This is one my favorite sights.  Makes me smile every time.

I'm going back here a bit to share from our trip to the Badlands at the end of August.  It really was a great trip - lots of fun and family bonding and no rain. 

The first day we drove.  A lot.  We drove all the way from St. Paul to Bismarck, ND.  If you want to know how far that is, look it up on your atlas; I can't bear to look.  Sometimes it's best when our memories gloss over the worst trauma of an exerience.  In fact, the entire human race depends on women's memories glossing over the staggering pain and agony of childbirth and convincing us it's a good idea to do it again.  But that's not the point here.  What was my point?  Oh, yes, driving.  Not just driving, of course, but driving with four young children one of which is three years old.  Here's what Sam was driven to doing for entertainment:

Sucking on empty water bottles.  What else is there to do?  Look out the window?  Once you've seen one upper midwest prairie you've pretty much seen them all.

That night, we stayed in a motel in Bismarck.  We went swimming and relaxed.

Next morning, we decided to stop and see the ugliest capital building in the entire United States, maybe the world.  The guidebook claimed that it is "Art Deco" but we found it "Plain Ugly."  It does have a lovely statue of Sacagawea, though.

This was our first bison of the trip and was surprisingly docile and friendly. 

From there we drove on west to Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  As many of you know, John is a big fan of TR and William's middle name is Roosevelt (for Teddy, not Franklin, you may be sure), so this was an exciting pilgrimage for all of us. 

This was what we could see from our campground and is pretty representative of the landscape there in the southern half of TRNP. 

That evening, we took the scenic loop around the park and, as we had hoped, encountered wildlife along the way.  The first real, live bison we saw had its south ended pointed toward us and was...uh...making a buffalo chip (how's that for euphemism?) so we decided not to take a picture of our first real, live bison.  

Moving on.

We eventually came across some more real, live bison, much better behaved than the first.  Bison are awesome and intimidating, especially up close.  These were on the road ahead of us and beside us.  They walked right past us. 

This fella was farther away and slightly less scary, but quite photogenic. 

At one point, we got out and hiked to the top of Buck Hill.  Sam found a cool hole in one of the rocks and thought he should stick his hand in there.  Thankfully, I reached him before some angry rattler could! 

There are several prairie dog towns in the park and we had fun watching the dogs pop in and out of their holes.  Some of them were a little to comfortable with modern living - several holes were right at the edge of the road!

Wild horses caused quite a traffic jam at one particular turn off in the road.  They were beautiful.

Once the scenic tour was done, we headed back to the campground where a park ranger was giving a talk about Teddy Roosevelt and his time on the ranch there.  Sam wasn't particularly interested, but the rest of us enjoyed it. 

That night, we fell asleep under a huge sky-full of stars.  We don't get that in the city so it was an extra special treat to look up and enjoy the beauty of God's creation.   

Well, by God's good providence, the baby we had thought to add to our family will not be coming after all.  After the baby's birth, the mother decided to place her with another family. 

This news sounds quite bad, I know, but we really do feel that it is all by God's good providence.  We are disappointed to be back to waiting, but we know that the baby has gone to a good, Christian family, and we know that God will provide just the right baby at just the right time. 

 We have appreciated the outpouring of love and encouragement from family and friends and can only be thankful for God's direction in our lives.  He led us to this point and he will lead us on.  "Yes, even on through death itself, our constant guide is He."  That's from a Psalm - which one I can't remember right now - but in The Book of Psalms for Singing, that line swells and rises so that one can hardly help smiling and, since we are not a shouting kind of church, one must supress a desire to shout the good news.  My heart shouts it, though, and God hears.  He is our guide.  Praise His name! 

So, we are waiting, sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently, but we wait with hope in our God. 

Well, I'm skipping a lot of fun summer activities, but if I start where I left off with July 4, I will never catch up to what we're doing now.  Christmas pictures will come up in July.  So, over the next few months, I'll share some stuff from our summer.  When the snow flies and the temperature is below zero for a daytime high, I will post sunny, green pictures and we'll all feel a little warmer. 

For now, I'll let you know what's going on with us at this moment in time. 

William is playing football, taking violin and trombone lessons, and in 6th grade at Liberty Classical Academy.  Somehow he has kept up with everything quite well so far.  I was prepared for meltdowns and/or emotional explosions, but he has kept his wits about him and is doing very well.  Nevertheless, we will be glad when football season is over. 

Micah is taking piano lessons and is in 4th grade at Liberty Classical Academy.  This is his first year in formal school since he went to Kindergarten at BCCS.  He loves it.  And, much to the relief of his homeschooling mama, he is doing well academically and - amazingly enough - socially!  He is currently working on his poem for the October 30 speech meet - "Matilda" by Hillaire Belloc.  Look it up; it's quite a funny poem and Micah has quite a sense of dramatic humor, so we think he'll do well, as long as nerves don't interfere!

Johanna is taking piano lessons and is in 2nd grade at The Shaw School for the Inspiration of Academic Anemics.  Despite our academy's name, Johanna is an excellent and occasionally eager student.  She is currently learning about butterflies for science class and she and I are reading aloud to each other "Betsy-Tacy" by Minnesota author Maud Hart Lovelace.  I am loving having one student and a female student at that - we can be all girly and no one minds. 

Sam is busy, adventurous, hilarious, destructive, and adorable - you know, three.  He loves to play whatever his siblings are playing and his mouth as well as his body is in constant motion.  He enjoys his celebrity status as youngest child.  He has no idea that his world is about to be rocked. 

As most of you know, we are in the process of adopting.  We have accepted a referral for a baby girl who will be born some time soon (due date is Oct. 12) in North Carolina.  When we know she is free for adoption, we will travel to NC and pick her up.  This is nerve-wracking and exciting and we would love to have your prayers for all of this!  For now, we wait.  Waiting for a due date is always hard, but at least this time I don't have heartburn and I can sleep on my back if I want to! 

This fall, John took on the job of co-coaching the Liberty middle school soccer team.  They haven't won much, but John is enjoying himself and the kids seem to like him and respond well to him.  He continues to be busy with church work, writing sermons and all that.  Last week, Mission OPC hit a big milestone: we were organized as a particular church of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.  We installed John as pastor and two other men as ruling elders.  After the worship service, we had a party!  Well, we had cake and punch, anyway, so that makes it a party, right?  This organizing is not an end in itself, of course, but it does mark an important event in our church life. 

I am staying busy enough with homeschooling, parenting four kids, church activities and life in general, so I am happy to not have a job outside the home.  Obviously, this joblessness has not translated into more blogging, but I am hopeful that it will.  Soon, I'll have baby pictures to put up and that will motivate me. 

So, there's the run-down of our family activities.  Tell me what you're up to!

Last night we survived this year's Minnesota State Fair.  This being our third year, we felt as though we knew our way around a little better.  For example, we know exactly where both of the Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookie stands are; the fastest way to get to the horse barn; where the carousel is; etc.  We still spent the largest part of our time standing in line for rides or food, but at least we didn't do a lot of dithering in between times.  And that counts for something when the rented stroller doesn't have a functioning belt and the three-year-old jumps out and heads down the street as soon as the stroller stops.  Even its disguise as a blue race car couldn't induce Sam to stay seated when the wheels weren't actually in motion. 

For the first time in a long time, I forgot my camera!  So, I have no pictures to share, but I will favor you with a list of all the food we bought along the way.  We share most things (except corn dogs; ick) so we all got a taste of these items:

pancake on a stick; walleye cakes; corn dogs (Micah, Johanna, Sam); brat with onion and peppers (Wm); fruit smoothies; roasted corn (yum!); fried alligator meat (tastes like chicken, only really chewy) with fritters; two different kinds of root beer; mini donuts; chocolate chip cookies; milk

Even with a coupon book, we spent about $100 on food!  We won't be eating out for another six months, but that's okay.  Our digestive tracts need time to recover.

As for rides, once again Johanna and Sam opted for the carousel, which I also had to ride since Sam is too small to go alone.  I think it's a scam, though, because they charged me for a ticket, too.  Anyway, William never could decide what to ride, so he just ate food and that suited him just fine.  Micah, though, found a daring and different ride.  I don't know what it was called, but he climbed up onto a trampoline, then was strapped into a harness attached to long bungy cords, the cords were pulled taut and Micah could jump.  Reeeeeeaaally high.  Each tramp had a worker there who helped the kids jump higher and Micah occasionally got so high that his smile faltered.  Otherwise, he was grinning the whole time.  He intended to do flips, but found it a more daunting endeavor once he was actually in there.  Maybe next year.  Even without flips it was an adventure! 

Our souvenir from the fair is a new yard stick!  Our current yard stick is one that came with the house and is missing inches 1 through 2 and 5/8ths, so it's nice to have an entire yard in our yard stick.

So, a good time, lots of fun memories and all that, but I'm glad it's done because, man, my legs ache!   

Happy Independence Day!  I'm writing a blog entry because I have nothing else to do.  I do not have meat and peach cobbler and plates, knives, forks, spoons, cups, napkins and tablecloths to pack up for a picnic in a couple of hours.  Nothin' but time to reminisce about past Independence Days and write about it.  Ahem. 

So, I was thinking about what a fun holiday the 4th is.  It doesn't have the pressure of Christmas - no gifts to find, no tree to put up and decorate, no significant travel, no 4th of July Eve service to plan and attend.  It's just a great excuse to get together with friends and eat.  I'm all for that.  And it still makes for some great memories. 

Last 4th of July, we had a church picnic at a hot, sticky, crowded, noisy city park and discovered the game "Hit the $2 Plastic Baseball Bat Out of the Tree with Bocce Balls."  Our fellow picnickers seemed to think this an odd sport, but we at Mission OPC like to think of ourselves as innovators.  It will catch on.  Soon.

Two years ago, we were in northern Wisconsin at a friend's cabin.

Three years ago, we were in transit from Pennsylvania to Minnesota.  I have no pictures from that summer and maybe that's just as well! 

Before that, it all becomes a bit hazy. 

I do know that 14 years ago, I spent the 4th of July with New Song in Vermont while John slaved away as a caddy and my mom frantically put together all of the last minute details for my wedding.  Thanks Mom.  Not that anybody remembers any details from the day.  All they remember is the incredible heat and humidity and broken a/c.  But that is well outside the range of this blog post so I won't mention it. 

Today's plan is to go to a quiet park in Stillwater and enjoy the day with our church family.  The weather is sunny and the temp is in the 70s.  These are traditions I could get used to.  Especially the low temps. 

I hope that you are having a great day of grilling and eating and enjoying friends and family.     

Later - I spoke too soon on the sunny part.  It's raining now.   

Much later - After the rain, beautiful, gorgeous evening at a lovely, peaceful, quiet park, then fireworks to cap it off.  This is the good stuff. 

We interrupt this travelogue for a bit of summer. 

The kids - Johanna in particular - have been spending time outside.  This is a good thing.  I encourage this.  All that fresh air and sunshine.  I'm just thinking of their well-being. 

For Sam, being the youngest can sometimes feel like indentured servitude, as demonstrated here.

Sam, aka the rickshaw driver, is pulling Johanna down the street in her chariot.

Of more fun was our day at White Bear Lake last week with some friends.

The kids had fun collecting shells.  William even cracked open a clam shell and everyone investigated the slimy contents, thus concluding our first and last science experiment of the summer. 

Big man!

And finally, in a completely unrelated note, I have to show off my beautiful hanging basket before I kill it off.  Not that I want to kill it, you understand.  It just seems to be the way these things work out.  Something to do with the plague I carry around in my purple thumb. 

Several months ago, my brother told me about a trip he was planning for a college Humanities class in the spring of '09 and asked if I would like to go along as a chaperone.  Uh, no, not really, I have no interest in travelling to Ireland, Scotland and England (including Stratford-on-Avon) for 2+ weeks. 

Reluctantly, I agreed.  We leave tomorrow.

I'm not excited at all.  Rather blase about the whole thing, really.  Ho hum.  This is, after all, a working trip, you understand.  I'm a chaperone and I take my responsibilities very seriously.  I probably won't sleep a wink the whole time.  I will dedicate myself to caring for the students entrusted to me.

Okay, I'll stop.  You're not fooled anyway!  I'm wildly excited!  My stomach has been in nervous upheaval for a while now and may only subside when I return home!  I'm thinking in exclamation points! 

So, I won't be blogging for a while, but  when I return, I will regale you with tales of my travels.  Ad nauseum.  I'll even throw in a couple of references to inside jokes just to be really annoying.   

In the meantime, please pray for John and the kids as they fend for themselves!  And join me in praising the Lord for a husband who is brave enough to let his wife go halfway around the world and leave him alone with 4 young children for 2+ weeks!  Lest you worry about him too much, though, my mom is coming next Saturday to stay for the week and several people from church have already offered to help out - my sociable kids are going to want me to go away more often!  I'm sure they'll all be fine and I am so thankful for the opportunity to go on my big trip. 

Didja hear it?  Last night about 6:15 p.m. Central Time, you may have heard the sound of a large crowd cheering but been unaware of whence came the sound.  (I love using the word "whence."  It sounds so pretentious.)  Well, it came from Minnesota.  From Maplewood, Minnesota, to be more specific.  

You must be asking yourself, "What caused such an uproar?"  I will tell you.  William Shaw, yes, our very own William Shaw, made his first hit of the baseball season.  And, to make it even better, he hit in the game-winning run.  And there was much rejoicing.  He even got doused with the leftover liquid from the water cooler.   

To many, hitting the baseball during a game is fairly common practice and this event may not seem like much of a big deal.  But most of us can understand the pride and excitement associated with finally doing something and doing it well after a tough period of perserverance. 

Typical of William, he was was more concerned with getting out of his wet clothes than basking in the attention of his teammates, but once he was warm and dry, he was a very happy camper all evening.  It was a good day. 

As many of you know, our family is in the process of pursuing an adoption.  We are nervously excited or excitedly nervous, I'm not sure which, depends on the day, I guess, but eager to meet our new daughter when she arrives. 

Part of that process, of course, is the home study.  With our adoption agency, that means three separate visits, although not all of them occur in the home. 

The first visit was three weeks ago.  Cassie, our social worker, came to our house, asked a bazillion questions (all in a very friendly manner), got acquainted with us and with the kids, and had a walk-through of the house.  (Just a walk-through; no white glove test, thank goodness!) 

Last week was the second visit and John and I met Cassie individually at a coffee shop to talk.  She asked a bazillion more questions while we drank a gallon of coffee and got even better acquainted. 

Today, Cassie came to our house again (we asked for it to be at our house because of the kids) and asked another bazillion questions to finish off the home study.  Cassie now knows us better than we know ourselves. 

So, the good news is that the home study is just about ready to move into the approval stage.  We have a little more paperwork to complete (couldn't we just shake hands and save a few trees?) and our profile book to complete and then, I think, it is my distinct impression, I do believe, that our profile will be shown to prospective birth moms and we could be picked at any time.  We could be picked immediately.  We could be picked in three months.  We could be picked in December.  We just don't know.   We wait on the Lord's timing.  According to those who know, this will be the hardest time, simply waiting.  With my own pregnancies, there was a due date, a goal, a definite waiting period.  For an adoption, it could be days, weeks, months, or, *shudder*, years.  We know that the Lord already has in mind the child that is supposed to be in our family, so we will wait on His timing.  Not much choice, there, huh?  It's His timing whether we wait patiently or impatiently. 

There are, of course, many causes for anxiety in this whole process and we ask for your prayers as we move toward adopting.  We feel like the Lord has called us to this and we know that He is faithful. 

For those of you who are curious, and you know who you are, we have specified that we want a girl and are open to any racial or cultural background.  Oh, and it will be a domestic adoption. 

At long last, I have some of the promised spring break pictures. 

We set out for the wilds of the East early on Monday morning.  We made it to South Bend and stayed with our new BFFs, the Wallaces.  They have six kids and a tree house, so our kids were in alt!  (Do I read too much Georgette Heyer?)  After a slow morning, we finally got on the road and arrived in Beaver Falls in late afternoon. 

The weather was un-Beaver Falls-ish.  It was warm and sunny and our kids played outside like they hadn't had a breath of fresh air since October sometime.  Which is pretty much the case. 

We had some excellent cousin-time, of course.

Miss Maggie Moo and Miss Johanna Lou.

I was very excited to get in on my parents' church's annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast.  This is a fundraiser to help get families to camp and, every year, the men do all the cooking.  The upper elementary aged kids take orders for coffee, sausage, pancakes in special shapes, and eggs.  Then the men do their best, with mixed success, to fill these orders.  The kitchen becomes a male-only domain - a huge roar of protest goes up whenever a woman approaches the sacred precinct.  It's a fun annual tradition and I think the cooks look forward to it as much as anybody. 

Micah being goofy, Johanna being...goofy, and my beautiful mom. 

After Beaver Falls, we headed over to Columbus to see the other side of this crazy equation.  My sister breezed in from London for a couple of days and, as always, it was lovely to see her.  She and I got to go shopping one day and just hang out for a while. 

Johanna also got to display her new reading talents. 

We enjoyed some more warm weather at the park.

Over the course of our two weeks, we got to see all of the cousins but one, all of the parents, all of the brothers, sisters-in law, and even the sister.  We had good weather and safe travel.  It was nice to get home, of course, but we are thankful for a good time all around. 

Simple neglect is often to blame when there are no new posts on my blog.  This time, however, I have a good excuse.  We were out of town.  We spent a week in Pennsylvania with my family and a week in Ohio with John's family.  We saw many, many friends and more family members than you can shake a buckeye tree at, but it was a good trip anyway.  Oh, I tease, I tease!  We had a wonderful time.  Good weather and safe travel, as well.  Really, all we could have wished for.  Except for more time. 

I will post some pictures in the following days, but tonight, my head is still spinning from being rattled around all day in the van, and I have laundry and organizing to do before I sleep.  No "miles to go before I sleep" though, and for that I am thankful! 

Thursday evening was the Liberty band concert.  This included the 4/5 grade musical ensemble ("ensemble" because it includes non-band-y instruments like the violin), the middle/upper school band, middle school choir and several soloists.

Being enthusiastic fans of band music, we contemplated buying ear plugs.

The 4/5 ensemble went first.

We heard, among other things, a rousing rendition of "Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me."  Mercifully, they played about 8 bars of each song and finished to much applause. 

Being a man of many talents, William moved to the cymbal for one song.

Everyone enjoyed the concert. 

Well, almost everyone.

After this, Sam spent most of the concert making Daddy chase him around the foyer of the church.

In the end, we were impressed with the amount of talent in such a tiny school.  The middle/upper school band was quite good - we could pick out a melody line and everything.  The soloists truly were a talented lot - a ninth grader who played Greig's Concerto in A major (a piece you would undoubtedly recognize even if the title doesn't ring a bell), a tenth grader who played a Bach violin piece, a harpist, a flutist, a very cool upper school drummer who is now the role model for all nineteen boys in my classroom. 

In the end, we did not even regret the lack of ear plugs.  Very much.  

In the end, we were proud of William's involvement in the collective hard work of all of the students and teachers.  And toughened our parenting chops in the process. 

In the 1930s, my great-grandmother, Margaret Copeland, was a housewife, living in rural Kansas, caring for a husband and six children, as well as turning a profit on a small flock of chickens.  (What do you call a bunch of chickens?  A flock?  A gaggle?  A clutch? A bunch 'o biddies?  This shows how very far I am from Great-Grandma's day!)  She was hard-working and industrious.  She kept up with her farmer-husband through the Dust Bowl/Depression years and did it with six kids underfoot.  By all accounts, she was a strong woman, a bit prickly-tempered, but can you blame her?  I have never in my life considered myself as good a housekeeper or as hard a worker as she must have been. 

But now, through the magic of an internet quiz, I can say that I am a "Very Superior 1930s Housewife."  If you don't believe me, check out the box in the left-hand column (may have to scroll down a little bit).  See?  It's true. 

I just hope I never have to try to prove it by actually doing all the stuff Great-Grandma did!

Last Sunday morning, we were standing around after the service as usual when Sam came to me and wanted to be held.  I assumed he was just tired and hungry, so I held him and continued talking.  After about ten minutes, he suddenly tossed his cookies.  All over him; all over me.  Thankfully, he hadn't eaten much that morning - and in retrospect I know why - but he and I were soaked.  We got home and changed and slept.  He never threw up again, but he did have three days of "the other" which made him a very grouchy two-year-old.  Thursday morning, he woke up feeling much better, all smiles and high energy again. 

Saturday morning (yesterday) I woke up and knew that I had caught the bug.  I won't share the gory details - there have to be some limits even in blogging  - but that's why I'm home from Sunday School and church this morning.  Sam's quietly occupied elsewhere and the house is blessedly quiet.

The other kids have complained briefly of stomach aches, but thankfully nothing has come of it.  Let's hope and pray that we have seen the worst - which wasn't so bad, or at least could have been a lot worse.