Snakes and Rats and such

Our last several weeks have been full of life's small difficulties: children with tummy bugs, one car on the side of the highway needing to be towed followed by the other car requiring a very large repair the next week, real estate losses one after the other on our home. But this week's interesting thing really bothered me the most. A few days ago, as the kids were playing they found a fresh snakeskin on the basement stairs. This was upsetting, but I tried to take it in stride. The next day, the owner of our house had someone come to investigate the snakeskin appearance. The news got worse. There are MULTIPLE snakeskin's in the basement, associated with large rat snakes (6 ft!) because there is also lots of evidence for RATS in this basement. RATS. I am currently living in a old large home with gaping old wooden doors, five small children and rats and snakes in the basement.

I am now ready to move. The beauty of this old in-town Columbia neighborhood can be appreciated at a distance.

Henry is 6!

Our first family birthday in Columbia, S.C. has come and gone! Henry turned six yesterday and we had a pool party for him. His first "official" birthday party! We had a gracious friend who let us use her beautiful backyard pool and we invited several new families of friends over that we have recently met. It was a "shark" party and we played water games, ate cake and had lots of fun.

Here is the birthday boy. The cake was my homemade attempt to make a shark. I tried to color the icing naturally with blueberries, eschewing the horrific blue and red dyes at the super market....which only led to a confusing grayish pinkish shark color. Does it appear to be like JAWS?

We had multiple ages and stages at the party. Here's some of the younger ones all crammed into the baby pool....rub-a-dub-dub...five in a tub!

William made it to the party. He was super tired after several hours of party but he was a trooper none-the-less.
And here's a picture of us with new friends we've made in Columbia! What a fun full first summer.
Lastly, I have to record a funny conversation I had with John Mac this morning. He is so thoughtful, but often his mind is working and you don't even know it. While I was putting on deodorant today, he asked me a question. JM: Mommy, does that make hair grow? Me: No, John Mac. Why do you ask that? JM: Well, it makes hair grow on Daddy. Every time he puts it on his hair there gets longer and longer.

Nature Walk

We found the river walk in Columbia yesterday. The ninety degree afternoon felt refreshingly cool to us and we headed out to explore new territory. The river walk is just downtown on the side of the Congaree river with large wide trails. We took scooters and a double stroller and enjoyed the scene. It smelled slightly brackish as we walked along the water and we passed a white egret. It felt familiar and comforting to be there, reminding us of lots of time spent along the James River in Virginia.

We have been looking at homes in the NorthEast for a while now. So much of that area has new developments with beautiful homes on small lots, in close proximity to one another. Yes, there are pools in the neighborhood, or perhaps even a manufactured nature trail...but somehow it feels so far from nature itself. I find myself wondering if I could really be happy in a neighborhood without much nature. Will I hear an owl there? Do you ever see a hawk resting on a branch? Can my children ever get poison ivy in a place like that? What do you watch from your window in that neighborhood? It may be that that is the kind of place we will live, but if so, I think I'll need to find a way to make it down to the river walk much more often.

A New Day

Jumping back in with two feet! It has been quite a spot of time since I was able to write, but I do so want to continue to write down these small memories, scraps of paper to save in the cover of a notebook. Life has been so full and with so many little bits of goodness. The small things are the ones that make up most of our days and the ones I am most scared of forgetting. We are now in a beautiful old temporary home in the heart of the city in Columbia, SC. We are here to watch God start a church in the NorthEast portion of the city...but we aren't even in the NE yet! I know this will be a significant time of change in our life; even more of a reason to record bits of it.

So I'll start today with a few recent joys:

We've had dear old friends visiting. The Wilmoth family came down from W'burg to stay with us and the joy of watching kids play with old friends was so great. Despite all the different ages and stages, they all jumped back into play together and were a happy lot. It was a good reminder of how God knits us all together over time and years. This is a picture of Caroline with Sydney. They were born six weeks apart and have been friends since that time. This visit they spent hours on roller skates in and out of the house.

And this is a picture of the whole group together; Skylar the oldest is twelve, and William was the youngest at 8months! (but he was napping for the picture)

We have had the joy of watching babies grow this summer. William is standing and trying so hard to keep up with all of his big brothers and sisters. He is quite friendly and affable, but when he is upset he is very very upset.

And finally, Hannah is continuing to teach us more and more of who she is...The picture below shows her in snow boots on a day when the temperature was recorded as 105 degrees. She loves shoes and clothes and changing them frequently! She is always spirited and keeps up quite well with all the goings on as the kids are able to run around this large old house and its' grounds. She has charmed the owners/neighbors with her smiles and energy.

Firetrucks

I need to start with a picture of my hair after Caroline and Henry spent time "fixing it". Notice the dinosaur-like row of clips along the top? There are two pigtails as well as lots of clips. They seem to place a high value on ornamentation. They declared that I looked beautiful and should wear it like this more often. Perhaps I have been under-doing it a little?

These are a few pictures from our trip to the local fire station. We went with a group of homeschoolers from our church, a mix of ages and stages. It was a wonderful trip. The firemen were genuinely kind to our kids. They answered questions, tried on their uniforms for us and allowed our kids to climb on their trucks. More than that though, they were genuinely interested in our kids; they lifted them up and down from seats, called them by name, and were incredibly generous with their time and attention. They showed our children that the men and women who serve us really are local heroes.
A picture with ages from almost two to fifteen years!
John Mac and his friend, Leah, age 5.
John Mac and Henry show their clear delight to be up in a BIG truck!

The Mother Report

I found myself referring to the weather report as the "mother report" last night. It slipped across my lips by accident and then I realized that my mixed up phrase was spot on. If the weather is warm and sunny and my children can play outside, it is a "good mother day". If the weather is cold and dreary, it is a "bad mother day". A good mother day means that there will be less bickering, less indoor wrestling that goes wrong and more cooperative play. A bad mother day is of course the opposite. We have an almost four year old and a five year old boy in our home and they really were not built for the indoors. In studying their design closely (which I have had to do as a mother that did not have a brother to grow up with), boys seem to need to conquer worlds, move quickly and find personal challenges on a regular basis. Yes, the wooden blocks sometimes allow for a new kingdom to be created, or the small plastic army men allow for a battle to be played out, but on the whole, these things happen much more easily outside. The makers of x-box and wii are very well aware of this; they are trying to create an indoor adventure, a challenge without fresh air. I know I am prone to thinking to fondly of "life on the farm", pre-industrial revolution days. (Wendell Berry is a favorite author and I always said I would have done well if I had been born in prarie days.) But little boys really do need to repair fences, and feed animals and exhaust themselves in meaningful work. I see this every time they rig together leftover pieces of rope to create a new swing off the playset. Or last week, when I found them trying to ride the bicycles into the ditch very quickly to fall into the leaves. And every day there is a race, a challenge of speed or distance. Perhaps one day all these little adventures and challenges will allow them to be ready for something bigger and even more awe inspiring. Until then, I will keep checking my mother report, wishing for good weather and big adventures.

Dressing Up

Life is back to full speed around here, only full speed has become a bit fuller. Here is a normal morning with everyone home....just a little after breakfast. Imagine, your morning started earlier than expected for a Saturday, you barely have coffee in your system, and then everyone is busy...

Here is Henry in his Gap pirate outfit....(notice he is busy talking while I take pictures):

Hannah has a Victorian face for this one; she really did enjoy the dress up. She especially liked wearing the tap shoes around the house that you can't see....
And here is William....watching everything safely from the bouncy seat!

The boys wanted a final sword fighting picture to be captured.
If only all of this excitement meant we slept through the night every night!