loss and grace

We can't find the box of Seth's artwork anywhere. We spent hours looking yesterday and have exhausted all possibilities at home. The box also includes his school pictures, cards he has received, school projects...everything since his first drawings. I've been feeling sick about it. Last night I braced myself before I told Seth. I was preparing my response to "OK, then we're going to have to throw away everything that Isaac has ever drawn!" Seth saw my teary eyes as I explained. "Well, I can start making up for the lost ones right now," he said as he reached for the markers and started drawing. Our last hope was dashed today when we heard that it hadn't accidentally been moved to Portland with Lois Jean instead of here. I'm thankful for the few that we scanned.

creations

Seth is full of creative ideas and usually has several simultaneous projects going in various stages of completion. Yesterday he created a treasure hunt of sorts, changing the search from presents to stars and trees for today's hunt. The picture with his cousin Annelise is from a play the kids created and performed for the adults. I haven't yet gotten around to taking photos of today's confetti salt shaker or yesterday's duct tape shooter or yarn trap....I guess I'm too busy vacuuming up the scraps and putting scissors back in place.

crawl space

In my parents' new house in Goshen, there is a crawl space in the basement because the Mennonites who built it didn't want to spend the extra change to finish out the basement. Before our last visit, my mom put carpets down and cleared out some boxes so the kids could play there. We took a trip to the thrift store and got 4 strings of Christmas lights, a coffee table, tablecloth, and cloth to hang up to hide the insulation. The kids love the space, and even the adults got in on a bit of the excitement.

duct tape wallet

A few weeks ago I made a duct tape wallet for a friend for her birthday. I got the instructions online at http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Duct-Tape-Wallet

Tonight I was looking at the online catalog hearthsong and found a duct tape wallet kit for kids for $20. I guess it's the in thing now.

fiddling around

During a pause in Isaac’s violin practice tonight, he started fiddling around with a melody he was familiar with, but had never played. We found the piece on our computer MP3 files and he played along by ear. Theo and Jon waltzed together in the living room.

Halloween

Walking down Bluffton's Main Steet on Halloween felt like walking in New York City during rush hour. We had only a handful of trick-or-treaters (a block off Main St), while the neighbors on Main got 850!

Jonathan and I took a group of 7 Bluffton students to New York City for an MCC-sponsored conference on climate change. A few things that stood out for me…

• The hottest years on record are, in order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006. The first 6 months of 2007 have so far been the 2^nd hottest ever.
• The impact of climate change will be felt worst in sub-Saharan Africa and Asian lowlands. They are already at their upper limit of temperature tolerance. This will put many more people in a poverty trap than already are.
• Check out this youtube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjlJ_CS_xWw
• It is a critical time for decision-making about climate change, as the UN Climate Change conference is coming up in December in Bali.

Going to New York was such a good experience on so many levels. Learning more specifics helps motivate me to do more about global warming. It was good to connect with the students on the trip and to learn to know them a bit. I went to see Wicked on Broadway and loved the story, the costumes, the characters (Thanks for the recommendation, Karin!). We went to the MoMA and got I teary seeing van Gogh’s Starry Night. For old time’s sake, we took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty (my favorite thing to do during my 3^rd year of life when we lived near Harlem while dad went to seminary). I was amazed how cheaply we could get really good food in NYC. It seemed there were markets with organic food on every other block. We ate sushi, Vietnamese pho, dragon eyes, marinated mushrooms, salmon, roasted red peppers, sesame crackers, blue cheese, gyros for about $8 a day. Navigating the subway felt like good Alzheimers prevention. I spent Saturday morning with Jennifer, a college friend who teaches English and belly dance and writes fiction. It was so good to see her. Meanwhile, back at home, Theo cried less in 4 days with Oma and Opa than he does in a day with me. Oma got to experience cuddling with her last grandbaby at night. Isaac and Seth got lots of special time with grandparents, including going bowling, seeing the Bee Movie, and going out for steamers at the coffee shop. It was good all around.

Glennis and Theo

Glennis, whom Theo calls "Oma," comes over weekly to arrange a time when she can play with Theo. Every week, she buys some new toy from Et Cetera Shop to play with him. This is all the more sweet to us because Glennis and Jon's mom were dear friends during college.

Corn Maze

Yesterday we took the Venture Club (3rd-5th graders from church) to Suter's Corn Maze. Isaac groaned when he heard the rule that no running was allowed, but we all ended up having a fabulous time.

Boys

In helping Isaac and Seth to adjust to all the changes in their lives in the past months, I checked out the book Raising Cain: Proctecting the emotional life of boys. I know a lot is going on within them that they don’t know how to express or are choosing not to express. Here are a few notes I took from the book.

1. Give boys permission to have an internal life, approval for the full range of human emotions, and help in developing an emotional vocabulary so they can better understand themselves and communicate with others. Create space in life for sharing to happen…at bedtime, while driving, being outside together. Share moral dilemmas with them and talk about your own inner life with them.
   

2. Recognize and accept the high activity level of boys and give them safe places to express it. A Montessori school in Minneapolis allowed children to go into a designated space in the hallway to jump rope whenever they got restless. Wouldn’t that be great?
   

3. Talk to boys in a way that honors their pride and masculinity. Use them as consultants and problem solvers. Ask “How do you suggest we deal with this?” or “I would have felt frightened if it were me.” Ask how he thinks his friends feel about something.

4. Teach boys that emotional courage is courage, and that empathy and courage are the sources of real strength in life. Find models of moral and emotional courage and talk about them, both from history and in real life. Give them opportunities to experience empathy.
   

5. Use discipline to build character and conscience, not enemies. Guide rather than punish.
   

6. Model a manhood of emotional attachment.
   

7. Teach boys that there are many ways to be a man.

Bluffton University homecoming parade

Jonathan riding with our neighbor, Sara Chappell-Dick

Surprise connections

Our decision to move here was influenced partly by the connections we had here that we knew we would enjoy...friends from our Markham days, friends from our Chicago days, and a friend's extended family. And then there are little surprise connections that we are still discovering, like...

We live across the street from Jon's mom's college roommate and dear friend.
Seth's Sunday School teacher is a dear woman we visited in Japan when I was in 8th grade.
Seth's piano teacher is my third cousin.
The house we hope to buy belongs to the dad of the guy we rented Jon's dad's house to in Newton.

We are so grateful to be a part of a web of relationships that goes back since before we were born.

COSI science museum in Toledo

We had a fun day, riding a bike on a high wire, watching a loud demonstration on combustion, creating funny faces, walking in a slanted house, giving babies shots, making discs spin, getting soaked playing with water and pipes. (Click on a photo to enlarge it.)

Things Theo communicated with sign language (and a few words) this week

There is Bobbie's house. Bobbie is sleeping (house was dark). Let's go pick raspberries in her back yard.

There is where Dada works.

Mama, play that game where you try to eat the food off my spoon, I eat it, and then you cry!

Isaac, take me outside to look for fire trucks.

Seth is at school.

Keep singing and patting my back while I'm trying to go to sleep.

There is Oma's car.

Mama, go outside with me and mow the lawn. (not now) OK, Dada, go outside with me and mow the lawn.

Things I'm loving in Bluffton...

There are many things I'm loving about living here. These are the first things that came to mind...

People walking past and stopping for a while to chat

Weekly community meal with friends

Weekly frisbee that is fun even for women and people who don’t run so fast anymore

New Zealand friend who became a feminist at 14

Friend who taught me a beautiful song that Patty Shelly wrote when she was 18

Friend who invited me to start a new business with her

Walking and biking everywhere

$3 movie theater

Watching soccer games

The raspberries growing in the garden (that our landlord planted)

The swiss chard that Bobby lets us pick from her garden

Playing, watching the rain, and reading on our front porch

Lots of people who Theo is comfortable staying with

The large Saturday Farmer’s Market

When the house is too quiet...

Birthday presents

For my birthday (back in August), Isaac and Seth each made presents for me. Seth created a birthday party scene out of sculpey clay, and Isaac collected berries from our back yard, mashed them into a walnut shell, and gave me a paint set.

Things going on in Seth's mind during his first soccer game here

Bluffton Tigers to the left, Newton Soccer Academy above



What is a ref? Why do I have to wear these hot shin guards? When is this over? Why do I have to stay on one side? Why is everyone yelling? Since when are you allowed to touch the ball? How much longer? Why can't we just play soccer the way Aaron used to do it?

first day of school

yesterday a day of "lasts" -- last bikeride of the summer, last picnic before school starts...
labeling crayons, wiping sticky stuff out of backpacks, picking out colorful outfits.
reading books on the front porch before bedtime (our new routine),
telling stories about our first days at new schools,
trying to go to sleep early. Isaac said it was like trying to sleep before his birthday.

Bobby came over at 7:30 this morning as a surrigate grandma and took photos of our boys.
We 5 walked the 2 blocks together and the boys trotted into their rooms with smiles, reservations undoubtedly just below the surface.

flood

Here are a couple links to video clips from the flood that happened Tuesday night in Bluffton. I was awake most of the night vomiting, apparently in tune with Gaia. I knew it was a lot of rain, but had no clue what was happening until our neighbor Wendy told us in the morning. I think it was the worst flood since around 1913. We had some water in the basement and a leak in the roof of the guest/laundry room, but otherwise we got off easy. The University's Marbeck Center became a refuge for stranded or evacuated individuals, despite the fact that the water was within a couple inches of that building, and had already flooded the science building.

http://www.limaohio.com/video/index.php?bcpid=992398979&bclid=1028788754&bctid=1150771085
http://www.limaohio.com/video/index.php?bcpid=992398979&bclid=1028788754&bctid=1150614263

crickets and crawdads

Yesterday we spent time in the backyard catching crickets and went to the creek on campus to catch crawdads. We had natives along to show us how to grab the crawdads. Theo rescued the crawdads when I put him down to snap a photo.


We also got class assignments for Seth and Isaac both of them have met one kid in their class.


We can't get over the great location of our house. We've used our car only a few times since we moved here, since we can bike or walk to the pool, library, school, park, grocery store, movie theater, coffee shop, farmer's market, campus, and to our friends'. (And that about sums up everywhere one can possibly go in Bluffton!)

Hugs and Kisses

After a week of helping us unpack and set up the house, mom and dad left Ohio on Saturday (August 4th), with kisses and hugs and promises of coming back soon.

Moving Day

Lois Jean loaded her truck on the same day we loaded ours, and we both drove off Saturday afternoon, July 21st, our truck headed east and theirs west. We had incredible help from neighbors and church friends. One neighbor, whose name we weren't sure of before Friday, helped 6 hours Friday and 8 on Saturday, staying almost until we drove off. Len and Joan loaded their moving truck, headed for Goshen, the week prior. In our case, it has taken 2 villages to move our family, first the one in Newton and then the one in Bluffton.