Happy Monday, y’all. Delight in something beautiful today.

Today around 2:30pm I asked Jeremy if he could remember what we were doing four years ago, almost to the minute. He paused for a second, then yelled, “OH YEAH!” and took a flying leap to tickle-wrestle his favorite four year old on the couch.

Four years ago we walked into a split-level home in Kansas and became parents. We took in our arms a tiny baby girl, who felt quite foreign to us in that moment, and became forever attached to the family who birthed her and cherished her for the previous seven weeks. That afternoon we drove away feeling more rich, more blessed, and to be honest, more terrified than ever.

Happy Livia Day to Miss Livia Raine! We love you and are proud of you, our sweet girl.

Liv’s VBS photo

It occurred to me recently that I haven’t been doing much to teach Liv in an academic sense. She attended preschool last year—incredibly helpful and instructional—but I wanted to do more organized activities with her this summer. The true challenge, at least in my head, was whether I would make a worthy instructor. This, my friends, is a ridiculous challenge because my child performs for no man. She has read precisely one word (she sight read “book” back in January) and only recites the alphabet on random occasions. In fact, if you ask her what comes after E-F-G-H-I, she’ll say with a laugh, “joe” or “blueberry,” just to be funny. We discovered she could count to 20 last week while going for a walk on the University campus. Who knew?! She counts!

Enter thematic units. The idea was to create a week’s worth of activities around a central theme and incorporate math, reading, science, etc. The one week we’ve accomplished so far is Strawberry Week. It might be the only one we do the entire summer, but I hope I persevere and carry out a few more units before all is said and done. Liv and I spent time making a Strawberry Pretzel Salad the first day, then followed it up by a craft project the next. We thumbed through a book all about berries during the 2 hour+ of tornado warnings on evening, and then painted old t-shirts with strawberries the day after. The highlight of the week was a trip to Roca Berry Farm where we picked a large flat full of delightful and delicious berries—and Livia sampled half the number she picked. Only in this present day of germ phobia would one hear a child say (while pointing at mine), “Mom, LOOK! She’s eating the strawberries and they haven’t been washed!” Poor kid. He was probably the only child that day who wasn’t munching in the fields!

I suppose Strawberry Week still lives on. I finally made strawberry ice cream tonight, my first homemade batch of the summer, and it was all the more sweet because Liv and I made a fun memory together two weeks ago.

Apparently, the commenting folks who read my blog are a squeamish crowd. Geesh! For those of you shuddering at the thought of our little rotten snake egg, here’s a different set of pictures. Of my daughter. Because that’s what I do here on the Prairie Box. (Because really, that’s what I do in life.)

I gave Liv the choice of new shoes or new sunglasses, so please note the shiny pink shades she’s sporting in the following pic. Also, note the pose. I have no idea where the pose came from or why she suddenly started modeling, but sure, why not.

Perhaps it says something about the sheer flatness of my city because, when I was shooting this photo, I thought our view was magnificent. Sixth floor of a hospital and look! Wowee, the beautiful state capitol building! Struck by the grandeur of the capitol in the skyline (mock away, I’m fine with that), I oohed and aahed to Livia: Look! What do you see?

Her reply: Blockbuster!

Times visited: State Capitol, 0. Blockbuster, 10 million.

I’m boring myself on my own blog so I can’t imagine how the rest of you must feel! There’s a lot going on this week… We’ll be starting weekly services at Redeemer this Sunday (buckle your seatbelts!). For now we’ll meet at Zion on Sundays at 5:00pm, so come and join us in worship on the 22nd if you’d like. This week is also Vacation Bible School at Zion and let me tell you how awesome the gals are who put on this thing. There is so much prep work, so many gazillions of details that have to be managed–and they do it because they love Jesus and kids. Hats off to Tanya and Monica for all their hard work; they amaze me. I have the privilege of snapping photos all week. One of my favorite tasks so far has been shooting a head-and-shoulders shot of each kid for an art project. I love all the hilarious smiles the kids, ages 3 through 10, give the camera and end up laughing hard after each group of children. I’ll try and post a few shots here after the week is over.

And now for the photo of the week. Liv was pulling weeds at the Moreheads’ yesterday and she found an egg. After calling Jeremy to examine it, we took an Exacto to the thing for a little biology lab time. Our guess is that it’s a snake egg. It was squishy and bounced when I dropped it on accident. What do you think?

Our church building burned down a year ago yesterday. I tried to write a blog post yesterday afternoon but had terrible writer’s block. The block persists but seems a bit easier to bypass this morning. It’s not that it’s hard for me to talk about the fire. In fact, I feel like everyone has moved on and we’re all dealing just fine with the empty lot at 9th & D. The sheer emptiness of it all still looks and feels rather pathetic, but I have great hope for that space. While the congregation of Zion has moved down south into Southwood Lutheran’s old building, a new life is springing from the ashes. Within a short time after the fire, it was decided that a new church (what we call a daughter church, or church plant) would come back to this neighborhood to serve downtown Lincoln. We are a part of that church plant and next Sunday, in fact, will be our last week at Zion.

Redeemer is our name and it’s been a joy and pleasure to be a part of the very beginning stages of this new work. There’s so much to say about God’s goodness to us in the midst of the church plant, but the ole writer’s block is plaguing me. Suffice to say that my work for Redeemer as an Administrative Manager (the term Office Czar was a close second) is consuming a lot of my energy these days. There’s always a balance to work out with my chief role as Mommy and I’ve seen God’s grace many times over as I look for that balance. I love office work more than one can imagine and it’s a privilege to serve Redeemer and Tobey Brockman and Adam Odell (our pastors) in this way.

So, while I experienced twinges of sadness yesterday about the fire which devastated our building a year ago, I can’t remain sad about it. Good things are coming…

Last night, after being pulled from her warm bed and taken to the basement, Liv asks, “Is there a tormado outside?” She was listening to the radio along with us and seemed to accept that no tornados were outside our house, that they were closer to WalMart (a landmark she knows!). There was something about her sweet face turned up toward mine, asking about “tormados,” that made me want to protect her forever and ever.

While driving through Runza’s drive-thru window, Livia blurts, “Mom, you FREAKED me out!” After a few minutes of probing I find that the confusion between me and the cashier over “one chocolate in a cup, one chocolate cone and one swirl cone” about put Liv over the edge. What would this world have come to if my girl didn’t get her chocolate cone as ordered? (I’ll admit, the lack of chocolate sometimes freaks me out, too.)

Not once, but twice yesterday Livia asked loudly, “Who’s Frank?” It was the oddest question, completely unrelated to our previous conversation as far as I could tell. Can anyone tell me, “WHO’S FRANK?”

Moriah at Please Pass the Salt picked me for 7 Things. I rarely do memes, because I’m silly like that, but I couldn’t shake the thought of 7 random things that you. must. know. about Rebecca Tredway. And now that I’ve said you must know this information, I’d like to delete the whole post. Ha. Here goes…

1. I have a “funny” yawn, as Livia so accurately stated this morning. Some of my yawns end in a little burp.
2. In general, I don’t like fruit muffins but love chocolate chips ones (which we all know are called cupcakes).
3. I dream about theater on a regular basis. Most often I’m either auditioning or late for an audition, and my beloved high school theater teacher Carol Svoboda is always present.
4. I have never interviewed for a job. (This says little-to-nothing about my job skills, but quite a bit about providential timing.)
5. I can’t mow in a straight line to save my life. I also can’t cut in a straight line.
6. I can recite “The Friendly Cow” (Robert Louis Stevenson) from memory but I don’t remember memorizing it. I can also quote 1 Corinthians 13 in its entirety and I remember staying up all night in 6th grade with Kara Zwartverwer trying to memorize it and other scripture passages in an attempt to earn $20. Turns out, our youth leaders were kidding about the $20.
7. I believe I am better at almost everything at age 30 than I was at age 20. Apart from being quite skilled at studying as a 20 year old (simply because I had to be), I am now a kinder person, a wiser wife and mother, and overall slightly less of an idiot than I was at 20. By that account, 40 looks better every day.

**If your blog is listed on my righthand menu, consider yourself TAGGED. Therefore go ye peoples and have some random fun.