"To die would be an awfully big adventure!"

Or actually, not! At least not according to Mary Michelle.

She prefers the "To live would be an awfully big adventure" version of that quote.

But she is, without a doubt in my mind, one of the toughest little eight-year-olds I know.

Last Saturday, a few of us (Tim, Richelle, Anna, and M&M) decided we wanted to take advantage of our about-to-expire yearly membership to Parks Quebec - which gives our family all the access we could want to the Jacques Cartier National Park.

Early afternoon, we left home for our first adventure in our Matrix (the Toyota kind... no pill swallowing involved!), en route to the Jacques.

Mountains in the distance as we head towards the park.

Another mountain, names for "Les frères Wright" - thus why we want to climb this one too... someday!

Looking for a decent workout, we decided to give one of the difficult trails a try. Anna has been begging us for over three years now to hike to the summit of one of the mountains in the park. We knew it might be a challenge for M&M, but considering we were three more-or-less adults, we figured we could get her up there. And, if the trail proved too difficult, I'd turn around with the half-pint and we'd let Tim and Anna scale the heights. 

• 6.8 kilometers, one way
• two primary overlooks
• the gal at the Discovery Center's words: "If you make the first overlook, keep on going. It is much easier than the first part of the trail."
• 4:30 in the afternoon
• 3 large water bottles
• 4 Kit Kat bars ("For a bit of trail nourishment," says Tim as he purchases the candy.)

We started up the trail. 

I'm telling you, don't mess with this kid!

This was pretty typical of the rockiness of the trail.

KitKat break

Cooling off

Obligatory "Pride Rock" pose, without a Simba, so the water bottle stood in.

It was steep, there were lots of rocks and roots, but we reached the first overlook by 5:30 in the afternoon.

Then, we decided to continue on. After all, that was what the lady had told us. Bad life decision, but more on that later.

The remainder of the trail wasn't as steep, although there were some trickier rocky places to negotiate, especially for our half-pint. 

We knew we were close here!

We could see all the way back down to the Discovery Center!

Taking in the view.

Anna and I arrived about 5 minutes before Tim and M&M.

But...

No time to rest. It was just after 6 pm, and we had a lot of kilometers to cover before dark.

We didn't make it. Even though the upper part of the trail was less steep and physically demanding, the rocks and trail condition made it tricky and it took us as long to get down that part as it had climbing up. On top of that, M&M's shoes were too small - she hadn't mentioned it and I hadn't thought to check prior to leaving the house. Walking down meant her toes were slamming into the end of her shoes every step, and it hurt. (I think she's going to lose a couple of toenails as a result.) By 7:15, it was getting really hard to see, and Tim turned his cell phone flashlight on. Unfortunately, the battery died within 10 minutes.

We still had over 2 km to go before we'd be back to the parking lot, and it was the hardest, steepest parts of the trail with lots of crevices running across the path, sharp turns, and small rock steps that were about half M&M's height. Speaking of her, she was terrified of the prospect of animals. 

At about this point, we tried to see if we could phone the park rangers and ask someone to bring us a legit flashlight. That was when we discovered that the paper with the number had been left in the car (but the Kit Kats made it!). Even worse, we had no phone service even though we had been able to make a call just a little bit higher up the mountain. 

Anna took the lead. I held/helped/lifted/carried M&M. Tim held my phone with just the LED light up so that we could see... a tiny bit. And little by little, we worked our way down the mountain, in the dark. Anna sang silly songs (she's good at that). Here's our favorite, sung to the tune of Veggie Tales' "Keep Walking," with slightly modified lyrics. 

Keep walking! Better watch out for that rock!

Keep walking! Will this trail ever stop!

It's plain to see that our brains are very small

To go walking down a mountain in the dark!

Amazingly (God is very gracious to us, often in the midst of our stupidity), my phone was at 57% battery when we started using it. When we finally reached the parking lot and our car, it was at 51%. Before we'd driven the 16 km to exit the park, it had crashed to 35%. We saw and heard no animals. No one was seriously hurt... just a few stubbed toes, M&M's poor toenails, a twisted ankle and very sore muscles.

Lessons learned/a few observations made:

1. Always bring a flashlight with fresh batteries when you go hiking, regardless.
2. Matches and a flare gun might not be a bad idea either.
3. Make sure someone knows what trail you are hiking.
4. Realistically assess the situation and don't depend on the information of young gals standing behind desks. In other words, use common sense.
5. All of those Bible verses about blind leading the blind took were much more powerful.
6. The brightness of an LED light reflected off a white metallic trail marker is astonishing.
7. Going down can be much more work than going up.
8. There are strength and security in numbers - I'm so glad we were four and not just one or two.
9. What was scary to me wasn't necessarily scary to others. M&M was terrified of the prospect of animals. Tim was afraid the battery would die on my phone. I was afraid for our kids back home if we would have had to find a place to stay the night because, without the LED light, it would have been impossible to continue down the mountain without serious injury. Anna was afraid she'd run out of songs to sing.

Perhaps the most striking observation... which, interestingly, was more or less echoed the next day at church in one of our discussion groups: When we are surrounded by profound darkness, even the dimmest of lights has great potential to illuminate, encourage and be even more brightly reflected.

Once we reached the parking lot, we found three tracks shoved under the windshield wipers of our car - a clear reminder that while Quebec may seem a spiritually dark place, God's light is present and is making a difference.

Five Minute Friday ~ Neighbor{hoods} and Community

I've spent the majority of my Labor Day Weekend out wandering around several different neighborhoods...  My sore and tired back and legs attest to that fact every time I try to move! My littlest littler would agree, as she was hoofin' it along right beside me - at least most of the time! We were busy helping friends distribute door hanger advertisements, and for their participation, our kids earn a little bit of cash they'll use to help finance basketball participation this school year.

Showing off her blue "raspberry" tongue - from the Slurpy she earned because of her great attitude, even though this weekend consisted of a LOT of hard work and effort.

Then, the one day in our long weekend when I wasn't supervising M&M's child labor efforts, hubby and I decided to go exploring in our new neighborhood. Please note the elevation change: down 53 m, up 70 m - one way. We had to do the reverse returning home, over a round trip distance of just shy of km.

We jokingly (?) wondered if we'd stumbled through a secret wardrobe and tripped into Narnia...

We live in a beautiful neighborhood that is part of a truly lovely city. We even mentioned it as we were walking: sometimes we feel the need to pinch ourselves to make sure we aren't dreaming. 

Just down the road and around the corner, an easy walk from chez nous (i.e. our house) is a hair stylist who has her salon in the basement of her home. Tori has a new hair cut (one of the ladies in the school office told her she was "just a tiny bit of a rebel" with her new do)  that requires regular maintenance and so we stopped in the other day to see if it was something they could do. We made appointments for both Tori and me. I had mine the other day and the gal did a fabulous job - at least she did what I asked. She cut it so that I could make it look like the photo AND so that it also still looks passable even on those days (actually most days) I don't have time to style it. I know that for a fact because after I supervised M&M the other day, we went swimming in the pool for a few minutes and then went out to see a super cool performance. I did NOTHING to my hair, literally. Like I ran my fingers through it, finger parted and didn't touch it again. The result?

In all my walking time the past three days, however, I've been thinking: We can land in wonderful neighborhoods and thank God for placing us there. However, the ball is then in our court. He leaves it up to us to start building community - finding things we have in common with our neighbors and using those commonalities to nurture relationships. 

And we are getting some of those opportunities: the hairdresser, our neighborly neighbor who came over late one night to let us know that our pool was overflowing (and apologized profusely for disturbing me late in the evening, but he and his wife had been so impressed with our little girls and their willingness to do do semi-polar plunges just because they loved the pool), the lady who walks her dog down our street and her dog looks a lot like our Monty, the kids who are playing at the park at the end of our street, others who frequent the "leave a book, take a book" mini-library just on the other side of the golf course, our neighbor who has gardens to die for and I wonder if he'd be willing to give us a few tips for next summer...

But it takes a little courage, a little gumption and a willingness to be more extroverted than I am normally, to listen to the Spirit and to know when to try and open my mouth to start those initial conversations.

Five Minute Friday ~ Weak

They've had stuffy noses for a week.

Sore throats. Hoarse voices.

A bit of achiness and one complains that her ear hurts.

One of those viral rashes that feels like sandpaper rash all over their bodies.

I've even heard a bit of coughing in the week hours of the morning.

They aren't, like, super sick. I just got home after dropping them off at school today.

No fevers.

Still sleeping at night.

Laughing and playing and interested in life, once they get going.

But yesterday  morning, both little girls woke up still tired (even though they were in bed the night before far earlier than normal), clearly under-the-weather, huge dark circles around their eyes, scratchy, nasal voices. Both just seemed weak.

Could they have gone to school?

Probably. And they would have had good days... done fine.

But I decided to keep them home, to let them rest, to not make their brains work so hard in a second language all day long (even though that is only barely a factor any more), to let them enjoy YouTube Disney music videos and Pentatonix covers, to snuggle in bed and read, to eat a warm, fresh made lunch, to take a two hour nap...

Because it is when we are weak, we are more vulnerable...

Would it have been a wrong decision to send them to school? I don't think so.

Was it a good decision to keep them home?

I think so.

We had a delightful day together. I don't often have those opportunities any more.

Opportunities to care for my sick babies.

One of my Michigan bigs is sick... and I can't be there to pull the covers up around her, run to the store and pick up some NyQuil or make her a cup of Throat Coat tea if she asks.

One of my other Michigan bigs recently had an abcess near his eye. He looked like he'd gone a few rounds in a boxing ring and definitely came out worse for the wear. It kept him out of classes and work for a few days. Doctors orders. And I couldn't be there to drive him to see the doctor, to take him back for his recheck or to make sure he was eating healthy while his body was trying to heal.

I'm always worrying, at least a little, about my Iowa gal. Asthma, dorm life in a state where influenza counts are currently moderate to high and needing to refill her epi-pen because it is expired but waiting since they are expensive and she probably won't need it (yellow jackets) for at least a few more months. Those are plenty of reasons to keep me wondering about her and how she is doing, physical health-wise.

A younger mama, I might have insisted that my two littlest girlies go to school yesterday. Catching up is hard; it is that much harder in your second language.

I'm guessing I'll be taking advantage of those not always necessary opportunities brought about about by weakness - to slow down, stop, change my plans and care for those chunks of my heart that are always out and about, wandering around outside my body - a bit more often than I used to.

Back before they started to leave the nest

Perhaps the nostalgia I so often claim doesn't usually affect me has made me a little weak-kneed as I think about this kids God has gifted me.

first photo credit: FotoDB.de Fieberthermometer via photopin (license)

Last time for THAT moment with the last one of my gang

I love teaching. 

I'm passionate about teaching middle school. Fourth through seventh or eighth grade - some days you get the elementary school student, some days you get the high school student but on most days you get the student who's wandering back and forth between those two and totally clueless.

And I love it.

I do enjoy teaching younger children, but not with the same passion... unless you want to talk about teaching little ones to read. 

Or, teaching anyone of any age to read. 

One of the most memorable moments of my life was when, after working with a 60+ year old Zarma woman in Niger for over two years, she haltingly read a primer version of the story of Ruth from the Bible. As she struggled through the words, all of sudden all of the syllables and sounds came together and made sense. She looked at me, her eyes filled with tears of wonder and she emotionally said, "I know this story. It's from the Bible. It is the story of Ruth and Boaz. I'm finally, for the first time ever, reading God's Word for myself. It isn't a pastor or teacher or man reading it to me." I cried, too.

I've been so privileged to work with each one of my children as they've learned to read - either teaching them before they started day school or working with them in the language  they weren't using at school. For most of them, that has been reading in English. For a few, it has been reading in French.

There are so many moments. 

That moment when the code is finally deciphered and the learner realizes that those scribbles on the paper actually translate to sounds they use all of the time when speaking - and mean something.

That moment when reading transitions from struggling and halting and hesitant to fluent.

That moment when the words turn to real colors and smells and tastes and sounds and sensations, both palpable and emotional.

That moment when it is no longer simply reading aloud someone else's words, but interpreting them -and making it personal - to develop them into the story the reader wants his or her listener/s to hear.

That moment when God's story, as revealed in His Word, suddenly transforms from two dimensional to three and finally four or more dimensions, whe the reader is able to have his or her mind blown by His incredible-ness, His so-different-from-mere-man-ness, His powerful-ness, His bigness, His loveliness...

Mary Michelle experienced that last moment, for the first time, tonight. 

She was reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible. I just love its subtitle - every story whispers His name - but I digress. 

She read the following words: 

In the beginning, there was nothing. 

Nothing to hear. Nothing to feel. Nothing to see. 

Only emptiness. And darkness. And... nothing but nothing. 

But God was there. And God had a wonderful Plan.  

"I'll take this emptiness," God said, "and I'll fill it up! Out of the darkness, I'm going to make light! And out of nothing, I'm going to make...EVERYTHING!"  

Like a mommy bird flutters her wings over her eggs to help her babies hatch, God hovered over the deep, silent darkness. He was making life happen.  

God spoke. That's all. And whatever He said, it happened." (p. 18)

As she was reading aloud to me, I noticed that somewhere along the line, she's picked up a tiny touch of a southern accent (like me) - the only one of my gang, apparently, who has. Every single time she read the word "nothing," it sounded more like "nuthin' " This tiny twang showed up in every single -ing word. This fact makes me smile!

But back to the point. She read the above words, gradually slowing, and finally she paused. I thought it was because she was looking at the illustration or waiting for me to turn the page. Maybe. 

I was wrong she turned to me, and in that moment, the total awe on her face was priceless.  

She said softly, her voice trembling a little bit, "Mama, if God didn't have the idea to make people, you wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have you. That would be really sad," as her little hand reached up to cup my face and pull me closer to nuzzle.

I responded, "Hey, if He hadn't made people, you wouldn't be here either."

She startled, then giggled, "I guess that's right...." and her voice trailed off. I stayed silent because it was obvious she was thinking.

"I guess that means He didn't just make the world and the universe and all that stuff out there. He also made words and ideas so that could tell us about Him. Oh Mama! I'm so glad God made words and that He put the words in a book so I could learn about Him. And tell you I love you. And it's even okay that He made French words, too."

That moment! Witnessing His Spirit work in the lives of one of my children? It ranks right up there with the very best of all experiences, ever!

Will she remember the details of this conversation in a few days? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that, in that moment, God just became exponentially "amaizin'-er," in her eyes. In my eyes, too. At the same time, her view of Mama decreased. I'm so glad that process is starting to happen.

In any case, there's no doubt whether or not I'll remember these details of that moment. I want to. I need to. 

That's part of the reason I put them down here. 

For posterity.

Five Minute Friday ~It wasn't what I expected to see at the park yesterday

We went for a walk yesterday. Across the street to the bike path, through the Indian reservation, across the St. Charles River on the old-railroad-trestle-converted-to-foot/bike-traffic-bridge where we stopped for a few minutes to watch the rapidly flowing water. Then, we turned off the bike path to follow a different path that runs parallel to the river, and heads toward a park and playground where our kids always enjoy a few minutes to romp. Greening grass, sun peaking through the clouds, and gently blowing breeze - it really was a beautiful day for a walk.

Not too many meters in front of us was an elderly gentleman walking his dog. Although it was nothing more than a small "lap" dog, I noticed the man tensing, appearing hyper aware of my little girls rapidly skipping his way; he moved to make sure that he blocked the dog's direct path towards my girls. I motioned to them to move off the path, giving the man and his dog a wide berth and also giving them the subtle message that this wasn't an occasion to see if they could stop and pet the animal. Animal-fanatics that they are, they were too intent on reaching the playground to consider a protest.

We hung around at the playground for 20 minutes... maybe a half hour. There was only one other family hanging out - two women with three young girls dressed in matching school uniform jumpers and leggings. After several minutes, the older man and his dog reappeared. They had almost completed a circuit following the perimeter of the playground - but instead of continuing along that path, he decided to cut through the playground before heading back the direction from which he'd originally come. He'd just about rounded the corner when one of those little uniformed girls noticed his little dog. She respectfully ran up to him and started to speak to him. I wasn't close enough to hear the conversation, but the man knelt down and securely held his dog, close to his body with its head directed away from the girl while leaving his back exposed so that she could gently scratch its back. At that moment, the two other little girls came running up - also wanting their chance to pet the dog - but one of them approached from the side where the dog's head was. She reached out to pet it. It promptly snapped at her, catching her with its teeth... or perhaps even biting her. She immediately started to scream and cry - at which point the mother, who'd been sitting on a swing next to her friend and busy on her cell phone - looked up. The little girl when running towards her mother. The two other little girls jumped back from the dog with terrified expressions on their faces. The horrified and worried man immediately ran to the mother to let her know what happened and they spoke for a few minutes. He left the park and the little girl continued to sob. Eventually, her mother took her up to their car, where they pulled out a first aid kit while the other woman put down her cell phone to watch the other two girls.

I was immediately plagued by two very judgmental questions...

• Why in the world walk a dog - with the potential of aggressive behavior around kids - through a playground?
• Why take your kids to the playground if you aren't going to enjoy watching them play and aren't going to keep an eye on them regarding potential dangers?

...because

• while I love dogs, I also tend to be quite vigilant when it comes to potentially aggressive dogs after having owned a little one that became less and less tolerant of unknown children as she aged (and resulting in me being on the receiving end of a few bites when I ran interference) and after a few scary incidents between my oldest and unknown dogs - many years ago now. 
• after all of the vitriol via social media and ensuring the safety of children (i.e. public bathrooms), it seems obvious that when you take your children to a location where an increased potential for danger exists, you must be watching and at the ready to protect them should the situation so warrant.

My judgmental attitude resulted because I held others to the same expectations of behavior that I hold for myself... with nothing more than a cursory surface knowledge of their reality. 

As I've thought about what I observed and my reaction, I've realized that the elderly gentleman probably expected to be able to control his dog so that he wouldn't have to disappoint a really cute little schoolgirl sweetly asking to love on his pet. He didn't expect another child from the same family to run up from his blind side and assume she could touch his dog without permission... I've also considered that the mother, like myself, didn't expect someone with a more aggressive animal to take that animal for a walk through a place typically set aside for children and that perhaps her involvement with her phone included making plans to best care for her children. 

Obviously, our expectations will greatly influence choices - right and wrong, selfish and sacrificing, knowledgeable and ignorant - that we make, potentially leading to positive and/or negative results and outcomes. 

It isn't wrong to expect... 

Sometimes what we do with those expectations is, however.

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If you think you might like to join this week's Five Minute Friday, check it out here!

Five Minute Friday ~ Surprise

A few weeks back, the entire elementary half of the school my crew attends had a "Winter Outing." The fifth and sixth grades had the option of skiing; 4th grade on down went tubing. And of course, they was need of parents to accompany. 

You'd better believe I signed up, ASAP! I love winter, I love being outside and I love hanging out with my kids and this would be a two for one field trip.

Boy, was I surprised when we walked out to the tubing "hill."

Because back in Oklahoma, where I grew up, a hill that size was called a mountain.

In Michigan, where I'd most recently lived and have done pretty much the only skiing I'd ever done, a hill like that was for skiing, not tubing.

In Niger, where I've probably spent the most recent bulk of my "adult-ish" life, well... we had sand dunes, not mountains... and certainly no snow.

This tubing hill even had its own "tube" lift!

That's M&M in the tube right above me.

Only pictures from the bottom and on the ride up... I deemed it "risky behavior" to pull my phone aka camera out anywhere near the top of that tubing hill. :-)

This was one of the better photos that actually gives
a bit of perspective as to the size and slope of these hills!

We had so much fun and believe me, as soon as we get the opportunity, we will go back with the fam!

So it isn't bare toes on a lawn chair on the beach or beside a pool
(like so many friends have been posting).
But hey, when you live in Quebec and its time for Spring Break,
you do the best with what you've got.
THIS was surprisingly AWESOME!

when you turn SIX and you just love the Christmas season...

...and you ask for ice skates for your birthday, your birthday present isn't exactly a surprise since your parents are sure that your feet are needed to assure that said ice skates will fit.

We found out feet weren't needed, however - because they make adjustable kids' ice skates these days. How's that for neat?!!

So, as Mary and I were walking the length of the mall last night to get to Dunham's to purchase her skates, she's skipping along, grinning from ear to ear and singing along with the Christmas carols playing through the mall's sound system. She was so obviously delighted that her antics elicited smiles from most passerby's - even a group of teen guys in saggy pants, sunglasses and trench coats (otherwise, they might have made me a little nervous)!

I asked her if she was happy to be going to get her skates ~

"Yup! I'm happy about that Mama! But I'm really happy because I LOVE walking in the mall at Christmas time!" she answered.

"Why?"

"Because everyone keeps singing my name!"

I must have looked a little confused, so she joins in with the song playing throughout the mall:

"Have yourself a 'Mary' little Christmas!"

Hope you enjoy some of these fun pictures from our pipsqueak's past year!

"Let it snow!"

a cold beach in Georgia

funny mirrors

"Swing me higher!"

silly faces, silly poses

hanging with big bro, hunting tadpoles and garter snakes

the fam

Hartwick Pines

First day of first grade

more silliness

African cowgirl!

little legs biking Mackinac Island

learning about pottery

SHE chose the Christmas tree

"See my new ice skates!!!"