Where grace, truth and many other things meet

Ephesians 2:8  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9  not by works, so that no one can boast.

2:10  For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So many intersecting and overlapping thoughts in my head these days.  Very little time to write them down.  Honestly, most days, I just lift them up in prayer form and hope that God will remind me of the lesson in the moments when I need it.

But yesterday, there was much wrestling in my heart about raising my boys and what grace will look like to them.  What should it look like?  Who is giving them that lesson?  Would reading their Bibles be enough on its own?  Or do they need a walking, talking, mama and daddy example of what the grace of Jesus looks like.

Of course, I think the last thing I mentioned is necessary.  That walking, talking, example of Jesus.  I hope to be that.  I know how far from perfect I am, but I do believe I can love these four little people with abandon and without condition.

The thing that makes it hard is that we want so much for our kids.  We want them to shine and feel good and make a difference.  We want them to be well-behaved and courteous and not to make mistakes.  We want them to be better than we were.

And we want all that to come along with harmony in our relationships.  But here's the hard thing:   I don't believe that to have harmony all the time is actually possible.  There will be discomfort and disappoint with each other and conflict.  But here's the good thing:  I believe this is where we really grow too.  This is where we learn and practice to handle our words with care and keep our tempers in check.  This is where we learn to express what we are feeling, without tearing anyone else down.  This is where we learn that what we are feeling is important, just because we are loved.  And this is where we learn that sometimes we are not going to agree with those who love us and that is okay; we can still love them and they will still love us.  These are lessons I am still (and probably always will be) learning.

Jesus still loves us, despite that we are constantly messing up.  But if we just read the part of scripture that says we are God's handiwork (which we are), we might forget that the handiwork still needs work.  We still have growth toward Jesus to accomplish, to look more like Him.

I want my kiddos to always know that I know how fallen and imperfect I really am.  I want to seek their forgiveness when I should, in order to teach them that they can seek mine (and others) when they should.  Most of all, I want them to know that just as the Lord deals with me, with love and compassion and forgiveness, so He will deal with them.  And when they go to Him, in search of these things, the handiwork that they are, will grow more to look like Him.  And how can a parent not fall more in love with that?

Jackson turns 7!!

Time flies and all that.  Jackson just turned 7 years old on October 6th.  Pretty much every time I look at him these days I think how old he looks and how he can't be that big.  He is a serious little guy much of the time, but can also be very playful and funny.  His toothless grin is the best.  His shaved head makes him look even more like his daddy and that is not where the similarity ends.  They are two peas in a pod in so many ways.

As we head into his 7th year, this is his list:

• He and Max are super into Pokemon.  They do the cards and watch the show and Mike and I cannot follow or keep up entirely with the whole thing.
• He likes to wear a headlamp at night and read before bed
• He is less picky about food than when he was littler, but is still fairly particular
• He is playing the piano, but with a new teacher than the one he began with.  We miss Lydia, but Ms Laurel is about as sweet as they come.  He continues to be quite good and is currently learning how to play "Happy Birthday to You"
• He reads well and is all over the place with what he likes.  He still goes back to old favs from younger childhood, but then he likes more challenging books.  We are waiting for "The Hobbit" to arrive as a birthday gift from Aunt Harmony.  He will be excited for that.  He loved the first three books in "The Chronicles of Narnia," but I think "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" lost him a bit.  We will go back to it one of these days.
• He would make chocolate chip cookies every day if I let him, but he likes Zebra cookies just as much
• He is super persistent and asks questions at the most inopportune time.  For example, just as we are sitting down to eat he is asking about playing a board game, or I am pregnant and Thomas is awake and he is asking if I will play flag football with him.  
• He is missing 4 teeth.
• He is very good at building Legos and he likes instructions.  He will take apart and build the same things over and over, but he goes in spurts, playing with them for days and then not again for a while.
• Excepting lollipops, he only seems to like chocolate candy, and only if it is plain chocolate.  Mostly, he likes to eat plain old white and dark chocolate chips.
• He wishes I knew how to sew
• He has a memory like a vault
• Loves Awana; currently in the Sparks group

Earned his Bobcat badge for Cub Scouts

His new favorite game:  Monopoly, and not the kid version (however, it is the Disney Mickey Mouse version)

Bday present from Mom and Dad:  a black ninja costume and cool swords

Birthday zoo day with friends

pizza and cupcakes back at our house, pictured with his friend Ethan

The aforementioned ninja costume and 7 candles in his cupcake

Birthday family beach day

I am sure it will be a problem getting all three of them to look at the same time, for a long time to come

Aunt Jessica sent him a science kit with cool safety glasses.  We have begun experimenting!

Clemens comics and other stories

Jackson and Max started watching "The Sandlot" for the first time last night, but they did not get to finish the whole movie because bedtime came around.  This afternoon, Jackson came walking in the kitchen and said, "Mom, can I finish watching that movie with the friendly baseball-playing boys?"

Max, Mike, and Jackson were out running an errand and when they got in the car the song "Cool Kids" came on the radio.  Max exclaimed, "We like this song because we ARE the cool kids!"  LOL.

After each baby I have had my body has changed a bit more.  Aside from the weight that I hope will come off, albeit slowly, I am hoping that like each other pregnancy, all these little things (that feel big in the 10 months of pregnancy) will disappear, at least until I am really old.  After Thomas, I really had a lot of hair loss.  I am sure I noticed it more than everyone else, but boy was it a lot.  It was not until I showed Mike that I basically have bangs all along my front hairline that he could really see how much hair I had really lost.  I had a bald spot in the front where I have a cowlick!!  I am wondering if this new growth of hair will fall out again once I have Baby 4 or if I will get to keep it?  I am hoping for keep it, a possible perk of being pregnant back to back?  Oh Lord...

Clemens comics and other stories

Jackson and Max were playing a game of battleship.  For Max, these games can last a little too long.  Both boys were down to the last ship needing sunk and Max says with a big sigh, "Jackson, this is taking sooo long.  I'm done."  One boat left.  And then Jackson responds, with a sigh, "Okay Max.  Paper, rock, scissors for the win?"  And they play.  As though that was enough to complete the entire game of battleship.

The other day Jackson walks in the house and says, "Mom.  I like Evie.  I'm going to marry her when we are bigger."  

Max comes sauntering along and says, "I'm going to marry Caitlin."  And me, "No,  no, I don't think you will marry Caitlin."  "Well then, who am I going to marry?" Max asks.  I said, "I know!  Grace!  You can marry Grace."  And he runs over to Jackson shouting, "Jackson, did you hear that?  I get to marry Grace!!"  So, since Miranda and Thomas seem to just go together naturally, I guess we have assigned brides to all our boys, lol.  

Of course, God would be so good to have any of these matches work out, as we love these little girls so much already.  However, I am not counting my chickens, nor am I wishing my boys to be big enough to get married.  But, we will be praying for all these special girls and their parents, that they are protected and loved and can always feel God's love on them every moment.  

9 Months!

Thomas is 9 months old!!

At this point he:  

• is crawling all over the place
• pulls up on furniture and does a little moving
• mostly will not let me feed him; he wants to do it all himself, so I have to find foods he can rake up with his fingers or grab and give those to him
• LOVES the bath, but insists on trying to stand up in there, which about gives me a heart attack every time.  Most baths last about 10 minutes because that is about all I can take
• he looks like he has been in a fight a lot because he is constantly bumping into things and he seems to be scratching his face a bunch, even though I try to keep his nails short
• has had to move on to some formula.  Baby 4 seems to have brought on some changes in nursing.  This makes me sad and getting him to take formula has been a challenge, but I think he is going to be able to make a full transition for the next few months.
• goes right for the stairs whenever I don't have the gait up.  He can climb up them, but still has too many tumbles down for my comfort.
• seems to be sleeping from about 10pm-5am 
• favorite toys seem to be anything that makes noise like a shaker
• babbles lots, mostly babababa and yayayaya
• has big smiles for almost everyone
• loves to clap and will clap if you look at him and say, "Yay!"
• gives high fives and sometimes waves

Can you see where the drool goes to?  Ha!

He was scared of the tunnel at first, but finally gave it a go.

Oops.  I made him 35 weeks again.  I guess I don't want him to grow up. 

Oh yes.  This kid, pulling up on furniture, surfing around.

Watching out the back door.  Maybe pining that he can't walk out there and play with the big brothers? 

Goulash!  He loved it!  I totally should have removed his clothes!

Best smile ever.

Ear defenders for the air show.

And oh yes.  Climbing the stairs, because he is so daring.  If he is not distracted he can make it up the whole way...  But, take his attention anywhere else and he is tumbling backwards.

9 months!

Hawaii Plantation Village

The Cub Scouts set up a "Go See It!" field trip to the Hawaii Plantation Village, an old sugar cane plantation.  Now it is mostly historical, with small areas of farming.  We learned about all the different people who immigrated to Hawaii to work on the plantations.

House that native Hawaiians would have lived in

Chinese house.  Really cool inside!

Shinto worship place

Haircut Mishap

I have been cutting the boys hair basically since they started needing it.  But this time, we had a little uh oh.  I took the clippers and went up the back of Jackson's head and at the top, I realized that I never put the guard on.  Small panic.  I put on the shortest guard I had, but that still showed too much difference.  I told Jackson he was getting a really close cut in the back, which he easily agreed to.  I think he probably even said, right at that point, that I could just cut it like Daddy's. 

I cut the back short and then tried to cut the top short, but it looked like such a terrible bowl cut.  Mike said it was fine, but Jackson must have sensed how much I did not care for it, because he just kept on saying I could cut it like Daddy's.  So, that we did.  Buzzed.

He walked through the house for a couple days after that and whenever he would see himself in the mirror, he would stop and say, "Best haircut ever!"

Both the boys got new jammies in a box from Grandma and Grandpa Clemens, but they kept saying they were cold, so they put pants and shirts on underneath and wore them anyhow.  

Spitting Caves

Our great friend, Ms. Angie, knows all kinds of great places we have not visited.  A few weeks ago she took us on a field trip to Spitting Caves, a place that is tucked away, but definitely someplace you want to visit if you live here.  

This is a picture of the path to get down to the rocks to watch the "Spitting Caves." 

Beautiful view!

It is a rocky area that overlooks the water.  You look down and there are some low caves that the water rushes into and then the water "spits" out.  Very cool.

The boys loved all the climbing.  Of course, my heart was in my throat the whole time.  I wore Thomas in a backpack, the hiking kind with the aluminum support.  He was fine for about 30 minutes, but the sun got quite hot and he didn't want to keep his little hat on.  He got a little restless.

Friends!

Hudson, the great dare devil, decided to climb the highest rock.  

And then they all followed.  They did great!  And Angie is a rock star, even with a toddler on her hip.

Kickball with the Cub Scouts

A few weeks ago the Cub Scouts had a family night where the kids could play a game of kickball.  Jackson had fun playing in the field near first base.

Running the bases.  Superman is super fast.

Our friend Hayden is also a Cub Scout so he was at the game.  He loves making silly faces for pictures.  We are so thankful for his friendship!

Puzzling

The boys saw a set of jigsaw puzzles on our game shelf that I bought quite a long time ago.  They became very interested and so we broke them out.  Max, in particular, could sit there for very long periods of time and work on it.  There were four puzzles.  We glued three of them to foam boards and put them in the play room for decoration.  The fourth puzzle, a Bear, was missing a piece.