Caped Crusaders, Then and Now

My brother, Jesse, 1990 or '91

I can't remember now which folder it was in.

Every super-hero starts out with a baby blanket around his neck.

I grew up with brothers.

One of the reasons I love having brothers is that sometimes I get text messages like this:

How was the Easter service?

I was going to go to the tashi station to pick up some power converters

 but I had to come to work.

Immediately I felt 12-years-old again, and it was June and hot, hot summertime, and we spent every day one week going to Vacation Bible School.  Then we'd come home at lunch, and Mom would fire up the grill, and we'd watch Star Wars.  And life didn't get much better than that, though I'm sure I didn't know it at the time.

When You Put a Seed in the Ground

Look at this!  Can you believe it?

I can't.

The Saturday before Easter I put a packet of Zinnia seeds in a pot of soil in my backyard.  I patted the dirt down gently and watered it.  I was skeptical of anything happening because my experience with seeds and plants is extremely limited.  KJ actually doesn't like it when I buy potted flowers because he feels like they face certain death by my hand.  There are a lot of areas I desire to learn and grow in, and tending plants and flowers and landscaping is one of them.  Maybe not landscaping.

But look!  My seeds germinated.  I've tried to be very disciplined about watering this pot of dirt during the past week and a half.  I picked the Zinnias because the packet said they bloomed all the way through the summer, and they needed full sun.  And we have full sun.  Yesterday I went out in the backyard with James so he could run around and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw these little bits of green pushing up through the dirt.

Looking at these pictures this morning brings a lot of words to mind and kind of makes me want to read The Secret Garden.  "Might I have a bit of earth?"

Would you look at that.  When you put a seed in the ground something new and alive comes up.  There's a lesson in that.  Didn't Jesus say something about it?

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,

it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Those seeds sat on my kitchen shelf for a couple of weeks before I put them in the ground.  No change happened to them sitting high up on the shelf, and when I buried them in the dark I couldn't see what was happening.  I wondered if anything would happen at all.  

"He who loves his life loses it; 

and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal."

It encouraged my heart this morning to remember that God is doing work and bringing new life in the dark and secret places where I die to myself, when I lay my life down and nobody sees. 

Snuggle Time

Sunday afternoon snuggles

Writing the word snuggle a couple of times made me remember how about a month or so ago, James started chiming in with the commercials aired on Nickelodeon (too much TV, anyone?).  One of his favorites was the end of the Downey commercial when the little bear says, "Let's snuggle."  James always said that line with a big grin.  His current favorite is the Nationwide Insurance commercial.  He sings out, "Nationwide is on your side."  His nationwide is a little blurry, but he's got the rest down pat.  

I didn't intend on writing about commercials.

I meant to write about the sweet snuggle time I had with my kiddos last night while KJ was gone to a prayer meeting.  We piled on the couch to listen to Ella do her reading for school (See, we DO engage in other activities besides TV-watching at our house!).  James sat relatively still for him and laid his head on my chest and let me hold his hands and rub his sweet, soft cheeks and give him kisses.  It was the sweetest thing.  

We've been trying to make him aware of his drooling and the wet spots it leaves behind.  He saw a spot on my shirt, pointed to it, and said, "Drool."  Oh, that boy.  He then noticed the freckles on my arms and started pointing at all of them, saying, "Dots!"  I squeezed him tight, and Ella read on, "bank, trunk, name, while, unto, within...".

Ella's Turn

A few weeks ago I recorded a little bit of the happenings in James' life.  I wanted to share about Ella, as well, but that doesn't seem to come quite as easily.  I think it's because she's older now, and her life is made up of more complex, inward changes than simply the developing of language skills.  And after all, she is now able to read at least half of the words I might write!  Sharing about her sweet little life is a little different now than in the baby years.  

That being said, I think sweet and precious are definitely words I would use to describe her.  I've had very delightful, grown-up conversations with her of late.  

Mom, is it okay if I use some of my money to buy something at the book fair?

She didn't ask for something.  She asked if she could use HER money to buy something.  She knew exactly what she wanted, and while her assertion that everything cost $5 was wrong, we allowed her to buy the book she had her eye on.  

Speaking of books, I love to read, and I don't really like to listen to other people read aloud as much as I prefer to read things myself.  But there is one little person that I love listening to as she reads.  That's saying something.  Ella is a good reader, and I love it when I catch her reading silently to herself in her bedroom, enjoying it.

I love watching her find the correct page in her Bible at church on Sunday, and I love watching her take care of her little brother.  I absolutely cannot wait for summer and having her with me 24/7.  24/7 care of your children has its moments of making a mom lose her mind, but without it you miss a million really sweet moments of living life together.  I'm ready to resume trips to the library and the playground and maybe take a few road-trips as well.  I miss having my girl with me all of the time.

Ella is very driven to learn and accomplish.  The girls are always the first ones up at our house, and early Saturday morning Ella pulled out a workbook about time and money, and we worked on her analog-clock-reading skills.  That was the way she wanted to spend her Saturday morning.  She spent Sunday and Monday nights reading aloud 6 Dr. Seuss books to me and KJ.  

She likes to play with Princess and Barbie dolls, and she's a really fast runner.  She's pretty much the best.  James thinks so, too.  He keeps coming over to the computer to admire his sister.

Monday's Memories: To Southampton!

It was late afternoon when we left Steventon.  We didn't really want to go.  It had been so beautiful and such a lovely and peaceful day.

(You should click on this pic once to see it larger.)

It seemed too early to just return to our inn, so we decided to make a mad dash to Southampton.  In my original trip plans I thought we would spend a little more time there, but along with Portsmouth it got left behind when our lodging for the second night changed.  I don't think we missed out on too much, but it was the place where Henry V set out for France (KJ's favorite bit of history, I'm sure), where our forefathers left on the Mayflower, where the ill-fated Titanic left the shores of England.  It's a pretty important port city in history, I would say.

So though we didn't have much time it suddenly became my goal to make it to the water by sunset. Traveling on the M3 that evening KJ pointed out what should have been obvious to me, that the slow lane was now the left lane.  We had no idea exactly what our destination should be, but as we pulled into the environs of Southampton 30 minutes later we saw several signs for the docks.  I told KJ to follow them since docks had to be on the water, and it was almost sunset, so let's hurry!  

We soon found a sign that read Mayflower Park.  Perfect.  Disappointingly enough, we couldn't find any special plaque that read, "The Mayflower embarked from this spot," or anything specific like that, but we settled for the fact that we were in the general vicinity.  I don't think we really had the best view from the city, but we made it in time for the sunset, so for that I was happy and thankful.

KJ remarked that the view below was quintessential England, Industrial Revolution-ish. (Is that what they called it there?)

When I turned it into a black and white I thought you could set Oliver Twist loose on the streets there with no problem.  Look at those smokestacks.

Having made the sunset we started wondering, "What now?"  We knew everything was probably closed, and it was getting dark, but there was one other place I wanted to see.  Netley Abbey.  I learned about it through reading various Jane Austen spin-off books.  The Austen women spent some time living in Southampton with her brother Frank, who was in the Royal Navy, after their father died.  The row of houses where they lived isn't standing anymore, but Netley Abbey was in ruins even in her day and was a popular picnic spot, I think.  

Unfortunately for us, the bridge across the inlet was down for some reason so we had to drive all the way around, through the city centre, and then weaving in and out of dark neighborhood streets.  That night was one of the instances KJ forgot he was in England and made a turn onto the right side of the road.  It was dark, and there were no other cars or reminders...until a car was headed right toward us down the winding road, headlights in our faces.  Whoops.

At that point we were nearly there, and the gates were closed, but we set up the tripod nonetheless to get a couple of pictures.  We were looking at the ruins of Netley Abbey, even if it was from a distance!

Contrary to what it may appear, it is pitch black at this point.  There was a cottage inhabited by...the gatekeeper??...they still have those?...that had lights shining around the lot.  We set the exposure on the camera and used the self-timer so there would be no camera shake and then proceeded to wait for the longest exposure time of our trip.  It was crazy.  I pressed the button, and we waited and waited and waited for the shutter to release.  I was shivering with the cold sea air and nervous that someone would come out of the cottage and tell us to be on our way, but we managed a couple of shots.

KJ set up a shot for me without the gate in it.  He became really adept at handling the tripod and setting up shots.  We soon fell into a routine of me setting the camera settings and him handling everything else.  I remember standing outside our little rental car while we waited on this picture to take, laughing and being so happy.

1238...Oh, England, you have the oldest ruins.

At this point, it was dark, cold, and we were starving, so we set the GPS coordinates back to Alton and The Three Horseshoes, where a hot meal and a cozy fire awaited us.  This was the night we overheard one of the men who worked there trying to explain to the lady working at the bar who Davey Crockett was.  We just laughed. We enjoyed a nice night in our separate twin beds (Twin beds make for cheaper rooms.) and packed up our bags.  The next day we were headed to Oxford, but we had one more to stop to make in Hampshire first.

James + Luke in Black and White

Luke came over early this morning, so after his nap I needed to change him out of his pajamas.  As long as he was in nothing but a diaper I couldn't resist a few pictures.  And James didn't want to miss out on the fun, either.