30.6.11

Thursday, June 30
11 days before our departure to Mexico.
today we:
1.updated our immunizations
2. sang happy birthday to the nurse
3. got our typhoid prescriptions filled
4. rewarded ourselves with ice cream

things are moving right along . . . .




19.6.11

Joshua and I are in San Diego doing some missionary traveling stuff this week.  The kids are staying with Joshua's parents;  I can't tell you what an amazing treat it is for me to know that the kids are being thoroughly loved and spoiled this week by their grandparents. (thank you Jim and Ginny!)

We got a call this afternoon:  it was Malachai calling to wish Joshua a happy father's day.
"Wow, thank you!" Joshua told him.
"Well," Malachai admitted "it was Grandma's idea,  but it's my pleasure!"

awesome.

happy father's day to the undeniably fantastic father of my children!   

18.6.11

From San Jose we traveled over to Turlock to visit Aunt Terri and uncle Tom.  I think that every time we visit them we give them an extremely short notice . . . I keep telling myself that growing up means that I need to give respectable people a respectable advance notice before dropping in . . .(but then I forget)

Thankfully, aunt Terri and uncle Tom never have said no to a drop-in visit;  (they wait patiently for me to grow up)

There were many wonderful things awaiting us in Turlock last week  (a tent and a sweet dog and rowdy games of basketball and the library and mango salsa and a jog along the greenbelt and baseball in the park and conversations on the couch about the beauty and brokenness of God's creative world),
and amongst all these wonderful things, my cousin Molly (who is in the middle of planning her wedding, and has come up with this amazing idea to make homemade jams for all the wedding guests - - the Turlock family is like cool that - - always making up their own sweets and treats)  found out that I had never made jam myself, was aghast and invited me to join her in making jam.  So we drove together to the strawberry field and then back home, and as we chopped the berries and measured the sugar and ladled the steaming jam into cute little jars, we talked about Eddy (her love) and the treasures God has in marriage.

sigh.  thank you, Molly, for sharing that sweet bit of your heart with me.
and thank you for teaching me how to make jam.

15.6.11







My friendship with Julie is one of those rare jewels of a friendship- - it just keeps growing. We met in college - - we were dorm next door neighbors. I got married soon after we met, and our friendship just got better (now it included Joshua);  we moved away to Spain, and it just got better (she would even visit us);  she up and married  Peter, and (can you believe it?) now he's always around her, and our friendship got better!
In wanting to keep this friendship awesome, we say yes anytime that Julie and Peter want to come and visit us, and we try and bum an invite off of them every time we travel up the CA coast. So, we spent a few days up in San Jose with Julie and Peter earlier this month.
The first night that we stayed with them, Julie whipped out some of the most amazing artichokes we have ever eaten - - so amazing, in fact that Malachai insisted " if this isn't hospitality, then I don't know what is!"
Well yes, the artichokes were pretty good, but were they  the best of the hospitality? Um, what about Peter and Julie watching our kids for two whole days so that we could sit calmly and focused at a conference?  that was pretty awesome.
Or what about Peter checking out ipads from the apple library so that all three of my kids could play on their very own pad? That rocked their world.
Or what about little Leo sharing his train set with my lovely, crazy children that descended onto him and his personal toy collection like the swarm of locusts onto the Egyptians crops? That's hard to beat, yeah? 
But seriously, though,
seriously. . .
maybe what I loved most was the way that Peter and Julie so winsomely asked us questions and spoke truth into our lives.  (the artichokes were good, but not that good)

13.6.11

suitcase trauma


We are are almost, almost all packed up.

I have been having this recurring dream in which I think that I have completed all my packing but then I open a closet,
and stuff pours out
(stuff and lots and lots of books)
. . . and I realize that I need to find more room in my suitcases for all that stuff (and books).

It's the packer's nightmare.

1.6.11

home


We finished shopping at Trader Joe's tonight, and as we packed into the car Josu asked - - "Where are we going now?"
"Now we go home!" we told him.
"But what does home mean?" he asked, "what home are we going to?"

Aaaaah sweet boy.
We did some explaining,
but I wish I could explain it better to him; out of my three, I think that Josu is the most tender to our nomadic ways. We'll keep trying.

So for the rest of you who might be wondering where home is for us these days, here's the schedule:
this week - we travel up to northern CA for a bit
and then for a few days- we get to spend some down time with Joshua's parents
the week after that - - we travel down to southern CA for a bit
and then we're in Santa Clarita for a few days (can't miss VBS!)
and back up to Santa Maria to be with Joshua's parents
UNTIL
we fly out to Mexico
on July 11
!!!