Bloom where you are planted

This phrase was one I had heard before, and thought was a good one about making the most of what you have and being content with your life. I did a Google search on it, and realized it actually comes back with connections to several Bible verses: 1st Corinthians 7:17-24, Matthew 12:1-9, and Matthew 13:31-22.

Bloom where you are planted is a good message to follow. While we may not always choose the path that we are given, we can choose how to respond to that path. You can bloom -- or be happy and make the most of life, or you can wither -- and be gloomy and sad over things that are not exactly as planned.

There is a reason this phrase came to my mind. I recently looked out over a flower bed that I planted last year. I was really looking at it to see if the hostas planted there were coming up yet. Those, and some day lilies and pachysandra, are the only perennials planted there.

I was so surprised to look and see this:




I did not plant that, and it certainly hadn't been there before since I love bulb flowers and would not have missed it. It was beautiful!

All I can figure is that last year when we tore out the old wooden porch at the front of the house and replaced it with a dyed and stamped concrete porch, that bulb had been under it. There were day lilies around the porch, and I dug them all out and moved them. I never saw a daffodil bloom in the front before, so I can only assume it was under the porch enough that it never really had a chance to reach its potential.

Now, in its new location, it has embraced life and has chosen to bloom where it is planted. As a lesson to all of us!

I'm going to count to three, Mommy

I think counting is a fairly common discipline method. As in, “Kyle, I am going to count to three, and if you [jump on Mulligan, throw your car, climb into the window sill… insert any number of things here] one more time you will get a time out.” I will then count to three, holding up my fingers as I do it.

Kyle is slightly amused by this, and likes to hold up his fingers as I count. (Not the right fingers, but that’s what he has in mind.) While it’s hard not to laugh at him joining in, this alone often distracts him from his activity and we avoid the time out.

A couple days ago I was sitting taking a break on the couch. This is rarely okay with Kyle, who wants me in on whatever he is doing. So there he was, pushing on my shoulder, telling me, “Up! Up! Up!” I told him that I needed to rest a minute and I wasn’t getting up yet. He persisted with telling me to get up.

Then he held his fingers up and began to count me.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Happy, happy birthday to my fabulous husband, Mike!! Unfortunately, he is off working today, but we have dinner plans for this evening. May today be a wonderful day for him, and an even better year! Lots and lots of love to him!

I feel the earth move, under my feet...

Poor Mulligan gets blamed for everything. When I awoke this morning to the bed shaking at just after 5:30am I immediately thought, "That dang dog snuck up on the bed again!" I looked, and no Mulligan. (And yes, our 70 pound dog does have a knack for being able to slink onto our bed without waking us.) I thought, "He must be scratching right up against the bed." I looked again, and he was laying still beside the bed, looking at me as if he was as baffled as I was.

The closet doors were rattling. I sat up wondering what was going on. Just as the bed stopped shaking Mike woke up and asked me what was wrong. I said, "What is going on??" The doors were still rattling, but the window was open so Mike said it was probably just wind. I told him the bed had been shaking, paused, and said, "You know, it may have been an earthquake."

I think Mike thought I had lost my mind. Nope, I was spot on. That was the earthquake that hit SE Illinois today, and we felt it clear up in Michigan.

Of course it's very reassuring that the nuclear plant in the next town over took a full 25 minutes to declare that there was "unusual activity." You can't see me, but I am rolling my eyes over that.

I am ready

The baby has dropped and I have been dealing with a very significant and ever-present amount of ligament pain and pressure. It has been enough to bring me to tears and thwart many activities. I have been sitting (literally, or lying) feeling sorry for myself.

Coincidentally, a friend brought a line from a song to my attention. It is, “For I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain, but if that's what it takes to praise You, Jesus bring the rain..." It's from a song called Mercy Me. (Thanks, Salena! … http://thenessnest.blogspot.com)

I think that the discomfort at the end of a pregnancy has to be God’s way of getting us to anticipate the birth and actually look forward to it. To moving from this growing-the-baby stage to the caring-for-the-baby stage.

Okay, God. I am ready. Well, with officially five weeks to go the baby should bake a tad longer… but then, really, I am ready.

Evil Knievel lives on

Since Kyle was taking his first steps he has been a bit of a daredevil. He has no fear whatsoever, leaping with wild abandon, racing head on into anything and everything. This picture at just over a year says it all:

When we bought a sectional couch and ottoman last summer he made it his mission to jump from one side of the couch to the ottoman, to the other side, to the ottoman, etc. as his daily work out. How far the ottoman was from either side of the couch was irrelevant; no distance was too great.

This week we had another look at Kyle's mission to be daring. He clearly has some Evil Knievel in him. Remember Evil's death-defying leaps over rows of cars? Well, Kyle figures this is how he began in that line of work.

The set-up:

The jump:

The success was so great in leaping over this row of 14 cars that Kyle did it again... and again... and again. He found it very entertaining!

Standing guard

I'm not sure why this picture strikes me as so amusing. I walked into the playroom, as I do a million times a day, and saw this. The remotes are sitting on the window sill; no bigger there, they usually are. But Kyle had perched a little penguin on them, standing guard, watching over the neighborhood. I would love to know what he was thinking when he set that penguin there! I imagine it to be something like, "Here you go, you can see what kinds of things happen on our street," or maybe, "Okay, let me know when you see Daddy get here, I want to meet him at the door."

A visit to see the "whys"

We went to the butterfly exhibit at the Frederick Meijer Gardens this week with Kyle's cousins. Whether Kyle says "wise" because he thinks butterflies are quite wise, or "whys" because he thinks they have questions, or something entirely different, I don't know. I do know that he loves butterflies and was so excited to see them flying all over. It was a great visit, and he kept asking for "more whys" even after we were home again. We went last year as well, so I think this will become an annual trip.

Here are some pictures from our day. :)

Kyle with cousins Isabel, Chloe and Nathaniel.

Kyle decides he needs to sit in the pathway for a closer look.

Kyle and Nathaniel lean in for a better view.

A few of the butterflies we saw.

Chloe and Isabel both had butterlies land on them and perch for a bit. Here is Chloe with hers.

Of course the flowers were beautiful, too!

Ahhhhh, the park again!

Knock on wood, really, but we *may* just be getting to have spring here in Michigan. Today Kyle got to go to the park for the first time since the fall. It was a lot of fun for both of us. In Kyle's words, "WHEEEE!"

The Sweet Innocence of the Very Young

Kyle got a new movie recently. It is a full-length movie based on a Nickelodeon show called Back at the Barnyard. He loves animals, and this entire movie is about a barnyard full of animals, so the movie has been a hit.

As we watched it together, the main character, a cow named Otis, lost his father. In a poignant scene, Otis held his father as he passed away. My heart began to pound a little and my mind raced thinking, "I didn't know an animal died. How can I let Kyle watch a movie with a dying animal? What will he think? What will I say?"

Now that I am out of the moment I know that at nearly two and a half Kyle has no concept of death, nor would he understand it if I tried to explain it. At most, the simplest of explanations would have sufficed.

No explanation was necessary, however. Kyle watched Otis cradle Ben, looked up at me from the crook of my arm, and said, "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."

A little while lie escaped my lips as I said, "Yes, Kyle. Ben is sleeping."

Muse me – the new magic words

Kyle is very good about saying excuse me, or in his words, “Muse me,” when he toots. He needs a little reminder sometimes, but is generally actually pleased to say it. (Which worries me that, yes, he is like many boys, and is going to think tooting is the coolest thing ever.) In fact, I must say, “What do you say?” often enough after his toots that frequently, when I am actually looking for a “Please” or “Thank you,” Kyle will instead say, “Muse me!”

On his own, Kyle has picked up that you also say excuse me when you are in the way, or someone is in your way. I have been proud that he learned this context on his own, and often uses it appropriately.

What I find very amusing, however, is that Kyle also believes “Muse me!” to be magical words. Today we drove through the McDonald’s drive-thru to get lunch because we were on the road an hour away. As I pulled up to pay, there was a car in front of us. Kyle continued to shout, “Muse me!” from the back seat. Strangely, it did not make the car in our way budge until they were done paying themselves.

Later on, we pulled up behind a car at a red light. Once again, “Muse me! Muse me!” could be heard loudly from the backseat. Once again, the car did not heed Kyle’s request.

Kyle also tries out “Muse me!” when we are in lines, such as at the grocery store, and for rides during our recent trip to Legoland and California Adventure. Unlike Moses, the seas do not part and we do not get to go to the head of the line.

Someday Kyle will learn that there are situations where muse me just isn’t the magical phrase he hopes it will be, but for now I just smile at how cute he is trying to make it work.