blessed beyond measure

In general, parenting is still very much a guessing game. Almost eleven years in, the boys will ask me permission for something and I'll just stand there face frozen, mouth open having no sort of idea how to answer. When my stupor clears, I manage to speak one of the following lines: Is that OK? I don't know. How am I supposed to know? You're asking me to choose between you and your brother. What do I do? What did you expect me to say when you asked me that? Hey, Jesus answered questions with questions. Can't be all bad. But I have learned a few things. Confused means tired. Lower belly pain is poop. Oxiclean gets out everything . The Magna Doodle knows no age limit. You can't force a kid to do anything. All that is great, and there is more. But if I could share my most valuable piece of parenting advice, actual practical mama magic, it's this. Walk. In. The. Woods. The mental and physical and relational and emotional benefits of this simple...

At long last the skies cleared for nearly a week straight, the Lord's nod of approval that the time had come. And for plenty of other people as well, we eager beavers reaching over top of one another in a crowded seed aisle so early in the morning. The tilling is first, Daddy maneuvering the tractor to break through winter's clods and even up the smooth, weedless soil. As he sings to himself, Trey does the same on the mower, and Aden and I do the same pulling weeds. How can you keep from singing under deep blue sky and the new life all around? The boys' favorite part? Throwing rocks. Which becomes a short-lived distance competition, followed quickly by a high-volume lecture about not aiming at each other. After lunch, we plant. Green beans first, Aden sometimes-gently guiding the seeder along the row, Trey following behind to kick dirt to cover the seeds. Then cucumbers with a lesson on forming hills and how maybe God put the top knuckle where He did so we'...

The spring experience has officially arrived, nearly a month after its calendar date and on the heels of three snows in the month of March. Unheard of around these parts. Our super-busy Saturday came packaged with a picture-perfect day, if not a little on the warm side. The budding yellows and purples and lime greens against that deep blue sky just make you feel alive, albeit alive with a scratchy throat and sneezy nose. But shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? First up was the color blast for the boys' school. Which is a color run in all but name. Our first, and the boys were very excited to run with their buddies. Of course the half-mile path marked out for the runners was anything but level ground, so pretty much everyone ended up walking it. Both Trey and Aden got a couple miles in and kept their color consumption mild compared to others, which I'm thankful for. We had trouble getting the blue out of Trey's neck, so I can't imagine if they'd...

In my looking around and dreaming about what I can get my hands on next in our house, there is stuff like the boys' bathroom, painting all the bedrooms, some sort of backsplash in the kitchen if I get really ambitious, et cetera. With the impressive lighting switch in the kitchen, my list included nothing further in regards to lighting. That chandelier was the proverbial lighting mic drop. Yes, I'm still quite proud of myself. Enter a DIY blog post about workspace illumination. Which was a fun skim until he started talking about frustration with the lack of brightness afforded by your standard pull-string bare incandescent bulb situation. Hey, that's the same thing we have! Apparently we missed the memo that there is an extremely doable solution to this problem. Some genius went out and invented an entire bright-white LED fixture that you can screw into a bare bulb socket. I mean seriously, how does one get onto the list for announcements like this? It's a bi...