considerable grace

Ella startled me this morning when I walked into the schoolroom/playroom and she was sitting in a chair at the table just like a big girl—all ready to “do school” like Sophia:



Wasn’t she a newborn, like, yesterday?

Time really flies.
I’m a blessed, blessed woman to get to be a mother.

Grouchy. Lonely. And still fevered (no matter how hard I tried to WILL myself out of it). So I survived the day by watching Ella play with Lilikoi outside. (I tried hard to help Ella NOT chew sticks and help Lilikoi understand why Ella’s “fetch” is only six inches or so in length.)







We also enjoyed Ella’s first coloring:



And released Sophie’s butterflies this evening:



All that, and my friend reminded me that Christ is with me? I should not be sad. Or lonely.

Thank God for grace,
Tara B.

Big News around these parts—at least in the domestic diva area of life ...

We have metamorphasis! The butterflies that Aunt Kali and Uncle Fred sent are really here:



We’ll release them in a day or so, but it’s been very interesting to watch their development.

I’m still down with the flu—but I think I’m turning the corner. Three days of a high fever have tempted me to be pretty grouchy, but I’m trying to be content. Soph has been a star entertaining Ella when I haven’t felt well. This is her “music lesson” time (replete with kitchen “instruments” too of course):





My biggest disappointment of the week (in addition to the crushing feeling of falling further and further behind on pretty much everything) was missing Sophia’s first “professional” gig last night—a wedding reception with The Ceiledh Fiddlers. Fred took lots of photos and movies for me, though, so I sort of got to experience it. I told Sophia that it was a great privilege to get to serve at someone’s wedding reception, especially at such a young age:



We Barthel girls will be missing church today (bummer!) since Soph is coming down with a cold now too. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day we turn the corner and feel better!

Blessed Sunday to you—

Yours,
Tara B.

Thanks for all of the kind words and encouragement (and great advice too!) re: the kid photo thing. Sorry that I sounded overly self-critical with the “worst mother” comments. I was actually laughing at myself and not really feeling that self-critical (most just poking fun at myself), but I see how I sounded that way (!). Sorry about that.

Want to REALLY see how I’m the worst mother in the world, though? (j/k! j/k!) Check out these photos of poor Ella (or “Bruiser” as I keep thinking of her every time I see her poor, cut, bruised little face):



The photos really don’t do her justice. She pretty much looks like Rocky Balboa at the end of some sequel, poor dear. And both injuries were received when she was RIGHT with us. I just think that her professional job right now is falling down—and if there is something in between her and the end of the pull of gravity (like the corner of a table), BAM! Injuries galore.

Oh, well. Babies get owies. She really doesn’t seem to mind too much—these photos were taken the very same day:





Which, of course, was big SECOND-GRADER Sophie’s first day of school:



So lots of exciting things happening around here re: domestic diva duties. We even baked SCONES today!

Hope your week is off to a good start too.

Blessings!
– Tara B.

Wow. I can’t believe I’m about to say this—but our experience at Kiddie Kandids was even WORSE than the “Sears Portrait Studio.” To quote Fred, “That’s really saying something.”

So I’m officially the worst mother ever—I’m meeting all of the stereotypes for the “Second Child Syndrome” ... a zillion (adorable!) photos of Sophia as a baby, hardly any of Ella. As a second child myself, I really thought I wouldn’t fall into that, but sure enough, I did.

In my defense, I’ve tried all of the affordable (for us; read “CHEAP”) places that worked great for Sophia and they’ve been TERRIBLE for Ella. Really really awful. Ella would be slack-jawed and staring. CLICK. Looking over to the left. CLICK. Eyes half-closed. CLICK. Oh! Hooray! There’s my sweetie pie’s adorable smile. (Silence. Silence. NO CLICK. No photo.) And THEN, you just can’t believe what they wanted for those (terrible!) photos.

I mean, seriously, I snapped these pics in 30 seconds just waiting in the mall for our appointment. Don’t you think they could have gotten ONE decent photo in the 45 minutes we invested, exhaustedly, in the photo shoot?



Crazy. And what a waste of TIME on a day that I really didn’t have time to waste. I even IRONED Grandma Chris’s adorable first birthday dress for Ella to wear in her “just Ella” shots. Me. Ironing! I should’ve just sat around for all the good it did me.

(Sorry to be such a grouch. I know this is NOT important in the scheme of things. It’s not even a minor inconvenience! But I’m just having a really grouchy day today so this photo fiasco is just adding to that stress.)

Bottomline? I’m taking Sarah Phillip’s recommendation and hiring Brooke Moore to do a real family shoot for us in a couple of weeks. I really liked these photos of children in Montana that she took. If ours were 1/100th as cute as these, I’d be thrilled. Plus, I talked about it with Fred, and we’d rather invest in ONE set of nice photos than have 5 sets of BLECH.

Still, I’m a month and a half late for Ella’s official first birthday photos. And I feel terrible about that1 But like I said—I’m the worst mother and I’ve just totally blown it. I hope Eleanor can be gracious to me as she ages and sees my many deficiencies.

One thing I’m excited about, even at the end of this pretty awful day? My sister bought the girls matchy Hannah Anderson dresses and bright tights. (Brooke said bright tights photograph really cute down at River Front Park where we will be taking the photos.) This is the photo from the site of the dress in blue (for Sophia)—and I got pink for Ella with matchy zig-zaggys tights:



I think they’re cute and I hope they look nice in the photos. (Please! Someone who is good at shopping and picking out cute things for little girls, please tell me that you think those dresses and tights will work. I really have no taste about these things and my confidence is SHOT after this stressful day.) Now if I can just lose 50 lbs in the next two weeks. (JUST KIDDING!)

With that, I’m heading into our nighttime routine now.

G'nite and God bless and avoid Kiddie Kandids—at least in Billings!

Yours,
Tara B.

We have never had such a violent storm come up so quickly! It started with a crack of thunder and SIMULTANEOUS flash of lightning (never a good sign) so loud that it hurt our ears—INSIDE the house. Within MINUTES we had hail that sounded as though it were going to come right through our roof:



We were in the basement during the worst of it but then it was suddenly gone. (That’s when Sophie went out to explore.) I prayed for any hikers that might have been outdoors—I hope no one was injured.

This is the official warning we received:

"This is a dangerous storm, if you are in its path, prepare immediately for damaging winds, destructive hail, and deadly cloud to ground lightning. People outside should move to a shelter, preferably inside a strong building but away from windows."

Scary.

Highs in the 40’s tonight! Time to break out the sweaters ...

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

Our little naturalist … LOVIN’ the dirt & rocks & flowers & green stuff ...





And her SUPER FUN construction truck ... ("I BUILD the roads!") ...



Her books are still her fave' ...



Although (patient!) Lilikoi is in the running for her favorite toy ...



Last pic ... Here she is being taught (again) what “No Touch!” means. Can you tell that we are surely praying for wisdom to discern whether she is repeating the command back, or sassing us?



Oh, Ella Bella, our sweet Eleanor Marie. We love you. Your sister adores you. Your dog tolerates you graciously. How we thank God for giving us the gift of having you in our family.

We just returned home from our local Farmer’s Market where Sophie joined the Ceilidh Fiddlers for the first time:





When downloading the pics, I realized that I hadn’t posted some others from our trip to Butte with the Lyndes:



Can you believe this view is just down the road from us?



I feel like I stepped into a TJ Lynde painting. Ella was not impressed, though. We call these photos the "Don’t you people understand that I’m ALL DONE with this car ride?!" series:



Poor love. I get sick of long car rides too.

Ella’s down for her nap and Fred and Soph are off riding bicycles—and I’m going to try to draft out one more chapter while listening to Says You in the background.

Happy Saturday!

Yours,
Tara B.

Our mini-vacation with the Lyndes in beautiful Butte, Montana is coming to a close.

We’ve had lots of fun at the An Ri Ra Irish Festival, including a dance class with the internationally renown Chicago-based Trinity Irish Dancers:



A visit to the Berkeley Pit:



And mostly just hanging out together, having fun:







Back to the real world soon!

Hope your weekend is a blessed one—

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
Here are the two photos that Samaralara likes the best. Especially the second one:

40 seconds of a very gracious big sister patiently enjoying her very distracting baby sister. Oh, and totally cracking her mother up too:

Big news around these parts! Ella took her first REAL steps today. Sophie saw her do two in a row; then I did. Then at a wedding at our church today, she took SIX STEPS right toward our dear friend, Auntie Dianne:



And repeated the performance for Fred and Sophie:



How fun! Particularly so because she was wearing her First Birthday Dress made by Grandma Chris:



Hope your Saturday has been a blessed one too—

Happily,
Tara B.

Fifteen years + seven months ago, Fred sought me out and popped the question and I was SO happy:



(Sophie particularly likes that I did NOT respond, “Yes.” My direct quote was, “Yes! Yes! Of course yes!”

Fourteen years + 364 days ago, I was caught up in the swirl of time with family and friends ... most of it was great, some of it was hard. (You know. REAL LIFE.) Oh, and my wedding related lists of lists tracking lists and more lists was finally getting to that blissful SCRATCHED-THROUGH state that mmmmmmmmmm, I love so much.

And (finally!) I was ready to experience that once-in-a-lifetime moment of waking up one day and saying, “Today, I will be married.” MARRIED! And not just married ... married to FRED. The kindest and most faithful friend I had ever known. The man that every person whose counsel I sought regarding our relationship (our families, our church leaders, my spiritual Grandpa Bernie and spiritual father Paul Jensen, my closest friends, his closest friends), all said, “This is a great guy. Solid gold. What you see is what you get. He is trustworthy, loves God more than anything else, serves the church faithfully, practices the spiritual disciplines of the long steady walk that is the Christian life. He stewards money wisely, is generous, giving, selfless, patient. This is a great guy. Oh! And he’s CRAZY about you.”

(I could track with everything people said right up until that last line. How could such a man ever choose me? And yet he did. A true grace. A miraculous, lavish, evidence of God’s grace.)

Before I show you our wedding pics, let me show the very FIRST photo we ever had taken. It was at the grad school apartment that he shared with his close friends from undergrad I.V. days—the YMCA ("Young Christian Men’s Apartment") they used to call it:



Mmmmmm! Gotta love my 1980’s BIG HAIR, eh? (Fred’s friend Mark used to say, “Your helmet is your glory, Tara.” Because MAN I had big hair.) And I think Fred’s best friend’s MOM bought him those jeans at a garage sale for a QUARTER. They were one of two pairs he owed. Totally confirmed that this was a man I could fall in love with—he was always clean and neat, but SO not obsessed with looks / fashion / that seductive “look at me! aren’t I impressive” heart attitude that everything marketing and style-related tries to ensnare us with.

We met in August 1993, the day after I started law school. That picture was taken some night that fall after he had made us all dinner at his apartment. ("He cooks too?!) Watched some sports. ("So he’s no girly girl. I LIKE it!") And played us some guitar. ("Musical? Are you kidding me?! This is the guy of my dreams!")

And he was. Only I couldn’t have known back then just how far he would EXCEED any dreams that I had for maybe, possibly, one day, actually having a HOME where I was wanted and a FAMILY where I could feel safe.

As my FaceBook friends already know (thanks for all the fb notes!), fifteen years ago today I became Mrs. Frederick Steinus Barthel—it was truly the second best thing that ever happened to me:



I loved him then and I love him now.

Thanks, Fred, for making me deliriously happy. Happy Anniversary, dear!

Your devoted wifey,
Tara

I learned something last night ...

Cottage cheese is really hard to get out of baby hair:



But it is fun to watch Eleanor learn to maneuver eating utensils:



AND to maneuver her construction truck toy from Granma Kathy and Grandpa Charlie:



(Can you see the Lilikoi-BLUR in the background? She knows to run ...)

In other milestone news, we got to turn Ella’s car seat around. 1 year old and 20+ lbs! Forward-facing-baby!



This is great news on my back. It’s very, very hard to get a baby into a rear-facing carseat in a two-door car, especially when recovering from a c-section and three knee surgeries. You know. Hypothetically.



AND big sis Sophia made chocolate chip cookies last night ALL BY HERSELF. (Well, I did take the cookie sheets out of the hot oven. But that was IT.) She preheated the oven and gathered all of the ingredients, measuring cups and spoons and the mixer; read the instructions and did all of the measuring; did the eggs; ground the walnuts; mixed everything just so, rounded the scoops onto the cookie sheets, decided when they were done, moved the fresh-baked cookies onto the cooling racks. EVERYTHING. It was really cool. She did a great job:



And over melty-chocolate-chip-filled-cookies, we snuggled and read our first, "Calvin and Hobbes" together. I wasn’t sure if she would find it enjoyable—thought it might be over her head. But I also thought it might provide us with some silliness AND some opportunities for real conversations about the things that its creator (Bill Watterson) lampooned: “public decadence and apathy, commercialism, and the pandering nature of the mass media.”

I particularly enjoy six year-old Calvin’s observations about TECHNOLOGY/machines. You may recall:

"In one instance, Calvin tells Hobbes about a science fiction story he has read in which machines turn humans into zombie slaves. Hobbes comments about the irony of machines controlling people instead of the other way around; Calvin then exclaims, “I’ll say. Hey! What time is it?? My TV show is on!” and sprints back inside to watch it."

Classic.

Today is a long writing day for me. I’d appreciate your prayers!

Thanks, friends.

Yours,
Tara B.

We can’t really believe it’s been an entire year since our dear Eleanor Marie Barthel was born, but it’s true! Sophia has made a very fun family celebration for us today to enjoy our big one year old:









Grandma Chris sent her “first birthday tradition” (lovely!) doll and Sophie had to run and get hers to show Ella:



Lilikoi helped to open gifts too:



And of course we read Ella’s “Birthday Psalm” (Psalm 27):



Hope your day was a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Our dear friends have invited the girls to spend time on their (beautiful!) Montana ranch—pretty much whenever and as often as we’d like. And this year, Fred and I really want our family to make a priority of this incredible opportunity.

It’s quite a drive to get there—but absolutely “postcard beautiful” the entire way through the Pryor Mountains. So other than concerns over our car (1992 Honda Civics are really not the ideal car for driving on Montana back-country roads), that’s not a problem. And, of course, Ella is not at a “safe” age for crawling around construction sites (our friends are building their home—having already built their barns and outbuildings of course; I’ve learned now that that always comes FIRST), playing in mud (she LOVED it—but has a propensity to put everything in her MOUTH, including mud, plants, dead bugs, rocks, etc.), or being around the animals ("Cocoa! Cocoa!" continues to be her name for every creature big and small) ... so I have to be incredibly hyper-vigilant to give her space to explore and have fun WITHOUT putting things into her mouth.

But for Sophie, it’s a perfect age to poke around streams in muck boots, feed the chickens, go out to check the cattle, etc. And we’ve made it a big priority for her to have CHORES when we’re out on a ranch day—we don’t want to be tourists; we want her to learn how to WORK on a ranch. (Small stuff first, of course, but as she shows herself diligent and careful, hopefully she will earn the privilege of doing more and more.)

Of all of this, I’m particularly looking forward to Sophie having to be “bored” and just hang out/BE in this rugged, stunningly beautiful, completely different from our life “in town” world. I think it’s so important and so good for children to be outside, building, playing, thinking, etc. But I’m just not very good about us actually DOING this beyond our backyard in our normal daily life.

I’m also really happy for us all to learn more about the seasons of life in an agrarian culture. I think it’ll help the girls to understand Fred’s roots better. (Fred’s dad was a large animal vet in rural Illinois and they had dairy cows as a hobby. Pretty labor intensive hobby! But it gave the five Barthel boys, I think, I great work ethic and helped to keep 'em out of trouble. “Idle hands are the devil’s playgound ...”) And it’s just really interesting! For example, yesterday, I kept wondering where the teeny tiny little chicks were that Sophie held in her hands this spring. TOTALLY didn’t make the connection that the big beautiful full grown chickens she had just fed WERE THE CHICKS. Ditto for the “bucket calves” she fed—now, so big and so different. I really have no sense of the cycle of life of farm animals—but I’m enjoying learning.

So RANCH DAYS, here we come. How grateful I am to our generous friends for inviting us into their lives.

I’ll put some photos below. Wish I had better pictures from the day—but it’s incredibly hard (impossible!) to take photos of Ella crawling around a ranch when I have to be at her level (so I can see under the rim of her sun hat), keeping her from munching on, you know, cow poop, etc.

Blessings on your day!

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophie and I went to Shipton’s Big R to get her a ranch work hat. As we went throughout the day, she was quick to drop it in the dirt, stomp on it, and say, “Look! Even if a horse steps on it, it bounces right back. It’s CRUSHABLE.” (That was also the trip when we got her another pet fish ...)



Uncle Bill let her drive the—ummm, the big piece of construction equipment thingy (with him inside helping of course). I can’t quite remember what they said the name was ...



I didn’t get a picture of it, but Sophie had a “black and white shadow” with Hanke the cowdog following her around all day. She also made friends with the barn cats, chickens, etc. Oh, and her first “chore” was sorting nails and screws from the construction area. She also go to roll the giant magnet over the area later in the day to recover even more lost metal.



Really wish I had some Ella in the mud shots, but these were the only ones I could snap and still keep her safe ...



(She is looking out the window of the second level of the home they’re building. And this is the view ...)

We weren’t sure if Sophia was quite ready to join the Billings Ceilidh Fiddlers (and prep to accompany the English Country Dancing at our church’s Ball), but we thought we’d give a rehearsal a try and see how things went.

Here is a video from the very first notes of the very first song she ever played with them:



What fun!

Yes, Sophie has a lot more music to learn. (This is the only other set she had in advance of the rehearsal ...)



But she did a great job finding drone notes on the other songs and the director said that she’s a good fit. So RMCC Fall Ball here we come!

Thank You, God, for the JOY of music.

We’re all happily heading to bed now.

G'nite!
– Tara B.

I have the BEST sister in the WORLD! Well, tied with Ella—because SHE has the best sister in the whole world too:



Many tears in saying goodbye—but we know that when it HURTS that’s actually GOOD because it means the we LOVE:



Until next time ...

Can you believe that I actually went OFFLINE (entirely!) for 24+ hours to enjoy a date-overnight-time with my darling Fred?



“Everyone” says you should do it. ("Date your spouse!" “Make time for each other!” "Nurture your relationship!") But this was our first time REALLY getting away since Ella was born. I have to say “they” are RIGHT. It’s great. Strange to not have the little children around and to not have to be hyper-vigilant. But GREAT.

We had a fun time walking around the Botanical Gardens. Can you believe this sign?



Then we checked into a lovely hotel and enjoyed a nummy dinner before heading to our (box seats!) at the San Francisco Symphony’s Davies Hall. (The Soprano was stunning! Totally reminded me of just how VISUAL a night at the symphony is. Plus, her counterpart Baritone was an absolute delight too. To quote Fred, “He was born to sing Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess!”)

Wow. What a night.

And yet honestly? My favorite parts of our time away were the intentional conversations Fred and I had about our marriage / parenting / education and ministry, etc. etc. Fred was purposeful on important stuff AND we had time to just relax and veg out too. It was a great combination of substance and relaxation.

Good job Fred!

Of course, Sophia & Ella was happily ensconced with Uncle John & Aunt Penny & cousin Lucy (cousin Calvin is currently touring Europe with his jazz band):



And we had lots o' fun tonight hanging with Uncle Fred & Aunt Kali:



Tomorrow, the hardest part will be enjoying the day without being overly sad that our time here is coming to an end. I’m praying for dear Sophie’s heart even now.

Hope your week was a blessed one too!

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

PS
Eleanor (repeatedly) did quite a job on Sophie’s little (oh so organized!) “snack area”:



Good thing she takes after me and actually LIKES to organize and re-organize (and re-organize) things.

PPS
Soph discovered Mad Libs on this trip and we all think they are very fun. I recommend them for this age:

Fred enjoyed Sophie’s song, breakfast in bed, new polo shirt, and the William Wilberforce book (a compilation of letters to his children), Amazing Dad:



(He really is an amazing dad. And husband. Here’s proof yet again ... hours and hours of work yesterday (again) working on fixing the sprinkler pipes that I broke. All without complaint. Nice guy!)



Yesterday, Sophie made a “banana split” for breakfast (with lots o' fruit and yogurt). She just loves to do her OWN little recipes. “Can’t go wrong with cooking!”, she said. Fred and I just laughed quietly to ourselves (because, of course, I go wrong with cooking. A LOT!).



We also had a family matchy "LIFE IS GOOD" t-shirt day. Ella’s little “sweet pea” dress is a total fav:



Hope your weekend was a nice combination of rest and diligence too. Happy Father’s Day!

Yours,
Tara B.

Fred, Sophia and I enjoyed a fun family afternoon at Toy Story 3 with dessert at Applebee's:



Ella was home with a sitter while we were out on our adventure. But once we got home, she showed that she can have fun too—with, you know, a Golden Retriever and a rug:





Hope your Friday was a blessed one, too!

G'nite,
Tara B.

Lots of fun happenings around here today:



Bagels and yummy coffee for breakfast:



Lunch with a dear friend and a box full of fun from Grandma Chris (my mother-in-law), including new dresses for the girls AND hats & a matchy outfit for Soph’s American Girl doll (for the last super adorable matchy outfit she made for them):



But I have to say, as nice as all of that was (and it was!), my favorite part of the day was putting together little beach-tote-spa-day-craft-goodies for Sophie and her two friends, who will be enjoying a little extended playdate / ministerial need sleep over (we’re not a sleep over family unless there’s a ministry need ):



Many blessings, to be sure. Hope your day is going well too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Our first True Woman Teen Sunday School class was such a joy—Mrs. Laverman is a fantastic teacher! And I loved getting to wrestle through these important topics with these interesting and insightful young ladies. Talk about applying one bit of biblical truth (theology) to one bit of real life (theology applied). I love it!

And during our church service, we had the goose-bump inducing privilege of participating in our new pastor’s installation: Pastor Josh Charette will be planting a PCA church here in Billings among the Native American population. Oh! We are all praying and are so excited to support this ministry venture. Plus? It is just such a beautiful picture of headship and submission and the wonderful protection of ecclesiastical authority to see all of our elders at the front together, laying hands on Josh, responding to their own vows regarding his authority—-and these are GREAT men. Older men who truly meet the Titus 2 and 1 Timothy standards for doctrine and life—willingly and joyfully submitting to this young man. Oh! How grateful I am for our church leaders and the humble, God-centered leaders they are.

During our quiet family day in the afternoon, we tried to bake another loaf of bread. The first didn’t really work out that great. And neither did this one. So Fred read the bread book again, did some research, and gently helped me to see that I was using the wrong kind of flour. It’s fine. No biggie. He’s going to go out and get me what I need. But I do have to chuckle at my complete ineptitude in such domestic things! I mean. REALLY. I was TRYING. Hard. And I still messed it up. Oh well! As Fred & Sophie tell me all the time, “Mom? Don’t worry about it. You have other gifts.” Hah. What an understatement re: my weaknesses.

Interspersed in our afternoon and evening, we took a family walk, had some ice cream, read a lot, took naps, I prepped our next women’s study on Ed Welch’s book, “Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest.” (A copy of which I’m giving away tomorrow—so don’t forget to enter our little drawing for FREE STUFF! I’ll never give your contact information to anyone. EVER. So feel free to enter without fear. )

Oh, and we did have a little Viking visit our backyard (as she disappeared to read another How to Train Your Dragon book). Yes, yes. Brain candy to be sure. Not great literature. But oh so FUN. Especially when you’re six years old and you dress up like the protagonist AS you read:



Then I had the joy of serving my daughter with a little “spa day” in her very own “BUTY SPA”:



Yes, I enjoyed doing her hair and giving her a little mani/pedi. But mostly? I just enjoyed that she wanted to be with me and we could talk and laugh and cuddle away. What a grace!

Hope your day was a blessed one too. Thank God for the Sabbath.

Yours,
Tara B.

We had a lovely day—even though I didn’t stop working on our book proposal until 5:30AM. (Eeeek!)

We began our day by honoring Ken Sande’s (beloved!) mother-in-law, Thelma Prowse, in Christian burial.

Then we moved on to a Billings Youth Orchestra fiddlin' extravaganza at The Moss Mansion:



Our afternoon was a lovely combination of domestic duties and (!!) tackling my (irrational) fear of yeast by baking our very first loaf of bread machine bread:



(Don’t you find it a little silly that, at two days shy of 40 YEARS OLD, I am just now trying to bake my first loaf of (unassisted) bread? Yes. Yes. The other packet of yeast I had in my cupboard expired in 2009.



I REALLY wanted to try to tackle this fear before I was 40.)

Then Ella played outside, “tormented” Lilikoi, and enjoyed lots o' books (from the wonderful Family Book Spot):



You’d think that might be enough excitement for the day, but Ella had lots o' fun to experience with her LeapFrog Animal Fridge Toy:



And I actually IRONED some things (that had been screaming at me for attention from our laundry area for, well, MONTHS now). And Fred took Sophie and Ella through bath time and bedtime and now it’s 9:00 and we’re ready to crash:



Hope your day was a blessed one, too!

Yours,
Tara B.

She’s shakily adorable, but Ella Marie is figuring out how to walk these days:



(Lilikoi knows to RUN and big sister Sophia is an excellent coach, encourager, and CATCHER of the falling baby.)

Oh, and just because I pulled it off of our camera at the same time, here is our photo from Ella’s first Memorial Day observance:



You can see that Sophia is ready to go decorate graves—we were convicted last year that one of our duties is to lay “the choicest flowers of springtime” on the military graves. I never knew that until I read the general order and learned that Memorial Day used to be called "Decoration Day" for that reason. (I always assumed that flowers being sold in stores were just creepy marketing/trying to make a fast buck. What a cynic I can be!)

As she colored decorations, plotted surprises, and baked a CCC to celebrate Fred’s 40th’s birthday, Sophie said to me:

"I just LOVE birthdays in this family!"

Those are very sweet words to my Momma Tara’s ears.





Fred’s mother’s gift also included some ADORABLE matchy outfits for the girls:





And now some of us are napping and others are gardening. Oh. And I bought a BREAD MACHINE (!!). Seemed like age 40 is a good time to try (again) to get over my irrational (but oh so real!) fear of YEAST.

Hope your Saturday is a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Well. What a grace. We got to spend the weekend with Samara and Scout!



Oh oh oh. It is just SO wonderful to spend time with friends. You know—real friends who get you? With whom you can be your true self? Quiet or talkative, “deep”/thoughtful or shallow/silly, purposeful or lazy, fearful or brave ... JUST YOU. Loved by JUST THEM. Pointing you to the Real God. Living real life.

I’m so very, very grateful.

And so is Sophia ... who was wondering if she and Scout would still get along as friends since their relationship has moved from pretty much daily contact to seeing each other only a few times a year. I explained to Soph a truth about friendships that some wise woman taught me along life’s way:

Some friendships last for a REASON (a project, ministry adventure);
Others last for a SEASON (undergrad/grad school, a certain geographical area);
But some? (Oh! Glorious some!) Some friendships last for a LIFETIME.

And I said that I wasn’t sure ... but I wondered if, just maybe, Sophia and Scout would enjoy a lifetime of friendship. Because they, have after all, been friends since Sophia was JUST BORN:



And they have been friends ever since:



So I just encouraged her to relax and see how the weekend went—to not expect something or demand something; but simply let the friendship be what it is and enjoy it for whatever it is. Thankfully (hooray!), they were two little peas in a pod from the moment they started hanging out Friday night until the moment our fun ended at the zoo:







Hope your weekend had similar moments of grace and happiness.

Yours,
Tara B.

Well. WHEW! Another “Beach Day” at co-op has come and gone and I’m so grateful that we made through all of the activities and festivities with only a tiny bit of tears (during the “SCUBA diving” adventure) and NO bandaids required. Hooray!



I still think I am pretty much the least qualified to ever try to corral small children and have fun. But like so many opportunities to serve in the church, we just do our best, and have to entrust the rest to the Lord. I think that overall the kids had fun, so that’s great:



One of the moms made DELISH yogurt-banana-frozen-treat-thingies and another made TURTLE-shaped jello jigglers for our snack:



(Moms are so cool!) And overall, I think it was a “successful” day.

I did have to apologize to one mom when I snapped at her for, you know, NO REASON. She was very gracious and quick to forgive me. But I still cringe when I think of how prone I am to anxiety related to these types of things. It was as though my fears just gripped me and in one dumb moment, they spilled out.

Guess that’s why we’re doing Ed Welch’s “Running Scared: Fear, Worry and the God of Rest” for our summer women’s study. I obviously need a LOT of work in this area.

How grateful I am for sisters in Christ who forgive and persevere and love.

Hope your day was a blessed one, too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Grandma Chris makes the BEST matchy dresses for little girls!





And Red Lodge, Montana is a great place to play in snow in May:





Thanking God for grace to carry us in our time of need—
And for moments of joy, too.

Yours,
Tara B.

When your husband has 40+ first cousins, and someone calls and says, “Hi, Tara, this is your cousin, Jonathan Barthel! I just arrived in Billings and was wondering if we could all get together.” You say, “Hi cousin! Sounds great. See you soon.”

So we had two extra Barthels for dinner the night Fred’s mother arrived for a visit—cousin Jonathan (a pilot who had flown in for the night) and mother-in-law, Chris:



Yesterday we enjoyed a fun day gardening around the house and walking around the zoo:





Our BIG NEWS this morning is that Ella crawled ALL THE WAY up the stairs:



And that’s pretty much the news around here. Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Yours,
Tara B.

(and multi-level-cruising-baby-Eleanor)

Even during her “load-em-up” time for our family hike today, Ella LOVED her Kelty Kids Backpack:





I think Zimmerman Trail is Lilikoi’s happiest place on earth. Well, except for being tucked under (or onto) our feet at the end of a long, active day:



Ella didn’t get to to see the end of the hike. But she went to sleep happy:



Hope your day was a blessed one too.

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophie and I are singing (all five verses of) hymns in our cuddle/opening time. It is a true delight to hear her sing not only the melody, but then her own improvised second voice too. (Usually a sweet combination of historically alto and tenor lines with a few descants above the soprano line.)

Oh! How I love to hear her sing. And what FUN it is to sing together.

This morning, with tears in my eyes, I reminded her that when Fred and I were falling in love, we would drive these long drives through the gorgeous farm fields of Illinois—SINGING. We loved to sing together too! And when we were engaged and then married, we PRAYED that one day, we might have children who would love to sing with us and we could move from two voices to three or four.

So HOORAY for singing hymns in two-part harmony. It’s really a source of joy in my life.

And since our hymn this morning was “Holy Holy Holy!” (We’re using the book Hymns for a Kid’s Heart) and Sophie had just created a lovely banner reminding us of the Trinity, she had to go and get her banner and parade it solemnly around our room AS we sang and raised our hands to the sky.



Oh! Everything is better with this fun little kid.

After the hymn and parade, we snuggled back in bed for more reading. After Bible and the Shorter Catechism (with LOTS of discussion), we did our poetry and ancient church history. And then we read another chapter in The Bible in the Wall. Oh oh oh! We have to discipline ourselves to STOP READING because yet again we’re so into the story that we just want to keep pressing on. (Don’t you just love that about books?)

Somewhere after the Burgess Animal Book for Children and Trial and Triumph, we had to start playing the “IS ELLA AWAKE” game. Whenever she starts to stir as we’re holding her and doing school, we both quickly close our eyes as if to say to her, “Nothing interesting going on here! Go back to sleeeep. You’re feeling very, verrrrrry sleeeeeepy.”



And sometimes she looks like this:

But then she’ll surprise us and look like THIS:

Yeep! Then we know it’s time for a big-girl-snack for Soph and milkies for Eleanor Whom We Adore. And then we finish school with more reading and discussions (and board books and cards for Ella).



What a blessed way to start our day!

And then? The fun didn’t stop there. We had the joy of serving at the church—parts were so encouraging and edifying! And parts were hard. Guess that’s real life.

THEN we headed to the ZOO! What a glorious day to run and play and enjoy. I think Sophie swung so high that she may have actually touched a CLOUD. Sure seemed like it anyway.



And Ella had fun in her stroller, with occasional trips out to crawl around. Soph had to call out “PEACOCK ALERT!” when one came within six inches of us while we were on the ground and my back was towards the (obviously TOO friendly/inquisitive) bird.



No harm done thanks to our “peacock alert!” sissy.

That was pretty much our day. Dinner with Fred and everyone to sleep nice and early. My troubled spirit is keeping me awake now—so I’m trying to be productive, but really hoping I can sleep soon.

Blessings on your day!

Yours,
Tara B.

We continue to live off of charitable grants from the Kent Family Foundation (of adorable hand-me-downs from six years ago) and gifts from Auntie Kali and Uncle Fred ... and I am so grateful for them both! Without generous gifts from friends and family, I could never enjoy such pink & frilly girls on a Sunday morning:



Sorry that my blog was dead all day long. Technology problems. Hopefully they’re squared away (or SQL’d away) or whatever technie term is appropriate.

And hope you had a great Monday!

G'nite,
Tara B.

Life sure is different once your baby starts to MOVE:



Ahhhhh ... good times! It really is such a privilege to get to be the mother of two young children. Hard work! But such an honor and a joy.

Yesterday was the first day in a LONG time that our family had absolutely nothing on the calendar. It was great to be together (except for Fred’s and my big fight in the afternoon—ERGH! Conflict is NO FUN.) ... running errands, working on the garden/lawn, doing laundry. I even dusted an inch of DIRT off of the top of the piano! A miracle.

My favorite part of the day was when Sophie made a CHEF’S HAT for her dragon as she and Fred cooked us all pancakes in the morning:



It was fine—but LOUD—when Sophie taught Ella the joys of banging spoons onto pots:



Overall, I’d say, “Two thumbs up!” Eleanor would apparently agree:



Hope your Sunday is a blessed one. I can’t imagine I’ll get to be in the entire church service with baby-Miss-chatty-crawls-a-lot, but I’m looking forward to the morning.

Blessings and joy,
Tara B.

After we survived our snowstorm on Tuesday, the weather here has been stunningly beautiful in that “even a couch potato doesn’t want to be a couch potato when the days are this gorgeous” kind of way. Lilikoi completely agrees:



As do the girls (there are definitely “eat your lunch outside” kind of days):



When Fred had to work at Peacemakers until after 9PM one night, Sophie made him a huge “welcome home” poster for the porch and then scooted out to their bulbs (in her PJs!) to make him a bouquet:



(I love how she puts on her full gardening regalia—gloves, hat, knee pad—to cut a few stems. Too cute.)

But the most fun we’ve had this week was last night when I told Soph we had to help a friend by giving them a ride home from the airport. There we sat, at the bottom of the little Billings airport escalator, when MY SISTER KALI arrived.

Sophie just couldn’t process it. She looked at Kali. Looked at me. Kali. Me. Her face was SO confused and then she finally realized that Auntie Kali was REALLY THERE and she broke into a run:



Yes, yes. Happiness truly is Auntie Kali time. Not only because we went from the airport straight to The Reef. And today they’re apparently going to find out How to Train a Dragon. But mostly just because she loves us. She LIKES us. We sit and talk and talk and LAUGH AND LAUGH.

(Last night Sophie “just had to” grab her Oxford Book of Children’s Verse and read to us two poems from our morning because they were SO funny. One was in the voice of an older sibling who just didn’t understand why the whole house go so excited over the baby having a tooth; she had LOTS of teeth! Or almost saying one word; she could say LOTS of words! etc. etc. And the second was this absolutely gripping old poem about a toddler eating his breakfast outside each day and telling his mom about “the grey BIRD” he shares his milk and toast with ... only to find out it’s a SNAKE. Yup. And when the snake gets too aggressive re: the food, the kid just TAPS IT ON THE HEAD WITH A SPOON and says something to the effect of, “Stay on your own side!” Zeep! Soph and I LOVED it. We laughed and laughed. And then we had to (gently of course) give Lilikoi a tap on the head with a spoon ...)

So that pretty much catches you up on our lives. I fly to Iowa in about an hour to serve at a women’s retreat, so I’ll reconnect with the adventures here on Sunday.

Blessings to you!

Your sister in Christ,
Tara B.

We made it home from Yellowstone (albeit in a SNOWSTORM so driving was a little dicey for awhile) and I thought you might enjoy a few pics from our adventure ...

Yesterday was snow-free and not windy (hooray!) so Fred and Sophie were able to do their ride. Our morning started with a funny encounter with a buffalo who was just moseying down the road:



The rules of the road in Yellowstone are clear: “Yield to the buffalo!” As if a person wouldn’t do that naturally. Wow! Are they HUGE. That second photo was snapped right out my passenger-side window and was not zoomed in at all. Yeeep!

Fred and Sophie got all settled into the park and started their ride without any problems:





(Ella just observed from the window ...)



Their ride went well—the mountain at the start of the ride was hard (as expected—we had been talking with Sophie a LOT about PERSEVERANCE in regards to the first hour of the ride), but then they just settled in and explored:





The first hour of the drive home today really was treacherous because of snow and ice—we’re so grateful that yesterday was such a clear day:



Now Fred is at work and I’m unpacking, doing laundry, and trying to get us completely turned over for my trip to Iowa this coming weekend.

Hope your day has been a blessed one!

Gratefully,
Tara B. (& the fam ...)

We’ve arrived safely in Gardiner, Montana and Fred and Soph are out for their “warm up” ride:



Tomorrow they’ll head into Yellowstone National Park. There’s a sweet time each spring when the roads are closed to automobiles but open to bicycles, and that’s where they are headed. (I hope they don’t encounter any hungry spring bears! They do have their bear spray. You know. Just in case.)

Our drive after church was lovely. It’s not hard to understand why they call this Paradise Valley:



Although we did have to do a MAJOR diapie change for Eleanor en route. Yes, you CAN change a nasty, nasty diaper on the front seat of a two-door tiny Honda Civic if you really need to. In a pinch.



Our other big news is that this morning Sophie slipped and whapped her front tooth on our hardwood floor. Thankfully it was her very loose already baby tooth, so no major damage done. But she has a giant gap and a pretty nasty split lip:



(Don’t you just LOVE Ella’s grin in the car mirror? Oh, that kid loves her sister.)

And (drum roll please) Ella really REALLY crawled this morning in the cry room. So fun! She also really enjoyed Pastor Alfred’s sermon (this is her listening attentively until I called her name to get her attention):



That’s pretty much the news from Barthel Lake Wobegon. Hope your Sunday is going well too.

Yours,
Tara B.

Our Friday had lots of blessings in it ...

We picked Fred up at the airport (he had been in Texas all week helping to oversee the filming of a new Peacemaker resource) and headed right over to the Billings Convention Center to set up my booktable for my event this weekend:



Never have I had such helpful (and cute!) booktable “volunteers.”

Then Soph had an elaborate surprise planned for Fred wherein we “happened” to show up at Texas Roadhouse for a family meal. Get it? “Dad’s home from TEXAS. So we’ll eat at the TEXAS Roadhouse?” She had been planning the whole thing since Tuesday. 'Course I had to bring Fred in on the scheme since he was DRIVING. (Details details.)



Ella got in on the fun too, by sprouting her first teeth! Two teeny tiny little RAZOR SHARP toofers on her bottom jaw:



And our day ended with three fun surprises ... a box of used Boxcar Children books AND a new new purple book light arrived (since she chewed through her last one) AND we had the fun of seeing Sophie on the front page of little local newspaper serving away in the youth orchestra:



'Course there were other, ummm, shall we say, less pleasant aspects of our day too—a long time of counseling the heart in the morning during school time/violin practice (replete with a pretty extended study on 1 Corinthians 13 and what love looks like, especially versus revenge and pride/boasting); me COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY blowing it (at least in my HEART) when a “peacemaking opportunity” arose and it took me a good hour or two to come around to a gracious response (but at least I DID pray and I DID restrain my tongue until my heart got in line—so that’s growth at least); Fred’s first flight was delayed by 45 minutes so he almost misconnected in Denver and then his second flight came back off of the tarmac for mechanical difficulties (poor guy; glad I packed him a granola bar—"I don’t need it, Tara." “Please just take it. You never know when you’re going to be stuck on a tarmac with mechanical difficulties ...”).

Still, all in all, what a great day. God, as always, was forgiving. I saw afresh how Sophie and I are right there in the same battles regarding our heart issues. There was music. We had healthy food to eat. Eleanor is adorable. Lilikoi is happy and well. And the pack is together again.

I’m a grateful Momma Tara—but I’m about to be a late speaker momma Tara if I don’t get my act in gear here, so I’d better sign off.

Blessings to you on your Saturday!

Yours,
Tara B.

Fred and Sophie started our day with a deep conversation on atonement; motivated, I’m sure by the Vintage Alfred sermon we were blessed to receive last night.

Then they kicked their training into gear a bit on The Lean Green Riding Machine — their biking trip to Yellowstone is only a week away!



We had loads of fun with our friends enjoying springtime fun:





Ella enjoyed her day too:



And we ended the day with a little Momma Tara Salon Time (baths & curlers & a pink pedi/mani for Sophia):



Off to bed now. Fred has to be at church super early for worship team, so I’m going to have to manage Easter Services prep around here on my own in the morning.

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

Sophie started our day yesterday with a super fun April Fool’s Day joke that she had apparently been planning for a few weeks. (Thanks again for the Highlights, Mom. I think that’s where she got the idea.) She switched our Cheerios into our Mini-Wheats boxes and vice versa and gave Fred a surprise when he started breakfast:



Her insuppressible grin was such a delight.

And I think we’ve finally arrived at the stage wherein Ella GETS how to eat solid food. Sophie opened her mouth wide and leaned forward and chomped away the first time we ever put a spoon to her mouth as a baby, but Ella has been more slow to get the idea. So we’ve just let her nibble and taste and play in her sweet potatoes, peas, pears, etc.

But yesterday? She really got it:



In part, I credit Ella just getting older. (Heading towards nine months old!) But every time I feed her, I also think of dear Samara’s recommendation six years ago (for Soph) that we try Earth’s Best Organic Baby Food. “It tastes SO yummy, Tara!” Samaralara said.

Oh my. Yet another way that I am so different from my creative, artistic, experientially joyful friend. Because seriously? Tasting baby food is just not something I’d ever considered. Still. (Clearly.) I wasn’t ever going to do the REALLY good thing and MAKE my own baby food.

(I thought about it. I read the books. I felt the guilt. But, no. I never actually TRIED the whole “cook and make and freeze little ice cube sized healthy perfect baby food” thing. As Fred says, “I have other gifts.”)

I did try this baby food with Sophie and she loved it and now Ella loves it too. Plus, there’s free shipping with Amazon Prime! So I get lots of great options online that I wouldn’t have otherwise in our little town of Billings. (No Trader Joe’s for us out here!)

Heading into our Good Friday now. It’s always such a privilege to talk with Sophia about how the most evil act in all of time—the brutal killing of the Son of God—took place on a day we call “good.”

Blessings,
Tara B.

PS
We don’t usually allow Ella to play with the baby food jars while eating. But I thought it would make a nice “commercial” for Earth’s Best since I’ve been meaning to tell you about it.

Soph and I had super fun stuffing eggs this afternoon:



But it sure made me miss all of our Easter celebrations with the Lyndes:







Now I’m just hoping we can find even one friend who feels like having a little hunt sometime this week. Otherwise it’s going to be a very quiet, yet profitable, hunt for Sophia on Saturday.

Hope your day is going well. Ella is sleeping on me as I type this. She was very happy when we got home this afternoon:



Blessings,
Tara B.

We moved from B.C. to A.D. in our Ancient History class yesterday, so I thought it would be particularly fun to have a little “Christmas in March” celebration, even as we prepare to celebrate Easter this week.



I really like the juxtaposition of the candy canes and resurrection eggs in the above photo. Oh, and having an additional Christmas this year allowed Sophie to wear her Grandma Chris dress—a handmedown from our dear cousin Emily (my favorite biggest niece!) who is heading to COLLEGE this fall (Go Bethel!) but used to be this size. Really. She was.



(We missed out on wearing it this year because Soph was so sick at Christmas. And spent most of Christmas looking like this:



Poor kid.)

Other adventures in our life include lots of fun with growing Ella Marie:



Springtime fun (having nothing to do with the REAL reason for Easter, I know, I know ... ) coloring eggs with friends:



And having a super fun couple of days being responsible for five kids as we serve our friends by giving them a little mommy-daddy-alone-time-break. As a non-sleep-over family (unless there’s a ministry reason, like, say, giving their parents a time to REST), this is particularly fun for us. Plus, we just love love love these dear friends, so it’s really a joy:



Off into my day now—

Blessings,
Tara B.

Who knew there was a run at Red Lodge Mountain called “Big Fred”? Not I, said the little red hen. But Soph and Fred had a great day skiing yesterday and sent me this photo mid-day:



Ella and I had a nice, quiet day together. And I did make some progress on the school room chaos, so that’s great. One step at a time, right?

Hope you have a relaxing Saturday as you prepare for worship tomorrow.

Blessings,
Tara B.

Fred, Ella and I woke up to a special treat this morning. Sophie had created an entire museum for our enjoyment, complete with tickets for admission and signage to the four galleries:





Now Fred and Sophie are off to Red Lodge Mountain for a day of skiing:



While Ella and I enjoy a quiet day at home. And, depending on her ability to self-entertain safely, I may even tackle the chaos of the schoolroom. (Yes. It’s a wreck yet again. I’ve not done a good job finding systems for us yet. Maybe one of these years ...)

Hope your day is a blessed one!

Happy Friday,
Tara B.

Our favorite baby photo place (Kiddie Kandids) has apparently closed, so we’re really in need of some recommendations because OH MY STARS we had a bad experience today at Sears.

I won’t show you the TERRIFIED BABY SHOTS (the photographer scared even perennially happy Ella into terrified grimaces), but here are the best we could come up with:





Off to a quick dinner now (Brown Sugar Chicken – SO easy and SO yummy!) and small group.

G'nite!
– Tara B.

Another packed day around here, replete with a birthday party for a friend and a wonderful Billings Youth Orchestra concert replete with a concertmistress named Sophia Grace:



(I even got to help out in the percussion section on piano.)

Needless to say, the grandparents weren’t proud at all :

It’s a (very!) blessed and happy schedule to be sure (I’m a grateful woman!) ... but yet again, it’s bedtime and I’m just now coming up for air and taking even a BREATH at the end of my day. (Whew!)

Today, the Billings Youth Orchestra Preludios had the joy of serving through music.

First, we rehearsed some solos and enjoyed a delightful (and challenging) master class from Mr. Tracy, concertmaster of the Billings Symphony:



Then we had a super fun pizza party at Tarrantino's:



And had the joy of serving through music by providing a concert at a retirement community:



And ended with a swim party at “The Reef” (Billings' only indoor water park; helpful to be INDOOR, particularly TODAY since we had SNOW—yeep!):



Needless to say, I’m thrilled that Sophia had the opportunity to serve in this way; grateful to our conductor (Mrs. Kirk!) and the entire BYO organization that such a wonderful opportunity even exists; and totally exhausted and ready to turn my complete attention to dear Eleanor as we both head to sleep ...

Hope your Friday was a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Oh, what a wonderful time we had visiting the home of our dear friends, Bill and Melissa Yager. Their willingness to stop work and host us allowed my mom and stepdad to have a taste of “real” Montana and I am just so grateful. Plus? Sophie and I LOVE to spend time with them—we love Uncle Bill & Auntie Melissa and we’re always so edified to be on their gorgeous property among their animals.

Not being a native of Montana, I know absolutely nothing about ranch/farm life other than what I learned 30 years ago in Laura Ingalls Wilder books. But we’re really hoping to spend more time with these friends in the coming years and move our “visa status” from tourist to WORKER as we learn how to help out and (hopefully) earn the right to do some regular chores.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

We’re all happy but tired around here. Not a lot of time in the day for much else—so if you’re one of the many people who has emailed me, please be patient if I’m a tiny bit delayed in responding. I’m trying to dig out, but it may be a few days.

Blessings to you and yours,
Tara B.

Welcome to the Yager Ranch!



Sophie got to bottle feed the baby cow—and I got to bottle feed a different baby ...



Hanke the cowdog was giving one of the babies a hard time ...



And Soph got to hunt for eggs and then play with the baby chicks too ...



(It totally cracked me up when Melissa said that the chicks were an “impulse buy”. They were in town at Shiptons, saw the chicks, brought 'em home, made a little incubator and voila! Chicks. I thought to myself, “There’s something I’m just never going to do—spontaneously buy myself a flock of baby chicks.” Pretty cool for them to do it, though.)

The Yagers are actually building their home BY THEMSELVES (after building a gorgeous barn!)—all while maintaining their ranch (in the WINTER no less!). I just can’t imagine being this skilled and hard working and smart. Nope. I still don’t vacuum enough. Way too lazy. Can you imagine taking care of all of these horses, cattle, etc. while building your own home too? Just amazing.



So you can see why we cherish these dear friends, eh?



A lovely day in lovely Montana ...

My mom and stepdad arrived on Tuesday and we’re enjoying lots of fun together—especially in their hotel pool:





Tomorrow we’re hoping to visit a friend’s ranch and see twin baby cows (just born this week!), lambs, chicks, etc. etc. But a pesky spring SNOWSTORM might be blowing in and change our plans. So we’ll have to see how that goes ...

Right now I’m hoping to get a little sleep. I am as physically tired right now as I’ve been in a long time, but I’m actually feeling emotionally, really encouraged / “good.” (If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, then you know that’s a huge praise! Hooray for a NOT feeling blue kind of week.)

My heart is extremely grateful for God’s grace to Fred and me to help us through another challenging season re: our friendship / relationship / marriage. I’m feeling very hopeful about that topic and that’s a tremendous grace.

I’m truly blessed to be reading through A Praying Life with a wonderful group of women. The book itself is so encouraging and edifying—but having the chance to be with these women is such a joy and a help too.

(I must admit, I do still struggle with my feelings of, “Oh! Why did I SAY that?!” and “Errgh. I wish I hadn’t said THAT!” and “OH WHY OH WHY can’t I be ”EASIER" to relate with and just a nicer person!?!" (Especially when I’m trying really, really hard to love and bless and encourage and serve.) But, I’m trying to give myself a break; NOT fixate on it; trust that if I offend someone, they will talk with me about it, etc. etc. But group settings are still not an easy or comfortable fit for me.)

Oh, and I’m really enjoying Sophie and Ellie these days. I’m totally drinking in the joys of hand-me-downs (even while cringing at our seasonal MISS size-wise ... Soph’s December birthday means that Ella is JUST NOW fitting into some great sweaters and velvet dresses and thick tights, even though what she really needs are rompers and sundresses and shorts, etc.):



(Can you tell which is Soph and which is Eleanor?)

And even though I’m about to head into a busy event/travel season, and my project with Cap'n Dave could really use some uninterrupted time, and there are always more things to do in a day than could ever be done ...

I’m mostly just taking things one step at a time. Trying to do the next thing with a content and happy heart. Asking for help. Receiving help. Thanking God and thanking my husband too.

OK. I think I fell asleep a little bit as I typed that last line, so I’m going to sign off now.

Hope your week is going well—

Blessings,
Tara B.

I just love watching Sophie and Ella play together. The other day, Sophie even made the world’s cutest LIST of all of the things she needs to teach Ella (letters, counting, Catechism, poetry, etc.). It was classic. Definitely going in my “date it and keep it forever” box.

You can tell that Ella doesn’t like the attention at all ...





Ahhhh, thank God for sisters. My own (dear Kali) and my beloved brother-in-law ("Kali’s Fred") JUST bought us all tickets to come and see them this summer (!!), so we’re going to have a family trip this year after all. Thanks to their generosity, Fred and I will be celebrating our 40th birthdays California Style (and the girls will be in Auntie & Uncle Heaven)! We’re so grateful and so looking forward to the trip.

Just a few more pictures and I’m going to sign off and (hopefully) get back to sleep. (I was doing so much better sleeping-wise there for a few days, but last night and tonight? Not so much ...)

Sunday morning as we were leaving for church ...



And yesterday afternoon at youth orchestra rehearsal ...

Ella and I just got home from our church’s Variety Show. (Her coughing and boogey production levels were beginning to be too loud—even in the narthex, so we headed home.)

Sophie did a great job serving as a member of the RMCC Fiddlers:



She even had a fun “matchies” cowgirl outfit thanks to Auntie Kali & Uncle Fred:



The fiddlin' was great and we’re grateful for the music. But mostly? I thank God for the relationships. (Thank you Miss Laura! And all of our fiddlin' friends.)

This life is simply too hard to go through alone.

Thank God for friends.

Thanks, Grandma Chris, for the super adorable handmade socks!



We love 'em! And we love you—

Congratulations to M.W. of Florence, SC for winning the $250 in peacemaking resources from my event last weekend. Fun fun!

And way to go, Ella, for actually swallowing, maybe, a teaspoon of organic carrots last night:



Those solid foods are hard to manage.

And in the “I can’t believe it” category, Sophie is sick again! A hacky, persistent cough and high fever. Weren’t we JUST sick as a family? What’s up with this? We drink water, eat fruit and vegis, take our vitamins, wash our hands. Why oh why are we so consistently sick? Poor sweetie bird. When a usually active, happy kid says, at 2:00 in the afternoon, “I just want to lie down in bed. I can’t even stand up.” You know you’re in trouble. I do so hope she feels better soon.

Before Soph really crashed, we did have some fun outside digging in the dirt, planting some seeds in a planter, brainstorming over our gardens for the spring. It was a beautiful day here. Really the first day I felt hopeful that winter might actually END one of these weeks/months.

We also sat and watched a bunch of baby movies of when Sophia was Ella’s age. Oh my STARS but Fred and I laughed and laughed at how tiny Sophie used to be. We’ve really forgotten so much of this delightful baby stage:



We particularly enjoyed seeing so many of our family’s little baby toys in their command performance. And we delighted in seeing her climb all over our first Golden, Choza. They really were best of friends:



If you’d like a little “funny kid” chuckle, I’ll leave you with this classic Sophia video:



And one last photo of Eleanor NOT eating carrots tonight:



Hope you’re all sleeping and I can get back to sleep soon—

Blessings,
Tara B.

My view during the general sessions has been like this:



Because I’ve tried really hard to tuck into a back wall (and hopefully not annoy people!) while I’ve been LiveBlogging the PCA Women’s Leadership Conference.

It’s been very fun to interact with you all on the LiveBlogs, but I should warn you that I think I’m done for this conference. I was going to try to LiveBlog the dinner tonight, but it’s a formal affair and I think I would be too obtrusive no matter how behind-the-scenes I tried to be. And I can’t LiveBlog the final plenary session because, well, I’m the speaker.

So hopefully you will enjoy my notes from Dr. Barrs even without the final session.

I just finished my first workshop—the women were amazing! But I just wish I had done a better job serving them. Scheduled length was short to begin with and then things ahead of the workshops ran long. Plus no microphone (and you know how fast I talk—SUCH a weakness!).

But I am praying that God will take my sow’s ear efforts and sew a silk purse. Oh, how I am praying.

And I did get to give away a bunch of free resources (thanks, Fred, for funding free stuff for the women!), so that’s always fun.

One more workshop to teach this afternoon ("Help! Our Women’s Ministries Fall Apart Once the People Get Involved!") and then we’re off into the evening.

Hope your Friday is going well.

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
Fred thought the girls looked particularly sweet this morning, so he snapped a quick photo on his cell phone to send me an early-morning lovie:



Nice guy, that Fred.

I jumped back online because Fred said he was sending me a picture from Red Lodge Mountain:



Sophie’s first time skiing! To quote her:

"This is FUN, Dad!"

Hooray and hooray! I’m just a little bummed that they couldn’t rent helmets there. (We thought we had researched all of the details re: rentals, but we blew that one.) So I’m praying for safety! But it sounds like they’re having a wonderful Daddy-Daughter day.

Hope your Friday is going well too—

Gratefully,
Tara B.

PS
Evening update ... everyone is home safe and sound. (And Fred is trying to figure out how in the world he is going to have the energy for a 3+ hour deacon meeting tonight. Poor guy!) Here are some more pics from the day ...

The other night, Fred reminded me that we had some classic baby toys in a tub downstairs. After a little searching, we all enjoyed quite a show by sweet Ella as she discovered the joy of playing with stacking rings and rolling balls:





Then we ended the day with a little family reading of Redwall

Sophie’s front tooth finally wiggled itself out:



She said it didn’t even hurt—I’m sure that’s because it was COMPLETELY dead. Should’ve popped out a week ago—there was nothing live holding that thing in. Her adult tooth is FULLY visible already. (And I think she’s just adorable in her toothlessness.)

Sophia is also having loads of fun with a new learning adventure we’re on ... learning to type:



I haven’t read any books or done any research at all as to what is “best” for kids re: learning to use a keyboard, so I don’t have any idea if “experts” or whomever would say this is a bad idea ...

I’ve just thought about for quite some time ("How are we going to introduce Sophie to computers? What is going to be a good fit for our family?")—and just like learning an instrument, it seemed to me that it’s way better and way easier to never mess around with bad positioning. (For example, with piano, if a kid learns to play on the pads of his fingers rather than the tips in a nice, rounded, relaxed hand position with eyes only ever on the music (never looking down), it is VERY hard to develop good hand position and stop “peeking”. But if you start a child right away with good hand position and help them keep their eyes only on the music, that will stay with them for a LONG time.)

We’re also very committed to integrating computers into learning. Yes, I want her to learn to research “the old fashioned way.” Yes, we still read and read and read and we’re a non-computer-game-family. But as we learn about geography, we LOVE Google Earth. As we discover new operas or play new music in youth orchestra, we enjoy hearing and seeing clips online. I want her to be comfortable with word processing, spreadsheeting, presentation software, etc. And oh! I pray that we can help her to be safe and wise re: the internet (just as we strive to help her to be safe and wise re: walking around a big city).

And so far? Typing Instructor for Kids has been a great fit for us. She learned all three rows of letters in three days—and now she’s just working on bringing up her wpm while maintaining her accuracy. Plus? She LOVES it. We have to be diligent to do our other duties before we do the “fun” of working hard on typing.

Very cool.

We also had some serious fun Sunday night watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and then listening to our favorite tunes from Ragtime.

Sophie and Ella did some pretty cute dancing to those ragtime tunes. (Ella dances like this ...)



And, as my Facebook pals already know, Fred cracked me up when he said, “I’m probably the only man in America who watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tonight (rather than the Super Bowl).” To which I replied to Fred that, statistically, I doubt that’s true because there’s probably some serious overlap in the subset of men in America who did NOT watch the Super Bowl and who DO like both musicals and their families.

Don’t you think?

(Oh, and BTW ... Ella wanted to be in the typing photo too ...)



That’s pretty much the news from Lake Woebegone. THANK YOU for praying for my friend. So many times I just doubled over today and cried (and cried out, “I can’t BELIEVE it!!”). Not in that “railing against God / tempted to sinful anger” kind of way. Just wracked with grief. I simply cannot believe it.

Anyway. Thanks for praying.

We’re into cuddle time now, so I need to scoot.

Blessings and goodnight,
Tara B.

(& cuddle bugs Eleanor & Sophia too)

I felt strangely disconnected yesterday during my internet-free day, but it turned out to be a wonderful time. I connected in real life with human beings, spent more time with my girls, started a book I’m excited to read, AND got to take some photos of Ella that I think are pretty cute. I think I may take technology breaks more often.

I also thought of a 4th conviction that helped me to unpack and straighten our home without being a total grouch the other day:

4. I didn’t want Sophie to grow up saying, “Yes, it was our family’s privilege to sacrifice so that my mom could go and serve at different events. But boy she sure was a GROUCH stomping around the day after she got back—reconciling paperwork, packing orders, following up on emails, unpacking / doing laundry / cleaning / re-engaging with our family life.” NOPE. That is NOT how I wanted her childhood to be.

So thank God for conviction! And for grace to change.

I’ll put the photos at the bottom of this post just in case you’d like to smile. And then I’m back to taking care of (very) sick Sophie and (getting very) sick Fred. But so far Ella and I are holding our own, thank God!

Blessed Thursday to you all—

Yours,
Tara B.

Sweet Ella Marie!




Happy Sweet Half-Birthday, Big Six Month-Old Eleanor!






First Time Really Exploring and Crawling All Over Lilikoi




Developmental Milestones! Pre-Crawling Here We Come ...






Not So Happy with First Solids (a.k.a. “What are you people DOING to me?!?”)



Poor sick Sophie and poor sick Fred …

Soph and Fred had a nice trip to the Mall to buy our 2010 family calendars at 50% off:



We recorded a movie of Sophie telling the Christmas Story (a family tradition since she was two years old):



We’re ALMOST done with our first 1,000 piece family puzzle:



And I limped around boxes and storage tubs (while Fred did all of the really hard work!) so that everything is packed away. But not without one more Santa Hat Photo of the girls (per Sophie’s request).



(Lilikoi was so helpful.)

All while listening to Lake Wobegon’s “Church People” and interspersed with family cuddle time in bed while Fred reads us, "Pippi Longstocking."

Hope your day was a good combination of diligence and rest, too.

With love from the entire Barthel fam,
Tara B.

Ella has truly enjoyed her first Christmas and we’ve enjoyed her too:



Sophie and I have been prone for most of the day, but there have been a few moments upright and happy:



Lili sends her love too and we all hope that your day has been blessed:



Yours,
Tara B. (et al)

It was another fun day celebrating Sophia’s sixth birthday. It started with a wonderful Happy Birthday Cookie Bouquet from Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Charlie, Auntie Kali & Uncle Fred AND a package from Grandma Chris with a Fancy Nancy Nightgown AND adorable Christmas dresses for Sophie and Ella AND the “Sultan’s OWN” Turkish Delight. (Thankfully, the Turkish Delight did NOT have a magical hold on Soph like poor ol' Edmund.)





Soph even received a super fun set of Cake Decorating Books from Uncle John & Aunt Penny. (But now I have to help her to understand that just OWNING A BOOK will NOT make me able to decorate a cake like that by next year. )



Then we were onto our “Happy 6th Birthday Christmas Pajama Party” fun. I have to say, it was absolutely adorable to see eight little girls all dressed in matchies pajamas:





The girls were very sweet and we pretty much just hung out together and played. But we DID have a little manicure time (alternating red & green were the colors of choice for most girls) and an (optional) pillow fight too:





We ended with “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” & popcorn & kettle corn. (Lili LOVED helping to clean up.) All in all, it was a blessed time with little girls whom I can honestly tell you I truly love and pray for regularly. They are just so precious to our family.

Hope your day was a fun one, too!

Signing off and wishing you all the best,
Tara B.

We enjoyed a fun day celebrating Sophie’s sixth birthday yesterday. It had to start very early because Fred had an all-day meeting at Peacemakers, but we were able to enjoy some gift-opening and birthday donut-eating before he left in the morning:





We were then very blessed to have a friend come over for much of the day. I must’ve made an error with our GAK recipe because it was so-so, but not as fun as it’s been in the past:



But we still had a nice time with cake baking and decorating and some fun crafts:



(Sophie was SO kind to not even mind when I ran out of blue writing icing and had to switch to light blue. Nice kid.)

BTW — just in case you’re ever curious ... it IS possible to make three dozen cookies for a funeral while holding a baby IF you have a Maya Wrap.



(I love my Maya Wrap!)

Probably my favorite part of the day was Sophie making Ella laugh hysterically AGAIN. It’s pretty much a daily occurrence now, but this video even trumps the previous one:



Although Sophie’s fascination with the stunning Robert Sabuda “Chrnoicles of Narnia Pop Up Book” (such ART!) might tie for my favorite part of the day:



(I just wish I could capture how beautiful Sabuda’s books are.)

I’ll close with my most GRATEFUL moment of the day ...

It came when I went to call Lilikoi in from our backyard and she didn’t come immediately (which is entirely unlike her). It was dark, so I called her again. Still no Lili.

Then I saw that our GATE WAS OPEN. Apparently, a substitute UPS driver left it open when he or she dropped off a package. And Lili was gone.

My heart stopped beating as I handed Ella to Sophie and started running down the (snow covered) drive way in my stocking feet. (We live near a very busy street.) I just couldn’t bear the thought of losing our second Golden during Sophie’s birthday week like we had lost our dear Choza.

Thankfully, she came right away and was fine — but it was quite a moment. My chest was still a little tight later that evening as Sophie played with her new “Honey” Golden Retriever toy:



Today is a day to clean clean clean so that, hopefully, seven little girls won’t leave our home tomorrow afternoon just coated in dog hair. I can’t imagine their parents would care for that very much.

Happy Friday to you! Hooray for Friday —

Yours,
Tara B.

We sure had an exciting day around here on Saturday!

It started with a special gift for Sophie (a little cross necklace) to celebrate the day of her first concert with the Billings Youth Orchestra. We had her go around to all of the Uncle TJ paintings and find the letters he signs under his name (“SDG”).





Then we explained what Soli Deo Gloria means and there was a composer who signed all of his music that way, too. (Which she already knew was Bach—much to our delight and surprise.) And then we prayed that she would always serve God and neighbor with her music and play “SDG.”

Then we took some time to pack up PJs for her “6th Birthday Christmas Pajamas Party” next week and Fred and Sophie went around town to friends’ homes for a little PAJAMAGRAM delivery adventure.



In the afternoon, Sophie TOTALLY cracked Ella up with hysterical giggles. Twenty second video here:



Finally, it was off to the Alberta Bair Theater for her very first Billings Youth Orchestra Preludios Concert.

Here she is backstage getting ready (with her all-time favorite stand partner, Miss Sunny):



And here she is serving through music SDG:



If you’d like to chuckle, here is a very short video of the funny beginning they did for Verdi’s Anvil Chorus—where Sophie got to “tune” the anvil:



(The anvil “soloist” is Sophie’s beloved violin teacher, Miss Laura.)

Of course, we had to celebrate the night with an ICE CREAM treat and comics at DQ.



Thanking God for a wonderful day—

Hope yours was full of joy too!

Yours,
Fred, Tara, Sophia & Eleanor

Sophia worked very hard today making brownies (with peppermint icing and crushed candy cane topping) for Fred to take to the Peacemaker Ministries staff party this evening:





And other than that little enjoyable project, we’ve pretty much accomplished nothing else today other than taking care of Eleanor and being together. What a grace.

Hope your day had some moments of rest and enjoyment too—

Yours,
Tara B.

Whew! What a day—present wrapping (while hanging with family); present sending (while waiting in line at the post office for a LONG time but getting to chat with people from the community the whole time); the ladies' Christmas brunch (with real fellowship with real friends—what a grace!); Soph to and from a birthday party (replete with a REAL horse ride on a beautiful brown Montana horse named Guy); and the entire fam to and from Soph’s violin “recital” on the community stage at the mall (does it count as a recital if a “BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!!” announcement blares as loud as a locomotive over the p.a. system WHILE your daughter is playing her song? ) ...



7PM. Whew! Now we’re all just singing along to Handel’s Messiah playing very loudly on our stereo because OH! That piece of music is just a tiny bit of Heaven on Earth.

Hope your day was a blessed one too—

Gratefully,
Tara B.

Big day in the Barthel household! Ella rolled over by herself for the very first time:



And just like with Sophia, I was super blessed to have happened to have the camera rolling so we have a movie! Very fun.

We also had a nice day wrapping presents AND painting presents:





And we made our annual trip to Jayne’s Signature Sweets to order Sophie’s birthday cake. We love Miss Jayne!



If that weren’t enough, we wrapped up our outings with a trip to the dollar store where Sophie spent her very own money buying six presents (Mom, Dad, Ella, Lilikoi, Scout & William) — and I hid my eyes on mine, so I’ll actually have a present under the tree that I didn’t buy and wrap myself. Very fun.

Hope your day was a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

(Baby screamed all the way TO the photos and all the way home FROM the photos. But in between, we got these pics. Total baby photos grace! )





Hope your day was a good one too—

Yours,
Tara B.

(& Grandpa Joe, Nana Marlene, Sophia & Ella)

We’re so grateful that Grandpa Joe (my dad) and his wife Marlene are here for a week’s visit. Ella (Eleanor) is named for his mother (my Grandma Klena), so it’s particularly wonderful that he gets to meet her:



Sophia’s having a blast too, of course!



And Sophie had a really fun violin lesson this morning. We just found out that she gets to play a Christmas carol in her violin recital next Saturday. She picked “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and our (wonderful) teacher Miss Laura is going to improvise a duet.

Today I snagged a movie of this portion of their practice because the descant was so pretty:



(The cooing in the background is Ella—she was on my lap as I filmed the movie.)

We were also tremendously blessed last night to spend time with our pastor (Pastor Jason), elder Jeff Laverman and his wife, Amy, and our elder Rich Mattson. They generously gave of their time to shepherd our family and we just can’t thank God enough for them:



Off to orchestra now!

Blessings on your Monday,
Tara B.

PS
We tried to snap a family photo just before we left for church yesterday. It didn’t turn out that great, but here it is anyway:



(Can you tell that Fred and I are in the middle of a big quarrel at that moment? Ahhhh—peacemaking ON THE WAY TO CHURCH. Gotta love it. )

Sophie, Ella and I counted down the time while Fred was at men’s prayer breakfast Saturday morning because we knew we were going to spend the day decorating for Christmas (!!).



It’s our family’s tradition to purchase just one ornament from any vacation as our sourvenir, and as we put up our tree, we tell stories about each ornament and adventure. We also re-live lots of memories (like the ornament Fred game me right before he proposed to me; the Clara ornament from our time at The Nutcracker with the Dunns; The Shedd Aquarium ornament from the infamous barfing Christmas—yuck!; and LOTS of music notes and pianos from back when I still taught piano lessons).



My favorite part of ornament hanging is laughing together over family stories that really only we could understand. For example, every year, I just well up over MY FAVORITE APPLE ORNAMENT that I hand-painted 30+ years ago. I just LOVE this ornament! So as you might imagine, I wasn’t all that happy when Fred told me during our first Christmas together that is WASN’T an apple at all. It was a STRAWBERRY.

HUH?! My whole life it’s been an apple! Couldn’t this be an apple?



(Apparently NOT. And every year we all laugh about it.)

In addition to decorating, Sophie and I also bopped on over to the Billings Metra Convention Center where a holiday craft fair was going on and the Billings Youth Orchestra Preludios were sharing a little holiday cheer:



We visited Skiddles the Clown for a little post-concert face-painting and balloon-bracelet celebration:



And headed home to finish decorating ...



Hope your Saturday was filled with gentle pleasures too.

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
From our family to yours, we truly Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Fred (the youngest) and his brother, John (3rd of the 5 Barthel boys):



Can you tell they’re related?

We’re enjoying some very late nights playing Wii hunting games and chatting with Uncle Fred. I didn’t think I’d be so into it! But it’s very addictive. (Ella thinks so too ... )



Yesterday was a super-fun-Auntie Kali & Uncle Fred-adventure-with-Sophia-day at the San Francisco Exploratorium:





And today we had a great time at the Bears-49ers game at Candlestick Park:



All thanks to the generosity of sistah Kali (for the tickets) and sistah-in-law Penny (who took care of the girls for us):



Hope your day was a blessed one too!

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

We had a wonderful Sabbath yesterday with Fred’s brother John (3rd of the 5 Barthel boys) and his family ...

Happiness really IS Aunt Penny’s kitchen:



And her garden ...



But those cousins are pretty wonderful too!





Even if one of them HAS led deacon Barthel away from a quiet life of engineering / programming / peacemaking to the hard-rockin'-world of GUITAR HERO PLAYIN':



I’m thanking God for our dear family—

Yours,
Tara B.

The California fun continues for the ol' Barthel fam!

A really nice conducter found a way for all of us to squeeze onto his car (which was cramped and crowded and a little scary on the hills, but super fun!):





Couldn’t go past the salt water taffy store without buying a few BUCKETS of taffy. Oh, and the grossest jelly beans EVER—made to match jelly bellies, I guess you ask, “Is it cafe mocha or EAR WAX?!” "IT’S NOT CAFE MOCHA!!" Yeek! Total boy thing:



The weather was beautiful and the company was perfect. (Oh! And happy birthday sistah Kali!)





Now we’re looking very forward to meeting Uncle John, Aunt Penny, and cousins Calvin and Lucy over in Berkeley for church and a restful Sabbath.

Sending you love from sunny California—
Tara B.

Sophie and Fred enjoyed a nice morning at a park ...



Oh my STARS! But we had fun playing Wii and cuddling/reading with Uncle Fred ...



Then we headed to the “world famous” (would fit in our teeny tiny living room but was still super fun) PEZ MUSEUM:



And enjoyed a foggy, beautiful, super-fun playtime at the beach:





(BTW—this is the reason Ella is so happy. Built-in-entertainment courtesy of ol' Uncle Fred. This is her view—I snapped this photo over my shoulder while holding her.)



Hope your day was a blessed one too!

Sending my love from California—

Yours,
Tara B.

Soph had a blast rehearsing the “really FAST” part of one of her fiddle songs today at youth orchestra and we thought you might enjoy seeing the last minute or so:



(Most of the kids are just playing a repetitive note during the hard part, but Sophia volunteered to do the running sixteenth notes “just for fun.”)

Hope this gives you a little chuckle at the end of your day.

G’nite and God bless—

Love,
Tara B.

As usual, I fell asleep just fine last night. But then I startled myself awake with a stressful (dream? thought?) about flying with Ella this coming Wednesday. (Will she cry and cry? Will I be unable to comfort her? Will people be furious? Will I have enough brand-new earplugs and $5 bills to offer people (for a glass of wine) if she’s totally freaking out?)

Those thoughts quickly jumped to my desperate need for uninterrupted time to work on digging out the guest room (organizing/archiving/giving away baby clothes, Sophie’s clothes, and (hopefully!) prepping a couple of huge ebay lots of maternity clothes.

Before you could say, “Go back to sleep, Tara!”, I was thinking about how November has more birthdays in it than any month of the year (and how I REALLY needed to get our birthday cards in the mail TODAY or else they wouldn’t arrive on time). My Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Committee dues are due. And our life insurance premium. And and and ...

I have to say, I wasn’t even stressed or sad about any of that. But I WAS motivated to try to GET IT DONE. And the ebay lot project really needed time apart from the girls so I could concentrate, so I just got up and got to work.

Except for the strange-pulling-an-all-nighter feeling (you know that TIRED EYES, slightly fuzzy-brained, a little disoriented sense you have when you’re writing a paper in undergrad that’s due in the morning OR just starting to outline CRIMPRO at 2AM the day of the final?), it’s actually a nice time to work. I have TWW to keep me company and I’m totally cranking on loading, I mean IMPORTING (Ipod lingo for you .mp3 reluctant folks like ME) Soph’s unabridged Narnia CDs.

So anyway ... back to work. It’s going to be a very survival-ish day for the ol' Barthel girls today once the pack starts to stir in a few hours. But that’s OK! Lots of Little House on the Prairie to read, Blokus to play, and cuddles to share.

Blessings on your Monday! Hope it started WAY later than mine (unless you’re living in Japan—Hi SarahJoy!—or Australia—Hi Andrea & Andrea’s mum!).

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
Here are just a few more photos of our family’s autumnal fun this past weekend ...

Continuing to avoid all indoor places with large groups of people (the flus and colds are rampant in Billings!), we did enjoy a little costume-dress-up-fun at the Zoo yesterday:



And then topped off our day with lots of cuddles, reading, and a pizza and movie night replete with the old classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:



To be a little productive, we DID spend a little time in the morning learning how to add 3 digit numbers to 3 digit numbers (including adding dollars and cents), so that was very hard and very fun. (To be honest, only Sophie learned how to do this. It was more of a review-type-thing for Fred and me. )

But mostly, it was just a nice, calm, restful family day in October. What a grace.

Hope your day was a fun one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

We still miss our majestic old tree, but we did have one nice thing come out of losing it ...



Our daughters' hand prints, initials, and the date will be around to greet the next owners of 929 Alderson. (Although Ella’s print does look way more like a smudge. It’s HARD to get a three month old’s hand print! But didn’t Sophie’s turn out nice?)



Sitting out on the stoop, watching the men work so hard, offering them tea, (appreciating that they cleaned up their language when Sophie and I were out there), asking if it was OK for us to leave our initials/hand prints (you would think so because it’s OUR property and WE even had to PAY FOR our tree being cut down and the sidewalk being replaced) ... Yup. That was definitely a better way to spend our morning than dealing with the piles and to-do’s that constantly beckon.

(My biggest goal for Sophie’s educational year is that her heart knits deeply and profoundly with Eleanor’s. My second biggest goal is that she grows in her ability to give herself a BREAK and CHILL OUT a bit. She is so driven! SUCH a perfectionist. Very slow to give herself GRACE. (I just have no idea where she gets all THAT from, do you? Yes, she still—at her own initiative—brought her music theory and math books out on the stoop and sat there multi-tasking while she watched the new sidewalk go in. But we did have a fun, slow morning. And it was SO COOL to leave a permanent mark on a home.)

I think that one of the reasons this meant so much to me is that I never lived in any one home for very long as a child. I don’t have any memories of progressively higher pencil dashes on a door frame. I don’t remember ever getting to really KNOW the nooks and crannies of any one house. I just don’t have a sense of “place.”

(Fred always laughs when someone asks, “Where are you from?” Because he easily says, “German Valley Illinois.” And then he glances at me to see how I will respond. Usually it’s something along the lines of, “We moved around a lot, but I went to college and grad school in Illinois and spent our first few years as a married couple in the north suburbs of Chicago, so it always feels like I’m going home when I land at O'Hare, even though I don’t have any family there.” Blah blah blah. Typical Tara. Why 5 words when 500 will do?)

But by God’s grace, Sophia has created reading nooks and hideaway forts and special areas in every part of our tiny little home. We do have “permanent” little dash marks showing us how FAST our daughter is growing. (Plus, our friends at the post office and grocery store remind us of that all the time too.)

I don’t know how long God will keep us here. But for now we are truly enjoying our community, church ... and the sidewalk near our house.

Gratefully,
Tara B.

Sophie and Fred had a fun time carving ol' Jack (and little “L” as Sophie called the baby punkin') this past weekend:





I have to say—I really did fall in love with Fred for many substantive things (spiritual, intellectual, emotional) ... but his ability to do fun things like carve such cool pumpkins really sealed the deal. Plus he was (and is) really cute.

The snow and ice have left us (at least until Monday when more snow is predicted) and we decided to enjoy our balmy 70 degree, relaxed family Saturday, by introducing Ella to Zimmerman Trail (one of our favorite places to walk and play in Billings):





As usual, Sophia and Lilikoi had a blast:



And I just have to say—fresh air, mountain views, and time with family is just about the best thing for any postpartum blues and/or temptations to depression that I might have.

Thank You, Lord, for this beautiful day!

Yours,
Tara B.

Can you make the call? Which is Sophia and which is Ella?

(Fred and I often get stuck. )









Fun stuff!

Have to run to refill the humidifier/vaporizer and do some boogey-sucking now for poor Eleanor. She is struggling so hard to breathe!

Hope your Sunday is a blessed one—

Your friend,
Tara B.

When you live in a desert (as we do here in Montana), you don’t get a lot of rain.

Sophie is FASCINATED by windshield wipers (since we only turn them on a few times a year), water “running UP” on car windows, and pretty much everything associated with rain.

And it appears that her little sister enjoys rain too ...



(Can you see the little raindrops?)

We had a good day, but an exhausting one. Fred’s going to take the first shift with Ella because I have to get up very early tomorrow to go and see my allergy doc at 7AM. I’m (finally!) going to get these allergens OFF of my skin. I cannot wait.

G'nite and sweet dreams!

Yours,
Tara B.

(& Ella & Sophia too ...)

We sure had a fun day with TJ, Samara, Scout and William:



Only one more day until Fred comes home to his girls:



Hope your Saturday was a blessed one!

Yours,
Tara B.

I’m enjoying the (uncharacteristically) personal and casual posts over at the IX Marks Blog (which usually is very “deep”, especially on theological issues). This one, in particular, cracked me up:

"GRANDPA: Whatcha doing, Justin?

JUSTIN: I’m fighting the bad guys.

GRANDPA: Oh, really?

JUSTIN: Yea, Jesus says we’re supposed to love our enemies. But sometimes they get out of hand and we have to shoot 'em."

(Hmmmmm ... guess I forgot to teach that peacemaking principle last weekend in Iowa.)

My Momma Heart was also quite warmed today by all of the attentive and insightful love and care that Sophia showered on our sweet, battling a cold, little Ella Marie.

Sophie’s ideas really were the best ones as Ella cried and cried (and cried and cried) ... dimming the overhead lights, maybe a little more milkies, singing “Amazing Grace” into her ears (we each took an ear and Eleanor had quite a stereo effect—and it DID calm her for a few minutes).



Oh! And Soph had her very first Billings Youth Orchestra rehearsal too:



What an HONOR and JOY it is to get to participate in an ensemble at such a young age! She was so nervous this morning. ("What if I can’t keep up with the conductor and read all of the notes?!") I just encouraged her to honor the conductor and her fellow musicians, try her best, not panic when things got too hard—but just tell herself, “Oh! That’s what we’ll practice this week. No worries.” And that’s exactly what she did.

I also told her that EVERYONE (even grownups!) get nervous when they are doing something NEW. The unknown can be scary! But God is always with her and I would be there the entire rehearsal, just in case she needed me. (Fred came home from work early to care for Ella so that I could go and give Soph 100% of my attention.)

It was a wonderful hour, and actually quite jarring to come home to an exhausted, sick Fred holding an exhausted, sick—but SCREAMING and INCONSOLABLE—Ella.

Ahhhhhhh ... ups and downs. The norm of life.

I’m thanking God for both as I try to head to a little sleep now. (I literally thanked God today for His answer of “No” to our prayers that PRETTY PLEASE Eleanor wouldn’t get this horrible cold. We prayed. He answered. And even though it’s not the answer WE would have chosen, we are trusting that His grace is sufficient. AND we’re going through LOTS of saline drops trying to help her breathe while nursing, poor little lovie.)

Hope your Monday was a blessed one!

G'nite and much love,
Tara B.

My travels were completely uneventful (hooray!). Well, except for my alarm having to go off at 4AM (3AM for my Mountain Time Zone body!) this morning in order to make my flights ... but it was worth it to be home on the noon flight instead of the 11PM flight. (Billings doesn’t have a lot of flight options.)

Fred, Sophie, Ella, Lilikoi and I just got home from a brief, but lovely, family walk. I love the fall! And even with Fred and Sophie’s tremendous colds, we could enjoy a few blocks of fresh air together.

Now Ella is nursing and I’m enjoying stories of how they all passed the time in my absence the past three days. My favorite activity was a puppet show Sophie put on for her baby Sissy:



(Hooray for big sisters!)

Hope your Sabbath was a restful, God-centered day—

Sending my love,
Tara B.

(With thanks to my sister for the darling “Sweet Pea” Life Is Good wear for Ella Bella ...)





And, yes, there really WAS a poor little black kitty trapped on our roof today. I’m listening to a) Fred’s footsteps directly above my head as he walks the roof trying to (apparently) catch the poor thing; and b) Sophia directing him, “There he is, Daddy! No, over THERE!”



I feel terrible that I didn’t call animal control earlier—when my neighbor came over and said, “I think there’s a cat stuck on your roof.” But Soph and I looked and looked and didn’t see him.

The REAL end of the story is the fact that JUST AS Fred got the poor thing to safety and released him on the yard (he had a collar on so we assumed he would find his way home and we didn’t need to bring him to the pound), HE RAN RIGHT OUT INTO THE STREET AND (to quote Fred) WHAM!!! WAS HIT BY A CAR!!

("If only I had held him on the ladder for five more seconds," Fred bemoaned.)

Thankfully, he apparently used up only ONE of his nine lives because he didn’t even falter. He just kept on running. If we could’ve caught him, we would’ve (just to take him to a vet and MAKE SURE he was OK).

But can you believe that timing? Poor little kitty. I hope he is OK and home now.

We enjoyed some playtime (and photos) outside on Friday:



Sophie discovered a (super cool!) spider web and immediately ran inside to get her magnifying glass:



Later on in the day, we did some chalk coloring and enjoyed some “I Spy” playtime too:



Of course, no weekend is complete without some NARNIA!



And the girls enjoyed their first MATCHIES day at church today:



Hope you’re all doing well—

Sending my love,
Tara B.

It’s just now 5:30PM and I’m trying to get back to organizing Soph’s costumes in the few minutes I have before Fred gets home. This is a project I started at, oh, 7AM.



The piles are right next to all of the craft supplies ... a project that’s needed organizing since, oh, LAST WEEK.



Ahhhhhh ... you can tell that my priority is to hold two little girls—a job I am honored and happy to have. (Especially since Ella started SMILING this week!)



But I really should try to unearth the basement floor one of these hours/days/weeks. Whoops! Lost my window. Ella’s freaking out so I have to run.

Hope your day was a blessed one! Mine surely was.

Yours,
Tara B. (& Sophia, Eleanor & Lilikoi too)

No time to blog yesterday—but I WAS able to dig out my office and file / shred / toss a zillion documents that had piled up since our PRE-ELLA days.

My hands were more free because Big Sis Sophia fell in love with HOLDING ELLA while she watched her late afternoon video (Narnia, of course).



Plus we figured out the walkie-talkie feature on the Skiles' old hand-me-down baby monitors (fun!), so I’m beginning to roam a little further from the girls around the house. ('Course that always leaves Lilikoi in a bit of a conundrum because she really likes to be able to keep an eye on her entire pack all at once. What a sweetie. I just HAVE to start walking her again. Any day now ...)

Hope your Monday was a blessed one!

Yours,
Tara B.

Ella was awake and happy after church, so I snapped a couple of photos:



(Don’t you just love those fake Mary Jane socks they’re making now? They didn’t have those when Sophia was born—so I’m very grateful to our dear friend, Miss Dianne, for the sweet gift because MAN! I think they’re cute.)

'Course, reality is never as clean-cut as the posed photos show ...
(Do your baby pictures have a dog getting in a little too close?)



(Kind of like the “happy family” that the Barthels MAY have presented at church today—not immediately showing the quarreling, struggling, repenting, confessing, and forgiving that went on in the hours and minutes before the church service ... but if you asked us or chatted with us, we would’ve been honest about.)

Oh! How true it is that I continue to be a debtor to mercy alone.

Hope your Sabbath is a restful one—

Yours,
Tara B.

(So now you can see how the Barthel girls pass the time waiting for Papa Fred to get home from work on a Friday night.)

Lilikoi just couldn’t understand why Ella didn’t throw her ball (see it there—the red ball gently placed in the corner of Ella’s swing?) and play catch!

Yesterday, Eleanor Marie visited Daddy’s work at Peacemaker Ministries for the first time:



And had her first “SO GLAD we had an entire SPARE OUTFIT in the baby bag” diaper during her first trip to the zoo:



Big sister enjoyed being the official stroller pusher:



And enjoyed her first day of FIRST GRADE today:



I’m exhausted, but happily grateful.

Hope your Tuesday was a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophia dressed Ella today so that they could wear their “matching” stripey sundresses:



She continues to be Ella’s constant cuddle companion (and she loves to read to both of us):



We’re just back from my first trip out of the house in two weeks (except for, you know, surgeries, trips to the e.r., and doctor visits). I felt so happy to be out and doing something “normal”—but then I became quickly exhausted and (I’m ashamed to admit), GROUCHY. Thankfully, Fred and Sophie have both forgiven me, so I can just look back on our afternoon with a happy, grateful heart. But I’m also trying to learn from my experience and remember that I am in no way 100% yet—so I need to take it easy and gear back into real life SLOWLY.

Hope your Saturday was a blessed one too!

Happy Sabbath tomorrow—

Yours,
Tara B.

We snapped a sweet pic of Sophie sleeping on the pillow she made with Grandma Chris …



And then cuddled as a family after Ella had her morning milkies ...



After Bible & violin, our dear friends Melissa & Sarah Yager helped Sophie to finish her decorations for her “Baby Party” for Eleanor. (Soph was VERY sad when she found out—months ago—that Ella wouldn’t have a Baby Shower, so she asked if she could throw Ella a “Baby Party”. I seriously thought she’d forget about it ... but she’s been making invitations and decorations for, well, months now. So today was the day.)





For treats, Soph went and harvested CARROTS from our very own garden and served the cookies she baked and decorated herself:



And the table included the “Happy Birthday” card and baby rattle she gave Ella on the day she was born:



The games she planned were very fun! (How many baby rattle candies are in the bottle? What baby food is this?)



Sophie ended the party with a beautiful song from her Suzuki Book 2:



How amazingly, astoundingly blessed I am to be the mother of these girls! (And to have such precious women and children as my friends.)

Hope your day was a blessed one too–

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

PS
I know that as the “official photo taker”, I’m usually not in pictures, but some of you might like to see that I’m up and moving around too. So here is the view I usually have throughout my day (Ella in her Maya wrap) and the best pic I could grab in one try by holding the camera out at my arm’s length after I cleaned up the party:

Unlike Sophia (who did NOT like her first bath at all!), Ella just calmly enjoyed the entire pack (yes, even Lilikoi got in on the action) giving her her first bath:





Ahhhhh! We are a blessed family. And a slightly cleaner one now too with that little layer of spilled milkies having been removed from our youngest member.

G'nite & God bless!

Love,
Tara B.

My mother-in-law, Grandma Chris, arrived Thursday night and her two youngest grandchildren are enjoying her immensely:



Her flight arrived on time and she was able to catch Sophia’s Suzuki Book 1 Recital (accompanied by Uncle Tom):





I spent three hours at Orthopedics & Sports Medicine yesterday for all of my pre-op appointments. Can’t really believe we have to be at the hospital at 6AM Monday morning for another surgery. Yeep!

Thanks for all of your grace re: my non-blogging status. (Your comments and emails are so sweet and encouraging.) I’m keeping a list of things I WANT to blog on one of these days ...

Hope your weekend is restful!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
These are LONG movies so unless you’re really interested in a five year old playing the violin, you may want to pass on them. But if you’d like to hear Sophia’s recital, here are the two movies that captured the precious evening:

It is Monday night and Fred is at a Deacon’s Meeting and the Barthel girls are getting to enjoy Uncle Tom all to ourselves ...

Sophie has learned some behind-the-scenes stories about Stories from the Opera:



Ella Marie enjoyed a sweet nap, but then soiled her first relative’s shirt. (Good thing Uncle Tom is such a good sport! )



Even Girlie Barthel Lilikoi got in on the Uncle Tom Action and enjoyed some playtime outside (replete with a little strawberry harvest courtesy of Soph and a little FETCH courtesy of a sweet Golden Retriever):



Off to more nursing and bedtime routines for my precious little ones—
(while Uncle Tom practices his music for Laura Dalbey’s Recital this Thursday night).

Oh, oh, oh! I am a blessed woman.

- Literally–kissing a baby’s head as I type this.
- A Golden at my feet.
- A precious five year-old reading on the couch.
- My dear brother-in-law creating God-glorifying music.
- A husband away from home (though he would prefer to be with us!)—all to diaconally serve The Bride.

I could never merit this life.

Oh, that I not squander it.
Oh, that I live for the Next Life.

G'nite, all!

With love,
Tara B.

We had a very long time of weeping yesterday once it hit Sophia that Kali and Fred would be leaving Monday morning. She just grieves and grieves whenever she has to say goodbye to loved ones.

How good it was to comfort her with the biblical truth that Heaven will be the Eternal Hello. No more goodbyes. Oh! How we long for the Eternal Hello of our Real Life.

This morning’s transition was eased by two more sets of presents from Kali and Fred ...

Super cute “Big Sister / Little Sister” t-shirts. (Sophie got quite a kick out of the fact that SHE is the BIG sister and I am the LITTLE sister.)



They also brought her a SAN FRANCISCO bag of goodies (Ghirardelli chocolates, a San Francisco coloring book, books about fun things to do in the city for kids, etc.) and a GORGEOUS set of pajamas from China Town:



So now we are four for one more hour before Uncle Tom arrives. Thanks to Super-Freddy, linens are washed and switched over and floors are vacuumed and mopped. Ella is snoozing against my chest in her Maya Wrap (I LOVE MAYA WRAPS!!) and I’m going to do a little dusting, 409'ing, and Swiffering now.

One of my first thoughts this morning was, “O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder, consider all the works Thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul! My Savior God to Thee ... HOW GREAT THOU ART! How great Thou art.”

He truly is great.

Hope your Monday is going well! We get to pick up Ella’s baby announcements today. Fun fun!

Sending my love,
Tara B.

I do SO promise that this blog will not turn into an “all things family photo” blog ...

But we had such a great morning getting our formal family photos taken that I hoped you would indulge me one more day of pictures:







Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Yours,
Tara B.

It is so wonderful to be home!

We enjoyed finishing our morning at the hospital yesterday:



And packing up to head home:





(Wonder why we keep wondering if we’ll ever be able to get a four-door car one of these days. )

So many blessings greeted us at home:



And I’ve been incredibly supported, helped, and loved on by Kali & her Fred, Sophia, Lilikoi, and of course, my beloved Steady Freddy, the world’s best husband and father:



We’re off to a doctor appointment now ... will try to write a REAL post again one of these days.

Sending my love,
Tara B.

Thank you SO very much for all of the email, blog, and FB notes! It is amazing to see all of your names and picture you across the country (and around the world) sending love to our family. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I am way too mentally fuzzy to try to write anything substantive today, but Ella is napping away on top of me (hooray for Boppy pillows!) and I THINK I can keep it together long enough so show you some more photos from our day ...

5:40AM—we head to the hospital …



Everything is calm, but FAST. We’re prepped and then it was MINUTES until Ella was here (7:30 anesthesia, 7:37 first cut, 7:47 BIRTH) …



Praise the Lord for an 8 lb 8 oz, 9/9 APGAR, healthy little girl!



We enjoyed some sweet time, just the three of us (and she nursed WONDERFULLY!) and a few hours later, Sophia was THRILLED to meet her little sister …



We are, obviously, overwhelmed with gratitude and enjoying every (exhaustedly happy) moment of our day.

Thank you for your love and prayers! I hope your day was a blessed one too —

Love,
Tara B.

(Fred here – Tara and Ella are happily nursing, so I’m guest blogging to give you the happy news...)

She’s here!

7:47am
8lbs 8oz, 20.5 in

Baby and mom are doing great!

More pics will follow after bath and naptime, but here are a couple quick ones:




Thank you so much for the prayers. We appreciate you all so much!

Gratefully,

The Proud Papa

I peeked downstairs at midnight (it was SO nice to have Fred working at home instead of at the office until 1AM) and thought to myself, “I need to capture a quick photo of how Ella’s father spent the last two months leading up to her birth.” It’ll go nicely on the same page of her baby book as the “prepping the nursery” photos.

So here was my first, sweet, view at midnight:



Then I drank a glass of cold water, read a little, and watched Lilikoi evaluate and then give in to the temptation to invade Sophie’s (getting even more complex and fun every day) fort:





Oh, Lili! You are a sweet dog.

Happy Friday, everyone—
I get to have my very first PEDICURE and a prenatal MASSAGE today! All thanks to my generous, sweet hubby.

(See, I told you nesting was over. I’m officially sliding into “let people help the new momma” slacker mode.)

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophie and I started Ella’s baby books yesterday. (Yes, plural, because like I did with Sophia, I would like Ella to have one “real” (Creative Memories) baby book that is kept nice throughout her childhood so that she can take that with her into adulthood; BUT I also want her to have one “fun” one that she can keep in her room and look at and play with over and over again even as a little muffin.)

Anyway ...

The first thing we did to start Ella’s baby books was to look through Sophie’s baby books. It was SO fun! (And it reminded me to pack some nice paper in our hospital bag so that a) the nurses can do two sets of extra baby footprints; and b) Fred, Sophie & I can all write Ella our “we’re taking you home from the hospital today and we’re so excited” letters. Fun stuff!)

Poking around Sophie’s baby books also reminded us of the GIANT MOMMA TARA photo we took on the piano bench RIGHT before Soph was born — so we decided to pose a similar one for Eleanor Marie:



Don’t you think it’s time for this baby to be born?

(Fred is taking over/under bets since Sophie was 10 lbs at birth. I definitely chose the “over 9 lbs” bet. We’ll see ...)

(Those of you who really know me—and my neurotic fears about sewing—might not believe this, but it’s true!)

Thanks to some wonderful fabric from Grandma Chris:



And a fabulous sewing machine from Grandpa Charlie and Granma Kathy:



Sophie and I sewed! FOR REAL!

We read the book and it only took us, you know, 30 minutes or so to do the 30 SECOND job of threading the bobbin ...



(But we DID figure it out! Sophie is VERY good at reading directions and especially the little “map”/image of the sewing machine and what each part is called.)

Here is my very, very first seam! And Sophia taking the reigns ...



Only ONE bleeding injury. (I was SO happy it was me and not Soph!) Man does that needle-thingy come down HARD and FAST:



And I actually did something REAL that needed sewing in our home. (Cutting some drapes to be short enough to go over our window air conditioner.) I can’t tell you how excited I am that I could sew a SEAM!



39 years old. Tackled sewing a seam. Maybe I’ll actually bake something with (real!) yeast next ... (year? decade?) ...

Happily,
Tara B.

We’ve really enjoyed Sophie’s swim lessons this summer:



Initially, when I thought about being 35-38 weeks pregnant this summer, I wasn’t sure that I would REALLY be up for lessons every Monday-Thursday morning for four straight weeks, but it’s worked out great.

Oh, and if you live in Billings and would like some fun-in-the-sun tomorrow (Thursday, July 16), we’re meeting some friends at Rose Park Pool (noon-ish until we feel like going home). Would love to have you join us!

One of my absolute favorite signs of summer ... Fred and Sophie harvesting raspberries every morning from our backyard:



And a couple of photos from Fred & Sophie’s Thomas the Tank Engine adventure yesterday:

I’m sure it’s not that important, so I’m reticent to pray for a supernaturally strong, cheap plastic pool that can withstand puppy claws and active children.

And yet I know that God cares about the little stuff too, right?

So let’s just say that I pray that God will know how grateful I am for blessings like these ... and I hope we have at least a few days (weeks?) of fun with our current effort to keep cool on these blazingly hot days:

Soph really amazed me with her perseverance doing a 23-piece, three dimensional dinosaur puzzle this weekend:



She asked for my help and I was happy to encourage her and try my best to serve her. But seriously? One glance at those instructions and my verbally-prone, non-spatial brain went, “Huh?!” Still, we got through it—even as she had to, at times, tear apart what she had already done in order to fit other pieces in. I thought that was pretty cool for a five year old.

We also had a fun time when she “signed us up” for her “mountain climbing and snow boarding class.” From inside our living room (where she sat with her nametag and clip board “interviewing” us), we had no idea what we were getting into ... but apparently it had to do with some pretty elaborate stunts with a rope tied to her slide:



(These are the kinds of things that I REALLY try hard to support and enjoy without cringing and worrying. I’m sure that those of you with boys must just LAUGH at me and think, “If you only knew ...” But it’s so hard for me! Especially when she falls off the “mountain” and dangles by the rope and crashes into the swing set ... Oh! It can be hard to be the Momma and not overreact. But I DO want her to enjoy outside play and “remember her Montana roots.” )

Last photos from our Sabbath ...

Fred and Sophie are, right now, out on the Lean Green Riding Machine—our family’s nickname for our new super-cool ride-behind bike. (We had borrowed one from a friend for a few days to see if they would really like it and they LOVED IT.) And thanks to a very, very generous gift from Fred’s brother Tom, not only do we have some help for Ella’s medical bills, we have the Lean Green Riding Machine too!



How I marvel that God lavishes so many luxurious blessings on a saved sinner like me.

Hope your weekend was a blessed one too!

With love,
Tara B.

PS
Ella’s kick kick kicking away as I type this. Four weeks to the day tomorrow, we’ll head to the hospital at 6AM for a 7:30AM c-section. Can you believe it? I think Fred and I are actually starting to engage in with the idea that, Lord willing, we really might have a newborn in the house in a few short weeks! Wow.

We had another exhausting, but wonderful, day at the Montana Music Institute.



Sophie is doing such a fine job in her first little orchestra. I am proud of her for practicing hard, persevering during rehearsals (jumping back in when she gets lost, not being distracted by the (few) kids who talk/misbehave), and creating such beautiful music.

If you’d like a sample, here is a 20-second excerpt from one of their little pieces:



And here is a video from the first two minutes of Pachelbel’s Canon in D:



But the thing that made my heart REALLY sing this morning was when I was carrying the (gorgeous!) tissue-paper flower that she had worked VERY hard on in art class to make (choosing colors, folding, tracing, cutting, piecing together) ... and then (!!) I accidentally dropped it in a MUD puddle as we were getting into the car.

It was 100% ruined. Instantly. Water and mud just destroy a tissue paper flower and there is no restoring it.

But by God’s grace, Sophie’s FIRST response to my “Oh no! I am SO sorry! Oh no!” cry was:

"It’s OK, Momma. It’s OK. It was an accident. It’s OK, Mom."

I was amazed.

I told her how such a merciful response was an evidence of God’s grace at work in her heart. I told her how grateful I was and how proud I was of her—and I said that it seems to me that most children (and even most adults—including MYSELF!) would rarely respond so graciously to someone ruining something that they had worked on so hard and cared about.

How sweet to see her taking after her father, ol' Steady, Patient, Kind Freddy.
(And after her Heavenly Father too.)

Hope your week is progressing well! I’m in the midst of laundry (clean sheet day! hooray!) and I may even Swiffer away some Golden Retriever dust bunnies (slowly and not overdoing it of course).

Blessings to you—
Tara B.

PS
Tuesday night we had a very nice time at a “Big Sister Class” at the hospital where Ella will be born:



But this was my favorite photo of the night:



(No, this is NOT how they taught us to care for our newborns.)

Our Monday started very early because we had to be at the Montana Music Institute (MMI) by 7:45AM. Yeep! That’s an early start for us these days, but it was worth it.

Sophia had a very kind violin teacher for her first class. (And also some opportunities for practicing patience and graciousness re: one, ummmm, challenging fellow student. Wow! Even just one disobedient, disrespectful child can REALLY change the entire tenor of a classroom, can’t they? I have to say, it was probably harder for MY heart to be gracious toward the disruptive child.)

And then she had the JOY (and I mean JOY—her little face was just about SPLIT OPEN by her little ear-to-ear grin as she took her place IN a REAL orchestra) of participating in her very first orchestral ensemble:



The teacher was SO nice and SO good at working with little children. It was the perfect introduction to ensemble playing and I was simply overwhelmed by how blessed we are as a family to enjoy music together.

After orchestra, Sophie participated in a little art class, and then we spent the evening cheering on Fred as he coached our church’s softball team:



There really is no way that I could ever merit such a sweet day. I am very, very grateful.

Hope your Monday was a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
Fred completely cracked me up last night when he told me about his little conversation with Sophia during bath and cuddle time ...

Apparently, as she (excitedly) told him all about her first time in an orchestra, she had a hard time remembering the name of the composer of the piece they played.

"It wasn’t Bach or Beethoven. I remember that. But ... well ... I think it sounded something like TACO BELL."

Fred replied, “Could it be Pachelbel?”

“Yes! That’s it!”

Step one: Put on your matchies apron with Momma and grab your very-own-kids-cookbook, measuring tools and ingredients ...



Step two: Be sure to enjoy some beaters along the way ...



Step three: Roll and bake ...



Step four: See how long it takes for daddy to smell the nummies and come downstairs ...

Earlier in the week, Sophie was marveling at the size of my “Ella-Marie-holding-belly.” She said something to the effect of:

"I think you’ve gotten bigger since BREAKFAST!"

(And she was PROBABLY right. )

To honor your requests for a GIANT PREGGO TARA SHOT, Soph and I staged this one for you today:



(Should be a good shot for sweet Ella’s baby book too.)

Our day has been a quiet day of errands, shopping, and Sophie has been enjoying herself at a playdate. They made TEA!

We’re having a wonderful time with our dearest friends, the Lyndes, here in Townsend, Montana.

No high speed internet connection in this (beautiful) little town of 1,500. So this will be the only time I’m online today.

But I thought I’d share some photos of our time together and wish you all a blessed Friday!





With joy,
Tara B.

PS
TJ’s ebay sales really slow down in the summer, so if you’re interested in scooping up some gorgeous paintings for Christmas gifts or just for your own home at AMAZINGLY LOW prices, I encourage you to check out his current listings.

(I’m actually posting this from his studio and I can tell you that, as always, the photos online just don’t even come CLOSE to doing this art justice. You have to SEE the colors in natural lighting and the textures of the paint coming off of the canvas to really appreciate how beautiful these paintings are. What a grace to be able to create something so gorgeous.)

Our friends let us borrow their tandem bike add-on thingy to see if it might work for Fred and Sophia and WOW! Did they love it:



Now we’re keeping our eyes peeled for a used version that we might be able to acquire this summer.

(I promise to be back to “real” blogging one of these days ...)

Isn’t it a great day when real life is so full that you don’t have time to blog?

(Well ... in the interest of full disclosure I will tell you that the REAL reason I didn’t have time to blog isn’t fun at all. I actually spent an hour and a half this morning at the Birth Center where Ella is scheduled to be delivered in eight weeks because that little bug stopped MOVING yesterday. And having gone 48 hours last week without her moving regularly and getting a STERN lecture from our nurse and a CLEAR COMMAND to go in immediately if her movements decreased again and she didn’t respond to the “drink orange juice, lie on your left side, and count movements” test, in I went. She was fine! But I know that with our increased risks (the charge nurse also repeated the GO RIGHT IN lecture with even MORE reasons to do so), it was the right thing to do. Still ... my early morning / before everyone wakes up time to blog didn’t happen this morning. But back to the fun stuff ...)

Fred turned 39 today! And we celebrated by going to see the movie “UP”:



And by baking a little cake:



(Oh! And the BEST NEWS of our birthday celebration was learning that Cap'n Dave and Auntie Pat’s TWIN GRAND-DAUGHTERS ARRIVED SAFELY! They are TINY, but breathing on their own. A “healthy” 2 lb 9 oz and 3 lb 5 oz. Oh how we are rejoicing that God answered our prayers for their safety with a “Yes!”)

Yesterday (while we were in the baking mood), we also made some cookies for Ella’s “baby party” that Sophie wants to throw. (She was sad that Ella doesn’t get a baby shower or any presents, so she wants to have a little party so that Ella feels welcome and loved.)



AND (amazingly!) we found MATCHIES for Sophie and Ella – on CLEARANCE no less! (I was SO wishing I could SEW because we really love getting to do matching dresses and I can’t believe we found some.)



(Purple if Ella is 0-3 month size at birth and Blue if she is 3-6 month size at birth like good ol' 10 lb Sophie was. I have 60 days to return the one that doesn’t fit and Ella’s coming in 59 days. So we should just squeak by ...)

One last photo from our week ... Our friend’s beautiful daughter arrived Monday morning and Sophie got to hold her Wednesday night. She doesn’t look very excited about it, does she?



Hope your day was fun & full too—

Sending my love,
Tara B.

Soph finished her little kid gymnastics classes and this summer starts the “real” gymnastics classes (that are divided by skill level, not age). Fun stuff!



Memorial day photo …



Today she dressed herself up at a PILGRIM and spent the day doing all of her many “chores” (pretending to wash the laundry and hang it out / taking care of the animals / sweeping). Note her “stockings” (i.e., Fred’s sweat socks):



Our new zoo animal popsicle molds were a hit!



Hope your having a great week too!

Love,
Tara B.

The girls' room is pretty much finished and I thought you might enjoy seeing the pictures:







We also had a fun playtime today when Sophie made a menu (and dessert menu), put on her little waitress apron, took our orders, and then brought us pizza ("pet-su"), gave us a bill, and made change. Fun stuff!

Sophia performed JS Bach’s Minuet 2 in recital this afternoon:



She had a little memory error towards the beginning, but she found her place, jumped back in, and persevered. I told her that NOT falling completely apart when you make a mistake in a recital, concert, or while giving a speech ... but CONTINUING ON and FINISHING WELL is extremely hard to do. And I was VERY proud of her for persevering.

(Plus her dynamics at the end were GORGEOUS. She had been working very hard on her pianissimos and they were lovely.)

Fred and I were chuckling at the fact that it was only ONE year ago that she did her very first violin recital ... and could barely get through “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”



(We also chuckled at the fact that she wanted to wear the SAME dress as last year! So last year it was a tiny bit too big and this year it was a tiny bit too small. THAT’S the way we wear clothes around here, eh? )

Hope your Saturday was a blessed one too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Yesterday was Beach Day at co-op:



(Oh WHY oh WHY would anyone–let’s call her LARA–transform a schoolroom into an ocean and beach, replete with SCUBA lessons and everything? Hmmmmm ... she must be a little bit crazy. And enjoy making kids smile.)

Just BEFORE the Beach Day festivities kicked off, Sophie’s violin teacher came to the church so that she could practice her violin recital piece for Saturday.



(I wonder if J.S. Bach ever imagined a five year old playing that Minuet in a swimsuit, coverup, and dolphin necklace?)

Ahhhhhh ... I’m a blessed gal.

Survived the worst prenatal appointment of every pregnancy (the fasting glucose tolerance test–YUCK!).

Ella Marie seems to be cooking along just fine–great heartbeat, lots of motion (especially after the two gallons of glucose we “enjoyed” this morning.)

Now we’re off to care for some children this afternoon —

Talk with you later!

Love,
Tara B.

Bye-Bye Green Sophie’s Room! Hello Purple Girls' Room!

Fred and Sophie are really enjoying flying kites on these blustery Spring days. Yesterday, Fred snapped this great one of Sophia on his cell phone:



So fun!

I hope your Monday was a blessed one. I ran and ran the entire day–but even though my feet and back are ACHING right now, it was really a great day. All of my “to ship” orders from my Colorado event are in the mail. I facilitated a baby shower for a dear woman in our church. (Me!? In the KITCHEN for a WOMEN’S thingy at church?! Talk about a fish out of water. But I did my best and that’s all we can ever do, right?) Sophie had fun at violin and gymnastics. My prenatal appointment went very well–Ella Marie seems to be cookin' right along and we’re officially ensconced in the third trimester now, so that’s all very exciting. I also went to Costco, the bank, Fred’s office, the post office–TWICE–the cookie store, K-Mark, and the balloon store–TWICE.

(So I’m really thinking that my insomnia might not win the battle tonight with my exhaustion. Hooray!)

Hope your week is off to a great start–

Yours,
Tara B.

You know you live in a desert when your daughter eagerly asks to play OUTSIDE when it RAINS because, well, it’s just so novel and fun:



And if the child gets to play in the rain, then the puppy surely does too:

We’re home and I’m trying console a very weepy Sophia and encourage her that it’s OK to cry when we miss our friends. (She just burst into tears when we walked in the door because she already misses Scout so much.)

I think that the photos from our weekend fun with the Lyndes show why we miss them all ...



Sophie got to spend the morning with Scout’s Kindergarten class.



Decorating eggs is even more fun when you get to wear matching outfits.



We love the Helena carousel!



And the Children’s Museum/Exploration Center.



Time for the Easter egg hunt!



Is it any wonder why we’re all happy–but exhausted?



Thank God for friends!

We made it to the Lynde’s home just before 11PM last night. Here was my view:



(I also got a hilarious movie of Samara singing in the car but promised not to post it. )

Not to be outdone, Samara snapped these pics of my little interview adventure from the t.v. in the green room:



Now we’re into Easter egg fun with the children and looking forward to church this evening. I’ll post more pics later if I can.

Hope you are enjoying this Good Friday. Sophia couldn’t understand why we call the day “good” when the most awful thing of all time–the torture and death of the Son of God–took place on this day. I’m glad she finds the term hard to understand. We’re all looking forward to Resurrection Day!

Yours,
Tara B.

Oh, how DIFFERENTLY our Palm Sunday Service experience was–especially when compared with our expectations.

Our day started out with lots of singing and signing by Sophie (the kids are doing “Amazing Grace” in sign language for the children’s choir) and a happy girl in the dress that Grandma Chris made:



But then, just as I was finishing the teaching portion of my estate planning class for Sunday School, Sophie’s teacher brought her to me “because her tummy hurt. Badly.”

So I scooped her up and we tried to make it to the bathroom, but she just kept feeling worse. And then, of course, she threw up. And threw up. Over and over again. We had eaten Strawberries and Blackberries with our breakfasts–so her vomit was a rainbow of colors. All down her brand-new-made-just-for-her-by-Grandma-Chris East dress. All over the church floor.

Oh! Aren’t you SO grateful for friends in moments like these? Fred was already upstairs on stage because he is leading worship today and I HAD to get to the piano in the next FIVE MINUTES or else I’d be letting down Trudy and the entire children’s choir ... but there I had a barfing child who needed me.

So the moms swooped in–helping me get her to a garbage can; another went into the hall and started the clean up; another brought paper towels (wet and dry); another got her water. We tried to get the worst of it off of the dress before it stained. But then I REALLY had to get to the piano, so I asked a friend to please stay with Sophie as she was just lying on two chairs with a strategically placed barf bucket near by.



OH! How I hated to leave her, but I did. I went to the front, played for the choir (with tears in my eyes because Sophie had practiced each song every single day for the last month and was SO excited to serve and sing and do the signing too–but instead she was prone on a bench trying not to get sick again) ... and then I booked out of there to get my darling home.

(Thank God I had the foresight to grab a garbage bag for the 10 minute car ride home or else Fred would be scrubbing our car out this afternoon because she couldn’t even make it home without getting sick. Poor, sweet, darling, dear, love.)

Anyway! We’re home, cleaned up, cuddling in with Kiki and Lili and I’ve been reading her our new mommy/sophie read out loud book, “Wind in the Willows.” No fever–so I’m wondering if it was something she ate.

Not the day we planned. OK to be a little sad/disappointed. But, of course, much to rejoice in too! Because it sure would’ve been MUCH WORSE if the BRIGHT RED AND PURPLE VOMIT had sprayed all over the CHOIR during the actual song up on the stage. ICK!



But I’m still feeling a little sad for my dearie bearie–so I think I’ll go and cuddle in next to her again.

Hope your Sunday was much less eventful!

Your friend,
Tara B.

Sophia is extremely excited to join the Billings Youth Orchestra’s Preludio Strings in the Fall and tonight she joined them on stage at the Alberta Bair for one note of “Shark Attack”:



It was so sweet AND such a fun night! We’re very happy that she gets to learn how to work under a maestra in a group setting beginning next fall. Hooray for the Billings Youth Orchestra!

G'nite and God bless–

From your bleary and hoping-to-actually-sleep-tonight friend,
Tara B.

We had a wonderful appointment with the maternal-fetal specialist today and the ultrasound showed that (as far as we can tell) a perfectly healthy little baby GIRL will be joining our family on Monday, July 27:



(We know the date with that much specificity because we will be having a scheduled c-section.)

Now we just need to sort through lots of teeny-tiny pink baby gear (Soph and me–we like to organize!) and pick a name (Fred’s job–because I think he did such a great job picking “Sophia Grace”!).

Hope your Wednesday is off to a great start, too–

Yours,
Tara B.

We decided NOT to go and see the opera “Carmen” this morning because we had a BIG spring snowstorm come through. Remember the front porch where I took Soph’s Easter dress picture? This was the change in only a few HOURS:



Montana weather is so strange! Our tulips and daffodils are quite rugged to pull through these spring snows.

Oh well. At least SOMEONE enjoyed the day:



Our friend also sent us a cute picture of Soph from our church’s Variety Show. Finally! I got to see how her hot pink tights and cowgirl boots looked:



Hope your day was a blessed one!

Yours,
Tara B.

Well ... we just have the coolest, able to sew ANYTHING, Grandma Chris and she has (yet again) blessed our socks off with a (twirly and swirly!) beautiful Easter dress / dress for Sophie’s baby doll / purse:



It is, to quote Sophia, “Exquisite!” What a gift.

Hope your Wednesday is going well too–

Smilingly,
Tara B.

I’m sure this is WAY more Barthel family than any of you would really ever want to see, but in the interest of helping those of you who would LIKE to stay on top of your family’s photos but instead find yourselves falling farther and farther behind with each passing year (and each new group of thousands of digital photos) ...

Here is a link to our family’s photo album for 2008.

I did it on Picaboo and I LOVE Picaboo. It’s extremely easy to use and I spend pretty much NO time doing it each year (especially compared to the WEEKS I used to spend–AND DREAD!–surrounded by photos, scissors, and double-stick tape).

My album is SIMPLE (many of you would say boring, I’m sure) – but it’s done. By March. And for those of you who WANT to add cute “corners” on your photos and snazzy, well, EVERYTHING to the pages, Picaboo gives you the option of going as detailed and (I would say CRAZY) as you like. You can even add MUSIC.

But I never want to do that. I just want to have SOMETHING that I can hold in my hands and flip through with Sophie on my lap and enjoy. (And, by the way, the quality is FANTASTIC. The photos are stunning and the linen cover and binding are first rate.)

Here are some other things I REALLY like about using Picaboo:

- Every time I’ve ever made a book (and I’ve made other books in addition to our annual family photo album ... special books for Scout & Sophie, Aunt Kali/Uncle Fred & Sophie, etc.), I have ALWAYS found a “buy one get one FREE” coupon online.

- The “buy one get one free” coupon means that I make a copy of our family album for SOPHIE each year and that way, she can look at it, play with it, and I don’t have to worry about keeping our “real” album in top condition.

- If (God forbid) our house ever burnt down, we wouldn’t lose all of our family’s memories from the year.

- The “share” feature allows me to email my parents and sister a copy of the album as soon as I am done with it so they can enjoy the photos too.

- Picaboo works LOCALLY on your computer until you’re ready to upload (one time!) and buy the book. I LOVE this feature because it means that I can work from airplanes, coffee shops, a friend’s home and I don’t have to worry about having a live internet connection or wait a zillion hours for things to upload every time I add a photo or adjust things.

No. I don’t get any commission from telling you all this. And I don’t work for the company. Really!

I just enjoy the product and wanted to share it with you.

Oh, and if it helps you for organizing purposes, I always download my photos from my camera into subdirectories by date. So I have a “2008” and a “2009” subdirectory, for example, and then each year has each month (01 January, 02 February). So when I’m ready to do my scrapbook, the photos are already in order and I just go through each month, pick out the best ones, put them into a scrapbook subdirectory, load them into Picaboo, drag & drop, add a few captions, and PRINT. Pretty much one long day of work (including in front of a video with Fred) and I’m done for the year.

Hope this is a blessing and help to some of you!

Yours,
Tara B.

I’m in the thick of it getting ready for the marriage retreat that Pastor Jason and I are giving this weekend in New Jersey – so I only have a minute.

But Fred brought home our family photo from last summer and I thought you might enjoy seeing it, so here you are:



Hope your Tuesday was a blessed one!

Yours,
Tara B.

We made it home! Our bodies think it’s almost 2AM – but we’re so happy to be home, we don’t care.

Apparently, Sophia Grace made it through her fiddle song at our church’s variety show this evening (hooray!) and we can’t wait to hear all about it tomorrow:



Hope you enjoy a restful and God-centered Sabbath!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
She was the FIRST performer of the ENTIRE show (eek!) and obviously a little nervous. Plus we were told she was missing us (this week was the longest we had ever been apart!)–so the tempo is pretty slow. But she’s a sweetie pie and I thought you might enjoy the link–so here you go:



This was her a few weeks earlier just having fun one night at home with the same fiddle song. If you’d like to see a happy kid REALLY fiddle, this is the version for you:

Thanks to our friend Deb. W for the gift of “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” for Sophia!



And we’re having fun digging out of snow ...



How is your weather??

Sweet Sophie had to have two baby teeth pulled today. They were perfectly healthy (thank God!) but two adult teeth were coming in BEHIND them, so out they went.

She was such a brave little trooper:



And WOW! She’s such a cutie pie with her little toothless smile:



But don’t you think she looks way older than JUST FIVE? What a little muffin.

Hope you have a blessed Friday!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
The Tooth Fairy came to our home in the night!



Apparently, her wings were orange and purple, because she colored the water when she tipped in to get the teeth:



(Soph thought it was SO fun and was SO excited–but then, of course, being the realist that she is said something to the effect of, “I know it’s just a fun fiction, Mom, and it was really YOU that put food coloring drops in the water.” I said, “Really? You don’t want to play along with the fiction even for just a few minutes?” Nope. She’s a funny kid.)

We had a hilariously fun Valentine’s day around here–and hope you did too. Ours started with chocolates, cards, and a teddy bear for Soph; and a Jumbone for birthday puppy Lilikoi:



Red, heart-shaped pancakes and sugar cookies galore rounded out our fun:





But the BEST time by far was when Sophie practiced her little fiddle song for our church’s variety show:



Fun stuff!

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

And the fiddler ...

Well ... I’m totally amazed that our little “world’s most patient dog” video on YouTube has officially passed 100,000 views.



And if you Goggle the words, “the world’s most patient dog,” she’s still the number one hit. Too fun!

I know a lot of you have already seen this–but if you’re new to this blog, click on over and enjoy. Can you believe that Sophia was ever that little?

Back to work now–

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
Soph and I had a blast at our church co-op’s Valentine’s Day party yesterday and I thought you might enjoy seeing a little of the red & pink & white happiness:

I thought some of you might get a little chuckle out of the EXTREME chaos I created when I emptied out all of my “pockets of resistance” (where I stuff, throw, I mean place things until I can “really” deal with them in an orderly fashion) ...



Man! Sometimes you have to destroy to create, eh? And there really is no other way to organize than to FIRST make a HUGE mess.

'Course, the problem came when I was EXHAUSTED and didn’t really feel like dealing with the piles. FOR DAYS. Finally, yesterday morning, in order to push through my entropy, I gave myself ONE HOUR to do as much as I could. And (as usual), once I made that much progress, I had sufficient momentum to slay the beast and finish the task. Hooray!

Then I could feel completely free to enjoy Sophie, Lili, and Fred in their masterpiece of a fort:



One last set of photos from the week and I’ll head back into our relaxed Saturday at home ...

This week our pastors came downstairs to our church’s co-op and encouraged all of the children who are working so hard on the Young Children’s Catechism:



And they made a sweet presentation to Sophia Grace of a certificate and Bible from our denomination, congratulating her on learning all 150 catechism questions:



OK. Back to fetch with Lili (and simultaneous piano and violin with Fred & Soph).

Yours,
Tara B.

Well ... we’ve (joyfully!) passed the first trimester Rubicon, so Fred and I are ready to introduce you beloved blog friends to Baby Barthel #3:



Yes, yes, part of the stress that I’ve been laboring under has been the near-constant sense these first twelve weeks that somehow I was just waiting to miscarry. Isn’t that just awful? But I must tell you that it is true.

Every day. Every one of my zillion trips to the bathroom. Every twinge and pain, I thought, “Here we go. Goodbye baby. Maybe (like in 2007), you weren’t ever even healthy enough to make it very long on this planet.”

It wasn’t like I was “worried” about it–every moment, every fear, I also thought, “And I know there really isn’t anything I can do about it. God is the Giver of Life, not me. He will do what He will do–and no matter what, He is always good.”

Still, it was a stressful, crushing season. Sophie’s medical challenges on top of it didn’t help. Plus some really hard things that I am having to endure re: some, well, let’s just say, “less than pleasant and easy” relationships ... add it altogether with horrible morning sickness and my normal sins, struggles, and immaturities and WOW! It’s been a bit of a stretch.

But then there was this morning. Fred graciously and lovingly persevered with me and we had a good, hard, long conversation about some major things going on in our marriage and personal lives. (Plus we talked openly about our fears of what we might see on the ultrasound. I don’t know if it was lack of faith or fears based on past experience or what, but I REALLY think I expected the ultrasound technician to put that wand on my belly and sadly say, “I’m so sorry. There is no life here. No heart beat. No recognizable baby.”)

Instead? Instantly–absolutely instantly–there was the baby. Unmistakable. Head, spine, legs, arms, fingers, and a beautiful, amazing heart beating away. They want the heartbeat between 100 and 200 and this little one was right at 161 bpm. Toward the end of the ultrasound, the baby started to roll over, turn over, move around, wave arms. Sophie said that the baby was waving at her! For all of the kisses she’s given my belly, I wouldn’t doubt it.

I know I’m rambling on here, so I’ll draw it to a close and just say ... now you know! No, no, Tara’s not just getting fat again. There’s a baby in there. And no matter how long the Lord gives us with him or her, we are grateful for every moment.

We love our little one already and just wanted to share our joy with you all.

Happy Thursday to you!

Yours,
Tara B.

(& Fred & Thrilled Big Sister Sophia)

We finally got Sophia’s 5th birthday photos taken – and tried to get some nice family shots too.

Soph was SO sweet playing her violin in the mall while I chose the photos and paid for them. She had quite a little crowd at times. ("Momma! I’m serving the people by playing!") Totally cracked me up. What a shy, introverted little kid she is, eh?

Hope you enjoy!

Blessings,
Tara B.

Thanks for your extraordinary patience and care as I have not been a very good blogger the last few weeks.

I am so tired today that I can hardly sit up. I assume it’s a combination of actual physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, stress, fear, loneliness, etc. Last night (or, I guess it was technically this morning) when we got home, I just started to shake and then I threw up for quite awhile. Finally, I wrapped my arms around Sophia, climbed into bed next to Fred, and we had a family “treat night” together.

First thing this morning, I ran out to get milk, bread, and produce ... and Lilikoi.



She was so blessed by the love and care of our friends, the Murrays, but we were all missing her terribly. It’s so good to have her home.

I also wanted to post some pics from our time in Denver so that you could picture it a little. (I wasn’t even going to take any photos–I just wasn’t sure I wanted a page in our Picaboo book dedicated to such a hard/stressful experience.) But Fred asked if I would because it’s obviously been an important part of our lives.

So here is the actual Children’s Hospital. (Aren’t the little red wagons with their I.V. poles just as pathos-producing-as-a-Guideposts-article?)



Sophie was such a trooper having to go ALL DAY with absolutely no food and HOURS without even water. But the waiting grew long and the smiles grew further and further in between as the day dragged on.



I will tell you that carrying her into the actual operating room (literally FILLED with people ... anesthesiologists, the head of the pediatric gastroenterology department, another GI doctor, and lots of O.R. nurses) and leaving her on that table after she was asleep was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Talk about feeling helpless! And she was just SO LITTLE compared to the table and all of the equipment.

But she was calm and very obedient as they put the mask on her and she took deep breaths. The doctors said that little children usually try to push the mask away and squirm on the table, but God gave us great grace and she was very prepared. (Sophie’s the kind of kid that does better with information.) She breathed in and out as I whispered in her ear and kissed her. And once she was asleep, Fred kissed her and we left.

I feel sick just thinking about it now. Can you imagine how hard it is for parents with chronically ill children? Sophia was probably the healthiest kid in that hospital and it STILL was so hard.

(BTW–that reminds me. During our week in Denver, we learned that the two-year old granddaughter of two prominent theologians (whose children had married) was undergoing chemo for extremely aggressive cancer. I don’t know them personally and I don’t have their permission to share their names, so I won’t. But if you would like to pray for her and for her family, I know that would be very appreciated. Two years old! My heart just aches for the suffering caused by life in a fallen world.)

It wasn’t long before our doctor came and found us and then the surgeon met with us too. Everything looked BEAUTIFUL inside of Sophie. No evidence of inflammation or infection. Everything opening and closing properly. They even took her off of the anti-acid medicines because they are really close to diagnosing her problem as abdominal migraines. So strange–but so hopeful too, in that the medicine should really help if she has another attack.

I couldn’t wait to go to her in recovery. She just wanted to be held by me (which was all I wanted too!).



As soon as she met the criteria for release, we were out of there and en route home.

Oh, and I did get her some daisies this morning at the grocery store–because (a la “You’ve Got Mail”), don’t you think that daisies just help in any situation?



Hope your Wednesday is going great–

I plan to be back to more “normal” blogging just as soon as I can unearth our house and unpack from this adventure.

Sending you love and thanks,
Tara B.

Our "daily crockpot" chocolate-covered peanuts for our neighbors turned out a little “dark chocolately” for our tastes, but hopefully were a blessing to our neighbors:



Christmas Eve was a relaxing and fun day. Sophie kept thanking Fred for being home with us all day. We played Mousetrap as a family:



(Hey! Do you see the box from Moody in the background? Those are your free copies of Radical Womanhood! I’ll have them in the mail to you tomorrow.)

And then headed to our church service. It was a true blessing and, thankfully, there weren’t too many clunkers from the ol' pianist (me).

Afterward, we all climbed into our matching Christmas PJ’s (courtesy of Grandma Chris) and enjoyed a quiet evening.



It took awhile for Sophie to wake up in the morning, but once she did, we started doing puzzles and playing games and have had a lovely, fun day together.

Lili enjoyed, well, ATE, her toys:



Sophie got a big-girl-violin-music-stand and some super-cute Hello Kitty PJ’s handmade by Grandma Chris:



She’s still loving her baby doll from Grandma Kathy & Grandpa Charlie and their Mosaic Jewelry Box was a big hit:



Today was our first day playing with Puzzibits:



With all of these fun games, I felt a little like PalmTreePundit’s “SCORE!” – except with super cool games rather than deep, meaty, rich theology and Latin books:



(Qwirkle has been a huge hit–it’s totally getting Soph ready for Scrabble. Sophie is phenomenally good at Stare and it’s lots of fun; moves fast. Operation and Mousetrap are just silly fun. And I assume that we’ll be enjoying Mancala, Squzzle, and the Chocolate Fix Logic Puzzle for many years.)

Hope your day was a blessed one!

With love,
Tara B.

We finally got my little $10 disposable water camera photos back from our time with the dolphins in Mexico and I just LOVED reliving the memories.



Dolphins are so beautiful! And fun. I particularly like the one of us all getting splashed.



Hope your Monday is a blessed one!

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophia’s fifth birthday started with a very special gift – she jumped two sizes in violins and was surprised by a lovely little instrument:



We have the best violin teacher in the world! We love Miss Laura!



Then we enjoyed a fun birthday party with six of her closest friends. (We sure missed Scout, Emma & Abigail, though!)



The theme was “all things PUPPY” and Sophie even received a sweet little Golden Retriever costume:



The only hard part of the day for me was that I had a migraine all day long. Oh my! It was hard to be chipper and cheerful in the glee of sweet little girls when every sound and light made me wince. But I did my best! And I think everyone had a fun time–I know Sophie did, so that’s great.

(As an aside–having a railroad tie going through my forehead and left eye makes me a) remember how HARD my time teaching in Orlando was this past fall (!!); and b) grateful for every day I don’t wake up with searing pain.)

Hope you had a lovely Wednesday!

Your tired but happy friend,
Tara B.

I have many happy Christmas memories from downtown Chicago–and I love getting to share some of them with Sophia.

First time ice skating ...



State-street Macy’s windows and “the” great tree ...



Doesn’t it make you want to “meet at the fountain”?



Ahhhhh–fun fun fun. I’m a blessed Momma Tara.

Hope you had a lovely day too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Sandcastles & fun at “Dolphin Discovery” (dolphin pics to come later):



Beating Kali & Fred at tic-tac-chess:



Writing thank you notes & I love you notes & planning our to-do list for the next day:



("Wake up." “Eat breakfast.” "Play at the beach." “Play Uno.” "Play Charades." “Cuddle” Yeah ... this kid has a rough life, eh?)

Merry Christmas from the sun-soaked Barthels!



Love,
Tara B.

Hi everyone! And SO SORRY for apparently (based on the concerned emails I’m receiving) not giving you enough notice that we were heading out of town. I didn’t mean to make you worry and I honestly thought I’d be blogging way before today–so sorry for the gap in posts.

We’re doing great! On vacation with Kali & Fred in Cozumel (Mexico)–having first stopped in the Midwest (during a snowstorm!) to see my Fred’s family. So in one 24-hour period, we literally went from snow to snorkeling:



(A bit of a challenge to pack for this trip, eh?)

Time with Fred’s family was such a joy. Cousins & aunties & uncles & grandmothers & great-grandmothers are the best:





And Sophie’s first time on her “snorkel boat” (it has a special plexiglass, magnifying window that lets her see what we see snorkeling) worked great:



Our Sunday evening on the square (dancing with locals, getting our hair braided so swimming/snorkeling all week is easier) was a blast and now we’re heading to bed:



Sending you love from beautiful Mexico–

Yours,
Tara B.

Thanks, everyone, for praying for Sophia and her hospital test yesterday! God gave us great grace and she was able to persevere and get through it all. (The doctors and nurses said that adults have a hard time drinking that nasty barium, so she really did a great job.)

Plus, we made it to the Nativity Play (barely) and she was able to do her little “angel” lines and everything. What a trooper! I was so happy that we didn’t miss it. The kids did such a great job and it was a hoot seeing them as shepherds & wise men & sheep, et al.





The great news re: Sophie’s test is that her upper g.i. is “perfect.” Healthy. Normal. Wonderful. (But of course that’s also “difficult” news since we still have no idea why she is getting so sick. Hopefully the specialist in Denver will have some ideas to help her come January.)

So thanks again for praying and for asking how things went!

We’re in snow snow snow around here–hope you are all tucked somewhere safe and warm.

Blessings!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
If you’d like to see Soph’s “performance,” I made a little YouTube video for my family. (Fred is the narrator.)

Sophie made a fair in her room, set up a ticket booth (your tickets even get punched!), and invited us to some very fun games (with prizes!). If you’re up for a trip to Billings, please do come to her fair!

We very much enjoyed Sophia’s violin recital today ...



It was a nice ending to a sweet week at home. Sophie and I tackled some needlepointing together ...



(Sewing is one of the many things that I tell Soph she will “for sure” far surpass me in–I hope to get her lessons one day so that she can hopefully handle (at least!) minor sewing repairs. I really think that my inability to sew is one of my many weaknesses.)

We also wrapped presents ...



... and put up our Christmas decorations. It’s all a little early for our family, but we have a shortened holiday season due to some (fun!) travel.



The only downside of our week was that Sophia’s medical concern returned (with a vengeance) and our (not quick to escalate things) doctor is now working to get her in for more testing and hopefully to see an expert pediatric gastroenterologist that he really trusts. (The problem being that the expert only comes to Billings four times a year, so unless we can somehow get to Denver, the earliest we can get in to see him is April. So we’re working on that.)

Hope your week was a blessed one and that you are even now preparing for a wonderful Sabbath tomorrow. Sunday! The best day of the week.

Much love,
Tara B.

PS
If you’d like to see Sophia’s little recital song, we made a YouTube video:

Rather than do any of the 30 paid hours of writing that I (really!) need to get to in the next few days (!!) ... we decided to have a quiet and fun family day yesterday.

After a quick stop at the gymnastics school for Sophie’s team photo, we popped over to the zoo to see our favorite bear, Bruno ...



(One of the zoo keepers taught us that if you blow right at the seam of the window, he can smell you and he comes very close and tries to kiss/lick you!)



One more stop (to add Fred’s voice to Sophie’s LoveBunny so that she’ll have both of us to cuddle with this week when we go away for the first time since 2007) ... and it was time for popcorn and games at home.

Soph figured out Set and had a blast beating us.



(I love that kids can genuinely beat adults at Set. It’s so fun for everyone! I have very happy memories of playing this game with my nieces and nephews when they were, you know, not yet six feet tall like they are now.)

But the most fun I had yesterday was introducing Sophia to my two favorite board games from my childhood: Battleship and Sorry. The 1970’s versions of course.

(How OCD am I? I still have every single piece from the actual games. 30 years and counting. I’m so weird.)

Anyway ... Soph liked them both. “It’s like a MAP!” she said about Battleship:



And I kept chuckling at how “Sorry” is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of a genuine, “5 A’s Confession”. ("Sorrrr-eeeee! Yeah, right. Hah. Go back to your START I’m SO happy to switch places with you! Hah!")

If you need a reminder of how great the Young Peacemaker principles are, especially when they are presented in a Vacation Bible School format, check out:



OK. Off to get ready now.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Yours,
Tara B.

(A few pics from our week ...)

Sophie did her first “Trick-or-Treating” (to our four closest neighbors) when we got home from the Reformation Party at our church ...



Do you remember our friend whose birthday is AFTER Sophia’s but who was born BEFORE Sophia? (Riddle me THAT, Batman!) Well, here she is as a little cowgirl ...



Fun at “Boo at the Zoo” ...



(And just as a little shout-out to any homeschoolers who might be lurking on this blog ... )

Here’s a pretty great way to learn ancient history ...



And science (Hi Mrs. Reck!) ...

Did I ever mention how much I really want Sophie to get to experience the fun of a Christmas Nativity Play?

I think that my desire has its roots way back in my childhood reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.



And it’s been egged on by the fact that every Christmas since she could talk, we’ve recorded Sophia “telling the Christmas story”, using the figurines from our creche, etc. etc. (Classic movies! SO fun. I especially like the year she was all discombobulated because our creche didn’t have a King Herod. Soph is a kid who likes things in their place. She gets excited over an organized pajama drawer. Hmmmm ... wonder where she gets THAT from? But I digress ...)

Since I’ve been in my current church for nine years and as far as I know, they’ve never done a Nativity Play; and since I see no indication of one coming on the horizon; and further since Soph is at SUCH a great age for such an adventure, I did what I so often do ...

I jumped in with both feet; got permission to do a little play; wrote a script; had my husband and pastor do a heresy-check for me; assigned some parts and (drum roll please!) now I’m running a Nativity Play on December 2.

Fun stuff! How I pray that the Lord will be glorified and the kids will have a good time. (I’m 99.9% sure the grownups will. Angels & shepherds & kings, et al? The chaos theory in motion? Glitter & robes & stage cues for three year-olds dressed as sheep? This is just GOOD LIVIN' as far as I’m concerned.)

I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes and hopefully I’ll have some fun photos to post too.

For now, I’ll sign off with a VERY late-night pic of our little (future) angel ...



I’m psyched. Now I just need to locate a sparkly halo ...

Sending you my love,
Tara B.

We loved how Sophie made a little mistake and jumped right back in ...

We had a super-fun Friday (and hope you did too)!

Our friend Emma came for a playdate ...



(Don’t you just love PrismaColor Colored Pencils for those very special art projects?)

And then ended up at the pumpkin patch in matchy-princess-Snow-White outfits ...



(BTW–having now accompanied TWO sets of Snow White DUOS, I have to tell you that I think that doing so is the PERFECT antidote to monthly mental wackiness and depression. Remember our pics from DisneyWorld with Auntie Kali Snow White?)



Our day ended with Sophie’s very first Suzuki Book 1 / get to play with the big kids violin recital. In costume of course ...





Hope you enjoy a blessed weekend–

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophie has a “dress up in costume” violin recital at a nursing home this afternoon–at 4PM. So of course she’s been in her puppy costume since, oh, 8AM.

Well ... there is nothing like time with a good friend to make me really really miss her.

Yes, Samara and Eleanor Scout came into town for a little visit–and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

It’s just so pleasant and edifying to be with a person who talks about deep and important things, shallow and silly things, and everything in between. It’s fun to have such a vibrant, kind, loving, and gifted person for a friend. We can sit and be quiet or talk and laugh, agree or disagree, space-out and miss each other entirely or vulcan-mind-meld get each other with that satisfying, “Yes! THAT’S what I meant!” We can just be. And that is a such a grace.

The girls had a fun autumnal visit. Hope your weekend is a blessed one too!

Happily,
Tara B.

Our “Punkin' Patch Photo” Today and . . . Circa 2005



"Target Therapy" and a Little Arts & Crafts



Pumpkin Patch Time!





Playtime in the Park



I’ve often told Scout that I gave her her first Auntie Tara kiss on her nose only hours after she was born. And I loved her even before then! And I’ve loved her ever since. And I will always love her.

You know–we moved around so much and had so much tumultuousness in our family life that I just don’t have many relationships with any longevity. What a privilege it is to call the Lyndes friends for nine years! Grace truly abounds to a saved sinner like me. Thank You, God. And g'nite, all! Love–tkb

We took the ferry instead of the monorail ...



Enjoyed the sights & sounds & especially the character greetings. Wow! Those are some gracious people in (what have to be HOT & HEAVY) costumes ...





Sophie enjoyed her first roller-coaster ride (it was fun that we could ride it as a family!) and Fred was SOAKED on the water ride ...



I still can’t believe how much centripetal force I endured for my lovie-bug ...



All in all, I’d say it was a fun trip–but I sure wouldn’t want to go during on “on” season. We never waited in a line for more than, oh, 5 minutes–and that was A-OK with me.

Thanks for the memories, Mickey!

Love,
Tara B.

Arriving at the Bippity Boppity Boutique ...



And becoming a “REAL” princess ...



We had to stop by the conference to show Prince Charming Daddy!



And we were very blessed to get to meet/hug ALL SIX princesses ...



You know, this was a GREAT age to bring Sophia to Disney. She was incredibly patient even when we were both tired and hot–and she was SOOOOOO excited. By everything. It’s been a great grace to get to share these memories with her.



Of course, all of the above excitement was on Thursday. All day Friday, Sophie had a fun auntie day because my sister, Kali, came down to help out while I teach. I don’t yet have her photos from the day–but I did (CRAZILY!) join them for “Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween”, so I have a few photos from the evening:

The two Snow Whites were a huge hit in the park!



I was happy to just be along as the official kid-carrier and photographer. It really was very, very fun. And it was also a testimony to what you really CAN do, even when sick and fighting an almost-migraine IF you are really motivated.

We had TONS of Disney grace at the end of the evening in particular when Sophie was overwhelmed by the fireworks and didn’t want to see them, so we just started pretty much BOOKING it back to the trains. I’m really not exaggerating when I say that we easily walked past TEN THOUSAND+ PEOPLE staring up in the sky in one direction–so we were just walked onto a train, got in our car and LEFT, I’m sure HOURS before we would’ve even been to the parking lot had we stayed for the show. I don’t know that I was ever so grateful that Soph doesn’t like fireworks and I personally can’t stand 'em. I like the lights–but not the sound. And last night, I couldn’t tolerate the lights.

ANYWAY–off to teach all day.
Thanks for any prayers you care to send my direction!
Please pray that I would love well–God and neighbor–and serve well.

Exhaustedly but gratefully,
Tara B.

We had an early morning to start our “day of four airports” travel to Florida ...



But of course it was worth it!



Fred had to work the conference, but Sophie and I had a blast at SeaWorld & Aquatica.



Honestly? I don’t have that many photos because I was really concentrating on just relaxing and being “in the moment” with Soph (rather than trying to restage a fake “moment” to get “the perfect” picture–as I’ve done in the past. Eek!).





I don’t regret my decision AT ALL. We had a great day together. I love watching her excitement and happiness–during the dog & cat (& mouse & duck & doves & pig) show, she was SO excited that one point she just turned to me and said, “I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!!!!” with that HUMONGOUS I’M SO HAPPY MY FACE IS ABOUT TO SPLIT OPEN I’M SMILING SO BIG 4-year-old-ness. That alone was worth the price of admission.



So we’re off for my adventures today and then tonight I have to somehow switch gears into my “serve at an event” mode. Hmmmmmmmmm ... I think that’ll take some effort.

Hope your week is going well!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
I heard from my friend, Mark, and his son survived! And may leave ICU at the end of the week. THANK YOU for praying!! Love – tkb

The much-anticipated box of princess goodies arrived from Aunt Kali today and wow! Sophie and I are excited ...



To quote Soph in her thank-you call to Kali:

"These are even more beautiful than I dreamed they would be!"

Ahhhhh ... if only the entire trip stays that way, eh?

But like all things this side of Heaven, I’m sure that the heat and the over-stimulation and the lack of familial routine will, at some point, tempt us all to be grouchy and ungrateful. I do hope that we will be wise and take breaks and REST even amidst the frivolity.

Oh, and that at some point I’ll wrap my heart and mind around the five workshops I’m teaching and prepare a bit to be “interviewed” (or whatever they’re thinking) for the video roll-out during Friday’s plenary session.

(Today I had what was probably my last order ever for the “original version” of the series. Very fun! It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming months and years.)

Hope you’re doing well! Small group for us in one hour, so I’d better go clean up the princess wrapping paper from our living room and try to unearth some Bibles ...

Blessings!
– Tara B.

Big Girl Sophia Grace “officially” started Kindergarten today ...



We had a wonderful day at our church’s little co-op ("officially" Soph’s too young to start “real” Kindergarten–so Fred & I just said, “Congratulations! You’re a Kindergartener!” and off we went into our Fall ...):





We were particularly blessed that our beloved Pastors Alfred & Jason and Elder Clark and Mr. Acheson and Mr. Waller started our school-year by praying for us:



I, personally, had to CHUCKLE at our bulletin boards because, well, Fred & I (and our friend Caroline) did our best to create something relatively interesting but ... of course, I have NO confidence in bulletin-board-creation. I kept telling myself, “Better Than Blank, Tara! Better Than Blank! That’s Your Goal.”





OK. I’m off to get Soph through her bath and bedtime routine. Our home smells DELICIOUS (just like a “real home!” I keep telling myself because I discovered–thanks to dear Amy L!–A Year of CrockPotting and today I made the WORLD’S EASIEST RECIPE EVER–(Brown Sugar Chicken ... even I had ALL of the ingredients on hand and I am the WORLD’S WORST COOK/domestic diva EVER!!).

Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Tuesday too!

Yours,
Tara B.

We spent hours yesterday weeding, raking, trimming, cleaning the car & truck, scrubbing and vacuuming the back porch and furniture, and cleaning the garage too. It was great! But I think I overdid it a bit and my tired ol' back is yelling at me this morning. Oh well! It’s worth it to have such a nice day working as a family. Sophie said, “We’re taking care of the house God gave us!” You bet.

We also made a video of Sophia’s progress through Suzuki Book 1 to share with our family. (Warning! This will not be interesting to you unless you like Suzuki violin by four year olds.)

Our most fun news this week came from a BBC television show called Animals at Work. They are going to put our “World’s Most Patient Dog” video on their show!



57,000+ viewers and counting. Too fun!

Hope you enjoy a restful Sunday–

Yours,
Tara B.

(& Soph ...)

We had a super fun morning hiking in the Beartooth Mountains near our home. (I still marvel at the fact that we can spontaneously decide to go hiking and be in such beauty in just one hour!)

On the drive, I reviewed our Bear Aware safety tips.



Fred asked if that was really wise (since even in bear country, actual bear encounters are so rare and I’m so skittery about them already)–but I assured him that it was, at least for me.

Then, after letting a family pass us on the trail because they were all on horseback (how fun is that!), we were off ...



How do you get your Golden some nice, fresh water on a hike? You hand filter it into her collapsible bowl of course!



Daddies and little girls love to explore a mountainside together ...



We know we’re almost back to the car when we reach sleeping man rock ...



But there’s still time for cooling hot feet in the water ...



The ride home showed that a good time was had by all ...



Now, if I can just get back to sleep, I’m looking forward to church in the morning! Hope you are too.

G'nite and God bless!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
There is nothing like a morning like this to help motivate me to continue working on my health goals. Weight loss is great–but the strength and stamina to hike with my family? Well, THAT’S a very positive motivational factor. Grace abounds!! – tkb

Well ... the study guides are here! But I’m still waiting on the DVDs. So all day Monday I worked SUPER HARD to box up the 300+ study guides that some of you ordered for your groups and (after multiple trips to the post office–you can only fit so many at a time into our tiny car!) you should be receiving them very soon.



I promise to send the rest of the orders out just as soon as I get the DVDs. Oh–and if you haven’t yet ordered, there’s still a small window of time left! I accidentally ordered ten extra DVD sets (oops! bad math!), so it would actually be a blessing to our family’s monthly budget shortfall if some of you snatched them up. (No pressure, of course. )

Other things that are taking our time these days?

I walked in on Sophia cranking through her tangrams:



And having fun with clay:



(All cuteness due to Fred & Sophia–I couldn’t make something this crafty even if you bribed me!)

And ... my SECOND inaugural trip with the food processor! My friend brought over some (yummy) cucumbers from her garden and encouraged me to make a “super easy” (famous last words) salad with cukes, onion, and balsamic vinegar. And (miraculously!) I did!



I can’t tell you how much that made me feel even a tiny bit like a REAL GROWN UP.

Hope your week is off to a great start too!

Sending my love,
Tara B.

I ended up with four kids today so after our zoo morning, we made an impromptu trip out to our friends' ranch for some outdoor fun.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

G'nite,
Tara B.

Hanke the Cowdog has a baby brother!



So much to explore ...



We love horses!

I promise to get back to real blogging soon–

But since I know that some of the cousins are checking in for photos, here are just a few more from our family gathering this weekend.

Hope you are doing well!

Love,
Tara B.

Mini-putt-putt golfing & duck boat fun at Krape Park:





Honoring GG (97 year-old Great Grandma) with a formal family photo and hymn sing too:





The world’s best ice-cream: Union Dairy! (Poor Sophie slept through the whole thing.)



Cousins are the best!!

I think Sophie is really enjoying the phenomenon of having everyone around her named Barthel.



It’s one thing to talk about “relatives” and “family”–but since we have no relatives anywhere near Montana, this is all pretty new (and great) to her:





That Barthel family can seriously take over an entire table at the firemen’s BBQ:



We’re about to head into our last day of familial adventures ... brunch & playtime at a Krape Park, ice cream at “the” local place (Union Dairy), a family photo with 97 year-old “GG” (Great-Grandma), and a night of watching old movies of the five Barthel boys running around 30 years ago.

Thanks again for praying for us!

Sending you lots of love,
Tara B.

PS
The “girl cousins” did one of those Olde-Tyme Western pics together. I’ll post the real one when I get it (with them looking all serious), but here is the smiling one I snapped beforehand:

Praising God for a nice visit with extended family in the Midwest!

Time with Grandpa Joe & Nana Marlene was a blessing:



And Fred’s little hometown annual celebration ("German Valley Days") is the perfect place for a four-year old! Especially when she is surrounded by loving aunts, uncles, cousins, and “we’re all here to celebrate her 70th birthday!” Grandma Chris:

Our fun started with a stop by the veterinary clinic that Grandpa Calvin (Fred’s dad) founded:



We pretended that Sophie’s bunny ("LoveBunny") had an owie. Cousin Elizabeth, future vet extraordinaire, fixed her right up:



Then, it was on to the horse parade, rides, and BBQ:







Thanks again for the prayers (and the encouraging emails too!)–

Much love,
Tara B.

Looking through old family movies tonight, we found this classic of Sophia and our first Golden, Choza:



What a sweet puppy! I miss her. Oh, and I can’t believe Sophie was ever that little.

G'nite and God bless!

Love,
Tara B.

Sophia tried to ride her bike without training wheels for the first time this weekend:



Good thing someone bigger and stronger was running beside her and keeping her safe:

Five kids +
A “pool” barely bigger than a grande coffee cup +
One Golden Retriever puppy = FUN!

We very much enjoyed our little taste of Americana small-town parade this morning:



Sophia did pretty well with the whole “Lord of the Flies”-winner take all-survival of the fittest environment created by the candy/toy tosses from the floats. She was appropriately motivated to try to run to something, but also very gracious and quick to share, so that was great:



She was, however, TERRIFIED by the clowns for some inexplicable reason:



We send our love and hope that you are enjoying a fun and restful 4th of July!

Your friends,
Fred & Tara Barthel
Sophia Grace

We’re having a blast with Uncle Paul, Aunt Janet, and cousins Emily, Samuel, and Elizabeth!



Sophia even got to pick her own strawberries and make JAM!





Hope you enjoy a lovely Sabbath!

Yours,
Tara B.

(OK. Maybe this series of photos IS “Sports Illustrated Worthy”. Line drive. Knocked his hat RIGHT off. )

OK. I know I’m no photographer for Sports Illustrated or anything (don’t they have the most amazing photos??!!) ... but even my little “point and shoot” Momma Camera caught some fun pics during our outing yesterday ...



And my FAVORITE photo (so funny!):



Yeah! Rah! for HOT CEMENT to warm up on!



... and a good time was had by all ...

Thanks for the prayers and encouragement! The day went very well. Lots of funny stories to tell ... but I’m beat, so I’m just going to post a few pics and go cuddle with Sophia and go to SLEEP.

Hope your Sabbath is blessed tomorrow!! Sunday! The best day of the week.

Love you bunches,
Tara B.

Off we go to American Girl Place!



The Bitty Bear & Bitty Puppy & Bitty Kitty Show was very fun!



But the horse-drawn carriage ride (complete with an “especially for Sophia Grace” SIGN and a take-home super-soft fuzzy HORSE plush toy too) was a BIG HIT:





Fred surprised us for lunch at the Grand Luxe Cafe! (A total FAVORITE ever since my Naperville Presbyterian Church women’s retreat team took me there last January!! Yummmmy!!)



And we played on a water slide in the backyard at the end of a beautiful day!



Grace Abounds!
We are a blessed lot.

Sophie’s big recital day was a joy!

It started with some surprises ("long distance hugs") from my family and me:



Our dear friend, Auntie Sarah, put her hair up for me (Thanks, Sarah!) and it was off to the theater with her ballet buddy and dear friend, Emma:



“Backstage” waiting was filled with special recital treats & coloring and then it was time to cross the street to the Alberta Bair Theater! (Fred calls the last photo the “little ducklings shot” ):





The actual dance went OK ... but there was a tiny mishap when the girls were holding hands in a big circle. Apparently, the spinning got a little too fast/out of control and Sophie and a few other girls FELL!! (Gasp!!)

Fred told me later that he watched the video like ten times ("In CSI fashion!") to try to deduce exactly what happened and he came to this conclusion ... “Remember roller skating rinks in the early 80’s? Whip it? Whip it GOOD? Well ...”

ANYWAY, when I heard all of this late Saturday night from my hotel room in Florida, I asked Sophia if she was HURT. She said, “No. Just embarrassed.” Then I asked her if the other girls were OK (they were) and if she was able to get back up and continue the dance, or if she stopped after she fell. “I got right back up and kept going.”

"You know," I told her, "Everyone makes mistakes or has something embarrassing happen to them when they are in front of a crowd–on a stage, in church, playing the piano ... you can even ask Daddy to tell you about the time he made a BIG mistake in front of like 30,000 people when he was in the Marching Illini at the University of Illinois ( ) ...

Everyone makes a mistake or falls at some point in their lives. But often, because of our tears or adrenaline or embarrassment, it’s really, really HARD to GET UP and KEEP GOING. I am so proud of you for continuing the dance!! You honored your dance partner AND you served all of the people watching."

“But Momma! Some of them LAUGHED at us.”

“Yes, yes ... sadly ... that happens too. Sometimes people laugh because they are nervous/surprised. Sometimes people do laugh because they have a mean or ugly heart that delights in the embarrassment of others. Don’t let it trouble you. What does it matter? I’m just SO happy that you had a lovely dance recital! I’m so happy that the other girls and you were not hurt. I’m incredibly proud of you for getting up and continuing the dance. GOOD JOB, dear. You served well! My heart is full of happiness!”

So that was her recital day. And I had a super-fun “welcome home/happy birthday” reception yesterday. (Replete with homemade Momma Birthday MINTS, a banner, and Sophie even shared her ballet recital cookies and flowers with me. Very sweet!)



Hope your week goes well!
God is truly good. All the time.

Love and blessings,
Tara B.

I started my day out on a beautiful balcony enjoying an amazing ocean breeze AND a sweet video I made of Sophia earlier in the week.

I thought you might enjoy it too, so here it is:



Tomorrow is the big recital day! Super super fun!

Hope you have a lovely day–

Yours,
Tara B.

Sophia’s first ballet recital is this Saturday, so I thought I’d better practice putting her hair up in a bun “like a REAL ballerina” ...

So how was YOUR Monday?

We had a VERY fun day making daddy’s birthday cake ...



We (of course) used the Silver Creek Cookbook (the church in which Fred grew up!) because it has THE ABSOLUTE BEST icing recipe EVER ...



Then Sophie got to decorate Fred’s cake ANY WAY she wanted! And here’s what happens when you allow a four year-old COMPLETE FREE REIGN in the cake decorating department ...





Daddy’s home! PARTY TIME!





WHEW! We’re beat and daddy’s at a Deacon’s Meeting. Time for bed!



G'nite and God bless!

With love,
Tara B. (& Fred & Sophia Grace & Lilikoi)

Ahhhh ... daddies and their little girls ...





Hope you’re having a wonderful night too!

We had another wonderful day out at our friend’s “farm.” (I’d call it a RANCH, of course, but they say it’s too small to be a ranch. Hmmmmm ... seems pretty big to me!)

What a gift this redemptive friendship is!
And how FUN it is to get SOOOOOOOOOO MUDDY and SOOOOO dirty playing outside.

As soon as I even MENTIONED the farm this morning, Sophia ran upstairs and got all COWGIRLED UP ...



We enjoyed a fun drive and then played & played ...



Lilikoi had a BLAST with Hanke the Working Cowdog. (Hanke kept “herding” Lili.)



Hope you had a good day too!

Happily,
Tara B.

Sophia decided to play a little violin after small group tonight ... and after we had practiced “properly,” she wanted to just play SUPER DUPER FAST and have a little silly fun. And so we did.



I think my second favorite part of this video is when Lilikoi licked her hand as she was trying to play. It really IS hard to play the violin when a Golden Retriever is licking you.

But my absolute favorite part of this video is how she kept on going even when she crashed and burned towards the end.

“No one is perfect except for GOD,” she said.

Well done, Sophia Grace.
Well done.

We’re heading to bed now and hope you can say the same.

With love,
Tara (& Fred & Soph & Lili)

I arrived home safe & sound and we enjoyed a very restful and fun Sabbath.

A few of my favorite parts of the day:



Sophie made a “candy store” with the sweets from the Popcorn Factory that my Delaware event sent Fred and her. She wrote “pris” (price) and “for sale” on little tags and taped them to the packages. Very fun!



Fred got out his guitar, Sophie grabbed a tambourine, and we jammed out to “We Will Dance” as a family. Even Lilikoi got in on the action! She LOVES to lie completely across my FEET (even as I pedal!) right under the piano. Too cute!

Hope you are all doing well–

I’m heading to bed now because I officially started my day before 4AM on this time zone and I’m ZONKED.

G'nite & God bless,
Tara B.

Every April. Tulips & snow. This little seasonal Montana tradition still makes Fred and me smile.

Look at the difference from the time we left FOR church until the time we got home FROM church ...

We’re enjoying our annual trip to Helena to celebrate Easter & Spring & just spend time with our favorite friends.

Oh, how much we miss TJ, Samara, Scout & William! It’s great to be together.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Yours,
Tara B.

The fun started with cookie decorating & indoor camping last night ...





This morning we were sad that both girls woke up with fevers & sniffles! But they still wanted to keep having a bit of fun (although we simplified things a lot).

We started the day with a trip to the hairdresser so that Sophie could have a little trim and Scouty could donate TEN INCHES of her gorgeous, THICK, amazing hair to “Locks for Love” to make wigs for children with cancer.



Then it was on to the Helena Carousel!





A nap-filled afternoon afforded Samara and I with lots of time to visit ... a little egg decorating and it’s time for night-night.



Thank You, God, for friends!

I was SO surprised to find a PRINCESS at violin lessons this week!



I never knew that Snow White played the violin.

Soph delighted us by playing “puppy” this morning in her Dalmatian costume from Grandma Chris. I loved the image of the “two puppies” doing Bible study so I snapped some pics:

(My maternal grandmother, Pearl Kroncke, used to doll Kali and I up for Easter. I have vivid and happy memories of matching blue & pink dresses, hats, gloves, purses, and shiny new white shoes. Guess that’s why I continue this tradition, eh? Hope these pics give you a little smile.)



BTW–although Sophia and our friend, Emma, were EXTREMELY well behaved the entire time getting the photos taken. (Emma was the official “director” of the “photo shoot.”) Don’t you think that it would be a LOT easier to get kids' pictures taken if we could do it without the kids?



Grace to you!

Love,
Tara B.

OK. Seriously. I would do an INFOMERCIAL for this thing if I were asked ...

Do you guys know about THE FURMINATOR???

Because OH MY STARS!!! It is just the most amazing dog-hair-removal-thingy-EVER!!

My dear friend Nancy L. (also a GOLDEN LOVER!! Hi Sadie!!) told me about it and I immediately ordered one off of Amazon.

MONEY WELL SPENT!!!

We didn’t even think that Lilikoi was all that hairy! (Her coat is much “thinner”/ligher than our Choza’s.) But check out the hair that THE FURMINATOR removed in (no kidding!) MINUTES:



I just can’t even IMAGINE how much LESS HAIR there will now be on our living room pillows (that occasionally get drafted into duty as WALLS for forts/houses):



Thanks again, Nancy!

And hey! If you’re a Golden Retriever owner and would like to join our little “we love Goldens!” post on my blog, drop me an email with your dog’s pic and I’ll do another Golden lineup post.

(Yes, yes, I love you too–lab owners, mutt owners, even cat owners! But I’m only going to blog about Goldens or else I’d lose my readership FOR SURE.)

Happy Monday and love to you all,
Tara B.

PS
Hey! Our Choza video on YouTube is almost up to 32,000 hits! So fun.



PPS
Doesn’t that BAG OF DOG HAIR up above just TOTALLY gross you out if you’re one of those, “THAT’S why we don’t have a dog!!” people?

My last view of Sophia Grace & Lilikoi as they headed out the door to show her dolly at show & tell:



Sweetness! Cuddle-bug muffin lovie bear SWEETNESS.
Thank God for the gift of children.

Blessings to you from Kansas!

Love ya,
Tara B.

Our little fiddlers did a great job at our church’s variety show last night!

Fred was faithful to YouTube me a video and I even got to webcam with them really late and hear all about it:



Thank you, Miss Laura, for being the world’s best violin teacher!!

And hooray I, T, S & Sophia for fiddlin' and blessing us all.

I have one more session to teach this morning and then I’ll start the long trek to home.

Hopin' to be sleepin' in my own bed tonight!

With joy,
Tara B.

PS
If you’d like to see Soph & S doing their little hoe down last year, here is the church variety show when Sophia had just turned three. (Don’t you love how the camera jiggles because Fred is laughing? )

NO complaints. Truly! I have a wonderful life and our family counts it a PRIVILEGE to serve. 100%.

But sometimes our family’s opportunities to serve others means that Momma Tara misses some precious things on the home front.

Like this weekend. Not only did I miss Lili’s first birthday on Valentine’s Day (Fred wasn’t too hip to make a heart-shaped doggie cake or whatever), tomorrow I will miss Sophia’s little contribution to our church’s variety show.

She’s known all along that I would not be there and she seems OK with it.
But I will miss her.

SO ... on Wednesday, I took a video of her at her violin lesson:



... AND some photos of her little “fiddling group” at their rehearsal that night:



Hope they give you a smile as you start your Friday!

Happily ensconced in Pennsylvania,
Tara B.

"Would you like to go upstairs and take a little nap, dear?"

“No thanks, Momma. I’m not sleepy.”

(Famous last words.)

Here is the Valentine’s Day dress:



And here are Sophia and Lilikoi playing “beach” (and then warming up by the heating vent / “hot tub”):



AND lastly ... just to make you chuckle ... here is what my dining room table TEMPORARILY looked like when I got home from my ten-day trip and started plowing through the piles, making order out of chaos:



Happy Wednesday!

Love,
Tara B.