Presenting...Kenya Safari

T presented today at Grand Rounds on his mission trip to Tenwek Hospital last spring.   He worked so hard on his presentation, and it really showed this morning.  He wowed us all and did an outstanding job. 

There are so many moments yet unshared from his trip, but I couldn't resist posting the video he compiled of highlights from his safari experience in the Masai Mara Game Reserve.  Truly an incredible country to behold and serve.

Praying for Daddy

With G-Bear tonight in her bed she prayed...

"...and please let all the people not get hurt....so Daddy won't have to go to work anymore."

That's my sweetheart.  She's looking out for her daddy.

Our Camera

I have gotten a lot of emails and questions lately from friends asking what camera we are using these days. We are flattered, you guys, that you would ask us for recommendations!  I think I should give credit where credit is due, T is the photography mastermind in our family.  Most of the time I am just along for the ride or following his instructions. Anyone who has known T for the past few decades of his life knows how much he loves making memories with photos.   He won't claim to be a pro, but he is dedicated: back in college when I was still snapping away with a disposable camera he was wowing everyone with his amazing DIGITAL camera.

Today we are a Nikon D300 family.  We love our camera.  We are fiscally frugal in almost every area of our daily life, but when it comes to photos, we splurge. We have two lenses: our zoom lens, an AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G and our 55mm f/1.8D.  As I said before, T is the mastermind behind the photography, but thankfully he and our friend Benjamin have taught me a few of their tricks to help me get by when one of my experts isn't around.

If you are looking for camera recommendations, camera tutorials or great photography tips, we recommend our favorite photography guru website: KenRockwell.com.  Ken is amazing.  He puts incredible detail and user-friendly tips in his website, reviews and tutorials.  His advise is our go-to when we are looking to improve our photo shoots.

 

The Latest Firsts

Its been a while since I indulged in a proud-parent post.  Feel free to move on with your day if you the sweetness is too much ;)

The Doodle-bug Bears

Presenting our latest firsts!

(drumroll, please!)

...E-Bear climbed to the top of the pirate ship slide ladder by himself this week. That's right.  Little gross motor maniac.  I think his sister just climbed to the top of the ladder by herself this week too (just kidding :)  Sort of).

...G-Bear asked to swim on her back *twice*!  That's two separate occasions, folks!  And put her head under the water all by herself!  Swim team olympian, here we come.

And while we're at it....

...E-Bear jumped off the side of the pool into my arms all by himself!  That's no hand holding.  His sister followed close behind ;)  Little gross motor maniac.

You wanna play?

...G-Bear and E-Bear have made up a new game.  Its called "Going on Vacation." It involved packing a large bucket or bag with all their toys, blankets, books and pillows and then dragging it around the rooms on their way to make a 'tent' while on their journey to a 'castle.'  You can tell who is the brains behind the operation, but E-Bear plays right along!  Amazing.  Lots of imaginary worlds to be discovered around here.

...E-Bear is talking up a blue streak.  The latest words to shine through are:

Ready to tell it like it is :)

'Pincess!' (that's right, as in Disney. Oh, you bet he has an older sister)
'Blankie?' (for his favorite green friend, in place of the previous 'happy?'....sort of sad to hear that one go)
'Caaaaaaay!' (for cake, can you tell we have been celebrating family birthdays lately?) and
'Hep pee, hep pee' (for help please. We're trying that instead of whining these days.  Good luck to me).
and
'Gabi!' (for G-Bear.  Super sweet to hear him finally call her by name.  Not what I call her, but that's the stuff nicknames are made of).


...G-Bear is right back at E-Bear with nicknaming.  'Bud' is her favorite pet name for E-Bear currently, followed closely by 'Buddy.'  Even sweeter because that is what T's dad, our dear Dee, was called by his sister.

This sister loves her 'Bud'

And last but not least?
  

Hard at work.  Concentrating.  

...G-Bear wrote her first letter yesterday!  Okay, okay, she TRACED her first letter.  But she did a great job.  We were both super proud of her work.

I drew the blue lines.  G-Bear traced in purple.

G-Bear's handiwork on the left. E-Bear's handiwork on the right.

A thousand thanks to Aunt K for her ideas on teaching letters while we were in NC.  G-Bear is having a great time with our chalk board!

Those are the highlights.  Thank you, Lord, for these wonderful days.

So you want to make a difference?!

I am a public policy college major, type A school geek, a bleeding heart, a gotta-be-there-for-my-kids intensive mom, a love-everything-in-medical-school enthusiast and a save-the-world poster child.  I am DYING to make a difference in this broken world full of broken people (like me!) who need help.  I am dying to help change the world for the better.  But some days I STRUGGLE mightily with how to do this.

Do you want to make a difference too?  

In the lives of your family?  

In the lives of total strangers?  

In the lives of your neighbor?  

In the lives of people half-way around the world?

Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) wanted to make a difference too.  But she was imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz.  Before she died at their hands, she wrote the following on how to make a difference in the world. Today it was just what I needed to read:

"The world is in flames.  Are you impelled to put them out?  Look at the cross.  From the open heart gushes the blood of the Savior.  This extinguishes the flames of hell.  Make your heart free by the faithful fulfillment of your vows; then the flood of divine love will be poured into your heart until it overflows and becomes fruitful to all the ends of the earth.  Do you hear the groans of the wounded on the battlefields in the west and the east?  You are not a physician and not a nurse and cannot bind up the wounds.  You are enclosed in a cell and cannot get to them.  Do you hear the anguish of the dying?  You would like to be a priest and comfort them.  Does the lament of the widows and orphans distress you?  You would like to be an angel of mercy and help them.  LOOK at the crucified.  If you are bound to him, your being is precious blood.  Bound to him, you are omnipresent as he is.  Perhaps you cannot help here or there like the physician, the nurse, the priest.  But, you can be at all fronts, wherever there is grief, in the power of the cross.  Your compassionate love takes you everywhere, this love from the divine heart....The eyes of the Crucified look down on you asking, probing.  Will you make you covenant with the Crucified anew in all seriousness?  What will you answer him?  "Lord, where shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life." 

So you want to make a difference, Queen B?  Spend some time with the Lord today. 

Then get up, follow Him, and help change the world. 

Grocery Bag

Ah, meal planning.  Where there is no plan, the people perish! 

(maybe not exactly what was meant in Proverbs 29:18 :)

While I am not new to meal planning, this is my first attempt to share our weekly kitchen aspirations.  

My goal is to share every weekend, in the interests of preparation & shopping for the week ahead.

Trust me, this is more for my benefit than anyone else's.  

Waaaaaay more for my benefit.  

But, I hope that one in a while you see something you like, something that sparks your imagination or something that helps you out of a hungry-tummy-going-to-die-if-I-don't-eat family meltdown.  

Can you tell I have been there?

As you fight the good culinary fight, remember two of my favorite quotes that inspire my time in the kitchen:

"Food is essential to life.  Therefore, make it good."

~S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A

& 

"Start where you are.

Use what you have.

Do what you can."

~Arthur Ashe

So, without further ado, (goodness, after all this buildup it better be good, B!) our menu for the week:

Day One

Sloppy Joes (with homemade whole wheat buns) & My New Favorite Carrots 

"Homestyle deliciousness"

Sloppy Joes & photo by Ree at Pioneer Woman
Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns from SnoWhite at Joy in My Kitchen

Garlic Ginger Carrots & photo at MyRecipes

Day Two
Pasta Carbonara 
 "Call nights call for elegant ease"

Pasta Carbonara with peas & photo by Veronica at Breakfast & Bed

Day 3

Mongolian Beef Lettuce Wraps, Sichuan Green Beans & Rice
"Date night, eating in"


T's plate....

Mongolian Beef from Food.com, formerly Recipezaar
Hot Sichuan Green Beans from Sunset Magazine

My plate....

Same recipes as above, just plated differently :)

Day 4

Baked Vegetable Sandwiches
"Even kids love veggies...sometimes"

Baked Vegetable Sandwiches & photo by SnoWhite at Joy in My Kitchen

Day 5

Marinated Round Steak & Southwest Potato Salad 

"We love our grassfed cow ;)"

Marinated Round Steak recipe from AmericanGrassFed.org

Southwestern Potato Salad from Fine Cooking Magazine

Looks like its going to be a great week!  Blessings on your kitchen!  This menu was also posted as part of Menu Planning Monday :)

Favorite Prayers

How sweet of Patty to include me in a recent post on her Favorite Catholic Prayers.  These were the rules.  What a great opportunity to think about my favorites prayers.

As I think about the role prayer has played in my life over the last few years, I am reminded of a conversation I heard between an aspiring medical student and a woman physician Christian she admired.

The student asked,

"where is the best place for a Christian woman to be in medical school?" 

(meaning to ask what schools would be best suited for her). 

The experienced Christian physician understood the question, but replied wisely,

"In prayer. On her knees."

This has certainly been true for me about medical school.  I guess you could make the same statement about motherhood.  So you can imagine how valuable the time in prayer is for me everyday.  Here are a few of my favorites: 

Prayer One:

~Saint Francis of Assisi:

Lord,
Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon,
where there is doubt, faith,
where there is despair, hope,
where there is darkness, light
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

This prayer has always been precious to be because of the way it helps me stop focusing on myself and instead focus on the needs and struggles of others.  I need these reminders daily, because in trying to love my neighbor as I should, I am struggling against a lot of personal selfishness.  

~~~~~~~

Prayer Two:

Somedays, this feels like our life.

"Let Nothing Disturb You"
~Saint Theresa of Avila
Let nothing disturb you.  Let nothing frighten you.
All things pass.  
God does not change.
Patience achieves everything.  Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone suffices.
God has no body now on earth but yours;
no hands but yours; no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.
Amen.

There have been many days in my life when waves of uncertainty and trial seemed too overwhelming to endure.  Saint Theresa's prayer (herself a woman who endured great uncertainty and trials) is powerful because it reminds me that the trials of this world are nothing compared to the greatness of God.  When I remember that I lack nothing in God, I am able to live a life of hope rather than a life of fear and despair. There is so much good work to be done in the world for Jesus, if we only life in hope rather than in despair.

~~~~~~

Prayer Three:

The view of the hill from our honeymoon hotel room.  Not all crosses look so beautiful.

"Your Cross"

~Saint John of the Cross

The everlasting God has in his wisdom foreseen from eternity 

the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost Heart.  

This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes,

 understood with His Divine mind, tested with His wise justice,

 warmed with loving arms, and weighed with His own hands 

to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.

  He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His grace,

 perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage,

 and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you,

 a gift of the all-merciful love of God.  

Amen

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I have days when this prayer almost makes me laugh.  What?!  This IMPOSSIBLE frustration, this AGONIZING situation, this PERTURBING thing --- this is a GIFT?!  A special GREETING from heaven?!  Seriously?!  I find, though, that the truth of the prayer wins out in my heart after a few moments.  The reminder that God will not give me more than I can handle, will give me enough grace for every moment if I look to Him, is just what I need to hear some days.  So next time you feel overwhelmed with a cross to carry in your day (if you are like me, that will surely happen sometime within the next 2 minutes), think of God sending it Fed Ex, special delivery. 

~~~~~

Alright, now to finish off the rules of the meme, here are a few bloggers who you might enjoy hearing from as well....

Building Cathedrals: my seven Princeton girlfriends writing on life and motherhood.

Just Me at Peace Out Blogger.  I always love her comments.

Happy Sunday!

August is here

Photo Calendars by WiddlyTinks.com

Just in case you didn't notice, it's already August.  Sheesh!  Where is summer GOING?!  If my kids were heading to school this fall I would be catatonic right about now.  Oh.....wait.  I DO have a kid starting school this fall.  Ok, so it's just a 2 hour, day per week pre-school.  But still!  Where is my summer going?!

I am trying to remind myself that August is a full month and comprises one-third of my summer calendar.  There is so much fun left to be enjoyed before the seasonal changes that Labor Day inevitably brings! Here are some of the things were looking forward to this month:

*B's research abstract is due today!  Hooray for the culmination and freedom of submitting it.  Thanks for all your prayers this week.
*The end of T's first rotation as a trauma chief!  He handled it like a champ.  As always.
*T's big Grand Rounds presentation on his mission trip to Kenya last spring.  It will be the talk of the department, I am sure of it ;)  I have seen some of his powerpoint animations....
*Another trip to the cabin, pool trips with Momo and Papa, day trips to the zoo and children's museum, all with fewer people due to the August epidemic of vacations.
*The best produce of the year at the farmer's markets.  The bounty has just begun!
*The Minnesota State Fair!  Get ready....it's legendary.  You must not miss out.  If nothing else, eat vicariously through us.
*A visit from Aunt K and not-so-baby cousin "Parkin!"  We are already counting down the days
*The return of the college students to our neighborhood.  Oh, the parties.

We are so blessed!  If we are given tomorrow, it is a gift.  Let's make the most of it and do something beautiful for God, whatever our days may bring.

Happy August!

Abstract due...

Just a few more days until the abstract for my research study is due.  The topic?  Women's experiences with extremely preterm birth.  The stories, each precious, individual and set apart, are gut-wrenching, soul-searching and awe-inspiring all at the same time.  Now I am crunching numbers, writing and re-writing feverishly---all at odd hours of the morning and night so that I can spend these precious summer days with E-Bear and G-Bear.  I would love your prayers for stamina, focus, efficiency and a worthwhile paper as I finish my work this week.  After Friday I resolve to withdraw from the nocturnal world---at least until Boards studying kicks into high gear in September ;)

This is the prayer in my Magnificat today.  It helps me focus as I finish my paper.  It also helps me pray for families who walk the path with a child born premature:

All times and seasons are in God's hand; all times and all seasons are fulfilled in Christ. 

You are our light and our salvation. 

Yours is the night and Yours is the day; enlighten us with your wisdom at every hour of our lives. 

You are our light and our salvation. 

Yours are the years and Yours are the seasons; teach us to trust in Your provident designs. 

You are our light and our salvation. 

Yours is the fullness of life; bring us to dwell in your presence forever. 

You are our light and our salvation.

Rainy Day Fun

As if returning from vacation to laundry, refrigerator re-stocking, vacuuming, and cooking wasn't enough--today was a rainy day.  My kids were barely hanging in there as I finished our morning chores, and we needed a fun reward for all our patience and hard work.

Fortunately, I had a rainy day idea saved up.

We went for a TRAIN ride!  Or, as E-Bear would say...."Shoooo SHOOOO!"

Minneapolis is fortunate enough to have a light rail train as part of its public transit.  We drive by it frequently, (SHOO SHOO!  Mommy!  SHoo SHooooo!) but my kids had never ridden on it before today. Oh, the excitement when I said we were going to ride the train!  You would have thought I had promised ice cream, candy and cookies on top of a pile of bubble blowers, toy cars and Disney princesses.  Not that we didn't still have two time-outs and several melt downs between putting on our shoes and getting into the car.....

Riding the light rail train is easily a 1-2 hour slam dunk rainy day activity.  We drove to one of the train stops, parked our car and bought our tickets at the automated kiosk.  It cost us all of $3.25 for 2.5 hours of fun:  $0.75 for each of the kids and 1.25 for me.  So worth it compared to the delight in my kids' eyes as we scooted onto the escalator up to the platform.

We started in the middle of the route, so we got to pick whether to head toward Downtown and the Twins Stadium or the Mall of America.  I knew we would be taking whichever train came first, which meant we headed toward MOA.  I couldn't believe it, but the kids were RIVETED.  Looking out the window was like a new adventure for them.  They loved watching the passing cars, trains, tunnels, bridges and buildings.  G-Bear loved listening to the train chimes and the names of the stations.  If all else failed, there was always great people-watching.

We arrived at Mall of America 25 minutes later, and took the elevator up to the Mall to have a snack that we had packed.  We agreed to walk around the Nickelodeon Amusement park, and goodness if I didn't hit the jackpot, because Dora the Explorer was there.

Now, this wouldn't have been a huge deal 2 weeks ago, but we are just back from visiting cousins E & S in North Carolina, and they are all about Dora.  So of course, G-Bear is also now all about Dora.  G-Bear's eyes lit up like a birthday cake.  And when Dora waved at her, you would have thought she had died and gone to heaven.  Goodness, the kid has only seen about 4 Dora episodes in her life!

When she was invited in to shake Dora's hand, no amount of fear could hold G-Bear back.

She practically melted when Dora gave her a hug:

By the end of our walk around the park, G-Bear was so blissed out that she was hugging plush people all over the place.

This is my cautious child?  What?

And E-Bear?  Well, he had a death grip on my thigh, hiding behind my right leg.

By the time we finally caught our light rail train back to our car the kids were tuckered out.  But we had enjoyed 2 hours of rainy day fun, all for $3.25.  Oh, that all rainy days would be so sweet.  We might have to pull out the old "Shoo Shoo" ticket again sometime soon.  

The moral of the story?  When rainy days head your way, no need to fret, no need to empty your wallet to find something to do.  A little creativity goes a long way, and when all else fails,

A sign at the entrance of Nickelodeon Universe.  It could not have more perfectly captured our day.  And we didn't spend a dime there.

May your rainy days turn out to be sunny.....