So hot

In response to a food item needing to cool before eating Boy-o says "It's so hot it's like a jelly-bean on water."

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Ugh! All seems lost.

Dear Jenn,
I was working at school and had finished my document and saved it and then I proceeded to upload it to Gmail for safety but it was not to be. I have no idea if it's the migraine and I dreamed it all or what but it's all gone. I have my "originals" which are nowhere near done but that's all. It's the strangest thing that I just don't understand. Whether it's a weirdness of these U computers or something but I'm pretty bummed as you can imagine. I went to Trifon's and had pizza and beer for a while thinking I'd just blow off the assignments but I'm back at Riddell centre beavering away in great annoyance.The two pictures are the Anger and then the hopeless despair that I had.

Love Reade

Mr. Pants

Dear Reade,

I get a big kick out of this kid of ours, our Boy-o. Today he has been playing busily with his friends from across the street. Later today we'll head to trampoline. He's growing so tall. I remember a package we received after he was born that contained pants in an 18 month size. As I held up those pants I thought how HUGE they were and how I was sure that he'd be ages before he grew into them. Of course, now Girlie wears those tiny pants and I'm having to let out the waist bands and unroll the hems on all The Boy's size three pants.

As I was helping him get dressed after an encounter with the hose in the backyard, he pulled out one of his great lines: Mama, can you please get me some long-sleeved pants. I brought his clam diggers (it is 25 degrees C) and he protested, but finally agreed. Medium-sleeved pants would be okay.

Today our boy is delighting in telling me that he's "tough" when he falls down. Other times he has snuck in to get a kiss having just fallen and hurt himself.

It's a pretty great gift for me to be able to be near him, to overhear him as he plays and to play alongside him at other moments. You are right. I will look back fondly and wistfully on these days.

Love, Jenn

Looking for Joy

Dear Reade,

Yesterday, as the kids and I were at a birthday party, I was speaking with a friend who says that she has been scrap-booking recently as a means of finding joy in her life. Which has me thinking, what brings me joy? Today I have found joy in:

• walking into our kitchen this morning to the sight of a cleared and cleaned countertop
• quiet hours to read and reflect before the children emerge from slumber and the demands of the day begin
• coffee drinking in the morning on our back step
• the sight of wee little seedlings poking their tiny little heads out of the soil.
• our girlie's adorable nose wrinkle
• a phone conversation with a newish friend who regularly reminds me of my need for community
• the click of our back gate and the sight of your face as your returned home from your day at work
  
• the songs of birds as the evening progresses
• the heart-stopping last minutes of a football match I wanted "my" team to win. Despite their loss, the hopefulness being drawn out to the last seconds was superb
  
• the tap-tap-tap of keystrokes as you work and I play

Darling, darling...you are finishing the last of your class requirements for spring term and I know it's heaps and heaps of work these days. You are dear to me and bring me great joy.

Love to you,
Jenn

dot com

Dear Reade,

Our little "Mister Can-I-watch-a-movie" changed his tactics today. He said, "Mama, I need a dot com or I won't be able to be calm."

I laughed.

Love to you,

Jenn

Me 3.jpg

This a picture of me because I'm still testing the capabilities via my phone.
Sent from my BlackBerry® Tour wireless handheld

A real post this time.

Dear Jenn,
So I'm sitting at work and wasting a bit of time and worrying about class tomorrow that I'm not prepared for. Can you end a sentence with 'for'?
Sigh. I'll be home by 5 but I think I'll have to leave to get some work done.
Love you.
Reade
Sent from my BlackBerry® Tour wireless handheld

Email posting

Dear Jenn,
So I'm trying to post via email and I sure hope it works.
Sent from my BlackBerry® Tour wireless handheld

Spicy!

Dear Reade,

Just so that we can remember:

"That's as spicy as a man in red socks."
-- The Boy, in reference to bottle green elderflower

Love you (and him too!),

Jenn

blue butterflies

Dear Reade,

Girlie and I just saw a lovely, lovely blue butterfly in the yard. Blues are so delicate and beautiful. Eye-catching and simultaneously cryptic. With the wings spread in flight they are stunning. When they wish to hide they blend in so well.

They are much like us, those beautiful butterflies.

"If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do" (2 Corinthians 4:7ff, The Message).

Thanks for teaching me about butterflies.

Love, Jenn

towards a family statement

Dear Reade,

In conversation today, as I was spindle spinning, you said to The Boy, "Look what Mama is learning, practicing, getting better at. Learning new things is very good."

And I think that if we were creating a family mission statement learning would definitely be part of it, eh?

Love, Jenn

At the weekend...

Dear Reade,

Taking a few minutes of writing time while The Boy plays with the neighbours and Girlie rests with you. While I was up in the night I was reading from the Psalms:

God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
Now I'm alert to God's ways;
I don't take God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I'm watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. (Ps 18:20-24)

There's a sense in which I want for these ways that I write to be a review of the ways that God is at work in our lives and our family. A record, not only of physical milestones and philosophical musings, but of the spirituality of our everyday lives.

Love to you,

Jenn

Crazy Days

Dear Reade,

You've retired upstairs with The Boy for a few minutes. Girlie is playing with a cardboard box boat and a rubber boot. And I'm breathing deeply.

What a day!

I suspect that the kids were just as they have been for the last number of weeks. Busy. Active. Yell-y. Push-y. Needing proactive parenting moment after moment after moment. But today I was not as I have been for the last number of weeks. Today was an "off" day.

It makes me very mindful in these quiet moments of what I am being saved from. Or what I have been saved from. Three and a half or four months ago my internal space was like today's crazy space, every day, all day. I'm so grateful that I don't live with that level of anxiety, uncertainty, powerlessness and self-doubt day by day.

I am also grateful that you are home for a bit. :)

Love, Jenn

At school waiting for class to begin

Dear Jenn,
For some reason I feel anxious about my classes coming up. I'm not sure why. I know I'd rather be at home, that's for sure. I suppose it's just that these Spring/Summer classes flash by so fast and I don't feel like I've spent enough time reading etc. I have to make more time for it which means more time away from home, unfortunately. I just can't get anything done at home.
Reade