Image 01

A Bundle of Myrrh

"My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh." Song of Solomon 1:13

Archive for the ‘Raising Ebenezers’ Category

Raising Ebenezers

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

IMG_2817

A fat little head heavy on my arm and his chubby hands wrapping around it as we sit on the couch. Lovely moments.

Clara Sketches

Friday, October 3rd, 2014

IMG_1437

I love watching Clara create. Yes, she’s a wrecking ball of energy, enthusiasm and moods, she can try the dickens out of me, but when you give her paper and a pencil, a crayon, a marker or some paint something wonderful happens.

IMG_1417

 

(more…)

From the Vault

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

IMG_7086

I found these photos the other day, I think this was from last Spring, April. I loved watching these two play “wedding.” I thought maybe some of y’all would too!

Hey, I didn’t promise dancing with the stars.

IMG_7081

I’m sure they’re gonna LOVE this in about 10 more years!!

I was just so happy they were playing well together. That didn’t always happen, still doesn’t, oil and water these babies, much like Esther and Ephraim are now. But then these moments come and Mama smiles.

Raising Ebenezers

Friday, July 11th, 2014

IMAG0357

IMAG0356

IMAG0359

IMAG0365

IMAG0374

All I wanted to do was sit down to check my Google Calendar to see what was for supper and like a moth to the flame they came. Needing, pushing, whining, wanting their jackets zipped, wanting to sit on my lap, crying because they “can’t see the puter”. Most days, well, everyday really, it’s hard to even sit down without a fight.

But some days I feel like “I got this.” The days are still hard. We may have left some phases behind, but there are new ones now. Ephraim has started biting, Gerhardt is way too aggressive for girls, Esther wants to help me with everything, Clara is in a very sassy phase and Lily, poor Lily just cries all day about anything she can find to cry about. The bickering escalates, there is still pee all over the floor and I shuffle from one fire to the next wondering how anything will get done, but at the end of the day lately, I’ve had that “I rocked this day” feeling.

It probably won’t last long and I think it’s only coming from the ridiculously low standards I’ve come to know so well, but this week we made play dough, we went to the park, we went to the library for a magic show and I look back not knowing how all that happened but really glad it did. The photos are from our 4th of July breakfast in the park, yet another gift of perfect weather and mostly happy babies. Even after the hour I spent driving back home to get bottles and formula I’d forgotten to bring for Mercy and missing the Fun Run…rookie mistake.

I look at each one of my babies and I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness. And that is a feeling I don’t have all the time. Under the work and chaos being thankful isn’t always my first thought, or second or third. But today, this week, it’s here. I’ve hugged more little bodies and kissed more cheeks than it seems like I have in a while.

These little steps toward whatever this is, are encouraging to me. After years of being in survival mode, I’m starting to feel a little…um, uncrushed.

I’m writing this down so I don’t forget that this is one more way our Heavenly Father provides for me, richly and daily all that I need to support this body and life, out of pure Fatherly divine goodness and mercy. Writing this down is an Ebenezer if you will. To remember that Goodness. Goodness that has been here all along, even when I felt it wasn’t.

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” I Samuel 7:12

P to the S – If God ever gives us another boy I got dibs on the name Ebenezer. And every Christmas he’ll look at me with pain in his eyes…I know.