And on a Monday morning while I'm chopping celery for dinner's stew, I listen to my boy muddle through words.
He's been muddling for over a year now. Day in, day out, we read. I read to him and he reads to me. And I encourage him with words. "You can do this." "Don't quit." "Persevere." "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." And sometimes it's slow. Sometimes the slowness feels almost painful.
Words he's seen thousands of times, somedays seem almost foreign.
We push in. We write the difficult ones on the wall as a reference. We make cards just the right size for his little boy hands and he carries them around in his pockets. "Give me a word," I say. And he slips one out of his jeans.
The learning, a life always growing... takes just that... a life-time.
So around here we consistently water... water with the Word, with encouragement, with reminders that we really can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.
We provide a good diet... a spread of living books, a variety of subjects to spark any possible interests, a plethora of adventure; the whole world is full of His glory, there's always something to discover.
And we pray to master the art of patience. Because patience really is an art.
It comes only as this Mama learns to respond to the moments that He gives.
It comes as my boy and I sit in the kitchen together and try to figure out words.
It comes as we pick our first harvest and know that it's in a life time of trial and error, in a lifetime of pursuing patience, that we might actually discover that the true harvest was there all along... There. In the process.
These are the best of days... the ones where the farmhouse is full of laughter (and little ones bickering:). The ones where I get to stay home, and hold them often, and wipe tears from pure satin cheeks, and listen to the slow working out of words from a boy who's determined to get to the other side, to get to the day when these very obstacles become his triumph.
#663-678
A developing of patience
An afternoon nap
Littlest one taking steps
A Saturday with the Cowboy
Laughing like crazy at the restaurant... brutally aware as to why we don't eat out often :).
Conversations with women, encouraging words.
An sweet, tender email from a dear friend that I haven't seen in years.
Gas money.
Cheering treasures... pizza for dinner on a picnic blanket in the family room.
Clean windows.
Homegrown tomatoes, peppers.
Flower beds ready for winter.
Freshly mowed fields all around.
My boy persevering.
The harvest in this moment.
