Food, Fun, and Family Service

One of my goals as a parent is to develop a servant heart in my children.  I want them to take initiative to help others.  I want helping others to be second nature to them.  I want them to think beyond themselves and put others first.

So I am on the lookout for opportunities that provide this training.  Last week a mobile food pantry truck came to town and I signed our family up to help distribute the food.  It was so great.

 Charlie and our friend Diane handed out laundry soap to all 118 families who came through the line.

For two hours.

He was laying down on the table toward the end.

 Peter's job was to pull this cart as the client loaded it up with food.

Then he took it to their car and helped load it in.

This is how it made him feel.

Peter was a little unsure of himself at the beginning and wanted me to stay right with him.

So we worked together until a family who had walked to the park needed a ride back to their house with all their food.  I took them home, leaving a hesitant Peter.

He said he would stay right there and wait for me to get back before he helped another client.

But I tried to encourage him that he could do it by himself.

By the time I returned he had gone through the line ALL BY HIMSELF with a client.

When I rejoined him he said to me,

"Mom, maybe there's something else you could go do now."

Aha!

Confidence built.

 Reuben and Paul also got to use the fun carts.

Here they're waiting for the next family.

Reuben reminded Paul to tell them,

"Jesus loves you."

 We all enjoyed the time of serving.

 Charlie and I found that it was important to stop and take cuteness breaks now and then.

 Ok, so we're all done and the boys got permission to take these large boxes home to play with.

 Too big for the car

so they walked them home.

And then they spent the afternoon being extremely silly with each other and their boxes.

Which is another of my parenting goals:

brothers who love each other and enjoy each other.

Funny, Smart, Sunny, and Cute

Paul is hilarious.  This is how I know...

He went to the grocery store with all three boys so I could rest and have some Me time.  Not the funny part, but very heroic and loving, which are also necessary elements for a good story.  On his way out the door to the store I mentioned that I'd like some ice cream with bits of goodness in it that I could eat in the evenings when the children have disappeared into the night.  Look what the funnyman brought me:

He said, "You'll either thank me or be mad at me."  I laughed because I was not expecting .03 ounces of ice cream.  And I laughed, and maybe even cried, because I wanted more.  Lesson learned.  Go to the grocery store myself.  Or, perhaps, be more specific in my requests.  Or, thank my husband for controlling my portions of unneeded fat and sugar.  He is so thoughtful.  And ridiculous.

Paul's Missouri Grandparents came for a visit.

We love them dearly and think they are cute.

They go south for the winter.  I forgot to speak of their wisdom.  South for the winter is so smart.

And I felt like a flight attendant all day with that scarf around my neck.

I think it made me stand up taller.

Coffee, tea?

 The reigning Quilt Monster

 Guess what we're working on?

Potty training.

Throughout the day I hear the toilet lid shut and I head to the bathroom to find

This One taking his bear to use the toilet.

Then he uses wet wipes and puts on a new diaper.

He is figuring out his world.

 We had two warm days this week and we spent them outside,

soaking in and storing up all the sun we could get.

Peter successfully led us through this maze at a nearby nature preserve.

It was shaped like a bat - the flying mammal -

not the unfortunate tool the Giants are using to win World Series games.

Bleh, Giants.

Bleh.

Let's move on.

Mid maze.

Like my necklace?

Remember that time I bought a bunch of stuff I didn't really want at the Turkish shop in California?

This is from that.

I'm kind of fond of it now.

After the prairie maze, we toured some trails and crunched the leaves.

Paul came too.

I don't have any photo editing capabilities on this computer,

but if I did, I'd zoom right in on that cute couple.

Turks at Turkey Run

It is fall here.  Nearly over now.  The leaves today were rusty red and orange.  I do like fall and its beauty, but I also despise it as it insists on bringing winter all too close behind it.  I loathe and dread winter.  It makes me colder than I want to be.  And that's all the complaining I'm going to do.

Look here.  We spent an afternoon with our friends at Turkey Run.

 This is Zeynep.

She is youthful and a lot of fun.

 I, too, am youthful and loads of fun.

And my husband is handsome, as you can see.

 Since we are discussing youthful funness,

here is Paul crossing a high fallen tree.

 Bringing his children out to enjoy the danger.

Ta-da!

Danger equals fun.

 Here is Ersen.

Sometimes he wears Converse low tops and it's really cute.

 Some bears and boys in a cave.

Meet Ozlem.

We have interesting discussions about our differences and similarities.

And she has beautiful thick black hair.

 CharChar testing new levels of dangerous.

Love him.

 We had a post hike picnic

and while the adults and Charlie ate at a picnic table outside

these two sat up on this mantel in the shelter house and chitchatted like silly brothers.

 And here we are for our fall family picture at Turkey Run.

The boys look thrilled, yes?

My leg-squeeze got Peter to smile.

 This is what we look like from the left.

Group shot with Sugar Creek in the background.

Lovely day.

 Did this video work for you?

...You Make Lymeade

Remember that one time when I had Lyme Disease?  That was a neat two weeks.

Much to my consternation, it seems that I am, after all, losing my mind on my own accord.

Paul and I were sitting in the office of the infectious disease doctor last week.  (My primary doctor found that I had Lyme Disease, started me on antibiotics, and referred me to this infectious disease doctor who I saw two weeks later.)  He had read over my history, squinted at my last round of blood tests (including the ones that showed I tested positive for Lyme Disease), poked my body hither and yon, then turned to us and said,

"You do not have Lyme Disease."

Paul and I laughed in aghastment.  For two weeks I had been reading books and websites about Lyme.  The more I read, the more symptoms I recognized.  What's that one thing some people are?  Hypochondriac?

Know what I have?  Nothing.  Know what's wrong with me?  Nothing.  Know what's causing the fatigue and such?  Nothing.

His official diagnosis is: You are tired.  And he validated my symptoms by saying, "What you're feeling is real.  You are tired."

And this is my favorite part...  He said something like, "You're going to drive yourself into a mental situation if you try to search out more answers for why you're tired.  Don't do it.  You are healthy.  You are tired.  You will feel better."  He just gave me the freedom to stop trying to fix myself.  Just be tired, lady, and one day you won't be tired any more.

So, People of the World, this is when you offer all your insights as to what is really wrong with me and how I need a third opinion.  Ready...go.

While you gather your thoughts about that, I will further express how I feel.

Well, first, I feel tired.  (ha - tired, but still funny)

Nextly, I keep wondering to myself, sometimes with tears of frustration:  HOW IN THE WORLD DO I MAKE MYSELF FEEL UNTIRED?  It's been nearly a year full of tiredness and I can not find the little toggle switch to flick it from "tired" to "not tired".  I think it broke off.  The Doctor of Extensive Knowledge said I need to work through the tiredness and get back to exercising.  That's it.

Some have suggested that this is my subconscious way of declaring that I do not want to move to Chicken (ever been there?).  Others have offered that maybe Satan is working hard to slow us down and discourage us from moving to Chicken.  And a third opinion has been that perhaps God is testing and strengthening my faith, determination, and character as we prepare to... move to Chicken.

I kind of like the "You are tired" one.  I did pay him a lot of money to make that statement.

But, you know, one gets a lot more sympathy when she has a real diagnosis like Lyme Disease.  I'm kind of missing it.  Who cares if you're tired?  Everyone is tired.  For real.

So here's to my way up out of the sloggy tired mind and into the rejuvinated go-get-em...

Ohhh, trying to creatively create that sentence just exhausted me.


But, look!  Here's our annual family picture at Turkey Run.

 Tired shmired.

When Life Gives You Lymes...

Hello Peoples of the World!  I've missed you.

While I was washing dishes tonight, several thoughts came to mind that I deemed blog worthy.  But now that I'm here they have escaped me.  So I will just type and such until things come to me.

Well, see there.  The phone just rang and someone needed to know if they could use the church Fellowship Hall tomorrow.  "Um, yeah, let me just look at the church's master calendar hanging on my kitchen wall here..."  But really I jogged faster than my body wanted to move, across the street in the rain to check the calendar.  It's free tomorrow, in case you were worried I'd leave you wondering.  Except now it's not.

Picture by Reuben.

He was really amazed by this sunset.

This is for Carly.

Know what we're watching?

Anne of Green Gables.

My sons' future wives can thank me with gifts of fair trade chocolate.

I have been reading L.M. Montgomery's journals and they are so fantastic.

(She is Anne's author.)

She tells about which characters and stories are based on her real life,

and how she cried and cried the day of her wedding because she was not marrying for love.

 Then she moved away to live in a rural part of Canada with her new husband who was a pastor.

She is me!

Except I married with overflowing amounts of love.

But!

A pastor's wife in a small foreign town who has all these expected duties

and can't really confide in anyone because then her life becomes the town's latest gossip!

Ah.

We are kindred spirits born a hundred years apart.

Read it with a box of kleenex.

WWI affects her strongly and there's the part about baby Hugh and the parsonage does not have a bathroom and...

He is so lucky to be the third child.

Never would I have let a two-year-old play with weapons.

My heart melted oowey-gooey when Paul bought this mini sword for him at the feast.

It was a moment of tender father-son sweetness.

Peter and Reuben had both made their much-anticipated, thoroughly-considered sword purchases

and Charlie was left empty handed.

We did not plan to buy him a sword too.

He's two!

Oh, but he wanted one like his big brothers and Paul, so sweet, felt this in Charlie.

And he bought one.

I am feeling oddly sentimental about it, Charlie's first sword.

And a rare spontaneous purchase by Paul.

It was love.

And I love love.

Speaking of love.

Here we are.

Hanging out at our Saturday night church.

We were either waiting for the masses to exit the building,

or we had arrived early and... I have no idea why I took this picture.

Can you sense a bit of scatterbrainia in me?

It's okay.

I now have a diagnosis for my brain fog, memory loss, muscle weakness, and deep lingering fatigue...

One day whilst traversing the trails of Turkey Run,

a mite of a tick poked me with his teeth

and delivered into my body the poison of Lyme.

At least we think that's what happened.

I never saw the tick or the bite

but apparently I have Lyme Disease.

Because that's what my latest blood work showed.

While I am not looking forward to dealing with the late stages of this disease,

I am thrilled

THRILLED

to have a name for the way I feel.

I am NOT losing my mind on my own accord.

It's the tick's fault.

So, tips?

Who's had Lyme Disease?

The Feast

The grand finale of this year's Celebration de Reuben was a two-day excursion to The Feast of the Hunter's Moon.  He has been waiting for months for this annual 1700s historical reenactment festival.  I am so thankful for this event because it means we successfully avoided a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, his second choice.

We went on Friday for the School Trip Day and learned some things from costumed actors.

Then we went back on Saturday for the full feast effect.

These pics show a mix of both days.

 

See the learning?

This guy taught us all the parts of his gun, how to load it and fire it.

We took breaks for rest and nourishment.

Watching a wood-turner

This is super hard.

See?

Reuben needed to be convinced to try it.

I think he knew he wasn't going to be perfect at it on his first try

and he wanted to avoid failure.

He was right, so we moved on to the next game.

Throw the ring with these two sticks.

She said this used to be a game played by both girls and boys, but eventually only girls played it.

She thought the boys were banned from playing due to their playing it like boys:

Wild and rough.

It was fun.

And quicker to be good at.

Not like that roll the wheel with a stick game.

I realized today that this one is nearly ten!

Ack.

These are the Budabi Brothers.

We watch their funny juggling show every year,

even though we could tell all their jokes now.

We even considered inviting them to stay the night at our house,

instead of in their tent.

But we didn't.

But it could've been fun.

Or weird.

Okay, down to business.

Forget all this educational, entertaining stuff.

Let's shop!

He quickly learned to say 'rabbit foot.'

The whole point, according to the boys, for this event

is to shop and purchase a new weapon.

Happy Birthday!

Pirate sword with belt and sheath.

Time to battle.

Charlie's first sword.

Ah, so cute.

Here's some battle video.

It was a grand time.

If I had a daughter I'd get more into the costumes.

Fancy dresses and parasols.

Then the boys would want soldier uniforms.

But Paul... he would go more for the voyager look that made us giggle:

the longish shirt with a flappy thing at the waist.

Cold legs.

And bottom.