The Streetpoet

This morning I woke up to Seth’s sweet little voice informing me that Ian had pooped in his bed. Now, normally…never mind, there is no normal. Ian just moved from our room to the pack n’ play in the boy’s room this week, and he has also cut his first molar, which makes him prone to loose bowels, but the dirt he ate yesterday certainly didn’t help matters. Poor guy. So I actually get out of bed when Jerome comes in to inform me that Ian has definitely pooped in his bed. My default prayer every morning is “Thank you for this new day, Jesus, and thank you for going before me and making my way straight…” it seemed a little ironic to be praying as I walked into a smelly room and my baby is pointing and showing me his new accomplishment, but we dive into laundry and baths before breakfast and find that Jesus is faithful, mommy’s not grumpy. But we only had time for cold cereal this morning (a real treat!)  because Zachary and Brennan played at our house for about four hours today!

Our landlord watered these wonderful fruit trees last night and Peter turned off the irrigation this morning on his way to work…and before I could get everyone ready for a day outside there were already two and a half pairs of lost shoes in the muddy mire, and five little pairs of muddy feet and hands! And of course I had to get in there too, to retrieve it all and I have to admit I wasn’t laughing yet. After that the day went pretty smoothly, everyone played so nicely and we all enjoyed being together, mud and all. When the cousins had gone home we had a quiet afternoon reading books, playing mancala (Jerome counted the scores and found the difference.), and before Daddy got home we made mud caves and castles and squishing our toes down into the gloopy, gloppy, glorious mud!

A couple funnies I heard from Seth today:

“Mommy, when it was dark, the dark made the grass wet!”

“The gravity is holding us all up!” – from a conversation with Zachary, who agreed with everything Seth said, sorry Donna!

🙂

Her sisters threw her a surprise birthday party on Saturday…and she really was surprised! But she was also late because of me. I had been begging for years to let me take her pictures and she finally agreed to have my camera in her adorable face! But the starting time of her party came and went, and none of us could be dressed or ready to go in the least lest she suspect anything. So the boys were as dirty as could be, Gigi pretended like she was over just to help me get dinner started and hang out, and I just kept snapping photos and chatting with Anna. As soon as she left I called Donna and practically yelled “She’s on her way!” and we scrambled around here to get ready and get up there. We missed her surprise, but I got some awesome shots! So happy surprise birthday party, Anna! And thank you for the shoot!

We’ve enjoyed the water immensely during this heat wave. Sprinklers, kiddie pool, hose, and Papa’s pool (and Papa’s air conditioning) have all been wonderful! Raven’s enjoyed all the water activity, too and is right in there with the boys.

Yesterday Jerome commented “Those are tiny, tiny freckles of water that we can hardly see! Right, Mama?” I had no idea what he was talking about until he pointed at Raven’s coat. She had run through the sprinkler and did indeed have tiny droplets of water shining on her fur.

Seth drinks an emergenC in his sippy cup every night, and he likes all the flavors. Tonight he called out from his bed after he’d tasted it, “Mommy, what flavor is it? Raspberry? Lemon Park?” (I had taken him to Lemon Park this morning to play in their water area while Jerome was in VBS and he had a blast!)

I dug my Psaltry out of the closet the other day, I wasn’t sure why at the time, I just needed to play.

What came from it surprised me. In the past few years I’ve not played it very much and when I have I would always try to play this one song, a hymn actually as those are mostly all I know, but I felt I had lost it as I could not play it.

There was a short time when all three of us sisters each had a Psaltry and we played together in churches, at prayer meetings and such. Vanessa taught herself to read music, and I still can’t, so she would play the harmony and I would play the melody, she just gave me the starting note. I would teach Regina the melody and then we were set for a trio! But shortly after that Vanessa fell in love and got married. Our best song had been “Holy, Holy, Holy” and I didn’t want to lose the sound of it harmonized on the Psaltry so I spent hours and hours teaching myself to play it with two bows. It’s the only song I know how to play with two bows but I had been able to play it to still have the sound of us all together.

This week was the first time in years that I had picked up two bows and been able to play it through.

Most of you know that my twin sister has been in Peru for almost four years now. (I’m also keeping her Psaltry here as the jungle conditions would most likely ruin it.) She’s had many health problems through the years, but this week we learned that she has a blood clot in a vein in her left leg. Once again, we trust the Lord for her life and ask for her healing. Please pray for Vanessa’s safety and healing, and that the medical help they do receive would be timely and wise. Thank you.

Scott has been working on his PhD since before we knew him! He’s gotten a new job, married, moved, had two children, planted an amazing yard, all while working on his dissertation! Scott, you’re an amazing person and we thank God for what He’s done in your life and for placing you in our family! We love you!

And thanks also goes to the Williams family who put on an amazing dinner for all of us to celebrate before the commencement ceremonies on Monday. It was so nice to spend some time with your family and we look forward getting to know you better through the years to come, although Riverside seems so far away.

Again, congratulations, Scott!