When I got home, Mother called me into her room.  She looked as if she had been crying.  She said I gave her a great deal of pain by my self-will and ill temper and conceit.

She said my character would be essentially formed by the time I reached my twentieth year and left it to me to decide if I wished to be as a woman what I was now as a girl.

-Stepping Heavenward-

These little ones. 

So much love for them.  So much daily instruction needed.  They are growing up and every moment must be taken captive.  Every experience framed out so that hearts and minds point upward.  Because as reality dictates, within a few years they will be formed.  That is a scary thought: releasing them into into independence.

My sweet Emma:

May you use that strong, strong will to serve God in strength.  May your humor always bring others joy.  May your be tempered in your tendency toward deceit, and may God give you a clean and truthful heart.  And may you one day learn that poop should only be found in the potty, and not underneath beds and other unsuspecting inanimate objects.

Josh:

May you grow to be a man like your Dad.  Or even half of that and I’ll consider it a job well done.  I hope the joy you take in tormenting your sisters will one day translate into joy at loving and supporting them.  My brothers do that for me, and it is such a gift.  Take that blunt and honest side: the one that says things like “you sure are cranky today, Mama“, and speak wise and true words.  Be honest and say the right things.  And as you often remind us: “It’s not fair”.   And we tell you “You may not start a sentence with ‘it’s not fair’”.  Because it may not be, but we still have more than we ever deserve.  Better to learn that now.

Anna and Will.  I have no words.  You both adamantly refused cooperation in these photos.  Anna, you sulked for hours because of an imaginary lump in your shoe.  And Will, you insisted that sleep was more important.  For that I am sad.  But, next photo-shoot, we’ll work it out….

The shame in this situation is that the kids were PERFECTLY coordinated.  Absolutely perfectly.  It was almost a moment of tears for me that a ratio of half would not work with me.

But, it is what it is.  And as a friend and I agreed, that is increasingly my parenting-philosophy.