A train date with cousins

("diddle diddle dumpling, my son John,

one shoe off, and one shoe on...")

Excerpted from my gratitude journal this busy Monday morning, #200-239:
#207 Mohawks are back - reminding me of brothers
#210 Lies being dismantled
#211 Katy reading devotions with my parents
#213 Frost turning trees into diamonds
#216 Baby brothers
#220 More questions than answers means life is never boring
#221 The blackness of an almost frozen creek
#224 Fear of death makes every moment ALIVE sweeter
#230 Dissertation proposal PASSING!
#231 Reading the Gospels for Lent
#237 The largeness of my suffering reveals the awesome provision of a powerful God

A prayer and a praise

Oh, God, our Father, give me clean hands, and clean words and clean thoughts; Help me to stand for the hard right against the easy wrong. Save me from habits that harm; teach me to work as hard and play as fair in Thy sight alone as if all the world saw. Forgive me when I am unkind and forgive others who are unkind to me; keep me ready to help others at some cost to myself. Send me chances to do a little good every day and to grow more like Christ. ~A Prayer by William DeWitt Hyde

A quiet and quick moment as we fly off to Lacrosse to greet the newest Holmen BOY! Congratulations to Ben and Megan and big sister Emma as they welcome Kipton Michael Holmen ("Kip"), born just after midnight! Doesn't "Rob, Cal and Kip" sound like a trio of boy cousins who will bring much hilarity and mischief to our formerly very pink clan?

Kip was born with a true knot in his cord, and a loop around the neck. A true knot increases the chances of death for the infant 4 fold. Already preserved, I wonder what God has in store for this little man?

"Kipp" :: Olde English :: "pointed hill" or "glory"
"Michael" :: Hebrew :: "who is like God?" or "humility before God"

Hello, 2010!

Here it is...the long awaited next year, 2010. Hopefully, a year of health and peace for our family. If it is, to God be the glory. If not, to God be the glory as well.

These photos are from a few days ago. What do you do when cancer lurks once again in the wings? Pull out a tea set! (I should have been a Brit)

What are little girls made of?

“Manhood, once an opportunity for achievement, now seems like a problem to be overcome.”
~ Garrison Keillor, The Book of Guys

I've known boys and girls were different ever since my brother started knocking me over to steal my toys when we were toddlers together on a farm in rural Minnesota. It was brought home to me again and again while playing war games, rocket ship, frontier explorers, cowboys & Indians, 2-against-1 football, and never, ever (and I do mean ever) playing house. Then there were also the toads that could be squeezed and made to pee all over my bedroom carpet; the jokes and guffaws issuing through the closed door when I spent too much time primping in the bathroom; the daredevil antics on bikes and skates; the endless competition to be the fastest, strongest, or most daring at anything (even card games and Monopoly). This idea of differences seems as though it is fast disappearing in our current culture. Yet I saw it in action through my camera lens last night, when we babysat Susan Fern for a few hours of cousin play time. Caleb and Susan, 10 days different in age and nearly the exact same size since birth, are kind of like twins born to two different mothers. They are ecstatically happy playing together, evidenced by the squeals of Susan and the equally high-pitched squeals of Caleb when they are together. They make great companions. Yet they approach all of life so differently. This progression of photos, showing Caleb sitting in one place on the floor, entrenched in a Thomas book, shows what I have been observing for months now. Susan, trying desperately to connect; Caleb, oblivious. Susan, more oriented to relationship than things, changing toys constantly and paying little attention to them. Caleb, giving rapt attention to whatever skill he is mastering at the moment or whatever curious object is currently occupying his fancy. I include these photos here because I think they are both hilarious and enlightening!

I enjoyed this balanced chapter, which reflects both the testosterone-driven character qualities of boys as well as more sensitive traits that have been undervalued in the past. This is from Building Strong Families, a book from Crossway available for free online:

Then finally in this passage we read, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’” (Gen. 2:18). Adam needed help. He needed a companion. A man is made to connect with others. I call this the Friend Pillar. So along came Eve, to complete God’s image as male and female. She brought relational genius to the human race. Women generally are much more alert to and adept at relationships than are men. Adam would learn how to relate from Eve. Of course the ultimate attack against aloneness occurs in the magnificent relationship of marriage, but men need help and friendship in every context, whether single or married.

So I see these four “pillars” as a man’s core components: the king to provide, the warrior to protect, the mentor to teach, and the friend to connect. These are the qualities we seek to develop in boys who would become mighty men.

~ Stu Weber, How to Raise Masculine Sons