We have an update on Ruthie’s Olympic training. She has shown great success in the preliminary trials, and her support team couldn’t be happier.

She is now working on nailing Goal #2…if you know what I mean.

Yesterday before leaving for work, Jim asked Ruth what she would like as a reward for accomplishing Goal #2. With barely a hesitation, she declared that she wanted to go to Home Depot and sit on the tractors. Jim sealed the deal with a promise to a trip to the Depot if she accomplished the goal.

Well, not long after that, she did it.

So after work, we were off.

We ended up going to Farm and Fleet, where there are more tractors to choose from. And car carts.

Olympic memories being made right here in Aurora, IL.

Peter’s creative juices were flowing yesterday, inspired by: 1. the fact that his buddy Derek is gone for the weekend, and 2. the Olympics were to begin last night.

He asked if he could make his world-famous sugar cookies. That’s an easy ‘yes’ because they really are good; plus he cleans up after himself.

After pulling them out of the oven, he sat brainstorming how he could decorate them. Should he do plain icing, or something more complex? He opted for the complex and decorated some of the cookies with an olympic theme.

So here’s an Olympic challenge for you today. Guess what sport is depicted on each cookie:

Sports represented on the plate: soccer, boxing, badminton, shooting, track & field, archery, sailing, tennis, basketball, swimming.

You’ve probably heard that the Olympic committee added Women’s Boxing for the first time this year, but were you aware of the other new sport?…

…Women’s Potty Training

We are still in the early stages of training, and it’ll be a long road to Gold, but we’re hopeful.

I have recently discovered a fun thing to do when its cloudy. I set the camera on a tripod and constantly take pictures of clouds, and then I combine all these pictures and get a very short but cool time-lapse video of clouds. Unfortunately I cannot find a way to make the time between each picture longer, so I have about 1000 pictures per 10 minutes.

This is my first one, I manually took pictures every five seconds to make this.

I think this one is better. These are distant towering cumulus clouds that will eventually grow into cumulonimbus clouds. The clouds grow from warm air pushing water vapor up.

I just made this one today. These are altocumulus clouds, these clouds usually predict there would be rain in a few hours.

Jake

Shaving time, that is.

He ran the mile event in the second of three summer meets last night, and finished a full minute faster than the first meet.

His fan club waited with baited breath for him to finish.

He finished strong, and was inspired to continue shaving.

Meanwhile, Ruthie refueled with the leftover water…cheering your big brother can be exhausting.

My day began this morning with Ruthie persistently letting me know, “I want God to give me snow.” And when I say persistent, I mean she was repeating the phrase every fifteen seconds. I tried squashing it by letting her know that it is very hot outside, and there is no way it will snow today.

This response was not acceptable to her, so I have been answering with the more politically (Ruthie) correct response, “Then ask God to give you snow, honey.”

There was a two hour reprieve while she took a nap, and I thought for sure she would wake up rewired, like rebooting the computer after it’s acted up. But after awakening, she bounded down the stairs asking me to take her to Russia so she can play in the snow (thanks to Derek for that idea). She’s now running around the house yelling, “Russia! Russia!”

This little one is going to give us lots of storytelling repertoire, I can see it now.

*update* As soon as Jim walked in the door, she made her snow request known to him. His response? He filled a large cup with crushed ice, set her on the deck, and told her to play in the snow. She’s now sitting quietly playing with her snow.

Cheaper than a plane ticket to Russia.

See Jake run.

See Jake earn a ribbon at his first track meet.

The cross country camp at Metea has proven to be a great experience for this soon-to-be freshman. Jake is learning discipline by getting up early, running through aches and pains, and still accomplishing chores at home.

At the beginning of the summer, he ran a 5K with his grandma. They did great, and what fun it was to watch!

At some point, a toddler becomes sure of who she is. For instance, this was the short conversation I had with Ruthie the other day:

Ruthie: yawn

Mom: Are you tired, honey?

Ruthie: I’m not tired. I’m Ruthie.

No one teaches her this stuff.

America’s favorite pastime has become our family’s favorite pastime…

…that is, when it isn’t football season.

Derek is smacking the ball for the beloved NY Yankees and alternating playing right field and first base.

And we have become Cubs fans this season. As long as the Cubs are under 10 years old.

Peter’s favorite position this season has been catcher.

Jeremy has shown the most natural baseball ability, playing coach pitch on the D-Backs.

After we taught him where first base was, he’s been shaking up the field ever since.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Praise God that He causes the old things to pass away. The guilt from all the wrong things I’ve done is washed away when I ask Him for forgiveness and walk in His light…the light of Jesus, who said “I am the Light of the world”.

And I praise God that He doesn’t just leave me as I once was, a slave to sin. A clean slave is still a slave, after all. But He makes me a new creature. Only a living, all-powerful God can take a person who is enslaved to sin, crush the bonds that hold him, and set him free in Christ.

So we’ve taken a little time off from this fun blog, and it has not been by accident. Like a caterpillar takes time to metamorphose into a butterfly, so our family has gone through a powerful, albeit painful process of being transformed. We’re far from the finish, but we are ready to get back into photo-journaling and share our experiences with you.