The other day, the Goob happened to be upstairs and walked in on Zsa-man, who was intently wielding a nerf gun and focusing on something the Goob couldn't see.
"What are you shooting?" Goob asked.
"Bob," came the terse reply. "I can't find him."
Apparently, Bob is the shield bug who took up residence in their room for some days. Our house has been plagued with shield bugs, which infiltrate everything, from windows to boxes in our attics to framed pictures on our wall. Their presence has gradually lessened over the years--thanks to focused missions of extermination using toilet paper or vacuum--but they still make pretty constant appearances in our home.
And now it was Bob.
I was introduced to Bob some time after that when I went in to read books to the kids one night.
"Mom, Bob. Bob, Mom."
We were on a first name basis. Can't get more cozy than that, right?
Wrong.
Apparently Bob shifted from prey to pet. He appeared in a specially crafted plastic container soon thereafter and was carried lovingly and attentively around the house by Zuli and Zsa-man. Their pet-days were cut short by Pipalicious, who has an acute sense of animal suffering and told them that their "habitat" was actually probably killing Bob and that they should release him outdoors.
Bye, Bob!
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This week has been a full one! From big to small events, these experiences have blessed or taught us and I want to record them.
-Cook-off! Thursday night I challenged four chefs to "doctor up" some chicken I had cooked to make4 chicken hoagies. Pipalicious's was intentionally Italian Herb; Liliputian's intentionally Hungarian; Hava's intentionally normal; and mine...unintentionally unanticipated. It all started when I started dumping "oregano" in and discovered it was actually ginger. Shift. It went creative from there on out.
They were all palatable and even tasty, if unusual. Dare I say mine was Indian? Imagine that--an Indian chicken sub sandwich. Cultural culinary worlds clashing.
-Miracle for the Mission! The Goob has been working on filling out his mission papers. One of the requirements was to get a physical from the doctor. Since he is 19, I figured I couldn't go to the pediatrician he just "graduated" from, so last Wednesday I started calling doctor...after doctor...after doctor. Everyone was scheduling out through mid-late December or January, even the one a friend had recommended since they had gotten her pre-mission son in just the week before with two days notice! As I called, and called, and called, I started recognizing a feeling growing within me. It's a feeling that comes when I feel like God is telling me to stop. I recognize this feeling because I am not very good at stopping and have experienced it often :S. Anyway, it starts feeling like I am trudging through emotional quicksand and it keeps getting harder, and harder, and harder to push myself to do it on an emotional spiritual level. It is not similar to the feeling I get when I face rejection or a challenging task. Just different. And I knew from experience to pull back and honor it...that I wouldn't be fruitful if I pursued in spite of that feeling to stop.
So I made a couple more phone calls and stopped, ;). Yep, that's me. I just kept thinking, "But this is for a mission. I should keep trying, right?"
When I finally stopped calling, I began my usual thinking path of trying to figure out what God might have in mind. I don't get these feelings often--of such direct heavenly intervention--and I just can't help trying to see the bigger picture...or the different picture.
Well, on Monday night I had a waking dream about calling his old pediatrician. I began thinking about what I would say, about just seeing if it were possible for him to get one more appointment for this mission rather than go to someone who didn't know him, even if he was over the age of 18. Tuesday I put off the phone call most of the day; similar to most people, I don't really cherish the feeling of rejection. I woke up from a short nap and looked at the time. The thought came, "Call the pediatrician." Okay, I sighed, and did. And the miracle happened!
"We see them all the way up to age 21 when we have seen them before," the receptionist told me, "and we have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow at 1:30 pm if he can make it."
Wow!!! Not only yes but with an appointment the very next day?? God is truly amazing!
-Music! The kiddos have started playing the piano regularly again and are progressing so well! Pipalicious, Chugger-dude and Hava all bless our home with it and Papaya has even resumed sounding things out on the piano, much to everyone's delight. She even arranged for the younger kids to sing along with her for our family's private upcoming talent show on Monday. So excited!
We also ordered a couple more books with popular songs and accompaniments. It seems that everyone has caught the singing bug and so I am having fun sitting down to the piano more often than usual to accompany someone on a Disney or pop song that they want to sing. I love hearing their voices!
-Word play! Pipalicious loves her new-ish nickname, "Ghoti" pronounced "Fish." "Enough" provides the "f" sound; "women" the "i" sound; and "motion" the "sh." Well they generated a new one yesterday, "runs" or "lounst": "colonel" for "r"; "un" for "un" and "castle" for "s." Not as elaborate, but still fun!
-Shakespeare! I have wanted to do this for over a year but finally ordered enough volumes of the Complete Works of Shakespeare for all the older kids to have one and now we take turns with different parts reading through plays! We just started last week and are already almost through "Taming of the Shrew"...and having so much fun! Pipalicious will even practice saying her parts before hand. They all enjoy it--Papaya through Liliputian--with me filling in the little extra parts. They will actually schedule around our reading time to do it! It is amazing how much they understand what is happening, too. Love it!
-Night games! This week has had amazing weather. It gets dark earlier, too, so the combination has been perfect to play "cops and robbers" and "no bears are out tonight!" The whole family, from Quinn and Drew down through Zuli, spent hours doing that this week, with little Nell and I even putting in an appearance one night. They range from our house to the park, although they were reined in a bit when Pipalicious stepped on a nail on a board that pierced her shoe and then her foot, ouch! She took a time-out to soak her foot in a bath of warm water and baking soda while the rest carried on. Zsa-man even hid once all by himself! One favorite time of mine was when only the Goob and Zuli were finding everyone else, and the whole gang of "bears" came in through the front door where Nell and I were bonding with Pipalicious, crawled across the floor out of view (and to keep their dirty feet and shoes off the rug) and surprised the "finders" by running out through the back door where the finders had started. So fun! I love the personalities of our family that love to just play together.
We had a lot of fun playing "Telestrations" last night too, a delightful combination of the game of "telephone" and "Pictionary." Dad always incorporates turtles into his drawings, the Goob is typically very diverting from what the subject of the drawing is supposed to be, and when you throw Spooner and Zsa-man in, it just makes everything more fun to try and figure out what they are drawing and guessing ;). We laughed a lot, like when Chugger-dude's started out "deviled egg," then when from "strangled goose" through random transitions like "demon chicken egg" to "deviled egg." Then we found out that he had changed his original word after he discovered where the guesses ended...and that the original word had been "perfume"...with the guess after the original drawing of "strangled goose" not even close...which brought on even more laughter! I love laughing with this group.
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I am sure I am missing things, but that is what I get for waiting all week to write this down. Quinn and I had a great date last night with Nell and Quinn's brother and sister-in-law at a classic diner here in Medina...another time of joy and laughter. I love having them close.
Liliputian took Chugger-dude and the Goob on a "challenging hike" that was so challenging it didn't even have a trail! They came back tired and happy.
It's Pipalicious's birthday today and they are spending the morning working at the Bishop's warehouse, which they love. Pipalicious is a server, so I guess this fits! We are going to do a "dollar dinner" tonight, where each person or pair of people gets $1-5 to spend on whatever they want to purchase as a contribution to dinner, we all come home and cook it up and then enjoy! She loves surprises so that should be fun.
Nell has started smiling randomly, deciding that it was time to start following the example of her nephew who has been smiling, it seems, almost from day one :D. Zuli loves to hover in Nell's face and gently run her lips all over her face. So sweet! She also loves to snuggle next to me when I am feeding Nell and "be with the baby."
The Goob is just overcoming a run-in with a dandelion that inflated his face once again but is better now! He also took on the challenge of cutting up a friend's tree with a chainsaw. He ended up being the muscles, hauling the huge pieces out of the way, since his chainsaw didn't work, but still had a great time! Of course, everything is more fun when the Goob is around. When he is around, I also need to stock up on orange juice, but it is a joyous "price to pay" for his company :D.
Papaya is a champion bottle feeder, nurturer and diaper changer. The hardest part of having a baby around here is to figure out who gets to hold her when :D. Nell is hardly every set down and I insist on getting my snuggle time in. I had to go somewhere for something on Tuesday and had her stay home and it was painful! I love that little dear, as do we all. I wish I could hold my little grandson as well, but they are doing well and life with COVID is just what it is. Hungary and the USA have both increased their restrictions on travel recently so we won't be visiting other than virtually for some time now. I know God knows what He is doing--that COVID did not take Him by surprise--and that He loves us sooooo much this must be best for all of us.
(I just discovered a super slick way to incorporate pictures so here goes!)
Sibling sweetness:
The hike:
Random shots:
Family in Hungary:
More random:
Weekly zoom meeting glimpse:
