Six hours is a long time...

Six Hours....that's how long I have to wait to see my boy after walking him to school in the morning. Some days I feel it more than others. I do have to admit, however, that the house is a bit more quiet during the day with just the girls around. A few days before school started I asked the big guy how he felt about starting school and being gone all day and this is what he said: " I have two different feelings about it. "First, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun. And second, I feel like I'm going to really miss you while I'm at school so long, " his eyes sort of tearing up. I told him that I felt exactly the same way.
Today we stopped and talked to Mrs. Krantz, his kindergarten teacher. She asked him how first grade was going and then said that she has been hearing a lot of good things about him from his new teacher, Mrs. Mckeon. My big guys response, "Awww shucks." lol.

Now you know why I miss him so much.

Something Missing?

My children have been sick, I have been sick and my husband has been working a lot trying to get an entire school district's computer systems prepared for a new year of learning. My whole house is tired. I can see it sagging, drooping, ready for a nap. But first, the dishes, the laundry, the crying little one...oh, she's really hot. Where is the Motrin?

So, here I am at 11:59 p.m. sitting at the computer writing out a post just to say, I am really weak on my own. I admit it. I am weak. I need this: "grace." Though they are miserable, we all need times like this to remind us of our frailty and the strength of a God who knows we are weak. I don't know everything about God. In fact, to be honest, I have a lot of questions. But I do know this: I need to know my Creator. My spirit yearns for my Maker, the living God.

For The Love Of An Astrodroid

The past two nights before bed my youngest daughter (22 months) has been repeating a prayer that goes like this, "Ga, d-2, amen." Yes, the Speedbuggy is interceding for R2 D2. She is absolutely intrigued by the little Star Wars astrodroid. One day while strolling through Krogers she spotted a Pepsi display that was a life-size replica of good ol' R2 filled with bottles of the cold, refreshing beverage. She ran up to it with open arms crying out, " D2! D2!" Don't you just love it when your kid does something really cute in public? It sure beats the "We're almost through the check out line and I don't want to sit in the cart a minute longer wail and cling routine." Thanks R2, you're a real hero.

Summer Pictures!

Here's a few photos of our summer. We put this swingset together just before our vacation so the kids got to swing while I packed!

And a close up of the beautiful three:

A few of my favorites from the garden:


Every Kansas girl needs some sunflowers, even when she lives in Michigan! Ours have gotten huge. The tallest must be at least nine feet tall. It is really amazing to watch something that big grow in a season from a tiny seadling pushing up through the soil to a really awe-inspiring flower. My children call them trees.

One more...I can't resist adding this breath-taking sunset captured by a good friend on a recent vacation in Charlevoix, Michigan..It's too beautiful not to share.
(Thanks, Stephanie!)

Our Weekend Project

We had a lovely and exhausting visit in Kansas with my family. After visiting my brother in Missouri, we made our way to take a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine in Baldwin, Ks. Then we went on to visit family in my hometown. It was especially great staying with my twin sister and her family in their new house. They have been really blessed with a charming old house full of character and plenty of space for a growing family. It's a beautiful home. Our kids were particularly taken with the train table my brother-in-law built for their little ones. Our little Speedbuggy, 22 months, loves Thomas and has ignited her brother and sister's interest in trains as well. All we needed was inspiration! This weekend Luke and I built our own train table for the kids. It was a fun project. It has a sturdy white laminate board for the table top and we also have a dry erase board that fits the frame. I am really pleased with the way it turned out and especially excited about all the uses a table like this can have for years to come: trains, blocks, legos, puzzles, playdoh..etc. What a great investment!

Now That's Good Soup

In response to recieving a warm bowl of chicken and rice soup for lunch today, my four-year-old daughter said, "It's a nice day today, a pleasant day indeed."

I don't want anything

This has been a very busy July. In the course of one week we had two back yard campouts celebrating July 4th, had the family over for more celebrating, made our weekly storytime outing, went to a really fun magic show, spent a day at the beach, made an evening outing to the local free concert series to hear some great folk music and let the kids dance their hearts out on the huge amphitheater lawn and made a yummy, messy icecream stop on the way home. Then a wedding and reception on Saturday rounded out our week. We've had a lot of fun and the kids have made many interesting comments about our various adventures. But one heartfelt declaration from our middle child made me stop and smile really big:

We have a princess at our house, she's four years old and like most four-year-old's she has a running list of things she wants. So we often talk about learning to be content, being thankful for what we have. I spent Saturday evening at a wedding reception watching our little princess in her favorite lilac-colored floor-length dress dancing blissfully, gracefully , ballerina-like to the music for over an hour with few breaks, and then only to come over to hear me say how beautifully she danced, then returning to the floor with a glowing , contented smile. Later that night, as I helped her get jammied and tucked into bed, she looked up at me and said in a dreamy sort of way,
"After all that dancing tonight, I don't feel like a want anything anymore."

We all know that things don't make us content. Things are just things. (I know, really profound, hey?") The Princess learned something Saturday night that I could not have taught her with words, because she felt it...the joy of just being. She has found inherent to who she is a love for music and dance, just as she has found that same joy in paint and play-dough. She is not My Little Pony or Disney Princesses, those things she wants. She is a created soul who finds joy in being the soul God created. It is my job to give her opportunities to experience that joy in the midst of cultural distractions that try to make us believe that things will make us happy.

True peace? True joy? True happiness?: Knowing the Creator and knowing what He created us for.

Thanks, Granny Meg

We have been outside for the past two weeks enjoying the sunshine and splashing in water, planting flowers and pulling weeds, sliding and swinging and eating ice-cream. We love Summer time and we love the library, especially in the summer. One day, as my children and I made ourselves at home in the children's section of our local public library, one older man noticed us and ask me, "Did you enjoy the library as a child?" I smiled and couldn't resist sharing a few library memories. I remember, as a child, going to summer storytime at the library around the corner from our house. Meg Stauffer, loved and known by all the children in my hometown as Granny Meg, was the storytime lady for decades.

Recently, I recall reading a notice in the paper that Granny Meg was celebrating her 90th birthday and as far as I know still reading books to little children. Granny Meg is one of those people who leaves a lasting impression on everyone she comes in contact with and has touched the lives of countless children who attended storytime at our little library. As a very young child, I remember a creaking old one-room school house that held our town library. We sat in the basement on little rugs and listened intently to Granny Meg's story-telling.

A few years later, the old library was moved to make way for a new library. My sister, brother, the boy next door and I spent many hours in a flooded soon-to-be parking lot, fishing out tadpoles. We walked home with a stack of books in one arm and a jar of pollywogs in the other. When we were too old for storytime, we spent one summer mastering our stilt-walking skills on a few pairs of rugged home-made stilts my dad had put together for us. I remember walking around on those two and three-foot-high stilts when the Ringling Brothers and Barnum-Bailey Circus made its yearly animal walk past our street to the Coliseum a few miles away. We were pretty proud of our skills. Granny Meg recognized our enthusiasm and asked us to demonstrate our stilt-walking for the little kids at storytime.

I started to take an interest in poetry in my early teenage years and spent many hours up a tree in front of our house pouring over library copies of Tennyson, Wordsworth, and Longfellow. It was the words that I loved. In 1993, when my twin sister and I were preparing to graduate from high school, two packages arrived for us. We opened them to find a simple, yet lovingly-made ceramic nativity in each box and a little note from Granny Meg. She remembered...She remembered us all. We weren't the only storytime children Granny Meg remembered. I have other storytime friends who proudly display a Granny Meg nativity every year at Christmas.... Just as I still do. Thank you, Granny Meg. My children love the library too.

Everything I Need to Know..... I learned while my son was in Kindergarten.

My son graduated from kindergarten yesterday. I learned a few things this year, too. My son's kindergarten teacher uses a lapel-microphone. Now that's a great idea. She never has to raise her voice and incredibly with a class full of 5 and 6 years olds maintains an even and pleasant tone. Mrs. Krantz is somewhat of a celebrity in our house. Since the girls and I walked Samuel around the corner to school in the mornings and walked back to pick him up at noon, my 4-year-old daughter was always excited to see Mrs. Krantz, who often greeted the girls by name. Sending my first-born off to school was really tough, but I know he had a good experience. Even so, I'm glad to have my son home with me all day for the Summer!

Wynken, Blynken and Nod

A few years ago, while browsing through records at a local resale shop, I came across an old LP that I remember spending many hours listening to as a child. I snatched it up in hopes that someday I would be able to share the story with my own kids. This weekend my precious in-laws gave us a stereo with a turn-table! So yesterday the kids and I must have listened to Wynken, Blynken and Nod at least three times through, among a few other oldies I brought out. It was so fun introducing them to the old vinyl records. My kids love hearing stories about when I was small and I love giving them little glimpses of my childhood. Hearing those nostalgic crackles in the background brought back sweet memories of sitting up on the huge old woodgrain stereo in our dining room listening to my favorite records. (Bullfrogs and Butterflies and Down By the Creek Bank were some others that got a lot of play time.) Our stereo was completely equipped with turn-table, eight-track and radio. Oh yea, those were the days. Our new stereo is about one-fourth the size of that old dinosaur and it offers CD, dual-tape deck, radio and turn-table....But you can't sit on it. They just don't make them like they used to.

Just a quick thought for today: I have found that sharing stories from my childhood always makes a connection with my kids. Try it! It's nice for them to know you were really a kid...and that you remember. (: