Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Time for Sun Hats! Last night we changed the clocks and sprung forward.  Tonight I am realizing that we truly are in the northern latitudes and we will have a lot of light nights!  It is 7:55 and the sky is blue, though slowly darkening.  The sun set just 10 minutes ago.   It doesn’t seem like very long ago that I was writing about the darkness that fell so rapidly, so that Elisabeth was home from school for less than an hour and it would be getting dark.  In January we walked together to her piano lessons at at 5:20 it was already dark.  Now here we are 2 1/2 months later and I am thinking perhaps I should’ve gotten the special darkening shades for the kids’ rooms, and perhaps even for my room.  Because after all, it is only March, and we’ve got til June before the days start getting shorter.  While I may sound a bit anxious about the sleeping part (oh, there goes Henry again, coming out of his room) I am overjoyed by the sunshine and look ...

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...

Every time I see the date today it brings a stab, a thrust of pain.  We have come so far in the past four years, but we have also come farther each day from my brother.  I see a picture of Tim with baby Elisabeth and I wonder how he would’ve played with Henry.  I hear Henry “reading” to me the directions for a game saying, “This game says mommies must clean up the game and put it away” and I think of a story often told about Tim and me: he is 2 or 3 and we are fighting over a ball.  He reads “words” off the ball and says, “This ball says, ‘Only boys can play with it.”   I’m wearing my “Not all who wander are lost” shirt.  Elisabeth is wearing her “You are My Sunshine” shirt and Henry’s got on his “Life is good” shirt.  Life is good.  Tim, you did not save anyone any pain by going when you did.  Life is good.  I miss you.  We all miss you.  And we love you like you wouldn’t believe.   *** For you, O God, have proved u...

Dear Elisabeth, The first time Uncle Tim heard about you he was dressed in warm clothes with a warm hat and even gloves.  He was getting ready to go ice fishing.  He and his friend Charles would go to a lake, cut a hole in the ice, and put their fishing lines down it.  They were hoping to catch some fish.  But first they had to buy some bait—something that the fish would want to eat.  So they were at a bait shop.  Then Uncle Tim’s phone rang.  This is what happened: “Hey Laurel!” “Hi Tim, how are you?” “Well, I’m at a bait shop.” “A bait shop?  Why?” “I’m getting ready to go ice fishing.” “Really?  Well, don’t fall in the ice.  I need you to be an uncle.” “What!” “You’re going to be an uncle.” “Are you going to have a baby!  Wow!  My sister’s having a baby!”  I could hear him telling his friend Charles, and I imagined all the customers in the bait shop laughing with him in his happiness.  We chatted for a bit...

Grandmère and Elisabeth at the Kaiserpfalz We wanted to show my mom a bit of Germany, a bit more than our regular routine, so we headed south to Goslar, a town in the Harz mountains.  It was our second visit to the Harz Mountains and Goslar, and our second visit in the clouds.  I have written down some notes about its history and the interesting (and not so interesting) museums we visited, but the part I’ll remember for the longest happened at the end of the day.  We had seen two museums each, separated by a long and very German lunch (a whole post in itself), there wasn’t anything else on our to-do list and the kids found a playground.  I was sure we’d be too cold to play, but the kids were game, so I thought, why not?  I wanted to go back into the town and find some shops to look at but I thought first we could let them play.   I chatted with Mom, John pushed the kids on the swings, then I convinced Mom and Elisabeth to come with me to the top of the ...

Make sure you know what your children are reading!  Here we have The Daring Book for Girls and  The Dangerous Book for Boys Finally posting this a week and a half after the fact: It was another beautiful sunny day here in Hannover yesterday.  Watch out!  Those are days of unseen adventure! We decided to stay home from church.  Henry was coughing and sneezing still and, well, frankly it is hard to be consistent these days.  So we had a nice morning at home--enjoying our togetherness, our last day together before routine resumes (see, I have still skipped the sight seeing!)  We had pancakes, and then we read a Bible story and acted it out together.  The kids were coloring pictures and I was reading.  But it was too nice to stay inside, so we went for a brisk and cold walk together.  I was so happy to be walking and having energy!  It felt good to get fresh air. We came back home, Elisabeth headed upstairs to tend to her dolls and ...

ed note: not meant to be a pity post, but just filling you in if you wanted to know what we've been up to. I should be writing about our sight seeing, but sorry, you get this first! (pictures have nothing to do with the story here--just good color!) It is the first day back to school for Elisabeth after a week long February break.  The first half of it was spent recovering from illness, illness that started during the last few days of school for Elisabeth.  It was sort of a repeat from right before Christmas break, only worse.    My scariest moment through the whole ordeal, well, there were at least two.  The first was last Thursday night when I heard Elisabeth up at about 1:30 AM.  She wasn’t calling for me, but she has changed since her last sickness (December, right before Christmas break).  She doesn’t necessarily wake me up just because she is up and uncomfortable.  That is nice, but it also alarms me sometimes.  This particular time I...