tender soft and milky (title stolen from The Clergy)

Yesterday was our anniversary. It's been 21 years since we arrived at the Chamber of Commerce in Cannon Beach to become man and wife. Leon drove in with his family and I with my mom and two brothers. We would not have guessed that in 21 years we would be surrounded by 10 adoring children all day, every day.

  Erin, I agree with your comment. I just wrote to mom yesterday, "it's newborn baby season in my life right now and I am loving all the drooly, snuggly time. The warm, squishy place on her neck smells soooooooooo good".
I love the time in the morning when she is snuggled up next to me, sound asleep. We are both relaxed and the bed smells like warm milk.

 Asaph makes cakes. Almost everything he bakes or cooks turns out great. He loves preparing food.

 Havilah is in the love of learning  stage. Elsie is in the love of sleeping stage.

To celebrate our anniversary, I put Lazuli in the baby wrap and took the bus to Leon's work. As often happens 2 young men came in to entertain us for pesos. They played guitar and sang a Bob Dylan cover, "Blowing in the Wind". Then after two verses, they switched to English. I might have been the only person on the bus that could sing along, so I did sing a little. I was having a great time already.
Leon and I walked around for a while and found a Pakistani restaurant. It's lucky that there were no other customers or Lazuli's crying might have ruined our dinner. As it was, we thought it was so pitifully sweet that it made our time better. She has this way of crying that sounds like she's been crying for hours and her voice is hoarse. She does it when nothing is really wrong. Then her little lip quivers like she is cold and we all think, "how could anyone not love her when she does that?"

 It's such a privilege to love and be loved by a child.

 This is where we buy our fish on Saturdays.

What a wonderful thing it is to have a baby turning 18 and one that's just a newborn and all the children in between, living with me, sharing my table, gathering with our whole group for family time and calling me Mama. "God, please help me be the mama that they each need".

This is Havilah, Zuriel, Zion and Ephraim playing their own version of 'Settlers of Catan' that they made.

 Thank you all for reading and commenting over the years. Erin, Xea, Marla, Mr and Mrs. Baxter, Raimie, Linda, McKennaugh and all of you that I am forgetting right now. I know that many of you read and don't comment. Thank you for loving us by reading our blog. We love you all, Mom, Charissa, Mr. Ferguson, and all the rest of you. Who are you?