A Room of His Own

Today my baby is two. Forgive me for REDUNDANTLY stating this fact, but there are NO MORE BABIES AT MY HOUSE!!! For a plethora of reasons, that I will spare you from my expounding upon, I am giddily excited by this fact. I'll admit there is also a teeny, tiny, infinitesimal part of me that mourns the passing of this stage. But it is miniscule. Hardly even worth mentioning. Our big boy is celebrating the close of year two with, finally, his own room. He's always been the lightest sleeper of our brood, taking his sweet time in falling asleep and being easily awakened by the slightest noise or disturbance. Due to various circumstances here, we put off giving him his own space until just recently, but now that the deed is done we are all sleeping MUCH better because of it.
This weekend we will celebrate the baby of our family, hopefully with a trip to the zoo, perhaps a few gifts and some emphatic birthday singing. We will marvel at his growth (or is that, girth?). We will reminisce about the last two years of his presence in our lives, and we'll probably supress a little panic as we realize anew the depth of our responsibility as parents to get these three gregarious, loving boys safely into manhood. Mostly we'll probably just feel a little stressed and overwhelmed by the pace of life right now with three active kids aged six and under. But we'll feel pretty darn blessed too.
Happy Birthday, Grayson!

Dear Uncle Sam, Thank you for unburdening me, this tax season, of funds that surely I would have frivolously wasted away on things like $4/gallon gas for my vehicle or personal debt reduction. Truly, you have saved me from financial recklessness. Surely "donating" my money to your ever deepening and widening black hole of a budget deficit and wasteful government spending is a MUCH better cause. Thanks a bunch, Another satisfied American

Is Anybody Still Out There?

Wowza. A once-a-month update does not an interesting blog make. Sorry to be so MIA over here. Life has continued to go on, but for some reason I have been neglectful of sharing it with you, faithful and occasional readers.

Spring is upon us and with it an awakening of the natural world, the senses, and the time spent out of doors. Much to James's chagrin, it also means lawn cutting season has begun. (He asked me shortly after Jeran was born how old our children would need to be to help with that task. We agreed that being of a height taller than the lawnmower was probably pretty essential. Thus, he toils on alone.) The bikes and toys have been unburied from their place in the garage, the windows have been opened, and the parks revisited. Birthdays have been and will be celebrated: Jeran turned 6 on March 17 and Grayson will officially shed his babyhood on April 29 as he turns two. At times, as I've no doubt mentioned here before, I have a complex about how lame we are about birthdays. I have friends who are absolutely giddy about birthdays and celebrate with relish, planning weeks, even months, in advance. Around here the realization of an impending birthday usually dawns on us the week of. Whoops! This year we actually had planned a bit ahead and wanted to bring Jeran to Legoland, but it just didn't work out for James to get out of work early enough to make that a reality, so Jeran chose (surprise, surprise) the train restaurant as his celebratory venue. You know what though? Even though we've been there every year since he turned two, and even though it wasn't a huge event, we (and especially he) enjoyed it immensely. And isn't that what it's all about? (That and the presents, naturally.)

Choo choo! This year our good friend (and roomie for a brief time), Jess, got to join us too!

Grayson, our go-go-goer, doesn't show any signs of slowing down as he reaches the ripe old age of two. He talks, walks/runs, eats a mile a minute and therefore has no real problem keeping up with his bros. They're all pretty obsessed with being outside these days, not that I blame them. And they all remain buddies which I love to see.

School will soon be ending and with it, our routine, so my thoughts have started turning toward summer and what fun awaits us there. It's also a little unnerving for me, who loves a good routine, to realize that we'll be faced with somewhat unstructured days. But with our energetic, boisterous crew I see LOTS of fun times ahead.

On that note, however, I have to say that I finally feel like I'm at a place in my life where I have learned to enjoy one day at a time. I still need to work on really being present in each moment rather than jumping ahead or wishing certain moments to pass faster, but for the most part I find myself truly enjoying the day I have been given, recognizing (however morbid it may be) that I'm not guaranteed even my next breath. Awhile ago I was challenged (as is generally the case) by our pastor when he spoke about living in the margins. How often we live only for those moments of rest and relaxation in our lives: vacations, weekends, bedtimes. :) But even those not-so-restful moments, those moments that fill all the time in between the vacations, etc., the bulk of our time: am I living those to the fullest? While there's nothing wrong with times of rest and refreshment, am I ONLY living for those? There have absolutely been times (and still are) when I would answer yes to that. But I slowly feel I'm growing to a place where even the frustrating, exhausting, beat-me-to-a-pulp moments show me their value, and living in God's peace I can live those to the fullest too. It's a slow process. But I'm gettin' there.

Today was filled with many enjoyable moments: a picnic at the park with my kids, laughter, tons of hugs and kisses and snuggling, recognizing how faithful God is to meet my needs (even when I'm not always all that faithful), sunshine, cool breezes, accomplishment in work tasks... So you might say how easy it is to live fully in these moments. And that's certainly true. I'm soaking them up, basking in the easy joy, so that the Lord can refresh me for those moments when the joy doesn't come as easy.

So, that's what's going on in the life and head of us Louwerses. Hopefully spring fever is catching hold of you as well and enhancing the joy in your life.