I Will Never Forget

I've been trying to get a grip on my feelings about this, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United 93. I hate to use the word "anniversary" to describe it, but there's really no better word. The attacks shook me to my very core that day.

We had just gotten married in the beginning of August, 2001. Two days after we returned from our honeymoon, Matt's grandfather passed away. And less than a month later, 4 airplanes were hi-jacked and plowed into 3 buildings and a hill. That's a lot of drama for 6 weeks' time.

I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.  I was at work, getting ready to go do the banking before the restaurant opened.  Someone knocked on the drive-thru window and relayed the horrific news to me.  I was numb for the rest of the day, and for several days following. My heart ached for all those people who's loved ones never made it home...from work, their trips, etc.

Especially the children. How heartbreaking it must have been to have to explain to those poor children why mommy or daddy died. It wasn't 

an accident or equipment malfunction.

It was pure evil.

So, how do we deal with this tragedy, all these years later. I can't imagine whether it helps the healing process to have to relive the attacks every year. How do we get closure without forgetting what was done on that terrible day?  How do we honor those lost without re-opening the survivors' wounds? 

The best answer I can come up with is to pray. Pray for those souls that were lost. Pray for their families, trying to pick up the pieces. Pray for those who were injured.  Pray for the service men and women who have fight every day to protect our freedom.  Pray for police officers, fire fighters, EMTs, etc. who put their lives on the line to protect our safety. Pray that we might forgive those awful acts (Col 3:13), but NEVER forget them.    

Homeschool 2011-2012

We hit the ground running Tuesday for the beginning of our new homeschool season; and the first day was a success!  This will be our third year homeschooling, and a year with some firsts in it for us; RJ is doing mostly 4th grade curricula and Emily is doing 1st grade.  This year also adds some intensity for both the kids as RJ's studies become more in depth; and Emily has curricula for each subject for the first time.  I'll have to adjust and tweak our schedules a bit to figure out a rhythm that works for us.  Megan even wants in on the action, insisting that she is "ready to go to homeschool."  We don't start till age 4, but I have been amassing lots of stuff for her to do, including preschool activity bags, puzzles, crafts, and more.  Audrey was content with riding her car around the kitchen and playing with puzzles and the LeapFrog fridge magnets for most of the day.

Summer Fun!

Its time to dust the blog off and start writing again.  We had a very busy and fun summer this year.  We always try to make a point to spend a lot of our summer with family  And we ended up seeing lots of both sides of the family, which the kids just loved - they have so much fun with their cousins!

We kicked off June with the Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids, where the kids had lots of fun making all sorts of arts & crafts.  The 3 oldest kids had a combined birthday celebration with tons of friends and family and a fun bounce house.  We went to Start of Summer fireworks in downtown Rockford.  We finished June up with VBS at our church.  

Audrey had her first birthday in July; and we saw fireworks for Independence Day in Kentwood.  RJ and Emily were able to participate in a few summer camps too!  July was extremely hot this year, so we spent a lot of time swimming - in pools, at Lincoln Lake, Myers Lake and Millennium Park.  I was even able to take the girls out to Lake Michigan for an afternoon for swimming, walking on the pier and watching the sunset (RJ was at camp).  We also went to Frederick Meijer Gardens and the Montcalm County 4H Fair.  A flood forced us to remodel the bathroom in the middle of July (its been almost finished for weeks now...)

We kicked August off with the annual Sansoterra Family camp with our family and two of  Matt's brothers' families and his mom.  We camped for a few days and then went to Michigan's Adventure - we do this just about every year, but this year we happened to go on our 10 year anniversary!  Matt took the kids to the zoo and then we had a weekend camp out with our church family.  RJ, Emily, and I were in the Danish Festival Parade on the homeschool float, while Matt, Megan, and Audrey watched.  We finished out the month with a "Not" Back to School Picnic with some homeschool friends.

Our final hurrah of the summer was going to the Whitecaps game the day before RJ's birthday.  They announced it over the loudspeaker and he ended up catching a t-shirt!  

Summertime!

I haven't forgotten about this...I've been too busy enjoying summer with my kids - no time to blog!  I'll start blogging again when summer starts winding down.  Enjoy!

Festival of the Arts 2011

We took the kids to the Festival of the Arts downtown today.  The weather was absolutely perfect:  it was 80, partly sunny and breezy.  In years past, its been either blistering hot or pouring down rain.  Because we went in the afternoon, the crowds were quite light and we didn't have to wait in any lines for anything!  This was our second year taking the kids to take part in the festival experience.  Its really quite fun for me as a parent, because they are doing the same activities that I did at festival as a kid.  I remember my mom taking my brother and I to Festival and doing the Paint-In and Glue-In and more.  This was the first year that Megan could participate with her older siblings and they all had a blast.  We started the day with making hats at "Mad Hatters", then we went over to the Paint-In and Glue-In.  We finished up the day by making screenprinted t-shirts, getting faces painted and riding the massive tire swing.  There was great music to be heard at the various stages: from jazz, to oldies, to Star Wars theme music and more.  Here is a collage of our fun at Festival today!