On New Year's Wonders of an Igloo, Cookies, and Blessings

Three thousand miles on a plane only spells F-U-N for three active boys for about three minutes. We lived. We survived. We deplaned. My tribe was actually well behaved. The grouchy lady in front of me, though? Not so much. Her heavy sighs and piercing eyes drove me to offer her Dr. Romance and Son2's seats at the front of the plane in UPGRADED seats. I didn't share that they were upgraded seats. That would have been TMI. But in my most concerned voice I did share that if SHE was uncomfortable she and her husband could trade....well, she didn't agree. But she didn't look at us or sigh at us anymore.

Our Christmas trip to San Diego was delicious. It was downright beautiful. We drank up family visits, warmer weather, and Legoland. My kids swam outside in a heated pool. They were spoiled by grandparents on both sides. My mother in law even flew in to see my kids. We all were refreshed. The boys ran with old friends. And Dr. Romance and me? We held hands in a movie theater alone, and we dined by candlelight alone. Aaahhh!!! And then the end of the year arrived, the very last day of the year, the very last day of our trip. We boarded for Boston and arrived home minutes before a new day, and a new year...

New Year's Day was hushed, still, and vacant in our neighborhood. We relaxed in the quietude and the familiar of our "for right now" home. The boys had their own ideas about quiet and concentration. And together, two dedicated brothers and Dr. Romance diligently handcrafted an igloo in our backyard.

 

And their joint labor did something for this mama's heart. I was so proud. I propped the baby in the window so he could see, so he could know he was part of this brotherhood. But boys don't play like girls. They don't ooh and ahh through windows. No...my rascals saw their brother and inducted him. They pounded together snowballs and hurled them at our window. The baby screamed delighted, begging for more. And finally, the igloo was complete.

Later that night, our family came together around a plate of raspberry white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. We explained to the kids that we wanted to review all of the ways God had blessed our family in 2010 and think about how we would trust Him in 2011.

And they really made my pen move, grasping gratitude, blessings, and the handiwork of God. Even as children they witnessed the otherwise unpredictable, the unsolvable, and the impossible of 2010. They added those memories to our list. Dr. Romance and I spoke our memories aloud and then I recorded those, too. And slowly and humbly, we asked that our children count it all joy, that they too lay stones, remembering where we have been before we ask God to lead us where we will go.

I don't know what I expected. I did not expect that a 6 year old and a 3 year old might catch a glimpse of God's intentional presence in the Farmer family. I did not expect our family to produce an exhaustive list the width of our table of ways that God provided for our every need. I did not expect that my children would trust God so easily in 2011. And quite foolishly, I did not expect them to empty the cookie plate.

So we anticipate many changes for our family. We anticipate God sized answers to our small human questions. Right now, we have a lot of those small human questions that expose our uncertainty. We approach the new year with expectancy that we will see wonders greater than an igloo, of times we could not have done a blessed thing on our own strength. And around a bigger plate of cookies we will sit and list our gratitude.