The Streetpoet

We stayed home from church this morning because I’m still under the weather. So the boys are playing in their room and listening to a story as we’re enjoying a quiet Sunday. Apparently Peter had helped Seth unbutton his pants so he could go potty. Suddenly we hear Seth crying hysterically in the bathroom and we both jump up and go running to him. As we get there he’s standing in front of the currently-flushing toilet with his drawers around his ankles, obviously relieved to see us. He sobbed, “I didn’t go poop!” and then, pointing at the toilet as it finished flushing, calmed down with an effort, smiled and said, “It was trying to overflow!” Jerome never flushes because he’s afraid that it will overflow, now Seth is developing a flush phobia. I don’t know if there’s a name for that phobia, but it seems like they are not alone.

The other morning we were sitting at the breakfast table and as Seth was kicking his feet under his chair he said “My feet are singing! Sing with me, Jerome, it’s about the Lord Jesus!” So they both start kicking their feet. 🙂

My precious Gigi reminded me yesterday that is it our 20th spiritual birthday.

The week before her fourth birthday all three of us agreed together that we would ask Mommy and Daddy to pray with us to ask Jesus into our hearts. We had just learned about death and heaven first hand when Mama’s best friend Jeanna died. My memories are vague but I do have a cherished few of that time. I remember seeing Mrs Jeanna lying on her sofa very sick when we brought her flowers we had picked, and somehow the song “People Need the Lord” is connected with that memory. And then I have a picture in my mind of all of us kneeling around our bed with Daddy. But most clear in my mind is my baptism. The baptismal was high up behind the pulpit of the church and I remember looking out and seeing my grandmother in the audience, and dog paddling from the underwater stool to the steps. All three of us were baptized together.

That was the beginning of my walk with Jesus. I’ve often thanked God for the faith He’s given me, for I’ve never looked back or questioned my salvation. However, I don’t recall my own stretching of spiritual legs until about five years later when we were in Russia and I learned how to pray. My lessons of faith were daily taught in my heart regarding fear. There was so much to be afraid of, and until then I had known no fear for we had a sheltered childhood. We read together as a family daily from the Word of God, and saw answers to our prayers on a daily basis as well as miracles. My God is so very big! He showed us how faithful He is, and How great is His love for the very least on this earth, and I understood that when I was ten. However, I have always struggled with letting fear take root in my heart instead of faith. How easily I forget God! And how good He is to always lead me back into trusting His good will. I need Him more and more as I have three sons now to raise…and that is my greatest desire, that they come to be His children and to know His love. I have to trust my Saviour to be my sons’ Saviour too.

My sisters have each had a different walk with Jesus and they both have beautiful testimonies of God’s power in their lives. It is such a wonderful gift to have sisters be for life and eternity!

And I know that one day my Jesus will see fit to bring me to Him and right there will be my Daddy, and there is no fear in death. Jesus has walked with me for twenty years and has never forsaken me and I know He never will. Blessed be His holy name!

As wife to a gentleman for six years and mother of three boys, two of whom are using the toilet, I guess I’m just plain lucky that I’ve come this far before falling into the toilet because the lid was up. Thankfully nobody got hurt, wet, or dirty…or fussed at, and my three year old calmly and quietly closed the lid for me, as he was the culprit and I was only taking a seat to brush his teeth.  🙂

This afternoon while Jerome was happy burning holes in leaves with his magnifying glass, Seth was happy to walk around with his sweatshirt up over his head like a bonnet, when in reality he was disliking getting undressed and enjoyed being stuck better.

Ian took his first little steps today!!! He stood up in the kitchen and stumbled towards me and when I squeaked for Peter to look, Ian stood up and did it again for Daddy to see! Of course this is all after a very long day for all of us and we have no energy to celebrate. Everybody’s in bed except for Ian who had a nap in the car, and me. My brain is rather fuzzy with sleep deprivation and a cold to boot, but these thing I wanted to remember and share with you.

Here are some of the boy’s recent drawings. Seth made his while sitting in church with Noel:

I had the privilege of keeping Zachary and Brennan at their house for a little while today and we took the opportunity to walk up in the hills to see more flowers! Donna told me about an owl’s clover flower that she had seen and wanted a picture of it, so she told me where to find it. We took sandwiches for everybody, slathered sunscreen on exposed parts of us (even though it was a hazy day) and set off with the youngest two in the double stroller. We got up to the top of the second hill and sat down for a quick lunch and to turn around to go back because Ian was miserable for some reason. It was interesting managing the double stroller with Brennan still in it while carrying Ian, herding the other boys, and still grabbing some flower pictures with a mac lens and the wind blowing! We all plopped down in the sandbox and spent a very happy hour playing until Donna got back. Zachary very graciously allowed Jerome to borrow his bug cage to tote home the two snails and two ladybugs, and one pill bug he found. There were others…but he couldn’t hold them all in his hands, they sadly flew or crawled away. Once safely home with his prisoners he sat down and faithfully drew and colored them, and cut and pasted his drawings into his nature notebook for today’s entry.

He then got to go spend a couple hours building legos with Jesse for the second time this week! What a treat!

Thursday began as a cozy, rainy day and we got a good start on our school work. Jerome read the book “Are You My Mother?” by P.D. Eastman from beginning to end! I’m pretty sure that’s the first book he’s read all by himself! I’m so proud of him! Reading is still hard work for him and we were on the couch for over an hour getting through it, but he wanted to finish it and he didn’t mind the interruptions.

He ran outside to ride his bike after his lessons were done as the sun had come out, and Seth helped him walk it back up the driveway every time. Ian sat in the yard with me and we watched his brothers, felt the rain on the grass, and enjoyed the late sunshine. I had fun with my big lens, too. 🙂