Water Fun

Every day this past week has involved water of some kind. We've frequented the city pool a lot more as the days have grown hotter. It's become quite a juggling act, as Rach & Zekers are loving swimming in the "big pool", while Karis and Moo, for the most part, are quite content to play in the kiddie pool. But they all just love going, and I guess the good news is that it wears them out almost as much as it wears me out!





Last Saturday, we went boating at Ceasar's Creek with my sister Hannah and her family. My Mom watched Malachi and Luke, their 2-yr-old little boy, at the house, while the rest of us went to the lake. We spent most of the time tubing and swimming - it was an absolutely perfect day and the water was refreshing . . . or, it would have been if I hadn't had someone hanging on my neck the whole time! We ended the day at Fazoli's; the kiddos were so good we actually got to carry on a conversation at one table while they all sat at another and ate their dinner. Surreal, but very nice!





Sunday, we stopped by my parents' house to drop of homemade Fathers' Day cards for my Dad, and all the cousins played on the Slip 'n Slide. I have to say, we found more dirt and grass in their bathing suits than I would have ever thought possible. But they all had a blast, especially Mr. Moo. Then Monday, we went to the pool again and they ran through the sprinkler all evening. It was nice not having to water my flowers that day!

The last 2 pics don't involve water, but I couldn't resist putting them up anyway. Tuesday morning we all just stayed in our PJs until noon and played together. I was reminded how much my kids make me belly laugh on an almost daily basis. Zekers has decided to try for a Hannah Montana look-alike contest (thanks a lot, Kurstin!), so he spent nearly the entire morning in a wig, shouting into a microphone and dancing around. I just love his randomness and whimsical nature.




In the midst of the busyness of life, days like these are a true gift, and I treasure every one of them.

Firsts

The past couple of weeks have been riddled with "firsts" for me . . .

I had my first garage sale last Thursday and Friday. Almost 12 years of marriage and clothes/toys/other items from 4 kiddos can create quite a pile-up, and it was getting difficult to navigate through our attic and parts of the basement! Since November, I've been slowly sorting through some of the stuff, and last week every spare minute was spent out in the garage or up in the attic, organizing and pricing. (I went through bins and bins of baby clothes; also, we dumped all of the stuffed animals we've accumulated onto the basement floor - which covered the entire carpeted area - and had the kiddos each pick their 15 favorites to keep, then got rid of the rest. I never imagined I'd see so many tears over "friends" they hadn't seen or thought about in years.) My mom also came with a truckload of stuff to sell. It was going to be the garage sale to end all garage sales.

And then it rained. And rained. And rained. Thursday it pretty much came down all day long - until about 3, an hour before the end of the sale. And I realized how nuts people can be about garage sales, because they came and crowded into our already-full garage all day long in the pouring rain, sometimes 20 at a time, packed in there like sardines. So shockingly, business was good.

Friday was a lot nicer, and Rachel & Zekers got to set up their cookies & lemonade stand. At the end of the day, I was happy with the amount of clothing and larger items we sold. We carted the rest to Goodwill, Biddlestone's and Hastings. This is AFTER giving away dozens of bags of clothes to several friends, AND at our moms group clothing exchange, and selling many more bags' worth at the garage sale. Talk about visible evidence of God's provision! I couldn't help thinking as I bagged everything up that He's given us WAY more than we deserve.

Turns out, we should have waited to get rid of the leftovers, since not one, but TWO people showed up at our door the next day asking about a set of mauve sheets I had for sale. Go figure.

Saturday morning I ran my first 5K. Perfect weather, beautiful scenery (the race was in Celina by the lake) and good friends all made the morning a success. Since we'd never run more than 2 miles prior to the race, I was incredibly nervous, wondering if I could even do it. But it turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. My time wasn't great (29:14), but maybe if I ever get cleared by the doctor to run again, I can get a little faster. At the time, though, I was just excited to actually run all 3.1 miles without any health issues!

If you want to view photos, here is the link. There is a picture of the 7 of us (Sheldon, Isaac, Janal, Amanda, Kati, Isabel and me) on the left sidebar if you scroll down a little, and under that, a link to view individual photos of runners in action.

Saturday evening I finished knitting my first scarf. I'd been wanting to learn how to knit for the past several years, and then several weeks ago, had lunch with a friend who showed me how in about 20 minutes. (Thanks, Kelly!!) I've found that it's a great way to relax at the end of a long day. My bedtime routine over the past several weeks has become: knit for about 15 minutes, then go to bed and read for another 15 or 20 (or 60!) until my eyes refuse to stay open any longer.

This week is VBS at our church - not a first! I have a group of six 3-yr-olds and a teen helper, who is a lifesaver, as some of them like to wander. If you read this, pray that their little hearts are reached this week, that gospel seeds are planted and that they love Jesus more at the end of the week than they did at the beginning.

(The picture to the right doesn't really have anything to do with this post; I just thought I'd throw in a little snapshot of some father-son bonding time.)

Literature and Lambs

Thursday the kiddos and I spent the day with my best friend from college, Johanna, and her 2 kiddos, Max & Hope. Max is Zeke's age, and Hope was born the day after Malachi. We spent a good part of the day at Carriage Hill in Huber Heights - about an hour drive for her (she lives in Columbus) and 40 minutes for us.

The last time Danny & I and the kiddos went to Carriage Hill, one of the pigs was due to give birth in about a week, so the kiddos were all very excited to see the little piglets. Well, we found out, after searching in vain for her babies, that she was never pregnant! She just kept getting bigger and they all thought she was expecting, until about a week after her due date when they called in the vet. Strange. We did, however, get to see a newborn lamb - unusual for this time of year. And Rachel got to take a few more pictures.

Of course, we ended the day with a trip to the penny candy store. I love that we can get 5 people candy for $1.19. The kiddos love the rare treat of getting to consume large amounts of sugar all at once. We finished out the day at McDonalds, hoping the kiddos would play and we could have a chance to talk for a little while. We should have known better! But overall it was a fun day, and all 4 kiddos completely wore themselves out!







I just finished reading this book. My friend Dee recommended it, so I went to the library, checked it out, and read it in 2 days. It's that good. I got a little less sleep than I needed for a couple of nights, because I could not put it down. Wow. I love Hosseini's writing style and that you cannot read his account without being deeply impacted. Thank you Dee! I'm also getting ready to read his book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hopefully this one won't be as riveting and I can get some sleep.

More

More tests. More waiting. More wondering. More trusting.

For now, that's what it boils down to. I had an appointment with an allergy / athsma specialist today. They didn't do any actual testing (gotta love insurance hassles!), but I spent quite a while with the doctor and came away feeling like the visit wasn't the total waste of time I thought it was going to be. I went to a lab and had about 6-8 vials of blood drawn for a plethora of tests, including thyroid and auto-immune; I should find out the results in a couple of weeks.

She informed me that there are several different kinds of allergies: your basic itching, watering, sneezing kind of allergy; allergies that are like hives under your skin and cause intense itching / rash / swelling -type symptoms; and systemic allergies, which basically affect multiple body systems. She thinks I have the last 2 kinds. And I know I've always had the first kind - with mold, pollen, dust, etc. So I guess this means . . . I'm a walking allergy!

Speaking of walking, it looks like that's what I'll be doing for a while. My last 3 or 4 attacks have hit immediately after going running, and the last one (last Monday) was pretty severe. The doctor thinks the attacks may be induced by my running, especially since I started running about 8 weeks ago, and the new symptoms (swelling, itching, rashing) started up soon after that. She told me I have to stop running, but had compassion when I explained that I've been planning to run a 5K in 10 days, and said I could run up until then but I need to stop after that. The good news is: I have a regimen of pills I can take the day of the race to ward off an attack and still run the whole thing. Normally, if I run a comfortable distance (2 miles or so), I'm fine, but if I push myself a little harder than normal (3 miles), wham! I'm out of commission for the morning.

The most frustrating thing about all of this, is that, even though running has always been on my top ten list of least favorite activities, I've actually begun to enjoy my early morning runs. I've had more energy all day long; I've begun to get in shape - something that hasn't been the case for a very long time! - and it's helped me to be more disciplined in other areas of my life, like my eating (sometimes!). It just feels GOOD to run and sweat and work hard to achieve a goal. If it wasn't for these "health issues", I'd probably start working on a 10K after this race!

I hate that I have no control over these physical limitations. I hate that I can't just grit my teeth and try harder and make it go away. I hate that God won't get on board with my agenda! Ultimately, I know it has to do with pride, and an unwillingness to surrender. The last few days in particular, He has shown me just how small my own "problems" are compared to so many others, and how much I have to be grateful for - and no reason at all to complain. That doesn't make things any less frustrating, but it has driven me to my knees more often. And that's really what it's about: learning, slowly and painfully, to rely on HIS strength.

Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord watches over you-- the Lord is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; 8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.