Reading Plan

At the end of 2010, Pastor Tom encouraged the members of our church to have a Bible reading plan as we enter 2011.  A couple years prior, our church was reading through the Old Testament together, and we were encouraged to buy a book, For the Love of God by D.A. Carson, which includes the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan.  The M'Cheyne reading plan, if followed as intended, will result in you reading all of the Old Testament once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice, during the course of one year.  Going into 2011, this was my plan.  This was a very ambitious plan for me.  I have never read through the Bible in a year.  There are portions of Scripture I have never read.  When the year began, I did a pretty good job of staying caught up.  But over time, I started getting behind.  This summer was especially bad.  After our vacation weeks, I was almost two months behind.  I'm excited to say that I just got caught up! 

I am not a morning person.  But since school has started, I've committed to getting up before the kids and reading my Bible.  And I can only give God credit for being able to do it faithfully for the last 2 weeks.  I'm feeling very grateful to Him because for so long, I didn't have a strong desire to be in the Word.  And I felt guilty about that, but still didn't make myself do it.  And over the course of the last couple years, I've seen God working in my heart on that.  It started with me asking him to give me a desire.  And then making myself spend time in the Word, even if I got nothing out of it, knowing that even my effort was honoring God.  I'm definitely not to the point of having a passion for being in the Word.  My motivation right now is completing my goal of reading the Bible in a year, not growing closer to Jesus.  But I can see God using my own selfish motivations to get me where I need to be.  And being in the Word DOES bring me closer to Jesus. 

So, who can create an app for my phone with the M'Cheyne reading plan? 

Walking

Now that both boys are gone every week day morning, I'm able to get outside and walk again!  Three times this week, I've gotten up with Anelise and gone for a good, brisk walk.  By my estimates, I've walked about 6 miles this week.  Anelise seems to enjoy it too, especially if we take breakfast along.  I pack a sandwich bag with some dry cereal, grab her sippy cup of milk and a banana, and out we go.  She gets especially excited about seeing dogs.  And part of our neighborhood route goes past a pond that has ducks.  Almost as soon as we're out the door she starts saying "water?" "duckies?"  It's very cute.  I'm hoping that by continuing this routine as many days as we're able, it will become a fun, whine-free form of exercise.  For both of us.

Goodbye, Summer!

The 2011-2012 school year has officially started.  Ethan started with a half-day on Monday, and Caleb had his first day of kindergarten this morning.  Since kindergarten has a staggered start, he'll stay home tomorrow and be back on Friday with the whole class (just kids with last names A-K went today).  After Ethan's first day, he came home and said "it was awesome" because they didn't have any seatwork.  (He was singing a different tune yesterday.)  Caleb has been SO excited to start school.  In fact, when I came home from parent orientation yesterday, he was disappointed that I didn't have any school work for him to do.  This morning we could tell he was a little bit nervous once we got to the classroom, but he cheerfully did what was asked of him.  We took a picture and left.  I had been very emotional after dropping Ethan off for his first day of kindergarten, but not this time.  Jonathan and Anelise came along, so after leaving Caleb with Miss Curry, we wandered around for a few minutes and found Ethan's classroom too. 

Was Blind, But Now I See!

Late Saturday night we returned from our marathon two-week vacation.  Week #1 was with the Bakers, week #2 was with the Ippels, with a quick weekend between visiting our good friends, Joel and Shontel, who recently moved to St. Joseph, Michigan, conveniently located between our two vacation spots! 

On the first full day of vacation, we were in Lake Michigan at Michigan City, Indiana (how confusing is that?!) and I was venturing into the large waves.  I had kept my glasses on, because as a fully-grown adult, my footing is quite good, and I was not planning on putting my head underwater.  My husband, however, though he is also a fully-grown adult, acts more like a playful puppy sometimes, decided to tackle me, just as a very large wave crashed over both of us.  And in an instant, my clear vision was gone.  We looked for my glasses for several minutes, knowing full well that the likelihood of finding them was very small.  That afternoon, I spent a good chunk of time looking online for places where I might be able to get new glasses.  The only place remotely close had a wait time of 7-10 days from the exam until the glasses would be ready.  I ended up making an appointment in Grand Rapids (location of vacation week #2) and spent the vast majority of vacation week #1 without (decent) vision.

Last week Sunday I was in and out of Eyeglass World within 45 minutes, with newly examined eyes and two fresh pairs of glasses (which I like very much).  And the bill for all of it was only $117; significantly less than I was expecting to pay.  And now I can see!  And you can't put a price on that.

Swimming

The boys just completed day one of swimming lessons.  Their reactions were pretty much what I expected.  Ethan learned how to swim at the Baker pool in Florida last year, but hasn't had much pool time to practice.  But he was excited about lessons and jumped right in, willing to try anything that was thrown at him. 

Caleb was crying before he entered the locker room.  Granted, it is a little frustrating that the only way to the pool is through the locker rooms, and the boys are too old to go through the girls' side.  Caleb calmed down before the lesson started, but once he realized he wouldn't be in the same class as Ethan, I think he started feeling very apprehensive.  There were lots of tears, but he did do everything asked of him, though with much hesitation, much fear, and many tears.  Poor kid.  His teacher said it's what's to be expected for a first-timer, and she was pleased that he still cooperated (sort of).  I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.  I AM happy with the student-teacher ratio.  Caleb is with one other little girl.  Ethan is the only one with his teacher.  :)

Random Things

I know, I'm way overdue for a new post.  I haven't had anything remarkable to write about, but I figured it was time for something new (though I still like looking at those pics of Anelise in her life jacket.  so cute!). 

We had a busy weekend getting work done outside.  Jonathan and I spent a significant portion of Saturday working in the yard.  Jonathan mowed and trimmed (weed-whacked), and trimmed one of the pine trees in the front (near the neighbor's property).  I weeded the mulch around the trees in the front.  And it was a big job.  My wrists are still sore from putting pressure on them while pulling out miniature oak trees.  Lots of them. 

We also spent a fair amount of time with friends over the weekend.  Saturday we had a cookout with a couple of church friends.  Sunday after church we headed over to the home of an unnamed Irish police sergeant's family.  We planned on spending a few hours there, and ended up monopolizing their entire day.  We arrived around 1:00 and didn't leave until after 8.  That's how much fun they are.  On Monday we had a busy day, preparing for house guests (I'll get to that in a minute), and ended the day by heading downtown for the fireworks.  Where we met again with the Irish folks.  What a great family.  :)

Houseguests.  We are thoroughly enjoying our time with good friends Bill and Alissa, here for a visit from our nation's capitol.  We have spent some time out and about (park, zoo), but mostly we're relaxing at home together.  The kids (their 3 plus our 3) have been playing well together, just having a good time.

I spent a few minutes looking at the calendar today, and I can hardly believe what I see.  The month of June was fairly relaxed, but our calendar is FULL from now until school starts!  I would have preferred to space things out a little.  But I AM very excited about the rest of our summer.  Coming up: Bax visit, Dad Baker visit, Baker cottage, Ippel cottage, camping at Clifty Falls.  Whew!

Last week, Ethan was at SpringHill day camp all week.  He had a blast, and at the end of the week, was awarded the Integrity Award for his group.  We are so proud.

Anelise continues to wow us with her language skills.  The word we hear most often is "smine."  And yes, she's saying, "it's mine."  I'm not too worried about selfishness; her context is more factual.  Like she'll point to her chair, and say, "smine."  Or her shoes: "smine," and then point out "mommy soo", "daddy soo", etc.  She's such a sweet girl.  And so cute, I can hardly stand it.

Caleb just finished his first chapter book. 

Hmm... the middle child got the least written about him.  Raise your hand if you're a middle child!  (hand raised)  Maybe I'll devote an entire post to Caleb soon.  Maybe...

Deal of the Day

A little later this summer, we will spend two weeks at two cottages.  The first week will be in Michigan City with the Baker side, and the second week will be at Morrison Lake with the Ippel side.  I am very much looking forward to these upcoming two weeks.  Since both cottages are on lakes, and since I don't have any appropriate floatation devices for Anelise, I thought I'd check out what Meijer had to offer, during my weekly shopping trip.  I found a very nice, appropriately sized, neoprene life jacket that fit Anelise really well (and once I tried it on her, she didn't want to take it off!).  Unfortunately, it didn't have any tags, and there weren't any other ones like it.  There were some other brand name neoprene jackets on sale for 44.99.  I was hoping not to spend that much, and I figured since it was an off-brand, it would be cheaper.  So at the checkout, another associate took the jacket back to the sporting department to figure out a price while I got the rest of my groceries checked out.  It took her a long time (which didn't surprise me, as I already knew there weren't any others like it), but finally she called my checkout person to give him a price.  I was hoping for something around $30.  Guess what they charged me?

$10.49!!! 

I am so pleased.  I know life-jackets are important, but it's hard to spend money on something you know will likely only fit your child for one season.  This jacket goes up to 30 lbs, so it's possible she could still wear it next year, but that's unlikely.  But we're going to really enjoy it this summer!