Sunday, June 19, 2011

A Fun Brithday/ Father's Day

I was born 16 minutes too late for Father's Day but I suppose I was a good, better late than never, gift for my dad all those years ago. Every once in a while my birthday does happen to fall on Father's Day as it did this year. The last time I can remember it happening was when we were living in Houghton and it did not go well. We were both very self-centered and selfish and thought the day should be all about ME!! Both of us ended up very disappointed because our expectations were not met. (Boy did I need Jaye R. preaching in my ear that day "My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him." from Psalm 62 back then!)

Since then both of us have matured a lot and remembering how that awful day went I resolved NOT to let our experiences of that day happen again. I went into today with low expectations wanting to bless Glenn and knowing that, just coming off his Step 1 yesterday, he wasn't going to have much planned. We had a great day and this is how it went:

This morning we got to church and I was talking with Elizabeth at kids check-in as Glenn took the girls upstairs. He quickly came down announcing that there was no teacher for the K-2 class but that we'd be glad to stay with them until the teacher got there and teach the class if necessary. The teacher never showed up so we got to be Lydia's and Abigail's teacher this morning unexpectedly. Glenn did the teaching and he did such a great job. He is great with kids and I just love watching him work his magic :)

After church we decided to go home and get our bikes then head to Wegmans to pick up subs (since we still had 2 $1 off coupons) and some sushi (we had a $1 off coupon for that too!) then headed to the Ryder Park in Dewitt for a picnic then took our kids out on a bike ride along the Erie Canal Trail. We ended up riding about 5 miles. It is amazing how much faster and farther we can go now that Abigail is riding a 2 wheeler, not her little bike with training wheels. She still is the only one without gears though so when she moves up to Lydia's bike we'll be able to go even farther, most likely. She was still the slowest but since we were just on the canal trail for most of the ride home Glenn and I rode side by side and chatted while we took up the rear behind her which was nice. We stopped frequently in the shade of trees here and there but since we drank the last of the water we brought with us at our turn around point we tried to pretty much push it to get back to the van for more water on the return trip. I love the independence our kids have now. It was so much fun to go on a family bike ride with everyone on their own bikes and everyone being able to keep up.

We only had one brief "uh oh" moment when something happened with Glenn's bike when we were about 2.4 miles out when he was shifting and the chain came off. We were afraid that he was going to have to carry his bike the 2.4 miles back to the van but thankfully he was able to fix it and we were soon riding again. The only pictures that I took were of when Glenn's bike was upside down and he was trying to fix it. He brought his camera but I don't think that he took any pictures. So here is a picture of the bike being checked out.
Hannah being Glenn's bike fixing assistant
After our bike ride we were kind of hot so Glenn suggested that we stop in a store for some air conditioning. We stopped at a pet store (that didn't have any kitties :(  ) and Ollies. It is fun just to wander around Ollies and look at the books and talk ourselves out of buying any of the "good stuff" that they are selling "cheap."

We then went home and finished our subs and ate popcorn (our normal Sunday night supper) and watched Finding Nemo. It was a nice, relaxing, fun birthday (and Father's Day). I am so thankful for my family and especially for Glenn. He is so good to me.

Thanks God for a fun day. Thanks that Glenn's test is over and we get 3 weeks to spend together before he starts his clerkships. Thanks so much for my family. You are so good to me, I could never thank You enough!

Friday, June 17, 2011

"Just Plant a Watermelon..."

Growing up my mom would often (though I know not as often as she would like, probably as often as I used to get out my flute before I started flute choir) get out her guitar and sing songs and complain that she needed to build back up her callouses. She would sing songs that she used to play for her students when she first started teaching and songs that she would sing at camp or church events when she was younger. She would sing, "How much is that doggy in the window," "If I had a hammer," "It only takes a spark," and others. I don't know the name of one of my favorites or where it came from but legend has it (I came up with the legend thing while talking to my brother about it today. There are so many things that we just don't know about our parents and our childhood that we just kind of get to make things up and say, "legend has it...") that mom would sing it at Camp Ladore (Labrodore, I don't know...) and every year the staff would add a new goofy ending to it.

Anyway, the song goes like this:

"Just plant a watermelon right on my grave and let the juice *loud slurping noise* slurp through,
Just plant a watermelon right on my grave that's all I ask of you.
Now Southern fried chicken might taste mighty fine but what could taste better than a watermelon rind?
Just plant a watermelon right on my grave and let the juice slurp through,
Let the juuuuuice sluuuuuurp through
Come on baby let the juice slurp through, uh huh sock it to me let it all hang out all right up tight everything is out of sight far out."

OK, the last line is just the goofy endings. It is such a fun song. Last summer we started watermelon plants and looking at them I thought, "OH!!! I NEED to plant one of these on my mom's grave!!!" But in the process of moving and transplanting and such they all died. We visited Grandma and Grandpa many times last summer but never made it up to mom's grave with a seed so it didn't happen last year.

Today we went to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa's to visit them and to get out of Glenn's hair for his last day of studying. We had watermelon for a snack and we set aside a few seeds grinning and telling Grandma and later Grandpa of our plan and singing them the song.

On our way home I finally planted a watermelon on my mom's grave. I think that it would have made her laugh so hard :). The kids and I *quietly* sang the watermelon song as we each planted a seed (we didn't want to offend anyone at the cemetery by singing such a song at the top of our lungs - though I was tempted!)

Thanks God for a legacy of silliness I get to pass down as well! :)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

"If anyone is in Christ..."

We are a family of movie, radio program, book and song quoters and it is OK most of the time. Sometimes it get really annoying though. I often get frustrated with the kids when they quote the same thing over and over and over and over again. Lately, I have been thinking, "I wish that they would go around quoting scripture like they quote these other things" and have talked to the kids about it. We started a new devotional book last week at breakfast and there is a new Bible verse every 5 days. I decided to put the verse on the white board on Hannah's desk (easily visible from the living and dining rooms) and we started talking about it and practicing it together. Somehow (not sure who started it) it started to become a game: whenever anyone starts quoting something from a book, movie, etc someone else would start quoting 2 Corinthians 5:17 back at them "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" It has been a fun way to help us memorize scripture. I just heard Hannah quoting it to herself after she caught herself quoting something else. We get a new verse tomorrow. Looking forward to getting more of God's Word in our hearts.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

A Trip to Vienna...

Today after we got back from running some errands (mostly trying to stay out of the house so Glenn could get his practice test done) we came home and read more of and finally finished up White Stallions of Lipizza by Marguerite Henry. We were reading it for our homeschool curriculum this year.  We have really enjoyed reading it and as we were finishing it up I was thinking about the fact that I went to Vienna back in 1999 with Tapestry, the flute ensemble I was in in college, and I remember taking pictures of horses up on top of a big building.

I quickly went over to our "pictures that need sorted" tote and grabbed out my Hungary, Austria, Slovakia pictures from that trip. It was so much fun to show the kids the pictures of the outside of the palace stables that I had taken and of a coffeeshop like Hans must have delivered bread to in his bakery cart with Rosy and of the streets of Vienna that Hans had been so familiar with driving bread from their bakery all over Vienna. It brought back so many memories.

I am so thankful for the opportunity that I had to travel in and play my flute in Europe when I was in college. I had life experiences that I never would have had any other time. I would love to take my kids back there someday. I was fun to take them there vicariously through pictures tonight though. So thankful that Glenn made me take his camera with me. The pictures I got were so much better than I would have gotten with my old camera. If I could figure out how to scan them I would post a couple of pictures here but unfortunately I haven't attempted that in several years/ since we've had this computer.

Thanks God for a trip down memory lane and for the opportunity to share more of my story with our kids.