Friday already! Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary for inspiring this feature.
1. This is how our 11-year-old son regularly dresses this summer. He explained he has socks of all colors for various sports but would NEVER wear a blue with a purple sock because "that would so not match." We were at Subway when I took this picture. On our way into the grocery store, a concerned mom kept pointing down at the ground. She was not a native English speaker, so I was unclear as to her concern. Then it hit me (duh): the shoelaces!
2. As we approach the 10-year-anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, my husband and I are having those powerful anniversary-approaching feelings. He is a World Trade Center survivor. Yes, he was at work that day. Yes, he was in the building. And yes, he got out by walking with thousands of others (he from the 68th floor) down the stairs to safety.
You and your children don't "get over" this experience. You get through it with the help of kind friends, neighbors, family members, pastors and yes, mental-health professionals. And you get through it with prayer, lots of prayer.
That was the fall we had hoped to conceive another child, but it became clear immediately my husband needed nurturing. We all did. The idea of nurturing a new life, a newborn was, well pardon the pun, inconceivable. We miscarried a year later and then, never conceived again. Adoption was far too expensive for us.
So this approaching date makes me grieve over the babies that never were - for us and for all the families shattered that day. A high school girlfriend lost her husband in the attacks. When I see her photos on facebook - her and her three growing children - my heart breaks just a little.
And I also daily have always felt and still always feel a kind of stunned gratitude for the new life God granted my husband and our family. Years to guide and cherish together our beautiful sons as they grow to manhood. Years other fathers, other couples, missed.
So please, keep us in your prayers. Keep all the men and women who survive terror attacks and war in your prayers. Keep the families whose moms and dads and brothers and sisters never come home from from terror attacks or in your prayers. God is so good.
3. The hot weather has finally lifted. I can get back to enjoying walking the dog. (Here she is, being "walked" in our neighborhood. I think she was stalking a robin.) And now with the heat gone, I am out of excuses not to garden. The backyard beckons.
4. Wednesday night, while my husband and one son were at basketball and the other son working his pool job, I did a speed shopping at Costco. I didn't mean to. I thought the store closed at 9. I arrived at 8, only to discover they close at 8:30. I raced through and managed to buy nearly $200 worth of shampoo, fish, challah bread and eggs. In that order.
5. I am reading "Johnny Tremaine," a work of historic fiction that takes place during the American Revolution, to our son. I did not like it in middle school. I hated it. I can't remember why. I appreciate it now. Our 11-year-old is a history buff and loving it.
“Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of Plagues, the detested tea shipped for this Port by the East India Company, is now arrived in the Harbour: the hour of destruction, of manly opposition to the machinations of Tyranny, stares you in the face.”
6. Oh, and here is another great quote, this one from "Crime and Punishment." "Talking nonsense is man's only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms." I would say American politicians on both sides of the aisle have been proving that one lately!
7. My in-real-life friends tell me they enjoy the blog. Why do they not post comments? Maybe it seems silly to write a comment on the blog of a friend you talk to nearly every day? I can see that. I did simplify the settings so anyone can easily comment. I just ask you sign your name at the end of your note if you please.
1. This is how our 11-year-old son regularly dresses this summer. He explained he has socks of all colors for various sports but would NEVER wear a blue with a purple sock because "that would so not match." We were at Subway when I took this picture. On our way into the grocery store, a concerned mom kept pointing down at the ground. She was not a native English speaker, so I was unclear as to her concern. Then it hit me (duh): the shoelaces!
2. As we approach the 10-year-anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, my husband and I are having those powerful anniversary-approaching feelings. He is a World Trade Center survivor. Yes, he was at work that day. Yes, he was in the building. And yes, he got out by walking with thousands of others (he from the 68th floor) down the stairs to safety.
You and your children don't "get over" this experience. You get through it with the help of kind friends, neighbors, family members, pastors and yes, mental-health professionals. And you get through it with prayer, lots of prayer.
That was the fall we had hoped to conceive another child, but it became clear immediately my husband needed nurturing. We all did. The idea of nurturing a new life, a newborn was, well pardon the pun, inconceivable. We miscarried a year later and then, never conceived again. Adoption was far too expensive for us.
So this approaching date makes me grieve over the babies that never were - for us and for all the families shattered that day. A high school girlfriend lost her husband in the attacks. When I see her photos on facebook - her and her three growing children - my heart breaks just a little.
And I also daily have always felt and still always feel a kind of stunned gratitude for the new life God granted my husband and our family. Years to guide and cherish together our beautiful sons as they grow to manhood. Years other fathers, other couples, missed.
So please, keep us in your prayers. Keep all the men and women who survive terror attacks and war in your prayers. Keep the families whose moms and dads and brothers and sisters never come home from from terror attacks or in your prayers. God is so good.
3. The hot weather has finally lifted. I can get back to enjoying walking the dog. (Here she is, being "walked" in our neighborhood. I think she was stalking a robin.) And now with the heat gone, I am out of excuses not to garden. The backyard beckons.
5. I am reading "Johnny Tremaine," a work of historic fiction that takes place during the American Revolution, to our son. I did not like it in middle school. I hated it. I can't remember why. I appreciate it now. Our 11-year-old is a history buff and loving it.
“Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of Plagues, the detested tea shipped for this Port by the East India Company, is now arrived in the Harbour: the hour of destruction, of manly opposition to the machinations of Tyranny, stares you in the face.”
6. Oh, and here is another great quote, this one from "Crime and Punishment." "Talking nonsense is man's only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms." I would say American politicians on both sides of the aisle have been proving that one lately!
7. My in-real-life friends tell me they enjoy the blog. Why do they not post comments? Maybe it seems silly to write a comment on the blog of a friend you talk to nearly every day? I can see that. I did simplify the settings so anyone can easily comment. I just ask you sign your name at the end of your note if you please.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with 9/11. I'm far away from NYC, and although I still choke up trying to explain to my children about it, I know it doesn't affect me the way it affects those who were in the thick of it. I'm so grateful that your husband survived.
ReplyDeleteAs for #7--they say only some miniscule proportion of your readership actually comments. Which I have found to be true in my case as well. A lot of local people tell me they enjoy my blog, too, but I rarely hear from them. :)
Wow. I had no idea that your husband was a 9/11 survivor! What a moving story. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I have the exact same experience as your #7. The number of reads vs. the number of comments is...well, just silly :)
I am praying for you, your family, all survivors and all family of victims as this anniversary approaches.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sandy.
ReplyDeleteJust so that you know- I love your new blog.
ReplyDeleteOh Dee: Thanks for the fan note!
ReplyDeleteThanks Allison,
ReplyDeleteJust stopping by from your comment on Real Learning. thanks for sharing your story (ies). We went to Shanksville last week to view the new memorial there. Hoping to make it to NYC sometime.
Wishing you the best as we head into the next 2 weeks. May God's blessing and peace be upon you all.
happy comments! megan
www.growingagardenofgirls.blogspot.com
Thank you so much, Megan. It is an intense time.
ReplyDelete