Little Bear

Just scrolled down through our blog to discover a serious lack of photos of Henrik!!!
He's growin' up! Recently we counted 50+ words that he is using regularly. The more that he uses a word the more slurred it becomes, as though he is creating his own slang or something. At this point I think I'm the only one that can hear the difference between "milk" and "book" for example. Along the same lines, "but" can mean belly button or blanket. But surely not "butt." Just so you know. Anyway. Here he is:


From Easter (Yep. That was a while back!) Also, if you're interested, Ben preached a short homily on Easter Sunday at our church. Here's the link. His homily is near the end of the service, on "Hope in Eternal Life."


More from Easter. Henrik and his friend Emmalyn. Yes, Henrik was eating dirt.



Building a bench on our back deck. Lovin' the hair.



Hiking out to Buzzard's Point (which is now closed off. Sad). I loove this picture of my two guys!




Washing the car. Henrik REALLY loves squirting the hose. REALLY.




Playing with trains. He loves playing "Mus" (Thomas) almost as much as eating blueberries (I spared you those pics).




Hiking in the Pocket Wilderness Area just this weekend.

We Shall Remain

There are a lot of things I'm not really interested in.
Dolphins, manatees, and marine life in general. Military history. Cars. Most sports. Some people (true confession!).

I've never been that interested in Native American history until, well, I guess about 4 years ago, when Ben and I started reading a few books on the history of Minnesota and came across some really riveting accounts of the contact and conflict between White settlers and the Native Peoples of the Dakota territories.

It has been my experience (especially with the people part) that interest and real care develop quite naturally when I dig into the intricacies of a person or topic area. To get to know him, her or it, if you will.

That is my experience with the stories of the people who called this place where I now live home.

It's really easy to be ignorant of those stories. In fact, I've been surprised by how hard it really is to find decent film and print histories about specific Native American peoples or time periods. I tried to put together a unit for one of my classes at RCHS a couple of years ago and couldn't come up with much of anything aid me in teaching about the Cherokee people and the Trail of Tears. And those are not exactly obscure topics!


So. Ben and I are jumping into a PBS series (full episodes may be viewed through the official website) called American Experience: We Shall Remain. The 5-part series follows pivotal events within 300 years of Native history, from the arrival of the Mayflower to Wounded Knee. A few years ago we listened to a book on CD (cannot find the title!) about very early America. That account of the post-Mayflower time period was slightly different than this PBS version, but only in particular details. As is with much of history, a lot is known and a lot is not. Our next episode is about the Trail of Tears, an event we are are especially interested in because it literally took place in our back yard. In some ways, though, I am apprehensive about watching it because I know that gaining knowledge about this event is sure to affect me emotionally and give me a sense of responsibility that I won't know what to do with. Yuck.

But those are poor reasons to remain ignorant. And the stories are indeed an "essential part of American history" and super interesting.

We'll let you know what we learn.

What are you recently interested in? What don't I know about you? What truths/realities burden you?

Yep. That means twins.

"Okay, I see two heartbeats and two amniotic sacs." (pause) "You did know that, right?"

Long story short, my first ultrasound was not done by my normal doc, so he assumed that I knew about the TWO BABIES. WHICH I DIDN'T. And I don't really remember a darn thing about the rest of that visit. Except that my heart was racing. Yes, I can say that it was quite a shock when we found this out!
I'm 12 weeks along now, and we've known since about week 6, so I'm past the shock to a pretty constant excitement. I love that our kids will be so close in age, and so, hopefully, in relationship with one another. I can't say that I would have chosen things to be this way (and I'm sure I'll really feel that way when I'm caring for two newborns and a two year old!), but I feel oh so grateful that God has chosen this for us. No matter how or when they arrive, children are a treasure, and we are so happy anticipating such wealth times three!
If you think of it, pray for us. While there are no indications now that there will be any problems or complications with this pregnancy, twin pregnancies do have a very high rate of miscarriage, premature birth, birth defect and even SIDS deaths. I must admit that I've had some pretty disturbing dreams to that effect. Time to stop browsing the internet for twin info, I think.
For those who are curious about the fact that Ben is a twin, that is not likely a factor in our having twins. You see, Ben is an identical twin. It's not known exactly what makes the egg split to create identical twins, but that phenomenon is not considered to be hereditary. And indications are that ours are likely fraternal (though not certain without a DNA test).
We'll keep y'all up to date as the pregnancy progresses. The top pic here is from about a month ago and shows both babies. The lower shows just one of them. Lovin' them already and counting down to the due date, November 9!

Spring Break

This past week we traveled with a group of Bryan students to Nashville to help out an organization there-- Community Servants operating in the Wherry Housing Community of Smyrna, TN.
The basic idea is this: Community Servants works with the Wherry Housing Community's Tenant Cooperative to renovate old rental units. Community Servants has some input into whom the unit is rented to and the cooperative has the additional income from a unit that would otherwise be uninhabitable. It is a win-win-win arrangement. Community Servants is able to minister to particular families practically and spiritually (many are refugees or the homeless) while coordinating newly-remodeled, affordable housing for them, and the cooperative is supported on the financial side. The neighborhood is a safe and clean one because of the personal investment of the tenants in the cooperative and the Community Servants ministry (many of those who have been helped in the past do the helping now). Volunteers within the Wherry community, from the Nashville area and from around the country provide the labor. Our team worked on two units, painting, sealing, cleaning, doing some tiling and flooring work. We met both of the families who will live in the units. Oh, so rewarding!
Henrik wasn't able to participate in the renovating, but he was a great cheerleader/court jester. He did an A+ job sleeping in an unfamiliar, noisy place, too! Good work, kid.
Now all three of us are pretty darn exhausted, plodding into another week. Whew. And that is that.

Ben's January

Ben has been a busy one, too!
The semester began with the Spiritual Life Conference, with speaker and author Andy Crouch. From his website's bio:
"Andy is the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, winner of Christianity Today’s 2009 Book Award for Christianity and Culture and named one of the best books of 2008 by Publishers Weekly, Relevant, Outreach and Leadership." He is also a senior editor at Christianity Today and a really, really nice guy.
You can listen to a few of Andy's Bryan presentations here.
I think it was really fun for Ben to have Andy on campus as Andy's writing relates to some of Ben's special loves: art, creativity and the kingdom of God.

Ben has also been busy recording a few interviews with Bryan chapel guests. The show is a production of the college which airs on the Christian radio station here in Chattanooga. Some segments have not aired yet, so those aren't posted, but here are two that are available:

"Being the Protagonist in Your Story"
Interview with Gary Stratton October 24, 2009

MLK Day Project Interview with Danielle Rebman January 16, 2010

It is a source of happiness for Ben to bring challenging speakers to campus, and we hope that their good work (and Ben's, too) yields good fruit in the lives of the students.
Hope you have fun listening to these!

Henrik's January

Henrik is talking to himself as he falls asleep for his nap. Lately he has been eating A LOT, which must mean he is growing, been pretty independent of his pacifier and started to mimic more of what we say. He doesn't make use of the words he knows all that often, but he'll pull out "da-dee," "baby," "ba" (ball), "seess" (this? please? it's definitly used when he wants something), "buuuh" for peek-a-boo, "ah," "moo," "ooo," and "rahhh" for puppy, cow, owl and lion sounds, respectively. And he is very helpfully signing "please," "all done" and "diaper." It's fun to see him gaining and using language!

Last night as I was folding and putting clothes away he observed that it was really funny to flop clothing onto his head and walk around like that. I tried to get one expressive picture, but got about 50 blurry or super-bright photos of the side of his head instead. Sigh.
Here's something, anyway:

Snow in the Cove!

We love you, Henrik.

Table Talk

Ok, so who is the funnier guy, my dad or my son?

Makin' Cute Stuff for Kiddos!

Ashlee just sent this to me, and I'm hoping to get busy sewing, and I bet some of you all would like to, too! In the past she's also mentioned a need for pillowcases (standard size) sewn from kid-print fabrics.
Also, I'll be seeing Ashlee at Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I can deliver them right to her if you don't know her.

From Ashlee:
"My little hospital depends on the work of volunteers to make our kids blankets, laundry & wheelchair bags and we have been in serious short supply of them (laundry bags, specifically) the past few months. Today, when I heard my patients were losing clothes because of this lack of organization, it motivated me to do something. I, unfortunately, don't have a sewing machine, so I'm calling in support - you! The bags are super basic and can be made out of whatever sort of material (they're hardly ever "kid themed" so if you have an old flat sheet covered in roses that you don't use, it will be perfect for this job). They tend to be about the size of a king sized pillow case and some have a very basic draw string at the top (this is helpful, but not necessary). If you are interested in helping out, let me know! I can take them directly to the hospital or you can contact the volunteer office if you'd rather do it that way: Paula Cronquist (Volunteer Services manager)651-229-3937 pcronquist@gillettechildrens.com If you know of anyone else who might be interested in helping, please feel free to pass this along. Please don't feel obligated, I just thought it might be a fun thing that would help out some really cute kids I know :-)"

Last Week in Photos

Henrik fits in the 5-gallon pot! Last year he fit in a pumpkin...

The view of Snow Falls Pocket Wilderness from Buzzard's Point. Ben and I hiked this as a date!

Sunday afternoon playing in the leaves. I took a LOT of photos and couldn't get him to look at the camera.

Ben painting the house. It might be a while before the final unveiling...