Cookie Crazy and Contemplations

Yesterday afternoon Mom and I worked on my dress. I’ve got to post some pictures on the progress we’ve made. I’ll get around to it one of these days. =) Anyway, we worked on it together for a while. The bodice is complete, except for the sleeves, which we are working on now.

It was getting late, so I started dinner. I made enchiladas. That recipe is so yummy! Mom was humming away on the sewing machine at the kitchen table, Lyd was on her laptop sitting up to the table, and I was at the stove cooking. I hope one day I’ll have a large kitchen of my own. When we’re all in there doing our own thing, the kitchen becomes so crowded that I can hardly move. It’s difficult to find space to work. Oh well. At least it’s cozy. Even as I was about to complain, I thought about a day in the future when I’ll wish I could be with my family working in a crowded kitchen. It really was cozy as darkness settled outside, and Mom and I chatted as we worked.

Soon the enchiladas were about to come out of the oven, and the salad was made. Mom and Lyd removed themselves and their projects. Everyone said the meal was delicious, and we had a nice conversation as we ate. Dad picked up dinner by himself. (chuckle) I’m not sure exactly how that happened. Mom was looking at the progress she’d made on my one sleeve, I was at the piano playing, and I’m not sure what my siblings were doing. In any case, after dinner we watched a movie together.

Then I suggested that we play Pit. I love that game. I’d rather play a game than anything else. It’s nice to interact with each other, and it was a heap of fun! Lyd was looking all over the kitchen for the oatmeal cookies I made the day before. After playing one game, Josiah took the container of cookies out from under the table where he had been hiding them. Bad boy! =D Then everyone wanted one…and then a second one. Everybody wonders why they are gone so fast, and then I am told that I didn’t make enough. When I mentioned that fact, Josiah volunteered, “That’s okay, we can just make more.” I teased him, “Yeah, just like we can upload the message (onto the church website).” Joe picked up on that, looking at Dad, who was opening a cupboard door, he joked, “And we can do the preaching!” We all laughed. It’s a family joke. When Dad wants something done he says that “we” can do it, and that usually means that he assigns the task to somebody else. (chuckle) Then the guys proceeded to put me on a guilt trip, opening the container of oatmeal cookies and breathing in the delicious aroma. I was laughing so hard. That called for a picture.

My family going crazy about my oatmeal cookies.

Then as soon as I was finished, they took out a second cookie each. In the middle of our next game Lydia found a cookie crumb on the table. I think she was going to eat it until Mom put it on her napkin to be thrown away. Lydia pretended to pout. Then Mom took a bite out of Dad’s cookie as he was eating it. He concluded that he had been gypped and deserved a third cookie. (chuckle) Then Lydia, to my left, pointed out that Dad had cookie crumbs on the table from his cookie and he shouldn’t let them go to waste. To my right, Josiah offered that anybody could take a bite out of his cookie so he could be justified in getting a third one. You would think my family was never fed! (chuckle) And that was after just eating a very filling, very rich meal! What is it about oatmeal cookies that makes a whole family go nuts? Ha, ha! It really was fun though! I won the game of Pit. Woo hoo!

After our game we watched another movie, and Mom finished sewing on the sleeve of my dress. She wanted me to try it on. It’s SO PRETTY! I love it! I’ll have to post pictures SOON! Then Dad read to us from the book we are reading as a family, called Hidden Rainbow. I just love that book! I still have the same pictures in my mind as when I first read the story. It’s so beautiful! Oh, to be a woman of courage and faith like Anna! This book has really been a blessing to me, especially right now. It has increased my faith in the Lord.

After we all went to bed and the lights had been turned out, Lydia and I whispered in the darkness to each other. I love these sister-to-sister talks we have. I love my sister! I hate to think of a day when we won’t be together. Often it seems like our late-night conversations are about our futures…about what God has for us. Usually we talk about the future, looking at it with excitement and anticipation, but not last night. I guess when you get to be my age, thinking about marriage and leaving home is a normal thing. I think about it more often lately. I guess in some ways I’ve been searching my heart…preparing myself for the day when I will be leaving home to get married. It’s made me more aware of things that I take for granted. This introspection has opened my eyes to the precious family the Lord has given me. I need to take more pictures; I need to spend more time with my family and make special memories. I need to be nicer to them. Instead of holding back, I need to be more quick to hug them, to tell them that I love them. As I talked quietly with Lydia about these things, she mentioned some regrets she has...some sisterly disputes we’ve had needlessly in the past. Looking back, I also see things that should have been different. A few weeks ago I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating my breakfast pancakes and practically choking because of the terrible lump in my throat. With tears in my eyes, I thought about the day when I will drive away from this house. In my mind’s eye I pictured myself in the van, looking back…for the last time. When I get married, I will be leaving everything behind. My family…our house…our church…our ministry…this country. I will be leaving everything that is familiar to me...everything I hold dear. I’ll never be just a girl in my father’s house again. I will be closing a chapter of my life…forever. Even when I’m married, it won’t be like I can stop by the house and visit, because my parent’s house will most likely be all the way across the ocean. It’s almost incomprehensible to think that I won’t always live here…that life could change so drastically. I had a really hard time with that… Tears trickled down my cheeks as I whispered these sobering thoughts to Lydia. I know I think too far ahead, but it does cause me to reflect on how things are now. I need to learn to treasure the time I have left with my family. By the time Lyd and I were finished talking, we were both crying a little; I think we are both beginning to realize that we will probably always be missing somebody. That’s just the hard facts of life. But I’m glad we had that conversation. I think too many girls enter marriage with fairytale ideas and then go into shock afterwards and have major regrets, realizing that they shut the door behind them a little too hastily. And then it’s time to grow up and face the truth…the truth that things will never be the same. I guess I’m saying all this to encourage young people, such as myself, to cherish their families and not rush life. It goes too quickly without doing that. One day the young man or young lady you’ve always been waiting for will arrive, but in the meantime, make sure you enjoy your family and let them know how dear they are to you…while you still have the ability to do so.