Our three oldest children, ages 5, 3, 2, were playing in the living room unsupervised. I was in the kitchen, and overhearing them playing, I just had to go in and see exactly what they were doing.

I walked in to discover Emmaline (age 2) lying on the coffee table with a blanket draped over her. I learned from Matthew that he was performing a hip surgery on Emmaline while Andrew was administering medicine with an empty roll of toilet paper over her mouth. It was such a hilarious sight that I snapped several pictures just to document this “medical” feat.

As many of our readers know, Emmaline underwent REAL surgeries last year to correct her dislocated hips. Naturally, Matthew still remembered these — she’s only recently really begun to walk and run normally — and thus re-enacted the whole surgery.  At least, as he envisioned it. I was quite amused. Matthew talked like a real surgeon, “Emmie, lie down, I’m going to cut you up. Andrew, give her some medicine. Okay, Emmie, you’re all done, but you need to stay in the hospital for the night.” I was also rather surprised that both Andrew and Emmaline did exactly what Matthew wanted them to do. I was very glad that they played so well together. That’s another one of the joys of having a slightly larger than average family.

Here’s a photo of the operating room.  Click to view it full size.

I was rather surprised to learn that one of my favorites, theologian/pastor/professor Bryan Chapell, wrote a children’s book titled I”ll Love You Anyway and Always. It is a story about a father taking the time to explain and correct his daughter when she disobeyed. The father went on to explain that no matter what she does, he will always love her, just like how God loves his people despite their repeated failures. The phrase “I’ll love you anyway and always” is repeated throughout the book. This book is very heart warming, especially for the children as they are reminded that they’ll always be loved, no matter what they did or will do. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Ray Van Neste writes another helpful review on his excellent The Children’s Hour blog.

We were the beneficiary this past weekend of the hospitality and gifts of dear friends of ours. They have ten children, of whom four are internationally adopted, and have been a wonderful help and joy to our family as we have our four crazy little ones, and are always in need of encouragement and advice.

As those of you who follow our blog know, our two boys just celebrated their birthdays. Well, knowing we were visiting, and since one of their boys had a birthday this past weekend, these friends decided to throw a joint birthday bash with a Cars movie theme.

Here are a couple of photos, including the amazing birthday cake their two older girls baked and decorated for the occasion!

And the “lovely” gifts of finger paints they gave to the boys with a grin on their faces, no doubt anticipating a fun time of cleanup for the parents Ding!

Oh and one more photo, I just can’t resist. The dad of this family o’ twelve zonked out on the couch while holding another family’s baby:

I started homeschooling my oldest almost two years ago, and we struggled quite a bit early on in terms of dealing with short attention spans and wiggly body. My boy has come a long way and he is doing quite well in our home school. Recently I found myself enjoy teaching him various subjects. I have told my husband on several occasions that I am truly thankful to God for giving us the ability and opportunity to homeschool our children. I love seeing my children learn and discover new things. I also love the fact that I can customize my children’s education according to their ability and development.

Even though a lot of work is involved in homeschooling, I come away with much satisfaction in seeing my children delight in learning. They enjoy reading and looking through books, from the oldest to the youngest. My oldest likes to read books to the younger ones, and often the younger siblings cuddle up next to him to listen and look. I shall remember these precious moments next time I get discouraged.

Dear Matthew,

You turn five years old today. You have certainly grown from a small little baby to a big boy. I still remember the day you were born. After 15.5 hours of labor, you made your grand exit and dazzled us with your unceasing energy and spirit. This, of course, translated to many months of rocking you, singing to you, and putting you in a sling at 2 a.m., trying to console your unstoppable crying. Even though we had read many books on taking care of a baby, you defied all the baby soothing techniques offered by mothers and doctors. Your first four months of colic taught us the meaning of exhaustion, fatigue, self-denial and sacrifice. Even though we may have been wiped out, you never cease to make us smile and laugh. Your constant happy disposition always cheered us up.

You have now grown to a big boy whose energy level is still unmatched, and it is my desire that I help you channel this energy level for usefulness and ultimately for God’s work. You are akin to a diamond in the rough. In order to enjoy the beautiful diamond, all the rough edges need to be chipped away. Likewise, God is using your Mommy and Daddy to chip away at your rough parts through daily training, and one day we hope to see the beautiful diamond that is in you. I can already see that God blessed you with many gifts and talents. At five years of age, you have already demonstrated accelerated skills in reading, writing, drawing, singing, and arithmetics. Remember that these are God given talents and make them useful for making much of the Giver.

We have already traversed through the first five years of your life, and I look forward to our years together as we journey through homeschooling, character building, and God-entranced lives. My utmost desire is for you to come to know the Lord as your own Savior one day. We pray that the Holy Spirit will draw you to Jesus through our constant prayer and teaching. Happy birthday, my boy. We are indeed blessed to have you in our lives.

We are a clueless couple who tries to book a vacation at Yosemite National Park with only one month in advance. Unsurprisingly, the hotel we wanted was all booked, not only through the month, but through the year! Later we learned that Yosemite is such a popular destination that one usually has to make a reservation one year in advance!!! We were rather disappointed. We called the hotel and were advised to check their website daily for cancellation. So, my new task is to browse their site every day, until… my husband comes up with a better idea. This is the part where I feel very blessed to have married a geeky husband, i.e. a software engineer. He wrote a software program to automatically check the Yosemite website every 15 minutes for any vacancies in the various time frames next month that would work for us. If it detected availability, it would send emails to both of our email accounts and a text message to Evers’ phone to inform us of an open spot. He even sent a test email just to make sure his program was working.

So, instead of checking the website on a daily basis, I could go about my day without any worries and sit tight waiting for that email.

This afternoon my husband called (while walking between meetings) and told me that he had just gotten an email on his Blackberry and urged me to go on the web to reserve the hotel ASAP. I did as he said, and long and behold, we have a hotel reservation!!! Now we can all party and rejoice. Ain’t it wonderful to be married to a geek?

This morning during breakfast, as the boys were eating bagels and eggs, I took the occasion to lead them in a simple devotional of one of my favorite texts, Psalm 84. In particular, I highlighted verses 1,2, and 10:

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I tried to explain the last point, about being a doorkeeper, but it was a bit lost on them. They just wondered why a doorman wouldn’t just come in from the cold.

So I asked my five year old: “Would you rather sleep in a cold hard uncomfortable bed next to Mommy, or on a very warm cozy bed with a wicked stranger?”

His response, unsurprisingly, “A warm bed with Mommy.”

*grin*

It took a few more tries to impress upon him that that was not one of the choices, in this analogy. At which point, he acknowledged the obvious: better discomfort with one he loved than comfortable surroundings with one he detests.

May God help us to so love Him that all the “dwelling places” of sin and evil would hold no attractiveness to us.