Last Friday while the girls spent the day caring for and practicing to hold “baby Ewi” my son spent the day dressed in Camoes and gathering his weapons arsenal to play army with uncle Jim.
I wasn’t exactly sure how much uncle Jim would feel like playing army, since he lives army every day of his life and this was his leave time to see family before deploying to Iraq. But uncle Jim, was a huge sport about it and never complained about playing Friday night at the birthday celebration, or during the neighborhood harvest celebration on Saturday or during the Steelers game on Sunday. In fact uncle Jim played army, Star Wars, and Transformers every time we saw them, with never a complaint. And my son loved every moment… eagerly sitting by him at every meal and during church on Sunday morning. It was rather cute to watch.
Friday the kids made cards for Great Grandpa’s birthday and cards to welcome baby Eli to MD. My son also made a card for Uncle Jim. He wanted him to read it that first night and then to look at the picture again before he goes off to war next month. I had to take a picture b/c when he asked me to spell it out for him, I thought his message was too sweet not to preserve.
“Let’s have fun today and not be sad about going to war. I love (heart colored in camouflage) you.”
On the other side, he drew this picture of the two of them playing army.
It’s pretty obvious that my son looks up to and admires his uncle Jim. And it’s easy to see why.
That’s right folks, we have a new circus member due to arrive here in early June 2010!! And the circus cast couldn’t be more excited!!!
Those of you that have been visiting the circus for awhile know that I don’t use my kids names on the blogs. I once entertained the idea of pseudonyms but never came up with any I liked. So I’ve pretty much stuck with “ my son,” “my 3 year old daughter” and “my baby” for the past year or so. So far, I have no real intentions to change that, but I did realize last week, that had this been “Life with The Peanuts Gang” or something more catchy, I’d have perfect pseudonyms to use.
My baby seems to always, always have something on her face and or clothes. Typically it is remnants of our last meal, but it also quite often dirt or snot or a combo of the above. As she was coming inside from playing in the sandbox I remarked to her and the kids how much she reminded me of Pig Pen.
See the resemblance?
This of course got me thinking about my other two.
In my opinion, my son would have to go down as Linus. Just substitute the beloved blanket for his baby. I can totally see him getting up on stage and reciting Luke 2 when asked what Christmas is all about, can’t you?
Now, my middle child was a bit harder. My initial inclination was to go with Marcie b/c they both have glasses. I then was considering Sally b/c she seems to be the quintessential little sister. (“oh big brother!” )But after spending some time reading the bios of the peanuts gang on wikipedia (a blogger has to do her research, right?) I have decided that Peppermint Patty best suits my middle child. (though I think my daughter is way cuter). Besides the fact that Peppermint Patty is described as a tomboy, they also described her as having a “stubborn personality with a dare-devil twist” While her stubborn streak seems to have, thankfully, ended with age, there is no question that she is our fearless one! So, I guess Peppermint Patty it is then.
I love the peanuts gang. Their holiday specials are hands down my favorites and a must watch every season. Perhaps its the way he captured the personalities of children or maybe its just the way they dance with their noses pointed up the sky, I’m not sure. But I love em’, and I love my life with my own peanuts gang as well.
This weekend the kids got to meet their newest cousin, “baby Ewi.” They were all quite excited to finally make his acquaintance. The girls have been carrying their dolls around for weeks now feeding, rocking, and putting to sleep their very own “baby Ewi’s.”
But my middle child was probably the most smitten, to say the least. She could quite often be found by his side, smiling at him, tickling him and laughing at every noise he made. 
The best was when Aunt Karen was changing his diaper and the girls were eagerly peering over her shoulder to watch and help hold wipes. When she opened the diaper my three year old peered inside and exclaimed for all to hear, “He’s a BOY!”
Here’s my favorite pic of the kids and their kids together at last. I think the facial expressions are priceless.
Gentleman.
I am convinced that if you were to look the word up in the dictionary, you’d have to find a picture of this man.
I first met him at our high school graduation. I remember being taken with the fact that he had one of those sweaters with the reinforced elbows and remarked to Scott how much I loved his genuine “Grandpa sweater” and was convinced he’d be the perfect Worthers Original grandpa.
Somewhere over the past 12 years he went from being Scott’s grandpa, to my grandpa too. I can’t pinpoint the moment it occurred, but I can tell you that I truly love him like my own.
Grandpa is the kind of man that walks you to your car after a visit, and insists on carrying your things for you. When you instinctually start to object and insist, “I’m fine” your words stop in your throat b/c you know its no use and you simply say “thank you.” He’s funny and witty and I am pretty sure we have him to thank for the sarcastic streak that runs through Scott’s side of the family.
I love, absolutely, LOVE watching grandpa interact with our children. It truly warms my heart. Each of our children love him and he them, but there is something special between my middle child and him. I couldn’t begin to put it into words, but you can see it in the sparkle she gets in her eye when he is near. 
We’re blessed to live close to grandpa and because of this I can say, “he’s always there.” Every holiday, birthday party, every gathering big or small, you can count on him being there. I quite honestly can’t imagine it any other way (nor would I want to). He’s also there when you’re in a pinch and need some help…like when we couldn’t find a dog sitter for Maggie over Labor Day weekend, or Scott needed a ride to the mechanic to pick him the van, or we couldn’t get a hold of anyone to watch the kids when I went into labor with our third and Grandpa and Grandma dropped everything and came to sit with the kids while we went to the hospital. Like I said, “he’s always there” and because of this fact I am embarrassed to admit we take his presence for granted. We don’t spend nearly the amount of time with him that we’d like . When we do see him we always realize that too much time has slipped since last time and “gosh I wish we did this more often.” That is definitely something Scott and I would like to change. We truly are blessed to have him close by and we’d like to take advantage of that gift.
Happy Birthday Grandpa! We all love you!
I know this post doesn’t really fit with the theme of my other weekend thoughts, but, it’s the weekend and tonight the extended fam will be getting together to celebrate this wonderful man’s birthday, therefore that’s what I am thinking about tonight.
What are you thinking about this week? Why not use your last post of the week to highlight something a bit "deeper" then the average “Momblog” fair? I’d love to read your thoughts. Please feel free to write and link up a “thoughtful” post below. You can write a new post or link up one you wrote earlier in the week. Please include a link back to here in your post.
At dinner last night I was telling Scott how cute it is to watch our 3 yr old in gymnastics. Every now and then she’ll look at the observation window, get a big grin and wave to me. Sometimes she’ll even give me a thumbs up sign. At which point she chimed in and said,
“Yea, this means good.”
“And this means Ravens”
What can I say? That’s my girl!
I’ve b
een putting it off for far too long (as you can soon tell by my before picture). But today I decided that my poor girl was past due for a hair cut. We’ve cut her bangs, but nothing major since what I refer to as the “debacle of 07” when I took my sweet 22 mth old for a hair cut and returned with a sweet little girl sporting the bowl cut. Honey, I am so sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing.
Since then, I’ve stuck with my best friend for bang trims and avoiding cutting anything else.
But, if I am totally honest with myself, she’s been looking a little ratty lately. And that didn’t seem fair to the cute girl hiding under all that hair.
So we braved the local hair cutting salon and I am happy with the results.
Take a look.
Before:
During:
After: (being true to the girl that she is, she had to change her clothes upon arriving home, b/c what day would be complete without changing our clothes at least 2 or 3 times?)
Man, who knew that hiding behind all that hair, was a little girl, all grown up? She looks entirely too old for my liking…but I concede it was long overdue!
In the past month, these pictures were taken during meal time at our home. I can assure you that these antics don’t take place regularly around here, but at the same time, they do happen. After all, it is the circus.
Exhibit A: playing with our food
“Look Mom, I can make vowels with my spaghetti!”
Exhibit B:
Yes, that would be my son eating his applesauce while sitting on his Daddy’s shoulders (and yes, to make it truly circus like, he’s in his underwear).
When my son came up with this “bright” and fun idea my husband thought a moment and responded, “Sure, why not, BUT only this once).
You see why I call it Life At The Circus?
This week we took the kids to see a performance at the Sight and Sound theatre in Lancaster, Pa. If you ever get the opportunity to go (they also have a location in Branson, Mo) I highly recommend you go. (thankfully we were able to use a home school discount and take our family for less than the cost of one regularly priced ticket). We saw their production of In the Beginning, which was a rendition of the Creation story.
It made me think of the story of Creation in a whole new light. As they portrayed God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden, they did an excellent job of portraying the love between our Father and His children. I felt like it gave a beautiful picture of what heaven will be like, as we will truly dwell with the Father in a way we can’t even imagine b/c our sin keeps us from that while on earth. It made me so excited about heaven. Also as I pondered the garden God created, and all its beauty, I realized how magnificent the new heaven and new earth will be. Right now I love to spend time in God’s creation. I enjoy gazing at beautiful sunsets, star studded skies, mountain views, ocean views…but the most beautiful thing on earth, is still existing in a fallen world. Can you imagine God’s handiwork in the new heaven and new earth free from sin? That will be truly breathtaking.
Another thing that struck me was the consequence of sin. When Adam and Even disobeyed and were removed from the garden , they no longer dwelled with God. The Bible talks about them walking together with God in the garden (before the fall). They experienced an intimacy with God unlike we can imagine b/c right now our sin prevents this. When they left the garden, they could no longer see or feel His presence with that same intimacy. The actors did a great job of portraying the pain this caused both God and them. Yet, the story didn’t end here. You see how God still cared for and provided for Adam and Eve, even though they no longer dwelled with him. More than that, God later provided His son to take the consequences of the sin which prevents us from dwelling with God. Because Christ took took that consequence on our behalf, we will one day dwell with the Father, much like Adam and Even did in the garden.
I left so excited and humbled. So often our focus is here on the temporal. And because this world is all we know, we tend to think it’s pretty great. Even in its sinful state. We don’t know what heaven will be like. We know God says it will be wonderful. But it is hard to wrap our human minds around something we haven’t seen or experienced. So often, I think we doubt it. If we’re honest, I think many Christians wonder “how great will heaven really be?” “Are we just gonna sit on clouds and sing praise songs for the rest of our life?” Typically, we’ll say, “I know I won’t be disappointed, but I have a hard time getting excited about heaven.” But my friends, I truly believe heaven is going to knock our socks off. For so many reasons. We have no idea what it is like to truly dwell with our Creator. We can’t even fathom that intimacy. I can only imagine that, that alone will leave us in awe. But, yet there’s more. God created us for His glory. That is our purpose. And while it is true that we glorify God when we sing His praises. That is not the only way we bring Him glory. We glorify Him when we use the gifts He’s given us, for His glory. I imagine in heaven, we’ll be glorifying Him by working and serving together (perfectly) in His new heaven and new earth. And that is going to be incredible. Not to mention the beauty we will experience in the no longer fallen earth. It’s mind boggling to be sure, but magnificent as well. And I am confident that we will NOT be disappointed!
I am thankful or family had the opportunity to see this production. I am also thankful for the thoughts it provoked and the discussions Scott and I had on our way home. I think its valuable to spend time pondering these things. Too often, we don’t.
What are you thinking about this week? Why not use your last post of the week to highlight something a bit "deeper" then the average “Momblog” fair? I’d love to read your thoughts. Please feel free to write and link up a “thoughtful” post below. You can write a new post or link up one you wrote earlier in the week. Please include a link back to here in your post.
The concept of time is a funny thing. Who can really grasp it? On one hand it seems like ages ago that I brought my little one home from the hospital, and at the same time it feels just like yesterday. How does one go about teaching the concept of time to little ones? To them a day truly is like a thousand years!
I read somewhere that its helpful to give children a specific time (as in you have 10 minutes to play and then we are cleaning up) then set the timer and when the timer goes off, clean up. They will then start to grasp a better understanding of time. It doesn’t work if you don’t set the timer and then fail to follow through on the end time. I’ve use this lots both in my classroom and with my children. Egg timers are a mommy and teacher’s best friend!
But, I’ve also found something else that works particularly well for my kiddos. I explain units of time in concepts they can truly comprehend. T.V. Shows
Each day my son has quiet time for 1.5 hrs while his sisters nap. “How long is an hour and a half?” he asks. “One episode of Sesame Street and one episode of Spiderman.” I reply.
"Kids,” I say one morning,"School starts in 15 minutes.” “How long is that they reply,” “You know how each episode of Word World has two stories? It’s one story,” I answer.
So I am pretty much limited to time limits of 15 minutes (one portion of Word World, George the Monkey, or Clifford) or 30 minutes (Spiderman, Dora, or Sid the Science Kid) or one hour (Sesame Street), or any combination of the above.
Last night the kids asked how long till we get there and my husband called to the back of the minivan “45 minutes… like one Curious George less than Sesame Street).
I love this picture. I love it because it shows the kids and my husband engaged in play after a long day of work.
I also love how the big kids seem to be attacking him b/c he’s got the youngest on his shoulders. Almost as if they are trying to get in on the action and attention.
But take a closer look, because if you check out Scott’s face, you’ll find another gem.
Ah, love hurts, doesn’t it?
But just for kicks, check out this shot.
I love the look on both of their faces. Priceless, huh?
I wasn’t exactly sure how much uncle Jim would feel like playing army, since he lives army every day of his life and this was his leave time to see family before deploying to Iraq. But uncle Jim, was a huge sport about it and never complained about playing Friday night at the birthday celebration, or during the neighborhood harvest celebration on Saturday or during the Steelers game on Sunday. In fact uncle Jim played army, Star Wars, and Transformers every time we saw them, with never a complaint. And my son loved every moment… eagerly sitting by him at every meal and during church on Sunday morning. It was rather cute to watch. 
