In Remembrance

Probably most people’s first exposure to Madeleine L’Engle is A Wrinkle in Time. After all, it’s a Newberry Award winner, and appears on lists of “most controversial” books almost every year. One group had even tried to assert that the descriptions of “tessering” in the book actually refer to orgasm. No wonder the book was so popular amongst pre-pubescent! But my first exposure to this amazing writer came through a much lesser known book – Meet the Austins. The first time I read it I was about 11, and I fell in love with the characters. Vicki, the second born child, so much like me. Uncertain, insecure about her looks and her place in her talented family. Her smart, confident older brother, John. Her beautiful little sister Suzy, who’s always known that she wanted to be a doctor. Her precocious baby brother, Rob. And the parents – loving, stable, not without flaws, certainly, but able to provide an anchor for Vicki when her world gets turned upside down. Which it does, almost immediately. A beloved friend of the family is killed in a plane crash, and his orphaned daughter, Maggie, turns up to live with the Austin family, throwing their lives into chaos. Never before had I read a book that dealt with death so honestly. All the characters, even the adults, struggle with this death and the chaos it brings into their lives. But through the love that they share for each other, and are consequently able to extend to Maggie, Vicki is able to come a little closer to acceptance and understanding. The book was special to me, but I didn’t yet know how much its author would touch and change my life through her other works.

I came to discover other books about the Austins in subsequent years. The Moon by Night, The Arm of the Starfish, the Young Unicorns, A Ring of Endless Light, Troubling a Star. I grew, and my age paralleled Vicki’s as she grew up in the books. I even discovered a story about them in a women’s magazine at Christmas time, which was later republished as The 24 days before Christmas. The Austin’s were a part of my psyche – my internal understanding about what a family was and could be. Vicki’s struggle to find meaning in suffering, to find “cosmos in chaos” as L’Engle quotes Leonard Bernstein in another book, resonated with me. Throughout the books, she struggles with growing pains, sibling rivalry, violence and death, and yet the stories are so full of hope, and life, and love.

I soon discovered the science fiction branch – the “kairos” time series of books which feature Meg Murray and her even more precocious little brother Charles Wallace. I joined the millions who’ve been enthralled by a Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Again, the struggle to find meaning in suffering. Again, the affirmative stamp of the power of love to conquer evil. What glorious impossibilities lived here! Unicorns with wings, and cherubim composed of thousands of eyes and wings. Countless other planets, angelic visitations, time that folded back upon itself. Heroic rescues and adventures. My soul breathed it in and rejoiced.

And then, oh then! I discovered the non-fiction books. A Circle of Quiet – it was like sitting in Madeleine’s drawing room and having tea with her. (Actually, I’m a coffee drinker, but Circle seems to be more of a “tea” book.) To hear of her personal history, her private struggles, her own revelations of cosmos and kairos. It was such an intimate blessing. And then A Two-Part Invention, the story of her marriage and the death of her husband. Summer of the Great Grandmother, where she recounts the death of her own mother. The less-autobiographical but no less revelatory books the Rock that is Higher, Penguins and Golden Calves, and Walking on Water.

Walking on Water in particular has become a sort of reference book of refreshment for me. Its subtitle, Reflections on Faith and Art, seems almost too serene for the struggle found within its pages. (Side note: I had a teacher at CMU who used to remark, after people had said that their characters were “reflecting” onstage, “Reflecting??!! What are you, an f#%**ing moonbeam??!!) L’Engle wrestles with the characterization of being a “Christian” artist, stating instead that she is an artist who happens to be a Christian. It is in this book where she articulates the struggle of her protagonists: “An artist is someone who cannot rest, who can never rest as long as there is one suffering creature in this world. Along with Plato’s divine madness there is also a divine discontent, a longing to find the melody in the discords of chaos, the rhyme in the cacophony, the surprised smile in times of stress or strain.”

I’m not sure where along the way I became a “collector” of L’Engle’s work. I just knew that it gave me pleasure to read and re-read her books, and that it was much easier to do that if I had the books on hand. I have in my collection all of the titles I’ve named above. In addition, I own The Glorious Impossible, The Other Dog, Herself, Camilla, The Other Side of the Sun, A Cry Like a Bell, Bright Evening Star, Mothers and Daughters, A Ladder of Angels, Sold Into Egypt, A Stone for A Pillow, And It Was Good, Certain Women, the Ordering of Love, Dance in the Desert. I may have missed a few. She was a pretty prolific writer, and yet spoke of herself humbly as a small contributor to “the lake”. This idea came from Jean Rhys, another writer. In Walking on Water; “Jean Rhys said to an interviewer in the Paris Review, ‘listen to me. All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don’t matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.’”

Madeleine L’Engle died last week at the age of 88. She was preceded in death by her husband and her son. She spent the last part of her life on this earth in a nursing home. I’m sure that she is rejoicing in a much more glorious place right now, riding on the backs of unicorns and conversing with cherubim. I however, feel the loss of her bright voice calling out hope and joy and love in this dark world. I have been touched and changed by her contribution to the “lake” and hopefully I am a somewhat better person because of it. Thank you, Ms. L’Engle, for fighting the darkness.

Suddenly there was a great burst of light through the Darkness. The light spread out and where it touched the Darkness the Darkness disappeared. The light spread until the patch of Dark Thing had vanished, and there was only a gentle shining, and through the shining came the stars, clear and pure. Then, slowly, the shining dwindled until it, too, was gone, and there was nothing but stars and starlight. No shadows. No fear. Only the stars and the clear darkness of space, quite different from the fearful darkness of the Thing. - A Wrinkle In Time

And...

The cat has fleas and the roof is leaking.

Update

Ha! I did forget something!
I didn't line up a sitter for tomorrow night! However, two of my actors told me last minute that they can't make it, so I'm cancelling anyway.
Scooby's first baseball practice went well - he really seemed to enjoy it, although he is once again the smallest kid on the team, and lagging behind most of the others in skills. The coaches seem really great, though, and he had fun. He wants to run laps around the yard every day to practice his running!

Rambling Thoughts

My life is REALLY busy right now. I'm in those last two weeks of crunch time before a show that make me wonder how I get through it every time. I love it, but it's SO time consuming and right now I feel like I'm really stretching my multi-tasking ability. Tonight, Scooby starts baseball. Tomorrow, I have staff meeting at church and they're having preschool Parent/Teacher conferences, so Tarzan doesn't have school. Which means Tarzan and Cinderella both come to the meeting with me. Wednesday night I have Quilters rehearsal. Thursday I have my conference with Tarzan's teacher, then I teach a Shakespeare class in the afternoon, then I have Quilters rehearsal in the evening. Friday I have JURY DUTY, and then a murder mystery show in the evening. Saturday I have an all day Quilter's rehearsal, Scooby has his first baseball game, I'm singing at church, and then I'm going to try to take all the kids to a performance of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at the school where I sometimes direct and teach. Sunday morning I'm singing at church, then we have rehearsal for Quilters in the evening. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday nights are dress rehearsals, then the kids have a "Peter Pan" musical performance in their "My First Musical" class, and my Shakespeare class performs selections from Midsummer Night's Dream, then I have my first show for Quilters. Friday night is Quilters, Saturday Tarzan's going to a birthday party, we have our closing night of Quilters, and Scooby has a baseball game. Sunday morning Tarzan and Cinderella have "Preschool Sunday" where they get up in front of the church and perform, and I have a murder mystery show that night. Monday, May 7th, I get to breathe. In the midst of all this, I have to arrange for sitters, help with homework, oversee piano practice, get money for field trips, and oh yeah, feed everyone, buy groceries, keep gas in my car, do laundry, etc. etc. And right now I have a killer sinus headache. Yes, I'm venting, but actually having it all down in front of me is helping me organize my thoughts a little bit. Although I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Or lots of things, who knows. Pray for my sanity and my kid's patience these next two weeks!!!

Happy Easter!

Nothing says "Jesus is Risen" more than being forced to sit with all your cousins, paste on fake smiles, and get your picture taken 900 times.

I think this one is my favorite:

Followed closely by this one:

And then, of course, there's the always lovely:

Hope everyone had as much fun on Easter as we did!

Spring is Coming

So it's about 52 degrees outside today. I am not complaining - 52 is great! Much better than the freaking freezing cold couple of months we've had here. Spring is definitely on the way. However, 52 degrees is not T-shirt weather. Or so I'm trying to convince Tarzan. Tarzan, you see, is aptly named. He would love to run around all day in nothing but a loin cloth. We also call him our little furnace. (Or, if he's saying it, our little foo-niss) Both he and Cinderella requested a picnic, so I hauled out the Steelers blanket for him, and the pink picnic table for her, and prepared said picnic. I am wearing a t-shirt, a sweater, and a light jacket, and would really like to go back in for a pair of gloves, maybe a hat. I mean, yeah, the sun's out, but it's still pretty chilly out there, folks. But is he remotely cold in his T-shirt and nylon, unzipped jacket? NO. In fact, we battle for about 5 minutes about the fact that if he wants a picnic, he has to keep the jacket on. Poor Cinderella tries to emulate her hero big brother, but her little hands get cold, and secretly I think she's quite happy to let me win the battle of keeping her coat on.

Muddy shoes, muddy hair, muddy fingernails.

Spring is coming!!!

My brain told me to

Riding home from church today, I was giving Scooby kind of a hard time about responsibility. It was a long day for them, as I had a rehearsal after church and they had to hang out with me because Don had a leader meeting for Student Ministry at the same time. So I had told them to go downstairs to the playroom and get a few toys, then bring them upstairs where I could see them, and to play quietly.
Instead, they disappeared downstairs for 1/2 an hour, and never did bring up any toys. Come to find out, they had played in the Preschool room, not the playroom (big no-no) and not even put the toys away! Of course I didn't find this out until we were in the car on the way home. So I was lecturing about listening to directions, and taking responsibility and cleaning up after yourself. And then I added, "You're old enough to be thinking about some of these things on your own." And Cinderella adds, "Yeah, and to reach high things too." So I turn to her and say, "Who asked you?" And she says "Me. I did. My brain just told me to say that."
Can't argue with that!

Long overdue pictures

Here are some photos from Christmas and post-Christmas. Since I somehow posted them in reverse order and can't figure out how to change them, you get the most recent ones first.
Tarzan hanging out on the couch, and no, he wasn't posing for the picture

Beach Day at preschool

Fashionista Beach Day!

We're all doing well here. Scooby got 100% on the Roberto Clemente book report he worked on throughout the month of January. He had about 15 essay questions to answer (essay being used loosely here - each one consisted of one or two complete sentences, with capitalization, spelling, grammar, etc.) a picture of Clemente to draw, and a puppet to make. He chose to make the puppet out of a drinking water bottle, and filled it with kidney beans (since Roberto was a "black American, Mom") and then covered it with a white sock which he decorated to resemble a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform. It turned out really cute, and I think he was very proud of it. It earns him another Pizza Hut coupon, which he's also quite thrilled about. This month's book report is about animals. He has chosen meerkats, and has to do a writing portion, a map, and a three dimensional figure. But NOT out of play-doh. Apparently there have been some bad experiences with play-doh in the past. I wonder if Floam is acceptable?


Uncle J and Tarzan - the matching shirts say "I do all my own stunts"



Cinderella and "Papa"


Aunt Melissa playing Mom's new harp

Tarzan and Cinderella are working on writing their names, learning all about Groundhog Day (GO PUNXATAWNY PHIL - let's hope he's right for a change), making snow globes, and enjoying their classmates. Tarzan went to a bowling birthday party last week, and Cinderella has requested a playdate with "Alana...because I love her." As you saw in the photos, they also had "beach day" in their classrooms - and it was about 12 degrees outside! Tarzan spent the entire rest of the day in his bathing suit as well.


You've gotta love these posed holiday shots - don't the kids all look happy?

This didn't look blurry before I posted it. Oh well.

I've been on the treadmill almost every day, but still not back up to 3 miles. The advantage of running outside is that once you've gone 1.5 miles halfway, you're pretty committed to finishing that 3 miles if you ever want to get home. On the treadmill it's way too easy just to turn it off! But, I'm using it, and there's no way on God's earth that I'd be running outside in this weather!!!
Hope you're all doing well. When am I going to read anything new in East Providence Zoo???

Sophie's Choice

Holy Crap. Okay, I just watched Sophie's Choice for the first time, although I have read the book at least 5 times. This is an absolutely amazing film. Not only is it the best adaptation of a book into a movie that I have ever seen, the casting is incredible, the acting impeccable, the story frighteningly believable and yet incredibly poetic. I used incredibly twice. Oops. If you haven't seen this movie, rent it now. But watch it within reach of tissues and the possibly the hotline to a counselor. I am moved beyond belief. And I already knew the story!
All right. I'm done. Go watch the movie.

I feel like I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas/travel/sickness blur that has been the last month or so. We had a wonderful visit to Mass., and a great Christmas, but once again illness struck and knocked out Scooby, then my sister, then my Mom...one by one it attacked almost everyone. Tarzan seems to have escaped. Then after we returned, the stomach bug attacked...me, then Don, then Scooby, then Cinderella...once again, Tarzan escaped. I guess it's karma after being the only one to get sick over Thanksgiving.
Things are just about back to normal here, which means that I'm ramping up to be incredibly busy again. The mystery shows are happening pretty frequently, which is really fun, and I'll be doing a little bit of choreography for the high school. They're doing Little Shop of Horrors, which doesn't have a lot of dance, so hopefully it won't take up too much time. I'm also going to try to co-direct and be a part of a production of Quilters at our church - I'm trying to stack the cast with all my great friends who are also incredibly talented performers. I'm praying it can work out for everyone. We're also getting ready for baseball signups for Scooby, and kindergarten roundup for Tarzan, and preschool registration for Cinderella. I don't know why people feel you have to sign away the rest of your year in January, but it seems to be the way it is.
Later...

New Year!

It's a new year, and this is my new toy!!! It was actually given to us by some friends from church, and so far, works great. I've been walk/running about 2 miles per day, hope to up it to 3 miles next week. Skinny jeans, here I come!

Ho ho ho

Update:
The play is over! The play is over! Hooray, hooray! This past weekend we performed a musical version of It's a Wonderful Life at my church, and it near killed me in the process. It was a behemoth that almost got away from me, but I conquered in the end. Bwah, ha ha ha! (Sound of crazed laughter) And now I have resurfaced, and looked around my house and said, egads, this place is a sty. So, as I said when Don asked me what I planned to do today, I'm trying to "make headway." Little by little, I'm trying to cross off the ridiculously long list of Christmassy things to do, and also take advantage of this silly 60 degree weather we've had yesterday and today. Big Wheels in December! Yippee!
I've also made the quasi-dangerous leap into Ebay sales this past couple of weeks. I've managed to sell about 20 things out of the attic, and make a total of perhaps, $40. I say quasi-dangerous because I'm a little addicted to the thrill of watching things get bid on. (Sorry about that grammer.) But throughout the process I've learned, if nothing else valuable, that the Post Office will sell postage online, you can print the label on regular paper on your own printer, and then you can schedule them to COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND PICK IT UP FOR YOU!!!! I think I'm never going to the post office again. Why did I not know this before? If only they'd install a drive through window at the grocery store, I'd be in 7th heaven.
The heathen are melting down in the kitchen, so that's all for now!

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for:
The health of my children - that Cinderella didn't suffer a much worse eye injury when hit in the eye with a hanger - that I have two jobs that I love, most of the time - that Don has a job - for our nice big house - for the view of the Ohio river from my bathroom window - for my family - for my friends - for my health - for chocolate - that the Christmas show seems to be coming together well - for the support of my husband in all my crazy endeavors - for the hugs of my children - for warmth and safety - for sunshine - for my children's inquisitive minds - for the glimpses of the adults that they will someday be - for visiting family - for good shopping deals - for my computer - for Christmas coming - for music - for the grace to let go - for God's sustaining peace - for pizza - for the look in my children's eyes when I snuggle them at bedtime - for so many things.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So I'm going to count on a new week starting Wednesday

This past week has been one of major crapitude around here.
Wait, before I even get into it, let me just acknowledge that the kids are all relatively healthy, since the strep and the pinkeye technically occurred last week, a week which I'm now considering to be a good week. Everything truly is relative, or, in the words of the Churkendoose, "It depends on how you look at things."
Wednesday last, I found out that some good friends of ours, John and Sandy, and their two kids who are the same ages as our own, are moving to Ohio. (Browns territory, of all places!) John is the youth minister at our church, although he's always hated that term. He prefers leader of student ministry. He is one of the wisest, most well-adjusted, yet totally crazy and spontaneous people I know. He was a college football player, a parole officer, and a counselor before coming to our church ten years ago. He's the kind of person who can go from a serious discussion about the direction of your life goals to covering a co-worker's office with post-it notes. COVERING it. Every surface. One of his most infamous activities was showing up at a kid's house at 3:00 am in a Darth Vader suit and dragging them out of bed while videotaping their reactions. This happened frequently. He's had a tremendous influence on both Don and myself, our kids are friends, and I'm going to miss him enormously. I am very sad about it, and find myself tearing up at random times throughout the day.
Also on Wednesday, my friend Deb's dad had heart surgery. He's doing fine, recovering at home, thank God.
On Thursday, I found out that we are not allowed to perform the show that I've been rehearsing for three weeks. I began rehearsals on the assumption that it would be no problem acquiring the rights, and I just got smacked in the face for assuming. It was a bad judgment call, and a lot of people are being very inconvenienced by it. I found another version of the show and we are getting the new scripts and license next Thursday. It will all work out, hopefully, but it's been a pretty major cause of stress over the last couple of days.
Friday, a man from our church who's been struggling with colon cancer for several months passed away. I didn't know him very well, but many families in our church were close with him, and there was a lot of heaviness in the congregation over the weekend.
Also, the glasses I ordered on eBay for my murder mystery Christmas show came in and they're the wrong color.
Today, I found out that they may not be hiring me at the high school for the musical this spring, since they've decided to do Little Shop of Horrors, and there's really no choreography in it. I've made myself available to help, but that's a pretty big source of income that may not be coming in this spring.
Finally, a little girl of about 13 that I knew from Rhema school died of leukemia this weekend. She had been in remission for a couple of years, and then it just reared up again and took her in a couple of months.
I'm sad, and I'm tired.
I'm looking forward to the holidays coming up, and seeing family, and having some time away. Sorry for the downer post, but I'm hoping for an upswing soon. Surely, this week will end and we will begin again.

Trick or Treat

Are these not the three cutest trick or treaters you've ever seen? Even though by the end of the night, Cinderella's crown was drooping and her ponytails were dripping wet, she marched like a trooper the whole time and enjoyed every minute. The boys, who are old pros by now, had trouble keeping up with her! Hope it was drier where you all are. Now, how to get rid of all this leftover candy???

Tonight's project

No, they're not really naked, it just looks that way. It started off as shirts being removed to keep the pumpkin off them, then it just went crazy. Thanks to Uncle S. and Aunt H. for the Halloween stuff! It was very well received. We were supposed to go to the town parade tomorrow am, but with 40 degrees and rain, my new plan is to stay home, snuggle under blankets, and watch the Princess Bride.
Don hit a deer with the old van yesterday. Busted out the front passenger lights and put a pretty good dent in the door. Took out the deer too. But at least Don's okay! Stupid Bambi.

For Melissa

Dorrie the Little Witch is a whole series of books by Patricia Coombs
There are about 20 in all, published from 1962-1992
I've read a couple to Scooby, and they're still great!

I remember that plastic-y mask smell too. You had a princess one, and Steve had a devil. (No irony there, huh?)

Laundry and Halloween

They were actually sleeping! And to think I was wasting that potential nap time by surfing the computer! Oh, well.

Today is catch-up on housework day. Change the sheets, do multiple loads of laundry, sort, fold, and put away, vacuum the stairs (somehow they catch as many dust balls as Don's bellybutton! Sorry, probably too much information...), encourage Scooby to finish his book report book...

And then I have a show tonight. Thursday's went well - Don's friends were late because of traffic, so that stressed him out a little, but I think he enjoyed the show, and it went well. On the way to tonight's show, I'm going to try to stop at Red White and Blue Thrift store and find a white button-up shirt for Scooby's magician costume (the only one he has is the one he wore to Steve and Heather's wedding, so it's a little small!) and a pair of "pedal-pushers" and a gray 1950's suit for myself, for the Christmas show. It's supposed to be a 1950's variety show, and I play the wry, side-kick writer. Kind of like a 50's Tina Fey. I'll also be looking for cats'eye glasses. Mom, you don't still have yours, do you?

So Halloween's coming up fast. As I mentioned, Scooby wants to be a magician, so sometime this week I need get out to Party City and get him a black hat. We've got the cape, pants, bow tie, gloves, and wand already. Even some tricks that he wants to carry around with him and do at EVERY HOUSE. I'm trying to figure out how to discourage that idea, without discouraging HIM. Tarzan wants to be a skeleton, wearing the same skeleton PJ's that Scooby did a couple of years ago. The bones are pretty worn by this time, but he says it looks like someone hit them with a hammer and they crumpled, so he likes them that way. Cinderella wants to be Tinkerbell, and I think I can get her to wear one of the many ballerina type dresses we already have. I told Tarzan I'll paint his face like a skeleton, and Cinderella that I'll paint fairy designs on hers. She wanted to try it out today, but I think we'll wait. We have a neighborhood parade on the 28th, in the morning, then Granny's going to take them to a costume pumpkin patch at her church that afternoon. On the 31st, Scooby has a costume parade at school, and then there's trick-or-treating that night.

What are some of your favorite Halloween costumes/memories? My three most memorable were the years I dressed up as a Dutch doll, and wore the authentic wooden shoes trick-or-treating. (Ouch!) The year I made a "Missing Link" costume out of a cardboard box...not the genetic missing link, the puzzle that was popular the same time as the Rubik's Cube, with the colored links that you'd have to slide into place. While making the costume, I cut out the head hole first, and then tried it on, without thinking to cut the arm-holes first. Of course, I fell flat on my face. And finally, the year I was Snoopy chasing the Red Baron, wearing a ten pound airplane on my shoulders that my Dad made out of an old barrel, and a paper mache mask on my face with limited visibility. I'm lucky I survived the night. I have to say, I was kind of relieved when I grew too old to trick or treat. So how about you all? Any fun memories?

Life update

I'm an Aunt again! Don's sister delivered a baby girl last night, 3 weeks early. She's tiny - 5 lbs. 7 oz., but healthy and cute as a bug. It's always good to pass on good news, I believe.

I have a show at Rock Bottom tonight and Don and a couple of his friends are coming. I hope I don't mess up in front of them! I'm going over right from teaching the 4-7 year olds, so I also hope traffic isn't too bad.

We started rehearsals for It's a Wonderful Life - the musical. They're going really well - although it's a big cast so there will always be people missing from rehearsals up until the show, probably. But the leads are fabulous, and I'm having fun so far.

We discovered during the deluge on Tuesday that our windshield has started leaking again. I got to sit in a wet spot all day. We need to take care of that before it gets too much colder. But it's so hard to be without a car and have to cart around 3 little ones!!

It's suspiciously quiet upstairs right now - either Tarzan and Cinderella are sleeping, or there will be some sort of mess up there when I go check. I've managed to waste the past 20 minutes or so flipping around to different web pages and accomplishing nothing. I'm almost afraid to go look, but I'd better...

Zoos and stuff

Everyone (except Don) had Monday off for Columbus Day, and it was a gorgeous day here, so we decided to go to the zoo! It's been a couple of years since we've gone - I think Scooby way 5 and Tarzan was 2 - Cinderella was just a wee babe in the stroller. Tarzan and Cinderella were apprehensive about seeing lions and tigers before we went. I tried to explain the whole concept of them being in cages, but it didn't seem to be getting through. After we got there, though, they liked it just fine. The tiger came right up to the glass and laid down with his back to us. The daddy lion roared REALLY LOUDLY right before we got up to their enclosure. I thought it was a recording. Shows how dumb and jaded we are! I had no idea a real lion roar was so loud! Tarzan enjoyed the monkey house, although since lots of other people had the idea to go to the zoo on their day off too, it was pretty crowded. And smelly. The bat cave was a big hit, and so was the meerkat tunnel. It was pretty funny - the kids crawl underneath the cage and there's a plastic tube where they can stand up and look at the meerkats right up close. From the parent standpoint, the kids popping up looks just like the meerkats popping up! Then we went to the naked mole-rat crawling tubes and played for awhile (just like the ones in McDonald land, really) Then we ate some hotdogs, and Tarzan and Cinderella went into the 2-5 year old play area while Scooby finished up. About 3 minutes later, I go over to check on them, and Tarzan is gone. I retrace our steps back to the naked mole-rat tubes, and try to find him there. Nothing. Well, lots of other kids, but not him. I get Scooby and ask him to go into the tubes to look for him. It's been about three more minutes now. Not long, really, but long enough for all the news horror stories to flash through my head. But then I turned around and he was at the food counter, talking to two zoo employees. When I ran over to them, he was telling them his brother's name, and that he was 7. After giving me a few dirty looks, the zoo ladies released him to me. I hugged him and asked him where he'd been. He said he'd gone back to the tubes and then couldn't find me, so he found someone that worked there and said he couldn't find his mom. I was so proud of him!!! I hugged him and told him he'd done exactly the right thing. I then told Scooby what he'd done, and as the big brother, he congratulated him too. Scary for a few moments, but nice to know that the lessons have sunk in.
We've been keeping pretty busy here. I've been doing one or two shows per week with the murder mystery group, and preparing a message which I'll be speaking at church this weekend. We've also been trying to locate and destroy a bees nest somewhere outside the attic windows. That involved moving many boxes and vacuuming up lots of dead bees. We then had to bring up all the air conditioners, and Don decided to seal the attic windows with plastic for the winter. That involved moving more boxes, and discussing thoroughly the contents of each one, and did we really need to save all those baby clothes? Don also replaced our kitchen sink faucet, which had rusted completely through and squirted water in every direction when turned on, and the handle to our dishwasher, which broke off the other morning. He's been quite the mister fixit!
We're working on night training with Cinderella. Not a whole lot of success so far. Scooby made a chart for her though, with rewards listed for each level of success. He's getting frustrated that he can't check off boxes on the chart, but no more frustrated than I am with the changing of the sheets every night! Oh well, we're almost there.
Oh, and totally random - one of my new favorite shows is Studio 60. Check it out, if you haven't already. It's funny, smart (although sometimes a little too self-consciously smart) and it deals in a really healthy way with some tension between a Christian character and the rest of the characters. I recommend it. (The show, not necessarily the tension!)
Peace out!