kid quotes

Levi, our 4-yr-old back seat driver: "Dad, put on the speed!" (Matt: "Why?") "Because I need you to go faster and catch up with them!"

Miriam, playing with Levi: "Levi, I'm 10. I realize I'm actually 6, but for REAL-PRETEND, I'm 10."

Miriam -- we were discussing how Jesus was probably about daddy's size when he lived as a man on this earth, and she followed it up with: "Yeah, but now he's HUGE!"

annual family picnic

we had such a great time yesterday with my dad's side of the family... all 50-some of us in my parents' yard! this family gathering has been happening annually since way before i was born, i think. my dad has four brothers and one sister, who all together had 18 children, many of whom are now married and having kids of their own, the number of which is now up to 12 and counting! we cooked out, caught up, doted on each other's kids (that's me below with my nephew, trey), and even got in a rousing game of wiffle ball.

what would yours be?

i am slowly working my way through a book called The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self, and one of the chapter-end "tasks" given was to list five imaginary lives that you would choose if you had five other lives to lead. i thought i would share what came to mind for me, and thought it might also be fun for my readers/friends to share what theirs would be, as well. perhaps it will give us some new insights into each other's personalities and interests. :) this is just supposed to be fun -- don't overthink it too much!

I would be...
1) in an indie band
2) a world traveller
3) an organic farmer
4) a naturopath
5) a hippie

tulip time in full swing

tulips make great subjects. i love their bursts of color and the way the sunlight illuminates them. while miriam was out on the town with grandma today enjoying the festivities, i decided to venture out with the boys to catch some of these glories of spring before they said their last goodbyes for the season. what started out as a rainy, overcast morning turned into a perfectly sunny afternoon -- just in time for the parade! we spontaneously ended up downtown holland just in time to see it. levi loved the marching bands, the motorcycles, the army jeeps, and the "big cow". we even ran into miriam and my mom and watched the last half of the parade with them. what a fun and totally unplanned day!

here are a handful of my favorites from today.

book it!

miriam has been doing a great job with learning to read. i had received materials for the Book It! program last fall, but just recently have started making use of it (though just in time for the program's end until next fall). miriam decided that since she is 6, she should have to read 6 books in order to earn her reward. so we started keeping track, and last night we booked it over to Pizza Hut to celebrate meeting her first goal with her first free personal pizza!

snowstorms, sunburn, & snakes

this has been the craziest april. two weeks ago we were driving through this...

and this past weekend was so nice that i ended up with a sunburn! sunday's weather could not have been more gorgeous, and we decided to take advantage of it and get out for a nature hike. we saw many beautiful spring wildflowers, as well as three different garter snakes, one of which we were able to catch as you can see below. i am not a fan of most little critters such as these, but this guy didn't bother me... though i did not volunteer for a turn holding him!

can i take a hint??

last night i was feeling tired, overwhelmed, and like no matter what i do as a parent it is never enough... nothing new, really. as i sat down (i.e. collapsed) after the kids were in bed, the passage from Matthew 11:28-30 came to mind -- the one about going to God for rest, about His yoke being easy and His burden light. this morning i read it to the kids at breakfast. later in the morning i was listening to a radio broadcast in which the woman speaking was basically reading my mind, and she quoted the same passage, but from The Message. it is such a beautiful paraphrase of these particular words of Jesus that i wanted to post it here. looking it up in our copy of The Message, i discovered that i had a bookmark at that very page. perhaps i'm supposed to be catching on to something here....

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me -- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." -Jesus