him. The picture above is from underneath our Christmas tree. Caroline has begged me to take her to the store, purchased gifts for each sibling with her own money, wrapped them and made cards for each person. They are all under the tree now. The other kids have not even thought of buying a gift for someone. Just Caroline. She loves to give. God made her different and this time of year it is fun to watch how much joy she has in giving gifts.

Today William took 7 steps! He was holding an empty starbuck's cup with a top and in his excitement of putting the top on (he loves taking tops on and off), he took seven steps. He was very surefooted for a first time walker. It made me think he has probably had the capability for a while but been uncertain that he wants the independence of walking. He wasn't even aware he was doing it at the moment. I will be curious to see if he suddenly takes off with walking.

Extended Family

The memories that I have of "fun play" when I was young...chase or tag, running so fast your chest hurt, laughing so hard you thought you couldn't stop...are all with cousins. None from school; none from church. All from trips to the beach or the farm to be with lots of cousins. Now I am sure there were other contributing factors: parents were around, it was often vacation, good food, etc. But there is something good about people that know and love you, something wonderful in belonging regardless. These are a few pictures from our time with Brandon's family over Thanksgiving. Our sofa line-up is growing. Here's hoping it will contribute to lots of good memories for them.

"My Kiawah"

I need to write down a recent Henry story. In the picture above you'll notice he is missing both front teeth. He lost his first front tooth, and then his second front tooth seemed to dawdle. It was horribly loose for such long time and it bothered him, but not enough to pull it out himself. Well, we recently had several couples and their children over for dinner. It was a play-fest with 13 children running around after eating lots. We all enjoyed the evening and as we left from tucking Henry into bed...we heard this deafening scream. He had realized that his tooth was gone. He had lost his tooth somewhere in the course of the fun of the evening, had no idea where his tooth was...and was worried that he would not be visited by the tooth fairy. Needless to say, we took out a paper and pen and wrote the tooth fairy a detailed explanation of our evening. She was understanding, of course, although Henry is still disappointed that she did not leave him the $100 he requested. Some of us are born with ambition, aren't we?
Another memory from today....John Mac loves the beach. He has recently been talking about it often, and he keeps asking me, "When will we go back to Our Kiawah?". This gives me an inner-smile, in that we have only been able to pay for our family to go to "Our Kiawah" once. Most of the times we have been were the gift of a generous family benefactor. Anyway, today he was once again talking about Kiawah and how he wanted to go and stay in our "poor house" at Kiawah. I said, "Why is it a poor house, John Mac? I thought you liked where we stayed." He explained to me that it's a "poor house" because "no one lives there". Imagine that....all those lonely rental homes at Kiawah with no one to live there permanently? I think John Mac has a solution for us all.

A Sick Girl

Hannah has had a fever for the past few days. My favorite quote from this time: "I'm not sick. I'm two!" The best part is the way her voice intonation changes and goes up at the end with such enthusiasm. Several of us have tried to explain that "sick" is not related to age....to no avail.

Tonight I gave Hannah a bath and we lost the soap several times in the sudsy water. At one point Hannah told me: I can't find the soap. It's all gone. It's gone to Jesus.

Finally, it does appear we will be moving soon! Hurrah! We are all so excited. My favorite response was the one of my eldest daughter. She quickly went and found her "Moving Book" that had pre-printed postcards and began to fill them out, one by one, with her new address. While I have been in complete disbelief (read: no boxes are packed yet), my seven year old has claimed this new address as her own. I am looking forward to seeing the little ways we will embrace this new place in the days ahead.

Another day

So we are still here. No new home. We were at the five yard line: movers and painters and carpet cleaners lined up and ready for the huddle to break. We then found out that there were title issues with the hom. These liens may not resolve and so we are waiting. Waiting to see if things can work out or waiting to see if another offer on another house will go through. Thank goodness we have a place to "be" as we wait. It has been a hard time of seeking to be patient and to be content simply with what the day has for you. The beautiful fall weather was a great distraction this weekend. The kids love to be here. They circle the grounds of this house daily with bikes and "jeeps". This morning they were out with large shovels digging a huge hole in a dirt mound that the owner told them they could play in. So much outdoor fun.

A New Home

This is a picture of me standing in our new kitchen over a month ago. I am gazing out the window, wondering what it would be like to live in this Charleston home with hardwood floors and tall ceilings. On our last day of packing up the Williamsburg house, we received a call from the realtor that our very low offer had been accepted. (The one we had turned in over two weeks prior to that call.) We were surprised and excited, but oh so busy with the hard work of packing. Then we returned to Columbia, to our temporary home here. It seemed normal now to live in the heart of the city, in this old white two story house. The kids quickly ran next door to visit with Mr. Clarke, their new favorite friend despite a fifty year age difference, whom they missed during a week away. We unpacked and settled in once again to life here. Our realtor came by and said yes, we should make the end of September closing. So, two days ago we walked back through the new house. We measured and examined, looked at paint chips and imagined furniture placement. It all seemed so surreal. The new Charleston style home is big and tall and handsome, and right now, relatively quiet. Can we make it our home? It is wonderful and nice, but does our twenty year old sofa belong there? What about the mismatched chairs and inherited rugs that were all warm and inviting together in our old home? You could look at it all and see it wasn't purchased together, or stop to see each piece as evidence of how we have been generously loved by family. Only one or two pieces have we actually stepped out and dared to obtain on our own. Isn't that how it works though? Great grandmother's old rocking chair does match the in-laws recovered old sofa. The old wedding gift table works well with the new bench seating. The tall disorganized english major has fun with the short scheduled science girl. God always puts things together in ways that are creative and surprising. I am anxious to see how it all fits together once again in this new place. I know it will be a bit like a first date for a while with everything awkward and requiring such thought. It is harder to imagine doing this with children, bringing them into the transition. We will start with the walls, with new colors and paint. Our first step at making this house a new home for us all.