Update

Whew. What a week. What a month! Not long ago, God granted us several weeks of peace and a very clear schedule. The amount of time He created for me to spend with Him was amazing...several hours a day! How can that happen for a mother of three with a busy husband? It was wonderful, and now I see that it was very needed. I've got so many plates spinning right now, but every single one is a great blessing for which I am very grateful. 

One ongoing saga we've been having is a huge tree in our backyard that has been trying to come down for over a week now. It all started when there was an uprooted pine tree leaning on some other trees between our house and our neighbor's house. There was a dispute about whose land it was on, and therefor the tree was just left there. I prayed daily that God would keep our kids safe from the tree falling on them or our house!

One day last week, Joyce, our good friend across the street, called me over to her porch and said her son Wayne could take it down for us. I was amazed to see that the tree was down in a day! Don't ask me how he did it, because that tree was probably 50 feet tall, but Wayne had it all cut up in logs by lunch time. Our land lady caught wind of this and hired him to cut down another dying, super huge tree in our backyard. And that was when the fun started! 

Last Thursday the kids and I returned home from an errand just in time for naps. We went straight inside and I put all three kids in bed. That's when I walked in the kitchen and heard a chainsaw. I looked out the window and saw Wayne taking a chainsaw to that huge tree! I do trust Wayne, but that was quite a sight, especially when I saw Wayne running away like the tree was going to fall any second! I immediately dragged all three kids out of bed. Poor Davey had just fallen asleep. I opened Mac and Corrie's doors and yelled to get up and run outside! 

We went over to Joyce's porch and sat there, waiting for the tree to fall any second. A hour and a half later, we were still sitting there, waiting. Poor Wayne. That tree just would not fall. It turns out that it was so windy that the tree was blown into some other trees, which were keeping it upright. 

So here we were, sitting in the heat of the day with no shoes, somewhat dressed, and trying to keep sane while I kept telling Mac and Corrie to watch for the big tree to fall. Here was our view of Wayne sawing that thing down:

Mac and Corrie entertained themselves by running and hopping up and down Joyce's little cement path. Mac has got some serious hopping skills, so one perk of the afternoon was getting them on camera. (You can hear Wayne sawing and yelling in frustration in the background)

Finally, I heard a huge celebratory holler and saw some branches fall. Wayne was acting like the tree was down, but it still looked like it was standing straight up. There was a new stump coming out of the ground though. I knew I was delirious, but this looked really strange! Was I seeing things right?

I brought the kids back home and asked Wayne about the tree. Instead of falling down, it just moved right off of the stump and rammed straight into the ground, remaining upright. He assured me the tree would not fall on us and roped it up with chains. "We'll have it down and cut up by tomorrow, Miss Amanda!" he kept saying. Famous last words. 

Meanwhile, we went on with our daily life. Mac has been loving singing to Davey when he is on the changing table. Davey laughs and laughs.

And that night Corrie took forever to go to sleep. At one point, I went in her room to check on her, and she told me she had "babies in her tummy." Apparently I will be having an Elmo grandbaby soon.

The next day during nap time, Wayne had his helpers trying to get that tree down again. They gave it all they had, but that tree just did not want to fall. Instead, it moved forward AGAIN and left another stump in the ground while the tree itself stayed upright. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Wayne and his buddies chained it tight again to keep it from falling on us, and we continued with life as usual. Some friends came over on Sat. night to hang out and make dinner in our very redneck fire pit. The whole scene was so Front Royal, as we had our babies, lawn chairs, and a half-fallen-down tree leaning by a chain. Our friends didn't even bat an eye.

Mac and Camden breaking sticks to put in the fire:

Mac and Corrie enjoying baby Lillian (if only they could be that gentle and sweet with Davey):

We rounded out the evening by letting the kids play in the water table/hose and eat popsicles in the carport. Peyton looked pretty cute wrapped up in her little towel after we hosed all of the kids down.

Meanwhile, we have still had our broken dryer issue going on. I knew I was truly a Johns when my first thought after realizing we had a broken dryer was: "Hmm, probably just the heater core." I don't know anything about dryers! How did I even think that? Turns out it actually was the heating element that needed replacing. Ellis ordered one from the internet and took the back off of the dryer, intending to fix it right away.

Unfortunately, after leaving for work early Monday morning, Ellis did not get home until Thursday night! It was a perfect storm of call nights and pregnant ladies having really, really long labors. So, there sat our dryer:

I decided to take the kids to my mom's house for a short visit, and it was really wonderful. When we came home, I saw that Wayne had successfully gotten the tree down! Too bad it fell backwards and took out our Magnolia tree along with it. For the past few days, the view out of our window has been Wayne scaling that tree with a chainsaw in-hand, chopping it down bit by bit.

Meanwhile, we took another trip on Wednesday up to see Ellis' family in Baltimore. God granted us a combination of fun, rest, conversation and play. How can all of those things get crammed into just a few hours? Only God. We were so blessed. 

When we arrived, we met with everyone at the pool. Mac and Corrie had a blast with their cousins and LOVED swimming with the water vests/suits I had found in the laundry room (one perk of moving the dryer to fix it!)

Mac and EJ

Bella showing us her trick of blowing water out of her pool noodle

It was so great getting to know Hannah better, whose birthday is just days apart from Corrie's. Loved being with her!

Davey got to hang out with Grandma Johns

After the pool we had the best lunch and the kids all went down for naps. Sue and I had such a great time talking and enjoying each other's company before I went down for a power nap, too. When Mac woke up, he and EJ watched the original "Mighty Morpin Power Rangers" on Netflix. I remember watching that show in 6th grade!

Afterwards all of the kids went outside to play, and Mac and Corrie were in heaven. There is so much adventuring to be done out there! Trailers to climb on, heavy equipment to see, a swing set, and big rocks to climb in the front yard. 

Sue tried really hard to get a good picture of me and the kids all sitting on the rocks. I think she took about 50 pictures, and apparently this was the best one! 

We got home from Baltimore at about 8:30pm, and I saw that Wayne had been working while we were gone. At least now the tree was finally on the ground. So, this was my view yesterday from the kitchen table. Mac's assessment of the view was that it looked like there was a sea witch outside. Where do they learn about such things?

Yesterday evening I went to check a neighbor's mailbox. When I returned, I about cried at the view of our house. Wayne had cut our lawn for us since Ellis was working so much, and this was the first glance I had gotten of it. It felt so wonderful pulling into our driveway with a cut and trimmed lawn. 

It turned out that God had more wonderful blessings in store for us that evening. After being away for so many days, Ellis was so happy to be with Mac and Corrie. He read to them at bedtime and he did such a great job! They learned all about owls and their interesting ears and eyelids. What a gift for our kids to spend that time with daddy.

And later, God had the best evening planned for me and Ellis. We were both beyond exhausted, but we were hungry and wanted to spend at least a little time together. I had not been to the grocery store this week, but we were surprised with a special treat: our banana peppers had come in from our garden and we made our favorite nachos with them. We decided to relax on the couch and read to each other while we ate. We were given a book about Dr. Tom Dooley for a wedding gift and we have finally gotten around to reading it after seven years!

I can't describe in words how wonderful our evening was. We usually sit on the couch and watch TV when we are together, and this was the first time we have read to each other like this.

My heart was so full and so at peace. What a sweet evening! Before I knew it, I heard Ellis saying, "Are you asleep?" Whoops! Guess I was a little more relaxed than I thought!

So, it seems that now our week has come to a close, and so have some of our sagas. Ellis' work saga seems to be over, even though he just found out he is on call all weekend, too. The dryer is fixed, and this morning I saw that the tree is looking a lot less precarious (but I don't think I can let the kids out in the yard to play yet).

We made it to WalMart this morning, and I think we have found an arrangement that kept us all sane. Just as long as we don't need too many items!

And lastly, Davey has gotten amazingly mobile with his walker this week. When Mac and Corrie were his age we lived in carpeted apartments, so I am not used to seeing a 6-month-old getting around so much. Here he was this morning all the way down the hallway and making his way into Mac and Corrie's room!

Whew. I guess this post represents our week pretty well, actually: long and full of good things.

New Hair

Yesterday Grandpa Dean and Mac went to the Barber together. The name of the barber shop made me laugh: "Hi Barber" (owned by a foreign family). It was so representative of the melting pot area where I grew up in the suburbs of DC!

Afterwards, Mac came bounding in the door and said, "Mommy, mommy! I have NEW hair!!!" It was pretty cute. Corrie was so sad that she didn't get to go with them, but this morning Grandma gave Corrie a new hairstyle of her own: Corrie got her very first pigtails (one was kind of on the back of her head, but it was still cute). I took pictures of the kids and their "new hair" this morning:

 

I got the kids to laugh and smile by impersonating the voice of Captain Hook. They love imagining they are in the movie Peter Pan, but they always pretend to be Captain Hook and "Mr. Smeed," in Corrie's words. You would think they would make a great Peter and Wendy, but Mac is always Captain Hook and Corrie is always Mr. Smee. In the pictures above I was telling them, "Captain Hook says there is no smiling!" And, "are you laughing, Mr. Smee?!!!!!" They thought that was too funny. 

And then Corrie found a baby centipede, and all interest in the photo shoot was lost.

Davey was sleeping inside, so we stayed outside for a little while and looked for more bugs in the garden. Corrie found a rusted metal turtle decoration and told me, "This is my friend. He's a giant tortoise." That girl's knowledge of reptiles never ceases to amaze me!

Another great treat from our visit was the chance to do some laundry. I woke up this morning and saw that my mom had folded both loads for me and put them in the basket last night. What a great surprise. Thanks, Mom!

The drive home on 66 West was uneventful, other than one very strange sight. I saw a trailer ahead of us, and all I could think was, "What in the world?!!" 

Once I got close, I blinked and shook my head. Was I seeing things right? Those strange jumping things were actually the feet of a muppet! This was definitely the most unique puppet show me and the kids had ever seen. We all laughed.

When we got home, I saw that our garden had some veggies for us. This is really exciting for me and I can't wait to eat these up! We are so thankful for a wonderful visit with our family and the gifts God brings us, big and small.

FRFP Annual Picnic

Yesterday we attended the annual Front Royal Family Practice employee picnic. Two years ago, we showed up to the picnic totally new to Front Royal with a 6-month-old Corrie and a 2-year-old Mac. We were bright-eyed, optimistic, and unaware of the many adventures to come.

Last year, Ellis was on call and I attempted to take the kids by myself. It was memorable only because I barely survived it. I was pregnant with Davey and not too excited about the hot sticky weather and messy, greasy food. Let's just say I really have no memory of that picnic other than the kids getting balloons. I think I pretty much wiped the rest of that picnic out of my memory.

But this year we were all able to go, and yesterday's memories are being recorded here in cyberspace. It's crazy to think that a year from now we will be attending our final picnic here. Time flies and goes really slow at the same time! God has done so much during our time here.

When we arrived at the picnic, I fed Davey in the car while Ellis went ahead. Mac had gotten a snake painted on his face by the time I got there, and the kids were enjoying quality time with daddy. It's brought such joy to my heart to watch Ellis' love for Mac and Corrie grow and grow.

Ellis and a few other residents performed in a skit to commemorate the residency director's 10th year here. It was creative and funny! 

Unfortunately, Mac kept trying to run up on the "stage" with Ellis during the skit and laughed in my face and danced around wildly when I told him to come back. It is humiliating to have your child blatantly disobey you like that in front of everyone. 

What could I do? Running up on stage and chasing him around didn't seem like a good option, and besides, I had a very cranky Davey in my arms and a very whiney Corrie sitting beside me. I waited for Mac to eventually come back and then took all three kids off to the side so that I could discipline Mac. 

As the skit continued, Mac only got more and more wild and disobedient, and Davey cried and cried because of missing his naps. Once the skit was over, everyone was ready to start the annual picnic games. I was thankful for the new activities, but under the surface I felt unrest nagging on me. I couldn't shake the feeling that when it comes to being a mom, I just don't measure up.

I would have liked to talk to God about those feelings, but before I knew it the first competition was already getting under way: the classic water balloon toss! Ellis and I ended up winning, and although I am not sure we deserved it (I think we only tossed our balloon half as much as everyone else), we sure were grateful for the prize (Amazon gift cards). 

Afterwards, Mac and the other kids raided the extra stash of water balloons, and soon a big water balloon fight broke out. I think it's safe to say that Mac was in his element.

The next competition was the "mummy wrap." Each team had to try and wrap someone up in toilet paper like a mummy, and Ellis and Corrie had a good time playing together.

Is it bad that the first thing I thought when I saw all of the toilet paper was, wow...all of those rolls of toilet paper. I wonder if we can have some of the leftovers? Later I saw that one of the nurses was thinking the same thing: she had four rolls of toilet paper tucked under her arms and was headed for the parking lot.

Oh, and the balloon man was back again this year. I was pleasantly astounded to see Mac walking up to me with a big Spider-Man balloon hat on!

Of course, Mac could not stand to keep it on his head for very long. He loved waving it around and playing with his Spider-Man balloon like an action figure toy.

Corrie's choice of balloon art was equally endearing to my heart because it showed her unique personality so perfectly. She asked the balloon man for a "red octopus." I think he did a pretty amazing job!

I mentioned earlier that Davey was pretty cranky because of missing his naps, and he ended up going the whole day without a nap for the first time. It was tough seeing him have such a hard time, but I sure did love his tired little head resting on my chest. 

Later that night God gave me time to sit with Him. I had my favorite tea on our porch and watched the fireflies flash all over our neighborhood. Those nagging feelings from earlier in the day were still hanging on, and by now they had grown to feeling as though I didn't measure up as a person overall.

This line of thinking is not uncommon for me, but there is something new now that is very uncommon and very wonderful for me. When I sat with God, He reminded me who I really am: I am His. He loves me and He knew me and He chose me to be His before the ages even began. He created me for good works, and because of His faithfulness I will walk in them. And the new part is that I now believe this!

Suddenly I had a refreshed perspective regarding my role as a mom. My kids' behavior and my parenting were never intended to be selfishly used to gauge whether or not I "measure up." It is a great and joyous thing to be freed from ourselves to be a part of God's story. My kids and I are here to bring Him glory. That's awesome.

"share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began" - 2 Timothy 1:8-9

A Page in Our Scrapbook

Life has been a tad busier for me (Amanda) than normal these past several weeks. Just the thought of trying to write a blog post has made my brain so tired, but life has been happening and there are many moments I have been wanting to record in our "digital scrapbook," as I like to think of this blog. (Will our kids even know what a scrapbook is when they are are older? Probably only if they look in a museum!)

Anyway, praise God for a morning with Him and a burst of energy for this full saturday ahead of us. Davey and I  were up early and enjoyed the coolness of the summer morning. Being up and tending to the garden and being with God at this hour in the summer reminds me of the many summer mornings spent at FCA camps. Miss that so much, as I have been reminded recently of the great friendships and amazing people I met. Thank you for that wonderful season of my life, God!

Me and Davey this morning.

I mentioned that I've been a little busy. God has been blessing us with a full house, and that has meant a lot more dish-washing than usual. A few days ago I gave Corrie and Mac "Mommy and Daddy" bowls and spoons for breakfast since all of the plastic ones were dirty. They loved it!

I tried to take all three kids on a walk using our newly acquired Sit-and-Stand stroller (thanks to Front Royal friends who enjoy frequenting yard sales and finding good deals). I have been dreaming of one these for a long time, as it can hold all three kids easily and folds up nicely. Davey was not quite ready to sit in the front seat, and he stayed happy just long enough for me to take this picture before crying. We will try it again another time, buddy!

Maybe he was crying about having to wear Corrie's pink Hello Kitty sweatshirt!

Later that morning I realized our dryer was broken. Thankfully, we have a friend around the corner with a clothesline, and we've been making trips to their backyard to hang our laundry. Is it strange that I have found this so enjoyable?

Our friends have raspberry bushes in their yard by the clothesline, and it's been really fun for Mac and Corrie to go raspberry picking while I hang the clothes!

 

And meanwhile, Davey sits in his carseat, holding his little feet together :)

In the evenings, we've been playing outside and enjoying the beautiful evening breezes. Mac and Corrie like to make me "rock soup" with water, "ant dirt" and pebbles from our driveway. It's quite yummy! (Not!)

They also like to use the many pieces of sidewalk chalk we seem to collect as gifts from various people. Instead of coloring with the chalk like I would imagine most kids do, Mac and Corrie soak the chalk in water until it gets really squashy, and then they use it like finger paint. They smear it all over and make puddles on the ground to wiggle their toes in.

Corrie has been looking pretty cute in her ponytails, and Mac has been wanting to wear them too. They love admiring their hairstyles in the bathroom mirror!

And Davey has been Davey. He is so smiley, and there are certain things that will bring a guaranteed belly laugh (kissing his neck and tummy, holding him up in the hair and smiling at him, etc.) He is in that sweet little stage where he loves sticking out his tongue. I love it.

Oh, and a couple videos I wanted to share. I think they show the two very different styles of play that Mac and Corrie have when we play outside!

(Here's Mac playing with a fishing pole. Love Corrie's take on the whole scene!)

And here's Corrie creating a sculpture piece with her rock collection. She is always making artwork somehow...I am glad when her artwork is outside. (I will comment more on that later!)

Believe it or not, there is so much I have left out of this post. As I have been stretched more than usual lately, God has used my weakness to expose areas of my parenting that He would like to redeem. I hope to be able to comment on that at some point. Until then, we are thankful for the memories recorded here and the many others (some happy, some hard) that God has granted to us.