My Sweet Honey

The weather is turning colder and the days a little shorter, and when the chill of Fall sets in, my thoughts turn to sipping warm tea, and my mind wanders into the past and stories of tea and sweet honey and frantic hilarity swirl in my subconscious...
I left the house on a drizzly Saturday autumn morning, presumably to do some grocery shopping or some other errand without any children in tow.  A lovely break for a busy Mom, to be out of the house for an hour or two alone, leaving kids to the care of my dear husband.  When I came back home and let myself in the back door, I could see the washing machine churning and I was filled with warm fuzzies to think that while I was gone, the household chores were not forgotten!  How nice that a load of laundry was being done for me.  I set down the grocery bags and proceeded further into the house, where I was surprised to find Mike on his hands and knees, in his boxers, scrubbing the floor.  Now, laundry is one thing, but washing the kitchen floor in your underwear?  What on earth was going on?  Mike looked up at me, a little flustered, and gave me a weak smile.  "I just wanted some honey in my tea"
Setting out to make himself a steaming cup of tea, he had searched through the cupboards for a forgotten jar of honey to sweeten his drink, but when he found it he saw that the honey had gotten somewhat crystallized.  No problem!  Those crystals can be easily dissolved with some heat - so put some water on to boil.  Once the water had boiled, he poured it in a big bowl and set the honey container inside to melt.  So far, so good.  But here the plot starts to unravel.  The honey was only dissolving around the outside of the jar, and there was still a big solid piece stuck in the middle.  Not wanting to take a simple spoon out to stir when you can use the big guns, Mike grabbed the hand mixer from the cupboard, inserted one beater, stuck it in the honey jar and turned it on. 
The beater got lodged in the honey clump, and instead of the honey mixing inside the jar, the jar started spinning around with the beater.  Since it had been sitting in a bowl of boiling water, it was too hot to grab and stop the spinning movement.  Panic set in, and Mike forgot to let go of the mixer controls - the steaming hot jar of half-molten honey went flying around and around and around, sending arc after arc of melted liquid honey in concentric circles around my kitchen.  Honey on my counter, cupboards, blinds, windows, stove, sink, floor...and all over my dear husband, who had only wanted to sit down with a hot cup of sweetened tea, and who now had managed to coat every surface in the kitchen with hot, sticky honey.  A frantic attempt was made to clean up the mess before I got home - stripping off sticky clothes, trying to wipe up the floor with a sticky kitchen cloth, and getting everything into the washer.  And any minute now, one of his student's parents was supposed to show up to pick up a homework package. 
It took a good amount of scrubbing to get the kitchen floor back to normal, and I don't know if I ever managed to get all the honey off my kitchen blinds.  I suggest that if you have to melt your crystallized honey, it would be best to stir it with a spoon.

Common Household Insults

Kids don't always get along.  They fight, they argue, they yell at each other, they call each other names - I'm sure any parent out there can attest to that fact.  They're just not always as sweet as they look in the pictures!  Of course, we love them dearly, but sometimes the things they say would make any parent shake their head and wonder where on earth they got THAT from.  Our kids have learned there are a few words they should stay away from - and they make sure to remind their parents and grandparents of the rules when off-limit words like "stupid" are inadvertently used in their presence.  They often come up with creative insults to let each other know what they're thinking without using banned words.  Here is a sampling of nasty-mood insults I've heard recently from my  3 and 4 year olds. 

"You are not in my sentence.  Mom and Dad are in my sentence, but you are not."
"You eat like a giraffe!"
"You are a stinky table!"
"I'm going to huff, and puff, and blow your raisin bran right out of your bowl!"
"You have to go live with the neighbours!"
(or, if you want to be especially nasty)
"You have to go live with strangers!"
"You have to go worship idols!!"
Yeah, it's interesting when your kids fall back on using the Ten Commandments to express their frustration with each other.

In the Middle of Extremes

It seems that pretty much every time I write an update on here, I mention that "life is busy".  However, I've been thinking in the last little while that all those other times that I've said "life is busy", it's really just been a walk in the park, a relaxing leisurely vacation, a stop-and-smell-the-roses time of life.  Because right now, life is BUSY, and it's difficult, and it's full of joy, and it's full of sorrow, and the only way to fill up the emotional capital being drained at an exponential rate is to drink up the promises we have been given by our almighty and merciful Father.  What a treasure we have in His Word:

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  

I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.'

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him;

It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."

(Lamentations 3:22-26 )

The last time I wrote a real update was August 22 - a lot has happened since then.  Two days after that, on August 24, my newest little nephew was born!  Little Benjamin Simon was welcomed into the world, healthy and beautiful, and very sweet!  Mike and I were able to visit him and his proud new parents that afternoon, and we've been able to see how well he's growing in the several visits since then.  We're very thankful that all is well and that he's finally arrived (although I was CERTAIN that he was a girl!  Gotta tuck that pink sleeper back into the closet again, perhaps for October?).  

On the Labour Day weekend, we gathered as a family in Strathroy for a few days of hard work, good fellowship, tears, prayers, and good time.  We ended up painting most of the upstairs of Mom and Dad's place in preparation for Dad's time of isolation after the stem cell transplant.  Flooring is to be ripped out and replaced starting at the end of this week, the goal being to make their home as clean and sterile as possible before he comes home.  We were thankful for such a tangible way to help with preparations and for the time we were able to spend as a family looking ahead to a long time of difficult changes.  

Updates from Dad and Karen and information about Dad's transplant can be found at his blog:  http://rvanderdeen.blogspot.com

Your prayers are coveted, especially for the specific items which he mentions there.  

Mike and I were thankful to have the opportunity to visit with Dad and Mom in the hospital yesterday evening, to be able to give Dad a hug (completely didn't expect this, but very thankful!), to be able to walk with them through quiet parts of the hospital and talk together.  We don't know how often we will be able to see each other physically in the next few months once strict isolation is in place (thankful for Skype!) so we appreciated being able to visit.  It was good as well to see family at church in Strathroy, and to enjoy a coffee with Karen and Andrea before we headed to the hospital.  

We sit this evening looking at tomorrow, Day 0, and it feels like we are waiting for a tsunami.  The first week of hospitalization, intensive chemotherapy, and pre-transplant treatment turned out a little different than we were expecting - hard to know what to expect, I suppose - but we know that there are hardships and trials just around the corner.  It's hard not to be anxious, worried, uncertain... this Psalm of David has been a rich blessing to us lately: "The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? .... I remain confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27: 1, 13-14)

And so we wait.  

I feel a strong dichotomy of feelings over the past few weeks - I knew this was coming, but now that we're getting into the middle of everything, it is sometimes overwhelming.  When I look at our VD family, there is sadness, anxiety, tears on the verge.  However, our M side of the family has been experiencing events of much great joy, abundant happiness and rich blessing.  We joyfully greeted little Benjamin a few short weeks ago and look forward to celebrating his baptism this Sunday.  What a blessing to witness this little one receiving the covenant promises of God!  We also are looking forward to celebrating the marriage of Danielle and Timothy in just a few short weeks - another huge blessing, another reminder of how the Lord is in control of all things, and is able to work out His plans in ways that we can't imagine!  

So, in between the laughter of baby and wedding celebrations and the tears of hospital visits, we find ourselves in the middle of September - drenched in showers of abundant blessings and waiting for a tsunami of trial.   

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to  you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-26)

Happy 2nd Birthday Nate!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Nato,
Happy birthday to you!

Hard to believe it's already been two years since you joined our family!  You're a lively little boy who has filled our lives with much joy and laughter.  You love to be in on whatever your brothers are doing, and you try your best to tag along with them.  Woe be anyone who gets in your way, for you are strong-willed and know what you want.  You love playing with tractors, joining your brothers at the Lego table, sitting with Mom, and reading books together - I often find you on the couch looking for Goldbug.  Although you're not talking much yet, you're pretty good at letting us know what you're thinking and you're certainly not quiet - you can get extremely loud!! We look forward to hearing you do a little more talking in the next year instead of calling everything and everyone either "Mom" or "Aaron".  I did hear "Oma" and "arm" over the last few days, but your new words are slow in coming.  I'm sure things will change in the next year, and we won't be able to remember today's word-less version of Nate!
Congratulations, my two-year old Nato!  May God continue to bless you in the coming year!

 Blowing out the candles

 Digging in!

Comment Changes

As it seems there have been some problems with posting comments and the "word verification" feature, I have removed that setting to see if it fixes things.  I included that feature in the first place to get rid of unwanted spam comments that were showing up.  Your comments will still be subject to my approval before they are posted - not that I think you'll post something nasty, but I'd just like to filter out those spam comments that might find there way here.  Hopefully this new setting will spur on an avalanche of comments from my millions of readers!  Happy commenting! 

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I was at the bicycle repair shop this morning with the front tire of our double jogging stroller, which I discovered had a flat tire just as we were heading out for the bus stop.  Aaron and Nate were with me, and Aaron was watching the repair process very closely.  The guy was having a hard time getting the tire off the rim, and exclaimed something along the lines of, "Oh my gosh, this tire just doesn't want to come off!".  Aaron was quick to admonish him, telling him "You shouldn't take God's name in vain, that's bad." The man quickly apologized and agreed that he shouldn't talk like that.  Some days I think we have a lot to learn from our children about confronting sin in the world around us and sticking up for what is right.  Way to go Aaron!