June

Early June held a lot of restful days and a lot of enjoying the city.  Late June held a lot of packing and DIY projects.  June was filled with lots of sunshine and James catching a fever virus and moving in with friends and seeing God provide for all our needs.  Halfway through the year already!

June 2 - Napoleon's Grave

I think he would be pleased with how they chose to remember him.

June 3 - Roses

My phone's camera was all fogged up, but the roses in the park near EIC Ternes were so beautiful this month.  In fact, June is the month of roses blooming everywhere in Paris.

June 4 - Running to the Store

This is a British institution, and it's the place to buy bacon and sausages like we're used to, as well as find things like brown sugar and baking powder.

June 6 - More of Monet's Waterlilies

We visited L'Orangerie, which has oval-shaped rooms with beautiful curved panoramas of waterlily paintings.  They're very beautiful.

June 7 - Pokemon Drawings

I mentioned Art for Kids Hub earlier this month, and I'll say again it's an amazing way to keep your kids happily occupied for several hours.

June 8 - The Conciergerie

I went on a long evening walk that included passing this building that looks like a palace but was once a prison and now houses courts.

June 9 - Bored on the Bus

We bought Cokes as a special treat on the way home from the library, but they don't seem to be perking up the kids in this picture.

June 10 - Street Roses

June 11 - Reading about Paris in Paris

June 12 - Taco Tuesday

June 13 - A Pretty Normal Sight in Paris

June 14 - Coral Geraniums

June 15 - Goodnight, City.

June 16 - Window Boxes

June 18 - Ratatouille!

June 19 - Girls' Library Run

June 20 - Summertime means open windows everywhere.

June 21 - Little Friends

June 22 - My Favorite Flower Stall

June 23 - Brunch in a friend's beautiful apartment

June 24 - Walking to Church

I wanted to take a picture of my scarf to show the friend who gave it to me, and Ella was laughing at my failed selfie attempts.

June 25 - Moving Day

June 26 - James's Happy Place

He's been looking forward to this week so much.

June 27 - IKEA Cafeteria

June 28 - Bathroom Window at our New House

June 29 - Kitchen Cabinet Assembly

June 30 - James loves Parker.

Down the Rabbit Hole

It's that precious, quiet time of day when I'm the only one awake, and the rest of the house sleeps.  It is an in-between week for us.  We've moved out of the big-city apartment and are staying with friends while we do a few projects in our new place.  It's hard to believe that in a week and a half we'll be living in our own home again!  In the meantime, I'm still sorting through pictures from last year, and I couldn't remember if I ever wrote about a small adventure I had one spring night in the barley field.

K.J. and I loved walking in the field up the road from our house in the spring and summer because there was a full-fledged rabbit warren living around the Devil's Arrows.  If you went out at twilight and walked quietly and carefully and no dog-walker happened along, you could see dozens of rabbits enjoying their nightly silflay.  (I read Watership Down last summer, which is full of special rabbit language.) 

About two weeks after I took the above photos I went out again one night.  I walked down a different path and spotted several more rabbit holes as well as a poor, wounded warrior who looked like he'd lost an eye.

I don't know if these pictures are as interesting to anyone else, but I just loved these guys.  

I was snapping away, trying to get as close as possible without making them scatter.  I stopped to look at the screen on my camera to see how the pictures were coming out when I noticed an extra face in the background of one picture.  What is that??  I looked down.  Then I looked back up at the rabbits.  At the very top right side of the picture there is a sly face in the shadows if you look closely.

Look at him!  I couldn't believe it.  I'd always wanted to see a fox but so far I'd only seen one at night and never in Boroughbridge.  I think I saved a few bunnies' lives that night because not long after I noticed him, he looked up and noticed me, too, and bolted.  I left pretty quickly after that, too, because all of a sudden I wasn't sure about what else was concealed in the barley field.  But I'll never forget the night I watched a fox prepare to pounce on these unsuspecting rabbits.

Friday Favorites: vol. x

Happy (official) summertime!

I spent the first week of summer taking care of James who had a fever virus.  Fever viruses aren't one of my favorite things, but here's what was a delight this week.

1.  picnic with friends on a beautiful summer's night

It was a beautiful evening, and I got several mosquito bites--one of my least favorite things--but at least I brought Benadryl cooling gel along from our last trip home.

2.  ladies book exchange

I'm sure book club will show up continuously on Friday Favorites.  Any gathering where you can talk books is a good gathering.  And speaking of books...

3.  signing the kids up for summer reading at the library

I just love summer reading and the work libraries do to promote it.  I love the goal-setting method, but the American Library in Paris is doing something I've never seen done before, which is just have kids aim to read for 30 minutes a day through the summer.  Each week you achieve that goal your name is entered into a drawing for extra prizes.  I thought it was a great way to spare parents having to keep up with the book list and also just to help kids not feel behind who may not read as quickly.  The idea is just to get kids reading.  👍

4.  Trampoline!

I finally took the kids to jump at Tuileries.  I've always thought it would be a fun thing to do when kids are in school, and it was!  

5.  finding extra deodorant stashed in a suitcase

Ella is still laughing at my fervent, "Praise the Lord!" I uttered when I found it last night.  I knew I'd stocked up on my favorite, but I couldn't find it anywhere when I needed it.  I have a hard time finding deodorant I like on this side of the Atlantic.  Am I the only one with a favorite deo?  

A Hundred Times More, Monday Musings, vol. iv

"Peter began to tell him, 'Look, we have

left everything and followed you.'

'Truly I tell you,' Jesus said, 

'there is no one who has left house

or brothers or sisters or mother or

father or children or fields for my

sake and for the sake of the gospel,

who will not receive a hundred 

times more, now at this time--houses,

brothers and sisters, mothers and 

children, and fields, with persecutions--and

eternal life in the age to come.'"

- Mark 10:28-30 -

When we were packing up our belongings to move to England four years ago I thought about these verses, and I was thankful to have the opportunity to trust Jesus and follow him in this concrete way.  Maybe it was because the end part of Jesus's promise includes "eternal life and the age to come," that the "now at this time" earlier in the sentence escaped my notice.  But it doesn't escape my notice now.

Meet our host Gerald.  He doesn't want any recognition.  He was just sharing the gift of the place he was blessed with with us, but isn't that what all of our giving is?  Everything we have is a gift.  Anything we can give is just re-gifting what God has given to us.  And we are so very grateful for his opening of his home to us for what will be exactly 5 months next week.  His generosity gave us an experience not many people get to have, living in the middle of Paris in a beautiful apartment that has felt like home.  We've been so comfortable even while living without most of our belongings thanks to his hospitality.  It has been such an act of generosity to invite a family he didn't know to invade his space, and it enabled K.J. to hit the ground running with the church plant.  My father-in-law always says if God can "get it through you, he'll get it to you."  For the past five months we've seen Jesus be faithful to his promise for here we've gained a house and a brother.  

Re-gifting can have a lot of ripple effects in the kingdom now at this time and in the age to come.

Friday Favorites, vol. ix

Besides going back to W.H. Smith several times for an Exotic Mango Diet Coke, this week's favorite things include...

1.  meeting new people at EIC Ternes on Sunday

We've had a continuous stream of visitors to the new church each week, and it's always encouraging to hear their stories.  We've also celebrated the Lord's Supper/communion twice now, which has been a joy.  K.J. has done a good job figuring out new logistics in making that happen.  

2.  visiting our soon-to-be new home again

An amazing older lady from Emmanuel International Church is allowing us to live in the guesthouse in her garden, and we visited again this week to discuss plans for turning one of the downstairs rooms into a kitchen.  We are thrilled and excited and grateful for this provision of housing, and an added bonus is that this home was built in the 1660s.  This makes it about 100 years older than our first home in England, Capstick Cottage, but it reminds me a lot of it with its wooden beams in the living room.  And I love a Dutch door so much.

3.  the kids' adventurous spirits on a super-crowded bus ride

I took the kids to a couple of bookstores on Wednesday near the center of Paris, which of course means lots of people headed in the same direction.  We endured a bus so full we couldn't even make it to the ticket machine to pay for our ride, and the doors could barely close around our backpacks.  Ella handled her normal claustrophobia really well, so she gets a high five.  There wasn't even room to stretch out my arm far enough to take a selfie of our surroundings.  You'll have to infer what you will from Ella's expression.

4.  talking to the sweetest friend brought to me by our marrying cousins
4a.  our phone plan allowing us to call the U.S. for free

It's difficult to work in phone calls with the time difference, but it's so encouraging when we can.  K.J.'s cousin treated us to the most delicious last meal in America in January, and it's the most recent picture I have of Lindy and I.

Happy Father's Day weekend, folks.