No-fear Nathaniel

Nathaniel loves the pool!
He jumps off the diving board, likes for Aaron to throw him from the side, and even likes for Aaron to hold him and jump off the diving board with him.
He likes the slide best of all as you can see below.

(Nathaniel is the little blond head you can barely see under the water. He doesn't mind being under water at all.)

3rd annual berry picking

I love picking blueberries at the local blueberry farm. Sure, it is hot and sweaty work. But there is something so fulfilling about it. We chat with friends while our hands are busy. The kids wander around searching for berries on the lowest branches, their teeth and lips stained blue. I love the feel of community and shared labor. When I pull a bag of the frozen berries out in mid-winter they are reminder of heat and sun and summer bounty. I think we can safely call the berry picking a yearly tradition now. The boys look forward to it and are getting good at helping pick (although they do still eat more than they keep). The berries were plentiful this year and the work was relatively quick. If I had more freezer space I would go get more.

This was the best I could get for our yearly shot of the berry pickers.
None of the boys really wanted to be still.
Oh well, look how much they have grown since the first time we went berry picking!
(see below)

(July 2008, Nathaniel 11 months & Jeremiah 3 years)

1000 Gifts (24)

The gifts keep being recorded in my journal. In a week full of the normal work, conflicts and joys that come from living as a family I keep jotting down the little moments of grace and blessing that remind me of the goodness of my Heavenly Father in all circumstances.

This week I share with you my most encouraging gift. A song sung Sunday morning in worship. A song I have sung so often it rolls easily off my tongue. Yet, Sunday morning the words struck me with their truth and my soul was refreshed. My misdeeds dark are covered with grace! My soul can rest on His word, I don't have to doubt or fear! His helping love will meet my need! One day I will be free from sin and sorrow! Hallelujah!

Psalm 130 (From Depths of Woe)
(Words by Martin Luther)

From the depths of woe I raise to Thee the voice of lamentation
Lord, turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication
If Thou iniquities dost mark our secret sins and misdeeds dark
O who shall stand before Thee?

To wash away the crimson stain grace, grace alone availeth
Our works, alas! are all in vain in much the best life faileth
No man can glory in Thy sight, all must alike confess Thy might
And live alone by mercy.

Therefore my trust is in the Lord and not in mine own merit
On Him my soul shall rest, His word upholds my fainting spirit
His promised mercy is my fort, my comfort and my sweet support
I wait for it with patience.

What though I wait the live-long night and til the dawn appeareth
My heart still trusteth in His might, it doubteth not nor feareth
Do thus, O ye of Israel's seed, ye of the Spirit born indeed
And wait 'til God appeareth.

Though great our sins and sore our woes His grace much more aboundeth
His helping love no limit knows our utmost need it soundeth
Our Shepherd good and true is He who will at last His Israel free
From all their sin and sorrows.

The school room makeover

When we arrived home these 3 boxes of Jeremiah's curriculum were waiting for us. We waited a few days but then Aaron and I just couldn't resist digging in and seeing what was there. Looks like good stuff! I hope to make a specific post later about what we got and what we think of it.
After going through the boxes they were put out of sight in the guestroom until we had a place for them. Last week I started to get motivated to work on making our sun room/playroom into our school room when I realized that we were supposed to start school on August 16th. We had some ideas in mind of what we wanted to do so last Saturday we decided to scope out some stores in our area to price things like book shelves and desks.
We were so thankful to actually find some pieces at a thrift store for a good price! A piece of furniture that was originally a sideboard but we saw as a perfect storage shelf for books and supplies. And a student desk! Jeremiah is very excited about having his very own desk.
So Saturday afternoon we cleaned and rearranged and ended up with the basics of a very bright, cozy room for learning, playing, and relaxing. We still need to do some painting and replace the nicotine saturated window shades (the lady who lived here before us smoked like a chimney) but the room is basically there and we have been enjoying it a lot this week already.

(view from the back door)

(view from the kitchen look-through window)

I had 3 main goals for the room
1. Comfortable and inviting. Since I figured we will be spending some time there every day I wanted us to want to be in there.
2. Place for Nathaniel. Nathaniel is going to want to be with us. There is a designated toy area so he can play and amuse himself during the times that I need to give Jeremiah undivided attention. Who knows? He may even end up learning something!
3. Not expensive. For obvious reasons.

I think we have accomplished those goals so far. Jeremiah already loves to sit in the comfy chair during quiet time and look at his new reading books. He was so enthusiastic about helping me unpack his school boxes and organize his school books on the shelves. He can't wait until we get a chair for his desk so he can use it. Nathaniel has rediscovered his Lego's and Thomas toys and has spent many hours playing all kinds of make believe games out there.

We already have some seeds planted for pumpkins and cacti sitting in the widow so it appears some learning has already begun!

1000 GIfts (23)

While I have not been posting my gifts here on my blog I have been continuing to count them in my journal. There were so many from our trip to Holland (one of them being the poppies pictured above)! It was a great way for me to jot down the events and memories of our trip without feeling the need to write copious narrative in my journal every night.

But, I am resuming my list on the blog with my entries from last week. The week Aaron was gone and God's grace and peace sustained me.

- a drive through softly falling rain
- singing along to "Peter Pan"
- kids playing while cousin and I visit
- a chubby, smiling baby
- patience when I feel I just can't take it any more
- a nice pool, and friends who share it
- Jeremiah getting over his fear of getting into the water in his own time
- Nathaniel doggie paddling, "I doin' it mama! I swimmed!"
- sunburnt shoulders
- picking cucumbers on a sweltering, humid summer evening
- exhaustion
- late nights watching chick flicks
- reading books in bed
- missing Aaron, absence does make the heart grow fonder
- Aaron home!
- boys wrestling with their papa
- boys chatter, telling papa all about their week
- candy land

What grandparents do...

...keep you from falling off a boat...

...let you help plant flowers...

...enthusiastically help with your latest project...

...treat you to an "ijsje" more times than is probably good for you...

...take you for walks in the woods (almost every day)...

...carry you when you are tired...

...climb up the tower to see the view with you...

...help you balance and find frogs...

...take you to feed the ducks (almost every night after dinner)...

...not to mention play countless games of "Bunny Hop", paint, go to the store, let help with the recycling, and give great goodnight hugs and kisses.
Thanks for all the great memories oma and opa!

Boy running on beach

These pictures show just how much Jeremiah loved the beach. And just how much he loves running. And just how much I love his long, blond, bouncy hair.

Sunday night notes

I don't usually blog on Sunday night, but the house is quiet and calm now and I am waiting for Aaron to return. I have a few minutes for a quick update so here it is in bullet points again.

- Holland lost in the World Cup final today. It was sad. I had thought for sure they would finally win this year.

- There was some kind of electrical short at our other house. Aaron has spent the evening over there in the heat trying to figure out a) what the problem is b) who's responsible to fix it c) how much it is going to cost. Please pray that the City can fix it and that it won't cost us anything.

- Tomorrow Aaron leaves to help chaperon the summer youth group retreat. He will be gone until Friday. I must say that I am not overly enthusiastic about doing the single parent thing for a week. But I am filling the week up with fun things so hopefully it will fly by. Please pray that I will be patient.

- It felt really good to worship at Highlands again this morning. This particular part of the body of Christ is such a blessing to us.

- My niece Lilly, who is 10 months old, is taking her first wobbly steps. Jeremiah and Nathaniel love her to pieces and like to try and make her laugh. She likes to grab their faces and plant sloppy kisses on them. I can't wait to watch their relationship as it grows.

- Aaron is pursuing a couple of different job opportunities that have nothing to do with teaching. It will be interesting to see what God provides.

- Jeremiah discovered Calvin & Hobbes comics while we were in Holland. So he has started saying things like, "I think my spine is going to telescope!" or "Stop that you tuna brain."

- I really want to post more pictures from our trip, but downloading and organizing 600+ pictures is a bit of an overwhelming task right now.

Back in the USA

We arrived home at 1:30 a.m. on Monday July 5th after a 25 hour day of traveling. My kids surprised me again by traveling like champs. I thought for the most part I was pretty patient, until Jeremiah asked me to please stop talking in my "mean voice." Ah, the truth of a child. We have all slept well our first 2 nights back and I am cautiously optimistic that our bodies may adjust to the time change a bit easier than I had anticipated.

The boys seem happy to be home. Before we left Holland Nathaniel asked me, "Does our house have stairs?" Last night when I asked the boys to take off their clothes and go to the bathtub Nathaniel looked at me and said, "Do we have a bathtub?"

This was the first time in a long time that I was not ready for our vacation to end and to get home. I am not sure why that was. But I really and truly had no desire to get home. I had prayed that I would be able to enjoy each moment of our vacation and so I guess that prayer was answered.

I feel strange being back. Our house feels like home and we are happy to be here, but I still feel a sort of disquiet. Not sure where that is coming from. I am eager to get back to church and see our friends and get back into the swing of things, but at the same time I felt so comfortable in Holland. I miss riding bikes to get around. I miss the weekly market.

I am sure that some of the disquiet comes from being back here in our "real world" and still not having any positive leads at all on Aaron's job search. We don't feel panic yet, but I have a hard time really enjoying our summer when the job situation is still so uncertain.

I have 365 unread items in my blog feed reader. I am pretty sure that I will not have the time to catch up on all of that. Maybe this is my cue to cut down on the blogs I follow since I managed to survive without them for almost a whole month.

I had intended for this post to tell about what a great vacation we had and it ended up being completely random. But we did have a great vacation. We are thankful that we got to go and spend so much time in Holland. We are thankful for my parents who so generously shared their home, time, and food with us. It was obvious that we needed time away to really disconnect and relax. There are more pictures to share but those will have to wait. I am tired and headed to bed.

the Market

One of my favorite things about life in Holland is the local market. In Heemstede we get on our bikes on Wednesday morning and head over to the open air market where you can by anything from doggie toys to socks to fresh caught eel to purses to potatoes. It is so much fun. Walking between the stalls there are groups of elderly women chatting, mothers pushing baby carriages, small children wandering behind their parents munching on a treat. There are smells and colors and interaction with the seller that you just don't get in a grocery store.

Warm, fresh stroop waffles. Yum!

The cheese stand.
Nathaniel quickly figured out that every stand we stopped at would give him a little treat or a taste of something if he asked. He liked the cheese.

Fresh fruits and veggies!
At this stand the boys each got a fresh tangerine one week and a crisp apple the next.

This guy sells nuts of all kinds. So many yummy choices.
For some reason Jeremiah especially liked this stand.

Amsterdam

Aaron and I got to spend an afternoon in Amsterdam last week. We wandered around the town, did some shopping, and watched soccer in the Irish pub that Ben used to work at. It was a perfect afternoon. Amsterdam was her usual beautiful self at this time of year. The outdoor terrasses were inviting for a drink and a chat. Interesting people were everywhere. There is just something special about this city.