Family Bike Rides

 Last night we went on a family bike ride.  

As we gathered cameras and helmets and K.J. pumped air into sagging tires I had a flashback to when I was a teenager and our family opted to do a self-guided river-rafting adventure down the Nantahala River.  At least, I'm pretty sure that was this trip, and we were on the Nantahala?  Maybe I'm wrong.  But I'm definitely right about it being the self-guided option, and without the official instructor giving instructions, I remember those first moments on the river.  

None of us were really working together, we were frustrated, but then finally, somehow, we got into a groove and figured out what we were doing and had a really good time.

Last night we all had various problems starting out:  the wrong shoes, unfamiliar bike gears, bikes that were uncomfortable sizes, someone (maybe me) who went on a 5-mile ride with her husband the night before already had a sore rear end and groaned when she sat back down on that seat.  K.J. said, "This might be a really short ride."  Who could blame him for thinking so?

But somehow, we found our groove.

And that's just the way it is with family endeavors or maybe with any other kind of group.  The less-than-stellar start won't define the whole journey.  The grumpy attitudes will get worked out, and the best part of the memory will be like mine rafting down the Nantahala with my family:  the taste of the cold, sweet water splashing in my mouth and the thrill of the ride.

New Family Rhythms

This is such an unprecedented time in history we're all experiencing right now.  For some it's been a nightmare; for some it's been a sweet time of family renewal.  I read such heartbreaking stories online, and I also read the most uplifting stories of people outdoing one another in doing good things. I know you all do, too; I don't need to tell you what this time is like. 

My family was already a homeschooling, work-from-home family when the French confinement began, but we've still adopted a few new rhythms that I know will forever mark this time in our memories, and I want to record them here.

Family Read Alouds at Night

Somewhere along the way the kids moved into reading on their own in bed before going to sleep, and I was no longer reading with them at bedtime.  I've heard it said you don't realize the last time you pick up your child in your arms, and it must be similar with bedtime stories.  When was the last time I snuggled in bed with each of my kids to read to them?  

Nostalgic rumination aside, Ella suggested a family read-aloud of The Chronicles of Narnia for this lock-down period, and I'm so glad she did!  It's worked out brilliantly.  The books are short enough to read aloud in a week or less usually, so it's a series that will easily be completed, and while we've each had our own separate experiences with Aslan and Narnia, it's delightful to go on this journey together.  Every night around 8 p.m. we gather in the living room for about 45 minutes of reading.  When normal life eventually resumes, I know I will miss the every-nightness of this event.

Walking in the Garden

Before the lock-down when I wanted to go for a walk I always laced up my shoes and either walked to the local park or around our town on the sidewalks.  But since we've been obliged to fill out a form and carry our ID with us when we go out for exercise, I've only left the little walled garden where we live once.  The pacing back and forth began one day with me wondering how far I could manage to walk in the garden keeping track of my mileage on my Fitbit, and it turned into a habit.  I was inspired by a friend in church who is keeping up with her 10,000 steps a day pacing in her tiny Paris apartment.  Several times a day I'm now out in the garden walking back and forth across the longest part, wearing a path in the grass until my Fitbit buzzes and fireworks shoot across the screen.  It's also become a time of day for K.J. and I to talk and share the day's news without the kids listening in on the conversation.  We've been having afternoon dates pacing in the garden, and it makes the steps go by faster.

Almost Daily Piano Practice for Ella

Noreen has a beautiful piano, and Ella's been using this time to teach herself how to play.  Staying home places limitations on what we can do, and that's not a completely bad thing.  She has access to a lot of Easy Piano arrangements through my Scribd subscription; the key to her devoting herself to practice has been learning songs she actually likes.  These days if you're in the garden and Noreen's windows are open you will hear Han and Leia's Theme, As Time Goes By, themes from La La Land and Pirates of the Caribbean.  

Sports in the Garden

K.J. has told a lot of people he feels like he almost missed out on the time-honored tradition of regularly throwing a football with James in the backyard.  This slowing down of time has given space for soccer drills, throwing the football, and James is also regularly out with a bow and arrow purchased at a castle in Wales.  Now that the weather is warming up, the big water guns we brought back from the U.S. last summer are making a re-appearance.  

In addition to more outdoor play, James has regular Minecraft/FaceTime calls with friends now.  He takes possession of my phone and computer, and the voices of boys telling each other to kill things, build things, and teleport can be heard all through the house because little boys just talk loudly.

Those are a few of our new family rhythms.  What about you?  Are you into puzzles now, watching through a TV series or re-reading favorite books?  Shout-out to another friend in Paris who moved her furniture back against the walls and created a Four Square court in her apartment so her kids could burn some energy.  These are the stories we'll all be telling for the rest of our lives.

The Best Way to Make Sure Your Kids Entertain Themselves

Coronavirus Captivity is upon us all, and it lends itself to journal-style writing, which I intended to do more of this month.  I could tell at the end of February these "social-distancing" measures were needed to stop rampant spread, and it honestly just feels like a relief to have the government here announce increasing measures.  One big decision saves me from having to continue making a thousand small decisions about whether or not I should take public transportation or go to a highly-trafficked place.  I have close contact with a nearly 94-year-old, so I need to keep away from exposure if I can.

No More Train Rides for Awhile

I've seen a lot of people asking questions about what to do with their kids while they're home.  My best advice is to make an agenda like you're a homeschooling parent, and as soon as you have a plan of activities ready for the day, you'll find your kids magically playing together without fighting, using their imaginations and their time constructively.  Back out of the room slowly, and leave them alone.  

But seriously, I don't know how many times that phenomenon happened to me.  As surely as I didn't have anything planned there would be much fighting and sighing about how bored they were.  As soon as I felt prepared for the day they didn't need my input.  

Blast from the Past, when they created a Quiet Corner

Other ideas include:

• Legoes - If you have a big collection it's fun to look online for different ideas of things you can build besides the original use.  Sometimes my kids like taking things apart and rebuilding them or repairing big things that have lost pieces along the way.
• Art for Kids Hub is fantastic!
• YouTube in general has so much great content.  We really love watching Crash Course.    I'd give the caveat that content might not always be appropriate for younger viewers.
• Blanket Forts - Letting them make a giant blanket fort often leads to a lot of creative play or reading inside.  Kids love making cozy secret spaces.
• Baking - Someone on Instagram reminded me it was Pi day today, so that's as good a reason as any to get in the kitchen.  One thing we used to do each Friday in England was to have "Cafe School."  This meant we baked something and made hot chocolate and did our history lesson or read aloud around the table with treats.
• Reading Aloud - Letting kids color, play with stickers or other small toys while you read something funny aloud can be really fun.  Now that E's older she's been working on a cross-stitching project during read-alouds.  My brother-in-law reads But, I Still Had Feet to all the cousins at Christmas time, and they roar with laughter.
• Going for a walk or neighborhood bike ride burns off energy.  
• Watercoloring - Throw out the plastic tablecloth, and let them at it.
• Quiet Time - The best benefit of having structured time in the morning is everyone is usually more willing to have quiet reading or movie time in the afternoon, and you can have a break, too.
• A Backyard Picnic - If the weather is nice, it makes lunchtime more fun.

I hope everyone stays well and happy at home as you love your family and love your neighbor.  Stay safe out there.

The Joy of Baptism and Religious Freedom

Sunday was a special Palm Sunday for our family.  

It's been a joy to watch James's faith in Jesus grow, and he's been wanting to be baptized for awhile now.  He was baptized alongside people from the Philippines, Nigeria, and Syria, such a special picture of how God is saving people from every tribe and nation.  What a gift to celebrate this moment here with our Emmanuel International Church family.

  

I was especially moved after talking to someone who previously lived in a country too frightening for them to be baptized in, for fear of what retaliation might be taken by the government.  For those of us who have always breathed the air of freedom, how thankful we ought to be!  This dear person was so thankful to now be living in a place with religious freedom.  

Earlier in the week I'd read 1 Timothy 2, and I want to take Paul's admonition more to heart, because I want to be thankful for and keep living a quiet life with all godliness and dignity.  I want others to be free to live a life of dignity without fear, too.  Join me? 

Cousins, Nephews, and a French Lesson

Over the month we were home for Christmas we got to meet another new nephew.  We've gained so many in the four years we've lived overseas!

I was browsing through newborn clothes in Monoprix when my newest nephew was born for something with French writing that couldn't be found in the U.S.  I ultimately passed everything by because it said something like petite chou, and when I quickly Googled chou on my phone it said it meant cabbage, which confused me.  I was pretty sure it would also confuse my sister-in-law if she Googled it, so I refrained from buying anything that day.  

But when you're learning a language you should always ask someone who knows more than you, and when I finally did I learned that though chou is indeed the word for cabbage, it also means something like, "cutie" or "sweetie" or even the English, "poppet."  I went shopping for Christmas with my newfound knowledge and now understood that this outfit proclaimed my newest nephew so cute and not so cabbage.  

The French are not alone in using vegetables as terms of endearment.  Much to her confusion, I've called Ella "little pun'kin" her entire life.  Sometimes this was shortened to "little punk," which doesn't seem as sweet.  Cue the pre-teen side-eye.

And now a few family pictures for good measure.

Trop chou indeed.  If you've ever tried to learn a new language, what's been your favorite phrase or expression that doesn't quite translate literally?

Le Grand Trianon

Visiting the palace in Versailles is a popular touristy thing to do when you visit Paris, and we wanted to give K.J.'s parents a glimpse.  They got the more intimate tour because our favorite areas are around the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon, and Marie Anotoinette's hamlet.  It's a great place to ride bikes, so while the kids and our husbands went on a cycling adventure  T and I went inside the Grand Trianon, a smaller palace commissioned by Louis XIV.  I love this pretty blue room!

It has been a few years since I last walked through the Grand Trianon, and I was excited to see the terrace again.  It opens up to gardens on the left and a courtyard on the right and is so beautiful!

There's something about that open, light-filled space with that black and white floor that is stunning.

My other reason for preferring this back corner of the Versailles property is that there are gardens with flowers and grass.  The more formal gardens are all shrubs and perfectly trimmed trees along straight dusty paths.  

Our intention was to walk through the gardens to the hamlet Marie Antoinette had built so she could play at life as a peasant.  Unfortunately, I have long had a bone to pick with arrows on French signs.  They twist and turn and point in directions that don't always seem to indicate the direction they want you to go.  All that to say, we took a wrong turn at a sign and missed the hamlet.  We were treated instead to gorgeous fall trees in a quiet space devoid of all other visitors, so we weren't complaining.

I'd be happy to be lost here any day of the week.

Here come the grandparents!

We drove to the airport on the coldest and rainiest day we'd seen all month.  And while we got stuck in traffic on the way, pick-up at Terminal 1 is quick and easy.  Driving from the airport to our first home in Paris the grandparents' first views look like any other city, but that gradually changes.  We open presents from friends, and our hearts are so filled with love and gratefulness.  I dash through the neighborhood looking for a store still open to buy a late lunch.  I also need to buy some bread for the Lord's Supper for the church service, but almost every store is closed on Sunday afternoons, and I wonder briefly if using a croissant would be acceptable.  

Before we celebrated the most French-ified Lord's Supper ever, I remember a store open near EIC Ternes.  We gather after the service to talk and share and then got our travelers home to sleep.  Monday is a rest and recovery day, but Tuesday we take them for a walk around Paris, starting with Place de la Concorde, former home of the guillotine.  I am always in awe at Napoleon's decision to bring back that obelisk from Egypt.

We walk through Jardin des Tuileries, and the October sunshine is so glorious!

We buy lunch from a stand and meet a friend to eat beneath the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.  Never in the place you want them, K.J. walks a long way to find someone selling 1 euro bottles of water.  It feels wrong to pay three.

We don't want to use all of our energy walking through The Louvre, so we just say hello from the outside.  The architecture is looking especially lovely on this autumn day.

No trip to Paris is complete without strolling by the River Seine.  It gives you that quintessential Paris feeling, and you never know what you'll see.

We pass a climbing wall with the cushy playground material below it.  It's pretty challenging when you're wearing a backpack, which is the only reason I pass it by, of course. Of course.

We also pass by a couple of swings.  It seems a very idyllic thing to do, swinging under a yellow tree beside the River Seine.  Our hearts are always so full and grateful when our families join us in our adopted towns, and we slow down to enjoy and take it all in.

And then we walk by Notre Dame, who I am delighted to find has readied herself for fall with a scarecrow!  I wasn't expecting that.

We duck into Shakespeare & Co. where Ella finds the second-hand Tolkien she's been searching for, and then we head for our Paris home and our favorite hostesses, Maria and Lixie.

 

Maria gathers cutlery and dishes when she travels and uses them to make an ordinary Tuesday extraordinarily special.

"Give thanks in everything,

for this is God's will for you

in Christ Jesus."

- 1 Thessalonians 5:18 -