enduring toys

During childhood, creating elaborate adventures with our Playmobile figures long proved an entertaining past time for me and my siblings.  Thanks to Aunty Critter, Jake's acquired a variety of Playmobile figures of his own, though Quinn is the one who most enjoys manipulating them.  For some reason Jake insists on removing the hair piece on each guy, which is a huge pet peeve of mine, though I can't seem to keep up with matching the original hair to man.

The other day Quinn was lining them up our "guys" (as we call them) in a sitting position on a Tag Reader book and I was struck with nostalgic warmth as I recognized some old friends.  

Three of the four standing figures have 1974 stamped on their feet.  

Not sure that this is quite as accurate as the "born on" dates we find on our favorite beers; however, I distinctly remember playing with these three guys as a child. Somehow they survived my childhood.  Many, along with who knows how many Star Wars figures, were buried in various spots in the woods outside of Columbia, Mo home.   

The blue and red guy evoked different warm memories as I found him lying on a street in London as my friend Jen and I rushed to catch the Tube at King's Crossing in order to make a ferry to cross the Channel and then catch a bus to Paris to meet some friends at a pre-arranged spot during Bastille Day celebrations.  This Playmobile guy accompanied us on the rest of our adventures that summer.  I think I have some pictures of him at Fringe Festival in Edinburgh as well as atop Arthur's seat.  It's funny how enduring certain toys are. I'm amazed they survived my childhood and I'm wondering if, like Andy's Buzz and Woody, they'll survive my children's childhoods to be passed onto a new generation.  

 

Other side of the desk

I know what it's like as a student.  And I have 13? years of experience being a teacher, but I'm about to embark on my journey as a PARENT of a public school child as Jake starts kindergarten in three weeks!  Since I've seen what it's like at Walmart the weekend before school starts, I wanted to avoid that madness and so we ventured to THREE stores in order to acquire everything on his list.  (Walmart, Target & Office Depot)  Dutifully I printed off the supply list posted on his school website, but I was kind of shocked by how MUCH was required.  (Seriously, TEN large glue sticks?!  For EACH child?)

Creative breakfast

I love breakfast.  It's my favorite meal of the day, and I want my children to love it, too.  So, frequently I'll try to incorporate smiley faces into our breakfast foods.  Here's an example of what I served Jake recently:

Healthy cuisine

After watching the documentary "Forks over Knives" I've tried to incorporate more veggie meals into our week and introduce my children to healthier foods.  Tonight we tried salmon over black rice.  Quinn loved both.  Jake only ate the salmon after I told him the amazing features of this fish but finally agreed that it was quite tasty!

Thanks to Veggie Tales he'll eat a couple of bites of asparagus. 

Flash Mob

One of my wonderful colleagues is retiring this year.  She asked us to participate in something from her bucket list.  And thus, after a month of after school rehearsals....here's our version of Michael Jackon's Thriller dance! If this video doesn't work, try this You Tube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svlNSkoOAjc&list=UU_4E-601Df8tD1OnCfGTnug&index=1&feature=plcp

Happy Reunion!

Thanks to Facebook I was able to reconnect with a childhood friend as she and her family bedded down in Atlanta on their way from Iowa to Disney.  It was really fun catching up on YEARS of family milemarkers.  (The last time I saw Jodi was on her wedding day in '99!) My first friend in Galesburg, IL, she and I were neighbors for sevearl years.  Born a day a part, we shared joint birthday parties on top of a myriad playdates over the years. 

Babies, babies, babies!

Riley & Jackson

Julie & Jackson

Keaton, Tanner, Landon & Kristen

Mathis & his brothers

Cole & Meri

Sweet Meri

Quinn has been smitten with babies of late.  Each day as we leave school she makes a beeline for the baby room, which is right next to hers.  They have a glass window separating the rooms so I wonder how much of her day is spent observing the goings on in the KRK baby room.  She's expressed a desire to bring a baby home, though that's not in her parents' plans.  It's a good thing that several friends have extended their families recently so we can live vicariously through their babies!  Plus, we are counting the weeks until two dear friends deliver their baby girls in May. 

Game plug

Gotta take a moment to plug our new family favorite game.  (New as in Christmas.) Memory, the matching game hadn't really captivated Jake, despite my numerous attempts.  It was actually kind of frustrating playing with him since his attention would wander and he didn't really pay attention to the simple rules.  Not sure what compelled me to purchase this game before our holiday since we already had two versions of Memory but I suppose it was a glimmer of hope that THESE characters would be the hook.  So it's not so much the characters that excited him, though he is awfully fond of Cars 2, it was the added element of RACING.  Now it's our family favorite!  We play it several times a day and Jake's gotten so good at finding matches.  And I'm THRILLED to have someone else in the house that loves to play games! It's a win-win situation! 

Health eating update

So I haven't been a very creative vegan cook yet, though I have been consistent in offering up my family a vegan meal every week since my first post. Veggie stir fry and rice and beans are the two meals I've woven into our repetoire.  My friend Daphne gave me a book as inspiration, though I've been consumed with reading for school and book club. I have officially switched to buying almond milk for our cereal and Ezekial bread makes a yummy cinnamon raisin toast so mornings are a bit healthier.  Plus, I purchased some organic brown ricecakes that Quinn and I enjoy snacking on, though Daddy and Jake aren't too impressed.

Happy New Year

Recently a friend recommended a book called "Forks Over Knives."  I haven't read the book yet though I watched the film thanks to Netflix.  Their basic thesis is that the bulk of our health ills stem from our diet and if humans abandoned their processed foods and animal based diets and embraced a whole grains and plant based nutirition, much of our aches, pains & diseases would be completely eliminated.  The film was well done.  I enjoyed the computer graphic explanations on how our bodies work and was fascinated by the handful of testimonials given.  (Especially two women one diagosed with diabetes and the other with breast cancer.)  My fascination with their theories turned to near horror the next day as I walked through our normal Sunday preparing meals and snacks for my family.  Pretty much everything I serve, everything we love falls into either animal based or processed food categories.  So while I'm not embracing the recommended vegan lifestyle whole hog, (bad pun intended) I do realize that I need to make a couple of simple baby steps for our family.  Here are my goals, already put into practice last week:
1.  Each week I will create at least one vegan meal.      (This will turn into 2-3 lunches for me as I dine on the leftovers.)
2.  Each month I will attempt one new recipe.
3.  Each month I will research one little difference. 

So...January's meal was stir fry.  (Though Jake and Quinn ate rice and beans per Jake's request.)  I usually make a chicken stir fry with chow mein noodles & some kind of prepackaged sauce.  It wasn't hard to leave out the three offending additions. 
When our current organic whole milk runs out, I'm going to substitute cow's milk for almond milk.  We don't consume that much milk anyway, mostly to wet our cereal. 

February is right around the corner so I need to find a new recipe to try!  I hope to continue to blog about this trend.  One thing I noticed immediately is that the three days I ate vegan, I felt amazing.  Clarity of mind.  No fatigue during the day.  High energy.  Wow.  I get it.  (Especially since the day before I launched this plan we ate Steak-n-Shake and crashed two hours later and felt crappy the rest of the day.)

Peace, Rebecca

bath time

Pretending to have a beard like Daddy.

Mimicking big brother.

I love how much Jake and Quinn truly love each other.  Thank you, Lord, for this sweet sibling relationship.  We are so blessed!

Friends

Sharing a good book ! 

Tag reader fun--post fort making in the bunk bed!

Dressed up for tea!

I have been extremely grateful of late for the friendships in our lives.  We are truly blessed to have a handful of families that love us as much as family.  I am so glad that Jake has a best friend who is kind, gentle, sweet and creative.  I love that they pray for each other, miss each other and feel at home at the home of the other.  

Let's get ready for a bubble bath!

Tribute to Thelma

Grandma,
You are with Jesus in Heaven, the home you've been longing for these past couple of years.  While I know that you are in the place of your heart, we sure are going to miss you here on earth.  You've long been our family matriarch and fearsome prayer warrior.  We've got some pretty big shoes to fill and I know that none of us are fully capable but perhaps collectively we can invoke your spirit and do some of your favorite things more often:
laugh
love
pray
play
bake
sing
hug
bounce
read Scripture
enjoy God's creation (though you did have an aversion to slithering things.)

I thank you for so many warm memories.  Thank you for being such a huge cheerleader for me, for always believing the best of me and constantly reminding me that I'm a special gift from God.   I love you.

Friends

Mr. Matt tirelessly serves as a horse for the preschoolers.  With his enthusiasm for play, I'm trying to imagine this scene when A and J are teenagers...

Human Jenga?

A happily pretends to be Q's horse.

We are so very blessed to be surrounded by friends that feel more like FAMILY than friends.  The love and care we give and receive from some of the folks in our lives leaves me in awe at times.  (Thank you, Lord!  We are so grateful.)

Wrap up in Brazil

http://goglobalx.org/stories

thursday

it~s our last day in londrina.  feels a bit bittersweet.  we had high hopes of waking up early and catching breakfast at a farmer~s market but a monsoon rolled through in the wee hours and still raged when we awoke.  so we rolled over and extended our sleep a bit before convening for breakfast at the buffet.  slow is good, too.  heather asked me to write yesterday~s blog post on the global x site so here~s the link if you are interested:
http://goglobalx.org/?page_id=9

today we lunched at a capela member~s house.  allesandra.  she~s amazing.  her heart overflows with love.  she truly understands the concept of overflowing jesus~love.  she prepared a brazilian feast and we brought drinks and dessert from the bakery down the road.  it was a quick lunch as three of our group members have meetings at the church and two others were getting set up to film allesandra~s testimony.  i learned a little more about graciousness and hospitality from our brazilian sister. 

God is really refreshing me this week.  I am basking in his love and thriving on time in the Word.  I~ve really enjoyed getting to know my teammates and living in Londrina for the week.

Tomorrow we head for a whirlwind tour of Rio.  Please pray for good weather in Rio tomorrow and Saturday!

wednesday continued

please also forgive the disjointedness.  i posted a   l o n g entry a couple of days ago that disappeared when i clicked post. 

it is so cool to see God´s purpose for us, for the church here, come together. 
the last two nights our team mate dave gave a talk on video production. 
the response to his talks was so exciting!  people were so interested in learning more and 15 people committed to volunteering to the church~s production team.  we are going to film six testimonies when we are down here, though i think over 20 people wanted to share.  dave will be training several young people how to do this tomorrow. 

we have been so warmly welcomed by the folks of capela de graca. 

tonight i am going to team with two others on the vision and strategy of small groups and share how God has used community groups to strengthen my faith. 

wednesday

please forgive the many grammar errors that are sure to come.  this portuguese keyboard is just different enough to cause some difficulty in typing and my frustration with it is higher than my need to have a perfect message at this moment!  i just tried typing my testimony on word and the program kept changing my words to portuguese.  :  )  but i~m not sure that even the portuguese substitutes were correct. 

wow.  it~s wednesday.  we are half way through our trip.  i have thoroughly enjoyed the updates from daddy...the short anecdotes of their days keep me going.  thanks for posting, daddy! 

the mantra for most mission trips is ~be flexible.  it~s easy advice to GIVE  people but much harder to live.  especially since most of my team mates are used to being in control.  this trip has been an exercise in patience, trust and faith.

Day 3

Sunday

As many years as I've been attending North Point (11?) I've never experienced Kids Stuff.  Jake is just starting to be the age of its target audience...kindergarten through fifth grade.  It was really cool to finally observe this vibrant environment!  The church is small...about 150 people and so many of the teens we met last night were actively serving in the KidStuff environment Sunday morning.  

I know just enough Spanish to be able to READ and understand, though interpreting verbal Portuguese leaves me completely flummoxed!  And PRONOUNCING the words and phrases we've learned isn't very easy.  It's exhausting.  Portuguese seems to be a weird cross of Spanish-French-German-English.  I don't know how accurate this assessment is but that's what it feels/looks/sounds like to me.  I have a much greater appreciation for my ESOL students who have to navigate a whole day of STUDY.  (So Albert I understand why you would fall asleep at least once a week 7th period.)

Paolo and Kellen took us to a Brazilian steak house for lunch...slated as the fanciest outing of the week.  It was an incredible culinary and cultural experience, all the better appreciated with such gracious hosts.

In the evening we went to church.  Paolo's message on "Pai Perfecte" or The Perfect Father went mostly above our heads, though we tracked the versus he shared in our English Bibles.

We hosted a meet and greet with our Brazilian brothers and sisters in Christ after the service.  Only a handful of people speak English, and these folks are pretty timid about USING the language because they are taught grammar versus functionality and speaking in their public schools.