Back in May, we were at the Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Gardens at Nathanael Greene Park. We saw a Bumble Bee on one of the flowers. That initiated a discussion about bees and what they do. Next thing I knew, we had checked out a couple of books from the library about honey bees.
Both of these books were completely fascinating. Honey bees are amazing. After we spent a few days reading these books and talking about them, I scheduled a “bee tour” at a local tea room called Honey Heaven Bee-stro Cafe. Honey Heaven is a local honey producer. The tea room is completely cute, and everything in it is honey or bee themed. In the very back is a real beehive behind glass.
Our bee guide was very excited because we got to see one of the worker bees doing a “swag dance.” She was shaking her abdomen around to let the other bees know where to go to find nectar and pollen. We saw the bright yellow pollen she had collected in the little pockets on her hind legs.
I was slightly annoyed that our guide kept referring to the dancing bee as “he.” She had just told us how all the worker bees are girls. I happen to have a daughter who is very enthusiastic about anyone, person or animal, who is a girl. I managed not to correct her.
Luke tried on the beekeeper’s hat.
Lydia explored the smoker, which is used to calm the bees when harvesting honey.
Overall, I enjoyed the bee tour more than my offspring did. They were a bit distracted by all the pretty things in the tea room. I also think Keith and I got more out of the bee books than they did. Maybe we’ll try this topic again in a few years. Doing this type of activity makes me so excited for homeschooling. We saw a real bee, read books about bees, and went to see some more real bees. Seems like a good recipe for learning.
That evening, Lydia had some orange blossom honey on her corn-on-the-cob. Yum.
For quite a while, Lydia’s perception of time has been divided into two halves: when she was in my belly and after she came out of my belly. Things that happened before she was born happened when she was in my belly. Works for me.
A few weeks ago, however, Keith made reference to something that happened several years ago, and he said, “That was before you were even in Mommy’s belly.”
Her response: “Where was I?”
I love the age of innocence. I don’t want it to end.
But it will. Yesterday I had my first taste of “questions kids ask that you would rather not answer.”
“Mommy, who got Luke out of your belly?”
(Easy.) “The doctor.”
“Was it a boy doctor or a girl doctor?”
“My doctor was a boy doctor.”
“Why.” (This word is always spoken like a statement, although an answer is expected.)
“Someone said he was a good doctor, so we decided to make him my doctor.”
“How did, how did, um how did…” She stuttered over her words while beginning her next question. I knew it was coming.
“How did the doctor get Luke out?”
(Okay, how vauge can I be and still satisfy her?) “Well, he knows just how to do it.”
“But how?”
“The doctor knows all about getting babies out.”
“But how?”
(For the first time, I was very thankful Luke was born via C-section. I pointed to where my scar is.) “Well, he just opened up my belly right here and got Luke out.”
She nodded like a grown-up. She understood, for now.
A few posts ago, I mentioned that we were all sick in June. It started with Keith VBS week. My mom was here to help hold down the fort, and Lydia and I were so busy going to VBS (plus we had to get new tires on the car that week), that his illness didn’t slow us down that much. The next week, the rest of us started having symptoms. I wrote this post, making it sound like we just wished away our illness by having fun in the sun. Lest I leave you with the impression that we conquered bacterial infections with a few fun outings, let me give you an update. I had no voice for about five days. I finally went to urgent care on a Sunday morning, where the doctor barely looked at me, but prescribed antibiotics and prednizone (the latter of which I decided not to use). Then I tried going to church after that. Big mistake. I was miserable. Lydia went to the doctor Monday, where we discovered she had a double ear infection. Enter one bottle of pink liquid into our fridge. Luke went on Wednesday. He had a mild ear infection. Enter second bottle of pink liquid. This illness was awful, and it affected our family for an entire month.
It makes me think about what daily life was like before the discovery of penicillin. I guess if you got an infection you just had to hope you got over it. If not, it turned into pnuemonia and you just died. I am so thankful to live in an era when daily survival is not my main concern.
So, back to VBS week. Lydia did great during that week. I can rarely get her to wear anything but a dress, but I did convince her to wear her VBS T-shirt with a skirt a couple of times.
My job was to organize the mission project and mission interviews. Each evening, the kids in grades K-6 would begin by going to the worship rally. I had about 5-10 minutes during each rally to promote the project and to interview different people involved with missions. The interviews were with a group who has ministered to the Huichol Indians of Mexico, the pastor of a local Cowboy Church, a group from our church who traveled the Zambia last summer, and a representative from Convoy of Hope, a local ministry.
There were two missions projects for the week. The VBS students collected items to make Personal Hygiene Kits for Convoy of Hope. Many of these packets go to Haiti, but Convoy of Hope uses them in other disaster areas as well, even here in the United States. The students surpassed their goal of 150 completed kits.
The adults involved with VBS (teachers, parents, church staff) collected reading glasses to send to missionaries Wes and Laurie Wilcox in Zambia. Laurie shared with me that many Zambians cannot see well enough to read their Bibles, and these glasses will help them do that. VBS adults collected almost 300 pairs of reading glasses to send to Zambia.
Each grade level was in charge of bringing a different item for the hygiene kits.
I had some awesome volunteers that week who helped to assemble hygiene packets each evening.
Our children’s minister Shayla agreed that she would kiss a pig for each goal that was met. The students met their goal for Convoy of Hope, and the adults met their goal for Zambia, so Shayla had to kiss this pig twice!
The pig’s name was J.R. Poor thing was pretty scared.
Shayla had to work up some nerve.
The missions theme verse for the week was Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus told his disciples to GO to where people need to hear about Jesus. That’s what missions is all about, after all.
While in Harrisburg, Keith and I took Luke on a drive to get him started on his afternoon nap. We ended up in Muddy, Illinois, just north of Harrisburg. Muddy had a population 78 at the 2000 census.
Muddy also has its own post office. Here it is.
What? You are not impressed? Maybe you would be more impressed if I showed you the old Muddy Post Office, which is across the street and was open until 2002.
As you can see, it is now a “museum.” I peeked inside the locked door. I probably could have gotten someone at the current post office to let me in, but it was closed for lunch. There were a few photos hanging on the wall and a list of postmasters through the years. These are some shots I got through the glass.
I found a photo on Flickr of the Muddy post office in 1996, when it was still in operation. Muddy’s wikipedia page claims that this was the smallest US post office in its day, but a quick google search shows that distinction goes to Ochopee, Florida, with its 7×8 foot building. Apparently Muddy’s old post office is 7.5×10.5.
Just what you were hoping to read about today, right? I’ll try to resist the urge to write about the largest KFC in the country, which happens to be in the same county. Yes, I’m serious.
Okay, just to end on a more respectable note, please ooo and ahh with me over this lovely house in Harrisburg, which I suspect was built in the heyday of the coal mining era of the region. Poplar Street is lined with old houses like this. Be still my heart.
And before I convince myself I need to buy this house and get a job as postmistress in nearby Muddy, I’ll just imagine myself trimming all those lovely bushes by hand. Maybe I’ll just be content where I am.
For the long weekend, we took a long trip to Harrisburg, Illinois, where my grandma lives. My brother David and his wife Lindsay and their three-month-old baby Caleb were visiting her, along with my parents.
Baby Caleb was the star of the weekend. I couldn’t get over his sweet chubbiness.
Since we had the whole McKinstry family together, which doesn’t happen very often, we did a family photo shoot. Keith brought his tripod and camera remote. We set up in front of Grandma’s blank wall.
After we got everyone arranged, we got a couple of decent pictures. Everyone looks relatively happy here.
Now I’ll train your eye to be savvy. Look at Keith’s left arm. See how it doesn’t look relaxed and see how his sleeve is pushed up? Now look at Luke. He is looking at the place where Keith’s arm was moments ago, when Keith was holding the camera remote up high to tell the camera to click.
So, we move on to the next photo.
Keith’s sleeve looks better, so if you don’t already know about the remote, you might just think Luke is looking at a pesky fly. Oh wait, Dad has his eyes closed! Hmm, we might have to do some creative head swapping between photos.
There were several more, but I will spare you a detailed play-by-play of the whole shoot. At the end, Luke wanted a turn to take a picture, so Keith held the camera down to him and let him press the button.
It’s a telling photo of how Luke views the world, don’t you think?
Next it was Lydia’s turn.
Lydia also “took some pictures” using only the tripod. Here she is taking her grandpa’s picture.
Overall a fun weekend, but I wish we could have stayed longer.
I’ve been taking Lydia to a local kids’ salon for her haircuts. When we first started cutting her hair, I did it myself (and did a pretty good job, if I may say so), but as she got more hair, I quickly realized my limitations. Lydia now has her own stylist, who knows how to cut hair on a squirmy girl.
Lydia’s stylist has been eyeing Luke’s hair for a while now. She is getting impatient for it to grow in. I tell her that he has more hair that Lydia had at this age. I tell her Lydia didn’t get her hair cut at all until she was two and a half.
She still keep eyeing his hair. She even reaches over to feel it sometimes.
Last time, after she has finished cutting Lydia’s hair, she asked, “Do you want me to trim some his wispies?”
Me, on the inside: “What!? You are just springing his first haircut on me like it isn’t a monumental huge moment that I will have to work up to for weeks? NO!! Of course I don’t want you to trim some of his wispies!!! Put your scissors away!”
Me, on the outside: “Oh no, I think his wispies are kind of cute.”
Maybe I’ll put a hat on Luke next time, just to keep those wispies safe.
So we’ve been sick. Again. Keith was sick VBS week, and now the rest of us are, too. We have runny noses, coughs, and sore throats. I’m on day three of laryngitis, with no particular end in sight.
Even though we’ve had to slow down a bit, we’ve tried our best to keep living life. From playing in the sprinkler one evening, to a trip to the zoo one afternoon when naps were way too short, to a belated Father’s Day/anniversary picnic with Daddy, we’ve just kept going, bringing the tissues and cough drops with us. I’ve almost taken Lydia to the doctor twice now (she’s been sick the longest), but I always end up deciding something else would be more fun. Such is being sick in June.
We’ve had an interesting month of June, with lots of sickness combined with more busy-ness than usual. The big event was Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church. I’ll do another post about the part that I played, but I want to start by giving you an idea of what the week was like for Lydia.
VBS got over each evening at 8:30 pm, and I’m proud to say that Lydia handled the late bedtimes very well, especially considering she didn’t even take a nap every day. The theme was a western one, with horses, cowgirls, etc. Lydia came home every evening talking about the stick horses she got to play with. One evening in her bedtime prayer, she said, “Thank you God, for the stick horses.” She also said she was going to dream about them. I told her teachers that if any of the stick horses were looking for a good home after VBS week, we would be happy to provide one.
She named her stick horse Purple, “because that’s a good name for a pony.” These pictures were taken about 9:00 pm after the last night of VBS. Yikes!
This weekend I have been SICK. The worst is over, but Keith is still running things around here while I hunker down in the bedroom. I thought some cute pictures might cheer me up. Maybe they will make you smile, too.
Last weekend Lydia’s Nana and Poppy went to a garage sale in their lake house community. The people running the garage sale have a girl who is outgrowing her interest in the princesses. Nana came home with a variety of princess-themed toys, including a bag of costumes. This Snow White costume is almost too small, but we make it work. I think Lydia has the perfect hairstyle for being Snow White, don’t you?
Speaking of Snow White, please allow me to digress for a moment. We have created a Snow White playlist on YouTube (along with several other playlists) for Lydia to watch. This way, she can be familiar with Snow White and the seven dwarves and how they sing and dance, but she doesn’t really know about the witch and the poison apple. It works out pretty well. However, I have noticed that since Disney has been marketing the princesses together, Snow White has had some subtle changes from her original 1937 look. Her eyes are now much rounder and lashier, and her body is curvier. This is so she can be marketed to three-year-olds. I’m just saying.
Okay, back to cuteness. (Sorry about that.)
Luke, like his sister, enjoys eating toast with jelly. Apparently it is a genetic trait in all Tyndall children to eat toast from the middle out.
And finally, the other day we got to babysit little Emiana Rose. She was just a few days short of six months at the time. My goodness.
My mom has always enjoyed being around computers. When Lydia was a baby and a toddler, she designed computer games to help Lydia learn family members’ names.
Now Mom has taken on an alter-ego named Grandma Mouse. She is starting a small business which will provide families with personalized computer games for preschoolers. Here are some sample games from Grandma Mouse. In order for Grandma Mouse to make you a game, you will upload pictures of family members you want included (she will do all the picture editing and resizing) onto a special form on her website. She’ll do the rest.
These games are perfect for families where Grandma and Grandpa live far away from their grandchildren. One thing I like is that there are no ads, even though the game is hosted on a website. (Only you will be able to get to the website.) Most online games I have seen have quite a few ads. These games are clean and free from distractions.
Grandma Mouse isn’t quite ready to offer the games to the public yet, but she is looking for feedback. Please visit the Grandma Mouse blog, Mouse Musings to share your thoughts with her. I’m sure she would also be willing to answer questions in the comment section here.
Grandma Mouse is also planning to offer customized bingo cards for birthday parties, and she is offering a free bingo game to the first interested person. Check Mouse Musings for more details.
If you like what you see, please feel free to spread the word about Grandma Mouse! It should be just a few weeks until she is ready to offer the games to the public. I’ll keep you posted!
