Moving On

I've been thinking that it is time to move on.  From this blog, yes.  Our adoption journey and the years in China are complete.  Time for other things in my life, although I'm not sure yet what they will be.

I've been a little sick this past week, which has found me spending large amounts of time doing nothing, which is hard for this girl.  I like to accomplish, complete, check of the list.  But it's given me time to think, and I've found myself thinking about the days when all my kids were younger and I was schooling them at home.  I know those days were not easy... why is it that now that they are gone they seem magical in my memory?  Perhaps it is God's mercy, for me to only remember the coziness of having everyone together to read and craft and such.

I'm waiting for something new to capture my heart and my time.  I have it to give.  What is it?  I've been waiting for months now, it seems.

I feel like in some ways I have been slacking in my parenting.  Perhaps it's the longing for those by-gone days that has me immobilized.  I don't know.  I want to be "on" and ready for what my kids need, but these days I don't always know what that is.  Those earlier days were easy not in the full on attention that was required, but in the way I could just gather them around me for a story when things weren't going well.  Situations I face now require a bit more brain power.

Lord, please show me Your ways and Your plan.  Energize me for the stages of parenting I am in now.  Thank you for the sweet memories of the past... help them not to immobilize me but rather give me joy as I ponder how to walk out these present days with their unique challenges.  Help me not to grow weary in well doing, knowing that in due time I will reap a harvest if I do not lose heart.  I look forward to Your plans for me.

Thank you, readers, for joining me, whether you just stopped in or have been with me since 2005, when we were waiting to be Six.  It's been a joy to share a slice of our life with you.  :-)

Love, Lynne

Now and Then

Last Wednesday Caleb and Scott and I re-enacted an old photo..

Dial back 18 years to Thanksgiving 1994.  We were visiting our dear friends Bill and Rebecca in Durham, NC for the first time.  They moved there from Pittsburgh for Bill to attend Duke University just days before Caleb's birth, and we couldn't wait to see them in their new home.  One of our activities that weekend was to explore the beautiful gardens on the Duke campus.  They snapped this picture of the three of us, and we used it as our Christmas card photo that year.

Well, my sister and her family moved to their new home in Durham, NC this past year. We were excited to go to their house for Thanksgiving this year to see them in their new environment.  One of our weekend activities was to stroll through Duke Gardens (and have a lively photo scavenger hunt there, too).  We found what may have been the same tree where we posed for a photo with Baby Caleb 18 years ago... had to try it again. 

Obviously Caleb has grown... but I think Scott and I look about the same, don't you?  Please, say yes. 

Veteran's Day Flags

 We happened upon this beautiful and moving display of American flags over the weekend.  After an emotional election week, this sight was encouraging, knowing that it was placed there to honor the countless numbers of people who have served our country.

Thank you, veterans.

Before and After Fun in the Kitchen

We've done a few things to our house since we've moved back into it after a five year hiatus.  One of my favorite changes has been in the kitchen.  I have a couple of before and after photos of the same spot... here is the before, with a built in desk and cupboard above.  I used the cupboard for all of our homeschooling materials during the years before we left for China, and it was really handy to have it all stashed there, in the kitchen where we worked but out of sight when we finished.  The desk itself was another story.  It seemed to be the place where things got stacked up, even with my good intentions to keep the surface cleared, the piles kept appearing.  Anyone else have that problem?  :-)

Here is the after.  Love, love this change.  No more desk to clutter with piles of mail.  Those things have moved to my desk in the office, but at least that is out of the way.  Ha!  The open shelves are functional and fun, too.  I keep things we use and love here!  It's been fun to change things around frequently, and I love the look.  The cupboards that used to be up above have been moved to the bottom, where they are still usable.  The desk surface was cut down to form the bottom shelf.  

 Another view before...

... and after.  Obviously we changed the color of the walls, floor and cabinets too.  It feels fresh and updated.  Love my kitchen!  I'm thinking about hanging something above the cupboards on the bulkhead, but I'm not quite ready to do it yet.  

 More pictures of the kitchen update to come.  

Gardening

I spent a wonderful hour at the garden center near my house that I love so much this afternoon.  I have told the girls that if Scott ever needs a gift idea for me, just send him to The Growing Place and tell him to pick out anything there for me... plants of any sort, garden accessories, seeds, bulbs, components for creating a fairy house, statuary, trellises... really any of it.  I love all things gardening, especially the way they are displayed at this place, with its lovely idea gardens, all artfully planted and tended.

Today was so pretty, sunny and blue skies, fall colors blazing.  The girls came with me, and I reminded them on the short drive to The Growing Place to soak up the vibrant colors of the leaves and sky so they can be warmed by their memory during the bleak days of winter (this idea is from the mouse, Fredrick, in the storybook by the same name).  We all agreed to do just that.  :-)

I went right to the perennial tables at The Growing Place.  There aren't many left at this time of year, only a small fraction of what is usually offered.  But I came today knowing that because of how late in the planting season it is, the perennials are being offered for 50-75% off their regular price, and since I have added a new perennial bed this fall, I have space to fill.  I knew the plants wouldn't look great by now, but I was a little surprised at how bedraggled they appeared.  Many had drying and withering leaves underneath and they all seemed like they had definitely seen better days.  I poked through them, reading labels and turning pots around and around, looking for the ones that appeared to be worth buying.

I had picked out a couple of plants when a sweet older woman, her white hair pulled into a bun at the nape of her neck and topped with a ball cap, approached me.  I know this woman to be a long time employee of The Growing Place, and quite wise in the ways of plants.  She looked at some of my plants and answered some questions I had about particular varieties.  Then she said something that has seemed more and more profound to me as I've thought about it the rest of today.

"Remember, you are buying the roots."

In the climate where I live, perennials die away every year.  At least the part we can see does.  But when the weather slowly warms again in the spring and the sun shines longer each day, they slowly re-emerge, sending up new plants that grow and blossom.

I bought a lot of plants today.  How could I not, at 50-70% off?  Most of them don't look too good.  But as I took them out of the small black plastic pots that have held them captive all season and planted them into good soil late this afternoon, I thought about their great roots.  I thought about planting things that look half dead.  I loved having my hands in the dirt.  I loved the digging of holes and filling them with good roots.  It was kind of like planting bulbs, tulips and daffodils, knowing that there will be a long, cold wait until the beauty appears.

Gardening is like that.  Dirty.  Waiting.  And then beautiful.  I like it.  What a great idea God had.

P.S.  A few have asked me what I planted... most are unfamiliar to me as of now, so I really look forward to seeing what they do next year!  Here are the names:  Crambe cordifolia (also called Colewort- this looks SO interesting, it supposedly grows 4-6 feet high and has huge leaves and clouds of tiny white flowers), Phlomis fruticosa (also called Jerusalem Sage), Campanula, several red Coreopsis, Sweet William, Veronica "Blue Bomb" (also called Speedwell), Silene caroliniana (also called Wild Pinks), some perennial snapdragons (really different looking foliage than annual snapdragons), Lychnis chalcedonic (also called Maltese Cross or Jerusalem Cross, has bright scarlet flowers), and last but not least, Armeria juniperfolia (also called Alpine Thrift).

Fall and Family

Yep, I'm taking the easy way out and making one post out of the last few months.  Some eye candy pics of autumn in the Midwest, lots of pictures of cute kids (cousin visits are the best!), with a few dog pictures thrown in for fun.  Enjoy!

Last garden harvest... love the colors.

Miss Adelaide, playing on the same elephant slide at our church nursery this morning that Gwen used to love.  :-)

We spied these pumpkin stacks at a fall festival... so clever.  I'd like them all for my yard!

 Out for brunch with Pa and Nannie, Aunt Sarah and Adelaide.

 Smiles with sucker sticks... where is yours, Aunt Sarah?

 Look who's in charge.  :-)

 We had so much fun with all these girls in the house!  Cousin visits, so fun!

 Yep, this was at the very beginning of fall- marshmallows on Grandpa and Grandma's patio.

 Meeting new cousin Zion for the first time.

Gwen and Caleb roasted marshmallows over the stove a few weeks ago- not quite the same as a campfire, but it's still sugar.

 Trigger loves a good ramble almost as much as I do!

 Trig gets so much attention when there are girls around!  Thanks for the cuddle, Maggi.

Classic Madelyn look, she's always got to shake up the group picture scene!  Cal's friend Parker has been here with him for the weekend a couple times, love having my kids' friends around.

 Another Zion meeting...

 Ahhh... missed the maples so much while we were in Shanghai.  So beautiful!

 Cute girlies!

 Loving the leaves... and I love having my kids enjoying them with me!

A little fall overview... can I consider myself caught up on blogging, sis?  :-)

A Month Without Blogging and a Half Bath

My sister texted me this morning and asked if I had any blog posts in me.  "You really need another post."  True, I know it is true.  I have left this blog languishing for nearly a month.  Not sure why... we've had wonderful visits with extended family, the autumn colors that we missed so much in Shanghai have been glorious, a new nephew has been born, Caleb has brought friends home for the weekend, and slowly but surely we are finishing up the renovations in our house.  So it's not as if there haven't been events to note and photograph and post about.  Maybe I've just been lazy... but maybe so many things have changed for us that now that I am figuring out what my life looks like in this new phase, it hasn't seemed like there has been a place in it for blogging.  Not sure.  But for now, I give you this little remodel~

In this post I have a "before" and several "afters" from the little powder room update we've just completed.  The sink came from the Hong Qiao flower market... Shanghai friends, you probably know even know the booth where I bought it.  I'd hoped we could incorporate it into this little half bath, and I'm so pleased with the results!  The wall paint color is more blue than it looks in these pictures.  The vanity is the same old oak one as in the "before" photo, but painted soft black, and the counter is a granite remnant.  I found the mirror at a thrift store for cheap and spray painted it as well.  You'll notice a few other Shanghai treasures... fun memories made with friends when these things were purchased during our last year there.  The two framed photos on the shelves were taken by a friend within the month after Gwen came home, in early 2005.

So that's the powder room renovation.  We've worked our way through the house renovating... and we're slowly remaking our lives here in Chicago too.  :-)