Crazy Late Nights and a Crazy Muddy Day

For the second year in a row, Josiah and David decided that they wanted to participate in the Dayton Muddler.  I mean, why not?  Doesn't everyone want to brutally push themselves through tough obstacles and a grueling race in order to raise money for a good cause?  ;-)

Tobin wanted so badly to run it this year; but since the official cut-off is age 10, he'll have to wait for next year.

Josiah and David were joined by three of their friends from church--Hannah, Dean, and Abby.

And speaking of our church...we manned a water table which was situated right after a big long mud pit.

When I say "we," I mostly mean "they," since my sole contribution to the project was filling one or two cups with water.

But I did bring my kids who weren't running the race, and they were more helpful than I was!

Benjamin did a pretty good job of keeping his stroller occupied and his pretzels eaten.  ;-)

And Moriah got a little tired of watching the runners go by, so she enjoyed some fun with coloring and stickers.

Like last year, we were eagerly awaiting the sight of our group coming through the course.

Abby was the first one we saw...

...followed by David, Dean, Hannah...

...and Josiah.

After they went through this portion, I hurried back to the finish line to welcome them in.

We were so proud of them!!  :)

They were a lot more tired and a lot more muddy than when they started, but their smiles were bright.  :)

And then we went to the backyard of Abby's home which is nearby; and while the runners used the garden hose to wash at least a little of the mud off themselves, Moriah got to play.  :)

Everything went really well with the Muddler, including the weather which was absolutely perfect for it.  I'm thinking that Josiah and David aren't going to stop with two of these under their belts.  Next year will surely find us there again; and when that occurs, we'll bring even more mud home with us since Tobin will be old enough to join in!  :)

That evening, for some strange reason, Jeff, Josiah, David, and I all found ourselves in the living room after the younger ones had gone to bed; and we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to talk--just the four of us.  We enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we stayed up until about 1:45 in the morning talking!!!  Now staying up that late isn't unusual for me, but it IS for certain other members of the family.  ;-)  It was a really unusual, really special time.

The next night was Sunday, and we were trying to figure out what movie we could watch as a family while we ate our Sunday evening popcorn.  Jeff came up with the idea to watch the old show Highway to Heaven, so we started that and ended up watching three episodes, which kept us up later than we normally stay up as a family.  We're having so much fun with this show (that first aired when I was eight years old, by the way!) that each evening, we try to get our necessary stuff done so that we can watch at least one episode before bedtime.

Ah, summertime!  We sure are enjoying this last month of it, when we can be a little crazy before the "normal" schedule of life resumes!  :)

His Dear Little Voice

Last night, during a wonderful, relaxing, stay-at-home evening, I was more aware than usual of Benjamin talking as he toddled around, playing with this and that.  "If what all the older moms say is true," I thought, "this stage will be gone in the blink of an eye.  It's time to pick up a camera and try to capture it before that happens."

The results...

Benjamin was having the best time toting around this toy microphone and occasionally singing/speaking into it.

The challenge of making videos of him comes when he becomes aware that I'm pointing the camera (err, the phone) in his direction.  And then of course, he wants to see what's on the screen!

But finally, I was able to catch him walking back and forth by the couch, pushing along this LEGO car that Tobin (I think) had made.

Someday, I'll wish that I could travel back in time and revisit a normal Sunday evening when Benjamin was still a baby toddler.

With these videos, I can--sort of!  :)

Watching Him Wake Up

A couple days ago, I walked into Benjamin's room to get him out of his crib, fully expecting to find him either sitting up looking at the books I keep in a small bin in his bed or standing up by the window keeping an eye out for tractors or various other exciting objects to go by our house.

Instead, I discovered that he was still asleep, so I tiptoed out of the room and went back downstairs to get my camera.  I wanted to capture the process of him waking up.

First, the sleep...such a sweet, peaceful thing to behold.

 He started to rouse...

 ...and rolled over.  And look!  There was a monster truck underneath him the whole time.  No wonder he wasn't laying flat, but was hunched up in the first picture!  :)

The first opening of the eyes.

 The stretching.

 The "I'm not sure I want to be awake" look.  Oh, wait.  Maybe that's just something I do when I wake up.  ;-)

 The first smile as his eyes met mine.  Melt my heart, why don't you, little buddy?

 The reaching out for me to pick him up.

 The "Mommy hasn't gotten me yet because she's holding that strange gray thing so I'm going to do one of my favorite comfort things and start pulling my hair now" look.  ;-)

And then I set down the camera and scooped up my baby boy.

My dearly-loved, forever-cherished, quickly-growing, but-still-my-baby, wonderful boy!!

The Busiest Two Weeks of the Summer

As soon as I signed up the kids for swimming lessons, I knew that those weeks--the last two weeks of July--would be busy.  Being gone every morning for their lessons means that a lot goes undone around the house; it's just the sacrifice we make in order for them to learn to swim, but it's such an important skill that I don't mind having a fortnight each summer that is especially busy.

But when I signed them up back in June, I had no idea that so much other stuff would get crammed into those two weeks, too!

Here's how it started...

~ Saturday, July 15 - The kids and I drove up to Patrick Henry College to pick up Josiah from his week at Speech Camp.

~ Sunday, July 16 - Josiah, David, and I were up early, preparing breakfast for those who gather to eat together before our church service.  After the service, we had a family reunion, and then that evening, we had a carry-in dinner and time of prayer back at the church building.

~ Monday, July 17 - Swimming lessons began.  

And from there, it continued; every morning Monday through Friday, Tobin and Shav had their lessons, beginning at 9:15, Josiah and David had theirs at 10:15, and Moriah had hers at 10:45.  Besides that, we carried on with our normal activities: Josiah and David volunteering at the library, David doing gymnastics, Josiah mowing for one of the librarians, etc.  

And then there were the extras we squeezed into those two weeks...

~ Shav's 8th birthday, a wonderfully joyous celebration that included me taking the kids to Jump Trampoline Park across the mountain

~ a meeting for our High School Support Group, through which Josiah will be taking a few classes this coming year (and David will be taking one, too)

~ blueberries were ripe, so we made the trek out to the blueberry farm and picked and froze 30 pints

~ we took a meal to some friends whose daughter has been going through some major health challenges

~ the orchard called (well, a person from the orchard) ;-) and told me they had two bushels of peaches ready for us so I picked them up and did some canning and freezing and drying of peaches

~ Tobin went horse riding 

~ the kids from church had a pool party

~ we took a couple friends and went to a Harrisonburg Turks baseball game

~ Josiah and David participated in a two-day speech workshop

~ the orchard called again and told me they had two more bushels of peaches for me, so I spent more time preserving peaches

~ we hosted a potluck Bible study here in our home

And at the very end of our string of extraordinarily busy days came a pool party at the home of one of the older couples in our church on Sunday, July 30.  When that was over, I heaved a great sigh of relief that those weeks which had been packed so full were over--because even though those activities were wonderful and worthwhile and fun, they didn't leave us much time to relax, or even to do the normal household tasks that sustain life and order in our home!

The next week stretched out before me, blessedly free of much ink on the calendar; but then I heard that my friend Amanda was taking her kids and a Fresh Air Fund boy that they were hosting from New York City to Riven Rock, so I decided to take my kids and go along with them.  And the next day, I ended up taking the Fresh Air Fund boy and Amanda's kids (and my kids, too, except for Benjamin, who stayed with Jeff) to Grand Caverns so the boy from NYC could enjoy the amazing experience of being underground and witnessing such awesome (in the true sense of the word) beauty.

But then today came, and I didn't have any plans.  Nothing written on the calendar at all.  An open day.  An at-home day.  It was thrilling.  :)

It seemed like a good day to finally sit down and write this blog post and share some pictures from the weeks of swimming lessons--with apologies for the low picture quality, since I didn't take my good camera to the pool, but instead snapped quick pics with my phone (which has horrible picture quality).

Shav was in Level One and was so happy to have Alex, his teacher from last year, again; and Alex remembered Shav and seemed very happy to have him again as well.  :)  One thing about Alex: at the end of last year's lessons, we had given him a thank-you note and a gift card to a local place to get ice cream; and he remembered that we had done that and made a point of thanking me for that--a whole year later!  :)

Tobin was in Level Three, Josiah was in Level Four, and David in Level Five.  Yes, David was a level ahead of Josiah.  That happened because Josiah had chosen to not take swimming lessons last summer (thinking that he already knew how to swim and wasn't terribly interested in perfecting his strokes); but as it turned out, Levels Four and Five were combined anyway and taught together by the same teacher.  Moriah was in the first level of the preschool classes and had the sweetest teacher--just perfect for her first experience with swimming lessons.

 Sometimes during one of the lessons, I would take some of the kids up the hill to the playground.  With the staggered lesson times, I had to do something to keep everyone (especially Benjamin!) occupied and happy.  :)

Benjamin really loved this alligator and eventually learned to climb on and off it by himself.  It was his favorite thing at the park this year.

Sweet brother bonding.  :)

When we weren't at the playground, Benjamin entertained himself by walking around and exploring the picnic table area by the pool.

Of course, tractor books are always a hit!  :)

Tobin made friends with this boy who is from China and who actually missed the last day of class because he and his family were flying back to Beijing on that day.  During the second half of the swimming lesson mornings, while we waited for Josiah, David, and Moriah to be done, Tobin and Shav enjoyed hanging out with him and missed him when he was gone.

One unique thing about this year's swimming lessons is that two of the days of lessons were cancelled in the first week because of a big storm we had had that blew dirt and leaves and mulch from the playground into the pool, necessitating a huge process of draining, cleaning, and refilling the pools.  That had never happened before in all our years of going there for lessons. Those missed lessons were made up in the second week (although we could only attend one because during the other one, we were at the baseball game).  Other than that, the weather had been great for lessons all along, except for the very last day that was rainy.  No matter.  They had lessons anyway.  :)

Even though it was a sacrifice to get up and out the door every morning and be gone from home so much more than normal, those weeks of swimming lessons were SO worth it!!  All of the kids advanced in their abilities by leaps and bounds, and all of them moved up to the next level.  Well, all except for David, but that's only because he's already in the highest level class.  ;-)

I was so proud of each of them and so delighted to see their progress.  It was ample reward for enduring the busiest two weeks of the summer!  :)