family

Josh here,

As I write this I'm listing to an archived radio show of jazz music from a Portland college. It was broadcasted several weeks ago, but I've been wanting to listen to it for some time, and finally got around to it.
I'm not a huge fan of jazz, and particularly of the kind of jazz that's usually done on this station. I'd rather listen to it than rock or pop, but I prefer classical music above all else.
So why am I listening to music I'm not particularly fond of? One reason only - my younger brother Noah is the DJ. He's a jazz musician out there, and does a two-hour show every Monday. I can't get that station, of course, so I have to download the archives onto my MP3 player. For the first couple years I listened to him religiously, but have been rather busy lately to take the time.
Funny thing about this, is that when there's a song I don't like, I fast forward it until I get to hear him speak again. I never miss a word he says in all the shows I've listened to. Why is that? He's my brother, of course! I don't get to see him very often (maybe every 2-3 years), and although we play chess on Facebook regularly (I nearly always win), and we call each other every couple weeks, I never get enough of him.
It all boils down to the close bond of love we have, and we want to continue that relationship, for we both enjoy each other greatly. There's something special that God puts into families that creates a bond like no other bond between two people.
As I raise my kids, I see one of the most important things is to keep the relationship strong and proper. To my younger kids, I'm Papa who spanks when they disobey and is lots of fun otherwise. To my older kids, I'm Papa who listens to their problems and appeals, and gives them encouragement in their trials. I used to be very afraid of the teen years, fearing that I might drive them away, but I see now that as long as I keep our relationships strong and proper, I need not fear any rebellion. (There's much more to parenting, of course, but I'm choosing a theme here).
In the same way, God calls us into his family and creates with us a strong bond, and calls us to go into the world and bring others into the family as well. Sometimes family breaks your heart, but all in all, the joy of a great family relationship is definately worth the risk.
Is there someone in your family you're estranged from? Do what you can to reconcile the relationship. Of course, it only takes one to break a relationship, and two to fix it, but make sure that in whatever relationships you have, you do your part to keep them sound and whole.

Lots of Pictures

The Travis Peterson family left early this morning. We had exactly a week with them, and it was a great blessing to be able to have them here for that long! Grandpa and Grandma left early yesterday morning, and we just got an email saying that they arrived home safely.

I'll try not to post TOO many pictures...

 Thor, Matthew Clayton, Knut, Johnathan Clayton

They dressed up as army men for the Halloween parade last Sunday and won second place in the group division!

'Princesses of Many Lands'

Rosemary: French princess, Sylvia: English princess, Camryn: Spanish princess, Gloria: Japanese princess, Sloan: American princess, and Cecily: Persian princess

 The parade into Costco

 The 'girls' packing a picnic lunch and making lasagna and pies

 Camryn and Rosemary on the rope swing

 Cecily spinning around and around

 In the paddleboat

Rosemary!!!

By the way, Rosemary has said her first word! She decided to be different from everyone else and say 'hi'. Everyone else has said 'mama' first. Last night when Papa and Mom were at church, Camryn and I were sitting on my bed doing Mad Libs. Rosemary, down on the floor on the other side of the bed from us, couldn't see us, so she started getting worried that I had left her. She started calling, 'Hi! Hi! Hi? Hi?' When I picked her up, she said joyfully, 'Hi!' and waved her hand at me. The rest of the evening she was waving to everyone and saying 'hi!' Yay Rosemary!

A Houseful of Fun

Right now we have 17 people staying in our house: Grandpa and Grandma Peterson, Uncle Travis and Aunt Margaret, and their kids: Camryn, Ethan, Sloan, and Isaac. When I'm not otherwise occupied and don't have something I have to do, I've been grabbing my camera and walking around taking a million pictures. After about ten minutes, I set the camera down and do something else. :D So here are a few of the pictures I've collected:

 Camryn and Grandma

 Aunt Margaret (Kindred) Peterson

 Bjorn, Camryn, and little Rosemary

 Sloan

 Cecily and Sloan... still eating!!! (This is only one of the two tables we've been using for mealtimes... we're a big crowd!) :)

 In the meantime, here's where (almost) everyone else is!

 Ethan

 Finished at last! :D

 Little Isaac

 and Bjorn, Isaac's buddy

 Rosemary and Grandpa

We had a malt-making contest tonight. The contestents were Grandpa, Papa, Knut, and Ethan. Ethan was the winner with four votes. Grandpa and Papa tied for second with one vote each. Poor Knut! No one liked his... it was way too chocolatey! Well, forget the 'poor'; he was perfectly happy! Since no one liked his, he got to drink it all himself!

Afterward Camryn and I decided to show everyone how malts should really be made. Personally, I think that ours was the best, but some people did disagree; they said that it wasn't chocolatey enough. Did you ever hear of anything so silly? :)

Aunt Margaret, Camryn, Ethan, and Sloan went to Lyceum with us today. Camryn went to all of my classes, Sloan to all of Cecily's, and Ethan to the first three of Knut's classes. Aunt Margaret wandered around peeking in on everyone, taking some pictures, and learning some things even in classes that none of us take. :) Grandma stayed at home with Bjorn and Isaac and the men. Maybe tomorrow I can get Lyceum from the perspective of Camryn, Ethan, and Sloan... but I doubt it. They have much more important things to do! :)

Preparing for Guests

Yay!!! Our cousins, aunt, and grandparents should be here within the next 2 1/2 hours! Papa and Mom had commitments at church, but we (Sylvia, Knut, Cecily, Thor, Gloria, and Bjorn) are waiting at home for our guests. This afternoon we've done a lot of preparation for their arrival! Gloria is moving from my room to the couch in Cecily's room so that Camryn can sleep in her half of the bed. Bjorn is moving in with Thor and Knut in their room (Ethan will sleep there also) so that Sloan can have his bed. So we'll have a room for the biggest girls, a room for the younger girls, and a room for the boys.

As well as getting beds and rooms sorted out, there was some housecleaning, cooking, etc. to do.

 Mom offered $1 to anyone who would clean the upstairs bathroom. Knut gladly volunteered! Personally I don't think it would be worth it, but if he's happy, then I'm happy, too!

The younger girls' room: 

Making Sloan's bed

Gloria is quite pleased with her bed!

Making Cecily's bed

 Before...

 And after. What a difference!

 Before...

 

 and after. Once again, what a difference!!

 Before...

and after

Camryn's and my room:

Before...



and after, except for putting the prettier quilt on the bed and putting away the ladder

The boys' room:

 Note: what looks like a spiderweb of yellow string is actually stun lasers.

 Don't worry; they would never actually kill us... because we would never actually go in there through the 'stun lasers'. :D

The armory

Another Day in the Woods

We had another 'woods day' today. Well, not all of us. Mom, Gloria, Rosemary, and I came at lunchtime with the food, just like yesterday. After lunch and some paddling around in the paddleboat, we headed home along with Thor and Bjorn to do some housecleaning.

Uncle Travis's family (Aunt Margaret, Camryn, Ethan, Sloan, and Isaac) has been delayed again by sickness, but now they are finally on their way! They should get here Wednesday night. Grandpa and Grandma Peterson are coming, also. I'm really, really, really, really, really (etc.) looking forward to spending some time with Camryn! She's only a year and a half younger than me, and we have always been totally best friends! Knut and Thor are eagerly preparing for Ethan (age ten) by making sure they have extra wooden swords and shields and whatever so that they can have plenty of battles. They're also trying to get Papa to make them a crossbow and let them have wood to make a huge catapult. Boys will be boys. :D Cecily is preparing for less violent and crazy activities with Sloan (age eight). I hope Cecily doesn't explode from all the excitement she's containing! She hasn't seen Sloan for over three years, and she has missed her terribly the whole time! Gloria was a toddler when we last saw the Travis Peterson family, but since everyone else is excited, she is excited, too! As for Bjorn, Rosemary, and Isaac, all three of them were born just after the Travis Petersons left for Spain, so they have yet to meet Bjorn and Rosemary, and we have yet to meet Isaac. Of course we've seen pictures, and talked on Skype, but that just isn't the same!

So... we're excited! I'm probably not going to be doing any blogging unless Camryn helps me; I don't want to waste a single second of the time we'll get to have together. They might only be here a few days! That would be a calamity... but it looks like that's what will happen. Sad. :( They should stay for at least six months. :D

A Day in the Woods

Today we had a 'woods day'. Some friends of ours kindly allow us to use their pond and boat, and they also let Papa cut firewood in their woods. Papa, Uncle Travis, Knut, Cecily, Thor, Bjorn, and one of Papa's woodcutting friends: Mr. Reed went up there this morning. Mom, Gloria, Rosemary, and I all stayed behind to make lunch and do jobs around the house. Ahem, well maybe I was busy making fairy wings for Gloria's Halloween costume. At least I wasn't just on the computer or reading a book or something. :D At lunchtime, we joined the men workers (Cecily's looking over my shoulder and 'helping' me, mostly pointing out my errors. She doesn't like being called a man.) at the pond and spread out the picnic. Here are some pics from the day:

 The younger portion of the work crew

 Thor and Bjorn

 Hard at work

 Knut's driving? Uh-oh! He's one wild driver! Luckily the load of wood slows him down...

 Bjorn is such a help! :)

Seven kids on one paddle boat!! We made sure that Rosemary and Bjorn were in the middle so they wouldn't fall out. :D

Mr. Reed is ready to eat!

 Cecily drove us back down to the woods from the lake

 Knut fell off the trailer!

 Either he's trying to make us go faster... or he's having trouble getting back on!

 Uh-oh... seems Papa put one too many logs on that load.

 Wow, what a load of wood!

 Piling it up...

 Wow! That ought to last awhile! (ought to, but won't)