from the mouth of babes

our home teacher came by yesterday.

whenever this happens, my children pretend they are on stage.

this time we were able to listen to

THE THOMAS MONOLOGUES.

here's a sampling.





the eND

one little baby

so many people

for this

one little baby

we all gathered together this past sunday to celebrate luisa's name.

a beautiful prayer was offered by her grandfather.

she was spoken to.

a prayer recorded by angelic hands.

strong hands held her tiny body.

...remembering...

beckoning hands delivering her from the womb

placing her into her mother's eager hands

mother's hands placing her baby at her breast

nourishing her and always guideing her

passing her to strong, firm, hands of her waiting father, embracing her tightly; safe against his protective chest.

endless hands holding out

waiting impatiently to hold her

all these mouths hungry

gathering together

again

for food

all because of this one little baby

click here.

funny sisters

lana's early morning attire.

the "baby" was expelled later that day.

first day of school 2009

lana: "i got your back ceily."

ceily's workout attire.

for real.

this is what she wore to ride her bike.

it was probably 90 degrees outside.

the red bag she has drapped over her shoulder probably weighed 10 pounds.

tomorrow...

...we have to speak in church.

we thought we had it in the bag.

we would just use our old farewell talks as our new welcome talks.

alas, they assigned us a topic.

every. single. one. of. us.

first week back

it back to school time. if we had been in south carolina it would have been back to school august 16th. soooooo, we had some extra days of summer vacay. we've enjoyed late nights and later mornings. but i'll admit, this day didn't come too soon.

i think the new routine is finally getting to noah. he's been crying all afternoon.

"i hate soccer! why did you sign me up to play soccer!? i hate it! i'm not going! i'll only play if i get to be goalie! i haaaattte sooooooooocceeeeeer!"

(i think it's affecting ceily and eddie too. they are both in "time out" at the moment. really, the timer is on and everything.)

as i dropped ceily at school i was teary eyed. she was very nervous. i was feeling horrible that she had to step through a huge door that held hundreds of complete and total strangers. faces she had never seen. unknown bodies that would be sitting next to her. a new student that nobody knew as new. her first day was "horrible! only 4 people talked to me." her third day...much better. she has friends now.

eddie rode the bus the first day. his new glasses had arrived and i think he felt confident and happy to start new. he's having a hard time making friends. "nobody will talk to me. i try to talk to them and they just walk away. everyone already has friends." i'm not too worried. i would let him stay home and be my friend, but i think it would get old real fast.

lana was very nervous. she woke with an ache in her stomach. she almost rode the bus, but changed her mind at the last minute. i had to pull her into her classroom and practice tough love as i turned my back on her and left the room. that wasn't fun for me. she's made friends and every day adds one to her list.


noah had no jitters. he was ready and willing and excited. he got to his classroom, took his luch out of his backpack, and walked straight through his classroom door. i was a bit sad he didn't hang on, or cry, or want to stay with me forever. i've been trying to talk him into not ever going to school. he's not agreeing with me. but i will admit, it was nice to be alone, because as i said, it's been a long summer vacay.

first day of school treats

me, after his first day at school: "noah, what was your favorite part of the day today?"
noah: "lunch!"
me, after his 2nd day: "noah, what was your best and worst part of the day"
noah: "best was going to school. worst was having to come home." lana heartily agreed.

i just wanted one nice group shot. is that too much to ask for?

tomorrow brings saturday. our first school year weekend.
can't wait to sleep in.