Evening in the Garden

Its warming up around here, which means strawberry-lemonade after dinner in the backyard (at least while the lemonade and strawberries last!). We enjoy being back there with the dog harassing everyone to throw her a ball one more time and the kids begging for one more sip of your drink. This evening was no exception and while Todd was over showing Em how to water all the plants by herself, Cooper learned how to climb the slide all by himself. It was one of those moments where I'm telling Todd to look at his son and he's telling me to look at my daughter because we're both in awe of how independent and "grown up" our kids have become, seemingly overnight.

No, we do not beat our son or let him bleed without taking care of it. He has an affinity for wearing his strawberries on his face, and by the evening when it's almost bath-time anyways, I generally give up. Even with a strawberry-shiner, he's still so cute in all his slide-induced excitement.

That is one happy camper if you ask me!

I don't think you'll find a more elated child... and a more soaking wet dad than at the moment this picture was taken! Guess she couldn't manage to keep the hose pointed down at the plant... oops!!!

Romans 8:28

As a teacher I know that all kids can learn; however, as a teacher of somewhat older students, my children have been amazing me since the day they were born. I never have really liked the 'little tikes" in terms of teaching them, but I'm beginning to see that I am actually just afraid, and ironically, the degree of my fear seems to be in direct proportion to their height. That said, God has seen fit to put me in charge of teaching in many different capacities to small children over the years at various churches. Our church here in Eldorado Park asked Todd and I to work out a curriculum and I must admit that it terrified me. But the reality is, my daughter can now say 4 versus, sing a host of songs (with motions), AND she just turned 2 1/2!

Turkey Day

In recent weeks there have been a number of questions about what it's like to be here in South Africa during the holidays. We were talking over the dinner table about all the things that are nice and some of the things we miss. We all agreed that it's nice to have warm enough weather that you're not stuck in the house smelling all the wonderful goodies all day, but unable to eat them. We all also agreed that treats like puppy chow and Chex mix were sorely missed. Beyond that though, we strive to have a Thanksgiving meal just like home. Our table had two dozen people with all the fixings and more pie than anyone was able to eat. We ate, went back for seconds... and thirds... and more.
Cooper, who is currently cutting two teeth (although if he's like Em, who cut 12 in a month, I think more) couldn't make it all the way through to dessert. He snuggled into Aunt Niece's arms and that was the end of that. It was cute and sweet... until she had to pry the sweaty, drooly little body off her shirt. Then, it was just funny!

Earlier in the day, before all the gorging commenced, we tried to get some cute pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits. I thought it would be nice to take a picture and send them to family since Christmas cards have never been my strong suit. As I said, we tried. And then this little disaster happened and that was the end of all attention given to Mommy and Daddy.

Sunday at the Pool

Sunday afternoons are the best times around here. Both kids nap at the same time, and if that wasn't blessing enough, it is always for a few hours. They also normally wake up with enough sunlight left to do something fun, like play in the backyard or go to the pool. During the week, these activities happen as well, but it's much more relaxing for me, and much more enjoyable for the kids, to have Dad around.

Em has been able to "choo-choo" on the side of the pool as a drowning-prevention method since she was bitty, but now she does it just for the sheer fun of it.

Cooper LOVES the water and tries to drain the pool every time he goes in by drinking the water. That's why we try to keep his mouth out of the water as much as possible.

I don't think he minds very much though, do you?

We even snagged a family photo! I felt so accomplished (even if Cooper looks like he's trying to figure out some complicated problem... like why there's a camera AND he can still see Mommy).

Decorating Day!

I personally think there is no other time in a relationship when you realize how different your view during the first little bit of marriage can be from your spouse's than when you go to "celebrate." Birthday, holidays... they're just stark reminders that you come from different families who value different things. I don't remember what the difference between dating and marriage was, but there was a distinct difference. Most of the differences are comical (your family does what?!) but others are just down-right heart-rending for some. I'm a big traditional-kind-of-girl. We always had more ornaments than the tree could hold, and in truth, that's how you know the decorating is done: when the ornament you just hung falls off, time and again, you're done. My mom has decorations dating back over a century, which include the veritable army of nutcrackers my Nana collected for years and years. They still freak out the dog, but I'm sure one day she'll get used to it.

Needless to say, the house I grew up in was steeped in traditions and Christmas time was always a great time for pulling out ornaments and decorations, remembering when you got it and why. Todd and I have tried to make many of our traditions, and I really enjoy them. I'll share more on those later, but today, as we were trimming the tree and setting up the nativity, it was a really blessed time. We were setting up a number of nativity sets, one of which is massive and Todd reminded me that we got it as a first anniversary gift... in July... and when we finally opened it in December, Todd had to phone his dad and ask "if he had Jesus" (Mary and Jesus were in a separate box that we didn't have, which still gets a good laugh from all of us). It was neat to pull out ornaments from 1991 from my Grams and realize, as Em is hanging all of "her" ornaments, that some day, she'll be hanging her own memories on her own tree somewhere out in the big, wide world. It made my heart sing to be able to share the stories with her about where a decoration came from and the story behind it. She didn't believe me that I was a teacher... but what kid thinks their mom is anything but plain ol' Mom?

Cooper dove right in and tried to create as much destruction as possible in as little amount of time as possible. I must admit, he's pretty proficient!

Em, on the other hand, gently pulled out her's and Cooper's stockings and promptly put them on. Did I mention her new obsession with putting on socks???

Em's ornament from last year... how big she's gotten since I traced and sewed that.

Cooper, being just barely 14 months-old, was relegated to soft things and unbreakables. Which meant lots of playing in the big felt 'Santa' sack and much admonition from Todd and I to stop whatever he was doing. However, he does have one ornament that is unbreakable (I think) and that was his felt handprint from last year. It took him a bit to get Daddy to let him do it by himself, but he managed and was so stinkin' proud of himself!

Oh Christmas Tree

Todd and I have this tradition for Christmas. We started dating right before Christmas so that first dating-Christmas would have just been awkward... so we decided to DO something together rather than give presents. We still do that and have done everything from building bears at Build-A-Bear to snowboarding to going to a concert. We never do the same thing twice, and it's really been a lot of fun.

Our first Christmas married, however, was a rough one for me. I hadn't been back to California since the wedding and I was feeling the depressing cold, dark and flat that is Illinois. I was also lamenting the loss of my family's Christmas traditions. We had no money for decorations, but Todd, in all his husbandly wisdom, decided that our "gift" that year would be to DO Christmas. We cut our own tree, went to the Dollar Store and got as many cheap decorations as we could afford, and strung popcorn and made ornaments out of wedding cards. (Those are still some of my favorite and most treasured ornaments!)

The following year, I was complaining to some of my fellow Bible study gals about how we didn't have a tree and most of the popcorn and candy cane decorations had gone bad. A wonderful friend said she'd come over with some "left-overs" she had laying around. Turns out, she was in charge of all the Coats for Christmas campaigns in town and just revamped a bunch of the fake trees they put at the schools for the kids to hang the mittens and hats and what-not on. She came over, as it was snowing, early one Saturday morning with (kid you not) a trunk full of decorations, a tree... the works.

When we were packing things to come to the field, we left a lot of things behind, but my Christmas stuff was non-negotiable. Todd was rather upset with me on that one, but as we unpack the tree, for the second year in the heat of South Africa, we're both so grateful for our free, cast-off tree and all the provisions God set ahead for us. I spent all day cleaning and dusting and organizing so that tomorrow, the family can put up Christmas decorations. I'm excited to see the kids' reactions to all the sparkly and colorful things. I'm excited to see what the new townhouse will look like with the halls decked. But as all that excitement builds, I'm again reminded of how fortunate I am and how wonderful people like Lori, who didn't realize the full impact their actions would have years down the road, have blessed my life. Here's to hoping that you and your family are equally as blessed, and that you realize those blessings for what they truly are.

Green Beans

On Monday I discovered a new fruit and veggies store. It's more like a farmer's market than anything else, and the prices were really great. A friend was there who decided she was going to go Susie Homemaker and start canning pickles and do a year's supply of spaghetti sauce. I'm not that ambitious (or crazy with two ankle-biters running around) to add to my workload by that much. However, the massive box of green beans for $2 USD was tempting and when my friend told me how "easy" it was to freeze them myself, I figured for 2 bucks, I could give it a go.

So today was the day. I was going to clean and prep and freeze all these beans while Cooper was napping this morning, and...two hours later, I'm still only half-way through. Coop seemed rather obliging though, so I kept working while he played with the dog, but then he decided that that wasn't nearly as much fun and wanted to help... and then wanted to try one... and then wanted to eat beans by the fistful. It was at that final stage that I called it quits and now have a large amounts of green beans on my counter waiting. For what, I'm not really sure as I'm not seeing a break in the day that will allow for the devotion they're requiring, but I've got to finish what I started, but possibly with another helper who comes home this evening. I still think that while my morning assistant wasn't much of an actual help, he's pretty stinkin' cute and really entertaining to watch!

Yummy...

Just one more, please...

And we're done... :)

Orange You Glad...

Em had a rough day... to say the least. She had an hour-long temper tantrum which was actually not nearly as disruptive to the day as some of her other antics earlier. I wasn't too hopeful when dinner finally rolled around, but apparently all that screaming and flailing worked up an appetite, making room for a very pleasant time as a family. At the end of supper, we had our 'dessert' and the show Todd put on was a slight upgrade from a poorly run mime show, but the kids LOVED it. He put the orange slices in his mouth so they became his "teeth" and the giggles and cheers kept the parents entertained for quite a while!

Nothing like a little bit of father-daughter silliness!!

Fun Spaghetti

You decide who has the "better" spaghetti face. They're roughly the same age in the pics.

Em takes food very seriously... or at least did at this point.

Cooper, on the other hand, thinks all of life is a grand and glorious game... until it kicks him in the rear and then he runs crying to Mommy.

Unexpected Visitor

We had a rather... unexpected visitor the other day. I was doing the laundry and therefore, the front door was open so that I could get into the garage with baskets and baskets of dirty clothes. For no apparent reason, in walked the cutest little puppy I've ever seen. He's one of those "ugly is cute"-type of dogs.

Em fell in love, Coop was totally jealous and Lani was, for the first time that I can ever remember, TIRED (without Todd and I getting exhausted in the process).

Em couldn't figure out why the puppy wouldn't listen to her directions.

Coop thought the puppy was going to lick his toes (which is in the top 3 things of his life that he LOVES) but instead, the puppy saw his toes as small little wiggling vienna sausages. A battle ensued which left Cooper running for Mommy crying- hehehe!!!

Moment of Nostalgia

I'm having one of those moments. I sat down to my computer for a good stretch of time for probably the first time in weeks. I have work I need to catch up on and surprisingly, a few emails to respond to. A few were from friends back in Bourbonnais. Dear, dear girls who, despite me being younger than most of their children, took me into their leadership group of a women's Bible study at church. I've missed this group dearly since being away and I think in 10-years time I'll still be missing them. Most of the emails were well-wishes for Boo and words of encouragement but it was one of those times when I was missing home to start, so now I'm going to indulge a bit.

Todd and I have great bikes. His is old, I think he's had it since high school. But mine, he found for me at a great little bike shop on the same road in Bradly as the church I worked for during college. Our apartment in Bourbonnais was a bit more than a bit away from anything resembling a sidewalk, but Todd and I would often ride miles and miles when the weather was nice. We'd go to my old soccer coach's house and brave the gale-force winds across the open fields. We'd stop and visit a Bible study gal who would always welcome us in and give our smelly, sweaty selves something to drink. We were even known, on occasion, to ride into Kankakee to the Farmer's Market on a Saturday. I know most of these places are totally foreign to 92% of you who read this thing, but they were special places to me... to Todd and I.

It's spring here. The weather has been great for riding bikes and... well, I'm missing my bike rides. I'm missing the cute little town that we were free to wander and I'm missing the friends we would drop in on when our thirst wouldn't hold much longer. There's something about a small town, to a small-town girl and friends you can just "drop on in" without calling, or texting or scheduling a date beforehand, that I miss. So those of you who know where I'm talking about, the next time you drive by that cute little bike shop on Broadway, or sit and share a drink with a friend who just 'dropped by,' or you go to the Farmer's Market and get that bread that will change your life, remember that those moments are precious. Not ordinary, but totally unique and special, because you're there and able to enjoy it.

**I'm sure at some point, when I'm living somewhere else in the world, I'll be writing all my Jozi friends reminding you to stop and take time for the Bryanston Market with the best mint choc-chip ice cream, or for Mollystraat near Emmerentia when the Jakarandas are all in bloom. I by no means am done with being where I'm at... just appreciating where I've been.**