Twisty

Life has a tendency to take many unexpected twists and turns.  Four years ago I wouldn't have believed that between 2010 and 2013 I would go to Africa and England, see two of my three children get married, move out of our historic Civil War era house, renovate my in-laws house and move into it, put both of the aforementioned houses up for sale, and be preparing to move to a rental house and then build another house.

Here's how it happened:
Big Life Twist #1
We went to Africa on a mission trip in 2010 and found out that our happiness has little to do with our stuff and much more to do with serving God in ways He designs and in ways we wouldn't even think of.

We kept saying to each other, "Can you believe we are in Africa?!!"

Collating papers for books for pastors in Namibia.

Then in 2011, we got ourselves a new member of the family.  This was not an unexpected twist, just a wonderful one.

Very Unexpected Twist
About that same time we decided to downsize and move from the historic house we had cherished for over 20 years to something smaller and more practical.  Life's not about stuff, you know?  But we kept both houses just in case the kids would want our stuff.

Great house for raising kids

The cute downsizer

2012 found us happily living in our downsized house, celebrating the engagement of child #2 and getting ready to welcome a new son-in-law.

We also traveled to England for a family vacation.  We LOVE being with our kids.  It doesn't matter where-- in any location, any house, any country...

Now in 2013, our house is a lovely place to live and entertain...

Bridal shower

But, it turns out that our kids don't really want our "stuff" (i.e. houses) either. They're going to do their own thing in their own time in their own places. You see, it's all about the people.  It's not about keeping all the stuff in the family.  Like I said, it doesn't matter where we live.  Good relationships aren't contingent on certain locations.  And our happiness isn't rooted in a certain rectangular structure in southern Pennsylvania.

Most Recent Bold Twist: sell them both!
Yep, let's simplify, downsize, start over.  We're ready to move on.  Well, we're not moving very far, but we are starting over.  I'm so excited!  I'm excited to get rid of the baggage of way too much property, lawn, furniture.... stuff.  I'm excited to empty nest with my great husband of THIRTY years (well almost empty nest-- the youngest is in college-- and we love having her home this summer!)  I'm excited to build something brand new.  I'm excited at the thought of having more freedom to serve God in whatever way He leads us.  I am hoping He leads me to Haiti soon, maybe back to Namibia... who knows?

Let's build a house right about... here.

Are we nuts?  Maybe so.  If we are, I hope we're almonds.  They are so good with chocolate.

Foreign Family Fun

We love family vacations.  It's so much fun to travel together, to see historically or scenically significant places together, and most especially to spend quantity and quality time together.  The beauty of a vacation is that (if you choose to), you can be disconnected from email, phones and schedules and  even the pervasive TV.

Recently, our family traveled to England.  This is unusual for us, because we don't usually travel "abroad" for vacations.  We went there because our son and daughter-in-law live there and we hadn't seen them for seven months.  People have been asking me about our trip and what our favorite places were.  It's funny, because although we got to see gorgeous scenery, to appreciate stunning ancient architecture, and to hear charming British accents and their unique vocabulary, my favorite things about vacation are family moments.

We stayed with some very gracious people the whole time-- our son and daughter-in-law-- so there were plenty of opportunities for family moments!  We got to sit around their dining room table eating, playing games and talking.

We sat in their TV-less living room catching up on pictures and stories from the last seven months we've been apart.  We stood together on the roof of a cathedral that had its beginning almost 1,000 years ago with dark, menacing clouds swirling overhead and charming, centuries-old stone buildings far below.

 We betted tiny wagers on racehorses and cheered together when they won.

We jammed ourselves into the Underground cars during rush hour while the shorter ones among us snagged a sleeve or belt loop of a tall Dad or husband, while trying to simultaneously avoid the strangers' armpits who were easily gripping the overhead bars.  Or there was the time Dad didn't have time to get a handhold before the train started... watch out!

Of course, I couldn't take pictures under those circumstances-- this is from a calmer ride.

We relaxed in a variety of British pubs for lunch, snacks, dinner or just for cards and games in the evening over a pitcher of Pimm's, a fruity concoction which we girls quickly grew fond of.  One of the pubs was even a hang-out of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, some of our favorite authors.  We got to sit at their very table at the Eagle and Child.  The others were The Golden Lion, The Eagle, The Salamander, The Running Horse, and The Turf Tavern. Really, we were mostly eating at those places!

Nachos= bad choice for pub food.

Sticky toffee pudding= good pub food

We sniffed lovely roses,

 joked about a certain British lord, met a few of D & E's friends, ate savory sandwiches from the Sandwich Mill (a local British version of Subway) and posed together for family photos in strategic places wherever we went.  






We got excitedly disturbed over thinking our rental van was struck by lighting as we were driving through a storm, then had a good laugh when it turned out to be a soda bottle popping as it contracted or expanded in a door pocket of the van.  We traipsed together through sunshine and rain in beautiful cities like Bath, Oxford, Cambridge and London, drinking in centuries of history, pomp and circumstance. 

Buckingham Palace

In the mornings we would watch from D & E's windows as racehorses were being exercised on the tracks up to the heath behind their apartment.  Then, in the evening, we would get our own exercise walking up to the heath.  

Memorable quotes:
"Look at those big buoys!"
"It's Pimm's o'clock!"
"I think we were struck by lightning!"  "Twice in one day?"  "I bet we will get super powers."
"Do those stairs go up or down?"
"I'm running down to Iceland for some milk."
"Look at that mallard."
"If it's yellow..."
"Emmieee-- I miss you!"
"Anyone wanna play Bananagrams?"
"What was in your Kinder Egg?"
"Those are some nice sandals, Archie."
"We are so posh."
"Would you like any salad on your sandwich?"
"Can you exchange these two euros for pounds?  We need to buy drano."

We left England filled up with memories, feeling that God had blessed us with time set apart to reconnect as a family.  There were tears mixed in the with hugs and kisses at "goodbye".  But that's a good sign of how much we enjoy each others' company.  You can't pick your family, but I thank God that He picked a fantastic one for me!

Gird Up Your Loins, Girl! Part 1

My daughter is so cute.  I mean that in a literal way.  She is petite and beautiful, which equals cute.  Here's some pictures of her cute self.

She is also cute because she does cute things.  Right now she is freaking out over an ultimatum I gave her.  She applied for a summer job and sort of got an offer, but nothing is nailed down.  She has only communicated with said future employer by email.  The ultimatum is that if he doesn't respond via email today, she MUST pick up the phone and call him.  Aye yi yi!  (I don't know how that should be spelled, do you?)  She is so "concerned" about this that she texted me from school today, which is illegal for her, by the way.

Here's how our conversation went:
10:29 a.m. B:  I'm dreading coming home today.  meh!!!
Mom (that's me):  Oh my word.  Gird up ur loins girl! [we used that Biblical expression at the dinner table last night regarding gathering up your courage to do things you don't want to do].  He probly wont even aswer the phone.  I will give u chocolate... [we know what each other is saying even with all the typos and shortcuts].
10:32 a.m.  B:  I checked my email a little bit ago and there was nothing!!!!!  I hope he doesnt answer and then when he listens to the message he will be like, 'oh i need to email her back! Ill do that right now!'  Yay!!!! Chocolate ;)
Mom:  Hahahaha
2:36 p.m.  B:  Ahhh!!! :(
Mom:  [No answer because the daughter is getting ready to drive home presumably and definitely cannot read or respond to texts then]
2:43 p.m.  B:  Hey! Im gonna stop at the outlets and get a pair of flip flops at old navy real quick.  Eventhough i just want to get this stupid call overr with.
Mom:  I bet u r running away from home.
B:  You caught me!

So, you can see that she is freaking out.  Calling people on the phone is not her forte.  Mine neither.  My friend, Cynthia, and I have a running joke.  She hates calling people on the phone too, so we don't talk on the phone very often!  It's quite a treat when one of us calls the other, because we know we have to gird up our loins to do it.  Actually she doesn't know anything about girding up her loins, because I've never used that expression with her.  But she does it sometimes anyhow.  I'm going to get back to girding up loins in a minute because it's quite fascinating.

But meanwhile, back to Bekah.  She gets home from school after stopping at Old Navy.  I hid inside and watched her come in the sidewalk so I could snap a picture:  I suspected she would look something like this, and she did not disappoint!

 

Remember that kids book "Alexander's Terrible Horrible No-Good Rotten Day" or something like that?  She looks like Alexander.

 Then I took this picture as she was holding the phone getting ready to make the call while she was saying, "Why are you taking my picture??!"  She didn't know I was going to blog about her.  She got black flip flops because she's not a frilly pink kind of girl.

Then... drum roll please...  she made the phone call.  About 60 seconds later the deed was done and here's how she looked.

This is the face of relief.  And the phone call went well.  We think.  She probably has a summer job.  Or at least she doesn't not have a summer job.

Now I could stop here and this blog would be plenty long.  In fact, I will stop here.  Tune in tomorrow for "Gird Up Your Loins, Girl! Part 2" to find out where that expression comes from in the Bible and how it's used.  Absolutely fascinating!  (But I don't know what I'll use for pictures...)

This started out to be about family, but ended up being about dessert.

I love my family.  This will probably not be a deep, spiritual post other than to say that I am thankful to God for my wonderful husband, my kids, my parents & in-laws and my relationship with all of them.  Hey, every family has their dysfunction and ours is no exception, but that just means we're human.

This picture is from the "February birthdays" get-together my mom always has.  My husband, Dad & father-in-law all have February birthdays.  This usually involves pie and this year there was even cake!

 Daffodil cake and strawberry pie in February=a welcome touch of spring.

 Thanks Mom!

This is Katie and her fiancee.  Aren't they cute?  We are deep into wedding plans already for the summer of 2013.  I'm sure you'll be reading more about that in the future.

 This is from a separate party for my father-in-law.  The funny thing is that we couldn't find any matches to light the candles, so all his efforts were only for the photo op!

This is my mother-in-law trying out Katie's new iPhone.  I just got a kick out of this, so I threw it in.

Now, Wayne's birthday isn't for a couple of days yet, but I cheated and gave him his present early.  He's the last one of us who was Kindle-less, so we had to remedy that situation.  Aren't our girls precious with their Dad?

 We went to Baltimore on President's Day weekend in order to attend a bridal show and do some sightseeing.  We found that most museums in Baltimore are closed on Mondays, so that was unfortunate.  But we found plenty to do anyway.

We always wanted to take the kids to the Maryland Science Center, so now was the chance as it was one of the few places open (I know, I know, we could have gone to the aquarium, but we've been there, done that).  I think we were about 10 years too late for the age of our kids, but we had fun with the hands-on stuff anyway, as well as seeing an IMAX movie of Shackleton's antarctic adventures and a planetarium show about black holes.  Yes, we are geeks and we don't mind people knowing that.

Then, we took a lovely walk around the harbor to get to Little Italy.  A friend had told us about a marvelous Italian bakery there.  Thanks Tesha! 

 As you can see, Katie is practically giddy with excitement.  We do love our desserts.

And there it is.

It is an extremely popular place, but we got a table and settled in to have dinner.

Ahem.  I am ashamed to say, this is just my plate.  Hey, they are MINI cannolis and cream puffs, thank you very much.

 Wayne opted for gelato.  (I did share some of mine, and brought a bunch home.  I'm not a total glutton).

 Katie's giddiness did not subside for some time.

And yes, I think Bekah's eclair was bigger than her face, haha!

The end.

P.S.  After the last couple of weeks, Wayne & I decided we need to improve our eating habits.  No, seriously?  You think so?