#25
my very first (ever) batches of sauce!
working at it and working at it…‘til my piggies were all squealing…and the shelf was all filled up…
…with months and months worth of munching upon!
#25
my very first (ever) batches of sauce!
working at it and working at it…‘til my piggies were all squealing…and the shelf was all filled up…
…with months and months worth of munching upon!
my honey’s office is in grampa’s old “wood shop”…
down in the basement…in the same room where my honey fashioned our bed…
his mother’s day gift to me when that boy o’ mine wasn’t yet all-the-way three…
but before that…his “office” was right in our room…right next to that bed…
and i’m beginning to realize how much i miss that…
because every once in awhile…on one of those days…when i just couldn’t catch hold of my breath…i’d just sneak into our room and snuggle down on his side of our bed…
his side…‘cause it was the side right next to his desk…and ‘cause his pillow smells just exactly like his head!
and i mostly liked to just lie there “next” to him while he worked…and just stare at him for a bit…
‘cause i liked how he focused so hard on his tasks…and paused to ponder with a stroke through his beard…and sometimes smiled a meant-for-me smile straight ahead…
or…especially…ever-so-casually flexed the one-of-my-many-favorite-pieces-of-him forearm muscles nearest to me…
‘cause he knows that they are…and that that would for sure coax a giggle out of me!
and i think he liked my staring times too…especially when i stared quietly…and not just distracted him with all of my “words”!
and then when my breath was almost all caught…i’d roll out of our bed…and stand right behind his chair…and wrap my arms around his neck…and stick my whole face right into the hairs on the top of his head…
‘cause it’s just one more of those many of my favorite pieces of him…that spot…
‘cause it smells just like his pillow…
only just fresh from his head!
and then i’d breathe him in…catching the last little bit of my breath…and then i’d give him a kiss on that spot…
and then i’d just move on…
back to my day and whatever was “next”…
until the next time i found myself all out of breath…
but now he’s not in there…he’s all that way downstairs…
and i can still trudge…all that way down…to breathe in his head…
but i find that it isn’t entirely the same…without that time first spent on his side of our bed…
Tags: him and me
#24
him…taking his little (‘cept for that littlest) men…
…on a quick-before-winter-sets-in overnight camping “trip”…
…even…and despite…the forecast for rain!
– alex’s images
dear sweet william,
even while sitting there next to me during the message today…you just couldn’t help but lean in close and whisper…“happy fall day!”
for days and for days, you’ve been asking and asking…“when is it fall?”
and finally…our calender says that today is the day!
it’s finally…officially…begun!
and so i leaned down…and smiled…and whispered a “thank you”…
and then my “shush”…and “listen”…were followed by your sheepish “okay”…
and on this first day…He’s sent a blustery wind and some glorious rain…
and now, here we both sit…
almost right back where we left off…
almost circled right back ‘round again…
with a lovely blaze in the hearth…and your little fingers just running and running right through my hairs…
just exactly the kind of day i’ve been looking so forward to since this fireplace went finally cold…all those days and days…and long days…ago!
just the best start to my most favorite time of the year!
fall…
oh, how i’ve missed it…
and this…
the wind blowing and rain falling outside…
and me…and some of my most favorite peoples…all squished cozy together to knit…and to read…and to write…and to style…
all just right here ‘round this fire!
very sincerely,
me (your oh-so-happy-to-be-numb-again-some mama)
#23
today wasn’t easy…
truly…just the naughtiest…straight up…monday!
but then near the end…
there was beef stew, buttered bread…and an autumn rain…
just such a seemingly insignificant thing…
and yet…more than reason enough…
even for this monday…
this morning, everyone else went on to fellowship…except for that littlest little man and me…
he’s been struggling so much as of late…trying to decide whether or not he can truly trust his daddy and me…
to trust that our will for him is good…is best…
and all he need do is obey…
so there’s been lots of hot, angry tears…and lots of “no!” screamed from him…
and lots of (sometimes) weary-and-tired-of-sticking-to-it discipline from his daddy and me…
poor little man…
and this sweet little song from my sunday school days keeps coming back to me…
a little song sung so often when i was his age…
“trust and obey…for there’s no other way…
to be happy in Jesus…but to trust and obey.”
how essential that is! for him…and for me!
this lesson never entirely learned!
this same lesson that He is so often…and faithfully…working out in me…and disciplining me through!
that He can be trusted! that His will is good…and best!
that all i need do…is to just let go…
to just abide…
to just surrender my will to His…
to simply trust and obey…
– our dear “teacher dorothy”…who taught so many wonderful hidden-way-down-deep-in-my-heart songs to me! (circa 1979)
Tags: eian, pondering me
dear honey,
i love this day…
this day that rolls around each year…and catches you up to me…
when i don’t have to be anymore “older” than you!
happy birthday, baby!
i love you!
and i’m so glad…that if this getting older is such an inevitable thing…i at least get to do it with you!
Tags: birthdays, him and me
:: there’s a little person right across the hall that should’ve been asleep an hour and a half ago…but i hear him in there singin’ to himself…
“ah, ah, ah, ah…stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive!”
#22
pretending that the thermostat doesn’t say what it says…
and building just a smidge of a fire in the hearth…
…just big enough…
for that “just one s’more a piece”…
the chocolate and grahams and mallows that never actually got eaten while on our retreat!