May update

It has been a typical May in our house filled with activities. Here is a small summary:

• Field Trips! Sara got to ride the Spirit of Peoria this year (a paddle boat). John visited Wild Life Prairie Park and Dad got to go along and lead his group. (He would have joined in the others, but after first grade our school doesn't usually need parents to come along.) Ashley visited our downtown area and ended the day with a movie at the local theater.


• Bicycles...my kids love riding their bikes and we are blessed with having a good driveway and a quiet street (most of the time) that they can ride on. I scored HUGE at garage sales and Goodwill recently and came away with 3 bikes in really, really good condition. (Some of our old ones were looking shabby and getting too small). I look forward to some fun bike rides with the kids this summer.


• Band Aids....This kind of goes along with the bicycles and it just generally being nicer outside. I may be wrong, but I think I have gone through more band aids in the past week than I ever have before. At one point last week Nathan had scraps and bruises on his face, both elbows and both knees. When he took his shirt off yesterday, I realized he had one on his shoulder too! And he isn't the only banged up one. I just went ahead and bought 100 band aids yesterday. Who thinks they will last through the summer?


• AWANA...AWANA wrapped up the end of April. I was so very proud of my kids. The older three each received a leader's award for character and Nathan finished his second Cubbie book. They all said a boatload of verses this year.


• The girls slept over at the zoo this past weekend with their girl scout troupe. They had so. much. fun.


• We planted two peach trees in the backyard. In three years (hopefully!) we will have juicy peaches to munch on. I'll have to make sure that no child tries to climb them between now and then...


• We got our garden planted. This year we have beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. Most of our tomatoes are roma's because I like to freeze and can tomatoes. I'm hoping to can some enchilada sauce and pizza sauce this year.


• My peonies are blooming and absolutely gorgeous. Joe and I both have sweet memories of peony plants at our grandmothers' homes so we enjoy memories as well as the beauty when they bloom.


• My daycare is approaching its closing day for this school year. I say goodbye to my little 9 month old guy today. And the sweet and spunky little two year finishes up on Friday. Over and over again I can't believe how blessed I have been to get to know these families and had the privilege of watching their kids. I also can't believe I get to work and not miss moments with my own kids. I think my current two are coming back in the fall and the 2 year old will have a baby brother or sister by the middle of the school year! A new baby...yes!


• On Thursday (well, I guess officially Friday) I will be the mother of a 5th grader, 4th grader, 2nd grader and a kindergartener! Yikes!

Pressing on...

It is kind of amazing how memories can haunt you...both good and bad memories. Good memories can tend to become better than they really were and consequently make the present seem worse than it really is. Bad memories and the pain associated with them can consume your soul and cause your forward momentum in life to completely stop. I've come to realize this in many ways recently. I don't have a horrible childhood of abuse that I am trying to overcome or tragic deaths of family members, but I think we all have pain in our lives at times and we have to figure out how to deal with those memories. Even little heartaches can cause stumbling blocks in our future if we let them. For example, I have been preparing to run in a 5K in a couple of weeks. As I have shared before running is not my favorite thing to do. I have come to appreciate it of late, but I wouldn't say I enjoy it yet. I enjoy how I feel when I am done and the accomplishment it gives me, but I am not quite one of those people who say "I just have to go for a run to clear my head." The 5K has been a good goal for me as it keeps me motivated to run, but, I have to admit, I. do. not. want. to. run. the. 5K. race. The closer it gets, the more I dread it and it is all because of bad memories. See I ran track in junior high. I ran the 400. I was bad. I think I finished last in every race. I'm sure I probably didn't, but the pain and humiliation associated with finishing last the few times that I did are haunting me. I don't want to feel that again. The last time I ran in a junior high race was at least 24 years ago and it is impacting my forward momentum in life. I could easily say..."I've run a 5K while I was practicing; I know I can do it; there is no reason that I should have to risk coming in last in two week; therefore, I am not going to run in the 5K race". I could let it steal the joy of future accomplishment. That is true for many of the bad memories and pain of my past. I can let it consume me and steal my future, or I can take the words of Paul to heart...."But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:13b-14.

life's pleasures

So I am pretty much sick of the cloudy days of April and am completely ready (along with everyone else in this neck of the woods) for the May flowers and hopefully the warmth and sun that will come with them. I've desperately been searching daily for ways to keep my attitude from matching the sky above...gloom and doom. Today the sun came out and I still somehow miserably failed at adjusting my attitude. My excuse? It was cold...burr, light the fire in the fireplace cold. Anyway, in an attempt to adjust it this evening I will share with you a few of life's pleasures that I have enjoyed lately:

• a good cup of coffee...my sister blessed me last week with some Starbuck's gift cards. Mmmm, that is some good coffee.


• a new favorite book...The Hiding Place. I "read" this via audiobook on my way to/from my sister's last week. It has been a long time favorite of Kim's but I, for some reason, had never gotten around to reading it. I loved it and the timing of my reading was perfect for some of the stuff that God has been working on in me lately.


• the smell of a new Bible...I love the leather smell of a new Bible. Joe has blessed me twice in the last few week's with new Bibles. Both are ESV...one very tiny one that will fit in my purse and another one today that is a thinline. LOVE them both and can't wait to see what God will say to me through them.


• what I learn from my kids...did you know that a flamingo can only eat and digest it's food if it's head is upside down? I didn't know that...learned it today.


• the look of newly cut grass...I braved the cold and wind today and mowed our backyard. Wow, I love how it looks right after it is mowed. AND it reminded me that it wouldn't look that way if we hadn't had all that rain.


• online deals on Crocs...Joe has had is eye on a specific pair of Crocs for months (actually probably at least a year). I got an AWESOME deal on them this week and was able to "love on him" by buying them for him.


• The sweetness of God's word....."My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 1 Corinthians 12:9a

Dinner Time conversations

Okay, before I launch into the latest discussion that occurred at our dinner table I must share that the countdown has begun...38 days and counting until I am soaking up the sun on the beach and sleeping...a lot (not sleeping on the beach...in a bed... in a quiet room..except for the sound of surf.).

So this is what took place at our table tonight:

Dad: Ashley, you need to eat a lot of these strawberries because they are full of vitamin C. (She's been battling a cold on top of her allergies. She's kind of miserable right now.)
John: What is vitamin C?
Joe: (he launched into a Joe description of the origins of vitamin C).
John..in a very dead serious tone: Vitamin H makes you grow horns.
Joe: Really?...who told you that?
John: Ashley
Joe & I turn to our youngest daughter who looked very sheepish: I didn't think he would believe me. It's from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

So evidently for the past several months John has thought there was some mysterious vitamin H out there that would put horns on his head.

Happy Friday

I feel like I've been celebrating Easter for a couple of weeks and it has been a good feeling. I've been reconnecting with my family. My parents came for a visit last week. Now that they are retired I see less of them then I did before they were retired. That makes since, right? It is for a good reason. They now work for a RV missions organization and are traveling a lot...especially in the winter. So my visits with them, especially after their January - March travel period, are sweet. We had a good time with them. For Ashley it really meant a lot since her spring concert at school was last week and she got to have her grandparents present while she did her lines and sang her heart out. She does not shy away from expressing herself!

This week the kids and I traveled about 11 hours to see my sister and her kids. This trip is just the sisters and the kids as the husbands are both working hard to take care of us. Kim is getting ready to move again (the life of a dedicated Air Force family). This time it will take them further west. That combined with the fact that their oldest starts school in the fall (he's exactly one month older than Nathan) means that we have no idea when we will see each other again. So we have been trying to make the most of our visit. With 7 kids ages 2-10, that means parks and coloring. Today we head to the zoo.

Happy Friday...that is what Nathan calls this Holy day. He has started correcting himself the last few days at the insistence of his siblings, but I kind of like the innocence of the mistake. He can't remember its "official name" but has a clear understanding of what today represents...the pain and piercing of Jesus so we can be happy.

A couple of pics

One of my all time favorites of Nathan. Yes, Sophie will be pleased when kindergarten starts in August. Ashley's new earrings! :)

An update from the Horn herd

I would say that it is time for an update from the Horn herd:

• One of my children was very distressed yesterday morning as they were planning which day they wanted hot lunch this week. Evidently the menu was "wrong". They had messed up the rotation. Evidently they rotate what kind of pizza (cheese, sausage, & pepperoni) they have each Friday. (Who knew this?) This Friday was suppose to be cheese pizza and the menu was "wrong" because it has sausage listed. I had to do a lot of convincing that we didn't need to call the school and make sure they knew that they had made a mistake.


• Nathan is a morning bird. Here are some of his recent good morning quotes (these are the first words out of his mouth when I go into his room): "Mom, I am so hungry I could eat that door." ; "Do cobras live in the southwest?"; "Kill da rabbit. (he was singing this one)"


• Ashley got her ears pierced for her birthday and is doing a phenomenol job keeping them clean. I think she is doing better than I would be. I guess almost 3 years of waiting has paid off.


• The last two weeks I have become very conscious of the fact that there are a lot of lights on in our house that are on a. lot. So I have been diligently reminding the children that we need to make sure that the lights get turned off in rooms we aren't using. One of these children had a presentation at school yesterday on "saving the earth". This child says to me this morning, in a very "mom needs educated" type of a tone, "Mom, we really need to make sure we get the lights turned off when we aren't in a room." Sigh...


• A congratulations goes out to the church we served at in Iowa for 6 years. They had their 50 year anniversary celebration this past weekend. We were disappointed that we weren't able to make it out for the party.


• Speaking of church, we are in the middle of doing one of our all time favorite things...running our 5 week new member's class. We typically run this out of our house on Sundays after church, but we outgrew our house this time and moved it to the church. It has been so fun for us to get to know these new families.


• Yes, Joe & I are still running and losing weight. It is kind of amazing that our bodies haven't fallen apart yet. We've both had a few moments when we realized that we aren't 20 anymore, but we also aren't 80 so we recovered quickly. We went on a 3 mile hike on Sunday in the awesomely warm temperatures. I think our kids got tired of us trying to convince them to run up the hills. Well, all but Nathan. Where in the world does that kid get all his energy?


• Spring break is very late this year since it goes along with Easter. Wow, I hit the burn out point about two weeks ago and we still have two weeks to go. Good news though...after spring break we only have about a month of school.


• Aaaaannnndddd that means I am only about 8 weeks from vacation...beach, sand, surf, ahhhh need I say more?

Ashley Rose

Spring arrived here and that means we finish up birthday season at our house. Ashley Rose turned 9 yesterday. I don't have pictures because I was watching all the activities and didn't grab the camera. We had a good time. Here's a summary:

• School birthday treat: peppermint bark. This has become a favorite treat to take to school for the girls because it is different from what everyone else brings.
• Birthday cake: Carrot cake. Wow, not to brag, but that cake was so. very. good. The recipe is definitely a keeper.
• Presents! Ashley's big present this year is that she gets her ears pierced. We are going to do that on Saturday. She also got some body lotion, shower gel (girly stuff!) and new slippers.
• Supper: Ashley chose swiss steak for her birthday supper. However, Daddy was in the mood to go out so we had a rare treat and went out for pizza. We will enjoy the swiss steak today.

Conversations

My kids are getting older. Ashley turns 9 on Tuesday. She's getting her ears pierced. She doesn't know it yet, but, trust me, Joe & I will win the parents of the year award once she finds out. We register Nathan for kindergarten on Friday. Sara enters the 5th grade next fall and John has suddenly grown some long legs this year. With age and physical development, comes brain development and the ability to have some really great conversations...spiritual conversations. Nathan really gets salvation and God's grace at this point. John LOVES talking his Bible with you and made us very proud when he smoked everyone at sword drills at AWANA last Wednesday night.

A trip this past week to the library provoked some conversations with Sara and Ashley. Both approached me with some interesting non-fiction books that they wanted to check out. Sara's was on astronomy and Ashley's was a detailed book on Islam. I agreed with both of them that they looked like fascinating topics and encouraged them to add them to their collection that would be borrowed. So yesterday I was able to engage in conversations about the big bang theory and scientific theories and the purpose behind those theories. I was also able to discuss allah and what makes the one true GOD. All of these conversations were prompted by them when they wanted to talk about what they read. It. was. great. It was great to see them think and begin to critically analyze what they had read and it was great to see them analyze their own belief system. Best of all, I was at peace. I was at peace that my GOD could hold up to the challenges that some of these books might bring to mind in my girls. I want my kids to have their own faith...not just a faith that is there because they were told this is what they should believe. They are starting to approach the ages where their faith will become truly their own faith. And as they go through that process I am not afraid that something will come out from under the rock of academia and eat my GOD. But I desperately pray for them...that sin will not overtake them. I think sin is more dangerous than any book that may challenge their worldview. And in this whole "getting older" stage, I thank God for the 4 precious children I am allowed to raise to adulthood.

It's Monday and WOW!.....

Daylight Savings Time is really affecting me this time. Who am I kidding? Daylight Savings Time affects me every spring and every fall. I blame it on the fact that I didn't have to change my clock when I grew up in Hoosierland. I've been in a haze the last day. I'm hoping that it improves with the coffee I'm drinking right now. Here's what's been going on here the last few days:



John is star of the week at school. Since they have a short week this week (P/T conferences and Teacher's institute) his star of the week started the middle of last week. I think his proudest moment was to get to sit in his teacher's chair when he shared his show and tell items on Friday.

Big news...once again involving John. He has all his teeth. This may seem like a really strange announcement to some people. But our children have family history on both sides of missing permanent teeth. Sara has already continued the family legacy by having one missing (She's blessed...I am missing two and her aunt is also missing two). John's front top tooth has been missing since November so we were getting a little worried. He had his regular dentist appointment this past week and they did x-rays to ease a parent's mind.

I think it is going to be a museum family vacation this summer. (Shhh, don't tell the kids. We are going to surprise them.) We discovered that we could get a family membership at a local museum and it is reciprocal with several museums in Chicago. This is a big deal for a family of 6. I'm excited. I haven't been to the Museum of Science and Industry since the 8th grade and I've never been to the Field Museum.

Ashley's spring concert for school is coming up and she has lines! She is so. very. excited. She's had her lines memorized for several weeks. They aren't required to know them until the middle of this week.

Okay, now for the weekly weight loss (in keeping with my word to my husband that I would post this every week)....I was up a pound. But I'm not really worried about it. I ate right and I am actually becoming a runner. It also helps that I bought a dress last week in a size that I haven't worn since...well, I don't really remember when I wore this size dress. It had to be high school or maybe college. I certainly haven't worn this size since I've been married. Not sure if the wedding gown would fit...I may be a similar weight but with four kids things definitely have shifted.

And....I actually am enjoying running. NEVER thought I would say that. I ran 4 miles last week. This morning I did intervals and finished up with a slow run. Some things I've realized this past week: a clock moves faster when you are on the walking portion of your intervals then it does on the spring portion; some people exercise to the weather channel at the gym. I do. not. understand. this.; I had to borrow Joe's iPod last week because mine was dead (forgot to charge it). If you want to identify differences in Joe & I, just listen to our exercise playlists. Wow! Never has it been more true that he is a little bit country and I am a little bit rock 'n roll. I cannot run to Josh Turner's Long Black Train. According to him, the train sound does wonders. Really?