Cozying up for the Cold

My children think it is so exciting to put on coats and hats and go outside in the (literally) freezing cold. Left to myself I might think it was exciting to cuddle up on the couch in front of the fireplace in the warm house, but they get me out so I get them bundled. I do love the look of warm winter coats :-)

I actually got a photo with all three children smiling!
It took clicking away about twenty times but - Yay!

A very sweet (and warm) pass-me-down "cozy coat" for Lucy
from a good friend (thank you Kathleen!)

Helen now get's Lucy's pass-me down "Lizzy Coat" - named thus
because cousin Lizzy gave it to us and has a matching one.
(What, doesn't everyone name their coats?)

Lucy definitely has a certain "mom is taking too many pictures" expression.
Hmmm. Her daddy gets that expression as soon as he sees the camera
pointing anywhere near his vicinity. 

Amidst our tears, Oh Lord, we praise you...

Praying for comfort for our friends - see this post.

Early Morning Singing

The girls woke up way to early this morning (in my opinion). They were bright eyed ready for the day and so I took them out onto the porch so that they wouldn't wake up little Paul. We had a very fun time together, I just wish my voice wasn't on the video!

At Last...

A Phares family photo. Paul is now 9 months old and we have our first photo of us all together since we took one at the hospital the day after he was born. Ben has a strong dislike of posing for pictures but he was being very kind to me by allowing us to get this photo taken at a wedding we attended this past Saturday. As you can see, the children have changed quite a bit :-)

May 2013

August 2012

Our Midnight Marauder

No, I'm not referring to this big guy. We have our own little just-turned-three midnight marauder who waits until all the house is sleeping and then tiptoes (or "tips-her-toes" as she puts it) out into the living room, gets out all her toys, and plays happily until she falls back to sleep.

Now maybe it's just my laziness, or my tiredness, or my under-developed parenting skills, but as long as she's happy out there I'm happy in bed. There are enough little crisis' to rob a mothers sleep; hungry babies, sick toddlers, ferocious rats, etc. Besides, who knows, maybe, just maybe, she'll take a good nap tomorrow :-)

A ConCATenation of Circumstances

Painfully funny.

How ironic. About 3 hours later, as the tow truck was finally reeling our car onto the trailer the cat managed to squeeze himself part-way out from behind the engine and I was then able to pull him the rest of the way out. Aughhhh! Well I guess "all is well that ends well." Or in the cat's case, all is well that doesn't end horribly!

p.s. the cat is now long gone, presumedly gone home to live happily ever after, but the car troubles remain with us always. Oh for an old horse and buggy.

The kingdom of heaven is like…

There I was this morning, sitting at the dining room table with my daughters. As usual, my 1 1/2 year old was in the process of eating her eggs and using them as hair gel at the same time. Lucy, at the more mature age of almost-three, was busily multi-asking: eating toast while spilling her orange juice. Outside the window, the birds had started their breakfast at the bird feeders. Finches, chickadees, crows, a nuthatch, two woodpeckers and even a stray couple of pigeons. Then it hit me. Maybe the kingdom of heaven is like a bird-feeder. We could say church is like a bird-feeder, but since Jesus started this whole story telling thing, I’ll follow with his beginning.

Maybe... The kingdom of heaven is like a bird feeder. The seed is there for everyone to eat. There are no walls or barriers. It just sits there for anyone who is hungry. Whether you are hungry or not doesn’t matter, the food just sits there. Not every bird comes, but the ones who do come are usually quite a motley crew. There is the large assortment of chickadees. They can’t seem to decide if they’d rather eat or talk. Sometimes they just want to fly in circles and pick fights. Then there are the starlings. They can’t eat out of the small feeders, but enjoy scaring all of the smaller birds away so that no one can eat. They make a lot of noise, but don’t seem very useful to the bird kingdom. There are also the gold finches and house finches. They seem to be the quietest group. They usually play nice and even show a nice bit of color now and then.

The nuthatch likes to look down on the whole show from the tree for a while. Sometimes he will join in, but mostly he is just there to watch and inspect. The robins usually show up first, but like to leave when the riffraff arrives. The grosbeaks arrive when the warm weather of summer comes. They don’t come often, but when they do, you feel flattered to have them. There are still more; the hummingbirds, the sparrows, the pigeons, the sapsucker and the rest. One thing draws all of us. It doesn’t apologize for seeming to be the same every week; it doesn’t try to change and be what everyone wants it to be. It just sits there in the same place every day. If you are in need; take, eat, this is my body and blood broken for you. 

Eve Started it All