Hap Birth t M !

Ok, that's a ridiculous title, I know. But... It's suppose to be half of "Happy Birthday to ME!" because today is my half-birthday! lol I sort of forgot about it but, my big brothers called me into the kitchen and there was a brownie in a cup with a candle. But, oh! this cup. haha. Jared just bought it in NYC and it is a half of a coffee cup! It has a handle and one side is curved out, and one side is flat. Very Alice-in-Wonderland-esk, like someone cut it in half, and it says sarcastically on the flat side "You asked for half a cup of coffee..."
Then they all sang happy birthday, but halfway through the song Adam said "Stop, thats half of the song!"
So happy Saturday to you and

Hap Birth t M !

And, here is a couple of pictures I took the other day for your viewing pleasure:

Let not the sun be vacant from the sky

The sun too quickly took its place

Behind the silhouetted peaks.

I followed it with desperate gaze

And mourned the warning late to keep:

Let not the sun be vacant from the sky

While yet within you harsh impatience lies;

For reckless words will pierce into the heart

But reconciliation grows

From pure and righteous blessings of the wise

This is a lyrical idea I laid down this evening. I already had a musical idea to work with, which always makes it easier, but this is also something I have wanted to express for some time. May it bless you.

-shiloh

Blackberry Pie

Today I made a blackberry pie. We were kindly sent home from somewhere with pie crust pastry and my siblings had just picked a tub of blackberries, so everything converged into a nice round pie pan. The convergence of these ingredients is displayed below.

For Better or Worse

My six-year-old sister, in a fit of the "nothing-to-do's" this afternoon, finally sat down a drew some pictures. I have yet to figure out what the inspiration was for this little assortment, but she must have been very inspired all the same.

This is the first that she showed me. It says (in Mackenzie Speak):
"WAT iz *oR FRAVET SOREE" "BiBLE" "Get"
Translated, this says "What is your favorite story? Bible, Great!"
I'm not sure exactly how even her way of sounding-it-out turned "great" into "get"... lol.

The next one is a hammer thinking about what it wants to build.
He thinks that he wants to build a church.
I think that's a great idea.
:)
He has extra nails just in case he needs them.

The last one was my favorite. It is about marriage. I love the swirlies around the edge, and the laser-blue eyes, and the cat ears on the veil. (I don't think they are suppose to be cat ears, but thats what they look like to me).

For better or for worse!

The little things

Its the 4th of July, a day so like and yet so unlike all those surrounding. The small portion of my family that is home, took a little trip down into Cupertino for a beautiful fireworks display. I came home full of joy and so many thoughts that I am wondering how I can possibly process them all.
Most prominent is the reveling in small things, and not being ashamed of it. I am watching my siblings grow up and walk the paths that are familiar to me, being older. It is easy to let that become a reason for scoffing at their "silliness" but today I strove to consciously choose the opposite.
I ate a snowcone. It was deliciously disgusting. It turned my lips and tongue orange. I couldn't finish it, so I dumped it into Asher's (also unfinished) red one. It got spilled onto our blanket. But you know? That's ok!
My favorite part of the night was hearing my sisters scream. After every firework. Eventually I joined in. I was dazzled, as they were dazzled. They picked their favorite kind of firework. My favorites are the ones that go up and fall down like streamers. Especially when they do five at once! Oh yes, they were amazing.

I've always imagined the 4th of July as being such a romantic holiday. But mine was so much better than that. I didn't spend the day with one person, but 6 other extra special unique and growing and precious people! I didn't snuggle with someone who loves me very much as I gazed at the lights, but I held on my lap a little four year old cutie who I love very much and who was so very happy about the fireworks. He told me "whenever I am sad, fireworks cheer me up!" haha. And although I didn't have a strong and protecting hand to hold, I became a strong and protecting hand myself as I took a sister on each side and walked with them, tired, to the car.

I had the simplest day, but well spent and precious in its way. I sat on a lawn filled with people, and saw the beauty of it all, even while it was tinged with irony in ways. After the grand finale, I stood up and swung Asher around and around. He cried, "do it again!" and I spun the other way.
The last song I listened to on my ipod during the wait kept ringing in my ears...

"I can feel something different for the first time. Heaven makes sense. All the words rhyme."

It made sense, and it was beautiful.

Diminished Population

After having an exceptional number of people here, there was a change today. This morning, early, Jared's orchestra departed for the Big Apple. They will be playing two concerts in New York City over the course of this week. So Jared and my mom left this morning and are now safely in NYC.
Unfortunate thing... Jared got sick the night before he had to leave. It was almost inevitable for he was the last kid in the family who hadn't caught it, but nevertheless it was a very un-called-for tragedy. (Praise God that there is no one left to catch the flu. The bug has hopefully been laid to rest for good now.) All that notwithstanding, my mother and brother are now occupying Times Square, leaving us all at home sorely missing their presence.
Our granddad also left this morning, headed towards my aunts/his daughters house. This brings the full house of a dozen occupants down to - imagine - a mere 9 people. Tomorrow will further diminish our population by sending Brady back to Virginia. Ah, life; you do carry on.

PS.
(if you would like to follow the NYC trip, my brother has promised to blog the week on http://words-insilence.blogspot.com/.)

Full House

Monday the 29th was my brothers birthday. He is going to school in Virginia and this year for the summer he was blessed with an internship with Generation Joshua. As a result of this he is staying on campus all summer. But for this week, starting on his birthday and ending on July 4th, He is home!!! It is great to have him around again, even for this short time.
In addition to Brady, Adam is also back at our house for the week. He is living up in Berkeley at our grandparents house. He likes to stay up around there for his church, but for this week he is home.
And finally, my grandfather on my moms side is in the area for a short time! He lives in Arizona and likes to square dance. So when an international square dancing festival brought him to so-cal he opted to come and pay us a visit as well.

With these three visitors we now have 12 in the house! It is a change from just a mere 9... after all, 9 is so much less that 12... We have every bed in commission, plus two mattresses in the boys room and a makeshift bed in the family room for our Granddad.
Benefits to this setup include: Barbecue on Monday! And pancakes Tuesday morning! Movie night on Tuesday night! (we watched A Beautiful Mind.... crazy movie.)

I love my family :D