Summer Fun!

Boy has it felt like summer! We've had unseasonably hot weather and hardly any rain for most of June. And we have been packing our summer full of adventures. To kick off June Greg and I headed to Chicago sans kids to celebrate our 14th anniversary. Mom and Dad watched the kiddos while we explored the city. We visited both the Art and the Field Museum, watched a live taping of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, saw Once (the musical), and ate lots of good food. We were also able to see some friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Greg had gone to Chicago earlier than me for his ACSD conference.  So he saw lots of old friends. Once I arrived some of our JBU friends were still around and so I was able to have lunch with them too. Overall it was such a great trip. And the kids had lots of fun with Grandma and Papa while we were gone. When we got back they filled me in on all of their adventures: the zoo, swimming, splash pads, Mariner's game, Taco Bell. :-)

Here we are in front of Buckingham Fountain.

Lou Malnati's pizza. Yum. Seeing it makes me hungry.

The next adventure was a trip to the coast. Some friends had graciously invited us to come with them to their family's beach house. We were happy to oblige. We had a great time hanging out with them and spent lots of time on the beach. It had been awhile since we had been and it was so nice to relax there.

As usual, Jonathan with his truck.

This beach was fairly rocky and had some cool tide pools to explore.

At this beach someone had built a little driftwood house. The kids had so much fun playing inside it. 

Everyone even went in the water a little.
Nothing says Oregon Coast quite like sweatshirts and jackets on the beach and ice cold water. 

We had only been back from the beach a couple days before we headed out on our next adventure: camping with my parents for two nights at Silver Falls. It was a super nice campground with hot water in the bathrooms and free showers. We explored just three of the ten waterfalls. They were breathtaking! Absolutely gorgeous hikes! One afternoon we swam in the river. It was a great way to cool down on a hot day. Overall, it was a great trip - so much fun!

Jonathan hurt his foot the very first night and limped for the rest of the weekend, poor kid. Greg had to carry him on all the hikes. The kids had trouble sleeping the first night. At first they were too excited to sleep. And then they got too tired and cranky. Leesi and Nora had trouble staying in their sleeping bags through the night. And Jonathan's foot woke him up. But the second night was much better. I think maybe next time we'll try for three nights and see how that goes.

Beautiful Falls 

Jonathan and Nora catch a ride on Greg and Papa's shoulders.  

Nora and Papa

Jonathan floats on the Rice Krispie Raft. 

Nora in her sleeping bag. It was very exciting to get new sleeping bags!

We got back from camping just in time for Leesi to participate in a show. Leesi has been taking dance class for a few months now at a studio close to our house. The studio put on a big show for the end of the year called, "A Bug'z Tale." Her class did a dance to "All the Colors" or as we refer to it, "the rainbow song." She was able to go and see the show with me on Friday night (a different class did the rainbow dance in that show) and then dance in it on Saturday night. Everyone enjoyed watching it. The songs from it are still stuck in my head.

Leesi posing after the show with her teacher. 

We've certainly had a busy and fun June. July should be a lot more low key. We'll be hanging around home a lot more. And then in August the baby comes!

Jonathan's thoughts and doings

So, I can officially say that Jonathan can read now. He still gets some words wrong and there is some guesswork involved, but he regularly tells me what things say (e.g. today at the doctor's office he told me, "these stickers say 'smile makers'") especially if it's something he finds funny. And he can read a whole book too (easy ones, that is). I realized that he had really gotten it and that reading had clicked for him when he read me all of Green Eggs and Ham. He seems to prefer to sit quietly and read them to himself, but sometimes he will read to me too.

His mind is always working on something. Recently he's started coming up to me out of the blue and telling me answers to math equations. "Mommy, 8+8 is 16." etc. Yesterday Leesi was working on her math homework and struggling on a problem. Jonathan walked up and whispered the answer in her ear. Ha! We were both surprised

He just finished preschool for the year. We've really liked his preschool and his teacher. She always has fun crafts and interesting activities for the kids. She is great with the kids. But if we ever say anything about learning something in preschool Jonathan will correct us, insisting that he doesn't learn at preschool. "It's not really a learning kind of school. We just play."

They had a special Mother's Day Tea a month ago and the kids were so sweet. They sang songs for the Moms and gave us all kinds of handmade gifts. It was a very sweet time with my special guy.

Me and Jonathan at the Mother's Day Tea at his school. He made me a special corsage.

The other day Jonathan told me, "The first day ever wasn't a tomorrow. There was a first day, and it wasn't a tomorrow. Other days have tomorrows, but the first day was never a tomorrow. God was there."

He has started doing speech therapy to work on some of his articulation. He doesn't yet produce a 'l' sound or an 'r' sound, instead he substitutes w's. There are a handful of other sounds he doesn't make quite right either (among them th, s, and j). I am glad that he is doing speech therapy and will get the help he needs. But there is part of me that will probably miss the "Mommy, I wiwy wiwy wuv you!"

Let us eat lettuce!

The lettuce has taken off. We are eating tons of salads and we still can't quite keep up with the amount of lettuce that we're getting. I picked the lettuce this morning into my biggest plastic mixing bowl. It was heaped to the top and overflowing, and still the lettuce patch looked like I could pick some more.

My biggest bowl heaping with lettuce. 

The lettuce after being picked. There are 12 heads in three square feet. Probably four different varieties. 

Gardening

So now that early pregnancy has passed and I am feeling better, I am really enjoying being outside and working in our yard. I try to talk myself into doing the dishes or the laundry or picking up toys, but if it's decent weather out the dishes usually get neglected and the laundry sits for a little longer while I work out in the yard.

A month or so ago Greg built a 8x4 raised bed for me, and filled it with dirt. Since then I've been working away on planting in it, as well as a few other places around the yard. So far in the garden box we have kale, onions (several kinds), shallots, spinach, lettuce, and marigolds growing. And I'm still hopefully watching for carrots and dill to sprout. Peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers will go in soon.

I built a sweet pea teepee for the kids to hide out in, and am watching with glee as the peas they planted sprout and grow. Once the peas are done, I plan on planting beans in their place.

I just planted four tomato plants in one of the planter boxes on the front of the house, and am planning on planting a few more in the garden box in the back and training them to grow up a trellis (square foot garden style).

I hope to get strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries this year from plants that we've put in.

Greg ripped out a lilac bush that was beautiful, but hopelessly unhealthy, and we planted a dwarf peach tree in its place. So exciting!

There are also quite a few flowers, both ones that we've planted and ones that were already here, that are starting to make an appearance.

I have lots of plans for more improvements to the yard and garden too. I guess I've caught the gardening bug.

Snails are always fun to find and watch.

We have dogwood trees in the front! Beautiful!

We have a few of these in our yard too. Leesi took this picture. Pretty good, right?

Little lettuces.

The hyacinth were beautiful this year. 

My helpers.

Other garden bounty.

The little things I want to remember

So, once again, it's been awhile since the last post. But I have a good reason. Baby #4 is on the way! We have been hoping for a baby #4 for awhile now, and so we were ecstatic when we found out I was pregnant. But early pregnancy always takes its toll on me, with nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. So, the last couple months have been a bit rough. I'm 16 weeks along now, and starting to feel better every day.

Meanwhile, life has continued in all its messy, loud, glorious splendor.

Today it hit me just how much I want to remember everything about these days. I want to remember Jonathan as a five-year-old, and Nora at two and a half, and Leesi as a big first grader. So, once again, back to the blog. I'll blog about today, about the everyday moments. The days are beautiful, and painful, and mundane, and fun, and tedious. And I want to remember all of it. Or at least, I want to remember pieces of each part of it.

So here goes...

Today I braided Leesi's hair. It's been hard getting up in the morning lately. And I can't move as fast as usual. So, it's made for some hurried mornings... wild hair and granola bar for breakfast kind of mornings. But today, I had time for a braid. Little things to be thankful for.

Jonathan and Nora have been sick. So, Jonathan stayed home from school again today. Nora was cranky and snotty in the morning. Jonathan and I played Candy Land and Operation in a sun patch on the living room carpet while Nora sat on my lap. Nora clung to me, scared, whenever the Operation buzzer went off.

Later in the morning Nora and Jonathan were screaming because they were both so frustrated about a fishing game that Jonathan had gotten out. I felt completely at a loss to help them deal with their frustration. Then when Jonathan yelled at me, I unleashed my own frustration at him and carried him upstairs and plopped him on his bed. I definitely still have a lot to figure out in this whole parenting thing.

We went outside a little later, into the beautiful, unseasonably warm March day. I worked on painting the shutters red, and the kids rode their various riding toys. A better mood prevailed.

Lunchtime, and then Nora's nap. I often read to Jonathan during the first part of Nora's nap and then become so sleepy that I have to take a nap myself. Today was no exception. After Mr. Putter and Tabby Drop the Ball, I found myself curled up on the couch for a fifteen minute nap. Then off to pick Leesi up from school.

On the way home, the kids ride their bikes ahead of me and Nora (in the stroller) and wait at each corner. As I come closer they motion thumbs-up and thumbs-down and wait for me to motion back the thumbs-up or say, "you can go!" Today Nora yelled from the stroller, "You can go, Jonathan, Leesi. You can go."

At home after chores and snacks, the kids watched a video while I worked more on the shutters. When I came back inside, I found them watching a youtube video of "I'm a little teapot" and doing the motions along with it. Leesi was Nora's instructor. "No, hold your arms like this Nora!" "I'm helping her learn the motions. She can't quite do it yet, but we're working on it!" I think that girl may be a teacher some day. I sat and watched some of the other songs with them. "Nora loves these toddler songs," Leesi told me. "Whenever she sees a new one, she just gets so excited and burstess into cuteness!"

I think they all have their moments of bursting into cuteness.

Jonathan has just about the most expressive smiling eyes you've ever seen. He is very loving - loves giving hugs and kisses. When he kisses Nora at night he plucks her paci out of her mouth and says, "Not like that Nora, you're kissing your paci!" He's also very creative. Yesterday he gave me a trophy he had made out of construction paper with a heart at the top. "What is this for?" I asked. "Best Mommy ever trophy?" He thought about it for a second and then agreed, "Yep." He loves doing the crafts at preschool, and always thinks of extra little touches to put on them. He's definitely an original. I rarely see him copying others in how he does his artwork. He has his own ideas. He's smart about how things work. There have been two times in the last couple weeks that Leesi has tried to do something unsafe and he has tried to stop her because he knew that she would get hurt. The first time, I heard him yelling at her and came to see what was going on just in time to stop some kind of laundry basket off of the back of the chair scenario. The second time, I wasn't around and Leesi didn't listen to Jonathan and she ended up with two big owies on her inner thighs from some kind of fall off of/onto the front porch railing. Later, she told Greg, "Jonathan tried to stop me, but I didn't listen." And Jonathan told me, "I knew she would get hurt because the wood was wider than the other piece." I didn't quite know what he meant, but I know that he understood it all perfectly.

Leesi is a school girl now. She likes school and is the model student while she's there. Sometimes I worry that she puts too much pressure on herself to be "good." When she comes home, sometimes all her "good" has been exhausted and she snaps and becomes easily frustrated. But I know she loves school and is learning a lot. She is an excellent and voracious reader. She loves library, music, and gym. She is very responsible. I can almost always count on her to follow the rules, and to make sure that her brother and sister are following them too. She has turned into an excellent hula hooper. She even puts on shows for us involving hula hooping and reading from a joke book at the same time. She can be very silly at home, but I don't know if she lets herself be too silly in public. Only around people with whom she's extremely comfortable. She is best buddies with Jonathan which sometimes means they fight. And she is extremely maternal, loving, and patient with Nora.

Nora is teetering on the brink of big girl. Sometimes she insists that she's the baby. Other time she tells me, "I not a baby!" Today I put her hair in a pony tail. That definitely makes her look grown up. She is funny. She copies whatever her brother and sister say, especially the things that get a laugh. Because of this, one of her favorite phrases right now is, "Poopin' with my bottom!" said in a sing-song kind of way. She has been extremely outgoing at certain times in life, but right now she seems like she's going to be shy. She's starting to seem timid about new people and experiences. She's still loud at home though. She demands attention, and she knows she has to compete to get it! She sometimes screams when she's angry or frustrated. Just a loud, shrill scream. I don't remember the other kids doing that. Maybe I've blocked it out of my memory. But the next moment she is just the cutest thing ever. She just "bursts into cuteness!"

With these three to keep me busy I know that the next few months will fly by and baby #4 will be here before I know it. Mostly I feel completely overwhelmed at the thought of another one. But excited too... in a "I think I'm a little bit crazy" kind of way.

Signs of Christmas

Last year my friend, Becca, brought us a nativity scene from Haiti. It was so fun to get it out this Christmas and play with it a little. The kids have been loving it.

Nora told me that the little girl with the aqua colored shirt was "No-a." She figured out which figure represented each of us in the family too. 

Thanks, Aunt Becca!

Jonathan says...

Jonathan on meat:
"I don't like cutted up killed animals, but I do like chicken nuggets."

Jonathan on using the hot glue gun:
"I really like using this weapon."

Thanksgiving 2014

What a Thanksgiving! 

Here are the numbers: 

11 people plus 2 dogs stayed at our house for 2 nights.

There were 15 of us at Thanksgiving dinner.

No shortage of pie. All told we had 9 pies. 

(4 pumpkin, 2 pecan, 1 marionberry, 1 mincemeat, 1 cherry)

A full table.

John and Elisa with the lego turkey. Gobble, Gobble.

Yum! Pie!

Grammy and Nora work on cinnamon roll turkeys with bacon tail feathers. 

It was very fun. I was worried that the house might feel really crowded. But it didn't. At least, not to me! It was fun to have everyone at our house for a change. Everyone pitched in with the cooking, so I didn't feel overwhelmed by that at all. A family from our church joined us, which was great. Our kids had a blast playing with their kids. And it is always so fun to watch the kiddos enjoy being with their grandparents, and aunt & uncle. Aunt Kristine is teaching Leesi to knit. So that is a fun bonding experience for them. And Uncle John brings legos that they can work on together. This time they made a lego turkey together as well as the cutest little snowman and reindeer. Lots to be thankful for!

Everyday Moments

Haven't been much of a blogger for a couple of years now. I've been... well, busy. But also, I guess I've been a little more introspective (I didn't really think that was possible)... and a little less willing or able to process all of what I've been thinking about in a semi-public setting. I keep thinking about this quote I heard, something like, "Don't seek to be heard. Seek to have something worth saying." So, I've been working on my soul. Working on having something worth saying. 

But in looking back at my blog I find that I love reading through the thoughts about my kiddos. That has made me think that I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel on blogging yet. So... here goes. 

Here are some of our everyday moments from this fall.

Jonathan loved discovering that there was an apple with his name. We bought quite a few apples at the farm stand and decided to have our own mini apple tasting (since we can't go to the big Portland Nursery apple tasting anymore). Of course, the Jonathans were Jonathan's favorite. 

Leesi now goes to the school down the street. So most days we walk/ride bikes home from school. I love that half hour of being outside each day. It's such a beautiful walk down the tree-lined sidewalk, then around the block by the school. Once we get next to the school I'm always worried about Jonathan hitting someone on his bike. We are working on good bike manners. It's slow-going. He is such a good little bike rider, but still a little crazy.

  

The tree-lined street sure does make for a lot of leaves in the yard. Luckily the kids like to help rake. Nora didn't want to be left out. The big kids had rakes, and so she needed a rake too. She headed to the garage and found her own "rake" (aka paint roller) so that she could help out. 

This picture was not staged. Each kid is studiously reading their book that they chose at the school's book fair. Cracked me up... especially Elisa, laying down on the step. That Elisa is quite the reader.

This year has brought some interesting changes. I now get regular alone time with Jonathan and Nora. Now that Jonathan's in preschool, I get to hang out with just Nora on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. And every day during Nora's nap it's just me and Jonathan. It's nice getting to spend a little extra alone time with these kids who aren't used to getting my undivided attention. Wednesday mornings are always Bible Study mornings though, so I don't really hang out with Nora too much. This picture was taken on the walk back to the car after Bible Study. I loved these yellow leaves.

The other day Nora came into the kitchen with her arms all "tattooed." Leesi confessed that she had done it. "What?!? She wanted me to! Well, she did say 'owie, owie' but she got through it." 

A Step on the Spiritual Journey

Tonight Jonathan asked if the Holy Spirit could see out of your body. You know, because if the Holy Spirit is inside of you, then can He see out?

We had talked a couple days ago about having a soft heart toward God. We were talking about the story of the Exodus and how Pharaoh hardened his heart and kept saying, "No, you can't go!" even after God took away the plagues. So I thought he might get the idea of the soft/hard heart. But when I asked him if he thought I was talking about your actual heart inside your body he said yes. So I knew he needed more concrete language. So then we talked about following Jesus and obeying him.

We talked about how sometimes when Jonathan or Leesi is upset about something, or is being disobedient I will call them to come and talk to me. I hold out my arms and beckon them to come and sit on my lap. Sometimes they come and we can talk about it and figure it out together. Other times they turn away and refuse to come to me. I think one of the most important things in following God is repeatedly coming to Him, not turning away from Him but being open and surrendered to Him... in whatever place we find ourselves. That's how I envision the soft heart... the child who doesn't turn away when called to come to the parent waiting with open arms.

So, tonight when I was putting Jonathan to bed, I asked him if he wanted to pray and tell Jesus that he wanted to follow him and obey him and become part of God's family. He said yes and then prayed, "Thank you God that we got to ride on the diesel tractor.... and I want to follow you and obey you..." It was very sweet. After he prayed he launched into questions about different scenarios with trains that I had a really hard time following.

I think that it is important that Jonathan had a soft heart toward the Holy Spirit and wanted to tell Jesus that he wanted to follow Him. But I have changed my attitude about this aspect of the spiritual life. I no longer think that becoming a Christian is about praying one certain prayer, and then you're good. You have a ticket to heaven. I am now starting to believe that faith is more of a process. Becca expressed it beautifully the other day. She said that as we go through life we say, "I give all I know of me, to all I know of God." As we grow and mature we know more of ourselves and more of God, so there is more to give, and more to experience. This is a step for Jonathan, one step on the spiritual journey of giving himself more and more to the God he knows more and more.

I still sometimes worry about my inadequacies in guiding my children in their faith. But the more I see of God's goodness the more I am able to lay down my fears about all aspects of life, even this one.