GHOSTS???

Do you believe in ghosts? Honestly – when it comes right down to it – what do you really feel about this? My youngest told me this morning that he saw a shadow that looked kind of like me walking across the room and then disappeared. It wasn’t a shadow from the window or in the closet – it was like “something that walks a few steps and then disappears” Wow – the child can’t lie – he isn’t delirious – it was 6am and dark outside and he had just snuggled himself in our bed but he was awake. What do you think then when your child believes. Me, I have a healthy respect for the spirit world and believe that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood… Still, Prayed the blood of Jesus Christ over my house let me tell you…

NUMBERS

It's all about the numbers right now. Tyler is 6 and loves loves loves the numbers. Time is now 60 seconds is one minute and minutes to hours. We count down days. At night Steve and Tyler do math at the table, thinking up equasions to trick each other. They are on division right now and a little bit of algebra. We are a bit totally way past 2 boys plus 3 girls equals 5 children. It's more like 500 dump trucks plus how many bulldozers equals 962 pieces of equipment? Yesterday Tyler got on the scale and informed us that he weighs 50 pounds! and then he got really excited and as he put it - now I'm halfway to mommy's weight. Dead silence in the house until my very handsome and wise husband said "yes, that's absolutely correct Tyler". Yah, he's totally my favourite son right now!

On a very rainy April 26, 2012 (Hope this is the end - they only have 1 pair of socks left without holes in them!) and Steve is walking with Tristan into the Dayhome and this is their conversation: "Look daddy,a worm" take a step "Look daddy, a worm" take a step (repeat) (repeat) (repeat) (repeat)

LEGACY

The continuance of family has been made so clear to me this week. How life repeats itself and how vital family is. I found myself at the beginning of this week out for coffee with my father and had a wonderful time - the only wonderful type of time you can have with someone who knows you inside out and where you don't have to say everything you're thinking but you want to and it's full of comfort and love. Later this week I found myself sitting across the coffee shop table from my son - with the same wonderful time and the same comfort and love.

I remember my grandfather waiting in the car in the church parking lot after church waiting for my grandmother. I also remember my father waiting in the same church parking lot, napping or praying the car waiting for me to finish my youth event so he could drive me home. And on Tuesday night I waited in the church lobby for my son while he was at a church event having a delightful time! I guess it's my turn to drive and wait and pray and I will do so with joy and ferverent prayers and lots and lots of love that I have from generations of loving parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles. thank you all for such a legacy.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

I’m not sure if this makes me super-mom or super-pathetic-sneaky mom. It might explain; however, the times my children don’t sleep well through the night. I confess: I do things to my children when they are asleep. Yep, it started when my firstborn was a baby. I used to cut his nails when he was asleep. No twitching, no screaming and just like that the task was done. Phew! Actually I still cut my youngest son’s toenails while he sleeps. He absolutely WILL NOT let me cut them and will kick and scream and this is from the designated easy-going child, so, I wait until he is asleep and snip snip snip, all done.

I’ve cut their hair too while they slept. Just the eldest’s though – he’s the twitchy one in that respect, not, like the whole head, but just a few straggly pieces that otherwise would have been a battle from the dark side to accomplish.

I got caught though once. When my children were 4 and 6, they were running along the boardwalk and came home that night with tiny little wooden slivers in the bottoms of their feet that they wouldn’t let me pull out. So, after they were fast asleep, I snuck in and, armed with a little flashlight between my teeth and the tweezers in one hand and an iron grip on their little feet with the other I set about extracting the little itchy slivers. My husband peaked in at one point; started to say something, and then just turned around and walked away. Smart man. A while later when the eldest got another sliver in his foot and when I said we should take it out, his reply was “no, that’s okay, God will take it out while I sleep.” Um, okay. Thanks God for taking the rap on that one!

Ah, my adorable little squiggly kids. I’m sorry for your dreams of someone tickling your toes in the middle of the night but thank you for your patience in allowing all those other unpleasant tasks to take place during the daylight hours – I can’t even imagine how I would wash your hair…

2011

in 2011 my husband had a seizure which was later to be discovered as a brain tumour. How do you explain that to the boys? We told them daddy was sick and had to be in the hospital for a few days. At one point Tyler built an MRI machine from the train table and blocks and ropes and a whole bunch of other toys to take photos of daddy's head. It's not that I'm putting the boy in a box but um, it's safe to say Tyler has "engineer" type qualities! I'm glad Tristan was only 3 when this happened because he wasn't really old enough to process some of the events that went on. in December Steve went for surgery and that was harder for the boys because he was away from home longer - and when Steve got home he slept a lot. But he is fine and his energy is growing and the boys are getting their dad back. There is nothing like children to force you to focus and move on. I remember the day after Steve's seizure when we didn't know what was going on and Tristan looked at me and said "I'm hungry". My first thought was how dare you bother me with trivial things when my world is collapsing and then I looked closer at him and realized that my world is every little thing around me and God is at the centre saying TRUST ME. and I did and we at only peanut butter and honey sandwiches but the world went on and we smiled and laughed and God is faithful