The Golden Field

It was a sunny bank holiday here (Memorial Day in the U.S.) and our friend James Greig invited us to join his family on a nature walk near our homes. He wanted to take his kids, Alistair and Izzy, as well as ours to the "golden field," where buttercups take over during the month of May. Steve was in a class just then, but I happily brought Naomi, Josiah, and Ethan.

The Greigs brought along some nature guides, with the goal of finding and identifying various wildflowers. They also packed a lovely snack picnic of hot tea (a necessity for every British picnic!), "squash" (like Kool-Aid), and zucchini bread (which I'd made and given them earlier as a thank-you for babysitting).

Naomi and Josiah were very happy to have an outing with their friend Izzy (who is in their Sunday school class). It was great for me to see all three of them enjoying each other and having a good time. Ethan did not want to stay in the stroller (he'd been napping just before we set out), but instead got out to run ahead of me. What energy children have!

After jumping and running through the field of buttercups, the children's socks, shoes and/or toes were tinted yellow with pollen. We found quite a few species of flowers and later at our picnic, were able to identify many of them. Naomi even spotted an orchid!

In addition to flower-identifying, we looked for little critters. We found that a previous visitor had left some parsnips just outside what looked like the entrance to a rabbit tunnel. We saw many rabbit pellets, and Alistair even found some mole holes, but we never did see a critter in the flesh.

We were out for two hours and by the end, Ethan was losing steam. We'd all had a great time and were ready for a late supper. God has blessed us with sweet friends right on our own road, and has also given us the gift of living in a beautiful part of Oxford. We are grateful...

The Golden Field - pics

Latest Kid Pics

Naomi's new teeth are getting bigger all the time.
Ethan is our silly boy!
Josiah has just lost two teeth in two days this week!

What I Like About Living in Oxford, England

Hearing so many languages, everywhere I go (French and Arabic seem to be some common ones)
Convenient public transportation
Historical significance everywhere!
Learning about famous local authors (Lewis Carroll, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc.)
Being relatively close to London and the ocean
Different UK accents
Always being offered tea
Bike lanes
Beautiful gardens
Amazing architecture
Itsy-bitsy cars
Elderflower-flavored soda
Fizzy lemonade
Ethnic restaurants (even though I never eat at them!!)
Sidewalks and pedestrian crossings
Environmental awareness (recycling and bring-your-own bags at the store)
Fun spelling like: tyres, kerb, pyjamas, neighbour, centre, and realise
Having so many neighbors right around me
Diversity of churches
The Thames and Cherwell Rivers -- waterfowl, walking paths, lots of boats
Freecycle
Concerts and plays (though I don't go to those either!)
Being able to cycle to my store, shop, and come back in under an hour (but I can't carry much on the bike!)
Our church (we love, love, love our church!!!)
New friends

Okay for Now

To allay fears, I wanted to write a follow-up to my last post. Yes, I was desperate. Yes, it was scary. But yes, I'm still around and thankful for the prayers and encouragement of many.

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of when Steve proposed to me right here in Oxford, and he's planning something for tonight. A friend from church will come over to stay with the kids.

We've had a really fun time during our last couple movie nights with the kids. We watched "Sword in the Stone" last night, and "Dumbo" last week. I'd forgotten how hilarious Disney made their movies. The kids and I laughed so hard! I love hearing the kids bust up laughing.

Ethan is now saying "Dada" and "Mama" consistently, not only for us, but also for items of large size (compared to smaller sizes). He was doing some beading the other day, and called a big bead "Mama" and the smaller bead was given his squeaking sound for "little." He's trying to say "Iya" for Josiah, but it comes out sounding more like "Ira." He's also been doing lots more signs and animal sounds. We just got word that Ethan and Josiah are officially "in the system," waiting for an assessment appointment with speech and language therapy.

I've made some decisions about home-schooling for next year, and am trying to find stuff as cheaply as I can. I'm going to use a math program called "Math-U-See" and an all-subject curriculum called "Adventures in My Father's World," for everything else. I hope that it helps me to have this structure set up. I'll keep you posted...

another day?

I don't know if I can make it another day. I feel like my whole world is out of control. I know in my head there are many steps I could take to help it get better, but I just don't have the will or the energy. I want to sleep and never wake up. I don't want to struggle and battle and feel like a failure every single day. I know this is wrong. But I can't seem to get it right.

What I miss about the U.S.A....

Cool Whip
good Mexican food
tortilla chips (available but not high quality)
root beer
frozen fruit juice
frozen lemonade
libraries (with organized children's sections,
quality children's books,
free video-borrowing,
and toys/puzzles/learning sets available)
swings with curved, flexible seats (here they are hard and rectangular)
central heating
Christian radio
clothes-dryers
Wal-Mart
Medicaid-provided counseling
graham crackers
M&Ms and Snickers (available, but expensive)
ranch dressing
math tutoring in a system I'm familiar with

And about Virginia...
mountains
starry skies
sweet tea
Pet World
Woods Creek
great playgrounds
friends
family
my car