The State of the (Horsman) Union Address

So…I’m kind of at a loss of where to start.   There is so much that I could  write about.  I’ll try to be brief…but once I start writing…well, you may be in for a long read.  (But what else could you expect from a state of the union address? ) Or you could just skip down to the last couple paragraphs for the “really, REALLY big news,” (and some elaboration on it for those of you for whom it’s “old news”).

The homemade, front-yard rink was a semi-success, I’d say.  It got it’s most use over Christmas break and time spent on it has dwindled since then.  This winter, in one way, was a perfect one for the survival of an ice rink; it was so cold here.  But too  cold for spending long hours outside in skates.  We managed to coax the boys outside every weekend for a half hour skate, but that was about it.  Most of the past couple months have been spent indoors (she said with a sigh) but they managed to keep themselves entertained.  They were forced to get creative, making up such games as “Kitchen Supplies to the Rescue!”… 

Cute, yes, but not when I wanted to crush some garlic and both of my garlic presses were missing in action!

A trip down to Kansas City over New Years to attend the Onething ’08 conference got our family (and many of our friends from around here too!) even more fired up about “keeping the words of this prophecy.” (Rev. 1:3)  Our pastor (who also attended the conference) has been preaching on the book of Revelation since the beginning of the year and it’s so exciting to see what the Lord is stirring up in our church.  BHOP hosts the Omega Course (an overview of the end-times) on Sunday evenings and the first night 100 people, mostly from our church, showed up! We’ve since averaged about 60 people every Sunday evening.  Wow!  I’m just in awe of how the Lord is giving so many people a hunger to study what the Bible has to say about the end times!

Also related to what’s written above, when Elijah had a chance to share something about his winter break at school, he told his third grade class the outline of the book of Revelation (which he learned at Onething).  I can’t help chuckling to myself everytime I think about this.  My guess is that it went totally over most of his classmates’ heads.  But one of his closest friends came back to him later that week with this comment:  “My mom says your family takes God a little too seriously.”  To which Zeke responded, (not to the kid but as we were discussing it here at home) “I don’t think you can ever take God to seriously, can you?” and I wholeheartedly agreed.  I love that my kids are grasping this!

I’m reading The Horse and His Boy, the sixth book in the Chronicles of Narnia, right now to the boys and we’re all loving it!  I just can’t get over how these books weave adventure, morals and truth about God throughout thier pages.  C.S. Lewis was a brilliant, brilliant man. 

Elijah and Zeke are both doing fabulously at school.  Right now I’m faced with a difficult decision about Elijah’s future education.  Because he is in the top 95th percentile of a National standardized test he automatically (and freely) qualifies to go to Dimensions Academy, a really outstanding school right here in Bloomington for 4th to 8th grade gifted and talented students.  While I don’t really think that Elijah is overly gifted or  talented (although he certainly is both to some extent) I do  think that he has the typical first-born trait of being way above average and a self-motivated drive to learn that hasn’t really been challenged very much at a normal public school.  He may really, really thrive at Dimensions Academy…but it may be a very difficult transition too.  Add to this my hesitation about sending Elijah and Zeke to two different schools and…I have no idea what to do.  Any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Phoebe and Noah are my little pets here at home.  They can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies at any given time, as you might imagine.  Noah is so ready for preschool it’s not even funny.  He wasn’t at all ready for anything like this at the beginning of the school year, so I didn’t pursue it, but he’s been pretty bored here these days.  I’m looking into some different Christian preschools for next fall, and we’ve set aside part of our tax return to pay for it.  Phoebe is hilarious.  She makes me laugh and shake my head in exasperation all at the same time.  Just when I thought I had this parenting thing figured out…enter little girl Horsman. Ha!  Her vocabulary is growing rapidly and I think one of the cutest things she says right now is, “I so pret-ty.”

We’ve had a really remarkably healthy winter here for the most part, but we finally had a “sick week” last week.  Phoebe had her first ear infection.  Dave brought her for her 18 month check-up (yes, two months late) and came home with antibiotics.  I said, “Yeah right, as if she’s gonna take those.”  I’ve never been able to get any kind of medicine into her.  Sure enough, she fought the first dose tooth and nail, and then, once I managed to get a half a dropper-full into her, she gagged and sputtered and finally threw up.  Good grief!  ”Forget this.” I thought and I did.  Thankfully, just a couple days later she was completely healed. It’s been over a week now and no sign of ear infection at all!  Hooray for a healthy immune system! Zeke and Noah had viral pink eye, which just lasted a few days, but unfortunately one of those days fell on Zeke’s class’ Valentine’s Day party.  Poor Zeke.  And Elijah, over a year and a half of being strep throat free, finally fell victim to it once more.  It has been running rampant through their school all year, and I counted my blessings every time a “your child may have been exposed to strep throat” notice came home and he remained healthy afterwards.  But into everyone’s life a little rain must fall, I guess.  I’m just praying (and you can too!) that the antibiotics he took have completely wiped it out and that it won’t come back again and again, as it did last time.

And now…the big news!  Well, Julie B., baby #5 is on the way!  Can you believe it?  I’m 12 weeks pregnant!  And Sarah, if you’re shocked, (and admit it, so are the rest of you ) imagine how I initially felt!  Yes, it was quite the surprise.  A terrible case of nausea hit me like a ton of bricks before I had a chance to deduce from “my dates” that I was indeed pregnant.  When it did, I did some calculations and thought, “No!  It couldn’t be…could it?”  Well, a couple of weeks later, when I figured I should do a pregnancy test and settle this thing, it turned out that it certainly could be. Classic.  Makes me think of that Hebrew proverb:  ”Want to make God laugh?  Tell Him your plans.”  Apparently our decision to “be done” differed from His.  

Now, with the nausea behind me – it lifted at about ten and a half weeks, earlier than normal for me, right around the time my three year old offered up a simple prayer on my behalf… “Jesus, help Mummy. Amen.” – I’m super-duper excited!  We all are.  A new little person is on his/her way! (S/he will be arriving around the beginning of September, I think.)  My sister Jill helped to put the whole thing into perspective:  ”Jan, remember, I was a “surprise” and can you imagine our family without me?”  No, Jill, I certainly can’t, and I know I’ll feel – no, already feel! – the same way about Horsman #5 as the years go by.

And also, after-all, seven is the number of completion, right?  I hope so…for now anyway.  We’re pretty sure adoption is in our future too!  We’ll have to buy a fifteen passenger van before that though.