Liv keeps talking about how we’re going to “SLICE THEM UP.”

And then I have to remind myself about the Pumpkin Carving we’re hosting tonight.

Slice ’em, dice ’em, cut ’em up. Let’s do it.

This is what death looks like.

My sweet little Canon Powershot S1 IS saw no tunnel, no white lights. Rather it saw a dark screen with horizontal purple lines.

RIP, my small, silver friend.

(Let’s hope the blog doesn’t die as well.)

I spent a little time last week photographing aspects of our garden, all the while aware that the colors would soon be fading under the cool Nebraska nights. It’s been a really mild autumn so far and I can’t remember the last year our garden and lawn looked so vibrant for so long. As a final farewell to warm temps (it’s high time, the water in the birdbath was frozen solid this morning), I present a few pics from Prairie Box Gardens 2008.

Last up, a few shots of butterflies. Livia has retained a “pet” butterfly, grasshopper or caterpillar for most of the warm months. She doesn’t catch her prey, er pets, though; that’s a job for mom, dad or grandma. So if you drive by and see one of us looking like a total goofball, running around the yard, arms furiously swiping an empty butterfly net in the air, just know that we love this four year old very much. There is some strategy involved in netting a butterfly. I hope I remember how to do it right next year.

These aren’t the best butterfly shots I took, but I think they’re the most interesting. The head-on angle is my favorite—look at the insect’s pug-nosed appearance. Note the fuzzy back and the fact that we do feed our pets well. I want to always remember Four Year Old Liv as a girl who loved bugs and spending time outdoors, dirty fingernails and all.

The sweetest sound in the world is hearing your child go to the bathroom all by herself. No “Mom, I need to potty!” or anything. Praise Jesus, my child is potty-trained.

I asked Mom where she normally sat during concerts with Nancy. “Oh, somewhere off to the side. In a space reserved for family,” she said. Well, for whatever reason, the first concert I attended with Mom and Nancy had family sitting in the FRONT ROW, smack dab in the middle of the large church worship hall, planted firmly at Charlie Peacock’s feet. Protesting that we weren’t front row kind of people, we ended up there anyway, not wanting to abandon the one family member who was holding seats for the Webb family.

Turns out the Art*Music*Justice event was an amazing evening of music and social awareness. And when I tried to forget that I was sitting front and center, I found myself lost in the most worshipful concert I’ve ever attended. I heard Derek Webb, Nancy’s son, play years ago at Covenant College when he was with Caedmon’s Call. The Caedmon’s album I bought became the soundtrack for many of my travels over the next four years. I had also heard Sandra McCracken play at Covenant Seminary, and more recently I’ve been a frequent listener of this great album, The Builder and the Architect. But Sara Groves, Brandon Heath and Charlie Peacock were fairly new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed their songs and stories that night. If the tour is coming to your area in the next two weeks, you should definitely go. It’s an inspiring evening.

I learned one more thing that night. Tour buses, as cool and glamorous as they are, contain *tight* sleeping quarters. Nancy showed us the teeny bunk where her grandbaby sleeps. Super cute, but again, teeny! It blew my mind to imagine all the folks on the tour sleeping in one bus and I couldn’t help but wonder what happens when Sara Groves’ kids wake up with bad dreams or when the stage crew/merchandise guys snore too loudly. The bus seemed to me to be a traveling commune—everybody together in one space. I bet they all know each other really well when the final concert comes around!

I knew Liv was playing with water this morning, I just didn’t care. That is, I didn’t care until I heard about five water sloshes in a row. Then I turned my attention to my four year old and began walking toward the noise.

Me: What did you do in here, Livia? Spray a hose around the dining room?

Liv: No. [pause] I was feeding and baptizing my babies.

And that, my friends, was the end of water play at the Tredways on a Wednesday morning. Good thing all our baby dolls have now received the sign and seal of the new covenant.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth.

– Psalm 96:11-13

How have you recently expressed yourself creatively?

What were some ways you used to be creative, perhaps during your childhood/youth, that you don’t engage in anymore?

Would you like to revisit those old creative expressions someday?How is someone close to you—a spouse, friend, child—creative in a way you are not?

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Thanks for playing along, everyone! I think sewing is so cool… There are so many possibilities for gifts, fun toys, useful items, etc, when you can sew.

Beside photography, I find myself enjoying all sorts of kid activities. Basically, if I was left to myself, I’d sit down and color all the live long day. Livia doesn’t enjoy coloring much, though, so we create art by stamping, painting, cutting and gluing. I wish I had many more hours for creative projects… I’d especially like to pour myself into writing; for now I’m in a holding pattern in that area. I write in my head all the time but rarely do my internal compositions see the light of day.

Someday I hope to get back into theater again. You couldn’t keep me from performing as a kid.

Finally, I really admire my husband’s creativity in web design. He’s amazing with color and has quite an eye for detail (kind of necessary in his line of work, it comes naturally to him which totally impresses me). I’m also floored by Livia’s imagination. She sees worlds I cannot see and lives in richness because of it.

Livia attended Elsie’s Wizard of Oz theme party last weekend. I wasn’t sure about creating a decent costume, but Renae told me how to put together a little scarecrow outfit and voila! There’s Liv in all her scarecrow-y glory. The kids at the party were super cute. There were lots of Dorothys and Glindas, another Scarecrow made an appearance and Toto was adorable with a collar and little pigtails. I wish I had snapped photos of all the work Amanda put into this gathering… There was a yellow brick road welcoming guests in the driveway, complete with the dead Wicked Witch’s legs poking out from underneath a playhouse. Each platter of food was labeled with a creative title and the cake was decorated to match the theme as well. There were millions of people there and perhaps even billions of children under seven years old and Amanda smiled her way through the whole event, looking as cool and calm a hostess you could imagine. The thought of entertaining those billions of young children makes me go into a cold sweat, but I know enough to appreciate all the work Amanda did for this amazing party. Well done, friend!

Livia hasn’t seen the The Wizard of Oz yet (perhaps due to all the nightmares this movie produced during her mother’s childhood), so I explained the story en route to the party. After learning that Dorothy is from Kansas—“We have that in common!”—Livia sighed, “I love Dorothy.” I stumbled as I tried to explain that she couldn’t love Dorothy because she didn’t know her, Dorothy’s imaginary, blah blah blah. And Liv replied, “Yes I do know her. You just told me about her!” Right you are, perceptive little one.

Later that night, Liv went on and on about “switches.” I figured she was talking about lights. But it was Jeremy who finally realized she was talking about Glinda and The Wicked One of the West. You add that to the “fire chip” title she gave nacho cheese Doritos and you have one amused mommy. I love this four year old and her grasp of the English language.