Giving kids something to smile about

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to help a very gifted woman write a press release about her company, Sorrisi Decor. Elisa is a Seattle area mom of three who has been married to her high school sweetheart for 17 years. She is a fellow SPU alumni and works in private practice as a psychotherapist. Combining her love of design and passion to make a difference, this  woman started a company that makes beautiful Tooth Fairy pillows and then donates 50% of the profit to a Christian organization providing dental care to kids in Mali and Liberia.

How amazing is that?

A simple gift that makes a difference around the world. If you are still looking for gift ideas this Christmas, definitely take a look at these.

Happy Birthday Zephan

I can hardly believe Zephaniah is one year old today.

This time last year, I was walking around for the first time in months. Zephan was about three hours old. He was in the NICU at Evergreen Hospital. He was stable and breathing with the help of from a CPAP. He weighed 3 pounds and 13 ounces and was about 16 inches long. He had fuzzy brown hair. For the first few days, we could not hold Zephan in our arms, but we were able to put our hands in his isolette to comfort him.

   

After a few days, we were able to begin kangaroo care, letting our tiny baby sleep on our chests. This was at once the most wonderful and the most terrifying thing. He was so small that when his little head was on my chest, his feet curled up above my belly button. He felt like a little kitten.

 

Little by little, Zephan began to grow stronger and bigger until he was ready to come home. He was able to breathe on his own on his second day. At the end of the first week, the nurses removed his PICC line. When he was about 32 weeks, we began working on breastfeeding. At 33 weeks, he moved out of the isolette and into a little crib. At this point, he began to wear clothes and had his first bath. A few days later, he was able to breast and bottle feed without a NG tube. At that point, we were waiting for Zephan to stop having spells of apnea where he would forget to breathe.

 

After one month in the NICU, Zephan was able to come home about a week before Christmas. What an amazing gift to our family to finally be together!

 

Over the last year, Zephan has grown into a healthy, busy, determined little boy. He has has a sweet, funny personality. He is now crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. He adores his big brothers and follows them everywhere. He mimics things they say and do. He loves to eat. His favorite foods include broccoli cheese soup, teriyaki salmon and homemade bread. He has a funny little stuffed elephant that he adores.  He likes to make noise and “sings” along when I practice Christmas songs with the older boys. He especially likes Drummer Boy. When we sing this song, he says “Dum Dum Dum” along with Micah and Asher. He has a great sense of humor and laughs often, especially at his silly brothers. He loves his Daddy and gets excited when it’s time for Mark to come home from work.

 

I am so thankful for my little Zephaniah Issac Brinton. We had no idea how much joy this little person would bring to our lives. He has been a blessing and I am so thankful that God has given him to our family.

Ten reasons I love fall

Fall is my favorite season. Here are the ten reasons I love fall.

10. Wool socks.

9. Pumpkin spice lattes.

8. Running in the rain.

7. The smell of apple cider simmering on the stove.

6. Curling up with a good book, a cup of tea and a soft blanket.

5. The changing weather, especially the mist that makes everything look like a fairytale.

4. Making soup and baking bread.

3. Going back to school (at least vicariously through my children).

2. Watching my boys delight in leaves, pumpkins and mud.

1. Falling in love.

Ten years ago, Mark and I met at a Halloween Hoedown. We were both college students volunteering with Young Life. I was dressed up as a cowgirl: overalls, plaid shirt, hair in braids, even freckles drawn on my face. I guess Mark thought I was cute because he took my picture and spent the next few weeks telling his friends about me. I didn’t exactly remember Mark, but when we met again two weeks later at a Young Life camp, we began the rest of our story. By Christmas, we were both in love and knew it would be forever.

Five years ago, I was seven months pregnant with our oldest son Asher. Three years ago I was four months pregnant with our middle son Micah. And this time last year I was six months pregnant with our youngest son Zephan. Fall is a good time to fall in love.

Lessons in friendship

About four years ago, I met one of my dearest friends. I will call her Radiant: although this is not her given name, she in every way radiates the love of God.

At first, we were not good friends. She was unlike anyone I had ever met. She loved Jesus with a passion I can hardly explain. She had survived much pain, sorrow and loss. In some ways she was difficult. She was not practical and did not want to listen to my “advice”. She believed God could do anything. And she expected a lot of the people in her life. I made an effort for maybe a year to be her friend, but eventually gave up when it was too hard for me.

But my friend, Radiant, did not give up on me. For the next three years, she pursued me. She was one of the only people to call me on my birthday. She sent me cards, writing sincre words of encouragement. She prayed. And prayed and prayed.

About a year ago, my heart softened towards her. I realized that I had sinned against her. I was humbled to see her faithfulness towards me. I went out and bought her some note cards. I may not be gifted like her to write hundreds of letters of encouragement each year, but I wanted to recognize the grace God has given to her.

Over the last six months, this friend has continued to pursue me. One day this summer, as I was struggling with believing lies about our family, Radiant called. She prayed with me and shared her heart. She spoke words of wisdom into my life and challenged me to be more like Jesus.

A few weeks later, she and her husband came over for dessert and tea. It was lovely having them in our home. Together these friends are a tremendous example of God’s loving kindness and faithfulness. Although I had given up on them, God did not. He has been faithful to knit them together in marriage, transforming each of their hearts. He is thriving in his career because she respects him sincerely. She is more beautiful because of his adoration. I have no doubt that God will do something amazing through them.

This precious daugther of God has taught me much about friendship. She has been faithful. She loves sincerely. She prays constantly, even for those who have hurt her, because she does not want to become bitter. She blesses people who don’t deserve it. She gives generously. She fully understands the grace she has been given and loves others with abandon. Ultimately, she trusts, obeys and loves God. What an example.

My friend, if you read this, you are truly Radiant. Thank you for loving me and not giving up on me. You have been a gift from God.

Tea and books

I’m sitting down this afternoon with a cup of black tea and a pile of books. I have an hour or two while my little ones sleep and Asher works quietly at his desk. My husband is going on a bike ride and I am going to ignore the piles of laundry. There are always piles of laundry. I will also ignore the dishes in the sink and the cereal on the floor.

I am in the process of reading a stack of books about everything from theology to homemaking to triathlon training. This is a lot of literary juggling, especially when I can hardly keep my eyes open at the end of the day. It is exhausting to be the mother of three little boys. Life seldom slows down and my hands are very full. But the books paint a picture of what God is doing in our lives. 

The first  book is Triathlons for Women by Sally Edwards. Since the Kirkland Triathlon in September, I’ve been recovering from this season and planning for next year. This little book is inspiration to keep me focused on my goals, including an Olympic distance race next summer and a half-iron in 2011 or 2012. Many people have asked how I have time to train when I have three young boys. In all truth, I don’t know how I could have enough energy to be a mom of three boys if I didn’t exercise. Mothering is a physically demanding job and my triathlon training makes everyday easier. Not to mention the hours I spend running, swimming and on the bike provide much needed time for prayer and reflection.

The second book is Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney and her three daughters. The book claims to offer practical wisdom from the Bible to help women be fruitful rather than just busy. The first chapter is about the seasons in women’s lives. As I am moving from a season of childbearing to a season of raising preschool and school age children, I know I need to refocus my priorities. Mark and I together need to figure out what we will do (and what we will not do) so that our family is fruitful rather than just busy.

The next book is Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning by Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans. One of the biggest decisions Mark and I are praying through is how we will educate our boys. Over the last three years, I’ve spent a lot of time researching schools, but relatively little time considering the underlying principles guiding the methods for educating our children. We find ourselves between a few rocks and a hard place. The local public school is good as public schools go, but I am not sure this is right for our children. We love the private school where Asher attends preschool, but the tuition for elementary school is expensive. I think homeschooling is admirable, but it terrifies me. So what do we do? And why? And how?

Although I am just a few chapters deep in this book, I find the authors argument in favor of a classical liberal arts education both grounded in a Biblical worldview and relevant to the culture compelling. One of our primary goals for our children’s education has always been that the boys would use the gifts they have been given to love God, serve people and steward creation. The authors suggest that the goals of education are wisdom and eloquence, that children would be prepared “not only to make a living, but also to make a profound difference in the world.”

The fourth book is Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. I am reading this book in response to what God has been doing in my heart. As I’ve been reminded of God’s concern for the poor and his passion for justice, I am praying about how God would lead our family to live, love and serve differently. Did you know that nearly 30,000 children will die today as a result of hunger or disease caused by poverty? As a Christian, I read the Bible and it is clear that God expects His people to do something about children dying as a result of poverty. The question we’re pondering is what should we do. My husband and I have been reading Adopted for Life by Russel Moore. We are praying about whether God would lead us to adopt, possibly a little girl from Africa. I recently finished Melissa Fay Greene’s stunning book about Ethiopia, There Is No Me Without You. Ethiopia is a country with a population of about 75 million people where nearly 5 million children are orphans. Approximately 1 million children in Ethiopia have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The Bible is clear about God’s compassion for orphans; the question is how will we respond. 

One other book sitting on my bedside table is Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper. This is a biography of several women whose lives declare what it means to be a Christian. The books is about women who were ordinary in many respects, balancing the responsibilities of marriage, motherhood and homemaking. Each of these women were faithful to God, trusting that he would give them strength to serve and love in extraordinary ways.

There are several other books sitting on my desk and beside my bed, including a few about sewing by Amy Butler, several cookbooks and another book about homeschooling. I have more books on hold at the library and I’m trying to track down Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper. And of course the Bible sits on top of these piles. I’ve been studying Luke, Ruth and Esther. I love to read, but more importantly I am also excited to learn and prepare for this next season of my life.

While I’ve blogged, I’ve had two cups of tea. I’ve tucked Micah back in to bed three times. And I’ve stepped on more than a few cheerios on the floor. The laundry and dishes are still sitting where they were an hour ago. Asher is still busy at his desk and I will now turn off the computer and open a book.

Three little bears

This afternoon, the boys and I visited my parents. My dad, whom the boys affectionately call Did Dad, took a break from work to make a “bear cave” with his grandsons. Even little Zephan was in on the action. This week Zephan has learned to crawl not just to a toy that is out of his reach, but across the room. Or down the hall. While he was playing baby bears with his brothers and his grandpa, Zephan made a huge bear growl.

This evening, my parents watched the boys while Mark and I went to Evergreen Hospital where we volunteer in the NICU. As my parents were driving into our garage with Zephan in the car, he said “Mama?” – as in, are we home? Will I finally see mama?

After he was inside and he was happily in my arms, he looked across the room and said: “Dada, Asher, Love.” Asher and Mark came over to snuggle with Zephan. Zeph planted some slobbery kisses on his big brother and his daddy, all the while continuing to say love, Asher, Dada and budda (brother, I think).

Last gasp of summer

 Yesterday I went to Jubilee Farm. There was a soft breeze. The light was the color of honey and the sun shone warm on my shoulders. This is the last gasp of summer. The corn, tomatoes and peppers are ripe. The green beans and tomatillos have grown so heavy they have toppled their plants. Lazy bees buzz around ripe raspberries and grapes. Orange pumpkins are beginning to peek out of green leaves.

As I sit here and write, Zephan, who is now ten months old, is squaking like a wild bird. He is hungry for grapes. Or watermelon or cantelope. Or yellow squash or tomato or carmelized onions or apples. How quickly he has grown into a determined, busy little person. He crawls all over our house and inspects every little bit of food, fabric, or other scraps we leave on the floor. Soon we will celebrate is first birthday.

Asher has been back in school for three weeks. He loves school this year. He wishes he could go to school ten days a week. He talks excitedly about his new friends, in particular a sweet girl named Kate. He wishes he could be in kindergarten. He is determined to learn how to read. He wants to learn how to read so he can figure out how to invent a robot to do all of his daddy’s work so daddy can stay home all the time. Soon he will be five.

Micah is growing too. This little, quiet one has become quite a handfull at two and a half. I suppose most children are at this age. Over the summer, his feet went from a size six to an eight, almost over night. He has started to talk: not just a few words here or there, but in full paragraphs. He has a lot on his little mind and is right on Asher’s heels.

This fall, Mark and I will celebrate ten years together. In ten years, we have done a lot of growing up. When we met, we were in college. Full of dreams and big ideas, we fell in love quickly and began to plan our lives together at just 17 and 20. Ten years later, we feel so very blessed: three beautiful children, a nice home, interesting work, loving family and friends. And a God who has been gracious to us in so many ways.

These last days of warmth have been a gift, a reminder of what was a glorious summer, but I am ready for fall. Ready to settle in, to make apple cider and pumpkin pie, to hang curtains and paint walls and decorate our home for the holidays.

Kirkland race report

I survived the Kirkland Triathlon, but it was not my best race.

While I pushed hard on Sunday morning, I had three things going against me. First, I somehow messed up my nutrition and my stomach was upset throughout the race. I really need to figure out what I should eat in the days and hours before a race so that I feel my best. This time, I did not pay much attention to what I was eating on Saturday and I probably tried to take in too much on Sunday morning. This was after taking in nothing before my 10k in August and bonking 6 miles into the 6.2 mile race.

Second, after the swim I was warm and I decided not to put on a coat for the bike – big mistake. I ended up colder than I have ever been in my entire life. Although I felt okay on the bike, I was shivering so hard all I could do was focus on getting through the course. I dropped my chain and had to get off the bike to fix it around mile 8. At that point, I could barely stand up because my body was shaking so hard. After nearly slamming in to a Range Rover who decided to drive across the closed course, I made it to transition where I put on a coat for the run. I was numb from my knees down and I couldn’t feel my hands. Through the run, as the feeling came back to my ankles, feet and toes, I was in a lot of pain. I stopped at one point to take my shoes off and try to help my toes.

Third, I was probably coming down with a cold or something last week. I think my body held it off through the Sunday race, but by the time I took a nap on Sunday afternoon, I felt terrible.

I finished in about 1:41, considerably slower than is possible for me. My swim time was about 19 minutes. While I can swim 800 meters in a pool a little faster, I am happy with this time considering it was my first half mile swim in open water. The bike took me about 48 minutes, although maybe 3 of these minutes were spent fixing my chain. I am not thrilled with this time. I know I could have finished in closer to 40 minutes, but I was so cold I couldn’t focus on anything but surviving. My run time was about 28 minutes. Considering I stopped for a minute or two to help my toes defrost, this means I kept up a 9-minute-mile pace at the end of the triathlon, which is good for me. My transition times were both a little more than 2 minutes, which is okay considering how numb my hands and feet were. The biggest disappointment in all of this is the bike. If I had worn my coat and not been so darn cold, I could have shaved close to 10 minutes off my overall time. And I probably wouldn’t be sick today.

I am thankful to be done for the season and ready to rest and recover for a few weeks. I am hooked and I will continue to train through the winter. I am curious to see what I am capable of after a longer period of consistent training, when I’m not still recovering from bed rest and pregnancy. Next year I want to try an Olympic distance triathlon (1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, 6 mile run) as well as a half-marathon. Two years from now, I hope to do a half-ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run).

A few lessons I’ve learned:

• I do not want to train hard past the middle of August. I want to spend the last weeks before school starts just hanging out with my kids, so my last big race of the season needs to be in August not September. Furthermore, I want to avoid races where I’ll be too cold and the weather is generally the best in the summer.
• I need to keep up my specific triathlon training throughout the summer – keep swimming in open water, biking outside, and doing bike-run bricks.
• I need to do more strength and core training to avoid injury and be stronger overall.
• I need to figure out race nutrition. There has to be a happy place between bonking and having a stomach ache from eating too much or the wrong things before the race.
• I want to buy a heart rate/speed/cadence monitor of some sort. One of the challenges of training this year has been that I’ve been going entirely on how I feel. Going into next year, I want to be more specific in what I need to accomplish in each workout and some sort of monitor would make this a lot easier. My goals include getting faster and building endurance in all three sports and I think being able to measure my progress would be helpful.

The best moment of the whole Kirkland Triathlon was when I came around the corner by Lake Washington Technical College on my bike. There I could see Evergreen Hospital. This time last year, I was in and out of the hospital in preterm labor. Last year I spent two months at Evergreen Hospital, first on bed rest and then with our son Zephan in the NICU. Looking at the hospital reminded me just how far I have come in the last year. Our whole family has survived an incredibly difficult season. On Saturday morning, Micah told me that I was “the best mama.” He then looked at Mark and said “Daddy is the best mama too.” And it is true – for much of the last year, while I was on bed rest, Mark had to be mom and dad to our boys. Asher and Micah had to deal with mom being on bed rest and then in the hospital for six months. Zephan was born two months premature, but from the first day he has been determined to breathe, eat, thrive. When I saw Evergreen Hospital, I was reminded that it didn’t really matter how fast I finished this race. The fact that I was there – riding a bike in a triathlon, with a healthy 10 month old baby and a happy family cheering me on – was victory enough.

Six months of training

Six months of training. Six workouts a week.

I have swam 28 miles. I have biked 728 miles. I have run 168 miles. 

When I first got in the pool, I could barely swim one lap. Now my workouts are almost one mile. I can swim 800 meters in about 15 minutes. When I first went running, it was a struggle to jog a mile in less than 15 minutes. Now I can run one mile in about 7:40 and a 10k with less than a 9-minute-mile pace. I had not been on a bike in a decade when we went shopping for road bikes in March. Six months later, I love cycling and I’m not too bad for a girl – I won my age group for the bike split in my first triathlon in July.

I will swim, bike and run in a race one more time this year at the Kirkland Triathlon on Sunday. I am nervous about this race. The water will be cold, the bike course is hilly, the weather is not supposed to be great. But I am also excited and I know I need to finish this race.

Over the last six months, I have learned how to persevere through pain and exhaustion. I have learned that “physical training has some value,” (1 Timothy 4:8). I am stronger and healthier than I have ever been. One year ago, I was on bed rest not quite 23 weeks pregnant with our son Zephan. Recovering from five months of bed rest was hard. Beginning to swim and bike and run was hard. Doing this as a busy mom of three was hard. Training on top of my many responsibilities to my family and at home was hard. But it has been good. There has been much fruit in my spiritual and emotional life as I have become disciplined like an athlete.

And so as I race on Sunday morning, I will press on not just to finish my race but to “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” (Philippians 3:13-14). As I said before, I am nervous aboout the race on Sunday. I worry my training has been inadequate. But after six months of training – after nearly 1,000 miles of swimming, running and biking – I am ready to see what I am capable of. I hope that by about 9:10 on Sunday morning, I can say:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7

Mom of boys finds herself burried in tulle

September 12, 2009 – Renton, Wash.

This morning, a Renton mom of three young boys found herself burried in over one hundred yards of tulle. “My son wanted me to be a princess for Halloween,” she said, “and so I thought, how hard can it be to make a tutu?” Shortly after the mom began to tie strips of tulle on a satin ribbon, the three young boys decided to build a tulle castle. Four year old Asher old held his mother hostage with the glue gun while two year old Micah piled layers of red, green, purple and gold tulle on top of the helpless mother. The ten-month old, Zephaniah, crawled on top of the pile and giggled.

Just kidding.

In all honesty, I am planning to dress up as a princess for Halloween. Asher is going to be a knight and he wants me to be his princess. He has a very clear idea of what he wants me to wear, including a tiera, tutu and magic wand. I am thrilled. I am a girly mom of boys. All boys. For years I’ve walked right by the tutus, longing for more pink, more sparkle, more tulle in my life. So I am giddy to have the opportunity to dress up like a princess for my little men.

For about a year, Asher has had a thing for princesses. When we go to the doctor or when he goes home from preschool, he really wants a pink princess sticker. This is not because he wants to be a princess. Rather he just loves princesses.

One thing I do love about being a mom of boys is how they love to watch me get ready for a date with daddy. Asher has strong opinions about what clothes are pretty. Micah loves it when I wear jewelry. Both boys like to watch me put on my makeup and style my hair. It is fun for me to watch them watch me. I go from everyday mom in exercise clothes with my hair in a ponytail to a princess. In their eyes, at least. I believe God has wired these little men’s hearts to appreciate beauty. Some day, I hope these boys will be captivated by their wives’ beauty. I hope this appreciation of beauty will inspire them to conquer their enemies, climb mountains, persevere through trials.

Beauty inspires. We all know this. There is nothing like the beauty of creation to remind us of the glory of the Creator.

I think it is fun to play a small part in this amazing story. This fall, I will dress up like a princess. I know it will delight the hearts of my little boys. I want to inspire Asher to use his masculine strength in an honorable way. I hope this quest for righteousness will rub off on Micah and Zephan.

So for once, this mom of boys is actually shopping for a tutu! I am considering making one, but in the end I may have one made. I am scared to bring 100 yards of tulle into this house. Just imagine the mess our little ones could make…