Back to School

Sometimes the night before the first day of school feels like the night before Christmas. Mostly because of staying up too late to get ready. This year, as the photo below proves, I was actually all set before the wee hours of the morning.

 

Now that Kate is a 1st grader and sharing in some of the regular school work we needed a new table arrangement that would allow us all to sit together.

 

I finally figured out that I need to jump right in to lessons the first day. “Boring” introductory activities are NOT well received. With so many great things to study, why not get started?! Lesson learned.

 

A little spot for Caleb, just for fun this year…

 

A mixture of moods at picture time.

 

For some reason they have started insisting on this pose every year. I guess next fall we’ll have to hang Caleb from the ceiling in order to fit everyone in.

Adam Comes to Play

Maybe because he is the fourth child, Caleb has almost never had a friend come over to play—well, not counting his good buddy Luke next door (they play almost daily) and the constant companionship of three siblings. But there is something exciting about inviting someone over and waiting for him to pull into the driveway. And then it’s off to the Nerf guns.

Soccer Clinic

Kate played her first team sport this fall. She deliberated about whether or not to sign up, citing the following three concerns: she might not be able to kick the ball in the goal, she doesn’t like to run, and she didn’t want to have a boy coach. As I was pondering how to respond Meg piped up, “Well, my first year I had a girl coach and we lost every game.” So there was one I didn’t have to answer. Then Meg promptly took Kate out back to practice kicking. (No offense to all the female athletes and coaches out there, but it was pretty funny how matter of fact Meg was. And also very sweet to see her take Kate under her wing.) No scoring this season, but Kate sure did run around the field more energetically than I expected. And she very much enjoyed her coach (a woman) who taught them the fundamentals and let them have lots of fun. 

Sunflowers

Meg was the proud planter, tender, and harvester of sunflowers. And photographer. I think these are great pictures from our little point-and-shoot camera. I love the sunlight coming through those petals and the grains of pollen on the bee.

Clarkston Camp Week

Another first for us this summer: a family mission “trip.” For the last few years our church camp has partnered with a local ministry to refugees to host 80-100 children for a week-long day camp. Some of the CW summer staff stays to run activities, the Friends of Refugees staff and interns bring the kids and help supervise them, and teams of folks from our church and a sister church in Alabama join in to help facilitate and interact with the kids.

 

Maria & Kate

Erik and I have said we’d like to do something like this when our kids got old enough to make it manageable, so this year we decided to give it a go. Though the refugee kids (actually, the preferred term is global nomads) just came Tues-Fri from 8-4, we stayed at the camp all week—thankfully sleeping in climate controlled rooms with indoor plumbing.

Nate & James

My last mission trip was over 15 years ago—to Guatemala, with college class mates, as a single person with no kids. This experience was very different. It felt mostly like what I do all the time: herding kids around, chaperoning noisy meals, helping in the kitchen, doing laundry—minus the comfort and convenience of my own home. Thankfully, I wasn’t expecting a mountain-top experience, because it was more like the daily grind.

Ibrahima & Caleb

For Erik, on the other hand, it was completely different from his day job and he really enjoyed it. Our kids also enjoyed playing with the other children—a group of kids we would never have met otherwise—seeing a little of their world and lifestyle, and of course being at camp.

 

Fina, Noon, Kate & Caleb

I hope we will have more family ministry opportunities, here and abroad. I want our kids to know first hand that the world is very big, to be comfortable outside of our little homogeneous corner, and to develop a real enthusiasm for what God is doing to build his kingdom all around the globe. I guess I want that for myself, too.

 

Kate, Maria, Meg, Celestial, Noon, Isatu, Fina, Nate, Kamis