A Family, Part Deux

After a fun filled day in St. Louis, we headed north to Bears country.  Land of the White Sox, or Cubs if you roll that way.  The windy city - or windy, raining and FREEZING as our week turned out to be. 

Navy Pier was high priced, but a highly entertaining way to spend the afternoon - which turned out to be the only afternoon that it wasn't raining.  It was really beautiful.   

Who doesn't love rides and popcorn and a toddler dancing on the boardwalk?  And by toddler I'm referring to our toddler, who danced like crazy to the piped in music and made people laugh.  But then I tripped him accidentally and he fell on the concrete.  Why does the fun always have to end?   I digress....

There was true joy visible in our children on this outing.  No, we don't need to do anything extravagant or expensive to see that joy.  We see it everyday as they discover new things and play together.  But taking in the Chicago skyline while having cheese popcorn covered fingers always helps. 

About to enter the tourist zone.....

Riding the Ferris wheel

Once again, not afraid of heights like his Mom.

Riding the wheel and looking sweet.

Ella (in pink) gleefully riding the swings

that make me want to puke just watching....

 I think this one is my favorite. 

Owen runs away when I try to take his picture,

but not after playing 18 holes of mini golf with Daddy. 

BEST DAY EVER!!!!

 This wasn't even posed. 

 Adorable.....watching a water fountain.

A Family, Part One

This family of 5 doesn't get out much.  An attempt is always made to have family dinners and work on projects together over the weekends.  But with Jason's busy job and 1 hour commute, there can be a lack of time for good old family fun.  

The first two days of our trip to Chicago were all about us.  We saw the sites.  We went up really high in the sky.  We got a parking ticket.  That part stunk, but I'm over it.  We frolicked in the grass.  We pushed our comfort level.  It was all really great, except that parking ticket part.  And the part where thousands of people playing soccer took all the hotel rooms in the area kind of stunk too.  I felt like Mary and Joseph without the with-child thing and the donkey and the ending was different.  After needing to stop for ice cream to drowned our woes, we found a hotel room.  It all worked out for the greater good.  

Our first stop was The St. Louis Gateway Arch.  A national monument was a great place to start.  We learned all kind of facts like how tall it is (630 feet) and how long it took to build (2.5 years) and that it can sway 1 inch in 20 mph wind.  I had to google that information because I had forgotten the details and my encyclopedia of a daughter is already in bed.  Why does she remember these things and I don't?  I'm old.  

Two fun Sam memories stick out from that day: calling a stuffed buffalo in the Arch museum a "buffamo" over and over; then as we ate dinner at Union Station, he watched a woman who worked in the food court sweep under his high chair and he promptly said, "Thank you!".  This dear woman was shocked and told him that he made her day.  Classic toddler talk is always endearing.  

I am so thankful that my children haven't inherited, or yet developed, my fear of heights.  Thankfully, the camera is in my hands and I had something much more wonderful to view, those little cherubs. Here are some photo highlights from St. Louis:

Owen took this one while standing directly under the Arch.  Yup, we're going up there.

You want me to ride it what to get to the top?  They made me get in this tiny little pod and ride for 4 minutes.  They MADE me do it.  Those kids are so mean.  Don't they look mean? 

 Sam looking out the view windows from the top - watching the barges on the Mississippi. 

The backsides of my children as they lay on the viewing area looking down 643 feet.

Owen thinks it's pretty cool. 

A crazy shadow on the Mississippi. 

 Ella and the monument.  Both are very dramatic. 

Because I like lying on the ground in public places.....

If Ella wasn't smiling, this may look like something out of COPS.

"I promise kids!  I won't make you do that again!  Now can I please have some ice cream?"

Fortunate

I feel very fortunate.  I feel very blessed.

I suffer from trip anxiety prior to any trip we take.  If it weren't for my very sweet husband, we may not go anywhere.  Ever.

The stress of packing up a family of 5 doesn't bother me (I've made a great computer generated list to make that part easy).  But the planning, getting the animals taken care of,  and remembering to unplug every item in the house to prevent a fire when we are gone starts to wear on me.

What if Sam doesn't nap?

What if he won't nap once we go back home?

What if the kids are crabby the whole time?

What if I forget to remove an item from the refrigerator that rots by the time we get back?

What about all the stuff we need to get done at home?  

What if we spend more than our budgeted amount of money?

Blah, blah, blah....

If this anxiety is timed with a certain week during the month then there will be a major meltdown associated with the pre-trip planning.  It can get ugly.

So here we are, sitting in our hotel room on the 11th floor in a suburb of Chicago.  While Jason is off working as a physicist (I can't even spell that word), Sam is on hour 3 of a nap in the bedroom.  I just woke from a nice slumber in the middle of the day - something I don't ever do back home.  Ella and Owen are starring like zombies at the television.  The only thing they have said in the past 2 hours is, "Mom!  Look what happened to the---" when the t.v. lost a signal for about 3 seconds.  Tragedy.  (I figure since they don't watch t.v. back home that it will all balance out.  Right?)  I just ate a piece of Chicago style pizza left-over from dinner last night.  I ate half of it cold and the rest hot just to see how I liked it better.  It was so good that I would eat it frozen.  Well, you know what I mean.

I can't help think of how fortunate we are to be enjoying the luxury of food and shelter.  It makes my anxiety about taking a trip seem really ridiculous.   I feel so blessed to watch my kiddos sail through long car rides, be in awe of big cities and to see their excitement when we first walked in to our hotel room.  Who am I kidding?  I was the one jumping on the king size bed and doing a happy dance when I saw the little kitchen.   That is the same dance I did when I saw a Target across the parking lot and a Costco 2.7 miles away.

These are all luxuries.  They reach beyond our basic needs by a long shot.  I might still have anxiety about trips, but I hope I can always remember how fortunate we are to take them.

Now off to snuggle with Owen and read some books.  It seems he is actually tired of watching t.v......

Con Te Partiro

 Does this picture make it look like I have been traveling around Paris like my sister has for the past couple of weeks?  Well, I haven't.  You can find everything in Vegas.  

Check the volume on your computer. Good.

Now wait for it....wait for it.....

Four years ago, while Jason and I were visiting our friends in Vegas, we heard Con Te Partiro - the song that my dear friend Mark sang at our wedding.  It played during the light and water show in front of the Bellagio.  Never seen it?  Think the final scene in Oceans Eleven.  Never seen it?  Google it.  It's pretty spectacular.  It is one of our favorite things. 

Hearing this song with Jason was wonderful.  They play all types of music there so we were flooded with la-la-loveland memories of our wedding - since they certainly played it just for the two of us. 

On this trip, sans my hubby, the song began to play just as we were pulling up in front of the Bellagio yet again.  Love it! 

Did you check your volume?  Are you hearing this? 

Here's the English translation:
When I'm alone
I dream on the horizon
And words fail;
Yes, I know there is no light
In a room
Where the sun is not there
If you are not with me.
At the windows
Show everyone my heart
Which you set alight;
Enclose within me
The light you
Encountered on the street.

Time to say goodbye,
To countries I never
Saw and shared with you,
Now, yes, I shall experience them,
I'll go with you
On ships across seas
Which, I know,
No, no, exist no longer;
With you I shall experience them.

When you are far away
I dream on the horizon
And words fail,
And yes, I know
That you are with me;
You, my moon, are here with me,
My sun, you are here with me.
With me, with me, with me,

A Thousand Words

Pictures tell a thousand words.  Or a least a few words.

Like this one from 1997 of me and my dear college friends-

If you are unable to understand the words that are evoked, I will help you.  They go something like this:

1997 version - "We look so nice, wearing our nicest dresses.  We are resident advisers and we are cool."

2011 version- "What were we thinking wearing those outfits?  We look pretty ridiculous.  Except for Jen, because she always looks fantastic. Why did I wear that silly watch with a dress?"

Here are the four of us last weekend in Red Rock Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas - 

Again, I will give you a little commentary:

Bethany: "I am going to teach these ladies how to jump off a mountain."

Sarah: "I am so glad I am not changing diapers right now."

 Kelly: "I love you guys, but this is nuts."

Jen: "Yay!  I love jumping off of things!"

I am so blessed to have these amazing women in my life.  They have been my rock of friendship for the past 15 years.  Our Vegas weekends include long hours sitting at the breakfast table reviewing our lives, lots of laughing and crying (always simultaneously) and looking at old photos that make a cringe.  

This was year #4 of our Vegas convention and this time Bethany offered to teach us how to jump off a mountain while attaching us to ropes.  It sounded interesting.  I was game.

Let us not forget that these 3 friends of mine had all jumped out of an airplane(s) before - an airplane that was flying in the air- because they are not afraid of anything.  I don't even like to fly in an airplane while wearing a seat belt.  And Bethany flies airplanes for her job and has leaped 150 feet off of platforms above gorges for fun....  I think they are all a little more adventurous than me.  

These pictures do tell a story.  Yet what they leave out is one important lesson learned: Trusting yourself is incredibly important. 

Bethany and her amazing husband, David, were our teachers and it was easy to trust them.  They taught us exactly how to manage every step and showed us how the safety measures were being taken to keep us from plummeting to the ground.  That was a helpful lesson. 

Even with total confidence in the system, we had to believe that we could do this.  We had to control the ropes and our speed - and not panic while dangling off the ground.  

After a successful first run, Kelly put the fear in to words.  If we didn't trust ourselves, we couldn't do it.  She was spot on. 

I am so lucky that my life has been full of opportunities to build trust in myself, so that even when I fear, I have my faith in God and I can find the trust in myself to take risks - even when it is difficult.   

Just in case anyone was worried about bodily injury, there was an emergency crew doing a drill that day-so even if all my ropes had failed me -I would have had 30 men running to my rescue.  Hhhmmm... maybe I should have sprained my ankle or something - so that they could practice their rescuing.  All for the greater good, of course.  


Here we all are - jumping off a mountain:

A Christmas With Family

It was a beautiful Christmas celebrating Christ's birth with our family in Minnesota.  We had a  whirlwind trip, full of unanticipated moments that only children can bring.  Like the screams of joy that ensued as we could see downtown Minneapolis approaching on the drive up north.  Or sleeping on the floor next to Owen, who was sick on Christmas Eve - but not too sick to wake up and open up his stocking.  

There were many people who were missed in my picture taking over those crazy two days.  But I am thankful for the memories that were captured on film and those that were not.  We are blessed to have so much love in our lives.  We are thankful for Christ's coming and that we can celebrate His presence each day.  

In order of appearance - some of our moments with family:

Reading books with Auntie Christine

 Ella and Mark

 Ryan, Ella, Owen and Mark

 Owen and Mark....don't they look like trouble? 

 Ryan and Ella

 Auntie Christine and Samuel

 Reading the Advent Story with Ella, Auntie Lisa, Naomi and Owen

 I love all of the different faces in this one!  Lisa, Naomi, Owen and Grandma Sue

 Ella and Auntie Megan

 Ella and Naomi

I'm Back....

As the Pioneer Woman recently blogged, you must tend to your blog as you would your garden. 

My garden is full of weeds and taken over by squash beetles.  I water it when the ground cracks and I am ready to let it go for the winter when it is still 94 degrees outside.  It has rained the last few days - so I have been very happy that I have not been needed in the watering department.  God has taken care of that.  Why won't he just write my blog? 

In my defense of bloglessness, the computer that holds our pictures will not connect to the Internet.  You may know that I love to blog about pictures and without them I feel lifeless, without direction and dramatic.  I realize that I could upload the photos to a jump drive and then download them to the laptop and then upload them again.....but that is too much loading and I just don't feel like it.  I would rather complain that the silly thing isn't working.

It would be a long night to catch up on all that has happened in the past month.  So I have a few points to bring things up to speed as well as my deep thoughts of the day.  In the great words of Princess Bride,  

"No, there is too much. Let me sum up..." 

• We had a fantastic time in Minnesota.  If you have never lived away from a town where all of your family lives, you can't imagine the insanity of trying to spread yourself between every dear person you want to see.  A joy and a challenge.  
• Jason's Grandma Naomi passed away.  We were able to see her in Minnesota while she was in hospice and Jason was able to fly back for her funeral to be with family.  
• We had a week of experiencing hand-foot-mouth disease at our house.  It was about as fantastic as it sounds.  I don't recommend it.  
• Despite the illness, we spent the Labor Day weekend moving in to our newly finished basement and moving Ella to her own room (she's been sleeping on our floor since the end of May).   It was much harder than moving in to the house the first time since we had to unpack every box that had been kept outside in our shed and search for poisonous spiders.  We didn't want them moving in to the basement with our children.   I love organizing, but this was a little intense.  
• Ella and Owen started violin lessons.  Sigh.  
• Ella started home school co-op classes and I meet some fantastic women who didn't care that I was completely overwhelmed the first day.  I feel so blessed by that.  
• I learned that communication and expectations are so very, very important.  I think I knew that before - but God drove it home again. 
• Jason has been working crazy long days at work.  We miss him lately.  
• I joined a wonderful new Bible Study group with other Mom's called Entrusted With a Child's Heart.  I am so excited to get to know the other women - just wish I could learn all the concepts in 15 minutes.  Patience....
 

Our big deal of the week is that I finally kicked off my "official" start to homeschooling for the year (better late than never..??).  Now, I struggle with this concept because we are teaching 24/7 and there is not anything official about it, except to say that I am more organized and documenting things that we cover each day.  Our late start is attributed to my inability to focus on school when the basement was in major transition.  I wanted our office desk back and books unpacked and the house to be a little more "in order" - whatever that means.  

The kids are loving a little more structure and I have come to a fantastic realization: I get more done when I don't multi-task.  Don't get me wrong, I still have to feed the baby while teaching math and putting Owen's pants on (he looses them with regularity).  But when I focus on one major item at a time, life goes on with many more smiles in our house.  

I read an article last year in The Homeschooling Today journal that talked about multi-tasking as a form of anxiety.  It makes sense.  When we can't give our all to one item at a time, we cannot give our best and we cannot enjoy the moments that are meant to be lived - like listening to Ella teach Jason all about volcanoes when he came home from work today, or playing with the kids in the mud after a really good thunderstorm.  

Despite the frequent insanity, I feel incredibly blessed to be at home with my kids all day to learn these lessons...together.