my little one looking up at my crinkly love. 


I never imagined it would be so sweet 
with crow's feet,
in the corners of my mind.

I have to admit that it didn't help my view of said child that I was sitting there with an infant and an infant mother's lumpy figure while snotty-girl's mother sat in perfect barbie-doll fashion chatting with an equally stylish friend.  Nor did it help that both mothers were completely ignoring their children. 

Half the heads in the restaurant whipped around.  No tongue-ripping child could be seen.  "What little girl," asked the Barbie-mom?  

"The one with blond hair and...", Snotty-girl proceeded to describe my sweet, petite, 32 pound, 4 year old, gentle daughter.  

"What!  Surely snotty-girl lies," I thought/hoped.  Barbie-mom, Snotty-girl and friends left the restaurant after a brief (and loud) discussion of how awful other children were, while I attempted cowardly invisibility.

No my children are not bullies..... they are just really, really, really, scary. 

This was a week of random blessings, requiring not so random thankfulness. James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above..."

Each week I drive past a hillside farm populated with grazing black cattle. Since last week the pasture has turned Easter-egg-green and drifts of gorgeous daffodils are in full bloom.  Black, green and yellow against a blue sky.  I'm thankful that cows don't eat daffodils.

The end of last week was a bit worrisome.  Our almost 4 yo was showing signs of an impending metabolic crisis.  I still don't know what had his body out-of-order.  Sunday I asked a few friends to pray for him.  Monday morning my son woke up fine.  My first thought was not to thank God, but to think, "Oh, I guess I shouldn't have bothered to ask for prayers."  I'm soooo thankful God is patient and faithful, even when I am not.  

My 8 yo wears through all his clothing.  His skin must secret an acid unknown to modern science.  Holes seem to develop all on their own, or it might be the way he's always flinging his body around... However, I was able to find enough pairs of pants, in a box a friend passed to me from our hand-me-down-circle, to last him until Fall.

I had friends surprise me with a blessing for our whole family.  I am so thankful for lifelong friends.  You know who you are!

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I'm also thankful for the Spring rains.  My garden is growing-I just know it- even if it isn't visible yet.

I want to invite any gardeners out there to join me each Monday over at The Flexible Homeschooler for a virtual community-garden.  Link up any posts about your veggie-garden projects, whether you home school or not.

 

My oldest child turns 18 next week.  It's really not possible.  However, he received his selective service envelope so it must be true.  

All month I've been reminiscing about the poor guinea-pig of a child.  We call him that because we learned how to be parents by experimenting on him.  Before he was born I don't think I had actually been in the same room with an infant.  

When he was somewhere in the 4- 6 yo range he suddenly developed a fear of birds.  Irrational fears were not something I was predisposed to be especially compassionate about. Mind you- I was a young mom and I was not going to have a fraidy-cat child.  

One evening after dinner I asked my son to go fetch a book from the den.  He refused and got a wild-eyed scared look.  Immediately I was annoyed.

"Go get the book, Now," I repeated.

"I can't."

"Why," I asked?

"Because of the birds."

"What birds?  There are no birds in the den.  GO NOW."

Meltdown occurred.  His legs turned to rubber.  I marched over to him, scooped him up, and attempted to squelch my mental visions of him on a playground with a "kick me, I'm a wimp" sign on his back.  We would face this fear!  

"They will fly through the window and get me," he screamed from my arms as I walked.

"Nonsense, it's dark out, the birds are all asleep."

I walked with him up to one of the windows and we peered out together, our noses next to the glass.  His body started to relax in my arms.  There was the beginning of a smile.  Then...

WHAM!  

A huge black bird slammed into the glass. I kid you not.  The whole wall of the den seemed to rattle with the force of the bird's impact.

I must have jumped a foot; I've never been so startled in all my life. My son launched himself off the top of my head with the power of primal fear and landed clinging to the ceiling with his fingernails. 

It was the official beginning of my career as a spin-doctor.  Voice still quivering I said, "See, the birds can't get through the glass." 

It worked.  

The strength of the window helped him over his fear.  I however, had trouble walking past the den windows at night without feeling jittery for months afterward.

This was my Feel Good Friday Memory.  Yes, I know that it is somewhat twisted that a story involving inadvertently scaring the snot out of my son makes me feel good.  But, well... it does.  For other stories, memories, and great lists, visit The Girl Next Door Grows Up for-