About 2 weeks ago Nate announced that he wanted to be a Mummy for Halloween. I'm not very domestic but I figure I should probably make each kid at least one costume once in their life and a Mummy seems pretty easy to make, right? Just wrap the kid in toilet paper?
Well, since it needed to last for a couple events, I decided to sew strips of gauze to a shirt & pants. I figured a couple of stitches per strip of gauze, shouldn't be too hard, right? Yeah, well, it was a lot more work than I expected. It took me about 6 hours (a couple hours each over the course of 3 nights). Good thing the strips don't have to be even, or really stay in place too long.
In the end I was pretty happy with the finished product. So as I was wrapping it up I said to Nate, "Just promise me that someday when you are old and have kids of your own you'll say "I remember when I was almost 9 and my Mom made me this awesome Mummy costume." His response was "Well, if I even remember about it."
Oh well, even if we aren't appreciated, I guess that's what Mummies are for.
We always enjoy the church harvest party. Its one of my favorite fall events, but this year I was bit insane during the party. Normally we attend the whole day, usually Derek, Kaylee & I each take a shift as a helper and we alternate who takes the boys on the activities. This year Kaylee was at dance during the morning shift. Derek was setting up for the swim meet. So it was just me & the boys. I planned to meet our friends, the Whitlocks there at 10am, enjoy the party for about 2 hours, then take Nate to the Marlin Meet at noon. Max was going home with Jordan for a sleep-over and he was thrilled about that. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans.
We arrived pretty close to 10am, but our friends were running late. I also found out that Max & Jordan needed to leave by 11:30. So I decided I'd better get them started on the activities. I took several pictures of them at the first activity. Then my camera battery died. Not worried, I pulled out the back-up and took a a couple more pictures. Then the back-up battery died. We continued on through several more activities, then my friends arrived.
After that its all a blur. Between trying to visit with friends and keep track of two little boys, I felt like I wasn't giving anyone enough attention. (I did however, remember I had my new little flip video recorder and got some cute footage of the no-hand donut thingy.)
Thank goodness for understanding friends. The Rumbucs took Max for his sleep-over. Lezlie helped me track down Nate. (Yeah, remember him, I hadn't seen him since we arrived at the party- thus no pictures of him even if the batteries hadn't died!) The Whitlocks assured us they'd have a great time even though we had to go. Then Nate and I took off for the Swim Meet. I didn't get to see any of the Harvest of Talents stuff. Rumor has it that Grandpa & Grandma dropped Kaylee off at the party for the 2nd shift, but our paths never overlapped. Oh well, part of our crazy whirlwind life.
The Marlin Meet is the first meet of the swim season. This is Nate's 3rd year on the Marlins. He always enjoys this meet because its an intersquad practice meet so its much more relaxed but they still give ribbons.
In the Marlin Meet Nate swam 4 events:
100 IM (one length of each of the 4 strokes). He finished 2nd with a Personal Best time of 1:58.23
50 Free He finished 3rd in a time of 48.22
50 Back He finished 3rd with a Personal Best time of 55.24.
100 Free He finished 3rd with a Personal Best time of 1:50.59
Nate's is swimming in the 9-10 year old age group this year, they base it on your age as of Dec. 1. On Dec. 1 Nate will have been 9 for 1 week. So Nate is in for some tough competition this year. (He could end up swimming against boys that turn 11 on Dec. 2).
The great thing about swimming is that even when the competition is tough you can always strive to get your personal best times. Nate got PRs in 3 out of 4 events and we consider that a good meet!
This weekend was a Whirlwind. I need to gather my thoughts. But look for posts coming soon about:
* Fall Harvest Party at Macomb Christian Church
* Nate's first Swim Meet of the Season
* Derek's awesome time at the GR Marathon
All that happened this weekend. It was a blast but left me so exhausted I went to bed before 10pm last night which hasn't happened in a very long time!
Today's reading for the 100 Day Challenge includes the Parable of the Sower. This is one of my favorite parables. Maybe it comes from singing "Lord of the Harvest" so much on choir tour in the mid-80's. (If you are younger than 35 you can click the link and have a good laugh, but hey it was a good song back then!)
The main thing I get from the parable is that we don't necessarily know where the seed is falling. It reminds me that I need to live a daily life that plants seeds of faith in others and I also need to be reminded to look for the harvest.
I'm not really sure what to say. How does it feel to watch your children grow up? A few parts excitement. Some pride. Some Dread. Some Fear. A whole lot of prayer.
We are charting new territory. (Well new to us at least) Sometime when we weren't looking our little girl became a beautiful young lady.
And she met a very nice boy.
We allowed them to go on their first official date this weekend. They have liked each other for almost a year, but have honored our wishes for this dating thing to move slowly. Very slowly. For the first 6 months, we didn't let them say they were dating. Then we let them have parent supervised dates at one of our houses for 5 months. Then he asked if she could go to the homecoming dance. We had mixed feelings. Excitement, Fear, Dread, Pride. And after some prayer we decided to let her go.
Ian is a man after God's own heart. He wants to be a minister someday. He's currently mentoring with the Senior pastor. He's the kind of boy you want your daughter to date. But still that only makes it a little easier.
So we took a deep breath. Said some more prayers, and let her go off on her first double date.
Fresh Air. Jeans & a hoodie. Not too hot, Not too cold. I can breathe.
Beautiful Trees, turning gold, red, orange. Reminding me of our creators' unrivaled artistry. Crunchy leaves covering my lawn, beckoning my children to play.
Orchards filled with God's bounty. Apples, pumpkins. Warm Doughnuts, hot cider. Children climbing on hay bales. Good friends.
Football games. Homecoming. Parades. School Spirit. Dances. Dressing up. Growing up.
Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
Halloween. Children deciding what to be, changing their minds. So many choices. Dressing up, trick or treating. Free candy. Pure Joy.
