rhythms of grace

Off to Prague

We are preparing for our big trip to Prague with the whole family. We will fly into Dusseldorf, Germany and drive over to Prague. We will spend a week and a half in Prague meeting with people and then head over to Germany for a wedding. It will be great to catch up with all the people we know and work with in Prague.

We will actually be in Germany for the World Cup final! Even though we will not be in Berlin Im sure the whole country will be electric with excitement, especially if Germany makes it to the final.

The Graduate

We have a little graduate...well I guess you could say it. Nowadays there is a little ceremony for passing on to every next grade. Lydia just completed kindergarten today. We cannot believe it. She is growing at light speed. We celebrated by going out to see Over the Hedge with pizza and coke to boot!

To be honest her kindergarten experience was not the greatest. I remember my kindergarten to this day....mostly fingerpainting and learning was fun. Many times when we picked Lydia up from school she would be sad, even crying because she did not get a sticker at the end of the day. Or she was happy because she did. She was stressed out in kindergarten for pete's sake. Lydia's focus was on the standardized tests and anxiety about the daily performance sticker. Prior to kindergarten she was stoked to learn, faking to be well when she was sick so that she could go to school. This past year it was the opposite. We dont blame the teacher. It is mors systemic or methodolgical...is that a word? Needless to say, we dont plan to send her back to the same school for 1st grade. She is not scarred for life by any means....we are just sad the fun of learning seemed to be sapped out of her kindergarten year.

The Daily Grind

Our life is finally settling into a daily schedule. Artie goes off to the coffeeshop to brew the coffee and get the shop going.  He is still working to get everything set up but the coffeeshop is up and running. In addition to the coffee bit last week Artie prepared a sermon and delivered it at the three worship services last weekend at the Community Life Center.

Elizabeth is at full speed keeping up with the kids. Lydia had her first ever soccer game this past weekend. She had a blast. She is still getting the hang of the rules, but having a great time. We hope to get some pictures posted soon.

February flying by

Well, we had hoped to keep up with our blogging a little better than we have.  I thought I would take a moment to blog while the 3 kids and our new additions...2 rabbits are sleeping.  The rabbits were a somewhat impulsive purchase for Artie's birthday, quite a surprise to him since he had no desire for any pets.  But the kids love them (maybe a bit too much).  And since Artie is very busy running and training folks in the cafe....he named the bunnies Mocha and Machiatto after the coffee drinks that they look like.  The cafe, by the way, is off to a great start.  Looks really nice...we'll hopefully get some pictures on the blog site soon.  Artie is off at the crack of dawn...with Elgin and Lincoln as his consistent early morning alarm clocks to wake him up.  He's been putting in alot of hours to get it running smoothly, which will hopefully slow down a bit...and we'll see him a little more once folks get trained and the routine gets more regular.

Lydia is learning to read now, and loves to stay up at night sounding out words from her books.  Lincoln, trying to sleep in the same room with her, will imitate her and pretend to be sounding out words as well.  He is enjoying going to a playschool one morning a week with me.  Trying to make some time for just Lincoln...so he doesn't get lost in the middle.  Elgin now a little past 6 months is almost sitting on his own.  He smiles quite a bit and laughs whenever his brother and sister play peek-a-boo or tickle him.  Lydia is always picking him up and lugging him around with her...he definitely will be a tough little guy! 

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Well it was a sunny beautiful day here and Lydia had the day off from school to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so we all went to the zoo.  The kids had a great time with their cousins, Jonathan and Madison and their Aunt Angel too.  Lincoln especially enjoyed the new baby hippo and Lydia enjoyed jumping on a bungee-trampoline contraption where she was belted up into the air and even did a couple back flips!  We got an annual pass to the zoo today.  I figure with the Community Cup Cafe that Artie is starting only minutes away we will be able to come by often....esp. when mom can fuel up on some fresh brewed coffee on my way to chasing kids around the zoo! :)  The cafe is looking really nice and Artie hopes to have the grand opening by superbowl sunday (February 5).  It will be nice to have a cafe in this area.  Pensacola definitely is lacking cafes!  I guess I was spoiled by all the cafes in Prague...I definitely miss the cafe lifestyle in europe and meeting up with friends in so many different cafes there!  Hopefully Pensacola will catch up one of these days! 

Merry Christmas to all

A very Merry Christmas all you who are still keeping track of us through our blogsite. Hopefully we will be blogging more often in the upcoming months as life finally settles into a routine. Right now Lydia and Lincoln are really excited about Christmas, particularly Lydia. This is the first year she understands the story of Christmas and is fully aware of the gift receiving aspect. So, understandable she is giddy.

We have had quite a year with transitioning from Prague, buying a home, moving, having a new baby, changing jobs, starting Kindergarten, etc. We hope 2006 will bring a new stability to our family. Thanks for following our journey. Have a great Christmas...Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Happy December

We are busy at life as usual. Artie has officially started working with the Community Life Center to start the coffee shop. Also, he is managing the property he purchased along with his bro in law. Elizabeth has her hands full figuratively and literally with a kindergartner, a two year old and an infant. The kids are doing better. Last week we took them all to the pediatrician at the same time. Lincoln had a cold and an ear infection, Lydia had a cold and possibly and infection injury to her foot, and Elgin had an ear infection and an eye infection....wow. So, all that is pretty much under control now. Now we are preparing for Christmas. We put up our Christmas tree and plethora of nativity scenes on Thanksgiving night. We love to get into the Christmas thing early....even though our tree barely stays alive to the end. We are looking forward to our first family Christmas in our own house.

October already

Time is flying.... we hope to carve out some more time for blogging this next month....between trying to catch the baseball playoffs, catch Lincoln before he uses the pink highlighter all over the wall or the toilet (both of which he has done in the past week), catch some sleep with Elgin still waking in the night, and catch Lydia and sit her down to do her homework,...we dont have a lot of time. Life is happening faster and faster.

Artie is settling into new and different work as he has committed to a project to open a coffeehouse and bookstore in a local community center/church. this is taking a lot of time since it is a complete start up. In addition to this he is finalizing guidelines for the formation of an association of ministries in Europe. The ministries will meet up in Croatia in mid November and hopefully affirm the guidelines and become a more official association.

Finally an update

Wow, a whole month has passed with no update. Life is slipping by quickly for us lately. This is good in one sense because Elgin is sleeping more and is able to be put down a little more each day. In another sense we are amazed some days that the day is finished and it is time to put the kids to bed....our kids are growing up much to fast. Lincoln just turned 2. We had a big party for him. Lots of kids having a blast. He is now speaking in sentences and Lydia....Lydia is an old pro at school. She loves to go and comes home and does her homework and wants to play computer games. In all, we have been doing great besides our kids being sick on and off, Lydia last weekend with stomach virus and Lincoln most recently with an ear infection in both ears.

We feel terrible about what has happened to our western neighbors in Louisiana and Mississippi and is going to happen those affected in the next few days by Hurricane Rita, but we are thankful it is not us evacuating this time. We hope the latest storm will not make matters too much worse. It certainly has the potential.

Coffee crew

The cafe opening day went smoothly with many people strolling in for java and other treats. To the left is the boss and the right is the whole family; the coffee crew. I snuck up to the opening of the cafe with Lincoln. We got on the road at 5:30a on Sunday morning, enjoyed the family and friends party and opening, and returned Monday afternoon. Elizabeth would have loved to gone but little Elgin is still a homebody. He has an emotional reaction to the car seat thus far.