Three kids in one room = fun

Maybe having the three kids in one room isn't so bad after all. My main problem with it is that they keep each other from falling asleep. Take tonight for example. When I went in the kids' bedroom to see what all the giggling was about the boys blamed it on "Bob" and "Toodie". Apparently Eliannah likes to do a puppet show with her feet and those are their stage names ...

(and no, they don't all share a bed, this is just the only pic I have of them in pajamas and it's from last summer when we were in a hotel in Boston)

... they called him Laughter

With a smile like that at 4 days old ... we just had to call him Isaac (it means "He will laugh")

"It boy"

SWM: William Isaac Moses

DOB: 04 -17-2009

Height: 20 1/4 inches

Weight: 8lb 1.5 oz

Likes: Moonlit walks on the beach, curling up with a good book .... naps.

Dislikes: loud noises.

It took 9 months to find a name for this little guy and now we still have to decide what we are going to call him.  Will he go by his middle name like his brothers? I had assumed that if we named him William we would call him Liam so that is what I called him all day yesterday until I got home from the hospital.  Apparently this is going to be open for debate and until then he is going by "it".  

(Mother and baby are doing fine ...)

Let the mahem begin!

At my Dr. appointment I wore black.  I didn't wear blush.  I know I looked tired.  I know I sighed a lot so now I am at the hospital being induced.  Eliot has made his final decision on what to name the baby and hopefully "Isaac Kimchee Moses" will be born soon!  

Horn sectional today!

kleenex choir

sitting on the couch

cough, sniff, wheeze hack

grouch, grouch, grouch

Cough syrup cocktail

Please pass the juice

nose like dam

with an opened sluice

sneezing and itching and fevers too

spring break symphony

What's a mom to do?

T.V., DVD

chicken noodle soup

spring break activity

going down the poop.

Piety and Poetry

A Vacant Valhalla

Paradise lays dormant
inside the soul of man
he feels the need to know it
but isn't sure he can

The questions in his hardened heart
build into a squall
But he assumes his faith in naught
better than faith in All

Eden locked
it's garden in chain
inquiry muted
agnostic remains.

For a long time now I've been inching my way through "Reasons for God" by Tim Keller. (If you've ever read Mere Christianity I think Reasons for God is the next step.)  I bought it as a Christmas present for Phillip but have already filled the first few chapters with so much highlighting and notes that he'll almost be getting two books in one! (not that my notes will enhance the book any ...) The first chapter deals with the faith assumptions of those that say  "religion is irrelevant" or "religion causes more harm than good" and  points out that every one's worldview is based on some key suppositions many people won't even question.  "Interesting!" I thought, "now how to capture this idea in a poem?" (see above for the result)

And speaking of poems .. for me, a poem usually begins with a good title or a short phrase that I can't get out of my head.  Sometimes the right two words together are so poetic I can't leave them alone so, in honor of Poetry month I would love to read your poems, poem ideas or "fragrant phrases" that are beautiful to you.  I promise I won't steal your ideas but I love fresh inspiration!

Book of the Month

The abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis.

Since I read fiction for my March book of the month I decided to step outside my comfort zone and read something a bit more difficult (although The Fisherman's Lady was very thought provoking - I'll have to post some great quotes later)

I just got through the first chapter this afternoon and I'm having a hard time absorbing it all. I've underlined so much that I wanted to go back and ponder I might as well just go back and re-read every page.

This book is no "Mere Christianity". Where as "Mere Christianity" is a conversational approach to religion, TAOM starts with education.

Some great quotes so far:

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.

(This in response to the educator that seeks to fortify the young person against being led astray by his emotions by teaching him not to be so emotional.)


He goes on to argue that there is nothing wrong with emotions

"Can you be righteous" asks Traherne, " unless you be just in rendering to things their due esteem?"

and later

"St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind and degree of love which is appropriate to it."

and

"No emotion is, in itself a judgement: in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical. But they can be reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to Reason or fail to conform. The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can and should obey it."

(I haven't finished reading the Wiki summary of the book but I think it will help me understand his premise a bit better)

Ahhh ... so much good stuff in just the first chapter! It's been good especially since recently I have found myself constantly trying to present a logical argument as to why one or the other of my kids shouldn't feel what they feel about a particular situation. Maybe instead l I should teach them how to respond properly to a situation and help them exercise the self control necessary to allow their heads to rule their hearts.

Maybe, just maybe it's time for me to let go of the tight reign I have been holding over my emotions and let my self "weep with those that weep" as well as rejoice with those that rejoice. One of the hardest things about being pregnant for me is that at times I actually flush out my tear ducts inadvertently. It invariably is a humiliating experience (especially when Zak and Eliannah who have never seen me cry, keep bringing up the time I lost it in Costco and sobbed my eyes out to a deer-in-the-headlights- manager that didn't know what to do with me --- but that's another story) but aren't emotions one of those unique features that make us human? Something for me to think about while re-reading chapter 1!

Decisions, Decisions ...

... Decisions:
1.) Cloth or disposable diapers?
A friend of mine brought up the idea of cloth diapers recently and it's got me thinking. If she can do it with her twin girls maybe I can too right? I'm curious ... anyone used cloth diapers lately? There are only a million brands out there and without any internet at home these days (I'm at starbucks right now) I haven't been able to do the research.

2.) Baby Carrier
Also, I seem to have lost my baby bjorn (which was the perfect baby carrier for me .. sigh.) so I'm thinking of making a sling. Any suggestions? Pouch, ring sling? are they hard to use? hard to make? it seems like little more than a piece of cloth but when I think of putting a baby in something without any hooks, snaps or clasps it makes me nervous.

3.) Names
Eliot and Zak seem to want to name the baby anything that comes from a star wars movie. I can't imagine looking down at a little red wrinkly baby and naming him "Count Dooku". Even Luke would be hard to go with.

Two days of false labor have left me worn out and yet strangely restless to hold that little monster who seems to be trying to do snow angels in my tummy. He must be pretty restless too.