Fall November 5, 2008

Last Thursday the trees in front of our house looked like this; the very tops with just a hint of fall. Just four short days later . . .

the trees are brilliantly yellow and orange! I’ve never really observed how quickly the trees change but with these two beautiful massive trees in our front yard. Apparently other people in our neighborhood also appreciate these trees too. Yesterday I got a knock on our door while the girls were napping. It was a couple with their children asking if they could take some pictures in our front yard! Certainly if they could go to all that trouble I could throw some clothes on the girls, wash their faces, comb their hair and mosey on outside for some pictures of our own.

Of course, 4 o’clock on an empty stomach right after a nap is not the best time for pictures, but I was motivated! Another few days and the trees will be bare naked . . . and that would not be appropriate for family pics.

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I put this one of Ellie up on facebook and I struggled to come up with a suitable caption. Within seconds Leah commented with a line from “The Sound of Music”: “the hills are alive, with the sound of music”. Very appropriate.

My beautiful family!

And just to keep it real – Ellie with her finger up her nose. I challenge anyone with a two year old to get through a photo session without a photo a little nose-picking. I think I’ll frame this one.

*Sigh* My baby is in Ballet September 15, 2008

Am I the only one that wishes children came with remote controls? I know what you are thinking and I am not talking about a mute button. I’m talking about pause. Rewind. Where does the time go?

I like one quote I heard a few months ago in regards to raising children; “The days are long but the years are short”. No kidding. Thank goodness for camera’s. Rewind. Here is a picture of Sophia from a few days after she was born.

Those were the days when she was not bouncing off the walls. All she wanted to do was sleep. Pause. And then at about five weeks she “woke” up and our lives have never been the same. From then to now we have been through many of those moments of sheer joy and pride, but tainted with a little sadness as our baby was becoming something different. Leaving behind something cherished. I have felt it coming for a while; when Sophia would ask for a particular pair of shoes to go with her dress, or when she would pick a dandelion and put it in her hair – she is becoming a little girl and leaving behind toddlerhood*. *sigh*. Last week Sophia started ballet and ushered in full-fledged little girldom*. Pause. A bittersweet moment indeed.

Next thing you know she will be moving out, getting married and I will be sitting in my rocking chair knitting little booties for the next generation of Hensley’s.

Thankfully I have Ellie who is never going to grow up. Just look at this picture. She can barely even reach over her bald head! I think that is a clear sign that she is going to stay small, irrational, and perpetually cute.

*Note: I fully acknowledge that the words toddlerhood and girldom are not established words (Zac) but one of my best friends is a linguist and she will gladly tell you that legitimate words are made up all the time. So =p.

My arrows January 24, 2007

Children a blessing, Part I January 23, 2007

“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them!”

Psalm 127:3-5

Upon getting pregnant with our first blessing just three months after our wedding day a common response from Christian and non-Christian alike was “Are you crazy?” Shouldn’t we do the American status quo thing and just ‘enjoy each other without children’ for a few years. I guess children are only truly enjoyable after putting in a few years as a married couple. After announcing our second blessing just seven months after welcoming our first the response was speechlessness. People were kind enough to keep their thoughts to themselves.

Although many people enjoy the sight of children, and enjoy to play with them for a few minutes now and then, it seems that a lot of Americans silently view them as a hindrance to career advancement, and hence, self-fulfillment. In some families children merely just fit in to already busy and over scheduled life. For 70 percent of American women children are sacrificed for their careers and not vice versa. (disclaimer: I have much admiration for single mothers that have no other choice than to work jobs to support her children). Some pro-SAHM would argue that women must stay at home with their children to enjoy them, to be there for them when they need you, to give them the gold standard of childcare: a mother who loves them and will kiss all their wounds, give plenty of hugs and bake them fresh cookies. Although I think these are all good reasons, they are not the ultimate reason.

As Christians, our primary motivation is because God tells us that children are a blessing. He tells us to be workers at home. When we send them to daycare or to grandma’s or wherever we may send them day in and day out we send away the blessings that are reaped from having and caring for children. I am a new mother. I have only begun to taste these blessings, and sometimes they are difficult to bear, but I pray for more. The blessings are soul satisfying, sanctifying, and joyous. As Christians mothers we have been given the responsibility to nurture the eternal soul of another. We do this through discipline, teaching, example and a whole lot of love. To do it well we must deny ourselves, the very thing Christ came to teach us. We must examine our hearts and our habits and align them with what is pleasing to God so that we may pass on a legacy of godliness and a knowledge of the truth to our children. This is no small task. It is worthy of our very best labors and of our very precious time.

Sophia, sick again December 16, 2006

After being sick for a little over three weeks, and having a week of health, our little Sophia is sick again. She is coughing, her nose is a faucet, and all she wants to do is watch ‘La-La’ (Cinderella). We are being rather diligent in washing our hands, and changing our clothing or covering them up before we handle Ellie. So far, so good.

Anywho, congratulations to Daniel and Marcia! We will see you at 2pm.

Reason to celebrate December 14, 2006

Ellie is sleeping through the night!!!!!!!! Well this post is three weeks overdue because that is when she started. She also, for the first time last night, rolled over from her belly to her back. For those of you without children this is an exciting thing. To see a once useless little creature do such simple things for the first time is exciting. It is especially exciting for us as Ellie has an arachnoid cyst on her brain and we were told this may cause her to have some physical developmental delays. So far Ellie has been more advanced than Sophia and she was born three weeks earlier!

As for Sophia, she too is doing well. She enlivens the Hensley household with much chatter, singing, and dancing. Much of her chatter has become communicable. She is speaking well over seventy words, which our pediatrician has informed us is about the vocabulary of a two year old. The other morning she rolled out of bed and said, “Pancake. Pancake, please?” Our frustrations no longer come from the department of communication, but more from that of excessive curiosity. Imagine that, a curious toddler!