Mark-o

Lately I have had some time alone with Mark. I have enjoyed that. Last weekend when Greg took Nathan camping, Mark and I played with the train tracks.


This was his idea of how to make a tunnel.


I've spent the day with him today, too, while Nathan is in Cheraw. He asked me to read to him a lot. After quiet time, he wanted to play outside, so we set up the sprinkler and he got nice and wet. I took him out for a quick errand, and he promptly fell asleep in the car after going in one store.


He's still napping on the couch.

I should wake him, but I'm enjoying hanging out, listening to music, and waiting for the pizza dough to rise...

Father's Day Weekend

Greg and the boys built a sprinkler out of pvc pipe Saturday morning. The boys love "doing projects" around the house, in the garage or in the yard ~ anything with their Daddy!


This was an especially rewarding project for them!


We spent Sunday afternoon in Cheraw, eating a delicious lunch and then watching the boys run through the sprinkler. They kept running back and forth to the picnic table to drink "blueberry tea."


I also have to share a sweet moment I had with the kids last night while Greg was playing a church softball game. I asked them what they'd like to do after dinner, and they suggested we build a train track. They were little engineers hard at work. After the track was built, Mark asked if he could take off my rings. I told him that those had to stay on because they were special rings Daddy had given me when he married me. Mark said, "No, Mommy, I married you!" Then Nathan quickly jumped in with, "No, Mama, I'm gonna marry you when I grow up!"

Creative juices

I am working on having a more structured approach to our week, and the days within.

(Yeah, right, Mama!)


We are getting to the place where I believe we all crave routine, and the opportunity it provides to know what we're getting into each day. I still don't have it completely ironed out, but it seems to be helping already. Mondays are for grocery store trips and music time in the afternoon, Tuesdays for swim lessons (Nathan), Wednesdays for volunteering at Bright Blessings, Thursdays for outings, and Fridays for housework and library trips.


We are filling in the gaps with swimming, playing outside, art activities, lots of reading, having friends over, and serving others as the opportunities arise.


Mark has been keeping me on my toes with the potty training. He's starting to "get" the full range of options in the bathroom, and we are having fewer nasty messes in bedrooms. I won't go into details. I'm just glad it's starting to click with him!



Nathan started swimming lessons this morning. He had a lot of mixed feelings about it, which he expressed to me over breakfast. I am learning what it means to be brave and strong for someone else. This aspect of parenting is very challenging for me. He was pretty hesitant about this, and I did my best to encourage him, be firm about the plans, and keep things positive. Once we got him in the door to the pool area, he was just fine with his teacher and the lesson went well. I am very proud of him for trying something new!

Normal life

Greg made the boys some astronaut helmets this weekend. They buzzed around the house as if they were flying into outer space.

Yesterday we set up the sprinkler in the front yard. Just the smell of wet grass took me back to my childhood yard when we used to do the same thing.


Mark has started asking to wear pull-ups and pee pee in the potty. He's been at it all of 3 hours now, and has stayed dry all morning. Maybe he'll be quick and easy with this training process. He's definitely motivated and wants to be a big boy!

The piano

The piano deserves its own post, but I don't have time to write about it this evening - am about to do some stretching of my sore body! Greg played with the boys this afternoon after lunch, and it was a sweet moment. This is the kind of thing I dreamed about when I fell in love with him 15 years ago.

Down from the mountain

Dad and I ran the "Downhill at Dawn" half marathon today. It started at Ridgecrest Conference Center and ended at First Baptist Church in Old Fort, NC. I had looked forward to this race for the past two months - I would visualize running in the mountains when I'd do my training runs.

It was such a special retreat and bonding experience with my Dad. He is a wonderful encourager. He has quite a gift for conversation, and we bonded in a new way during this trip. We snacked on combos and milky ways on the trip up. We shared a delicious pizza last night, and topped it off with huge ice cream cones. We rocked on "rocking chair ridge" back at the conference center, and walked on the nature trail a little bit, and visited the day camp area where Greg and I worked the summer we got engaged.


The race itself was primarily downhill. It started at 6:00 a.m. and the temp was about 60 degrees. Here we are before the race, after a nice cup of coffee:


As we turned the first corner, we saw a beautiful sunrise over the mountain ridges. My favorite stretch of the race was a gravel trail that looped down the mountain. It was so peaceful back there, and the only sound was the leaves blowing in the breeze. We ran under a train trestle and alongside a mountain stream. I felt good for about the first 8 miles, and then a side stitch kicked in and I started feeling the downhill motion in my knees. Having Dad as my running buddy kept me going! Here we are at the finish:


Being at Ridgecrest is always a trip down memory lane. It rejuvenates me. Spending time with Dad was especially refreshing. I am so thankful for the unique opportunity I have to share a hobby with my father. He is an inspiration to me, and always reminds me (even without saying it) to take one day at a time.

The Little Things

A tick bit Nathan on Saturday night of our camping trip a few weeks ago. We had been outside most of the day, hiking and playing in the woods. The kids had taken their shirts off to rock on the porch. We noticed it on his right shoulder after dinner, before bed. We were slightly panicked.

Nathan was upset about having his daddy use tweezers to pinch this thing off his back. I was anxious over all of the drama and crying that went on as a result. Greg was calm, cool and collected. He did his very best to remove it, and when he couldn't get it with tweezers, he set out for Wal-Mart or a drugstore to procure a "tick removal kit." He took Mark with him on the first-aid hunt (at my request). Mark slept through the entire experience of being taken in and out of his car seat three times. He slept through his own tick search, diaper change and pajamas being put on. Nathan was completely calm reading Winnie the Pooh with me and thinking about the promised yoo-hoo that would be his reward for bravery.

Wouldn't you know, Greg never found a tick removal kit? And by the time he got home, right before the park gate was locked, that tick walked right off of Nathan's shoulder? Praise God. I prayed that tick right off of my child. He answered. He is concerned about the little things.

Psalm 91 has carried me through the past week and a half, just thinking about how God protects us from the deadly pestilence (in this instance, ticks) and orders his angels to protect us wherever we go. The tick bite saga continues today. We noticed that the bite site had become raised and slightly scabbed. I called the doctor this morning and we went in to have it checked out. Turns out, he probably just picked at the bite and it got a little bit infected - no signs of Lyme Disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The doctor even said that he didn't want to raise anxiety (whose, mine?!) by running additional tests without more evidence of a real problem. So, we're going to use a prescription antibiotic and I continue praising the Lord, who daily bears my burdens.