Success With Three

“Success” with three is totally different than success with two.  Getting out the door Sunday was a perfect case in point. 

• 10:39 – Joey, Jude and Ellie successfully make it to the car where we await mama and Cam, giving us ample pre-gathering time for people to meet our new guy.
• 10:45 – Cam the miracle worker has managed to keep himself unsullied while pooping on mama’s skirt just after an emergency (according to Cam) nursing session.
• 10:55 – Kate emerges from the house with Cam changed and somewhat less enthusiastic about the mornings events.
• 11:05 – The Wulf family arrives at REALITY with just enough time to drop the kids off and find some seats while the gathering begins.

Success with two children?  Not really.
Success with three?  Everyone made it with all their limbs and most of their wits still about them didn’t they?!  Success! 

Seriously though there is a huge way in which the goal posts have moved for us as parents.  Not only are there more moving/crying/pooping/waking-in-the-middle-of-the-night parts, but I’m seeing how much less able I am to maintain a front of control.  Consequently when “my plan” is thwarted by my kids–the same as it was before–I’m much less likely to extend grace because I’m that much less in control.

Its not that I was more gracious to my kids before.  Its that my control was less imperiled by their misadventures.  Time to repent.  Time to confess. Time to believe that God is great enough to hold not only my kids’ lives, but my (and our) security, provision and plans in his control. 

…And yes most of this was realized after waking to a little boy from whom there came such a sound and such a smell so as to make sleep impossible; the perfect time for a parent of three to do his thinking and confessing.

On Christopher Hitchens’ Passing

Maybe you recognize Christopher Hitchens for his place among people like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.  Maybe you don’t.  Whether you’re aware of Hitchens’ arguments or not, Ed Stetzer has a great response to this man’s passing.  Even if you hate apologetics, read this post for its insight:

Reflections on the Death of Christopher Hitchens

Waiting mode…

In 6 days Jude and Ellie will both be “olders” in the house, mommy and daddy are going to get really grouchy, we are going to stop talking back to the many kicks perpetrated by mama’s tummy and a we are going to have a bunch of sleepovers with oma and grandma (at least).  Oh, and the pile of blankets that have been accruing by mommy and daddy’s bed is going to start crying and getting a lot more attention.  Such is the world from Jude and Ellie’s perspective.

Somehow, despite Jude’s many statements of “I never want you to go to the hospital”, we’re a little bit more than excited to do just that–at least some times.  All the other times we’re thinking about labor.  Pray for us through the next week: for patience, peace, labor, delivery, sleep and Jude and Ellie.  You’re support is especially huge for us in this season!

A huge thank you to everyone who is checking in with us to see how Kate’s doing and to those who have been spoiling Cameron (and us) through your many gifts!

Ratatouille – What Parent’s Think of at Kids’ Movies

Monday night Kate and I watched Ratatouille with Jude and Ellie and in spite Jude’s initial protestation in favor of a tried and true Sesame Street video, they both loved it. While Ellie loved the film for its uncanny ability to include numerous recognizable props (“Shoes!” “He jump!” “He sad” “De rainin’.”, etc.), I think was actually able to get in to the movie a bit more.

If you haven’t seen the movie Ratatouille is about how a rat named Remi, who loves to cook, learns to live out his identity, finding acceptance and earning acclaim from both his father and the colossal food critic Anton Ego.  Here, after Remi has come to terms with his identity and  poured himself in to an evening of living out that identity, is Ego’s review of the meal:

Monday as I watched this scene I was reminded of two quotes:

He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. (St. Francis of Assisi)

and,

Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher. (from Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach)

In Ratatouille the powerful force keeping Anton Ego employed as the unswerving critic is overcome by a creator whose hands, head and heart have all set about making a masterpiece.

As far as I can tell, the only options on the table are:

1. Withdraw from creation and be a critic only
2. Create and immediately retreat in to self-protecting cynicism, disinterest or dispassion.
3. Unapologetically pouring one’s whole self in to creation and living “the new” that others might be drawn in to the places where life is to be found.