Oh the things they say...

Ethan has come up with some real zingers lately...
After hurting himself with a stick in the back garden, he says (after freaking out, slightly) "When I get hurt, I just need to thank and praise God, and then it doesn't hurt so bad"
After finishing his rice with a small bit of liver mashed in, he says, "I just have to pretend like its my favorite food, then I can eat it okay."
"When I grow up I am going to make a part of the pavement that will push you up into the sky." (I say, "really, that sounds exciting") "Just remind me that I want to do it, okay?"

Good things to keep in mind, eh?

Our freezer had been getting progressively frostier and frostier, ice forming on the top, ice on all the food. I had wanted to defrost, but was waiting for the guests to leave, so as to have less food to worry about. (I was procrastinating) I never had defrosted a fridge before, so this was all new to me.
We had scrambled eggs for dinner the night before just to get rid of extra food. Then I emptied everything that remained out. Todd pulled the freezer drain and pulled the fridge out. He said it looked like, (oh shoot, I can't remember what he said, was it planet hoth from the Empire Strikes Back?) Anyway, it looked like a planet covered in ice. We put a pan of hot water inside the freezer to let it cool more quickly. After finishing breakfast I sat to take care of some things before my parents visit in a couple of weeks. The kids magically were playing so quietly and beautifully, I was able to get everything I needed to done.
Then I come into the kitchen...
All of our hand towels are on the floor in a big pile, including an apron my friends gave me at a bridal shower, that I don't ever wear and I don't know why I moved it to the UK. Anyway, thats in the pile, and a rubber glove. "What's all this?" I ask. "Well we needed it." My boys reply.
They had been floating various toys in the bowl beneath the freezer drain plug. Lego men, Buzz Lightyear, Diego, a key chain with a shoe with the flag from Hungary on it, a helicopter. Then they put all their toys in the various compartments on the door. "This is our store, come and buy something!"
Next thing I notice, Tim has taken a very large towel and put it in the very cold water...he's washing Ethan's back with it. (Did I forget to mention they had taken off their shirts and trousers..."We feel wild." was their reply I got when I asked why they had done this.) "Oooh that water feels good!"
Anyway, the freezer is defrosted, finally everything is wiped down and put away. I washed all the towels and hung them out to dry, which was a bit of a risk, but the weather had said--light rain. Later I am taking a nap with Timothy, and Ethan is watching the neighbors burn garden waste from the up-up stairs window, he comes rushing down. "Mom, its raining, the towels!" (so sweet that he's even concerned about them!) I open my eyes and see the very very heavy rain coming down, Oh well, it will be alright. The sun came out later and dried the towels, and tomorrow the Tesco man will bring me a refrigerator full of food!

Oh the things they say...

Here are some things my kids have said recently...of course I was thinking of more, but now that I go to write them down I can't remember them all.

Ethan, "Its something of my business." "Knock knock." (who's there?) "banana." (banana who?) "knock knock" (who's there?) "banana" (banana who?) this continues about 10 times, then "knock knock" (who's there?) "Apple" (apple who?) "apple aren't you glad I didn't say banana?"

Timothy, "Look, hairplane!" "Lets watch oovie, okay?" "Its not spaghetti, its snake pasta." "Poppa, my miss (meaning kiss) you!"
"My God is so big, so strong, so my team, there's nothing I dare not do."

(While playing with animals at the holiday club, another boy comes and stomps with his lion on Tim's animals. Tim says, "Give me space." Boy keeps stomping. Tim takes his animals and moves to otherside. Boy follows. "Give me space." Boy stomps on his animals. Tim moves back to the former side. Boy comes back and stomps. Tim's face turns bright red and the veins bulge out the side of his neck, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Indelible Grace Music - O Love That Will Not Let Me Go lyrics

In singing my two boys to sleep last night, this song came to mind. My dear friend Emily sang this at our wedding, and the lyrics touch so deeply. The song still moves my heart and reminds me of the love of God. My pastor from our church in St. Louis said you are either going into a suffering time, going through one, or coming out of one. I don't know where you are right now, but we are in the midst of one. It is good to be reminded of "the joy that seekest me through pain." And of course, the promise is not in vain, there is a morn that shall tearless be. (You may not be into the folk-country style guitar, but the last verse is worth listening through it!)

Thankfulness, Day 29 To Corey..

I am thankful that God is with us in dark places. I am thankful for Corey. If you feel up for a cry, please read on...what I wrote for Corey back in August. If you are someone close to me who thinks I should have told you this in person, please forgive me for not telling you this in person, some things are easier for me to write.

I first knew you were there when I could open the upstairs windows at night and smell roses and lavender as though they were close enough to touch. You woke me up to use the toilet every 2 hours and I remembered how well that prepares me for the months ahead. Though usually a bustle of energy, with you needing to grow all I could do was sleep and sleep! You made me feel nauseaus and I didn't want to eat my favorite foods anymore, but I loved the fresh vegetables, the homemade broth, even the liver that I ate every week for you to grow strong. Then when we took the test to know for certain you were there...one drop...a blue line, another blue line. "Praise God" I said, and looked out the bathroom window on the garden below and smiled. I gave your poppa our willow tree "cherish" (a figurine of a woman about 7 months pregnant) and a pair of booties that Grammie had bought in England for Ethan. He was so delighted, I was so delighted. You continued to make me nauseaus and too dizzy and uncomfortable to ride the bus through the summer. So we stayed home and I read many stories to the children, thinking that you might enjoy listening too. When I sang songs to your brothers as they were falling asleep, I hoped you could hear them too and be surrounded by love as you grew. I thought about your pinpoint eyes that formed at 6 weeks, and your nubs for fingers and toes. Just 4 days ago I thought of how you have tiny feet, smaller than the tip of my pinky finger. I don't know if you ever did have those feet, just 3 days ago I awoke to small blood stains. I saw the doctor, and an exam said everything was fine. I was going to have a scan the next day, and then we would see you. 2 hours before my appointment, a huge clot of blood dropped in the toilet. Tears, tears, tears. This is it, I knew, you had gone on. I look out the window at our garden that is showing signs of the long hot summer. The warning signs got more urgent and more frequent. Going to A&E, (accident and emergency), a friend comes to drive me, another stays with the boys who are crying as I leave. At the hospital...I am having a miscarriage. They hand me a red slip and I check in. I never had a red slip before, but in England, you still have to wait the queue and answer the questions that you can't understand through the plastic window and the various accents. Various nurses and questions. I am led back to a room with 3 other people. After the urgency is dealt with, finally a nurse cares for my dignity. I find out later she is 10 weeks pregnant. I look for something beautiful in the room. Its full of signs and supplies and medical equipment. Poppa arrives. The doctor comes to examine me, she is moving to the states next week. The neck of the womb is open, she says. I knew, but it still brings even more tears to this day full of tears. She leaves to get a gynecologist, and they turn my bed so its facing the wall. I look up at the window that is opaque. I can see the beatiful light that comes even through clouds, even through opaque glass. How much more beautiful is that light than the harsh flourescent light. I sing the song I sang to the boys and you just last night, though I don't know if you were already gone then..."When peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, "Even so, it is well with my soul".

"Todd," I say, "Todd, do you know, our baby is with Jesus now? It must be so happy. It must be so peaceful..." And yet, that night after an operation to remove the tissue, many more exams, and needle pricks and starvation and being in a room with 6 other ailing women trying to sleep I pray, "Jesus, I know you are holding our baby, would you let me know you are holding me that way too...and lift me from this awful place, and give me rest for the night."

We are naming you Corey, either for a boy or a girl. Though I don't know which you were, your Maker does. There are many Corey's or Corrie's as such in this world, but you are named in memory of Corrie Ten Boom.
I wrote this on August 5, 2010. We miscarried Corey on August 4.
I am thankful that God answered that prayer, and he did lift me up, and I am thankful, so thankful for those 10 weeks to be Corey's momma.

Adventures on the high street

In these parts it was the last day of school for most children! You know the excitement of the last day, and as we walked up to the high street I could see uniformed children skipping and laughing on their way to school. Of course I understand that, its just a bit odd because of all the places I have lived the last day of school has been in May or maybe June, but the end of July? The British have a great year-round system where kids go to school for 6 weeks and then have 1 week off, have 2 weeks off for Christmas holidays and Easter holidays, which by the way are called Easter holidays. Now they are off for the summer holidays and will return in September.
Anyway, what I wanted to blog about was my curious cat children and all that they did on the high street today. Ethan has not been allowed to ride his scooter through the town centers since an incident involving a metal sign where he, looking the other way ran full speed into the sign, knocking it over. So today, he walked and Tim walked for most of the way, though rode in the umbrella stroller for a bit of it. This isn't the wonderful stroller my sister gave me, which some how has broken, but another one that we bought second hand. Its much nicer for going into stores with very narrow aisles and grumpy elderly people who don't want you to be in the stores. First stop was FARA charity shop for furniture, and we asked about bunk beds...the chap said he'd sell one to me for a reasonable price and I decide to call Todd about it (of course forgot my mobile phone) and then you can imagine what two small children would do in a shop crammed with second hand furniture. We go to the card shop for a look, the kids see some balloons...and well, there's another shop to leave. Stop at the ATM and Ethan enjoys pressing a couple of the buttons. Cross the street to the butcher where I get my yummy free range eggs the same price as Tesco's eggs and some (ugh!) liver! But liver is good for me with all the iron, so I've taken to making it, though I can't stand it and only persuade my family to eat it by making a dessert on the same night. Next stop a browse in the pet store and a longing eye at the gerbils and hamsters and rabbits...Ethan plays with the rabbit cages that are on display. Come now, come now, COME NOW. Next stop post office and the kids want to touch the dividing strap, and they make the pens hang down, and off we mail grammies birthday card to the US. Lots of love in there Grammie, no peaking till your birthday. The boys put the cards and other mail in the red pillar post box, and dilly dally, hanging from the box. There is a man waiting behind us. "Do you think anyone else would like to use the post box today?" I ask, and we move on. A look in the charity shop for shirts and books for the kids, the kids obviously find things, but I don't , so its "not today, come now." A stop in an actual furniture store, produces a good bit of longing in me for a new bunk bed, but of course thats not very reasonable. The kids climb on the bed and on the way out Ethan punches every roll of carpet and climbs on a carpet on a trolley. "One more instance and you will have to hang on to the buggy" Then we are crossing the "Zebra Crossing" and Ethan is playing a hop scotch, jumping from stripe to stripe. The cars behind patiently waiting. And now I have a boy holding onto the buggy. We go to the News Agent to top up my Oyster Card for the coming week and Ethan watches the lottery advert and the Indian man who runs the story tries to talk to him and he says, "You're clever" and I think "right, clever!" He's staring at the simple video with his mouth open! Anyway, they manage to say bye, and he says "Bye darlings!" (all kids are called darlings, and sweetie and poppet here!) Finally we arrive home. Such were our adventures on the high street. And as far as I could tell, not one grumpy look from any elderly people, unless they did it as we passed, which may well be.

Picnic on the Green

Many times since we have moved here to the UK, we have enjoyed walking about 10 paces off the pavement (sidewalk for you yanks) and sitting down on the extremely short grass to enjoy a bite to eat and bit of relaxation in an open green. Today was even better because we were joined by several families and couples at our churches' picnic. We unfold our picnic blanket (which happens to have a foil side underneath, so as to warm the people sitting on top!) and spread out the plates and the packed lunch and enjoy conversing with the other families. The kids soon eat up their food and are up and about, playing football (which would be soccer, but of course we call it football), frisbee or just running around with swords and sticks. A game of cricket starts up, and I watch for a while trying to understand the gist of it. All I can gather is that its not baseball! The bat is flat with a sort of a bump in the middle, the person throwing the ball is attempting to get 3 wickets down behind the person with the bat. The person with the bat is trying to keep the person with the ball from knocking over the wickets. Sometimes people run, but I didn't understand why. My friend tells me she doesn't understand the game either (but everything I know is what she told me!) and she says this game can literally go on for days and days. Seems like a big commitment to me!

Someone comes round to offer me a chocolate candy, and I say, "No, no, I'm good." and she says, "That's an American expression. When someone says they are good, we would say you are referring to your behaviour" (I tried to spell it the British way, probably wrong though)

Then I say, "Well, no thanks, I am okay." She laughs. So I say, "How should I respond then?" She says, "No thank you, I have had enough or I am full." How very straight forward. Never really thought about that before.

So there was something nice about our gathering today. On any given day pleasant day, the green is filled with small groupings of individuals, but to have several gathering together was really wonderful. The weather cooperated and though the morning was cloudy and cool, the sun came out for a simply lovely afternoon! Other than a little sun burn our children survived with no injuries (though Tim almost chased a ball into the street--I am paranoid about kids running into the street since I a 4 yo chased a ball and was killed in our neighborhood in Annapolis), the fun flying disc Grammie sent last month had one of its fasteners pop off and though Todd and a friend and 2 boys searched and searched we couldn't find it. We only had tantrums at the end of the time when 2 tired boys decided they were still hungry and very thirsty and we had to take the bus home. Never enough energy for the journey back! After arriving home, Ethan asked for a fried egg as a snack.

By the way, these pictures are not from today, though from a sunday a few weeks ago. Since, then Ethan has had a haircut!