Family "Vacation" 2009

This past weekend was really just like any other weekend, except for the fact that it was in the 70's and gorgeous. Therefore, we thought we should take the opportunity to be tourists in our own town. By last night, I felt like we had been on vacation all weekend.

On Friday night, after our weekly BBQ we were blessed to be invited by our great new friends to attend "Godspell" at the Muny. If you're not from around here, the Muny is a huge outdoor amphitheater that seats 11,000 people. Fun show, excellent company, beautiful weather.

Saturday morning we headed out bright and early to the zoo, despite being up late the night before. We were able to see all of our favorite things before it got too crowded. Then we headed home for lunch and naps. In the afternoon we packed a picnic dinner and hopped on our bikes to try to tackle the Forest Park trail for the first time. Jonah is still getting accustomed to the big boy bike, so we thought this would be a good test for him. His little legs carried him for many miles (we're not sure how many). I was even a little stiff when we got home, but he did great. And the little kids had a riot making all kinds of mischief in the bike trailer. A beautiful day from start to finish.

On Sunday we checked out a new church, since we've been trying to take advantage of our opportunity to church hop over the summer. We enjoyed that. In the afternoon we went to Grant's Farm. I love the history of the place, the kids love the animals, and Micah loves the free beer. Afterwards we went to My Daddy's Cheesecake for my early birthday dinner. We ate outside, and again the weather was perfect. Jonah and I decided to walk home together while Micah drove the little kids. We held hands the whole way and shared very thoughtful conversation. He's a special little guy.

Aside from our dinner out, everything we did on our "vacation" was free, which fits our budget perfectly. Micah was even able to squeeze in quite a bit of studying, so I'd say it was pretty close to a perfect weekend for us.

We are finding a lot of joy in everyday ordinary things. If you are able to really immerse yourself in the moment, something as simple as a short stroll with your six year old can be extraordinary. We are so blessed that we have the time and opportunity to do that right now. We're not taking it for granted. God is so good.

Lessons Learned

Living on campus reinforces for us every day that lifelong learning is very important. Here are some of the lessons our family has learned over the last month since we arrived at our new home.

Micah: Greek lesson of the day: Aorist indicitive passive paradigm requires the temporal augment plus the present indicitive stem plus theta eta minus sigma plus the connecting vowel pattern plus the secondary active endings. (Author's note: Say what???) Micah is doing great in Greek so far. He has learned so much in four short weeks. We praise God for giving Micah wisdom and stamina to get through this challenging time.

Darci: At the moment, the lesson at the forefront of my mind is that rolling the portable dishwasher over your big toe hurts more than childbirth and ruins the pedicure. Outside of the throbbing toe, lately I have learned a lot about priorities, and what is really important. The material things that I thought I might miss, I don't. We miss our family and friends just as much as we expected we would, but the webcam, e-mail and Facebook help a lot. I have learned that my kids are amazing, each in their own way. And, I have learned that I love spending every minute of every day with them a lot more than I thought I would.

Jonah: A very exciting lesson learned was how to skilfully ride his bike without training wheels. Once he got over the fear of falling, within ten minutes he was riding standing up and trying to do jumps. This led his Dad to say "woo hoo!", and his Mom to say, "whoa!!!" Thankfully God gifts parents with complimentary skills that help keep kids safe, but entertained at the same time.

Joel: Within days of our arrival, Joel had conquered the baby diapers once and for all. He's strictly a big boy pants guy now, and we couldn't be more pleased. Praise God for potty training!

Maci: With all of our opportunities to play outside, Maci has developed a hilarious wobbly run. She was merely a fast walker before, but now she's almost able to keep up with the boys. She's also learning new words every day, and showing off her personality more and more all the time.

We're all learning to make new friends, and about the blessings of being in the center of the Lord's will. Our prayer is that we won't merely rest on the fact that we left everything we knew behind to follow Him, but that we'll learn and grow in new ways all the time as we continue to seek His face.

Thanks for reading. Blessings to you and yours!