My Motherhood Buzz

I love my children. Really, I have been able to enjoy them a lot lately. I'm noticing on the days that I'm tired, I can still make life happen--the work doesn't pile up. This because I'm not sick or pregnant. It's been lovely to spend more time with both of my children. Jube and I get along better this way. Somehow, it helps with his over all attitude and his desire to please and obey. And I can give Havilah all the hugs and squishes I want to. I guess it boils down to being able to enjoy my kiddos right now in a way that I haven't in the past. I'm very thankful and blessed by this stage of our familyhood.

Having said all that, sometimes, I just buzz. There is a certain, constant vigilance that every mother has to keep. I must know where my children are and what they're doing at all times. If I don't I'm sure to regret it. Jube will surely find a new zone to explore or Havilah will tumble. All this vigilance and constant awareness starts to make me feel like I need to get away so that that particular lobe of my brain can rest for a bit.

I was explaining to Dru the necessity for me to get a break now and then to calm my buzzing brain. I asked him if he "got" what I meant. And he did. He said he gets that way after a half hour of babysitting. This is why God made women to be moms and men to be dads.

Another interesting thing came out in that conversation with Dru. He said he tends to gage our necessity for a date based on how much talk time we've had. In other words, we get away for a date to talk. He's felt in the past that a quiet date is a little bit of a let down. It kind of dawned on him made that when I go on a date, it doesn't matter if we talk or not. What matters is that I'm away from my children for a couple hours.

That almost seems terrible to confess. But there it is and I know I'm not the only mother out there who knows what I'm talking about. It actually feels funny to say all this because I really am so much enjoying my children right now. In fact, I can buzz and be happy at the same time, now that I figured out what was going on. It took me a bit to figure it out actually. I had a few, "What is wrong with me?" days.

Anyway, I got my date with Dru today. We did some market shopping in big market today--a place to not take children. We ended up at the mall for a while because the motorbike needed a tune up and the shop is very near the mall. I got to hold Dru's hand lots and lots for about 3 hours. It was amazing. Tonight I'm not buzzing.

I'm looking forward to my day with my children tomorrow. I think maybe we'll make a cake or cookies or something fun like that. Jube will help me fold laundry and Havilah will unfold his washcloths. We'll steam carrots to eat for Havilah because she thinks they're candy. We won't feed Havilah so many grapes though, because I think they're giving her the scoots. Jube won't do the farm puzzle on the floor, like we did today, because Havilah will slip on a piece and bump her head, like she did today. Oh, I love my babies!

Odds-N-Ends of Life

--Havilah is fussy these days. More teeth I think. It's also a stage of life consisting of many bumps and bruises. More so even than Jube at her age. Saturday night she was eating dragon fruit in her high chair, dressed in only her pamper. When she was finished I took her out and rinsed her off in the bathroom. She had it dragon fruit all down her front. Then I sent her up the steps to her dad who was putting them both into the bath tub. On her way up she slipped and fell backwards, biting her dear little pink tongue that likes so well to hang out of her mouth when she's happy. It was my fault. If I had dried her off before sending her up the steps she might not have slipped. Dumb, dumb mom! It was a very good little bite she got and it's still in the process of healing. I'm thankful it only bled as much as it did.

--Jube is memorizing verses very well these days. It's good for both of us. I made him a verse book that we write or paste his verses into, along with stickers and pictures. This  has made learning verses fun--and wow! what a good little brain. I want to cram it as full as Bible verses as I can. I thought about starting him on his multiplication tables now so that he'd know them...but I decided that that was ridiculous when we can be learning Bible verses and multiplication tables are useless to him right now. Where as, "Children, obey your parents," and "Be ye kind," are not.

--Speaking of being kind. Jube is learning about that right now too. What makes a child do what they will to another child for seemingly no reason is beyond me. But Jube isn't naturally spiteful--he just doesn't think sometimes. But, I think he's beginning to.

--I am missing two molars on my lower jaw. The second one from the back on either side. I was complaining to Dru the other night that eating salad takes me twice as long as everyone else. Eating raw carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, is slow, thoughtful work--and painful if I bite down wrong. To my glee the other day I discovered that my wisdom tooth on one side is coming in, pushing the back tooth forward into the missing tooth's spot. I can see one corner of a brand new tooth. I was suspicious that this was happening and behold, now I know.  Silly, the things that make me happy. But you just trying chewing raw veggies without sufficient molars once, and you might understand. I should go to the dentist and see what she has to say about these developments. I am slightly concerned that the "traveling" tooth will travel in an undesired direction and mess up my bite.

--I finally have two pumpkin seedlings growing my back yard. This makes me happy.

--The light bulb in my laundry room is dead right now so I have been opening the back door to let the light in. Keeping the screen door shut. But there is still a crack under the screen I'm afraid. I was lifting a load of laundry into the wash machine from off of the floor and a large, foot long or so, lizard jumped out. I let out a squawk, put the load in the washer, checking to make sure there wasn't another one, and then went in search of a flashlight. I found one, opened the screen door, looked under the sink and there he was. But he wriggled out and I assume he went out the door because he disappeared somewhere. I'm just glad he wasn't a rat. I can not handle rats.

--We've been thinking lately of how thankful we are for the church family at Grace Bible in Wisconsin. Some of the friends we've been talking to lately really don't have that support in the same way we do. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers and letting us know that you believe in us and believe we're supposed to be here. It means so much more than you know!

--Frank is coming in two and a half weeks. I'm very excited.

--After she gets here I'm going to do some serious Thai language study. Help me pray for the right teacher. Someone(s) anonymously gave us 3,000 baht for my language study. Wow. Thanks so much. Good language study can be expensive and I really need to make sure these next months of study are not wasted. So, to those of you who pray for us, pray for my language study, the right teacher, and the right price.

--I'm still not posting pictures of our time with LaMar and Dot. This computer is missing two programs I like to use for that project. So later. We very much enjoyed our time with them. So glad they could come.

An incomplete collection of pictures…

Kitchen help.

Potty training? Kind of. I’m getting trained anyway. He goes if I take him. He doesn’t quite have the hang of it all yet and so I’m still taking it as a slow process.

Dot and LaMar at our home. They’re working on the felt, quiet book that Dot brought Jube. I have more pictures of our time with LaMar’s but they’re on Dru’s computer still. We had to get them off of their camera, seeing as I kept forgetting to take pictures.

At Duff’s one Sunday afternoon.

Hard boiled egg time.

Sometimes I see my cousin Laife in my son.

We do books at our house.

Dru fed the children ice cream for breakfast one morning.

This is our resident princess. On this fine day, she chose to do some gardening.