Sleepaway Camp

So, yesterday Jacob left for his first sleep away camp. He'll be there until Friday evening.  The camp is only 35 minutes away and a long-standing baptist camp in the area.  There are 110 campers and he immediately saw boys he knew from town and is in a cabin with a few of them.  So, why did I panic last night??

What was I thinking? I'm not ready for this so surely he can't be! Wait! I didn't even ask what kind of security they have? Do they patrol at night? Is he safe? What?? Why did Joe tell me that he drove BY a correctional facility en route to the campsite??  Who is the crazy worried mother because it surely isn't me!  

He was very excited to go to camp until Saturday rolled around and we were packing his duffle bag. Suddenly the idea of being away hit him and he didn't want to go. He admitted, with shame, that he thought he'd miss me. Yea! He admitted it!  He was stoic as daddy drove him there and didn't really look very excited in the first evening's round of online parent-communicator photos.  I'm pretty sure he'll be fine.

Then Daddy begins to fret that we've given away a week of his life that we'll never get back. After all he is going to be exposed to pop Christianity lite, Americana style; be pressured to accept Jesus and pray the sinners prayer...each night; sing Jesus is my girlfriend songs rather than strong psalms and battle songs.  Oh what have we done? Is this the best we can send our son to?

Well, probably! I think he'll survive. I think he'll make good friends.  I think he'll learn verses he didn't know.  I think he'll be challenged.

But it has made us wonder if a camp is out there that dwells upon good Christian aesthetics while developing a boys' adventurer side.  If not, how can we start one?


Jonah line for the day, upon climbing into the bathtub and realizing I'd left a bra nearby, "Oh moooom, your woman's wear is in the way!"  New vocabulary.  Fun.

Joe was ordained as a deacon Sunday. We had Rev. Brito and his family for the weekend to do the ordaining.  He is the pastor of our sponsoring church all the way up in the Pan handle.  It was so so so lovely to have a wonderful minister to lead the service. Rev.  Brito's booming voice brought a level of enthusiasm to the service that was really delightful.  We sang so loudly at church and again at our house later that my voice is scratchy today.

Tomorrow, Joe accepts the nomination to become Chairman of the Board for Geneva Classical Academy.  He is excited about working with our new interim head master but there is much, much work to be done.  Boy, he has two really big new hats to wear.  Good thing I'm starting a book on prayer because I'll need to become more faithful to lift him up!

A recent photo of my silly boys.

Did I ever show you this one from New Year's? I call it Jonah's Horror at His White Brother's Attempt to be Hip.

Summer time

It seems I've developed an every-five month schedule to my writing.  Each time I regret the funny stories I've lost because I haven't kept up with my journaling.  Poor Jonah, classic third child with half the photos and half the memories recorded.

He is now rounding the bend and hitting the homestretch towards becoming 4. This is mingled with pride and sadness on my part.  He is my last baby and so each milestone is the last time we'll celebrate it for a while.  Just this week, his mouth began to form the L sound, which until now has come out like a W sound.  It is funny to watch his little tongue trip on it and spread each word out as he forms that sound. I love it and hate it.  Because I loved it when he told me he wuved me. He is growing up.

In another way, we are pushing him onward in ways we didn't with the other two.  He is starting K4 preschool in the Fall at Geneva so that I can volunteer there 3 days a week.  I'll be there in the same buildings with him and yet I feel like I'm sending him off so young (the other two were home until they were almost 7)

But exciting things are happening at our school and we are thrilled to be a part of it.  We've gotten a wonderful interim headmaster, a new facility and some great new teachers.

Joseph...oh, that kid goes through funny phases.  I often say Jacob is my heart baby and Joseph is my soul baby.  He thinks deeply (so deeply that he forgets half of what he is told within minutes because he is daydreaming) about things and enters in and out of deeply obsessive phases. Last year it was Dolphin Tale and Winter the dolphin. Now its baseball cards and all things Yankees.  Its hilarious how one-track his mind becomes.

Jacob is growing like a weed and wanting so badly to be grown up and then wanting so badly to be little.  He is going to sleep away camp for the first time this coming week and he is flying to NJ solo for the first time. He is excited beyond sleeping about NJ. But the reality of his departure for camp tomorrow afternoon has brought some hesitation. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.  He tends to chicken out of things when the time comes and if we succeed in pushing him past that fear, he ends up loving the thing he was so fearful of.

As usual, here are some of the funny things they've said recently:

Last week, Jacob moved part of nest that a bird built in our garage.  

"I didn't realize it was a nest until the bird flew back in and really gave me the stink eye!"




Jacob's morning pearl from a few days ago: ya know how Shakespeare said, "let me compare thee to a Summer's day"...well, I don't think you want to say that to anyone who loves in Florida!

"they're snug enough that they stay up but flexible enough that they don't nag" ...Jacob on the virtues of new underpants.


I often lament the starving people in North Korea because I recently read "Nothing to Envy" which I highly recommend. So my boys really hear it when they don't want to eat their dinner. This is some context for the following:

Joseph: "I'm so hungry I could eat as much as a starving Asian and TWICE as much as an Asian Minor!"


We met sweet new neighbors last month and we are really excited to get to know them. This sentiment was quadrupled when the boys learned that the Mr. has coached baseball for a long time and has a pitching machine! "Things are going to get fun around here!" - Joseph.
Because its been a real dud.


"But mom! When you shoot it, you feel so triumphant!"  Jacob, growing too fond of his Airsoft gun. 


Upon returning home from a dinner, Jacob reported to me that his handling of Jonah's bad attitude tonight entailed a graphic description of what happens when one lives a life of grumpiness "your skin wrinkles, you dry up, your hair falls out and then your toes fall off and then your nose and then..." etc.
Effective? Well, apparently it turned the grump to laughter and made the babysitter willing to return.


You know you are in for an interesting day when the first words uttered by your sweet, lovable 3-year old, upon waking are, "you wanna smell my armpit?"


Jonah: Watch out, mom! That truck will squash you like a pig!
Those figures of speech will getcha every time.




Jonah: "I love you a wittle bit, mom but I don't wike when your hair is falling down."
It's important to always be open to constructive criticism


Jonah: "wet's weave the brudders at school cuz they kiss and punch me."


Jacob " you know, mom, there is a LOT of debatement about Joan of Ark! I'm with the people who think she was a little cooky."


Jonah: "I wike hugs, mama. Saaweezen me tight!"


Me: "I'm so hungry I could eat a house." Jonah: "oh mudder! That would be yucky for you. Silly mom."


When Jonah is wanting something, he always says, "let's go to the pooter dot com!"


Jonah likes to tell us "we are losing time" when we are out and about and he wants to get back home.


Tucking Jonah in one night I said "let's pray for Daddy as we miss him tonight." He patted my cheek and said "oh honey, don't worry about it. He'll be home in two minutes."



As the big boys bickered over opening a window Jonah shouted, " just stop! If a spider bit you, you'd need a bandaid!"
Thankfully his random cry did bring a pause.


Dinner table randoms:

Jacob: "it's good to teach really little kids about Christ...in case they get kidnapped by a pagan family a little later...loving God will already be sunk in"

After this convo, my Joseph pipes in with his dinnertime thoughts: "yeah, I'm saving my money til I have a fortune. Like $5 or $11."


I called Jonah a goober. He told me I was a bigger goober but it came out 'gibber boober.' How long will this be a running joke in our house?




My happy 3 year old tries to score a juice box by claiming "it will feel me better!"


Joseph: "I disagree with Mrs. Smith on several cursive letter formings."

Joseph: "Mom, can we get some beverages?" Me: "beverages??" Him: "Yeah, it's a plural word."


As we were discussing whether we liked a particular breakfast joint nearby that is owned by Christians, Jacob's assessment: "well, I don't see how you can be Godly when you serve margarine..."


Things I learned today:

From Joseph: "Mom, did you know that Ben Franklin wanted our national bird to be the turkey instead of the bald eagle?" Me: "No, I didn't know that...must be because we're all a bunch of turkeys. haha." J, not getting my joke: "No...I'm pretty sure it was because turkeys taste better."

From Jacob: "There is no better way to butter a man up than to feed him a big, juicy steak." (upon hearing steaks were on the dinner menu because dad had invited one of his employees over for dinner)

OK, so its been a long time. I regret this greatly. But it took me this long to get the mood back. The mood to journal. This, too, I regret because I've missed many things I'll never get back. But that is ok. Forward, we move.

Yes, when the twin adoption fell through our fingers in November, I came onto blogger and deleted all the references to the babies and also lost a lot of good stuff too. I had to do that. Each sentence about them was just too embarrassing of a reminder that we'd been duped.

For months now I've said to myself that I ought to start over. After all, the only reason I ever blog is my own selfish goal of remember all the little things about my boys in their little years. I'm so glad I have those old posts from xanga to go through and laugh at now because you do indeed forget 80% of it.

So, here Jonah is almost 3 and a half and I feel I've cheated him, and us, because I haven't written down as much about him. He is at that glorious stage of imaginary play and hilarious questions and phrasing that goes by so quickly. I hope that starting today, I can record it.

Tonight after reading to the boys for about 45 minutes (during which, btw, Jonah was only half listening and half playing his own game which included patting me with a spiderman ice pack and saying 'hold still, honey' - a bit distracting during story time) and saying good night to them, I laid down in Jonah's bed with him for a bit. He immediately asked me for a story (I'm really really bad at making up stories but he doesn't care yet). I stumbled through a story of Jonah leading a battle. He then proceeded to tell me a story and it went on and on and on and on..until I drifted off to sleep! It also included Jonah on a battlefield but in his version he and his troops had an abundance of chocolate milk.

A delightful little thing he does right now is replace 'I' with 'my' in all sentences. May my have a cookie? My can do it by myself, etc. My will be a chocolate tree. Today he accompanied Joe and I to a short meeting at an office downtown. The man with whom we were meeting had a bowl of Tootsie Pops in Jonah's line of sight and temptation. Finally he asked, "can my have a wowwypop?"

Anyway, enough about him. For now.

The Lord has been sweet to grant us eyes to see good reasons for not bringing two babies into our family right now. Not that He wouldn't have given us the grace to get through; He surely would have. But it has allowed us to devote more attention to a couple other things. Joe is serving on the board of our school now and is hoping to be a good blessing to that board and really plug into serving the school. This is a challange with a job that takes him out of town quite a bit but he is determined to try.

But on a bigger scale, our church has begun to slowly but surely...grow! After two long and frustrating years of questioning whether we should have ever jumped into this endeaver and whether or not we should (personally) throw in the towel, the Lord has brought some new folks to bless us. Not that this is any guarantee that He plans to continue to truly plant a work here that will be a light in our town for generations to come, but we are learning to not despise the day of small beginnings indeed. Each time we've been ready to call it a day, the Lord has dangled a wee carrot in front of us to stay committed. We've been hugly blessed by a man who has provided steady pulpit supply over the last few months (while our pastor candidate search has waned on) and a young man with whom we've been friendly over the years here, has started to attend and tell all his friends. Add to that a couple others from town and a family who has moved here to join our church!

This has begun to translate into lovely fellowship after church. Suddenly on Sundays we are beginning to see the fruit of our desires over the past few years to have a festive and joyful Sabbath full of people, food, wine and song. For a long time its been three local families and a couple longer distance families loving each other and hanging tight and it is sweet to be able to welcome others into that fold. If there were two new babies in the house, I don't think it would be quite so easy to host 10-20 people on a weekly or semi-weekly basis.

So, although the sting of the adoption fail is still there, sting of feeling we were lied to and manipulated (although we'll never know if it was a scam all along or if she really did have a heart change at the end), there is a relief as well and a thankfulness that God allowed it all to happen for reasons we'll never know and somehow He was glorified through it, at least we pray thus.

Other things I learned today:

From Joseph: "Mom, did you know that Ben Franklin wanted our national bird to be the turkey instead of the bald eagle?" Me: "No, I didn't know that...must be because we're all a bunch of turkeys. haha." J, not getting my joke: "No...I'm pretty sure it was because turkeys taste better."

From Jacob: "There is no better way to butter a man up than to feed him a big, juicy steak!" (upon hearing steaks were on the dinner menu because dad had invited one of his employees over for dinner)

Ahhh, its cooling down

So, we are amazed and thankful that it is October 5 and I'm still sitting at my computer in FL. For this means that dear birth mom in TN is still holding on! She has made it to 32 weeks when we were afraid she wouldn't go past 30. Praise be to God!

Each day seems full of frantic planning and preparation not only for the addition of babies to our family and home but also for the time I'm away in TN. Aunt Cece is comin' to town! She is going to take over my life here while I'm in TN and Joe goes back and forth, juggling us in TN, boys at home and a full schedule of work, travel, board meetings, church planning, etc.

At this point in the game, our total stay in TN could be down to 4-5 weeks or less, if all goes smoothly. Prayer requests: peaceful hospital experience including a scheduled c-section rather than an emergency one; peaceful and on-time signing of all paperwork 2 days after birth; healing and blessing to birth mom as she continues on this difficult journey in her life.

But meanwhile, life plugs along here at home! Home study is done. woot woot! October is a busy month at Geneva Classical Academy (ha! Every month is a busy one). Tomorrow is the big walk-a-thon fundraiser. Later in the month is Reformation Day - huge event.

Last Friday was build-your-own pyramid day for 2nd grade. Shockingly Joseph made his out of Lego complete with

a mummy and sophisticated entrance. BTW, this cat turns 8 on Sunday and I simply can't believe it. (He has asked to go to Planet Hollywood for dinner...because "it is round and I want to see inside.")

Our other all-consuming event is Fall baseball. With boys two years apart in age, we are guaranteed to always be in two different leagues. This means 3 or 4 nights at the ball field each week. Jacob has started to pitch. He has great potential but very little of it is being realized yet! Here he is on the mound for the first time ever in a game.

Not to be left out, here is a glimpse of the most recent must-have when getting into the van for any travel.

Phew. That was a crazy week and I'm thankful its Friday night. Except that we are missing our daddy for a few more hours.

Since our "on hold" status began last week, time has drug along until we could

have a meeting today and get a sense of the direction our adoption plan was heading. Oh wait... time didn't drag along...there was plenty to fill it: baseball practices, homework, music lessons, gymnastics, oh and chicken pox!

Only sweet Jonah was struck with the pox because he didn't get the shot. The older two had the dreaded vaccine so they, so far, have shown no signs of the illness. Jonah has taken it in great stride and with a fairly happy spirit. No fever and his appetite is fine. Last night he began to say his skin was "uncomferble." Today he began to itch.

So anyway, today we received some encouragement about our adoption plan and we are pretty hopeful and excited that two little precious souls should be joining us soon. I kinda can't believe it! The boys are so excited. The very first thing they asked when they got home from school was, "how was the meeting?" and "will we get the babies???" It was a comfort to my heart that they are so into this adventure. I feared they would dread the pending attention-divider but they are so excited to bring these children into our family. Praise God!

Tonight the boys and I had a date on the town that included dinner out and a movie. I utterly hate spending money at the movies. Tonight I have no regrets. We went to see Dolphin Tale, which opened today and was filmed in nearby Clearwater. I cried. Jacob cringed at my tears. Yes, we're at that stage. Oh, this movie was great. Even better is that I bought a groupon recently for a family membership to the marine aquarium where Winter (the star) lives!! Woo hoo!

There are two widows in the movie. Their widowhood is almost a non-issue, hardly mentioned. Harry Connick Jr, clean-shaven plays one and Kris Kristoferson, goateed, plays his dad, also a widow. Somehow, smack in the middle of the heartwarming movie, my classically morbid son (yes, Joseph) leans over and says, "mom, if you die before dad...he may end up growing a beard." This is the kind of stuff I get, folks. Artistic, often-disturbing, randomness.

So, I ask him if he would like daddy to grow a beard.."maybe, not really" ok...what made you think of this? "um, I don't know..." Ok then, back to the movie, shall we?

I was very moved by the movie and it seemed the boys were too. On the way home we talked about the parts that moved us and why. At one point Jacob said, "you know what part really affectioned me...?" I love it. At 9 1/2 he still uses the wrong, yet-still-big-and-fun words.

A big theme is overcoming the obstacle of limb loss. Jonah kept saying over and over, 'they jumped in but had no wegs and swimmed but had no wegs.' Mr. Morbid said to me, "do you

think when we go see Winter at the aquarium, there will be hundreds of people there missing their arms or legs because that might freak me out. " A real sensitive soul, that one. The great thing about him is he says what he feels, whether its PC or not.

And during the beginning when Winter is found stranded on the beach caught in the trap and her tail is bleeding he kept saying (loudly) "oh, she has a bwister!" Charming, for sure. At least to me!

Good night!

We've had a roller coaster of a week. Last Friday we decided to apply for a last-minute adoption of a baby born that day. We ended up not being chosen by the birth mom but it is always a whirlwind to enter the fray and start to wonder/pray about this being the next child to come into your family.

We tend to tell the boys about these situations. Perhaps some would say we shouldn't for there is a fair amount of disappointment and "why didn't God give us..." questions. However, we believe the benefit of having them pray with us and get excited about the prospect outweighs the disappointments. And is always a good lesson, for all of us, in trusting that God is still answering your prayer even if the answer is NO.

On Friday when I picked the boys up from school and told them the baby was a girl and they we were going to apply for her...Joseph was pensive (he'd clearly expressed a desire for boys only so I assumed he was mulling over this news)..."mom, you know why I'm glad boys don't have to have the babies?...because it seems like a lot of pain and then you STILL have to milk them!"

We've also been trying to get to the bottom of some stomach and headache issues with Jacob. Our doctor did a test on his level of stomach acid and found him pretty deficient. However, I'm not sure that is the full solution. We are still waiting for some other test results to come back. Is it 'simply' a nervous stomach or is there something physiological going on beyond the low-acid issue? Hopefully we'll see soon. We haven't had blood work done or other invasive screenings like an MRI or anything. Our doctor, a more holistic fellow, is trying some other things first and these are requiring patience!

We are so happy to be nearing the end of the official school year. I say official because I plan to try to keep up with some things over the summer. In between baseball camp and a very fun vacation we have planned in July.

One thing is for sure: their chore list is going to grow and, by God's grace, be followed better. I've let them totally slack off during baseball season so not only do we have to get back on the stick...I plan to add laundry to their list. My goal is that they are doing their own laundry very soon. Okay, not Jonah. I'll give him some more time. He is good at clearing his table setting after eating..he frisbees everything up and over the counter edge and into the sink...no, he doesn't eat on ceramic plates yet!

Reading Seraph on the Suwanee for my book club. Author is Zora Neal Hurston. Have you heard of her? She is a great writer and most of her stories take place in our neck of the woods here in FL. She wrote in the 30s so they are fun to read now.

Oh, did you know that LegoLand is building an amusement park here in FL. No? You didn't know that? Oh...you don't have any Lego crazed boys in your house? Well then I guess the news would have missed your notice then. Yes, we are counting down the days. It will be 30 minutes away and we bought in on their 'buy-passes-early-and-get-extra-months-thrown-in" gimmick. I'm pretty sure we'll be living there.

Ah...well here I am again after a month. Not really improving my efforts at keeping a blog, am I?

My main goal, of course, is to use this as a way of remember the details of my kiddies that I will otherwise forget because I suffer from scatterbrainitis. Lately I have been (lamely, I admit) posting facebook status reminders to myself and now I'm going to compose them into a fancy list.

For example, what is about to follow is a series of extreme randomness:

‎"No wuvvin' mommy!" that's what I got from Jonah when I tried to wake him with kisses one day last week. Now its become a family line.

Yet again, our tooth fairy was lame...this time she forgot two nights in a row! Joseph: "it's ok, Mom..I think it's because it's Holy Week."
(and you should see the letter and diagram he left for her...he deserves a raise in pay really).

and then there is this. Can you stand it? Well, I can't. Jonah has returned to his beloved Infant Swim Resource teacher for a couple refresher classes. He loves the water. This is him swimming toward her under water.

This is the float that saves:

At 8 months old, she trained him to flip over and float if he fell into a body of water. It doesn't buy him a lot of time...maybe 3-5 minutes..but it could be enough for someone to find him and rescue him. However, now that he is bigger, he can get himself to an edge and pull himself out of water. Awesomeness, baby.

Jacob, eating a piece of candy: "Ow! My sweet tooth is getting me!"
Me: ???
Him: "You know, that tooth at the back that zaps you when you've eaten too much sugar."

(if the dentist hadn't just examined him last week, I'd be taking him in!)

Um, Joe what are you doing out there? (on my kitchen chair). J: watching nature while I eat my sunflower seeds.

Weird.

This was funnier on Easter: Jonah sees a mini chocolate egg and asks to eat the chocwat football.

Joseph gives me a huge hug around the neck the other day and lovingly gazes at me and says, "mom, I don't think you're stupid." (um...thanks...?)

Of all the songs on my iPod, Jonah's song of choice for the past 3 weeks: All Shook Up (Elvis)..how is that even on my iPod?? He keeps asking for it and singing it, puffing out his lips as he sings it. I hear it 12 times a day, on average. Why can't it be something "spiritual?" (just kidding...although he does ask for Amazing Grace every single night...kinda balances out Elvis. Yes, Elvis by day. Grace by night. I like it).

One day, upon changing Jonah's bed sheets we found that Jonah's bible story book had fallen behind his bed, "Get it, Mom! Jesus down there!"

Jonah before the pool warmed up and I kept saying it was too cold. "Wu go first, mom..." I'm encouraged that he is mastering ordinal patterning at such a young age.

As my friend Kalla was telling me about her son's plans to begin seminary courses Jacob got a strange look on his face and whispered, "what's cemetary school???"

Other Jonah phrases of late:

"mom, wu have a fiet time (you have a quiet time) and don't get off my bed!"
"don't sip my welonade!" (lemonade)

"watch me swide into home pwate and make a home wun"

Joseph: "Andy Pettit (Yankee pitcher) once wore church socks to his games, I think. So that's why I know he is a Christian."

Me: "joseph, I met your substitute teacher today at lunch. She seemed nice." Joseph: " she is only nice at those lunch hours"
I guess he'll look forward to his teachers return.

Picnic in Dobbins Park: I told Jacob we were having Cajun turkey sandwiches. "Oh! I LOVE Cajun turkey! I think...I've never actually had it..."

Joseph, upon watching two parachuters descend together, like a holding hands type of together: " ACK! I think they are smooching lip over lip!!! AAACCKK!!" (during our very awesome air show at the Lakeland airport). BTW, at this air show we experienced our first Blue Angels air show and it was fantastic!

Jacob: "I know I act tough...but I get really emotional." (a revelation). Ever since we had a tornado scare here, he has been really fearful about the weather. When the tornadoes ripped through the south last week, we barely mentioned it in front of him in hopes that it wouldn't make matters worse for him. So far it hasn't. Thankfully, we don't turn on the TV for him to see images of the devestation. He wouldn't sleep again.