Getting to Know Europe ... All Over Again

It has been nine years since Clint and I were in Europe.  We're both Europe-junkies at heart, but I have somewhat lost my appetite for long-distance traveling since the kiddos came into our lives.

However, Clint finally got me to "jump across the big pond" (as my friend puts it), and it has been a very fun first day.

Neither of us had ever been to Poland before, and seeing as we don't speak Polish (and apparently the Poles don't speak English), that was a good reason to avoid this country.  But we wanted to bring Nicole to Poland to learn more about WWII history.  We'll get started on that tomorrow.  But today, we had just enough time to squeeze in a trip to the center of Krakow.

Nicole took this picture of Clint and me in Krakow, Poland, which is the historical capitol; the current capitol is Warsaw.

There are so many things that Clint and I had forgotten about Europe, but that we keep rediscovering ...  Cobblestone streets, street lights that go from green to yellow to red, paying to use a public restroom (if you can find one), early closures (of everything downtown), the charm of a street cafe, no ice in your drinks, and carbonated water (yuck!).

At the cafe for dinner tonight, we asked for water.  The lady motioned for us to grab it out of the refrigerator outside.  Without thinking, I picked up three carbonated water bottles.  Clint opened his first and took a giant gulp.  It caught him off guard, and I thought he was going to spit it out.  We realized the error immediately and tried to change for regular water, but they only had one bottle left.  So the first word we learned in Polish was nie.  Nie means not, as in niegazowana, which is better than gazowana.  We persuaded Nicole to try the "gazowana" just so she would know what it was.  Her reaction was even stronger than Clint's as she reached for her apple juice to wash it down.  We gave her props for trying something new.  We told Nicole that she will be trying new things every day of this trip.  (Perhaps we should have told her that before we left.)  She's being a good sport, though, and ate local food for dinner, even if it wasn't that exotic: chicken-kabob. 

Our plane flew directly into Krakow, Poland.  While the airport is international, it was very small and set out in the country.  On our way into town, we noticed that the farm houses were large compared to home sizes we have seen before in Europe.  The homes even rival the size of many American farm houses.  The country side was full of fall trees and rolling hills.  There is a river that flows through downtown.

Nicole and I are standing in front of the city's Catholic church.  They ran mass services all day today, so we didn't go inside.  From a peek, it appeared to be as ornate as any other European Catholic church.  Nicole asked why there are so many Catholics in Europe.  I never thought about that before.  I had also forgotten that Pope John Paul II was from Poland.

The church shares quarters with the former palace of the king and queen of Poland.  It also houses the body of one of its former presidents and his wife who were recently killed in a plane crash over Russia (in April).  Many locals come and place flowers over their tomb. 

Nicole and I are standing in front of a newer part of the castle (restoration?).

Clint and Nicole found an old part of the castle still standing.

Slowly, but surely, we'll make our way around this strange and mysterious country!  It is truly unlike any place we have ever been.

I LOVE These Boys!

Scotty Put Away the Dishes

Homeschooling the Boys

A lot of people ask me what the boys do during school hours.  We all start together with a devotional, which consists of a primary song, prayer, scripture mastery and game.  After that, Nicole and Grant do math while Scotty takes care of himself.  Sometimes Scotty plays with our math manipulatives, other times he does a puzzle or looks at a book.  And other times yet he crawls all over me while I'm trying to explain something to the big kids, or he steals their pencils and then hits them with their pencils, or he climbs onto the table and says, "Wossthis!" (Watch this!) and then does a funny trick. Here is one of Scotty's latest tricks (a somersault on the tile -- ouch!) that he likes to do for attention:

I am making a concerted effort to ban all TV time during the week (for the rest of our lives, pleeeeease?!) -- even for Scotty, even during school.  It's mostly working.   And it's mostly a lot of extra work for me.  I tell myself that, in the end, it will be better for Scotty if he plays in the morning instead of vegges out in front of the TV.  Here are a few activities that Scotty has found he can do alone.

Activity #1: Dishes, also known as, help Mom prepare the kitchen floor for mopping.

Activity #2: Swing solo.  Scotty actually prefers to sit in the baby swing, but he needs help getting in, and he needs me to push him.  Even if I weren't occupied with Nicole and Grant, I wouldn't go stand outside in the beautiful, bright sunshine on a 110 degree day for longer than a couple of minutes.  So, Scotty has compromised.  And, if I do say so myself, he's none the worse for it.  Every now and again, however, one of us (even Grant) will take pity on Scotty and push him in the baby swing to his heart's content.

Activity #3: Drive cars; no license required. Scotty still loves cars, real and pretend.  I think he might apply for an apprenticeship with Uncle Denny in the near future.

Now onto Grant.  Grant has his own math book, which he truly adores.  He invests long and extended hours into his math book, and even asks to do math long after math is over.  Grant sits in on Nicole's science and history.  I try to coordinate an activity that they can do together for those subjects.  Both of them are nuts over science experiments.  When Nicole is doing her independent reading, Grant and I practice reading and spelling.  He reads to me from the Bob Books, and I read to him whatever he wants.  His favorite book of the month is Mercy Watson ... by Kate DiCamillo.  (It won't be long now before we own her complete works.  Have you read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane?  You should!)  

The other day, Grant asked me to spell "infinity."  He wrote down the letters as I spoke them.  It's not his best work, but I like this page because it was his own idea to write the word, and also because I think infinity is his new favorite word.

And Grant's last requirement for the school day is a sketch in his art book.  He almost always whines about doing art.  I'm not certain if it's because it's at the end of the school day and he's just had all he can take, or if it's because he just plain doesn't like art.  Whatever the reason, I occasionally give him a pass on art for the day.  He's only four years old, after all.

I really like Grant's artwork. This lion is one of the first drawings he did when we started art class at school.

This is a picture of his Zumbuddy named Fire.  It is currently in Grant's art frame on the wall in our classroom.

I posted a picture of the real thing next to it, for comparison's sake.  You know, just in case no one knows what a Zumbuddy is 30 years from now.

Grant spent a lot of time on this salt water crocodile.  It took three or four sessions to draw it, color it, and share his story.  (You can see that he doesn't value coloring as much as drawing.)

The story goes like this ... 

One day, a salt water crocodile swallowed a fish (piranha), but he didn't chew it.  Then the fish started to chew up his tummy and ate him 'til he died.  The End!  

(I might mention that sometimes we watch Animal Planet on youtube while we're at school.)

Here's his latest drawing, just completed this afternoon.  He managed to draw the whole thing without complaining once, but said his hands were too tired to color it.  (Watch for arrows.)

And that's how we roll.

Faith in Every Footstep

I subscribe to a feed from the LDS church that posts short stories from the history of the church.  I enjoy reading about the early church members, especially since I have none of them in my personal history. (My parents are converts to the church, and our beloved ancestors came to America in boats from Sicily and Sweden, but they didn't cross the plains on foot with the Mormon pioneers.)  I like to read of the pioneers because their faith was strong, immovable, and all-consuming.  They sacrificed *everything* for their faith.  I cower at my own feebleness when compared with their conviction.  However, I am inspired by their fearless examples of doing what's right, of fearing God more than man, of love and service and fortitude.  I think of them often and strive to rise to be worthy to be numbered among them someday.

The story on my feed today is about a strong and courageous wife named Elsie.  It was told by Apostle M. Russell Ballard ("Faith in Every Footstep," Ensign, Nov. 1996, 24–25).

"We find one of the most touching stories of sacrifice, faith, and loving charity in the life of Jens Neilson, who was a member of the Willie Handcart Company. . . . Jens wrote, 'Obedience is better than sacrifice.' . . . The Neilsons had consumed their last pound of flour days before, but somehow they made it over the treacherous Rocky Ridge, urged on by their indomitable courage and unconquerable faith. Tragically, 13 of the company died at Rock Creek and were buried in shallow, snow-covered graves—among them, Jens and Elsie's son, Neils. . . ."President Hinckley describes this portion of the trail as 'a trail of tragedy, a trail of faith, a trail of devotion, a trail of consecration, even the consecration of life itself.' "Jens arrived at Rock Creek, 11 miles beyond Rocky Ridge, with both feet frozen. He was unable to walk another step and pleaded with Elsie, 'Leave me by the trail in the snow to die, and you go ahead and try to keep up with the company and save your life.' Elsie, with her unfaltering pioneer courage, replied, 'Ride, I can't leave you, I can pull the cart.' Such was the strength and the faith of many pioneer women on the trail."

When I read the words, "Ride, I can't leave you, I can pull the cart," I wondered to myself how many women today carry such an attitude toward their husbands.  How physically difficult would it be to push a handcart laden with supplies and bearing the weight of your incapacitated husband?  And then how difficult would it be mentally?  How could she carry on step after step?

It would be easy to say to oneself, "I would do the same.  Of course I wouldn't leave my husband behind."  But to put ourselves in the context of today, how many of us women figuratively carry our husbands through the trials and pull the cart alone?  How many of us even manage to weakly push against the side of the cart through the easy times?

Every day when I say my prayers, I express my gratitude to Heavenly Father for giving me a strong, hard-working and kind husband.  I realize that not everyone has as fortunate circumstances as I feel blessed to have been given.  Sometimes I marvel at how I may have endeavored to deserve such a husband.  But all the more reason I have to push (and sometimes pull) the handcart, to be ready to carry my husband through, to work together side by side through the quieter moments, and to ultimately be together forever.

Nicole's Sweet Baptism

 I think most 8-year-old LDS children get baptized as soon as possible after their birthdays.  Nicole had a lot of questions for Clint and me during the months leading up to her baptism.  She wanted to be sure that getting baptized was the right thing, that she was choosing the right church, and that she could still be forgiven for sins after she was baptized.  I think Nicole didn't fully understand that baptism is not a guarantee to Eternal Life; it's the first step on the right road to Eternal Life.  And all of us make mistakes and sin and need to repent and be forgiven all the way until we die (OK, I'll just speak for myself, oh, and a few others ...). 

Nicole thought herself incapable of not sinning after baptism, and thus she must wait until she was perfect before getting baptized.  (What an overwhelming burden!) A few weeks before her baptism, Nicole and I were discussing the doctrine again, and I thought to direct her attention to the New Testament where Peter said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38).  From that time on, Nicole understood that it was a commandment to be baptized.  Nicole has a strong desire to be good and obey the commandments.  Her previous fears/reservations dissipated, and she began to look forward to her baptism day with great excitement.  It proved to be a very special day for all of us.

 

 Sam, Tommy, Nicole, Susie, Grant, Ty, Kalia, & Scotty

 

  G & G Humpherys, Clint, Nicole, Lorena, G & G Mansell