Every time I have the measuring tape out for something, the children want to be measured. Tonight was no exception. The incredible thing to me is that my soon-to-be-11 year old son is already 5’2″. Calvin started out long–22 1/2 inches. That entire long boy was curled up pretty tightly in my rather short torso. I really realized how long he actually was when I delivered his brother 18 months later who was only 19 1/2 inches long. The entire time I was pregnant with Nevin I wondered why it didn’t hurt as much when he kicked as it did with Calvin.

Now, I know Calvin may reach a plateau somewhere in adolescence and turn out to be a man of average height. But for a descendent of my parents (both 5’2″ as adults–that’s right, my dad was only 5’2″) to have reached their height already seems amazing to me. My mom, now 80, is shorter than Calvin.

The point of this post is to just register my amazement at my blue-eyed boy being so big. Of course, his heading into those teenage years is rather remarkable, too. But I still have a couple of years before I have to really think about that. Sigh. They’re only little for a short time.

For the record, here are the others’ stats:
Nevin – 9 1/2 yo – 4’10 1/2″
Evangeline – nearly 8 yo – 4′ 1/2″
Charis – nearly 4 yo – 3′ 4 1/2″

We just got back from a quick overnight jaunt to Pella, IA. Mark was slated to preach there this morning, so we all went along. Orginally, Mark and I thought we would try to find places to send the children, and just the two of us would drive up there–about 5 hours away–go out to dinner, spend the night without kids, etc. Ok. So I know Pella, IA is not a great getaway spot, but the hotel was covered by the church that was hosting Mark. Alas, the sending off of the kids thing didn’t pan out, and when we realized the weekend fell at the end of the older ones’ spring break, we thought we could pass this off as their little spring break journey. So we left early Saturday morning, stopped in Hannibal, MO., to see Mark Twain’s cave and eat at the Becky Thatcher Restaurant ( a crusty old diner, but it had good cheap food with second hand smoke to boot). We got to the hotel in Pella by 5:30, so we had time to swim in the pool and eat TV dinners before going to bed. It was sort of a family slumber party. Mark preached this morning, and his sermon was well received. The church had a fellowship meal after the service, and our kids always love those. So all in all, the weekend was a success in their eyes. It was pretty good for us too, despite Mark and I both drugging ourselves to keep our cold symptoms at bay. We both felt a lot better today, and I attribute that to getting to sleep earlier than we ever do at home.

We arrived home to find our 11-year-old neighbor boy and his friend hiding out in our garage. We’ve known that he and some of his buddies have been jumping off our garage roof onto our trampoline at night for a few weeks now, but we’ve never caught them. Mark walked him home and talked with his older brother. Hopefully he’ll be too afraid of getting caught to keep up with his night-time adventures.

After being home for an hour or so, Evangeline informed us that she was feeling sick. We put her in our room with a bucket to wait to see if anything would materialize. Well, it did. After about 30 minutes, she threw up. It only happened one time, and I think she just overate while we were on the road. However, their school rule is not to send a child to school if she has thrown up within 24 hours. So this will be the third Monday in a row she will be missing school.

We’re glad to be home. We hope that we only have one throwing up incident, and we’re looking forward to that time in the not-too-distant future when Mark and I can get away for a night on our own.

Well, sometimes, I think bad news comes in 4s, 5s, and 6s.

I’ve told lots of people who read this blog about Calvin’s classmate Jacob who is 10 and has cancer. He was diagnosed 6 weeks ago, and it seems he has many ups and downs. His site gives details if you want to know more.

Then the Edemas , friends from church, wrote about little 4-month old Amelia being diagnosed with leukemia a couple of weeks back. Very sad.

Finally, today, I received a call that my oldest sister Kathy has been diagnosed with bone cancer that has spread throughout her whole body. Kathy has lived a longer life (she’s 59) than these children who are sick, but she is still young. And, she’s my sister.

I was at least happy to learn that the 12-year-old boy scout who was lost in the woods in North Carolina for 4 days was found today, healthy and well. I told my own boy scout son about his being lost this morning. I will need to be sure to tell him tomorrow about his safe return.

I know God has a plan in all the bad things that are going on in people I know, people I know about, and now people who are very close to me. It is just hard to process it all.

Please pray for Jacob, Amelia, and Kathy. Praise God for the return of the boyscout. Hug your own kids. Love the ones your with while they’re with you.

Daylight saving time always throws a wrench in my schedule, especially since having kids. It always takes about a week for the kids to adjust to new sleeping patterns, and then there’s always the daylight until 7 o’clock that makes them think we’re crazy to have them start getting ready for bed.

In case you’re wondering how this all started, we can blame Benjamin Franklin. According to Wikipedia article, he was the one who planted the idea back in 1784. Then in 1907 a British golfer who didn’t like his game having to end at dusk actually proposed the idea of changing the clock. By 1918, the US government made it law.

To make it all just a bit more confusing congress passed a law in 2005 to change the start date from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in March–beginning today, March 11, 2007.

For the past 20 years, daylight-saving time has started on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed those dates for this year to the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November.(Roanoke Daily Herald, Roanoke Rapids, NC 3/09/07)

Supposedly there will be some sort of tracking of energy costs that will be reported to the congress for them to decide if the change will be permanent. So it looks like this won’t be the end of it!

In the women’s Bible study at our church, our pastor has been teaching through a book about the biblical patriarchs. The discussions about creation, the fall, original sin, the flood, etc., have led to some interesting rabbit trail discussions that have more to do with philosophy and apologetics than perhaps most people would imagine from a group that consists a bunch of women who are mostly middle-class moms. The conversations have started to clear away some of the cobwebs in my head from my days in college when I took a “philosophical” class in Christian apologetics. (I say “philosophical” because the class my husband took in serminary dealt more with evangelism and outreach than with developing philosophical arguments.)

My class in apologetics, now lo, some 20 years ago is one of my favorite academic memories. I went to a Christian college rooted in anabaptist history. My professor for this class was Dr. Randall Basinger. He is quite the scholarly fellow, and he had written some very obviously arminian books and articles. Most of my classmates were also arminians. I had one friend in the class who was a Calvinist, and he and I were always the designated devil’s advocates in almost every discussion. I remember devouring the articles and books that we read for this class and then writing responses to them with great enthusiasm. Even though I disagreed with practically everything my professor said, I always appreciated him because he seemed to value my opinion.

I am thinking about all of this because this Bible study is reminding me of a time when I enjoyed reading thoughtful and somewhat complicated pieces. I also enjoyed interacting with them–picking them apart, trying to wrap my mind around the ideas of really good thinkers. It seems so long ago that I was this person. As time marched on after college, I was not called on to read anything very complex. I think I still would have enjoyed reading philosophy and apologetics, but I didn’t have anyone guiding me to things that would be worthwhile to read. Then, as more years passed, I got busy with marriage and kids, and the idea of reading something more challenging than Goodnight Moon had lost its appeal altogether.

So, now that all these ideas about “the problem of evil” and “God’s sovereignty and man’s freewill,” have come up in discussion, I find myself remembering words like “ontological,” “teleological,” and “supralapserian” and “fideism” (which, by the way,I just had to have Mark remind me how to spell).

So what’s the point of all this? I am not really sure. I am feeling like I might want to jump back into reading some deeper things. Yet I also know that I am busy and I will likely not find much time for such an endeavor. Perhaps I’ll look for a book about apologetics that is written at a more popular than academic level that I can read. Maybe I’ll find some other women who want to read it with me and talk about it. I know I can talk to Mark about anything I would read, but I think it would be more fun to have a group conversation and to hear what others are thinking about what they are reading.

I already have a book in mind–Apologetics to the Glory of God by John Frame. Has anyone read it? What are your thoughts? Will it meet my need to rekindle some of my old philosophical interest?

I guess I am also wondering if I am capable of really thinking again. Has my brain atrophied to the point of no return? I think I’ll work on making this group a reality some time in the near future just to test my brain and maybe learn something.

It was a snow day for all the kids today. At one point, I said, “Hey, where’s Evangeline?” I went poking my head around corners looking for her, and I found her in the bathroom with her Leap Pad on her lap. I asked if she was through with the bathroom, and she said “Not yet.” I told her to finish what she went in there for and to come out to play with the Leap Pad.

Now, we all know that kids get ideas for such behavior by watching what the grown-ups in their lives do. Who do you think gave her the idea that taking electronics to the bathroom with you is normal behavior?

An Explanation of Why I was Unable to Publish my Anual Groundhog Day Post!

So it is 3 days past Ground Hog Day, and I missed it! I didn’t even see Punxsutawney Phil on TV. I had to google him to find out what he said. Here’s Phil’s official prediction from www.groundhog.org:

Phil Says Spring is Right Around the Corner!
Phil’s official forecast as read 2/2/07 at 7:28 a.m. at Gobbler’s Knob:

On Gobbler’s Knob I see no shadow today.
I predict that early spring is on the way.

My Punxsutawny ancestors are certainly dismayed that I am so late to add my 2 cents of commentary to the hooplah that is Groundhog Day. My parents were both born in Punxsutawney, and I grew up about 20 miles north of there. For the last several years, I have posted some homage to the great rodent prognosticator on my blog. But, alas, this year, I was busy.

I was busy moving space heaters from place to place in my house to fend off the cold. Why, you might wonder was such an exercise necessary? Our furnace broke on Friday. On what was one of the coldest days of the winter so far. (Although today is probably colder.) We have a great house, but the circuits are easily thrown. So those little space heaters with their major amp-sucking motors can really give our circuit breaker a work out. I was up and down the basement stairs at least 8 times on Friday night and again on Saturday night while I tried to find some place that I could plug in those great little warmth boxes.

Ah, you may be wondering about the husband. Where was he during all this fun? He was in sunny northern California to speak at a church out there. So I held down the fort and the space heaters during his two-day absence. The repairman came out on Friday night, but the furnace required a part that couldn’t be obtained until today. The repairman didn’t make it back until tonight at about 7:30. But, we do finally have heat. I am so thankful that I live in the 21st century where central heat is just expected. It is awful when it is out of service, but losing it made me really appreciate it!

Most people who read this blog know we are in a period of transition–again! The paid part of Mark’s pastoral position at Providence (a lot of aliteration) ended in December, so we are waiting to see what the Lord has for us. I thought some of you might like a little update on what’s happening with us right now.

We are doing ok. Mark has been working part-time doing some computer/administrative consulting for a salesman. This is the salesman’s slow time, so that work has been cut back. It sounds like he’ll be calling on Mark again when business picks up. In the mean time, Mark has picked up a 2-month writing project that will keep us afloat for a while. He is also doing some pulpit supply which is helpful both for keeping his preaching skills in practice and for some extra income.

I am just busy. I started a new part-time job at the beginning of January as a secretary in an insurance adjuster’s office. The office is 5 minutes from our house, and I only work three days a week during school hours. I like the actual work itself. However, the business isn’t the most stable financially; but so far, they haven’t gone under. But the location and the hours are good. So I’ll keep at it for now. If I could just get the laundry caught up and the house cleaned once, I might be able to get in a good routine to keep it all up.

The children are all doing well at school. Calvin continues to meet with bumps in the road, but he is navigating them with effort. Evangeline is so much happier at school this year. She has improved in some important areas, and she needs work in some others. But I am really pleased with her attitude and enthusiasm for life. Nevin is doing very well in school, and his basketball team is doing pretty well, too. Charis is just Charis–busy, having fun, doing her thing. She prayed at devotions last night for our friends, and she mentioned each of them by name and that she loves them. This was really sweet. She goes to their house on Friday and plays with the younger kids, so she is getting close to them.

We are really thankful for things right now. At the end of 2006, we were feeling a sense of doom much of the time. I was crying every time someone asked me how we were. So far in 2007, God is showing us that He will meet our needs. We are grateful for His provision, and we are looking forward to the plans He has for us for the future.

Here’s something that I have been thinking a lot about lately.
I like the idea of schools providing guidelines for parental involvement in school projects like this part of the article suggests:

Linda Eisinger, a third-grade teacher in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Missouri

FLOWERS
My last entry was on December 19. A Tuesday. It wasn’t a great day for me since I scraped a car in the pre-school parking lot. The next day, Dec 20, was Mark’s and my 15th wedding anniversary. Thanks to a friend, we were able to go out for a nice dinner followed by an exciting stroll through the aisles of the grocery store. Hey, it’s great to be celebrating 15 years of marriage, but after that long, just being somewhere–anywhere–together without the kids is about as much excitement as we could handle. We were home by 10 pm.

Before our “big night out on the town,” Mark surprised me with these:

They resemble the bouquet I carried for our wedding, and they were my favorite Christmas decoration of the year.

FAMILY

We had family visit us over the holidays. Mark’s parents, his brother, sister-in-law, and 4 children arrived at our house on Christmas Day night. Mark’s brother and family stayed with their good friends who also live in St Louis, so we just had a houseful for several days of that week between Christmas and New Year’s. We enjoyed having everyone here, and it was great for the kids to spend time with their cousins.

Here’s a shot of all the cousins after church on New Year’s Eve day.

As you can see, we ate at O’Charleys, where kids eat free. We certainly got our money’s worth that day! I hope they don’t mind the free advertisement here.

FRESH
So 2 days after the company left, the kids went back to school, and I started a new part-time job. I’ll post more about that later. Two days after that, we packed up the kids and went to Chicago for Mark to do pulpit supply at a church up there. We enjoyed a day with some new friends at the Field Museum there, and, it was a relaxing weekend for us.

Then we got home late Sunday evening; I’ve worked every day this week, and the kids have had stuff going on every day after school. So FRESH is NOT the word I would use for our house. I hope to change that this weekend in between scouts and basketball games.

FINISHED
So I am FINISHED for now. Happy New Year!!