Simple Summer Pleasures

Today is our official last day of summer. I return to teacher preplanning on Thursday and Robert has meetings tomorrow. In a last hurrah to our summer time together, we took a road trip to Dunnellon, Florida to tube the Rainbow River. We were pleasantly surprised to find this natural beauty tucked deep in the country. Kristina has never been tubing and she gasped at her first glimpse of our destination. Emerald green grass waved to us from the bottom of crystal clear waters as we made our way down the two hour float. Turtles sunned themselves along the water's edge on fallen trees and egrets studied us as they skimmed above the river's surface. A small four foot gator lay hidden in water reeds only 20 feet from us. He paid us little attention as we floated by.





The serenity of the environment was only broken by the random scream as Robert flipped the kids out of their tubes or the boys splashing into the water after attempting to surf on top of their tubes. Somehow I managed to get sunscreen on everyone except myself and now the tops of my legs are bright red. Ugh! We had a blast and will definitely return.

Heeellllloooooo, Internet!

(Insert crickets chirping here)
If anyone is still out there, just thought I'd let you know we have internet again! We are officially back online! It has been a wonderful summer. God has been good to us and we have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time off.

We've been spending a lot of time playing outdoors and getting as much exercise as possible. Most mornings Robert gets everyone up and out the door by 7am. We're back to biking the local trails several days a week, having covered over 50 miles this week alone. Finding new paths has become an adventure and we're always asking ourselves, "Can we bike there?" Video needs to be returned to Blockbuster? Its only 6 miles round trip, so we ride. Kids want to get new books at the library? Eleven miles. I know it sounds like a long way, but its really not bad. We try to be out early before the Florida heat sets in. To encourage everyone to stay together and keep up, Robert warns, "The T-Rex picks off the slowest in the pack!" ??? They just shake their head and pedal faster.


This morning we got on one of the trails and headed to an uncharted section for us. A new pedestrian bridge went up over Interstate 4 and the kids have been wanting to see the view over the traffic. Once we got to the top, the kids laughed themselves silly at the truck drivers who blew their horns and the commuters waving to us. At one point, Robert lifted his shirt tail to wipe the sweat from his brow and was greeted with a flurry of car horns. A mortified Kristina urged him to "put his shirt down"! Big mistake. Knowing how much it embarrassed her, he found every opportunity he could to show off his 'abs'. Sometimes he will randomly break into song as we're riding along and the kids will quickly distance themselves.

Robert takes an unusual pleasure in embarrassing the children. We've been playing tennis at our community courts quite a bit. Even though there are seven of us on the court, the ball usually ends up getting past somebody. Robert says its proof we need more kids! We might not be very good at tennis, but we enjoy trying to get that little yellow ball somewhere other than over the fence. But the heat on the courts can be intense and last week Robert shouted out, "I'm burning up! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft to put the fire out!" The girls rolled their eyes and hid behind their rackets. But the boys are starting to pick up the joy of embarrassing others. Chasing a ball across the court, Nathanael broke into Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". How and why he knows the lyrics to that song, I have no idea, but invariably it raised the "Mom!" response from the girls. When does this phase pass???

Fun With Idioms and Funny Sayings

I didn't realize how much fun language barriers could be until I began to sport around with idioms. It was the first time that I had to tell Kristina to "put a sock in it". She replied with a bewildered face and in her Ukrainian accent, Vwut does this mean poot a szock in it?" I said, "you know, 'put a cork in it'." She said what is this "cork" and "put it in what?" "You know, zip it up!" She (still bewildered) looks down at her zipper. "No, put a lid on it." And on it went. I have taken some sort of sick pleasure in this and torture her all the time with American idioms. I can't help myself.

The kids think that they are far smarter than me and their mother. And so their foolish devices never cease to amaze me. It is a full time job with over time to keep on top of it all. At first I thought they simply do not understand logic. But the fact is they are born with a working knowledge of logic. They simply think that we don't understand logic.

Me: "Stop doing that."
Them: "I wasn't doing that."
Me: "So my eyes are playing tricks on me?"

Me:"Come here."
Them: "I am here."
Me: "Well you weren't when I called you!"

They are good at semantics too.

Me: "Why didn't you rinse the dishes before you loaded them into the dish washer?"
Them: "I did."
Me: "Well did someone put food back on them when you got done?"
Them: "Well, I did rinse two of them."

This can be fun too if you don't let it get to you. So I told Kristina that I have your number. After a few days of telling Kristina that I "had her number", and her still not understanding what I meant, but kinda feeling like it was an idiom, she finally said out of frustration, "Well if you have my number, What is it?" Without hesitation Joshua said, "I'll tell you what it is: 666!"

We were walking down to the pool and Samuel asked Leslie what the difference was between an atom bomb and a hydrogen bomb. Her reply to him was, "Son, this may come as a surprise, but as amazing as your mother may seem, I am not a nuclear physicist!"

While we were in Sears waiting to get a battery fixed Samuel was acting guinely annoying and boumcing off the walls of the waiting room. He noticed a sign posted on the wall that said "Die Hard." He said, "Look mom, I have to do what it says: die hard! Without lifting her eyes from the book she was reading, she replied "why don't you find a sign that says, "Sit down and shut up"?

Deidra, Don't Call the National Guard!

One of my sweet colleagues and dear friends sent me a message on FaceBook indicating that if I didn't send a flare up to let everyone know we're okay she was going to do something drastic. Yes, we're still here. We're without Internet and that has been a trying experience for me. Not a day goes by that God doesn't speak to me through everyday events in my life and the life of my family. I want to share what He's showing us and how He's loving us even through this difficult time. It will be awhile before we have Internet set up, so I will try to post as often as I can.

I want to share with you something that happened last week. Those of you following the blog are aware that Nathanael sustained a pretty bad injury to his arm back in March and had to be taken to the ER and then admitted for surgery. The experience was frightening because although we have three boys, they've managed to stay in one piece up until this point.

But to be honest, there was one thing about that experience that truly set me on edge. We didn't have health insurance for Nathanael at the time. When the ER doctor told us that he was transferring Nathanael over to the pediatric hospital for surgery, I had a melt down. I figured we could, in time, cover the ER bill paying a little bit every month, but the thought of what a hospital stay and surgery would cost floored me. I prayed and tried to trust that God would see us through.

Then the bill came.

$27,000 !

And then my trust was shaken. I wasn't sure how we could possibly cover that. Robert is in construction and his work has not been consistent because of the economy and to have this added to our financial burden was almost too much.

We have family devotional together daily. There are seven of us and so each person has claimed a day to lead in prayer and open God's Word in devotion for the family. Robert is Saturday, I'm Sunday, Samuel is Monday, and so on. Last Sunday I read the first two verses from Psalm 127:


Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
I shared with the children that work is good and God created us to work, but that we must remember that God is the source of our provision. That last verse stood out to me and there seemed to be something there that I couldn't put my finger on: God provides for us even in our sleep.

The next day I sent Nathanael to check the mail and he returned with the usual parcels. Among the envelopes I found one with the hospital's return address and my heart sunk. I was frightened to open it, but I knew I would have to eventually. I unfolded the letter and read it. And then I re-read it. And then I read it again. The letter indicated that the balance of our bill was $0. I was sure it must be a mistake, so I called the hospital . The woman in the billing department pulled up our account and confirmed that indeed the balance was $0. Her exact words were: the debt has been forgiven. I wept as the poor woman attempted to comfort me through the phone line.


The night before I had brooded in my heart over our situation. I shared those verses from Psalm 127 for myself as much as for my family. I needed to be reminded that He is the Great Provider. But even as I slept Sunday night, God had already provided. Even in my sleep.

How gracious my God is. Even in my doubt, He shows Himself as a loving Father. I will cling to this reminder in the days to come and as we face the hardships ahead, I will pray that God will bring this to my mind over and over again that I may praise Him for his infinite goodness and mercy.

A Few Miscellaneous Funny Sayings of Late

I have been working on structuring the kids reading time, i.e. taking out the junk food and replacing it with a little more sustenance. Kristina is now walking around with my large American Heritage Dictionary. I hope I haven't over done it. Samuel was assigned The Foxes Book of Martyrs. He came to me after having gotten a few chapters under his belt and said, "Dad this book is a bit depressing. Everybody that I have read about so far has died." So much for my previous introductory lesson on what a martyr is.

Leslie and I were having a discussion on something I read by Augustine on consecrated virgins and Joshua walking by said, "By the way who was that person called Attila the 'Nun?'

As we were talking about our lunch options Kristina, still struggling a little with the language a bit, suggested that we eat at a favorite Mexican place of ours Tijuana Flats. She accidentally said "Marijuana Flats"!

Let the Games Begin

We made it to the pool yesterday to cool down from the Florida sun. I settled into a chair riveted by Melissa Faye Green's There is No Me Without You. The typical swim races between Robert and the kids took place and eventually I heard Kristina's protest coming from the shallow end. I looked up to see Kristina standing about midway between Sam and Nathanael who were playing polar opposites.
"What's the problem?" I called over the top of my book.
"Mom, the boys aren't being fair. They won't let me play," Kristina informed me. I saw a drenched tennis ball arc high over her head and be caught by Samuel as Kristina attempted to intercept it.
"Well, what are you playing?" I asked.
"Keep away," Nathanael informed me. I laughed at Kristina's obvious frustration as she hopped back and forth between her older brothers.
"Honey, that's the point of the game. They're trying to keep you from getting the ball. You know - 'keep away'?'
She stopped and stared at me, water dripping from her face, "Well what kind of game is that???"

Call for Prayer

The governing body of Ukraine is set to vote on a bill tomorrow (June 2nd) that will forever change the face of orphan ministry in that country. If passed, there will be a moratorium placed on international adoptions. In other words, no more adoptions. The bill would also limit contact with orphans in orphanages to ONLY those who are official workers and other governmental officials. Please pray for the officials considering this bill, the children it would affect, and the families in the process of adopting.

UPDATE: The law was taken off today's agenda and was not voted on. Speculation remains whether it will resurface in July, but there is mixed information coming from facilitators at this point. Please continue to pray for those families in country and those who are planning on traveling soon.