Wrapping up the Summer

Adalai

Our little Adalady is growing up fast!  In just a few short weeks her summer will be over and she'll be heading into pre-K. This summer she went to VBS for the first time.  She was very apprehensive about it since she didn’t know any of the other kids but by the end of the week she was disappointed to see VBS come to an end.  The theme was “Splashtacular”.  It was a gospel theme about the living water that Christ offers.  Not only did Adalai get to benefit from this but I myself was so encouraged dwelling on this truth.  After interrupted nights of sleep and spending the day with 3 little munchkins who seem to tag team it with their problems and heart issues in addition to my own, many times by the end of the day I feel like a dry well… nothing left to give and no energy to fight the battles.  At those moments I just want and often times do cave into sin whether it’s in poor parenting, a prideful heart, gluttony, ungratefulness, or just plain CRANKINESS!  It’s then the Spirit reminds me- you AREN'T a DRY WELL… God has given you LIVING WATER.

John 7:37 and 38 says, “Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”   

So I have to preach to myself: Drink deeply and often!!!  The living water that the Lord gives NEVER dries up!  His grace is sufficient for all things.

Here’s a little home video of  Adalai singing “Power in the Blood!” along with all the motions that she picked up at VBS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnEvxMGDSwo

Adalai is always surprising us with the new things she is putting together.  She is our little brainy child… who says stuff like, “Mom, Dad, I look for shapes everywhere- windows, doors…” the other day she was dropping in on a conversation that Traever and I were having.  In the conversation I told Traever, “you are so smart!” and then Adalai piped up, “So Dad’s smart now?! He’s not silly anymore?”

Remmer Roo

Our Remmers is growing up too.  We can usually find her right next to Adalai or just a couple steps behind.  She looks up to her sister so much.  She wants all things that Adalai wants- whether it’s dressing up, reading books, even down to the food that Adalai eats… she loves following in her big sisters footsteps and Adalai doesn’t seem to mind it either J.  They are each others’ side-kicks and best friends.  Seeing their relationship play out reminds me so much of mine with my sister.  I’ve been incredibly blessed by my big sis, there are few things that I treasure more in this life than our relationship.  I hope our girls are blessed with the same!

Since our move Remy has joined in on the nightly routine of verse memorization and catechism.  Here’s a clip from one of the first nights of Adalai teaching Remy verse number 1: 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIhN39bSkxk&feature=youtu.be

Although Rem does copy nearly everything Adalai does she is definitely her own little FUN and spunky person. We laugh often with and at her. For instance, since we have moved she somehow finds a way to fit “California” into every introduction.  Just yesterday we were at the seminary for a picnic and a student stopped by and introduced himself.  He asked Remy “what’s your name?” Remy smiled and mumbled, “Memy” then waited a couple seconds as the guy walked away she yelled out, “Ca-fornia!”.  Then another guy passed by, no introduction or anything she just looked his direction and quickly said, "ca-fornia".  She makes very little sense but we love her :).

Thatcher

Our little Thatchman- Last week I was blessed with a good night’s sleep! For the first time Thatcher  slept through the night!  I woke up in the morning so well rested and heard him giggling in his room.  I walked in to find Thatch swinging pillow stuffing around in the air and his pillow completely dismantled and destroyed.  So, I’m not sure how much sleep he got but Traever and I were thankful for the sleep we got!

First time Thatcher went swimming. I love the way his fat belly pops out of his rash guard.  He wasn’t sure about the water at first but seemed to relax pretty quickly.

The Hubs

Traever is wrapping up Greek 1 this week! It has been a really tough course, they essentially cram a full semester of Greek into 5 weeks, but he has put in a ton of time and has done so so well. He starts his crazy busy fall semester next week!  Pray for us that we will continue to carve out time to spend together as a family and that Traever will become a speed reader :).

Settling In

Now that we have unpacked and settled in we are getting a taste of what life and our calendar will consist of and it’s very different then life in IL.  Back home I had minimal time that wasn’t filled with multitasking:  work (Real Estate), our kiddos, feeding everyone J, church commitments, keeping house,  and time with friends and family.  Also Traever was home every day by 4:30pm and for the most part available when he was home- I know I was spoiled.  So now to the kids’ joy or dismay they now have a lot more of me and a lot less of Traever.  So, now that I have this time at home I’ve been thinking a lot of how best to manage it and praying that I am able to follow through (sticking with a routine is a common failure of mine).  I came up with a basic kids’ schedule I am throwing it out there and hopefully it will stick:

Sun- Church/rest

Mon- Adalai Classical Conversations 9-1pm (M-F 3-5pm Rem and Thatch nap, Adalai school work/color)

Tues- Lunch  with Daddy at the seminary.   One Tuesday morning  per month visit a museum in Balboa Park (free on Tuesdays) or the library

Wed- pool, park or hang out at home

Thurs-Farmers Market / Lunch with Daddy at seminary

Fri- WSC women/family park day 10am-noon

Sat- hang out at home or 1-2 Sat per month go to the beach or for a hike or a movie in the park, etc.

Hopefully the above schedule won’t all be for naught as I do have several fellow schedule breakers in my house… who like to keep it interesting J and provide lots of object lessons and laughs.

Here’s a glimpse at a few of last weeks incidents:

I hauled the 3 kids to the library and up to the 2^nd floor for story time to find that they were on break for the month of August.  We hopped on the elevator and headed back down as we were exiting and the elevator door was closing Remy reached over and slapped the call button.  She totally had a big grin on her face (the movie Elf comes to mind) As I walked to the front desk for check out and a confession I could hear over the intercom “Hello?! Do you need help in there…”

We decided to try to go the pool without Daddy.  As I was packing everyone up.  I held Thatch in one arm as he screamed and with the other arm I tried to keep Rem who thinks she can swim from falling into the pool as she kept going after a ball.  I thought…ok I got this and then I looked over at Adalai  and she was standing next to me BUTT naked.  In her defense we haven’t been to the pool much so she probably doesn’t know what is socially acceptable but I’m sorry 4 year old twin boys who tried to befriend my daughter… you saw more at the pool then you signed up for.

Our children stay in the worship service with us at church which means that we do bring some things in with us to keep them quiet- as we stood up to sing a hymn we realized that the girls had left a present on Traever’s seat- an assortment of crayons which left a rainbow of colors across the backside of his nice khaki suit pants.  Later in the service as we sang another hymn we looked behind us to see our girls dancing along to the music… who has the unruly children?  That would be us J we’ll be working on it.

And last but not least as noted earlier Remy is potty training.  Last night Remy called out to us "I pooped!" Sure enough there it was on our light cream  dining room carpet and a diaperless Remmer Monster prancing about.  I’m going to think twice about letting our kids eat food off the dining room floor now.

Here are a few more pics from the past few weeks:

We are becoming big fans of picnics especially the ones with Daddy.

We’re having fun finding free things to do. A grocery store opened down the road from us and they were offering free face painting so the girls got to have a fun trip to the store.

Adalai has discovered that if she puts an envelope in the magical black box at the end of the drive it will get delivered to the person she wanted to send it to.  It’s been fun for her and she’s learning to write her letters/words better too.   Now I just need to start this habit too.

 

The Move

Well, as Rem clearly says “we live in Fornia!” now.  We got here 3 weeks ago. We’ve unpacked and are starting to get a feel for what life will look like now.  I can’t say it feels like home yet- I still use gps to get everywhere, I'm figuring out where to go for walks with the kids, which parks have swings, and where to get groceries.  But I’m getting there and trying to laugh at my mistakes along the way.  

Surfboard check, ladder check, 3 kids check check check, an amazing meemaw (grandma Sandy) check.  And we're off!

Somewhere in the middle of New Mexico as we passed through the mountains Adalai looked at me and asked, "Mommy, are we little people?" To which I had to reply "Yes, yes we are."  Thank you God for creating the mountains to shout your greatness and our smallness!  We are blessed to have a mountainous view from our home in CA so Adalai still occasionally looks at them and tells me "Mom, we're little people".  Thank you God for the reminders!

The trip went surprisingly well.  Traever blazed the trail ahead of his in the vibe and got to listen to cowboy music and seminary lectures to his heart's content and back in the van the kids had a good time devouring the snacks that mamaw Neukomm packed while they watched endless hours of Goofy cartoons.

 

We made it!

Traever's brave mom who trapped herself in the van with us for 30 hours and made sure even our water heater was cleaned :)

Getting to know the neighborhood:

Here's a few pics of the park (Daley Ranch/Dixon Lake) behind our house.

First walk in the neighborhood with the girls.  I knew there was a pond in the neighborhood and we set out to find it.  Big mistake, I ended up hauling these 2 munchkins up and down about 150 steps... probably won't be doing that again!  But they DID get to see baby ducks...which they thought was totally worth it.

I decided to attempt going for a walk with all 3 in our super hilly neighborhood.  Back in the flatland of IL this would be a piece of cake.  Every grown adult either laughed when they saw me or told me that I was getting a work out.  So, I'm guessing I looked pretty ridiculous.  Even Adalai looks embarrassed.

We got to the neighborhood pool and the beach before Traever started Greek. If anyone has been to the beach with Adalai before then you know what an accomplishment it is for her to stand in the sand without her special "water shoes". She was pretty proud of herself.

We had our first visitor- Blake (Traever's brother) who came from S. Korea!  We hadn't been with him for 2 years so the girls made sure he got lots of cuddles and kisses... come back soon Blake!

We would love more visitors... come visit!

here's a video tour of the house we are renting in escondido for all the friends and family that have requested it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BTkFoEf2Oo