Dennis meets Mr. Wilson

Have you ever been in the right place at the right time? I'm not talking about talking about walking past a $20 or catching a fly ball at a Rangers game, although that would be cool. No, I mean relationally have you ever had those interactions with your fellow humans that you know were just meant to be? Some people call them "God Moments". I am going to call them pogo sticking when your pregnant moments.
Like the time I was in Wal-mart over Christmas, 8 months pregnant, and eyed that pogo stick. It was calling my name. Without thinking about what my stomach looked like, (like there were 3 basketballs stuck inside) and how that may effect my balance, I jumped on. First jump 80 degrees, second jump 45 degrees, then there was that moment when Paul my brother-in-law "had my back Mississippi" and slid right under me for the most amazing prego catch Wal-mart has ever seen. There it is, the pogo stick while your pregnant moment. OK, so maybe not as much a relational story, but a fantastic salvation message.

Anyway, there are times when our souls cross with another person's souls, and we know we are right where we are supposed to be. For instance, this week the kids and I went to the library. This lady comes right up to me and asks me if I home schooled. I guess Landon looked pretty out of place at 1:00 in the afternoon. She had really been thinking about homeschooling and really needed someone to talk to about the thought of doing it next year. It turns out her son has many of the same needs that Landon did last year. It was pretty obvious the exact person that she needed to talk to about both of these issues was me. "I knew I was suposed to talk to you," was her reply. That is not a coincidence. There are no coincidences. Just God.

Then the next day, at the last minute, our plans to babysit for friends were changed and we found ourselves outside our front yard. It wasn't hard to spot my 80+ year old neighbor on a ladder trimming his hedges. His wife sitting on a bench under the tree watching. We don't see them much and have not had many opportunities to get to know them. It has sort of been a Dennis the Mennace / Mr. Wilson relationship up until this point. Toe headed Landon climbs the fence and peeks his head over every time he hears John in his back yard. Then screams at the top of his lungs "HI NEIGHBOR!" John grunts and keeps on working. Well, this meeting was different. I walk over to say hi and Betty scooches over on the bench to let me sit by her. John is obviously tired and struggling from the 90 something degree weather he is working in, and I being almost 5 months pregnant and starting to have contractions am not exactly in a position to be of much assistance. I try to convince him that, if he could wait a few minutes, Jason could finish trimming the tall part, so that he didn't have to get up on the ladder, but John used to have a farm up in East Texas and there is no convincing him to slow down. He would work for about 3 minutes and then rest for 5. The sun was setting and there were cut leaves everywhere. Meanwhile, Keaton is running around in her training pants and a t-shirt making both of them laugh and smile while the other kids Landon, Kelly, and our other neighbor Lauren, are all riding bikes providing entertainment for us bench warmers. I asked John if he could get some of those grass clipping paper sacks out, then we could get the kids to pick up all of the leaves and cuttings. Finally, after insisting 3 times, he goes and gets some bags. The kids run into the house and get their winter gloves on (work gloves) to protect their hands from the prickly leaves. Landon uses some for his feet too, providing more entertainment and then Keaton gets into the action with her winter hat. I guess she was trying to make a connection with the other kids and the gloves, but did I mention that it was 90 something degrees? John and Betty had the best time watching the kids and before too long those kids picked up 3 huge bags of leaves for their neighbor without any fussing or complaining. It was like they knew their neighbor needed help and he probably wouldn't have accepted it from anyone but them. John was obviously touched by them and their hard work and ran inside to pay them each .50 cents. That is more than most of their allowance for a week. They were so thankful, but didn't do it for the reward. Later on I told them how proud I was of them for "loving their neighbor as their self." It was a great concrete example of loving their neighbor since John actually is their neighbor. You know how literal kids take things. Keaton stole their heart by climbing up on the bench in between the 2 of them to eat her snack and getting everybody water. We had a great time enjoying each other's company and watching the kids finish their bike ride across the street in the cul-de-sac. Keaton joined the others in the cul-de-sac and then stripped down naked after a potty accident providing more comic relief. While I was trying to clothe her again, Lauren crashed big on her bike and John jumped up and ran across the street to help her. We had broken through the barrier and into their hearts. It was a pogo stick while you are pregnant moment, and I was elated with God's timing. We had a bunch of these moments while Jason and I were in Europe last April, but those stories are for another time.

Friday Fun Day

We visited the Heard Science Museum this Friday and they happened to have the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. The Dinosaurs move and growl. Landon was ecstatic but Kelly was not very happy, she hates loud noises. Landon allowed me to take his picture next to his favorite dino, the T-Rex. We also walked through the butterfly sanctuary and this made me think of Leah.

Kelly and Keaton warmed up to the Dinos after I told them that they are not growling but burping. This worked for all of the Dinosaurs except the T-Rex.

Summer of '08

Some Summer Highlights...

Jason visiting Israel for the first time with Rabbi and the Siblings.

Landon loosing his first tooth and pulling it out by himself at night when he should have been sleeping.

Going to the Creation Museum in Glenrose, TX and meeting a Dr Baugh a real paleontologist. Seeing Dinosaur Land in the 100+ weather with Nina and Pawpaw.

Going to the Cave with Steve and Lauren on our Austin trip and seeing the bats.

Keaton's 2nd birthday fiesta style. We ate Mexican food and then danced to her favorite Spanish music,

The Gypsy Kings.

Family Pear Picking Day at daddy's rental house.

Kelly's 4th b-day. All she wanted was a pink guitar and girl Legos!!!

Girls only/Boys Only days - sponsored by the Brothers without Brothers Club

Landon learning to ride a bike.

Keaton potty training herself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keaton stepping in fire ant pile resulting in 400 ant bites. I will spare you the pictures.

What did I do? Well, besides growing a baby, it looks like I took a lot of pictures.

The Backyard Olympics

School is going great this year. It is like night and day from last year. Not that last year was bad but it was difficult. Landon started having trouble with reading, and writing. Yes, 2 out of 4 of our subjects. We took him to an OT (Occupational Therapist) and they were really able to help him. Not only did they help him but he is doing amazing now. We are doing 5 times the learning that we were able to do last year. It was all worth it. He was in therapy for 11 months. He got glasses which have really helped in the reading category, he had his tonsils and adenoids taken out which has taken care of the drooling/snoring/can't breath category, and the therapy has dramatically helped his handwriting. He can now write with both hands and loves to color and write me notes. Here are some of my favorites. "I an a good reden cid. Mi nam iz Landon." Translation "I am a good reading kid. My name is Landon." My other favorite... "We hav 6 pepl in r feulmi" We have 6 people in our family.

Some fun things we have done so far this year in school...

Make Play dough and pretend to write in Cuneiform (Ancient Mesopotamian writing)

Tuesday Creek days (We meet some friends at a park every Tuesday with a creek. The the kids get to play with their buddies in the creek. It might not sound educational but... they have learned about irrigation, crawdads or as the kids called it "a lobster", and bridges.)

Making maps of Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia and charting the routs of Abraham, Jonah, the Captivity into Babylon, Daniel and his 3 amigos, and Queen Ester.

Group school day at the Blake house. We learned about the Olympics. (Jason and Landon came up with this one evening when he was watching the kids) Outside the kids were able to compete different events that you could do in your own back yard. Set up boards in an oval with a starting line. They can compete in the 400m, 800 m (2 laps) 1600 (4 laps). You can also do a relay with it with a stick. They love this. Who doesn't love running in circles over boards. OK. Next they can do the pole vault. Set up a 2 buckets with a plastic tube. Get a blanket and lay it down and then put on top of it a couch cushion. You can cover it with a sheet to protect it. Finally you need a PVC pipe or some long stick. The kids would run with the pipe down the runway, stick it into the ground, leap over the plastic tube onto the couch cushion while throwing the stick behind them so as not to fault. What fun they had.

We threw the shot put with a heavy ball, the javelin with the plastic tube, and the discus with a Frisbee.

Finally for the girls we cut pieces of ribbon and played classical music while they danced with hula hoops to the rhythmic gymnastics. It was hilarious.

Then inside they all made up their own country name and designed their own flag. Landon's was Dino with a great dinosaur picture. Kelly's was American stars. Next they cut out and colored their own Olympic medals.

The Bible lesson was on 1 Cor. 9-24-27. Encouraging them to "run in such a way as to get the prize." We also talked about wanting to earn a heavenly prize that will last for eternity.

Finally we had the closing ceremony where each kid was announced with there name, their country's name, (Flag flying proudly) and were presented with a medal. You would have thought it was a real gold medal with the amount of pride that they wore them. It was a fun school day to say the least. I hope you try it. It would make a fun summer birthday party too.

We are also doing 2 curriculums simultaneously and are really enjoying them both. The first is Heart of Wisdom which is similar to a classical learning style but it is taught with a Hebrew/Christian mindset instead of a Greek mindset. The second is the online Charlotte Mason curriculum from amblesideonline.org. This has provided some of our most favorite reading selections. We are all enjoying these stories which are rich in character, morals, creativity and vocabulary. Well, that is how school is going for now. It has been a long time since my last post but things have been busy.