Yes, I Let My Kids Dress Themselves

Why do you ask?

An Interesting Day

It's been one of those days today.

It all started when all 4 of my kids woke up at 6:00am. It's just too early. Especially considering this is our last week of summer, before school starts. Especially considering that when school starts I KNOW that I'm going to be on the receiving end of a lot of moaning and groaning when I try to wake them up at 7:00am every morning. Especially considering...well, I can't think of anything else, but it's just too early.

A piece of Korean paper art that I had (framed and hanging on the wall), fell off said wall, crashed to the ground, destroying the frame. Luckily, the art itself was untouched. And miraculously, the glass was not cracked....until JT stepped ON it....instead of walking AROUND it. Can someone please explain this to me?

My house is a mess. It gets that way.

We went to the school today to meet the kids' teachers. We were caught, unsuspecting (meaning we didn't have an umbrella), in a torrential rain, and soaked to our ever livin' bones. I don't even get that wet when I take a shower. Okay, I do, but I don't usually have my clothes on. We met the teachers like that, looking marvelous, I'm sure. At least I wasn't wearing a white shirt. We are happy with 2 out of 3 teachers. I'm willing to give the other one another chance. First impressions are often wrong. Please let me be wrong. Please.

I was supposed to go to a meeting right after we met the teachers, but I called to say we'd be late so that we could run home and change. When we got home, the elevator was broken. 13 flights of stairs. Sure, it's a good work-out, but not one that I wanted. On the 8th floor there was some construction going on, and the hallway AND STAIRS were covered in piles of broken wood (some with nails), garbage, cardboard boxes, and other hazardous materials. What could we do? We carefully picked our way up and over the mountain, and made it upstairs alive.

I was really sweaty. It was hard to tell because I was really wet.

One of my biggest pet peeves is parents who take their children to play at fast food play areas (i.e. Burger Kind, McDonald's, etc.), and leave their children (completely unattended, unsupervised, possibly unloved) there, while the parents (usually moms) sit in the main part of the restaraunt chatting it up with their friends, never even glancing through the big window that separates them to see what they're up too. I'm bothered by this because I see too often how unruly such children can be. I'm bothered by this because one time I had to crawl up inside the play thing (not meant to accomodate adults) to rescue my child that had been cornered by, and was being bullied by such children (none of the mom's ever even noticed, not even when I gave them all the evil eye on my way out). When left unsupervised in such play areas, children(otherwise totally well-behaved) can quickly take on a mob mentality (please refer to Lord of the Flies - I might be exaggerating, a little bit). Today there were such kids. They had about 50-100 straws (wrappers all over the ground), using them to built some sort of pipe system...or maybe weapons. There was also a lots of pushing and craziness going on. Pet peeve.

The elevator was working. As we waited for it we talked about how it smelled like a fresh compost heap out in the hall. When we got onto the elevator it was like we jumped into the fresh compost heap and started swimming around in it. It was thick. We covered our noses, and made it upstairs alive.

Alex isn't potty trained....yet.

The Silver Lining. We popped some popcorn (added extra butter) and watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. Fantastic. Weird and disjointed and fantastic. We danced at the end. You should try it.

You have days like this. I know you do. I should have taken pictures.

Seoul Searchers

So, our little group from church now has an offical name - The Seoul Searchers. I can only assume that this is due to our adventurous spirits, and perhaps the fact that we live in Seoul...but maybe it's just a coincidence:) Last week we went to the Children's Museum. One thing that I LOVE about Seoul - all these places that we are going (and most of the places we've gone as a family) are either really cheap ($5-10 for a whole family), or completely free. I guess this helps to balance the universe for us, in which we pay almost $3,000 for rent and utilities each month (and it will probably be a lot more this month because of how much we've run the AC). The day we went to the Children's Museum was the same day that we took Joe to the airport so that he could fly home for Porter's funeral. Since Joe had the day off, he got to come with us. We didn't stay very long, because we had a plane to catch, but we still had fun...

Dressing Up

Learning Taekwondo

Putting together Puzzles

Playing Musical Instruments

Playing in the Castle

Stamping Pictures

Building with Blocks

and Being Warriors...

...with really Cute Faces.

Tender Mercies

On August 6th, my nephew, Porter Laurence Liddell, passed away as a result of a drowning accident. He was 4 yrs. old.

During the past week, many family members have spoken of the tender mercies they have felt and experienced from the Lord. I truly believe this is the way Heavenly Father shows his love for us during times of trial and sadness. Sometimes these tender mercies are so small we might not recognize them, or we pass them off as mere coincidences. But when we are able to acknowledge them for what they really are, they fill us with love and peace, and they help us to endure the most painful times. The Lord is ALWAYS mindful of us.

It was hard for me to be away from my Liddell family at this time. I felt desparate to help, but totally helpless, and broken hearted. I experienced my own tender mercy when I was inspired to write a poem for Porter's parents. Writing this poem gave me the peace I needed, and I hope that it helped them too. Joe was able to fly home for the funeral, and he was asked to read the poem at the funeral. I hope they won't mind if I share it with you here.

*

Waiting

by Ruth Liddell

*

There was a time I waited,

Looking down through Heaven's window,

To join my family....our family.

To be held in your arms.

I tried to be patient,

And I knew you were waiting too.

Time is slow when you're waiting.

*

There was a time I couldn't wait

For Mommy to feed me....faster;

To mow the lawn with Daddy;

To follow my big sisters, and do what they did;

For my little brother to finally learn to talk to me;

But there was so much joy, it overflowed.

Time is fast when you're rejoicing.

*

Now I'm waiting again,

Surrounded by love,

With my nose pressed against Heaven's window.

I'll be patient as I watch and wait....and work.

And I know you're waiting too.

Time is slow when you're grieving.

But for those who love, Time is Eternity -

That's what we'll have together, and it's worth waiting for.

*

(based on a quote from Henry Van Dyke.)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

As promised, this is our outing to Seoul Forest with a group of my friends from our branch. These pictures are actually from two different trips there, with the same people. The first time around, my two littlest kids got overly heating, and we had to bail out early. We were glad to get a chance to go back. It probably won't be our last time either.

Even though this place is called Seoul Forest, is does not, in any way, resemble a forest. Perhaps this is why the bakery had such a hard time understanding what I wanted for Madelyn's cake (see post on Madelyn's birthday party). What it DOES resemble is a really great family park. We went to their playground first.
It have this HUGE slide, of which we've never seen the likes.

It's no wonder the kids got too hot, running up this monstrosity over and over.

But they couldn't get enough of it.

I even got talked into giving it a try...in a skirt. What was I thinking?

I didn't get much speed until the VERY end, and then I thought I was going to fly right off.

They also have this....thing.

You could climb inside it, but not to the very top.

They also have an area with deer. You could buy a box of food to feed them for 1,000 won (a little less than a dollar)

Most of the kids were brave enough to feed them.

I put my camera through the fence and got an insider's perspective. If you really want to understand the deer, you've got to put yourself in their shoes. Nobody fed me anything though - very disappointing.

Feeding deer makes your hands stink.

So does feeding giraffes.

There were no giraffes in Seoul Forest.

We also went to an insect house. We walked around.

And walked some more.

But we weren't really seeing any bugs. Being in an insect house, I wasn't really sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But we did see a waterfall.

And we saw birds.

And a very large turtle that I wanted to sit on....ya know, just to see.

And fish - nothing says insect house like fish.

And finally towards the end we saw some bugs - whew. It reminded some of us of "A Girl of the Limberlost", which we had just read for book club. I don't necessarily recommend it.....the book.....or maybe the insect house....it's hard to say which.

My kids were very, very HOT, even the second time around. Still cute though.

But no worries, we had a cure for the heat - the very best kind.

This was a REALLY great splash park.

Which my kids completely loved, even fully clothed.

It was on for over an hour, but I think my kids could have gone for another hour as well.

Very wet, very happy, very tired.

I was really hot too, and I thought I'd just get my hair wet, but before I knew it I was totally drenched too. Unfortunately for you, I didn't get any pictures:) Stay tuned for our next outing to The Children's Museum.

Getting out of the City

We had a long weekend, so we decided to head down to Gyeungju again. As much as we are loving Seoul, we also love getting out of the city and heading south, because this is what we get to drive through.

Beautiful Mountains.

Rice Fields...

and more rice fields.

Up close.

So much different then all the skyscrapers and crowded living. It was funny trying to take all these pictures, speeding down the freeway with my head sticking out the window. I took a million pictures, hoping I'd get a few good ones out of it - I think I did:)

When you're driving long distances in Korea, and you need stop (for gassing up the car, snacks and potty breaks), it is not just a simple matter of getting off at the next exit, like in America. It would be way too difficult to find what you need. However, Korea has amazing rest stops, with everything that you could imagine needing to buy, huge bathrooms, and a variety of other things including beautiful views.

Play grounds and picnic areas.

Water features.

Animals.

Cute kids provided by us.

We didn't eat Korea food at the rest stop, but we could have. We saved it for later though, down in our final destination.

Yummy.

We also took a ride in these wacky paddle boats.

The wind was so strong, and was blowing us in the opposite direction of the dock when we decided we were done. I seriously did not think I was going to make it back. My thighs were on FIRE.

It was a long hot day and we were all tired.

But here was the absolute funnest part of the day. We rented these little ATVs and motorcycles that were sooooo much fun.

We rode around on them, taking turns, for an hour.

Lookin' good Joe - I think Hells Angels would take you...

but not me.

Yes, that is Madelyn you see driving. They let kids as young as 4 yrs. old drive them. Thankfully they have a slow speed.

Alex was NOT happy about not being able to drive, but he settled for riding with everyone else. The lady who was renting the things actually felt bad for Alex (because he was crying at one point) and told us that we could let him drive the little ATVs, but there was not way we were trusting him with that. However, when Joe and I had him on the motorcycle with us, we would let him push the throttle button, and he felt pretty good about that.

The older kids were all about the speed.

We had a few, not so bad, run-ins with walls and trees, and near run-ins with fellow riders and pedestrians, but no run-ins with the police:)

Definitely doing that again:)