Happy

The Artist

Wesley got his cast off yesterday. He's doing worse now than he did when he first got his cast on, but the orthopedist told us that would be the case. He keeps saying, "My leg still huwts (hurts)" and "Can you hold me??? I can't walk!" Hopefully it will start feeling more normal soon.

While we were in the waiting room yesterday before he got his cast off, he and an older little boy with an arm cast (probably about 7) were playing in a little plastic house with windows and a door that open and shut. As the boys got more comfortable with each other, they started talking inside the house a little...well, as much as a 2-1/2 year-old can talk with a 7-year-old. John Mark and I especially enjoyed this conversation between the two:

Older boy: Hey, who drew that Thomas on your cast?

Wesley: Gin-Gin did! She drew Thomas on my cast!

Older boy: What grade is SHE in?

Wesley: She's an ARTIST.

Older boy: She's an artist??

Wesley: Gin-Gin's an artist!

Older boy: Does that mean she's passed ALL the grades???

Wesley: silence and look of confusion

And then they went to opening and shutting doors and windows on the little plastic house as they had before.

John Mark and I were very impressed that he knew the word artist, let alone that he knew that Gin-Gin was one! I think my dad told him that while they were skyping one time.

He got lots of comments on his Thomas drawing.

(Everyone in the waiting room also got to enjoy spontaneous dancing performances by Wesley while watching the Jonah Veggie Tales Movie. This produced quite a bit of laughter as he hopped around enthusiastically.)

National Day of Prayer

I was able to participate in our county's observance this year because a kind neighbor agreed to stay with Wesley during his nap. Also, some friends watched Curtis while I led the prayers for business in our country. A few passages that shaped my prayer:
Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.
Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit...
...the wealth of the nations shall come to you...

Here is what I prayed:
Most High God, You give the ability to produce wealth, and you give the power to enjoy it. You have entrusted the earth to mankind; by wisdom, by diligence, and by your kindness mankind's stewardship has extended over the whole world as our population has grown. As you have transformed hearts around the world, many businesses, many workers, and many bosses have worked hard and used their prosperity to help the weak - following the example of Jesus.

But we have come to love revenues more than righteousness. The sins of employers have hurt many honest workers; a few who have profited dishonorably have so far escaped - call them all to repentance! Please bring massive repentance to our nation. Please shut down worship of money and awaken true worship with gratitude. All of us have worried about business, financial survival, or amassing wealth instead of stewarding your gifts in service of preaching the gospel and promoting others' good. (With Augur we pray:) Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

King Jesus, though we cannot establish your kingdom on earth by our hard work, you told us to seek your kingdom and righteousness, so we ask that you will replace selfishness, entitlement & laziness with compassion, responsibility & diligence in our nation's workers. We ask that you would switch our priorities from amusing ourselves to benefiting others - especially the weak. We ask that prosperity will lead to gratitude & humble stewardship among businesses instead of worshiping that prosperity. We ask ultimately that you will use work relationships to spread the gospel of Jesus and use paychecks & profits to bring our King great honor here and around the world.

When April Showers

Because the Thomas the train videos are narrated by one person instead of the typical actor-character voice-overs of children's shows, there are many narrated remarks - Percy replied, Gordon huffed, etc. Wesley has begun narrating the dialogue among his toys.

Curtis is amazing...

So is Wesley. Here he is playing happily despite his new limitations...

Monday evening, JM and Wesley went down a slide together, and Wesley's shoe bottom stuck to the slide midway down, turning his leg unnaturally. Tuesday our pediatrician told us Wesley seemed to have a "toddler fracture" in his leg and "two bangin' ear infections, to boot!" X-rays, pharmacists, orthopedists, and plenty of miles later, and Wesley has a full-leg cast for 3 weeks and an antibiotic for 10 days. And we're driving to TX this week to make the rounds and begin preparations for moving this summer.

Early April

Here's Wesley during his Saturday routine - following along in his copy of Thomas the Train books while Laura's parents read the same book through Skype. He wants it at least weekly, and Misha and Gin-Gin always deliver.

Change is afoot for our family. JM was accepted to a doctoral program in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and we'll probably be moving down their this summer (after the Lord provides jobs & a place to live!). But beside all the details of deciding to move before we have any important details settled, the boys have been changing plenty.


cCurtis is an easy smiler. Even the people you know scare babies - Curtis will smile at them. And, until the last few days, Curtis reserved all his spitting-up and fussing in public for his time under Laura's watch. When JM had him, the boy was nearly perfect.

Easter family pic
I am going to miss the verdant countryside here.

Curtis in his 'command center.' With the pull of one of those animal-capped levers, he can make big things happen. Generally, he's not a big fan of such a big responsibility.

Goin' to West Vir-Gin-Gin

Our family took a little impromptu jaunt to Huntington, West Virginia yesterday and today. It was pretty funny trying to help Wesley figure out what we were doing. What he concluded was, "We are goin' to West Vir-Gin-Gin!" He calls my mom Gin-Gin, so I think he thought we would probably end up seeing her, but no such luck. It made me laugh every time he would say it.

The main reason for going was so that I could cross West Virginia off of my list of states to visit. My mom has always had the goal of visiting all 50 states in her lifetime, and I think it is a fun idea. It would be silly to have lived this close to WV all this time and never have driven the few hours to visit it. Plus, Wesley is a pretty big train fanatic right now since he would live and breathe Thomas the Train if we let him.

We left Tuesday afternoon and dropped Owen off at our friend's house for an overnight adventure with his doberman friend. We then headed on to Lexington to have a yummy lunch at Abuelo's. We had a very relaxed drive since both boys were either asleep the whole way or completely zoned out watching the highway happenings.


We got checked into our hotel, which was right on the Ohio river and right down the street from Marshall University. It is the hotel where the cast of We Are Marshall stayed during the filming. The hotel clerks were excited to tell John Mark all about Matthew McConaughey's room.


After getting settled, we went down to the river and explored. We saw some barges that were exciting for Wesley, but mainly we just enjoyed stretching our legs. It was a bit chippy.


We thought we might not see a whole lot of train stuff since we didn't find much to do in the area while looking online, so we thought this might be our best railroad experience...


Then we turned the corner and saw this!


...a huge black steam engine built in 1922 that you could climb in and around. Wesley did lots of little excited dances while checking it out.


We were all pretty sleepy, so we grabbed some dinner and then headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning, we enjoyed our complimentary hotel breakfast, then headed up to the room to pack up. As John Mark was changing Curtis' diaper, the LOUD fire alarm started going off. The cleaning women in the hall said they didn't know whether or not it was a drill, so we all scurried down eight flights of stairs, pantless Curtis in tow. Apparently someone had burned some toast at the buffet and that set off the alarm. Amazing. We got to see all sorts of things: frazzled women with their heads wrapped in towels, a firetruck with flashing lights and sirens blaring (another amazing experience for Wesley) and REAL firemen walk right past us. Wesley was filled with awe. Quite an adventure.


After we got checked out, we drove down to check out Marshall's campus a bit and then drove to the Railway Museum. It was closed for the season, but we still checked out some cool train stuff through the fence.


Our last stop on the way out of town was Heritage Farm Museum and Village. This was a fun spot, but we had a tired 2-year-old and didn't want to spend the $8 per person to do a tour, so they said we were just allowed to play on this little train playground. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the whole trip for Wesley. He "drove" Curtis and any other passengers he could imagine all around in the little train. He absolutely loved it.



It was a short but fun trip. Throughout today Wesley has continued to talk about the BIG steam engines, the fire alarm (he is excited to know that we have those in our house, too) and of course, West Vir-Gin-Gin.

Teaching My Children

Wesley walked up to me and said, "Jonah was sinking down, down, down..." I guess it is a line from a song or something he has learned. I grabbed the Jesus Storybook Bible and turned to the story about Jonah. We read it, talked about he pictures, and discussed some of his difficult questions (Where's God?).

We thumbed around to Jesus' baptism to talk about where God is, the temptations of Jesus, then looked at which ever pictures that caught his attention.


A couple of observations:
1) When 'teachable' moments come, I need to be ready. That means I might need to stop what I'm doing. It definitely means that I need to be familiar with a good kids Bible and the big truths that aren't so obvious from the pictures (like, Where is God?).

2) Children learn what they hear often. I don't want my son singing Beyonce or Cold Play. I want him singing "I Want to Be Like Jesus" or the thing about Jonah that started our conversation today. I keep meaning to pick up a good baptist catechism so that my son and I can discuss those big ideas, too. Reading him the Bible is indispensable, of course.