Field Day

Samuel's Field Day was last Friday. Lucy and I went along to help and enjoyed the day with Mrs. Denise's purple team. Lucy liked playing on the playground...

Samuel's class
The little jumping bean...

The sponge fight

Use Your Imagination

The other morning, Samuel and Lucy wanted me to play 'tornadoes' with them. I asked my usual questions to invite myself into their world. "Okay, so who am I?" "Who are you?" "What can we do?" "Where are we?"...I keep asking these questions throughout when I am lost and have no idea what we are doing (they always know what is happening but I don't - makes me think they feel this way about real life sometimes - a world they are learning but still have to listen to the narrator to figure out)

I was the Mama tornado, Lucy was the girl tornado and Samuel was the pet tornado. We ran out of things to do as tornadoes - the usual, eating, destroying things, napping, raining, blowing. So, Samuel decided we should be tornado super heroes. Lucy and I were Tornado Super Hero girl and Super Hero Mama. We could shoot tornadoes out of our hands and our mouths to capture bad guys. Samuel was the Tornado pet Penguin. He could shoot out loud penguin squacks that were so loud they would scare people away. The children could have been in this world for hours but I find it hard to keep it up more than 15 - 20 minutes. I had a great time playing with them...later we were Tigers, dogs, and gardeners. I love seeing their enjoyment in creating stories - that is what make-believe is and I want to foster this as long as I can.

Sometimes I wonder what happens to our imaginations? My children can play for much longer periods at make-believe than I can. I know this is true for most people - why? Is it a good thing? Are our imaginations just shaped more by reality or is there some deeper disappointment and lack of hope in our older imaginations? Just wondering if the loss of imagination as we grow older is good...necessary...inevitable...or worth fighting against.......I'm thinking the latter.

Quotes

Today I picked up Samuel from school and as he was getting in the van I noticed he had grass and dirt in his hair. Here is the conversation that followed -

Mama: "You must of had fun playing outside today - you are dirty"
Samuel: "I was playing on the playground and did a head dive."
Mama: "A head dive?" {Said in a way to mean "Wow, sounds like you had fun!"}
Samuel: obviously he thought I wasn't understanding what a head dive was "Mama, it means I was running and my head plunged into the ground and I got dirt all over my head and big red spot on my forehead."
Mama: "Oh, I see."
Samuel: "I can tell you what a nose dive is if you need me to, Mama..."

This kid has no lack of expression. He comes up with descriptive ways to tell the story of his life - I love it!!! Now it's nap time and I am going to plunge into a book...I mean head dive!

Happy Anniversary

Russ and Doris Ellis "Mema and Papa" - January 1950 = 60 years
Simon and Ernestine Kinsey "Granny and Grandpa" - August 16, 1945 = 65 years
Bobby and Debbie Kinsey "Mama and Daddy - September 15, 1973 = 36 years
Jeremy and Kelly Noonan - May 12, 2001 = 9 years

Today we celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary and I am so fortunate to have parents and grandparents who have celebrated many anniversaries ahead of us. Combined there are over 160 marriage. After many years of time around them I have learned alot about love. I've learned that love is full of joy and sorrow, hurt and forgiveness, frustration and safety, laughter and tears, memories and hope. Thanks to all of you for showing me the commitment of marriage and the tenacity of love.

Happy 9th Anniversary, Jeremy! What an adventure it's been and I know we have many more years of adventure ahead.

Family

The children with Grandma when she visited last week - thanks grandma for everything - We love you!

Wyatt with his Daddy...what a stinker (Uncle Casey)...and what a cutie (Wyatt)!Papa with his tractors. One of Daddy's dearest friends passed away several weeks ago and he was given this old Ford tractor. Daddy was very honored to get the tractor and has loved using it lately.

Books

I read this quote from one of my friends who was talking about reading – I think it describes my experience so often with reading (for pleasure, of course, I am painfully aware of every word when I’m reading for school).

“I would argue that "reading" Alice in Wonderland on the iPad/Kindle isn't reading at all-- it's a new kind of multimedia experience. To me, hard-core reading is that moment of zen when you are no longer looking at words on a page, but the words are flowing straight into your imagination, where the author’s language is a framework and fuel for you as you paint your own pictures and visualize the setting and characters your own way. A good reading experience is when I suddenly “come to” and snap back to reality, realizing that there are words on a page in front of me, and that the world I was just in doesn’t actually exist.” – S.H.

I am looking forward to reading for joy this summer – getting into another adventure, another world, another part of my mind that is tapped when I read good books. I had several people ask me about some of my favorite books. I have books I’ve read at certain times that were enjoyable and helped inform me about the people, places, history and culture around me – Some I remember off the top of my head - A Fez of the Heart, while I was traveling in Turkey - Balkan Ghosts, How I Survived Communism and even Laughed and Hole in the Flag while living in the Balkans. Wild Swans, Red China Blues and several other books about China before traveling to China. Loved them all and enjoyed the perspective from a literary/story point of view not just a travel book or history book.

But some of my all time favorites are older books – I’ve read some recent fiction – like the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers and I really like some of Michael Crichton’s books. My brother-in-law gave us Super Freakonomics for Christmas and it was an interesting read – plenty more to mention but here are some of my favorites – though it’s hard to pick just one.

1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (I liked it better than Brother’s Karamazov but both are great books)

2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

3. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

4. Armadale by Wilkie Collins (I also read Moonstone which is supposed to be his best work but it was my least favorite)

5. Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit by Tolkien (I’m not usually a fantasy book reader but these are amazing – truly a must read)

6. Exodus by Leon Uris (Historical fiction about the forming of the nation of Israel)

7. Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (love this blogger's thoughts on the book)

8. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (These are my all time favorite Lewis books – Til We Have Faces is one you have to read all the way to the bitter end and then you just sit silent for a while - the Great Divorce is probably the book I think about the most when I’m trying to make sense of things – good word pictures and easy to read )

9. Jane Austen – who doesn’t like her stories and characters

OK – I could go on but I’ll stop there…

On my reading list for the summer are Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and Home, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I’m also considering reading the Harry Potter books but then once I start I have to read all of them – not sure if I should make the commitment. OK – enough about my reading for the summer. Let me know what you are reading this summer or what you have read that you would suggest…I need some more suggestions for my summer reading list!

Happy Mother's Day!!

My children greeted me with breakfast in bed this morning - all Samuel's idea. Lucy pulled the orange pieces apart and Samuel got the grapes. They also got me flowers and a balloon - all Lucy's idea. I loved it and I'm so grateful to have two such amazing kiddos!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mama too!! I love you and I'm so grateful for all you do!

Community Garden

Our garden is growing and we are spending more and more time out back. Jeremy has turned into a real gardener and Lucy especially loves to help. Samuel loves to play in the mud and whack the weeds. We also have had several neighborhood kids who have helped in the garden - here are a few of them helping us last week.

When all of the kids are over we don't have enough watering cans BUT we always have plenty of containers in our recycling bin....Samuel loves to create something.

Jayden - watering the okra.
Dasia and Jordyn getting water out of the rain barrel. They were amazed that we catch rain water!
Keirsten double watering the watermelons and canteloupe
Our ever watchful scarecrow.

Lucy has really enjoyed growing her flowers in the front. She got seeds for her birthday and has LOVED watering them and watching them grow. We also have a few strawberries growing and have gotten to eat 3! Can't wait to actually see some flowers bloom.

Humility and Strength

The blog is a place I keep record of what goes on in our crazy lives. I don't share all the nitty gritty but think it is a close to accurate picture of our day to day. I don't want to complain or whine - how many times a day do I remind my children "Do everything without complaining or arguing" and "In all things give thanks" - so I try to see what I can be thankful in - in all things. Sometimes the only thing to be thankful for at the end of the day is...well, its' the end of the day and God is still good.

So at the end of this week I am SO grateful to have passed my classes this semester and to have graduation set for December 11, 2010 (12-11-10)!! Yippee!! Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive this semester. I'm so grateful to my Mama for her help with the kiddos on Monday and Tuesday - the kids loved spending time with her and I loved having her here. AND I'm grateful to be able to celebrate mother's day weekend with my two kiddos - love them and love being their mama!!!

There are a few things that have happened this week that are inconvenient - truly just inconveniences and I sit here (during rest time while my children listen to books on CD) and I'm really laughing. I know everyone has weeks like this - everyone has things pop up in their lives that aren't fun or pleasant and are time consuming - so here are mine for the week.
1.My computer crashed 12 minutes before I was to take an online exam
2.Minor rear-ending while I was stopped at a red light
3.No A/C because it decided to stop working (hopefully by Monday it will be fixed)
4. Lucy has lice.

Yep, lots to do fix all of this -
3 hours at the computer repair place
1-2 hours waiting for the police report and insurance confirmation with the wreck (fortunately no one was hurt and the other guy was easy to deal with since it was totally his fault)
6-8 hours shampooing and picking out lice/nits from Lucy's hair
1-2 hours ironing all furniture and mattresses, flat ironing Lucy's hair
4-5 hours washing all linens, clothes, pillows, cloth-like items,
bagging all stuffed animals, play clothes and non-washable items,
reassuring Lucy that the bugs in her hair are gone,
checking and rechecking Samuel for lice
wondering where we got the lice and feeling gross that we got it (but I know anyone can get lice - it's not from being nasty - just hard to remind myself of that).
Several hours of picnics and playing outside to spend time with my children and escape all of the above.

I'm really grateful that I think we are rid of the evil louse. The doctor says after 24 hours after treatment with no return that they are not contagious. I'm still looking and cleaning and hope we are out of the woods.

OK - now a funny story about the lice. Lucy was in the back of the van while we were driving to the library to return books - I was explaining that the bugs were all out of her hair but we were still trying to make sure there were no eggs because the eggs can hatch babies.

My sweet little girl wants a pet so badly - she said
Lucy "Mama, but baby bugs are so cute. Can I keep one for a pet"

ARRGH!

Last weekend we got to celebrate a birthday with one of Samuel's friends - Thomas. There was an awesome pirate cake and lots of fun on the go-carts. Samuel and Lucy loved the patches and tatoos - here are my little pirates.

Reading for pleasure

I am so looking forward to time off this summer - I'll still be working mostly full-time but NO classes! It will seem like a vacation!

I need your suggestions for good books and movies to read and watch (preferably ones not found in the children's section of the library - though if you have a good kid's book suggestion let me know). I LOVE to read and have a few I have been wanting to reread and read but wanted to get your suggestions - or authors you like. AND since we have netflicks - what movies have you enjoyed lately OR a long time ago (I know I have gaps in my movie viewing history and need some suggestions.) and if there are any T.V.shows that are worth getting the season of on netflicks.

OK - I just want to be ready when Wednesday gets here to celebrate the start of summer doing some of the things I rarely have time to do.

Hanging around the Faire

We got to see some juggling/acrobatic shows and the kids enjoyed the crazy things they did.

Sweet cousins...
Watching the show
Lucy and Grandpa Noonan trying to recreate the acrobatic act
Sweet Lucy
Matthew the great

Princess Lucy

Lucy had a wonderful time watching the festivities and enjoying the princesses and fairies. I enjoyed watching her smile and enjoy the day. She got to ride in a ship swing, meet the queen and her ladies in waiting and see some flowery/colorful/ribbony/girlie things...

Odd ends

Samuel had to fight this man for us to be able to cross the bridge - he loved it - and we enjoyed a little friendly fight with my ever ready defender...


The Parrots of the Caribean. Their favorite bird in the aviary was named Monkey - he said "hello" and sang along to Old McDonald had a a farm.

Sword fighting the pirate

The boys loved getting to fight the pirate or Puss in Boots and each other. They found that sword fighters (fencers) are fast. Here they are waiting to garb up
Matthew fighting Puss in Boots - he is a clever cat.
Thomas chasing down the quick pirate

Samuel fighting that pirate

Samuel and Thomas fighting each other

The Joust

More fun with knights and princess

Characters I met along the way...
The frog guy
Aww!
Lucy with Puss in Boots
The Mona Matthew

Hear ye - hear ye!

Today was such a fun day! Jeremy and I took Samuel and Lucy, along with Matthew and cousin Thomas to the Renaissance Festival. Grandpa Noonan and Joanna came along too! We knew there was a chance of thunderstorms but the overcast weather with slight drissle was perfect weather for this redheaded family - less sunscreen to have to lather on and smaller crowds!

We enjoyed the games and shows, the food and fun together. Here are some shots of the children while we waited to get in the gate. I made the tunics for the knights - not only did they seem to like them - but it helped me keep up with everyone even from a distance! And of course princess Lucy/Cinderella wanted to wear her glass slippers but I talked her into some tennis shoes.
Matthew jousting on the Griffin
Thomas on the Griffin
Samuel on the Griffin
Lucy made funny faces with a jester!


The Noonan Knight crew at the end of the day...and one very grateful photographer who was glad it only drizzled and fun was had by all!