Eugene Field

I really enjoy the poetry of Eugene Field, his rhyme, his rhythm, his subject matter; its all enjoyable.  Here's one I read to the kids today, which they loved, and so did I.

Pittypat And Tippytoe

All day long they come and go-
Pittypat and Tippytoe;
Footprints up and down the hall,
Playthings scattered on the floor,
Finger-marks along the wall,
Tell-tale smudges on the door-
By these presents you shall know
Pittypat and Tippytoe

How they riot at their play!
And a dozen times a day
In they troop, demanding bread-
Only buttered bread will do,
And that butter must be spread
Inches thick with sugar too!
And I never can say, "No,
Pittypat and Tippytoe!"

Sometimes there are griefs to soothe,
Sometimes ruffled brows to smooth;
For (I much regret to say)
Tippytoe and Pittypat
sometimes interrupt their play
With an internecine spat
Fie, for shame! to quarrel so-
Pittypat and Tippytoe!

Oh, the thousand worrying things
Every day recurrent brings!
Hands to scrub and hair to brush,
Search for playthings gone amiss,
Many a wee complaint to hush,
Many a little bump to kiss;
Life seems one vain, fleeting show
To Pittypat and Tippytoe!

And when day is at an end,
There are little duds to mend:
Little frocks are strangely torn,
Little shoes great holes reveal,
Little hose, but one day worn,
Rudely yawn at toe and heel!
Who but you could work such woe,
Pittypat and Tippytoe?

But when comes this thought to me:
"Some there are that childless be,"
Stealing to their little beds,
With a love I cannot speak,
Tenderly I stroke their heads-
Fondly kiss each velvet cheek.
God help those who do not know
A Pittypat or Tippytoe!

On the floor and down the hall,
Rudely smutched upon the wall
There are proofs in every kind
Of the havoc they have wrought
And upon my heart you'd find
Just such trade-marks, if you sought
Oh, how glad I am 'tis so,
Pittypat and Tippytoe!

Do you have a Pittypat or Tippytoe in your home? 

The Death Of A Good Friend

My heart is sad today because we lost a dear friend.  I was not aware of it until I heard Breck sobbing in the living room.  I rushed in and took one look out our window.  And then I knew.  Our beautiful dogwood tree had been toppled by the strong storm winds.  And then I was the one crying.

We live in a small subdivision in a small house with a small yard.  This dogwood tree was our treasure.  We loved it.  The birds loved it.  The kids played on it. We enjoyed her shade on hot summer days and spent many hours sitting underneath her beautiful boughs reading books together.

Alas!  She is no more.  Our yard will seem quite barren now that she's gone. 

Goodbye, Old Friend.

The kids finally stopped their crying and then decided the tree was more fun laying down then it was standing anyway!  Only its not so good for curb-appeal.

I have lots of things on my mind to blog about...lots of homeschooling stuff, since I'm up to my ears in homeschooling this time of year.  But to be honest, at this point I'm way too tired and sick to think and put two cohesive sentences together, so hopefully soon, my friends.......

Today I WILL Be A Mom!

Today, I vowed, I would be a Mom.  I know, I know, a funny vow for a Mom of three children.  What I mean is I will be a real mom as opposed to the glazed, half-dead woman who has been walking staggering around here lately just trying to exist and in some small way meet the physical needs of her family.  Just meeting your family's physical needs is not all there is to being a mom, though.

Let me go back.  This has been a hard week.  I think I would be in the loony-bin had it not been for my loving husband and kind Mother-in-law.  I'm not complaining...okay, maybe a little.  Its the kind of week that has had me up crying in the middle of the night when everyone else has been asleep, not just because I feel so sick but because of the discouragement of knowing that tomorrow I will wake and feel the same way and will try to survive and pray for night when I might be able to get a little sleep, if I'm not too sick.  Then there's the guilt.  The heavy weight of guilt I carry around knowing that little children need moms who meet their emotional needs as well as their physical needs and husbands need wives who can carry on a small conversation once in a while instead of just glassy-eyed nodding and mumbling, and look cheerful and happy once in a while when they return home from work.  There is a difference between tolerating your family and enjoying your family.  So I cry because of the overwhelming guilt I feel.

So today when I awoke I vowed that whatever I had to do, if I felt well at all, I would just be a mom-a real mom.  I bypassed the mountain of laundry in the laundry room and after three doses of three different medicines, beginning at 5:00 in the morning, was feeling pretty good.  I decided I would take as much of my precious medicine as I had to, even if I had none left for the next week.  (If you have strong opinions about women taking medicine while they're pregnant, just don't speak to me.)

And we've had a good day!  We took the children to Tuttle's Apple Farm where they played on the farm, took pony rides, picked three kinds of yummy apples and drank fresh apple cider.  We narrowly avoided the rain.  Then we spent the rest of the rainy afternoon inside, making pencil toppers, writing letters together, playing games, enjoying a rare treat of homemade pumpkin muffins (I don't do much baking right now), made some homemade applesauce and watched a movie together.

Yes, it was a good day!  I felt that I really enjoyed my family and connected with them.  And for one day, I was a mom, a real mom.  Tomorrow I will probably be back to laying around in a half-comatose state, but today was good.

And for that I will be thankful!

Inside the Mind of a 7 yr. Old Boy

Take a good look at this face.

This is the boy who has told me on more than one occasion, with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye, "Mom, I like to give you trouble!" 

There is something about boys that is so mischievous and fun.  The thing about boys is that you never know what they're thinking or what they are going to say or do.

Let me give you a few examples from the past week.

During a school lesson Breck asked, "Mom, how do we know that God created the world?"  This child NEVER asks easy questions. 

"Well, to start with you have to understand that everything in life has a beginning.  God is the only One who had no beginning.  So the world had to have a beginning."

"That's not true, Mom."  "A fence that goes in a circle has no beginning or ending."

At which point I picked him up and threw him out the window!

I decided one day this week to have a "kindness contest" to see which one of the children could be the kindest to each other, with the winner receiving a prize at the end of the day.  They both did admirably well and I was impressed.  But toward evening Breck came to me with his head drooping and said to me with a big sigh, "Mom, being kind is haaaard!"  He had managed to get through the day with only hitting his sister on the head with a shoe one time.  

We were studying in history about how pretty much the entire world thought that the end of the world would be 1000 AD.  (which by the way, if you're keeping track, didn't happen)  This brought on a discussion of the end of the world and how it really would end.  I told them the Bible says that the world will someday be burned with fire and God will make us a new Heaven and earth.

Fast forward to that evening:

Autumn comes in crying because her older brother with his newly-acquired information about the end of the world has informed her that God is going to burn her alive with the world, which as you can imagine, did not go over too well with her!! 

It is a pretty normal occurance for me and Leland to share a hug and kiss when he returns home from work.  I imagine this is pretty normal for many households.  Breck has watched us do this since he was born, but last night when he walked into the kitchen and found us hugging, he ran down the hallway yelling, "Autumn, do you want to see something dis.gust.ing?????  Mom and Dad are hugging!!" 

I guess we've reached that age.  Sometime soon I expect to hear him say that he won't sit by his sister at the dinner table because she has cooties!

Boys are a handful trying delightful!  They definitely keep things interesting, and I suspect they make God smile just a bit.

"School is Boring!" said the 5-yr. old

Autumn turned 5 years old this summer, thus ushering her into the school age world.  A week ago I asked her if she was excited about starting school this year.  "No," she said.  I was shocked!  How could she not be excited about that?  I thought all kids were excited about starting school for the first time.


"Why aren't you excited about starting school?" I asked.

"School is boring," was her answer.

Now I'm in a mental sweat.  As an avid homeschool Mom, I am adamant that school should NOT be boring.  School may be exciting, fun, challenging, even hard, but NEVER boring!!  So I calmly collect my emotions and cried, "How can you think school is boring when you've never even been to school yet??!!!"  Ok.  So I wasn't so calm. 

"I've heard the other kids talk," she said in a very bored, grown-up way, "and they all say its boring." 

I heaved a sigh of relief-that's all, not some deep-seated inhibition against school! 

"Well, you wait and see, school is fun and you're going to love it!"

Fast-forward to last night after our first day of school.  I'm sitting on her bed as she prepares to go to sleep.  "So, what did you think of your first day of school?" I asked. 

"It was fun!" she said, beaming.

Then, "You were right!"

My big school-girl!

Life's Lessons- Willingly or Unwillingly

My blog has been strangely silent the last few months, but trust me- I have VERY good reasons.  Our life went from cruising along at a somewhat moderate pace (as moderately as you can get with three kids) to a neck-breaking fast pace.  I won't try to catalogue everything that has happened since May as the post would be too long and too dull and boring for any of you to read.  Instead I'll share some things that I have learned over the past few months (willingly or unwillingly!)

About Weddings:

1. Planning a wedding is harder and takes more time than you think.
2. If you plan a wedding, you must be very flexible-because anything can change at the last moment: for instance an out-door wedding can suddenly become an in-door wedding, leaving you with 2 hr. to get everything ready for rehearsal!
3. I will never plan another wedding. No.  Not even under Chinese torture!

About Lightning:

1. Children should not play outside in the rain.
2. If you have to go out in the rain, try not to go into an open, unprotected field, walk around in water and hold up an umbrella like a lightning rod.
3. God is more powerful than lightning!
(If at this point you have no idea what I'm talking about, google "four children struck by lightning" and you'll soon see what I'm talking about.  If you go to Youtube you will probably find a video with Leland in it...his day in the sun) :)

About Flying:

1. If you wish to prevent your children from crying and making a scene, don't forget the gum! (I am validated as my kids were not the only ones crying)
2. Flying is boring for children, or so I was told many times!
3. Flying is not for pregnant women.
4. If a pregnant woman has to fly, she should NOT sit in the very last row where she feels every sway, bump and air turbulent!

About Camps:

1. Song Evangelism is hard work!!
2. After 40 services in a row your kids will hate church, as I overheard one emphatic little girl put it.
3. Nausea, vomiting, migraine headaches and dehydration are a bad combination-especially if you're the song evangelist.
4. Collapsing on the platform is undignified, unladylike and ungraceful and should be avoided if possible.
5. I will never give my kids pedialite.  Leland made me drink the stuff.  *sigh* Yes, I complied.   WELL! He's bigger than I am!!
6. If you notice scratches and lacerations on your child's stomach, it might be because they jumped out  a tabernacle window.
7. Camp food can actually be good, especially if you're in the state of Washington where they serve you thick, fresh salmon steaks!
8. "There's no place like home, Auntie Em."

About God:

1. God is not hindered by or worried about my weaknesses.
2. God is bigger than I think he is and is able to do more for me than I think. 

Lastly:

One grin and hug from a 15 month old who had to stay with Grandma and Grandpa is worth a fortune!!

Ok. Enough already!  (His Mommy really missed him.)