Category Archives: Joshua

One Last Hurrah

With Joshua and Kelsie here through the month of January, it has definitely felt festive and fun. We enjoyed a Thai meal on Wednesday night and took the Christmas lights and the tree down yesterday. We missed having Rachel home as well, but she’s had a wonderful January Term at Union. Joshua came and taught my student Leadership class at co-op this morning. And this evening we had one last party with a few friends. As much as I try to be sure and have my camera on hand, I know that I haven’t taken enough pictures this month.

We loved having Joshua and Kelsie here this month!

Tim may or may not have been standing on tiptoes. LOL. Oh, and ignore the “Merry Christmas” on the pantry door.

It has been a wonderful visit, and we will be sorry to say goodbye tomorrow! Rachel, we are sending them back to you. Hug them up for us!

Project 365 – Day 30
Kathy

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Visitors

Rachel left for Tennessee right after our amazing New Year’s Eve party. She went back for Union’s January Term. We had a wonderful visit with her over the holidays . There’s such a sweetness about having a grown child return home. I love college students – they are thinking and growing and figuring out life practically right in front of your eyes. Rachel is a dedicated student, loyal friend, thoughtful daughter, and godly young woman. I am incredibly proud of her!!

Tarah, Leah, Rachel, Katie and Hannah helped us celebrate the new year!

Tarah, Leah, Rachel, Katie and Hannah helped us celebrate the new year!

Joshua decided not to attend Jan Term this year. Instead we were treated to an extra two weeks of time with him. He worked, played games with us, watched movies and helped with AWANA. The very ‘normalness’ of it all was even more precious. As a junior in college with a heart for discipleship and missions as well as a passion for learning, Joshua is very intentional with his time. Our summers and winter breaks with him have been very brief. The January of his freshman year he went to Germany on a mission trip, returned for the second semester at Union and then spent the summer traveling with WorldView Academy. The next winter he returned to school for Jan Term and then served on Union’s Go Trip in Turkey over the summer months.

Joshua & Rachel at Rachel's Lake City Graduation Party - May 2014

Joshua & Rachel at Rachel’s Lake City Graduation Party – May 2014

Last week Joshua went to Alaska to visit a special friend from college. After a fun week with Kelsie and her family, the two of them flew into Seattle to spend a week with us. Watching the kids grow, form godly friendships, and bring new people into the circle of our family has been a delight throughout the years. Over and over, Tim and I have been proud of the friends our children have made and pleased to enjoy their company as well. We have played games, watched movies, worked on projects, cleaned the house, painted rooms, decorated for the holidays, thrown parties, traveled, prayed, and eaten many, many meals (and more ice cream) with beautiful, amazing, talented, interesting, fun, godly young people over the years. I could post dozens of pictures of our children and their friends. We are blessed by the people they love.

This evening Joshua and Kelsie went to the high school Navy Junior ROTC Ball along with Daniel and many of our good friends. When Joshua and Daniel were cadets, several years ago, Tim and I put on our finest duds and celebrated with them. It was fun to watch them all dress up and go out this evening.

Joshua and Kelsie - ready for the ball.

Joshua and Kelsie – ready for the ball.

The rest of the week, I presume we’ll enjoy more board games, movies, laughter, and family time before Joshua and Kelsie return to Union.

A game of 7 Wonders - Tim posed with my coffee cup.

A game of 7 Wonders – David WON and Sarah came in second. Fun!

Project 365 – Day 24
Kathy

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Brothers

Nothing warms my heart, filling it to the brim of contented happiness, like having my children come home and spend time with us. This year has been a big shift for us with Joshua and Rachel both off at college, and Daniel attending the technical school full time. We savored the time we had together over Christmas and were especially spoiled to have my mom here.

Now Rachel has returned to Tennessee, and the rest of us have started back to school.

Let's do some school

“Joshua, have you ever seen this? It’s called science.”

Thankfully Joshua is still at home. He decided not to attend Union’s January term this year and instead enjoy an extended winter break.

Well, this shouldn't be hard.

“Hmmm, it doesn’t look too hard.”

Joshua, Tim and Daniel have played hours of board games. Joshua, Sarah and my mom worked on several puzzles. We’ve all watched lots of movies. Joshua has been very helpful around the house AND with school projects.

There's something funny about this science book.

Let me get a closer look.

I can't take it.

“No, you’re doing it all wrong, Joshua!”

"Don't leave me, Joshua!"

“Joshua! Come back here!”

Advanced Physics isn’t really the subject du joir. Thankfully the boys found something else they could work on.

"These are called ingredients."

“Daniel, this list here is called ingredients.”

"And they expect us to actually COOK?"

“Wait, can’t we go back to science? Is this Advanced Cooking?”

Project 365 – you never know what kind of snapshots you’ll get on a random Thursday.

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Return of the Josh

We have a tradition in our home. Well, we have lots of traditions, truth be told.

Sometimes books are made into movies. Usually, no one really cares, except maybe the author. But every now and then, Hollywood decides to make a good book into a movie, and they incur the wrath of many who loved that book.

We had to evict a cat so Joshua could have the comfy reading chair.

We had to evict a cat so Joshua could have the comfy reading chair.

My oldest son has come to really love the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and he insists that no one should be allowed to watch any of Peter Jackson’s movies until they have actually read the book(s) covered by the movie. Of course, recently, that hasn’t been very difficult, since it took Jackson 3 movies to cover a single novel that was originally written for children. Maybe if he wasn’t so busy adding extra characters, he could have done it in two movies, but (based on box office returns) perhaps he is happy with his decision to go for three.

This year it is David’s turn. At 13, he is really wanting to watch the final Lord of the Rings movie, based on The Return of the King, which he has not yet read. So Joshua decided to read it aloud to him, sprinkling chapters throughout our recently-ended Christmas break. As we begin the new year, we are down to our last four chapters in Tolkien’s conclusion to the saga.

David plays games on his Kindle Fire while listening.   I think there should be a quiz, to make sure he is listening.

David plays games on his Kindle Fire while listening. I think there should be a quiz, to make sure he is listening.

Soon we will be able to watch the final Lord of the Rings movie with wild abandon, except that Sarah will have to be sent away. (Not that she minds — she doesn’t like Orcs or Nazgul very much.)

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