THE PETERSENS

My sweet friend, Autumn, and I went strawberry pickin’ today with the kiddos.  We did the same last year, but Elena wasn’t here yet and Caleb was still itty-bitty.  So, it felt pretty different this year, but a good different.  That was not the only thing that was different though…THIS YEAR, there was a “special” visitor at the strawberry farm.  THIS YEAR, there was a TURKEY.  Yes, a turkey.  An honest-to-goodness, real, live, gobblin’, trottin’ turkey.  Oh my.  And, you know what????  It followed us.  It stalked us.  It scared us.  People, my dear children were frightened out of their little MINDS.  Poor things.  I think JL will be okay (we have actually laughed quite a lot about the turkey since this morning), but little Caleb was pretty traumatized.

So, I am thinking that this particular memory goes in that category of “so-extremely-scary-at-the-time-but-so-completely-hilarious-later”.  What do you think, Autumn?  Well, besides a few shed tears and some elevated heart rates this morning, my birthday has been off to a great start so far!  Thank you, dear friend.  I love you!  Can’t wait to continue our tradition of strawberry pickin’ next year…just maybe at different, turkey-free farm.

How blessed I am to be “Mommy” to my two sweet and funny boys!  Mother’s Day is always a good opportunity to sit down and think about all the ways in which being a mother brings me so much joy…

• God gave me my two boys with their specific personalities.  I think it is SO CRAZY how different my two boys are, but yet I can love them both.  JL with his tender heart and his love for reading and Caleb with his comical spirit and his love for all things round.  JL loves to sleep and eat, but Caleb struggles with both of those areas (which means more gray hairs and fine wrinkles around my eyes for me).  JL with his fair, white skin and hazel eyes…Caleb with his darker, olive-colored skin and eyes blacker than my own.  It takes a little while to draw JL out of his shell and get him to open up, but anyone can read Caleb because he pretty much wears his emotions on his sleeve.  They are unique…the way God made them to be.  How fun it is to see their little personalities unravel over time!
• Being a mom serves to sanctify me.  The Lord has used motherhood to reveal to me sins in my heart…anger, discontentment, selfishness, impatience, and self-centeredness are only a few of them.  I am thankful for sleepless nights, waves of constant disciplining, tight budgets, constant clutter and endless piles of laundry.  For one, they PROVE that I a mother of two kids, but secondly, I have LEARNED that through these hard things, God is teaching me what it means to put others before myself.  Sometimes I can do it with a joyful heart and sometimes I can’t, but we’re all a work in process, right?
• I love being a mom with Ben by my side as the leader of our home.  He works HARD to do well at all things handed to him and parenting is one area in which he certainly excels.  I enjoy watching him patiently train JL to be a man of self-control, courage, servant-heartedness and bravery.  I love watching him do the icky things like cleaning out poopy cloth diapers, but still with a smile on his face.  The giggles he can solicit from the boys by tackling, tickling and wrestling with them are absolutely priceless.  Ben has had such a huge hand in forming what our family looks like and I am so thankful!
• I have learned that people are more important than things, which has brought me much joy.  Being at home with the boys means that we have less money to go all around, but IT IS WORTH IT!  Stylish clothing, trendy furniture, regularly eating out are itty, bitty luxuries compared to the value I have found in being at home with the kids.
• I love that my boys are my constant companions (for now…until they are embarassed to be seen hanging out with me).  We do Harris Teeter Triples together, we cruise around Target and look at shoes, we check out books at the library, we go to the park, we do chores around the house, we sing songs and giggle together…and the list keeps going.
• They teach me about Jesus, day in and day out.  How much I need Jesus, how much they need Jesus and how much the Gospel can enrich our lives and our relationships.  JL always thanks God in his prayers how He will never leave us or forsake us…so true!

I am so grateful that God has given me two great little boys to train up in the righteousness of the Lord and that He equips me to carry out such a daunting task.  Praise be to God, the Giver of Life!

Thank you, Dana, for these pictures taken at church!  I will end on this note…here’s a picture of an artistic masterpiece by my husband and boys!

Did you see JL’s coloring job?  I like how he colored in his own eyeballs.  Kinda demonic-looking, huh?  Ben suggested he NOT color in anyone else’s eyeballs.  JL happily agreed.

Since Ben has started his new job in Burlington, we have found that with the long commute and our other commitments, quality family time is hard to come by now.  That is why I now LOVE Saturdays.  We are trying our absolute bestest to set aside this one day to spend together as a family unit.  One Saturday in March, we went to the Science Museum in downtown Raleigh.  They just happened to have a special exhibit on lizards and snakes…you can imagine how utterly excited my husband was!  Here a few pictures of the day.

Caleb pointing at the skeletal remains of a whale hanging from the ceiling.

Toady-toad.

There were a gazillion snakes at this exhibit.  Personally, I found it terrifying.