Many Musings on Monday

Happy Monday!  The second to last Monday in July.

Woohoo! Wowee! Sheesh!

Time is speeding along!

So we had a crazy-busy week last week. (Sometimes that's every week -- especially during the school year -- but this was a busy "late-night" week...followed by a busy weekend.

We signed the boys up for Vacation Bible School at our church. I really like the concept of VBS. It's a fun time for kids to get together and learn more about Jesus and the Bible. Doing it late at night (6 to 8:30) for five nights...not liking that so much. But both boys really enjoyed it, though for Ethan (and me) it was REALLY LOUD. The loudness stimulated him so that by the time we got home at 9 p.m., he was a really wired boy. We figured out ways of calming him on the way home -- soft music, Bear & Blankie, quiet stories, warm milk -- for the subsequent days.

Ethan felt very clingy, especially the first night, so I stayed with him for the whole week.  It was interesting to tag along with the PreK group as a end-of-the-line-wrangler-of-stray-kids. Hopefully, I was helpful?  I got to know the two leaders a little bit, and Ethan got to meet some of the kids he might be in Sunday School with.

Edward had a blast! He already goes to "Flight 56," which is his Sunday School, so most of the kids there were buddies already. We're glad to see him come out of himself. He was always so shy when he was younger. He still struggles sometimes with eye contact and feeling shy, but he's come a looooong way.

Emily continues to practice for her play, including every day last week. One of the lead actresses had to be replaced at the last minute due to getting really ill. That disheveled everything a little, but the cast seems to have righted itself and is back on track. They perform a week from this Friday and Sunday. I know that she's enjoying it, but I think Emi's ready for it to be finished.

Ethan had his "date" with my sister last Tuesday. She took him to Chuck E. Cheese for the morning. Again, he felt a little shy to stay by himself, but I tried to stay in the shadows and just take photos. He was hilarious!

We finished VBS on Thursday evening and followed it with a weekend celebrating the veterans of World War II. We manned the kids' games area. Since it was filled with re-enactors and there was a Big Band dance/concert later in the evening, we decided to get in on the fun. I'll end my musings for the day with some photos from last week.

Celebrating Emily's acceptance to the National Honor Society

Chuck E. Cheese with Aunt Sandy

Racing at VBS

World War II Days at Historic Joanna Furnace

Sweet Sunday

My very favorite song from VBS last week. So precious to see all of the kids and leaders singing it together.

Enjoy and have a sweet, sweet Sunday!

Saturday Sweethearts

We participated in the World War II Weekend at Joanna, helping with the children's games. The kids wanted to try dressing up. I think they looked really cute. 

(Emi and I changed later on for the big swing dance.)

Friday Funnies

In continuing the theme I posted about earlier in the week on making friends, I saw a post that included this clip from Seinfeld. It won't let me embed it, so you'll have to click on the link to see this hilarious take on how friendship forms. I think he's on to something...

Enjoy, and have a really fun (and silly) Friday!

Some Thoughts on Thursday

Nothing is impossible; the word itself says “I’m possible”! - Audrey Hepburn

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy. - Mark Twain

Live your life and forget your age. - Norman Vincent Peale

Wordless Wednesday

A Tuesday Tidbit

Click here to see something fun from our future PR girl, Emi!! The Berks County Parks and Recreation Department deemed it the "official trailer" for the production. So proud!!

Muggiest Monday Musings

Happy Monday!

It's hot. Very hot. But then it's July, and it should be hot, right?

It's funny to remember how much time we spent outside as kids during the summer. I don't know if it was because we didn't mind the heat...or our parents minded us going in and out. Either way, we had lots of fun in the sun.

Summer is nearly halfway over, which is kind of exciting and kind of sad.  We always have so many fun things we hope to do...and somehow the days pass one into another without us remembering that. My goal is always to make sure that we relax and have some moments of boredom, both of which I think are extremely important to children. Our modern culture has us raising our kids expecting to be entertained EVERY moment of every day. As a stay-at-home mom, I find that that can be especially exhausting to all of us. My mom never did it for us. Of course, she played with us and did things with us, but there were times when we were expected to entertain ourselves. Idle grass...

So Emily is in full-swing rehearsal mode and  has been busily working on her part in the play "Twelfth Night." They have been practicing for it nearly every day. It's the first of its kind for our county park system and should be a couple of fun nights. If you're in the area, the play will take place at the Gring's Mill Park at 6 p.m. on August 3rd and 5th. The costuming alone is phenomenal! And I'm know the acting will be even better!!

Edward and Ethan have been participating in the Vacation Bible School week at our church. The opening night was last night, and it was loud and overwhelming to say the least, especially for the youngest family member. But I think Ethan will adapt. (It's his first-ever VBS.) The staff are letting me stay with him, and I'm doing whatever I can to help out with the 32 (!!) pre-K kids in his group. The entire amount of kids (ages 3 to 6th grade) attending last night was 299!!  We'll see if it continues. They had the county's largest-ever Twister game. (Pictured above.) It was hilarious to watch the kids trying to follow the instructions. Someone came with a ladder-truck from a local fire company so that we could get photos of it. They managed to do so before a huge storm hit.

We ordered some of the coursework for Ethan's kindergarten school year. It should be exciting for him when it arrives! We'll order the rest next month and whenever we need it. It turns out we'll need to do kindergarten and first grade on our own since he misses both age cut-off dates for Agora. Still, that takes some pressure off of us and allows us to determine the timing of everything. Not a bad way to school...especially since we're starting him so early.

And one final tidbit: The kids each got a haircut last Friday. We went to the in-store salon at Walmart to get Ethan's hair cut (since it was only $8) and ended up with three new 'dos.  I think they look really nice. What do you think?

Sweet Sunday

The main theme from our Vacation Bible School program tonight -- VERY loud but very fun!

Saturday Sweetheart

Loved this is a photo from Thursday when we went to watch a Reading Phillies' game. What a funny face, huh? He keeps us laughing...probably a good thing.

Two months from today, he turns 4!!!

Friday Funnies

A funny little funny for you to enjoy on this edition of Friday Funnies. How many times can I use the word funny? Funnily enough...only a few. 

Hope you enjoyed your Friday, and that it was...funny!

Friend or Foe...or Somewhere in Between? - Part 1

It's a funny thing with kids and friends.

I'm not sure if it's the area in which we live or yet another sign of the times...but our kids can't seem to find friends.

They have lots of acquaintances -- and friends-on-the-surface -- but honest-to-goodness BFFs seem scarce these days. At least in our little microcosm.

When I was a kid we moved a lot...and by a lot, I mean: A LOT.  Every so many years we were uprooted and moving to a new neighborhood, where for the most part we had to find our own kind to hang with. My mom never set up "play dates" or walked us door-to-door.

We went to school...met people on the bus...were involved in clubs...or even walked ourselves around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking if there were any kids on the premises who might be available to play with us. I guess we knew no shame?

I can't say it was my favorite thing to do, and I was awfully glad to have a big sister to walk around with, especially since she did most of the talking. Of course, she ended up with most of the friends, too. Go figure.

Over the years, we met a few nice people...a few mean people...a few people who started off nice and ended up mean...and a few people that fluctuated between the two, veering mostly towards nice.  It was an interesting way to grow up.

My point has nothing to do with a comparison of my kidhood versus the kidhood my own sweeties are experiencing. My point is merely about friends.  There's no set formula for how it happens. (I truly wish there was.) In my own experience, you're just nice to somebody similar in age and hope that they'll be nice back.

And being nice might mean chatting with them, getting together with them, praying for them, etc.  I remind them that friendship is like a flower, in that sometimes it takes time to blossom and bloom.

So this is what we teach our kids...it just hasn't produced any "fruit" yet.

To be continued....

Wordless Wednesday

Color Me Happy

Sometimes -- not all the time, which is probably a blessing -- a good deal comes along on Groupon or LivingSocial or even our local newspaper's "Big Deals." (I think we'd go poor if they came along too often.)

That said, we got an awesome deal this past spring for four tickets to the Crayola Experience. (It used to be just the Crayola Factory...but adding "experience" makes it seem all the more exciting, I guess?)

A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

I love crayons. I love coloring. (In college, I used to use coloring as a study break...and give all of my friends coloring books and crayons for their birthdays or Christmas.) I love doing crafts with my kids, though I'm kinda lazy so it doesn't happen as often as they (or I) would like.

So tickets to Crayola? Score!

The cost was $20 for the four tickets, plus $10 off a $30 purchase at the store. We went there last September for Ethan's first-ever birthday adventure, and the tickets then were $10 each.  They recently went up to $12 each, so I think we got a great deal.

To avoid crowds (bwhahaha!), we'd planned to go there when Stuart traveled to Kansas in mid-June. It didn't expire until early July so there wouldn't be too mad a rush. Perfect, right?

Hmm...

So last Friday, a mere three days before the coupon (a coupon I feel sure a BILLION others also bought) expired, we headed to Easton, Pa., to experience Crayola again.

Still in all, we had an awesome time together. We got there when the factory opened and didn't have to wait to do any of the projects. We got front seats to watch the "how they're made" show about crayons and markers and even managed to quickly snag our Happy Meals and head outside to sit under a tree for an impromptu picnic. (Though it was VERY hot last Friday.)

A colorful day of colorful fun in a colorful place!

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Monday Musings and Memories

Happy Monday!

Wow! Is July really speeding along...nearly the middle of the month. Sheesh!

It was amazing to go to Target yesterday and see school supplies out ALREADY?!?!? Seriously? I mean, don't we get to enjoy a bit of summer break without thinking about "back to school"?

Guess not.

Stuart says it won't be long until they have out all the Christmas stuff. Give 'em a month or so, he says. Which reminds me that they are...drum roll, please...171 more shopping days until Christmas. This has been a PSA brought to you by Writer's Block.

So many thoughts...so little brainpower to get them written down.

My boys are vacuuming for me as I type. Really cute. Edward is manning the larger (real) vacuum, while Ethan follows using his Fisher-Price (pretend) one. Edward volunteered. Really sweet, huh? Emily is at play practice for "Twelfth Night," which opens on August 3rd, pending no rain. I think she's actually pretty excited, and she's really clever at learning her lines so quickly. Here's hoping she remembers them under the weight of her nerves.

Speaking of school. I heard Ethan whispering sounds during the prayer time at church yesterday. He was sounding out the word "EXIT" at the back of the sanctuary. He was quite pleased with himself when he figured it out...and so was I, though I did remind him that we should be quiet since we were praying. He's so clever with his learning, sucking it all up like a very thirsty sponge. I get excited by it, but then I'm quick to remember that the other two were just as clever. It makes me feel very blessed...and very daunted, being their teacher.

We suffered through a mini heatwave at the end of last week, and I don't think the air conditioner turned off at all during that time. I know that other parts of the country have been suffering for much longer, some without power. With temperatures close to 100 on Saturday morning, Emily decided she just had to have the next book in the Ender's Game series. So since we have a small used bookstore up the street that carries them, she begged Stuart to take her. He told her it was way too hot...but, being the book lover that I am, I said I would go with her. I've been looking to buy the book I Captured the Castle for less that the $14.99 Barnes & Noble is charging...so going along I knew I might get lucky and find it there.

Wow!

We hadn't even gone 10 feet and the wave of heat nearly melted us into a puddle. We made it there -- found her book and a bag of others (not the original one I hoped for but $5 for a bag of books?), as well as a book of short stories by Fitzgerald -- and back without frying too much. Yikes. What we do for our kids, right?  And, just for the record, it got to 102 F on Saturday.  Hot enough to fry an egg?

I am actually (finally) reading a book again. It's called The Janson Command, the sequel to a Robert Ludlum book I read a few years ago. Not written by him, of course, since he died back in 2002 and this just came out but still very good. I have a stack of other books to read, and I'm hoping this greases the wheel for me to get reading again.

I'll end with a photo I decorated in memory of Molly, Edward's guinea pig. It was a hard day yesterday, but we know that God cares for all of His creatures, big and small, and that He loved her, too.

Bittersweet Sunday

Today, we lost another furry friend: Edward's first guinea pig Molly passed away. It was a hard loss -- as they all are -- but especially so since she was his first-ever pet. And she was such a sweet piggy.

I'm so thankful that God understands moments like these. As Luke 12:6 says: "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God."

He loves even the smallest of His creation, and He is the comforter of all.

We are so grateful.

Here's a repeat song from a few months ago...so meaningful to us.

    

Saturday Sweethearts

I took this photo a long time ago (pre-Ethan) for the front a celebrity "dad" book we got for Stuart. All of the photos featured in the book were black-and-white close-ups. I liked how each photo captured the true feelings/emotions of that snapshot of time. I think (hopefully) I achieved the same thing.

Friday Funnies

Hey, wow! Today's post marks the 1,500th post I've written on this here blog.

Amazing!

More amazing is that I (probably) have almost as many in "draft" mode, I think...just kidding.

So today's "Friday Funnies" is brought to you by a website called Grammarly.com that posts photos with grammatical advice and/or examples of incorrect grammar on Facebook. Seriously. If you're an English "geek" like me, you'll appreciate them.

Consider the following photo:

Oops, indeed.

A little "Sweeney Todd," anyone? *wink-grin*


Happy Friday!  Hope it's a fun one!

Fourth of July Freedom

(I had some fun with PicMonkey. Heehee.)

Our family enjoyed a fun Fourth, as per usual -- nothing overly exciting or fancy but fun, nonetheless.

Personally, I think it's always fun to feel patriotic! It reminds me of the patriotic songs we sang when we were kids.

We started the day watching our borough's annual parade. We actually left 45 minutes early to get good seats (by good I mean in the shade and on the curb within reach of the candy-throwers). We live literally 5 minutes by car from the parade route, but we were glad to get there early since it was already getting crowded. It's our county's only 4th of July parade.

The fun of this parade is the camaraderie enjoyed by everyone attending and the colors displayed. Seriously. The borough gives a flag to everyone who wants one. If you gaze up and down the street all you see is red, white, and blue. It's fantastic!

Ethan was especially pleased with his flag this year.

Then comes the display of decorated bikes and wagons and floats and fire engines and old cars and veterans from the different wars and brass bands and...and... It really is a proud community moment, not unlike the ones my parents remember from their childhood town. We (my little family) actually started attending this parade before we lived in the borough.

When we got home, it struck me as sad when Edward said that he liked how he could be patriotic on the 4th of July without worrying about being laughed at or made to feel bad. "It the one day a year when it's okay to be patriotic out in public," he said. 

My heart froze. Have we as a nation made it taboo to be patriotic? Have we made kids feel like they need to hide those feelings of pride in who they are, who we all are, as Americans? 

Please don't misunderstand. I believe that ALL men (in the generic sense meaning men and women, boys and girls) are created equal -- no matter WHERE they live. But I am proud of my country and that I'm American...just as I'm proud that my husband Stuart is English and grew up in England...and that my friend Jade is Dutch...and another friend Geli is German, and yet another friend Rachel is Australian. I think we should ALL be proud of who we are and where we live. 

That's not exclusive, nor is it saying we're better than anyone else. We just love where we live and who we are.

But there's a feeling a foot that says that maybe some people think they're better when they're proud of who they are. Somehow that's not "allowed" anymore. We should be ashamed of the bad things our nation does...or has done.

Hmm...

I didn't do those things. I'm a nice person. And I think my nation is full of nice people. Maybe the government has made some mistakes...done some "bad" things, especially over the history of our nation. But the government is only a part of the whole.

We, the people, are the heart of the nation. And we need to have the freedom to show pride in that so that that heart continues to beat strongly.

*   *   *

Besides going to a fun parade and enjoying a yummy picnic with my family, we read aloud "The Declaration of Independence" as a family. Interesting stuff. Really. The Founding Fathers probably didn't realize how much history could repeat itself....

Wordless Wednesday -- Happy 4th of July!