Children

I had three small children visiting today. The oldest has just turned 5, the next one is 3, and the youngest is not quite 2. There's also a baby, but he stayed home with Mama while I cared for the big kids. It was a lot of fun. They came for the morning, I fed them lunch, then Dad picked them up to take them home for nap time. 

We played with a multitude of toys; sometimes I joined them, sometimes I watched, and sometimes I was busy with other things, although always willing to be interrupted to answer a question or admire something they had found or built.

They liked going on my balcony and watering the plants. Then we went outside for a while. We were going to play on the grassy part between the apartment buildings, but it mosquito central, so we ended up mostly on in front of the building and in the parking lot. I tried to teach the older ones how to throw a frisbee and jump rope with varying degrees of success. They ran some races and played with balls and worked off some energy. They we went back inside to play and have lunch. After lunch we cleaned up, and then it was time for them to go.

Various highlights:

• Convincing the little one that no matter what her brothers said, she still wasn't supposed to eat grass, and the getting it all out of her mouth.
• Convincing them all not to yell in the hallway after they discovered that it echoed.
• Spending half an hour keeping them on track with clean up (but not minding that it took that long because it kept them occupied).
• Admiring the Lego man with all the heads stacked up on his head.
• Taking pictures to send to their mom so she knew that we were doing well and having fun.
• Wondering what my neighbours though about the noise in my usually quiet apartment and the yelling outside as they played.
• The little one constantly shoving more veggies into her mouth despite me saying "Chew and swallow before putting anything else in your mouth," and then having her cough bits of carrots and cucumbers on me because her mouth was too full.
• Realizing that she only did that with the veggies; she ate grilled cheese, bananas, and blueberries perfectly well.
• The laughter and the fun and the busy-ness that filled my apartment for a few hours.

Honestly, it was a bit crazy and not what I'm used to, but also so much fun! I'm looking forward to the next time they come to play.

Colombia Earthquake

There was an earthquake in Colombia this week, and one of the cities most impacted was Pereira. That may not mean much to a lot of people, but it is the city where our missionaries live and work. I was there a few years ago, I know some of the people, I know a bit of the city itself.

I am thankful that our missionaries are okay. One couple is still in the U.S. on furlough, and the other couple was not affected. They've been able to contact everyone from the church, and they are all okay. Some of them cannot go home yet as they live in apartment buildings that may not be safe, so other church members are taking care of them.

My heart aches, though, for those who were injured, left homeless, lost family members, or were otherwise hugely impacted. I am praying for them, for the first responders on the scene, and for their very new president.

It is interesting how knowing a tiny bit of the country/area and a very few people can make affect my response. It's not that I don't pray for people and are concerned for people when I hear about disasters and such, but this one is more. My prayers are more urgent, my heart aches more, and I am more eager to learn how I can give to help the people. These are my people.

I can't help in every disaster, just as I can't help every cause or concern in the world, and it's okay that this one is closest to my heart. I wonder, though, if there's a way to become more aware of people in other places, to have the same passion and urgency in my prayers for them. After all, all believers everywhere are also my people. It's something for me to think about, anyway.

Reading Lists

I keep lists of what I've read; I have for years. Lately, I've been going through some of the lists, trying to compile a list of the best ones for The Book of Books for Kids and Youth. I have a new notebook just for the job!

Some thoughts as I go through the lists:

1. Oh, yeah, that was a good book!

2. Not that one!

3. What was that book. I don't even recognize the title!

4. Oh, that's why that book that I read last month seemed familiar! I read it (checks date) 12 years ago. Okay, I guess it's okay that I forgot about it!

5. Hey, I just checked that one out of the library; I thought it sounded good. I was right!

My book lists date back to 2012 (although a few years are missing because they ended tracked elsewhere), so there are a lot of books! I generally just note the title and author, and I sort them by fiction, nonfiction, children/youth, and picture books.

The Book of Books for Kids and Youth is a new project and a work-in-progress. I anticipate it going on for years, since there are always new books to read. Also, in my going through, I skipped the pages and pages of picture books I've read over the past few years. That's a project of its own!

More Books for Children

July was full of reading books recommended by children and families, and I'm almost done the list. I have a few on hold at the library; once they're in and read, that goal is complete. Until I start meetings again in the fall and get a new list!

Here are the ones I really liked:

• Britfield and the Lost Crown; Britfield and the Rise of the Lion by C.R. Stewart
• The first Britfield book is all adventure, escape, and running from bad guys through England; the second one is all adventure, escape, and running from more and worse bad guys through France! There's intrigue, danger, and (in the second book) a major, world-wide conspiracy headed by some very, very bad guys with amazing tech. The fighting gets more intense and there are more casualties, but it's never gory or excessive. 
• An added bonus: The author includes history and other information about the areas the kids are traveling through.
• There are two more books out (and another one coming), but the library doesn't have them, so I haven't read them. I know that one takes place in Italy, and I think the next in Austria.

• The Restorationists trilogy by Carolyn Leiloglou
• The job of restorationists is to restore paintings, especially after the distortionists have damaged them. The best part is how they do it: by traveling into and through paintings! Of course, there's adventure, confusion, and danger, but also a lot of fun and some facts about artists and artwork.
• The stories are interesting in that they each focus on a different young restorationist and his or her specific challenges (anger, jealousy, fear), while telling the story of the battle between good and evil. It's very well done. I wish there were more books!

• The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem
• The stories are fun, simple, and entertaining. The main attraction, for me at least, is the artwork. It's so wonderful and detailed! 

• Mac Undercover by Mac Barnett and Mike Lowry
• The story is okay, silly, and will be enjoyed by children. I do not like that the author claims that the book (and the series) are true, and that when he was a kid, he was a spy. I don't like that sort of dishonesty in books; let's not confuse children about real and make-believe. Yes, the story is so far-fetched that it's unbelievable, but some children may believe it. Aside from that, the story was fine and the illustrations are good.

• Pax by Sara Penny Packer
• The story contains war, violence (against humans and animals), and an adult's PTSD from a previous war, including her telling a child about killing a man. I would absolutely not give it to younger children, nor to many in the preteen or early teen age.
• It's also very much pro-nature and anti-human.
• It's officially recommended for 8-12 year olds, with some upping the age to 10-14. I would say that the reading level is accurate for the younger age, but the content level is better for older children (maybe even older than 14).
• If you want to have your child read it anyway, read it first. Then you'll be ready for hard conversations and potential nightmares.

That's the list for now. It's been a fun month of reading!

July

Happy August! Summer is racing past; it's hard to believe that July is done.

July was a mix of rain, rain, rain, and hot, hot, hot! My garden is thriving. The petunias are growing taller and brighter than any I've had, and the tomato plants have many, many tiny tomatoes. Even some of the flowers I planted from seeds are getting ready to bloom.

The month was mostly quiet. I had friends for dinner one evening; we talked about books and told the baby how wonderful and adorable she is. I was out more this past week. Our missionaries from Colombia were in town, and on Sunday there a group of the Latino families and the Colombia STM team had a potluck dinner with them. On Monday, one of the couples from the church invited me over to have Indian food with them, the missionaries, and another friend. I found out that this young couple (and their two and soon-to-be-three young daughters) have just move to a new house very close to me, so that was nice.

Last night, I went to see The Odyssey with a couple friends. It's been many years since I've been to a movie theatre, and I forgot how intense the experience can be! It was a pretty good movie and fun to get together with the ladies.

The biggest thing this month was packing up the Sunday School rooms and dealing with a pile of books that had been donated to the church library and left in the office. Both jobs had to be done in preparation for the upcoming renovations (and the elders probably wanted the books out of the office!). It made is pretty clear that there would be no Sunday School or Wednesday morning homeschool rooms this year. I'm sure that will feel strange in the fall.

Overall, it was a good month. I read a lot and am almost through the list of children's books, at least as many as I could get from the library. I'll change up my reading habits a bit in August, although I still have the last 2 books on hold. I'll start preparing for back to work, and focus on a couple more projects I want to get done this month (a baby blanket and some sewing). And I'll look forward to the cooler weather in September!

Memories

Three years ago, I spent 10 days on a STM in Colombia. The church supports a missionary family there, and we went to help with a some preaching, teaching, and a conference. I mostly worked with the children, both in Sunday School and at the conference. We also spent time visiting with the missionaries, their family, and friends, and getting to know their part of Colombia.

The missionaries are visiting this week, and I was invited to join the Latino community at our church for a lunch yesterday to get to know the missionaries. Or, in the case of the original team, to catch up and visit with them.

It is amazing, the memories that flooded back, just being with them. Not just the events, but the little things: making piles of photocopies for the children (many of which they are still using), watching our missionary show the children how to run through the city square so the birds flew off, breakfasts together at the hotel, card games, playing "find the sheep" with the kids, being awakened one night by fireworks going off, buying huge bottles of water for a small amount of money....there are so many little memories that made up that time.

With the memories, came all the emotions of those days. It was exciting, tiring, confusing, fun, joyful, concerning.... I loved the children and taught them as well as I could, but I felt so overwhelmed so much of the time, I'm not sure how well I managed to teach them. There were moments of "I want to stay forever" and moments of "I would like to go home right now, please," and everything in between. 

And the question came again: Would I go back, or on another STM? Maybe. I want to serve, but it was hard, being so far from home, with everything different and noisy, and without enough time to properly rest and adjust. If they really needed me, though, I think I would go and trust God to use me how He will.

Clearing Stuff Out

We are planning to do renovations at the church this fall, which means no Sunday School. This week, in preparation for whenever the renos start, we cleared out the Sunday School rooms. It only took one morning, and was faster than we thought to get everything sorted, packed, and hauled out to the van. One of the teachers is going to store it all at her house.

In the process, we found:

• curriculum that had never been used
• other curriculum books that we do use
• still more curriculum that belongs to another ministry
• many pencil crayons
• so many erasers
• a very nice pen
• another assortment of pens
• crayons
• crayon bits
• more pencil crayons
• registration forms from 2014
• several pack of goggly eyes
• a VBS kit that came from who-knows-where and included a VHS tape
• piles of photocopies for worksheets that we no longer use
• seriously, where do all these pencil crayons come from?
• multiple pairs of scissors

In short, I am never listening to teachers again when they insist that they need more materials. What we need is to look closely at what we already have!

I told the elder who does the shopping for me to check if I ever again order pencil crayons, crayons, or erasers.

Anyway, that's done. Fall will be strange without Sunday School, but I'm thankful for the renos because they mean more room for Sunday School. I'm also thankful for a year to rest and revamp our program. It's good, but with the influx of children over the past few years, we need to make sure we're serving them well. We also need to go over all the curriculum, making adjustments and making sure we're ready to start strong next fall.