Quick Post

We've been busy with peaches and swimming lessons and the viewing/funeral for Randy's aunt in addition to our normal summer activities...I'll try to update later this week.

Thursday

Tonight was our final night of VBS.  Shortly after it began, we got major rain storms.  As we meet in a park, half the kids went home, the rest of us huddled under the pavilion, ate ice cream, learned about Jesus walking on water, sang some songs...and then the rain lightened up a bit and I got my crew and got out of there.

This morning Janae had her swim lesson but Zach's was rained out.

I started making 5-day pickles today.

At the beginning of summer I promised the school kids they could each have a sleepover.  Now that summer is winding down, it's time.  Tonight is Autumn's turn.

Tomorrow I'm going to go buy some fresh Red Haven peaches.

Now I'm going to make a pan of "Overnight French Toast" (otherwise known as heart attack on a plate) for breakfast for tomorrow and then head to bed.....I think....  :-)

a different experience (for me)

As I mentioned (I think), we went to a different church on Sunday, having been asked by a friend to bring Randy's truck for "Trucker's Sunday".  This was my first experience in what I guess you'd call a "mega church"?  I estimated the auditorium seated about 500 people, but I'm really bad at figuring that stuff out so it might have been more.  Our friend said that between the 2 services, they have 400-600 people, depending on the time of year.

We go to a church that has around 100-110 people.  Small, family oriented, windows in the sanctuary, plenty of light, okay to make a mistake type of church.  I'm sure you can make mistakes at this one too...but it definitely had more of a "conference" feel.  Get settled, dim the lights, excellent worship band, excellent speaker/pastor.

I was reminded again why I prefer old-fashioned benches as opposed to the new trend of individual seats stuck together.  With a large family, it's nice to be able to slide quickly to one end or the other or move children.  Most young children were in nursery or preschool, but we chose to keep ours with us, something I understand that some large churches do not allow....which all seems strange to me.  I know it is noisier with children, and even easier to focus without them, but I want to have my children with me if I want to (although it is nice to have the option of somewhere to put them if I choose).  And I wasn't about to drop them off with strangers at a strange place...nope, would definitely not have worked.  And with our kids, it really is rather a challenge to keep them, especially since the service was later then we're used to and one of them just wasn't interested in sitting even from the beginning.

As a side note, for us, we generally take our kids to nursery during the service until they are 3, but we usually keep them in the service until they get fussy, so they gradually stay longer and longer.  Once they are 3 it is very rare that we let them go to nursery...usually only if church gets unusually long.  I personally question the idea of regularly entertaining kids until they are 12 and then expecting them to simply sit and listen to a sermon...seems like they'd naturally think it was boring!  But if they are in church from when they are young, it's normal...and sometimes they pick up more than I realize.  Our church does offer children's church once a month and our kids do go to that...they've never really expressed an opinion about having it more or not at all.  Our oldest son is not interested in it, he'd rather be in the regular service.  I usually do take some books or pencils/paper to draw, but usually they don't really use them other then get them all out and then walk away so I'm not sure how much longer I'll even bother with that.  We do make a point to immediately take a child out if s/he is fussy or cranky so as not to disturb the others around us.

The pastor/speaker was talking about Daniel and his friends from the book of Daniel in the Bible.  He challenged us to look at what's in our core.  Not what we show to everyone, but what keeps us awake at night.  And when I thought about that, I realized that perhaps when I'm worrying about a specific child's behavior, instead I should ask God to help me parent the child wisely, to respond with grace and love and wisdom and even anger if appropriate (not in a demeaning, shaming way) but to focus on my part, which God & I have control of, and let God worry about the end results of the child's life.  Easier said (thought) then done.  If that all makes any sense.

Anyway, the music was excellent.  The message/sermon was excellent (what I heard while tending my children).  The people were friendly.  The facilities were beautiful.  I'm quite comfortable with having various Christians worshiping in various ways at various sorts of facilities....But I'll stick to my small church.  :-)

Monday

Swim lessons went well this morning.  Janae was bumped up to "Guppie" so she now will have a different time slot then Zach (a "minnow") so we will be spending more time at the pool each morning.

VBS went well last night and this evening.  The kids are enjoying it.  Mark & Micah and I are enjoying the playground.

It's warm and humid again around here.  We had a brief thunderstorm around supper, but it's still rather humid.

Tomorrow's a lot like today except we'll add Zach's therapy and Randy will be home.

Sunday Night

Weekend Recap:

Saturday morning - cleaned
Saturday afternoon/evening - hosted Randy's family for our annual summer get together.  We usually go to his parents place but since his Aunt is not doing well, we had it here instead.
This morning - took the truck to Manhim B.I.C. Church for their truckers Sunday - elementary kids got to learn about trucking and Transport for Christ and sit in the trucks, worshiped with them at their second service, joined friends from their at a picnic (with swimming for the older kids).
This evening - Our town VBS started so Josiah helped with games, Autumn, Janae, & Zach participated in VBS and I hung out at the playground with Mark & Micah and the other moms.

Tomorrow - swim lessons start for Janae and Zach - a half an hour, 4 out of 5 days, for 2 weeks.

Friday?!

For some reason I'm having trouble remembering that today is Friday...it kind of felt like Saturday because we spent part of the morning back at the shop with Randy.

We've been enjoying a very lovely, rainy, cool day.  What a pleasant break from the heat and humidity.

Today we parted with our Expedition.  I loved this Eddie Bauer edition with it's heated and cooled seats, but it was not very practical for our family.  Every time they got in and out we needed to be flipping seats (not a big problem, but inconvenient) and if I had all the kids with me I could not do a large shopping trip (and I prefer to go less frequently but then get a lot at a time).  During the school year it's not as big of a deal because the rear seat folded flat and I had enough space.  We do have a 1995 van which worked well for all of us plus gear/packages however it has no a/c so Randy runs that for work (it mostly sits at the shop) and I have the newer vehicle for every day.

We sold this to my brother, and bought a 2010 Chevy Express Van, extended version.  This vehicle is also known in some circles as a BMW....Big Mennonite Wagon!

We now have space for 12 passengers so we can bring the kids' friends along legally + plenty of space for groceries or luggage or whatever...much more practical!  We did trade 7 or 9 cup holders for only 4 and it won't fit in our garage....but those are minor issue!

Since it has just paint and no pinstriping, we are getting some suggestions for finishing it off such as

• Put Bible verses on it
• "Personal Vehicle, Not for Hire"
• Give the kids permanent markers to add pin stripes and/or flames

And no, we really aren't serious about doing anything like that!  It will probably stay a plain graystone but will end up punctuated by scratches from scooters and such.  I assume I will get used to driving (and parking!) it just like I did every other vehicle I've ever driven.

In other news:

• Randy's one aunt is not doing well...hospice will be coming out tomorrow(?) to take over.  She's in a local retirement home.  We don't expect her to tarry long (although one never knows!) and pray that the end is peaceful for her.
• Zach's learning to use roller blades and doing great!
• Mark is starting to remember that helmets are required for riding bikes.
• Micah swiped the last donut.
• Josiah's teeth still hurt...takes awhile to adjust to braces.
• Janae is letting her bangs grow out.
• Autumn had a fun time at her sleepover last night.

Joy Dare for today - a gift in light, dark, shadow - well, not sure about that but how about:

• the van
• the rain
• the coolness

Real Life at our house.

Joy Dare - 3 gifts baked

• Donuts (preferably from Shop-Rite/Weisers)
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Icing Cookies, also known at my house as "Beatrice's Drop Cookies".  I like them with either white icing or caramel icing.  And I hardly ever bake them because of the added step of frosting them.

Today was one of those roller-coaster mixtures of a day.  The morning went well (punctuated by intervening where necessary with the kids).  I took Josiah to get his braces on.  While he was getting that done, I went to Weaver's Store and shopped for Mark's birthday (coming up in September...but who knows if I'll get another chance to shop alone before then).  I found some great Christmas gifts on the clearance shelf!

The humidity continues here although the heat has abated somewhat.  Janae was sad because she wanted to play wiffle-ball with the big kids but she didn't want to play by their rules.  And of course the big kids don't want the little kids to play with them and the little kids want to play with the big kids issues.  We had the ever present issues with our "extra-needs" child.  He had a massive meltdown shortly before supper time.  Lovely.  We took Autumn to a friend's house for the night to celebrate the friend's birthday.

Omelets for supper...massive meltdowns always leave me feeling rather exhausted emotionally.  Humidity leaves me unmotivated to cook (I know, bad excuse, but sadly true).  Evening went pretty well.  Mark & Micah had trouble settling for bed.  Micah's still awake.  While I was chatting with Randy they were playing (unbeknownst to me) in our master bathroom toilet and sink.  Lovely.

Now the house is quiet other than the whir of the fans (all 12 of them) and music coming from the CD player in Janae's room (where she is lonely because she needs to sleep in a room alone....but she fell asleep quickly anyway, so she must've been tired). She has been coming out a million (yes, exaggerated!) times after she's been tucked in but has been doing much better since I told her that she would need to start doing chores when she comes out if she can't settle.

I am excited that a front is coming through and tomorrow will be cooler and less humid and rainy.

Update

Another hot and humid week hear in the mid-atlantic region.  Thunderstorms today and tomorrow so hopefully a few nicer days over the weekend before we go back to the normal heat & humidity.

It's been another week of lots of appointments:  Oral Surgeon (Josiah), Occupational Therapy (Zach), Lung Doctor (Randy), Speech Therapy (Mark), Back Surgeon (Randy).  One more tomorrow - Josiah gets braces!  And one on Friday...but that's for Randy and I'm not going along.

Randy's back is doing fabulous!  He's so glad he had surgery.  His lung results are still inconclusive...no real evidence of anything specific, but something's not quite right.  Anyway.  One more test on Friday (lung function), and then we wait 3 months, repeat a couple of tests, and see if anything changed.  He's back to work full-time now and making up for lost time.  :-)

I haven't been doing to much (other than enjoying the last week of traveling in our Expedition to lots of appointments) because I don't function well in humidity.  I did realize though that since school starts in a mere 5 weeks, as soon as we get a cooler day I should check and see if anyone needs clothing for school.

I finished reading Dr. Leman's "What Your Childhood Memories Say About You."  Quite fascinating!

Joy Dare Update:

13 - 3 gifts curled.

• the hair around Autumn's face and neck is curly from the humidity
• curling ribbon to dress up gifts
• a little boy curled up against me in the early morning hours

14 - 3 gifts yellow.

• my kitchen walls
• Black-Eyed Susans
• Daffodils (yes, I still have fake ones in my kitchen...somehow never got around to putting away my spring decorations).

15 - 3 gifts of stone - no ideas for this one, but in other matters:

• iced sweet tea
• iced coffee (sweetened)
• flip flops

16 - 3 gifts hanging down

• the sweet potato vine growing down over the side of a planter
• laundry on the line
• long hair

17 - 3 gifts learned

• the ability to play the piano (definitely learned for me!)
• baking
• "windows"....High School for me was a period of major change in the computer world.  In 9th grade I took "keyboarding" on an electric typewriter.  By 10th grade we progressed to computers (MS-DOS).  I enjoyed office work and did some work for a teacher.  I remember being introduced to Windows while working for him.  All the school computers were still on MS-DOS.  Then I graduated and got a job and went back to an electric typewriter and an ancient computer for several years before finally getting a computer with "windows".

18 - 3 gifts musical

• our piano
• Josiah's Bass Guitar
• Our collection of CDs

Sunday Afternoon - Random

Random thoughts since I last posted on Thursday...

• the heat and humidity have returned
• I'm longing for fall...cooler nights, nip in the air, blue jeans and sweatshirts
• But that would mean having shoes on everyone...not fun.
• My "extra-needs" child has been having some more challenging behavior....not so fun either.  Glad we have another year to work on this before school starts.
• I should get back into making menus for our suppers...but in the heat I tend to be neither very hungry nor motivated to cook.  I get ravenous when I walk in somewhere with a/c.  :-)
• Spent some time looking at some adorable mini-golden-doodles last night and visiting some family.

Joy Dare Catch Up - Part 2

Joy Dare Catch-Up for July continued...

7.  a gift of challenge, conflict, change.

• a sense of accomplishment
• increased flexibility
• truth and honesty (perhaps)

8.  3 gifts water

• tea
• coffee
• ice cubes for the above!

9.  a gift of rhythm, rhyme, reason (ok, this one's to tough for me...in other thoughts...)

• Music
• Sun Tea made in a glass gallon jug
• Cheeseburgers on the grill

10.  3 gifts in weakness

• God's strength
• God's grace
• awareness of family & friends (if choosing to let your needs be known)

11.  3 gifts in jars

• canned applesauce
• canned peaches
• canned pears

12.  a gift of life, growth, decline

• birth of a baby
• suddenly noticing your child is a young man (or lady)
• a person in their later years of life

Joy Dare Catch Up

Or a start anyway.  Today is July 11...and at 3 a day, that means I'm 33 behind.  We'll see how far I get!

1.  3 Gifts Loved

• My Savior
• My Husband
• My Children

2.  3 Gifts Read

• 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
• What Your Childhood Memories Say About You by Dr. Kevin Leman
• Son of the Wind by Leanne Eshleman Benner (Fascinating book about a Mennonite farm boy who became a doctor and served 18 years in Ethiopia (i think) before returning to the states.)

3.  a gift in faith, family, freedom

• comfort
• acceptance
• security

4.  a gift in red, white, and blue

• Strawberries
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Blueberries

5.  3 gifts of persistence

• increased patience
• sense of satisfaction at the end
• can't think of another!  So on a different note....bare feet.

6.  3 gifts of enthusiasm

• sense of excitement
• sense of pleasure/happiness
• motivation

I think I'll stop there and pick this up in a second part...

Catch-Up

So, other than the post I posted a minute ago or so, I haven't posted for a week.  Random tidbits from the last week include:

• It was very, very hot (and humid) last week.  Thankfully it's better this week.  Still hot, but more bearable.
• Friday started a string of 14 appointments in 14 days (some days more than one, some days none).
• So far we've gone to the dentist (2 kids), had a play date with a friend moving south, had therapy (Zach) and Speech therapy (Mark), gone for a broncoscopy (Randy), had a play date with birth siblings.
• Next on the list is the dentist again (different kids) and a follow-up trip to the ENT for Micah.
• Busy, but all worthwhile things...that just happened to fall on a pile.
• I read "4:50 from Paddington" by Agatha Christie and nearly finished Zach's afghan in a waiting room.
• I finished it that night after supper (only took roughly 4 years).
• I'm excited to go buy yarn for Mark's afghan.
• As long as the nights get below 70 degrees, our house really does cool down nicely.  And I love open windows and door...afterall, it's summer!
• I'm currently reading (during speech therapy and in waiting rooms) the book "What your childhood memories say about you" by Dr. Kevin Leman.  Very Fascinating!
• I'm thirsty for a McD's Mocha Frappe.  BK's wasn't quite good enough, although satisfactory and with a much shorter drive-thru line!  ;-)  Could drink a lovely cola slushie as well.  (Can you tell it's warm here?!)
• Sunday I finally made it back to church after being gone since the first week in June.  Lovely to be back!
• Boys sound like they are not interested in sleeping....but I'm sure eventually they'll get there.  Micah's been sleeping much better...guess it's the noise of multiple fans.  Or else he's just so worn out from playing outside most of the day.

Okay, enough of this mindless nonsense....  :-)

Post Catch Up

Back in June, shortly after Randy's back surgery, some friends invited us to go to a local lake boating & swimming for the day.  The kids took turns in the boat.  Mark & Micah enjoyed the water as well as the massive sandboxes.  Fun times!

July 4th

No plans here.  We had cheeseburgers and sweet corn (on the cob) for lunch since Randy needed to head west this afternoon.  Now I need to figure out what to do the rest of the day.  It's a holiday, but we have no plans....

I noticed Micah walking up the stairs 1 step per foot today....my baby is growing up.

It's rather hot...like July should be.

Randy was home every day for just shy of a month.  So we'll all need to adjust back to the truck driving schedule.  Just like in about 7 or 8 weeks we'll need to adjust back to the school schedule.  Seems life's like that, we always need to make adjustments...

I've been getting out some toys that had been sequestered away for a time.  The boys have really been enjoying that...I need to remember to rotate toys more frequently because it really does seem to make for more pleasant play!

Since Vacation

The day after we came home from vacation, Randy had back surgery.  He is recovering well.  We're looking forward to the 4-6 week end when he no longer has any restrictions on what he can do.  We've been enjoying having him every night and frequently at breakfast as well....but he will soon be returning to the truck.  He's been working in the office for his Dad in the meantime.

The following weekend was the truck rally.  Lots of fun as usual.  Last week and this week have been simpler weeks for our families, only a couple of appointments each week.  Next week we go back to a more hectic schedule so I'm enjoying this quieter week.

Along the way, music lessons have ceased.  I really need to start them again.

At the Truck Rally, Phredd (from WJTL) performed.  Now Janae wants to learn how to play the ukulele.

Tomorrow is Independence Day (otherwise known as July 4th), we have no plans at this point.

We bought another camper and are trying to sell our other one (contact me if you're interested in a nice 2005   Surveyor Hybrid Camper with 3 canvas slide-outs).  We bought a slightly larger travel trailer.

Sometime I need to get back to the Joy Dare.

Well, I need to put the boys to bed for nap/quiet time, put away laundry, and figure out supper....have a good day!