Letter to my 16-year-old son

I didn't write this, but when my boys are 16 I am going to hand write this and then sign my own name. I figure it's sorta like saying "Amen." to a prayer.  And also I found this on a FB page called the hands free revolution, which I found today, and like.  https://www.facebook.com/TheHandsFreeRevolution

A Letter to My 16-Year-Old Son 

"This life is not about keeping score. It’s not about she-got-to-go-to-camp-but-I-didn’t or he-got-a-phone-when-he-was-eleven-and-I-had-to-wait-till-I-was-thirteen. Keeping score that way is exhausting and fruitless. You see, my boy, life changes, circumstances evolve, nothing stays the same. What happened to you when you were fourteen is not what will happen to your brother when he’s fourteen ...

Do you see that path? The one with the light and the promise and the possibility? Take that one.

Take the one in which your vision allows you to see what you do have instead of what you wished you had. Leave that other path unexplored. Don’t give it one more second of your precious time or energy. Don’t look over your shoulder with a wistful glance. Forge on, son. Forward motion.

Sure, you’re going to trip and fall occasionally. You’ll skin your knees and twist your ankles and stub your toes. Perhaps your internal compass will malfunction and you’ll lose your way. Get back up, get on the path, dust yourself off, and go. You’ve got places to be, things to do, lives to touch, miracles to make.

If you really want something that only money can buy, go get a job and pay for it. You have a car. You have the means. You have a million opportunities that so many others don’t. Think about that reality for a second. You can work. You have a strong, healthy body and a fully-functioning brain. Go work. Everything feels better, tastes better, works better, fits better when you’ve earned it with your own two capable hands.

And when you’re done with your after-school shift, go volunteer in a soup kitchen. Pour some sustenance into the bowl of another man, one whose life circumstances have not been as kind and forgiving as yours. Offer an apple to a child with dirty fingernails and unwashed clothes. Tuck a $20 bill — one you just earned — into the hand of a Mama whose clingy brood is crying and hungry and tired and in need of a small kindness.

Then look at your life again.

I promise you’ll see things differently. Everything will be brighter, better, full of options that you hadn’t noticed before.

We’re not millionaires. We might never be. Or we might. Life is funny that way. Money, however, won’t change who we are or how we choose to live. Things don’t change us. Not if we’re running at full tilt and without regret. Things never really matter in the long run, anyway. They wear out, get broken, need to be replaced and repainted. But love? Accomplishment? Bravery? Fortitude? That’s what matters, that’s what sustains.

This family is blessed beyond comprehension. We know warmth in the winter and cool air in the heavy heat. We’ve dug our toes into sandy beaches and hiked through mountains. We sing and dance in the kitchen before we eat the food that more than adequately fills our bellies. We have tried and true friends who offer us their pillows and their hearts and their unconditional support. And laughter. Oh, laughter. We love each other in this little circle of goodness. That doesn’t mean we always like each other, but there is love, always. More love than you can even begin to wrap your overachieving 16-year-old brain around.

Life is tough. Life is unfair. Some will have what you want. Others will get what you think you deserve.

Life is also beautiful and fruitful and unlimited. Look at that life, see those possibilities. Live there. Grow and flourish in that space.

The choice, always, is up to you. Choose wisely, my brave, kind, brilliant, unstoppable son."
-Katrina Anne Willis
http://katrinaannewillis.com/2013/05/23/a-letter-to-my-16-year-old-son/

We ♥ Denmark! Part II

“Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

LEGOLAND

is super awesome...I wish I had a more powerful superlative.

 Our 3 little lego lovers, were in theme park heaven.

Benjamin was super scared, and also in love with this ride.  He and I are in the last cart, and Isaac is wearing the bright green jacket, with his arms up, just in front of us with Seth.  It's a little hard to believe that Isaac was scared to death of Big Thunder Mountain at Disney just a few short months ago.  Now he is a roller-coaster riding, thrill seeking adventure boy.  Benjamin, however is not.  He got on a ride with Seth, it was too light weight for adults and was a kids only ride.  How it works; 6 kids buckled in, sitting in a line and when the ride starts it raises everyone about 12 feet in the air and then drops them down and then flies them back up and so forth.  Benjamin laughed on the first way up and then became a mess of tight muscles and screamed so pathetically that the ride operator stopped the ride, took him off, and then started it back up...and then I changed his wet diaper. 

Benjamin's face in the picture below makes me giggle. I guess it's good that they wont take their eyes of the road, eh?

One actually steers these funny little boats.  I think Seth and I both thought it was a little more "It's a Small World"ish.

 Isaac was in 7 year old heaven when he got to earn a "real" drivers license.  Eric had to explain, several times, that the license is only valid in LEGOLAND and that he could not, in fact, drive our van.

 Cool monorail. 

 On our way out, we stopped at these funny little planes.  It wasn't a long line at all, so when Seth and Isaac wanted to each have their own plane we consented.

...and then a little girl hoped in Isaac's plane with him. 

The lego masterpieces, like the knight below, where pretty awesome. 

Cool castle, NOT made out of Legos, though everything else seemed to be. 

Isaac has become pretty adventurous.  And I was proud of his daddy for joining him.  E does not share Isaac's love of thrilling rides, but he loves Isaac enough to go anyway.  Good work E.

We really love LEGOLAND...and dare I say it, even more than Disneyland. 

We ♥ Denmark! Part I

“Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
― Hans Christian Andersen 

Have you ever been delightedly surprised by a vacation?  You expect it to be good, but then you find your expectations should have been much, much higher?  That is exactly what happened with our little trip up north.  Denmark was delightful.  

Day 1

Our first day out was all driving, and after 7 hours in the car we were all happy to land somewhere other than the van.  Our dear friends are the Volz family, and they call a little village near Hamburg Germany home.  They were gracious enough to let us stay in their home there for the night.   I suspect the Brothers Grim at least visited the area and then used the darling forest as the scene for Hansel's and Gretel's adventure in the woods.  We took an enchanting walk into this forest that begged to be walked through...and I wish I could walk through it daily. 

The neighbors' home seems like a quintessential German house, the whole area was exactly as I imagined it to be.  Side note, Eric got a kick out the man using a flame thrower to clear the weeds in his front yard.  Efficient.

Isaac and Seth loved staying at "Johan's house." The floppy eared bunnies kept them happily occupied for over an hour.

DAY 2
It didn't take us long to get to the little area we were staying.  Check in was later, so we found a spot to watch some fishermen and this cool boat.  We noticed lots of elderly local folk hanging out at the same dock.  It may have been a sign that we were in for a few rendez-vous with the elderly. More about that later.

We went to lunch and Eric got the best Salmon sandwich ever...and it cost about the same amount as a whole salmon would have cost back in Oregon...for real.  Then we walked around one of the streets and went window browsing.  Denmark is NOT cheap.

This is what met our eyes on our first walk down to the beach from our little rental house. DAR-LING!

There were more thatched roofs in Denmark than Belgium and Germany.  I love, love, love  thatched roofs.  And I was delighted (I wont apologize for over using this word...cuz it not possible to over use it when speaking of Denmark) to find a guy re-thatching a house along the trail to the beach.  My stealthy move to click a picture of him didn't work. Doh.

Day 3
On a Sunny day we went to the west coast to a little place called Ribe, which is Denmark's oldest town.     This is where the Viking Centre and where you can sample the life of the Vikings a 1,000 years ago.  

We got to try our hand at all sorts of activities.  Eric is in one of the bunker houses...which I suspect didn't smell to lovely back in the day.

 Funny man let the boys try on a Viking helmet.  He was piecing a chain mail shirt together, and boy-howdy, it was heavy. 

 This lady was making the most divinely smelling stew.  

 Seth was a pretty good shot with the bow and arrow.  And Isaac was consistant, he didnt hit the "bull's eye" (which was a picture of a pig) but he hit nearly all his arrows in a very small circumfrence.  It was impressive.

 There was warrior training for the children and this was the highlight of the day for two little boys whom I like.   I wrote to E's family news letter with the story and I am going to just repost it here.  (side note:  My dear friend, Alicia, is moving back to the states.  She was at my house and shared a sage piece of advice, "Done is better than perfect."  So I am going with that and not rewriting.)

Today we went to a Viking park where they had viking training for children.  The viking trainers where loud and bossy and gruff, but our boys loved it...sorta.  I'll explain.  The children where taught to yell while attacking, and children on the side lines should cheer for their fellows who were fighting the viking trainers by pounding the hilt of their swords on their shields.  Before Seth went out to fight the viking trainer, I encouraged him to yell loudly, and he was brilliant at it.  The Viking hammed it up and let Seth knock his sword out of his hands.  Seth proceeded to chase him around; the crowd loved it, and through their laughter cheered for Seth.  Seth's next viking opponent (there were two) had a long pole with an ax-spear at the end, and with it he snagged Seth's sword...to which Seth promptly began to cry. The crowd laughed and laughed and cheered for Seth again when said viking dramatically let Seth impale him after he pointed towards, and encouraged Seth to pick up his sword.  (Note: Just now, when I was tucking Seth into bed, he got a sparkle in his eye and asked, "Mom, when I chased the Viking around, was that hilarious?"  So all in all, it was a positive experience.)

Isaac's favorite part of the training was defeating a line of vikings with shields all interlocked (the shield wall), with the other trainees.  Isaac would have flourished back in the day; he is an outside sort of fellow,  he has expressed his desire to widdle, he loved hammering sticks in round molds, he loved shooting a "real" bow and arrow, he followed the viking warrior-teacher's every instruction to the letter (maybe I should buy a cool viking hat and shield), he climbed a cool apparatus and balanced across it.  I am glad he was born in the latter-days, but he would have been an awesome pioneer too.  

And Eric didn't say this outright, but I think his favorite part was when he Eric and Isaac balanced on a big tree trunk and then tried to knock each other off with a flour sack that was filled with bunting.  It looks easier than it actually is.  Eric knocked me off 3 times too.

 It looks easier than it actually is.  Eric knocked me off 3 times too.

Even Benjamin liked getting in on the hammering action.  It was cool to see how they made wooden nails/pegs into the proper shape by hammering a wooden shard through a hole and the putting it in the next hole that was narrower and so forth, until it was the desired circumference. 

Play grounds are not the same in Europe as they are in the USA...they are cooler in Europe.  I think they would be deemed to dangerous back home.  Cooler playgrounds in part 2 to come.

The old Germanic word "runa" means whisper, advise, secret.  During Viking times, words could bring good luck or bad luck.  The inscription on this monument rune is meant to give Danes power and life.

Not cool, dude.

I would like spring to come, but it isn't happening.  In fact Eric and Isaac both got a snow day.

Just now I am sitting at the kitchen table and Benjamin is siting next to me.  There are cookies on the table and I may have told Benjamin "uh uh," he could not have anymore, but I was only paying half attention.  But he got my full attention and a chuckle out of me when he said, "Not cool, dude."

Benjamin found a receipt and was carrying it around.  I asked him what he had there, and our conversation went something like this:
B:  Map to find Jesus Christ.
Mom: Oh?  You are going to find Jesus?
B: Yeah.
Mom:  Where is He?
B: At da church.
Mom: Oh, he is?
B: Yeah.  He ea'din' [c]rackers.
Eric over heard our conversation and Benjamin said something to him about Friday.
Eric said: Evidently Jesus is eating crackers at the church on Friday.  We aught to go.

Maybe Eric was the instigator of the "raise your hand" game but Benjamin is the master at it.  It began something like this:
Eric:  "If you think Mom should eat her broccoli raise your hand."  Everyone raised hand.  Then it turned into, "If you like broccoli, raise your hand."  Everyone raised hand.  Isaac and Seth got right into it,  "If you like chicken raise your hand."  Everyone raised hand.  Benjamin said, "If [you] like D'neyLand, rai'e your hand."  Everyone laughed and raised hand.  He now asks that question at least once or twice at dinner and usually at random times throughout the day...and everyone raises hand.

B: "I not want a nap?"
Mom: "You dont want a nap?"
B: "No thank you."
He got one anyway.

Isaac doesn't like to go up stairs, or downstair by himself.  He usually recruits Seth to go with him.  I assume Seth was encouraging Isaac to take Benjamin with him when I heard Seth say, "Benjamin is the bravest kid I know. Come on dude.  You gotta believe me."

This morning

There was nothing special about today.  Lots of days are like this one...and I want to remember them all. How is that of all the little boys in the world, we got the cutest ones.  Three for three darlings.  What are the odds?  Whatever the odds were/are, glad they are in my favor.

My favorite quote of the morning came from Isaac, which is saying something because Seth is always  full of 'em.  Eric was ready to take Isaac to school and had already gone to the car.  Isaac always makes sure to kiss and hug me, Seth, and Benj. Afterwards he headed to the door and hollers back:.

"Have the spirit with you."

 Door starts to close, then opens back up

"And may the force be with you also."

Prior to that we had been gathering for family prayer, and Seth happened to be wearing a policeman dress up.

"Policemens have motorbikes, well sometimes they do, and I do." 

Family prayer is said

"Policemens always have motorbikes and listen to prayers."

They woke me up early today.  5:30 in the blessed a.m.  That is an hour and a half earlier than any of us should be up.  Seth informed me that a glass fell and broke.  I heard,  "MOM!  Some glass broke!  It just fell off of somewhere and broke!  Come on mom!  I'll show ya."  

Seth: "Mom, when I grow up I'm going to be a policeman."  One half of a mili-second later, "Actually, I'm gonna be a rock star."  10 seconds later, "When is Alvin gonna be real?"

"No Benj.  I dont want to hold you right now.  I dont feel good." (More like I was ornery and my sugars were running high. 

"Oh mom.  I kiss you." He walked up and kissed me...on the hip...cause that is where his lips reached.

"Thanks Benj.  You are so nice to me."

"Not a problem."

How to Throw the BEST Valentines Bash Ever

Actually, if you really want to know how to throw the BEST Valentines Bash Ever you will have to ask my friend Erin Glover, because she is the one who hosted it, sent the invites, and otherwise took on all responsibility.  She had the party at our house.  It was brilliant.  I didn't have to go anywhere or be in charge.  LOVE.

We made these cute gun Valentines for Benjamin to pass out... 

and these totally cool star wars valentines from Seth.

But my favorite one was from a little guy named Tyndale.  He made it all by himself. LOVE.

(aaaa-where is that picture)

XXX

Will add later...I hope.

The R2D2 was Benjamin's.  I would like to note that the "feet" are recycled yogart cartons.  I created this all on my own.  The Batman idea, I stole from pinterest.  Seth loved it.  In fact, today, about 1 month later, he asked if we could take it to church. 

 Benjamin is full of awesomeness, including this totally legit leg lift dance move.  He is cool.  I like the row of star wars dudes.  I love how little people love to organize toys into rows.  It always makes me smile 100% of the time.

Seth is in School

Gasp.  I didn't send Isaac to kindergarten, but I am already sending Seth to preschool.  He is doing awesome.  His teacher asked if he could stay all day, like every other kid in his class, but I pick him up at lunch.  Maybe after Easter. Maybe. 

1st Day of School.  January 24, 2013.

 When Seth coaches me on how to run fast he instructs me to bend and lean over 

and put my hands back, sorta like he is demonstrating here. It works because if you dont move your feet, you'll fall on your face.

Seth isn't a fan of the cold.  But sledding got him outside. Work it baby.

 I let my kids eat snow, and have been made to feel like a looser mom.  

You know, all the pollution in the atmosphere-a valid point.

In my defense, I do teach them to eat only white snow.