A moment of silence, please.

RIP

Nutmeg 4/25/10-5/29/10

We were enjoying a lovely dinner out with the family on Saturday night at Der Dutchman. I thought, "We should really get back to the chicks to lock them up for the night..." Ben told me later that he thought the same thing. As we drove home at 9pm we watched the sun set. The dogs were barking wildly in the house when I came in and I let them out, as Ben and Z were slowly making their way from the car to the coop to put the chicks away for the night. The dogs tore up the hill straight to the coop, barking wildly. Z came down to tell me that a chickie was dead. I gave him a hug and was thankful it wasn't more as our friends with the incubator lost all of their chickens just a week ago. Z cried and cried after we put him to bed that night. Ben and I had heavy hearts too. The next morning after I watered the garden, I went to see which one it was, and I only counted nine chicks. We had eleven.

We think a raccoon got into the coop. Mean old coon just killed 'em and didn't even eat them. Thankfully our naked dogs ran up and scared him away before he got more of our birds. Also, we're thankful it was likely two roosters (sorry Nutmeg!). You only need one rooster and we were thinking we had 2-3. Now time will tell if we have any. Currently, none are apparent roosters.

Thankfully, we still have:

Gwen (who, like her mother, is not very photogenic)

Mutsu and Ping (the fiesty duo)

and Z's special Wing-Wing who is adventurous and sweet,

along with five other no-namers, that used to be six (may he or she also rest in peace). These pictures were taken last Monday when we put them outside for the first time. They absolutely loved it. It was like watching prisoners set free. They would jump and run and play. They love their new coop that Ben built with a ramp to take them into the yard. The fence is only for honest chickens, Ben likes to say, because it doesn't keep them in as much as tell them where their boundaries are. He's been training them to come to him when he calls. We're pretty sure they think he's their mommy. Silly birds! I'm the mommy!

We had a lovely weekend with family. How special to have my grandparents from TN here, aunt and uncle from NJ, cousins from PA, NJ and MD, as well as my parents from Germany. Such a good time we had, I hope to share pictures soon. Happy Memorial Day!

My still to do list:

Five virtual tours (check), two exterior updates, make lentil soup for tonight, grape salad for Sunday, two loaves of bread for Sunday, get groceries (check), get stuff together for references about secret adventure, advertise Karen Geiser's seminar on eating with the seasons for June 18th at our church, call a few people, hang a balloon outside so family finds the house ok. Then I can update WigLife. {sigh}

Open Eyes, Open Mouth

Found these in Proverbs this morning, like I'd never seen them before:

28:27 "He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses."

29:7 "The righteous considers the cause of the poor, But the wicked does not understand such knowledge."

From my Baptist grandparents, I learned evangelism. From my Presbyterian (PCA) heritage, we learned theology. From Ben's Christian Missionary Alliance heritage, we learned the importance of missions. When we dabbled in Catholicism, we learned about tradition and history. When we were Apostolic, we learned about the Holy Spirit. When we became non-conservative Mennonites a year and a half ago, we were exposed to a part of the church body that we'd not seen before, the social justice crusaders.

I have learned to appreciate all of our experiences with different branches of the body of Christ. We are enjoying our newest adventure, and are joining with them in passionate cries for those who suffer throughout the world. For now, as a new church, we are focusing our energies on the local poor and a sister church in Colombia, South America, who with so much less than we have, is making a profound impact on its neighborhood. Ben and I are taking Spanish classes at church so that we can speak to our community's dominate poor population from Guatemala and Mexico and correspond with our sister church.

Before joining this church we didn't know any poor people. Not personally. We had a Compassion kid in Haiti, but that was it. For whatever reason, poor people want to come to our church, and it's been great to see imperfect people in the pews, like ourselves. There always were in other churches, but not that we could tell from looking at them. It's symbolic of the humble spirit that permeates our services. Where we share our flaws, our triumphs and little and big ways we see God every week.

It's funny, how I've read the Proverbs 31 woman so many times and never noticed how just before it was this:

31:8&9 "Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy."

Meet the crew

Gwen (My Favorite)

Center we have Nutmeg (who we think is a rooster because he struts and is getting a comb already), with Mutsu and Ping to his left and right respectively. Far left are no-name chicks.

This is Wing-Wing, named and loved by Z

This one has no name, but should because she's beautiful!

Note the difference in orange legs vs. gray legs. Ameraucanas have the gray, Welsummer have bright orange and the Polish mop tops are somewhere in the middle.

All the way in Iowa

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Looks like it was practically my birthday in this picture above! Just a year ago we were together. Juju and I so enjoyed our visit. Grandpa made us breakfast as he does for Grandma everyday. What an honor.

My mom tells me that when she was born, Grandpa was a preacher. He still memorizes Scripture constantly along with my Grandma. Both are able to whip out the perfect Scripture, in King James Version no less, at the perfect time, in a perfectly loving way. He is active in his church ministering in innovative ways door to door. Below are stacks of Bible verses and evangelism questions and answers to help people come to know Christ.

My Grandpa makes the best duckie sounds ever, and is famous for his funny sounds - suck in and say, "Oh-whoa-whoa-whoa"...oooh, not bad, but he can do it better. He LOVES the Cardinals and playing Dominos with good friends. He has a gorgeous singing voice and sings solos in church.

Grandpa and his father

He's a man of mystery, every time I visit him, I learn something new about his life. Like the fact that he grew up on a horse farm! He worked as a cook in the Marines during the Korean War. He worked as a security guard for a while and worked in heating and cooling for a while. There's so much I still have to learn about him. We have always lived far apart from each other, which has made us sweethearts. Always wanting to be closer to each other.

Knowing how much Grandpa loves to share Christ with people, I helped him set up his very own blog. He was a little shy at first, perhaps daunted at the possibility of so many people possibly reading his thoughts, but he's found a way to make it his own. His children and grandchildren are notified whenever he posts to the blog, which is usually a monthly Bible verse that he and Grandma are memorizing. He has also shared his personal testimony and other stories of interest on there, so check it out!

He's a man of few words, but his legacy is clear, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27

We love you, Grandpa, and hope you had a very happy birthday!

Siblings

I took this video while we were changing sheets and doing laundry, and I thought to myself how perfect! Such a great clip of the kids playing together, and with no fighting! I continue to be amazed at the wonder that is "siblings". As an only child, I had no idea what to expect when we had our second child. So, I am enamored with interactions like the one above, sorry if it doesn't compete with Thursday night line up. These are our simple WigLives.

Last Monday Morning

Dear Juju, Perhaps it was because you weren't exactly dainty...

...and fell on concrete, the bathtub and gravel countless times...

...or perhaps it was just bad dental genes...

...or perhaps, it was both. When I noticed you had a loose front tooth, we took you to the dentist. He took an X-ray which revealed that it was broken above the gum AND that it was a Siamese twin in it's root system with the tooth next to it. The break was a potential source of infection and the pulp was already swelling. So, they both had to be extracted. We knew the broken tooth was bothering you as you favored the other side when you ate and you hated getting it brushed.

We found a pediatric oral surgeon who does this procedure all the time. We were glad they didn't want to use general anesthesia, but knew you wouldn't like being restrained. When we went for the consultation last Monday, we were a little surprised when they said the teeth had to come out immediately. You were so brave and it seemed that you were thankful to have the incessant pain gone.

Mommy and Daddy love you no matter what and are sad that you had to have this done. We're mostly thankful that it wasn't worse! We're getting used to your new smile, which will change again when you are 5 or 6 years old and your adult teeth come in. Thankfully, we are told, any speech problems that might arise from this usually correct themselves when the new teeth are in place. You are eating apples and normal foods again like a champ and it hasn't been a whole week since they were pulled.

We love you, sweet Juju, and hope you don't mind Mommy dressing you up like a pirate for Halloween for the next few years! xoxoxo