Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

There was a bit of worry about the cold weather here in The Woodlands.  Talk of freezing rain that dissipated into nothing.  Friday is Park Day for our homeschooling group, and thankfully, this group is a "whatever the weather" kind of group.  If they can do 95 degrees at noon in July, they can do drizzle and 40 degrees in January.  Because, you know, 40 degrees and drizzle in Texas is, um, very cold.    There was hot chocolate, there were blankets, and hats, but I think my children, lately come from Michigan and before that, Germany, were the best dressed.  Layers, hats, an extra pair of gloves.  Henry even had extra warm knee high socks that John brought him from Hannover. I'm tickled about two things: Henry found that the person he most wanted to play with an 11 year-old boy.  And Elisabeth and a few other kids are planning a club to raise money for a water well through World Vision.  I'm trying really hard, really hard to just sit ...

The Stevens in Wernigerode March 19th! We celebrated Henry’s birthday in a grand way this weekend.  Not all of the events were motivated by his birthday, but I’m glad it worked out this way.  For starters, both my parents were able to be there.  With Dad’s work and travel schedule, this was an on again, off again thing, and I was so excited and warmed to have him work so hard to get here.   Then we had great weather.  This was our third visit to the Harz mountains and we got sunshine this time!  Lots of it, and warmer temperatures.  Friday after school Elisabeth, Henry and I took the train from Hannover to Wernigerode (say each syllable, no silent letters, and the W is a V.  It’s easy).  After checking into our hotel we set off to find a playground.  Sometimes I wonder why we work so hard to take our kids places when they just want to find playgrounds!  But it was a scenic one--with a castle in the background. The Happy Four Y...

When we first arrived there was so much to write about I could hardly get it all down. I thought, “Wow, writing is easy! I have so much to tell everyone!” Now that we are getting into more of a routine, I think to myself, “Why would anyone want to read about this? We just do ordinary things.” It takes more of an effort to write, and I feel that things are a bit more mundane. But there is still so much that is new to me, so I will try to remember those things. The lovely golden beech tree that I wrote about last week has lost nearly all of its leaves. In a matter of days it went from gold to orange to orangey brown, and then strong winds on Thursday and Friday blew everything down. Today is gray and rainy. So gray, in fact, that we needed indoor lights on at noon in some of the rooms. Our game room has some interesting track lighting that started with three out of four working bulbs. Now it is down to one, and we have not yet found replacement bulbs. I was quite disturbed ...