Exploring

The knowledge most valuable to the child is that which he gets with his own eyes and ears and fingers (under direction) in the open air. --Charlotte Mason

Handsome

The children's choir sang this morning and Joshua dressed up in his suit for the occasion. I caught him hanging around outside after church lookin' stylish....

The Barn Show

This morning my girlfriend Angela and I went to antique/craft/really cool stuff show at a place called The Barn.

It was so much fun! Three ladies run a shop out of a renovated old barn. Angela has been there a couple of times--usually it's only open by appointment--and bought a gorgeous dresser that she and her husband renovated and made into an incredible vanity in her bathroom. Apparently they have open houses a couple of times a year so she took me to check it out. I bought this coat rack:

and a Christmas present or two.

Here are some pictures from their website in case you're not a "link clicker."

Many of you who are reading this right now are salivating, I know--do not fear. Now that I've found this place, it's definitely on my list of "places to take people when they visit." They will be having another show in December, but will be open a few weekends in between as well.

A Mother's Prayer for her Daughter In Law

I've been reading a book called "Preparing Him for the Other Woman" at bedtime. It's subtitled "A mother's guide to raising her son to love a wife and lead a family." It's a lovely book with chapters like "Teach him to resolve conflict," "Teach him to become a Godly leader" and "Teach him to express love." It's full of practical advice on how to do this at different ages. I especially like the last chapter which talks about preparing ourselves to give our sweet boys to their future brides.

For those of you who are moms of boys...

Dear God,

Prepare me to love my future

daughter-in-law.

Give me a heart that welcomes

her into our family. Help me to do my

part to prepare my son to be her husband,

and help me to release my beloved

boy to her when the time is right.

In Your name I pray, amen.

Fall Weekends

We've had some fun weekends already this fall~
Last weekend Alyson, Joshua, and I went to a barbecue at Jackie's house in Columbia. Jackie is my step-sister, for those of you don't know, and she just received her doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins in a field I am not smart enough to discuss. She has a job at NIH for her post-doc research work. I'd say she's come a long way from when she used to sit in the back of my car talking to her pretend "students," but really, we all knew she'd end up being hugely successful.

Congratulations, Jackie!

Monday my dad and the rest of the family, who were in town for the graduation celebration, came down and spent the day with us. It was great catching up with everyone. Gabe is working hard counseling troubled youth and it was neat to hear the passion in his voice about what he does. Adrianna and Ethan are both enjoying college (i think for different reasons.....) and Adri will be graduating next year and moving on to her graduate work, too. It was a fun day seeing everyone!

This weekend our friend Jana came to stay with us. She is working in New York for a few weeks and we were excited to get to see her and hear all about her wedding this summer and her honeymoon to South Africa! Most of you remember that Jana was one of Alyson's gymnastics coaches in Germany and we've loved that we get to stay in touch with her. We are hoping that she and her new husband, Markus, will be able to visit us in the spring on a layover during their vacation.



enjoying the great weather and working off some of the chocolate treats Jana brought! (I should be on there, too...)



Snail Mail

Don't you just love getting "real" mail? I do. In fact, everyone here does. It's the first thing Dave asks when he comes in from work, and Joshua always watches for the mailman to see if he got anything.
There's nothing like a handwritten letter with your name on it to bring a smile to your face, don't you think?

Today we got a letter from Noor, our adopted son in Palestine! It's so exciting every time we hear from him--we really feel like he's part of our family. In Joshua's last letter, he told Noor a little about himself-where he was born, what he likes to do, and asked him to teach him how to write "Joshua" in Arabic. We were delighted to see that Noor's uncle (who does the letter-writing for him) began the letter with "Guten Tag," which is what, Joshua explained last time, means "hello" in German. And they not only showed him how to write Joshua in Arabic, but "hello" as well!

I wish the letters didn't take so long to go back and forth--it's so exciting when we hear from him! I hope he and Joshua grow up to be friends/pen pals on their own. I can't help but think that we could be making a difference in their family's perception of Americans. And getting to know his family is so enriching and exciting to our lives--what a treat to get to have this experience.

10-10-10

Yesterday was a great day--not only was the date cool, but we got to celebrate our Dad's Happy Birthday!!
We relaxed for a while after church and then went out to one of our favorite restaurants in the area to celebrate. It's a german restaurant and the food is ok, but what makes it great is the atmosphere. Those of you who have been to Germany will appreciate the lights strung across the patio, the tall stand-alone heaters here and there, and of course one more round of "ein Prosit!" Joshua was very interested in making sure the band knew it was his dad's birthday so the entire group sang Happy Birthday to him in english. :)

We came home and opened presents, sang Happy Birthday again while Joshua accompanied us on the piano,  and ate pumpkin pie, made by Alyson, while we watched Amazing Race. 

Happy Birthday, my love~hope you had a wonderful day!

Star-Spangled Camporee

Wow-Cub Scouts has really started off with a BANG! this year! We've had a lot of fun activities and we just started the second month!

This weekend we participated in the Star-Spangled Camporee at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. This event was in honor of the 100th anniversary of Scouting and was put on by the Baltimore Area Council. The Boy Scouts camped for the weekend but the Cub Scouts just went up for the day on Saturday. The day was sandwiched between two major rainstorms and was gorgeous. We even came home a little sunburnt. :)

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Fort McHenry was the setting for the writing of the Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key. It's a must-see if you are visiting this area and yesterday made a great destination even better.

We brought 5 boys with us and added one more later in the day. We joined several thousand other Scouts for a day of activities, exhibits, entertainment, and education. We got to see demonstrations of all kinds--from firing of a cannon, to hide tanning, to playing marbles (which we learned and earned a Cub Scout belt loop for!). We got to participate in a flag ceremony and presented our folded flag to the park ranger. We met all kinds of celebrities, like the Baltimore City chief of police, the head of the Parks and Rec department, "Lord Baden Powell" (the founder of Scouting), and even former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld!

Checking out the artillery



Civil War Soldier



Getting ready to make the "Living Flag"



Meeting "Lord Baden Powell"



Met some soldiers on break



A real-life tanner



The tiny flag is a normal-sized flag. The other one is Fort McHenry's flag



The boys with their properly folded flag, presenting to the Park Ranger



Hanging with the soldiers

Playing a game to win a boomerang



He won!




Good buddies on a good day




Some of the goodies they brought home

 



Close-up of the patches