Harvest Party

There are times when the nostalgia nearly chokes me. I'm not sure if it is because I'm living outside the States, but when I look back at my childhood, to the pre-9/11, pre-Columbine, pre-cell phone era... I don't know. Maybe its because I lived in a small town, or that the community seemed even smaller with my mom being a grade school teacher. I can't really put my finger on why I feel like growing up then was so much more innocent, or so much slower, but that's exactly how I feel. I was blessed to live across the street from my church (literally, I tried to throw small stones from my bedroom window and hit the building) for a little while. Our church, in those days, was filled with Sunday night testimonies and hymns, ice cream socials, watermelon seed spitting contests, church picnics and pancake breakfasts. I remember the older generations getting together and any time there was one of these events, there'd be a "quartet" singing, including our pastor, Hal Bonner. Two weeks ago, at a pastors conference here in Johannesburg, our General Superintendent was asked to join in with a local quartet to sing a hymn. It took me back to those long summer days filled with endless bike riding and climbing trees. And I'm so glad for all those times. Now that the kids are getting older, I've been really trying hard to work in some of those "great memory" experiences for my own children. I know the things they look back fondly on will most likely be completely different from the things I treasure, but I don't want to neglect being intentional about building a strong sense of family and community in my kids. So our community here, some South African, some American, missionary and non-missionary, got together for a good ol' fashioned Harvest Party. It seemed a bit odd calling it a "harvest" anything since we just planted our vegetable garden a few weeks ago, but we had fun with it. The kids dressed up (which Em could NOT have been more excited for!) and got a few sweeties along the way, but they experienced something I hold so dear... community.

Last month, Grammy sent the girls these headbands, and Em has talked of nothing but being a flower since. So, here are my purple and pink flowers! Harper LOVED eating her petals.

We had two "sack" races: older kids- who went all the way around the pool, and the little guys, who just tried to jump in a straight line without incurring too many injuries. I haven't eaten enough maize meal from the massive bags to have 10 of them, so the kids used trash bags, which proved interesting when the older guys really started to jump, thus splitting all their trash bags!

Cooper found he was faster by just simply walking IN his bag than trying to jump, which cracked us all up.

They bobbed for apples as well. It took Todd nearly drowning a couple of times for us to realize how much water was "just right," only to have the first kid outsmart the whole process and get the apple by the stem.

Please note the perfectly dry face and hair. Kids these days seem so much smarter... I still almost drown!

As part of the festivities, each family unit brought something in thankfulness for everything they have. The packages of assorted eats (and a bar of laundry soap) were put into packages for the Bible college students, who are preparing for their final exams and then the long, term break coming very soon.

My smallest flower wilted on the vine halfway through the day. She was in a concrete room, on cold tile floors with a multitude of people talking and eating around her. Somehow, I don't think she noticed all of us though- just a guess though.