Good Friends

Every so often it’s good for a girl to get away with a few of her good friends. It’s an enriching time, and a time of building relationships and becoming in tune to one another. And it’s especially a time to laugh together and learn lots of things, such as:

• Hot coffee should not be microwaved for two minutes.
• Dee can talk anybody into buying anything.
• Four hours in IKEA with only a breakfast cookie is too long.
• There is more than one way to get to Bellevue Square, but you will still get there.
• There is a Safeway Beverage Headquarters in Bellevue…somewhere sort of close to Bellevue Square.
• A piece of Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache, shared between four friends at the Cheesecake Factory, is somewhat akin to drinking together, given the conversations that followed consumption of said cheesecake. Of course, I wouldn’t know anything about “drinking together.”
• Somebody has been to alcoholic counseling, and then picked up garbage for 3 weeks to avoid having the college call her mother. But the beer cans weren’t hers. Really. Her wild oats were all sown loooong before that. (Mom, it wasn’t me.)
• A girls-only cruise sounds like a lot of fun, for reasons that shall not be published.
• Somebody is tanning nude, and it isn’t one of us.

Me and the table I found that is (hopefully) going to be perfect for an extra homework space for our children, especially Sarah.

The common purchase of the day was stainless steel colanders, and we posed with them in our favorite white kitchen. I don’t know why the colanders are on our heads. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Clifford-rear-end-hooks were Dee’s find of the day. Thankfully she found them in black later, so now it won’t look like Clifford is wagging his tail with his head stuck in the wall.

Our loaded down van. Not too bad. I think we could have fit one more person.

The famous, delicious, always-to-be-remembered Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache.

Things that made me smile this week

One can now buy daffodils at the store.

My necklaces are now untangled and accessible and organized, thanks to my friend Beth who gave me the idea for this necklace hanger that I made myself. Thanks for the board, Dad!

Note to self: if it’s 30 degrees outside and you serve frozen go-gurt to the girls for a snack, serve with mittens.

Basketball

I haven’t been to a basketball game of Sarah’s in a while. Bethany had pneumonia, then there were a couple weeks off for Christmas, then Elise had pneumonia, then last week we were gone…so…I was excited to go last Saturday. Sarah has the unfortunate ability to always be on the worst team in the league. I really don’t think it has too much to do with the fact that she is on the team…it’s just the combination of girls. Her team has two girls with height, and only a couple that can shoot. Compare that to the team we played Saturday: 4 with height and one that could handle the ball like no other 6th grader I’ve ever seen. So, Sarah’s team lost. Again. They have yet to win. Saturday it was 22-11. Sarah did have 4 of those 11 points, so she did her share. She even had a rebound, but she started off kind of slow and getting into trouble with that girl on the other team that can handle the ball. So the coach moved her to a different position. But Sarah’s always putting in 100% effort and she’s improving bit by bit.

I do worry about next year, when she can try out for the school team. I know there are quite a few girls in her grade that are good at basketball and they play on these select teams (& they’re all best friends with each other) and such. It’s pretty ridiculous – traveling all over the state for tournaments every other weekend for an 11-year-old. Thankfully, while Sarah loves basketball, she loves other things, too. I would love for her to have the opportunity to play on a team for school – there’s just something about that…practicing with her classmates every day, riding on a bus and competing as a school team. It’s a good experience to have once, if you enjoy the sport. Sarah enjoys the sport. I just pray that she will get that chance once, but that if she doesn’t, we’ll both have the grace to accept it and move on and learn from the experience. There will be lots of opportunities for a girl like Sarah, in many different arenas. I’m so proud of how she’s growing up – she loves life and everything she does, she’s kind and loving and considerate and giving, she’s fun and smart. She’s a little scatter-brained once in a while, but that’s good teasing fodder. ;)

Anyway, enough mush and gush about Sarah. Here’s a couple pictures from Saturday’s game…she did not make that free-throw, but it pretty much went around the rim and popped back out, so it was close, and her form was decent. The second picture shows a ball in the air, which does score a basket and she did shoot it…she’s just mostly behind other players in the pictures.

Yay, Sarah!

Gratituesday, January 26, 2010

After Sarah was born, I became a GEMS counselor. I had been a Calvinette as a young girl and it had a profound impact on my life. (Calvinettes was a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church for young girls. The name changed to GEMS {Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior} in 1995, and better encompasses the interdenominational, worldwide ministry it has become). I wanted to work with girls, use my teaching knowledge, and ensure a good GEMS program for my daughter as she grew up. God definitely called me into the GEMS ministry.

When Bethany was born, I said to Ed, “Now I really have to work hard to keep the GEMS program up!”

When Becca was born, we knew we were in for a world of female-ness, both in our volunteer work and in our home.

When Elise was born, Ed just shook his head and said, “We’re lifers.”

Today I am grateful for my husband, who makes my GEMS ministry into our ministry. From the very beginning, he has been at home, with the girls, while I go off to GEMS. I took one year off –our first year here, the year I was pregnant with Elise – but then joined back in again at our new church and he still never complains about staying home with the little girls while I do GEMS. He never complains about meetings or conferences that have me flying all over the country. (Of course, here I must also express thanks for my parents, who usually take the girls when I go to the summer conferences so that Ed doesn’t have to take vacation days). But Ed just holds down the fort and makes it possible for me to be part of this incredible ministry. I could not serve in this way without him.

It is truly OUR ministry because of the way he selflessly serves at home.

Pictures of OUR girls having fun at GEMS last night:
 

Play-dough RoCkS

After coming back from vacation last week, I had A LOT to do. I STILL have A LOT to do. But, I was fairly productive on Tuesday (unpacked, did laundry, did some general reorganizing and figuring out where we are at in our lives) thanks to a little bit of homemade play-dough from friend Beth.

First, Elise made this little tiny snail. Then Becca had to make a big snail.

Then Becca made an entire snail family.

And so did Elise! Do you see how I was grateful for the play-dough?! It took a LONG time for them to make all those itty bitty snails. They had to break off a small piece and roll it and roll it and roll it. And then they had to curl it up like a snail.

And they’re pretty darn cute snails. We even kept some as pets.

Gratituesday

Only missing cousin Elias… :( We’ll get you next time!

Day one with cousins

Just a few of my favorite pictures from today…
These two have been the best of friends since our arrival.

It’s a Ball Fountain! I love how both Becca’s feet are off the ground!

(Almost) all of us by our fountain…get it? ;)

Aunt Jacq said…”They can play in the fountain. They’ll only get a little wet.”

Right.

  Here’s the precious baby that we finally got to meet!

And, oh, she is a sweetie. And she looks like her siblings. And her Aunt Julie made her laugh earlier this evening. We are loving these moments.

Elise-isms

**Elise has been sick the past few days. At dinner tonight (note the date: January 9) she prayed, “Thank you God that I will be better by Christmas.”

**Wanting me to help her pasta cool off at dinner, she requested, “Mom, will you please blow these up?”

**While helping me put dirty clothes into the washing machine, Elise said, “Wow, Mom. This is hard work.”

I said, “Yeah, it is.” She said, “Hm. I’m tired. My back really hurts, too.”

(I swear I have never said that while doing laundry!)

Happy Birthday, Dee!

Today is my friend Dee’s birthday. Little did I know when I met a young doctor for the first time after he dropped off his then 3rd grade daughter at Sunday School at Bethel for the first time, and I had just dropped off my then second-grade and Kindergarten daughters at Sunday School at Bethel for the first time, just over 4 years ago, that his wife would become one of my most cherished blessings since moving “back home.”

Since she has a public blog and isn’t worried about posting anything on the world wide web for all to see…

Happy Birthday, Dee! I know. I owe you a coffee.

(Elise just climbed up on my lap and I asked her who is in that picture. She said, “That’s Katie!” I told her it’s Katie’s Mom and she said, “It looks like Katie, Mom. I’m serious.”)

More gifts, some secrets, and a flashback

This past Sunday was the end of Christmas for the girls. My folks brought back gifts from their aunt & uncle in CA and they got to open them on Sunday. So much fun to have one more gift to open before reality hit on Monday morning!

Books for Sarah (my voracious reader and book collector). She was thrilled!

A warm and colorful scarf for Bethany, the beauty & comfort girl.

Clothes for school for the one who LOVES to go to school.

Slippers that match the slippers for her American Girl Doll for my drama queen.

One of Bethany’s friend’s mom’s introduced us to “Secret Keeper Girl”, a Christian book of dates for moms to do with their tween daughters. She invited us to join her and her daughter in working through the book (on our own) and then meet together for date #6 (shopping with friends). We decided to go ahead and do it with Bethany and also with Sarah and we invited one of Sarah’s friend’s and her mom to join us! We had our first Secret Keeper Girl dates during Christmas break, which involved a tea party and talk about being the beautiful masterpiece that God has created and that God is working on! We’re ALL looking forward to date #2!

 

And finally, this morning I had a flashback to my childhood. I remember vividly (plus my mom tells the story all the time, so if I didn’t remember vividly, I would at least think that I remember it) playing with my Little People (which in those days were the skinny, wood, choking-hazards) and setting them all up on the open space at the top left side of the town and I would play that they would go to church. I would have them sing hymns and everything! So this morning, I was making lunches and this is what I observed Elise doing:

 

All the Little People, gathered on the top left side of the castle. And you guessed it, they’re at church. Do you know what they’re singing? Ere Zij God. Apparently language has no barriers in this house.

They shall come rejoicing…

We have one of those quirky kids’ Bible songs CD’s…you know the kind…lots of oldies but goodies and some strange ones, too. For example, it has “The Wheels on the Bus” only in this version the driver says “Go to church” instead of “Move on back”, etc. It kind of makes mothers wish they had earplugs, but it keeps preschoolers entertained. So, anyway, Elise was listening to this CD in the van on our way to Costco this morning. The song “Bringing in the Sheaves” came on (it’s the one they always sang on Little House on the Prairie) and she was singing along happily…

“Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
They shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves”

As the song ends, she says, “Wow. They must really love CHEESE!”

It took me approximately 4.7 seconds to figure out that she was talking about those people in the song, coming rejoicing, bringing in the cheese.

Oh, Elise. You are tooooo funny.

And Happy Birthday today to my brother-in-law, whose wedding I bawled like a baby at simply because the whole thing was so beautiful and because he and his wife were and are so in love. He’s a great husband, dad, brother, and uncle and we can’t wait to see him soon! Here he is this past summer with all my kids and his kids piled on him. We love that guy!

A Grey Card and a Reader

Ed got me a grey card for Christmas. Isn’t it neat?Warning: This next paragraph is for those interested in photography. 

IT IS NEAT!  A photographer uses a grey card to fix white balance. Basically, since the camera isn’t as smart as our brains, it has a hard time adjusting white balance in different lighting situations. This is why sometimes your indoor pictures look orange or sometimes blue…depending on the lighting. Usually you can set white balance on your camera, but often it still isn’t quite right. However, grey card is a color that is a true and accurate representation of the physical qualities of the light illuminating the card. The photographer takes a picture of the grey card right before taking a picture in a certain lighting situation. Then, in post-production, on the computer, you use the photo of the grey card to set the white balance in the rest of the pictures in that setting. It’s super easy – two clicks of the mouse on the right spots and it’s done. I don’t fully understand it, but I do know that it makes it easier to adjust white balance for two reasons.

1. I don’t have to trust my eyes to get the right color.

And 2. I don’t have to trust my monitor (since monitors can have different color tones).

Here is the picture I took right after the grey card photo and then adjusted according to the grey card reading.To me, it’s a little blue-toned. Grey cards cause pictures to look like daylight and of course this scene didn’t really look like daylight to my eyes when I took the picture. It was at night, with minimal interior lighting.

So, with this next picture, I used the grey card reading and then bumped it up a tad to look more like the scene looks like in my mind.Either way, it looks much better than the actual photograph that my camera took. I’m happy and excited to learn to use it.

AND either way, you must notice what is happening *in* those pictures! Becca is READING! She has begun to really catch on to sounding out words AND sight words, and over Christmas break she has taken on the challenge of reading that entire book on her own. She has just about accomplished that task. It is called “The Biggest, Best Snowman” and you should definitely read it. Becca can.