To Jordan...

So my life was changed when my first child was born, but it was deepened and more profoundly changed when along came Jordan.  I feel like I went from being awed to being wowed after Jordan came into our lives.  He absolutely hates being the "second" and the middle child.  When I was pregnant with him and shortly after he was first born I wondered why on earth God would give me this child as my second and what his place in our family was.  Little did I know what a gift and blessing he would be, and still is.  Jordan brings peace to those around him.  He is sensitive and intuitive of the needs of those around him.  He brings harmony.  He's been a best friend and playmate for Aaron, and also a good friend for Isabel.  He's always had a fun and silly smile that lights up those around him.  He has a great gift and talent for noticing detail.  It's a talent that helps him in drawing.  He absolutely loves to draw.  He spends a lot of time at school drawing and puts in lots of detail.  It makes things seem more real.  He's able to see (and draw) things from lots of perspectives.

Little did I know that he would be the glue to holds us and his siblings together.  I can't imagine life without this kid!  He's also my only cuddly kid, and I love to cuddle!

Jordan also came into my life 6 years and two weeks ago today.  I love this kid with all my heart!  I hope that he comes to know and understand his purpose in life.  I also feel very strongly that he came to our family at the right time, and for specific purposes.  And I feel like he is a gift from God!  Seriously.  I hope he comes to understand the inestimable power of being a friend.  That is Jordan's gift to those around him.  His loyalty, his good company.  It's strengthening and lifting, sometimes subtly but powerfully.

I hope that Jordan will know and understand that he doesn't have to do anything for others to love him.  He just needs to be himself and that he is perfect the way he is.  I also hope that he can learn that it doesn't matter whether your first, second, third, or fiftieth to be important.  We're important because God made us the way we are.  And that is amazing stuff.  A part of this understanding comes from a knowledge that there is a time and place for all things.  If he can trust that God knows timing better than we do, he'll find happiness in life.

To my sweet, sensitive Jordan, I love you with all my heart!  Happy (late) birthday!

When your life is changed forever... !!!

Tomorrow my oldest turns 8.  I've been thinking about the last 8 years.  An eternity ago, a blur, a whirlwind, and most especially how my life has been changed forever.  It started 8 years ago with Aaron being born, and then Jordan, and then Isabel.  They've all changed my life and changed me, forever!  I am a different person than before having children.  I hope less selfish at the very least.  But no one can NOT be changed after a little bit of heaven is gifted into their home.

Aaron has many talents and gifts that inspire and lift me.  He is GOOD and I don't know any other way to describe him than profoundly good.  He is strong and firm.  And seriously at 8 years old has some killer brute force.  He has strength.  It's one of his gifts from God to help him along his path in life, because we definitely need strength.  He's also generous when he decides to be.  Willing to give up his very favorite things in the world for those he loves.  Aaron has the gift of obedience.  He loves to listen and obey when he thinks it's right.  Sometimes to the other extreme of wanting to help others to have to be good too, and it frustrates him.  That profound desire to do what's right is ingrained in him.

The other night at dinner I heard the two most sincere and spectacular prayers of my life.  It started with Jordan.  Jordan thanked Heavenly Father for the things he loved about every single member of the family- and then Aaron did the same.  It was funny but mostly just beautiful to hear them open their hearts to their Father and tell Him about each one of us.  Aaron described himself as full of fun ideas, an inventor, and creative.  One thing that's come out in Aaron over the last year is his love for funny jokes, and to play jokes on other people.  He loves to laugh and tries to make others laugh too.  His sense of humor is very innocent and naive.  It makes me grateful to have a pure soul in my life.

He has reached the age of "accountability".  He is accountable for his choices in life.  The last 8 years have been a gift of time to teach him all that I can about what's right and how God has a plan for him.  Now he continues using his choices to make himself into his own person.  I hope that he will choose to be a lifter to those around him.  I hope that he will realize that his greatest power comes when he is making choices that helps those around him be better than they were before.  There is great power in this!

I hope that he can come to feel deeply within himself that he was born onto this earth with a purpose that God has designed, and that God will help him along the way.  I hope that He will come to know that he doesn't have to be strong, or good, or obedient, or anything else alone.  I hope that he comes to feel and know deeply that he has a Savior who has payed the price for sin, pain, sorrow, weakness, accidents, tragedy and anything that may come his way, and that this Savior has conquered it all.  I hope that Aaron comes to know that in giving his heart to Him that he conquer all things that come his way.  I hope that Aaron feels the Savior's profound love for him, now and throughout the rest of his life.

I hope that Aaron knows when he gets baptized in about 10 days that he is literally binding himself to God and His power, and that it's the way to help us return home to that God who created us.  I want Aaron to know that I his mom, know that God loves him, and know that He has a plan for each one of us.

So now, 8 years and counting to my life being changed forever, I'm grateful for Aaron.  He is a gift and blessing from God.  I love this kid with all my heart!

To the beach with Rebeca

It was a beautiful, warm day at the beach, with fun sand castles, and lots of digging in the sand, and Isabel jumping on and smashing those sand castles.  She's a jumper, and a bruiser (in many senses of the word)!

"As the sand of the sea" is a phrase that came to mind when I took my kids to the beach on Monday.  I've read that phrase in several places in the scriptures when God refers to his children to as numerous as the sand of the sea.  I asked my kids to look at their hands and see how many grains of sand were on there hands.  Thousands?  And then to look at the beach we were on and guess how many grains of sand there were.  You seriously can't number them.

Yet God assures us that He knows each and everyone of us even though his creations are so many!  I just read this beautiful scripture talking about God's creations "...and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, FOR THEY ARE MINE AND I KNOW THEM." (Moses 1:35)

I have no idea how on earth we can all be numbered unto God, but I feel in the deepest parts of my heart and soul that I am loved and known to God.  I know that we all are!  How grateful I am for that infinite love!

Sock animals

I just found some cute tutorials and patterns for sock animals.  Here's the monkey if you're interested in looking at it!  Easy for even those who don't sew, just as long as you can hand string it together.

Flooding

Our house flooded, or precisely my bathroom and bedroom. The shower is hooked up to the sewage system to the house above and to just that bathroom. We're at ground level. The affluent pipe got blocked by calcification and everything came up through our shower and onto the floor in the bathroom and then into my bedroom. Thank heavens we found it shortly after it started. This is the second time we've had this major disaster.

The first time this happened it was feces filled. This time drain-o filled. Smelled like a swimming pool (instead of an out-house). I was exceptionally lucky that I got most of the things out from under my bed, and especially my two small suit cases with my fabric in it before they got wet. Divine intervention right there!

We had some emergency man come and unblock the pipe. And we got into bed really late. And to top it off Isabel vomited all night long and I slept very little.

Despite all of that, I feel pretty good today. I feel grateful to be alive, and to be me!

La Poesia di Pasqua

Aaron sta mattina ha scritto la sua prima poesia!  Eccola qua:

Specchio, specchio delle mie brame
Fa che le femmine diventano lumache
Fa che i maschi diventano dei ghepardi veloci

Oh venti e temporali, diventate ossa per i cani
Oh spade, oh scudi fate compagnia da me
che vi trasformerò in allegria

Oh Pasqua, oh uova di pasqua venite da me
che vi darò un po di cioccolata calda
e che vi porterò in Giappone sul mio Jet

Oh hot dog che vi trasformerò in elefanti parlanti
Oh principesse maledette, oh fate oh streghe
vi trasformerò in arance rosse!

Quest'armonia diventa un'allegria

-Aaron James Palmieri

Translation of Aaron's first poem:

Mirror, mirror on the wall
May the females become snails
May the males become fast cheetahs

Oh winds and storms, become bones for dogs
Oh swords, oh shields keep me company
and I'll transform you into joy

Oh Easter, oh Easter eggs come with me
and I'll give you a hot chocolate
and I'll take you to Japan on my jet

Oh hot dogs may I turn you into talking elefants
Oh cursed princesses, oh fairies and witches
I'll turn you into red oranges!

May this harmony become joy