What my ears hear

I'm not sure how the following all tie together except that I got to hear them...

Addition to Ek's prayers, yesterday she prayed that her daddy would be very "thinkable" while he operated. Love that and I know God knew just what you meant sweet girl.

H has asked 2 awesome questions as a result of the Bible lessons at school. "How many faces does God have?" and "What did God do on the 8th day?" Love that boy. He wanted to know with the first question how God could see everything at one time. What a great way to ask that question. We talked a good bit about God the Spirit. To the other question I told him he enjoyed what he had done. H told me that was what He did on the 7th day! J told him that He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.

We were praying for J as he left go operate on Saturday on call. After Ek and H prayed, L asked who she could pray for. I asked her who she wanted to pray for and she said "Mopsey." "Dear God, please help Mopsey have a beautiful day..."

Today I asked what I was going to do with her and she said while laughing, "Keep me forever!" Ya hoo!

Love them all.

one and oh

Fall soccer season is underway! The girls and I skipped all the practices since school began and they needed to get to bed at a reasonable time (practice started t 7:45 several nights!), so I was so excited to see him play! He was so excited to get out they and play a game. It was 1000 degrees and 1000 percent humidity, I'm sure, but we were ready. After a quick team photo, they were off. H played great- he paid attention to what was going on, and stayed involved. He scored 2 goals to help their 7-2 win. He also played very hard on defense, he and JP really chased the other team down and tried to get the ball away and take it the other direction. He was not anxious to kick it down the field but tried to dribble the ball- in high traffic and even tried to position himself to receive the ball from JP. It was fun, most of all it was fun to see his huge smile and know he was having a blast playing ball with his friends.

Trust me on this one--- H aka #9 is headed for his first goal of the season, in about one kick...

See what I mean? Having fun...
2 goals today. Sweet boy though- team player wanted to hold up 7.

Learning my girl

Yesterday I was wrong. Big wrong. L and I took the kids to school and came home. She was so pitiful. I held her, fed her breakfast, read to her, rocked her, toted her around, gave her Tylenol and Clartin for her runny nose. She was just literally rolling around of the floor, whining and fussing all morning. I put her down for a nap at 11:30. I turned down an exercise class and a lunch out because I just thought she didn't feel well enough to get out. She slept for a normal 2 hours and we got big bro and sis back and suddenly her energy was back too! She was playful and happy the rest of the day! cured! by some playmates. So I thought she needed to stay home and rest when maybe she needed to get out and play! Silly me! So today I decided to get her out and about. We ran errands, visited friends, ate lunch out and took lunch to J. She was bouncy and smiley and happy all day. Not to say she doesn't doesn't like some time home alone to play, because we have had some great days of playing babies and restaurant this week, but I guess too much of a good thing is too much. I asked her this morning who she wanted to play with today, her responses, in order, me, B and HH, EK, H. sweet girl. she just loves to have Ek and H around. So, note to self, keep that girl coming and going!

Ek's prayer

Somewhere along the way, it was discovered that Ek likes to pray for her Daddy on the days he operates. So for a long time now, he will ask her, "Ek, will you pray for my surgeries today?" Well, sometime this summer her prayers have included this, "Dear God, please help Daddy's surgeries go well today and please help his patients come back the next day and say, 'Wow Dr. W, I can see so much better now!,' Amen." Love so many things about that. :)

Despite the shirt, it really is fun

J's first reaction when I told him H could take golf lessons was "I knew this day would come." I'm not too sure how to take that, but I am so glad this day has come. H is having a ball. (pun totally intended) He has, for the last 2 months, taken golf lessons once a week with his friends. They are the cutest little group of golfers I've ever seen. Their coach has taught lessons to kids for years and has them chipping, putting and hitting range balls. He has taught them to stand like a golfer and be quiet and watch while another golfer has his turn, that may be as hard as hitting a hole in one, but one can try, right? I have to admit that he was not too sure about this golf thing in the beginning, he totally disagreed with the wardrobe. You would think that collared shirts have razors in them the way he avoids them, but as time has gone on, it has improved. Ek put a collared shirt on yesterday and said, "I don't know what the big deal H makes about collared shirts is all about, they are not that bad." Once he is dressed, there and with his friends, he has been having a great time. Just tell my H to hit or kick or throw a ball as hard as he can and he is happy. I'm proud him for trying something new and if his persistence has anything to do with it, he will be a great golfer in no time. The group picture will have to come later, one was missing at the time of these pics.

That was a great game.

We had a really great time at the Braves game in Cincinnati. We always like to look and see who will be playing anything professional when we travel, especially baseball. J has been know to even just drive by empty stadiums. Boy were we excited when we saw not only were the Reds going to be in town when we were going to be there, but that they were playing the Braves! Well that was just about too much. J booked those tickets within 30 minutes. Now we only needed to register for the meeting and hotel and figure out how to get there, but those we just details compared to where we were going to sit!!! Ek was a Brave this year and H got a jersey for his birthday and L was cute enough without either. We decided at the last minute to drive the 5 blocks to get there knowing for sure that the 5 of us would not walk home~ a few more years and we'll take that walk easy. Well it was one of those instances where lucky was better than good and J ended up in the best parking spot ever, we crossed the street, went up an escalator, and walked into the stadium. We walked around to our seats that we directly in front of the $1 concession stand, bathrooms and a playground. wow. Good seats, babe. J could recall all the details of the game but I'm sure you could find those on a sports blog- that's not what this is. The kids made 3 trips to the play ground, at hotdogs and sprite, L tasted a neighbors peanut and decided she must have some, played a great game of I spy, and sang "take me out to the ball game" with joy and gusto and they all ate their own bay of cotton candy- L finished hers first. We managed to even get one inning of free baseball to see them pull it out in the 10th. And we got post game fireworks. Did I mention it was amazing? It was. Perfect baseball weather, breeze off the Ohio river and in the shade. Really it was amazing. Good find babe, way to go!

Summer poolin

Ahhh, summer, how we loved thee. sigh. One of the best parts of our amazingly playful and fun summer was the pool. I would watch the clock until about 9:30 and then we would dash into our swim suits, gather the towels, add them to the back of the car where the toys were waiting, slather on our sunscreen, hop in the car, sit very still, and drive the 3 blocks to the pool. We were always super excited to be the first to arrive and after saying hello to Cathy and signing in, I would hear, "Can I get in now?" in the sweetest little voices I ever heard. I loved the first time we went this summer and H was so excited to get it that he forgot to take his flip flops off. Sometimes we would meet friends and sometimes we would go alone. I loved one day when it was just the 4 of us and Ek said how much she liked it that way, wow did that do my heart good. At the beginning of summer, L was very cautious. She wanted me to hold her 100% of the time, no matter who was with us, me hold her, only. One day along the way though, she discovered her wings. We tried vest, inner-tubes and wings and one day, the wings won. From that day on, she wanted to swim "by herself." She still wanted me to be in the water with her, but she would piddle around, kicking her little legs and leaning back to get her hair wet. Once she began doing that, we could venture into the deep end where the big 2 loved to play. Ek worked very diligently on touching the bottom and taught h diligently until they could both touch at 9 feet- first with their feet, then with their hands, first from the ladder and then from the diving board. They both worked on their dives and H even tried to help JP with is dives. H had the cutest, I mean, awesomest cannon ball you've ever seen, he'd keep his little, I mean awesome, legs all tucked in until he made his splash. I could watch him do cannon balls all day. He also loved to jump in silly, the duck was my favorite- tucking his little legs under, flapping his wings and quacking off the diving board. We also played a fun game of shark and boat, we would swap roles of chasing each other around the shallow end, I usually had H and L attached to me and Ek got pretty fast with those flippers on, the shark would usually go for big bites out of ribs to get good laughs. They also loved swimming under my legs at different levels without touching. I loved hanging out in the water with them. Toward the end of the summer, we started taking a tea set and would have all sort of tea and then have to gather tea cups from all over the pool. The water guns drove us crazy all summer as we would get slapped unexpectedly in the face with water from time to time, "not in the face, up in the air!!" They loved for Cathy to fix lunches of mini corn dogs, chicken finger, fries and fruit, oh and powerade and nothing is sweeter than ice cream at the pool. We went alot. One week I think the kids swam 5/6 days. We usually went in the morning for about 3 hours, ate lunch there, came home, showered and rested for several hours. It was so hot this summer that I just couldn't stand to be out much unless we were at the pool. I am so so thankful that we got to spend the summer there together, laughing, playing, seeing friends, seeing each other. It was so fun.

PS there are no pictures because I was in the pool! We did though take several underwater cameras that I will have developed soon!

First day pics, take 2

So, I just love taking pics in the same spot in my yard every year for the first day of school. I call it the first day of school spot. My kids know it, they hear it and they get ready. Ek and H put their back packs on, grabbed their lunch box, walked over and gave me a subtle grin. Perfect. H needs to take a quick break and L steps to the spot. There are no words to describe it. So here it is.






I'm not sure what else to do but just keep her forever and keep loving her. Mostly because I can't wait to see what she does next. This girl keeps us smiling.

First day of school!

First day of school! First day of school! First day of school!

This year, the overwhelming thoughts in my head regarding going back to school are this: Number one, I am so thankful my kids get to go to school. What an amazing gift. What an amazing blessing. Just thinking of all the kids all over the world who don't have the chance for an education at all and my kids have this amazing school where they are challenged and loved, disciplined and prayed for, where they must sit still and work and then run and play. Its amazing. I am so thankful. Number two, summer if fun, but it is not the life I long for my kids to live. It is not their potential. The are too smart and too eager to wake up and eat breakfast at 10 am on their way to the pool. I loved it and am a bit mopey when I think that its done for the year because it was so fun, we had such fun together, I'll need to write just on pool memories here soon, but back to number one, I am so glad for them to get to go to school.

So off to school. Today began very well. They were happy to get there. We ate cinnamon toast for breakfast, I packed their lunches, they got dressed, brushed their teeth and we were ready for our first day of school picture. We loaded up and headed to school. When we rounded the corner to the school Ek said her stomach was hurting. I think we were all a bit nervous. We walked Ek to her room first and after settling in, she quickly asked if we could walk H to his room. When we arrived at H's room and attached his new desk bag, newly finished that is, the tears were on the brink of making their appearance. I kept telling myself to be brave. I managed to make it out though. H was very nervous and not quite ready for me to leave, but I knew he would be fine, he had several friends there and a big fish to color. We walked Ek back to her room and she quickly and quietly settled into her seat. Neither were too happy to have their picture taken but sorry that was not an option. L and I managed to make it to the car before the tears exploded. I just felt like I had left my arms there! J said the kindest things to encourage me- he told me to rest knowing how great our summer had been and how I had invested in them all summer. The Lord blessed me with that all day. When we pulled away from the school, L was so quiet, I asked her if she was ok and she said yes. I asked her if she was sad and she said "No, (pause), mommy, why are you sad?" hahaha I told her I just liked for us all to be together, she said she did too.

After school the kids bounced into the car with huge grins. The had the best days. They were literally singing how awesome their day was. Their lunch was awesome (who knew a turkey sandwhich and a banana could taste so good!). Ek learned how to write "a" in cursive and H learned again what "i" says. H was excited to get to the 100th day of school and Ek was excited that today they got to go to computer. ahhhh school. what a gift. We had the G's over to celebrate the first day of school. Us moms celebrated the peace of the Lord and his working in our hearts to help us. Great day.

Good morning!

Just a bit more about the Braves game and the fireworks~ They announced before the game that it was a fireworks game. The fireworks would begin 20 minutes after the last out. The kids were, needless to say, quite excited. They missed 4th of July fireworks since J and I were watching them overlooking the harbor in Maine. ahhh ME. Well those Reds tied the game in the 8th (I think) and so we got some free baseball. Thankfully the Braves went ahead in the 10th and won it. horray!! I was very thankful it didn't go to like 16 innings. Well, H just couldn't quite make it. In the 10th, he got very still in my lap and fell asleep. Crowds were cheering and standing around us. Loud announcers, people taking pictures, passing by to the aisles, H slept. Game over, homerun contest, ohhhhs and ahhhhs, H slept. Fierworks begin, loud music, H slept. Me shaking him, throwing him around, yelling in his ear, "H wake up, H fire works!!!!" H slept. oh well. We ohhhed and ahhhed. They were amazing. amazing! They were set to movie soundtracks. L was not a big fan of the noise, J covered her ears the entire time. Ek plugged her ears at times. H slept. We loaded up, headed to the car, buckled in, drove to the hotel, took the elevator, undressed H, stole gum from his mouth, kissed him good night. H slept.

The next morning, he woke up and I went over to hug him a minute and the first thing he said was, "Mommy, there weren't any fireworks last night!" really H? I said, "yes there were H, you were asleep, I tried to wake you up." he said, "Nuh- uhhh! I didn't fall asleep!" ok, H. I know my H well enough to know arguing is not a good idea. He may come around but I was not in the mood at that moment. The Lord spoke to my heart in that minute and made me wonder how often I sleep when he is trying to wake me. I know he speaks in all ways and often it is a still small voice but I'm sure he gets louder at times! My hearts prayer in that moment is that I wake when he calls to hear and see what He has for me. I know He wants to show us even more glorious things than fireworks and I don't want to sleep through them and then try to tell him there were not any. I think of Ephesians 5:14" Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Maybe next time, H. And I hope next time for me too.