A few photos from a recent trip to Grandma & Grandpa’s!
dinner on the deck
View from the deck
We took an afternoon to visit my grandma in Wadena. We love visiting The Pizza Dina, which actually changed its name years ago, but we’ll always call it by the name it had when my mom was in high school. We took over their old-school party room in the basement.
We spent the afternoon at the park across from my grandma’s.
Sammy loves his auntie Jenny.
Wyatt
My climber
Hailey
What?! Where are all those amazing posts I wrote in the last couple weeks? Holy moly, I know where they are. In my head! They were awesome posts, people! And they nearly made it to the blog. We started with Sam turning two and then Ella turning five and her last day of preschool, my sister’s wedding shower and bachelorette party, and of course there was Father’s Day. Good heavens. I was going to get on myself about not posting during all that time, but then I realized it was because I’ve been busy living all those moments, and I’m definitely okay with that. I will, however, really work to post at least twice a week through the busy summer days, particularly through the month of July. We have a whole lot coming up this month, but it’s all super fun stuff, so I’ll definitely be here. Okay? Lovely.
As I work on putting the posts together from all the amazing events in the last month, here are a few fun moments from our regular June days.
Today I’m joining The Good Life Blog again for Five on Friday! You can click over to her blog to connect with lots of other inspiring blogs.
In no particular order, here are five of my favorite things from the last week.
{1} Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jammies
{2} bare feet & freeze pops while walking to play with the neighbor boys
{3} pocket-size grammar book (no judging. i’m pretty giddy about it)
{4} Ella with her Montessori teacher on her last day of preschool
{5} two excited kids ready for the baseball game!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much I don’t know as a mom. It’s not that I necessarily feel terrible about it. I’m just recognizing the fact that there is a countless list of things I would love to know about being a wife and mom that I just don’t. I feel there are secrets to motherhood that I haven’t been told, and I really, really want to find out what they are.
Do you ever wish we could live in a big community of families just to give us the opportunity to watch how women with more experience do things? Some cultures do this incredibly well. However, I feel like we so often end up living fairly isolated lives on a daily basis, making it almost impossible to know what the same tasks look like for others in similar situations. Yes, we can have play dates and coffee dates and be a part of moms groups and Bible studies and life groups, but how much do we get to dig into the dirt of real life in those settings? I would love to be a fly on the wall in a few different households of women I admire. I would take notes on how the house is kept in neat but livable fashion, how the mamas interact with the children, how much time they put into creative activities, what they do for family meals, how they make time for their own projects and goals, and how they love on their husbands in the midst of the constant pull of young children. I know there are books and blogs and YouTube videos about all of the above, but it’s not the same when we are living in our ‘for real’ settings.
The one time in my life that I feel I got to experience such community was when we were living at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya last year. There were at least five families living in immediate proximity to us. We would all open our doors in the mid-morning and let the kids run out into the grass, eventually hopping on bikes and scooters or running around as superheroes. It was during that time, when the parents would sit and chat while the kids played, that I soaked in a lot about how different parents do life. I didn’t get many weeks with the families, but I got a tiny taste of a really amazing way to do life. I would love to have that experience here in the States! I don’t know what I need to do to make that happen, but believe me, I’m asking God about it and discussing it with friends. That’s the tricky part, though. I feel like my friends are awesome (because you are!), but I really want to learn from more experienced women who have already been through this phase of life I’m walking through right now. I want to steep in their experiences and knowledge. Why should we feel like we have to reinvent the wheel when so many parents have already lived similar lives before us?
Friends, I would just love your thoughts on this. Do you have these same feelings? Do you have mentors who have taught you how this can be done? Do you feel like you have this kind of community already? I am truly longing for this kind of life. Are you?
When a friend texts after dinner asking if you’d like their baseball tickets for the next day’s game, you don’t hesitate. You don’t even check the calendar. You simply, yet quickly, reply that yes, yes of course we would love to help take care of those summer baseball tickets for you. Because that’s what summer is, right? Sitting outside watching baseball games, eating hotdogs and pretzels dipped in melty cheese, sipping up ginormous cups of carbonated goodness, and giggling from the feeling of sticky handfuls of blue cotton candy melting on a matching blue tongue. And when that baseball game is being played at an open-air field you haven’t yet visited, you snatch up your Twins baseball hats and tees, and head to Minneapolis for a perfect summer game.
I’ve grown up watching the Minnesota Twins play under the roof of the Metrodome, so sitting outside for a game was completely new. As soon as we walked into the stadium, I told Pete it just felt like baseball.
Ella & I explored the stadium together, drifting up and down on the escalators to other levels. Before returning to our seats, she excitedly picked out a bag of tri-colored cotton candy.
Even in the Ergo, Sam scrambled to get a hold of our big ol’ cup of Diet Dew. (remember the value of diet dew in my family?) After every sip, he got the most adorable, thrilled grin across his face. Then he’d dive after the cup for another sip.
We may have been witness to two grand slams by the other team, but it couldn’t have prevented us from having a perfect afternoon of summer baseball!
And look! My brother Jake was able to join us! Can’t wait for another trip to see the Twins at Target Field!
We shared the big details of our trip out to World Gospel Mission headquarters a couple weeks ago, but I’ve got a few other photos and details from our trip I’d love to share. First off, we left all the kiddos in Duluth except for six-month-old Kai, which was perfect since we then still had a baby to cuddle. Pete and I felt like we were on a spectacular date weekend. Yes, perhaps there were interviews and psychological inventories, but we had no kids, we weren’t staying at our house, and meals were provided. Sounds like a date to me!
I sure do love this mama! We may only live 10 minutes apart now, but I can’t wait till we share a yard in Kenya.
When we got to WGM headquarters, it was not all serious interviews and questionnaires and personality inventories. It was a really fantastic weekend of getting to know other families heading into missions and eating big meals, meeting the WGM board and some of the staff, playing ping pong, and constructing giant towers of noodles and masking tape. Oh yes, noodles. The guys built one and the gals built another, all with the intention of comfortably and safely cradling an egg. The highest tower won. Check out how tall the guys went. Yes, they won.
But look at the sturdiness of our somewhat shorter tower. Our egg could have lived nestled on our tower for the duration of its life. Not so for the tallest tower. The guys kept their egg safe for a few moments before removing the it from its perch. It wouldn’t have had a chance if we had to keep it in place all night. We said our tower reflected our maternal capabilities. It kept the egg cozy and safe. We had nothing we needed to prove. The guys, on the other hand. Well, they felt the need to go crazy with their tower. Typical.
Being at headquarters brought back lots of memories for me. I was in that same place exactly 12 years prior, as I prepared to leave for my year in Honduras. In fact, some of the current volunteers under the same program (Volunteers In Action) were finishing orientation as we arrived. Among them was this lovely girl, Tita. I was so thrilled the moment I spotted her! Twelve years ago, I taught Tita as a missionary kid in Honduras. Now she’s preparing to spend the next year working with missionary kids at headquarters, meaning that she will be teaching our kids when we visit for training sessions this winter! I find it hard to believe that one of my very own students will be teaching my kids. Seeing her made me feel that we really are a part of a big family at WGM.
After a whirlwind of a weekend, we were back at the airport waiting for flights early Sunday morning. As we sat playing games and chatting with other soon-to-be missionary families, I realized that this is the first of what will likely be many, many airport sessions with friends and family as we fly thousands of miles around the world. I can’t believe this is what we get to do with our lives! I know that not many families may be called to move as far away as we are, but I absolutely could not have it any other way. It won’t be easy leaving our families here, but we are incredibly blessed to be able to have such fantastic mission families alongside us on this path.
A bit of catching up? Sounds like a plan! Here are a few recent photos.
And this, because who can resist a dancing Sammy? (music by my brother, Jake, and his band, Dead Guys)
You’ll have to click here on the link. For some reason, it’s not just popping up right here on the screen. Sorry, friends!
