A Guest Speaker

For language today I had Alec, (our 15yr old) write the same poem I posted yesterday. Hope you enjoy it!

Where I'm From

by Alec

I am from Computers,
from Vitamin D milk & Delicious Starbucks’ hot chocolate.
I am from the small cozy home with many chairs.
I am from the Spider plants and the apple tree.
I am from Thanksgiving feasts and Sarcasm,
from Mom and Dad and four grandparents.
I am from the Spontaneous and the Weird.
From “Hang you by your toes in the apple tree” and “Wash your hands!”
I am from God is there no matter what, Even when you sin.
I am from a little town in Indiana,
from Germans, Italians, Dutch and Norwegians.
From Long Conversations and Deep Discussions,
that are not always exciting.

Where Did That Come From?

I found the idea for the poem in the last post here:

http://www.fragmentsfromfloyd.com/archives/2005_02.html#003144

If you try writing one, would you let me read it? :-)
jan

Where I'm From

I am from sawdust under my dad's table-saw,

from Tang, and frozen pot pies.

I am from a quaint place called Sunnybrook Lodge:

the crick, tiny rental apartments, and wet snow falling on my hair as I wander at night.

I am from the mountains,

the pine trees,

wildflowers, and elk.

From ma's mostachioli & homemade bread,

pride and independence,

from Richters and Rinellas and 3 big brothers.

I'm from the people who have an answer for everything,

this too shall pass, and don't freeze your gee gee.

I'm from be careful how you pray, you might get what you ask for

and God helps those that help themselves.

I'm from Chicago, proud Italians

and stubborn Germans.

I'm from chocolate and gin & tonic,

a dad who liked to hunt and fish, fish and hunt,

and a mom who pushed on despite everything.

Her treasures were her children and grandchildren,

now scattered between heaven and earth. Her

family was priceless.

We Rented A House

For seven years we lived in a tiny duplex. As our family grew, so did our desire for a bigger home. Then an amazing thing happened. We were given the opportunity to rent a house. It wasn't just any house though. We had 3 growing boys and here's what the Lord blessed us with:

• 23 acres of woods and a small meadow
• a large front field full of long, wild grass
• 3 acre pond
• an apple tree in the front yard
• berry bushes thrown in everywhere around the property
• 2 row boats
• ducks, geese, herons
• fish to catch
• turtles to catch
• beaver to observe
• microscopic creatures to study
• ice skating
• sledding
• deer to watch
• leaves, leaves, leaves to rake, jump in, and collect
• nests, cocoons, insects, pine cones, seed pods, and acorns
• bonfires and s'mores and hot dogs
• antique bottles buried into the side of a hill to dig up
• paths to chase each other through
• a loooooonnnnnnnggggggg driveway to shovel in the winter
• bird feeders with hundreds of birds to categorize
• watching squirrels gather nuts
• beautiful wildflowers surrounding the house
• the house was large-HUGE living room with a fireplace, 3 large bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and large windows in every room

A couple special memories we have are:

• watching the boys play "Lions in Africa" in the tall grass in the field in front of the house
• playing Frisbee, volleyball and flying kites in the same front field
• one Autumn we watched a squirrel frantically spend his days gathering nuts. He put them in an old hollow tree right outside our living room window. One morning we got up and a raccoon had moved into the food-filled tree. We never saw the poor squirrel again. (I'm sure there's a spiritual lesson in that somewhere.)
• My mother-in-law came and spent a month with us shortly after we moved into that house. One morning, at the crack of dawn, I stumbled out into the living room to find her standing in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace, our 3 sons were with her. All 4 of them were still in their jammies and you know what they were doing? Giggling and roasting marshmallows, laughing, and talking!
• Every spring we loved to watch the geese returning from the south. The pond would still have ice on it when they came. It was so fun to sit in our warm, cozy living room and watch them come in for a landing on the slippy half-melted ice. They'd slide and fall, and tip-toe around like drunken old sailors.
• Except for the summer months, when it's hot and muggy out, Mike and I sleep with our bedroom window open. One morning, late in the fall, when it was still dark out, we woke up to the sounds of crunching and munching outside our bedroom window. We went to the front door and peeked out. There, under the apple tree, were 3 deer, feasting on the apples that had fallen on the ground. The really strange thing was this: one of our cats was out there with them, weaving around their legs and rubbing up against them as only cats do!
• Every once in awhile the boys would find an enormous snapping turtle they just had to show me. To this day I have no idea how they would get the turtles into the row boat, but somehow they did. Benjamin, our oldest, would row the boat across the pond with James sitting behind him keeping a sharp lookout on the turtle. If the turtle tried to move toward the front of the boat James would whack at it with a stick.
• Because the pond was "comma" shaped, I couldn't always see the boys when they were out in the boats. It's only natural that at times I'd be worried about them and want to make sure they hadn't drowned at the back end of the pond. So, good old mom would use her "football game whistle" to call them home, just to make sure they were still alive and well. After rowing and working and sweating their way back around the pond to the house they'd call out, "What mom?" "Oh, nothing. I just wanted to make sure you were OK."
• Our youngest son was born in the living room of that house.

We've since moved on from that house.....the memories we have are priceless........

A Midlife Crisis Moment With jan

I'm tired. Very tired. I woke up this morning I think even more tired than when I went to bed.

We've lived in this house 4 years and for some reason our bathroom ceiling has started to mold.
Mike's checked the roof, no problems. He's gone into the attic-bone dry.

Saturday Barrett slipped while climbing around on his bed and fell. His head crashed into Alec's turtle aquarium and broke the glass. Thankfully Barrett just got a couple bumps on his head! However, their room now smells like a cross between wet, moldy carpet and poopy turtle water.

2 of our appliances are dying.

I used to be able to pay the boys 1 cent for every grey hair they plucked. If they pulled out my greys now I'd look like a mangy dog.

My skin is losing it's elasticity. When I pinch the skin on my hand it stays pinched.

Our house is so tiny we are literally going to have to put one of our livingroom chairs in the back of our van for a few weeks if we want to put up a Christmas tree.

Petty stuff, I know. I know.

How about this? In the last week we've seen all 3 of our older boys going through very hard, intense things. We've spent hours talking with a couple of them about their struggles. Mike and I both feel like Charlie Brown's teacher must've felt. We talk but the words just end up in their ears like, "Wawawawa wawaaa wawa......."
What's the point in going through hard things, and learning life lessons if even your kids won't listen to you?

I just finally have accepted the fact that parenting is like marriage. It's an "until death do us part" proposition.

The hard part is surrendering them to the Lord, like you have to do with your spouse. It's up to the Lord to teach them and take care of them. My problem is control. I want to solve their problems. I want to make them comfortable. I want them happy, not struggling.

Alec doesn't come by his stubborn, strong-will mysteriously. Surrender.

It's SO much easier to live with Barrett. With him all I have to worry about is if those gagging noises he's making while he eats his brussel sprouts are going to result in puking on the kitchen floor. Even that would be OK. The floor needs to be mopped anyway.

Help! It's Monday!

It's Monday. That's a very good reason to post something funny, isn't it? The start of another looonnnngggg week. I left this as a comment on another blog, but then decided to post it here too. Hope it gives you a little laugh as you start your week.
When our second son, James, was little, he couldn’t pronouce his “R’s”, so when he talked he sounded a lot like Elmer Fudd. The summer that he was 2 or 3 we attended a family reunion. One evening the entire family decided to go to Pizza Hut for dinner. Our son was seated at the end of the table in a high chair. Everyone was talking and laughing and ignoring the little guy when all of a sudden his voice bellows: “WHERE’S MY FORK AND KNIFE?!” Only it didn’t sound like that because of the “R” problem. It sounded like,“WHERE’S MY F****** KNIFE?!” Not only did our entire family stop and turn their heads, so did everyone else in the restaurant. I wanted to crawl under the table I was so embarrassed. Then suddenly the room burst into laughter. James is 19 now and is still to this day being teased about his "foul" mouth.

A Wonderful Day

Thanksgiving was wonderful around here. Our 2 oldest sons have slept away most of our Thanksgivings and Christmases in the last few years. They would get up in time to eat, but exhaustion would send them back to sleep shortly after we prayed. (We pray after meals at this house.) However, for some reason they felt good and were even actually alert. :-) We enjoyed laughing and talking and eating together and then we ALL went hiking. I literally cannot remember the last time all 6 of us did anything together. We even rode in the same car! I can't remember the last time that happened either.
It started to get dark while we were out hiking, and because I'm an old woman now, my depth perception isn't what it used to be the closer to "dark" it gets. All 3 of our big guys were so sweet-they kept waiting for me and helping me over the rough spots. (Chivalry is not dead!)
I realize this is probably terribly boring to most of you, but I wanted to write about it anyway. Only God knows how many more holidays we'll have with all our boys together at the same time. Two of them are adults now. Moving, marriages, friends, etc. could all take away time from "this" family. If you still have little people around, soak up the time you have with them.

Thursday was a sweet gift to me. And you know what the whip cream on the pumpkin pie was? Later in the evening our oldest son actually watched a chick-flick with me!