On Saturday, I (Abe) went on a 30 minute run at 8:00 and got back in time for Lily to go to Yoga. All day, Lily was still feeling sick, but I was finally feeling on the mend. While Lily was at Yoga, I was moving slow, but OK with that a I felt I was recovering from the week. I did some cleaning and made lunch for the kids, but mostly was just around, which turns out to be plenty busy with 4 kids 🙂
When Lily got home, I took Lydia to take the exam to get into the gifted program. I hope she makes it! Whether or not she gets in, I know that that sweet girl has many special gifts. She is incredibly responsible, self-aware, loving and the thing that has been most apparent lately is that she is an incredibly gifted reader. Today, she finished book 7 of Harry Potter. So yes, she is a gifted reader, but she is also very gritty. What I mean is that one year and a half ago, she was barely decoding words. She was one of the worst readers in her first grade class, and scored a 1 out of 4 on her first report card. After getting that score, she told us that she did not want to be the worst reader in the class and that she was determined to get better, and from that point forward, we would find her buried in a book, sounding out words, and forcing herself to learn. By the end of last year, she had a 3/4 on her report card. An now, almost a year later, she just finish reading 3,500 pages (approximation) of Harry Potter and I think she did it in about 3 months. Towards the end, she was reading about a book a week, and those last books are crazy thick, like 800 pages. This has really been a wonder to behold in our family, given where she started. Lydia is so much like Lily in this respect. Lily was slow to start reading when she was a child, but once she started reading, she never looked back. She was reading War and Peace, Charles Dickens and other great classics as a youth, and she continues to read veraciously in her adult life. She, like Lydia, is a very fast reader, and I’m so grateful Lydia takes after Lily in that respect! I’m a slow reader and I don’t really enjoy reading, but I force myself to do it, because I know it’s good for me, and I do love knowledge.
I should also mention that Friday evening and Saturday during the day, Lily and I had very intense discussions about the church. She is very distraught at some of the troubling things in the church, and I tend to be fairly conventional, and so it took us some time and energy to work through our points of view together. In the end, and after much discussion, we both had Spiritual promptings that helped guide us to a good place of both our faith and our relationship with each other. I am so grateful for God and the way He helps guide us in all aspects of our lives. I.love.Lily.
Around 5:00, Lily and I went to dinner at Andrea’s house. We haven’t spent much time with her recently and she invited us over. My dad also showed up, which was great! We spent most of the time sharing jokes. A great one from my dad was this image below:
I also shared two of my favorite comedy bits (about 5 minutes each):
–Louis CK, Everything is amazing and nobody’s happy
Then Andrea shared some near death experience videos with us. There is a trend on youtube of people posting their near-death experiences, and they are absolutely amazing. All the ones I’ve heard of and seem have striking similarities, including that God is the embodiment of love. Here is one we watched that we particularly loved. (16 minutes)
Andrea’s dinner was amazing. I loved the Indian soup and the place settings were fabulous! Thank you Andrea!
