Sweet Sleep

Sleep. It's a powerful thing!

I'm getting a lot more of it these days.  At 4 months old Eames has figured out his nights. He has a set bed time... then we do a "dream feed" (he eats an entire meal without waking up. amazing.)... then he sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00.  On occasion he wakes up, but he goes back to sleep on his own quickly.

At least for now.

And this is what I see when I go into his room at nap time....

(To the terror of all my friends, I put blankets on my baby when he sleeps! Gasp.)

And this is what I see when he opens his eyes to see me...

Yesterday my neighbor said, "Gurl, you got so much good news over there it aint even funny!"  He was right.  I am blessed and highly favored. I am rich, rich, rich. The Lord has been so good to me.

Cheers,

The KawaMama

Enjoy!

A little bit of something I've loved recently....

About 6-7 years ago I started listening to classical music on NPR with religious diligence... not because I particularly liked classical music, but because I didn't.  I didn't "get" it.  What was the point? The message? If they rhythm was always changing and the mood was always shifting and you couldn't discern a story... what was the big deal? Do I have to like it just because it's old? What's the value?  So I dedicated myself to figuring it out by listening to it.

After 6 solid years.... I get it.... And now I enjoy it.

It is truly an emotional art.

Enjoy!
The KawaMama

My Farmers

"To the farmer in all of us..."

To be honest, the hero that they painted here seems so far and away better than I could ever be...
I questioned if there was a farmer in me.  I felt I wanted more farmer in me.

And then I thought of my Daddy.

He is a tractor driving, dirt moving, rock hauling, wood chopping, lake building, pasture clearing, God Fearing man.  He has four daughters and we all think he's Superman.

And I thought of my sister.

She's nursed so many wild animals back to health, she could populate her own zoo, and when she gets bucked off, she gets right back on.

And I thought of my mom.

She's the sustainer of goats, sheep, horses & chickens; the planter of vast gardens; the puller of weeds; the cooker of Paleo meals; the CrossFit beast; the home educator; the On-Duty-At-All-Hours nurse, chaufer, counselor, teacher, wife.

She's a pioneer woman... a Ma Ingles type... who faces life with a stoic and inward sort of resolution. You don't come to this woman whining. You come to this woman if you want to be told the truth and pointed unflinchingly toward faith in the Lord.

Maybe I'm not much of a Farmer... but I come from a family of Farmers... and that makes me proud.

Cheers,
TheKawaMama

Roots

I've been thinking a lot recently about living a rooted life... about living somewhere for generations... about one day being one of "Those Old Wherever Families." (You know, the ones with the connections, whose granddaddies and great-granddaddies were friends.)  Not because I want to be a "good ole boy", but because there is so much appeal to having Heritage and Place.  It's something I really deeply desire. 

Think "Gone with the Wind" --- "Tara! The red earth of Tara!" I want that perennially fixed Northern Star "homestead" which we and all our descendants will return to...

Anyway.... all that brings me to my present topic.... PLANTING.

I want to plant a garden.   I want to farm my back yard. 
BUT.... I can't really spend money doing something like that if we are going to be uprooted to move soon.  (Which is likely in my husband's current line of work.)  When we do stop moving, we will plant a garden. We will sink literal roots.

Which brings me to my philosophic thought.... ROOTS.

As all of the above was running through my head, the Bible verse Collossians 2:6-7 came to mind:
"Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted & built up in him."

Suddenly the concept of being ROOTED took on so much more meaning...
Being ROOTED in Jesus implies that we are permanent.  The seasons will not move us. Good and bad weather may come... but we will tend the ground where we planted our roots.  He is that "perennially fixed North Star to which we all return."  He is our Heritage.  He is our Place. 

But it's more than that.... Look at the verse closely. It isn't Jesus who is rooted, right? It is us. "YOU... be rooted and built up IN him." He is doing the planting of me, rather I of him. Which means... HE planted this garden.   HE is not going to leave.  HE is fixing his home with ME.  In a way, I am HIS heritage ("heirs of the eternal kingdom").  I am HIS place. 

Maybe it seems simple to you, but it strikes me as profound.

Those are my Saturday night thoughts.

Cheers!
TheKawaMama
(By the way, I took this picture on a long drive home from spring break back in 2008... My then-boyfriend-now-husband was driving. I made him turn around in the middle of no-where and pull up to this house for me to take a picture. I told him it was my dream house...)