Kingdom Encounters

I haven't delved much into my faith on this blog, but here is one thing I believe.  I believe that the kingdom of God is not just something that awaits a person after they die.  I believe that the kingdom of God is a place you can dwell on Earth.  I'm not an expert on world religions, but I have a strong sense that this is not a belief unique to Christianity.  (And it's not a belief you always here associated with Christianity.)

In my mind, it's like you can go through your life (or each day) with your sunglasses on or off.  It is a complete perspective shift; a whole new realm.  I believe that we are all beautiful creations of a heavenly father and we can choose to reside in that knowledge, see others as equally beautiful creatures, and experience peace, hope, joy, forgiveness, gentleness, and love.  Or we can live simply "in the world" and judge, fear, worry, and be weighed down by countless other emotions.

The sunglasses analogy is perfect in my mind because it's not just how different your outlook can be, it's also a good fit for how easy it is to go between these two "worlds."  This is my struggle.

Our Sunday School class is reading James Bryan Smith's The Good and Beautiful Community and in this book he writes about the opportunity in our daily "kingdom encounters."  There is no need to go out looking for great opportunities to serve; chances to serve, love, and uplift exist all around us in our daily interactions.

How beautifully did I experience this on my recent travel home from Wyoming.

The Story

Characters:
Me, Jack (4), Cora (20 months) - please note the lack of other adult figures
Setting:
Jackson Hole, WY airport, Denver airport, New Orleans airport and airspace in between

Kingdom Encounters:

#1: The nicest ticket agent I've ever encountered takes a look at my itinerary, notes my tight 30 minute connection, and tells me to come see her at the gate so she can reseat us at the front of the plane.  She also lets my mom come through security with us. Time: 3:45 p.m.

#2: Smiling Jackson Hole Airport TSA agents pay Jack 50 cents for helping stack the bins

#3: My mother - I already know she is an angel, but she reproves this fact consistently.  We quickly learn that our airplane is not yet in route.  My mom entertains Jack and Cora while I wait in line to figure out our plan.

#4: My friendly ticket agent patiently explains our options and backs us up on two different routes, depending on if we do indeed fly to Denver that night.  At 8:00 p.m. (THANK YOU MOM for hanging with us!) we board our plane and head to Denver, knowing we will spend the night there and already having ourselves booked on the 11am New Orleans flight the next day.  We are seated in row 4 so we can quickly get to the customer service line.

Thankfully, I had this little guy helping me

#5: I get off the plane at 9:30 p.m. with two children who haven't slept at all.  I know we must go straight to the customer service counter to get our hotel voucher.  We are flying United.  I see a man with a Sky West lanyard walking so I ask him where the nearest United desk is.  He asks our situation.  I explain that we've missed our connection and need a hotel voucher.  He tells me where the nearest counter is but says "there's a long line."  He looks at us (Cora in Ergo, me holding Jack's hand) and says "why don't you come with me over to this gate and I'll help you there."  He spends 10 minutes confirming our flights and printing us hotel and meal vouchers.  Cora cries the whole time.  I make sure to look him right in the eye (which makes me tear up) and thank him for taking the time to help us.  We then walk to baggage claim passing two United customer service counters.  There are four people working at each and hundreds of people standing in line...

#6: On the ride to the airport, Cora falls asleep in my lap and Jack falls asleep beside me.  This leaves me with two sleeping children and two backpacks when we arrive at the hotel.  A couple offers help and carries our backpacks and holds Jack's hand.

#7: After lots of kind remarks and nice looks from older women (BECAUSE ANOTHER MOTHER KNOWS!!) we get to the front of the check-in line.  The Doubletree clerk gives us extra cookies.  I give one to Jack and a second later I'm being handed the cookie back and he is sobbing.  Did it burn him??  No..."I miss Grammy!" he sobs.

By the morning, Cora and Jack are finding the hotel quite fun

#8: Back at the Denver airport the next morning, we are rerouted to the short family TSA line and then rerouted again out of that line to an empty TSA agent (I guess we looked especially fragile.)  We don't have to take our laptop out or shoes off and Jack earns himself a TSA badge sticker.

#9: Our on-time New Orleans flight has us seated next to lovely Jodie, mother of two girls.  She plays with Cora, talks to Jack, and was another lovely seatmate.

#10: At 3:00 p.m. we are back in New Orleans, have our bag, and are in the taxi line.  (Jacob is in a meeting.)  The sweetest looking woman is our taxi driver.  She is friendly and kind and during the ride both Jack and Cora receive new books which she pulls from the glove compartment box.

24 hours after we arrived at the airport, we are HOME.  Every one of the people I mentioned above chose to show kindness, take time, be joyful and they very much blessed us by choosing to operate by standards of a world better than this one.

Baby girl at 20 months!

I'm not sure when I'll stop thinking of Cora as a baby (but I do know it hasn't happened yet.)

This will be remembered as a COLD month.  This led to lots of indoor quality time with Jack and Cora.  At the top of the list: art projects (she loves stickers and gluing "gems"),

playing with letters and numbers (she likes to empty and refill the bags and carry her favorites around the house), and playing with her baby dolls (or Jack's stuffed animals.)

Her sleep struggles have shifted from nights to naps.  I'm now only getting up with her one time a night (and usually not until after 4:00), but Jacob says she still cries some earlier in the night.  (I've become quite adept at sleeping through crying.)  But all of the sudden she started having trouble going down for naps.  No trouble at school, but at home, we've had two weeks of mostly difficult days.  Sometimes it's because she poops after I've got her down and settled; other days I feel like I've missed her "window."  I've tried playing with the time, but that hasn't helped.  Her nap is shorter: now around 1.5 hours.  But she is ready to go bed around 6:30 and will sleep till after 7, with that one brief waking, so she gets the bulk of her sleep at night.

But this face gets everything forgiven!

She definitely knows more words (deer, yuck, cookie, button, one, and "MINE!" all come to mind), but she still tends to smile and use gestures, rather than words in most situations.  Her favorite book is "Good Night Gorilla" and it's the first book she picks out most days ("Yilla!")  She loves her "dankie" and pretty much requires it to go to sleep.  She LOVES to clutch things, but what it is she wants to clutch changes throughout the day.

Here with some stuffed animals and the number "0" at the library

 She also loves her brother.  She terrorizes him frequently, but just look at the way she looks at/up to him :)

We dropped her before-bed nursing this month.  It was as simple as having Jacob take over bedtime.  Cora cries for about 30 seconds when she realizes that she is getting neither mama nor mama's milk, but she settles down quickly for a book and rocking with daddy instead.  She is nowhere near weaned, which we're both happy about, but it does feel good to know we took the first step.

Baby girl at 20 months!  (She loves to steal my phone!)

Clocks, scary Candy Land, and toys Mommy likes

I have never had so much stuff in my life.  It took me most of January to wrestle the birthday and Christmas presents into a semblance of order.  I truly feel my kids could stay home for the next 334 days and not get bored.  (We got to test this theory lasts week on two "ice" days.)

Two ladies by the names of Beth Ann and Peggy are the reason for most of these presents.  I have to say they are both great shoppers, so I really like all of our presents from this year and years past, thus, I haven't been able to downsize.

Here are a few things we are having a good time with.

Fireman Clock

Jack loves this for obvious reasons but it has also been a great help in keeping him in his bed!  He knows that morning isn't here until the small hand (or the small "hose") are between the 6 and the 7.  And when he gets in his bed for rest, I tell him where the big hand will need to be before he can get out.  I don't hear a peep and then see a beaming, proud Jack arise at the appointed time!  Thanks Beth Ann (Grammy)!

Scary Candy Land

I loved this game as a child, but I remember it as being easier on the eyes.  The new version just scares me for some reason, but we still love playing it.  It's an easy game for a 4 year old and is simple and quick to play.

Easel and Art Box

The easel was on our wish list and MeeMaw (Peggy) generously gave this plus added in art supplies and smocks.  Jack and Cora love "art projects" on the pull down paper side.  Jack's favorite parts of the dry erase side are making schedules and using the "fire extinguisher" spray to get the board clean.  There is also a chalk board which we've been using to practice writing letters.

Since I knew art projects were in our future, I went searching for some cute boxes to store our supplies.  I found two striped wooden boxes at Marshalls for markers, chalk, crayons, etc.  I found another box at Marshalls and some desk organizers that I glued into the box.  This allowed me to fill this special "art box" with treasures: gems, pom poms, buttons, ribbon, feathers, and pipe cleaners (thank you Michaels).  This was my Christmas present to Jack.  I had fun assembling it and we've had fun using it for collages.

Doodle Book

I knew pre-birthday/ Christmas that I didn't need to buy any gifts (remember: generous grandparents), but it's fun to shop for your little ones, so I did pick up a few birthday gifts.  Shopping for your child is a little dangerous because you can't help but think about what YOU would like to play/do.  I couldn't pass up this doodle book because it seemed like a quiet, chill, artistic activity for me and Jack to do while Cora naps.  Mommy absolutely loves it!  Jack is game for a little while...oh well!

You start with blank shapes and an example and then doodle away

I asked Jack and Cora what their favorite toys were and here is what they said:

"Daddy's miniature cars" (found in Meemaw's attic)

Whatever random thing she is carrying around at the moment, here a car and a construction worker

 It is not lost on me that neither of these things were new or cost anyone any money!

Who said girls aren't good at math?

This is what has been cute around here lately...

CORA

 JACK

JACOB so excited when he hears Jack listening to The Allman Brothers on our iPad...only to hear Jack run up the stairs with the iPad saying, "Mom, how do I get the Raffi songs on?"

JACK saying "Mom I don't think you were saying a lie when you said the sucker was strawberry, I just think you were mistaken."

CORA dancing, CORA clapping whenever I pee, CORA saying "No-no-no" with a wagging finger, CORA always reaching her hands out to the rest of us at the table to remind us to hold hands and say the blessing.

CORA's obsession with the #8.  We have a wooden set of numbers and a fabric set of numbers and I noticed she always seemed to be running around with the 8s.  Then the other day, she had the wooden 8 and had pulled the 8 out of our clock puzzle, convincing me it wasn't random.

My proof of her 8-affection and her cuteness:

Letter Walks and other at-home-learning

I love structure; I'm creative; I like kids; I love to read; I love to learn.  This makes me well-suited to teaching.

I never planned to teach as a child or in college.  After college (and my failed attempt at becoming Miss South Carolina - yes that is a true fact), I had a degree in Political Science, minor in French, and no clear path.  I applied to work at the non-profit Teach for America's national headquarters and, on a road trip to New York City, I accepted my first job there.

I learned a lot about the organization and, within the year, applied to become a Teach for America teacher.  I convinced Jacob to join me last minute (he submitted his application about 30 minutes before the deadline) and we were accepted and placed together in the new Hawaii region.

On my last day teaching in Hawaii with my teary-eyed students :(

We spent two years teaching elementary school in Hawaii, one year recruiting for the organization in Washington and Oregon, and I spent another year working for Teach For America New Orleans supporting early elementary school teachers.  In 2010, I joined ReNEW Charter Schools and have worked there ever since, leading or now working part-time on the literacy team.

And now I have a four year old.  And I'm in heaven.  Jack loves to play school.  So I've worked all kinds of lessons into our play.  For Christmas we got an art easel which has given us the perfect spot for our "school."

On Thursdays, I'm home all day with both Jack and Cora, so we create a Landry Home School for the day.  Jack loves the concept of a schedule so that's how we get started. 

 Here are some activities we love:

• Letter Play - we usually pick a letter of the day, talk about it, pick it out of our letter bag, look for it around our house, write it and talk about its sound.  Cora likes when we sing the ABCs.

 

• Letter Walks - we go on a short walk and look for the letter around the neighborhood.  Jack is the searcher and I'm the photographer. (Cora comes along in the stroller).  I use my iCloud to grab the pictures, drop them in Word, and print them out. 

 

• Number Games - my aunt gave Jack a set of handmade wooden numbers and we use them to count and label groups.  I make piles of various items (books, dried beans, etc.) and Jack labels them with the correct number.  

We also have made collages like this #1-#10 collage.  (Cora put on all the stickers; Jack oversaw the counting.)

• Our Values Book - this idea came to me from feeling I needed to be more intentional on teaching values and building character.  I've just started it, but I have a list of values I want to cover (including Kindness, Patience, Gratitude, etc.)  I do a Google image search to find pictures that capture the value.  Jack and I start by looking at and discussing these pictures.  Then we use his books to further understand the value.  For kindness, we looked through his Berenstain Bear books for examples of being kind.  We've not done this yet, but my plan is to bring our big book out at dinner and use it to think about times we saw kindness during the day and to talk about ways we can show kindness the next day.

Will I Remember?

As of yesterday, Cora is 19 months old!  

Having two children, I now know that YOU FORGET so much!  If you asked me what Jack was like at 19 months, I'd have to try to pull up events from that month to give me a reference point...and still I'm not coming up with much.  I certainly have lots of memories, but it makes me sad that I can't pull up more.

I started this blog when Jack was nearing 2 and prior to that, I wrote in a journal every month.  Each month, I pull this journal out to remind myself about Jack at Cora's age.  I AM SO THANKFUL FOR THIS JOURNAL!

Which makes me wonder - will I remember all the things that are CORA at this moment in her life?  Since it's likely these memories will be crowded out by whatever our present is at the time, let me record what I hope I remember.

At 19 months...

- Cora has sort of a precious mute thing going on.  Rather than talk, she lets you talk and then she just nods or shakes her head.  For example, "Cora, say book.  Do you want to read a book?  Say book"  And rather than say book (a word she knows) she just nods emphatically and smiles at you.

- With that same sweet innocent look, if you tell her not to do something, she's likely to keep looking at you sweetly and do that thing again, i.e. dropping her dinner on the floor, piece by piece, when she feels she's had enough.

- When she sits down to dinner in her high chair if her water hasn't arrived yet, she'll immediately say "Where wa-wa" with arms extended and hands upturned and an exaggerated turning of her head

- She hightails it to the door whenever Jacob gets home and gives him a bear hug.  He absolutely loves this and I'd say it makes his day, every day.

At Celebration in the Oaks

- When I pick her up from school, she bursts into a smile, clenches her hands, and squeals "Mama!!"

- She goes ballistic when I won't give her my car keys.  It is hard for me to remember she is a baby when she does this.  I HAVE TO START THE CAR CORA!  I used to be a real softie and would give her my keys while I got her and Jack settled...until the time that I had shut both car doors and she pressed LOCK with her and Jack inside.  She just smiled at me through the window compulsively hitting the lock button. Sadly, Jack was strapped in and couldn't reach her.  He was trying but she was yanking the keys away and making her "Ehh" offended sound.  Luckily she finally hit the unlock button and I got back in.  And then she was pissed again when I took the keys...

- Her sleep, I remember.  2-7 months: perfect sleeper!  Would wake once around 4 or 5.  Then months of rough patches and lots of night nursing.  Then back to the sustainable rhythm of waking to nurse between 5 and 6 and then going back to sleep.  And then at 18 months, a few beautiful weeks of sleeping from 7 to 7!  And then Christmas vacation.  And now she is waking 2-3 times a night and howling for mama.  At Jacob's mom's house, where we were all in one room, she just stood in the crib and screamed, reaching for me and saying "Mih, Mih, Mih."  That was last week.  We're working on it!

- Nursing: Despite the fact that I seem to be her only antidote in the middle of the night, I love nursing Cora.  And she does love her "mih."  Nursing a toddler has its own unique quirks and rewards: Cora has side preferences which she expresses strongly and which change depending on the day.  She thinks milk is yummy and there is no quicker way to break her heart than to tell her no.  She nurses 3-4 times a day at this point.

- She likes to carry random things around the house.  At my parents' house, it was a wooden knife.

- Speaking of security items, she loves her "dankie."  Luckily there are three identical ones.  One stays at school and we rotate the other two through the wash.

- This month she changed her brother's name from "Dja-Dja" to just "DJAH!"

I feel like Cora is making us work harder than Jack was at 19 months.  But then again, maybe that's because I can't really remember Jack at 19 months!

2013 Christmas: In pictures and links

December 20th
- We drive halfway to our destination of Florence, SC (Grammy and Big Papa-land)
- Kids do great for first 6 hours.  Last 30 minutes was a little rough...
- Favorite memory: watching tired and cranky Jack and Cora light up like little explorers as we walk down the hotel hallway.  I love how for a child everything is an adventure!

December 21st
- We spend the morning at Atlanta's Imagine It! Children's Museum before driving the last 4.5 hours.

 
December 22nd
- "Jack, in SC you go to church twice on Sundays" :)  I was able to go to my childhood church for regular services and also for the community lessons & carols service.
- Favorite memory: Jacob and Jack baking bread together for dinner.  Ahh...vacation!

Icing Cookies

A Jack Creation

December 23rd
- Family Christmas with my dad's family
- Favorite memory: Jack pulling my 89 year old grandfather out of his chair in a game of hide and seek!  I love how he saw past his age and frailty and pulled him into the fun.

December 24th
- My mom is the consummate host. 

 We happily ate off this meal for days.

December 25th
- Santa is generous!
- Our family trains (one of which dates to the early 1950s) are a HUGE hit!
- Favorite memory: seeing Saving Mr. Banks with Jacob, my sister, and brother-in-law and my sister and I crying in sync throughout the movie :)

December 26th
- Made Jacob play the favorite family card game of Nertz.  He absolutely hates it.
- Favorite memory: playing Old Maid with Jack.  Has no bluffing skills as of yet.

Another new game to play: Pallina

 
December 27th
- Bye-bye babies!  Jacob and I kick off a four day brewery-restaurant tour of upstate SC/NC.

- Soby's in Greenville for dinner

December 28th
- Jacob tours breweries; I relax at coffee houses.  I tour Highland Brewing Co. with him in Asheville.
- This was a hit day for eating: Southern Culture for brunch in Greenville and Seven Sows Bourbon & Larder for dinner in Asheville.
- Asheville is just too cool.  On our last trip we went contra-dancing.  This time we just watched the clogging at Feed & Seed's FREE Saturday night gospel and bluegrass concert.

December 29th
- We are in a nice vacation rhythm: sleep in till 7:30, work out in hotel gym, late morning brunch, WHATEVER WE FEEL LIKE DOING, late evening dinner
- Dinner was another big hit: Cucina 24 in Asheville

December 30th
- After more eating (Early Girl Eatery in Asheville and Hunter Gatherer in Columbia with my aunt and uncle) we come home to our babies.  The red-head hasn't really missed us; the curly-head has, but both have had a blast.

Jack and Cora got to spend lots of time with their new cousin Billy

December 31st
- Spend most of the day trying to pack our greatly expanded belongings into our Toyota Prius
- Early birthday dinner with my family
- Favorite memory: Jack "keeping a secret" all day about the "carrot pie" he has made me for dinner.  Best line was at dinner after he'd spilled the secret in every way possible throughout the day: he leaned in front of me to "whisper" to my sister that "it's not really a carrot pie, it's a cake."

January 1st
- 12.5 hours from Florence, SC to New Orleans, LA (11 hours of that driving) - best possible day to drive - no one on the roads, kids do pretty well

January 2nd
- My Birthday!  Lunch with friends; bowling with Jack and Jacob at Rock n Bowl; dinner out with Jacob; free babysitting by Tante Sara....NICE

January 3rd
- Load up kids again to drive to Jennings, LA for Landry Christmas

January 4th
- Christmas in January with Jacob's side of the family - lots of good food and presents and a big New Orleans Saints victory at the end of the day

January 5th
- Cora has held us hostage for the last time on our holiday travels!!  This particular night included 3 extensive night wakings and up for good at 4:30 a.m.  We are SO ready to get her back to good sleep habits in her own room!  3 more hours of driving and the Landrys are ready for some quiet weeks at home after wonderful, but tiring, weeks of travel!