Homegrown.

Do you see that lovely, green beauty?  It’s my very first homegrown tomato.

Or, rather, it would have been if someone very short hadn’t picked it already.

I never thought I’d have to set up chicken wire to protect our tomatoes from our children.

Hope wells up within me, however.  I spotted two new tomatoes growing just yesterday!  Just don’t tell Little Brother my small people.

It’s all about the food.

A real conversation with the Fiest one morning, as he was getting dressed:

“Mommy, where is Easter?”

“Where is Easter?  It’s like Christmas.  It comes and it goes, every year.”

“It comes and it goes?”

“Yes.”  (Pause.)  ”The next thing we get to celebrate is when Jesus ascended into heaven.”

“Mommy?  When Jesus ascends into heaven, what do we get to eat?”

—————-

I laughed outright.  Apparently, we’re doing an excellent job of marking celebrations with food.

Sometimes, I wonder.

Hero walked into our bathroom to find the Fiest busy with a bar of soap.

“Fiest, what are you doing?” Daddy asks.

“I’m washing my haaaaands,” he says.

“Why are you washing your hands?”  Daddy wants to know.

“Because I peed in the tub.”

And after that, there really wasn’t anything more to be said.

What will he think of next?  Please – don’t tell me.  I’d just as soon not know in advance.

Fostering.

Hero and I attended an orientation meeting today about becoming foster parents.  I’ve done a lot of reading on the subject in the past 3 weeks or so.  I’m less terrified now than I was when I started, but the unexpected nature of a life with children – especially other people’s children – looms large in front of me.

We’ve been blessed with a warm, clean home, lots of love, two sweet boys of our own by birth, and a stable income.  ”Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)  And so, we’re compelled to share what we have with others.

I don’t know how we’ll make it, but I do know that “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed/for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning;/great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).  He didn’t promise us we’d make it through tomorrow, so I’ll look for His grace as it comes to me: day by day.

19 August 2009

It’s your last night as a two year old, Feist. What a wonderful year it’s been!

We celebrated together, you and I, by having stove-popped corn and watching your favorite show. (Your request was for Little Bear’s Sweet Tooth.) Little Brother was already in bed, and I enjoyed snuggling up with just you.

I can hear you laughing in your bed even now. I’m looking forward to all the surprises we have planned for you tomorrow!

I’m off to wrap some presents.

Language Development

Yesterday morning:
The Feist: Mom, is dat a egg?
Where is da bird?
Da bird is in da egg!

Pretty good abstract connections, I thought.

——-
Other things I don’t want to forget:
He said “s’orts” instead of shorts. Now, it’s morphed into “shortsh”.

He calls it a “nah-cuum” instead of a napkin.

“Big milk” means a full glass of milk, not half of a glass.

And tonight, he thanked Jesus not only for his soup, but also for his bib, his placemat, his fork, and his spoon. AAAAAy – men.

Affirmation

The Fiester, this morning:

“I did a Great Job!

What’d I do?”