Starla's 5th Birthday

Birthdays are always a time of reflection for me. I recall vividly the details of delivering the particular child who's life is being celebrated. Starla entered the world on opening day of the Texas State Fair. You gotta live here to understand that's close to a holiday. She left the hospital nameless and only 3 days later became our own yellow "Rose" of TX. Our long distance baby shower arrived in the 2 suitcases of Linda Halmi and Lori DeVries, sisters in Christ, who flew here to help me with several days of cooking and household help. The memories are tender and sweet. Her life has been an unanticipated blessing.

So, one week shy of 5 years later, "the baby" is ready to give up sucking her thumb. On go the band-aids as an accountability tool. She dons her hand-me-down ballet suit and heads to class. She's growing up like the rest of them....I pray she will grow in the wisdom, stature and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Tea Party Express

The Tea Party Express buses were passing through Dallas last Friday on a cross country tour from CA to DC. The girls and I went down to the rally for civics class. We want the girls to understand our privilege and responsibility in this country to peacefully express our will to those we elect. I also wanted to be counted as opposing nationalized public healthcare. It was also a good opportunity to pass out literature for parentalrights.org The kids had mixed reviews. Lily was disappointed they didn't serve snacks and Starla cried because she thought it was going to be "a tea party".

Soccer Season Again

Lily's playing soccer again. She's got a great coach too--her Dad. Brian's coaching a team of 10-11 year old girls. They are a scrappy bunch. This hard working team won their first game on Saturday even though players were missing for the holiday weekend. Lily played so hard in the heat, she didn't even care much that she won because she was so hot and tired. A dip in the pool was a good antedote to that problem.