Life Here in These Parts

It's hard to come back to life after being carefree and kidfree for several days.  I spent today feeling overwhelmed with catching up with life and preparing for the coming week, AND processing the convention we went to, which has my head swarming with plans for our future.

On the schooling front, I am ready to mix things up.  We have been very loose in our structure since June, but I want to get more scheduled.  Need to get more scheduled.  This is how it tends to go each year.  Maybe it has something to do with winter coming.  I have an inner need to change with the seasons, I guess.

This time it also has to do with getting Reuben more involved in the formal education process.  And I have some personal daily goals I want to accomplish and I just don't think they are going to get done if I don't schedule them.


So, we are going to try night school with Peter.  He currently goes to bed at 8:30 but is awake until ten or eleven.  So I'm going to try doing some lessons after dinner for a while.

Nolan comes over from 2:30-5:30 and all the boys play together.  Then dinner, then how about some lessons?  Send him to bed at 10 or 10:30 and let him sleep into the morning.  Rube gets up early and I can have some time with him.

Going with the flow of natural rhythms.  We'll see.  I've done lots of experimentation with scheduling and structure over the last three years.  Changing as we need to.  One of the nice freedoms of home education.


And I just want to say, if you have the opportunity to wear pink shoes, they are a lot of fun.
 

 

What I Know

I know that my heart was broken.

On my birthday.

Twice.

It had nothing to do with me or my birth.  It was just the day.

My heart was broken in the afternoon when I learned of the huge problem of human trafficking, slavery, abuse, and sex trade in T.  There is a couple there working to help them.  One hundred women have been rescued by their efforts in the last year.  But there are 27 million more in the world who are trapped.  Trapped.

In the evening I was broken again when a T pastor implored us to come and save his people.  "I want to see my people saved before I die."  75 million people in this country.  3,500 of them are Believers.  There is a lot of work to be done.

They need workers who will move there and stay there.  This is our goal.

Where in the World?

Do you know where we are?  Do you know what we are doing?

Maybe someone you know knows.

Find out, then pray for us.

We learned tonight that we don't have to have a vision.  We can just go.  God knows His vision.  We just go.

Then a seasoned worker encouraged us to do some more interpretation with this and take the emotion out.  So I guess we're back to needing a vision.

We'll have to get back to you on that.

What's Going On

Made the peppers last night.  They were okay.  Not fabulous, but I might make them again if a friend randomly drops off another bag of her garden-grown beauties and I have a can of tomato paste.  I didn't have tomato paste last night, so maybe that was the missing wow.  But still, nice.

Quick blanching of the peppers

 Mixing up the filling.

 

 Putting Walnut Wheat Bread into the oven.

The highlight of the meal, I'd say.

Really yum.

 After the eating of the peppers,

Paul and I head north for a couple hours to help out our friends with

Show Hope.

We were at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert

and talked to some folks about adoption

and encouraged others to give money to Show Hope

who will use it to give to families like us (and you!)

who could use some financial help with adoption expenses.

They also use donations to fund their spectacular orphange in China...

They are saving lives here.

Wonderful night of sharing our passion of helping the helpless.

Lots of people pledged to give Show Hope $35 a month.

Other younger couples were moved to consider adoption more seriously.

On our booth's table was Mary Beth Chapman's new book,

Choosing To See.

I read bits and pieces throughout the night,

but finally had to stop because I couldn't hold back my tears.

She talks about her family's three adoptions

and the tragic death of one of their children.

It was very interesting.

Sad at times, and inspiring at others.

Read it with a box of tissues.

Got home at three this morning.

Today, Peter had his last soccer game,

after which there was much rejoicing.

Then we went to The City for the day.

First stop,

Costco.

Here we are.

At Costco.

Thank you nice checker person for documenting this exciting moment.

My parents gave me a food processor for my birthday!

My kitchen opportunities just exploded.

 Then we toured the Children's Museum, Saraga International Market, and Cracker Barrel.

We're all full and fulfilled.

This is the current happenings:

Peter giving Granpa the Lego lowdown.

It's a glorious day to a seven year old when a new Lego catalog arrives.

Churchy tomorrow, and a day with Paul's parents.

My Morning

Reuben and I were up earlier than the rest this morning...  Wait, that is so false.  Reuben was up earlier than the rest this morning and chose me to be his early morning friend.  My Dad and Paul were out late checking out the local poker scene, my Mom is on California time (three hours behind), and Pete is enjoying the school holiday and sleeping away the morning.

So Rube and I made muffins.

Bananaberry Bombs really.

My Great Aunt Phyllis gave me this funny cookbook.

It's called Looneyspoons.

"Low-fat Food Made Fun"

And it is.

A blueberry from our summer stash in our freezer.

Expert stirrer.

Almost done.

Time for breakfast!

Next food adventure:

Stuffed Peppers

Also in Looneyspoons

I'll let you know if they are any good.

They have black beans in them so I'm expecting great things.

Speaking of letting you know about things...

The Star Wars shirt has successfully disappeared.

No tears.
A few days of

"Where's my Darth Vader shirt?"

But we're good.

Yahoo.

Our Yesterday

So my parents were going to come visit us this week  But since we ended up flying out there last month for my Dad's baptism, they decided to postpone their trip for a bit.

Then my Dad called Tuesday morning and said, "Ha Ha, we are going to come after all!"  Funny parents.  So a few hours later and a flight full of cowboys, they're here!

Rain, colder weather, and a busier schedule are on the way later this week so we went straight to hiking at a couple state parks on Wednesday.

There's my Dad, my Mom in the hat, Evelyn in red, Reuben, Steve, and Peter.

Steve and Evelyn are local friends who are spontaneous like us and joined us for our expotition.

 Mom skipping a rock.

Really, what nice form.

 My Dad skipping.

Ha, I don't think I've ever seen my Dad skip.

The step hop version.

Have you seen your dad skip?
Funny to think about though.

Steve escorting Pete down a log.

 Rube was right behind him.

No escort required.

Don't even offer.

 Exploring a hole.

Look at all those leaves behind them.

It was a crunchy hike.

So fun.

Ahhh.

I love sweet family time.

And fall sunshine.

And good friends.

Mi Hermanito

"Daaa-vid" was how my Grandmother would say my brother's name.  He is pretty much known as Dave now, or the Bennettar.  Which ever you prefer.  It is his turn to be celebrated because it's his birthday now.  Or was.  Yesterday.  So let us extend the celebratory remarks...

 

Can you pick him out of a crowd?

This is September 12, 2010

I spy two uncles, two aunts (where's Jann?), a cousin, three siblings, a sibling-in-law, a niece, my parents, and my three boys.  Oh, and me too.

This is the outdoor pool where my Dad was baptized.

How about a smaller crowd?

This picture should look familiar.

My sis, my brother, me, and my other brother, Daryl.

There he is.

(I just wanted to get some family shots in there since I haven't fully posted about our trip to California.)

We love spending time with him and his wife Nicole.

They are so cool.

And we are, you know, pretty cool too.

So, naturally, we just smoosh together well,

like softened ice cream being refrozen into an ice cream cake.

Cool like that.

 He has crazy cute kids.

This is Gigi and Peter

reuniting after a year and a half.

 

 And little Brody

with my man.

So maybe I put this particular picture in so I could gaze at Paul.

I did.

Good picture.

Handsome man.

 Dave is a thinker, uh-huh.

He's not just posing.

He's trying to figure out what Paul is talking about.

Carly's not so sure either.

 

 This is his beach.

Which is so strange because it was my beach first,

back in 1998.

Back in the day when Paul and I were writing letters to

each other from across the country.

Ahhhh

He is a self-taught zen gardener.

 One-handed even.

For fun, I mean, his job

he works for Elliptigo as an engineer.

 Neat, huh?

It's a real job based on a real bike.

I rode it.

You could too.

Check out their website.

 And a multi-tasker extraordinaire.

Here he is scoring a live major league baseball game

(perfect job for him)...

 

...while Paul serenades him...

 ...and we all make and eat ice cream sundaes for dinner.

This was a fab dinner.

I think we ate something before the ice cream came out, but I don't remember what.

It was something smallish to leave room for this second course.

Trader Joe's supplied the waffles, chocolate and mint ice creams, chocolate covered pretzel thins, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and mini peanut butter cups.

There was whipped cream too.

How did Dave accurately score the game, I don't know.

But the food, family, and music was a good time.

Hope you had a swell birthday.

Miss you tons.