Parrish and I packed it up yesterday after going to my friend Rorie's Matilda Jane clothing show (more on that later) and headed to Huntsville to answer an SOS call from my friend Mary who needed help selecting finishes for her new home renovation. Although the majority of the trip was filled with paint, hardware, flooring and fixture selection we did manage to hit an antique store across the street from Lowe's where I found these beauties...
Yes, I am still shopping for the house I don't live in yet, but I can't seem to help myself. It's a nice mental break to decorate our new house in my head, so I go with it. Anyway, the piece is actually an old arts & crafts style fender (I think they used these to store coal by the fireplace). I plan to use the storage bins for more modern day storage of toys and as extra seating but I'm thinking their placement will be the same on either side of the fireplace (although removing the cross bar and grouping them together at the end of a bed or under a writing desk would be cool, too). I have been looking and drooling over several storage ottomans over the last few months bc I planned to do two near the fireplace. Most of the ones I was in love with were none too cheap and not nearly as original as these so I was glad to find both a price break and something unique to fit the bill. I think they're at once glamorous and functional.
Did anyone else play with these cardboard bricks as a kid? When Parrish was at Glorio's Aunt Susan dug these out of storage and he played with them for hours. I found a set at Homewood Toy & Hobby and bought them and we have played with them every day since. We've built a zoo for his stuffed animals, sky scrapers, a pet palace for red ryder, and a bunker to shoot bad guys from. The possibilities are really endless-today Parrish built a picnic bench and table for me to serve his lunch. Toys like these are my favorite because I get to see his little imagination at work.
That same little imagination works very hard to try to understand how his Sissy got to heaven. A few nights ago he was asking lots and lots of questions about why Olivia and Henry (the cat) had to pass away and asking quesstions we didn't know the answers to ourselves. It was like all of a sudden he just started remembering all sorts of horrible things about that day-the ambulance, being left at our friend's house as we took her to the hospital, why we couldn't take him with us and why he didn't get to say goodbye to Olivia or how she physically got to heaven from the hospital. With tears streaming down our faces we tried our best to explain the inexplicable to a 4-year-old who shouldn't have to be thinking about these things at such a young age. I feel so unsure about how to explain these things to him in a basic but not scary way and I've decided it's impossible. During our 2 hour talk that night he asked why God hasn't given us another baby yet and if he could do chores every day to be awarded with one. I tried to explain that it's not our actions that "win" us things with God-that we just have to pray and trust Him with these decisions. So right then and there he prayed, "Dear God, please send us two babies." I felt like my heart was in my throat. It was at once horrible and sweet...much like our lives these days. The beauty of the Lord is so real and near but amidst such sadness, it's hard to even understand ourselves, much less put it into words a 4-year-old can understand. I tell you this to ask you to please pray for his heart and ours as we do our best to parent him through all of this. We need the Lord to fill our mouths with His wisdom and not our own understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment