I Don't Know. . .

To paraphrase the classic Coen brothers' movie Raising Arizona, "Girl, you've got a panty on your head."



We're off to Texas this week to celebrate Thanksgiving so the blog posts will be a little more sporadic than usual. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday! I am grateful most of all for the forgiveness and salvation offered through Jesus and I pray that you have received this most precious gift as your own. I am also grateful for the gifts He has given me: a husband who loves Jesus and me; beautiful, healthy children who help me see the love, grace, and glory of God every day and who also provide great entertainment every day; an extended family who is very good to us; and a church family who treats us as though we are their own. God has indeed been good to us in spite of our not deserving it. I pray that I am found thanking Him everyday and not just when the calendar says it's time!

Today in church we sang Victory in Jesus. Love, love, love that hymn and the message found in its words. As the man leading our service today said, "It's the gospel in a nutshell." I'm telling you it makes me ready to go and the last line of the third verse brings tears to my eyes as it makes me think about the joy we'll have there!

I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,
How he gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

I heard about His healing, of His cleansing power revealing,
How he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, "Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,"
And somehow Jesus came and bro't to me the victory.

I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory,
And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing, and the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory.

Chorus:
O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever,
He sought me and bo't me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.


And as our pastor says, "You are dismissed."

Sarah Grace, Genius Speller?

I am sometimes amazed at how grown up my girls can seem all of a sudden. Today Sarah Grace asked if she could have a piece of paper because she wanted to draw a picture of Mommy and Daddy. Well she drew us and then said, "Mommy, you are biiiiiig." That's what you want to hear. It reminded me of the time that we lived in NC and I was very pregnant with Sarah Grace and I was changing Lainey's diaper in her room, but it was early in the morning and I didn't want to turn the light on so I just did it by the night light; she could see my shadow on the wall and she said, "That looks like an elephant." I said, "That's not an elephant, Lainey, that's your big, fat mama!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry; I think I did both. Anyway, then Sarah Grace wanted to know how to draw an apple, so I told her. I went on doing what I was doing and later heard her spelling the word apple. Lest you be too impressed and start to puff up with pride at how lucky you are to know such a child prodigy, let me clarify and say this is what I heard: M-O-P-K Apple. I know she didn't get it right, but she's trying! And let's remember that she's still only 2 though she is very aware that her birthday isn't too far away now and has been telling me for the last week what kind of cake she wants. It changes daily, sometimes hourly. Her choices so far have been Princess, Pooh Bear, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, and Hook'Em Horns (for all you UT fans). Since we still have several weeks to go, I'm guessing I'm going to have a few more choices to wade through!

Stay At Home Wednesdays

You never know what each day might hold when you wake up in the morning. Some days hold great excitement that you didn't know would be there while others can hold great disappointments that leave you weary and running for cover. Today held none of those things, but was just an average run of the mill day. I like those. I find myself looking forward to Wednesdays now because it and Thursday, my second favorite day, are the only days of the week that I don't have to leave the house. And in fact, I haven't. I walked outside twice today. Once to take the trash to the street before 7:00 and once to get a book about Thanksgiving out of our van. Perhaps that sounds boring to some, but to me, it's great. I don't see how some moms go non-stop every day shuttling their kids from place to place trying to juggle soccer practice, dance class, church, dinner, groceries, etc. I chose to be a stay at home mom because I wanted to do just that-stay at home with my kids! I didn't want to be an "in the van and on the road driving from place to place while bonding with my kids from the front seat" mom. Like I say, I understand that staying at home with three kids may seem boring to some, but I can assure you it is not. I do not eat bon-bons and I do not watch soap operas all day (or at all for that matter). (I do, however, look forward to our evening snack of chocolate milk and some sort of sweet treat after we put the girls to bed, but I digress.) Today I did lots and lots of laundry (and wondered how in the world there was already so much when I just washed everything on Saturday; I now understand why my Aunt Janice always had something in the laundry; something was always dirty!) while listening to Lainey and Sarah Grace play (though not always nicely and lovingly) in their room. I taught my girls about counting pennies and dimes and saw the look of excitement on Lainey's face when she counted to 100 by 10's. I was around when Lainey came into the kitchen to ask if even when God was mad at us, did He still love us and was able to tell her that yes, indeed He does; He may not like what we've done, but He always loves us and is very willing to forgive us when we ask. I think this question was prompted by the fact that she'd just gotten a spanking for being quite sassy (if 5 is this dramatic what is 15 going to be like? Oh well, I won't borrow trouble.) and needed to know that both we and God still loved her a whole lot. And then I was around to hear the girls giggle and to see them dance around the living room together as they watched The Nutcracker on a DVD. They were precious with their twirls and jumps (even though it did make the entire house shake each time). (My, I'm speaking parenthetically a lot tonight!) These are the reasons I wanted to stay home. So if not leaving the house on Wednesdays and Thursdays is what it takes to experience all those things then I'm going to guard them with all my might and become a hermit for two days of the week!

And just a side note, to prove that life is not boring, as I was helping Lainey do her lesson today on the letter Q, I took a break to go to the bathroom. No I realize that's not exciting; it's what I discovered on my way to the bathroom. As I walked down the hallway, I caught a whiff of something and knew without doubt that somewhere in the very near vicinity, one of our cats had pooped. Always exciting to search for that. Lon came about that time and joined me in my quest. We determined it was in our room and searched under clothing, in the bed linens, under the bed and finally discovered that Felix decided the best place for his diarrhea! was in our closet. And it wasn't enough that he did it there; no, he had to do it in several places. Always pleasant. Seriously thinking of listing dear old Felix as a freebie on Craig's List! Hopefully tomorrow will hold a little less of that kind of adventure; if not, he's banished to the garage for a long, long time.

Why We Need To Have A Yard Sale

It's never a good sign when they can get in their toy box. Our cup (and toy box) runneth over. Perhaps Santa's sleigh will be a little lighter this year! Either that or he'll give us a bigger house!

Never A Dull Moment in the Graham Home

These girls really make me laugh sometimes with the things they say. Yesterday while Sarah Grace and Abby and I were waiting on Lainey to finish up with school, I asked Sarah Grace what she wanted to do in the afternoon. She initially said she didn't want to do anything so I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere. She said she did. I asked where she wanted to go. She said, "Cicago." That's Chicago for you non-Sarah Grace speakers. I said, "Well, I don't believe we'll be able to make it to Chicago today. How about Bellingham?" She was quickly appeased. They're very curious little girls as well and ask interesting questions. On the way home from school, Sarah Grace said, "MOM (as though I wasn't answering her quickly enough), does 'Brack' Obama have kids?" Once I answered, she was satisfied and didn't ask anymore about that. We had to run some errands yesterday afternoon, one of which involved running by someone's house to sign some paperwork. Sarah Grace wanted to know where we were going so Lon told her that we had to go sign some paperwork at someone's house. That briefly satisfied her but a little later, she asked, "Where's the paperwork house?" But the best question by far came from Lainey last night. Lainey, Sarah Grace and I were lying on the couch and our cat Felix walked by. Lainey asked, "Why don't cats wear underwear?" You know, who HASN'T wondered that? After I stopped laughing, I tried to explain that animals don't wear clothes and that cats don't really care about being modest (as later evidenced by Felix sitting down in front of us to lick himself).

Mommy's Little Helpers and The Birthday Party That Wasn't

Since we've started giving Abby a bottle most of the time, the girls have really been wanting to help feed her. Today they both got a chance. They were really cute and were both so proud.



Lainey is convinced that anytime she hears it's someone's birthday, (A) they should have a party and (B) we should be invited. Today we were practicing with the calendar and were looking at dates and such. We've been trying to learn ordinal numbers so I would ask her to find the 3rd Monday, 4th Thursday, 2nd Saturday, etc. She had figured out that if the date had some writing on it, it meant there was something special on that date. Well, we were looking at February and she pointed to a date and said, "What's this day?" I said,"That's George Washington's birthday." She got really excited and said, "Are we gonna go?" I said, "No dear, he died about 200 years ago." She said, "Oh, so are we gonna go?" No, I don't think birthday parties are much when the guest of honor has been dead for 208 years, but that's just me.

And Now a Station Break. . .

Sorry for the lack of blogging or the lack of consistency as of late. Our lives are busy and I am tired. I'll get it back up and running soon and very soon so please be patient! All is well; no one is sick; no need to worry; mom's just tired at the end of the day and blogging has not been at the top of my priority list.

I must say in passing that I love my little girls and am so grateful to have them. They can drive me CRAZY sometimes to the point of wondering how I'll enjoy life as a bald woman (you know, 'cause I'm gonna pull all my hair out), but then they can say and do the sweetest things that make my heart melt. Last night when we were listening to them pray, Lainey said,"Thank you God that I have a family who loves me." And to that my heart answers, "Thank you God that she knows she has a family who loves her."

Today we drove down to visit my good friend Jana and her 3 boys. We met at McDonald's so the kids could all play together for a while before we went to their house. Meeting at McDonald's may not have been our wisest choice as schools were out and everyone within a 20 mile radius of said McDonald's was there. Too many children! So many, in fact, that at one point I lost Sarah Grace. She's not really brave enough to go up into the climbing toys they have so she'd been hovering at the bottom of the slide most of the time. She'd climb up into it for a bit and then scoot out of it backwards. Well, I kept looking for her once to scoot out and she never came. I sent Lainey and Jana's oldest son to look for her while I looked in the rest of the restaurant. I was just upon the point of being frantic when I saw her pop her head through one of the big bubbles at the top of the big tower. She was having a great time and I was most relieved. When she came down and ran over to us, she was so proud of her accomplishment! Just a reminder that it takes baby steps to let them go and even some of those are a bit painful. I still want her to be just a little bit afraid and need me by her side, but it's not going to be that way for much longer. Such is the passage of time. I'll be forever in the debt of anyone who knows how to slow it down a bit!

The Things Kids Say

I've blogged before about the funny things our kids say and how they've become part of our regular conversation. They've recently added a few more funnies, though only time will tell if these become part of the Graham dialect.

Last night I was going to fix fajitas for supper. Sarah Grace asked what we were going to have for supper so I told her, "Fajitas." She said, "What kind of hitas?" My answer, "Fa."

We're nursing a pretty severe diaper rash on Abby right now and I was going to put some baby powder on her this morning to see if that might help. (It didn't; next step may be letting her roll around naked on a piece of plastic on the floor.) As I finished up with the powder, Sarah Grace took the bottle and said, "Is this her power? Oh no, I got power on me."

Today during church, Lon was preaching about legalism and the Pharisees. As a part of his sermon, he mentioned how the Pharisees abhorred death and everything to do with it. Lainey leaned over to me and whispered, "What does 'horred' mean?" I quickly said, "Abhorred, sweetie. It means they hated it a whole lot." She then said, "Well, how did they bury Jesus in the tomb then?" Not wanting to whisper all through church, I leaned over and told her that I'd tell her later. She said, "No, I want to know now." I quickly and quietly gave her an answer that seemed to satisfy her curiosity.

And one more funny thing that kids say that doesn't involve our kids. Last year at our church camp out, a then 7 year old boy was playing horseshoes with several of the men. Not quite understanding the scoring system and what different things were called, he asked, "So, how much is a hooker worth?" One of the guys said, "Oh, about the same as a ringer." Kind of makes you what kind of church we go to where they talk about "horred" and how much a hooker is worth!

Her Life as a Feline?

Does anyone else see any similarities between Sarah Grace and Felix the Cat?

The Election, Field Trips, and Dirty Bellybuttons?

Sorry for the delay in blogging, but I was too caught up in the election coverage last night. Though I am thoroughly disappointed with the outcome, I know that the Lord is sovereign over all things and is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords no matter who happens to be at the helm of our government. To paraphrase a very gifted pastor I heard on Sunday, we can pray just as fervently for a president we didn't vote for as much as we can one we did vote for. And now, as believers, that is our job. The election and its outcome has given us opportunities to have some good conversations with Lainey about how even though we don't agree with Obama on much of anything (if anything at all) we still have a biblical obligation to pray for the leaders in our country. She asked why we didn't agree with him. As our number one reason for not voting for him is his stance on abortion, we discussed how he thought it was okay to kill babies if a mommy decided she didn't want it before it was born. Dear, sweet little Lainey seems to get it better than most any politician and provided the most straight forward answer I could have ever hoped for. On her own, she said, "Well, if you don't want a baby, the best thing to do is to give it to someone who does." Thank you Lord that, at age 5, she already values the sanctity of life and sees adoption as the better option when faced with the decision of abortion.

Yesterday, Lainey's class took a field trip to the fire station and the library. All of the moms went as well and I thought it was great fun. I think Lainey enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed my own kindergarten field trip to the fire department. One of the firemen put all of his gear on so the kids would know what they looked like in case they ever needed help from a fireman. They got a grand tour of the fire trucks and even got to sit in one. They were able to help "clean" one of the engines and even got to get in the back of one of the ambulances. They each got their own fireman's hat before they left and were all really cute walking across the street to the library. I wonder if passers-by thought the library might be in danger with all the little firefighters running over? We had a tour of the library and got to see how they check books back in and get them ready to go to all of the other libraries in the county whenever they're needed. All in all, the library tour made me say, "Oh, I want to work here when my kids get older." I'm a book nerd and think I would be in hog heaven if I was surrounded by them day in and day out.

Today we had lunch with some dear friends from church. They are surrogate grandparents to all of us and we love them dearly. The girls know where she keeps her bag of toys and her children's books and so they made themselves at home and started playing. Lainey found a new book in the collection called "What is a bellybutton?" She asked what the name of the book was and when I read it to her, she stuck her hand under her shirt and said, "Is it this? Is it this hole right here?" I told her it was. She said, "You know what? When I put my finger in my bellybutton, it's all yucky inside!" I think it might be time for a bath and a good bellybutton cleaning!

Lainey, World Wide Traveler?

Another mom at school last week told me that she overheard the following conversation between Lainey and a little boy around her age:
Boy: Have you been to California yet?
Lainey: No, but I've been to Lynden.

Who needs California when you've got a miniature Holland just a few miles down the road?

The Battle of the Broccoli: Sarah Grace:1 Mom:0

Today I had a moment with Sarah Grace that would make her father proud. Most everyone knows of Lon and his dislike of all things vegetables. There are a few that escape his hatred, but those are rare and often fried. We're from the South, it's what we know. Anyway, I don't share his hatred of vegetables (at least not as many) and am trying to instill a love for them in my girls. So in order to pursue this goal, I fixed some broccoli with our supper the other night. It seems that at this point in their lives, his stance on vegetables is winning and mine is losing. Oh well, I thought, more broccoli for me because I LOVE it. Well, this morning as I was finishing getting ready for church, I came into the kitchen to find Sarah Grace in the process of cleaning out the fridge. She had opened the bowl of broccoli and dumped it into the trash and was just about to empty out a bowl of macaroni. I said, "Well, I guess we were done with the broccoli?" She said, "Yeah, cause I didn't like it!" What can you do except smile and go on and keep trying to win the age old battle of getting kids to eat their veggies? My quest continues!