Full Bloom

I love our backyard right now.

Actually I love our yard pretty much year round, but the spring and summer are just outrageously beautiful.

Show off!

Empanadas

Daniel's class is studying Panama for the Multicultural Fair at school. Tomorrow we will tour all the different classrooms and their chosen countries and get to enjoy some of the local foods.

Today I made some empanadas for the fair and I must say they are quite delicious. I love empanadas but this is the first time I have ever made them. My love affair with empanadas started a long time ago when I was probably in middle school. We used to sell empanadas at a music fair held at our school every year and my Mom would bring home a whole bunch of them when the event was over. They were really good and I still remember them.

They are a bit time consuming to make, but well worth the effort. Yum!

Into the Wild

Another letter from Daniel from a while back, but appropriate for today since Dan, my Dad and the boys are heading up to the mountains for some camping. Good luck boys!

Get Better Card

Back in the fall I was doing something stupid and accidentally cut my thumb pretty good right across the knuckle. I was so mad because a) I was doing something stupid b) because I cut myself right across the knuckle so I couldn't bend my thumb without opening the wound and c) I had a big school event coming up and I needed the use of both hands. I guess Daniel felt pretty bad for me because he presented me with this get better card:
A very sweet card but what is up with the big old bloody hairs!?

Sammy Self Portrait

Sammy is becoming quite the artist. Don't you love this self portrait of his?

Quotes I like...

Love these quotes by Chuck Swindoll:

"The family is the place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living. In other words, it is the place where character is taught and caught. It is where we learn we are loved and cared for. It is where we learn that we have worth and something to contribute. It should be where we learn that we can be forgiven when we have failed. It is where family members show one another what God is like and how He relates to us. It is where children learn obedience so that they will understand what it means to obey God. Home is where we learn who God is and learn to love Him. Home is where we learn who we are and who others are. It's where we learn to live unselfishly with other people, taking them into consideration. All of this and much more, happens primarily within the family."

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it”

“I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there is no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.”

Mini Book

I found this mini book Daniel made a while back while doing some spring cleaning. I though it was pretty cute.

I just wonder who the 'one great parents' is. Probably Dan since he is the Lego master in our house.

Baseball Cards for Sale

Sammy has set up shop in the hallway of our home. If you are interested in purchasing some baseball cards from the 60's, 70's and 80's come on by. Sammy claims there are some really valuable ones.I believe the prices are listed here and you can drop your money in the hole.

Noses

This is what Daniel has been up to the last few days. Blowing his nose and having his nose buried in a Timothy Zahn book. He has been spending most of his free time alternating between the two. I could definitely do without the first, but I am loving the second.

Writings and drawings

Daniel loves to write and draw. For a while now I have been collecting bits and pieces of writings, letters and drawings that I have received or found laying about my home. I love them and often think they are hilarious. Here are a few:
I love how Daniel puts a subject on top and of course I love the p.s. and how he spells 'attitude'.
I think this is Daniel and I. Very sweet.
Can't remember what this was on, maybe his door?
Daniel loves making maps.
Apparently there is a book in the works and you can buy one for the low price of $5.50. I was a little concerned about the lower regions of the boy in the drawing. I asked Daniel what was going on there and he clarified that it is the boy's pants and the "B" stands for barn door (which Daniel's is often open). I think I need to give him some lessons on drawing the lower half of a person before he offends someone.

Hosanna

This morning in church we were singing a song in which the chorus went, "Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest..." Sammy was really into the song but was was belting out "Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna on the highway!" I'm not sure if he was trying to be funny or if he really thought those were the words. Funny kid.

What to do on a cold and rainy day...

Put your little brother in a box.

Family Devotionals - Day 2

Sammy did great this morning, he talked about the poor widow giving her two coins and why that was more than the rich people putting in lots of money. We sang 'Away in a Manger', one of the songs he sang at the Christmas program.

A good day two, now the pressure is on for Suzy, as tomorrow is her day. Sammy is a tough act to follow!

Family Devotionals

We have been meaning to do family devotionals for a long time. We have tried to start things in the past, Suzy has done some with her and the boys, I do something with them before bed, but we have never had a consistent time of the four of us getting together for worship, prayer and studying the bible.

That all changed this morning, and boy, was it not what I expected.

We are patterning what we are doing after what our pastor did with his kids when they were growing up, and that consists of each of us taking a day of the week (Daniel is Tuesdays, Sammy is Wednesdays, Suzy is Thursdays and I am Fridays) and that person picking some songs to sing and a passage or bible story to talk about. I was assured by our pastor that the little ones could handle things, with a little help from others getting them started.

Until child number three miraculously shows up we are going to have Mondays be a time of prayer and singing, no lessons. So that is what we did yesterday, and it went great. Suzy uke'd out some great praise songs, the boys kind of sang along, and we prayed for awhile.

This morning Daniel was going to go solo, so Suzy and I were a little worried. We kept asking him yesterday if he wanted help preparing, and prompting him to see if he knew what he was going to do. He was evasive. He wanted it to be a secret. Those were our warning signs. We didn't heed them.

When I got the boys up (15 minutes early to accommodate our new activity) Sammy hopped out of bed with his usual enthusiasm and Daniel gave a characteristic moan. After making sure that their morning routines were good and going I went to finish getting myself ready for work. We all stumbled downstairs fifteen minutes later to get started, and another warning sign appeared, Daniel was wandering around with a tissue.

As a brief aside, Daniel is a terrible sick kid. Good natured and pleasant most of the time, when he has the slightest cold it is like his life is ending. Yuck. And that is how he was this morning. Moaning, moping, the whole bit.

[Me, in a scared voice] 'You need anything to get ready for devotional, buddy?'

[Daniel, sniveling, half crying voice] 'I can't find a bible.'

Our house is filled with Bibles, kids bibles, adult bibles, at least seven translations, bibles all over the place. Much like with spiders, in our house you are never more than two feet away from a bible.

[Me, again, more scared] 'We have lots of bibles, is there one you are looking for?'
[Daniel, mumbling unintelligibly]
[Suzy, entering to save the day] 'Oh, that's right here.' (I don't know how she understood him, I don't know how she knew where this random bible was, I don't understand a lot about my wife's skills, but I sure do like them.)

So now Daniel has his bible and it looks like he finds a particular spot in it, so we all sit down to some more uke-ing from the multi-talented Suzanne.

After a few songs, we pray and all look to Daniel to get us started. He looks like he is about to collapse under the pressure. Nothing is coming out. He is flummoxed, he is crying. The gentle prompting from his parents do nothing but send him deeper into his hole of despair. The surprisingly gentle prompting from his brother helps not a bit. Finally I decide to throw him a lifeline.

'Daniel, do you want me to get things started today and you can do your time next week?'

[Daniel is barely able to nod 'yes']

'Ok, buddy, why don't we look at ...' and off we went to learn about seeds planted in various soils. Sammy was able to follow along and participate, but Daniel never got into the swing of things. When I left for work a few minutes later Daniel was still looking forlorn and barely keeping things together. I am more than a bit scared about how he does at school today.

Our first day of family devotionals was less than successful, and tomorrow, Sammy!

Please pray for us.

Two Down

Sammy threw up on the way in to school this morning. Poor little fellow. Daniel threw up this morning, but was able to hold down banana, applesauce and crackers throughout the day and was pretty energetic at the end of the day. Will it ever end!??? I am hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

The Rain is Here

The wind is blowing and the rain has been coming down since the morning. I love rainy days. The way the water streaks down the windows of my kitchen making everything look somehow greener and more alive. I can almost hear my plants sucking up all that precious water, thinking "at last, at last". I think everyone is glad the rain has come after a dry summer and fall.

But with the rain, also comes all the colds and flu and germs. Poor Daniel spent most of the day Saturday with his head over the toilet and still feels queasy and not quite right. The stomach flu is the pits I tell ya. I wish there was something I could do to help him feel better. If only the rain could wash away all the germs and yuckiness.

Mr. Charisma

It is sometimes weird to live with a celebrity. You can't go out in public without having this person upstage you, everyone wants a piece of this person, everyone wants to catch their eye, just an acknowledgment, that's all people are hoping for, dreaming of.

The celebrity in our house? Is it Suzy? Although she is the best thing that has ever happened to me, she falls short in the fame category to Mr. Charisma. Is it me? Nope, none of you were thinking that! 'Daniel?', you ask. Good guess, tons of reasons why he will one day rule the world, but sadly you are mistaken again.

Sammy.

While walking out of their school last week in our group were me, School Board president, church elder, Sunday School teacher. Not a peep from anyone. My mom, a Pastor at the church in which we are standing. Nothing. Daniel, recent recipient of the school wide VIP award. Crickets chirping. But when Sammy walks through the courtyard it gets ridiculous...

'Sammy, are you leaving already?'
'Hey Sammy!'
'Sammy!'
'Wanna play, Sammy?'

These things are coming from kids of all ages, preschoolers call out to him, middle schoolers (who are not known for their ability to acknowledge the world in any way) are high-fiving him. Teachers give him broad smiles. Parents give him enthusiastic hugs. It is weird, and it happens all the time. Really it has happened his whole life. I can remember carrying him around the neighborhood after he was born and having people pull their cars over to talk to me about him.

He is Mr. Charisma, if you don't believe me, just spend some time with him, you will know what it is like to be in the shadow of celebrity. What it is like to be captured by his spell.

Sammy, please use your super powers for good, not evil.

What's the big deal?

I wonder how far to go back with this story. Its origins lie many years ago (many to me right now is about three or four). When Daniel was three or four he cracked a tooth on a popcorn kernel. As a result of that he had a 'spacer' put in soon thereafter, to keep his other teeth from collapsing in on the gap. He loved to fool around with the spacer, and it repeatedly popped out, and we had to take him in to have it popped back in. Having finally had enough, the dentist cemented it in there so well that now I am a bit concerned that that sucker is never coming out. But, I have wandered off the path of my original story.

Because of the spacer, Daniel had to avoid chewy candies and gum. No big deal, he is more of a cookie aficionado like his father anyway. However, we recently realized that there is a massive gap (no pun intended) in Daniel's candy protocol knowledge.

Sammy loves gum. Loves it. Not as much as spicy things, but a lot. If he ever discovered spicy gum he might jump right out of his pants with excitement. So, for Sammy's recent sixth birthday, Suzy and I got him a gumball machine (good call on our part, it was a big hit). Daniel thought it was pretty cool too, so he ran upstairs, grabbed himself some coinage and returned to purchase his first gumball. Suzy and I were playing 'Sorry' (I ended up being the Sorry one), so we weren't paying the greatest of attention, but I soon realized that Daniel had shoved a decent percentage of his life savings in that gumball machine so I decided to check on him. My gaze wandered to his face as he walked around the room looking at and playing with all of Sammy's new loot. A tell-tale sign of gum chewers was missing. Warning flags were going off in my head. No chewing.

'Uh, Daniel, what did you do with your gum?'

'Oh, that wasn't gum, it was just candy.'

Having purchased said gumball machine and additional gum supplies, Suzy and I were pretty sure that it was gum, but Daniel is not often wrong, so I paused and thought things through for a while.

'I am pretty sure it was gum, what did you do with it?'

'It got soft and squishy, so I swallowed it.'

Now is when I remembered the common knowledge bestowed upon children of my generation, that gum was going to stay in his stomach forever. Thankfully I long ago rejected all knowledge imparted to me as a youngster and knew that eventually that gum would no longer be hanging around Daniel's innards.

'Daniel, that was gum, bud, you aren't supposed to swallow it. When you are done with it you go and throw it away.'

Daniel was looking at us like we were crazy, or trying to be funny.

'Why would you throw it away? Why don't you eat it?'

'That's just what you do, bud. Once it loses its flavor you chuck it... in a trashcan.'

Daniel, having seen his brother gush over gum for the last year or so, was by now very confused.

'What's the big deal, then?'

I don't know, bud, I don't know.

Now at least one more piece of parental wisdom has been imparted to my children. He knows how to call 911, he knows what to do in a fire. He knows how to make peanut butter crackers. Now he knows what to do with gum. My parenting duties are almost complete. Who's ready to learn how to drive?

Drunken Frat Party

Last night and this morning Suzy and I got a little view of what things will be like in about 14 years when both our boys will be in college.

In the span of one night the boys (some combination of them) accomplished all of this:

1. Breaking one of the slats in Papa's beautifully designed and built custom bunk bed (repeated jumping from the top bunk seems to be the culprit here).
2. Destroying a reading light (Daniel holding onto light switch while Sammy body slammed him from behind).
3. Drawing all over each other with pens (he started it!).
4. There also was a sleeping accident, but we won't mention that so I don't embarrass my youngest son (can blame this one on all the beer).

Please let me re-iterate that this all occurred during the course of ONE NIGHT! Some day I will look back on this and laugh... but not this day.

So far, so good...

The boys have been in school for 4 weeks now and so far, so good. Actually I should say so far, so great. The boys are really enjoying this school year. Great classes and great teachers. Neither one has complained about going to school or doing homework yet. I would say that's pretty good. They both have already grown so much. Both of their handwriting have improved and they are learning new things every day. They really are like sponges at this age. I am thankful they are so happy and blessed that they go to such a great school.