Dog Show at the Fair

Gabe did really, really well. Disney...she decided she was not a performing monkey and chose obstinance over obedience. Too bad it was an obedience class...



A rare moment of Disney sitting. I assure you she was looking for an escape route.








The end of Gabe's show. Disney couldn't get out of the ring fast enough.









Getting ready for "long sit and long lay," which Disney didn't tolerate for very "long" at all. Gabe did great, though!!!







"Are we done yet??? Please???" (As soon as they kids lined up with their dogs--after waiting over four hours to show--the announcer for the older kids began speaking and they had to stand still for another five minutes before they could even do the "long sit and long lay" which are two minutes apiece. That's a long time for a little kid and an anxious puppy!)








Gabe and Disney showing off their "Everyone-Wins-In-Pee-Wee" blue ribbon.

On Dusty Trails

Okay, so Friday my doctor found an "abdominal mass" the size of a softball parked in my midsection.

Blah.

At least I have something to blame for my tight pants. Honestly, I've been trying to shed a few pounds for the last month, and nothing fits looser like I had hoped.

Double Blah. All that sacrifice for nothing!

I actually knew something weird was going on, hence the doctor's appointment. I'm waiting for blood tests to come back Monday or Tuesday and then I have more tests Thursday and possibly Friday.

I appreciate prayers.

This news came minutes before we got THE phone call telling us that we're going to be moving to Texas. (You did get that last post, right?)

We're thrilled. TX was our first choice.

Bring on the Tex-Mex.

I'll keep you all updated on our many happenings! God's timing is always perfect, and we are resting quite comfortably in His very capable hands.

Yee Haw

Berry Delicious

Have I shared with you Caleb's obsession with berries? It doesn't matter what kind, as long as he can gather and eat them himself whenever he wants to. I imagine that his dream life right now would be to live in a tent surrounded by berry bushes. Of course, the tent would have to house a television serving cartoon network and a computer offering high speed internet and some drawing paper. A pool out front would be nice, too. Yeah, it's a simple life.

We have a couple of mulberry trees and quite a few blackberry bushes around our property. The birds and Caleb never leave me enough to preserve, but the joy and pleasure Caleb receives from gathering his own sun-warmed, God-provided snack far outweigh the delight a single berry pie would bring.

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food" (Genesis 1:29.)



I looked out the door one day and saw Caleb's bike parked in front of a mulberry tree. Where could he be? If you look very closely, you can see his profile amidst the tree leaves...



Yep, there he is. And he'll stay in this tree for hours at a time...




The purple aftermath...

My new theme song--I Love this!!!!!!

I recently joined a yahoo group for military families who homeschool. It's a great wealth of information. One of the ladies had this video embedded in her blog. I snatched it up to share with you:

Lieutenant Fasnacht

It's official!


THE letter:



Taking the oath of office:


The children behaving so well and witnessing their dad step into a new role as an officer in the United States Navy:



Anchors aweigh! Open sea ahead!

Next dock: Rob will be leaving in September for Officer Development School and then Chaplaincy Training. That's only two months away!

A Seth story for ya'll: the final paperwork and swearing-in took about 45 minutes, and the above picture of the children behaving like angels lasted all of 10 minutes (which is still pretty good), but it didn't take long for Seth to turn his engines to full throttle. As we were leaving, I sighed with relief that the recruiter's office was still intact. I said good-bye and thank-you and turned my attention back to my children, who suddenly numbered only three. Then Lily piped up, "Mommy, Sethie has a revolver." (I didn't even know she knew that word.) And sure enough Seth had slipped into a neighboring office and was playing with an antique revolver--was it real? I couldn't tell--that was sitting on someone's bookshelf.

Can anyone please tell me why I have so many gray hairs????

On my gift list for next Father's Day...

Last Hurdle

Yikes! Have I really let two weeks go silently by since I last posted here? Oh. Sorry!

This is a BIG week for our family. Right now, as I type, Rob is in Washington DC, either waiting for his turn to interview with the Navy Chaplain board or actually in the middle of the interview. My heart just quivered nervously as I typed that. It's the last hurdle left in Rob's Navy trail. He left Monday morning at about 2:45...yes, that's anti meridian...to catch his six o'clock flight to our nation's capitol. (Oops, I almost spelled that capital.) My devotions this morning were from Acts 11. The title of the selection in my book 5-Minute New Testament is "June 17/Day 168, Acts 11:1-30 When God acts, He breaks down the boundaries and overcomes the objections." That is exactly what I've been praying for from the moment Rob pulled out of the driveway in the dark of early morning. Today's Word confirmed that I am praying in the right direction and encouraged me to keep praying against any potholes and obstacles that may hinder Rob and us in traversing this new path.

The house felt so empty when Rob left. I couldn't fall asleep until after six in the morning, praying that he'd made his flight okay, listening to the hollow echoes in the house, feeling the cold spot on his side of the bed. I chatted with God for about an hour, and then I finally got up and watched a mind-numbing movie. He called me around 9:30 when he'd landed and was waiting for his luggage. (Unless you want to take no toiletries on board, you must check all your bags.) Sadly, the fresh blueberry muffins I stowed away for his breakfast were trapped deep in the belly of the airplane.

The kids have all expressed "I miss Daddy" in some form or another. Lily was the saddest: "I miss my dad," complete with trembling lower lip and tears dropping spontaneously onto her cheeks. Of course, I had just announced naptime, and Rob usually doesn't make her take a nap, but we had a long evening ahead of us, and I needed her not to be grumpy. He'll be back tonight at ten or so, in enough time to at least catch the last quarter of the Celtics-Lakers game tonight. It's going to be hard, hard, hard when he leaves for 13 weeks.

Tomorrow, I have to attend a CPR class from 10-4 at a local elderly assistance home with whom I have been recently been employed. Oh, yeah. I got a job. It's only part-time, but it will help whittle some of the more pressing bills away until Rob leaves for training. I'm looking forward to it actually, except for the part where I leave my husband and kids during the day or night. I'm a 2nd & 3rd shifter. There are many blessings in regards to this. We can't both work, so Rob will stop looking for work at this point. He will get to spend a lot of extra time with the kids, which will be precious to him and them as he prepares to be separated from them for several months. Another blessing: the home I work for is only 6 miles away. That is very, very close, considering we live in the boonies, and places of employment are often 30-40 miles away. The pay is okay for a part-time job, and I feel a great sense of peace about it. I prayed about it a lot before I even applied to any jobs, and when I felt the go-ahead from God, I applied to about ten various positions across Michiana. I only heard back from one company, who was nice enough to send a "no, thank-you" letter. Then I was offered this job, which was actually my first choice. Rob's not thrilled, but I think he's getting used to the idea. It just wasn't what we had planned. At this point, when is it ever???

Tomorrow night we leave for a camping/music festival trip. Doesn't that sound fun? Friends of ours are running one of the stages as well as a coffee bar for the Pro-Life Music festival click here. We're going to be helping them out and camping alongside them. I'm really looking forward to being away with my family. I do have to come back...twice, actually. Once to take Lily to a cleft clinic appointment that we couldn't reschedule and then again to work on Saturday with the dad for whom I supervise his parental visit. At least I'll be able to feed the dog and horse and don't have to worry about finding help in that area. Bright side. Oh, and it's supposed to be a gorgeous week. Last year, a couple of the campers at the festival were indirectly struck by lightning. One of them was okay, but the other sustained serious burns. Horrible.

On a brighter note, Rob taught Lily to ride her bike sans training wheels this weekend. She learned in one day! We weren't terribly surprised, because she has better balance than any of our other children. My heart was bursting with pride for her and also a motherly ache for all those children who will never have a mom or dad teach them something as joyful as learning to ride a bike. 143. million. orphans. I'll leave you with some pictures of Lily's cuteness.


She started out on Gabe's bike, to see if she was remotely ready for us to remove her training wheels. She was ready!




In a few short minutes, she was off by herself, albeit a little wobbly, but able to quickly recover and balance! Go Lily!




A glowing Lily, so proud of herself, ready for a refreshing popsicle.

Stubby and Squatty: Little Heroes

What happens when you leave your firefighters in the drier too long.

Yellow

I've taken Jeny's yellow challenge. I'm not nearly as good at creating still-life shots as Jeny is. This is more photojournalistic. This is what my day today looks like.




This is the children's new pet, whom Caleb named Chrys--short for chrysalis, hinting towards his future state of being--and the magnifying glass they use for observation.




A rare, unplucked dandelion from my yard. What's so rare about it? Like I said, it's unplucked. The children lovingly bring me handfuls all day, until there are no more left in the yard.




A gorgeous quilted hanging my grandmother made for me. She made one for each of her granddaughters in different colors. She couldn't have chose a better palate for mine. I LOVE it.



Laundry: what I'm doing today, and almost every day. I love to hang it out to dry on sunny days.




Childhood is calling...





Snack of choice




This treasure belonged to my great-grandfather, who loved clocks and collected them. After he passed away several years ago, my great-grandmother held an auction, and my parents bought each of their children one of his clocks. It is a beautiful heirloom.





A little corner of Lily's room.

Map

This morning the kids and I drove out to Russ Forest to walk the trails. I had planned on going for a bike ride, but Gabe's tire was flat.

We even brought the dog, who smiled the whole time, pulling at her leash and whipping her happy tail back and forth. I brought out my camera, lined everybody up on a log next to the dog, and pushed the button. Too bad I forgot to put the memory card in. Drat! It would've been a good one, too.

The trail we chose took about 45 minutes to walk from start to finish, and about halfway through it, Seth began to doubt my leadership. He said, "We need a map!" He produced his little, pale blue New Testament from his pocket--I didn't even know he brought it--flipped it open and studied it for a few long moments. Then he snapped it close and shoved it back into his pocket. "Yep. We need to go this way!" he said, marching on with confidence.

I immediately thought of this verse:

Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

I certainly needed that reminder from my little one today, a day when my heart feels lost and anxious and burdened.

Tragedy

My heart is breaking today for a fellow adoptive parent. Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife just lost their five-year-old daughter, Maria, to a horrible, unimaginable accident. A parent's worst nightmare. Their teenage son was pulling out of their driveway and accidentally ran over her.

Please remember their family in your prayers.

I hugged my children a little tighter today and prayed for them a little more feverishly. I've been chasing away the tiny pricks of fear that are threatening my heart all day.

Psalm 91:1, 2

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

Why I Love Being a Mother

Just a small sampling:

::Freckles




::Monkey Hugs

::"Mom, you make the best food ever!"

::Literally holding the future in my hands.




::Peanut butter kisses, the real kind

::Little cowboys





::Snuggles under the covers





::Tiny toes





::Missing-toothed grins

::Pony tail sprouts






::The best partner and dad ever





::Mother's Day cards and gifts




*From Caleb: "This is the 'Mother Ship.' And look: Here's an escape Pod. I call it Mother Hawk." If you can't read it, it says on the front, "Blast Off to Mom-ers." I'm not sure why he was calling me Mom-ers, but he was being affectionate and cute. I laughed out loud at his Mother Ship joke.




*And, this is from Caleb, too. It's a picture of our family, with Dad as the High King General, and me as the High Queen. I wonder if this is how he sees our family...or if this is what he wishes our family more closely resembled.





*From Gabriel (hidden in my underwear drawer for me to find on Mother's Day morning): It's a lovely double heart so it's "double special," Gabe said with a shy smile, almost blushing. He left it with a blue pencil tucked inside so that I could rub it across the secret message he wrote in white crayon. The secret message was, "XXXOOO." How ingenious is that? Gabe is one who gives me letters and cards throughout the year, not just on Mother's Day or birthdays.


Here is a sampling of some of his love letters to me. He's also more likely to draw pictures of just him and me, whereas Caleb almost always draws the entire family.




*Lily colored me a butterfly. It looks more like a Rorschach inkblot...but she saw a butterfly in it. What does that say about her inner psyche, I wonder? Actually, I think it was a "discard" from one of Gabe's many scissor projects, and she found a way to recycle it and bring beauty to it and thought of me. She said happy Mother's Day to me, for the first time ever, and it made my eyes fill and my heart swell.
*Seth ran around giggling and wished me, "Happy Friend's Day." I don't know what that is, but I chuckled and said, "No, it's Mother's Day!" He insisted, "NO! It's Friend's Day!" He saw no need to make me a card. But...later he did wrap his arms around me and tell me, unprompted, "You're my girl." I'll take that!
*Rob very thoughtfully backed up all my pictures and important documents onto cd's off the computer. I know it was a big job. I'd really, really wanted that done, but just hadn't done it myself. That's a great gift, as anyone who has lost precious, irreplaceable data on her computer's grumpy, frozen hard drive can tell you. You'd think I would have learned my lesson...but there were literally years of pictures and articles that were just floating around my hard drive. I feel like I'd been hiding thousands of dollar bills tucked in my mattress and pockets and drawers and files, too overwhelmed to know what to do with them, and Rob just gathered them up and put them safely in a savings account at an FDIC bank. Whew. Now they're safe. Anyone who knows me knows that my pictures are my treasures.

I had a lovely Mother's Day...and my family made it very special for me.

::Contented Sigh.::

I have the best job in the world!

Seth Sightings

Now, what do you imagine he's plotting next???

Girls' Day Out

Today Lily and I met my sister Jamie and her daughter Emmaly for a day of shopping (low budget!), lunching and just being together. Every year we celebrate each other's birthdays, which are only six days apart, by spending a whole day together. It's been a LONG time since we've been completely alone without any small ones crashing the party, but today we actually chose to bring our four-year-old daughters so they could spend some time together, too. They were SO cute together, holding hands, skipping, running, draping arms around each other, like long lost sisters.

Jamie and I both had coupons to a local portrait studio, so we even took the girls in for a photo shoot. Don't they look cute? I've been wanting a portrait of Lily wearing her beautiful silk dress we purchased for her in China, but just haven't gotten it done. We did that today, too. Coaxing a smile out of her was a little torturous, but I was pleased with the final results.

And, the sweetest surprise: while we were looking through our portraits, my best friend Jeny walked in! I was so happy to see her and her three beautiful kids! We were so surprised to see each other. I was supposed to go see her Monday, but I had to cancel, and I hadn't yet rescheduled. We hadn't seen each other for months, maybe it's been longer. We do keep in regular contact, but it's not the same as sitting across from her and hearing her laughter and squeezing her hand and seeing her eyes sparkle. I miss her so. Jeny, I'm about to pop an email over to you to reschedule that visit...

Springtime in Michigan

I know it's officially spring, because literally overnight my weeping cherry trees erupted into full blossom. What a lovely splash of pink they lend to my home! I thought I'd share a few pictures. Sadly this will be my last spring here with my weeping cherry trees. No wonder they're weeping.


My favorite tree



Lily examining the flowers.



"I picked this for you, Mommy!"



The loveliest flowers in the garden. (*Notice Caleb and Gabriel sweetly holding hands. I love their precious innocence and love for each other.)