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i just took the kids up to seattle this past week again! this time we went up to have a memorial/family reunion for my papou who passed away earlier this summer. since we were going anyway, we decided to stay a whole week and it was awesome. every minute of it. we got there late monday night and spent the night and grandma and grandpa’s house. the next morning, my cousins, shauna and genea came over with their babies, one of which i hadn’t met yet. it is so fun to see the family growing so much and for all of us cousins to interact as adults – especially as parents. it’s a very cool new stage and i’m so thankful that we are all a part of each other’s lives. we even started to make plans for yearly trips to lake chelan! it will be so fun to have the kids grow up together and form memories like the ones i treasure so dearly!
from there, we went up to my parents’ house and spent a few days in heaven. : ) my brother’s family lives on the bottom floor of my parents’ house and gabe and mia had the time of their lives playing with dylan and gia (cousins). friday nick and kirsty came up with riese for more family time and we made an awesome brunch of filo eggs nests and abelskievers. blackberries grow like weeds in washington and they were going OFF so we picked and ate our weights in them. the kids chased each other around the house, played in the yard, went down to the beach, planted seeds, everything that is fun. they have such a wonderful time together and it blesses my heart to see them love each other so much.
finally, saturday and sunday were spent at yiayia’s house, with the papadopulos side of the family, reunion-ing after many years apart (at least for me). almost everyone was there. it was in memory of papou and it was special to see members of the “in-law” families there to remember him. only two of my cousins couldn’t make it. i hadn’t seen a few of them in more than 4 years and austen brought his bride to be, sherry, who will be a fabulous addition to the family. i love and respect my family so much it makes my heart ache. i loved seeing them. my kids got absolutely spoiled by marissa and lydia who played with them non stop and brought them gifts. i had great conversations with so many, gained a new appreciation for not killing bugs especially in their own living space (outside), learned that c.r.s. is a disease that most people get as they age, but i got from having my third child (Can’t Remember Shit) : ). i learned that my cousin grey has the best laugh that God ever bestowed on someone. it’s loud, full of life, and occurs often. i love it. i was up before anyone else with my baby when my thea mia came over and started cooking breakfast for everyone. i got to be there, to help however i could with lila, and basically live in the village i’ve longed for my whole adult life. to take care of my kids, help others take care of theirs while they took care of mine, have meaningful conversations with the people i love, take pictures to remember it, and create memories for my kids that i hope will stick in their brains like glue.
we have friends that when we get together, all of us are better for it. they are incredibly loving to eachother and by association, we become more loving. they don’t act loving. they are loving. it just rubs off on you. it’s not planned. it just is. it’s like it’s a part of the air. that is how my family is. i want so badly for my kids to know what i always knew with my family. that they are loved, accepted, and fabulous. they got exposure to that this week. i love it for them and it fills me up. it is much bigger than the sum of its parts. and more than that, i can’t believe that i get in on both sides of my extended family. it’s just awesome.
and we came home to a great surprise. jeff’s sister, carolyn, and her 7 kids – 7 more cousins! – are in town. more fun. more love. what a perfect way to end the summer! my life is so blessed.
i don’t really have any time to blog, but i wanted to get this down so don’t forget it. it’s nuts. and now that i’m reading the time traveler’s wife, my mind is even more overwhelmed with the possibilities that aren’t really possibilities. anyway, last sunday jeff taught at church and in his introduction, he referenced a photo taken by the hubble. the hubble is a telescope that is outside the earth’s atmosphere so that the atmosphere doesn’t mess with the picture. anyway, the director of the hubble gets to point it wherever he wants to for 10% of the time. he decided to point it in the darkest part of the sky. the very blackest area they could find. so they point it there and start looking deeper and deeper into that postage stamp of space. eventually over time, lights start to appear. soon, you have thousands of lights in this space. stars. stars that are so far away that it takes the hubble time to reach as far as their light is actually emanating. i’m SO not a scientist, so i’m sure i’m saying all of this incorrectly, but you get the picture. it’s VERY far away. far enough that some of the “stars” we’re seeing were made in the first 5% of time’s existence. okay, so zoom in closer and you find that these stars, or at least many of them, are actually galaxies. like the milky way. bigger, smaller, whatever, but they are made of billions of stars. milky ways. so back up all the way out of the deepest darkest space, to the milky way, to the solar system, to the earth, to north america, to the united states, to california, to orange county, to laguna beach, to through street. i am a VERY small, VERY insignificant piece of this puzzle!!!
we all know we aren’t the center of the universe, but we still feel like we are. we feel like our feelings, interactions, dreams, successes, failures, what have you are uber-important for the world to keep spinning – at least OUR world spinning. and our earth is pretty small these days, since we can all interact via email, news or satellite images. it makes us even more important because we can interact and appreciate things that are different or foreign. even realizing that so much is the same within cultures makes us feel like we are part of a natural society. all people act a certain way, so that must be the absolute way things were made to be. true or not, it contributes to us viewing all of creation as way smaller than it actually is.
so, you’d think realizing how ridiculously small we are, actually so small it’s not even worth talking about, one would become indifferent to everything, knowing that his life is just a breath that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things one iota. if you are the greatest human to have ever lived or the most vile, it will pass. if you blow up the whole earth, the rest of creation won’t even notice. worlds and stars are blowing up, burning out, etc. every minute. you’d at least be incredibly depressed if you grasped the magnitude of the situation.
it’s funny, that’s not my response at all. my response isn’t futilistic. it’s hopeful. it makes me totally unafraid. really, what is there to be afraid of? if there is a person that is intimidating to you, WHY? they were born the same way, will die the same way, and in the middle the main difference is probably who had more courage or more fear to influence their decisions. i mean really, in the grand scheme of our insignificance, one person’s cool factor is absolutely inconsequential compared to another’s. so changing your city, hair, life, whatever. why not just do it? i’m unafraid now. (mostly : ) )
the other thing that could happen is that one would relieve himself of any need to be moral and just do whatever he wanted to, because who cares? this also isn’t my response. i figure since it’s all so short and poof, gone in a moment, why not make the best of it for everyone? i guess this is probably tightly connected to the fact that i believe there is a God who has said we are significant and that how we live actually does matter. or maybe it’s that this God gives me a reason to smile and love the life i have even if it’s short. if it’s true that this God created this utterly vast universe and has still decided that i have value, then NOT doing something because of fear or intimidation is a foolish way to live. in light of the smallness of this world, why not make the MOST of it? always? seeing eternity in light of such a small life, and a God that cares about it, makes me alive. just my response, i guess. it actually does directly hand in hand with what the bible says about God. you are invited into ABUNDANT LIFE. we can live large. and in light of how inconsequential we are, then failures also aren’t really worth dwelling on. leave it behind and move on. if you need to reconcile something, do it. but if you just failed an attempt, leave it or try again and live large. in the grand scheme of things, just move on. that is SO GOD! so forgiving and ready to give another chance. a big universe could make you despair, or it could reveal another way God is just larger than we thought and more true to His character. it’s okay to be small. : )
hair cuts always give me a little bit of a heart attack. but my hair was SO long, was falling out all over the place and lila was pulling out minimum a handful everyday. it was time to chop! i’m the type that cuts it all off and lets it grow out over the next few years. so, i’m sure it will be the same this time, but it feels so good to have it short. and really, it’s only hair, right? it grows. so yesterday (when i got it cut) i wasn’t sure about it all day. i knew that if i was looking objectively at it, i would have liked it a lot. but when it’s your hair it takes a minute. today i like it. so, new hair. kinda fun.
i’m thinking it’s a good thing that school is starting soon. we’re ALL ready for it! the kids are starting to bicker more and i’m starting to care less : ). but more, i’m just really looking forward to a great year at el morro! gabe will be in 2nd grade. that’s about as good as it gets there. 2nd and 3rd graders rule the school. 4th and 5th graders are quickly becoming “over it” and kindergartner’s and 1st graders are just figuring it out. 2nd grade will be great. i kind of know a lot of the kids and some of their parents by now. gabe is confident on the playground and gets how a classroom works. i’m excited for him to learn all kinds of new things. fun! and mia will be a kindergartner! it’ll be easier for her simply because she is well familiar with the school grounds and as long as she gets mrs. sjule, who was gabe’s teacher, she already even knows the staff! i’m really excited for her to get to be a big kid and to learn all the things she’s wanting to learn. she informed me she already knows her letters, their sounds, and how to count to 100 and higher, so she can just go to 1st grade. i look forward to her making some sweet friends this year. that is one of my main prayers for her in the next few months.
personally, i was a room mom when gabe was in kindergarten and it was so hard for me. first, i’m not really a phone call maker/emailer by nature. my friends all know that : ). but i was also clueless as to what other parents needed to know since i had never done it before. this year, although i will not be room mom!, i will be more active knowing what to expect. i definitely want to work in the classrooms. not sure how that will work with lila, but i’ll figure it out. it’s too important. and i love getting to know all those little cuties! i was thinking that i would also offer to host a kindergarten class get together in october so that parents could meet eachother. i figure by a month or so into school, the kids have made some friends and want to start playdates, etc. it’s always awkward for me because i hate making phone calls to people i don’t know. i also remember being in kindergarten and when i saw someone from school outside of school hours, it sort of immediately created a friendship. so why not have a get together at the park or something (totally low key) so parents can meet eachother and meet the friends of their kids, etc.? i think it’ll be fun.
anyway, i’m looking forward to new adventures for my kids, new adventures for myself (i’ll be at that school for 13 years by the time i’m done with it. i figure i’ll have had my hands in a little bit of everything by the time we’re thru) and for 5+ hours each day to get myself together and find a nitch. i think we’re all ready for a new groove. i look forward to a great last 2 1/2 weeks of summer, but we’re ready for fall! plus, college football is going to start! go huskies!!
this is the question i woke up asking myself. what am i going to do with my life? one might answer, “what do you mean! you’re raising 3 awesome kids! what else could you want?” honestly, i feel guilty that i want something else, but i just do. i LOVE my kids. and i love being able to be with them everyday and to watch them grow. i would absolutely hate to miss any of it. so, this is definitely the option that i choose freely and gladly. however, am i really made to constantly change dirty diapers, constantly feed hungry mouths with food i’m not excited to give them because i’m too tired to make good snacks, do never ending laundry, break up non stop bickering, remind the kids for the millionth time to say hello, please, thank you and goodbye with a good attitude, and look at my never completely clean house? on top of it, i’m exhausted at the end of everyday (well, in the middle of everyday too, right about 3 o’clock) but i feel like i haven’t done anything because it all looks just like it did at any other time of day because it just keeps going and going and going. meal after meal, load after load, mess after mess. this. is this really what i was made to do? i have a college degree for goodness sake! it wasn’t in early childhood education. it was in social science with an emphasis in history. it’s sociology and political science. deep thinking about real issues, concepts, people and problems. my kids of course are “real issues, concepts, people and problems” that need deep thinking to contribute to the well being and betterment of this world. but for some reason when i’m breaking up petty fights over who gets to open the door this time, it doesn’t feel like i’m making much of a contribution.
lately i’ve been cooking a lot and they’ve been awesome recipes. i look at the quilt i made and i love it. the painted walls in our living room are so cool. i love getting to read such great books. helping out at the kids’ school is so fun. having time to go up to mammoth or seattle whenever it’s affordable is SO great. i have time to be creative and resourceful. i look at my life and remind myself that if i had a job i wouldn’t have all this freedom. it just seems sometimes like none of this matters. it doesn’t have a pay check or much respect really. later in life when i apply for a job, regardless of what i’ve done for the past 10-18 years, i won’t have a single thing on my resumee. and if i’ve “just been a housewife” my whole life, who will i really have made an impact on? i know the answer to this question, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem to count. i wish i could get over that. i think i’ve said it before, but i need a vision for the mother/homemaker/housewife job. my kids are amazing, my husband is amazing, my home is amazing, my life, really is so amazing. anyone have any insight for me? i’d love to hear it. i want to love what i’m doing without feeling like i should be doing something else. maybe if i could see this as a season (because it doesn’t really feel like there will be options after the kids are grown up – therefore, not a season!), i would be able to enjoy and appreciate today for everything great that it is. ah, the process….
so the other day mia decided gabe should move out because he was being mean to her. : ) here’s the conversation i came upon as it was being written in chalk on our sidewalk. my husband is brilliant and such a good dad! a conversation between a 7 year old boy and his 38 year young dad…
jeff: GABE COME HOME!
gabe: NO
jeff: Dang it!
gabe: I’m a bad kid. (I hate it when he says this, but it comes out ever so often)
jeff: No, you rule!
gabe: No i don’t
jeff: Well, i think you’re the best!
gabe: For the last time. i don’t rule! (Gabe starts to give in to his dad’s silliness)
jeff: I disagree. Are you calling me a liar?
gabe: No. But i will just live in the trash can. (gabe’s favorite place to live when mia kicks him out)
jeff: Then can i have your LEGOS?
gabe: Never
jeff: WAAAAAA!!!
gabe: What the?
: )
i figured this summer would be a good one and i was right. gabe and mia are at great ages to just enjoy themselves at the pool or the beach. i don’t have to be in the water with them and i know that barring a real lapse in judgement, they are going to be fine. lila, meanwhile is too little to crawl away, fall in the pool, eat the sand, etc. so we’re good. i can sit with the baby for the most part and we can go do fun things for the big kids. we have had a great summer!
highpoints for gabe: he became a GREAT swimmer. he can swim wherever, in whatever depth he wants. he learned to dive, to swim all the way across the pool, do the front, back, breast and butterfly strokes, and most importantly is not afraid to do all kinds of crazy stunts off the side of the pool into the water. he also did basketball camp with some buddies and found that he really likes it! in one of their games, he scored the winning basket with 5 seconds to go. very fun! finally, the kid is a fantastic reader. he really picked it up during first grade, but in the summer the library does a summer reading program. if over the whole summer you complete 20 hours of reading, you get a medal from the firefighters and get to go to a bbq sponsored by the library. well, needless to say, he had it done in a few weeks. he LOVES to read. my mom got him a bunch of the children’s edition classics from barnes and noble for his birthday. he’s almost done with all five. we love that he loves to read!
highpoints for mia: mia has also learned to swim pretty well. we started out the summer being afraid to put our head in the water, so the fact that she loves to jump in now and can swim easily to the side is a big deal! goggles seemed to be the trick. pink ones, of course. she has also learned to read a few words. we got a dick and jane book and she did great with it! kindergarten will be fun for her to learn so many new things. she got a new day bed at the end of the school year and that has helped HUGE in learning to keep a room clean. she likes to have things “just so” when she’s in the mood. mia has spent a good portion of her summer playing with lila. our problem is not getting mia to engage with lila. it’s more trying to get her OFF the baby. she just loves her. and she’s so helpful and loves to be helpful. she especially loves to crack eggs. : ) kindergarten here we come!
highpoints for lila: lu is 6 months old now. that means, she rolls all over the room, can sit up by herself for a few seconds and loves to eat real food. she’s an incredibly messy eater, but it’s just so dang cute! she’s always up for a good time and the big kids are more than happy to give her that entertainment. and she loves to talk – loud. she is indeed a tacklind. we’re all loud. DA-DA-DA-DA!! BA-BA-BA-BA!! do you hear me!!!??! what an awesome baby!
we’ve got another month left to enjoy. part of it will be in seattle again, which is awesome!! we’ve been so seattle spoiled this summer. we can’t wait to hang out with cousins for another week. and then back to school! i’ll have a good 5 hours everyday to myself! (well, i’ll have lila, but now that i have 3, a baby doesn’t count for making me busy.) it’s gonna be great!
so in the last few weeks i read “my life in france” by julia child and am in the middle of reading “julie and julia” by julie powell. julie powell undertook the crazy challenge of cooking all 524 recipes in julia child’s cookbook, “mastering the art of french cooking,” in one year and blogged about it. the blog led to a book. the book led to a movie which i went to see yesterday with my good friend mary. i was really curious how they were going to change julie’s character to make her likeable. because, she in her book, she is definitely not very likeable. she’s completely self absorbed, narcissistic, plain mean to her husband almost all the time, cusses up a storm and is sex crazy (not that that is bad, but it’s to the point of not discouraging her friends to have affairs, sort of having them herself, vicariously through them, etc.) i’m sure if i met her, she’s probably very nice. but in reading her stuff, i have a hard time respecting her. so i was curious to see what they’d do in the movie. well, they make her very likeable in fact. she has a few mental breakdowns, but who wouldn’t if you took on a challenge like this? she’s a little selfish sometimes, but in a very apologetic way. and she’s not the all important center of the world that the actual author portrays herself to be. so it makes little sense in the movie when her husband leaves her and that julia child doesn’t actually like her. reading the book, you can absolutely see why her husband would leave and that julia wouldn’t like her. maybe the author decided to go with this more edgy portrayal of herself? i’m not sure, but she can’t be very happy in this state. i hope for more for her.
all of this to say, i want to learn to cook!! especially from reading “my life in france.” it has shown me that i absolutely do not know how to cook (no surprises there. even though i cook everyday, i don’t actually KNOW how to cook) and that i’d really like to learn! i’ve never been that into cooking. but seeing what you could actually make if you had a clue and that a normal person like me might be able to do it! that’s exciting. not motivating, but inspiring. i have no time to be motivated, but inspiration is good. it might put some good meals on the table this year!
today i’m all excited to make a peach & raspberry cobbler with some chicken and green pepper skewers, rice, and an antipasto appetizer with balsamic dressing over it. i want to take it to the concert in the park with some friends. but first we need to go to church, to the grocery store to get all of this stuff, and go on a run that i was supposed to do yesterday. it sounds a bit like a crazy undertaking (in my current world) that isn’t really possible, like trying to make 524 recipes in 365 days. enough to drive everyone around me crazy, make my husband leave me, and make my idols hate me : ).
later: (by the way, we pulled off all the sunday goals and no one was fried at the end of the day! it included an awesome quinoa recipe my sister in law gave me and this peach raspberry cobbler thing i made since peaches were 49 cents a pound. it was fun!)
we are all sick. mia is sickest right now. i’ve had it the longest. jeff was down for a few days, lila had a funky eye, and gabe is still hanging in there. in spite of all of that, i can’t help but notice how GREAT my life is : ). today i dragged sweet sick mia to el morro to register for kindergarten! she kept telling everyone that her birthday is july 21. apparently that’s when you can go to kindergarten. when you turn five : ). then we picked up gabe from school and hung out in mary blantons 2nd/3rd grade classroom. she ROCKS as a teacher (and as everything else.) her classroom is so inspiring. cocooned butterflies, tadpoles turning into frogs, all kinds of things hanging from the ceiling, zodiac tracings everywhere. it’s so cool! i really want gabe to have her for his teacher sometime. she’s just awesome. then we went to our chiropractor (at the bottom of our street) to see what i needed to take to get rid of this illness. our doctor, the whole office really, are familiar friends of ours. i love living close like this, knowing and being known. it’s so great. then we walked a few more steps to the library to get the next few books in the series that gabe is rocketing through. the children’s librarian is so nice, and recognizes us now too. the kids always go right up to her and ask where they can find a book, which she knows exactly where and what they have. so fun. and now back home where sick mia can lay on the couch watching tinkerbell while gabe goes next door to bus stop bible club and play with his buddies. and i’m here writing, waiting for little lu to wake up, looking at my AWESOME peonies from trader joes. not everyday is like this, but i have to say, this one is pretty good : )
they had twin day at el morro yesterday. gabe’s best buddy at school is aiden. they are such sweet friends and they decided to wear matching shirts. aiden’s dad made the shirts with a picture of the boys at the aquarium. here’s a few pics of the goof balls together. i love this friendship!
