He's Got the Whole World in His Hands...

(Do you have the song stuck in your head now? Good!)

First of all, sorry for saying "come back tomorrow" to see what hilarious thing Toby said. It has been several days since I posted anything because I was trying to get my house cleaned up after last week and couldn't let myself start blogging when there were other gross things I won't disgust you with to deal with first. BUT here I am! Finally!
ANYWAY! (The story, PLEASE...)

Father's Day morning we were having breakfast (cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs, in case you're wondering) and one of the kids made the observation that daddy is the biggest of the adults (that would be between Lowell and me) and that Mikaela is the biggest of the kids. Then Toby says,

"But I'm the biggest of all. Cuz I can pick up the world!"

After marvelling at that for a moment or two, and asking how he can pick it up, etc, I asked him if he even knows what the world is. He said, "I have seen the world and it's not very big. It's maybe as big as our house. It's maybe as big as the cozy sack. And I can pick it up. Really!"

He seemed so serious and we were all cracking up. Which of course, he loved. After declaring he could even pick up God (don't worry, we cleared things up about that one) he said, "I'm just teasing about all that stuff!"

The last quote-worthy thing he said was,
"I can count up to God. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, GOD!"

I'm still trying to figure out the theological implications of that one. Any ideas??? For now I'll just leave you with this: "He's got you and me, brother, in His hands. He's got you and me, sister, in His hands. He's got the whole world in His hands." (And that would be God... not Toby.)

Pictures Finally!

I'm trying to post some pictures of Mikaela's graduation (or "promotion" as they actually called it) but I'm having trouble uploading the pictures. But I said I would add some so I'm determined to because I try to do what I say I will do no matter how much grief it causes me. (A watermelon's faithful, 100%!) And what do you know! There's a picture! (Let's see if I can add some more...) (More grief, I know.) There must be a million people on the web tonight cuz it's running really s-l-o-w-l-y. What kind of traffic jam is that? A BLOG JAM!!! (Get it? Like a LOG JAM??? Yes, I just made that up and it was bad, I know.) But hey! We have another picture! The first one is Mikaela with several of her buddies, the next one is Mik, Josie and their marvelous teacher Senora Lucero. The two pictures below are of Mikaela's class and Mikaela introducing one of the songs they sang. We were so proud of her! : )

Now I'm going to post this before I accidentally delete anything. : ) But come back soon because you just have to hear what Toby said yesterday at breakfast. It was hilarious! : ) See ya tomorrow!

Coming Soon...

Pictures and maybe video of Mik's graduation if I can ever get the computer to cooperate with me. Cute, cute stuff!

So much to say...

Where do I begin? I am almost overwhelmed (as in if I think about it too much I might start crying) at how good God has been to us. Today was Mikaela's last day of kindergarten. Ever. Last year about this time I was fretting about choosing Track C afternoon with Mrs. Lucero or Track B morning with a new teacher. It felt like a complicated decision for lots of reasons. But I begged and pleaded for God to lead us and get our daughter in the right class and did He ever. Sra. Lucero is without exagerration the best Kinder teacher I have ever seen. Even Toby is sad to be leaving her. He said today, "But Mikaela's new teacher won't know my name!" (I assured him that by the end of the first day she probably would.) And he said, "But Sra. Lucero always lets me give her a big hug!" (Awww.....)

The first time I saw her class (7 years ago) I was amazed and apalled that I wasn't teaching my students nearly as much as she was. When I visited again a year ago I felt like I was home. She was who God had picked for us and I am so glad. (And the afternoon schedule ended up being PERFECT for our non-morning-people family. Thank you Lord!) (And if we'd picked track B we would NOT be on vacation until August. Thank you Lord again!!!)

As I was revelling in the joy of being on vacation this afternoon (I felt almost instantly less stressed) I found myself reminiscing about summer vacations back when I was a kid (in the old days, as Mikaela would say). Granted, we were off for about 3 months instead of 2, but they seemed to last so long. I was wishing somehow I could make this break last as long as those summers seemed to. I want to play with my kids and do projects with them and go camping and maybe to VBS somewhere and take naps and read books and go for walks (sometimes known as exercise) and go swimming (an even more enjoyable version of the same) and play in the sprinklers and make popsicles and, and... Sigh.

But rather than set myself up for disappointment by creating a long list of things to accomplish, I think my list will be short and simple:

• Teach kids about Jesus
• Play with kids
• Practice resting
• Work on adoption and file taxes (all play and no work uh..... causes problems.)
• Try to have Mikaela's friends from school over if it works, don't stress if it doesn't.
• Take things one day at a time
• ENJOY LIFE EVERYDAY. BE THANKFUL EVERYDAY. WORSHIP GOD EVERYDAY.
• (Ok... and do laundry and make dinner and stuff like that.)

I'll let you know how it goes.

TROOPERS!

This is a picture of my beautiful daughter who is 4 days away from finishing her first year in school... officially known as kindergarten. We took these pictures up at Hume Lake after hiking up to the Little Brown Church with Mik, Toby, cousins Samuel, James, Matthew, Allison, Lowell and Myself. The kids AMAZED me with their ability to hike the half mile it was from our cabin (ok, Toby WAS begging to be carried) and they were thrilled that they made it and thrilled by what they found at the end of the journey. (As you can see, the Little Brown Church is exactly what its name implies.) It is beyond thrilling to me, though, that all these kids love Jesus and church so much that they would be so excited about finding a little church and the little Bible in it. (That's a yellow golf ball on the little pew, by the way.)

Mikaela hugged the cross. Remembering it still brings tears to my eyes. I couldn't ask for more than for my kids to truly know and love God and I am so grateful for the priviledge of watching them and guiding them in their learning to know Him. (Toby has been reminding me of a little Nicodemus lately. He wants to understand so badly where God is and how He can be everywhere and so big and still be in our hearts. It's amazing the questions he asks. And hard to find answers sometimes.)

When I started this post, I was calling it "4 more days..." thinking about how Mik has 4 days of school left and how ready I am to be done--especially with feeling bad when we're late to school (which has been way too often lately) or don't get all her homework done (again, too often!) It's particularly embarrassing since I was a kindergarten teacher before Mik was born. But I think I have a case of summeritis (like senioritis but for parents of non-seniors.) and I'm just ready.

And not ready all at the same time. I am anticipating this week will be an emotional one for me. But I realized I will get through it the same way we got up the hill to the Little Brown Church. One step at a time. Together. Sometimes whining, sometimes aching, sometimes being carried... but oh SO thrilled at the destination when we find Jesus there. And shouting "I love Jesus!" at the top because He's the One who's gonna be carrying me convincing me that I can be a trooper, too.

And by the way, He'll do the same for you... Troop on friends!

En la Cocina con Toby

Yesterday I was making some sandwiches with Toby, who is very enthusiastic and optimistic about life in general. When I told him what I was making, he said, "I LOVE BBQ beef! It's my favorite kind of chicken!" : ) Then when I really was making chicken to put in the crockpot, he touched the raw chicken and proceeded to stick his finger into his mouth, presumably b/c he thought the chicken would taste good already. We then had this nice little discussion about not doing that because of the bacteria that could make you sick, etc. (I skipped the really big words like Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Bacillus cereus, and Entero-pathogenic Escherichia colisalmonella.) (And yes, I just found those online somewhere.) It went about like this: T: "What are bacteria?" Me: "Ummm... they're kind of like germs." T: "And do the bacteria get out when you cook it?" Me: "No, when you cook it they die." T: "OH GOODY!" So now I'm off to excite him again with some egg salad sandwiches. (To which Toby says "Right on!") If only the rest of us were that easy to please...