Postcard from Chicago

Postcard from the Cabin

Greetings from the road!

We spent our first day at the cabin with some of the cousins and aunts. The sky didn't look too promising on the way, but we got in plenty of outdoor activity in between raindrops. We had so much fun! Thank God for the blessing of family.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

...and by all my bags, I mean my kids have all their stuff packed. I mean ALL their stuff. And we're leaving in the minivan instead of a jet plane, which is good because even if we could afford the plane tickets, the luggage would cost us a small fortune to check.

In this post I asked for travel ideas, and got a few good ones. I made Tiffany's Homemade Granola Bars that she got from Annikke, and they are SO YUMMY! But I have a little secret for you: these things are really embellished rice krispy bars, POSING as granola bars to make them sound all healthy. The added oatmeal makes them really scrumptious! I hope we end up taking some with us. The other suggestion I got from a few people was Adventures in Odyssey CDs, so I went and picked up a set. Can't wait to see how they go over!

The other day, Bethany was asking to mix together some popcorn, cheezits and goldfish crackers for a snack. Don't know where she got that idea, but then the lightbulb went on. So I let each person pick out four different ingredients, and then had a personal trail mix making party. I'm packing snack bags so when we go off on a day trip, each person can fill a snack bag from their trail mix and stick it in their fanny pack. That's what I'm envisioning anyway. I'll let you know how it goes. Pssst...shhh...I have a secret ingredient stashed away for all the WELL-BEHAVED travelers...

[Have you ever noticed how much clutter I have in the background of my pictures? And that's AFTER I crop out all that I can. Gotta keep it real here. You're welcome. Moving on...]

I told the kids this morning that I am offering a gigantic prize to anyone who chooses to do writer's workshop each day and write about our trip or some other prompts I'm bringing along. I figure we'll be in the car long enough that they might as well get their writing muscles back in shape for school. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one. How can it be that my favorite thing to teach was writing, and I have a kid whose least favorite subject is writing??? (But I'm not naming any names...)

So we've got our dry-erase maps to track our trip and the license plates we see, our supply packs, some brain teasers, and enough other miscellaneous stuff to make the van overflow.

I hope I can sleep tonight. "Oh Babe, I can't wait to go..."

Do you get as excited about vacations as I do? What's a favorite vacation that you remember, or one you are looking forward to?

Postcards from Paradise

It seems to me that my blog has become a place for me to send a postcard from the paradise of the day or week this summer. How blessed am I!

This past weekend I flew to Miami with my sister and nephew to attend the wedding of my brother's oldest son. Why is it that a wedding drives home the reality of passing the torch to another generation? It's not that they weren't beginning to carry it for themselves...well, several years ago. I'm so happy for Danny and Leah, and continue to be so proud of all the nieces and nephews on both sides of our family. They are such great role models for their little cousins, and God is using them in mighty ways. They are people of influence and impact, and to me they are the evidence of a future filled with the hope that God has promised since the beginning of time.

In case you are in need of a little getaway, here are some photos of the beach and the beautiful, serene monastery where the wedding and reception took place. A little slice of heaven.

Did you know???

...that we've slid full-speed into summer?

...that it gets kind of crazy around here in the summer?

So much so that I haven't had time to do a

halfway decent job of blogging about any of it.

Neither have some of my other blogging friends, I've noticed.

...that the flowers I whined about mentioned earlier are gorgeous right now?

...that July is National Ice Cream Month?

We get all happy about that even before we

get through the door of the ice cream shop!

Lessons from my garden: Stages

This lantana is my favorite plant of the year. I am amazed by each of its beautiful stages. It reminds me of the people who are some of my heroes. They are the ones who have been through the cycle of parenting babies to adults and can still say, "Every stage was my favorite!" So far, it's true for me (both about parenting and about these flowers), and I pray that when my kids are grown and gone, I will have appreciated each one of the stages of their lives for its full beauty.

Right now I'm just thankful that even though they're getting so grown-up,

they're not too cool to have their picture taken with Pablo. Life is good!

Wordless Wednesday: Natural Progression

Not Me!

The blogosphere is like a small town, I tell you. I have been meaning to do a "Not Me Monday" post for a long time to come clean on a lot of things that have been cluttering my conscience in the past few weeks. The first person I saw do this was Destini, who got the idea from its originator, McMama. Recently Givinya de Elba did one that cracked me up, and this week Mama Kat gave it as a writing prompt inspired by Lolli for Writer's Workshop. Only it's not Monday. So that will be number 1:

1. I am not totally breaking the rules and posting a Not Me Monday post on Thursday. I would never do that, because I am a rule follower all the way.

2. Although I have been fighting the rabbits in my garden, I am not the woman my neighbors may or may not have seen running out to the garden in her bathrobe to scare them away. Because I have dignity, you know, and that would be humiliating. Nope, not me!

3. It HAS been awfully busy around here, with planning and hosting birthday party for Bethany and a bridal shower within a few days of each other. But I would NEVER let myself get so tired out that it would affect my driving. OF COURSE I did not pull into a parking spot, think to myself that it was a little tight on my right, but let it go. I did not then get out and sort of half consciously think that there was still quite a bit of room on my left and completely dismiss the half of a thought out of hand. And when I got back to my car, there most certainly was NOT a note stuck under my wiper that said, "Learn how to park!" Because for one, after 30 years of driving I obviously KNOW how to park, and for two, people who park in front of Christian bookstores would know that leaving such a rude note would be a bad witness, for heaven's sake. They would never do that.

4. Speaking of showers, the one I gave fell on an extremely warm night, and we had to move it downstairs so the guests wouldn't melt. Thankfully my house is VERY organized, so I did NOT have to move piles of stuff from the office at the last minute and shove it all in the guest room and close the door, hoping no one would mistake that door for the bathroom door and accidentally stick their head in there. I am SO glad that I am not messy and irresponsible and do not STILL have a mess like that stashed blissfully out of sight and out of mind.

5. Speaking of Bethany's birthday, it was a luau theme, and her cake had a beach with a volcano on it. The volcano only required a little bit of the can of chocolate frosting, but luckily I have WAY too much self-control to work my way through the can of leftover frosting in the fridge a spoonful (or two or three) at a time. That stuff'll kill ya. I would never do that!

6. I am not presently thinking that some of that frosting would make a good breakfast.

Is there anything you don't need to get off your mind????

Wordless Wednesday: Morning Mist