big news

I have some news. Wade has decided to cut off his dreadlocks. Yep. You read that right.

And here is why. He thinks it's time. He's pretty proud to be almost forty with that much hair. They're heavy and they drag on the floor when he works concerts. But really, the reason is Sandra.

Sandra is our dear, dear friend. Godmother to Eleanor, doula to both girl's births, permanent dinner guest, family photographer, only one of 2 non-blood-family members to have a soap dedicated to them, and dreadlock technician. Yes, Sandra made those dreads on Wade's head in 2001 and has maintained what she and Wade think of as "their hair" faithfully ever since, up until the last year.

Sandra, you see, has breast cancer, and she can't lift her arms to do the dread maintenance any more. She is also unable to work as a photographer now, her mainstay for income, and so we are throwing her a birthday party that is also a fundraiser next Sunday night.

And, at the party, Wade is going to auction off the right to cut off each one of all 45 dreadlocks to raise money for the woman who brought those babies into being.

You can buy a dreadlock, the minimum bid is $20 a dread, more if you like. If we sell them all at a minimum bid, it would bring San $900 but I think my baby has at least a $1000 head of hair, so spread the word.

To buy a dread, come to the party with cash in hand. Or if you can't come or are not in Vancouver, go to the website www.happybirthdaysandra.wordpress.com. and click on "Donate", then send Wade or I a note saying that your donation is to buy a dread.

Sandra is nearing the end of her radiation treatments and is doing well, but would still appreciate your thoughts and prayers for quick healing and energy, especially to enjoy her own party.

Thanks for all your love and care for us and for her.

sermon

When I wrote last week about our day in emergency with Eleanor, I mentioned that I was meant to have spent that day preparing a sermon. My topic was the passage in Acts 28 where Paul was bitten by a snake and the islanders think he will be poisoned and then he lives. I wound up taking about the way our words can be life or poison.

It did come together well in the end, and my church has our sermons available online, so if you'd like to listen to it you can. It is in two parts and in part one my mic goes out for a bit but comes back. Part one here. Part two here. If that doesn't work, go here.

I just listened to it and it's always weird to listen to yourself, but good. I like knowing what I said. I am so wired when I start talking that I talk really fast. I also apparently say "you know?" and "um" a lot more than I thought I did. I also sound like my friend Jan. Which is good.

Enjoy. :)

stu and jacqui's (vancouver) wedding

Last month our good friends Stu and Jacqui celebrated their wedding here in Vancouver. They were married officially in September, and then celebrated in Australia and finally came back to their (adopted) home city of Vancouver. They had asked our girls to be their flower girls, but we felt that it wasn't right for us to do the trip to Salt Lake in September, though that was really hard to be away from them. So their celebration in Vancouver was especially sweet for us to bless them and celebrate with them.

They really honoured us by allowing Sophia and Nori to be their Vancouver flower girls and asked Wade and I to walk in ahead of them and introduce them. Wade and I (and now the girls) have referred to ourselves as Team Pallister for a long time and we were really thrilled to introduce Team Bishop. (They even have that engraved on the inside of their wedding rings!)

It was such a special day and here are some pics taken by our friend Mark.

This is an unbelievably accurate representation of Eleanor's personality. She has entered the church to do her flower girl walk and has decided that instead ripping the reserved sign off of the pew is the thing to do.


This is the scenario we used to describe our girls to new people we met the next week after the ceremony: Nori has decided that swinging off the reserved ropes on the pews is so much more fun than doing a flower girl walk - flowers are on the floor now. Sophia is entirely focused on her flower girl form, and walking so seriously and taking all her duties so deeply to heart.


Sophia dancing at the front of the church during worship.


Our dear friend Joseph left this blanket as a gift for Jacqui and Stu, and we felt like we were supposed to bless them as a mother and a father of the nation of Canada. It was good. The inner Frank Naea came out in me... if you know what that means, you'll know what that means.



Stu is kind of love with Eleanor. He reckons this is photographic evidence of her stealing his soul.


What is strange is that we hardly ever have pictures taken of all four of us. So nice to have this. See how I planned the little bits of green in our all our outfits? I love stuff like this.



These two have been such, such a gift to us this year. They give us joy like this often.



No idea what I am saying here, but I am apparently still funny.




Stu and Jax figured Soph needed a new Aussie soccer shirt, 'cause the one Leigh and Ange gave her when she was 2 is getting a little small. As you can see, she thinks it's pretty rock and roll, but that's mainly because of the seeds Uncle Leigh has planted.



All photos copyright 2008 Mark Bergshoeff. Not to be used without permission.

today

I would be wise to go to bed, but still wound up and writing will help. I began today by going to our DTS girl's small group. It was a really good conversation, and my phone rang towards the end. It was Wade, and I answered by saying - "I'm still in the middle of small group." He quickly responded, "I need you to tell me how much Eleanor weighs right now, I have poison control on the other line. She got into the bottle of Dramamine." Oh. God. The bottle I dropped in the pile of stuff in the living room while running to the bathroom and I forgot.

Oh. God.

Told him. Small group prayed. Wade called back. There were 12 tablets in the bottle how many did I take on the cruise (adult motion sickness meds)? I don't know for sure. She may have only had 1, but it could be as many as 2 or maybe even 3, and if she has had three she's in danger. Wade asks Soph - how many did she eat? TEN! No, no. He feels stupid. he was just shaving. I feel stupid. How could I? No,no... My friend Krista sprang into action, and came with, giving us her car, taking Soph, our school director Mark waved her out the door, go, just go. Lunch for Soph? We'll take care of her, just go.

So off we go, Nori seems fine - we're whisked in to a room immediately at emerg at Children's Hospital, poison control has called ahead - what a way to skip a huge line. Heart monitors, respiratory monitors, pulse monitors on her little toe. And what do you have to take to counteract this drug? Charcoal. For real. Charcoal. And we either have to get her to drink it, or it goes into through a tube in her nose. We add chocolate milk, I add more and more, trying to get her to drink through a straw. She does at first, gags, refuses. I add more chocolate milk, later cursing the volume she now needs to imbibe to get it all in.

Wade and I discover that Eleanor's determination does come from us, we are actually more determined than her. We are determined not to watch her have a tube up her nose to get this stuff in her, and we tag team, me holding her, Wade putting the bottle up to her lips. We finally reach success by allowing her to nurse for a count of ten, and then count as we get her to drink the "black milk". We count. We count like Dora, Wade yelling "Uno, dos, tres." We sing Blue's Clues, and Wiggles. It takes forever. It takes an hour. There's black everywhere. We all have gowns on, and there is black charcoal spit everywhere, on my glasses, in Nori's ears, on her neck, under her fingernails, on my new green tights. We blacken and blacken a half a dozen face cloths. I become convinced this is the parental equivalent of having to write lines as a child. "I will not leave medicine where my child can reach it. I will not leave medicine where my child can reach it." At times we laugh she looks like something from one of Rick's hilariously terrible MST3K movies "The Baby From The Black Lagoon." But once, when she was so weary, I just had to turn my face so she wouldn't see me cry.

The baby from the black lagoon is so tired....

And then, we're done. It seemed like the bottle was never going down, she would drink and drink and it looked the same, but finally, there is about an inch or so left of the 300 mls and Eleanor is so exhausted she is falling asleep between sips, and I say, "We're done." I am not doing this any more. She most likely only had one or two tabs, not 3, and I am all for being safe, but I. am. not. doing. this. to my baby any more. Wade makes the last inch of the trusty, fantastic, horrible stuff disappear down the sink. I confess later to the nurse but she doesn't get it and just sees the empty bottle and commends us. I absolutely take the praise, we earned it.

They need to keep watching her, and just when I get her to settle a new nurse comes on shift - then she finally falls asleep and they've ordered an EKG. I reluctantly wake my warm sleeping girl (I am totally convinced she's fine by this point) and the EKG technician soothes her by singing a lullaby to her in Romanian about an elephant. The staff were all amazing. Poor Nori never got back to sleep and thankfully a "Child Life" staff person comes to the rescue with books, a DVD and some bubbles. Nori was not thrilled about being taped to all the monitors, so we were getting a bit desperate as to how to keep her still for an hour.

Eleanor is fine, so fine. Poison control finally signs off on saying she can be released in an hour. Nori is asleep within minutes of being in the car - we're all exhausted, new fans of BC Children's Hospital and Poison Control hotlines, not such big fans of the makers of the child proof caps on the Dramamine (was it on right? i think not... stupid me...)

We get Soph, she has spent the day in total happiness, taking pictures of herself with Krista, composing new songs and dances to Uncle Stu's guitar. When she gets home she changes into an entirely beige "explorer" outfit to match the new home-made binoculars she and Wade just crafted from two toilet roils and a cork, and wants to hear all the dramatic moments of the day, imagining how cute Eleanor was in all of them. We try to explain the dreariness of it all. She mentions she'd like to take a lot of medicine so she could read books, watch a DVD and have bubbles. I barely control myself, but manage well. I have promised her bubbles to never eat medicine.

I was supposed to write my sermon today for Sunday. Not sure where I'll fit it in now. It is on the chapter in Acts where Paul is bitten by a snake in a pile of kindling and all the natives think he'll die from the poison but he lives so they think he's a God. For real.

Lord, thank you. Lord help us.....

this is a good one

The girls are in bed asleep. The last three nights Eleanor has slept through the night. It is amazing what kind of perspective you can get on your child waking up at 5:30 am when she has hardly slept at all the night before... and it was the day after daylight savings - so I counted it as if it was 6:30 am... and today they "slept in" until 6:10 am - whoot! Thanks so much to those of you who thought of her and prayed for us or sent your sleepy vibes our way. We are much refreshed.

This past month has been an extreme emotional roller coaster, from some of the worst days I've had in recent memory to definitely some of the best. Speaking of some of the best days, here's some pics from our cruise.

At the "captain's reception", the formal night on our cruise.

The view of "Los Arcos" in Cabo San Lucas, from the ship.

Me at the taco place that Wade researched in "Lonely Planet" that we totally trekked into the locals only area to find. It was next to a Mexican construction sight and it was awesome. I seriously do not know why I EVER doubt that guy, for real.

Dressed up for dinner. You can tell how relaxed we were by the fact that we had time and energy to stop and take pictures of ourselves in the mirror. Sigh. Sweet life.

As far as the worst goes, I am feeling better about a number of things, I got some new perspective recently. I had become bogged down by a lot of relational stuff going on, and by some drama in our neighbourhood. Then on Sunday, our pastor shared a bit about the legacy we leave behind us, and shared this clip of Bono receiving an award from the NAACP. I started thinking about how differently I felt about the things I'd been struggling with when I thought about them from the perspective of what I'm willing to suffer for myself vs. what I'm willing to put up with if I know it will leave a better world, legacy, attitude or neighbourhood for my kids. I would rather not have conflict with anyone, ever. I hate it. But I'll fight a hell of a lot for Sophia and Eleanor. They rock.

Speaking of how much they rock, when we were on our way home from Alberta, Sophia was noticing the signs at airport security with all the "do not" symbols and began to "read" the sign that had various weapons, liquids, and a skull-and-crossbones poison symbol crossed out. She said, "That sign says, 'No lotion, no knives, no guns, no pirates.' " Yep, we agreed, no pirates. Darn good thing. If I'd had all my new perspective, they'd have been some sorry-ass pirates for sure.

october-festivities

The fire fighter and the sparkle fairy riding the unicorn are ready for some candy.

Whoo! Well where did that month go? We were on the road for most of October, at the beginning of the month in Alberta, a trip which mostly was lame; and the end of the month Wade and I were in California for some meetings with our really good friends and then we went on a 4 night Mexican cruise which ROCKED. Man, I really love my husband.

The transition home has been pretty rough for Eleanor. She seemed to do well while we were gone, but when we came home she was clearly terrified we were leaving again. She has been better over the progressive nights, but she is still not back to normal, so we'd love prayers for that, and that there would be no long-term fears or wounds from us leaving her for 10 days. I have figured out since we had kids that how long we go away for, that's how long it takes us to recover, so I have tried to mentally prepare myself that it could be at least 10 days before things settle again. We're on night #5 tonight - half way there?

We had fun with the girls yesterday, dressing up for Halloween, going to our local mall for train rides, trick or treating and supper. We stopped by Stu and Jacqui's t see their new place (AMAZING) and Soph tried T or T'ing at two houses in their new 'hood, which she called "darking" because she was out in the dark. That was about enough for her. She got a bad scare when she was 2 which she still remembers so we have gone with well-lit activities. She LOVES to dress up so much it seems cruel to deprive her of the process, which was clearly the best part. My brother was with us and videoed the whole thing, which was precious. Here are a couple of clips below:

Soph: "Come on, Mat! Let's go on the Spooky Train. All of the pretend stuff is... all of the spooky stuff is just pretend!"
Nori (off camera): "Candy! Candy! Candy!"

Soph:"This is such a pretend. All of this stuff is pretend. This is just pretend, ok? This is very pretend."
Nori: (Rough translation) "Noone told me that Mum would not be on the train. OOO wow. Wait. Where is Mummy?

ch-ch-ch-changes

Seems like time has sped up all of a sudden - it's October! We're going away next week to Alberta to see Wade's family and there's lots to do. I still have not taken pics of my new haircut. I'm warming up to it, but here is a pic of Soph (reading with Wade and Nori) with her new haircut which I LOVE.


One of the fun things happening in our family is that we've had an addition to the fam - no, no new babies yet. A young Aussie guy by the name of Peter. We expected to have 2 DTS students staying with us, but just this morning that changed and we just have one. For those of you who know the same Aussies I do, imagine that Simon had a slightly louder, taller, skinnier brother who was into music instead of computers, that seems to be it. He's from a big family with lots of kids and a little sister so he is amazing with the girls. Sophia has already fallen in love and insisted that he WAS a member of the family today. (Though that may have been more because we have a you-have-to-put-clothes-on-if-we-have-guests rule.)

Sophia is really practiced at listening to Aussie accents (thanks Leigh, Simon, Ben, Kim, Stu) so there is no communication breakdown there at all - in fact he Peter mentioned to Soph she should tell him if she had a hard time understanding him, but I imagine she probably wondered what he was talking about - don't most uncles sound like that?

One of the things that I love, love, love to do is think about changing stuff up in our house, so getting a room ready for the DTS boys was a fun excuse to be nesty. Here is what our cosy sun room looks like done up as a DTS dorm room. I made most of the pillows on the bench seat in the last year, but I wanted to get the barrel-shaped ones for a while, so this was fun.





My hot parenting tip of the day: if your kid is making an annoying noise, like dragging their feet through gravel, try doing it with them. Then you wind up remembering why it is fun to drag your feet through gravel, as opposed to wanting to just yell "STOP IT!". Love yas.

soon...

much better today, thanks. photos of new haircuts coming soon.

things that are not working for me right now

- the $10 late fee i got today from my car co-op.

- the half hour ordeal when i lost the key to said co-op car and had to tear everything apart twice to find it.

- my new hair cut, which i waited for months for, which makes me look like a member of The Ramones.

(this was not, in fact the look I was going for)

- the fact that Sophia fell really hard on her face at a party last night (where I was and Wade was not) and smashed her face and has a split lip and a hairline-under-the-gum fracture and the majority of my day was taken up with obtaining this last piece of information.

- the fact that i just posted this for the first time and i just went to get the pile of pillows and blankets for the beds for the guest room i have been painting and cleaning all week long. (it was supposed to take a day, it took four) and the cat. THE CAT has pissed through the whole pile of them.

and the children are yelling and screaming. i am going now.

P.S. Happy Birthday Caroline

things that are working for me right now

Beeswax candles.
I've always been a Ikea bulk candle kind of girl, but this summer we spent time at the Farmer's Market with our soap business, and we got to know the Lila the bee lady, who sells unbelievable honey - like nothing you ever tasted from a grocery store - and makes her own candles. They were $8 for a pair of them, but they don't smoke, they don't drip, they have lasted and lasted and lasted and they have a miniscule carbon footprint! One more reason to shop local.


Fun with food.
My kids eat way more sugar that I ever imagined they would before I was a Mum. (But then I was not such an obsessive label reader before I was a Mum, so may be I just didn't KNOW how much sugar there was in everything...hmmm.) Lately I've remembered 2 ideas that have been a big hit. Food faces - I give Sophia a whole plate of different cut up healthy food and she gets to make a face with it for lunch. And then she eats it! The guy above was sleeping with closed eyes and a snoring mouth


The other fun food idea I suddenly recalled from my childhood - ANTS ON A LOG! Yep, celery with peanut butter and raisins (a.k.a. ants). They also like Cheez Whiz on celery but I think anything with the name "Whiz" in it does not actually qualify as food. But alas, I love Cheez Whiz. What can I say? The occasional fake food moment keeps you from being a snob, I think. I should know, I live with a very hairy man who is a bit of snob about my Cheez Whiz. But we won't go into that, will we, Captain Crunch?

BTW, In this photo Sophia is holding her ants on a log and "beckoning" - a word she learned from the book Make Way For Ducklings, a classic. Sophia was demonstrating how when she grows up she wants to be a policewoman who directs traffic. At last count, she would like to be a doctor, a drummer, an artist, a digger [construction worker who drives a digger] and a policewoman. She says you call that an "everything worker". She used to want to be a chicken or a butterfly, but last night she explained if she was going to be a butterfly she would need to be a caterpillar first. Silly us.


Fall Changes.
Last year I did this thing of changing the covers on the pillows in my living room at the beginning of fall. In order to do that, I re-purposed a throw I already had. We had 2, so I made one into cushion covers and kept one as a throw. This year I loved having them already to go and I changed all my cushion covers, put out a couple of cosy throws, changed one picture and I have a new living room! (P.S. Thanks Kay Charlotte, this is still the best swag I ever got - bonus points to anyone who can figure out what the embroidery on the throw says.)



Letting Sophia take pictures. She's cool.




T.V. tickets!
About a week ago, I recalled a conversation I had many years ago with a girl who's parents had made her do chores in exchange for T.V. tickets. Well, as well as eating more sugar than I ever thought they would, I let my kids watch more T.V. than I ever thought I would too. We're really selective - they don't watch cable, or commercials and we watch everything closely, but boy, is T.V. ever our friend as parents. Some days it is really such a life saver to put on a show and know everyone will just be quiet and sit still for a half an hour. As Homer Simpson once said, "I was raised by T.V. and I turned out T.V."

So - last week we started a T.V. ticket program with Sophia. Thank God she is always so excited about every single thing. She has to do jobs (give the cat food, make her bed etc.) in exchange for a 10-minute ticket for T.V., and when she wants to watch a show she has to pay us with tickets for it. As part of her jobs we have started cleaning up the living room and her bedroom every night. We set a timer based on how big the space is, and we help her by giving directions or pretending to be announcers narrating what she does. By the way, you know you have a performer for a child when instead of saying, "It's time to be done now." you learn it's more effective to say "Big finish!" If she beats the timer, she gets a ticket. It has been working so well, one hairy Captain-Crunch eating guy even told me I was a genius. What's amazing is that we started the routines for Sophia but the whole house has been neater because of it, and it is forcing Wade and I to think of more creative things for the kids to do when we're tired. But every now and then if we're REALLY tired we just say, "Eleanor, do YOU want a show?".

What's working for you?

phil

This is Eleanor holding Phil, the baby that lives in the yard. Sophia and I found Phil this summer in one of the "free" boxes on the side of the road that people leave all over East Vancouver. I did take another picture of Baby Phil but seem to have lost it, which is sad, because what you can't see from the photo above is that Phil is missing his left leg, and is um... anatomically correct. In fact he is VERY anatomically correct. This seems not to have phased my children at all.

Why someone would ever make a doll this ugly is a mystery to me. I think these "realistic newborn" dolls are made to give to big brothers or sisters to try and get them to be sympathetic when their parents bring a new baby home. A lot of newborns are pretty ugly, but few as ugly as Baby Phil. (Eleanor may be hiding his face just to protect his feelings from all of you judgmental types out there in blog-land.) Perhaps the goal of the doll is to create a feeling of superiority in children, that their new baby sibling may be a pain in the butt, but hey, he's not as ugly as the doll.

Eleanor likes to draw on Baby Phil with chalk. We are not sure why she does this, but it has caused Phil to have an almost "Lord of the Files" kind of vibe about him now, what with the missing leg and the chalk markings, not to mention the random leaking he does from the hole where the missing leg should go when he gets left in the wading pool.

When we first brought the doll home, Sophia wanted to call it "Nori" but we kept telling her that would be confusing, since that is Eleanor's nickname. (Though as I type, that logic seems faulty now - I don't think confusing Eleanor with the doll was ever a real issue.) But Wade and I thought it was so funny to call the baby Phil, because, well, we've got a good friend named Phil, and it was just funny to us. It did stick eventually though, because after Baby Phil had been around a while this summer, we had a random conversation about what we should name a baby boy (a real one) if we ever had one and Sophia said, "You should call him Nori. Or you could call him Phil."

Sorry real Phil. After the doll, the name is probably out of the running.

best quote today, so far.

We have a rather scary set of stairs in our house leading from the loft that is my and Wade's bedroom to the living area in our house. There is no railing there so we've trained Sophia to be extra careful, but we're still working on Nori. Eleanor woke up this morning at 5:45 am and we brought her upstairs and Sophia was not long after her. Sophia and Eleanor had a joyous little reunion and after a bit of puttering decided to head downstairs just as the sun was starting to rise through the skylight above them. As I searched for my shoes I asked Sophia to watch and see if Eleanor was descending carefully.

Sophia said to her sister:
"Oh Eleanor, you can't go down the stairs all alone with nothing but the purple sky to hold you!"

dear uncle ben

Dear Uncle Ben,

How are you? We are doing great. Our Mum says she only likes to talk about all the nice things we do but today when we poured water all over the bedroom and crushed brownies into the sheets she sure screamed until Eleanor started blowing her kisses, and she told our Dad all about it too. But we didn't mind that much, we're cool. We miss you. How is Australia?

Ben arrives in Canada and heads immediately for the nearest Canada Dry and a maple glazed.

We sure loved it when you came to visit us. We liked it first when we picked you up from the airport and we got to go to the donut shop at bedtime. And we liked all the presents you bought us. We know more about Australian animals now than we do about Canadian ones thanks to all the educational sticker books and stuffed animals. Nobody else has an echidna!


We would like you to come back now, though please. First of all, no one lets us sit on the dangerous part of the stairs and look at the clouds with our legs hanging over the sides like you. Nori points at all the airplanes and makes her little airplane sign, no one calls her 'Sonic Boom" and pretends she's a super hero like you, and Sophia has no one who will be suckered into carrying her any more.


We miss you reading stories to us, and also letting us come in your room and jumping all over you. If you come back we promise we won't make you read any hard words at all.

Before they knew they were being photographed

After they knew they were being photographed.

Mummy went shopping with Eleanor to the Gap at Metrotown with the sweet gift card you left for her. Isn't her outfit cute? She's thinks she's so big. Well, it's bedtime for us, but just so you know we think about you all the time and when we say your name Eleanor still says "Ba! Ba!". In case you change your mind about getting married in Australia, we know a couple of really cute flower girls in Canada! We miss you Uncle Ben. Come back soon!


Lots of love from
Sophia & Eleanor

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

poetry

I was thinking today about the fact that I often post only the good things my kids say and do on this blog. I thought I should explain that the reason I started blogging was because I wanted to tell someone all the great things my kids do all the time. My kids are normal. I say the same things to them over and over again. They are just barely now starting to play together and mostly they make each other (and me) scream. But every day they do and say things that blow me away and I LOVE to talk about them. If you think I talk about them a lot, if you're around me, you should consider that I am restraining myself. Scary, isn't it? I have discovered though, that it is obnoxious to go on and on ad nauseum about your kids, and so I blog - because, if you didn't WANT to hear a story about my kids, why did you dial up this here Internet web page?

Eleanor has started to sign at a lightening fast pace. This should not be a surprise, as she does everything else fast. If we show her one sign once, she does it, repeats it back to us, in context, hours or even a day later with no other repetition. It is pretty cool. The other day, in passing, I showed her the sign for "coffee". Not that she was ordering any, just because. Then I was hanging out a day or two later watching her play and I had a travel mug of coffee with me and it had been sitting up on a fence for a half an hour, and she cruises up and starts signing away, and it took me a minute to figure out she was pointing at my mug and signing "coffee"! Must be her Dad's genetic code kicking in.

Sophia's poetic phrases have amazed me again today. We had a little girl's time during Eleanor's nap and I was painting her nails. I was telling her about how Wade and I saw the city at night last night and how much I loved the city and began to talk about how there are people who live in Vancouver who don't believe in God or Jesus and don't even know them. She was pretty stunned.

The conversation wound around to her praying and asking Jesus to come and live in her heart. That was pretty cool. I didn't grow up with that idea, of praying to ask Jesus in, and I don't think it's absolutely a required step on the journey, but it came about and she was so chilled about it, and taking it all in, it was nice. The conversation involved talking abut Jesus dying for our sins, you know, light chatter for manicure time. Later we were telling Wade about our talk and Sophia said,

"When Jesus died on the cross, my heart was broken, like this", she mimed with her fingers something coming apart, "Broken apart, like a baby chick. Then when Jesus died on the cross, He put my heart back together again, like this." And she joined all her fingers together again.
If I had made that comment up, I would have gone the traditional route, of the rising again being the part that put her heart together. But the dying broke it, like a baby chick, and the dying healed it.

She also composed an impromptu song last night about how her privates needed a wash. Poetry, baby, poetry.

what goes on in her head....

Today I was sitting at the kitchen table with the girls, working on the computer. There was a moment of silence, and then Sophia gave a heavy sigh.

"Well," she said, "I still haven't grown any hair under my arms yet."

campy camp camp and other news

We just got home from church camp tonight. We are tired, but we had such a good time. Our pastor (and friend) Gordie used 'Psalm 2' that Sophia wrote (below) to begin one of the sessions.

We hung out and ate lots and swam and it was so, so good for my city kids to run around in big open spaces. It was the first time that Sophia really had a buddy that she wanted to run all over with. She looked like such a big kid. She was brave - swinging high stuff, jumping into the pool, falling off the top of the monkey bars - yikes! Nori just cruises, whereever she goes, just cruises. You really have to chase after her all the time because she will just walk for miles.

It was more emotional for me than I expected, because camp last year was where my favourite recent memories were of my friend Renee, who died earlier this year. It was sad and lovely and good.

Wade DJ'ed a dance again this year. It rocked. He worked so hard on it - did visuals like on the Wake tour and crafted the perfect set list. Nori fell asleep in the sling and was so cute snoozing away with the thumping techno going on around her. Last year Renee and Wade danced until everyone else was gone - so yesterday when the dancing started i just had to have a little cry. I said this morning when I shared about Renee that when she died, people say at funerals we're celebrating their lives, but when Renee died, I wasn't really in a place to celebrate, only mourn. This weekend I got to celebrate. It did feel like she was there somehow, dancing, sitting on the beach, giving me her eye for great pictures.

We have an incredibly unique, supportive, broken, crazy, happy, lovely generous church family. We feel so loved and valued there. It's really not perfect, downright annoying sometimes, but I absolutely can't imagine us anywhere else.

I also got to start my day with a phone call with my friend Stuart. He married my friend Jacqui today over in Utah. It was so special to be able to talk to him, he was sitting with our dear mutual friend Joseph, waiting for his bride. I walked out of our cabin to try and get better reception on my phone and there was whole flock of Canada geese just hangin' out on the lawn. God's called Stu and Jacqui to be missionaries to Canada from their home nations, and I felt like it was a little salute for them, significant of how a flying V of geese will change leaders as they fly, to take turns leading, to allow the others to soar better - just like Jacqui and Stu. And technology blessed me again when the lovely birthday boy Mike D. sent me a picture on my phone of the couple smiling away, being presented to the world by Joseph himself. Don't anyone curse technology to me today - it filled me up.... and later on the geese were gone - they just wanted to say hi to Stu with me I guess.

Sophia has preschool again tomorrow and Wade has 3 days of roadie work now with Janet "Ms. Jackson if you're nasty." That is always a little tiring because he does so much with the girls it's hard when we have several days in a row where I am on kid duty alone. I have no idea how single Mums do it. We are really hoping to save up some money because in October Wade and I are going to San Diego for some YWAM meetings and we found a 4 day cruise that would work for us to go on with the dates we are there and it is only $400 a person! It would be our time without kids since July 2004! So... say a prayer we get all our finances in row for that, ok?
And we are also going to Alberta in October too - Wade's Mum has a serious beau ( I know!) who is flying us out there so all of his family can meet all Mum's kids and grandkids - a little strange but she is happy, happy happy, so we are too. My husband just hates Alberta so much... we REALLY need to pray we get on that cruise so he can get some October-in-Alberta healing after we're done.

And it looks like we are going to be a bit more involved in the upcoming DTS. It's a small school ( 9 students from 8 nations how exciting!) and we're going to billet students in our homes and take turns having them all over for meals. We'll have two guys living with us, so I'm praying for just the right guys who will LOOOOVE our kids. (And love living with them in very close quarters when they wake up SO early!) I may also be taking a one-on-one student for the first time since 2001... pretty fun - I think!

Thanks for reading..... see you soon.

Psalm 2

Yesterday Sophia sang me another Psalm.

This is the singing God
This is the singing God

There is no fear in God
God is very brave
God is taller than you, Mum
God is taller than me
God is taller than those clowns who walk on stilts
God is taller than the pickle in Dave and the Giant Pickle
(and did you know those soldiers who shot him were very very small?)

God has you in his heart
God has you in his heart
God has you in his heart

(I think the 'selah' line for me was "God is taller than those clowns who walk on stilts". Sandra thinks it is metaphorical those people who set themselves up to be bigger than God. Hmmmmm.)

guest appearance by.... the nephews

At my parents 40th anniversary blessing this summer - my sister Elizabeth and her kids couldn't come: L to R back row: My brother Matthew, Fr. Sean, Dad Bob, Mummy Helen, Brother in law Gary, Caroline, yours truly, Wade & Eleanor. Middle row: Caleb, Garet, Judah. Front row: Sarah, Jedidiah, Sophia.

My youngest sister Caroline is a great friend and a great Mum. She has 5 kids, (yes, 5 kids) and she and I often trade funny things our kids say, or sometimes even better, funny things we say to our kids. Some of the great things she has said include. "No, you can not eat my sandwich, you puked on yours." and "Stop choking yourself with the cord of those blinds and get in the car."

Today she sent me this email:

Caroline says, 'Okay kids, I am taking you to the Fall Fair Office to take your exhibits in today. Can you behave yourselves so we can get it done? It's very busy there. You know, listen, don't run around. Usually I get someone else to watch you while I do it but this year can we try doing it just us?'
Judah says,'If I disobey can I go to my friend's house?'(If my friend was watching them he'd be playing with his friends)

Caroline says,'Okay, what I'm really saying is if you run around and scream your heads off I'll keep all your fall fair money and spank you.'

Caleb says,'Excuse me Mom, but if we screamed our heads off then our head would be on the gravatron and our body would be on the ferris wheel at the same time.'

Garet says,'Mom, if we screamed our heads off, taking away our fall fair money wouldn't actually be a punishment because we'd already be dead!'

Caroline collapses in laughter.

sophia turns 4

Sophia will be turning 4 this Wednesday. (I know, 4! How did that happen?) We held her party yesterday and she informed me today that she actually 4 now because she blew out the candles yesterday. Fantastic. We had a lovely day, and our friend Sandra took some gorgeous pics as usual.* Enjoy!

Eleanor had her first hair cut yesterday morning before the party. Bangs trimmed. So big!

I got the idea to use cute wooden clips on goodie bags from the gorgeous photos of Ari & Noah's birthday! Thanks Heather!

Sandra's fave pic of the day.

Yeah, that's a rock so big it's taking Wade's eye out... yep. She was wearing it yesterday..... inquiring minds want to know, Pam!

The game below - I made the bean bags, Wade made the tossing board. It was a tea party theme, so you had to throw them in the cups.

Ange wanted to be there to make the cake, but Aus is long way to come, so we put her tea set on top of the cake instead!

* All photos (except birthday cake) copyright 2008 The Art Of Seeing Photography.
Not to be used without permission, please.