Growing

Someone stole an hour from my night last night and I certainly noticed the difference! I’m hoping to sneak in a nap this afternoon, but we will see how that works out.

Spring break started out for me with a long day of jury duty. Although part of me was hoping to be chosen just to have the experience of serving on a jury, I was not too sad to be dismissed at the end of the day. After hours of waiting and being shuffled from one waiting pen to the next, I was finally in the jury selection process for a civil case. A young, good looking black man was suing a local hospital for not plowing their parking garage well enough....pain, emotional damages, etc, etc. etc. I imagine my level of sympathy must have been apparent on my face. Couple that with the fact that I come from a family of doctors, and it was pretty easy to predict that the attorneys were not dying to have me on the case. I was not dying to stay either, so it ended well.

The rest of our Spring Break was spent in whittling away at our list of items that needed to be done but haven’t received much of our attention. We accomplished a lot, but it was not the most exciting Spring Break in the history of man. It was nice to get the balling rolling on a few things like the fact that we have to move half way across the country in two months. Woodford Planning is back in all its glory.

I received complimentary tickets to the Philadelphia International Flower Show this week. I was so excited! When I brought it up to Josh, however, he was less than enthusiastic. As reward for such a response, he got to watch the girls and their two friends while I went to the flower show with my friend. We had a fun evening wandering through the flower show and wishing we knew more about flowers and then going to Reading Terminal Market for dinner.

As compensation, my friend then watched our girls the next night and Josh and I went out on a date. It had been a while. I hardly know how to act on a date anymore. We went out for hamburgers and then went to the art museum for Art after 5, where they have live music and open the galleries in the evening. It was a fun, laid back evening.

My heart has been a little sad this week because of the earthquake in Japan. It has been over ten years since I was there, but I still love that country and its people. I was reading an article in the New York Times yesterday about the earthquake and found this quote that stuck out to me, "people were not panicking — typical of a nation accustomed to order and schooled to stay calm and constructive. The few shops open have people queuing nicely with no pushing or fighting or anything.” Calm, constructive, respectful; a great culture even in the face of tragedy. I pray that God will bless them in this difficult time.

The highlight of the week was yesterday afternoon. After a slow, calm morning, a trip to the park with a friend, and a family run along the river we went over to the Azalea Garden by the Art Museum to ride bikes. When we pulled out the bikes a few weeks ago, Kate’s beloved skuut was looking rather small. Her helmet didn’t fit on her head and her legs looked much too long for the skuut. So, we lowered the seat on the skuut and passed it to Jane, who now wants to be called “big Little Jane,” and bought a two-wheeler for Kate. Yesterday was the first day the sun was shining since we bought the bike so off to the park we went. I helped Jane on the skuut and Josh helped Kate on the bike. They both did great. Jane’s favorite part was getting on and off the skuut, but she made a little forward progress in between. She would sit on the seat and then say, “Giddy-up!” and start moving forward. After an hour she became more interested in the sticks and rocks by the edge of the path than riding on the path, so I let her play in Jane world while Kate finished up. Josh did a great job with Kate. By the time we were ready to head home, Kate was riding on her own the length of the entire sidewalk! It was so fun to see the look of determination on her face and the smile when she realized she was riding on her own. We had to drag her away as the temperature started to drop, but it was a great beginning. Jane summed up the afternoon’s experience best as we were coming in the house. She said, “I finked I could do it and I did did it!”

The girls have a new game to add to regular itinerary of imaginary games. They play Spirit now almost as often as Mulan, cowgirls, Nutsy & Trigger, and Pocahontas. Jane is Spirit. The up side is she gets to be the main character for once instead of being the side kick. The down side is she gets tied to the bunk bed, the closest thing we have to a real train, and has to try to “pull it up the mountain.” The crazy thing is she loves it! As I left the house one evening my parting instruction to Josh was, “make sure Jane isn’t tied to the bed all evening.” I didn’t realize that could be misunderstood until my friends started laughing.

Prayer time is always an adventure with little ones. Kate is coming out of a rote prayer/ get-this-over-as-quickly-as-possible phase and into a thoughtful prayer phase. This week in the middle of one prayer she said, “I’m frustrated about leaving Philadelphia because I don’t want to leave the Please Touch.” We had a good talk afterward about how it is good to tell Heavenly Father things you are frustrated or sad about as well as things you are happy about and grateful for.

Next week my brother, Alan, is coming to visit. We have all sorts of fun cultural things planned, but he also kindly agreed to teach a two day French Cooking (and eating) Class for me and a few friends. I am so excited! This has given me something just for myself to look forward to for weeks (I love having something to look forward to), and now it is practically here.

Have a great week. If you smell incredible cooking smells they are coming from Meredith Street!