seven layers of delicious complexity

I salivate over seven layer bars.

I became enamored with them in college. They were available almost every single day in the DC (dining center) at Bethel. How spoiled I was. And, oh, how I took those days of dining with choices galore and desserts every meal for granted.

One of the best things about seven layer bars at my house is that no one else likes them. I know, right?! It’s a sweet deal.

The other night Tom and I were talking about our kids and how unique they each are. And how with each one entering our family, we are forced have an opportunity to grow and “expand our skill set,” as Rachel Jankovic says in Loving the Little Years.

Children– well, people (which children are, after all), are complex, layered little beings. Not only is every child completely unique, but their uniqueness changes as they grow! The minute you think you have your child pegged as ‘x’ they start to expand and grow into ‘x’ and ‘q’.

This is why parents (um, me) should refrain from pegging their children too strongly in any sense. This will quickly become pigeon-holing. It’s all well and good to say, “John’s the talkative one and Sally’s the shy one and Bill’s the athletic one and June’s the math whiz,” if it’s true and inescapable. But it may be true only for a short while. And it may not be the whole truth.

It doesn’t serve our children well to give them a permanent assignment of their person. Rather, as a pastor at our church often says, “Commend the commendable in them,” (meaning the things pertaining to godly character). Strengthen their identity in Christ and let the other stuff wax and wane as it will.

Children have this ability to become what we repeatedly say they are. Or to rebel against it. So, if a parent says over and over, “Sally’s the shy one.” Sally will most definitely be the shy one. Perhaps until she goes away to college.

Our children are complex by design. They have been made by their Creator with complexity, layers if you will, and the ability to grow and change . We want to encourage this ability as much as we can. It is training in godliness to give our children the security to go from “the athletic one” to “the athletic book worm.” Someday they will need to go from “the student,” to “the student and teacher.”

Not to mention all the absolute changes that repentance requires. But, that’s starting down a different road.

The bottom line is this: knowing our children means observing when they change and expand, and embracing it with them. Encouraging it in them. Not assigning them who they are at 5 years old, thinking, “Well, I’ve got them figured out,” and repeating it until they’re 15. You may have them figured out at 5–it’s possible and probable in some respects. But don’t assume you do. Keep watching. Keep learning. Keep getting to know the complexity that’s in your child.

It will serve them well. It will make them deeper, richer people. And it will do the same for us parents, as well.

“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8

alive in Christ

Eliza got me an orchid for Christmas.

I’m notorious for killing houseplants. And outdoor plants. And anything green, growing and beautiful. I am working on my 180 in this regard. My plan is to be a sower, grower, nurturer and harvester. I’ll let you know how I come along.

So, this orchid was given to me on Christmas Eve Day. And it’s still alive. Full stop.

Just writing that sentence “And it’s still alive,” makes me do a double take. I seriously just glanced up from my chair to the orchid to make sure that it hadn’t, in fact, died in the last 15 minutes. Stranger things have happened.

Sometimes I look at myself and I do the same thing. I see my face and think, “I’m still alive.” I feel like an orchid living on a windowsill in a Minnesota house. This is not my natural habitat, and it is going to take someone who knows something about how to care for me to keep me alive. Thanks be to God, He does!

Life is very full of all kinds of crazy hard things. Some good hard, some bad hard. Some a mix of both. And God, in His wisdom, intends for us to live through them. We stay alive. We weather storms and sadness and joys and triumphs and things we never saw coming.

My Tom is far away in India right now, sharing the Gospel with people who haven’t heard it. And I’m alive here: praying, participating, wondering if he’ll come back, trusting in the One who is trustworthy. I was meant to live through this joyful, hard thing and a million other things that are easy, difficult, fun, painful, everything in between.

I’ve read a number of articles on blooming where you’re planted. They’re good. They hit on elements of contentment amid circumstances that you might wish otherwise. But I confess, sometimes a nagging objection surfaces that I wasn’t meant to be planted here.. in this world. Not in the ground anyway. I’m a potted plant– a visitor, an alien, with a caretaker who created me and knows how to keep me alive until I get transplanted to my true home in heaven– all praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says in Phillippians, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”

And in Ephesians, the Lord gives us this beautiful and costly reality to hold on to:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” [emphasis mine]

So, yes, I am alive in Christ in this world, meant to live the life I’ve been given. And I am also seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus– my eternal home in the Lord. I am so grateful.

God’s love is not a zero sum game

The love of God is multiplying kind of love.

I am so very thankful that God’s love for me never runs out. In fact, quite the opposite. The more I experience and know His love the more of it there seems to be. It grows and grows.

Just like the loaves and fishes that the young boy brought to Jesus. He is never limited by our finitude. Our small ability to comprehend his love doesn’t stop him from multiplying it for us and others in ways that are beyond us. What I particularly am grateful for is the steadfastness of his love. It cannot be moved or shaken. An unshakable love that grows: that is solace and comfort, no matter what I face.

Psalm 42:8

“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.”

Psalm 59:17

“O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,

for you, O God, are my fortress,

the God who shows me steadfast love.”

oil paint ignorance and nostalgia

My grandma was a painter and a farmer’s wife. Her name was Johnnie.

She often painted with oil paints. I have one of her paintings hanging downstairs. It’s of a big red barn and I love it. I tried to take a picture of it, but it doesn’t do it justice.

So, for my daughter’s birthday I got her some oil paints. On Saturday we tried them out. First, aprons all around.

As we squeezed the paints out on the trays, the smells brought me back. I was standing in Grandma Johnnie’s studio: a garage-like building a dozen steps from the main house, chock full of paintings and easels.

She also painted with watercolor. We did too.

There’s a lot I don’t remember about her and her paintings. But still, I was surprised at how much I could recall.

I love the faces kids make when they’re concentrating. I’m certain my kids’ concentrating faces are much more toned down than mine were.

No tongues out in this crew. I don’t know how they get anything done without their mouths open and tongues out. I find it’s the best way to focus.

One thing I do remember about Grandma’s painting was how she painted the whole canvass a base color before she started, sometimes multiple times. I remember thinking how smart that was! I guess I’m easily impressed.

I also remember how she mixed the colors to make new colors. Again, I was in awe.

And, even though I’m just their mom, not Grandma Johnnie, I do think the kids were impressed when I showed them the way they could mix the colors and get a million different shades.

As we started nearing the end of our oil painting adventure (in other words, the baby was stirring from her nap), I contemplated clean-up.

We got the watercolor stuff put away and all the paintings laid out to dry. Everyone was quite clean and there was hardly any mess at all. Just the oil paints needed to be washed out of the brushes and trays. Easy enough.

What a dope I am sometimes. Oil paints, you know, real paints, made from oil. It doesn’t just wash off, you need paint thinner, or, in my case, a whole lot of soap, elbow grease and about 40 minutes, to get it out of the brushes, etc.

So, it may not look like a lot of paint there in the bottom of my (edited to look cleaner than it was) sink, but don’t be fooled, that’s a lot of clean-up right there. That brought back another memory of my Grandma Johnnie. One of her standing at the utility sink in her mud room, cleaning out paint brushes and trays.

I’m thankful for a Saturday afternoon of standing where she stood, cleaning oil paints out of paint brushes, teaching others the little that I know, being messy, and enjoying it all.

party and pops pics

We had a joint birthday party for the two oldest kiddos last week with balloon themed cakes and cake pops.

 The kids were loved and blessed by family and friends and we are all so thankful for time with loved ones and the gifts given and received.Last year, we (that’s the royal “we.” I’ll have to post on that family phenomenon another time) tried cake pops for the first time. It was fun and lived in my memory as easy. Everything seems easy when it’s a year away and finished. Well, I wouldn’t say they were easy this time, but they were fun, albeit tedious and somewhat difficult. But, still worth it.

Do you notice the three children sitting on the counter helping me? They love to be in on the action. Not pictured is the fourth one, who was helping by emptying the cupboards around my feet.

The cakes above are balloon cakes, before they went under the knife and succumbed to frosting. Thankfully the birthday kids agreed that they wanted balloon cakes for their party. Simple and colorful=right up my alley!

One tip if you’re reading here to learn about how to make cake pops: don’t use almond bark as your dipping candy. I had read somewhere that if you didn’t have Candy Melts (found at Michael’s or JoAnn’s or online) you could use white almond bark and add food coloring. And you can, but the results weren’t quite as good as when I used the Candy Melts. Use Candy Melts!!!

The cake pop sticks get stuck in styrofoam to make them stand up. I covered our round styrofoam with tissue paper, for looks.

We added ribbon to the balloon cakes to make them more balloon-ish. The two balloons on the left were Seth’s and the two on the right were Eliza’s.

Cousins and cake on a stick: what could be better?

Thanks Lord, for children worth celebrating!

For more on making cake pops visit Bakerella.

holding Jesus close

Evangeline carried baby Jesus all around at Christmas time. And we carry Him with us everywhere we go when we are in Christ.

We hold him dear, because He is dear. We hold him close, because He is close. He cares for us in our desperate moments of need and in our happy moments of joy.

And we share Him with everyone we meet, because He cannot be kept secret.

With Jesus as our surest hope and strength, we do not fear the days to come, knowing that nothing happens that is apart from the work of His hand and His plan. He is good and He loves us!

With Jesus as our Redeemer, we do the little things, like eating lunch, cleaning up and carrying on. He redeems our days for His glory.

Fernando Ortega says it best. What solace for our souls:

“In the morning, when I rise

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me JesusGive me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

When I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus”

Eight-year-old Eliza

On this day, eight years ago, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Eliza Grace was born. She made me a mama. Her Daddy looked at her and proclaimed her to be “Eliza.” He named her well.

Here are the top ten things of her year 7, as told by her mom:

1) You like science. We joined a co-op this year and the science class is Botany, which is right up your alley. Not only do you enjoy learning about it, you’re great at reiterating what you’ve learned and replicating the projects that you’ve done in class. You’re a good teacher.

2) Hand in hand with your love of science is your continued love of nature and the outdoors, in general. You love to be outside in every season. Exploring, investigating, collecting, observing. Your attention span is endless in the outdoors.

3) Reading and being read to are greatly enjoyed by you. Right now we’re in the Chronicles of Narnia and every night you beg for one more chapter and often read a page or two ahead on your own, until I send you to bed. It’s a blessing to watch you enjoy reading.

4) You really love to sew. You get to sew in the “homeschool room” at church and have come home with some nice creations. You’d like a sewing machine very much, but for the time being have made use of your Nana’s on occasion.

5) Creativity abounds daily with you. This has been the theme since you were very little. You consume paper and art supplies like they were going out of style. Thankfully Mr. Jamison gave us that big box full of blank paper last year. Blank paper is your favorite.

6) You love to give gifts and are thoughtful in your giving. Most of your creativity is employed in the making of gifts and cards for other people. I have been abundantly blessed with your creations and artwork. You try to make the gifts meaningful for the recipient.

7) Any time you can help cook or prepare food is a happy time for you. Your older friend, Mary Jane was kind enough to give you a cooking lesson and make a cookbook for you. Cooking taps into your creative side and you love anything hands-on and messy.

8) You played soccer this summer. I dare say that soccer may not be your “thing.” But you enjoyed it nonetheless and your team ending up winning the whole shebang. I hope you hang in there and go for it again this summer. Swimming is more of a favorite for you.

9) Dance. Oh my, dance. You’ve started dance this past fall and just love it. And boy do you go for it. I’m impressed how you learn the routines quickly and your poise and confidence (nothing like your mom)!

10) You’re in choir and taking piano still. It’s a blast to watch you grow in these areas. I love watching my kids enjoy music, especially when they’re using it to praise the Lord. And you do praise Him, which makes my heart squeeze so tight it hurts, because I am so unspeakably thankful for it.

Eliza, somehow, somewhere along the line you’ve become God’s girl. It’s there in your desires and in your heart and it is a miracle. I want you to know, if you read this someday when you’re older, that it is truly the work of God and nothing else. He saves people, Eliza, by His finished work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. He’s given you the faith to know it and love it. Thank you, God, for Jesus, and for the Spirit, which blows life into dead hearts. Keep her Lord, consecrated forever to you.