Happy Valentine's day! I need to say right off that I am not at all a fan of this day. I'm a huge fan of celebrating the small things on ordinary days with the people I love most. However, since it is a special day, I thought I'd share all about the ones I love the most.
Starting with my favorite man in all of the world.
This is NOT the greatest picture of us, but we are doing something we love the most~camping. This is our third day in a row look of being out in the great outdoors and not caring much about our appearances.
Toddley and I met when we were in high school, dated our senior year, broke up for a bit, got back together, got engaged, and got married at nineteen years of age. We started our family two and a half years later, at twenty two, and by the age of twenty six, had finished off adding people to our little slice of the Goodwin family. We have literally grown up together. There were years of being so poor that we ate almost nothing but cheap boxes of macaroni and cheese. There were plenty of times of being totally stupid and selfish, and just about messing things up for good. We've entered into the stage we're at now with a new and fresh perspective. The boys are all getting older, with one about to graduate from high school, and though we are nowhere near being wealthy, we do not lack. God has been ever faithful to us, even when we have not been faithful to Him. One verse that I love so much is out of Proverbs, and I've claimed it as mine. It's Proverbs 30:8, and I'm going to paraphrase how I pray it out loud to God.
Lord, thank You for all that You have provided for us. Help us to never be so poor that we are tempted to steal, and let us never be so wealthy that we forget about You.
The real version goes something like this, and I'm going to include verse nine.
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need. Otherwise I might have too much and deny You, saying, "Who is the LORD?", or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God.
I am so thankful for all of the twenty two years together. (We dated one year and were engaged one year.) We are not perfect, trust me, and we still have moments when we have growth opportunities (otherwise known as little tiffs), but he is my very best friend and the best father that I know. However, my dad and his dad are CLOSE seconds.
You're my favorite, Toddley.
One thing I noticed about my oldest son Graham in finding pictures for this post, is that he does not ever have his picture taken. I have more of all the other boys than I do of him. Graham is almost eighteen, which is so weird to me. To think of Todd and me back at eighteen years of age and then look at him is a little disconcerting. This boy has always had a good, level head on his shoulders. From the time he was a baby, he was perfectly content to obey. He always did everything we asked and he was as good as gold. One of my favorite things to tell of him is that when he was two, I painted the entry hall of our old house, and he wanted to help. So I let him help and left for just a minute to wash my hands, and I told him not to touch any of the paint until I came back. When I got back, he was standing there, right where I'd left him, having not touched even a drop.
He was just that kind of kid, and honestly, he still is. My favorite thing about him (and perhaps the thing about him that everyone hates) is that he will not stand for meanness. He fears nothing and no one, and he will confront anyone that he sees fit when a wrong has been committed. Now, he has handled things wrong in the past, and he has been the one in the situation to go back and admit that he was wrong and apologize. (I'm pretty sure he is a better adult than I am.) He is humble, which is why he will be quick to say he's sorry to someone. Graham is a decision maker, and is often called bossy by his "friends". He's not. He's just decisive, because he hates when people will not make a simple decision. He is so good with kids, but he expects the younger ones he sometimes babysits to listen to what he says. He is NOT a pushover. He is the most opposite thing ever from that.
He loves missions. His favorite thing ever is Street Reach that the youth participate in every summer, and he loves the kids. He also really loves the adults that he sometimes gets to talk to, and on more than one occasion, he has disappeared, sharing the gospel with someone on the street. His heart amazes me every single day. I love seeing him grow into the man of God that he's growing into. Currently he is attending a community bible study of sorts for high schoolers, and nobody he hangs out with was going to be there. He is totally unafraid and always puts himself out there.
Oh, Drewby. I think I probably say that the most. This kid of mine is something else. From the time he was a toddler, he was so very different from Graham. I learned quickly that Graham was the weird one, and Drew was the normal one. Meaning that it was abnormal for a toddler to be so good like Graham, and perfectly normal for one to be into EVERY. BLESSED. THING., like Drewby. He has fallen out of a window, talked the twins into hiding in my cabinets to FREAK ME OUT, and he has buried my keys.
He loves to laugh, and often cracks himself up. He was always my wild one, the one to jump up and dance when the credits of a movie started rolling, the one who loves animals and kids. He has the most sensitive heart of anyone I've ever known, and I found him sobbing in the living room one time after seeing a commercial for the ASPCA. The one where Sarah McLachlan sings the song about angels. Bless him.
He is my most motivated kid. We homeschool, in case you didn't know, and he is always the first up and the first to get started on school work. I can totally trust him to get done anything that needs to be done, because he is obedient and a creature of habit. He has hated change since he was two years old. He has slightly OCD tendencies, and has all these weird little quirks that I love and that make him Drew. Also? Whether he'd been a boy or a girl, his (or her) name was going to be Drew.
He loves kids. And they love him. Which is why he gets a second picture, because he's a magnet. He really wants to be a pediatrician someday, and I believe that he will pursue a premed degree when he goes to college. His fault is that he just gets really sulky sometimes, for no apparent reason. He's also a bit of a loner when we're at home, and sometimes I worry about him, but he always assures me he's fine. #teenageproblems
He has said that since he was about nine years old, by the way, and he has never once wavered from that.
Jonah is similar to Graham in a million different ways, but a huge thing is that he, too, is never in my pictures. I had to search and search and finally settled on this most recent. Jonah was born first (he is a twin) and he uses those two minutes to his advantage. He started off the biggest, but Noah grew taller than him pretty quickly. My favorite thing about this kid is his smile. It is always in place, and bracketed by the most adorable dimples I have ever seen. I have always been such a sucker for cute dimples. When I take him shopping, though...well, that is a different story, and he falls down a few notches on my likeability meter. He also happens to be JUST LIKE ME. #paybacks
Jonah is also extremely motivated. He is the second one up, usually right on the heels of Drew, and will be quick to make sure Noah is doing what he needs to be doing. He is so good at staying on task, and I totally trust him to get done every thing I say to do. Jonah's favorite parent is Todd. That has always been so, and it will always be so. He looks just like his dad, and he wants to BE just like his dad. I fully believe that someday this kid will be in law enforcement.
Another of my favorite attributes of him is that when he is bored, he cleans. He is a HUGE neat freak, and because of him, their shared bedroom stays pretty spic and span. I'm not sure Noah loves this, but I sure do. He decided one day, in our first year of homeschooling, that he wanted a critter. Originally they were going to get an anole, which is a little lizard, but someone gave us a leopard gecko. Since then, they have fallen in love with these little critters, and now they have three, in three separate terrariums in their bedroom. He is an excellent caretaker, and he loves with all of his heart, so imagine the upset when the first one they had died. I remember the night they got him and were trying to think of a name. They were laying in their beds, and Jonah said, "Goodnight, Buddy." And then that just stuck. He was thrilled to have thought of such a great name all by himself.
Insert my melting heart here, because you should hear his angelic voice when he talks to the animals. And yes, of course, we all talk to our animals.
And last, but not least, is my sweet Noah. Out of all the hearts in our family, his is the most beautiful. I'm not saying he's perfect, because he's not...he sometimes struggles with getting really mad at someone and not being able to communicate right away. I've tried to talk him through this, and nowadays if he gets upset, he just walks away and takes a mental time out for a few minutes. This boy loves with all of his heart, and he is always thinking of others first. I've never seen this kind of thing on a young teenager (or kid, for that matter), and it amazes me. He cannot keep money to save his life, because he is always giving it away. Not really, but he buys things for people all the time.
Noah is so dependable when it comes to school stuff. He works way differently than his twin brother, but he is always faithful to get done the things he needs to get done every week. I may have to remind him a bit more, but not that often. He looks up to the ones around him, and I have to tell the others all the time to keep that in mind. He is always the first one to volunteer to pray, whether we're at home, at church, or with a group of adults, like when we were on the Navajo mission trip this summer. I was amazed by this one, and the growth I've seen in him spiritually.
He loves sharing with others about Jesus. He is not shy in the least, and I love this about him. He's so witty, which is something that's kinda new to us since he turned thirteen. He loves his friends and will offer to do anything for them, so sometimes I worry about him being treated wrong, but I just pray that they treat him the way they want to be treated. Because of all this that I've mentioned, he is the one who might get picked on the most. He doesn't have a mean bone anywhere in his body, and when someone is mean to him or says something rude, he will not take up for himself. Jonah has to jump in to stand up for him, and Graham has done the same on more than one occasion. He is absolutely as precious as he sounds, and I am so thankful that have his personality type in this family.
These are my loves. I LOVE being a boy mom and say all the time that God knew I could not have handled teenage girls. They are fiercely protective, and they are quickly growing up into the future husbands and fathers I see them being. They have learned from the best.
Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all.
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