Author: Joyce

World Traveler

MarkAnother nice thing about teaching your children at home, is the opportunities that become available when students are not required to be in a class room to learn.

Mark was born in Swaziland.  He was little when we moved back here, but he has always wanted to visit Swaziland.  He does not remember much of Africa, but he has heard us talk about it.

On Monday, Mark starts his journey to visiting Swaziland.  He leaves Chicago mid afternoon and arrives in Jo’burg the next evening.  Then he will journey to Swaziland to stay for a month with his Opa and Oma.

For school, he is taking some math and books that he needs to read for Literature class.  He will using his writing skills to send me notes and write blogs.  Past that, his job is to learn whatever he can.

We are not really sure what Mark will be doing there.  He is hoping to learn about the transmitter site Opa and Daddy used to work at.  He is looking forward to helping Oma do different things.  Exploring the town and meeting people is exciting too. He would love to visit game parks.  He wants to learn a little siSwati. There are so many opportunities!

Please pray for Mark and his grandparents!  Pray for safe travel and patience during the long trip.  Mark gets to experience jet lag and missing his family. Pray that he can be a great help and an encourager to those he meets.  Pray that so many new experiences won’t overwhelm him.  Please pray also that Mark’s relationship with his grandparents grows as he learns more about what they do and interacts with them on a daily basis.

Most importantly, please pray with us that as Mark leaves most everything he is comfortable with,  he grows in what he knows about the true God.  We would love to see the faith that he has to grow and become stronger.

Accident

It was such a beautiful day, that when I went shopping, I left the kids at home to enjoy the weather.  When I returned home, Audrey came out of the garage and told me that she had a bad accident on the swing set while I was gone.  She said she fell off the swing and scraped her nose on a rock.

I noticed her limping and her foot wrapped in a bandage.  I realized that she was covered in bandages–in all different colors of face paint!

Accident

Flower Girl

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Megan was asked to be the Flower Girl for Esther’s wedding. She did an excellent job!  She stood with the bride’s maids during the whole wedding and then followed them nicely when they paraded behind the newly weds. You could tell she was a little nervous, but when the ring bearer broke away from her and ran down the isle, she still walked slowly to where she was supposed to be, tossing the bird seed she had been given.

She did not have flowers to carry, but we borrowed a small bouquet that Esther had for the flower toss at the reception because Megan thought they were pretty. She enjoyed being able to hold Esther’s bouquet some of the time too.

Here is what she thought of being a flower girl:

I wore a purple dress. It was sparkly! It was so sparkly in the sun. Miss Tracy painted my nails green and purple. Miss Crystal put my hair up in a bow and put flowers in my hair. Esther helped me put on my dress. Someone put on shiny lip stick.

My job was to walk before Essie and smile and show everyone my dress. They knew the bride was coming next!  It was an important job. I walked down the hill. I dropped birdseed down the hill before Esther came. I stood by Miss America and the girls. They were nice.

I was just standing when Esther got married. All the girls were watching too. When Esther kissed Essie’s Alan* it was the end. I followed the girls down the hill to the bridge.

Then we took ten pictures. Then we went inside. I ate lasagna, bread and cheese. Then I just had to look pretty. Then I went to Oma and Opa house!

I liked being a flower girl.

*“Essie’s Alan” is how we differentiate between my Allan and Esther’s new husband.

Assistant

AssistantLast weekend was my niece’s wedding. Esther had an outdoor wedding near my parent’s house. The weather was perfect and the leaves were starting to show their colors. It was a wonderful day for a wedding.

Esther had asked me months ago to be her photographer.  Knowing I would need a second camera, I recruited an extremely handsome and talented photographer.  Not only was he the assistant photographer, he was my encourager!

Thank you Allan for all your help. You are wonderful! I love and respect you very much!

CC Club

Bridge On Friday, the kids and I went with my Mom and explored the Conservation Club down the road from my parent’s house. When I was growing up, we were there often, exploring and enjoying the paths.  Once we went with a friend’s older brother, who took us through some unknown territory, but we usually stuck to our favorite paths.Long steps

Friday we discovered that we missed a lot of great spots growing up!  Andrea discovered a neat bridge and then she and Mom found a path that took them near the river.  We were running short on time, so we could not explore that path, or my favorite one growing up.  We plan to visit what we always called the “CC club” again soon.  I know it should be the EC -Elkhart Conservation-Club, but I much prefer our childhood mistaken name.