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The first blog I posted this week was about Elijah and Jonathan.  Then yesterday I blogged about Joshua and Ruth. So today I’m going to talk about Hannah.

I took this picture today while Hannah was being a swimmer named Leum.  And, yes, Leum is a boy.  Hannah stuffed the dress she is wearing as a shirt into her blue pants which are rolled above the knees.  The belts wrapped around her arms are “floaties”.  And the blue shoestring tied around her finger is a bandage because her finger got bit by a shark.

Last night as we gathered for devotional, Hannah was chewing on her hair.  Scott told her to stop chewing on her hair and asked her if she liked eating her hair.  She told him, “No, I was just getting the toothpaste taste off my hair.” 

Hannah is still our little fireball of emotions.  She is either very happy or very upset.  There is rarely an in between with her.  One night she came to our room hollering and screaming that something was behind her ear.  Scott looked behind her ear and removed the little piece of dried fingernail polish.  It was the day I painted her fingernails.  She must have scratched behind her ear before the nail polish dried.  But from the sound of her hollering you would think she had a giant ant still attached to her ear.  She has given us quite a few scares that turned out being nothing.  I often wonder if some of her reflux cries as a baby were a little over reacted as most of her cries are today.  At the time though, I thought she was really suffering.  So much so that she got to sleep beside me on my firm pillow each night to keep her from having tummy troubles. 

One thing really wonderful about Hannah is that she is a “people person”.  She never meets a stranger and will talk to just about anybody.   Hannah is always saying or doing something that makes us laugh.  Sometimes it may be that she is being completely serious but we can’t help getting tickled.

Whatever Hannah puts her mind to do she does whole heartedly.  When we started the karate classes she was so determined to learn all the katas at once.  I had to insist that Hannah learn only one at a time.  She was getting so many in her head that she wound up inventing her own kata which changed from day to day.

That’s our Hannah!  Now, if I could just bottle up even some of that energy we could sell it.



Joshua Ironing

 I remember my Mom teaching me how to iron when I was a kid.  It was such an honor to be entrusted with a basketful of my Dad’s work shirts.  Well I’m not quite ready to trust my children with Scott’s shirts just yet.  Instead I started them on the living room curtains. 

The curtains came out of the dryer wrinkled.  I sighed because ironing curtains wasn’t one of the chores I had planned to do today.  But then I had a bright idea, a home economics lesson for Joshua and Ruth!  They were excited.  They both got to iron two curtains each from the living room. 

Ruth ironing curtains.



Elijah enjoying his first bites of rice cereal.

 Elijah had his first meal of rice cereal on Friday.  He gave me a lot of trouble going to sleep.  Scott and I both agreed that it Elijah was good and ready for rice cereal.  Friday evening as the other children were eating Sandwiches, Joshua grabbed the camera and took this picture of Elijah having his first bites.

Of course I had to hold his arms down and keep him in order to keep him from grabbing the spoon and bowl.  He had several bites and learned to drink water from a sippy cup.  He did very well.

  After he started acting full, I told his siblings that they could have the rest of the rice cereal.  We didn’t get a picture of the look on his face as they started eating his cereal in front of him.  I don’t know which would have been a better picture his disturbed look as they were eating in front of him or Jonathan’s surprised face as he realized there isn’t any flavor to rice cereal.  Elijah slept much better Friday night.  



Jonathan participating in karate class

 Also this week, I started Jonathan in the little kids’ karate class.  A week ago last Thursday, Jonathan joined me and Scott in the adult class.  He was having some troubles in the play area so I let him stay beside me while we were working on some kicks and punches.  He started doing everything I did.  He talked about that all weekend.  Tuesday, I asked the teacher if we could be in the little kids’ class together.  Technically he’s not old enough yet, but she agreed and he started Tuesday.  He has done really well.

We had a special karate class on Saturday in honor of Sensei John who was retiring from teaching at our Dojo.  He passed the class on to Sensei Patty who has been teaching the classes on the weekdays and weekends that he couldn’t be with us.  Sensei Patty was also awarded her black belt on Saturday.  It was a great day.The big kids and little kids classes were invited to join the adult class that day.  This picture of Jonathan was taken during the class Saturday.  I was surprised at how well he behaved during the hour and a half class. 

Saturday evening we visited a Mission Rally at a church in our local association. Each of the churches present were asked to bring a history of how their church began.  It was interesting to hear how the Lord worked in the beginning of all those churches.  Scott presented a brief history of how our church was started back in 1931. 

We had a busy week this past week and I’m looking forward to seeing what all this week holds.

“I feel like I’ve done a thousand strikes today,” is the phrase Scott and I keep repeating.  The strike-a-thon went very well today.  We had this picture taken of our family right after the class was over.  Later we may get some good pictures of our class performing the 1,000 strikes.

Jonathan is not in old enough yet to be in the class but we let him wear his gi and I told him that he could participate today if he wanted to.  I think he mostly played  in the back of the room.

A mom of one of the kids participating watched Elijah for us so we worked on the strikes.  She is one of those wonderful fearless moms that can comfort a fussy baby. 

Speakimg of a fussy baby…  I better get him ready for bed.  I’ll try to post more tomorrow.  Wow, my arms are soar.

My family and I will be participating in a strike-a-thon on Saturday, August 28.  We will be performing 1,000 strikes against cancer.  All donations will be going to support the American Cancer Society.  All those participating will be wearing the names of family and friends that have been affected by cancer.

If you would like to help us support the American Cancer Society please e-mail me at asmile76@gmail.com .  If you have a loved one that you would like us to honor by wearing their name please include their name in your e-mail.

I plan to bring my camera and have someone take a picture of us as we make our strikes against cancer.  I’ll post a picture of my family wearing the bands with the names of those we are honoring through this.   

The man mentioned in the poster to the right is a friend of our Sensei.  Our family has several friends and family who have personally been affected by cancer.   We wish to honor them through this Strike-a-thon.

Even if you cannot make a donation toward the cause, please support us with prayers for the families who are still fighting the fight against cancer, and for those families who have lost a loved one to cancer.  Thank you.

Elijah is now rolling over to his tummy.  One morning I went to get him out of his bed and he was on his tummy looking around his bed.  Later the same day after I changed his diaper he rolled over onto his tummy again.  That time he was on my bed.  It won’t be long and he’ll be crawling. 

Church camp was great.  We all discussed before bedtime prayers what our favorite parts of camp was.  The kids agreed that they enjoyed different sermons several of the pastors preached.  It’s always a joy to hear your children retell sermons.  There were a few sermons I had to miss because I had to step outside with Elijah, but Friday evening my kids filled me in on all those sermons plus the sermons I didn’t miss. 

Of course, the sermons weren’t the only part of camp my children enjoyed.  Joshua also enjoyed buying lots of Sodas.  He brought his own money with him so instead of just having the drinks and snacks we bought him, he enjoyed the freedom of buying as much as he wanted.  Then he said he also enjoyed swimming. 

The girls enjoyed swimming also.  Hannah enjoyed having grandparents at camp.  Where her Daddy and I might not give her everything she wants, grandparents love to buy their grandchildren things.  The funny part is that even after camp was over she says now she wants a balloon from the gift shop.  All I can do is shake my head. 

It reminds me of a scene from Veggietales. Bob the Tomato asks Larry the Cucumber, “How much stuff do you need to be happy?” 

Larry replies, “I don’t know. How much stuff is there?”

Hopefully she will figure that lesson out as she gets older and we continue to teach her.

Ruth enjoyed the swimming and enjoyed hearing people tell the story of when they were saved.  She also liked singing a special Friday morning before her daddy’s devotional.  She sang a song she had written a few years ago entitled, “I Love You, Jesus.”

Jonathan said that he enjoyed Wal-mart.  We can only assume he meant the gift shop.  I think favorite is a difficult concept for a two year old.  But I’m pretty sure he enjoyed all the time he got to spend with his Daddy this week.  Scott also mentioned that Jonathan enjoyed watching the boys that dived off the diving board durng swimming.  For Jonathan watching them splash was like getting to watch fireworks.

Scott enjoyed teaching the High School/ College class.  He also enjoyed spending a lot of time with Jonathan.

I enjoyed teaching the third grade class again this year.  I found I had quite a few of the same kids I had last year.  Several of the kids were 10 years old this year which is the age I was when I was saved.  I shared with them my testimony.  At the end of class on Wednesday, I told the students that if they wanted to talk to me they could stay after class was over.  One of the girls from my dorm stayed. I shared with her the same verses we talked about in class.  She then prayed her own prayer asking God to forgive her of her sins.  During testimony time that day, she gave her testimony and I believe from her testimony that she understood what I had shared with her. 

Over all we had a great camp.  The only problem I had at camp was getting stung by a bee.  I had stepped outside with Elijah during one of the services.  I went to sit down in a chair and my arm went down right on a bee.  I’m just glad it was me and not my baby that got stung.