Friday, August 21, 2015

Friday, August 14, 2015

The Aunts in the City



How fun to spend the day with Hoover aunts and cousins. Maria and Ted showed us around Philly for the day. Aunt Janie is in the midst of Chemo treatments these days and requested the day out. The  day included fabric shopping, eating, the Chinese Market, Rittenhouse Square, coffee at Maria's house, a quick tour of Ted's house, a ride on the subway, dinner by the park at Parc, and a stop at Anthro before heading back home. 





I'd go back to Penang for this appetizer alone. 
It's a number one folks and it tastes like Grenada. 
Home made roti canai (Indian Pancake) and curry chicken with potato dipping sauce. 

Ted's oil painting skills being admired. 







Wednesday, August 12, 2015

The Year We Missed the Cutoff

 Mia loved camp last year and it was no question whether or not she wanted to go this year. Then I put off sending her registration in for more than a few days. She begged me every day to send it it but I was distracted by the new puppy. Then the letter came letting her know that she was not accepted due to the camp being too full but they will put her on the waiting list. She put on a brave face but I heard her crying in the basement. I cried too. I had let her down and could not fix it. This brought up good conversations about God's will and being able to trust that it is meant to be this way etc. I did check with the camp to see where she was on the waiting list and it was far enough back that it seemed unlikely that she would make it. Possible, but unlikely. It felt tricky to pray that she would get in as that would mean so many other girls could not go. The weeks before camp were rough as various people asked her if she was excited about camp and just assumed she was going. Lots of Mom guilt for me. We planned out some other fun activities to make the week go by faster and to help ease the pain. Mia is such a hard worker, amazingly cheerful about it, and in the weeks following Hank's birth while Mia was putting up with a lot of housework and my roller coaster emotions I often felt so bad that she could not get away for a week, it would have been so deserved. On Thursday before camp a girl from church who was on the camp waiting list, got a call and was accepted. Oh boy, we had to be so so close. Her last name started with a G ours was an M... I could not help but try to guess in my head what number she was at by now.  For two days I looked longingly at the phone, willing it to ring. And then, after we had given up and camp had started, it did. At 3:45PM on Monday. I'm thankful Nate answered the phone as the caller ID sounded like it was saying, "Reuse Popcorn Seed." So I thought, telemarketer and Nate answered it. I heard Nate say, with much feeling, "She would love too," and I thought oh my he is going to give me the phone with a telemarketer on the other end. It was camp and they had called. One girl did not show up and Mia got to be the very last camper. Number 240. Amazing. And I'm still feeling the wonder of it. Thank you God.


 I imagine she is having a blast. We are limping along without her.
Olive is being a handful for Ellie, Nate had Hank and I had the camera. 

Hank is not a huge fan of his car seat. You know how some babies love to drive? Not him.


Monday, August 10, 2015

It Happened Again

Twice recently something happened that I've been totally worried about. #1 The dog eats everything she can and I've been worried that the mail lady is going to set our mail outside with a package sometime and the dog will eat an important something. Nate has this contractor that pays him via check and it's just not the type of situation where you want to request another check. Sure enough, on a day that a child of our had carried the mail in, Nate came home and found Harley gnawing on a half eaten check from this guy. Oh boy.  Nate picked up every tiny piece that he could find and we laid it all out and most of the important stuff was there, but thanks to half of one digit on the bottom missing the bank would not take it. The thing that happened was when Nate carried it in the house and I saw what had happened, I laughed. I felt a certain relief that what I had dreaded happened and the realization that it could have been a 24x30 canvas or one of the children's limbs. Nate was just glad that Harley did not eat the whole thing or we'd still be looking for it.

The guy was super nice about it and the next check arrived with a note on the back.

#2 The children love to do crafty stuff and lately it has been the melty beads that you iron. Mia assured me that she knows how to do this and I know that she can it's just I also know that she's going to forget the paper between the beads and the iron sometime. Friday was the day.  Again I found myself laughing, I think it was her reaction. My poor kids.



I've been sewing. 

Canning

And taking Hank for a check up. While waiting for the doctor I plot ways to take this cute scale table off of their hands! 

I am in quite the panic that school is soon starting. 





The kids have really been into the Orange Blossom Special thanks to our new Celtic Martin's CD.
This Buddy Greene version is cranking this morning.