Guide Gently...Sweet Words of Encouragement

My baby boy turns five in five days. Nearly five years he has been entrusted to my love and care, all day every day for 1,820 days. That's a lot of days and yet it has gone so incredibly fast. Tonight I stumbled on this from "A Holy Experience" and I can only stop and ask myself, Do I encourage him? Am I patient and kind? Do I serve him lovingly? Do I guide him gently? Sure I do. But enough? I'm afraid not. Too often there is pushing and rushing and wrinkling and puckering. The sewing analogy really resonated with me. Perhaps because I sew. Perhaps because I'm a mother. Either way, I love the idea of viewing the raising of my children as a handiwork, a task requiring care and patience and gentleness. Because all you sewers out there know that the best sewing projects are the ones you do for the ones you love. Sometimes they are hard. Sometimes they are tedious. These I call labor of love projects. Sounds a lot like the task of raising children! I am encouraged and challenged...challenged to guide gently. God has given me the most wonderful, precious gift in these children and I want to honor Him by guiding them in the way He'd have me, with kindness and patience, and gentleness, and love. Not just with Aden but with his brother ans sister as well. Because if I have learned anything in these past five years with Aden it is that time passes quickly! Five years have come and gone and I know that in the blink of an eye I will be kissing him goodbye as he heads off to college and through the tears I'll be asking myself where the last 18 years went. When that day comes will he be able to say that his mama encouraged him, modeled kindness and patience, served him with love, and guided him gently? Oh, I so hope so.

My All Day, Every Day View...A Blessed Woman Indeed!

This is what I see when I look out my kitchen window and when I step out the front door. What a beautiful view! I just love these mountains! They are gorgeous whether the sun is shining brightly upon them or whether they are partly hidden by mist and clouds like this. What a blessing to be surrounded by God's beautiful creation!

Fun Times With Grandma and Grandpa Jesse

Just days before my mom and Jesse arrived we had a string of days like this (see the first two pictures) and I was just praying that the weather would change in time for their visit because I know how much the sun and the warmth mean to my mom. Well, God heard my pleas and blessed us with beautiful weather! Seriously, we could not have ask for more pleasant weather...for the entire two weeks! It was awesome and it allowed us to spend lots of time outdoors.

Squeezing in some playtime on the swing set in between storm sets

Just a little rain...at one point it was raining so hard it was practically a "white out"!

Mom and Jesse always keep busy doing little projects around the house. Fixing this and fixing that...

Here's Jesse trying to find and repair the leak in our van. He thinks he may have fixed it. I'll be able to tell you here in a few days as the forecast is calling for another onslaught of rain storms this weekend.

Just like Grandpa...fixin' his "car". Of course, his buddy, the stuffed gecko, is the co-mechanic.

On the first Saturday we left the kiddos home with Dave and Carolyn and the four of us Kayaked up the Wailua River. The Wailua is the widest and longest river on the island and because of this it is navigable by motor powered boats. So, unlike kayaking up the Kalihiwai River (which is pretty narrow and windy with a little more back country feel) on the Wailua you have to be aware of waterskiiers and boaters. Also, going against the current upstream and then going against the off-shore winds coming down stream make kayaking the Wailua more of a workout than the tranquil waters of Kalihiwai River. We had a lot of fun but in the end we all agreed that we'd prefer the setting of the Kalihiwai River for future kayak trips.

This is actually one of the most narrow sections...

We ended up sort of kayaking "off the beaten (water) path" and the further in we went up the river the more peaceful it got. At one point I looked up the bank and saw this cow just sitting there watching me. I half wondered if it would charge down the bank and into the water? Can cows be aggressive? I can see the headlines now, "Ha'ole woman killed when her camera's flash causes cow to charge..."

That's Daniel's red kayak docked at the entrance to the famous Fern Grotto.

The Fern Grotto (quite a tourist destination, thanks to Elvis, I think!)

The following Wednesday we biked along the Kealia Trail. This trail is less than 10 minutes from our house and it is so enjoyable! We biked it for the first time when Jake, Stacy, and Rebekah were home for the holidays and I knew then that it would be something that I'd be doing again soon.

We brought Jonathan's bike and he managed to ride for nearly 3 miles! It was a bit slow in go but he had a blast and felt like such a big boy. This boy's about ready for a two wheeler!

"Gwamma" and Jonathan

Aden and Jesse pretty much left us in the dust...let's just say, a bike with training wheels is not a fast mode of transportation!

Anyway, because of that I don't have any pictures of them riding... =(

But I do have some shots of the scenery that we enjoyed! Here's one...

and another...

and another...

Elizabeth was squawking up a storm because she wanted to climb the tree like her brothers. "Sissy, you can't so EVERYTHING that they do!" I swear the girl thinks she's 5!

The crew

One of the few times in his life when this kid can focus on the task at hand...when he is eating a "tweat"! Shave ice, baby!

Aden and Grandpa Jesse got ice cream, Mom and I got fresh fruit smoothies, Jon Jon got shave ice, and Sissy nibbled on all of the above!

Bellies full of said treats, we were fueled up and ready to head back to the starting point.

This trooper biked the entire eight miles and here he is excited to help Grandpa load up the bikes! Poor kid, his sweet face gets red like his mama's.

Well, it's a good thing we went on our bike ride 0n Wednesday because by Thursday AM my mom and I were both feeling pretty crummy. Somehow we picked up a sickness together...we had all the same symptoms (sore throat, headache, sinus pressure, runny nose, fatigue, etc.) and we came down with it at the same time. It stuck with us for the remainder of Mom and Jesse's visit which forced us to take it easy those last few days. To give us something low-key to work on we decided to start a quilting project. We set out to make (well, start the process of making) two twin-sized quilts for our guest bedroom. By the time Mom left on Monday morning we had about 1/2 of the cutting done. Now I have about 7/8 of the cutting done. I should finish cutting tomorrow. I had hoped to finish cutting tonight but the blog was whispering my name and well, a girl can only do so much fun stuff in one night. So, this is what my kitchen table has looked like for the last week. We've eaten many meals around the coffee table as of late. In fact, that fact alone is great motivation for me to finish cutting. I want my table back!

I need 864 squares and/or rectangles cut to construct this quilt...yes, EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR! I think I have about 820 cut as of now. It's too late to do math but I'm thinking that 820/864 is more than 7/8 of the way done!

My friend Lori made a quilt recently that I love and when I complimented her on it she asked if I wanted the scraps from the project. When I agreed I had no idea how much fabric she'd be giving me. There was a ton! So, I decided to make two patchwork quilts of sorts. I am using a quilt pattern that calls for six different fabrics and I think I have at least two dozen different fabrics pulled into this quilt! That's where the "patchwork" look will come in. So, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'll finish them before Elizabeth graduates from high school. ;)

Some of the fabrics...browns, blues, greens, and creams

Bike Riding Buddies

These boys have so much fun riding their bikes and they spend a lot of time doing so. I love listening to them out there as I work in the kitchen. I hear things like, "Aden, are you going to get gas at the gas station?" and "Boozie, let's go to 'Coxco' first and then we can go to Walmart." They like to pretend that they are riding on motorcycles and that they have errands to run. I love kids' imaginations! Anyway, between riding bikes, the swing set, feeding the neighbor's goats, digging and pushing dump trucks at their "struction" site, and their various sports equipment and balls these boys definitely enjoy lots of outdoor play. And of course, they are usually joined by their sweet, little sister.

We're hoping to take Jonathan's training wheels off this weekend. I think he's ready as far as the actual bike riding goes. I'm not as sure that his attention span is ready for two wheel riding though. He is SUCH a silly, distractable little boy.

I love that he calls this his "Monster Mutt Dalmatian" helmet. For those of you not into Monster Jam, one of the trucks is painted to look like a Dalmatian and it is called Monster Mutt Dalmatian. In this house, ALL dalmatians (yes, even the 101 Dalmatians) are called "Monster Mutt Dalmatians."

Orange is still his color of choice. Can you tell?

And our budding cyclist...

And just in case you thought we were always all smiles over here, here's a shot of our little "DK" (short for "drama king"). I can't even remember what he was crying about but he was being so ridiculously dramatic at the time that I could barely hold the camera steady for my laughter! Poor child, mean mother.

Eating My Words...again!

Before having a daughter of my own with crazy, scraggly, always-in-her-eyes hair I swore I would NEVER tie up my daughter's hair like this. I always wondered what possessed moms to do it to their sweet girls! Well, (like so many other times on this parenting journey) I understand now why moms do what they do with their young daughters' hair and I find myself (again!) eating my words. As you can see from these pictures I have decided that a whale spout on the top of my daughter's head is an improvement over the shaggy hair in the eyes (crusted with this morning's yogurt or oatmeal, no less) look. At least she looks a little more "kept" now.

The other day she very purposefully climbed into her "chair" with her book and began "reading" it out loud. It was really cute!

Christmas Morning

The "Joey" dolls were such a hit the boys went right to them in the morning and started playing with them despite the pile of unopened presents under the tree!

Elizabeth seemed to know that this gift was hers and made a bee line for it as soon as I set her down.

She just kept smiling and patting it. At this point I'm not sure she knew what to do with it.

She hugged it like this for quite some time before finally getting up and moving on to something else. We decided to sit back and let her figure it out.

This girl loves her stuffed animals...especially her puppy dogs and kitty cats.

Giving the Slinkys a whirl.

I love the smiles of excitement on Lizzie's and Jon Jon's faces!

She finally figured it out!

And now she scoots around the house on it like the cutest little thing. The wheels are on casters which allow her to swivel around and navigate her way throughout the house with ease.

Jonathan was able to read the names on the gifts and was excited to help pass them out. Of course, he was most excited when he came across a gift labeled "Jonathan"!

The boys have been in a bit of a "Where's Waldo?" craze so they were very excited to add a few more books to their collection.

Sweet Jonathan. If you look closely you can see he's holding his new "pace suttle" (space shuttle)...definitely one of his favorite stocking stuffers.

"This 100 piece Star Wars puzzle is for me, right?"

I love the glow of the sun on her hair.

Dave came over that morning with his camera and captured some really sweet moments. I'm so glad he did...most of the pictures in this post were taken by him.

After a very rainy Christmas Eve we awoke to a beautiful Christmas morning. It was the perfect morning for the kids' first playtime on their new swing set.

Without question, the boys' favorite "element" of the swing set is the "horsey swing" and they ride on it together all the time.

All smiles on her "big girl" swing.

And there she goes for her first attempt at the slide.

No fear!

Ooh, ouch!

But this tough cookie was completely un-phased and made her way to the steps again and again.

Nothing will keep her down...not even a seriously runny nose!

Can we get a Kleenex over here?

My happy chain sawing boy! Thank goodness it came with safety goggles!

I think he was a little disappointed to find out that his new (toy) chain saw wouldn't really cut anything...try as he might to make it do so.