The Kids: Lydia

Lydia.  She's almost eleven, going on thirty.  You know the scene in the Sound of Music where the sisters are singing, "How do you solve a problem like Maria?  How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?" all while Maria is running around in the hills missing prayer time again?  Well, the sisters could have just as well have been singing about Lydia.

What our friend said about Lydia many years ago still applies:  "That Lydia, she's a dandy."  She at once delights and exasperates me.  One minute she's asking for permission to get out more paint, cut more fabric or make homemade lip balm, the next she's showing me a completed project that is so well done, I'm amazed a ten year old could produce it.

Why not turn a button picking up exercise into an art project?

One minute I'm after her about finishing the clean up of her breakfast kitchen, the next she's wrapping yet another gift she made for someone.  One minute I'm telling her to get out her math book, the next I find her sitting at the computer composing an e-mail to her great aunt describing every detail of  her latest art project or bee hive problem.  One minute I'm reminding her to practice piano, the next she's keeping the little boys occupied for me while I'm finishing up a phonics lesson with Jude.  One minute I'm impatiently telling her to get into the van because "we are late!" the next I find her fully engrossed in The Hobbit.

That Lydia, she's a dandy.  And it's exhausting to be her mother.

Right now (as in today), Lydia's interests include bee keeping, quilting, painting, reading, knitting and making smoothies in every flavor imaginable.

For about one week this past fall, Lydia produced a daily family newsletter, which she printed and distributed to the members of the household each morning.  Here are a couple of samples:

Also this past fall, Grandma Dianne indulged Lydia's desire to learn quilting by taking her to quilting lessons.  Lydia was certain she wanted to make a big project right out of the shoot, but she was talked into a smaller wall hanging instead.  She gave the wall hanging to my Aunt Leanna for Christmas, as my aunt loves quilts and quilting.

Speaking of Christmas.  Lydia made Christmas gifts for all of the immediate family, plus her grandparents and a few other friends and relatives.  With the exception of the quilt, Lydia made all of the aforementioned gifts entirely from materials she found around the house.  For instance, she made coloring books for her little brothers by printing out free coloring pages she found online and then binding them in plastic file folders.  She made crayons to go with the books by melting old crayon pieces in small muffin tins.  She also made a "build-your-own" snowman by cutting out all of the parts from felt and then placing them in a plastic container so that Isaac could make a snowman whenever he wanted.

Christmas cards that Lydia painted

For my birthday last week, Lydia painted me a picture of two love birds on canvas.  She found the instructions online and then painted the picture with cast off paints we were given a few years ago.

Lydia received gift cards to Hobby Lobby from her grandparents for both Christmas and her upcoming birthday.  The Christmas card has been spent.  Lydia bought fabric fat quarters for quilting and has already sewn them together to make a quilt front.  We still need to purchase a few more materials to finish the quilt.  We must have spent an hour at Hobby Lobby wandering the aisles while Lydia decided what to buy.  Despite my objections, Lydia purchased the fat quarters.  I tried to talk her into a intermediate art kit, one which included an instructional video.  "But mom!  I don't need any instruction!"

That Lydia.  Not only is she a dandy, but she's also a Dean.  The Lord must have big plans for this little girl and we can't wait to see how her life unfolds.

More Hunting

My dad treated Matt and Paul to two more duck hunting trips at the beginning of January. They were guided hunts and though the temperature was a miserable ten degrees, the guys really had a good time. They shot their limit within thirty minutes the second day--the birds were that plentiful.

Matt came home and cleaned the birds. He soaked the meat for 24 hours in salt water and then ground it up. Last Saturday, the guys grilled burgers for our dinner. Paul found the recipe for Chipotle Duck Burgers in the Ducks Unlimited magazine that we still receive since my grandfather (now deceased) purchased Grace, his first great grandchild, a life time membership. Liz made a chipotle mayo to go with the burgers.  Matt topped them with Tillamook Pepper Jack cheese.   I've never been a fan of wild duck (and wild goose is just gross). I prefer pheasant and quail. However, these burgers were excellent. With more duck in the freezer, I'm sure they'll be on the menu again soon.

A Little Break

Our family enjoyed a little down time after Christmas.  Grace took some time off of work.  Matt and I went to see the new Star Wars movie (the three big kids took themselves to see it before Christmas). We liked the movie, but I'm glad we paid the matinee price for it.  It's been so long since we've gone to a movie in the theater that the matinee price was the same as our last full price movie viewing.

Two days after Christmas, the whole family went to visit the farm.  We drove  there in a snow storm in the dark with the trailer filled with sleds hitched to the back of our van.  The kids thought that was an adventure.

It was great to have a few days of R and R.  The kids had a blast sledding.  I took a little walk on the original homestead.  It's always quiet there, but it is really quiet when it is blanketed in snow. My life is so full of NOISE, I relished the silence of that walk.  We also had some good talks with my aunt and uncle, ate some good food, celebrated Uncle Keith's and Isaac's birthdays and played a couple of games.

I even read a book.  A real book--cover to cover in two days. I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  That was not the book I intended to read over the break.  I had already started Almost Amish and thought I'd finish that, but then one of the bloggers I've been reading for years posted and said that she had started to read Redeeming Love.  It came highly recommended to her by Angie Smith (wife of Todd Smith, singer in the Christian group Selah).  I'm not a fan of this genre at all, but I was intrigued by the fact that the book is based on the book of Hosea from the Bible.  I've always loved Hosea.

So I borrowed a digital copy of the book from my library and started reading at 10 p.m.  I conked out at midnight, but almost completed the book the next day.  The day after that, I finished it off in a couple of hours.  It's been a good long while since I've indulged in a reading binge. Since I finished the book, I've been mulling over the truths it presented.  God loves me.  He chose me.  Even though I have nothing to offer Him.  And even worse, though I'm the most wretched of sinners.  It's been rather overwhelming, really.

This week it's been back to the old grindstone.  Phonics lessons, cooking, laundry, chauffeur duty, picking up stuff off of the floor, kissing boo boos, reading aloud These Happy Golden Years, and laughing at the littles' antics.  All the usual stuff.  And in the midst reflecting on all He has given me in Christ.

Merry Christmas!

Therapy

Some of the people in my life are going through some really tough things.  I've spent many early morning hours praying for them, but beyond that, I'm feeling pretty helpless.  I'm not in a position to make these difficult life circumstances "all better," but I know the One who is and I appeal to His mercy daily.

I fell into bed the other night and prayed, "Lord, I just want personal peace and affluence."  He has a sense of humor, so I knew He could take it.  Something woven into my DNA, whether it be my German heritage, my position as first born child or my melancholy personality (or a combination of the three) means I end up taking on other people's stress.  It's not exactly a healthy practice.  So near the end of last week, I put myself in therapy.

First and foremost, I continued to give others' burdens to the Lord.  I'm not the best burden bearer and as as Matt keeps reminding me, "We play checkers. God plays chess."  Next, I decided to clean. Visual clutter really bothers me, but I've had to become a lot more lax about it.  Having eight kids in the house doesn't exactly lend itself to the "neat and tidy" look that is my personal preference.  But, sometimes I snap.  Something goes off in my brain and I have to get some of the clutter cleared out.

That's what has happened in the last few days.  I sorted piles of mixed up Zoobs, K'Nex and Legos and put them into their proper places.  Then I sorted the Legos by color.  When my brother gifted our boys with his Lego collection several years ago, they were all organized by color, but they didn't stay that way for long.  Now they're back to their former glory.  We'll see how long it lasts--hah!

I tackled Lydia's corner of the girls' room.  This is usually a task for which I'm unable to muster the necessary mental fortitude, but Saturday I did it.  Lydia and I went through every tub and in-progress craft project.  We sorted buttons, yarn, beads and pens.  I washed every stitch of her bedding and put on the winter sheets.

I also sorted all of the kids' books.  We have accumulated a very large library, but everything was out of order.  Golden books were all returned to their rightful place on the book shelf in the boys' room. Early readers were returned to their shelf in the school room.  I went through all the children's books in the house, including Christmas books, and picked out what was borderline twaddle (I got rid of true twaddle several years ago).  I packed two boxes of books to go to Goodwill.

I haven't mailed a single Christmas card, or baked a single Christmas cookie, but I've taken two trips to Goodwill to donate stuff, gone to the recycling center twice and filled our outside garbage can to overflowing.  That was Monday and our garbage pick up day isn't until Thursday.

All this cleaning has been therapeutic in that it keeps my brain from hamster wheeling and going into "impossible problem" solving mode, which it tends to do when not completely focused on a task--a task like sorting Legos by color.  I told Matt "it's cheaper than real therapy, plus all the Legos got sorted."

It's a comfort to know that while I sort Legos and find ten pairs of dirty socks under the beds, the Master Chess Player is making His next move.

  for I am God, and there is no other; 
 I am God, and there is none like me,

10 

declaring the end from the beginning

    and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

    and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ 
Isaiah 46:9-10

The Kids: Paul

Paul  turned fourteen at the end of September.  He's been working with a local knife maker to make a knife, which he completed a little over a month ago.  This, too, was a story of God's provision.

I had been praying for a year that the Lord would find Paul a knife-making mentor.  We had taken Paul to visit a well-established knife maker this past summer.  While seeing this man's set-up for knife making was a dream come true for Paul, a mentoring opportunity didn't present itself.  So, I continued to pray.


Not long after that, an article ran in the local newspaper about a man who makes knives. He had competed on a television show on the History Channel called Forged in Fire.  I e-mailed him.  He was very excited to meet Paul.  Matt and Paul went to the man's house and saw his knife making set-up. Then he offered to help Paul make a knife.

All told, the man donated about 15 hours of his time to Paul in the making of his knife.  (He refused payment for his time).  He is a man who loves to teach, which is exactly what I was praying for.  This man has offered to continue to mentor Paul as he learns the knife making trade.  God is good. We are working on getting Paul the proper equipment so that he can begin making knives on his own. Finances have been the biggest hurdle to overcome, as it's not cheap to even get started with some basic tools.  However, the knife maker gave us some good tips to get the best deals possible.  We hope to get some forward movement on this venture by the first of the year.

Paul continues to be Joseph's favorite, favorite, favorite.  Paul spends a good part of every day tending to that rascally little two year old boy.  He even changes Joseph's poopy diapers with narry a complaint.  Paul also gets Joseph ready for bed and settles him to get him to sleep every night.  It's pretty cool to see that kind of selfless service in a kid Paul's age.

Paul has a great sense of humor and keeps me from taking life too seriously when his dad isn't around to do that job.  He serves as acolyte at the late service every Sunday at church, but he never complains. He also continues to make progress in his studies, reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet Spy by Eric Metaxas (Paul's choice) and a biography of Martin Luther.  He's still plugging along in math, overcoming a motivation issue that he has had the last few years.  Yay for progress!

Boy Scouts continues to be a of great interest to Paul.  He made First Class this past summer, was patrol leader for a session, is currently the chaplain's aid and continues to work on merit badges and pack meticulously for every possible contingency for all the camp outs.

Paul also has put his new hunting license to use.  He passed his hunter training course last spring.  A couple of weekends ago, he and Matt went pheasant hunting.  Just yesterday, Paul went on his first duck hunt as an actual participant. He, my dad and Matt shot 19 ducks.  My dad, who has hunted all his life, said that he'd never been on a better duck hunt.  There were scads of birds and the weather was cold but calm.  Paul was thrilled.  Unfortunately, all future hunts may pale in comparison.

Paul is a joy.  He's a hard worker and does all the jobs I ask him to do without complaint. He's got a soft heart.  God continues to amaze me with His plans for our kids, despite our feeble efforts as parents.  

Paul's First Hunt circa 2006 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!
                        Psalm 107:1