The Cahill's

This summer I was encouraged to read Daughters of Sarah. One of the “wifely instruction” passages holds up Abraham’s wife, Sarah, as an example of obedience saying that she called her husband “Lord.” I had always just thought of this as the quaint wording of the King James Bible, but Ephesians 5:22 gives a similar admonition to submit to the husband “as unto the Lord.” It struck me that Sarah may have called her husband “Lord” because as she said ‘yes’ to Abraham, she was saying ‘yes’ to the Lord’s direction for her life.

Being the action/idea oriented type of person that I am, I thought I would give it a try. My current situation was trying to decide which activities the kids and I would enjoy this fall. There were too many opportunities and I couldn’t decide which to drop so I thought I would be a good wife, submit my list to Brian and let him take off one or two for me. Well, through circumstance and a few weeks of deliberation, all of the activities were crossed off except for one which required much effort and planning on my part. This was hard for me – I didn’t expect Brian to take that much control of my life. I remember once complaining at God that “Brian just didn’t understand, he didn’t know what I needed.” Then in the middle of my pity party, God interrupted and reminded me that He knew what I needed, He understood the stresses of my life and He might be behind the directives from my husband. Ah, yes – and so Amy obeyed, calling him Lord.

This started me thinking on the concept of saying “I Do.” So many couples repeat this on their wedding day, but slip into the habit of actually saying “I don’t do.” That’s where I was. While my mind said ‘I do’ in theory, my actions said “I don’t do” direction from my husband. I had struggled to say ‘I do’ to apartment living with four small children. I frequently said ‘I don’t’ to cheerfulness and gratefulness. Usually this wasn’t open refusal, just the simple act of not asking for Brian’s priority, pushing for something I wanted to do, or resenting the discomfort of a situation.

Often saying ‘I do’ is hard – even the marriage vows reflect that, having 50/50 good and bad things you promise to endure together. I had the privilege of watching both sets of grandparents say ‘I do’ to helping a spouse through several years of terminal illness. Both went beyond mere faithfulness as they cared for and loved someone who couldn’t always give back. And I know other couples that have endured both the better and worse side of attitudes, actions and circumstances. I have also been grieved by friends that, eventually said “I don’t” to their spouse and left. It would seem that they became ‘weary in well doing.’ After all, how much are we expected to endure? Aren’t we admonished to ‘faint not?’

This is where I considered how the ‘I do’ concept ties in with Christian living. Marriage is a picture of the relationship of the church to Christ. I want to say ‘I do’ to all the benefits of being united with such a one as Christ, but struggle with ‘I don’t do’ when faced with difficulty. What if the early church said “I don’t do lions.” What if Paul said “I don’t do travel?” What if Peter said “I don’t do writing?” What if Christ himself said “I don’t do crucifixion?” Maybe the difficult things, when surrendered in obedience to God, can produce better results than the good things. Missionaries who endured severe persecution testify how they came to know and understand Christ better. Maybe the endurance through difficulty long beyond what we would care to endure makes for a relationship way beyond what others could ever hope to know.

Today marks 7 years of being married to my first and only love. Due to the particular time of our life (building a house, parenting, my belly swollen 7 months pregnant) I don’t think we’ll be celebrating with a cruise or a weekend getaway. Instead we may spend the evening as companions on all fours, scraping the plywood in excited preparation for putting a new floor in the kitchen. As many army buddies would testify, the rigors of boot camp and the battle field may do more to create a bond than a quiet evening at Olive Garden. So if Brian asks if I find it in me to join him on the floor, I will answer “I Do.”

We had a little time yesterday after an activity in town so we decided on a picnic at the pumpkin patch to find some fun.

And boy did we find some fun! A few farm animals made up a ‘viewing zoo’ – including an escaped rabbit that roused much discussion. The little goats were entertaining until one tried to eat Eden’s cookie (seen in foreground) which made her cry.

There were several posing boards – can you guess which character is Eden?

The biggest hit was a hay maze – not too complicated and loads of fun to run around inside – especially if ‘mommy monster’ was chasing you!

Fantastic sale on decorative items 🙂

Lance found a snail shell and carried it around until it surprised and unnerved him by coming out! After getting over his first shock (and watching Ivy hold it safely) he once again took ownership and it is now in an empty peanut butter jar in our house.

My Lance man – always ready for running, fighting imaginary monsters and telling mom “I love you.”

Ivy girl – full of fun, curiosity and grand ideas. Beautiful smile and full of life, capable, helpful and good with the little ones.

Princess Flora – cutie pie and exhorter. Experimenting with the big kid world but still a wee one wanting to be tickled as I say good night and playing by herself almost as much as playing with the others.

Baby Eden – but growing older every day! Cute, sweet, full of laughs and smiles. Showing great awareness of how things should be and lending her two small hands to help the family.

A fun time was had by all and the whole car was sacked out by the time we got home. I think we’ll be going again!

We just finished our third week of school.

We learned the letter ‘I’ and Ivy demonstrates how to make one with the wood pieces Daddy and Papa Doc made for us.

Flora just wanted to make a stripped “zebra” paper. Her other favorite thing to make is “F” (wonder why?) and somehow in review, all her letters become an ‘F’.

Eden just wanted to show off her balancing skills.

The phonics lesson is that short “I” says “i for image” – part of the Christ centered curriculum someone gave to us. On Sunday Brian helped them act out the whole story of the golden calf. Here the kids are dancing around an image just like the children of Israel did with the golden calf.

As punishment for their disobedience Moses ground up the calf and made them drink it. We used some wheat grass powder to make yucky water – Lance lets us know how it tastes.

To enhance phonics drills, I decided to have the kids make “icky, sticky goo” out of cornstarch and water. This project was quite a hit!

Lance with green slime. He was by far the cleanest but also very intrigued by the action of the goo – it can be hard or drippy soft just depending on how you play with it.

Ivy has blue goo – this activity was right up her alley! Don’t you just love the curls though!

Flora chose pink – of course – and played by dripping all over herself and everything else for about ten minute. She was then distressed at being messy and spent the rest of the time playing with the hose to wash off.

And Eden? Well, lets just say she had a grand time and kept it up longer than anyone. I think she is going to like school.