Elijah: Hey Mommy… you know what it’s like outside today? You know how when you breathe out and something like smoke comes out? It’s like that outside today! Like a dragon blowing smoke. Me and Zeke used to do that. We used to pretend we were dragons. ‘Member Zeke?
Sweet Peas are one of my favorite flowers. So dainty and pretty…just like our little Phoebe. I’ve been calling her “Sweet Pea” since she was a couple months old, because, for some reason, she reminds me of the flower, and I just realized that it’s the perfect nickname for her! Our Sweet “P.”
Here are some pictures of our Sweet “P” from today… (Don’t ya dig the polka dot tights? Anyone know where I could find some in my size?)
Drawing all over himself with a green marker, digging in the dirt with a stick, and you can’t see it in this photo, but he has a band-aid over a big gash on his forehead. Yep, he’s definately two.
Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day! Aye, an’ a fine day t’is me thinks! Ahoy to all ye landlubbers from Russell Red Shark, Gordie Blue Smelt, Jonny Green Guppy and Evelyn Pink Pirana*…
*Wanna make yer pirate names, me mateys? Take yer middle name as yer first, yer favorite color as yer second, an’ finally, choose a fish as yer last!
There’s nothing more aggravating to a blogger than to have lovely bloggable moments, and no way to blog them! Our internet connection has been down for the past week or so. Frustrating! But this is tempered by the fact that it is also free. Ah, well…what can ya do?
So, instead of overwhelming you all with all the cute things my kids are doing, (this includes Phoebe wearing tights in the cool fall weather. Oh my, is there anything cuter than chubby, little, baby legs in pink tights?!) I wanted to post a little bit about the member of our family who gets the least amount of “face-time” on this blog – even though he created it! – Dave, and what he’s up to.
Besides doing lots of music and media related “stuff” for the church, Dave’s vision and passion for the past few years has been to establish a 24/7 house of prayer here at Bethany. He gives oversight to the prayer room and the worship teams. The quote below sums up what BHOP is about.
Bethany is a place where missions and prayer collide. We want prayer to be at the core of all that we do as we train and send missionaries out the ends of the earth. We know that it is only through encountering the Father and connecting with His heart that passion for the nations is birthed and sustained. Bethany House of Prayer is the furnace that fuels our passion for Jesus and for the nations.
It’s a huge undertaking! It’s been a struggle and a challenge mostly because of lack of manpower. But yesterday marked a very exciting day for Dave and his co-workers – the beginning of BHOP’s Staff Internship! 7 young men and women have joined BHOP for the year, and have committed to working 30 hours a week in building the hours of prayer and worship here at Bethany…Awesome!
I had to admire Zeke’s tenacity yesterday afternoon. We had another fall-like day, with gusty north winds. “Canadian air” the weather man said on the news last night. Zeke decided it was a perfect day to fly a kite, so, with Noah in tow, he found his kite and set off, determined to get it in the air. We have a nice big playfield right across from our apartment, and he ran around endlessly with the kite trailing behind him. Of course, secretly, I knew he would never get the kite in the air that way, but who was I to dampen his spirits?! Not to mention the fact that it was entertaining he and Noah, and tuckering them out for bed time! Finally Elijah arrived home from school, and with his kite-flying expertise, off the kite went. Except, shortly after I snapped this picture, Zeke gave the kite-string to much slack, and it ended up tangled up in a tree!
Well, Elijah is feeling much better. He had begun feeling better by Friday evening actually…hooray antibiotics! By the time we got him to see a doctor on Friday morning he looked really, really bad…very pale, and almost green. Poor little guy. For some reason, he is susceptible to strep throat. I’m praying this will be the last time we’ll have to deal with this for a long while!
On a much lighter note, we’re having the most beautiful fall-like weather here. The air is crisp, clear and cool. So refreshing compared to the hot, humid days we were having! I love the Fall.
I’m sitting here at our computer at 6:30 on a Friday morning feeling completely baffled and confused… I just don’t understand. After fighting through several strep throat infections last school year, Elijah had a wonderful, sickness-free summer… exactly what he needed, I thought, to get his immune system built back up. And now, just three days into the school year, he has strep throat again? He began complaining of a sore throat last evening, and then sure enough, he woke up vomiting in the early morning. Same ol’, same ol’. He’s dozing on the sofa here with me in the den…
I’m seriously at my witts end here. I don’t know what to do. I mean, in the short term, I know we’ll have to see the doctor, and get a perscription for antibiotics, but in the long term…I just don’t know. It’s obviously something at school that is the problem. And the mysterious thing is, is that nobody at our house ever catches it. Bizarre. Anyway… on with the day.
Well! Talk about being in perpetual motion! I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve barely had a chance to sit down in the past week. From back to school night, to Kindergarten orientation, traipsing all over town in search of two red pocket folders – since Zeke’s school supply list specified that he must have red pocket folders. Then a two-year-old ear infection, a trip to Valley Fair, and a chipmunk in my kitchen… Good grief, Charlie Brown! Is there any rest for the wicked? And I mean “wicked,” of course, in the New England sense of the word: Incredibly cool and awesome, not evil and malevolent.
I have, nonetheless, managed to snap a few photos through all of this. I’ll start with the most recent; the back to school photos, since they were requested…
Here they are yesterday, looking a little apprehensive…
Elijah rode the bus to school by himself yesterday…
For the Kinders’ first day, us parents come along, so Zeke and I drove to school together. We did a little scavenger hunt in the school together…aimed at helping the kinders feel more comfortable in their new environment.
So, at long last, this morning, Zeke got to ride on the bus with his big brother. They were both pretty giddy with excitement…
It’s a huge answer to prayer that Zeke is going to morning kindergarten! Elijah went to afternoon kindergarten, as our side of the city always had, and I really disliked it. This doesn’t make any sense, but it seemed to take all morning to get ready for afternoon kindergarten; it’s so much easier to just get up and go. I didn’t relish the idea of sending Elijah off in the morning, and then Zeke off after lunch, so I began praying earnestly at the beginning of the summer that this would change. Dave said, “But why would they change it? Hasn’t it always been that way?” “Well,” I said, “they’re gonna change it because the Lord is going to push them towards changing it!” Yay!
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We spent Labor Day at Valley Fair, the local amusment park. We had an excellent day! The weather was perfect, the lines were very reasonable, and… ever so exciting, Elijah had grown a whole inch in the past month! …He was tall enough to ride the Steel Venom with me…
This was my first time on the ride too! Aaaaah!
It looks like Zeke’ll have to wait till next summer to ride the big coasters though…
Or maybe, just maybe, he’ll have a growth spurt like Elijah did, and be able to ride them by the end of October. That’s when Valley Fair closes for the season.
For now, Zeke’s favorite rides are the ones that get him soaking wet! I went on couple with him, but by the time we got to Thunder Canyon, Elijah and Daddy were off on the big rides, and I couldn’t bring Phoebe on it with me. So Zeke, the friendly little fellow that he is, befriended a group of adults and went on it over and over with them. Can you spot Zeke, getting doused with water?
And Phoebe and Noah were such agreeable little onlookers. They both just dozed on and off in the double stroller together…
And Phoebe sometimes on Daddy…
Noah got to go on a few rides as well. It’s nice that Valley Fair has tons of kiddy rides too…and that the kiddies get to go for free…
Okay, that’s definitely enough with the pictures! (I hope that makes up for the lack of posts lately, Mum!)
So now, here I am at home with only my two youngest for weekday mornings (Zeke will arrive home on the bus around noon every day), and a little breathing space. But again I say, I really don’t know where the summer went! Or, for that matter, the past eight years. How in the world is it that I have two children in school, a two-year-old and a three-month-old? Crazy!
Wife to Dave.Mom to 5. Learning how to homeschool and find time to breathe in Life.
