Delights

I thank Thee, my Creator and Lord, that Thou hast given me this delight in the works of Thy hands. --Kepler

(Left to right: Silas, Elijah, Essie, Momma w/ Juliet in back-pack, Gemma, Hannah holding Owen)

My brilliant mother finally convinced me to do a four day school week and boy....she was right again. Today was so great knowing that I would have time tomorrow to undo the damage of all the fun before company comes on the weekend! We went on a fun fall walk today. I'm trying to get the kids and I out exercising more. After having WAY too much fun playing with my shadow it dawned on me to take a picture of us! Otherwise...

...this is the best I can do for a self portrait. My camera is broken and the batteries fall out if you I don't hold them in with incredible force while you take the picture. It's kinda like playing the F chord on the guitar. A little bit harrowing at first and a little too complicated for Gemma. Juliet was having way more fun than it appears here. (She's just ticked off at the camera.)

We had even more fun with the cat tails than with our shadows!

Owen didn't know what they were...but he knew that they were cool and he felt really cool once he was wielding one...

Si asked me to take a picture of his "meanest fighting face" Aw mann.....I'm just now noticing that he was wearing his nice new church pants on the walk....

That was fun Momma!
I figured out a couple years ago that I needed some reeeeally tiny vases for all those little (stemless!) precious flowers I get from my Littles. That's pronounced a bit Carol Burnette-ish by the way...inspired by her drunken rendition of Little Girls in which I do a pretty good rendition of. (Must be the red hair...) But anyway, Mothers out there, if you don't own a couple teeny vases just for this purpose, then you must somehow acquire them. I was talking with some other moms the other night about the value of our children's little gifts to us. Those little stemless, drooping dandelions deserve an honored place where you can see them and remember how loved you are. From the right perspective, there is nothing more beautiful. This sunny day there was such a flood of flowers coming in to melt my heart that all my cute little vases were overflowing.

I was taking this cute picture of the Littles arranging their work of art (imagine Essie singing in her sultriest vabrato) when something caught my eye beyond them outside the window! We love to watch the deer and today there were five big hungry ones just hanging out all day looking for our apples. Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with myself too...


Owen says "deer" and "doe"


Now...why do I love these next pictures just as deerly? uh heh heh...heh heh.... well because they capture boys/brothers/Kirkmans/country life so beautifully. As you saw earlier they were dressed in decent clothes (in fact, the church clothes that needed to be kept clean for...church.) while we walked. But only moments later I look out and notice Silas back in pajamas, wearing the jeans I have tried to toss about 17 times now, and for some reason...both of them in their hoods but unzipped from the jackets. Don't ask me why! Boys! With their guns just in reach, munching on the old bruised castaway apples and probably figuring out how they can build a zip line from the deck to the pool or something even more dangerous...
But... just loving each others company! And do you see the Littles in the background munching on raw rhubarb? They just love it. They always come in with pink cheeks and teeth. (Saves a lot on groceries)
I took this picture of Eli just when we sat down to do phonics. I guess my Mom called and I broke my rule and stood up to get the phone and while chatting was mindlessly running my fingers through this mop of unbearably cute blonde hair...
This was the aftermath... Owen has been absolutely terrorizing us all with his screeching and fussing. The poor guy needs to talk so bad that the last two days when laying him down for nap I have begged God to "give him words". So this morning he walks in the dining room during school wearing his Mickey mouse hat and holding the football Gramma bought him at Disneyland and said:
"Mom! Mee Mouse hah! Mee mouse bah! Uh Gamma uh mee mouse bah! Uh DEENEELAND!!! Meemuh? Meemuh? (nodding and pointing)...I want DEE NEE LAAAAND!!! I want MEE MOUSE GIN!"
And translation for those not fluent in toddler, it was: "Mom! Look at my mickey mouse hat and my mickey mouse ball that Gramma got me in Disneyland! Remember? Remember that place? I want Disneyland and mickey mouse again!
This is one of Gemma's favorite things in the world--holding her sleeping baby sister

Yesterday I walked into the kitchen to make lunch and Gemma had taken it upon herself to get it started.
And what, you ask could evoke such a look of disgust from the sweet Gemma Kirkman? The following is the excerpt from her Adventures of Marco Polo...In the rugged Yunnan mountains, Marco visited a hill tribe called the "Gold teeth People...The men are all gentlemen, according to their customs," Marco wrote. "They have no occupation but warfare, hunting, and falconry. All the work is done by the women." But when a baby was born, then the men gave their wives a break: "After one of the wives has given birth, she washes and swaddles the infant. Then her husband goes to bed with the baby by his side and lies in bed for forty days, while all his friends and relatives come to visit and entertain him. They do this, they say, because the woman has done her part by carrying the baby in her womb, and it's fair that the man should do his share." The tribes people believed that this practice helped establish a close bond between father and child. But while the man stayed in bed with the baby, receiving congratulations, his wife gets up and "does all the work of the house and waits upon her lord in bed."
Uh. Yeap. I'm with ya Gemma. Just another of the delights to thank my Creator and Lord for...that I am not one of the uh, "Gold teeth People."