Especially For Moms

Even if you're not a mom, you're still welcome to read on; maybe you'll have a laugh - or maybe it will stress you out. But I have a feeling many of my mom friends will be able to relate with this. I am by NO MEANS a writer, so this may not even hold your attention. I apologize for its length, but I'm doing this partly for my own sanity and to keep a sense of humor about all this. Anyway, our morning yesterday went something like this....

Abby woke up early and went down again at 6:30, which was the time that Tim left for his field study to Jericho and Benjamin. I had an hour and a half to myself (glorious!) to get ready, have devotions, and get prepared for our school day. By 8:00 when Caleb woke up, I was feeling ready and very optimistic about the day.

Here's how it really went:

Caleb wakes up at 8:00, has half a bowl of cereal, deciding to save the rest for later, against my encouragement to eat it all. This mistake may have been the cause of many of our problems for the morning. Since Josiah's still asleep, I tell Caleb I'd like to start school right away. Immediately Josiah wakes up, so forget that idea. He eats two full bowls of cereal. Caleb makes his bed and brushes his teeth while I work with Josiah at getting him dressed (a long process as we are teaching Josiah to dress himself). We're ready to start school with both Caleb and Josiah. Before we can begin, Abby wakes up. I try and give Caleb something to do independently, and he refuses, saying he's hungry. I tell him to wait until snacktime to have a snack.

I change Abby's diaper and clothes and get ready to start school. We do the calendar and memory verse together, then the phone rings. It's Laura saying she has bought a used toaster oven that we can have since our oven broke. Great! Let's get back to school. Now Abby's hungry. I give the boys something to do. Josiah works independently very well while I feed Abby. Caleb complains of being tired, so I allow him to lie down since last week he threw up after saying he was tired. Josiah finishes his work. (Go Josiah! Thanks to those of you who prayed for him today!)

Caleb emerges from his room. I try to get him started on school again. Abby fusses because now she needs solid-food breakfast. I get it ready (bananas - a large helping - in a bowl) and set it on the table near where Caleb is supposed to be working. I get Abby strapped into her high chair. Caleb reaches for something on the table and knocks the bowl off, sending baby bananas all over the floor and legs of the chair. I have Caleb clean it up while I get more bananas, which I had made fresh that morning and put in ice cube trays in the freezer. Since they were quite cold (though not frozen yet), I put the bowl with the cold bananas in the microwave for a few seconds (we have an old-fashioned microwave with a dial, so you can't set it for just 10 seconds). Josiah asks for juice, so I forget about the bananas and get him some juice. A minute later, Abby's bananas are boiling in the microwave. I add some more cold bananas to even it out and start feeding Abby. Caleb sits down to start his work and pinches his finger under the seat on the chair (we have a chair that pinches if you pull up on the seat and sit down at the same time). He screams and runs out of the room, crying.

It is now 10am and Caleb has one thing written down on his page: part of the date (a backwards 9 and a 2, which is not even right. Today is the 19th). The washing machine just stopped. Now is the best time to hang the clothes out to dry, because clothes dry quickly on the clothesline in the morning. But I choose to leave it because now is my chance to work with Caleb, since he is calm after hurting his finger. I have about 5 minutes of successful word-building with him (with letter cards because writing just isn't his thing this morning). Abby starts crying again. Time for a nap. Caleb complains that he wants a snack. I get him a small snack, to which he responds, "These don't taste good." Josiah grabs ahold of my pen and breaks it (it was already sort-of broken). Caleb is very distractible, so he and Josiah start fighting over who gets to play with the pieces of the pen. I take the pen and decide it would be a good idea to let Josiah watch a DVD in his room while I work with Caleb, since Josiah had worked so hard earlier. I start up the Diego DVD while Caleb is complaining that he doesn't get to watch a DVD. The portable DVD player loses its charge and conks out as we start it up. Caleb comments, "Good, now Josiah doesn't get to watch a DVD!" I send Caleb to his room for a time-out while I look for the DVD charger and plug it in. Abby has stopped crying but wants to be held.

Josiah is set up with the DVD player now, and I'm about to call Caleb out of his room to start school. But the door buzzer rings. It's probably a utility guy who doesn't speak any English, asking for money (yes, this has happened before). But no, it's just Laura delivering our toaster oven. Yahoo! The highlight of my morning!! I give Laura a hug as a thank-you, and just because I need a hug! (Thank you, Laura, for praying for us the rest of the day after that!) I call Caleb to the table to start school. Wait, what's that smell? Oh, Abby, didn't I just put a fresh diaper on you? I go change Abby's diaper, having started Caleb on his spelling words.

I return to see that Caleb has written two words, and now he is complaining of being cold. I'm broiling. It's almost 80 degrees in the house; how can he be cold? I take his temperature. No fever, he's fine. This is actually the second time this morning that he has complained of being cold, so I give him warm clothes to put on. He slips them on over his other clothes and says he's still cold. I dig out his snowman blanket that I brought here from home. He's glad to see it. He wraps it around himself then decides he wants the blanket only, not the warm clothes. He removes his warm clothes and sits at the table with the blanket around him. Now it's 11:20 and he has two spelling words written. (By the way, after all that with the warm clothes and blanket, I looked at him about a minute later, and he wasn't even using the blanket anymore.)

Abby's tired and should go down for a nap. I transfer the portable DVD player to my room so Josiah can watch in there while Abby sleeps (they share a room). I return to see Caleb staring at his spelling page, not writing. I offer this contest: "Caleb, I am going to go out and hang the laundry on the line. If you can finish writing your spelling words before I finish hanging the clothes out, you win a chocolate wafer cookie. If I finish my work before you, then I get a wafer cookie." He agrees. While I'm hanging the clothes out, I hear Caleb calling, "Mommy, do I have to have more of these?" I come in to realize he's talking about spelling lists. I tell him that yes, he will have a new spelling list every week. "Do I have to have these for the REST of my LIFE?!" he says. "Yes, honey, you will have spelling lists and learn new things throughout your life...." You know the 'needing an education in order to get a job and make money to survive' talk? Well, I gave that to him. He tells me he doesn't ever want to have a job and make money.

I return to my laundry and finish up while Caleb complains. He has written four of his ten words. I go to the kitchen and eat my well-deserved wafer cookie because I NEED CHOCOLATE! Caleb gives up saying he wants to go back to California because he doesn't like school. When I explain to him that in California he'll go to school, too, and his school day will be even longer than it is here, he starts crying and says, "I WISH I WAS THREE!!!" (In his mind, 3-year-olds get to watch a DVD in Mom and Dad's room while he's doing school.) He also states, "This is the WORST DAY of MY LIFE!!!!"

While this is going on, Abby's been crying because she never went to sleep on her own. Usually she's pretty good about that. I pick her up and hold her. Caleb cries, saying, "You don't care about me because you didn't give me a wafer cookie!!!!" I give him the talk about how I spent a lot of time this morning praying for him and that I love him and care about him, etc. He calms down a little bit. Abby has fallen asleep in my arms, so I go lay her down. Now Josiah is finished watching his DVD and he's had an accident on my bed. Lovely. Thankfully, it wasn't a big one - just minor.

It's 11:45. Time for Lunch! Phew!

Let me tell you, after Caleb ate a hearty lunch, he power-worked until our recess in the park at 2:00. He got all of his morning work done - Language, Spelling, and Math before 2:00!! Hmmm, perhaps the lack of good nutrition at breakfast had something to do with our difficult morning!

And praise the Lord that our afternoon and evening went great - when we got to the park, another mom gave us a box of hand-me-down toys and blocks. What a huge blessing! In the evening, I went to our homeschool co-op meeting and got a bag full of second-hand children's books. This afternoon as he was playing with our "new" treasures, Caleb said to me, "Mommy, this isn't the WORST day of my life anymore, this is the BEST day of my life!"

So there you have it. A homeschooling day in the life of the Becksvoort family. :)

Our First "Monthoversary"

Well, we are approaching the one-month mark for our stay in Israel, and what an adventure it has been! I continue to home-school Caleb Sunday through Thursday while trying to include Josiah in some educational activities and meet Abby's needs at the same time. I am thankful she takes both a morning and an afternoon nap. When she is awake, she is quite patient and enjoys exploring the apartment while we do our schooling. She is very mobile now and has even started pulling up on the furniture (yes, she's not even 8 months old yet; she's growing way too quickly for me)! Four days a week, we have "recess" in the local park with other homeschool families. That has been a blessing for the kids to have interaction with other children, and for me to have interaction with other moms.

Abby pulled herself up under the table and then considered herself stuck!

We made creations with raisins and toothpicks the other day.

Josiah had a little help with his. :) He just wanted to eat the raisins.

We've been doing a lot of reading at our house, and Abby wants to get in on it!

(Prayer Request: This week we only made it to co-op recess once because of Abby's naps on two days and because Caleb threw up this morning, so we didn't go today (I think he's okay now though). Please pray that the Lord provides for us to go every day since it is important that we have the interaction with other people and the opportunity to build Community. Also please continue to pray for our health. Abby threw up last week, but she's fine now. My cough is finally gone as of this week. Thank you for your prayers!)

Tim continues to attend classes at JUC Monday through Friday, with field studies on the weekends. This weekend is a holiday, however, so he has Friday and Saturday off. Yippee! We will be celebrating Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on Saturday with our friends who helped us get our apartment. No one drives on that day, so we hear that everyone roams the streets - walking, biking, sitting in the middle of the road, etc., so I'm sure we'll have pictures of that for you!

Last weekend, as Tim wrote, we had the privilege of witnessing the celebration of the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) here in Jerusalem. As he noted, our family went to the Western Wall a couple of times to observe what was going on. Here are a few pictures of our experience there. (Photos are not permitted near the Wall, so the pictures you see were taken from up above, outside of the secure area.)

Many Jews wear white on special holidays.

Michelle, Caleb, and Josiah sharing fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice for Rosh Hashanah

The route to the Old City from our house...

The City Wall from afar

The City Wall closer-up

Jerusalem University College (Tim's school) - the building in the center, not the clock tower.

The outdoor theater near the Old City: Two weeks ago, Israel's version of American Idol was hosted live here. We could hear it from our apartment.

Monday afternoon, one of the homeschool co-op families invited us to the Promenade around the corner from us. It is beautiful - a wide, stone path with lots of olive trees, pomegranate and fig trees, grape vines; and... a play structure. :) There are also several viewpoints where we could see the Old City and Temple Mount. Here are a few pictures:

One view from the Promenade path - Jerusalem

The Temple Mount

The Play Structure at the Promenade

The boys going down the slide with their friend Petra

A teeter-totter! The boys were sad when recently our local park pulled their teeter-totter out. Now we have another one we can use!

Caleb doing a chin-up

The view from the top of the play structure - Jerusalem behind them

Our friends from the homeschooling co-op

Another viewpoint on the Promenade path

Other ways you can pray for us...

There are a lot of mosquitoes here, so our kids have bug bites all over them. We have no screens on our windows (just bars), so when we have the windows open at night, the bugs come in. We are thankful it's been slightly cooler so we don't have to have the windows open at night. Please pray for continued cooler weather and for relief from the bug bites (especially for Josiah who scratches them until they bleed).

Our fridge has a personality of its own. Sometimes it reaches the 50's during the day and we have to transfer food to the freezer. Other days it stays cool. Our oven went out on Monday just before we had a friend over for dinner. I had to use our neighbor's oven. Please pray we can get our appliances repaired or that God just heals them! :)

I praise God for the wonderful homeschooling experience we have had so far. I see Caleb learning and working very hard. Please pray for Josiah as it is hard to meet his needs while I am working with Caleb. Even when I have activities planned for Josiah, his attention span is so short that he's ready to be on to the next thing. Pray for creativity for me in working with all three kids.

I am thankful that the heaviness of Ramadan is gone. I was feeling a strong spiritual heaviness when we arrived, and now it has mostly lifted. We have a strong, growing burden for the many lost people here in Israel. Pray we can shine the light of Christ to our surrounding communities.

Adonai Ashamnu

I have a scene from this morning turning over in my mind. It is a "thought in progress" so I'll make no claims to tidy this post into a 3 point message, but I have to share it. Today after class, I went back down to the Kotel (Western Wall), just to see and hear what was going on. There was much activity, of course, since the holiday that began last night continues through the day. Over the years, Rosh Hashanah has morphed into a two day holiday, so the trumpeting (which we heard both from the playground near our house and from my study in our apartment--how cool is that!) will continue tomorrow as well. Anyway, back to the Kotel: while I was there, I wandered through the plaza and into the area that is treated like a synagogue, as I have done before. There, presumably leading the group he was with, was an older man, blasting out long and then broken notes on a shofar (ram's horn trumpet). It is said that the sound of the shofar during Rosh Hashanah is a call to confession. This I know. I have taught this many times. Nevertheless, I was unprepared for what happened next. The old man, after taking the shofar from his lips began saying in a loud voice, over and over, two words: "Adonai, ashamnu!" If my hearing is right and my translation is right, this means, "Lord, we have sinned!" As he said these words, he began weeping loudly in what I believe were genuine tears, and he kept repeating, "Adonai, ashamnu!" Upon reflection, two things in particular struck me. The second thing was the use of 1st person plural, entailing the responsibility of the community. The first and foremost thing that struck me (and is still on the forefront of my mind) was the position of his heart. I don't think we're talking about guilt here--that's different and, I believe, unhealthy. "Deeply contrite" is the phrase I think I would use. There are things that break the heart of God, and our sin is one of them. The question I walked away with is: "When was the last time I was that upset about my sin?" Yes, we're forgiven, but when I read passages like Psalm 51, it is apparent that a contrite heart is important. I know this is an incomplete thought, but I invite you into the wrestling that is a part of daily life here.

Also, if you're curious, there is a webcam at the Western Wall, and you can see it here.

Happy New Year!

What? That's right. Two of my professors so far have ended their most recent classes with this phrase. This is because Wednesday night marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, today celebrating the rolling over the secular Jewish calendar. This is the modern form of the Biblical "Feast of Trumpets" which you can find in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29. Far from the celebration we picture on December 31, this is a more solemn festival as the blowing of the trumpets call the people to confession. While it is different for us to celebrate the new year now, I thought about how appropriate this is as my school year is just a week old. In fact, my well-loved colleagues and students began another year of school today. The typical greeting on Rosh Hashanah is "L'Shanah Tovah" ("for a good year") which is the shortened form of "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." As I'm learning in class, anytime the word "good" shows up, it's significant. We think of "good" and view it as the lesser form of "great" (I'd rather be a great student than a good student). But among people here, "good" always brings them back to the perfection of Genesis 1. God saw that it was good. So as the year begins in many ways, I think it's appropriate to examine our hearts before God, to confess our sins knowing that he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us (1 John 1:9). L'Shanah Tovah!

On Ramadan

We are currently in the Muslim month of Ramadan (near the end of it, actually--it ends when they can see the new crescent moon, which should be either Thursday or Friday this week). Ramadan is a month where devout Muslims fast during the daylight hours for the entire month. It is one of the five pillars of Islam, so even not-so-devout Muslims will take part to some extent. From a pragmatic standpoint, it means that here in Jerusalem, people in the Old City are generally a little more grouchy than normal (that's generally speaking, of course; there are still some very pleasant people here). From a spiritual standpoint, however, it is also a time of deep, deep darkness. Toward the end of this month, there is an evening called Laylat al-Qadr ("Night of Power") on which it was believed that the first verses of the Quran were revealed to Mohammed. Many Muslims will stay up all night praying, believing that Allah pays special attention to their prayers that night. Many people here celebrated that last night (it is a little confusing to calculate exactly which night it is, so some will celebrate it several days in succession). As thousands of people here pray for a revelation from Allah, I invite you to join us in prayer that the One True God will reveal himself to these people in the person of Jesus, His Son.

Caesarea

Saturday was our big excursion day! We first attended our worship service in the morning. Our congregation gathers on Saturday mornings (Shabbat) for worship. We've found that the weekly schedule is quite different here compared to the States. Jewish and some Christian congregations meet on Saturday mornings, and then the work week/school week begins on Sunday. Jewish schools are generally in session Sunday through Thursday (Shabbat begins on Friday night). Arab schools are generally in session Monday through Thursday plus Saturday (having Friday and Sunday off). Our home-school co-op week also begins on Sundays. This is very hard for us to get used to! Below are a couple of pictures of our church. We are enjoying it and feel very welcome there. We're hoping to plug in

somewhere through participation or service.

After worship on Saturday morning, we hopped into our rental car and headed to Caesarea. (Josiah nearly cried when we had to give up the car. The boys loved it!)

We went to see Herod's palace and port city which is in ruins but has had some parts of it rebuilt

(particularly the theater).

The boys are standing on some original stones in the theater.

We walked along the water (Mediterranean Sea) and picked up some marble pieces from the palace. When the Romans came and wiped it out, it was swept into the sea. So there are still pieces of the palace getting washed up today. There are also a zillion sea shells. You'll see that in one of the pictures. There's hardly any sand - just shells in some areas. When we got home, I threw our sandy clothes into the washing machine, checking pockets first, and Caleb had filled both pockets with shells and rocks. I took a picture so you can see how much he had in his pockets. The rock toward the bottom of the picture (black and white) is a chunk of marble.

The shells, stones, and marble in Caleb's pockets

The shore along the Mediterranean at Caesarea

Tim and the kids walking along the shore. (Here, Tim wanted to take these large chunks of marble home but thought that might not work out so well for us.)

Herod built a fresh-water swimming pool IN the sea. The boys wanted to play in it and got their clothes pretty wet. It's also in ruins, so it's saltwater now. But you can see roughly where it used to be.

We also saw the hippodrome where Herod would've hosted chariot races. The boys found that fascinating.

After seeing the palace, we went to see the aqueduct. Herod built a 7-mile-long aqueduct from the spring near Mt. Carmel down to Caesarea so that he could have fresh water. Part of the aqueduct is still there, so we went to see it and stayed for the afternoon at the public beach next to it. We then hiked to a point where we could get up on top of the aqueduct and walk along it for a little ways.

The kids loved the beach...

Here we are walking along the top of the aqueduct.

We stayed to watch the sunset on the Mediterranean Sea...

We were thankful the Lord provided for us to take a day away as a family and see a different part of the country!

We Made it Through the First Week of School!

We have had a great week! Homeschooling went very well, and Tim's week at school was amazing - and tiring! He walked (yes, WALKED) to Bethlehem from our house yesterday. I'm sure he'll tell you about that at a later time - and post a few pictures.

After this week, we are feeling more at home and starting to enjoy our time here a little more. The kids and I made a trip to the library yesterday to get some children's books in English - a lifesaver for me! We had exhausted our book supply that we brought from home. On Wednesday I went to the on-campus apartment of the campus life coordinators to bake cookies for the students and staff. It was great fun for me to hang out and talk with other women. And the apartment was really cool - it has been converted into an apartment from a first-century tomb! Tonight we have a get-together for all students and their families at Tim's school. It's been a blessing to get to know more people and start building community here. We have an excursion planned for tomorrow - we rented a car today (it's crazy business driving in Jerusalem)! We'll tell you more about that after the weekend.

Below are a few pictures from the park near our place, and a few from around the house. Caleb lost his other front tooth yesterday! And yes, the tooth fairy found him here in Israel! :) Josiah loves to play with balloons. He especially enjoys holding one in front of a fan to watch it blow across the room. (By the way, Josiah finally potty-trained this week! Woo-hoo!!!!!) Abby loves to play with the boys' toys rather than her own baby toys. I believe that, in the picture, she's playing with Woody, Diego, a baseball, a helicopter (somewhere buried in there), and yes, a pair of Josiah's socks (don't worry; they're clean).

Pictures from the park...

Around the house...

We'll add more later, after our JUC family dinner tonight and tomorrow's excursion....