Today I asked the kids if they knew the capital of France and Lukas said, "In an old house in Paris covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines." Then Lici put in, "the smallest one was Madeline. They ate their bread and brushed their teeth and went to bed." Liam sang and I joined him singing, "That's all there is; there isn't, any more." Rough, I know, but fun. And then, for good measure, I told them the capital of Spain is Madrid. Lukas asked if Spain and France get along. We noted the mountains in between them. Lici commented that it seemed like Spain and China both liked red, the matadors with the red scarves and China's flag, of course.
Kids have interesting minds. There's a weird logic there, you know. Sort of makes sense. Sort of drives you crazy.

 Yes, the science museum again. The human body is so cool. Check out the lungs. Do you have an ear model?

Sometimes I open my mouth and stick both of my feet in it. It's just that at the time it makes so much sense to me or seems to that I just have to say it and then--. It's hard to think about possible implications and effects of words. Mostly my mistakes seem to have to do with thinking I've got it figured out or sometimes I'll read someone else's words and think that's it--they've got it all figured out (though I do that less frequently). Then I'll read or hear the other perspective and wonder why I was so easily, fully persuaded by the first. More of Him and less of me or them. More of His Word than even words about it. And hopefully next time I'll keep my mouth shut.

Politics are messy and generally no-win. They're also very divisive, label you more clearly than just about anything else, possibly even a faith you claim to hold. Yet those who wish to serve and those who wish to be served may be one, while wanting to be responsible for yourself and not wanting to be responsible for others can also be the same. The best place isn't here, but this place is where we are for now. How do we live in it? We stand for truth and strive for hope and are not afraid to not fit in.

It's so hard to get outside of yourself and reach out to someone else. There's a part of me that says they don't really want anything to do with me, anyway, or, shouldn't I just mind my own business? And my business can be and seem very all-consuming.
Another part of me says I might make a difference to that person. She might be wanting someone to talk to her. Someone like me. Who knows? I might be encouraged too. Or made to think from another perspective. Or to give of myself in some way and know joy in that giving.

The hugs have it. There's just nothing like a hug from somebody who means the world to you. Can you have too many of those kinds of hugs? I don't think so. "I love you," are the sweetest three words. I can never hear them too much.

 The kids sometimes vy with one another for Lethei's attention and ask her who she likes best, who's her best friend. She says "You're all my best friends" (which is one reason they like her so much, and that she's cute and the littlest and they don't see her all day). When we drop the other kids off at school, she says, "All my friends are at school," though she does have friends in her little class on Friday too. But family are best friends, friends you share so much with, friends who know much about what makes you you and friends that you can have your whole life. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes family is the most difficult to get along with. Sometimes family just asks too much, isn't willing to give you enough elbow room to be a different or just don't bother to make the effort to be nice, to put up pretense they feel the need for with others. It's tough, but even then many times it's because they care and want what they feel is best for you or because they do feel a sense of belonging and nostalgia they want to preserve (or can't let go of). Just being there, not giving up, and trying not to press any more buttons than necessary, is what I've found to be the most helpful. I Cor. 13 love, the God-powered kind, wins the day. I'm praying for a long-lasting relationship with my kids. I don't want to annoy them or make them feel like they have to put up with me and breathe easy when I'm gone. May I give them appropriate grace (which will change of course as our roles change) and may they do the same for me!

Lici's been snippy and extremely loving (smothering actually, funny that that word has the word mothering in it; maybe analyze that another time) by turns with her little sister lately. One reason we had a fourth (Ern was ready to quit at three) was my hope for another girl and thus sisters. I just had brothers growing up and sometimes really wished--still sometimes really wish--for a sister. My hope is that my girls will grow ever more grateful for and closer to each other, though I'm sure they'll never be without occasional differences!

Childhood should be about innocence, joyous discovery, but it's an ugly world we live in where reality sometimes is very ugly, even for children. Sending up prayers tonight for children who are being hurt by adults who fail to recognize what a charge they've been given in being caretakers of little ones. May God see the children. May He help them and comfort them and bring them from their pain to a place of safety.

"Dear God, Thank you for my soup and my noodles and my cup and the table. Don't let it fall down. I don't want to eat on the floor. And thank you for Lukas, and Liam, and my sister, Lici. When we fight, please help us, okay? And thank you for Daddy and Mommy." Lethei prayed for our lunch. Glad I made the list. Oh, and the table too. :)

We love Edmonton's Space and Science Centre, especially all the hands on activities. Check out this piano you play with your feet.

Liam always gets soaked, even with apron on, when he plays in this indoor river with its great whirlpools and levers and bright-colored balls that float along.

Science games and science machines. Let's play with electricity.

We're coming back, next week, right, Dad?

Got a new mattress for the same man (yea, I'm weird that way sometimes; think Caliban in Shakespeare's the Tempest "got a new master, got a new man"). Friday was the first time we put all our kids in IKEA's play place at the same time. Meanwhile Ern and I found and purchased a mattress on markdown though I've been having so much trouble getting used to it I wonder if we shouldn't take it back! Saturday we went to the science centre and Sun. church and Mon. I helped Liam's class make baking powder biscuits. He really likes to make things (mostly out of Lego, but anyway). It was messy--lots of flying flour for such a simple task! At the end of the day, his teacher had the kids tell something they were thankful for. I'm thankful for my family. Every day they are a gift from God to me.

 My knitter. My storygirl.

Guess who takes the pics in the family? Mostly this guy. Thanks for chronicling our lives, Lukas.

 

 

 

Yes, she's a little crazy and lots of fun.

Secrets of Biblical Wisdom review

This topic scares me. I don't know the answer. I agonize over decisions many times wishing I sensed clearer leading but I think this struggle may be good, a struggle to understand God's will and way and not read my own desires into situations. While I appreciate Searcy's emphases in his book The Secrets of Biblical Wisdom, on service, personal relationship w/ God, love for others, and not striving for the material, I'm concerned about the focus on dreams, vision, inclinations. Searcy does indicate we can make mistakes in interpreting these but also gives them a great deal of credit and seeks after them. Perhaps I'm wrong not to expect God to work more that way today--I know He can and sometimes does--but I believe as a rule He uses His Word and the Holy Spirit's helping us understand it and developing our reason far more. For example, I'm always troubled by stories of people who believe it God's will that they marry someone they don't know and so they go to them and tell them so, putting pressure on them to go along w/ "God's will." Granted, in Searcy's situation, the young woman feels similarly, but my husband and I have counselled people who've had this kind of experience w/ both even claiming they've experienced it but who were unable /unwilling to make something wholesome out of the relationship and didn't seem to want to be together or encourage each other toward real growth. I don't think pressure to make something happen because it's "God's will" is helpful here at all. We're generally far from knowing in such detail and being given such revelation to exactly what God is doing but just follow Him one day, one small step, at a time. There is much we do know and should strive for in our lives (that which Scripture clearly indicates), depend on God to be at work in us and accomplish. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Are we fearful and God-centered enough--God as He is and not who we wish Him to be? Searcy to his credit does admit to making wrong choices at times. He does give some good advice, but at the end of the day it's so experiential. God's first and foremost, I believe, God outside of us, and I'd err on this extreme if I must.

We talked about love in our kids' club session this past Wednesday night. After we read I Cor. 13:4-8, the kids wrote things that love is and that it isn't. I thought it was interesting that our kids picked personal, recent struggles of theirs to write down. Lukas "Love is not angry"; Lici "Love is not mean." And I'm convicted that "Love keeps no record of wrongs."
Jesus loved the unlovely. He loved/loves us. He loves and we follow His example as He through us displays what love truly is and not what it is not.

Walk with me. Hold my hand. Be my partner, my friend.
Lukas held his little sister Lethei's hand and helped her up hills and over rocks to cross the stream on his class trek to the ravine. Lici held her little friend Jade's hand almost the entire trek as well.
Liam held Lethei's hand to cross the street to church and made sure that she and he and I were able to cross with no cars in sight.
Lukas and Lici often hold hands as they run across the field to school.
Ernie and I have been holding hands for over ten years now and while sometimes we hold our little people's hands as well, it's holding each other's hands we feel as the warmth, the comfort of belonging, of partnership and true, deep friendship, and home.

On the trampoline with Grandpa Miller

 Picking apples at Neighbor Ann's with Grandpa Miller and trying not to fall off the ladder or out of the tree. Thanks, Ann, for letting little brother borrow your jacket.

Yes, life is good.

Trekking through mud, using roots to pull yourself up and to stand on, to hold you there, going barefoot in sand when it's too cold for barefeet, and finding a gift of snow in the parking lot of a hockey rink, these are treasures of our Saturday, along with buying gourds at the supermarket to adorn Thanksgiving tables and enjoying tropical plants in a greenhouse when far from tropical plants out of doors. So I like long sentences with too much in them and days that are the same. Long, full days. For yes, that little saying is true that the days are long but the years are short.
 Teach us to number our days. To use them well. To fill them chock full of all things good.

It seems like every day Felicity has a new best friend. And Liam every few days or so. Only Lukas sticks with one person, a boy he believes shares his faith. It takes work to be a friend and it requires unselfishness. My kids--and I--struggle with both. I make it harder yet on myself by thinking it's all up to me, that I can turn them and myself and others I minister to into godly people by something I say or do, while I forget Whom the power resides with, forget to rely on, trust, depend on, relax in, turn to Him.

We spend time at home trying to be better friends to each other by coloring, playing with dolls and cars, building forts, and enjoying make-believe games together, as it gets colder and Canadian Thanksgiving draws closer. We cuddle up and read on the couch and after stories, learn about God together. May He truly touch our hearts and be a light through us. May it all be in Him.

Slimed

Lici went to a birthday party in the park Sunday afternoon. And Monday Ern and I put up slate on our fireplace. But mostly this week is marked by trying to make the best of it while struggling with a nasty, sticky, icky, snotty, slimy, sneezy, wheezy cold. Ugly, hacking coughs in the middle of the night. Everybody seems to have gotten it. Achy head and body and general grumpy growly feeling. Some of us handle it better than others.

But today I'm reading Ping for the kids' Read Around the World week and I'll talk a bit about China. It's been a little over ten years now since I taught English as a second language there one summer. I took a boat ride on the Yangtze River where Ping spent his days. I'll definitely have to point it out on the map. I still have a number of items and pictures from those weeks. Maybe I'll wear my Chinese top in red, the color of happiness. Hopefully nobody will sneeze on it.