Holy Interruptions

It happens to me a lot...the reminding of what is most important, what really matters.  It happened again this morning.

I always have plans in my mind.  There are a jillion things I "should" be doing at any given moment.  The laundry, the cleaning, the projects...they often go undone here at the Woodshed.  Sometimes they go undone because I really am busy doing more important things.  Often, they go undone because, when I finally finish all of the important things, I frankly just don't want to do the laundry, the cleaning, the projects.  So, on the rare occasions when the "time to" and the "want to" come together in a beautiful marriage, I like to run with that.  This morning is one of those such times.  I had a space of time and the gumption inside to finish some things hanging over me.  Then, Ezra asked if we could cuddle.  Well, of course we can cuddle.  That turned into "can we watch a movie and eat our breakfast in the living room?". Well, sure.  That's no problem.  Then, the frozen waffles he could make on his own turned into "can you make real waffles, mama?".  Umm, yes, I'd, ahem, love to, dear sweet boy."  At this point, I'm watching the space of time for my plans slip away.  We finished up the waffles, and just as I was closing the dishwasher, thinking "ok, I think I can still get this done", that sweet boy came in and said, "Mama, can you pour me some coffee with Irish Cream?".  AAAGHGHGHAAGHGHG!!!!

Ok, so pouring coffee doesn't even take that long, but the Irish Cream is new, and I'll have to take the seal off, and that takes forever, and I just want to DO WHAT I WANT TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT...I read this article this morning, posted by my friend, and I think of that mama.  She would give anything for even one more holy interruption.  She would gladly open the new creamer this morning if it meant just one more moment with her precious boy.   I'm going to pour the coffee with a grateful heart in her honor this morning, and I think I'll even sit and watch the end of A-Team and drink my own cup right along with him.

You see, I firmly believe that our boys are not in charge of our house, and, so, their demands should never dictate all that happens.  However, this morning, it hit me in a new way.  What if those holy interruptions really ARE the real stuff of life.  Maybe I have always had it backwards.  I've just assumed that the plans I have are the REAL things I should be doing, and most roadblocks to those plans are just annoying, or amusing at best.  Maybe the divine plan for me has more to do with the holy interruptions and less to do with the plans I make.  I won't dump the plans altogether...I mean, I can't go on wearing unwashed jeans FOREVER, and I really do think I'd like to finish those projects some day...but, for today, I'll drink the coffee.  I'll snuggle a little longer.  I'll give thanks for the holy interruptions.

On Christmas...

• A friend asked me today whether we give a lot of gifts at Christmas, and if not, what are some ways to prepare kids for a lean year.  I wrote out my thoughts in a message and then decided this may be something useful for others....and it may not be, but I just felt compelled to share.
  
  Christmas...well, we kind of do different things every year which I think actually has helped with our boys not having certain expectations of Christmas...not that we planned that...it just happened that things (resources, our location, etc) would be different each year, so it has always been different.
• On the lean years, we have focused on giving. Strangely, Isaac will still say that his VERY favorite Christmas ever was the year we (meaning Tim and I) didn't buy them a single present. We took the money (not much, mind you) that we would have spent on them and used it to buy Christmas for an Angel Tree child. Of course, they still got presents from Grandmas and aunts and uncles, but we only filled their stockings and that was all.  We thought Isaac (he was really the only one old enough to totally know the difference) would have HATED that, but he just said again the other day that it was his favorite Christmas. We did a TON of explaining and talking ahead of time, though...talking through the fact that they would still get presents from other people and the kids we were buying for would perhaps not get any presents at all if we weren't buying for them...talking about the fact that their parent was in prison and how sad that would be and that maybe we could bring them some joy, etc
  
  Now, that is an extreme you may not want to go for...but there have been other years when money just wasn't there and one thing we did was try to spend as little money as possible but get things that make Christmas day SUPER fun...dart guns, cheap(er) board games, craft-ish things we could do together, etc.
• I have been shocked by our boys' grace and resilience in this area. It would seem that the more "stuff" on Christmas morning, the happier, but we have found the opposite to be the case. Now, that doesn't mean that we haven't had years where we've had LOTS of stuff. In fact, this year, we're spending a bit more than usual. BUT I am already praying that the "stuff" will not drown out the family and the reason for the day....which reminds me...as cliche as it may sound, one other thing that helps us focus is reminding ourselves and the boys that the reason for the day is Jesus' birthday. So, we have a birthday cake for Jesus which they look forward to and get pretty excited about.  Although they typically get in a fight over which one of them gets to blow out the candles...so the effect doesn't last long...haha
• 
  

Cousins

 The oldest cousin meets the youngest cousin.  I think they love each other already.

The two toothless wonders...

 Watching Arthur Christmas....I'm pretty sure this is the first quiet and still moment of the day.

We missed you, Georgia cousins.  Let's go to Florida, ok?  Right now...this week...ok???

Vacation With Three Boys

Simon took this picture of me.  He was so much fun on vacation.  He no longer needs swim diapers or a stroller.  He's one of the big boys now.  He doesn't even really need his floaties, but mama still made him wear them occasionally.  He loved the beach, and would spend almost an hour making things in the sand all by himself.  He loved to help me take pictures, too (see picture of me with my tongue out!!).












Isaac has officially become a young man.  He enjoyed the freedom of being older...going up to the hotel room by himself while the rest of us were swimming, staying up a little later than the other two, reading for hours in the car.  I love that he was thoughtful on this trip, offering to take his brothers to the room so Daddy and I could read by the pool, not asking for every trinket we passed by.  He found out that he loves crab legs, so he and I ordered them together every chance we got.


















Ezra was always ready to throw the football or the baseball every time the car stopped or he stepped out onto the beach.  He also began a love affair with ESPN.  We don't get channels at home, so this mama realized that if we did, this house full of boys would have the TV on ESPN most of the time!!  I see channels in our future! ;)  I loved on this trip that Ezra was always ready for a party and made everything we did so much fun.

Thankful...

...for air conditioning

...for the mild weather we've had so far this year and lots of picnics like this one































































...for the season of life we are in

...for a trip to Holiday World with no nursing, swim diapers, or strollers!!!

...for a God who SEES us, LOVES us, CARES about our deepest pains as well as the shallow ones

...for vacation coming soon

...for days at home in our jammies

...for the WORD that is living and active

...for Jesus, our savior, redeemer, our hope

...for a big boy in our house who loves Jesus and loves his little brothers

...for the little brothers--the joy and laughs they bring

...for big kids in our lives...too many to list, but SO grateful for ALL of them!

...for Family Video free movies from report card As :)

Seven

Seven years ago today, you came bounding into our family, Ezra James Wood.  We have never been the same.  You have brought joy.  You have brought so very much laughter.  You are legitimately funny, not even just funny in a little kid sort of way....you are VERY funny.

You speak the truth.  You never hurt people intentionally.  Sometimes you mistakenly think that it is all about you, but you realize later when you have been wrong and you always think to say sorry.  You love your brothers and your Daddy and me with a deep and real love.

You know a lot about sports and you play them with passion.  You know the plays on a football field before they ever happen just by the way the guys are lined up.  You can pitch a baseball like nobody's business.  You are good at sports, but you are also patient and very excited when your team mates do well.

I adore you, my second son.  Your face lights up my world.  I am thankful God chose to give you to our family for these years.  You make us more like Jesus.

Love, Mama

Happy Birthday, Simon!

Simon came down the stairs this morning and Ezra said, "Hey, Simon!  Happy Birthday!".  Simon looked down at himself, gave himself a once-over, and said, with wonder, "Am I 4?".


Yes you are 4, sweet boy.  You are not a baby anymore.  I can't believe how much you've grown up.  You make us laugh ALL THE TIME.  You love your friends and your brothers.  You can pray like a wild man, and you always know just what to pray about.  You love to dance, and Daddy and I often look at each other with a look that says "Can you believe how good he is????".  You love for us to read to you and you also like to "read" to us (the books you have memorized of course!).  You are very ornery which is cute most of the time but gets you into trouble at least once a day.  :)

Daddy and I were wishing for a girl before you were born, but the moment you arrived we knew you were just what we needed.  I can't imagine our family without you.

Firefly

Ezra started taking piano lessons from Daddy right after Christmas.  Ezra's mama used to teach piano lessons over ten years ago, but she wasn't very good at it, so she took that out of her tool box.

Anyway....Ezra has LOVED piano and is picking it up very quickly.  This is our first duet entitled "Firefly".

Project Treehouse: Day 6

This was our last official work day before Daddy goes back to his real job tomorrow.  We were hoping to get the knee braces put up, the trap door framed out, one remaining floor support up, and the floor boards up.  We got the knee braces, the floor support, and a few floor boards done, and Daddy says we can finish the trap door and the floor boards when he gets home from work on Saturday.  Friday night he has to work late because of the Passover meal...we are not Jewish, but he gets to have a Passover meal with some Jewish folks which he loves...but, well, that's a story for another day.

Anyway, Day 6 was a lot of fun.  We spent the day outside with a fire all day because it was a bit chilly.  For lunch we cooked eggs and sausage over the fire, and for supper we roasted hot dogs.  We even made "fire coffee" (Ezra coined this new phrase) which everyone loves except Daddy (although some of us require more cream in it than others to like it!!).

Isaac was determined to do the entire

bolt by himself, and he did.

...and little brother, not to be left out,

did this whole bolt by himself.

We decided not to tell him that his

was three inches shorter than Isaac's.

Enjoying "fire coffee"

the high-tech "fire coffee" operation

Silly faces for the camera

The knee braces are finished.

Oh, wait, NOW the knee braces are finished.

Daddy starts on the floor boards.

Floor boards mean we are getting closer to a finished platform.

LOVE this boy.

Drilling in those floor boards

Project Treehouse: Day 5

What a fun day!!!   Not only did we get interviewed by our local news station (see the story here), but we got quite a bit of work done as well.  The pictures look about the same as previous days, but we cut out the hole for the fire pole as well as put in the remaining supports in the platform.

Ezra gets the tools ready before the news crew arrives.

Daddy is the first to be interviewed.  He swallowed

a bug while he was talking which was pretty funny.

The boys watch Daddy's interview

Of course, Simon is eating Cheez-its.

The cameraman included this in the

video for the news story which was

hilarious to us.

Gina was so sweet and fun.

Besides eating Cheez-its, Simon also

made funny faces.  His job is to

keep us all laughing.

We actually got two support beams 

put up while they were filming.

Isaac was feeling a little sheepish about being 

interviewed, but he did a fabulous job!

Our work is done...we had a blast and made two

new friends!!  We wish you could come every day,

Gina and Tony!!!

Great memories for this family.

We are grateful.

Project Treehouse: Day 4

Daddy had to work again today, and the boys spent the afternoon with Cody and Nicole.  Then, we all met up at Rose Hulman to watch our cousin Hal's team (Franklin College) play Rose Hulman in baseball.  We love Cody and Nicole and we love baseball and we love the Enkoff crew from Columbus, so even though we weren't working on the tree house, this was still a super fun day!!!  The crew will be back in full force tomorrow.

Project Treehouse: Day 3

Daddy had to work, and then we had our first tee ball and baseball practices, so the crew took the day off. The treehouse still looks like this:

Project Treehouse: Day 2

Day 2 proved to be more exciting than Day 1 in the progress department.

Isaac working on the 10 inch lag screw

(none of us even knew what a lag screw was!!)

the foremen discussing our next move

I have no idea what was happening here,

but I thought it was a funny picture.

No project at the Wood house can

be tackled without the jar of Cheez-its!!!

Ezra takes a turn on the lag screw

Check it out...its a full square.  We can't get on it yet,

but it sure does look like we know what we're doing.

I had to take this picture the next morning because we

finished this at about 9 pm with Ezra holding a

flashlight while Isaac, Mama, and our friend

Nicole held up really heavy boards and Daddy

balanced precariously on a ladder with a drill.

It would have been a sight to behold.

Oh yeah, and Simon was on the patio

eating Cheez-its!!!!!