Summertime

• Breaking beans on the front porch, 
• freezing corn, 
• reading nonstop for summer reading program at the library, and 
• memorizing as many verses as possible in one week for VBS points 

~ that's what my childhood summers were made of.


This year, I hope our children will have overwhelming memories of

• lots of family trips to Wisconsin (we started the summer out with 3 trips in 5 weeks!), 
• lots of fresh veggies & fruit at meals, 
• playing in the backyard sprinkler & living room forts and hideouts, 
• reading a LOT!, 
• reading FUN books (google Sonlight Summer Readers 2020), 
• outdoor church, 
• the wonderful play set that Daddy worked hard to put together for them, and 
• a bare minimum of Zoom!!

Charging

Little Miss came up to me, asking eagerly, "Charged?" She was referring to my old phone, because she wanted to look at pictures before December 2019. (Long story there, involving a once-lost phone.)  When she had asked a few hours previously, I had plugged it in. She wondered if it were charged enough for her to look at her beloved pictures. :)

Yesterday during rest time, she begged, "Plug it in. Working." She was referring to her lullaby bear, which needed charging, because it was not working.  Scripture Lullabies' Musical Teddy Bear sings Scripture lullabies to her.  How sweet is that!

This morning, Little Guy came downstairs reporting that his left hearing aid wasn't working. We were headed out to go garage-saling, so I retrieved the hearing aid charger from his room and plugged the USB cord into the car USB charger, and away we went.  Have hearing aid charger; can travel!

On Thursday he was able to go to his school for closure.  When I met our carpool friend at a gas station parking lot along the interstate, LG jumped in her vehicle, and I handed our friend his backpack and his Roger pen charger (a Roger pen is a wireless microphone that effectively turbocharges your hearing aids).  She plugged the USB cord into her vehicle's USB charger, and by the time they were at school, the Roger pen had enough charge for the hours he was there. 

What items do you charge besides your phone &/or tablet?

Anchor of the soul

Our pastor recently gave one of his FB live devotions on nautical imagery in 19th century hymns!  He compared the danger of ship travel in the 19th century with the wild storm brewing in our world today.

I hope you can take some time to listen to these hymns and ponder the sure and steadfast anchor of our soul in these stormy days.  

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,  where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, 

Will Your Anchor Hold?


The Lord's Our Rock in Him we Hide



There's A Call Comes Ringing


Ship Ahoy!


Tho' the angry surges roll


In times like these

1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, #20

The Graduation Edition

191.  circumstances that led me to attend Bible Study Fellowship the year that LG was 1.5 - 2.5 years old

192.  the mom of another little boy in his class who (she confesses) awkwardly said to me one day at pick-up, "Um, hey, I noticed your son has hearing aids. My son has cochlear implants. We should be friends.”

193.  her text two years later offering to drive LG to school if we ever seriously considered enrolling him at the school her son was then attending

194.  the fact that if LG's birthday had been 2 days later, the boys would not have been in the same class!

195.  people who PRAYED us through these past 3 years of commuting 65 miles one-way 11 months/year (Seriously! I sent out regular prayer letters)

196.  the HUGE strides he has made in speech & language skills!

197.  the other supports he received (feeding therapy, physical therapy, and social-emotional support from being in a trauma-informed environment and having access to an amazing social worker as well)

198.  the community God gave us there & social media so we can keep in touch; these people are our tribe

199.  his school is one of only 34 schools like it across the USA, and most of the others are in major metropolitan areas 

200.  Acts 17.26 & the fact that God led Jim to buy a house in this particular small town, so that the commute would be manageable.  Many people relocate (even from other states) to attend this school, but farmers can't relocate.  If he had chosen a house 5 miles on the other side of the farm (and thus 10 miles further away from the school) would it have been possible for LG to attend?

Graduation

It's graduation season!  And Little Guy is graduating!!!  Of course, due to Covid, it will not be in a nice auditorium with plenty of guests and a fun reception afterward.  But we will still celebrate in our cars at a drive-in theater. :)   And there will be speeches and class presentations and videos.  And tears!  Tears of joy! Tears of relief!  Tears of gratitude! Tears of loss, too.

3 years ago, when we read the results of Little Guy's latest speech testing, Jim and I had no idea how it would change our lives forever.  After four pages of discussion of the results, the tester's words, "I am concerned," gave us great pause. She then outlined seven specific ways to address all the factors affecting his speech, concluding with:

"I'm about to get extreme but ... consider enrollment at xyz School, because clearly he is not making the progress he needs to make."

And thus began our intense discussion and praying, followed by an incredible gift that seemed to drop out of the sky straight from the Lord's hands to ours ~ a text saying:

"If you ever do seriously consider enrolling him at xyz School, I'd love to drive him."

3 years later, our lives have been changed. I do not have words to adequately describe the gift xyz School has been to our family ... to LG's speech articulation, phonemic awareness (so he can, y'know, HEAR the phonics sounds and learn to read), ability to eat without gagging, self-advocacy skills with his hearing needs and devices, and a thousand other things! 

Sure, there has been a cost to enrolling our 3 1/2 year old son in a school 65 miles away.  It has defined our family life for 3 years.  We have put 100,000 miles on our now 3-year-old van.  Little Miss spent a huge chunk of the first 3 years of her life in her car seat, and in many ways her development was put on hold.  We had to say 'no' to so many good evening activities such as prayer meeting & Awana.  But God has been faithful and He has worked miracles through xyz School. 

A friend, who only sees him a couple times a year, remarked last year, "Wow! He is a different child! If you ever win the lottery, I hope you'll give a lot of money to his school!" 

Did I mention that xyz School does not turn away any child with hearing loss? They operate on a sliding scale, all the way down to FREE!

We are forever indebted to xyz School for helping LG catch up with his peers so he can thrive in a typical educational setting. 

 

How we spent National Iced Tea Day

One year, on National Iced Tea Day, I got a free sweet tea from a restaurant known for their sweet tea.  This year, perhaps indicative of the economy, I could find no sweet tea offers.  

It's been a week!  And it's just Wednesday. :)

Little Miss has resumed occupational therapy in-clinic and began summer speech therapy in-clinic.  Little Guy was able to visit his school one day.  I had forgotten how relaxing it is to only have one child at home for a few hours.

LM's sleep schedule is completely messed up, as in totally random, including 3 AM calls for "Wake-up time!"  She has even begun napping again (sometimes) ... but then that makes bedtime hard. 

We are enjoying the wading pool.  And now the parts of the playset are in our backyard, waiting to be power-washed, painted, and assembled (not necessarily in that order). 

On Tuesday LG & I both had 1.30-2 PM Zooms, then I needed to join him for his 2-3 PM Zoom, but I had emailed the provider earlier to ask if we could just do 2-2.30, because I had forgotten that I had a 2.30-3.10 Zoom.  Whew!

We miss the library!!  I'm thankful that over a year ago, I visited a neighboring city's library and linked our library card to their system (our small village library has a reciprocal agreement with them!).  I'm thankful they are now open for curbside pickup. 

I requested my max of 12 books the day they opened up again.  They were inundated, and it took several weeks before our books were available.  At that point, they were only open 3 hours a day, and three lanes of cars snaked through their parking lot to pick up books. (It was not a quick errand!)

The process is a lot smoother now, and we zipped in and out today to pick up our books. 

Today ... LG had a Zoom at 9 AM, we had a friend Zoom at 10, we left for town around 10.45, and returned at 1.15, LG had a Zoom at 1.30 PM and again at 3 PM.  No wonder I'm tired. :)

We go to town at least every two weeks for my allergy shots, and pack in as much as we can! 

Drive 30 minutes.
Park at allergist's office.
Greet friend who has come to entertain the children while I run in to sign two papers, breathe into a peak flow meter, and get four shots.
Go outside and wait 30 minutes.
Go inside for a nurse to check the injection sites.
Drive across town to the library. Utilize curbside pickup to collect new items.  Drop off old items.
Go through drive-through for lunch. This time we chose the more reasonable Steak & Shake, where even with my splurge of a sweet tea (since it's National Iced Tea Day), it was 1/3 the cost of going to our beloved Chick-fil-A.
Stop by Walmart to have our grocery order put in the trunk.
Drive 30 minutes home.

And rush back to our Zoom schedule. 

One day I will look back on this and wonder how we did it. :)

Books, Hymns, Tech, etc.

Have you seen the screensavers from Sally Lloyd-Jones?  They can be found either on her FB page or by subscribing to her newsletter.)  FYI, she has also been doing storytime on FB live during the pandemic.

I had lost my favorite reference book, "Give Your Child the World," but found it in a box in the basement that was labeled, "J-'s nightstand."  Ha!! Guess I cleaned it off one time and just stuck everything in a box. Oops!

Have you ever seen Streams of Mercy by Barbara Duguid? (Blurb on Amazon: Inspired by the classic The Valley of Vision, these short, specific confessions respond to Scripture passages—bringing depth and honesty to your prayers and giving gospel comfort on topics such as purity, justice, waiting, and hope. Designed for congregational or personal use, these prayers celebrate the Father's mercy for his Son's sake, ask for the Spirit's help in pursuing holiness, and close with an assurance of pardon in Christ.)

In our pastor's twice daily FB live prayer times, he always includes a hymn, and sometimes it's an obscure one. Recently he even quoted one he had never heard, but it fit his theme that day. :) I think it was Lord, Thou Lov'st the Cheerful Giver (text here).

Another hymn he quoted recently was "How Good is the God We Adore." I love this!

We found Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (and the new series) on the Libby app!

Do you have an Echo Dot? What do you use it for?

Someone recommended Cynthia Rylant's The Blue Hill Meadows.  We love Cynthia Rylant!  Normally I get books from the library or used, but in a very rare move, I bought it new from Amazon.  It's a beautiful (children's) book.  And it's a beautiful thing to hold a new book, too.  Something we don't usually do with children's books in our home. :)

Emerging

Mid-June is upon us.  We have enjoyed two weekends away (And are more thankful than ever for Jim's parents keeping this getaway house for decades!).  We are beginning to see people again. Life was not meant to be lived in isolation!

I've enjoyed several yard visits with friends sitting in yard chairs while the children play.  (Although, I find it hard to complete a thought because of ... well, parenting!)

I'm attending an evening Bible study at the church building [Side note: if referring to the church building as the 'church building' catches on after this, that will be a good thing in my opinion] this summer.  As with many things that have been made free for the viewing, you, too, could do this study in your own home. 

The videos may be watched for free here, and you can download the study guide for free right now, too.  Study guide here.    

We also decided to go visit the (local) grandparents this week.  Our visit was less than an hour (squeezed in between Little Guy's Zooms!), but filled six people's love tanks immeasurably!!  (Mine, LG's, LM's, the grandparents, and Jim's when he learned we had gone to see them.)  We need each other!!

Updating my Summer Fun post, the Lord provides. If you prayed, thank you!  Apparently for Father's Day, I found a job for Jim.  He went last night 40 minutes away, saw the outdoor play structure I had reserved on FB Marketplace, and paid the man.  Now, he just needs to find time to take a screwdriver and truck over there, disassemble it, bring it back, assemble it, and hope we don't have any ER visits with broken limbs!

11-month school is winding down for LG. 9 more days, but who's counting?! :) Little Miss has her first clinic visit this morning for OT (after 3+ months) and starts summer speech at the same clinic next week.  She had a hearing test this week to rule out hearing loss as a possibility affecting her speech (something that had been on our list for 9 months; we were just waiting until she turned 3 and then until cold & flu season was over and then until appointments were rescheduled).  LG will have summer speech over Zoom twice a week as well. So, it's not as if our calendar will be empty. :) But ... we won't be commuting 65 miles one-way 5 days/week!

And there's hope ... we have plans, which is something we haven't had in months it seems!  LG's Graduation!!, a Father's Day celebration, a possible outdoor summer Children's Ministry event (following state guidelines for day camps), swim lessons (eventually ... too long of a story to get into here), music lessons (if not this year, hopefully next), and I'm even hopeful that school will start in mid-August (hopeful enough that I bought children's masks with toggles on the straps, in hopes that the adjustable straps will fit better than elastic).  Woo-hoo!!  (What on earth will I do with 2 solitary hours every morning Monday-Friday?!?) :)

Summer Reading Program

Summer Reading Program is one more of those weird losses / changes due to the pandemic.  Are you doing SRP this year?  How's it going? What's it like for you?

In past years, Little Guy has eagerly asked to go to the library the very first day of SRP to get his name on the wall.  One year it might be on a star; one year on an owl; one year on a spaceship, based on the theme of SRP.

Despite the fact that we read A LOT in normal times, SRP always puts our reading on steroids.  It's as if it becomes our JOB to read!  And I don't mind it one bit. :)  Being a 'yes' mom is not my default, but when asked if I can read a book, I'm a 'yes' mom. :)

Our little village has a wonderful library, and a well-oiled SRP.  Log your books. Fill out a log of 30 books, get a trinket.  Fill out up to 3 logs for trinkets.  At the end of the summer, each log earns you one paperback Scholastic book, for a max of 3 books. 

It's not well-advertised, but if you keep filling out logs, there is a grand prize.  And LG has been the village winner in his age group year after year for most number of books read (perhaps because others do not know they can fill out more than three logs).  I think that after 1st grade, the child has to read the books independently, but as of now, I'm still reading them. 

This year, SRP is not happening.  :-(

But, the two libraries 20-25 miles away are offering virtual SRPs.  Friends have urged me for years to do those SRPs also, because the prizes are decidedly NOT trinkets.  They are things like a $10 gift card to an ice cream shop, free ice skating, free everything!!!

Their rules are different, so I'm learning a new game, plus it's all virtual, so I'm learning an even different game.  One has a paper log. Read either 20 books or 15 hours.  That seems SUPER easy!! We chose the 20 books.  Our goal is to turn them in the first available day, when the prize selection is best. 

The other library has an app (ggrrhh).  It's not that hard, unless you have multiple readers logging on the same app, and sometimes you log a book under the wrong child. ;) The twist with the app is that there are challenges and streaks within the app, so that you want to read at least one book EVERY day.   So, now, the first book we read that day gets logged on the app.  Subsequent books get logged on the other library's paper log until we reach 20. Whew!

The app also gives you points along the way. It took a lot of searching for me to see where the points go.  You can "spend" them on chances for the grand prizes.  Oh, my!!

It's making the trinkets & Scholastic books look better every day. :) 

But, we are still having a super-fun summer reading sometimes two 80-page books every day for LG and multiple picture books for LM.  Read, read, read!! 

1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, #19

Summer memories

181.  rain storms and the smell of pines at Bible camp

182.  heat & humidity of a north Georgia Bible camp

183.  mist hanging down below the mountains at InterVarsity summer camp

184.  sweltering summers in Chiba

185.  respite from the subtropical Chiba summer by visiting Fiji (it was their "winter")

186.  cool mornings in Vermont

187.  Alpine valley view in Austria

188.  perfect pleasant early summer in Hawaii

189.  cool and low humidity in Hokkaido

190.  pleasant breeze coming off a Wisconsin lake

Rare

7.20 AM ... and the house is quiet.

Jim has already headed out to finish the last pass of a field of seed corn. 

I let the children stay up late last night. (And might pay today ...)

For the first time in several days, we had afternoon rest time.  And Little Miss crashed!  Based on the books and stuffed animals all over her floor, she had some active play.  But I found her, more than 3 hours later, conked out with her head on her Squishmallow. 

(I enjoyed those few hours of quiet-er time, too!  It reminded me of when Little Guy would regularly take 3 hour afternoon naps. Such good memories! :)  LM, on the other hand, gave up napping a long time ago. It feels like years ago, actually.)

After she woke up, they played and played on the airplane.  We had supper, and though I was tempted to skip books, I have learned that it is very hard for either of them to settle down to sleep if they haven't had their books.

So we read.  We read:

Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping (and laughed and laughed!)
Show Each Other Forgiveness
Blueberries for Sal, and
The Fruit of the Spirit is Jesus in Me.

How do I know what we read?  Because it's summer reading program time!!!!  We keep logs!!  We are trying to do the summer reading program for two libraries (in bigger towns, since ours isn't having it this year). 

On our fridge hang two copies of the paper log for one library.  20 books or 15 hours. Your choice.

On my phone is an app for the other library.  It's confusing (to my brain) to switch between readers, to ensure I give credit to the proper child.  The app has a streak feature, and if you read *everyday* there are more opportunities for prizes.  Whew! 

It's a lot to keep up with, but summer reading program (even with its logs and apps) makes me happy!

How to prepare for a summer of fun!

1.  Go online (where else?!) and order a 5' diameter, 12" deep kiddie pool for Jim to pick up at the farm store. 

2.  Go to the Step Two website and order replacement bungee straps (just as you did 5 years ago), for the sand table which was a great deal on an online garage sale 5 years ago.

3.  Go online again to the farm store and order play sand, so that Jim can pick up both the sand and the pool at the same time.  (There is a long story involving play sand, kitty litter, and a 3 year old.)

 

4.  Add play balls, bubbles, water balloons, and water blasters to your online grocery order.

5.  Jump for joy when UPS delivers a humongous box of sidewalk chalk from Amazon.

 

6.  Order online (what you *hope* is) the best backyard toy for LG's childhood.  When Jim didn't have time to finish putting it together over the weekend, call your nephew who repairs farm machinery for a living and who already said, "I'd LOVE to put it together."

 

7.  Decide to order a trampoline (Wow!).  Four days later have your order cancelled.  Wait and pray and keep looking at websites.  

8.  Wait for all the orders to arrive.

9.  Go to the farm shed.

10.  Retrieve the two small slides and sell the smallest online to another family who is trying to make summer fun! Watch the children use their imagination to play with the other slide in all sorts of (sometimes dangerous) ways.

11.  Retrieve the water table and scour it.

12.  Keep your eyes open for a basic old-school swing set to satisfy LM's need to swing & swing & swing & swing some more.

13.  Add a folding chair to your online grocery order, so you can have socially distancing visits with friends outside, while watching your children. 

P.S. ~ And don't forget the sunscreen!