Jodilightful!

I am not domestically inclined.  There, I said it.

I don’t know whether it’s nature or nurture or both, but I am a messy girl, and after years of trying to change (I started receiving FLYlady‘s emails when I was pregnant with Romilly in 2005!) I still struggle to maintain even the most basic level of order in my home.  Sometimes I catch glimpses that there are advantages to being the way I am, that those who have the “neat freak” gene do not always count it a blessing.  But mostly, I just wish I were doing a better job of serving my family in this area.

I was no better at keeping my home tidy before I had children, though well-meaning friends and family are always quick to offer my four little ones up as an excuse for the state of my house, but now there is an increasing sense of urgency to the matter.  How can I keep my girls from ending up like me?  When I see the horror in Pippa’s face when I ask her to tidy up the playroom, or hear the desperation in Romilly’s voice when putting all the doll clothes away is “Just too much, Mommy!”, I see and hear myself!  How can I train them to pick up after themselves, when I don’t consistently do it myself?  How can I teach them what I just haven’t learned yet?  The situation is getting pretty dire as more and more little girls graduate to mess-making age around here.

This  passage has been staring me down for quite some time now.

Proverbs 6:6-11

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. 7 Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, 8 she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

When I have read it,  it has always said something like this to me:

Hey Jodi, look at all these other women who keep their homes immaculate and their laundry folded and put away all the time!  They do it every day, not just when they’re getting ready for a birthday party.  When they pull out their vacuum cleaners, their children do not ask them, “Mommy, is somebody coming over?” They scrub and bake and even garden (which people think you do, but it’s actually your husband who does all the work), all while you sleep in, or maybe play on the Internet for a few minutes hours on end.  Those women are so. much. better than you!

But of course, whatever voice that was that I was hearing, it was not the voice of my gentle, loving Lord.  What I had never noticed about these verse before  few weeks ago, was this part:

Go to the ant… consider her ways, and be wise.

I wasn’t reading what these verses actually said.  The answer has been right there all along: Go find “those women” and see how they do it.  Learn from them!  I don’t have to stay a sluggard, I can be an ant, too!

So, this is where you come in, ant friends.  You know who you are, you who basically have things under control.  If your laundry spends most of its time clean and folded in its proper place, and you know, for instance, that you are supposed to clean under your microwave at least every once in a while, I want to know what makes you tick!  (Advice is also more than welcome from recovering sluggards: you are an inspiration!)

• What motivates you?   Does the mess just drive you crazy or do you have to make yourself clean up?
• Have you always kept your home in good order?  If not, was there a gradual process of improvement or a sudden Ah-ha! moment that changed everything?
• What habits have you found most helpful in this area?
• Is there a spiritual element to it?  A key verse that might help me see more clearly that it’s important to God that I keep my home neat and clean?

I want to be able to serve my family better in this area, and I think I’ve been taking baby steps in the right direction, but if there are more secrets out there, I want to know them!  I want to teach them to my daughters so that they can enter life more prepared than I was for how messy life really is.

Wisdom?  Please?

As I brought my tiniest girl downstairs this morning, early, before her sisters were up, I remembered doing the same thing with her a year ago today (shh!  Don’t tell my midwives, I was supposed to stay in bed for three days.  Who does that?!)

A year ago this morning, I gazed for the first time on this person I now can’t imagine our lives without.  For some reason I feel more nostalgic and reflective of this first birthday than I remember being with any of the others.  Maybe it’s because all of the events of that day and the night leading up to it happened right here in our home.

As I sat with her on the sofa this morning, I remember so vividly being in exactly the same spot a year ago, when she was first fully opening those giant eyes, and wondering ‘Who are you, little one?’  And I remember her looking back at me, in that way that only a newborn can, as if to say ‘Silly Mama.  I’m your Juniper, and I’ve known you all my life.’

This morning, she was full of smiles and giggles and silliness, and had little patience for my  nostalgic ramblings.  She was off crawling and exploring and looking for adventure, reminding me that she is no longer little enough for me to cuddle and stare at to my heart’s content.

She has grown into her eyes a little, though strangers still call her ‘Bright Eyes’ everywhere we go.  And she has grown into our hearts in a way that catches me by surprise every time it happens.  Was there really a time before we had our Junebug in our lives?

Happy first birthday, precious baby girl!

(Lindsay, I’m working on a picture of all four girls in their shirts for you.  The littles were napping for this shoot.  We love them – thank you!)

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Every once in a while, something magical happens and they all smile perfectly at the same time, and I catch it.  Tickling helps the odds considerably.

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So, what do you do when you get over a foot of snow dumped on you twice in less than a week?  Here are 12 suggestions: 

*  My mom gave me this “recipe”, and yeah, we really ate it.  I thought it was scrummy, but the girls found it a little too cold for enjoying in such conditions.  You basically just stir up a whole bunch of sugar (maybe like a half a cup?) in a cup or so of milk.  Add chocolate syrup, vanilla and whatever other fixins you like (I added some peanut butter to mine – yum!)  Add the whole thing to a big bowl of snow, stir and enjoy!  It should be about the consistency of Rita’s, if you have that in your parts.

**  Pippa called me into the kitchen to play “Guess Which Bible Story This Is?”  When I didn’t immediately get it, she added the hand gesture to help me out a little.  It’s this one.  I love it!

Hope you’re staying warm and dry  and enjoying God’s glorious creation this winter!

Lindsay at The Name Nazi is hosting a photography challenge this week in honor of Valentine’s Day: photograph something pink!  Well we have no shortage of pink or sweetness around here (or white, but that’s another story!) so I thought I’d play along.

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

Happy birthday to our sweet RAY of sunshine, Romilly Alice!  I would have included a newborn picture in this post, but you’ve seen those before, plus, I think she was cuter at one, don’t you?

We’ve had a super fun day so far.  We had cake at Katie’s house  before lunch!  Then we took a special trip to Build-A-Bear to get a pink and purple tie-dyed teddy bear in full Ariel-the-mermaid costume – just what every little girl needs, especially little girls who have bravely overcome their overwhelming fear of swimming class.  And if the snow holds off long enough, we will top off the evening by having cupcakes with dear friends at small group tonight.  What a fun and full day!

I’m sure I say this every year for every girl, but we sure do love this kid!  We thank God for her quirky sense of humor and her  sweet disposition, for her crazy one-liners (Me: The bottom line is that you need to be more responsible!  Romilly: But what is the top line?) and her undying devotion to her “little buddy” Juniper.  This girl is a huge blessing to our family, and we just love her to pieces!

Happy Birthday, Ro-Ro!

(Oh, and by the way, remember this post?  Twelve days ago?  Twelve days this kid kept us waiting.  That’s a crazy long time, am I right?)

With so many pictures of the little ones lately, I thought I’d better show off the big girl who holds it all together around here.  My helpful, sweet, seems-a-whole-lot-bigger-than-five-most-of-the-time-but-still-reminds-me-she’s-little-every-once-in-a-while Pippa.  I love you!

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

Happy new week!  On the heels of my rather pragmatic post last week, I’m going to get all mushy on you today.  I’ve been thinking lately that the very act of treasuring up this phase of life gives me joy – does that seem redundant?

Luke 2:19

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

When I leave the house with my four girls, I think we make quite a scene.  The lovely man that works at our local post office described me to a friend once as “having babies hanging off me everywhere.”  Nice picture, huh?  Yet almost every time we go out, someone, usually an older woman, tells me something to this effect:  “Enjoy them, it goes so fast!”

My oldest is only five, and I know it already: the days are long, but the years fly by in a blur.  I know, even as I am in the sometimes overwhelming moments of this phase of my life, that it is a short-lived, and I will miss it when it’s past.  I know it from the ladies who stop me in Rite-Aid, and from the women who can’t wait to snatch my baby out of my arms in the nursery each Sunday, and from my own mom who cries every time she thinks about my baby sister graduating from high school this year.  I will blink, and they’ll be in college.*

I’m so aware that I cannot hold onto these precious days.  I take pictures and videos, but I know that when I look back on them, they will not bring back June’s baby smell, or the feel of her sweet fuzzy head against my cheek.  I blog so that I won’t forget, but I know I’m only capturing a tiny handful of the memories we make each day.

So, armed with the knowledge that these days of having little ones at home are whizzing past me at breakneck speed and that I can do nothing to stop it, what can I do? I can treasure it all up.

Just as Mary pondered in her heart the incredible things she was seeing God do in her own life, I can treasure the sweetness and the joy that God gives in my children each day.  I can just know in each moment that  this is amazing stuff: watching a baby pull to her feet for the first time and burst into a delighted smile, seeing the bonds of sisterhood forged through the giggles of toddlers, being read to by a five-year-old who was so frustrated by reading six months ago I wondered if she’d ever get it.  Every day is full of tiny miracles, and I want to notice and treasure as many of them as I can and to give thanks for being right where I am.

*(I’m into my footnotes lately, aren’t I?  Less distracting than a parenthesis, I think.)   Romilly must have heard me saying this recently.  I heard her explaining it to Pippa a couple weeks ago: “Pippa, you blink your eyes like this {blink}, and then you’re in college!”  Magic!  Do you think if we blink hard enough it will already be paid for?