O Christmas Tree

We (and by we, I mean Steve) lugged our artificial Christmas tree out of the attic yesterday and decorated it. I helped fluff out the branches.

I then helped by taking Paul and Julia outside for a little exercise. Steve had suggested that we could bake Christmas cookies, but running around outside requires less clean up afterward. Usually. At least, dish cleaning. Anyway, "a little exercise" consisted of me lapping our yard 4 times with Maggie in 20 minutes, while Paul and Julia lapped the yard once in 20 minutes, then picked up sticks and poked at their pumpkins and climbed into the tree house once. So I got a little exercise and they got ... ummm ... they got fresh air.

By the time we came back indoors, Steve had strung the tree with lights. We started unwrapping ornaments and hanging them. Steve (with perhaps some low key snarling and gnashing of teeth) coached Paul and Julia on how to hang ornaments not all on one branch, and don't drop them, and heavy ornaments should not be put on branch tips, and why are you digging through the bottom of the storage tub when I left perfectly good ornaments for you right on the top, and I told you not to touch that one yet, and hey - that branch already has three ornaments on it, please pick another branch.

We decorated the whole tree with a three tiered system. Soft, fluffy, indestructible ornaments at the bottom. Somewhat more durable ornaments in the middle. Ornaments that are easily mangled or fractured at the top. Mind you, we were given a whole set of Hummel Christmas ornaments soon after we were married. Most of them haven't seen the light of day since '05.

Petra, what a good little baby, napped through the whole production. She woke just in time to see the decorated tree and be charmed by the lights and colors.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We made it up to my folks house for Thanksgiving. For the big meal, we contributed, what else? A Turkey! We cooked it overnight at our house, loaded up the car first thing in the morning, and drove north for ~3 hours with a large, steamy, hot bird in the back. And it turned out reasonably well.

Highlights of the trip included:

-watching "Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" in the car and having Paul and Julia realize that it was more funny than spooky

-exploring Grandpa's paw-paw garden


-walking to the local elementary school playground


-pumpkin and mincemeat pies (thank you, great grandma!)

-playing with new (old) toys that grandma had brought out of storage. Steve built a C'nex helicopter and flatbed.

-Julia coloring a tracing of herself while Paul watched the first Harry Potter movie with Daddy (ummm... a bit too scary for him yet. oops.)

-Paul and Julia had individualized treasure hunts to keep them busy, to give them a little exercise, and to practice reading. They've been holding out on me with their reading skills. They zipped through their clues way to quickly because I thought the clues would be more challenging then they were.

-Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa and playing their organ.

-Starting to scan pictures of my (Sarah's) grandparents from their early adulthood.

-Trying out grandma's exercise bike.

-Chasing after Petra as she climbed the stairs. Repeatedly.

I was really pleased that Petra was outgoing and friendly with everyone at least some of the time. She was also cranky at times, and I wonder if she isn't teething.

Oh, and my grandmother is slowly dissolving her music box collection, so each of my children were sent home with a Christmas music box this weekend. I'm very grateful, but my heart is in my mouth each time the children touch one of them.

It was good time with family.

Minding my tongue

As a mom, it is interesting watching myself trying to make good word choices with my children. For example, when I’m mad about something Paul has done, I try to say that the behavior was stupid and not that he is stupid. I don’t want him to decide stupid is his identity.

Likewise, when we were expecting Julia, I had to work to break the habit of calling Paul, “Baby.” No more, “Come here, baby,” or “What’s the matter, baby?” Julia was going to be the baby and I wanted Paul to put some distance between himself and that name before she was born.

A little later, I decided it was time to drop the habit of referring to myself in the third person. “Give mommy a kiss,” was replaced with “Give me a kiss.” I trusted that Paul knew he was to call me mommy and that Julia (and subsequently Petra) would follow by example. Every once in a while I slip and refer to myself as mommy, but I like to think that modeling first person pronouns for the children is good for their language development.

One speech habit I am currently working to correct is calling only for Paul. When Julia was quite small, it didn’t make sense to point out the horses or trucks we saw while driving to both of them. But I’ve found that we’ve persisted in the habit of just calling Paul to come when we see something cool. I’m trying to make a point of calling both Paul and Julia to see the moon or a toad, even if it is something that Paul is more interested in.

It has also been pointed out to us that we need to bring our bathroom talk up a few levels of maturity. Paul’s first grade teacher has asked us to help him stop announcing to the whole class when he needs to go poopee. Should've seen that one coming...

In addition to “please” and “thank you” we are slowly working toward using, “may I appeal” as an appropriate way for the children to disagree with directions they’ve been given.

Unfortunately, we all have days when we use words like clubs rather than controlling them like scalpels. And I sometimes wonder whether the word choices I make are really impacting the children as much as I imagine. I know sometimes I feel stupid, even when nobody has called me that name. But I’m hopeful that by caring for our children and picking our words carefully, we will help shape our thoughts and provide a good mental space in which to develop our identities. After all, it was not without reason that the Son of God is called the Word.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

My lovely bride celebrated her birthday yesterday surrounded by family. She chose to have a celebration at home with the kids instead of going out for a quiet dinner. She chose to have a rum cake (mmmmm). She even volunteered to make supper. Wow, what an awesome woman!

Happy Birthday, my dear, we love you!

cross eyed

When I asked God to keep the cross ever before me, I didn't think He would do it by pointing out that my outlook and self esteem are perennially colored by HOW I'm doing at things.

I realized that Paul's turkey disguise project was due on Monday. I found it near the bottom of a stack of papers on my kitchen counter this morning. Rats.

The teller at the bank today pointed out that my driver's license expired yesterday. I wonder how bad the fine will be. Nuts.

The project I'm doing at work is over budget. Ouch.

God is keeping the cross in front of me by pointing out that I don't have it all together. When things run smoothly, it is too easy for me to coast and forget about my weaknesses. Having my weaknesses brought before my nose makes me cling to that cross, the depth of the Lord's sacrifice, the beauty of his person, and the persistence of His love.

Look Out

We spent the first weekend in November on, in, and near Look Out Mountain. Steve and I were blessed to attend a Global Mission Conference in Chattanooga. We were further blessed to have Steve's folks watch the kids for us and to be able to stay in THE CABIN in Georgia. Paul and Julia got to go with their grandparents to the cabin when Steve and I were overseas in the spring. It was a big hit and ever since they have been eager to show the place to us.

Near the Mountain.
The conference was great. We met up with the Sechlers, whom we had know in the Czech Republic. We tried to encourage some other missionaries. And I got to attend a session by one of the authors of "When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor...Or Yourself." I think I'm going to have to read that one. One of the authors' points is that we are all spiritually poor. If we try to help the materially poor without repenting our own spiritual poverty and addressing our broken relationships, then we can do more harm than good. We need to do the one without neglecting the other.

On the Mountain.
We stayed in a really cute, rustic, solidly built cabin in a deliberately old fashioned development. The developers have built ponds and a pool. We played in paddle boats, a huge tree house, and swings. Julia led me to the candy shop all by herself, and Paul made correct change with the cash register. Maggie was free to roam everywhere. At one point a group of us went indoors without her, so she went a half mile or so down the road to meet up with Grandma and Petra in her stroller. She meandered back home with them. The whole place is really a magical spot to be a kid.






Paul collected lizards. Lizards collected Paul.



We all hiked a trail up the side of the mountain to see a waterfall and a cave. Paul and Julia did a pretty good job for novice hikers. I loved watching Steve coach them over gullies and up slopes. "And if you are quiet, we might see some animals." Right...





In the Mountain.
The cave had water gushing out of it. Steve, Julia, and Paul went inside to explore. At first I hung back with Petra. Julia had a little set back when she bumped her head inside the cave. Eventually she felt better and wanted me to escort her into the cave. I thought that was pretty brave of her, so I left Petra with her grandparents. I then discovered that I have fear of going into dark caves without a professional tour guide. We got several feet into the cave, and I could see Steve ahead of me, but I couldn't see the ground under me and I had to stop. My eyes slowly adjusted, and I was able to take Julia further in as long as I didn't dwell on spiders, snakes, bats, hidden shafts, roof collapses, getting lost, getting stuck, or J.R.R. Tolkien. I think Paul and Steve had a fun time exploring.

Global Missions Conference

We had the joy and pleasure to spend last weekend in the Lookout Mountain, Georgia, area. This trip had 2 main goals. The first was the opportunity for Sarah & I to attend Mission to the World's Global Missions Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The second was to have a family vacation around some beautiful property that my parents have an interest in on the side of Lookout Mountain. (More about the 2nd goal in a later blog post.)

Sarah & I, along with 8 others from our church spent Friday night, all day Saturday, and the morning on Sunday at the Chattanooga convention center for this amazing missions conference. There were outstanding speakers, amazing times of worship, and awesome displays of the power of Christ bringing transformation and reconciliation where most would not think it possible. We heard stories of how God is working around the world, received practical instruction for our own ministries, and had the chance to reconnect with old friends. In the immortal words of Larry the Cucumber, "I laughed, I cried...it moved me Bob." I'm sure all of us who attended are still processing the event and everything we heard and learned. And I pray that it brings about positive change in us and our families.

Here's a few pictures from Saturday's dinner of the team from our church.

More Fun at Aunt Carrie's

And here's several more good pictures from our trip to South Bend, Indiana.

Walking to the ND campus...


Fun in the leaves...



Our big 1 year-old girl...



We love our Aunt Carrie & Uncle Scott...

Petra Birthday Pics

We finally had a chance to copy some of the pictures off the camera. So here's some good pictures from Petra's 1st birthday party at her Aunt Carrie's house.

Petra is One

For Petra's first birthday, we got her up early, stuck her in the car and drove about 5.5 hours. Sounds like a good time, no?

We went to visit my sister. The drive was really lovely, as we had beautiful sunny skies, cool temperatures, and the many colors of autumn to enjoy.

At Aunt Carrie's house,
Paul had a lot of fun setting up the game, "Mouse Trap,"
Julia held her baby cousin, Emma, at every opportunity ("She has blue eyes like mine")
and Petra was delighted with their big dog, Koda. Big friendly dog. Even after Koda cleaned out Petra's ears for her.

We took a walk around Notre Dame University. Fifteen years after visiting the campus as a prospective student, I got to see the interior of their beautiful basilica.

My mom and dad came out for a visit too. Mom made & decorated the traditional first birthday Winne-the-Pooh cake for Petra. Paul and Julia "helped" Petra blow out her candle and open her gifts. Petra did open one of her own presents, which was a toy comb and mirror. She likes to play at brushing her own hair.

Petra was really funny with her cake. I held Petra in my lap and we set the cake in front of her. She had a spoon in her hand. She started slapping the cake with her spoon. Slap, slap, slap. Then she would pull the spoon around to her mouth and eat whatever had stuck to it. Slap, slap, slap. Taste. Repeat. Toward the end she enjoyed digging her hands in the cake crumbs, but most of what she ate came from the spoon.

We drove home on Sunday. On the way, we picked up supper in St. Mary's and had a picnic in Memorial Park downtown. The kids got to see the canal, a lock, a canal boat and a statue of a mule. Steve had fun showing some of the places he would go in town when he was a child. He showed them were he used to fish and where he and a buddy would pile rocks to try to dam the river. Looking back, he was marveling at the independence he had at that age (~6-9) to wander around town.

All in all, a really pleasant weekend away.