relocating

don't freak out, neighbors, we're not moving... just my blog is. :)

you will now find me at www.waterlilyphoto.com/blog. see you over there!

new heights of style

miriam has never been much for dolls, but she sure does like to dress up her little brother! this is how he came downstairs yesterday...

and this is how he ate dinner last night.

this is what levi picked out to wear today. hey, it's better than what he woke up wearing this morning: just the black & white cowboy vest and his lightning mcqueen boxer briefs. it was quite the sight to behold.

and while the boys sport their fashion statements, miriam prefers to find uniqueness in the places she chooses to do her reading.

coming soon to computer screens near you

matt has been doing some part-time work for a friend of his who recently started up a web development business, and as a result was able to hook me up with a cool new blog. just wanted to give you a little heads up before the big reveal so that you don't think you're in the wrong place in a few days. while i am sad to lose a lot of my sidebar stuff, i am excited to have larger photos and a more customized look. see you there soon!

first day of friday school

miriam got out of the shower last night with a whole list in mind of what she would need to do the next morning before leaving for friday school. she also wanted to make both her and levi's lunch. i had to go out for a bit and when i returned, there was her list on the table (dictated by her, written down by daddy) and the sandwiches were made and in their lunchboxes in the fridge, each accompanied by a folded napkin (competely her idea). where did this litte list-maker/planner come from, i wonder...? :) needless to say, she's excited. levi was initially apprehensive about the whole idea, but by this morning he was also looking forward to it. i feel very blessed to be a part of this program this year. it is really well-organized and so far all the staff i have met are wonderful.

so, what to do with the rest of my day?? i didn't want this two mile run hanging over my head all day, and with it being cool & cloudy this morning, i figured i'd just get it over with. so... I DID IT!! even while pushing the jogging stroller, which matt usually does when we go together. i'm not sure which was harder, the last 1/2 mile or giving birth. but i am getting better at my self-talk -- less "this sucks" and more "i can do this!". and now, i think some rachael ray and a nap (sawyer willing) may be in order.

i still try to dress my kids by my definition of cute when we go out sometimes, but most days the older two pick out their own clothes and dress themselves now. this is an exercise in letting go for me. miriam and levi have both worn their bears jerseys probably 50% of the time this summer. levi insists that he must wear it most days "in case i see kevin" (our neighbor, who is an avid lions fan). levi also has these red umbro hand-me-down shorts that he loves to wear because they are "shiny". i feel the need to point out that the above outfit would never have been my choice, either... though i must say it doesn't look that bad. and for some reason he decided that he only wanted to wear one shoe.

miriam hates to wear dresses, anything with spaghetti straps, and capris... pretty much all the things i think are cute. instead, when she is not wearing her pink bears jersey, she is usually wearing one of her two soccer shirts. one is this neon green and the other is burgundy... yeah. and she usually pairs it with one of her oldest, most 90's style hand-me-down shorts.

sawyer i still get to dress myself, but i must say that i'm pretty sure he's one of the most consistently dirty kids around. in the words of his almost-uncle kevin, "i used to think sawyer was dark-complected, but then i realized he is just dirty most of the time."

a change of heart

everyone i talk to comments on how fast this summer has gone. i agree. even though my kids aren't going off to school today, it still marks a change in season for us with the neighbor kids going back to school. they have been a significant part of our summer, and if you read this post i wrote a couple of months ago, you'll remember that it didn't start off gracefully. i don't know if it was before or after i wrote that, though, that God really began convicting me of my attitude, particularly toward the kids directly across the street from us who are in foster care. levi made a comment to me one day about these kids (based on something he had heard me say) that became the catalyst for my change of heart. hearing my attitude coming back at me through the mouth of my own child was quite convicting and made me quickly realize how NOT in line it was with what we want to be living and teaching to our kids. God began to soften my heart toward all the neighborhood kids, but especially these two across the street who don't even know right now who their real family is. we began including them as much as possible in what we were doing and the kids clocked hours and hours of play time together over the past couple of months. what could have been a constant annoyance became a real joy to all of us. and honestly, while it will be good to get back to more of a routine around here, i'm a bit sad that the neighbor kids will now be gone at school all day.

how ironic

a strangely hilarious thing happened today. the subtitle of my last post actually came true in a way other than what i intended when i wrote it. this morning we heard lots and lots of truck horns going off through town and i vaguely recalled hearing something about a truck parade. well, if you know my boys you know that of course we had to rush out and find it. so i'm driving along and thinking, man, traffic sure is slow and there sure are a lot of big trucks on the road... and it didn't take long before i realized that somehow i had actually inserted our sweet minivan right into the middle of this so-called truck parade. people were waving and the truck drivers all around us were still blowing their horns. apparently, since the parade went all the way from zeeland to holland down a main road, they don't completely shut it down to the rest of traffic. i laughed for a while after that.

my first 5k (a.k.a. dietsches on parade)

i have always hated running. that's why i'm not quite sure how this happened, but suddenly i find myself training for a 5k. the story leading up to this decision begins here in a post i wrote about 6 months ago. since then, i have tried to continue the jogging trend, but was finding it really difficult to stay motivated and extremely easy to talk myself out of it (and into an ice cream sundae instead).

i decided i needed a plan and a goal or this would never work. i discovered a running schedule online that helps you work up to a 5k in two months. somehow i talked matt into doing it with me, knowing that having a running partner would also help with the motivation factor. so now it is a family affair. we have a set route that miriam and levi have become familiar with as they lead the way on their bikes, and matt and i follow with sawyer in the jogging stroller. the kids really enjoy it. and i have to say... i pretty much still hate running. BUT, five minutes after finishing it feels great. (during, however, i must admit that some choice four letter words come to mind.)

today was day 1 of week 5 in a 9 week training schedule. by the end of this week we are supposed to run 2 miles without stopping. right now the thought of that makes me want to crawl in a hole and hide. so, here's hoping i'll stick with this for another month and actually show up for the race on october 4!

thought i'd finally post a photo of my new haircut. it's been a while since it's been this short!

oh, and if you're wondering about the shirt... i was so excited to score this for matt at a second hand store a while back, as it is one of our favorite will ferrell skits. :)

summertime kiddos

sawyer, pre-haircut

i don't know if you have hundreds of these in your backyard like we do, but sawyer is currently obsessed with finding cicadas and the skins they leave behind. this is only the beginning of his collection...

it's not often i can get levi to cooperate with the camera... though not surprising how quickly he struck a pose when positioned in front of our neighbor's truck :)

miriam's streetside bouquet

a collection of neighborhood kids

we sometimes tend to monopolize the sidewalks around these parts...

homeschooling update

two weeks ago i was feeling quite overwhelmed and unable to cope with this homeschooling lifestyle... feeling very anxious at the idea of not sending my kids off to school at the end of the month. believe me, i considered it. yet my heart was still saddened more than it was satisfied by the thought of being away from my 7 year old for at least 35 hours a week. the time may come for that in the future, but not yet.

and now that i am more organized on the academic side of things, i am looking forward to what we get to learn together over the coming months. because really, some of it requires teaching but in most cases i am learning right along with them. (i'm convinced that i retained maybe 2% of any history i may have learned in school.) we purchased a used Sonlight set from another family in town, which is a literature-based curriculum. it is at miriam's level, and for levi i will just be filling in with some brief reading and writing lessons. (i try to at least have the boys playing quietly nearby while i read some of the more advanced stuff, but to make them sit for all of it at this point would not be fun for anyone involved.) and miriam's writing lessons are taken right from the books she is reading, which i really like.

i'm also excited that miriam & levi will be attending a friday school for homeschooled students starting in September -- excited for them to have a weekly outlet and change of atmosphere, and excited for me to have a bit of a break to look forward to each week. i think that will be really good for all of us. it takes place very near our home and and will cover things such as music, art, drama, spanish, and phys ed.

photo shoot #2

inspired by photographing my sister's kids a couple of weeks ago, i wanted to try it with my own. so last night we headed out to my parents' place to give it a shot. wow, what a lot of work to get them all looking good at the same time on top of trying to remember how to work my camera. :) the kids did great, though, and we did come away with some good ones... and only sustained a few casualties in the process. lots of mosquito bites, a wildberry-stained shirt, and bee-stung legs... matt stepped on a bee's nest just as we were finishing up and was stung about 5 or 6 times. thank God, though, that our kids had already left the area and our one-year-old nephew, who was standing right there, was unharmed! so, which are your favorite??

contentedness

...is learned in the process of daily accepting life as God gives it to you, and adjusting your expectations to life's limitations.

-from Seasons of a Mother's Heart, by Sally Clarkson

my first online grocery purchase

we discovered this granola on our trip to WA and it is the best i have ever had. (insanely good with fresh raspberries and/or blueberries!) here in MI, you can get it at walmart (not sure about other places), but i had wanted to check out amazon grocery anyway, and i found it there, in a 6-pack no less. i'm not sure how the prices compare, but saving me a trip to walmart is about all the motivation i need. i think this is about to become my new favorite thing -- buying groceries online! and at amazon, many things qualify for free shipping if you spend more than $25. has anyone tried this before?

i just got turned on to facebook... need i say more.

photo shoot

i couldn't resist posting some of the pictures from my photo shoot this evening with my sister's kids. i was really happy with how they turned out, as i usually do better with flowers than with people. :) it helps when your subjects are this stinkin' adorable.

the perfect hard-boiled egg

i saw this on rachael ray yesterday and tried it out today. they turned out exactly as she said -- perfectly cooked, easy to peel, and bright yellow in the middle! today i diced them up, mixed them with mayo (just enough to help it stick together), salt, & pepper, and we had egg salad sandwiches for lunch. (especially good on toasted grainy bread -- mmm!)

Put the eggs in a saucepan and fill it halfway with cold water. Set over high heat. When the water boils, turn off the heat and place a lid over the pot. Let sit 10 minutes.

Place the pot of cooked eggs in the sink (lid off) and run some cold water over the eggs until both the water and the pan feel cool. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, take them out of the water. Roll each egg on a work surface to crack the shell then carefully peel off the eggshells.

good to be home

Trip to Seattle: Part 3: Orcas Island

Monday morning we left Tim & Jan's house and drove a couple of hours north to board the ferry headed for the San Juan Islands. This set of islands is part of the state of Washington, in the Puget Sound, but is very close to the Canadian border. (Maybe this explains why it was so cold! Throughout our entire trip I got very good use out of my one sweatshirt and my one pair of jeans that I had brought along... while most of my new cute summer things rested comfortably in our suitcase. Oh well.)

The island of Orcas was our destination. The main town on the island was very small and quaint, with lots of little shops, charming cafes, and gardens. You definitely sense a major trend toward environmentally-friendliness and local, organic consumption. The pace was slow, like the whole island was on vacation. There were so many times that Matt and I commented how much it felt like our little town in Australia.

The inn where we stayed.

Our inn overlooked this bay with this little island in the middle of it. At low tide, you could walk out to that little island, finding clams, crabs, and starfish along the way.

Another view of the bay.

The sidewalks were lined with perennial gardens.

One of my favorite things on the island was this lavender farm we visited. It's an inn you can stay at, or you can just visit and pick a basketful of fresh lavender for $5.

There is also a state park on the island. We just drove through this time after getting our fill of hiking at Mount Rainier, stopping along the way to take a few pictures.

And here are some more views from the other side of the island.

We were advised to stop here for lunch -- fish tacos may not sound good, but I would order them again in a heartbeat!

Boarding the ferry to head home Wednesday morning.