More pictues

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: megan Vaughn <meganodee@yahoo.com>
To: Blog <meganodee.email@blogger.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2013 9:48 AM
Subject: More pictues

Here are some photos.  Not all most recent but better than nothing.

Dreams of joy and perfection

My mom and I are going to start  little school time sessions for Eloise.  She is so incredibly curious these days that it's enjoyable to daydream of activities and school goals for her. 
Kaleidoscope is a local parent/teacher store that is jam-packed floor to ceiling with gadgets, books, art supplies, puzzles, toys, etc.  I've been imagining a careful, thoughtful trip to Kaleidoscope with a well-researched list of age appropriate items to acquire. 
Instead, I got there with 9 minutes before closing, having spent about 2 minutes brainstorming in the car en route.  Poster paints and some kid-sized insect dominoes were my acquisition.  Eloise won't know the difference between how I imagined and what transpired.  But I will. 

As a teacher and a parent I imagine I should be well-equipped to teach and raise her in a wise path.  But, dirty floors, traffic, and schedules minimize my success, my self-judged success. 

Thinking about this incident makes me realize two things.  God is my Daddy and he is far better equipped to teach and raise me than anyone else.  If I spend my time joyfully imagining Eloise learning and playing with a perfectly age-appropriate toy or learning gadget, how much more time does the Creator spend doing the same for me and you and all of his kids? What if there was a cosmic Kaleidoscope store just for God to peruse and select life circumstances and friendships and sunsets and outdoor adventures for us kids to encounter in well-timed Life School!  I believe it is really something like that.  He knows how to love us and teach us in exactly the right way because he knows our love languages and our learning styles.

There's a verse in the Bible that says, "I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope."  And the good thing is his plans don't ever get interrupted by traffic or procrastination.  

I think Eloise will enjoy her finger paints and her dominoes but I wonder what plans God has for her!  I'm looking forward to finding out and being a part of them.

Back on the Wagon

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my last post.  However, in that time I took an intensive 8-week online course.  Now I'm certified to be an online teacher!  I don't have any online courses to teach currently but I am hoping that this will open doors for me so I can be more flexible with my teaching schedule.  The ultimate goal is to continue to stay home with Eloise as many hours a week as possible while still helping pay some bills.  During that 8-week course, I created, close captioned, and posted my very first YouTube video EVER.  Very exciting.  The video isn't exciting but the process and the accomplishment is.

Since my last visit to this blog, Eloise turned 2!  When asked how old she is she always answers, "Ten!" with a smile that shows she knows just how cheeky her answer is.  Some accomplishments are that she graduated to a toddler bed, sleeps through the night (most nights), and jumps on the neighbor's trampoline all by herself.        Currently we are in Kansas with Grandma, Grandad, Aunt, Uncle, and three cousins.  Other than the over 100 degree heat, we are enjoying seeing family we haven't seen in a long time.

I'm enjoying all of the grownup sounding words Eloise is wielding..."earlier" "maybe" "yesterday" and her delightful counting, "49, 3, 2"  when there's a lot of something.  She frequently wants to know what people are doing and where they are going.

Along with this curiousness came our first mildly embarrassing question.  Recently, we walked past a woman smoking.  About two feet away from the woman, Eloise looked at her and then looked at me, "lady doing?"  How do I explain smoking to a two year old?  Do I tell her that it's a burning piece of paper people like to put in their mouths because it makes them feel good?  No. All I said is, 'it's called smoking.' and left the subject alone.  This is just the beginning of difficult questions.  Hopefully, wisdom will arrive as needed.

Garden Notes

Unwilling to use a Monsanto product on our property, I googled ways to kill poison oak without Roundup. One suggestion was to spray vinegar on it. Another suggestion, from my gardener sister-in-law was to pour boiling water on it. Both strategies have worked! The boiling water provides immediate gratification as I watch small young specimens droop in seconds. However, it would be impractical for a large, well-established stand of the vile plants. Pouring white vinegar on the leaves of some largish plants 4-5 days in a row has had great results, though not immediate. Arugula (aka 'rocket' in New Zealand) is growing like a thick carpet. Remember, Eloise sowed those seeds and they are one thick mat. I cannot pick it fast enough. Fortunately, I found a recipe for Arugula-Cilantro Pesto in my Vegetarian Planet cookbook. If I go heavy on the cilantro (also growing profusely in my garden) the pesto is quite yummy. Eloise is growing too! She speaks whole sentences about many many topics. She happily reports on events around her, and small changes in her daily scenery. A first time babysitter reported to me this week, "she has a lot to say." Yes she does. Her current favorite song is, "Jesus loves the little chickens, all the chickens of the world. Red and yellow, black and white...." Sung to the tune of "Jesus Loves the Little Children". Nomad...hmm. I don't know if he is really a garden specimen but he probably has algae growing in the dips of the non-skid. He is sitting on stands in a marina in Kona Hawaii. All I can hope is that he isn't also harboring large colonies of Kona Cruisers. Ugg. We had hoped to sail him to the West Coast this summer but since we'll be both teaching summer school, there won't be time to do that. This means a whole year sitting by himself on the hard. It's a strange feeling to have him abandoned and far away after so much time aboard.

Gamma and Dad

Damma (Grandma) and andad (Granddad) have been here for the past 10 days. She got to be pulled around in a red wagon, picked up, read to, and generally been the main focus of attention for the entire time. Damma sewed a curtain for Eloise's room and played the piano for/with her. Unfortunately, I've now got a fractured metatarsal in my right foot....acquired while walking and carrying my sturdy little lady. It seems like it's going to be a long 4-6 weeks, especially as we're starting a road trip with Ama tomorrow to visit cousins and aunt and uncle in Portland. I'm sure it will all figure itself out, one day at a time. It's been interesting to be back in the U.S. Six months now for Eloise and me. I find myself getting caught up in the comparison game already. When we were in Fiji sitting on handwoven pandanu mats on cement block floors gritty with ant highways and years of cooking smoke, I didn't look around at what our hosts did or didn't have. But when I look around our little dome (enormous in comparison to every single house we entered in the South Pacific), I criticize the old upholstery on the couch or cringe that I don't have a matching set of dishes. Luckily I got a nice reminder of what is really important the other day while reading 1 John 2: 15-16 "15 Don’t love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you cannot love the Father. 16 Our foolish pride comes from this world, and so do our selfish desires and our desire to have everything we see. None of this comes from the Father." Once again, re-focused on the plethora of things/relationships for which I am thankful. I have far more stuff than I really need. Far more stuff than most of the people I met on our voyage. What's going to really matter when I'm dead and gone is relationships and my choices to love the folks in my world.

Why?

Eloise said, "Why?" for the first time this past week. 

A banana slug was in the cat food dish.  She has seen them before and still remembers the first time she ever saw one.  BUT this time she took a step back and looked at me, "hab it?" she asked.  "No," I said, "but you can touch it.  It's sticky." And then the why!  It surprised me. Did she really want to know why the slug was sticky?  So I asked her if that's what she meant.  "Yes." she said.  Ok.  I stammered around and said something about how the sticky stuff protects it.  I don't even know if that's true.  I've got to be more prepared next time.  I don't mind saying, " I don't know." but in my head while I was trying to answer Eloise's first Why, I was already grieving the passing of this first milestone.  I certainly didn't want her first ever Why to to be given an I don't know. 

Album

She also likes rocking in her own chair, eating whipped cream (that was her first time ever!), and going to the Long Marine Lab.