This Present Joy

When I was pregnant with Hannah, I remember having some apprehension about Carly's reaction to having a younger sibling. Would she be jealous of the time we devoted to her sister? Would she feel left out? Would she act out towards her? From day one, she has been the devoted big sister to Hannah Jane. When Hannah was only a week old, Carly trekked up to the hospital ICU with us, clutching a gift bag, ready to deliver a special toy to her little sister. Over the past year, Carly has made Hannah's entire face light up more than anyone else. I don't know if it's the fact that it's another "little person" around, a "little voice" or just the antics of a 3-year-old, but Carly makes Hannah laugh and giggle the most. These are the giggles that tumble over one another--the kind that you want to record and play over and over again. J and I love seeing our girls interact--Carly loving and helpful, Hannah soothed and entertained by her older sister. Of cours...

Aren't weekends splendid? I love it when Friday arrives. It means a little more relaxation for all of us, no major schedule, a break from work for both me and J and just good, quality family time. And, during the summer, there's not much that can top spending a weekend evening with an ice cream cone in hand. We love Braum's custard-style frozen yogurt, so we bought a few pints and brought them home to make our own ice cream cones. Carly loved her chocolate concoction. And, Hannah joined in with a vanilla sampling. Pure summer fun.

I've never really been one to make New Year's resolutions. Well, I take that back. I used to make resolutions. Back in high school, I remember dating a journal page with 01-01 and having great feelings of starting anew. There was something redemptive of a new year--new goals, new challenges, grand plans of doing things differently and better. I probably often wrote something to the effect of, "Worry less." I say "probably" because I honestly can't remember (some effective resolutions, huh?) Anyway, what I do remember is straying from my handful of resolutions only about 3-4 weeks into the year. So, I realized that resolutions weren't the most encouraging thing to make--simply because I didn't always stick to them. I like to think of them now as "good suggestions" for myself for the new year. You're probably wondering why I'm talking about New Year's resolutions when we're almost 4 months into the year. This year, it just...

A few weeks ago during Carly's preschool pickup time, I read a sign outside of her classroom door that said something like, "Next week, you may send your child to school dressed as a cowboy or cowgirl since we're having Texas week." They have a new teaching theme each week, and this was the particular theme for the upcoming week. I had been wanting to buy Carly a pair of boots for a long time, so this was the perfect excuse. We headed out one evening to a local store and happened upon MANY, MANY pairs of boots--and this was only the children's section. J and I scanned the shelves to find some not-so-ostentatious styles while Carly was happily distracted by the plush stick ponies and the rocking horse. She had already shed her street shoes and donned a pink cowgirl hat; she was all business and ready to sign up as an official Cowgirl. After a brief time of trying on some boots, we made our selection. (I made a mental note at the register to ask Carly to wear her bo...

This series of pictures reminded me of the good "old-fashioned" photo booth shots--close-up and sporadic. (I think there's an unspoken rule for photo booth pictures that someone is supposed to be looking away or making a silly face.) When I look at these pictures, I can almost hear the giggles (not to mention the coaxing, "Ok, Carly look at the camera just for a few seconds. . .Hannah, over here, look over here!")

In my college Honors Humanities course, I had to do some art interpretation. I remember, as a child and young adult, listening to museum docents talk about works of art, describing them in ways such as, "And you see how the red in the upper corner draws your eye up and away from the subject, and the bright yellow produces a feeling of hope and peace" or "The artist chose to use broad brush strokes, evoking a sense of freedom yet restlessness." So, when the time came for me to do this in my college course, I was somewhat intimidated but soon found it enjoyable. Because, as I came to realize, there wasn't necessarily a "right" or "wrong" answer. After all, it was interpretation. My fellow classmates and I would sit in the darkened theater classroom, looking at hundreds of slides, listening to the teacher talk about the use of color, light and shadow, among a number of other things I can't at the moment recall. There were always those painti...

I first “met” Jeanne Damoff through my friend TJ’s blog last fall. I found myself clicking through Jeanne's website--looking at her pictures, reading about her life--drawn in by her vivid use of words. Then I came to a paragraph that talked about her 15-year-old son Jacob’s near-drowning accident. She had written a book about it, Parting the Waters , and it was going to be released in November 2008. At first, I shrinked from the thought of reading the book. Our family had already been through so much suffering and unknown the previous year, I didn’t know if I wanted to read about anyone else’s suffering. However, the synopsis of the book intrigued me, offered hope even, and when I read Lisa Samson’s quote on the front of the book, I couldn’t wait for the book to come out. “ . . this book is for anybody whose life didn’t turn out quite the way they expected.” It was a Thursday afternoon when Parting the Waters came in the mail. I had about 15 minutes before I had to pick up Carly fr...