35 Weeks and Sibling Love

I'm sure I've said it before, but I love being close enough to family that Ebenezer (and soon Evelyn) gets to know  and love them.  My brothers and sisters are some if his favorite people, and for good reason!  There is almost always someone available to play with or take him outside when we go to Grandma and Granddad's!  Today we got to take a walk and play in the swing set while it was still cool to celebrate Evie hitting 35 weeks!

Evie is growing right along and measuring right where she should be or even a little ahead!  The midwife is guessing she is about 6 to 6 1/2 pounds already and I look forward to our ultrasound next week (the OB is concerned about a VBAC with another big baby so he wants to see where she is) to see how close she is!  I officially feel Huge.  I know I'm not as big as I was with Eb, but I sure do feel like I'm getting my own gravitation pull some days!  I am so thankful for how long the cool weather has held, God has been truly merciful on this pregnant Momma.  Today is supposed to get hot, but it's the first day in quite some time.  I don't know why (maybe because I've dreamt about her birth 3 times in the last week and a half) but I really feel like Evie should be coming in three weeks not five.  I would be okay with her coming early, but I have so much to do between now and then - the biggest thing is getting a dresser!  Contractions continue to pick up, probably contributing to the 'she's gonna be early feeling', with 2-4 a day most days, with most of them requiring concentration, though not entirely painful.

I can't wait to meet this little girl and see if she has the pale, pale blue eyes I've been seeing in my dreams!

34 and 1/2 Weeks - And Evelyn's First Shower!

Last weekend we had a joint shower for Beth and I wit Mom's side of the family.  It has been fun for me being pregnant with my sister and I can't wait for Eb to get to play with his cousin!  We had a beautiful shower and got to catch up with family we haven't seen in ages.

I liked the combined pink and blue decorations since Beth is having a boy and me a girl!

Beth and I as babies, can you tell who is who?

Trying to make a diaper out of toilet paper is no easy task!

Mom's awesome sash 'Grandmother to be'!

And of course we had to get ALL the bellies in a picture!

Mom and her future grandbabies!

Finally fell asleep 1/2 hour before we got home.

Early Anniversary Surprise!

Saturday was busy, not only did we have Evie's first shower, but my hubby surprised me with an early anniversary gift - flowers!  He got me some beautiful tulips because he knows I'm not so much a 'dozen roses' kind of girl.  I tell ya' folks, I've got a keeper!

The Little Pony Song

My sister and I had a great joint shower today and got to spend time with extended family that we haven't seen in ages.  During some conversation with my great aunt she asked if I knew/used the Little Pony song.  Little did she know it is one of my most favorite lullabies!  I proceeded to recite for the few who weren't familiar and some of the second cousins joined in.  I remember Mom singing it to us kids, having her teach it to me when Dan and Deb came home so I could sing it to them with her and the great origin story behind it.

My Great Granny Murphy sang this lullaby to all of her children as they were growing up (so my Grandpa and his siblings), and apparently to some of her grandchildren because that's who Mom remembers hearing it from.  But Mom was upset by the original because it involved the pony being lent to a mean man who whipped it and drove it through the mire - so Granny Murphy changed it for her!  An essential aspect of the song was rocking in the chair on Granny's lap at the same time.  Mom has often commented that Granny Murphy was the best rocker for babies and littles she has ever met, partly because she was so comfy, partly because she was so patient.

What I didn't realize was that Grandpa's sisters sang this to their children, and then they sang it to their children, and now my generation is singing it too!  So we have this neat family lullaby spread through generations of our family, almost woven into our family culture of how to raise children, you could say.  This idea just really excited and inspired me!  I love knowing that I share this cherished lullaby with so much family, and that through my Great Granny a beautiful love of children, and a desire to comfort them to sleep with song and rocking, was passed to so many generations.

So are you curious about Mom's special lyrics yet?  I hope so because you're going to hear them anyway :). You can customize and insert any child's name, so for now I'll use Eb for an example!

I had a little pony his name was Billy Boy,

I loaned him to Eb to ride a mile away,

He watered him and fed him and took good care of him,

And I will loan my pony to Ebenezer again.

I got me another pony he was all over gray,

His head was made of pumpkin seeds,

His tail was made of hay,

I bridled him and saddled him and rode him into town,

Along came a puff of wind and blew him up and down!

As you can imagine this is well used in our home and I look forward to using it with our future babies, and hopefully someday with our grand babies!

The Biggest Duck in the Puddle

Granddaddy always used the phrase 'biggest duck in the puddle' to refer to one of us littles wading in and trying to do the same thing as the grown-ups or bigger kids, be it in play or work. Well that fits Eb perfectly when he is on 'The Bench'!  All of the my brothers and sisters sit on a bench my Dad made to go along the wall side of the dinner table (at least they all used to sit there when they all still fit!  Now a days four of them is quite a squeeze!).  Eb knows this is where the big guys sit and he loves climbing up there with them!  He begs food off Deborah or Hannah and joins in conversation, but mostly he just loves being included with the big guys.  And he truly enjoys being the biggest duck in the puddle! 

He even enjoys the bench when he has it to himself!

Feeling Kind of Froggy?

You already know my love of Lewis.  He has the ability to articulate emotions and thoughts I may never have been able to even express or fully recognize.  The last week I've been ruminating on many of those thoughts and emotions without bringing them to full light.  A quote from Lewis on Facebook today sent me down a delightful rabbit hole that pulled all those things to the surface and shone a big, bright light on them.  I've always struggled with the 'undulation' in my Christian walk.  Many seasons I have felt on fire and in line with the Lord's will, other seasons I have felt like the lukewarm Christians Christ spat out in Revelation, still other times I have simply felt numb.  Along those same lines, I have seasons where I am comfortable with and even excited about the fact that this world is not our home, wonderful though this world is because of our Creator's word, I can see that it is but a dim shadow of the glory yet to come.  Other seasons I cling to this land we are sojourning in - I despair over the state of it, it's future, the thought of leaving those I love, I experience almost inconsolable loss at the idea of my children growing up for some reason without me and I without them.  Oh, how small I can make our Lord! Similarly, I swing between not seeing the eternal value of those around me, and my influence on them, to being overwhelmed by it.

This is where Lewis comes in.  His illumination in these areas brings me hope, reminds me of the truth and fills me with courage to continue this race, even through my 'troughs'.  Join me as a fellow frog through this maze of Lewis lily pads.

To my undulation, and (for lack of a better phrase) spiritual mood swings, Lewis speaks...

“Humans are amphibians...half spirit and half animal...as spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time, means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation--the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”

The Scewtape Letters 

(and yes this is where Froggy comes from, I prefer them over most amphibians... don't ask me why...) 

 “Be not deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” The Screwtape Letters 

“He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.”The Screwtape Letters 

“To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness… to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son- it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” The Weight of Glory

To my relations with others he says...

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - These are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” The Weight of Glory 

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken..."The Weight of Glory 

To my conflicts over love of this world he says...

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”Mere Christianity 

“In speaking of this desire for our own faroff country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” The Weight of Glory 

“At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.” The Weight of Glory 

“Now, if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object […] If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy.” The Weight of Glory 

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”C.S. Lewis (can't find a book reference?)

You might be a Momma if...

Elbow dimples and little thigh legs rolls absolutely melt your heart!  Eb has spent the last several months in long sleeves and pants, so these adorable features are taking me by surprise while he plays in his summer clothes!  They are so much cuter in action, but the only time I can catch them on film is when he's asleep!

GAH!!! I just want to smother that elbow in kisses!

Beans!

We've been a little dry lately so Eb and I gave the garden a little drink and found a surprise in the process - our beans are already coming up!

Eb wasn't excited about the beans, but he did have fun "helping" me get water :)

Horsing around

Ebenezer loves playing with his Aunt Hannah, especially when she takes him on adventures like riding the horse!  Ice is such an awesome horse, he isn't phased by kicks or bumps or wallowing, even so I was surprised at how well Eb did with him.  Most children are really intimidated by such a big animal, but he just hung out and patted him - which probably had something to do with him having one of his best buddies along for the rise!

My Little Motor Head

Ebenezer loves anything with an engine - especially if he gets to sit in and 'drive' it!  Wile Dad was working on some plumbing Eb got to 'drive' the bobcat during some down time!

Oh! My Heart!

After a morning out, I came home to find this!  Oh my heart just about burst!