Mercy

Mercy's vocaubulary gets more entertaining by the week, so I thought it was time to record some of her recent drama before I forget.

Mercy, as she's dressed up in her princess dress (backwards): "I'm getting married."
Me: "Really? Who are you marrying?"
Mercy: "Judah, because he's wearing handsome clothes."

Okay, well, we are West Virginians.

*****

Me: "Mercy, you look disgruntled."
Mercy, testily: " NO. That means grumpy and I'm not grumpy."

*****

Mercy, as she was watching me struggle to get a typically uncooperative Judah dressed: "Is he being a 'temptible boy?"

Me: "Yes, I guess he is being contemptible."

Note to self: be very careful what you say in front of the girl.

Just so you know

Since I haven't blogged in a long time--what? You hadn't noticed?--I missed posting about some important events in our family. I've been just a little busy, ya know, chasing two toddlers, washing hundreds of pounds of diapers, and pacifying a fractious, teething infant. I actually back dated my catchup posts, since we are planning to have my blog made into a book every year, and I wanted the events to be in order. You'll have to look below to catch up on news and pictures.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rembrance Day

I know it has been a while since I updated last, and I promise I have lots of pictures and news coming up soon, but I wanted to take the time to acknowledge Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day . After our five-year struggle with infertility, we lost two babies. Our first, Hope Abigail, was born to heaven August 30, 2004. Our second, a so-called "chemical pregnancy," was Samuel Honour, born to heaven October 5, 2007. Though the pain has faded with time and with my full arms and heart, I still remember that I am blessed to be the mama to five.  For some, who have never been able to acknowledge a lost little one, and others, whose loss is fresh and new, the grief is still raw, and my heart goes out to you. We are unwilling members of a sisterhood of loss. We celebrate life, however short, and recognize loss today.

Another year...

...with my favorite person. August 20 is our eleventh anniversary. I couldn't have imagined loving Benjy more than I did the day we got married, but I do. Sound cliched? Love tends to do that, even for someone good with words. He still treats me like a princess and I would rather be with him than anyone else in the world. When we first met at ages 13 and 14, respectively, I knew even then that he would make a wonderful husband some day. Yes, we both needed to grow up--a lot--but his core character qualities were already evident. Looking back, I couldn't say it was love at first. More like instant infatuation. In my immaturity, I loved him in a he-can-make-me-happy sort of way. I didn't even think what kind of father he would make, even though I hoped to have children someday. If the thought had crossed my dazzled brain, I think I would have realized he would make a good one, but I couldn't have dreamed what a fabulous dad he would be. I can't imagine anyone else being king of my home and father of my children. Happy anniversary, Sweetheart! You're still the one.

Happy Birthday, Judah!

Photo credit: James Worley

 August 3 was Judah's second birthday. Since Benjy's parents were coming down the following weekend for Zion's dedication, we decided to have Judah's birthday party then. He is still obsessed with anything with wheels, Thomas the Tank Engine being a favorite. Months ago, we decided that his gift was going to be a train table. Benjy built the table, complete with trundle drawers for storage, Nana and Papa contributed the  buildings and engines, Auntie, a conductor's outfit, and Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Jeremy also gave him engines. We set it up the night before the party, after Judah was in bed so the whole thing would be ready for play. The fact that he is two influenced this desicion, as I could envision the temper tantrums that would arise from having to wait for buildings or engines to be opened or train tracks assembled (He's so impatient. I can't imagine where that trait came from.)

We let him open all other gifts before taking him back to the playroom for the train suprise, as we suspected he wouldn't be interested in any other presents once he saw the train table. We were pretty much right, but watching him open gifts was hilarious. He is the only two year old I've ever seen who had a pile of gifts and wanted each book read to him or wanted to dress up in each animal dress-up outfit as soon as he opened it, neglecting the rest of the gifts. It took him forever to open 4 or 5 packages. Of course, the fact that we had the party after church in place of a nap had him almost delirious from exhaustion and may have slowed his progress a little too.

As you can see, the theme was Thomas the Tank Engine, which in and of itself nearly caused Judah to go apoplectic. We had hummus and chips with salsa and guacamole, veggie tray with cheese ball, and wonderful watermelon and cantaloupe.

For Judah's cake, I made gluten free vanilla cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache and topped with butter cream frosting. Oh, and about the frosting...I use natural food coloring from plants, and try as I might, I could not get any primary colors. The green was army fatique green, the blue, grey, and the red was pink. I used nearly a whole bottle of the "red" (snort) color, and the icing was still pink. Being two, Judah didn't care.

 Mommy and daddy with our favorite two year old!

Judah's reaction was a little disappointing...he didn't even register surprise when he saw the train table for the first time. He solemnly walked into the playroom and began moving the trains around as if the table had always been there. It must have been the lack of a nap, because he made up for his lack of enthusiasm over the next days, playing with the trains for hours, and hustling into the playroom first thing in the morning to get his train fix.

Photo credit: James Worley

Happy Birthday, Judah! You light up our lives!

Zion Joel's Dedication

Even though this post is about Zion's dedication, it is so rare to get good pictures of Mercy that I had to include these that my father-in-law snapped of her before church.

We had Zion dedicated to God on August 8. All the grandparents, aunt and uncle, as well as friends came to the service. Poor Zion should get a "do-over." Brother Alvin was out of town (we love Brother Greg very much, but we would have liked Brother Alvin to be there as well, since he's dedicated the other children), and we couldn't change the date because it was the last weekend Benjy's mom and dad were available before school started. When we went up front for the ministry to lay hands on Zion and pray over him, Judah had one of those why-did-I-think-wanted-children meltdowns. I have no idea what precipitated it, except that Mercy and Judah both were gaining momentum down the slippery slope of behaving as badly as possible to prove to family and friends (and ultimately, the entire congregation) how inept we are as parents. Anyway, my mom had to whisk Judah out of the sanctuary, so we are missing both Nana and Judah in the pictures. But then, our photographer, who shall remain nameless, apparently didn't realize the camera had  zoom function, so the pictures are so far away that you can't even see who the subjects are (love you Jeremy!) Try to imagine it:

 We did manage to get one (out of about three thousand tries) decent photo, between Mercy's consistantly uncooperative scowl and nearly having to tie Judah down to keep him from running away. The outtakes would be funny if Benj and I weren't the ones being irritated. I really am resigned to decent, as opposed to ideal or perfect, pictures most of the time...they're babies. But every once in a while my compulsive perfectionist roars to be let out, and I get really irritated at how difficult they are. Today was one of those days. At least we're all in the same frame. Sometimes that doesn't even happen.



Why...

...do Baby Zion's

three-month

yes, THREE MONTH

pictures

look like

his one-year

pictures?

Big

baby

boy.

Wherein they smiled...

...and did not run away.

All the stars and planets must have been aligned.

A first

I was changing the sheets on all of the beds yesterday evening (a job I despise, but I love the results. If I had a maid, I would have fresh sheets every single day. But I digress.) Mercy wandered in and asked what I was doing. I told her, and she asked why. I said, "Oh, we get sweaty, and the sheets get dirty after awhile. I put fresh sheets on your bed too. Isn't that nice?" She responded earnestly, "No. I don't want fesh sheets. I want the old ones. I like them all peaceful and dirty."

Anyone who knows my obsessive-compulsive cleaning habits has to know that that was the first time in the history of our home that the words "peaceful" and "dirty" have been used in the same sentence. Sometimes I really wonder if she has ANY of my DNA. Silly child.

Country Girl

Sun in her hair

sky in her eyes

Inquisitive mind

wondering heart

wandering feet

great big world

to discover and explore

If she knew there's another way to live

She'd say

"Thank God I'm a country girl"

For Moi?

Apparently, I have been given the...drumroll please...Versatile Blogger Award.  A big thank you to my friend-of-many-years Pam , who nominated me for this award.

So the rules are that if I accept this honor, I must:
1. Thank the person who gave it to me
2. List seven things about myself.
3. Pass it on.

Seven things about myself:
1. I'm a foodie. I love everything about good organic, nutritious food, from shopping for it to preparing it, to eating it. I even read about food in my spare time.
2. My husband is the only person I've ever courted. We met when I was 13 and he was 14, carried on a long distance, letter-writing relationship for 7 years, and married  on the 7th anniversary of the day we met.
3. I love my job as a homemaker. Really. I even like to do laundry.
4. I'm a bibliophile. We had to build our house, because all the ready-made houses we looked at didn't have enough room for all our books. We designed our house around our library.
5. I make a game of bargain shopping. I love scouring ebay, consignment shops, and second-hand shops for expensive, brand name (especially European brand) clothes and shoes for my kids. A couple of my finds: $80 shoes for $1.99. $120 snowsuit for $4.  I love finding funky looks for a fraction of the cost.
6. The dream I share with my husband is in the very near future owning a large tract of land and growing most of our food. Sad thing is that I have a brown thumb and everything dies under my tender ministrations. Maybe I'll have better success with the animal husbandry. I'll leave the gardening to Benj.
7. I can still recite the first part of the Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--in Middle English.

Passing it on:
To Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking

This just in...

Mercy has recently been trying to enter into adult conversation by mimicing appropriate responses. When Benj and I are talking, she'll interject, "Oh. Mm hmm. Okay."  Today, I was telling Benj about a blogger I follow who is in the hospital. I told Benj that she has a kidney stone and has protein and blood in her urine. Mercy said "Oh, dat's bad." I chuckled and Benj agreed. We walked away from where Mercy was sitting, and we heard her little voice following us into the kitchen: "Kitty bones are bad."

Something like that.

A boy and his trucks

This boy's

love of all things

with wheels

makes me wonder

if THIS boy

will be a bookworm

or a musician

or a lover of all things with wheels as well

Overheard

Mercy: "Dudah, may I please have that? Say 'yes.'"
Judah: "YES!"
Mercy (as she wrenches his food, truck, whatever, out of his hand): "Thank you."
Judah: "AIEEEEEEEEEEEE! BAHHHHHHHHH!"

*****

Mercy: "Zion, you look like such an orphan!"

Huh?

****

Judah (as we were riding in the truck): "PAPA!"

Mercy (in a patronizing falsetto): "Dat's right, Dudah! Dat does look like Papa's truck. You're so smart!"

*****

Mercy: "Mommy, Gesus died on the cross."

Me: "Yes, but He's not dead now, is He? He lives in heaven with God."

Mercy: "Yes, and Gesus will give us a baby girl. Gesus will give you a baby girl in your belly soon."

Uh...Okay.

Me: "What if Jesus gives us a baby boy?

Mercy: "Dat's okay. You can have a baby girl AND a baby boy. You can have more and more and more babies."

Alrighty then.

*****

Me: "Judah, what color is this?

Judah: "Boo."

Me: "No, honey, that's brown."

Judah: "Bown."
Me: "Right. What color is this?"

Judah: "Boo."

Me: "No, that's red."

Judah: "Red!"

Me: "Now what color is this?"

Judah: " Boo."

Me: "No, that's green."

Judah: "Geen!"

Me: "Good. What color is this?"

Judah: "Boo!"

Sigh. I think he's color blind.

First Haircut

We decided it was time for Judah to get a haircut. He will be two next month and has never had one. I've trimmed a couple long strands from out of his eyes, but that's all. I've been loathe to cut off his beautiful blonde curls, and I wanted to leave it long. I certainly didn't want to cut it short, as I think that makes little boys look so grown up. Judah is so big that he looks four anyway, so I don't want his haircut to make him look any older than he is. Anyway, the beautiful blonde ringlets on his neck were making him hot, so, it was time. I layered it, which is not easy to do on a little boy who never stops moving, but since his hair is curly, it was pretty forgiving of any unevenness.

Before:

Sitting on Daddy's lap for his haircut:

After:

 One more milestone proving he's not a baby anymore.  Sigh. My big boy.