3zekiel 6 Years Old

That is what I wrote, in bold black icing, on his cake board today! Then I realized I had the "E" backwards. So for today we are calling him "Three-zekiel".

Zekers is an odd child. I think that's what endears him to me - we are so much alike! About a month ago, I asked him what kind of theme he'd like for his birthday, to which he promptly replied, "Rock, Paper, Scissors." "Wait a second - you want a Rock Paper Scissors cake?" I sputtered. And that is exactly what he wanted.

After processing through his bizarre request, I finally came up with some ideas for the cake. And that's when he informed me he wanted a Henry and Mudge cake, to go with his favorite book series. And not just ANY Henry & Mudge design - it had to look like the cover of the very first book, complete with title and author's name.

It wasn't until a few days later, when he decided he'd like a giant squid cake, that I made an executive decision, and informed him that I'd be making a great white shark cake (I'd gotten the idea from the Family Fun website.) From now on, the kiddos will be choosing their birthday cakes from there - end of story! As it turned out, he loved his cake, and so did I, as it gave me an excuse to buy Swedish fish to go with the cake.

Since it IS his birthday today, I thought I'd share just a few of the things I love about my 6-year-old:

- He absolutely ADORES any kind of animal. He wants to be a zoo-keeper when he grow up.

- His love for animals is overshadowed only by his love for vanilla ice cream. Just plain old vanilla.

- He has read Happy Birthday Bad Kitty maybe upwards of 100 times - no exaggeration. I realized this is because he is alarmingly similar to the title character.

- He is so good with Karis and Malachi (when he's not annoying them to death). He often reads to them, or shows them how to play video & computer games. He's even trying to teach Karis to read - not too successfully, but it's sweet.

- Whenever I pack him a lunch he likes or make a favorite dinner, he gives me an extra kiss and hug at bedtime. I've earned up to 8 of them some nights.

- One of his favorite foods is carrots. I can't complain about that!

I love you Beef Man. Happy Birthday!!

The Last Few Weeks

After spending what seemed like most of February on a Level 3 Snow Emergency, we've welcomed the craziness of March! It will be much less long and boring to let pictures do the talking . . .

An unfortunate side effect of growing up with older sisters.


The winter olympics were apparently quite inspiring to some. I really got into the figure skating, snowboarding and skiing. It does get old after a while, though, when every men's event involves head-to-toe spandex, and/or hot pink piping.



Now that Karis' hair is shorter, it's lots more fun in the bath.



Rachel enjoyed practicing for, and taking part in, Sparks-A-Rama, the AWANA games for grades K-2.


I THINK Zekers liked it, too - at least that's what he told me when I asked him. But you wouldn't have thought it to look at him. He's the one hiding behind the trophy.


The kiddos were excited to see one of their favorite babysitters who moved away several years ago . . . .


. . . at the wedding of a sweet friend and her husband, who met in Mali - Rachel & Ibrahim Maiga. Danny had the privilege of marrying the 2 of them, and I had the privilege of keeping the kiddos entertained while he did it!


The next afternoon, we got to spend some time with another favorite past babysitter, Marissa. Karis was heartbroken to wake up from her nap and find her beloved "Mawissa" had gone.



Rachel and Danny had a very special night at the Father-Daughter dance put on by her school that evening. She donned her most princess-y dress, had Mommy put flowers in her hair, counted down the minutes until the event . . . and then spent most of it dancing with her friends. You gotta love second grade!


This past Saturday, we drove to Columbus to visit my grandparents. Grandpa is in a nursing home and Grandma has settled into a nearby community. First we stopped and saw her new place, and then we visited Grandpa for several hours. It was hard to see him so thin and tired, but he seemed to be in pretty good spirits, and he recognized all of us.


Grandma's girl


Afterward, we stopped by to see our dear, long-time friends Dave and Johanna, and their clan, which was increased by one last Monday.


So much chocolate . . . so little time!

One of Those Days

It started this morning with a 2-hour delay. For once, I had everything ready to go 20 minutes before they were supposed to leave for the bus: lunches, papers, bags, etc. I had this whole morning planned: Karis and Malachi and I were going to hit the ground running as soon as Rachel & Zeke got on the bus. And then the call came - a 2-hour fog delay.

On to plan B. I loaded up the kiddos and we all headed out together. And that's when the fun began. Minutes after leaving the house, I heard sirens behind me. I was pulled over for "failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign". I honestly thought I HAD come to a complete stop. In fact, I saw the police car coming and took mental inventory of everything - speed (check), seat belt (check), etc. I was not in a hurry (for once). Anyway, even though we always have our registration and insurance cards in the van, I could NOT find the insurance card anywhere. Not only that, I drew a complete blank when he asked me the name of our insurance company! Now, with health insurance I could rattle off names AND phone numbers, but it's been so long since I've had to think about car insurance, I was coming up with nothing. ("No, REALLY, Officer - we have insurance! I just can't find any proof and can't seem to remember the name of the company, but I promise, we have it!") Really convincing.

Citation in hand, I finished the short trip to the dry cleaners, made a couple of other stops, and then stopped at Wal-Mart. The cashier I got must have been new - she scrutinized every coupon and took basically 3 times longer than she needed to scan everything. The last item was a bottle of sparkling wine - which I was purchasing for a recipe I wanted to try this week - vanilla pound cake with sparkling wine glaze. Would you believe she actually carded me?!

At first I was elated. It's been YEARS since I've been carded, which is kind of depressing. So I was overjoyed . . . until I went to pull out my driver's license and realized it was still on the passenger seat with my citation. Since I can't remember the last time I've been carded, OR the last time I've been without my driver's license in my wallet, the odds that both of these would occur on the same day are almost nil. But . . . I've always been one to beat the odds, I guess.

I paid for my groceries (except the wine), went out and loaded up the van, grabbed my license, came back in and finished up. All this was with 4 kiddos in tow, of course. Which is why we ended up being about 3 minutes late for school. And I was so flustered by everything that I realized when we got home that I had forgotten to put drinks in Rach & Zekers' lunches (which we'd bought at Wal-Mart specifically FOR their lunches).

All I can say is, that pound cake had better be exceptionally good!

An Unexpected Gift

It was 6:30 on Monday evening. Danny had just left for a meeting, after running home and grabbing a quick dinner. And, once again (so I said to myself), here I was, dead on my feet, with two hours of caring for and entertaining 4 kiddos looming before me. I sat on the couch, marinating in self-pity that threatened to grow thicker by the minute.

As I sat there, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a grinning face heading toward me at top speed. Before I knew it, I'd been tackled by the 33-lb. tank I affectionately call "Mr. Moo." He immediately began asking me, in his barely-decipherable vernacular, to play a game with him. I sighed. "What do you want Mommy to do?"

He ran to his room, grabbed his pillow, and showed me that he wanted me to lie down on the pillow and pretend to sleep. He would then be the "alarm clock", screeching to wake me up. We spent a little while falling asleep and waking up, and then he decided it was time for Round 2.

For the next 30 minutes, we played this bizarre game, which involved him being different kinds of animals (interestingly, they ALL made loud growling noises), crawling up onto the couch, and me kicking the animals off the couch by shrieking and pointing at them. He would then wait on the floor while I hid behind the pillow for various amounts of time, before pulling it down and "scaring" him with weird faces and a lot of noise. I have never heard him giggle so hard - we're talking huge, hysterical belly laughs. The kind that, when you hear them, you can't help laughing too.

Eventually, he came over and tackled me again, this time to cover my face with huge drool-y kisses and give out big bear hugs.

While all this was going on, I noticed that Zekers and Karis had snuggled up together on the chair opposite us and were reading a book together, as he tried to work with her on her ABC's. And Rachel, unbeknownst to me at the time, had gone downstairs and cleaned part of the basement, before settling down with her own book. In almost no time at all, it was 8:00 and time to start getting ready for bed, which they did very obediently. I even got an extra hug and kiss from Zekers, for making him a fried egg sandwich for lunch.

Words cannot do justice to the sweetness of that scene. I've always loved my kids, but after Monday, I appreciated and enjoyed them more. So often life becomes a dreary cycle of obligations: making sure everyone's needs are met, fulfilling my responsibilities. Sometimes God has to remind me that there's so much more.

It may not sound like anything that earth-shattering, but to me, this evening was nothing short of a gift from God. In spite of my less-than-sanctified attitude, He opened my eyes to appreciate the good and the fun things in my kiddos - to realize again that they are truly a gift from Him. And in the times since then, when they've had their moments of fighting and whining and basically getting on my last nerve, God has brought that scene to my mind - and permanently etched it on my heart.

I am thankful for unexpected (and undeserved) gifts.