I want You!

What a delightful thought, from my Ezra. Elyse was going to get me a cup of water, but I told her that I want you to do it for me. I will wait. Said my Ezra now at 5, with full facility of language and thought of a kindergartner. How my heart leaps when he says stuff like that, even when I'm tired from the Christmas goings on. It got me out of my bed.
I can really see what God was saying about David being a man after God's heart. I don't want to be best friends with my big brothers. I don't want to be momma and dad's favorite child, I don't want King Saul's favor or it doesn't get me happy that the women are singing about my exploits. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want! I dance at the beauty of the arc coming home but my words are stilled when the women sing about me.
I want YOU, Lord!

Somebody snuck down the steps

to see mommy kissing Santa. He was groggy and tuckered out and we swept him up and took him back to bed.
It was a tiring Christmas eve. I wonder if Santa will like the hand cookies I made for him. I wonder if I will get anything this year.
Every year there is some special wonder to Christmas.
Ezra was enamored with the stories of Santa this year. While we baked with big brother stories of the goodness of God were free flowing. No matter what happens, the remembrance of Christmas brings our minds and hearts back to thinking about the goodness of God.
Thank God for sweet remembrances and sweet cookies and a God who is way better than, even Santa!

The Last day of school before Christmas break!

Excited, Excited was the morning routine. Ezra carried his gifts of Applebutter for Ms. Guffey and Ms. Sellers happily with him for pajama day.
He came home with gifts also. There was the usual pizza for dinner and mom is trying to clean the house. Christmas is fast approaching.

Ezra's birthday kiss

It was raining and wet, we woke up early and somebody came down the stairs and greeted his mommy the very first kiss on the birthday came from Ezra.
On December 11, Mommy turned 47 and Ezra was the earliest riser after Elyse and we enjoyed a good breakfast and a happy day. Thank you Ezra.

Ezra likes his teacher

Ezra goes to the Odell school and Ms. Guffey is his teacher. Ms. Sellers also teaches the class, helping Ms. Guffey.
Yesterday, Ezra's class had PE and they jumped and skipped and acted like chickens. Ezra slept the whole evening through dinner and woke up at about 1 o'clock very hungry. At 3 Mommy made him an egg and we talked about his day. After we cleaned up a little, we went back to bed until it was time to go to school.
Ezra and Ethan missed the bus and Daddy had to take them to school. When the boys get home they will have spaghettios.

The Old West Indian Mommas call him the "Wash-belly"Baby!

The one who broke the mold and we are ever so grateful for the providence of God and the wonder of the wise God to send us such a special gift in the latter times. Your exuberance and your love of the family was seen from the first day that I saw your face. You were completely at home in the cacophony of our tumultuous large family. You are an essential element of the family that we have. I am a grateful MOMMY for the Ezra-"map man" my "SPIKE".
There are so many reasons that I am grateful for you this year. Watching you adjust to the kindergarten routines has been interesting. Thank you for taking on the challenge with delight.

The Trumpet shall Sound!

And the dead shall be raised--INCORRUPTIBLE. I love hearing my son's little voice resonation through the house and through the church with resounding confidence. All-knowing, Ever Present! He will remember those lines for the rest of his life. My dad was a little boy when he sang, "Truth is marching!" and everytime he sang that part of the song, his face reverted to toddlerhood, the faith of a little child, spoonfed and accepted without question. Questions may arise later on in life as they must, but may God keep you knowledgeable that He is truly the All-knowing, Ever-present One. Great job, SPIKE!

Ezra came home an Indian and a Pilgrim today.

Thanksgiving marks the time that we celebrate the 2 sets of people who learned to share provisions and help in this land we call America. The elements of the earth are no match for any of us without the tools to survive the frost and the heat. Food and clothing and shelter must have been difficult to forge in the wilderness of the life they called the new World. Without teamwork none of them would have survived. Ezra came home in a cute little costume and with a heart so full that he wrote me my very first invitation from him.

The sickness is gone

Ezra feels better. Soda is not for explosive purposes honey. It is not fun for mommy to come home to a sticky floor. The soda mess is too much. I will go to bed and leave it to nanny to fix. I love you and will reprove you about the mess tomorrow. I saw a squirrel today, and a little sparrow came close enough to me for me to see him shyly looking at me. Autumn is amazing, how was your trip to the mountains.

A fever pitch

Poor Ezra, stuck at home because of the fever. An expected result of latent vaccinations, but disheartening, nonetheless. He is jumpy after the Tylenol and tired and nappy, but not in any pain. We are watching him and trying to see what is the next step to take with this mysterious fever. No cough, no runny nose, just a cranky boy to tend.
Thank God for a live in Nanny, who loves her brother and cares for his needs when I am not at home.
God is good!

Hope for the future,dear boy,

We have a new president. Barack Obama is his name. We have to pray for Mr. President. Only God can help us lead and grow and do what our duty is. May God allow us to do what we must to glorify Him in this new season.

As the eyes of the handmaiden to her mistress,

So our eyes look to You O Lord! We trust You for our provision and Your kind guidance for us.

Halloween is October 31st TWOO!

The pimples from the candy binge

have gone down and it is trip day. An excited 5 year old will take a bus and see some sights he's never seen before and we cannot find the camera? Go figure!

My Candy-coated 5year old

A supertime at the fall festival, there was candy and games and children and music and fun for everyone. Cotton candy and bags of candy and Emily sang in the choir. Daddy took Ezra around to all of the games he could stomach and the day was chilly and bright. When the sun went down; under the darkness of the night, we sang and glorified God outside and enjoyed His presence under the stars. How simply marvelous to be a part of the Family of Faith!

Its Friday, I am 5, What else is there?

An excited home coming for my kindergarten young man. We must search for the folder and there was no disappointment for the rain delay of the class trip. My class trip was to the Statue of Liberty in the 1st grade. There was no way my mother was going to let me go on that trip.
Thank God for the re-run to the Statue in high-school and senior sisters who cared enough to share themselves and the trip with me.

The Shotput event went famously this morning.

As usual, my heroine, Elyse was accurate in her shotput event achieving a 7.0 out of a possible 10 for time and distance. Every morning it is the one goal to get the children to the bus stop on time.
What a very different mentality it is for us to transition from a system where there are numerous buses to catch and an early and a later on time system to the one bus small town system. Yet, everyday, Elyse runs them to the bus and takes up the underpart of the preparation process and gets the job to fruition. I am busy trying to cram a bit or two of more information into their hearts about God and into their minds about the world and into their bellies to get them through the day and she is the nuts and bolts about what time is it and they must get on the bus Mommy. It has its kinks, but it gets the job done.
Anyway Ezra and his trusted elder brother Ethan made it onto the bus and hopefully there will be no more blue cards today(another story).

One problem with video games

I don't have control over the video games with my Ezra. The video game gives you immediate gratification for a correct answer. That is not good. Correct answers in life do not always have bells and whistles attached. Learn to be right in silence, my boy. We need a video game that shows the development of skills builds into something bigger without the immediate approval.

I missed you last night, Ezra.

You were sleeping when I came home, precious. I was sleeping when you were awake this morning. Daddy woke you guys up from the moon. Daddy had you guys practicing your aerospace 0 gravity activities this morning in the wake up routine. That beats my motivations by a mile. I even woke up to go to the moon with you astronauts.

I used to toss you up in the air and catch you!

You are getting too big to do that to, my son. Like the tennis balls that I love to toss high into the air and catch them. I can't catch you. The spanking that you got this weekend, was a reminder to me that there is effort in getting you where you need to be. The tennis ball cannot be served into the court without a firm contact with the ball.
God's gentle tap on Jacob's thigh through the angel is felt in us all to this day. God sent him sprawling in faith and in direction to the godly seed to follow. Let us pick up momentum in grace, dear Ezra. Let us build upon the history that we are blessed with and ace the world with the strength to accomplish.

Its Not My Birthday, But it is a full moon!

Enjoying the celebrations in the family are Fun!

"Last week, I was the line leader."

It always amazes me how my sons save information for a more convenient time. When they think they have my undivided attention, they pull out the information. This morning's announcement was that he had been lineleader last week.
I don't know if that means he was good last week and had to be spoken to this week, or that he thought he was going to be lineleader for the rest of the year and just realized that it was only a week long assignment. I will have to probe to see the connection with the rest of our lives. At this point, I am just glad that he is still talking to me about the Kindergarten activities. Time flies so fast and the children are always chiming in on his sentences as the baby of the family, that it really takes determination and creativity to tell me something without someone minimizing it. I am always excited to hear news from the classroom. I am not sure if my face showed that this morning. My eyes were still half closed from sleep and my mind was not yet fully in gear for the day. But Ezra was line leader last week!

Grandpa's birthday! Ezra CHARLES- Anthony Walker

The heritage of Charles Walker through Benjamin:

Dad took him to the bus stop this morning!

A privilege that the other children didn't receive, because we were always running dad to work or to meetings or to church or to the other sundry responsibilities that he enjoyed. Now he has a little breather to take the littlest fellow to the busstop for this season, because of the slowness of the economy. God will provide and deliver but in the meantime. We must continue and press on. Our daddy is a monument of the grace to stand, even now!

Precocious and 5 years old!

Today I tried Mark Twain and tried to give them the experience of learning about naughty boys from the story so that they won't have to practice that path to see where it leads. Who knows, maybe if Horatio Nelson would have had a Huck Finn book perhaps he wouldn't have gone to sea or my grandfather Bodden would not have become a pirate.
I will try to use all of the tools at my disposal to give them the equipment to live godly. You are curious about what it is like on the other side of the tracks where people know nothing of the grace of God? There is fun there, for sure, but after that are the ways of death.
Have fun in the good ways and save the other stuff for the fairy-tales!

Oh, My a naughty boy!

Teacher said, he got a blue card on Wednesday! Oh no! Not my baby! Not my Ezra! Oh yes, he's a sinner too and makes mistakes and guess where it comes out. Out of his mouth, the tongue is a tiny member of the body, but it boasts great things and his little tongue was wagging when it should have been silent.
At first, I took out all of the stops. This little fellow is not going to embarrass me, I said to myself. I caught myself after the first or second paragraph of ultimatums or ultimati or ultimatatives :) I said, You know what, we are going to have a little talk about this everytime this happens. You have to know why it is so important for little you to be quiet and let big Ms. Guffey talk. He seemed to get it, when put that way. We will see!

After the class party we had a home party!

We made party decorations and used sparklers outside and sang happy birthday and the whole family was present and accounted for! We are the special people in Ezra's life. He was so excited!

Yesterday, We went to Ezra's kindergarten class

Ben and I enjoyed a little time with Ezras class while they were having a time in their centers.
Thank you, Ms. Guffey and Ms. Sellers.

click on any picture to see it full sized.

BIRTHDAY BOY, WAKE UP!

Beltless, birthday boy oh, boy!---Chocolate muffin for breakfast, with hot chocolate brew. A special birthday, for a special boy! Son of my old age. The one child that took me out of the world and brought me back again. I did die, everyday, and God breathed back into me, everyday. When I think of the goodness of Jesus... Halleluia! Now, sometimes, in the humdrum of daily life, we forget that God has a purpose for us being here. He and I are still here. Just as amazing as it can be.






Jacob lost his Rachel, when Benjamin was born, probably for the same reason I died with Ezra. Stroked out, blood pressure through the roof. Can't push, Emergency C section, one of us or both of us were gone, gone, gone. Too much pitosin, too soon in the process. Not a life friendly medical establishment. Why would you do this to a child when you can hardly care for the ones who are here, they say. They really don't know what care is all about. Love is sharing the hot chocolate this morning and moving over in the bed of your heart to fit the little amazing miracle into your life, when you thought there was no more room. If your heart busts if your blood vessels bust, if your pressure goes over the top, call the "sistahood?"

God Bless America!