Sweetheart Date (Dinner at Eight)

My sweetheart & I had an at home date for V-day, after the kidlets were in bed.

We've had good at home dates before.

But this one was fabulous.  We had a great time.

At home dates kill the competition of going out.  

(But I still like going out, so long as the food is good.)

I attempted a Maiden Braid "headband".  I thought it turned out pretty swell.  

But it looks a bit retarded in the photo, with my hair sticking out the side of my head.

Oh well.

Also, seems my button was coming undone, when I took my outfit picture.

Oh well.

I love this dress (heart buttons!) from Modcloth.  

Jewelry by 31 Bits is also awesome, of course.

We had a tent of sorts that we built in the living room.  

Sheets, tulle, lights, sparkle hearts.

Rib Eye Steaks with Blue Cheese,

Heart cut Beets on pea shoots, 

and sauteed Spinach.

All could be done very quickly once the kids went to bed.

We opened a bottle of our favorite wine (for special occasions only) Topel.

And we dined fireside.

Dessert was sharing a little box of Lula's salted Caramels.

(SO good.)

Do you know about Dinner at Eight over at Rebekah's?

She & her friend Andi are challenging you all out there to try dating at home.

I think you'll love it.

Ours was so lovely for us.  We talked & shared.

We read love letters to each other.

Oh.  And we broke one of the cardinal rules of married dating.

Have you heard that you aren't supposed to talk about the kids?

I just heard Gary Smalley give this instruction 

when I was listening to K-Love this last week.

Don't talk about the kids or finances, he said.

Instead, he said we should remember the good times.

So, kids aren't part of the good times?

We think they are.  We think they are a good date night topic.

Even the idea of "remembering the good times" is one I am not too fond of.

We are one.  And we walk through the good & the bad together.  

We are not going to avoid talking about the hard stuff, 

in an effort to make a date more romantic.

My sweetheart & I bond over our love for our kids, 

over good memories of the past,  

over telling each other about our struggles of the day,

over learning how to cook a steak sans the outdoor grill, 

over grief shared, over scary roads, 

over trusting God's goodness,

over dreams for our future,

over love notes, whether written on letterpress cards or company letterhead.

I Love You S'More than...

Have you read "I love you, Goodnight"?
We've had the little board book since Gillian was a wee babe.
I love you like I love blueberry pancakes!" is how the story is written.
I've always given it a slight adjustment.  I love my kids more than that.
We read it, "I love you more than I love strawberry milkshakes".
Get it?

Gillian, on her own, began "writing" her own poetry inspired by the book.
She started it one day on a long car ride.  A sort of a game.
It is now a regular form of love lines we give each other.

Some of her brilliant lines of love poetry -

I love you more than hummingbirds love nectar!

I love you more than bees love stinging!

I love you more than syrup loves pancakes!

I love you more than numbers love counting!

I love you more than people like wearing panties!

I love you more than hearts love blazing love!

Brilliant, right?  She is such an artist.

We had a living room tent & fire for an "I Love you S'more" evening.

We love these kids s'more with every passing day.

(Yay!  Daddy embraced the camera!)

Deja Vu

A little bit ago, we watched that Hugh Grant/Julianne Moore movie, Nine Months.
Have you seen it?  1995.  I saw Julianne Moore & I was like,
"wait, I thought that hair style was homeschool style, right?
Home decor, "country" dresses & the hair from my home school childhood
were the all the styles on this movie.  Normal folks in S.F. in the 90's.
Country "clutter", have back hair in huge silver clip, denim dresses...
Friends, I guess we were on trend with it all.
I knew homeschoolers were cool.  I just didn't know we were cool in that way.


Speaking of childhood flashbacks,
last week we had a short time period of having a book shelf in the hallway.
We did a kid room re do & I had to make room the the 2nd set of bunk beds to be built.

As I was shimmying past it all day, I thought of all the houses I've been in through my life.
Biggish families in smallish houses, homeschooling, loaded to the rafters with books.
Books in the halls, books on the fireplace, books going on the stairway,
bookshelves in the bathroom, bookshelves lining ever spare space.
And I thought, I could live with this.  I could deal with book shelves in the hall,
as long as I don't gain a ton of weight.

Our kid room with 2 bunk beds in there is awesome.  I love it.
Our kid's love it, too.

We moved stuff around to fit the bed & it ended up that everything was better for it.
We had to take off the closet door.  It was a bit sad, as it was a gorgeous door.
But, the kid's are loving the new "curtain" I made.

It is reminiscent of the disco beads hanging in the 1970's doorways.
And it was inspired by this garland on my pin boards.

I cut long strips of fabric, sometimes sewing them to make them long enough
& knotted them across a spring tension curtain rod.
Voila.

Speaking of then & now, driving our country roads, I was thinking of then.
then being, we weren't from here.
then when I remember being over here,
(I think going to get apples or berries or such from Gizdich),
and my mom took a wrong turn or something.  We were lost on the back roads.
We were in awe of how lovely the nooks & crannies & valleys were.
It seemed like it would be such a dream to live here.
Now I do.
the back then was when my family used to come to
Bible Memory Association camp over here.
We went to summer camp where my husband used to go to real school.
(Monte Vista, folks.  that was family camp to me.)
the then was when my parents came to Pajaro Dunes for their getaway nights.
Now that is our beach.
If my husband ever feels up to going to the sand, that is probably where we head.
I was driving the country roads with my kids, letting the fitful babe get some car seat Z's in,
& thinking again how lovely these hills & valleys are.
How lucky we are to live here.
My kids were thankful, too.  they still find wonder in the scenes they see often.
I am grateful for that.
Watching the ocean waves, seeing a deer graze (or llamas, or alpacas),
seeing the sailboats, the apple trees, the flowers is a blessing.

Love is Easy, Love is Hard (a letter to my children)

Dear children,

You may have heard people say that marriage is hard.  
I've heard it a lot.  But, I think something else needs to be said.

Real love can be hard.  It is true.  
But, I think that choosing not to love is harder.
Love is hard & Love is easy.

How can that be? 
the thing about love is, it means getting off that comfortable seat where you may be sitting 
by yourself, & trying to let everything stay the same.
In order to love well, you need to think of others.  
You can't put yourself first.
Love is simple.  Love is considering the other.
And love is hard.  We want to look out for our own interests.

Love is easy, though.  
It turns out, sitting by yourself, in the corner, doing whatever you want,
is not all that lovely.
It is lonely.  Everything little thing that you do can seem lifeless.  
Complete drudgery.
Add another to the mix & pour on the love and things get a whole lot brighter.
Love makes things easier.
Love covers a multitude of sins.
Love is not easily angered.
Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things.

You remember the story of the giving tree?
He loved the boy so much, that even though the tree gave all of himself, it was easy.
From the outside looking in, people may look at you loving 
& say, "wow, how very hard that is!"
But to you, in the midst of acting in love it may be like the easiest thing in the world.

Shall I give an example?
When your Dad drops the bomb on me that it is necessary for him 
to work a bunch of extra hours in the next several days, 
the first thing I thought was how much I was bummed for myself.  
And I got a little miffed about it all.  And I sat silently pouting.
Was that easy?  Not really.  I had to be mad at him & be grumpy & all that.
When I (finally) stopped being irritated about it 
& started loving him well & caring about him, 
it all became a whole lot easier.

Do you want to know an easy love someday?  
Do this now - learn to put others first.
And someday when you are considering someone, 
with whom you may want to spend the rest of your life with, 
consider if that person is marked by selflessness.

You may find that love is easy. 

As seems true so often, 
Teresa of Calcutta said all this way better than I have just done, needing only a few words.
"I have found the paradox: 
If you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."

the practice of being weird and silly

What sort things do you attempt to practice in your everyday parenting?  
Stuff that help you love the role.  
Stuff that makes the hard job of raising little people a little more "doable".
My friend Sarah has published a great series - the practices of mothering.
I highly recommend you check it out!
And...  she is inviting others to share their own practices in a blog carnival, February 6th.


Being weird & silly is really important to me.

It is just not cool to pretend you are not weird.

Especially in front of your kids.

Don't try to be all serious about yourself all the time & 
make them think you aren't weird.

Right?  We're all a little weird.

And it can really help to lighten up your days.

I generally think Scott is better at this than me.

I don't know why, though.  I am the weirder one.

I guess I also seem to be the one who gets her panties in a wad easier.

(Scott does not wear panties though.  Although, Peyton struggles with that.

Poor boy, surrounded by sisters.  He will often ask for help with his panties.  

But again, he does not wear panties.  He has actual boy underwear.  Anyway.)

One of my favorite things about my dad is that he is really silly, in the privacy of his home.

I always loved the really weird things he would do everyday.

He was a roofer all my childhood.  Of course he wore boots to work.

When he would get home in the late afternoon & take off his boots, 

he would also take off his socks & then stick them under his nose & sniff them.

(Is that okay that I am telling that to everyone, Dad?  

I won't tell them what you did at the dinner table every night.)

He also made up songs about random things. 

With pretty bad melody lines.

It was great.

I wanted my kids to have a dad who sang strange songs, too.

I eventually fell in love with Scott & 
neglected to find out if he met the mark on that one.

But, guess what?  He did!  I didn't even know it before I married him.

But, the silly & weird started seeping out in the safety of love & home.

And I was glad.

Weird songs, about super random things is something we do.


We try to throw in some crazy dances some times.

Goofy Dress ups.

And we have some silly bedtime rituals, too.

Our kids will drop to the ground, when it is time to go to bed, in order to play 

"sack of potatoes".  (Except Mo is the one who shouts out "sack uh tutatoes"!)

then Daddy has to pick them up & throw them over his shoulder and

grunt & moan & complain to me as to why I keep buying all these potatoes.  

And I say I just can't resist a good sale on potatoes, because they store so well.

And they love it.

Another bedtime game they love is "yucky things".

Every night I am expected to sing a lullaby to each child.

And Scott is expected to tell them yucky things.

He whispers excitedly to each child all the disgusting things they will get to eat for breakfast.

they gag & groan & squeal all the while.  

And then they compare notes as to whose yucky cocktail would really be the yuckiest.

I wonder what things the kids will look back on someday as being 

the weird & silly things their mom & dad did around here.
Maybe they'll recall something that I thought was perfectly normal, 
as being that weird thing mom always did.  
Who can say?

Do you have a practice of mothering you would like to tell others about? 
Join the link up on February 6th with Sarah Bessey.

Kendall {One Year}

Kendall turned one last week.

Our baby girl is turning into a toddler.

And a babbler, too.

And an emptier of cupboards.

And a splasher of toilet waters.

And a stander in the bath tub.

And a squealers & joker.

And even a better sleeper.

We partied a bit.

She was proud to be sung to.  Didn't quite grab the candle flame.  

And was fairly gentle with the grabbing of the cake.

I'm embracing this next stage.

I'm still embracing my baby, though.  this toddler still likes to be held.

She comes to us, kneels, reaches up both hands & throws back her head.

So far, we've always picked her up before she keels backward & conks her head on the ground.

Embrace the camera you all.

the practice of making it special

What sort things do you attempt to practice in your everyday parenting?  
Stuff that help you love the role.  
Stuff that makes the hard job of raising little people a little more "doable".
My friend Sarah has published a great series - the practices of mothering.
I highly recommend you check it out!
And...  she is inviting others to share their own practices in a blog carnival, February 6th.


People, I love the domestic arts.  I do.
It is kind of my "thing".
I love making home special.


When I was single & young & crazy, I loved a good party.
I still do.  Mostly they look a little different, though.
(Not because they used to be crazy drunken, irresponsible-type parties; they weren't.)
Just because having a home loving husband & 4 little people to care for, 
big parties aren't really on the agenda.


In the not-so-quiet, home-staying life we live, I like to find things to celebrate 
and ways to make the everyday stuff a bit more special.

(Kendall is one!)

I like fresh flowers on the table & I like candlelight.
I believe in baking the fancy cake just because 
& not saving the good "company" meal for company.


Not that I do that stuff all the time.  
And even when I do, it doesn't mean "I have it all together" or some such nonsense.
It is just my thing I love & a way I like to make our family's home.
Sometimes we choose the special, over the toilet scrubbing & dish washing.


What to do?  What to celebrate?
We can have fun with any meal, since the kids eat on these plates - 

Source: uncommongoods.com via Erin on Pinterest

I am thinking of serving these for April Fool's Day -

Source: instructables.com via Erin on Pinterest

I remember doing this kind of toast as a kid.  Special & fun & cheap & simple

Source: shareandremember.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

okay.  most of my ideas are food related, I suppose.  
How do you like to make these special in the every day?


Do you have a practice of mothering you would like to tell others about? 
Join the link up on February 6th with Sarah Bessey.







update you guys.  I got these paper straws & they are super fun.

just enjoyed a chocolate "milkshake"
chocolate soy milk
almond meal
peanut butter
coconut oil
acai berry powder
ice
blended