- Geneva insisted they matched outfits today. My sweet girls!  They are such completely unique and different personalities, but both of them prove daily how much they genuinely love each other. blessed. -

We were able to go down to New Mexico this spring for Michael’s youngest sister’s graduation celebration from high school. It was such a rare treat for the entire Francisco family to be together, and one that won’t soon be forgotten. We only had a few hours of time together, so any driving time was precious bonding time that we took full advantage of! Our time with Auntie Debs, Michael’s middle sister and the girls’ aunt who lives in New York, was especially colorful as Geneva entertained her with stories for far too long and we very randomly made a stop for pictures at the “famous” NM landmark Camel Rock. haha. We grew up next to this thing but have we ever taken pictures next to it?? um, no. But I am so, SO thankful we did. I just adore these pictures of Geneva and her Aunt Deborah.

(Clara was sleeping for all the bonding time in the car, but I promise she got some lovin’ too!)

We love you Auntie Debs!

We hear, and overhear, all day. At home especially, living together. Especially the little ones, we don’t call them “little sponges” for nothing.

Sometimes the mini-me moments we hear are so demoralizing. Oh no, they are picking up THAT? Oh no, I sound like that?! But then, sometimes, there are other moments that send your heart so high that it reaches heaven itself. not kidding. Heaven itself. it has to.

I found Geneva in the corner the other day reading to her doll, telling her about Jesus, about “the Lord,” and singing “lead me on and I will run after You, lead me on and will run after You.”

Most of you probably know that chorus well – it’s from this song from Passion-

Give me one pure and holy passion.
Give me one magnificent obsession.
Jesus, give me one glorious ambition for my life:
To know and follow hard after You.
To know and follow hard after You,
To grow as Your disciple in the Truth,
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing You my Lord.
Lead me on, and I will run after You.

The fact that she was singing this song hit me hard that day. You just don’t realize what they are picking up, you know?  This is one of the most significant worship songs to me as it embodies Ps. 63:8: “my soul followeth hard after Thee.” I’ve considered this to be my “name verse” – meaning the verse associated most closely with the meaning of my name “follower of Christ.” To me that means to have a determined, purposed abandon to follow my God – fully consecrated to Him, fully trusting in Him, fully dependent on His word, to the end. I want nothing more for my children; I tell Geneva that often.

Then you hear these things and others, like when she says she is “part of Jesus’ kingdom!” and you can only fall on your face and thank God. That He is intervening on behalf of your childrens’ hearts. That He is hearing your prayers. That He is at work. That He is having mercy on them, on us, on me.

For there is no amount of force that can make her little heart love Jesus. I do pray that she pants for the infectious love that I have for my Savior when she sees it, but I know that ultimately I will be a road sign pointing her the right way.

I’m so amazed and thankful I get to share in her journey, though. And that I get to spend my days overhearing little faith grow, like prayers that say “Heavenly Father, I thank You for You.”

just because I don’t put anything up here in months you think I left you? silly, silly.

I had to take a quick break from my long blogging absence to share the amazing opportunity for acquiring such darling FREE paper dolls. I just loved playing with paper dolls as a girl and you could often find me pouring over some Dover book of Victorian or literary figures. There was something charming about those two dimensional little figures, and something so wonderful and tactile about cutting the clothes out yourself as if you were the actual tailor, or pretending you lived in a time where those fashions were in style. Anyway, I came across this link of printable Betsy McCall Paper Dolls and clothes spanning from 1951 to 1961 and I think you’ll find them delightful. There are instructions at the link on how to properly print them. I hope you and yours are charmed!

see? she didn’t get ALL her expressiveness from me. okay, maybe she did, and maybe we’re rubbing off on Michael together.

hahaha

Geneva asked me today “Mom, will you still have headaches when you go to Heaven?”I told her “No! I won’t!” She responded with a positive “oh!”
Since then she’s been randomly looking at me, smiling, and saying encouragingly “Mom, you won’t have any more headaches in Heaven!”

Lord, thank You for truth that comes out of the mouths of babes, and for my precious encourager.

some Saturday fun.

I asked Geneva to show me her excited face:

She was very excited to see Bob and Larry, but did not understand why they had arms. haha.

I told her they had arms so they could give her a hug! But she only had hugs for Bob.

I joked with her that Larry was probably sad that he didn’t get any hugs, and that I’d never seen a cucumber cry before. This evidently made an impression on Geneva, who promptly asked Michael to stand in line all over again with her so that she could give Larry a hug.

at least, that’s what she calls herself.

…you better know how to set a proper table!

Growing up I heard “when you dine with the queen…..” from my mother innumerable times when teaching table manners and etiquette. I admit, I use it on my daughters as well for fun, although Geneva will be dining with “real” Princesses come summer!

I have recently been trying to teach Geneva how to set the table. It’s quite a lot of memorizing for a 4 year old, so I was giddy excited when I stumbled upon these at Anthropologie over the weekend – disposable paper color-on placemats with the proper table settings drawn right on them! Hopefully this will making setting the table fun and not just an every day chore. 

Happy table-setting!

Our Sunday project (as Mom was away) was to make a bird feeder, and birdhouse.  This turned into a bird feeder, bird house, and hummingbird feeder.  We also found an old bird feeder which lacked a roof, so we came up with our own.  Mostly I was just trying to find more things to feed Geneva to paint.

Getting to the end result took lots of concentration.

Now we have a lot more color in front of our house.  (The excess birdseed on the porch was a gift from Geneva.  She was throwing seed around and told me that it was to make sure the bird’s came to our house.)

The news today about the tsunami and earthquake in Japan was so sobering. makes all the random things that are hard in my life mute points.

I pray every day that God would grow compassion and love for others in Geneva’s heart, so even though I want to protect her innocence from the tragedies in the world, today I made it a point to share with her what had happened to so many people so we could pray for them together. I told her about the flood waters and how things or pets can get swept away; I explained what earthquakes to do land, houses, things, and how both are very sad and dangerous for the people they affect.

Her response made me cry:

” But Mom, it can’t shake Jesus. Jesus’ house doesn’t shake. Jesus’ house can’t get swept away by water. Jesus is strong!”

Yes, Lord. We belong to You.

Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10

For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? Psalm 18:31

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:26-29

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately, all of them learning experiences.

Geneva is an okay sport most times, but it really cracks me up how for me to get a shot like this:

I usually get quite a few like this:

I’m hoping Clara will grow up to be a better sport since she’s had this big black contraption in her face from infancy. She does pretty well smiling for me most of the time -

although clearly making farting noises is much more fun:

hahaha.

I’m trying to broaden my understanding of what it means to truly capture my children’s childhoods. Generally, I prefer looking at, and taking, smiling, put together type pictures.  Thankfully I’m married to a man with great humor and who will grab the camera and take pictures of Geneva with a dirty face in a insanely messy room dressed in her pajamas, snow boots, and princess dress. I’m so thankful he takes those shots – even though I blush to see how messy my living room was or how badly she needed her face washed – those are often the pictures that make us laugh and warm our hearts and, let’s be honest, remember how life really was.

I was recently invited to better learn photography with a small group of women in town. The plan is to get together once a month, watch an instructional video, have homework assignments, critique each others pictures, etc. I am by far the rookie of this group, but they are gracious to let me be there and learn from them. The first video we watched was by Me Ra Koh and was entitled “Refuse to Say Cheese.” Me Ra, a professional writer turned photographer and mother of two, argued that taking pictures should be a way of story telling and if you just have the “cheese” shot you give the viewer an empty payoff as there is no story behind why the child is smiling. Smiling pictures definitely have their place in photography and in storytelling, but if that is all you document you won’t have captured what it was like to be that child at that time in that place. The video went on to discuss the elements of building good photo stories and tips for taking those kinds of pictures. I’m still working on those homework assignments but maybe I’ll post them when I feel like I’ve accomplished them to at least B+ standards. stay tuned…