Emmie had a bad case of bloody nose this evening and after repeated rounds of wiping and stuffing her nose, we decided it was time to have her lie down with a cold compress on her head. At the mere mention of this, Matthew hopped to the task though we didn’t ask him. He led her to the couch, laid her down, put the compress on her. When I went to check up on her, I saw Matthew sitting next to her and reading to her. He even laid one of his hands on her head to make sure the cold compress doesn’t slip. I was so touched. He’s such a good big brother to her. It really warmed my heart to see him caring for her without me asking.

Matthew’s act of kindness is exactly what we’ve been teaching him for a while. Just when I thought it would never come or that he doesn’t care for his siblings, God shows me otherwise. This is a great encouragement to me because there is hope. I hope and pray that those who are struggling and are wondering when if ever your children will be kind towards one another, take heart and press on. If we persist in our training and teaching, our children will learn.

On the way to visit Daddy at work today, my almost four-year-old son reads the signs along the highway.

Andrew: “Mommy, I see Ikea.”

Me: “Really? I didn’t see it.” At this point I’m a bit baffled because Ikea is no where near where we’re going.

Andrew: “Yes, look, over there. It says K-O-H-L-S (He slowly spells it)”

Me: “That’s no Ikea. It’s Kohl’s. Remember. . . it starts with K so it has the /k/ sound.

This same child did the same thing yesterday on the way to buying groceries.

Andrew: “Mommy, the truck in front of us says Wal-Mart.”

Me: “Errr. . . no it doesn’t.”

Andrew: “Yes it does. See, it says T-A-R-G-E-T.”

Me: “That says Target, not Wal-Mart.”

And yes, I’m teaching him how to read.

I had a tough week with some very unexpected crises and was emotionally drained.  Back on Sunday, five of our friends had offered to come over last night to help babysit our children in order for Evers and I to go on a date.  Yes, it takes five adults to watch our four energetic kids. While the fabulous five held down the fort in our house, Evers and I had a very nice and uninterrupted dinner at a local restaurant.

Knowing how I was feeling in the aftermath of this week, he came up with a “personalized” version of the Proverbs 31 passage about “an excellent wife” and dedicated it to me. I was so touched that I declared that his poem was blog-worthy material. Some of the material is from Proverbs 31, and a bunch of it is “contextualized” to reflect how my husband sees me. So, for the whole world to see, here it is:

The Proverbs 31 Woman

An excellent wife, who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life;

She sews clothes for her children,
and even for their stuffed bears.

She is like the trucks of the merchant;
even though she mostly buys her food from
Costco and Chinese markets.

She rises while it is yet night
and dedicates herself to reading and
praying through God’s word;
even as she anticipates preparing food for her household.

She goes out for early walks
and hides in her bathroom to exercise;
even though her husband thinks she’s beautiful,
regardless of a few extra pounds!

She considers a blog post and publishes it;
and thus blesses many others who are walking or will walk similar paths.

She cooks all sorts of cuisine with flair,
especially when there are guests (one of the joys of hospitality)!

Her children are well-dressed;
not in sweatpants and mismatched “Engrish” shirts.

Her husband is well-dressed too,
thanks to her occasional gifts of shirts and ties, even the ‘metro’ ones.

She perseveres through often thankless days,
changing diapers, wet underwear, and dirty clothes;
disciplining, instructing, comforting and loving her adorable children.

She occasionally bathes her children too –
but they’re cute even if they get a bit smelly.

She opens her mouth with wisdom far beyond her age,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up (too early) and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her (though not often enough):

“Many women have done excellently,
but you, Lois, surpass them all.”

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but Lois, who fears the Lord, is to be praised.

We’re back home after a week in Maui. And though it was not an educational experience per se, here are some thoughts upon our return:

• Hawaii is nice & warm even at night. Not so back here in the Bay Area, but we are thankful for our nice warm comforter.
• Sunblock works well, but the sun even better, at finding places you didn’t apply it.  Like the tops of my feet.
• It’s fun to play in the warm water at the beach, but kids love the sand even more.
• Food is much cheaper here.  Or rather, much more expensive in Hawaii.  For comparison, for a gallon of milk:
  • $3.79 at an Asian grocery store near our home in the SF Bay Area
  • $4.99 at Wal-Mart in Kahului
  • $5.79 at Costco in Kahului
  • $12.00 at Safeway in Lahaina (yikes!)
• Homeschooling moms are never truly on vacation: spelling quizzes in the car (”whale,” “mountain,” “library” among other new words), and the only “souvenirs” we brought home were a half-dozen 50% off hardcover children’s books from a Barnes & Noble store in Lahaina!
• There’s no place like home. The children (and we adults) happily returned to our beds, our house, our toys, our food, etc.

With that said, aloha & mahalo (thank you) for visiting our blog today; and we end with few more photos from our trip.

The family in Lahaina Town:

Matthew and Andrew on a branch of the famous Banyan Tree:

At the Maui Ocean Center aquarium:

The boys with me at the tide pool examining a sea urchin:

Calissa pointing out a big sea turtle at the aquarium turtle exhibit:

The children enjoying the lapping waves and wet sand at the Baby Beach in Lahaina:

Ah, the perils of traveling / vacationing with four children.Two bedrooms: one with a king bed, the other with a pair of twin beds. How shall we accomodate two adults and four children under six years old?

Obviously, the king bed goes to me and my wife.

And the boys (almost 6 and 4yo respectively) are somewhat obvious recipients of the twins.

But what of the girls (3yo, 22mo)?

Emmie’s “room”:

Calissa’s “room”:

In case you haven’t figured it out, the ladies are sleeping on makeshift beds (stacked blankets & sheets) in the bedroom closets.  And Emmie likes her room (see her smiling?)!

We’re all enjoying ourselves on our much-needed vacation here on the “Valley Isle” of Maui.  Here are some photos of the fun thus far:

On the airplane ride over, Matthew getting some reading in:

The family distracted by a movie on my laptop:

Fine dining in Maui (at McDonald’s for breakfast, Aloha Mixed Plate for dinner):

At the Iao Valley State Park:

(This next photo was taken by Matthew!)

Kids enjoying one of the perks of vacation condos — free cable TV:

I am so not going to “live blog” our vacation.  Well, maybe just a tidbit to satisfy our one groupie.  But it’s not “live.”

So here’s the summary of our day:

We dragged the children out of bed at 6:15am this morning, drove up to San Francisco Int’l Airport, and at 8:00 am boarded an airplane headed to Maui.

The children did well, considering; had a few moments of crying and fussing, but the younger three napped, and my laptop lasted over 4 hours playing a Curious George DVD for my oldest.

We arrived just after 11am local time (read: 2pm pacific), had lunch at Da Kitchen near the airport, swung by Costco for some supplies, then drove 40 minutes to our condo in Kahana, where we’ll be staying through Sunday.

After unpacking a bit and decompressing for a few moments, we walked around the neighborhood for a few minutes… to discover that our two middle children were paralyzed to the point of tears in fright at being near the edge of the ocean (we passed by and attempted to have them walk on a very small beach area by the road).  Hopefully, future efforts this week will be met with better success.

We then returned to our condo complex, and went to the otherwise vacant swimming pool, where the boys had a blast with me   After a half hour at the pool, we went to dinner at Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahaina, swung by a Safeway across the street for an item or two, then retreated to our condo at 7:40pm (10:40p pacific, which is 2 hours past the children’s normal bedtime), and put them down over the past hour or so.  Hopefully that helps to transition them to this time zone.

Exciting.  Vacationing with four children under 6 years old is a challenge… but I’d rather parent in Maui than back home. =-)  All four kids are piled into one room with two twin beds: the girls sharing one, our oldest sleeping on a makeshift bed on the floor, and the other son on a twin.  They’re out cold as I type

Okay, that’s it,  groupie.  No more after this. =-)  Just pray my sore throat doesn’t get any worse than it is right now, so we can fully enjoy our vacation.