free babysitting!!

much to my surprise, and delight, i found out that Culver City offers FREE babysitting!

This is especially good news to those of us with Many Small Blessings!!!

Starting as early as 7am, and lasting until as late as 5pm, kids can be entertained for free all day long!

Check out the pics and see for yourself!!!!
(certain little blonde,blue eyed children did not particularly appreciate this form of childcare and so are not pictured!)


ps...free green ear plugs are included!

related blessings

i read once (and whole-heartedly believe) that one of the most profound blessings you can give your child is a sibling.

one minute they love each other, the next minute they are trying to pick each other a part, verbally and physically.

siblings.

those of us that have' em know just what i mean.

been trying to explain to selah why we can't just "make them go away".

even tried telling her if she does a super good job "shaping" and "training" her brothers, one day they will return the favor by marrying an awesome woman and bless her with a rockin sister-in-law. (that's what my bro did for me; and yes, i do take the majority of the credit!)

most of my words fell on deaf ears (not surprising, i mean she is only 6)

the other day selah was gone over night and all the boys wanted to do was know where she was, if she was coming back, and then talk about their most favorite part about her.

five minutes (really) after she returned they were both hot on her trail, doing their brotherly best to drive her insane...to the point of tears. (in fact i think that is even what they call it, the "make selah cry" game)

why are we so horrid with those we love the most? none us would ever dream of treating a stranger the way we treated our siblings.

all this to say, i was overjoyed at the chance to capture these moments...

as much as we despise, ever more so do we love...our siblings.

as i referee my way through each minute of sibling-ness, i hold tightly to the truth that they are richly blessed (ongoing) by these kin God has given.


ps...elia is smiling carefully, so as not to ruin the freshly applied lip stick!

my mom

mom, i love you.

there are no words to express(and you know how many words i can have!) how deeply i love you, how thankful to God i am for you, how completely i respect you, how blessed i am by you.

happy birthday to the most wonderful mom ever...it will never stop being a complete joy to be called your daughter.

we all love you so.

-mouse

G.R.A.M.

G-generous with her love, time, energy, words, gardening, sewing, home and heart.
R-really makes each of us feel extra special.
A-always has time to listen to us, to love us, to help us, to hold us.
M-mom to our mom...that makes you OUR Gram!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to our awesome Gram!!!

since we are too far to love and hug you in person, we thought we would send you our love and hugs through pictures...

we hope they make you smile...

in case you were wondering

q:what can five kids can do in less than ten(i promise!) minutes while the adult in charge makes lunch?

a: pile every item they can manage to lift in the center of the garage and then climb all over it!









q: who is elia's new best friend?
a: super clark...three doors down and just her size!























q: can you BBQ too much meat?
a: nope (not according to dan!)


















q: what was samuel doing?

a: wearing "protective" gear while watching his daddy grill way too much meat at once!







q: is this the biggest zucchini you have ever seen?

a: it sure was for us...home-grown in our first ever back yard garden.
(veggie model is our sweet 3 yr old friend "noe")

six is more than five

last week i spoke of how the hardest number of children was one more than what i already had.

this week i was blessed with a day of six children to love! our 4 year old neighbor joined our chaos for the day.

now, she is by no means a difficult addition, much the opposite...very easy going, kind, respectful.

as the day wore on i started thinking...

i can baby wear, breastfeed, cloth diaper, cook for, clothe, love, discipline and grow kids with the best of 'em. i made lunch for six kids at once, and managed to make my own at the same time without burning it.

i even enjoyed 29 whole minutes of "quite time" while two slept and four "took a break"!

what i can't do, however...what i actually fail horribly at daily, is doing any or all of the above with any type of grace or gentleness...never mind love!

i cook, i clean, i referee, i drive, i manage, i read, i fold and wipe and flush and listen and help and handle 24 hours a day.

but nearly every minute of every day (when lived out on my own) is lived out by a grumpy, frustrated, on edge, yells-too-much, mamma.

i scold too loudly, i discipline too harshly, i listen too little, i read too fast, hug too short.

without Christ and His unending grace flowing through me, i am just plain awful to be around(just ask my kids).

at the end of every day i flop backwards onto my bed, and stare weakly at the ceiling, marveling at how another day passed without anyone dying or being left out on the curb(me included!) it truly is, at least for me, no small miracle.

my natural bent is not to be kind, it is to be mean. i lean way more towards harsh than gentle. i condemn when i discipline. i love with conditions. i am sloooow to forgive.

contrast this with God...

as i confess all that i am not, i see all that He is.

He is full of grace, never condemning, always forgiving, loving completely, correctly gently. His is a completely condition-less love.

it is only through a minute by minute reliance on God that my day with four, or five, or six children ends well.

i simply don't have what it takes to be a great mamma. amazingly, God knows this and still considered me worthy of being called mamma by so many.

even more amazing, He gently teaches me throughout each day to rely on Him to be able to care for these many small blessings.


ps...

remember me feeling flattered by my littlest blessing copying me with a baby in a pouch?

yesterday i found all four "mothering" pouch babies!

powerful reminders of how "watched" i am as i mother these children.

brain matter

it's after 11pm, dan got paged real late and had to go in to work for a few hours.


he's on this research thingy (aren't i so technical?) involving picking through a brain as soon as a person dies. (probably he explains it way better than i do, so you can get the MD version from him.)

getting called late at night to go into work is one of the many perks to being a resident.

(seven years down, three to go!)

so, while he is off dissecting, i thought, since i can't get back to sleep, i would share these silly pics of the boys enjoying one of our many slow summer mornings.

we are all loving not having to be anywhere and do anything too serious!(some more than others)

we (mostly me!) love not being on someone else's schedule! i never realized how much i love summer break until one of my kids entered school!

so this is how we fill ours mornings...staying in our jammies way too long, and finding new, fun uses for our couch pillows!

once properly stuffed, both boys began dancing around the kitchen and wiggling their packed back sides till i nearly needed to change my own jammies!


the girls thought it was pretty hysterical.

if i was more up to date on popular music, i bet i could even find a song to put to their antics.



of course, i am not.


but i did tell you last time how full my quiver was...

full indeed!




my crazy, grace-filled life with my many small blessings...

blessings that grow bigger everyday.

the hardest number of kids...

...is one more than the number of kids you have already!

yesterday i took five kids(remember my new nanny job??)
to the local science center...phew!

luckily my dear neighbor/friend/running partner/babysitter-in-a-pinch came along with her two kids, so we were 2 on 7...i think that is what is meant by "zone" defense.


today(i must have short term memory issues!) i decided to take the same five kids to the beach!

yup, that's right...me and five little people ages 3mo. to 6 years! (once again, my dear neighbor met us at the beach...this time it felt more like "prevent" than "zone"!)

within a few minutes of arriving i had three of the five screaming over various things(sand in the eyes, salt water in the eyes, starving for food...normal beach stuff). the screaming lasted so long that a grumpy older gentleman laying in the sand near where we landed(crashed really!) scooped up all of his stuff in disgust and moved himself and his three teenage kids (very) far away from us, grumbling the whole way about how we were ruining his day at the beach.

apparently i am not the only one with memory issues!



if you are hoping to see some sweet, sunny shots of small ones at the seashore, please re-read the part about how i took FIVE kids to the beach!!! :)

i have, however, included friday night pizza night pics to make you smile.



although i am definitely outnumbered these days, i am also overwhelmingly blessed!

my quiver is very full!

feelings

nearly always composed, nicely quiet, notably cute.

our number 4.

patiently waits, politely asks, properly behaves.

our blond haired, blue eyed anomaly.











that is, of course, until this occurred.


our picture of composer has gotten in touch with her feelings!


if you have been keeping up with us these days you know that we have brought a number 5 into our daytime lives...baby april adds joy to our lives monday through friday, letting us love on her while her momma(our dear neighbor and friend) works.


all was going as smooth as a road not maintained by the county until sweet number 4 realized she had to wait!


i will admit, for a moment(or ten) i was sure someone had swiped my precious child and replaced her with this screaming look-a-like!


while i am admitting things, i might as well add that a few(actually many) times throughout this day i felt like joining her on the floor.

a nice big fit, complete with throwing one's self all about sounded pretty darn good!

thankfully i managed(by God's matchless grace) to keep myself upright all day long.

summer break is well under way and we are all still loving each other.

and...we continue to learn that our feelings are NOT the standard by which we are called to live.