Five Minute Friday

Last

What seems to be the last straw
Hardly ever is
For a mom.
Somehow
 a deep breath
whispered prayer
Closed eyes
Seconds alone
Can make room
for yet another "last" straw.
A whole other load even.

Ever expanding
Always stretching
Just beyond the limit.
Becoming a fuller picture
of grace and truth
With every last straw
That isn't.

Unexpected Evening

We started off our week without Daddy with an impromptu hair cutting session.

I thought we were safe between the ages of childish hair cutting experiments. Aiden still too young to figure out scissors (although now he's trying having witnessed the cutting), and the girls old enough to withstand the urge. Apparently not.

Right before bed, Jasmin decided her puppy ear pig tails were too long and cut them herself. With dull scissors. Braided pigtails. So the recovery cut meant shoulder length hair - a much more significant cut than she intended I'm sure.

And yet she is pleased with the result. So is Mommy : this length hair she can deal with herself while I'm gone next week.

Adding to the unexpected, Grace declared shed like a trim too. This from the girl who has only had one hair cut in her 7 years. And that one took a month of negotiation!  So despite the late hour, Mommy set to and trimmed her hair. Hopefully that will make it easier to brush out herself, but Daddy's still going to have to do the braid or ponytail...

Overdue Five Minute Friday

Small

Attention to detail
Standard of excellence
Pleasure in creativity
Outpouring of love
That is what I see in the small things.

Small
Exquisite tiny flowers
Only for a moment snowflakes
Perfect jewels of dew
Myriad variations of minute creatures

Small
Made significant by the attention and love poured into their creation
What about my life and creations?
The small things: are they shoddy work because they are unimportant, insignificant, unseen? Or does the attention and care given them mirror the Creator's work?

Aiden's Post

Aiden has been keeping us pretty busy this last week or so.  Mostly in a good way! When he is not occupying Mommy (and sometimes while he is!), we are busy with getting Daddy ready for a week in Australia this week, and getting things ready for Mommy's trip to Halifax the week after...  so, busy all 'round!

We made a special trip to the mall to get Aiden a life jacket that fits him so Mommy didn't have to be on high alert when we go swimming.  That worked for a week, and then he discovered the joy of jumping in...  Very glad he is in a life jacket, but still on high alert since he doesn't wait for an invitation but randomly launches himself out into the water!

 

Aiden's other joy is noise.  Whether it is simply his toys banged onto the floor in such a racket that we can't hear ourselves think, or a nicer jab and poke at the keyboard, he likes to make noise. And bounce along to it.  We have to be watching or he'll stand up on the stool to bounce along!

 

He's begun showing his tastes in food. Surprizingly, yes, he does like hot sauce!  It doesn't seem to matter that daddy has given him spoonfuls that tend to make him tear up, cry, and grab at his mouth - he'll still reach for more.

   

He's also discovered the joys of shopping... this last time he kept us all moving - taking the random things out of our cart that he'd put in.  So we improvised a "car seat" to keep him out of the way.  Giving him cans of tuna to stack can work too.

 

And, just once in a great while he will be still and safely occupied.  More often with the help of PraiseBaby DVDs, but there are a few rare occasions when he chooses to be still all on his own - this one with Dad, making it an all the more noteworthy an occasion.

Five Minute Friday

Lonely

It always surprizes me
Just how easily
Loneliness can be eased.

A hand squeeze to go with a hi
A "let me take that" when juggling baby with a pile
An email "how's it going?"
A question that shows a knowing of affairs
A child hug without reason
A pat of a side-by-side seat invitation
A "come join us" gesture, even when I can't
A surprize heart-to-heart with a stranger
A shared lunch
Skype chats
Eyes fully met
One night hosting

Tiny yet powerful connections
So grateful when I am the receiver
drowning in loud loneliness

The challenge now is to be, to give just this
To those around me
Who knows who is as lonely as me?

Aiden on the Beach

Its Mommy time on the computer for Getting Things Done right now.  She might be getting 3 minutes at a time in-between interruptions - it's one of those days. Therefore, some previously unposted, nearly 3 weeks old photos from an unmarked beach morning: Aiden learning about Sand building.

Hello?

On our overnight visa run to Bangkok recently.  Aiden loving the access to remotes to use as phones, with Jasmin egging him on :o)

Five Minute Friday

Story

Fit to burst
With upwelling story
That can not yet be told.
Stretched tight with effort
Of holding silence.
Choking on aching longing to share,
Be understood,
Cared for.

Emptied and wilted,
Tired of telling the same story.
Even though it's "a good one"
Feeling old, disinterested, worn out
From living the story
Telling the story
Hearing the story.

Wild inside, yet still
What can be said?
My story - nothing special -
Boring
Normal
Ordinary life.

Chapters of life
So very different from each other.
I'm glad I don't know
When and what
Why and how.