Storms

Phew! Wow...well, what an evening of excitement! I was at the library, minding my own business, engrossed in People magazine (it's amazing what one can get into for a brief time of peace and quiet), when I heard the librarians commenting about how nasty it was getting outside. What?! Time to scoot home. No sooner had I gotten back than the tornado sirens went off - a sound that unleashes a tingle of fear down to my very toenails. So of course I immediately panicked and ran to the boys' room (ok, in my defense, it was not really a run - more like a very speedy walk). They were both still awake, so I grabbed them and brought them - where? We don't have a basement and no real "interior" room. I thought I remembered reading something about a bathtub in this case? So I brought the boys into the bathtub with me (ha ha, yes, I know, I can hear you laughing). James, meanwhile, was keeping tabs on the weather and telling me to not overreact. Dear man. He is always working to keep me calm in these situations. During the night on a camping trip to Maine we once heard a wolf/coyote howling, and he assured me it was an owl. I chose to believe him. Anyway, I digress... My reply to my very calm hubby was, "The TORNADO sirens are going off! When exactly should I overreact? When the roof is coming off?!" So we sat in the bathtub, the four of us, James frequently leaving to check the weather and look out windows - aren't both of those major no-no's during a tornado warning? No more so than sitting in a bathtub I suppose. Jeran and Ben thought it was a GRAND adventure, making each other laugh hysterically which made me laugh which was exactly the medicine I needed at that moment. After a few tense moments and lots of prayer, the danger (such as it was) has subsided. And so I close with a spectacular lightning display out my window and the symphonic sounds of my overtired boys' cries filling the house. Ah, summer......

Summer....continued

I looked at the calendar today and found myself wondering where the heck today WAS, and then I realized we've switched over to August! Egads! We've been enjoying summer immensely here. It's been relatively mild, which I'm thankful for since I'm a wuss in the heat. We've made another zoo trip, with several more in the works, spent time in the backyard, concentrating mostly on the mini-pool, visited with friends (most recently our beloved Kris and her new baby, Cole - what a sweet pea!), swam at the pool with Steph and Holland, taken walks, played at the park, stopped at the library .....so - although not wild and crazy, very enjoyable to us. The boys also lucked out and got to spend an entire weekend with Nana here at the house while James and I ventured out on our annual camping trip with "the gang". All I can say is - fabulous food, friends, campfire, and a pontoon boat on a sunny Saturday. Good times.

Ben grows more and more animated with each passing week. He is extremely vocal: squealing, laughing, babbling, and ALWAYS moving. He's constantly reaching for and grabbing anything in sight and remotely within reach. If it's not within his reach he engages his newly acquired skill of getting his "roll" on. He's just ITCHING to go places. You can almost see that in his mind he's speed-walking around the house, but his 8-month-old body is hindering him. By moving tummy to back,though, he's starting to get places which makes mommy more vigilant about what toys are laying around. He also loves to gnaw the living daylights out of whatever object is unfortunate enough to find itself in his grasp. It is absolutely glorious to watch, and I feel like I can actually see his mind turning things over, working things out, etc. With a little bit of support yet, the Benj is also doing some pretty strong sitting. Currently he has stalled at two teeth, but that's good enough for us.

Jeran. What can I say about Jeran? He is my firstborn, strong-willed, stubborn child. In a word, he's: me. I feel I so easily fall into the trap of being negative where he's concerned. It's true that in recent weeks I feel we've regressed about a year and a half back, behavior-wise, experiencing fits, tantrums, and defiance that have not been seen in this house to this degree for many many months. It's also true that he's all boy: loud, busy, destructive. But there are also the facets of his personality that I love and treasure with all my heart: his boundless energy (when connoted negatively - busy, I guess), his enthusiastic love, his outgoing joy, his curiosity, playfulness, numerous hugs and kisses, cheezy smile, giggles (especially when they are directed at Ben and cause him to laugh too). From the very beginning I vowed to cherish every moment with him, even the hard ones. And that was an easy promise to make to myself when his adorable infant self occupied most of our time with sleeping. Now, when the rubber meets the road, I want to remember that in the blink of an eye, he'll be graduating high school and embarking on his own road of life, and I want no regrets when that moment hits.

Anyway.....I feel so blessed to be having this summertime with him (two days a week of tutoring notwithstanding) and even more blessed that I will not be returning to full time teaching come the fall so that our summertime can linger on. Today we've had a great morning of romping outside in the sprinkler and attending an outdoor "concert", with music provided by Jeran himself. An eclectic mix of tunes including but not limited to "Old MacDonald" and one of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" (which he heard on one of Ben's toys). He's had SUCH a hard time entertaining himself lately for some reason, but the rest of his morning has been spent building with his train tracks and blocks and coming up with little scenarios involving his trains and cars. It's been so fun to listen to him using his imagination, and it has allowed me some one-on-one time with Ben which doesn't often happen.

One other interesting factoid about Jeran: we have officially entered into the time of "why"? "Because why"? is something we hear following any instructions/requests/demands/explanations that we give. The challenge I'm finding is to give more creative answers than "Because I said so".

By the way, his week of VBS was great!! The end of the week program? Hilarious followed by mortifying. The photo below is the only one I got of him clearly visible and standing still. He was a terror! Climbing the front stage steps and jumping off, over and over; running back and forth across the stage, with some singing and dancing thrown in. I finally just yanked him off since it quickly turned into the Jeran show rather than a program meant to display what the kids had learned about Christ that week. Whoops. Clearly too young for that sort of thing yet. Live and learn.

Jeran is the second kid to the left in the bottom row, next to the cute blond with the sundress.

Helicopter parent

Those of you who taught with me at Timothy (or anywhere for that matter) are probably familiar with the term "helicopter parent". Used (at times with gritted teeth or perhaps a chortle or eye roll thrown in) to describe those parents who spend an excessive amount of time in or around their children's classrooms (and, therefore, their kids' school bizness), this phrase has been thrown around a lot in my vocabulary to describe one who might be the proverbial pain in my butt. (Sorry, parents.) Well, today, I had a breakthrough understanding of why helicopter parents hover the way they do. Vacation Bible School started at our church this week. J.J., being 3, is of an age when he can attend the preschool version. I dropped him off at church and just could not bring myself to leave (and, in my defense, was invited to stay - wink wink). So I stayed through the singing (which JJ ADORES - and his dancing is entirely too entertaining to miss) and still found I had to tear myself away. If I could have turned into that little fly on the wall that gets talked so much about, I most certainly would have. I wanted so badly to see how he would behave without me there and which social cues he's picking up on (or not). I had a mad urge to ask someone with a video camera to just plant themselves in his group for the day and shoot away so I wouldn't miss a second. And this just for a two-and-a-half hour event! My goodness, I just can't begin to imagine how crazy it must drive parents to have their child gone a majority of the day and to have no clue what is happening or, truly, how their child is behaving/speaking/learning, etc. So, first of all, my apologies to any parent to whom I may have referred as the helicopter variety. I completely understand now how much you want to know what's happening with your child when you're not there to monitor and help. When I came back to pick JJ up, I tried to get a full play-by-play from anyone who might have had insight into him that day. Luckily, at his age he's able to give me a report himself (albeit, fractured and somewhat fictional at times). It will be a good growing experience for both of us this week, I think. He will be learning to take instruction from others and what behaviors are and are not acceptable in these situations. Hopefully he'll learn to make some new friends, to share, to SIT (well, ok, we won't put expectations of miracles on these wonderful people). I will learn to start letting go and to trust my baby to others. And if you see a brunette thirty-something lurking around the windows of the church or school where my son might happen to be...I have an alibi.

31

Well, my birthday has come and gone, and in its wake I find myself.....a thirty-something. There was something about turning 30 last year that, while traumatic, still allowed me to hang on to some shred of my twenties. I'm not sure why I should care so much about crossing over into this decade. And really, on a daily basis, I don't. It's just something about that number that tells me time is marching onward, and sometimes, when I look back over my life I experience a variety of emotions about this fact. On the one hand, I am so grateful for God's faithfulness. I was raised by parents who were God-fearing and who I have been able to watch grow in their own faith over the years which has impacted me. I was blessed growing up by strong friendships (several of which continue to this day). I have an amazing extended family to which I feel very close and from which I have received and with which I share a heritage of faith. I am married to THE most amazing man - selfless, hilarious, thoughtful, compassionate. I have two adorable, loving, funny boys who we have the opportunity to watch grow and to mold and shape in the Lord's ways. Our daily needs are met. I have a circle of incredible, incredible (I just HAVE to say it twice) friends who all enrich my life in ways I can't even articulate. On the other hand, I feel that I have often squandered these blessings, abused them, taken them for granted. I feel that, as far as my faith journey goes, I should be so much "further along", given the gracious start in life I was given. SO - what does 31 mean to me? It means 31 years of history that make up my life. It means an unknown future that I entrust to the Lord. It means a year ahead of me in which I can experience each day as it comes and, God helping me, make each day filled with the fruit of His Spirit emanating from my life. And ultimately...it means just a number.

Having a ball in Holland!

Well, it was an amazing (and amazingly tiring) weekend up (down? over?) in Michigan with the fam and friends. We left Friday morning early since, much to our chagrin, James still had class scheduled for Thursday night. Friday was spent with Mom and Dad L., Brian and Keri (in visiting from Grand Cayman), and Rach - had a little cookout, then watched the fireworks at Kollen Park. Last year Jeran refused to either watch or listen to those sparkling bursts of wonder we "ooh and aah" over. This year, thankfully, after a few moments of doubt, he was all about them and quickly picked up the requisite oohing and aahing. Ben was a peach, as usual, and fell asleep moments before the festivities began. Which was just fine. It's always risky when you keep a kid up about 3 - plus hours past his bedtime.
Saturday was beach day!! I was so stoked to be back on a beach with CLEAN sand and without risk of shut-down due to high bacterial levels (Chicago is good for many things - a decent beach is not one of them). James left EARLY (5:45 a.m. early) to go fishing with some of his bros, nephew, and dad so I boldly pulled together all the beach gear I could possibly want and need, along with the two boys and trekked to the beach to meet up with Mom and the rest of the fam. We got a rock-star parking spot, and I am proud to say I lugged us all down to the beach without incident. Of course, the second we hit the sand I realize several errors I had made in my haste to begin our day of beachly fun.
Error #1: Upon awakening from a great 2 hour nap, I mistakenly take Ben's constant good nature as a sign that he can hold off on eating for now. Therefore I neglect to feed him at that time.
Error #2: I neglect to wrestle Jeran into swim diaper and suit and slather on the sunscreen BEFORE leaving the house.
Error #3: I do not read the directions for Ben's borrowed beach tent nor do I set it up (or lay out any towels for that matter) before taking the boys out of the stroller at the end of the "boardwalk".
These 3 errors resulted in a hairy first few moments at the Holland State Park. Thankfully, Mom and Keri showed up not five minutes after I had gotten there, to find me a stressed-out wreck with a hot, hungry, screaming baby and anxious-to-hit-the-water three-year-old running around half-naked. Following those first few moments of tension, however, it was a FAB-U-LOUS day. Perfect weather, unbeatable company...it was great. Jeran, the water rat, could not get enough, so I'm betting we'll be back as soon as possible. Ben was not as enchanted but remained a trooper (as did his daddy).
Saturday evening we were finally able to chill out with Mom and Dad G. following their motorcyle trip up to my aunt's cabin.
Today we pretty much were wiped out from the previous two days filled with fun. We were able to spend a short amount of time with some friends (from Chicago, no less!) at their condo on Lake Mac, but we were probably pretty deadbeat company at that point.
Tomorrow it's back home. James took the day off (hooray!) so we can mosey back. It's always a little bit hard to leave, but I'm grateful this time around that we've had such a long weekend here. When we visit, it's usually a whirlwind day and a half, so it was great to have 4 days to spend with our loved ones.

Hooray! Thanks for the tip. The blog is now much more pleasing to the eye. Background courtesy of the website Cutest Blog on the Block.
I am clearly into copying from other people's blogs and stumbled upon this counter. You'll notice it to the right. It will either uplift or destroy my ego - a risky little game. If all else fails I'll just keep logging into my own site to up the numbers. :) Just wanted to put it there for the sake of my curiosity.

I am addicted to variety. As you can tell if you have been following this blog and have seen the template change about 4 times. So if anyone out there actually stops by to read this and has ANY idea how I can access some more creative headings or backgrounds (other than what Blogger offers - sorry, Blogger) I would GREATLY appreciate your insight!