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Imagine traveling the world with a child in tow.  In our house we can’t even make it the 5 minutes to the grocery store without having an issue or two.  I guess that’s what intrigues me so much about The Future is Red. 

The idea of just picking up your family and traveling, all over the world, all the time is so fascinating. 

My big dream is simply to be able to pack up an RV and travel the United States for a few months.  That or bike ride across the country.  That would actually be my ultimate goal.  And with the kids.  It wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without the kids….and they would learn so much.

But I digress.

I really just like living vicariously through this blog.

We went to the park today by the Allentown Rose Gardens (Cedar Creek Park).

And this is how wonderfully the children got along the whole time we were there.  No, not really, but for the moment it made a nice picture.

Even mammy went along.

Makenna has inherited her picture taking skills from mammy.   Always cut the heads off…even with ducks.

I think the ducks had a calming influence on Jarod.

And the girls, they just always love seeing any animals.

I’m all for warmer weather, but somewhere along the line I think we skipped spring here in Pennsylvania.

Even the dogs aren’t happy about temperature in the 90’s. 

They wanted outside in the worst way today, and then I put them out.  I watched them as they stood side by side on the porch, panting and looking miserable.  And I know what they were saying to each other. 

“Did you know it was this hot?”

“Nah, I didn’t know….I wouldn’t begged to go out if I knew it was this hot.”

“Maybe if we lay down on the sun-baked concrete we’ll feel better.”

“Good idea.”

   A few minutes go by.

“Are you still hot?”

“Yeah….  How about we just go back inside.”

“OK, you bark first.”

“I’m to hot to bark, you bark first, besides it was your idea.”

“Fine.   Woof!”

Then I let them back in and I don’t suspect they’ll be bugging me to go back out anytime soon.

Ok, so I’m terrible at keeping track of the good deeds the twins are doing this past week.  I will do better this week.  Maybe if I keep a little notepad with me and mark them down….

 but I can remember some of the things we did last week.

1.  With not too much thought, the twins decided to hold the door for some folks as they went to a play in the afternoon.  It’s an old fashioned gesture, but one that people really seem to appreciate, especially when it is a  child holds the door open for them.

2.  Another day presented a good deed we never would have thought of doing.  At the produce market some older individuals were having trouble opening the plastic bags to put their produce in.  You know how you can’t get the bag to seperate, and then you can’t even figure out which end to open.  Well the kids helped two different people open a few plastic bags and they were so grateful….the twins made their morning.

3.  They cut some of our daffodils and left them and a note for a neighbor of ours to brighten their day when they got home from work.

4.  They helped younger children plant seeds in cups while we were assisting with farm tours at the Flint Hill Farm.  The kids who didn’t want to get their hands dirty were especially grateful for the help.

5.  They helped sew a  pillowcase with trains on it (just like Jarod’s favorite) for our priest on his 70th birthday.  He loved it, and the kids felt great.

I’m sure they’ll come up with more great things to do this week… now if I can just find a notebook to mark them all down.

I just took our Christmas wreath off the front door today.

I am not proud of this fact, but to my credit, I left it up because I thought I would just modify it.  You know, take out the Christmas ornaments and add some flowers.

But then the kids wanted to make a new fabric wreath, and that took a while: fighting over which colors it would be and such.  So it just got done today.

We like it.  Very Springy I think.  Almost Summery you might say.  (Hint Hint.) 

Yes, it will probably stay up on the door until fall.  Or heck, we could even switch out the pink with orange or brown and leave it up through the fall too.

It doesn’t get much cuter than ducklings and chicks.

They have some at the Flint Hill Farm that we volunteer at each week.

The kids couldn’t get enough of them.

Although I am quite certain the ducklings and chicks had enough of them and the photo shoot.

…to everyone of the Orthodox faith who celebrate Easter today.

Our kids love it.  Easter (with the yummy food and egg hunt) with one side of the family last week and again this week.

Ever since the twins were little we’ve tried to instill in them a sense of helping others, but honestly, I don’t think we do enough. 

I wanted to do something that would get the kids thinking of others each day, not just once in a while when we volunteer somewhere.

We decided that we should try to do at least one good deed per day.  Each day the kids will think of something nice to do for someone.  We’re starting simple, with things we can do for family, friends and neighbors.

Yesterday they took some jam over to our 91 year old neighbor. 

Today they wrote a note and drew a picture for their great grandparents.

And when we run out of ideas we found some great places for inspiration.

One Good Deed Per Day

365 Day of Goodness

and Charitable Deeds which lists out the deed, the time it takes, why you should bother doing something nice and how it’s worth it.

Maybe we’ll start a new page on the blog just for their good deeds. 

Then they can post what they did each day and maybe they’ll inspire some other kids to do good and share their stories too.

The first egg hunt is always the best. 

That look of ‘why are these colored things scattered on the ground?’, ‘and why do you want me to pick them up’… But once they get the hang of it and they just want more eggs.

The twins ‘hunted’ too.  More of a mob scene then a hunt when the eggs are scattered across a huge, very muddy area and there’s about 100 7-8 year olds running into each other.

Checking out the spoils.

They all were happy.  Including daddy since Alexandra was just too young to eat most of her candy he had to help her.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8