Sunday: family

Nathan and family came up today!  Yay!

They arrived mid-afternoon and the kids immediately started playing in the basement.  They played down there a lot - in the evening there was some game they were playing that may have involved a ball and definitely involved a lot of laughter.

I attempted to make dinner in the instapot but it was not loving me.  I prepped the chicken yesterday and put it in the bowl and I think that was a mistake.  The bottom kept burning.  The chicken eventually cooked because the liquid got hot and that cooks the chicken...it was just a bit annoying.

The adults also got caught up with life.  It sounds boring but is lovely.

Saturday 2: funeral

I went to another funeral today.  Ms. Anne, from karate, passed away last Saturday.  Although it was sudden, it was also expected.  About a month ago she got a horrible diagnosis and was given 10 days to live.  She did really well, health-wise, for about the next ten days and then slowly got worse.

As far as I knew, she wasn't a Christian.  I wondered how the funeral would go - I haven't been to many funerals but they have all been for people whose faith is in Jesus.  There was a minister officiating and he frequently used Bible passages.  Maybe I didn't read the situation correctly, maybe she chose God at the end of her life, maybe the family/minister just decided this was the way to conduct the funeral.  While the whole situation is very sad, I find myself not as sad as I think I should be.  However, I'm also going to give myself permission to feel how I feel and that's ok.  (I brought tissues this time but didn't need them.  A friend did, so I was glad to have them.)

At the same time, I want my funeral to point so clearly to God that there is no doubt at all that I loved God, He loves me, and he loves everyone there.

So, here are my current suggestions for items in the ceremony. They're only suggestions and can be skipped as appropriate.

1) Heidelberg Q&A #1: 

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

2) Westminster Catechism #1:
What is the chief and highest end of man?
Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.

3) This is my Father's World, but only verse 3:

This is my Father's world:
O let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!

4) Goodness of God (song)

5) Untitled Hymn by Chris Rice.  I like all of it, but this verse gets sung a lot:

With your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side

6) Great is thy Faithfulness

I still need some Bible verses.  There are just so many good ones - I'll need to think on those some more.

I'll also expect some stories.  I've been writing them all down for years now, so there are no excuses.  Well, maybe I have too many stories.  If that's the case, search for rice cooker...but I expect you can come up with something better.

Saturday: the fun parts

I've decided to split today's blog post into two parts - they just really don't belong together.  We'll start with the fun stuff.

The morning, while doing Legos, I asked everyone if they saw words, picture/word combos, or pictures in their brains as they were talking.  I think it was a mix for everyone, although the kids leaned toward only pictures.  I am firmly in words, and I've known this for a while.  It's not that I don't see pictures as conversations are going on, but there are always words.  They don't have to be spelled correctly but it's like reading a book.  There have been several times I've been surprised on how a word is spelled after hearing it because there was a spelling assigned to it in my head.

This led Ben to look up weird spellings.  Most of them were weird, for sure.  The funny part for me was Wednesday and mortgage.  In both cases, after Ben said the word, I said, "oh, I just sound that word out.  Wed-nes-day or mort-gage."  Only after I said them did I realize that isn't actually how you say the word.  Oddly enough, I need to sound out these two words almost every time I write them.

Ben found the kids wrestling after nap time.  

Isaac and Joshua both tried to pick up Ben.  Isaac succeeded easily; Joshua is getting close.

Friday: finishing things

It was not a snow day, probably because the roads didn't get bad until 6:30 and by then it was too late to cancel.  Isaac was sad, Joshua was happy.

I felt like I finally was getting things fully done today.  I finished things in the past few days, but it would be step 1 of 3.  (I.e., hard boil all the eggs for the deviled eggs or wrap the presents that I have, knowing that they weren't all there).  I only have a few more kitchen things that I need to do: hurray!

I picked Isaac up early from school.  They have a sing-along at the end of the day that Isaac really, really doesn't like.  I picked him up early last year because he had homework over break.  This year he doesn't, but I picked him up early anyway.  He helped me put up a little search-and-find at the dojang and then did some work at home.  (That was the deal.  I'd pick him up early, but it wasn't fun time.)

Joshua had too much screen and sugar at school so he voluntarily skipped screen time after school and didn't have a snack.  Instead he worked on all the cleaning chores that we have before Nathan comes up and honestly, it was amazing.

Last Saturday: Chicago Day 1

We went to Chicago with some friends for the weekend!  Fifteen people with nine boys in 4th-10th grade.

We went to the Field Museum first.  I think I've been there before, but don't really remember.  I loved it!  I was nice to go with a large group.  Joshua went pretty quickly with most of the kids, I went at a medium speed but somewhat close to Joshua, and Isaac and Ben went a bit more slowly.  They skipped a few things that weren't quite as interesting to stay with the group.  It worked well.

We all showed up at the back entrance, so we went through the "shrink yourself and go underground" first.  The kids really, really liked the shrinking machine.

There was a giraffe for which you had to pump blood from it's heart to it's head.  It was pretty hard but all the kids were rather entranced by it.

I enjoyed the animals and birds.  In the bird exhibit I tried to find two birds that matched a game we recently got.  We've been calling them Cu-bird and Vanilla Wafer bird, but those are obviously wrong.  Joshua didn't take Grey Bear, so we at least got a picture with him and bears.

The boys.  They didn't have to smile, but they did have to look at me.

With Sue.  (Although I think Isaac at least enjoyed the rocks and gems more.)

After a stop at the hotel and a very short nap, we got ready to go to ZooLights.  It was super cold out - I think around 9F, not counting the wind chill.  There wasn't a lot of wind, but it probably made it a bit colder.

We dressed warmly, but the bus was also warm so we were advised to not to wear too much at the beginning and we'd find a place to finish up.  It actually worked pretty well, although it took a bit longer than expected to find a building.  Everyone was happily warm after that, although taking pictures was cold because I had to remove my gloves.

Joshua didn't get his picture with any lights, but said it was his favorite part.  There were great light tunnels and a little light show.  The light show had good lights and terrible songs....only one of the three was actually a Christmas song.  As we were leaving a forth started, but it was just a different version of one of the other three.  

There were also several building that were open so we could see a few animals.  It was a nice way to warm up too.  I felt proud of myself for keeping track of Meredith's glove: she dropped it once in a dark hallway and I saw it and she dropped it once while walking behind me and I saw it.

We got pizza delivered to the hotel afterwards.  It was supposed to show up at 7:15 but didn't show up until 7:45, somewhat reminiscent of experience two years ago.  This time we at least had comfortable seats.  I thought the pizza was delicious, but I think I was getting a bit hangry too.  The kids finished and went to the room by themselves; it is wonderful letting them do this.  They got ready for bed but didn't put themselves to bed like I had been hoping.  We didn't give them any instructions though, so I was pretty happy that they at least did that.

Thursday:

I made so much sourdough starter that it -almost- overflowed.  It didn't though.  Also, it wasn't enough to make two loaves of bread so it was an odd amount of too much and too little all at the same time.

The Christmas Ruiners are trying to get their babies out of jail.  It took me an extra day to find it, so it turns out the jail is really secure.

Other than that, it was a normal pre-Christmas day.  Spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen.  Wrap some presents.  Take a nap.  Finish the laundry.  Pick up the kids.  Wonder where the day went.  I finished two new routes at rock climbing, so that was fun.  One was a V0 but it was really interesting (and close to the ground).  The other was a 5.9 on the inverse incline.  I need to do a small, controlled jump near the top and I missed the hold the first time I tried tonight.  I decided to give it one more try before going home and got it!  ...although that meant I had to keep going up the wall.  It was not the easiest route I've ever climbed.

Wednesday: Christmas magic

 The sheep was found in the flour this morning.

I'm not really sure where the day went.  By the time I started laundry, got groceries, went to the library, and came home it was already 10am.  I started the potatoes for dinner and the eggs for potlucks on Friday.  I attempted to clean the kitchen, but half of it needed to come back out within a few hours so there was no reason to put it away.

I forgot to halve the twice-baked potato recipe, with the exception of the potatoes themselves.  I added some instant potatoes into the soupy mixture and they turned out fine.  Now we have lots of the yummy part for left overs.

Luckily, I don't have to work tomorrow so maybe I'll actually get some things finished.  Or maybe not.  We'll see.