It’s Rachel’s Special Day. Hooray for Rachel (age 11). She is our oldest daughter and well do we love her. What a blessing it is to partner with Tim to raise Rachel up as a child of the King.

We went to the Y this afternoon – met Tim there – and played wallyball. Rachel is getting to be quite the skilled player. She and Tim were on the same team for a long time and they played really well together. I was impressed with how much she has improved and how often she was able to successfully return the ball (unlike me – I’m afraid I’m the only one in the family who seems to be getting worse).

We had a vegetable, pork, rice stir-fry for dinner. It was delicious although one child said it had too many veggies. In my estimation, as a mom striving to feed your family healthy foods, if you only have one out of five children complain about the quantity of vegetables served, you are doing REALLY well. Ha!

Tim got a telephone call in the middle of dinner so the children started without him and then slipped off to watch a movie so he and I could enjoy some time alone. It turned out to be a lovely hour of discussion and prayer. I am really falling in love with regular, lengthy prayer with my husband. What a powerful thing to bring to our marriage.

After the movie, Rachel chose to play The Awful Green Things from Outer Space. It is a two player game that we stole/ borrowed/ re-claimed from Tim’s parents game collection. I haven’t ever played it so I can’t give a detailed review. We’ll have to get Rachel and Joshua to chime in when they can. I’d love to see the children contribute more to the blog.

Joshua was there as counsel for Rachel and family photographer. He took these picture for me. Sarah, David and I read books on the new chair while the rest of the family was playing nearby. I know there is much speculation and wonder about what we are going to call the new chair. Or maybe there wasn’t any speculation or wonder at all (much more likely). Still, if the chair is going to truly have a place in our home, it needs a name. We call the double recliner that sits in the living room and is the ultimate spot for reading school books, Big Blue. We call the small blue recliner Little Blue (not very creative but it does get the point across). So you can see that beloved, well used pieces of furniture have to have names.

Rachel and I thought and thought and came up with….(drum roll) Cream Puff for the new chair. We thought it was perfect – describes the color, sounds tasty, and captures the soft, comfy essence of the chair. Already we are meeting some intense resistance. Joshua hates it and Tim is shocked we would name His Chair without him. Hmmm. We’ll see if the name survives. I wonder if we also need a catchy title for the couch. Any creative ideas?? Let me know.

Of course, I just realized my Orange Chair hasn’t been christened so that either shoots a hole in my theory or says something deeper about the chair itself. In reality we aren’t that creative of a family. My nana had a gift for naming things that always seemed to fit perfectly. Maybe I’ll start calling the orange chair, L’Orange (with a beautiful French accent). That does pose some problems if we ever have it re-upholstered but it’s too late in the evening to think of everything.

Back to Rachel’s blog. Sarah picked Cream Puff as our reading destination (usually we would retire to Big Blue). Everyone loves the new comfy chair. Daniel was on the computer enjoying some game time. It was noisy with music playing in the background, computer game sounds in another corner and a board game in the center of the room but it was family and we were all together. What a precious time! I am so thankful for a husband who encourages focused together time. It takes attention and energy and a decision to make it happen. I am thankful for the way he sacrifices his time and personal interests in favor of building up our family. It is Not easy but the rewards are priceless.

Rachel and I wanted to do a tribute to the special friends in her life but we ran out of time and night fell upon us too quickly. Rachel picked The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as her read-aloud for the evening and Tim read several chapters. The little ones went up to bed and I worked on my BSF in the living room. I tried to keep my interruptions to a minimum (“Why was Lucy all by herself? What did the monopods look like before they were ‘uglified’? How did the man get off the dream island and on to their boat?”). I mean, really, I was doing my BSF, not listening. It was their fault for being so interesting right when I was trying to do my Bible study.

Rachel and I will try to work on the friendship blog during the week and have it ready for next Tuesday.

We love Rachel!! She is a delight. She is helpful and witty and sincere and curious and passionate and knowledgeable about scriptures and on and on. As my mother likes to say, a very satisfactory daughter.

Kathy

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