vacation pics

off the charts

not surprisingly, Selah is off the charts in height. she just had her six month checkup and she’s 28-1/4″ long and 17lb, 8oz. (that’s about as long as a typical 9 month old) everyone who gets a good look at her says “wow, she’s long!” so she fits right in around here. she’s already busting out of her carseat, so we need to figure out what to do about that. she’s still a very happy person and did great on her first road trip…pretty much slept and sat quietly for most of the time. she’s now proficient at rolling around to and fro, so we’ve got to be careful what’s on the floor these days.

hopefully soon I’ll get pics up of our vacation, and also our surprise trip to NC.

too many toys

we have long thought that we’ve got way too many toys in the house. I especially bemoan this around Christmas and birthdays (and to compound it we have lots of birthdays in December). yes, I like cool and fun stuff, but I also don’t want to be materialistic, so it’s an inner struggle. thus we haven’t really done much about the littered landscape.

but then a few things happened recently:

first, we went on vacation for a week to a cabin, and packed one small kid-sized backpack of toys for each kid. and they did fine. of course much of their time was spent outside and on adventures as a family, but that’s part of the point. they had some of their favorite toys, and they played creatively with them and didn’t miss all the other stuff left at home.

second, Michelle was especially moved by the story of an old friend visiting a child in the slums of Uganda. her friend sponsors a child through Compassion International. wow, it’s a great story…read it here. so we signed up to sponsor a child…our “other” Caleb…and started praying for him and considering more how much we’ve been given, trying to teach the kids (and ourselves) to be generous and thankful. so looking around, we realized how much stuff we have that we really don’t need, and maybe even the blessing of abundance is also a curse.

also, we’re starting to get ready for homeschool, and have converted the play room to the school room. they never really played in the play room, except a little when friends came over. it was a little silly to have a whole room of toys that they didn’t use much, so why not get rid of it.

we also got Michelle a book for Christmas that she recently uncovered while cleaning out the bookshelf (fitting, no?). The Creative Family by the “soule mama” has a section dedicated to the joys of less. very inspiring.

not to mention a few ongoing things:

the kids rooms are nearly always a disaster. even if we told them to clean up, they clearly wouldnt know where to start. and all the clutter obscures the truly good toys that inspire creativity and good play together. Caleb’s desk was piled so high with papers (mostly cute preschool and sunday school papers we didnt have the heart to throw out) that it was useless. away with all but one or two favorites!

I have long been tired of all the little plastic junk/toys around the house that I call “detritus“. I’ve been just as quick to throw away even somewhat-junky things instead of shoving it in a drawer.

so, mama and Sara P tackled the kids rooms this week, and we’ve got quite a pile of give-away (if you’re on the neighbors or church email list, you’ve seen the list), not to mention the throw-away. and some to put-away for when the baby is older, or just for down the road so it’s “new” again and so we have more space to play.  the cool part is the kids are totally on board with giving stuff away. hopefully they’ll keep this generous spirit as they grow. and last night the kids actually played in their rooms — running back and forth like the crazies they can sometimes be. and they got out some toys and actually put them back! Caleb especially is a perfectionist, so he’s most likely to keep things organized.

so come next birthday or Christmas, if you’re one of the folks in our life who would want to give a gift, please consider the idea that less is more. one truly creative toy, book, game, activity or art-supply goes a lot farther than a big pile of plastic flashing lights and noise. or go crazy and wrap a gallon if ice-cream (or beer, depending on the recipient) or something like that.

I hope all this doesn’t come across as holier-than-thou to anyone, as it really is a struggle to let go of stuff. I’m definitely inspired by the easy-going attitudes of the kids in this process. so I hope we don’t offend if we’ve already given away what you may have bestowed recently, or if the next thing doesn’t last long. we will always be thankful for the generosity of friends and family, but we want to emphasize to the kids and ourselves that life isn’t about stuff. we hope we’re modeling that life is about love, faith, learning, and fun, most of which seems to be hindered by having too many things.

the start of summer

we’re taking our summer vacation a little early this year and a LOT more local, as we’re going to a cabin just outside Fall Creek Falls. this will be the first time we’ve been away with 3 kids, so we’ll see how it goes! we’re very much looking forward to just being together and being “off the grid” for a while. hopefully we’ll have some nice hikes and such too. it will also be nice to spend part of the time with family, and part of the time with friends.

Caleb is all done with preschool! he loved it so much, so it was hard to decide to homeschool in some ways, but we’re very excited about that too. Michelle will be teaching both Caleb (Pre-K and K material) and Alice (mostly the same material, but less stuff to do so she’ll be at a preschool level). we’re going to use a curriculum called Sonlight, which fits very well with how we’re wanting to go about it (no surprise: there’s a ton of methodologies out there!). so we’re setting up the play room to be the school room, complete with a giant goldfish for the “class pet”. Caleb is on the cusp of reading, and Alice is taking more interest in letters and such too. we read them “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and Caleb especially was captivated. it was so cool to see his imagination light up, and I trust this is another step in their love for learning.

we are SO very excited that our old friend Sarah B will be getting married this summer! woohoo! and we’re almost as excited that we’re going up just the 2 of us for a lovely wedding on the “seacoast” of NH. and they’ll be moving back to the area, so we can hopefully grow old together.

Selah is 5 months old now and still very,  very smiley. she’s getting more active, loving her jumper especially. she’s sleeping quite well and really loves her rice cereal stuff. now that she’s more attentive, the big kids are enjoying her more, at least when they’re not doing their own thing. she’s off the charts in height and pretty far up there in weight too. we think she’s a pretty good mix of Caleb and Alice, favoring Alice so far for her looks, and favoring Caleb for her personality, although there’s flashes of each in both aspects. of course she’s her own beautiful, snuggly person and we love her to pieces!

the swingset is the most popular thing we have these days, and Caleb has finally learned how to swing by himself. something about me gets so proud of him to see him soar up all by his big-boy self. the neighbor kids like to play in our yard too, so it’s usually a good time. once it gets hot we’ll get out the kid pool and I’m sure it’ll be even crazier around here.

we hosted a block party cookout the other day, and had a nice time with some of the neighbors. the weather was pretty bad but we still had a good time on the deck, getting to know each other a little better. we’ve been thinking lately of ways to love our neighbors more, so I suppose that’s a small step in that direction. hopefully we can have another soon. we’re praying for more opportunities to love others, and the wisdom to know what things we should take up and what things we shouldnt. there’s always the potential to be too busy, so we’re trying to slow things down so we can listen to God’s leading.

speaking of, I’m reading a good book on prayer that I highly recommend: A Praying Life.

and thus ends what is now becoming a somewhat monthly update. I am honestly weary of blogland and facebook, etc, but I dont want to lose track of some of the memories.

latest miscellany

we’ve been too busy living life to comment much about it lately, but here’s some random updates:

-baby Selah is 4 months old now and working on a couple teeth already. she loves to smile and laugh and is still generally the happiest person I know. she just had her first taste of (semi)solid food and seemed to enjoy it.

-we’re almost done with our back porch renovations (2 years later). hooray for screen, especially as the bugs start to appear.

-Michelle’s sister and our niece came for a visit. very good family times, and the kids had a blast together. thanks for coming to see us!

-I’m playing some songs at the local coffeeshop again April 24. here’s my music website if you’re interested. I’m also playing the Prater’s Mill festival this fall.

-hooray for UNC winning the b-ball championship (and I won the old-work no-prize pool)

-we’ve decided to give homeschooling a try this fall, starting with homeschool preschool for both kids, and if that goes well take it from there. we’ve thought long and hard about our various options (and we’re thankful for so many good options), and it’s on our hearts to go this direction, so we’re very excited.

Happy Easter!

Christ has risen! Christ has risen indeed!

it was a beautiful day to worship our risen Lord, and to celebrate with our friends. more pics here.

a crazy week

last week was one of the craziest on record, but God carried us through and answered the prayers of His people.

first, Michelle was scheduled to attend a women’s ministry conference here in town, and her mom came to town to attend too. we lined up a babysitter for the 3 days, but the baby started to get sick, so I came home early on Tuesday to take care of her while the conference started. so far so good.

but the baby’s health declined rapidly, and it turned out she had RSV. so we ended up in the ER for most of Wednesday with a 3-month-old with potentially serious breathing problems. after checking her out and giving her a breathing treatment, they allowed us to go home and care for her, since she was at least stabilized. so we were home on Wednesday afternoon, stressed and exhausted, praying for our little girl and hoping the worst was over.

not so: she declined again early Thursday morning. somewhere in there in the early A.M. on Thursday I had quite an emotional breakdown at the enormity of the situation. Michelle had her turn not long after, so it was back to the ER for most of the day again, with breathing issues now compounded by her not able to eat much.

while at the ER, though we were of course very concerned for our precious little one, somehow there was a sense of peace that she’d be ok. looking back, there wasn’t a whole lot that they did for her at the ER, besides some minor treatments and keeping a very close eye on her. so for most of those 2 days we held her close and prayed desperate little prayers. we really did feel lifted up by the prayers of family and friends, and are so thankful for them all. and somehow we managed to have some good conversations too, which is somewhat rare these days.

(an aside about being in the ER: apparently you dont get a whole lot of attention unless you’re at death’s door. but whenever we went to the desk and asked what’s up, someone came almost right away. but I guess some of that is by design.)

so praise God with us that Selah is doing well again. thankfully she turned around quickly and she’s doing fine now except for a cough that is hanging on (which is expected). in fact she was doing well enough that we went to a little marriage conference this weekend while the grandparents looked after the kids. it was very very good to be reminded what the Bible has to say for husbands and wives, and what that looks like in our situation.

through all this craziness we’ve felt comforted by God’s faithfulness, can feel the Spirit moving in us, and it’s exciting.

on doing something “religiously”

the other day I had a chance to play my very own songs to a group of friendly folks at our local coffee shop. to say the least, I was excited. I composed most of these songs last year, and with babyland around here lately, I hadn’t practiced most of them in quite a while, to say nothing of making a set list, arranging the songs, burning CDs, etc etc. it was an otherwise busy week with various meetings and such between the 2 of us, so there wasn’t much time to prepare. but, since I was excited about all of this, I made the time. I simply stayed up late almost every night, and made do with a little less sleep during the week. I imagine my performance at work suffered a little, but in the grand scheme, no big deal. it’s been quite a while since I’ve done something “religiously” like that.

so it got me thinking, especially considering some of the stuff I’ve been reading about faith. if I believe that worshiping God and living for Him is the most important thing in life (and I do), then why don’t I DO it? why do I let my daily routines and my incessant laziness and selfishness dominate my life, leaving no room for the time it takes to seek God and listen to Him and live for Him?

could it be that I don’t value the things of God as much as, say, playing a few little songs? could it be that my daily unbelief is squelching the power of the Spirit that I have been given in Christ? could it be that I am so numb to my own sin that I think I’m OK without God today? could I have such a small view of God’s grace and mercy that I’ve ceased to be amazed?

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! “

please pray for me, and praise God for His abundant patience and kindness to me, and His leading me even in my stubornness.

in concert – updated time

please note the time is now 7:15-8:15

I’m playing some music for Pasha Coffee & Tea’s grand opening on Friday, March 6. I’ll be playing from 7:15pm to 8:15pm. So if you’re around, come on out for some great coffee and a little folk song or two. If you’re on facebook, here’s some details and such. hope to see you there!

the latest

-baby Selah is still doing great. she’s pretty much “off the charts” in percentiles for her height and weight. needless to say she loves to eat. she’s still a laid back baby, but if she gets mad (like at bath time) she has this high-pitched shriek that I’ve never heard before. we just love snuggling and making her smile, which she’s really good at these days

-overheard the other day…
Caleb (using teacher voice): [brings over the world map puzzle] hey Molly, this is Antarctica
Molly (our 4yo next-door neighbor): OK
Caleb: (pointing to North America): THIS is where we live.
Molly: where do I live?
Caleb: next door
I guess that was funnier in person. anyway, the kids love playing with Molly more these days, and it’s so nice to have a friend right next door.

-the big kids are now in the money. we’ve started a chore-chart, and they get stickers on the chart for doing a chore (feeding the dog, helping with laundry, etc) and after the week they get a nickel for each sticker. so tonight we had our first payday. they’re catching on (I hope) to giving to church, saving long-term, and saving up for something to buy. Caleb has his eye on a stuffed-animal that he tried to shop-lift from the discovery museum. Alice apparently wants something involving a princess. or a pony. or a princess pony.

-speaking of money, we just refinanced and are saving quite a bit per month on our payment. I wouldnt have known it was such a good idea if it wasnt for Laini and Ben, so thanks for the heads-up guys. I know those banner-ads always say it, but it really is record low rates these days.

-Michelle and I feel like God is on the move in our lives. we’re not sure what that looks like, but it’s been good discussing and praying together, and looking to do His will each day. I’m getting convinced that I need to believe the gospel more and more.