God's Pleasure

I just finished "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs for book club. I really enjoyed this book. The author is an agnostic Jewish man from New York who attempts to live out the laws and principles of the Bible over a year. It was very insightful, funny, and honest. I really, really liked this book.
He shared a quote by Eric Liddell, the Christian runner portrayed in "Chariots of Fire". Eric said, "When I run, I feel His pleasure." It stopped me when I read it. I immediately thought, "When do I feel God's pleasure? Have I ever felt His pleasure in me?" It broke me.
Of course I started mentally going through all my talents and abilities, and nothing really spectacular or awesome came to mind. Try as I might to discover something, anything, I kept coming up short. I obey, I try to be faithful and honoring in my choices. I seek to love others the way God does. I know God loves me, I'm His creation, but there's nothing "special" that I do.
I was seeking God on this when he brought my three children before me.


One of the most awesome things about becoming a parent is that you finally get God the Father and how He loves us, that we are HIS. I realized that I take pleasure in my three babies all the time. Sure, there's moments when they are thoughtful, share with one another, or show compassion when I'm thrilled to see bits of God's character in them. But I don't only take pleasure in my kids when they're doing something right or amazing. I am LOVING them and am PLEASED in who they are always b/c they are MINE. They could be doing homework, eating dinner, riding their bikes, sleeping, fighting, whatever, I'm still filled with overwhelming love and joy in their very existence.
God showed me that's exactly how He feels about me. I am HIS, and He always takes pleasure in me whether I'm washing dishes, am sick in bed, driving my kids to school, walking by myself, being irritable, whatever. He's pleased with me in my dailiness b/c I'm his.
It was such a relief to realize this new aspect of my relationship with God. I knew it in my head of course, but I didn't KNOW it in my gut. It's filled me with a ton of gratitude and rest knowing that I have all of God's love and joy in me already no matter what I do or don't do today. I don't even have to run to get it, which is good, b/c I hate running.
I'm so grateful to learn new things still, to continue to have more of God revealed to me. And even now, it is still just a hint, I know I still don't get His vastness, His goodness, and His absolute mercy. But I'm glad to still be on this journey of discovery.

Birthday Season Complete

It's taken me awhile to post about Jonah's birthday party a few weeks ago. We are still recovering! We had ten very energetic boys in addition to our three join us, and we were way in over our heads.
Let me say ahead of time that I think the party was a success, the boys all had a great time and left very excited and happy. But man, it was a blur of three hours for Travis and I.

I really got so few pics b/c we were working crowd control the whole time. But it pretty much looked like this, boys running, boys shooting darts at each other and light saber fighting, boys crying over light saber fighting, boys jumping in the jump house, boys climbing the walls inside our house (literally), boys running and hurdling our couches, and us in the middle maintaining our cheery smiles and hope that this would end well. We kept looking at each other with wide eyes of disbelief. I'm pretty sure it was the boys running the party and not us.

We had a game of pin the power source on Iron Man that went fairly well once we curbed the cheating, and then Blackbeard the Pirate made an appearance with a map for a treasure hunt. I never loved my husband more than when I watched him captivate eleven wiggly boys with his silly antics. This was his third birthday appearance. Our kids love it so much, one of them always requests that he come back for their birthday.

Trav provided the first clue and the boys worked together to discover all ten clues to the hidden treasure which was tied up in a tree that Jonah had to climb. It was all very exciting.


We ended with pizza, cupcakes, and opened some presents. It all happened so fast. It wasn't until the last kid took their leave that we breathed for the first time and thought that perhaps it had gone well. Jonah was happy with his night and had a great time, but we've learned a lot for next time. It's got to be a lot smaller or moved off campus. That many boys were not meant to be in a house!

Heavy D's Birthday

It's that time of year for the Osbornes. We have almost completed birthday season at our place. Davey's special day was Sunday, September 26. He was pretty indignant about not getting a party this year. He couldn't seem to wrap his six year old mind around the every-other-year concept no matter how much we explained it to him. But I think he still had a pretty great day.
Breakfast dates with Daddy are now tradition at our house. Payton and Trav have gone to I-hop every year and she gets a funny face pancake. Davey and Jonah prefer the Simpson cafeteria where they get a bowl of fruit loops. We're easy to please around here.

Payton made Davey an elaborate birthday hat and he got a nerf dart gun that he'd been wanting all year, but told me it wasn't the one he wanted when he opened it, but "it's still ok":).

We played a round of mini-golf at the black light course downtown which was really fun. It got a tad competitive, but that really can't be helped between me, Jonah, and Davey.



Happy Birthday Davey, you are loved.

15 hours of craziness

We celebrated Payton's 10th birthday last Friday with a sleepover of eight little girls. Oh my, the energy, giggles, and shrill voices:) It was great fun. Payton loved every minute of it.
She wanted ice cream sundaes instead of a cake. We had the girls make their own, hot fudge and whip cream everywhere. I had to tuck my neat freakishness away for the evening.

I got all the girls contained for about 10 seconds for this photo. They spent the night fabric painting pillowcases and decorating cardboard appliance boxes to sleep in. Payton has loved boxes since she was a baby, and it's been her dream to host a box sleep over. It's lovely to make a dream happen virtually for free. I dumpster dived about three times to get enough boxes. You just gotta own it while you're digging around since everyone's gonna stare at you anyway.

The boys were sequestered in my bedroom with their own boxes to sleep in, phineas and ferb videos playing, and italian sodas. They came out for sundaes and to watch Payton open presents. They were a little indignant when they could hear the girls laughing and staying up later than them. I had to explain several times that boys aren't really allowed at girl sleep overs and vice versa (sp?). Davey insists that he's having a party that Payton won't be allowed to next year.

The boxes all started to collapse on the girls in the middle of the night. We eventually just flattened them and then slept on top.

They woke up impressively perky after only four hours of sleep. I wish I could tap into their energy source.

You gotta have at least one pillow fight at a slumber party.

The girls closed the morning down with playing a game of war, Sweden vs. America, after finding flags from both countries in our toy box. The girls pulled out all our light sabers, blasters, swords, and shields and went at it for over an hour. There were medics for the injured. Streamers were used for bandages and grapes were "knock out" pills for those that couldn't take the pain. I'm not making this up. It was hilarious to watch.
There were prisoners too. I found Davey tied up in a box with bread and water. He tried to smile for this picture when I reminded him he was supposed to be upset to be prisoner.

P, J, and D slept in the boxes one more night after the sleep over for a last blast.

This was the aftermath at 5pm still the next day. I was SO tired, I didn't even care it looked like this.

Trav came home from his retreat and rallied our energies together to put our home back together. Payton must've told me at least 10x over the next few days how much she loved her party. It was so fun, I'm so glad it went well, and I'm a little relieved it's over:). We love our girl, and it was so fun to celebrate her big day.

Joy

is eating huge bowls of ice cream and then climbing all over Daddy.

Some Bits of Our Summer

Here are some highlights from our weeks of play together:

-The kids' cotton candy faces at the Angel's Game
-My shy Jonah dancing his heart out so much at the game that he got on the jumbo tron not only once, but twice!
-Listening to "Who Let the Dogs Out" one too many times. And yet, it brought us back to harmony quite a bit when things fell apart in the car. The magic of music.
-The boys riding their bikes at night in their pj's at Nana's house.
-Being offended at the "Back to School" signs in Target the first week of July.
-Overpriced ice creams at San Clemente Beach
-Reading, reading, reading. For the first time, all three kids completed the summer reading program at the library. I'm so proud!
-Long visits with both grandparents
-Disneyland!
-Returning to the summer camp of my youth with my husband and three kids. The smell of the Sequoias brought a flood of memories.
-Camping w/out showers, my kids were filthy beyond repair
-lots of fort building, bike riding, swimming in lakes and rivers, and consumption of ice cream
-mugs of tea in the morning while camping
-having leisurely meals all summer b/c we didn't have anywhere we needed to be.

We're in our last week of summer already. Soccer practice starts today, school next week, I never like transitions. I know it'll be great once we get into routine, but for right now, I wouldn't mind sitting with summer a few more weeks...

Summer Camp Girl

My girl is at summer camp this week for the first time. I'm so excited for her to have this experience. She's going to LOVE every minute of it.
I'm a bit nostalgic that we are already at a stage in our relationship where I can send her away from me for a week on her own to experience new things and meet new people that I have no idea about. She's navigating all of this without me, using her own skills and instincts.
I know she's going to be awesome. I'm not worried about her making friends or having a great time. I'm more concerned about her personal hygiene. She has yet to take an interest in her appearance, or say, brushing her teeth without being reminded. I'll take these worries over social worries anytime. Although maybe there will be social worries if she's not brushing her teeth??
I can't wait to hear her stories and see the new girl standing before me that is a little bit different from the one who left. You can't have a week of independance and NOT change and grow. Where does the time go?