Summer Days

Well, it has been HOT here- over 100 most days, which means that it can start hitting 90 as early as 10:30 in the morning. Nevertheless, there's been a lot going on in the (air conditioned) Bain household. We're starting school again next week so that we can take time off after the baby's born, so this is a good time to give a summary of our summer activities.

We finally put in a playset! The kids have loved that, even though they've had to go out early to play now that it's so hot.


Carsten is surviving the heat just fine, and giving an entirely new meaning to "riding bareback."

He is also working on moisturizing his curls with- you guessed it- Vaseline. Despite repeated washings in Dawn and soaking in baby powder, that stuff sort of just has to wear off. His hair looked wet for days.

We made jam and Carsten and Nathan were on hand to help out with that.

Of course, VBS is a big part of summer each year, and this year's VBS week went really well. It was a blessing to both workers and kids. 200 kids came, 15 children accepted the Lord, and the kids raised $1695 to give to a new church in south San Antonio. (They raised this money all in coins! The girls and boys compete for the heaviest bucket.) I taught 3 year olds, and Justin was very happy to have Mommy as his teacher and Aunt Sara as his assistant teacher. My friend Kim helped out too, and we had a great time.


Justin had a little unsanctioned sleepover.

Carsten has made eliminating the flies that plague us his life's mission. Evan got a brand new fly swatter as part of his VBS crafts and he gave it to Carsten. It's his most prized possession right now. He runs around swatting (but never hitting) any flies that might sneak in the door.

No summer in a house with a 6 and 7 year old would be complete without a few missing teeth.

And, finally, when the heat keeps you this cooped up, you sometimes just have to climb the walls.

Baby Talk

Well, this week has been VERY busy- we had VBS! More on that to come...

But, I couldn't wait to blog a little about Carsten. He just turned 20 months today, and over the past few weeks, Bryan and I have been discussing his vocabulary, or, more precisely, his lack thereof. Now, experience has taught me that sometime between 18 months and 2 years, something clicks in their little minds, and they suddenly start talking. Still, Carsten has been relatively silent, and I was starting to get anxious to see some sort of progress.

Well, this week, the wheels started to turn. He's started repeating words and pointing things out. He's by no means reciting Shakespeare, but tonight, for example, when I asked him what he wanted he said, "Ba" and pointed to the ball. Major victory! He knows he can communicate! And he's very proud of himself. The other kids clap and cheer at his every effort- there's no lack of positive reinforcement here.

Anyway, we'll see how long it takes him to really make progress, but it's so cute to observe those first few attempts. In no time, we'll be wondering if he will ever STOP talking, and he'll be competing with his siblings for monologue time.

AWANA Derby Pictures

Here are the pictures of our kids at the Awana Derby, courtesy of our friend Tanya. (Yes, we managed to forget our camera...)

And the Winner Is...

May has been a very busy month for the Bain household, as the lack of new blog entries attests. All through the year, we carefully balanace the kids' activities, trying to make sure that nothing conflicts and nothing exhausts (at least not completely.) In May, however, all bets are off. Every activity needs to have an end-of-year awards ceremony or demonstration, and those things, of course, require rehearsals and extra practices.

The upside of all this craziness is that we get to see what the kids have been working on all year. And, most importantly of all, we take PICTURES!

First up was Megan's Keepers at Home club. This is a Christian scouting-type program. The girls earn badges for different skills: baking, sewing, pet care, and so on, plus stars for service hours. Megan is in the little girls' Pebbles group this year, and she earned 17 badges.

Next year, we're going to put together a boys' Contenders for the Faith group. Evan was especially excited about earning badges in "Pretenders."

Then, the kids had a gymnastics Fun Meet. Evan and Justin are with the preschoolers, and Nathan and Megan are beginners. The school age kids are not competing against the other kids, but they are scored based on their competency. All the kids had a good time (with one notable exception- see below).





And then, there was one more little one who thought the evening was entirely too much sitting and NOT getting to play on all of the wonderful equipment:

Finally, we had AWANA awards and the AWANA pine car derby. Nathan and Megan worked very hard on their Scripture memorization. They both finished their books, reviewed all the verses, and finished one extra workbook apiece. Even the little boys participated in the derby. Evan took 2nd place for speed, Megan took 1st place for design for her Calico Kitty car, and Nathan took 2nd place for design for his Lego Racer car. Daddy worked hard to make sure that all the cars were weighted just right.

Bad Dreams

Our boys are always chasing and being chased by "bad guys." And, of course, Megan plays right along with them. The only problem is that Megan's active imagination causes these same bad guys to chase her in her dreams.

These "bad guy dreams" were disturbing her sleep, so Bryan prayed for her during our family devotion time right before bed. The next evening, Megan was very excited that she had not had any bad dreams at all. Justin, listening to her little testimony, said, "I have bad guy dreams." So Bryan proceeded to pray for him too.

The next night, as Bryan was tucking Justin in bed, Justin said, "I still have bad guy dreams." Well, of course, Bryan immediately prayed for him again, and when he opened his eyes, Justin was looking at him with a very disappointed expression. "Daddy," he said seriously, "I LIKE bad guy dreams."

All depends on how you look at things, I guess.

Passover and a Special Announcement

First for the special announcement: Baby #6 is on the way! We're very excited and looking forward to meeting him or her around September 27th.

(As a quick side note: it's funny how pregnancy announcements change with each successive one. They get come later and later and get more and more low key. Not that that says anything about the excitement level. The kids- and Mommy and Daddy too- are just ecstatic.)



We had a wonderful Passover this year. We invited several families who had never been to a Seder before. Our family really enjoys sharing this yearly tradition with others. It's such a beautiful picture of God's plan of redemption, both in the Old Testament, and through the death and resurrection of His Son.
We all had a wonderful time, though if you look closely at the above photo, you'll see that Megan thought it was occasionally too loud. (Click on the photo to make it bigger.) Justin was old enough this year to be fascinated by everything. See how he's just looking up at everything's Bryan's doing? Carsten was a little antsy, but he looked adorable, and Evan, in particular, really enjoyed the grape juice- just look at the mustache.


And- for Nathan, the crowning moment of the evening, was finding the Afikomen. He has wanted so badly every year to be the one to find it. When we congratulated him again the next morning, he said with great gravity, shaking his head, "Seven years, seven years."

And a very special thank you to Daddy for taking all of these and many other fantastic pictures. He was there! He's just behind the camera...

Living Lives Worthy

Bryan and I are fond of saying that our children are on "loan." It helps us to remember that each one of them is a special gift from God- a gift He has given with the express charge that we should raise them in a way that pleases Him. Bryan had a few days off at the end of last week, and we ended up spending a lot of time talking about our children and our parenting. We both have really been feeling like we need to encourage and praise the kids more. It's easy to correct them when they're wrong, but it's just as easy to overlook all the times they do obey or show kindness to a sibling.

I was still thinking along those lines this morning when I sat down for my regular Bible reading. It amazes me how God, in His infinite wisdom, can take a "scheduled," through-the-Bible type reading, and reveal something that is just so timely. It's not as if He needs to thunder, "Read 1 Thessalonians!" The Word of God is living and active, and He knows just how to make those words come alive for the need of the moment.

Anyway, I was reading 1 Thessalonians, and buried in Paul's praise and thanksgiving for the believers, I found some very interesting thoughts on parenting. First, in 2:7, Paul says, "We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children." Mothers, in Paul's view, should be gentle, and they should cherish their children as they would a treasure. This, for me, requires me to slow down. My life moves so fast sometimes that I don't take the time to cherish them and show that godly gentleness.

Then, in 2:11-12, Paul makes a comment about fathers. "We exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory." What an amazing statement! Fathers (and I would venture to say that this applies to mothers too) should encourage and comfort their children, urging them to live lives worthy of God's calling. While rebuke and correction certainly have their place- Paul's letters are filled with admonishments for his "children"- this reminded me that our main focus as parents should be nurturing our children for the kingdom of God, in gentleness, with encouragement.