Yard Work

Who knew you could walk 4000 steps doing yard work?  Maybe THAT's why my body feels so weary... (No worries...I took a preemptive ibuprofen for the pain. Ha!)

I worked 3.5 hours on my front yard today.  Those of you who've seen my front yard might be thinking, "Lis, 3.5 hrs, really?" Yea. It ain't that big. But it hasn't been edged since before we moved in a year ago.  And the last time we mowed was probably October.  And the fall leaves were still in the flowerbeds. And one more excuse, the yard is sloped.  It can be challenging for me to mow, and because of this, I don't feel like I can delegate to the boys just yet.

Honestly yard work is something we (Eric and I) used to do together.  Then I delegated mowing to Aldan.  Now he's moved away.  It's not as fun (in my opinion) doing it all alone.  If you are the woman that does all the yard work and you love it, more power to you! If you are the woman that sits inside while your hubby does all the yard work, I would suggest taking him a tall glass of iced tea after the first hour.  It is hard work! And if you're the guy who has nothing better to do once a week and you LIKE to do yard work, we need to talk. :)

Admittedly I sat down a couple of times to rest.  I was watching a momma robin with a worm.  And she was watching me. She was across the street waiting. Finally she skittered over to my side of the street.  And I got up to resume my mowing.  She zipped past me through the air...I suspect there's a nest in one of my bushes. I have to say, once again, that I love my little home across from the "Enchanted Forest" (as my friend Amanda likes to call it.)  Actually this whole island is quite a special place.  A few days ago I called one of my brothers while I was out walking down by the beach.  He said, "Man! It sounds like you're in a zoo!" All the seagulls and other birds were just doing their thing.  I had to laugh. Hearing the sounds of birds and frogs, seeing eagles flying overhead and spying deer walking around will never become commonplace to me.  This place is very enchanting and I am thankful.

 

Right now this princess is just relaxing on the porch of her "castle" enjoying the beautiful weather in the Northwest. 

I John 3:1a "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."

A First - Public Recognition

Today there was an awards assembly for the recent Writing Contest where the boys attend classes on Thursdays.  First there was a day-long writing conference where a professional writer came in and helped the kids learn about fables and allegories and how to write them.  Then the boys each spent time creating a Fable for the contest, along with an illustration.  After that, the entries were judged by other teachers.  The judges didn't know the kids' names.  The kids' didn't know who the judges were.  Both boys won medals today.  I don't recall them ever having been publicly recognized like this...Cole was so excited!  He said his heart was beating so fast.

Here are the fables and illustrations:

The Cougar and the Bear (by Keaton Neufeld) - - his illustration awarded 3rd place in his class

One morning on the first day of spring, there was a cougar and a bear. The cougar was foolish and untrustworthy. The bear was confident and well… hungry. On that first day of spring, the cougar met the bear. “You’re stupid and fat! There’s no doubt about that! You’re hungrier than my Grandma’s cat!” But the bear kept on eating. He didn’t say anything. He just kept eating.

 On the first day of summer, the cougar met the bear. “You’re dumb and thick! You eat too quick! I know a guy named Rick!” But the bear didn’t answer. So he kept on eating.

In the fall, the cougar met the bear. “It’s almost winter and you’re getting thicker! You’ll get spoiled in the spring. Who would do such a thing? I know I wouldn’t.” The bear took one last bite and went to bed.

In the spring the cougar woke up in surprise. The bear was all grown up and he was tough and stuff. Which was a lot stronger than the cougar!

The moral of the story is: Don’t be like the cougar, be like the confident bear and keep on trying (except don’t get fat.)

The Cougar and the Bear

 The Porcupine and the Owl (by Cole Neufeld) - - his fable was awarded 2nd place in his class

Once there was a porcupine.  He was dense, as in he wasn’t the sharpest quill in the woods.  High above the forest floor lived a wise great-horned owl.  Each day the porcupine sharpened its quills along the tree he usually goes to.  One night he was home playing video games and he stayed up so late that his eyes turned red.  The owl flew down to porcupine’s tree trunk to see what was going on.  He came inside and saw the porcupine, his controller in hand.

The owl said, “What are you doing? You’re trashing your brain.  Don’t you know all that gaming will make you insane?” 

The porcupine said, “Video games are only my hobby.  But you’re right; my eyes do feel like wasabi.  Games teach me to strategize, think and compute.  I even figure out how to find loot.  Sometimes there’s traps, and I have to escape.  Sun’s coming up, please close the drapes!”

“Exactly why you should get some sleep,” the owl quipped, “Close your eyes and try to count sheep.”

“You think you’re so smart.  I can I play all I want.  I never get tired.  I never get droopy.  Well, maybe I do get a little bit loopy.”

“Red eyes are proof.  Too much of anything can make you a goof.  Sure games are fun, but it should not be your life.  Some day you will want to grow up and find a wife!  She will want you to hunt and find water. ”

A few years later, as an adult, the porcupine was still playing video games, when he found a female porcupine that he really liked.  They got married but he paid the price.  They still needed food and water.

The moral of the story is: Too much of anything is bad thing.

The Porcupine and the Owel

Cole's illustration was really cute too.  But it is just hard to distinguish in this (horrible) scan (mom's fault, not his). It shows a big tree.  In the base of the tree is the porcupine sitting in front of his TV. The owl is on a branch up to the right.

Mrs. Peterson - their teacher

Obviously, I think these boys are super creative anyway and we don't necessarily need public recognition of this fact.  But it was a sweet moment for all of us.  I recall when Aldan was in 2nd grade and won the "Most Improved Reader" award out of his entire school.  That also gave me great pleasure.  He and I worked hard to move him from non-reader to reader that year (when he first moved in with Eric and I.)  Julia got similar accolades for her artwork among peers and teachers. I am so very proud of all the kids! So with this school transition, I will be honest in expressing that I have felt some trepidation.  But I continue to find confirmation that it was a good decision.  They are thriving.  They still hate getting up before 7am on Thursdays.  We gave up a little freedom.  But I think for this time in our life, the decision to attend classes outside the house one day a week has mostly been a positive one.  Only 5 weeks to go!

"Unbroken"

This weekend I watched "Unbroken" -- the true story of Louis Zamperini.  I usually try to read the book BEFORE I see the movie, but in this case, I was at the library, and saw the movie on shelf first, and just grabbed it.  Anyway, if you are not familiar with his story, Zamperini was an Olympic runner in high school, survived a crash landing in the ocean for 47 days, was captured by the Japanese and just endured so much! Yet he never gave up.  At first it was his own sheer will and determination, but I think he grasped for God's strength when he was stranded out on the life raft with 2 other guys.  Seems that was a turning point, where he knew he could make it with God's help.  I don't know if I would have been able to keep going...what he faced was very challenging in a physical sense. (By the way, the book was written by Laura Hillenbrand....)

While we have not dealt with a plane crash in the middle of the ocean, having to catch and then eat raw fish, or face beatings by a brutal Japanese captor, we do face a big loss.  I'm telling you, not a day goes by when I don't think about Eric.  And just when I think I'm the only one, the boys will say something and I realize they think about him every day too.

Recently I mentioned to a friend how I would love to have a man who made sure my car was filled up with gas each week.  Just a simple thing that makes a girl feel taken care of.  And so, yesterday, as we were at the gas station filling up, I mentioned this to the boys.

Me ~ "Someday, I'd like to have a man to keep the gas filled up in my car.  Just someone to take care of me."

Boys ~ "Yea. We know. We do too." (Want someone who takes care of us...)

Me ~ "But you DO have someone that takes care of you!"

Cole ~ "Mom, I ask you every time if I can get out and help with the gas and you always say 'No'. I could do it for you, you know.  I am old enough."

Keaton ~ "Yea. We wouldn't be your husband, but we can do some stuff."

They're right.  I have always told them 'No' because I guess I think it is somewhat hazardous for them to pump gas. That made me think back, to when Aldan was 17, and I sent him to get more gas for the lawnmower, he said, "Can you come with me? I've never done that before."  I guess Eric had always done that part, though Aldan had been mowing the lawn for years.  So maybe I will teach the boys how to put gas in the car...

Later on, when we were on a walk down by the beach, the boys were hanging on me.  They just grab me in a hug and drop all their weight on my waist and hang there.  Drives me batty.  Seriously.  A little kid does it and you think it's annoying, but cute. A 100-lb kid does it and you're waiting for your lower back to go out.  I tell them to stop.  I have even had my chiropractor tell them to stop. (They always forget...) I said, "I don't mind holding your hand as we walk, but you can't hang on me. Men are supposed to take care of their women, not hang on them." And here we are again, back on this topic. "But, you can take care of yourself, Mom".

Yes, but that doesn't mean I always want to...

 

Say it Again: "Not my will, but yours..."

Last night around 9pm, the boys piled onto my bed for a chat, as they so often do.

Some parents tuck their kids into bed.  My kids tuck me in.  Usually they request a story about when I was a kid.  Or when they were babies.  But this night Cole began with a question:  "Mom, which of your parents did you love best?"

Ahhh.  Feels like a trick question.  This is when I start praying for wisdom...

Me: "Well, I loved both my parents in different ways.  But my mom did some things that broke up our family and caused a divorce that was really hard for me to understand."

Keaton: "I thought your parents were separated at death."

Me: "No. My parents had been divorced a few years before my mom died.  So at some point I came to appreciate my dad a bit more.  But I still loved my mom."

Cole, as he snuggles a little closer to me: "Oh, so you know exactly how I feel."

Slam!  My heart.

Keaton: "Cole! Don't say you like Dad better than Mom!"

Cole: "I'm sorry.  I love you Mom.  But Dad took us to work with him and he was so fun."

Me: "Ha! You get to be with me everyday while I'm working!"

Cole: "But your work is so BOOOOORing!"

Me: "Yea.  I know Dad was fun.  That's why I miss him too.  I get it."

Cole: "Why didn't you die? And he stay?"

Me: "I ask that question myself a lot.  I don't understand it all.  But God has this great big plan. And evidently He wanted ME here to take care of you.  I can tell you right now if it was Dad here, you would probably be in in public school.  (Collective gasps from wide-eyed boys! I promise I have not described public school as scary, EVER. I mean I WENT to public school! It's what they read and see on TV....)  There's no way he could homeschool you and still be a barber."

What's going on in the boys' heads, processing, grief, so often mimics what goes on in mine.  Yes, still.  Sunday morning a sweet friend hugged my waist and with tears in her eyes, said, "I've been praying for you lately.  I know it's been a couple of years since Eric's been gone, but we haven't forgotten.  You are not forgotten. We love you!"  Thank you!  Because I feel like I'm the only one stuck some days.

I'm reminded of a song on the radio: "I know you're good.  But this don't feel good right now.  I know you think of things I could never think about...."  Not my will, but yours be done Lord.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lest you think we ended on a downer...nope!  We had a big group hug with Cole in the middle, and I said it was a Cole-sandwich.  Keaton said:

COLE is C-heese
YOU are L-ettuce
I am K-etchup

Then we all joined in the fun.

What is Lucy? (the dog) L-emons.  Yea.  Lemons.
Eric would be?  E-ggplant?  (uproarious laughter!)
Aldan would be?  An A-rtichoke?  (more raucous guffaws!)
Julia could be?  J-elly.  Yes! (hilarious fun!)

So they headed to bed laughing about our big family sandwich, still giggling about Aldan the artichoke and Eric the eggplant.  God is good.

Luke 2:41-43: And He (Jesus) withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 

Back to School

As we attempt to get back into a school time routine (good or bad) I have cut back on my work by delegating the supervision of all the other bookkeepers to someone else.  I can already feel the relief!  And I am weaning the boys back on electronics.  This weekend I said "no" to extra iPad time, and guess what?  They actually found something else interesting to do.  (I knew they would...)

Cole modified some of his Lego creations.

And they both decided water and balloons were just begging to be "tested".  Here's a couple of videos of the whole thing.  

The one below is a link to Dropbox (the file was just too large for blogspot.)

CLICK HERE for 2nd VIDEO

Last night I told them to shut off all electronics around 8:30pm.  They pulled out a board game and happily played together in their room until bedtime.  Very nice!

So today we started school and all in all, it went well.  We have a plan of attack.  We have the curriculum lined up.  The boys are working together nicely.  Day One complete!  Now all we need is follow through....

For my homeschooling friends, Abeka online academy last year was not as successful as I had hoped.  Since both boys had completely separate curriculum and teachers, it was actually more headache for me, rather than less.  Oh well: Live and learn.

This year we are using "Life of Fred" for math.  They've been progressing quickly through the elementary levels this summer.  The LoF lessons are short and easily digestible.  Not to mention quite zany, and if you've never heard a kid laugh out loud at the problems in their math book, well, it is a treat!  I also downloaded a bunch of math-fact worksheets and we have flashcards, of course.

Cole works on Life of Fred

We are utilizing some of the Abeka materials for history and reading.  Plus mixing in some Christian Heroes books from YWAM.  Then I bought a new writing curriculum (Write Shop) that I had used in the past with Aldan.  It's fairly creative and teaches the writing process with each project over the course of 3 weeks.  That sounds doable to me.

Fold N Go grammar guides - this week, an easy review of punctuation

We are signed up for piano lessons again (this is year 2.) Then I am using AmblesideOnline.org Year 5 as a framework for making our way through the Life of Christ (N.T.) and Prophets/Kings (O.T.) in our daily Bible work.  Was pretty cool this morning watching and listening to the boys while they first FOUND the book and verse to read, then alternated reading from the book of Luke.  It was just awesome!

And for the boys' favorite subject: Science...we are studying Apologia Anatomy and Physiology, which we also started this summer.  I have Art lessons built into each week too (which is another subject they both like.)

Keaton works on Art

Keaton's lesson on perspective

Cole's woodpecker drawing

Would love to throw in some foreign language...we have Rosetta Stone Spanish around here somewhere...and swimming lessons.  But we'll see how we can fit it all in.  Today went splendidly thanks to a lot of prep and prayer beforehand.  I was able to work for 4 hours and create a blogpost as well.  Now, if we can just keep this up for 180 days. :)

Freedom and Family

So 4th of July was fun.  We don't have relatives up here in Washington, but we do have "family."  Spent the day at the Evans Farm where about 50 people joined hands and prayed before our meal, followed by a spontaneous rendition of "God Bless America" (thank you Auntie June!)

The boys spent a couple of hours down at the beach blowing things up.  (Thanks for supervising, Derek...)  We took our box of leftover fireworks from several years past.  Bottle rockets, sparklers, smoke bombs.  Such a boy thing.  And Keaton and Cole were able to partake this year!

Ethan shooting off bottle rockets

Riley & Cole look on

sparklers!

Even Emily and Ellen came down to the water to watch.  This family gathering is something we looked forward to every year when Eric was alive.  He would take Julia and Aldan down to the water to do fireworks.  I've been coming here for 16 years.  Watched all the cousins when they were small, now watching the next generation of kids.  

There was also a volleyball game going on...

Lots of kids, lots of parents.  I spent a long time talking with Derek's grandma about life and marriage and missing our spouses, yet knowing they are no longer suffering and are very happy with Jesus.  

Earlier in the day, I made a flank steak salad with blue cheese, tomato and egg to share at the potluck picnic.  Sooooo yummy!

And Cole and I took a walk around our neighborhood checking out some beautiful perennials.  Daisies, poppies, echinacea, lavender, alyssum.  We saw a bunch of bees on this lavender.  

So I took a slow motion video with my phone.  Hope you can view.  

The last 3 nights the boys have been tent camping in our backyard.  So summer is here and we are so thankful!

Also, thanks to those who prayed for me this weekend...I felt covered.  Made it through.  Only cried a couple of times.  With watery eyes, shared some memories of Eric with these friends.  It is hard to do things that we used to do with him-- without him.  But with each passing year, I make a little progress in appreciating the time we had with him, and less time wishing things were different.

Moving Day

So last night we actually slept in our new house.  We did a lot of moving of little stuff yesterday.  Funny thing when we were unpacking the China dishes, my friend Lisa was like, "Aren't you going to take the paper off?"  And I had to laugh; I always keep the good China wrapped up in paper because it seems like we always have to move.  So guess what?  We unwrapped the China!  And maybe we will even use it!

Thank you Michael & Aldan for getting the little boys' beds set up.

Aldan and Lucy look comfy in Aldan's new room.

My friend painted my bedroom and bathroom in the new house, so my bed is not moved yet.  I slept on a pallet in the floor last night.  A good, hard sleep.

Today we move the furniture.  And we will have help.  I have, once again, been blessed by the generosity of others toward me and my family.  As I lay down to sleep last night I was at the point of tears.  It is still so hard doing this alone.  It reminded me of the year when Eric was sick and there was so much to do, and only one of me to do it.  But I have learned since then not to micro-manage.  I have learned nothing has to be perfect (nor will it ever be.)  I have learned that we are so blessed materially.  I have learned that nurturing relationships when you DON'T necessarily need the other person, seems to reap boundless rewards when you really DO need them.  Giving is always better than receiving, yes?

Birthday Man

Well, Aldan turned 20 last week. Can't believe all the kids are in double-digits this year, once Cole turns 10 in June. Julia came up to visit and we all had a great time. They hung out and played video games just like old times. After she left the guys and I had lunch at 5 Guys....Aldan's favorite burger joint. (Aldan put on the tiara that my Bible study ladies share for birthday celebrations as a joke. Silly Aldan...) Happy Birthday Aldan!

playing video games

silly double-chins

almost serious...

silly with tiara

writing comments at Five Guys...