Back to School

Today is our first day of school, but I wrote this post last week and scheduled it to post today, so don't think I'm so on-top-of-everything that I can pull off the first day of school and a blog post on the same day.  Just keepin' it real.

There are two really big changes to school at our house this year.  First, we're trying out a for-real schedule.  As in, each subject has its own starting and stopping time like a brick-and-mortar school.  Of course, I'm going to be flexible, knowing that keeping a schedule with a 2-year-old involved is a farce.  But we have to have some kind of structure or school will take all day and nobody will be happy (especially the teacher).  So we're going to try this and see how it goes.  Please pray.

Secondly, and much more tragic, we are doing away with quiet time.  I know I'm going to go through all the stages of grief over this one.  Since A was tiny, I've had at least some point in my day when everybody was either asleep or playing quietly in their room for a fixed amount of time so that mommy could regroup and stay sane.  All my friends know that our day revolves around quiet time.  Can't do play dates during quiet time, gotta be done before or start after.  Quiet time has been sacred around here.  

But again, I don't want to be doing school at supper or after, and Z is not going to play happy for all of the sit-down, reading types of subjects we have this year.  I have to use his nap time to get some of them done or it will be pulling teeth.  Please pray.

If everything goes (relatively) smoothly today, I might have energy to post back-to-school pics for your enjoyment.  If you don't hear from me again for another month, though, well...at least you'll know why.

Our Family Road Trip - Part 3

We only spent three nights in Florida and then it was time to head home.  We made much better progress getting out of Florida than we had coming in and decided to press on to Mobile before stopping.  This time, we stopped at the Alabama welcome center and made sure to crank up the "Sweet Home Alabama" as we pulled away.

We psyched ourselves up for finishing the drive the next day instead of splitting into two days.  We knew it would be a slog, but we would sleep in our own beds at the end of it.  I called the hotel in Lake Charles where we had made reservations and they were happy to cancel our room, but we "would still have to pay since it is less than 24 hours in advance of the stay. "  That was a new one for us.  All the other hotels had let us cancel as long as we called before 3pm the day of our stay.  We decided to go ahead and use it since we would be paying for it.  

That was a really good decision.  I got online (hooray for travel with a smartphone!) and found a promising park in Lake Charles where we could spend the afternoon.  It was epic!  Just look at that playscape!  

And a splash pad to make everything bearable.  We all changed in the restroom, went and got soaking wet, then explored the playground.  After we dried out, we went back and ran in the fountains before going to play again.  It was really good to have a fun experience on the road instead of just at our destination.  

The next morning, we finished our trek home.  We had to stop at the Texas welcome center and get the best photo yet.  Those last few hours were soooo long, even if we were on home turf.  

Overall, the trip went so much better than I expected.  It wasn't until we were coming back into Texas that the girls finally said, "I'm bored."  By that point, we were willing to let them zone out to movies for the remainder of the trip.  It went so well that J and I even started planning our next road trip.  This time, I get to pick the destination and it won't be a beach.  And if I can help it at all, it won't be in August.  

The end!

Our Family Road Trip - Part 2

On day 3 of our trip, we arrived at our destination mid-afternoon, dropped our luggage at the condo and went to meet "the Germans" as we affectionately refer to H's big family.  They were very welcoming and lavished us with gifts and a Texas-sized bbq cook-out at their condo.  

After a good night's sleep, we hit the beach early the next day.  I was so proud of our girls!  They did lightyears better with the ocean than they did last year.  Instead of panicking and climbing us like trees, they were begging for us to go out with them and bob in the waves.  Bobbing in the waves, by the way, is very difficult to photograph with any clarity.

We went back to the condo for lunch and J took the girls to meet up with the Germans at their part of the beach while Z and I took a little snooze.  Then we all lounged around the pool at their condo, which was also a huge hit with my kids (surprisingly enough).  The outlet mall was calling to the international crowd, so we tagged along and let the girls shop for a souvenir there.  Three guesses what they got.  More stuffed animals.

The next day we decided to catch the free trolley to the tip of the island and see what shops we could check out while we waited for the houseful of German teenagers to get moving.  This was a good idea, in theory.  We mailed some postcards, ate some ice cream, walked the pier, then caught the trolley again only to get off a little earlier than we should have.  Friends, do not vacation in Florida in August if you are hoping to escape Texas heat.  The wait for the next trolley included dripping sweat, a little sunburn, two kids in ant beds, some warm tap water, and a whole lot of whining.  When we (finally!) got on the next trolley, J decided that would be a good time to take pictures.  The smiles below are totally fake.

But we ended up at a little shop near our condo where we bought more postcards and.....one more stuffed animal.  At least this time it was a fish, something sort of related to our location.  

We spent that evening having dinner with the Germans and trying to squeeze in meaningful conversation between kid distractions at a restaurant.  I do wish we had been able to spend more time with H's sweet family.  That is our take-away for the proverbial "next time"....spend less time getting wherever we are going and more time being there.  

To be continued...

Our First Road Trip - Part 1

Our little family got home about a week ago from our first BIG road trip...almost 2500 miles round trip.  That's a lot of miles for kids who are used to walking to Grandma's house.  Our exchange daughter, H, told us her family was planning a huge trip to the U.S. and we started scheming about meeting them.  We didn't know when we would have another chance to meet her parents and siblings.  They were headed to Florida, so off we went for another beach trip.

Since there are lots of fun pics to share (and I know that's what you really want to see), I'm breaking up my report into installments.  You'll have to keep coming back to finish the trip with us.

I spent lots of time and energy prepping, hoping that I could stave off the car crazies for 30+ hours in the car.  Our most valuable weapon in this fight was none other than my 17-yr-old niece, R, who earned her room and board by playing countless games of tic-tac-toe, passing snacks to the back seat, retrieving thrown toys, breaking up arguments, officiating trips to the bathroom, bunking on a sleeper sofa, and listening to songs from the Cars soundtrack more times than we want to admit.  If you are planning a long road trip, I highly recommend you pack yourself a responsible teenager.  

I packed picnic foods and we planned to eat on the road, taking in the sites along the way.  Our first stop at the Trinity River Island Recreation Area made my homeschool heart proud.  We went in to the visitor's center, explored the exhibits, learned about the animals that call the marshy area home, then schlepped our stuff to a picnic table for lunch.  Before Jeremy even got to the sidewalk, I was yelling to him, "Go back!  Go back!  The mosquitos are the size of wasps!"  Don't picnic by a swampy river in Texas.  We had our picnic closer to the building where we were only occasionally assaulted by a daredevil dragonfly, but we all agreed that picnics for lunch were a bad idea because of the crazy heat.  

Our next stop was just down the road at the Louisiana welcome center.  Then another stop at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete which boasts a live tiger on site.  He was there alright, sleeping away in the heat like any animal in their right mind should have been doing.  After all those stops, we slogged on for a few hours, skipping the Mississippi welcome center.  We made it to our hotel in Gulfport and tucked everyone in.

We were excited about waking up in Gulfport and going just down the road to Biloxi and touring their lighthouse.  Unfortunately, we failed to see on their website that tours were only offered from 9-9:30am every day due to the heat.  No, it's probably not a good idea to be inside a large metal can when it hits 100 degrees.  So we only got to see it from the outside.  Bummer, but still really beautiful. 

Then we got our first glimpse at the girls' attitudes about the ocean.  They were actually excited and eager to get in the water!  I could not have predicted such a totally opposite reaction from last year's beach fright fest.

We stopped briefly in Alabama to buy postcards and souvenirs.  We overpaid for stuffed animals that had nothing to do with the part of the world we were in.

We made it to Florida and were so excited to be finally "be" in the right state!  Everyone knew we were stopping in Tallahassee and would have to finish the trip the next day, but we were still so happy to be in Florida.  

Florida takes their highway beauty very seriously.  Huge pine and oak trees line the interstate, lush green grass, blue skies, nary a billboard, building, or residence to be seen.  For miles and miles and miles.  It was a perpetual treadmill of trees.  Then bam! Town. And more trees.  J decided he didn't drive all the way to Florida to stare at trees, so he found an alternate route that traced the coast in hopes of getting a glimpse of the ocean as we drove.  Not so.  Even the coastal route was a tree treadmill, just dotted with more rural towns and sketchier gas stations.  

It was somewhere along this rural route that we stopped to eat at Emily's roadside diner.  I'm pretty sure our waitress' name was Flo.  The kids all thought it was a hoot with the Hollywood decor and folding tables.  It will always be remembered as the place where C picked Elvis' nose.

To be continued...

Kickin' Off the Summer

We've been busy finishing up school for the year with all that means.  Our last day was Thursday and we did a quick celebration with some cupcakes and an attempt at making sno-cones with a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (epic fail!).  Then I quickly shooed the children to play so I could get busy preparing for our next guests.

I'm very excited that we have the opportunity to host a mama and baby from Bolivia through Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project.  Baby B arrives tonight with her mom and a translator.  They will be with us for about two weeks while she has heart surgery to repair a birth defect.  We are blessed to share the hosting with another family who will house Baby B during the post-surgery recovery weeks.

It's always a big task to prepare for guests, but I really enjoy sharing my home.  This time we'll get a crash course in Bolivian culture and pediatric cardiology.  I hope to have time to give you updates and share God-stories as we witness them.  Such an exciting way to kick off our summer!

Our Week

I was so happy that the fever virus that had been plaguing C decided to give up on Sunday night.  This meant we could give the green light to our friends who had been planning to visit from out of state.  How cool is it that we're still friends with J's college roommate and his family?!  I'm always impressed when friendships survive different seasons of life, different countries, and different milestones.  

We were able to hang out and visit Monday evening, then spent the day downtown eating good tex-mex and visiting the children's museum.  They had to leave on Wednesday, but not before making us some yummy pancakes and waxing philosophical about gender equality as expressed in the manufacture of legos.  Good times.

Yesterday was a blur of trying to catch up on schoolwork missed, laundry unfolded and toys scattered.  Today we got to participate in the egg hunt at a local nursing home where we volunteer.  Tomorrow we dye eggs with the cousins, then Sunday we'll have lunch and an egg hunt after church.  Full days, full hearts.  Tired mama.  Good night!

Dropping Like Flies

So that little virus Z has?  I think I got the short-lived part (hopefully), but we're dropping like flies around here.  C was up last night, then ran high fevers this afternoon.  It finally occurred to us that J's "allergy" symptoms sounded similar to the girls' complaints all week....headache, sore throat, and feeling run-down.  He might be the next to fall.

Fortunately, Z is perking up and his symptoms are slowing down.  Maybe it's a weird mix of a couple or three things?  I'm baffled.  And quite frankly, sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Having sick little ones though always make me count my blessings.  I have great access to good medicine, good doctors and good information.  I have family and friends who can help if the need arises.  And Netflix just released the third season of My Little Pony, so a screen marathon really couldn't have come at a better time.  (No lie...A did her own personal happy dance when she realized there were new episodes.  It was a little funny and a little scary.)

Praying we all hold steady or improve through the night.

Today

I confess that I cannot achieve the level of blog posts I aspire to.  Every time I want to sit down to write, my brain begs for downtime if no one else is begging for a piece of me.  But I'd still like to blog.  So I'm taking a cue from Missy over It's Almost Naptime and attempting shorter posts.  (I don't know Missy, but I'd like to.  And I'm not even going to pretend that my plate runneth over like hers does right now.)

Today, A went to her one-day enrichment co-op that we like to call "Wednesday school."  She has classes in art, Spanish, P.E., drama, character building, and music.  It's good exposure to classroom behavior and learning from someone other than mom.

While she's away, I try to have some preschool time at the house, though it is so hard to resist plugging them into a screen so I can accomplish something that appears more productive.  We compromised today.  I de-cluttered the living room while they scattered rice in my kitchen.

When A got home, we turned right around for our first return-to-gymnastics class.  The girls really enjoyed gymnastics last spring, but we chose to drop when money got tight.  When we got the wiggle room in the budget again, the girls were eager to go back.  C couldn't stop hopping through the whole class.  She stayed where she was supposed to and got nice comments about good listening, but she was so excited she could not be still.

Z's got a little tummy bug that made last night interesting.  I'm praying it's short-lived and contained to one host.

That's us.  How are you?

Things I Learned from a German Teenager

Today marks one week since we took H to the airport for her return flight to Germany.  It was a very emotional send-off. I was surprised that A was the one shedding crocodile tears instead of C.  I think A understood the finality of the situation more than C.  Even J shed a few tears.  We all got pretty attached to this wonderful girl and will always share a special connection with her family.

In case your family might be interested in hosting an exchange student, I wanted to hit a few of the highlights that we're talking away from this experience (in no particular order):

1. Letting go is really hard.  The goal of parenting is to raise independent adults, so you have to let them fly away.  Right now, I can't imagine literally letting mine fly away to another part of the world.  It was hard enough to watch another mother's child walk through airport security and turn around to wave.
2. Peanut butter is addictive.  I'm proud to say we got her hooked.
3. These days are long, but the years are short.  Teenager schedules can be grueling with all they're involved in.  That makes the time fly even faster.  Before you know it, the games, practices, sleepovers, rehearsals are suddenly over and the calendar reflects the void. 
4. It takes a village.  We bit off a smidge more than we could chew on several occasions and relied on family, neighbors, and friends to bail us out.  Big thanks to all our chauffeurs and babysitters!
5. The world is big, and very close.  We brought another culture into our home and we were more alike than different.
6. Hide-and-seek translates, and builds bridges between cultures and ages.
7. It is possible to raise a respectful, thoughtful teenager.  I'm holding out hope that she wasn't just being nice because she was a guest and that my kids might treat their own mother the same way some day.  Don't burst my bubble.
8. Girls start dancing before they can walk and apparently never stop.  That girl danced around the house, on the stage, in the aisles of WalMart.  Never did find her a tutu, though.
9. Little girls get really attached to big girls.  I underestimated how much they would admire her and cling to her.  
10. God is faithful.  Starting with the way He matched us up with H, to some of our last-minute conversations together, God was all over this experience.  

We had a great experience with H as our first exchange student.  When we do it again, the next student will have a lot to live up to!  We'll definitely do it again, but might wait a few years for the age gap to close some.  If you are at all curious about hosting an exchange student, feel free to hit me up with questions.  I highly recommend every bit of it, except the saying goodbye.  

bis zum nächsten Mal, H!  wir lieben dich!  (And no, I didn't capitalize that correctly.  I hope google translate got the words right.)

Changing Rides

For the last four years, our family has ridden the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship, with exciting highs that take your breath away and scary lows that make you want to close your eyes.  My husband is a remarkable man, gifted with the confidence to make every twist and turn smooth and carefree.  His capacity for learning new things, solving hard problems and negotiating relationships keeps him ahead of the game.  And though his capacity is far beyond what anyone else I know can absorb, he too has a limit.  You can read his own words about leaving Snoball on his blog.

So we found ourselves stepping off the self-employment roller coaster and settling into more of a traditional ride.  He didn't have to search long before companies started lining up to interview him.  I'm not the only one that recognizes something special in him.  At the end of November, he started a new job with Indeed.com.  I had never even heard of them, but they are apparently the largest job search engine on the web, even surpassing monster.com.  Shows how long I've been out of the loop.

His title is "labs hacker."  Doesn't that sound like him?  If I understand it correctly, his team comes up with new solutions to site-wide problems, and makes sure they work on a small subset of the traffic.  Then they pass it off to the development team to make it work site-wide, and start on a new problem.  So he gets to learn new things and solve hard problems without the CEO-ness that never really fit comfortably.

We were riding the roller coaster together and I was excited with him, but I felt the weight of it too.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a smidge relieved to step off.  I know we'll take that ride again sometime.  He has way too many incredible ideas to not try it again.  But we all need some time to recuperate. And I'm equally as excited to see him have the opportunity to decompress some and get out from under what was never intended to be a burden.

Only God knows where this new adventure will lead.  But I don't think it will be quite so white-knuckled.  I'm honored to be a passenger with the man that is immeasurably more than I could have asked or imagined when I prayed for a husband.

Where Ya Been?

In the blurry haze of culture shock that results from adding a teenager to an already busy household, that's where I've been.

We are really enjoying H and the new things we are learning about what we do differently, what we have in common, her country's traditions, our country's traditions, parenting teenagers, having a big sister, and making the most of every opportunity.  I've told several friends that the culture shock of adding a teenager has really been greater than that of introducing a different country.  And she has been such a trooper when early bedtimes or nap time or early risers have complicated plans.  C calls her "my BSBFF - Big Sister, Best Friend Forever."  We are all going to miss her sorely come February, so let's not talk about that right now.

So far, she has (either with us, friends or relatives)....
*tackled (and excelled at) American high school, including AP English, Pre-Cal, and Chemistry (does anyone read The Scarlet Letter outside of high school?)
*attended several high school football games (the team is now in state quarterfinals!)
*landed a free homecoming dress, made a homecoming mum, and attended homecoming dance
*experienced the most organized family reunion in the state of Texas along with a spontaneous first for said family reunion--line dancing!
*marveled at Houston roadways
*toured the Johnson Space Center
*ridden a wooden roller coaster at the Keemah boardwalk
*sampled the Houston Galleria
*performed as a sideshow freak in the high school production of "The Elephant Man"
*seen the state capitol
*had a couple of sleepovers
*cooked us German food
*loved apple pie
*spent the day at the pumpkin patch
*gone on a youth winter retreat
*served as manager for the varsity girls' basketball team
*attended lots of youth small group Bible studies
*celebrated a sweet 16 birthday, complete with seven teenage girls singing karaoke in our living room
*suffered through family photo sessions
*earned a role in the chorus for the theater production of Footloose
*overeaten at Thanksgiving dinner
*joined the crazy masses for Black Friday shopping at the mall (the mall!!)
*helped decorate for Christmas
*attended one town square tree lighting and one small-town Christmas parade


I'm sure I'm leaving out some details, but you get the idea.  Knowing this is sort of her shot at seeing this part of the world has opened our eyes to see everything fresh, and make the most of what we have around us.  It's good to shake things up every now and then so you appreciate what you've got, even if it leaves you exhausted at the end of the day.

The Rock House, Part 3

On my last visit to the rock house, Mom directed to me a card table stacked with papers and photos.  She said I could have any of it I wanted to keep, that most of it had been duplicated somewhere else and it was headed for the recycle bin.  Everyone else who had come for a last tour had already sifted through and kept what they wanted.

It took me a couple of hours to go through the piles.  It was all familiar, and yes, I already had duplicates of some of it.  One folder grabbed my attention, though.  It was the master copy of a notebook my Grandma had made for her grandchildren.  She photocopied one of those fill-in-the-blank template books with writing prompts to complete.  She had filled it all in, personalized for each of her 14 grandchildren, and gifted it to us in 1990.

I was 13.  We had been living with her for a year.  Sure it was cool that I lived in Grandma's big, fancy rock house.  My friends always wanted to know what it looked like inside.  Yes, the cookie jar was never empty.  But I regret that I completely missed the opportunity to harvest her wisdom, to listen to her stories, to tell her my own problems, to ask her advice.  I was young and didn't know better, self-absorbed and arrogant, thinking adults were clueless and couldn't possibly add any value to my circumstances.

My copy of the notebook piled up with other keepsakes and moved to a few new houses over the years.  I don't remember ever reading it.  At least, when I started reading the pages this time, it was very new.  Maybe it was seeing her original handwriting, or the years that added value, or my own experience as a mom wanting to impart meaning to my children.  Whatever the reason, her words were much weightier, more personal, valuable, significant.

"We still remember when you...'all were together at home and it is so hard to be alone now that Grandpa is gone.'

"I am happy that we all...'have so many good times to remember.  I hope that Grandpa and I have taught you all good things to remember.'

"I think our family is special because...'we all love each other so much and are all friends.'

"I was proud of...'the way my family could work and play together.  I was proud that I had learned to oil paint when all the children were in college and away from home.'

"I was always sorry I didn't...'travel more and get Grandpa to go with me, but he didn't like to travel as much as I did.'

"I felt very strongly about...'my family and home, and would not leave if I thought someone at home needed me.'

"I've changed my mind, and now I think...'women should have some time to do what they want to do, once in a while.  Don't wait until you are too old to go and do things.'

"My wish for the future is...'that all my family, children and grandchildren, will stay friends.  I want them to know each other and be able to play and work together.  I hope and pray that they are all Christians and love the Lord Jesus Christ.  May we be able to all be together often.  May none have to go to war.  May we all be proud of the name Grandpa gave us and keep it clean and good.  God bless each of you.  I love you all.'"

It is encouraging to me as a mom to read her words.  I never would have cherished them as a teen.  And this is another reminder that learning is a lifelong journey, not to be demanded immediately.  What I didn't grasp then, I am starting to understand now.  And it is the same for my children.  They can't fathom the depths of emotion those words stir, and I can't make them understand.  I can't demand that they value the blessing of grandparents nearby.  I can't force them to cherish every story.  I can't guarantee they won't take it completely for granted.  It will only be their own years and experiences that will prove these values in their hearts.  Like those who have hoed this row before me, it is mine to sow the seeds and wait patiently for the harvest, trusting the yield to Him who is able to give much more than I could ask or imagine.

The Rock House, Part Two

You're probably tired of photos of my parents' old house, so I'm sorry to say that part two of this min-series is much like the first.  Only these pics were taken by my 6-year-old.  I gave her my phone and asked her to snap photos of the things she wanted to remember about Grandma's house.  A few of the things worth remembering from her perspective...

the kitchen linoleum

the sago palm in the backyard 

that shady swing overlooking the yard

and the pavers underneath it 

the riding lawn mower that gave many a ride around the yard 

the screen door

Grandma's wind chimes

bicycle highway and chalk canvas

really gross bug-zapper

short person's view through the screen door

family photo wall

Grandpa's screen saver

toys on the red carpet

To be continued...(but I think that's all of the photos)

The Rock House, Part One

My parents closed on their new house this week, one day after signing the papers on their old home.  I am incredibly excited about them moving closer to us...within walking distance, even!  There will be many memories to come as they weave their wisdom into our daily lives.  But a new chapter can be best embraced when the old one has been carefully reviewed, paying attention to the little details that burn the story in your mind.  With that in mind, please indulge me this sentimental rambling as I close this chapter of my family's history.

This is the family homestead, designed and built by my father's parents in 1951, for a family of seven.  By my best guess, her children were 11,  9, 6-yr-old twins, and 4.  Makes me tired just thinking about it.  Those kiddos moved into that house and broke it in for the rest of us.  Those five kids had 14 grandkids and now, I don't know how many great-grandkids.  This house has sort of always been the family anchor.  So it is very surreal to think of it not belonging to "us" anymore.

I remember weeks at Grandma's house in the summer with my cousin; Christmas with all the extended family; gumbo dinners that I turned my nose up at; the smell of oil paints, chocolate chip cookies, and dusty farmers.

This oak, this mighty oak.  How many children have climbed its branches?  By the time his youngest grandkid came along (me), Grandpa had propped a ladder on the lowest limb to make it easier to get into the giant center.

How many brown grocery bags of juicy Satsuma oranges have been picked from these trees?  How many hours of hard labor invested to keep them producing?

How many feet smoothed those pavers as they pushed back and forth under the shade?

And this door.  How many welcomed, hugged, invited through that door?  Can you hear it slam when the children run out?  Can you hear the slow creak as she tempers its speed and says one last goodbye?  Maybe the old chime that sang when the wooden door was closed again?

How many nervous jumps off those steps?  "Can you do it from the top one?"  How many concerts sung, recitals performed, tricks displayed on that stage?  Me and my cousins, then my children and their cousins.

That frustrating gate latch!  It took me years to be able to lift that latch high enough to swing it open.

Same for those cabinet pulls with built-in childproofing.  I see their genius now; but good grief, how many times must a child pinch their finger in the button before figuring it out?

Apparently not enough to keep us from playing in the hamper.  "Welcome to Jack-in-the-Box.  May I take your order?"  You know, I played in that hamper many a time, but it was my own girls who showed me the side panel came open (for plumbing access) and the hole on the other side was large enough to sit in!

And what can we say for the floor heater?  Many a warning about that floor heater!  So grateful it was "just for show" by the time my little ones were mobile.

Speaking of warnings.... how many little children warned not to leave their toys lying about?  You never know where they'll turn up!  "Look what happened to your Daddy's toys."

How many more caresses did those toys get for being preserved in that wall?

 How many years planned and arranged on the inside of that cabinet door?

Oh, the very many dishes washed at that enormous sink with the built-in drainboard.  And the stories that sink could tell of the conversations shared while doing dishes.

Then there's the awfully avocado oven that's baked up thousands of batches of loving kindness.  And I do believe there has always been a Bible on that corner shelf.  More wonderful is that I think there has always been someone to read a Bible every morning in that kitchen before the sun comes up.

You get the idea.  Every nook and cranny of that house has been loved by lots of people.  It's been showing its age for awhile now.  Memories don't usually share the ugly parts, like all the maintenance and upkeep that comes with a house that old and that loved.  That's why I'm glad my folks can close the chapter on this part of our family history.  It's starting to be a not-so-fun chapter to read every day.  And it's much more exciting to be part of our daily chaos.

To be continued...

House Guests

So it's always fun when a blog post generates comments, but when a post generates phone calls....!!  Wow!  The announcement of a foreign exchange student actually ranked a few phone calls!  Sweet!

When we decided to buy this big ol' house, one of the things we looked forward to doing was hosting an exchange student.  Because what better way to share the world with our kids than bringing it to our dinner table?  Sure beats traveling internationally with small children.  We have the space to share and just hope we are good representatives of our culture--both temporal and eternal.

We have been complete novices through this process and are learning as we go (like all parenting).  We chose an exchange agency because we had a friend of a friend who was a local advocate.  We chose our student because she is the oldest of several children in her home and we thought she would be comfortable in our chaos.  Other than that, it was a stab in the dark, and we couldn't be more pleased.

You'll be hearing more about H, our exchange student.  She'll be part of our family through the end of January-ish.  She's from northern Germany and is doing great with her English.  We are really impressed!  She'll turn 16 while she's here.  She arrived Thursday night after more than 24-hours en route.  We had great plans for the weekend, including taking a pic of her to introduce her to my huge readership, as well to show her around and maybe take in a local festival, but....

Friday morning we realized we had even more house guests than we thought.  I made the gruesome discovery that A and C had lice!  I wanted to crawl into the fetal position and deny my own existence for the next 48 hours.  Alas, that was not an option.  Our plans went down the drain and I began the overwhelming task ahead of me.

I started with a trip to the pharmacy for requisite tools.  Then, I made my first-ever trip through the Starbucks drive-thru for my own self-medication.  Chai latte has become my drug of choice and it helped me through the morning.  When I got home, I took each girl to the backyard and lopped off as much hair as I was comfortable with.  They both have decent little bobs now.  Then, I used that tiny little comb to go through A's thick, thick hair.  It took over an hour and a half.  C's was not so bad because her hair is so fine.

Then I gave the Cetaphil solution a try.  It was mid-afternoon by the time they were both "treated."  Next we bagged up all the stuffed animals, extra pillows and blankets.  I vacuumed, sterilized, and laundered for the rest of the day.  J came to the rescue by working from home and keeping Z out of the way.  So far, Z, J and I have been spared.  But just thinking about it makes my head light up with imaginary itches.

I'm going to say the Cetaphil trick was not particularly effective for A.  C seemed clear this morning, but A was still just as bad.  My own particular brand of torture is a contagious condition that keeps your children quarantined but at perfectly good energy levels, then re-occurs at weekly intervals for up to a month.  Yippy skippy.  Add to the equation one six-year-old with incredibly thick hair, a sensitive scalp, and a tendency to make mountains out of mole hills.  SuperMommy kryptonite trifecta!

J wanted to nail down where we had picked it up, but I knew that was futile.  Our best guess is the headphones at the library computer station.  A spent about 15 minutes trying the computer game in the kids' section.  C tried it too, but the headphones kept slipping off her head, so she didn't stay as long.  It could have been anywhere, honestly; we just don't know.  But you can rest assured, we will not ever use those headphones again.

I am so indebted to my sis-in-law, CA, who came to the rescue and whisked H away for a teenage girl shopping trip, dinner, and youth group study on Friday.  Then she came again tonight to take H to her first-ever baseball game.  Thank you, CA and R!!  You salvaged this weekend with flying colors!

A and C will stay home from church with me tomorrow and we will attempt to salvage Friday's schoolwork without Z in the mix.  Monday is a big day as we register H for high school and get a crash course in the public high school education system.

Enough rambling.  Stay tuned.  Our family motto really is "never a dull moment" and we strive to deliver.

Busy Thanks

Just so you know, this is what our week looks like:

• Sunday - church; signed up to volunteer in children's ministry each week; spent afternoon reclaiming house from atomic toy bomb that exploded during parent's weekend project (see below)
• Monday - first day of Kelley Academy (another post); just the fun stuff along with an orientation to our materials and expectations; library run
• Monday evening - orientation meeting for student exchange program (another post)
• Tuesday - more fun back-to-school stuff; our slow day this week
• Wednesday - meet and greet for A's one-day co-op program
• Thursday - first day of actual curriculum for school; church volunteer training in the evening; pick up exchange student at airport 
• Friday - school, and help the newest addition to our family get acclimated and rested and ready for her first day of school in a new country next Monday

Somewhere in there we need to repaint our living room, because we had a total paint debacle last Saturday and ended up with a giraffe print on our walls.  That may be an exaggeration, but we certainly can't leave it with the two-tone polka dots we inadvertently created between three cans of what was supposed to be same color of paint.

Oh, and in the background, I'm co-organizing my biannual family reunion for the first week of October; trying to figure out where we're going to do Awanas this year, and what class I want to help with that.  I'm hosting bunko in two weeks.  My parents are moving into our neighborhood the week after that, and we are thrilled to be helping with that transition.  I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting, but God always brings them back to mind before it costs too much.

I think I might be certifiable, but instead I'm really excited about what's going on in our world this fall.  I'm excited about school, I feel ready and able to serve in ministries that I've been taking advantage of, we're going to broaden our cultural horizons at our own dinner table, the kids are at fun ages, Grandma and Grandpa are comin' to town!  We're in a really good place.  

Yes, there are stressful things going on, and the swirl of activity might make me a not-nice mommy every now and then, but Colossians 3:15 is vibrating underneath it all and I am thankful.  So thankful.

Summer is Slippin' Away

We made a bucket list of the beginning of summer and I thought it was pretty relaxed.  No problem, I thought, we can do those.  Yikes!  There are three and a half weeks before school starts and we'll be cramming a few things in.

Our summer has been such a welcome break from the last year.  I desperately needed the break from homeschool.  With a new curriculum for a new year, I'm looking forward to it again and getting excited.

I had a whole slew of DIY projects to tackle over the summer, too, but I'm afraid I won't get many of those crammed in before school.  Something about being a ping-pong mom between small children makes it nearly impossible if not unenjoyable to try to get any projects done.

What have we been doing this summer?  The reading club at two libraries, getting more comfortable in the swimming pool, sleepovers with cousins, library story times, dinners with neighbors and friends, birthday parties, watching fireworks, and more screen time than I care to admit.

Early in the summer, J camped in the backyard with the girls.

They zipped up the tent early to keep the mosquitos out and played lots of go fish and read a big stack of books.  We were quite impressed that they made it through the night.  Of course, I took one for the team, and stayed inside with Z.

A has been to VBS and two day camps with a neighborhood church--one week of active, outside rough and tumble camp and another week of inside, creative choir camp.  It's been very interesting to see how differently each child behaves when one is taken out of the mix.  Good practice for fall when A will go once a week to co-op classes.

While A was at camp, I took C and Z to a kids' event downtown to see The Biscuit Brothers perform.  C gets really excited about The Biscuit Brothers.  I really think they are so special to her because she saw them perform at a street concert just after we moved and they were heavy on the crowd participation.  Very real, very fun and then she saw them on tv.  So when we had the chance to go see them again, I stretched out of my comfort zone (with the help of my sister) and made her day.

I know she looks a little creeped out, but she was elated.  She even mustered the courage to ask them a question and tell them her name clearly enough to be understood.  When we walked away, she looked up at me and exclaimed, "Mom!  They know my name!"  It was pretty cute.

We have a road trip planned to visit friends and family yet.  Plus a trip to the children's museum and a little party with the girls in A's class at church.  I have a few more items on the get-ready-for-school list.  All in all, it's been a sweet summer.  I know time is going to scream by once school gets going and Christmas will be here before we know it.  Going to make the most of these next few weeks and then grab school by the horns and relish that ride.

Related

The girls and I were scrolling down memory lane recently and I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison.

Can you tell we love our booster seat?  Three first birthdays, three different houses, three very different kids.  Can you tell they're related?