The Dailies, #6

Ummmm.... are you home yet? Oh, no, you're stuck in Louisville awaiting a flight that's been delayed till 11:50 p.m. Stink! You were supposed to be snuggling up to my zonked self in bed by then. Oh, well. Just try and secure some Mountain Dew for your drive home, OK? No falling asleep at the wheel, puh-lease!

Meg's first utterance when she cuddled up in my arms for bedtime prayers was, "Daddy...?" She said it in this sort of shy, wondering way, as if she was hoping it was really true that you'd be home tomorrow, but she wasn't quite sure. I assured her that, yes, she really would get to see you sometime tomorrow! She can't wait! And me neither!

This morning when I pulled up the dining room shade at breakfast, Meg's comment was, "That's so beee-wul!" (Beautiful.) Her pronunciation made me chuckle, as did her choice of adjectives, since it was drizzly and gray out, but I'm glad that she seems to appreciate our view so much!

Guess what we have? A beach house! Asher and Jacque went down to OBX this weekend and found a place in Duck--sounds like the northern part, but I'm not sure. Mom and Dad secured the rental yesterday. I have the link, so you'll get to check out the pictures tomorrow if you like. Spruills thought the beach access was very good, so hopefully Cub and the kids will have an easier time of it than last year. Exciting!

Meg and I looked at some of our beach pics from last year over dinner, and when she saw a close-up of herself with the brightly striped fabric of a beach chair in the background, she said that she was sitting on "a kite." I thought that was interesting. I told her that it was actually a beach chair, and when she saw the next picture, she correctly captioned it as "Meg and Daddy sitting on beach chairs together."

Matthew seemed fine today and is sleeping well so far tonight. Hopefully last night's fever was just a flash in the pan. Sweet little guy. His high temperature sure didn't seem to affect his temperament. I brought him downstairs for a few minutes to see if I could get some juice into him, and he was just crawling around in the kitchen like he always does, big smiles and happy coos as usual.

God was very near to me today, helping me to cry out to Him more frequently and use self-control in anger-prone moments. Still far from perfect, but I was encouraged. I re-listened to part of Josh's Mother's Day message last night and was literally talking out loud to myself throughout, trying to get a fresh hold on truths that I don't always seem to believe.

Josh: The outcome of your parenting is not dependent on your efforts.

Cara: No? No, it's not.

Josh: It is dependent on the grace of God.

Cara: Yes. YES.

Some quick pics, and then I'll be finished for tonight... and finished with this series of "Dailies", God willing!

This first shot featured one of my favorite Meg dress-up ensembles ever. It consisted of her onesie, the bloomers that matched the dress she had been wearing (said dress was discarded following breakfast after absorbing about a half cup of milk), and her pink winter hat. Gotta love a two-year old's fashion sense. Actually, it doesn't look much more bizarre than some of the get-ups that come down the runways in Milan and Paris.

Your wife and your son...

...and your little girl, jumping off the end of the twirly slide.

Before you know it, she'll be jumping into your arms... we can't wait to welcome you home, Love.

The Dailies, #5

Hey, Love. Is this our longest time ever away from each other, or does it just seem that way? Not that I'm complaining--I was thinking today about all of the military families who spend months and even years of their lives apart from each other--and they do it knowing that they may not see one another again. I'm so grateful for their sacrifice. It makes our little six days apart look pretty trivial, doesn't it? But I do still miss you. :)

As I texted you, we did make it home in one piece today. It was a little later than I originally intended, but we made it. And the only things I left at Mom's (so far as I have discovered) were a couple of food items in the fridge and freezer. (Including the lettuce for the Dabb's meal. Whoops! But I think they already had some.)

We need to remember to go to that park by the Dabbs' house one of these family days in the near future. What's it called? Ovid something Wells or something like that? Anyway, the playground there looks really fun. Meg was excited that we got to see it it twice. (Once when we drove in, once when we drove out.) Only imagine her joy if we should actually get out of the car and play on it!

It was kind of hard to leave Cubby. I know he'll be fine, but I liked being there to keep him company, and I know he liked it too. Ah, well. Tomorrow night you and Lena will both be home, and then no more aloneness for either of us!

When we walked in our front door today, I could smell our house smell. That's always so weird--to smell that smell that other people probably notice every time they come in, but I only notice when I've been away for an extended time.

I dealt with less anger overall today, I think, but I still gave in to temptation a couple of times and had to seek Meg's forgiveness. I am thankful that she seems to forgive me readily and completely. As soon as I confess and ask her to forgive me, the cloud of my sin seems to evaporate for her, and I am suddenly just her beloved mommy once more. I want to forgive like that!

This afternoon, when we pulled in to our parking space and got out of the car, Meg noticed a Honda across the street and said, "Daddy's car!" (It was a black Accord with pinstripe detailing, so she was pretty close!) She is really on the lookout for any sign your return... sweet.

After dinner and a few rounds of "Who's-Gonna-Get-You-In-The-Kitchen" tonight, Meg and I took some self-portraits, as I got no other pictures today. Here they are, for your amusement.

Our first attempts:

Then Meg decided she wanted to push the button. Here she is figuring out how to do it. Concentration...

Meg worked hard on refining her button-pushing technique, by clicking away furiously. I worked (not very hard) on amusing myself, by making stupid faces.

And eventually we got one where we're both smiling AND looking in the right place! Amazing!!

The Dailies, #4

Hi, David. Glad to read that the orchestra session was going well. And thanks for calling earlier today. I miss you so much.

Am very glad we've stayed with Cub again tonight. He was even more pleased about it than I expected. Thanks for helping me decide what to do.

The kids did so well in church this morning. Matthew slept in someone's arms through most of his class! I couldn't believe it--I never would have predicted it! The lady who got to hold him really enjoyed it, I think. She told me he was "a darling baby" and thanked me for bringing him to class. "Uh, no," I said, "thank you!"

Here's a cute sound-byte from one of these recent days... I forget which one. I took Matthew over to say goodnight to Meg at a nap time. "Say goodnight to your brother, Meg," I said.

"Goodnight, Brother!" she said. "Obey Mommy!" Sounds an awful lot like what you say when you leave for work in the mornings, eh?

And as I was typing this, I heard her say it again on her way upstairs to "put teddy bear to bed RIGHT NOW!" (Those last two words are a recent addition to her teddy-to-bed game--she always shouts them.) "See ya later, Buddy! Obey Mommy!"

I'm afraid, however, that Meg was not much able to take her own advice this evening. She was not obeying, and she was finding herself quite funny in her disobedience. I was not. In fact, I was very angry with her much of the afternoon and had to ask her forgiveness multiple times. Oh, my wretched sin. I am so grateful for the gospel, which allowed me to say to Meg tonight, after my third or fourth apology, "Meg, Mommy is a sinner who needs a Savior. That's why Jesus came to die on the cross for my sins. Jesus is our Savior." How I pray that God's saving grace will be magnified in Meg's eyes through her mommy's many failures.

At one exasperated moment tonight, I had the thought, "There's nothing I can do to make her understand!" (I wanted her to STOP laughing every time she disobeyed me and understand the seriousness of her own sin.) And then I had the thought, "That's right. There's nothing I can do." And when I realized afresh that God is the only one who can do what needs doing in Meg's little heart, I finally experienced the release of the weight I'd been carrying all evening--the terrible pressure I sometimes (wrongly) feel to make her obey. I think this may be the root of my anger with Meg even more often than I realize. I want and need to examine this area of my heart more.

I got only three pictures today, and one of them is pretty bad, but it will make you smile, I think, because it's a familiar scene:

And since we're covering Meg's snacktime, let's just stick with the theme of munching. Here's Matthew, doing his best to eat Cheerios...

...and to eat mulch.

The Dailies, #3

Well, my Darling, it's late, and I'm tired. And I haven't heard from you yet this evening, so my guess is that, if/when you read this, you too will be tired. So I'll keep this brief.

-Beautiful weather today; we got out a couple of times, just to Mom and Dad's back yard, as you'll see in pictures.
-I got some writing done!! One scene: Jesus and the Samaritan woman, at the well. Hooray.
-Meg misses you very much and keeps hoping aloud that today will be the day that we'll "see Daddy." We're half-way there, as of tonight! Three days to go...
-Matthew's begun eating Cheerios, dry of course, and one at a time. He doesn't quite have the pincher grasp to be able to get them himself, but he likes it when Mama feeds them to him.
-Matthew tried "climbing" down the one step into the dining room here at Mom's--head first. Fortunately, he let himself down fairly gently and landed on a cushy eye-glasses case (the vinyl kind). Not so much as a bump on his head--but plenty of wailing to make up for it!
-Watched the recent PBS version of Sense and Sensibility with Cub tonight; this explains the lateness of the hour. I'm grateful we've been able to be here with him.
-Meggy's primed for church tomorrow, as usual--I just pray that she won't freak out when Aunt Lena's not waiting for her in class tomorrow...

Funny boy, stuck at the step... he won't even try to come up, though he attempted the down today. In the foreground you can see the glasses case that broke his fall later.

The babies hangin' with Cub on the patio.

Matthew did not want to be set down in the grass today and spent some time suspending himself above it, thus:

Oh, you poor, fragile, little thing, you.

Meg's teddy of choice for the day, seated on the fence facing the yellow slide so he could "watch me go down slide."

Our daughter, the miniature movie star.

Too cute.