Look to This Day

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the varieties and realities
of your existence:
The bliss of growth;
The glory of action;
The splendor of beauty;
For yesterday is already a dream, and tomorrow
is only a vision;
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a
vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation of the dawn!

From the Sanskrit
(Copied from "A Little Treasury of Gold: Poems of Love and Faith")

First Communion

I attended my godson's first Holy Communion yesterday afternoon, and it was so special to see all those sweet little kids! There were 60 something children taking part in their first communion mass, and the choir was made up of children also. Sweet music - children's voices always make for sweet music!

As a lifelong Primitive Baptist, my knowledge of all things Catholic are fairly limited. So, when I sit through a catholic service, I tend to get distracted by all the different things that are going on around me. It's sometimes difficult for me to listen to any one thing that anyone says because I'm absorbing the whole "experience", for lack of a better word. HowEVER, as the priest was talking yesterday, I actually was able to take home something he said!

He was talking about the special love that parents have for their children. And the privilege of being able to experience that love, as a parent. He spoke of it as you might expect a caring person would, who has only experienced that feeling as an observer. But, he is so right. The amazing love that parents feel for their children - the stay awake all night with a sick child type of love; The sacrifice any and all things that you might want so that your child has what he needs type of love; Even the throw yourself in the face of even mortal danger to save your child type of love. People don't feel that naturally. Parents feel that for their children as a gift from their Heavenly Father. We are able to experience a tiny bit of true love because we are allowed to have this gift.

But HE, the ultimate Father, the ultimate and unchanging definition of Love, loved His children so much so that He allowed His own SON to die so that we would be saved from eternal punishment. He loved us THAT much. He loves us that much. It's a love that I can not comprehend. Of which I am NOT worthy, of which I have done nothing to deserve.

My preacher, this past Sunday, made the point that no one has ever said that they regretted living the life that Jesus Christ wants them to live. It's a statement that I could stand to hear on a daily basis!!!

Mmmhmm - that too.

I was just updating my online profile at my alma mater's website, and I came to that famed box where one needs to "choose a profession". As a Mary Kay Consultant, I could have marked sales. As a SAHM, I could have chosen "homemaker". And, technically, homemaker is a really good umbrella for all those things that a full-time mom does during the course of a day. (Although, with smaller children, like mine, active parenting usually takes up most of the day).

Anyway, as I was I was reading thru all the choices, I got a little silly and kept thinking "uh huh, yep, that's my job. That too. Yep, that too". Probably 80% of those occupations listed would apply to a SAHM these days! Accounting, Building Maintenance, CEO (although, really, that is Jmk's title. I'm more of the CFO/COO), Diet Counselor (yes! Nacho Friday is important to a diet!), Environmental Services, Judge, Massage Therapy (ever needed to comfort a child who is too stuffed up to sleep?), Office Manager, Principal, Religion, Research/Development, Transportation, Writer.

And those are just a few of the ones I wrote down in a hurry.

Back in "the day", circa Jane Austen, even those considered right in the "poor" category had at least one live-in person to clean, cook, and do other various things around the cottage. Can you imagine that way of living?

lol...... Yep. I'm a homemaker. And we truly LIVE our lives here at this crazy home we call the Zoo!

Now, off to put in a movie for the kids so I can get back to peeling wallpaper off the wall in the bathroom so we can repaint in there. Feel free to offer up heartfelt groans for me! ::grin::

First Swimming Lesson!

Sweet Poodle had her first official swimming lesson today, and she loved it!!!

Beginning of the lesson.

Blowing bubbles. By the end of the lesson, the teacher is getting their whole face in the water.

Learning to kick behind Ms. Alisha. (Although Ms. Teresa will be her regular teacher, starting next week).

Mom! - when's it MY turn?

The Eighties Interrupted

This lovely shot of what appears to be an 80's style makeup session that was prematurely finished is actually a shiner! Poodle and one of her church friends had an accidental bumper-child moment. They were playing with the football after supper and before the evening service at church on Saturday. Abigail zigged when Poodle zagged. Whoops!

Lovely, eh? It's actually a bit worse in color today than it was yesterday when we took the pictures. But I'm sure that by the end of the week, you'll barely know that she bumped her eye. And, as usual, she barely cried after it happened, and wanted to go back to playing about a minute later.

But it is giving me not-so-pleasant flashbacks of my favorite coral and bright blue eyeshadows that I wore when I was 14. YIKES!!! The 1980's really were a bad fashion decade. Bad, bad, bad.

Purple! No - Pink!

We are having our annual meeting at church this weekend - Elder Sonny Pyles from Graham, TX is here and our meeting started last night. As the preacher was getting going, he related a conversation with a young girl from his home church in which she asked him what his favorite color was. While he was talking, Poodle was playing with the locket that I was wearing, and as far as I knew, wasn't paying any attention to anything but that. So, then, Elder Pyles related to us that he answered his young friend "Well, I've never really thought about it. But, I guess my favorite color is purple". He barely got that statement out of his mouth, and Poodle (in her not-quite-church-appropriate whisper) said matter-of-factly "Pink".

I'm not sure what struck me first. That children as little as she are actually capable of listening to the preacher (albeit in short spurts) or how MUCH I am underestimating her abilities.

This makes me think about an issue of mine that I believe I need to work on. I, oftentimes, expect her to do things too quickly. And then, when she can't accomplish a task the first time we try it, I just assume it is something she can't do. (My head knows the foolishness of that, but my knee-jerk overachieving bone gets in the way of logic). The consequence of that is that she gets the wrong kind of parental pressure, I get unnecessarily frustrated, and no one learns anything of any value.

Sitting and listening through church, cooperating while shopping, walking in the neighborhood, playing with other kids - all these kinds of things require the appropriate behavior to be learned thru practice. They can not know what they are supposed to do just by magic. They have to learn. BUT, on the other hand, they have to LEARN. Know what I mean? I need to be more patient on one hand, but on the other hand, I need to have a high standard for what I expect of my monkeys.

Ahhhh - methinks I'm overthinking as usual. But, that's my MO. That's why I married someone who keeps my feet on the ground and helps me talk thru things. God bless him!!!

DyeDye?

Tooter has slightly expanded his vocabulary to include Bye Bye! However, if you hear him say it, you are NOT going to hear ByeBye. What you will hear is "DYE DYE DYE DYE" in a VERY loud voice with a look of "Now, if you can't hear me, I'll be glad to repeat all that a few decibels louder. Really, it's no problem for me". And, he will be waving his little hand back and forth while loudly proclaiming his DyeDye'ness.

Seems as though we're going to have another "late talker" as Poodle was. Jmk has to keep reminding me that although Poodle's vocabulary expanded very slowly, she has MORE than made up for her initial lack of verbiage. Tooter looks to be following in her footsteps. Heaven help us!

We Recycle!

Years and years ago, my youngest brother gave all of us a CD of songs that he composed on his keyboard. One song for each member of his family (none of us were married back then). They were all beautiful songs, AND their melodies were at an even keel enough that I had an idea a couple of weeks ago.

I got Jmk to take those songs, and mix them in with another cd of piano lullabyes, and that has become the "sleepytime" music for Tooter. There's something in me that feels so happy to hear David's playing as I'm rocking my wee one to sleep at night. Honestly, it's a blessing to be able to do that. What a lovely thing to listen to each night.

Thank you Uncle David!

For Aunt Sessie

See! We really do let Tooter wear his Titans Jersey! ::grin:: (But only after a few rounds of "Touchdown Broncos").

For everyone else - the website has been updated with March's pictures. AND, for a most precious and adorable video of my favorite niece and her first month, go here!

Praises and Thoughts

Last week, my mom's brother, John, underwent an emergency triple by-pass. He has now enjoyed 7 days with his "new" heart. (All praise to God for this healing!!!) And with this "new" heart has come a new outlook on life. He has sent emails lately that have been so full of positiveness and joy. Of confidence and reliance on the Lord. Of gratefulness and strength. It is a beautiful side of Uncle John!

Uncle John is a practicing orthopedic surgeon, and, as it is with most doctors, loves the art of medicine but detests the business end of it. He has often talked about the pitfalls of having his own practice and of the difficulties that not only the government but also insurance companies place on the practice of healing medicine. I would guess that the majority of doctors think the same thing.

Anyway, there have been some wonderful things that he has said in some of his recent emails, and I wanted to share bits and pieces of them with you. I guess you have to know John to feel the weight of his saying these things. But even without that, what he's saying is still worth repeating!

Here's an excerpt from his first post-op email to family and friends:

"My ICU nurse for that shift closed the door to the room and held my hand and asked if she could pray with me. I never felt quite so filled with the Spirit before for that Spirit was in the room. He had brought me through all this and now this wonderful ICU nurse was going to offer up thanks to Him. Those were the most beautiful words in prayer I have ever heard and they will stay in my mind the rest of my life. The people who have this hard job of taking care of us when we are sick and who seem so detached at times are far from it. They really do care. And I really do care what happens to our medical system as politicians batter it around. We must never lose what we have. We must make it even more available to everyone in America, no matter what the cost. If there is such a thing as the LORD's work on earth, it is this-to heal the sick."

Amen, and amen. The government has no business in medicine. People get things done - government does not. We need to make our caring doctors and nurses available to more people without involving the government. Wouldn't that be a beautiful ministry!!!

Thank you to SueSue for volunteering at a local free clinic. That is the kind of ministry work that would fall in line with what Uncle John is talking about!

Ridin' the horsey....

Poodle and Ben were horsing around ::ahem:: at their playdate yesterday. The wee ones - Tooter, Elijah, and Elizabeth were elsewhere at the time of the picture. (But the messy state of the playroom rests fully on their shoulders. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ha!)

Ahhhh - what playroom, those who have been to my house are asking. Most people would call that room the "dining room". But with the very open floorplan of our house, that room has become much more useful as a containment area for toys, games, puzzles, "school" stuff, etc. since there is no dividing wall between this room and the living room, this works out a LOT better than our taking up the space with a formal dining table that, quite frankly, we wouldn't use right now.

Aaaannnnd - back to our regularly scheduled program!

Teeth. Check.

All the cuspids have now emerged for Tooter. Not sure when that 4th one actually made it thru, but it was in the past 2 weeks. So! We're done until the 2 year molars. Finally. We've been so emerged in eczema lately that his teeth were totally forgotten.

In other news, I am SO glad that God made children to be as forgiving as He did. Who else but our Designer would know that we would need that? (An intelligent, perfect Designer. Not swamp sludge. For the sake of pete).

A couple of days ago, we were having a DAY around here. Tooter was tired and fussy. Poodle was testing EVERY limit she had. Plus a few that I didn't even know about. I was barely getting thru with settling him down, before she had to be disciplined again. It was just a no-good day. But, after supper, Jmk took the kids outside to play, and I stayed inside to clean up the kitchen. (read: take a small break from the noise for 10 minutes). About 8 minutes into it, Poodle comes busting in thru the door with the energy of a small tornado, and says "Mommy! Aren't you coming outside to play with us?"

"sure honey - let me finish up the dishes, and I'll be right there".

Sigh. The mercy of the Lord. She remembered nothing of the day that had just passed - she only wanted everyone to be outside having fun. (Granted, the discipline made the NEXT day better. She was much more cooperative). But she dwells on none of it at that moment. She only wants to exist in love and joy.

Oh, that I could be more like that. Childlike faith and childlike forgiveness.

Remember Why on Sunday morning

~~~Hat tip for this to my dear friend, Eli. Thanks for the eye opener hon!

It's a Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody runs in from the parking lot yelling, "Turn on a radio, turn on a radio!"

And while the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made: "Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from a 'mystery' flu." Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country.

People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is working! California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts.

It's as though it's just sweeping in from the borders.

And then, all of a sudden, the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made. It's going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected, and so, sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That's all we ask of you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.

When you and your family get down there late on that Friday night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors coming out and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it.

Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they say, "Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be dismissed and go home."

You stand around, scared, with your neighbors, wondering what in the world is going on and if this is the end of the world.

Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your son tugs on your jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me."

Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. Wait a minute! Hold on! And they say, "It's okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the right type." Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and hugging one another ... some are even laughing. It's the first time you have seen anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says, "Thank you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. It's clean, it is pure, and we can make the vaccine." As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot full of folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying.

Then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, "May we see you for moment? We didn't realize that the donor would be a minor and we need ..... we need you to sign a consent form." You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken has been left blank.

"How many pints?”, you ask.

And that is when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, "We had no idea it would be little child. We weren't prepared. I'm sorry sir, we need it all."

"But but .. You don't understand."

"We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We need it all!"

"But can't you give him a transfusion?"

"If we had clean blood we would. Can you sign? Would you sign?"

In numb silence, you do.

Then they say, "Would you like to have a moment with him before we begin?"

Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a table saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?" Can you take his hands and say, "Son, your Mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to you that didn't just have to be. Do you understand that?"

And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've GOT to get started! People all over the world are dying.

Will you leave?”

Can you walk out while he is saying, "Daddy? Mommy? Daddy?

"Why, why have you forsaken me?"

And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your son, some folks sleep through it ... some folks don't even come because they go to the lake or the seashore ... some folks come with a pretentious smile and just "pretend" to care. Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DON'T YOU CARE?"

Is that what GOD wants to say? "MY SON DIED FOR YOU. DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whew…. Of course, Jesus Christ knowingly laid His life down for us. But this precious and heartbreaking story took my breath away. In "real life", Christ chose to obey His Father and our Father, and in doing so saved every one of His children. He paid the price!!!

A Little Fun For Today

This came from a "forward email" from Linda Ross Aldy - a wonderful fellow W Alum. In full disclosure, I have no connection with either the real baby or the furbaby in the pictures!

Instructions For Properly Hugging a Baby

First, spy a baby

Second, be sure that the object you spied was indeed a baby,
by employing classic sniffing techniques.
If you smell baby powder and the wonderful aroma of wet diapers, this is indeed a baby.

Next you will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process. ~ Note ~
The added slobber should help in future steps by making the paw slide out easier.

The paw slide- Simply slide paws around baby and prepare for possible close-up.

Finally, if a camera is present, you will need to execute the difficult and
patented hug, smile, and lean; so as to achieve the best photo quality

Happy Baby Hugging!!!

Oh the difference an extra child can make

Back when Poodle was a baby, these were the kinds of pictures I could take around Easter:






THESE days - this is the best I could manage getting both of them in one shot. I was oh-so-proud of their coordinating outfits. Tooter's is an outfit that my mom handmade for my brother Robert when he was around 2'ish, and I was so excited to find Poodle an Easter dress that would coordinate with Uncle Robert's outfit. But getting them in a shot together with their clothes on and a remotely pleasant expression on both faces? lol..... yeah. right. This will have to do!


There will be more pictures in the April set when I get around to getting them posted to the website. Actually, I think I still need to get March pictures uploaded.

HowEVER, "perfect pictures" notwithstanding, the beauty of having these more mobile children also means we got to do something quite fun this year! A real live Easter egg hunt in the backyard the day before Easter Sunday! The wonderful beauty of it? All the grandparents were able to be there, along with Amy and Jay and Robert and Jaime and Audrey. It was so great! The grandparents hid the eggs, and Poodle got to find them all, since Tooter wasn't terribly interested in the event.

My biggest ooops of the day was the hot chocolate that I made on the stove. I used a much easier recipe out of a recent Guideposts instead of sticking with the tried and true recipe from days gone by. And by the time it had simmered on the stove for awhile, it was quite thick. More like sludgey chocolate syrup than hot cocoa. Sounds delicious, huh? lol..... Oh well, live and learn!!!

I heard someone say recently that Easter should be the most celebrated holiday in a Christian's life. I rather agree. It won't top Christmas for the commercial world, but our entire faith hinges on the Resurrection. I'm so glad that the combined Zoo family was able to make such a wonderful day of it for my bunchkins!!! Thank you everyone!

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

lol!!! No, this isn't Tooter, although I dare say that this is visions of things in my near future!

This darling little one with the yummy cheeks is J.D. - son of my sweet friend Patty. He's a bit older than Tooter, so I can watch him and be ready for the mischief waiting for me up ahead. heehee!

And for all those who are concerned: according to Patty - no snails were harmed in the filming of this blog. :-) Maybe scared, but not harmed. Ewwww. Boys.

Y'all do come - anytime!

Okay. I know my scan of the newspaper ad from the Rankin County News is not the clearest in the world. Here's the text:

Grace Primitive Baptist Church
(formerly Jackson Primitive Baptist Church)
349 Crosspark Drive : Pearl, Mississippi

The membership of Grace PB Church invites all who love Jesus Christ and the Bible to worship with us in our new sanctuary.

We have a simple, traditional form of worship that emphasizes Bible instruction, prayer, and congregational singing of hymns.

We believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant word of God, and consider it necessary to wholesome minds and hearts. Our doctrines and practices are the same as those of historical Baptists.

Crosspark Drive begins at the traffic light with intersection of Highway 80 (between Kroger and Walmart) and continues to Old Brandon Road where the street becomes El Dorado Road. Grace PB Church is on the left about one quarter (1/4) mile from the Highway 80 intersection.

PLEASE JOIN US IN PRAISE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

For more on Primitive Baptists see: http://www.pb.org.
Pastor: Elder David Pyles 601-936-6353
David Pyles (dpyles@netdoor.com)

Oh! And what wasn't in the ad:
Sunday morning: 10:30am
Sunday evening: 6:00pm
Wednesday evening: 6:30pm

AND - it's a "family pew" church. No nurseries, so your kids can just sit with you during worship. And don't worry if they make noise. Mine do all the time! You just take them out, settle them down, and come on back in. Really, you can't "mess up" at our church. We just love you for being there!
So, y'all come!!!

I just need to vent.

I was talking to my brother last night, and he told me that baby Audrey was already sleeping 4 hour stretches at night!!! Go girl!!! What a blessing...... which made me think about Tooter when he first came home from the hospital. He was such a good little sleeper. He had his days and nights worked out in less than a week, and almost never felt the need to play when he woke up for a diaper change or to eat at night.

sigh....

And then the eczema hit. And we have been battling it ever since. We've had good nights in amongst the bad nights. And I know that this is all but for a season - it will pass. But indulge a tired mommy for just a moment, and allow me to whine a bit. I am sooooo tired!

It is been in a flare-up lately. After the round of recent illnesses and the immediate onset of pollen season after that, in addition to his being able to play outside, there really isn't a clear spot on him. I so much want to try to avoid giving him any stronger medicines than he's already having to use. But it's just wearing me out.

Last night, he literally couldn't sleep for more than an hour without waking up to scratch. There were multiple times where he would grab for my hand, put it on his leg or foot, and have ME scratch him. I remember that awful feeling. Where you'd rather scratch your skin till it bleeds instead of feeling the itch. But for some reason, I was able to get mine under control so much more easily. Maybe because it came on later, so I was able to take care of it myself. I dunno.

Thing is, some of what is on his legs isn't eczema. It's just some allergic reaction to SOMEthing outside. Grass, pollen, who knows. But I can't treat him like the boy in the bubble. He's otherwise healthy, and I want him to feel normal. But so much of what he touches outside irritates him.

So, we're trying a combination of Zyrtec in the morning, and his nightime antihistamine before he goes to bed. Maybe we'll get it all under control. I dunno. I HATE having to give any kid this much medicine. But you should see the circles under his and my eyes this morning. We are just about to hit the wall.

waaah waaah waaah. I know he could have such worse problems than this. So, in a weird way, I'm grateful that this is the extent of his being "sick". But I'm so tired this morning that I can't help the whining.

But, maybe now that I've gotten this out of my system, I can go find my facial highlighter and good concealer, and hide the evidence. ::smile::

Tank you Eastah Bunny - Bock Bock!

Being the Easter Bunny was tricky this year. Poodle knows what's going on - and I couldn't just go shopping any ole time, with her tagging along, like I used to be able to do. Thankfully - MooMoo came over for a couple of hours this afternoon and sat with the kids, and the Easter Bunny hit Target!!!

That was fun. Thank you MooMoo!

GaGa's latest creations!

GaGa has been busy in his wood shop! He has turned out some beautiful things for the kids in the past couple of weeks. FIRST:

This lovely Block Box! (Say that 10 times really fast). Jmk's grandmother gave Poodle a set of wonderful wooden number/letter blocks a couple of Christmases ago. And, Jmk wanted GaGa to make a box to hold them. Here are some shots!







Then, GaGa gave these to the kids on Sunday. They're puzzles! Aren't they great?!? And he even painted them himself!!! MooMoo says she sort of gave some guidance as to color, but that he did all the final design work. How special!!! These pictures really don't do them justice. The hummingbird is really pretty in "real life" and the clowns are so sweet. I don't know if the blue and orange was on purpose, GaGa, but thank you for the Broncos moment!!!


And thank you for using your fun time in the shop to create things for your grandchildren. It means more to us than you know!!! We love you!!!