The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Why yes, I am looking at you.
Project 365 – Day 13
Kathy
The Hat
Category Archives: Family
Grandad and Hot Cocoa
Today is my dad’s birthday. It has been bittersweet to think of him throughout the day, to look at pictures, talk about him with the kids and on Facebook, and hear others share memories of him. I am continually amazed that it has been almost four years since he left us and went to heaven. I am incredibly proud of him. I am thankful of the godly heritage he left me. And I am full of joyful hope that we will see each other again one day.
Looking over the blog (we’ve been writing off and on since 2004), I found that I had posted a birthday hello to Grandad in 2007 (Joshua – look, it’s your cell phone! From 2007! Impressive). I also wrote something in 2008.
Sigh.
Loss – it pierces with the realization that we must hold lightly to things in this life at the same time savor every moment with abandonment. Such a strange paradox. We get lost in the minutia and the mundane, but it is exactly those things that weave together the most glorious tapestry of relationships, love and LIFE.
Amidst this rather busy, gray day, the kids decided some hot cocoa would be a nice treat. As for me, I skip the chocolatey stuff and stick to coffee.
My sweet girl and her hot cocoa
The hot cocoa tins from Costco are a regular stocking stuffer in our house so, during the month of January, there’s usually plenty of hot chocolate to go around.
Daniel says NO to marshmallows and YES to whipped cream on his hot cocoa.
When even the hot cocoa can’t cheer away the fog and gray skies, there are always plenty of candles to brighten the room. Strangely enough I can always find a child willing to get out the matches and light the candles for me.
Careful, David!
When the week (or is it a month?) of sunLESS days continues on, I pause, breathe deeply, close my eyes and savor the memories of the incredibly GORGEOUS Washington summer we had this year.
Sarah and some beautiful island girls!!
Hot cocoa, memories of Grandad, pictures of beach days, and the knowledge that my happiness and hope rests in Jesus.
“And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10
Project 365 – Day 12
Kathy
Related posts:
Staying Connected
One of the main reasons for the resurrection of Project 365, has been that our blog writing last year was not very impressive. It earned us a fairly high level of collective scorn from the kids who were away at college.
Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be much of a problem, because college students are renowned for being poor communicators. Most of them head off to school blithely, and the next time you hear from them, it is time to come home for the summer.
But not our kids. They are very intentional about calling us, and Skype-ing us nearly every weekend. Joshua set the pattern when he went off to school, and Rachel must have assumed it was normal behavior. It is all very nice, but it makes it hard to be a slacker parent.
Rachel is pretty, even when she’s a digital picture of a Skype screen.
Today Rachel wanted to connect with us all, so we fired up Skype on Kathy’s computer, but soon ran into technical problems. So Joshua whipped out his laptop, and we all gathered around to talk with her about the class she is taking for January Term, and how she is doing in general.
We are especially thankful for Joshua and Rachel’s close relationship.
It was delightful to hear from her. We are very thankful that our college kids remember to connect with us, notwithstanding my resentful tone.
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Some Days I’m Witty
I’m beginning to remember what it was like to do Project 365, back in 2007.
Every day, without fail, you have to come up with something witty or meaningful to say. If you don’t, you’re like a person who breaks a chain letter, or like the tooth fairy who fails to come when a small child places their tooth under their pillow.
Actually, the tooth fairy is notoriously late in our household; sometimes she takes weeks to arrive. She breezes into town, mumbling something about a hockey tournament in Denver. You just can’t rely on her anymore.
The problem is, some days, I’m just not that meaningful or witty. And even with our current arrangement of blogging every other day, the days that I’m ‘on’ seem to crop up pretty often.
“Keep the bar low,” I told Kathy, yesterday. She ignored me, and posted seven pictures of my two older boys, clowning around. Several of the pictures had clever captions. But did she think about what it would be like, to be me, today?
No. She didn’t care. It was ‘every woman for herself’ day, yesterday.
Well, as every parent knows, when you don’t have anything to say, just show off your cute kids. Although my kids are getting older, and few of them can be referred to (at least to their faces) as ‘cute’, still, I am always proud to show them off.
Here is David, setting out on a cycling adventure.
David will be fourteen soon, which is mind-boggling. He has always been my ‘youngest son’, and I’m not really ready for him to be biking around town by himself. Next thing you know, he’ll be hinting about Drivers’ Ed.
Oh, boy. I can hardly wait. Project 365, Day 9.
Tim
Related posts:
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.
“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.
“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.
Let me get a closer look.
“No, you’re doing it all wrong, Joshua!”
“Joshua! Come back here!”
Advanced Physics isn’t really the subject du joir. Thankfully the boys found something else they could work on.
“Daniel, this list here is called ingredients.”
“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.