My Ebenezer

If you are a middle-aged woman (or probably any woman at all) you NEED to read Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad stories; specifically the one called "Cookies" from Frog and Toad Together and "A Swim" from Frog and Toad Are Friends. I am reminded of the joy of these stories every time I have an emergent reader in the house, which for me has been about every 5 years in recent history. :) The large print, simple words, brilliant illustrations, and uncomplicated plot lines make them must-reads for beginners. Did I mention the human nature cleverly personified by a frog and a toad? The relatability we all feel to poor Toad? Eden brought home Frog and Toad Are Friends as one of her assigned reading books, and I rejoiced when I saw the title. After consulting the Table of Contents, I had her find page 40, "A Swim." Now, it needs to be noted that Eden is a reluctant reader. She's not super confident, does a fair amount of guessing at words, and hasn't l...

 I am in Scotland. S C O T L A N D. This is me; Joanna, the one whose comfort zone is within about one square mile, who said she never wanted to leave the USA, who hates to travel on anything public, who nearly hyperventilates at the mere mention of airplanes. How is this possible that I am here? Only by God's grace. Every step in front of the other, every long line, every minute on those airplanes was enabled by God's grace. On my end, it wasn't always pretty--usually it was very ugly--and I may have said, "I can't do this" more times than we could count (Josh had to tell me to quit saying that), but God was faithful to me and I have a really great story about one such miracle to share with you, but for perspective and contrast I have to share a really ugly story first. Here goes:  We dropped off our rental car in Dublin about 11am, and had to ride a shuttle bus back to the Dublin airport to catch our 1:10pm "quick" flight over to Edinburgh, Scotlan...

Eden is finally able to sit and watch a movie for a while. Usually she prefers to watch the same movie over and over until the rest of us can't stand it anymore and try to find something else for her to watch. Her current favorite is Toy Story. Well, we may have seen that one too many times, because today I caught Seth in full stealth mode, sneaking around the corner of the hallway to his bedroom. "What are you up to, Seth?" I asked. "sshhh," He whispered. "I'm..." He tiptoed some more and then, giving up, reverted back to his normal voice and said, "Oh, Whatever."  He came back into the room where I was. I didn't think he was going to tell me what he had been trying to do, but I assumed it had something to do with Eden, whom I had just laid down for her nap. Then he said, "I was trying to listen to my toys to see if they were talking."