a life beyond running shoes.

this is one of our favorite songs from church. translation: weeping last for just one night but joy comes in the morning. clap your hands, sing alleluia clap your hands, praise the lord. i hav e been trying t o capture this new babble for over a week...... super cute. also, my brother is home! safe and sound from his 4th tour..... his baby is due in just about three weeks.

church in our new space was awesome! check it out..... real pews. our children's church space: toddler/nursery space.....working on baby corral units:

there are weather seasons. one reason i love the northeast.... fall. then there are life seasons. up until now in my life it has been hard to know what season of life i am in other than "i have small children" and still don't sleep through the night phase. the "grief is still real" phase. the "starting school" phase. the "my husband is planting a church" phase. which the lines between our life phases and our church phases are blurred..... we are in a new church season. we are moving out of our house and into worship space. it is awesome. baptist church of the redeemer has offered us use of the upstairs portion of their educational building. it has not been used in ten years and it is all ours. two large meeting rooms, lots of classrooms, and a space for a desk and quite sermon prep time. we have had two work days. here is the progress so far: work day 1: work day 2:

this read was bitter sweet. it is an amazing book on prayer. i knew a great man of prayer.... he sings with the angels now. now understand, the book is not rocket science or anything new, but refreshing to be reminded of truths that can escape in the chaos of life....why prayer is so important, why we do it so badly, why we need to do it, how we can do it.... etc. i was reminded that i am to come to him like a small child (i have a few examples in my house to give me a clear image of what that looks like).....needy, messy, dependent. my cynicism gives way to unbelief...."prayer is the positive side of the surrendered will." quotes: "it didn't take long to realize that i did my best parenting by prayer. i began to speak less to the kids and more to god." "until you are convinced that you can't change your child's heart, you will not take prayer seriously." "ask." "we shy away from prayers that invite god to rule our lives. they ...

neither of us teared up. i was impressed. we were both very brave. he ran almost every block from the park to the school. he had a lot of nervous energy. we got to the lobby. he clung to my leg. my heart fluttered. his teacher walked out and greeted him. he looked up at me longingly. my heart fluttered. he gripped harder and then took his teacher's hand. my heart fluttered. and so school begins.

today was the first day of pre-k. it was orientation and so parents got to stay. tomorrow is drop off and leave. tomorrow there will be tears. last night, peanut could not fall asleep. my husband went up to talk to him and try and comfort him. conversation went something like this: peanut: dad, do you think there is a pool at school? dad: no, pal. why? peanut: well, if there is a pool do you think the teacher will make me put my head under the water? dad: no, pal. there is no pool at the school. peanut: but will i have to put my head under the water? dad: no, pal. i promise. peanut: okay, dad. i am nervous about school. rip out my heart, sweet boy. talk about articulating what his fears are.....so sweet. i can't believe i have to leave him tomorrow. i'm sure there will be tears for both of us. growing up is hard.

sweet pea goes for her six month check-up and weight check on friday.....but until then here she is at six months. my brother gave me this onsie for peanut. i have taken a pic of all three of them in it. i would post those pics to see if they look alike, but when my computer died a year ago, the archive of photo was saved but not imported to my iphoto. this week i'll try and get a good six month photo of her in a dress :) she is much loved by her brothers. (doesn't peanut look old - he starts pre-k on wednesday.......yikes!)

we had a great day at the zoo. we really did. the weather was beautiful, the kids were enjoyable, and the crowds were manageable. here are the sweet family highlights (a few first thrown in for good measure)....in true sweet family fashion: little bit dropping a glass jar on his foot splitting the toe nail from the nail bed. just a bit of blood.....all before walking out the door. our very first bee sting....again, it was little bit. gorillas, elephants, snow leopards, butterflies, rhinos......oh my! the carousel....another first! sweet pea sleeping all the way through until morning....another first!

it would be so much easier to hop on the subway after waving the nanny good-bye and letting her deal with my kids all day long. like yesterday. no one was having a good day. peanut was verbally difficult... mostly because he can articulate himself extremely well. he even woke me up from MY nap to explain to me one more time why 45 minutes was just perfect for room time as opposed to a full hour. (i'll let you know that i don't think he understands time but knows one was longer than the other) in his fit over room time he woke up both his siblings. that just was the icing on the cake. then there are days like today. we did some work on letters and colors, sweet pea took a good morning nap, i got dinner started (marinating), we went to the park and had a picnic with friends in beautiful weather....all before 2pm. i was reminded what a treat is it to be able to stay home and be with my kids. the park was spectacular and it was 75 degrees. a beautiful day where they ran, kic...

sweet pea is almost six months old BUT is not sleeping through the night; in fact, she is still getting up every three hours. in fact, she was screaming when she was done nursing. my mother's intuition was that she was not getting enough milk..... and was fussy almost an hour after she fed without fail. well, we went to the pediatrician last friday to make sure that she wasn't sick. she wasn't.... just hungry. she had not gained any weight in four and a half weeks. we had tried cereal, but it was hit or miss. thanks to some wise women, i have started drinking tea with fenegreek in it. i am trying to take it easy and pretend like i have the flu (rest, drink lots of water, don't have three playdates in one day, etc.), have start giving her pre-mixed formula because she was refusing the other kind, and are really pushing the cereal. for the first time in her life, she slept 7 hours straight last night. wow. i feel almost half human.