A sneak peek

We managed to capture a nice family picture last week, which I am claiming as our Christmas card photo! (An unexpected check mark!)  So you will have to wait until you receive one in the mail to see all of us, but I can show you a picture of its cooperative participants, plus 1/3 of its uncooperative ones.

Mystery of Death

This duck moved into my grandmother's yard last week while she lay dying.  In the 40+ years that she and my grandfather have lived there, never has a duck resided on their patio.  We all took great delight in this feathered friend who made himself right at home among my grandmother's plants.  He was a wonderful distraction and we all smiled at the beautiful tribute he was for her final days.  Many of the caregivers read all sorts of signs into the duck's presence but I merely took as one of those funny, little things that the Lord orchestrates sometimes.

Early Friday morning, I was staying over at my grandmother's house and I was awakened to the caregiver calling for me, she sounded very distressed.  I jumped out of bed to help in whatever way I could, only for her to take me towards the front of the house--towards the duck.  She kept saying, "I think he's dead.  I think he's dead."  Sure enough as I stood looking out the large picture window, the duck was indeed dead.  Here I was, expecting death at any minute, only to find it in an unexpected corner.  I wanted to laugh.  In my heart, I had a good chuckle over this poor bird's death, but the caregiver was really shaken by it and I didn't think my twisted humor would be appreciated.

I do not understand why the Lord brought the duck or why it died a few hours before my grandmother, but personally, I enjoyed it being a part of that week.  I enjoyed it being a part of that process.

Time for school

 With warm weather coming to an end, we snuck in a few more days of this:

Look who's riding the waves!!

Followed by picking crabs for my birthday.... (This is why people have those stupid selfie-sticks)

 And it all culminated with starting another year of school!  

Deep Creek

Way back over Labor Day weekend, we went 'camping' with some friends in Western Maryland.  Our intended camping trip ended up being more like staying in a lovely mountain house, complete with a kitchen, hot showers and real beds!  We did mix up our posh setting with a little hiking and swimming in Deep Creek Lake.  The entire weekend was wonderful but a major highlight among the adults and kids was the atvs that the owners left for our use.  With plenty of fields and forest trails we all really enjoyed taking them out for speed or for exploring.  Zach ended up being a little speed demon and kept trying to go faster--a major shift in his personality!

During the drive home, Marcus made an innocuous request at one point, but I was unable to fulfill it in an appropriate three-year-old timeframe.  He became increasingly agitated and was repeatedly asking for the same thing over.  And over.  And over again.  As you can imagine I was also becoming increasingly agitated in direct proportion to his impatience.  Finally, with plenty of pent up frustration, I said, "Marcus!..."  To which he immediately chimed in, "I know, I know! Chill out!"

My crew.

One day this summer, while I was serving lunch to my guys, I realized that they are leaving me.  Each day is one day closer to their being gone.

While some days this might be cause to rejoice, I was filled with overwhelming sadness as I caught a glimpse of how fleeting this time together is.  It is impossible to imagine a time when they don't need me...for....Everything.  But I know it is coming.  And somehow it seems cruel of each of them to make me dependent on them while they slowly become less dependent on me.  And it is kind of insulting that they would let me get this attached only for them to go off and start their own lives apart from me.  

So I am just going on record, right now, that I don't like it!  And, if it can cause me to cry while we are still 10 years out, I would stay clear of emotional me when the time actually comes!

Quality Time

We have had one of the most relaxing summers ever.  After completing all of our travel during the first 3 weeks of June we have been home.  All summer.  It has been bliss.

It has been a summer of developing friendships and of quality time together.  We have still managed to do a great deal but the pace has been just right!  The boys and I went to the beach at least once a week to meet up with some new co-op friends.  We have had bonfires and swim camp.  We visited my sister and went kayaking.  We celebrated a half birthday, anniversaries and the completion of potty training!!  And we have done it all while eating plenty of delicious fresh fruits and vegetables.  I am learning that there will always be amazing and exciting things to do, and while it is hard to turn down many of these things, the most fulfilling for us is time together without the frenetic pace.

Say It Ain't So...Whiffle Ball Drama

Marcia is typically the author of this blog but I'm taking the liberty to relay a most unfortunate incident in a recent backyard whiffle ball game.  Marcus and I (Orioles) were staging a furious rally in the 9th inning against Zach and Eli (Cubs).  I hit a ball in the gap and made a turn toward 2nd when unbeknownst to me, Zach darted in the base path and I proceeded to flatten him and coast into 2nd for a stand up double.  While Zach writhed on the ground, Eli made a dramatic protest and hurt me in the worst way he possibly could.  "You're A-Rod now," shouted Eli, fighting back a mix of tears and righteous indignation.  "And you did it to your own kid!"

You cut me deep, Eli.  You cut me real deep.  For those wondering, the Cubs won the game in the 10th inning, 7-6.

To Mississippi and Back: Part 4 "Corolla!"

The final destination in our fun adventures, was a week at the beach with my family.  Plenty of swimming, sunshine and sugar to be had-- just in case we hadn't had our fill yet!  I finally gave up on capturing a nice picture of all three boys (as evidenced by the previous posts) and decided to catch them au naturel...or at least in one state of natural!

Throughout the entire week, our section of ocean was shared with many skates which were eating where the waves break.  Since none of my boys venture out that far unless dragged, it really only effected the adults that wanted to cool off--and for the brave of heart, the feeding skates were only a mild deterrent anyway!

For my night of cooking (the only night I cooked dinner during the entire 16 days!) we created a lot of hype over our surprise dessert--which involved everyone fighting over ... uh, er... sharing 2 large servings of warm cookie dough and ice cream.  

Riding high on the success of my dessert, I went on to play Steve in foosball for the tournament bracket that Zach had created.  The final point was captured on video and I will let it tell the rest of the triumphant story:

And thus ended our journey!  We have returned home to face a sugar detox, VBS and another fever for Zach.   (We are awaiting the results of this morning's blood work to make sure it is not a tick borne bacteria from his little LFR tag-a-long, but since this time Marcus has come down with it too, I am hopeful that this is just a regular virus.)  Ah! It is good to be home! :)

To Mississippi and Back: Part 3 "At the Aquarium"

Camp ended Friday morning, one week after we had left home.  The sad goodbye that we had with all of our new friends was softened by the expectation of 'next year' and our fun plans for that day.  We drove back to Atlanta and spent an awesome afternoon at the Georgia Aquarium!  It was a very different experience from our own Baltimore aquarium and I couldn't say which one I like better.  The Georgia one is smaller, but features many large tanks where you are encouraged to sit and watch these enormous viewing areas.  They also are the only aquarium in America to have whale sharks!  It was amazing to watch these 3 large plankton-eating sharks swim around in their huge tank.  Personally, I enjoyed a small side display that chronicled the whale sharks being shipped to the aquarium via UPS!  "What can brown do for you?", indeed!!

Our admission came with tickets to see the dolphin show which incorporated the usual dolphin tricks into a small broadway-type musical performance.  The trainers spent a great deal of time in the water with the dolphins which I hadn't seen recently and was definitely a fun addition!

That night we drove just outside of the city and stayed with Steve's aunt.  Aunt Judy had dinner ready for us when we got in and then she prepared a huge breakfast spread in the morning before sending us off for our drive back to Durham.  In Durham, we reluctantly traded in our rental van and picked up our own transportation again.  Unfortunately, although we timed our entrance into that night's hotel perfectly, Zach came down with a fever and was not interested in the swimming and poolside dinner that we had planned.  So while Zach slept on a lounge chair, Marcus and Eli expended all their excess energy in the pool!

Sunday morning we were off again, this time to meet up with my family at the beach!

The underside of the whale shark swimming
over our heads in the tunnel!

To Mississippi and Back: Part 2 "Lake Forest Ranch"

After a semi-successful execution of another hotel night outside of Atlanta, we loaded up and drove to Alabama.  (I could do a whole post on the joys of staying in a hotel with small children who have ridden in a car for many hours--but all I will say is that I don't think we were favorably looked upon by our neighbors...  Our entries were loud and late at night and alway ended with someone crying loudly.) We stopped in Tuscaloosa for some southern ribs at the original Dreamland location, which definitely looked as sketchy as the neighborhood where it was located.  This place had no windows and the inside was dark and had walls and ceiling covered with license plates.  They only serve ribs, sausage and white Wonder bread but everything was delicious and absolutely worth the stop!

An actual Marcus smile!!

After our finger-lickin' lunch, we drove the final leg to the camp (4 hours total that day)!  We spent a wonderful time at LFR making many new friends!  The majority of the kids at camp were high-school age campers, but there are many families who live there year round with children of similar ages as our family.  This little crew of kids ran around together, commandeered a table to themselves in the cafeteria and spent many hours fishing, swimming, and exploring the lakeside.  Zach loved the sudden freedom to do these things without mom watching him all the time.  For me, there were many hours spent on the porch in rocking chairs visiting with the other parents of the LFR kid gang.

Steve was able to share the messages that the Lord had given him throughout the year, and I really enjoyed hearing them presented instead of only second-hand!

To Mississippi and Back!

It's a parasaurolophus--can't you see the head crest!

After much anticipation, we have finally traveled to Mississippi for Steve's 12th year speaking at Lake Forest Ranch.  It is the first time Marcus has ever gone and it has been 5 years since Zach, Eli and I have gone.  The boys had been looking forward to the trip all year and with our beach vacation schedule right afterwards, we made it one long 2 week journey.

It began Friday afternoon, June 5th.  Steve came home at lunch and the boys and I had: everything packed, the van loaded, frogs fed, bunny and plants taken care of-- and we were ready to go!  That night we drove to Durham, NC (6 hours) and picked up our rental van (a huge luxury compared to our old, high mileage van) and stayed the night in a hotel.  The next morning we took the time to go to the Museum of Life and Science.  We spent a very hot morning looking at butterflies in the arboretum, taking a dinosaur walk, sailing remote sailboats, and taking a short train ride.  The butterfly arboretum was a real treat since we had studied butterflies in great detail this year.  We timed our visit during the daily butterfly release (which is when the newly emerged butterflies get to join the others in the arboretum).  These 'baby' butterflies tired quickly which meant that each one of us (including small family members who don't like to hold still) got to have at least one perch on our fingers!  Steve had many, many butterflies land on his brightly colored hat during our visit, which, alas, shows that the butterflies do not have discerning taste--or at least not in football teams.

By 2pm we were on the road again having spent a lot of pent up energy and ready to face another 6 hour drive to Atlanta, GA!

May adventures

Before we head out for our long road trip to Mississippi and the Outer Banks, I thought I should probably post some pictures from our May adventures.  We have finished up school (Hurray!), been strawberry picking twice, attended a Shorebirds game and had dinner on Yia yia and Papa's sailboat.

The boat may have been the favorite as the boys enjoyed exploring every inch of the boat.  My father grilled chicken and we all squeezed into the cabin for a cozy dinner, then we took a short jaunt out into the Nanticoke River.  The highlight came when each child was able to successfully use 'the head' (they are boys after all)!