I delight in you

 I simply had to go outside and take this picture.  How could I not?  She was playing Christmas music in the dark by the tree.  My deepest belief is that one of the greatest gifts we give to our children is the notion that "I delight in you!"  If your parents do so very much, imagine how much more your Heavenly Father does? 
I am a simple mother.  I can get overwhelmed easily.  I run best at home with my people around me.  I like family meals at night filled with great conversation.  I like prayer time and devotion together unrushed.   It gives us the time to stop and see.  I gives us the time to delight and listen.  I remember when I first moved to Lincoln and I had just met a mother of a large family.  I asked her what activities or sports her children where in.  She replied confidently, "We have a very simple home.  We do things as a family together.  We don't run here and there most of time.  We like home." 
I've remembered her words often as they spoke volumes to my simple, sensitive heart that desperately reaches each day to grab time and to just be with our children. 

 We call this the newborn neck tilt.  Always gazing at our newborns.

 I have many hairdressers.  They are always braiding, curling, spraying, poofing, and fixing their hair.

Belén often has an extended period in the middle of the night where she is just awake and usually not crying.  She is just awake.  I recalled the words Elizabeth Foss once wrote that the phone has taken the place of the motherly gaze.  She was recalling the many nights before phones were a part of our everyday life where she rocked, nursed, burped and most importantly just gazed at her new babies.  She expressed sadness for new mamas who are missing out on that all important gaze of admiration.  Belén was my first baby to have a real smart phone.  I mentally told myself that I wasn't going to miss it with her.  I wasn't going to miss the delight of my new baby whom I just met.

 For school, Dominic had a project that required him to check the skyline twice a day.  He set the alarm on his watch and diligently did it for weeks never missing.  I don't know why I enjoy their precious ways so much, but I think I took a picture almost everyday he did it.  I watched him look up, determine what he was to record in his science notebook, write it down, look up several more times, and then come in. 

 His sword is his other appendage.  He finds it first thing in the morning and wears it all day.  One time when we went to the chiropractor, we laughed so hard as he jumped up on the table and had to un-weapon.  He had two swords, one in each pocket, and rocks in his coat pockets.  I'm not quite sure how he slipped all that past me, but it was so adorable to see him lay his weapons down before an adjustment. Whenever he watches any show that has a tiger or pirate in it, we always hear him say "I need to get my sword." He runs swiftly into the toy room and digs until he finds it, if it isn't already on him stuffed down his pants.

 Have you ever watched a child look at a snow globe?  Holy smokes.  Snow globes remind me of my mother.