Eight is Great!

Dearest Lena,

            You are becoming a young lady before our very eyes!  What a year of growing you have had.  This year you have become a book girl and we are often calling you to dinner from other worlds and lands.  You love Pippi Longstocking and Nancy Drew currently and really enjoy history.  You've become a violinist and joined the Playing Through History Band and continue in your piano studies.  You have a special knack for french vocabulary and Shakespeare plays! You do not like math or copywriting but you are becoming a fine artist specializing in Narnian figures and flowers at the moment. One of my favorite things you did this year was begin newspaper articles for us with Emmie. The Chucklehead Papers appear at every birthday and delight us with homemade jokes and riddles.  Perhaps your favorite place to be is swinging out back or creating concoctions in the mud kitchen.  You are contemplative, tender, poetic and yet still a firecracker. It's been a difficult year and you've wrestled with hard things and asked hard questions.  I'm so proud of you for seeking truth and beauty in all you do and I pray that you will always find your answers in Jesus.  You are so dear to us, a beloved sister to Emmie and Phoebe, a cat whisperer, chicken mama and a newly minted gardener.  We love you so. 

 

A Reluctant Spring

Spring is chilly and late this year, but I marvel at the way God brings new life once again. Each day I notice new leaves appearing, unfurling like delicate lace on the long tree arms.  This green is new and vibrant, coating the world in fresh beauty. Even the weeds are delicate, reaching heavenward. We smell lilac as we walk to the library, discover the magenta blush of the dogwood and laugh at the chickens' delight at newly sprung grass.  We are reminded of the new life Christ brought when He did not remain in the grave, but rose victorious. Spring shouts this to us, even if it is a reluctant spring. 

We have entered a new cycle of learning, one of field trips and nature walks, finishing books and pursuing unit studies of interest. We are preparing for recitals and performances and planning new gardens as we wait for warmer temperatures.  Each day these little women surprise me with their imaginative life, and I rejoice to see the reappearance of book characters and historical figures in their play.  An appliance box has become a store and I hear shouts of snake discoveries out in the woods! Motherhood is always a bit of a shock. You never know what each day will bring. Two year olds are especially creative in this and Phoebe knows it well!

This year we dyed eggs with herbal tea and the girls experienced their first Passover Seder on Maundy Thursday. We took a trip to learn about the Liberty Bell and are deep in Revolutionary War history. I'm thankful to have finished our second and fourth grade years well and I rejoice that learning isn't relegated to days or logs, but is the rhythm of our pilgrim lives. The habits we nurture will bear fruit forever and we plant seeds and water little hearts, (and big ones) that Christ might do His good work there.  

 

Mere Motherhood

I recently read a book called Mere Motherhood (and I really enjoyed it).  The title has stayed with me and some days I laugh and think there is nothing "mere" about it.  Some of our most normal days are epic, difficult, exhausting. Training up little minds to love God is not for the faint of heart. Or is it?  We've had some hard days in our house- grieving, missing loved ones, asking hard questions about sin, about God, about war. Recently one little woman asked why Narnia isn't real, because honestly it seemed so much better than our present world.  (She must've forgotten about the whole first part!)  In the hard, and in the normal, seeds of truth are planted, watered and nurtured and we pray that God will grow those seeds to flourish and blossom.  So though our days this last month have been somewhat mundane, full of dishes and broken appliances, sleep strike toddlers, sickness and worry, we take each moment captive and give it to Jesus. We learn the names of God and take comfort that Jehovah Jirah- God will provide. Emmanuel- God is with us. 

We learned to make homemade marshmallows, got to visit my 97 year old Nana and bring her joy, we've bundled up for outside time, baked many cookies, read many books and taken care of 2 sick chickens.  We learned colonial dance music, practiced the cornet and clarinet along with our other instruments and have taken to having science experiments on Fridays.  This week we found crocuses and snowdrops and listen to the geese returning to the reservoir. We wait expectantly for more normal days and the beauty that is hidden in them. 

 

And then you were: two and half

Our little Birdie is 2 and a half years old and is busy as a beaver.  She is chatty as can be and likes to count to ten in french, paint pictures for her friends, sing nursery rhyme songs, dance to the Nutcracker, love her kitties and chase the chickens.  The last month has brought a discovery of baby dolls and now they are "put to bed" throughout the house in various pots, bowls and bags.  She adores her big sisters and wants to be like them.  She does her learning time along with the big girls now and seems to already know her ABCs.  How'd that happen? She is a hoot and a firecracker and we love our Phoebe girl. Some funny Phoebeisms are: pomato (tomato) and permember (remember),  I am busy (dizzy). 

The winter doldrums hit us and so we've been working hard at getting in our walks and sunshine, have taken trips to the local greenhouses, play a lot of music (We are learning colonial band music currently), learning to type on an old computer and send out letters, learning all the local bird songs and cooking colonial meals.  Emmie and Lena have been building Cair Paravel our of snow and ice and were quite distraught when it melted.  Phoebe still doesn't like the snow or ice, but prefers hot cocoa with Mama inside.  The days are overflowing and we're working on being gentle with ourselves and with each other, holding each one closely and rejoicing in each day.