Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Mount Vernon


Yesterday, Eric and I took the kids to Mount Vernon the home of George Washington on the Potomac River. We had a great time there. The weather was beautiful, the ride down the George Washington Parkway was pretty, driving thru Alexandria was neat and experiencing Mt. Vernon, learning more about George and Martha Washington was much more enjoyable than I expected. The kids and I read about George Washington last year in history so we were a little informed about him and his home but we definitely learned alot more from our visit.

So here's a lowdown on G.W.

George Washington was born somewhere in the northern neck area of VA to Mary and Augustine Washington. His father owned plantations and died when George was I think eleven. That is also when his education stopped but continued to teach himself with a library that grew into over 800 books. His older stepbrother, Lawrence, inherited Mt. Vernon after their father's death, took care of George and taught him his trade of land surveying. As a land surveyor George Washington was familiar with the land in Virginia and beyond which helped him in his travels and battles against the French and Indians in the Ohio Valley. Though he had helped the British Army tremendously in these battles he was never made apart of the British army. He went back and lived at Mt. Vernon that he now had inherited since Lawrence's death.

At that time Mt. Vernon was only a four room farm house. Over time it had two other expansions out and up making it what it is today. What was amazing about the mansion is although it was big and had quite a few rooms it was in no way overly grand or wasteful. The second floor had five guest rooms and the guide said that in one year they had over 600 guests(or was it 800). Pretty much all the rooms in the house were used and for a variety of purposes too. The estate itself was over 8000 acres, had I think five farms and a distillery. His plantation also had over 300 slaves that worked it for him and helped with household chores. In his will he freed all his slaves and apparently was the only founding father to ever do so.

Then George Washington becomes the general of the continental army, fights thru the Revolutionary War and was a courageous leader. After the war he gives up his position as military leader although people at that time would have made him a king or ruler of some sort but he declines. He goes back to Mt. Vernon to live with Martha only to be unanimously voted as the first president of our country. After serving two terms and again declining to stay in office for longer than one president should (although term limits were not made yet until the 1950's but all but one president since Washington followed his example) he went home to Mt. Vernon. He lived for two years after that, was a healthy man but caught a cold and died less than two days later. Martha Washington could not even attend his funeral because her grief was too much. She locked their bed chamber and spent the rest of her life in a room on the third floor never leaving Mt. Vernon again until her death a few years later.

I feel like I'm one of those kids doing a book report on "Reading Rainbow". What can I say we really liked Mt. Vernon. Aside from the mansion and the grounds there is a new education building that was so cool. It was like a mini version of epcot but all about George Washington. Further proof of how much we liked it - we upgraded our tickets to annual passes. So if you come visit we'll be more than happy to go with you!

The upper garden and the greenhouse
The lower garden
View of Potomac from back porch
Back of the house looking up from river
Kids with view of the Potomac

The poplar tree Washington planted

Saturday, September 20, 2008

The National Zoo


I absolutely love this area. I've been up here in Maryland so many times before for conferences but always in the colder months. I never knew how beautiful the area we are now living in was. One of the things I love so much is all the free stuff we can do so last week the kids and I headed to the National Zoo. It was great! Of course I am an animal lover so obviously I was in heaven but the weather was perfect and the park itself is so pretty. Admission to the zoo is free so you just park and walk in. The parking is expensive so we became official "FONZ" members (friends of the national zoo) so we get free parking. We'll be heading back next week with Eric to check out the bird house and primates. Can you believe my kids didn't want to go see the monkeys? They said that monkeys were "weird and freaky".

The other thing I loved was the drive to the zoo thru Chevy Chase, MD. It's top of my list to visit and walk around with Eric. Along Connecticut Avenue there are all kinds of outdoor cafes, specialty shops and even regular stores but it's so cityish with a trendy yet charming feel. Like maybe the quaintness of Ghent with the real coolness of New York. I don't know why I'm trying so hard to describe this place I've only driven thru especially when this post is supposed to be about our trip to the zoo. I'm getting tired. See why I don't post much!!!

Here's some pics:











Cathing Up

Well it's been once month since we moved up here to Maryland but it feels like we've been here forever. The Lord has been so kind to our family in allowing this huge uprooting and transition to go so well.

A quick history of how we got here (for Laura Lynn). For the past eleven years Eric has served as an associate pastor and then as executive pastor under Keith Breault but has always wondered if he was gifted and/or called to lead a church in a senior pastor position. So, to keep this brief, the other pastors and men who oversee our church agreed yes and Eric will be most likely planting a church in Charlottesville, VA. Since he never attended Sovereign Grace's pastor's college they also thought that it would be a great opportunity and timing for him to go now. This has all happened very quickly -two months from the time of finding out till moving up here. I cannot be more grateful though for the faith that God has given me and our family. Although this all seemed to come out of nowhere there has been a peace and a definite strong sense that the Lord was leading us to do this. So we put our house up for sale, cried a little, packed up, cried a lot, said goodbye to our dear family, friends and church and here we are.

After being in Maryland for less than a week our family went down to Nags Head for our annual vacation with the Williams and Waskos. It is always great to be together but especially this year. both Laura, Melanie and their families had been away the last week we were in town but the Lord provided special time at the beach house. To see a slide show of our week you can go to Melanie's blog: http://www.waskolife.blogspot.com/



Sarah in the sand


All eleven kids


Ryan skim boardingMatthew on the boogie board
The boys
Taylor and Rachel

Since being back life has been very full. Eric had actually started classes during our vacation so sent back and forth. Once the kids and I were back too we jumped into our new school schedule. It's wonderful!! My husband is a new man and it's all good. Eric now is the one getting up first, making the coffee and overseeing the kids morning "stuff" which includes their quiet time, breakfast and going through First Steps of Faith with Rachel and Ryan. This now gives me time to go walking (which is absolutely beautiful here), have quiet time, shower and get ready for the day. I must confess though that I've been enjoying Eric "lording" over the morning a bit too much and have been sleeping in most days. I'm gonna change all that - tomorrow. Those first couple of weeks I spent getting the house unpacked and set up along with jumping into home schooling. We are pretty much settled now around the house and into the groove of school. Eric has also got into a groove with his school too. Pastors college is way more involved than I think either one of us expected. He has classes Tuesday through Friday from 9 till at least 4. He stays to study until about 6-6:30. We have dinner, spend time with the kids and then studies again after they've gone to bed. On Fridays he stays all evening to study and take his weekly exam. The exam doesn't need to be done until Monday night but he prefers taking it immediately and then using the weekend to do his reading for the upcoming week. That also allows for us to take Monday afternoons as a family day. We have some evening meetings throughout the month and Eric and I are trying to get out on dates to as many ethnic restaurants as possible.


A huge part of our experience here has been our neighborhood. I don't even know how to describe the wonderful experience but I am so amazed at God's kindness in providing for our family. There are five other pastor college families on our street along with other families from the church. There are kids, lots of them, for all my kids to play with. Three o'clock every school day is when playtime begins and they long for it. There is a common area and a little playground behind our house where they play football, or go across the street to the "field" to play, ride skateboards down the bike path or climb trees. When the kids are out the moms are usually hanging out too. I've described the people here as very friendly and very social. It really is hard to believe that most of us have only been here for a month and have grown so close to one another.


Well that's all for now. I do have pictures from our trips into DC and to the zoo that I want to post but I'll do those later. I promise it'll be soon.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Our Life in Maryland





We are in Maryland!  It has been quite a month.  After a bunch of very tearful goodbyes we left Virginia on August 18th.  We arrived at our new townhouse and had lots of help moving in!  Here are a few picts.  Marie is planning on blogging and now that we are settled, I'm sure there will be regular updates of our time here in MD.  For all who read this - thank you for all of your prayers, your love, care for us, help packing and moving, your kind words and notes, and for the part you have played in our life.  We miss all of our friends and family in Virginia more than you know.  But, here we are - experience much grace, enjoying the DC area, loving the time together as a family and trying to pass exams!  More news to come.  (By: Eric)