How wonderful it was to spend the celebration of our Hope and Faith with our church family!
It was such a lovely day, too. Perfect weather for sleeveless dresses and the blue polo shirt Ethan insisted must be worn.
Ethan declares, "We want you!”
Emry declares she’s a cheerleader.
Dear Emry,
Today you are 6 years old.
Looking back over the past year, I have tried to decide what has been your biggest area of growth. Certainly you have gotten literally taller: tall enough to ride the waterslide at the water park. Your knowledge has grown. Reading is slowly becoming easier and your math skills always amaze me. Your retention of the things you learn is also excellent. Which is why we have an ant farm after learning about ants in science, you want to visit the Statue of Liberty and Washington, D.C. after learning some of the icons of America, and you can tell me all about different kinds of clouds. But I think what I have loved the most about watching you grow this past year is how you have learned about yourself and the way God has made you.
A year ago if you got upset it was an uphill battle to settle you down. You didn’t know how to calm yourself and you would upset yourself over and over again about the same thing. I struggled to know how to help you, and I still do at times; but when you discovered drawing…well, that has been a blessing all around.
When I was a little older than you, I discovered books. To this day, curling up to read a book will calm all my fears, anger, and frustrations – if only for a moment. Drawing does that for you. I don’t know if you will ever be a brilliant artist. And I don’t know if you will ever stop leaving papers and markers scattered all over your room. But I do know when you are upset, you have learned to disappear to your room, pick up paper and markers, and draw until whatever it is that is bothering you no longer matters. And I am so grateful God has given you something to enjoy.
I am also grateful how much God has taught you about Himself and His Word this past year. I love hearing you recite your Bible verses, and the excitement you have at church, and the questions you ask I sometimes I have to stop to think about before I can answer. How I pray God will save your little heart!
This year God also gave you one of your greatest desires: a little sister! I think you have learned that having a sister as little as Ellyson isn’t as quite as much fun as you thought (yet) and she can sometimes be a pest…but you do love her and you are a good sister to her. She loves when you play with her, and she especially loves sharing a room with you. Already she wants to giggle and chatter instead of sleep – something sisters do like no one else!
And you are also a good sister to Ethan, who looks up to you and adores you. While you can be a bit bossy (but I guess what big sister isn’t), you play well with him. You encourage him when he doesn’t think he can do something. And you don’t mind when he sits down and works on his “school” while you do yours. When you are not around, Ethan is truly bereft. You’re his best friend.
This past year has also been a year of lots of new experiences. Despite “the sickness” (as you call Covid…and hopefully won’t remember much), you have gotten to join the youngest dance team at your dance studio – the b-Boppers. And how excited you were today to have your first competition on your birthday! You played soccer for the first time. You slept over at a friend’s house. And you can ride your bike without training wheels. You’re finishing up first grade. You help me more and more in the kitchen. And you’re on your way to being a very good little swimmer.
I love how you are friendly with everyone. You are not shy about going up to any girls on the playground, introducing yourself, asking their names, and then asking if you can with them. I love the instruction manuals you have drawn this past year: Steps to Crawling for Ellyson and How to Build a Light Tower for Ethan’s Magnatiles. You have even re-created a playground out of wooden blocks. Future Landscape Architect? Future Engineer? Whatever you do, as long as love God, it won’t matter.
But don’t grow up too soon. Enjoy being six!
Love,
Mama
It really is hard to believe that today Ellyson is ten months old. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was pregnant with her. But it does seem that long ago since I got a full night’s sleep…
Weighing in around 17 pounds, she remains my largest baby by far. But now that she’s crawling all over the house, pulling books off my shelves, finding things I didn’t know I needed to put up higher, and knocking down everything her siblings build, I’ve noticed that she’s started to slim out a little bit. But if only those adorable chunky thighs were cute when one was 41…
She still has teeth coming in. They continue to swell below her gums but refuse to actually pop through. She now eats just about anything, including a small KitKat Aunt Jenny gave her for Easter. Like her siblings she has a sweet tooth, but I am happy to declare she also really likes fruits and vegetables. Especially grapes and carrots. Just tonight she as we were playing on the floor, she grabbed hold of my shirt and pulled herself up to both feet. She is soooo happy it has been warm out so she can spend time outside. Crawling across concrete doesn’t bother her at all, but sitting in the grass is not something she enjoys. And bath time is a race to the finish. I figured out that putting bubble bath in helps to hide the plug for a time, but she soon finds it and pulls it out. Since I use that time to stand near the tub and fold clothes or clean other parts of the bathroom, I try to lengthen the time out by distracting her with toys. Some nights I finish my chores…some nights I don’t.
The sticker is on!
And now it’s not…
Still off...
Sock Monkey – you cannot share my chair.
Do you remember last Easter? It was awful. No, I shouldn’t say that. I have fond memories of last Easter when Ed, the kids, and I loaded up the car with nearly a dozen loaves of Easter bread and drove about town, delivering it to friends we weren’t “allowed” to see as we all huddled in fear over Covid. We spent Easter itself at my parents with some of my sisters, one nephew, and a huge Easter dinner and Easter egg hunt. In that sense, Easter was the same as it always was. But we watched church on my laptop. Which was more than a little hard to swallow and left behind a very bitter taste. One that isn’t likely to be forgotten for a long time.
This past week, one of our pastors sent out a “Wednesday Memo”. I am very grateful that our church has six pastor/elders because if the decisions of the past year were left to this one pastor, we would probably be looking for another church. I appreciate the fact that this man truly has a heart that sympathizes with so many, but sometimes that can lead to bending when standing strong on convictions is the better choice. And what he had to say in the weekly blog truly rubbed me the wrong way. Is started out:
“I trust your Holy Week is going well. I know it can be difficult to stay focused with so much going on in the rhythms of life. That is why Christian community is so crucial. Please be sure to join us for our Good Friday worship gathering this Friday at 6:00 pm and Resurrection Sunday worship gathering at 10:30 am.”
Crucial? I thought. Obviously not. If you really believed Christian community is crucial, we wouldn’t have been sitting in front of our laptops last Easter as you closed the church doors and waved community to the wind.
I know, I know. I shouldn’t be so judgmental. Our church leaders were only trying to do what was right with the information at hand. And whether right or wrong, I think they are keenly aware they will have to give an account for those decisions before our God one day. But his choice of words were so bad in light of everything, I just wanted to throw something.
On the very first Easter, being together was crucialfor Christ’s little band of followers. For the past three years they had given up everything to follow Him. And now (they thought), He was dead. What were they going to do? Where were they going to go? Regaining the lives they had before was going to be very difficult it not impossible, and what about everything they thought they knew and believed? Gone. As far as they could discern, it was all gone. All they had was each other, huddled together in a small room afraid of being the next person the Pharisees got their hands on and hung on a cross. It was a fear much more real than some sickness you’d likely recover from. So, they stuck together. No matter what. It was the only thing they knew they had to do.
This past year has made it so easy for some to write off “community” as a Zoom meeting or a conversation on Microsoft Teams. I doubt Christ’s followers that first Easter would have found any comfort in being able to Facetime each other while they shivered in their little homes in fear of their lives. Being together brought them strength, comfort, and endurance. They weren’t alone. They had each other. So, yes. Christian community is crucial, and I hope we always regret 2020.
These past few weeks, I have laughed at the memories Easter dresses and horrible pictures from the 80s and 90s have brought to my mind. But as fun as reminiscing has been, Easter isn’t about a dress, or coloring eggs, or even amazing grey shoes with rhinestones. Easter is a time for God’s people to come together and worship their Savior who conquered death! Death! Let us never forget that we serve a RISEN SAVIOR!!!! And if Christ has conquered death, then we ought to never forsake gathering together and celebrating. For there is nothing – nothing! – we have to fear.
Amen.
