Obsessions

• Laura Story's new album Blessings, particularly the song entitled "Blessings." If you haven't heard it yet, I hope that you will somehow ASAP. I love Laura Story, and this song is probably my favorite ever. It expresses so much truth about life's hardships and our walk with the Lord.
• Apples. It is again that time of year. I'm overjoyed!! Watermelon, it's been great, but it's time for you to move out of the spotlight. Bring on the apples!
• Real NYC style bagels. I didn't know bagels were so good until we moved to New Jersey. Panera doesn't hold a candle to the bagels they make up here. Yummmmmmm.

• My new coffee machine. Josh and I have been hardcore French press people for the last 4 1/2 years or so, but we decided to get a coffeemaker for a few reasons, particularly entertaining. Have you ever attempted to make coffee for a crowd in a French press? This is how it goes: "Here you go, friend who wants coffee- please savor your 2 sips" or "Friend waiting for coffee, I have served 2 other people and thus the press is empty. Your coffee will be ready in a short 20 minutes." Obviously neither is ideal! So we got a coffee machine and I'm rediscovering how easy it is to put in a filter, measure the water, dump in the coffee, and push the button. Voila!! I'm loving it! And it tastes AMAZING. I'm still a huge French press person, but we could usually find a large amount of sludge at the bottom of a mug of coffee, so we're marveling at the smoothness of this coffee. All right, enough about that.
• 
  Girl pacifiers. I've never bought pink ones before and now I'm stocking up in preparation for later this month (I hope, though of course it will probably be well into October. Who am I kidding?).
• 
  

And of course Howie and Justice. That goes without saying.

Overdue Talking Points

Friends, forgive me for my long blog silence... it's been a long time with much craziness since our last post! Here goes...

• We have moved! The Lord has provided Josh with a job! He is now working as the Pastor of Youth and Family at Grace Redeemer Church in Teaneck, New Jersey! Who knew the Desches would end up in New Jersey?? We are so very grateful for God's tender care and provision for us. The job is so well-suited for Josh and we're very excited to dig into full-time ministry.
• We moved 2 weeks ago, just in time for Hurricane Irene to blow into the area. Talk about excitement. We arrived in Teaneck on Tuesday night with Irene anticipated over the coming weekend. I went to the grocery store sometime Wednesday or Thursday to get some essentials and came home with 3 cases of water, random food that didn't need to refrigerated, toilet paper, etc. It was a sight to behold. There were predictions that power would be knocked out and could be off for a week or more. No batteries, flashlights, or generators within a zillion mile radius. We took anything that could blow around in the yard and put it into the garage and steeled for disaster. Friday and Saturday leading up to the predicted time Irene would come through were eery and weird... then finally came Saturday night. Sunday morning services had already been cancelled in anticipation of what was coming. We all slept downstairs in the basement to ensure that we wouldn't have to make the exodus down in the middle of the night in case things got bad. When we woke Sunday morning we still had power! Miracle of miracles! We were amazed! We went upstairs to assess Irene's progress... a couple big branches down in the back yard, a decent amount of rain but no means torrential (at our house anyway), but we didn't think we were out of the woods yet. Actually the rest of the morning progressed that way. Irene seemed basically gone by 12:30 or so, and we still had power!! Wow, we thought! Unscathed! No water backing up in the basement, no tree limbs on the house, no shattered windows, not even power loss! We took the boys out for a walk just to get out of the house and saw that a couple blocks over a large tree had downed a power line, but nothing like that on our block. Feeling grateful, we returned home. Then 2:30ish rolled around... the lights flickered once... came back on... and then they were gone. Oh, boy, we thought. Here we go. One week of living John Adams style loomed ahead of us. Actually I think I was irrationally optimistic that the power would go right back on within the next few hours, which of course didn't happen. Howie was so confused- he kept asking about the lights. The house we're renting has lots of windows, so the rest of daylight hours were fine, but as darkness set in we saw the gaping holes in our hurricane preparedness... the only sources of light we had were a small Maglite (bought during the supposed blizzard of the century last winter in St Louis... anyone remember that?? Supposed to dump 2 feet or something and instead we got 3 or 4 inches??), a zillion tealight candles, and a random battery-powered nightlight that our landlord had left in a box I came across. My respect for the aforementioned John Adams skyrocketed later that night after the boys were in bed with the battery-powered nightlight in their room when I tried to read by candlelight. That's hard!! I lit probably 10 tealights and I was nowhere near being able to read. Anyway, in very un-John Adams fashion, Josh and I abandoned reading and watched a movie on the battery life of the laptop. We heard dismal reports from a neighbor Monday morning that it could indeed be the following Sunday before power was restored because a substation had flooded, or something like that. So we steeled ourselves to live as those who went before us did and gave up hope of salvaging anything in the refrigerator. But lo and behold, the power came back on about 9 on Monday night! Just when I was getting down with living as Abigail Adams! It was actually a good reminder of the convenience of electricity that we take for granted and that we can survive with quite a bit less than we think. Anyway, that's our Hurricane Irene account. Now we just have a lot of bottled water in the basement.
• Justice, who turns 2 this coming Friday (crazy!!!), is obsessed with the Johnny Cash Children's Album. I could sing that whole thing frontwards and backwards. He frequently requests "Natdy Dan," or Nasty Dan, which is the opening song. As each track comes on he says "I like this one!!" He is also obsessed with Sesame Street Sings the Alphabet. I could do a complete performance of this while asleep, it is so deeply engrained in my subconscious. He and Howie have also discovered the Tom Petty Greatest Hits album, which brings me no end of joy. They love him!! How did I get so lucky?? I'm glad they still don't understand "Let's get to the point, let's roll another joint"... I've got a couple more years before that's an issue, I think. Oh Tom. I guess his old habits die hard.
• I read Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mom, which was just fascinating. I highly recommend it. I thought Ms Chua presented some pointed and accurate criticism of the stereotypical Western/American parent, although I wouldn't dream of mothering how she did. She did highlight that children are much more resilient and capable than we give them credit for, which I think is true. You will never find me harnessing Howie to the piano for practice sessions 2-4 hours a day, but nonetheless I enjoyed the book and found it insightful about some pitfalls of the ways I think about children. It reads like a quick novel and you'll enjoy it!!
• I am currently 36 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl and all seems to be well! We're very much looking forward to her birth but I also know that things will be crazy when she's born, so I'm still enjoying life as it is right now. But unpacking all of the pink has been so fun! Howie is semi-obsessed with his baby sister and I think he'll be sooo happy when she's born. Not sure about Justice... he still has some serious mother attachment issues so I'm not sure how he'll take someone coming into his territory, but he does love babies. So we'll see! Just waiting now. I'm thankful that the move is behind us. Now just a few more weeks of tossing and turning in bed every night, unable to get comfortable. The blight of late pregnancy.
• I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone, but we seem to have lost our camera in the move. I have lots of good pics on my phone, but of course I can't find the card reader right now, so I guess those will have to wait until I come across it!
• I love the Container Store so much. Especially when you have a very small kitchen.

OK I guess that's about it for now. That was much longer than I thought it would be!!

Summer Fun

Look at this big guy!! Wow!! Love that bedhead. Howie decided he wants to grow his hair long and it seems to have a mind of its own like Daddy's.

Justice eating Cocoa Krispies (just one of many indulgences at Grandma's!!)

Howie modeling his birthday present from Aunt Martha and Uncle Glenn... watch out ladies- here's the fireman of the future

Howie prepares to blow out his candles on his birthday- I made a strawberry dream cake for his birthday and it was truly dreamy!! Although ironically Howie didn't take even one bite of his own cake.

Lightning McQueen has been one of the themes of our summer. "QUEEN!!" has been one of Justy's most common utterances.

Howie enjoyed VBS at the church we've been attending this summer- he's here in the second row at the closing performance. It's the honest truth that he didn't sing one word!! But he stood up there bravely!!

Howie, Pax, and Justice enjoy Lou's, a Peoria tradition!! It's a drive-in that serves the world's best rootbeer and most buttery popcorn. No joke.

Justice climbs on the table in search of pepper. He's become obsessed with the idea of pepper, although he ate some the other day and was mad when his tongue was on fire.

POOL TIME!!

Playing on Grandma and Grandpa's swingset- pretty awesome

Aunt Jennie took Howie to the pool on one of the hottest days EVER. No kidding. They had a blast!!

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse- enough has been said about this already...

Hanging out with Pax in Aunt Marnie and Uncle Chris's car... pretty awesome

Howie back at Lou's- sitting next to some high school baseball players and trying to hang with the guys

Another theme of the summer- blue ice cream from the Spotted Cow (another Peoria favorite)... few things taste as good as blue ice cream. What does it taste like? Blue.

Justice eats a donut. What were we saying about indulgences at Grandma's??? YUM!

Grandma on the porch swing with the Desch boys and Welch cousins! So much fun! We're so enjoying our summer here!

And Now He's Throwing Croutons

Howie, Justice, and I went to have lunch with my grandma today at her retirement home. We love going to have lunch with her- it's always lots of fun, but unfortunately today Justice was at his Dennis the Menace-y best. Usually the hostess brings a high chair for him, and I'm always grateful, not because he needs it necessarily, but because it is basically a failsafe way of containment. The last thing he needs is to run around and trip residents just trying to have a quiet lunch. Once that high chair tray is slapped on, he can't get out easily (though I'm sure he would find a way given enough time). Today we entered the cafeteria and to my dismay, the normal high chair was missing. Replaced with a booster seat. Right away sirens went off in my mind. I just knew this was going to be bad. We went through the line to get lunch- I tried to get all of Justy's favorites that they had- and sat down at a table. Justice rejected the booster seat immediately so I took it away and he knelt on the chair (which thankfully had arm rests). He wasn't very interested in eating but did discover plenty of other ways to pass the time during lunch.

1. Standing on the chair and looking around at all of the people.
2. Trying to stand on the arm rests and somehow find a way onto my lap (he's not comfortable with much more than a 2 inch distance between us. He keeps me on a very short leash).
3. Picking up his and my knife and saying loudly "Cut! Cut!" Then he proceeded to put the knife in his mouth and bang it on his teeth. I could feel the judgment raining down on me from those sitting nearby.
4. Banging his spoon and fork onto his saucer to make as much noise as possible, then trying to find something else loud once I moved the saucer.
5. Telling Great-Grandma about Elmo, Mickey Mouse, and Minnie Mouse.
6. Grabbing the salt and pepper shakers and trying to shake them onto his plate.
7. Then this one took the cake... he took some croutons off of my salad and, after biting a couple, started gleefully throwing them at the lady sitting behind us. Thankfully he only managed to hit her chair and the floor. At this point I almost melted into the floor and removed all croutons from his reach.

That's about it. Howie actually ate politely and socialized with Great-Grandma. Imagine that.

You Know You're Watching Too Much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse When...

This summer at Grandma and Grandpa's one of the boys' favorite things to do is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Justice talks about Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pete like they're his best friends. This morning that was taken to a new high (or actually low)... this is what transpired.

(To appreciate this exchange you have to know that Josh has been working hard on the Children's Catechism with Howie, and Justice has been around for this, so he can proudly answer the first question "who made you?" correctly. But this morning that went wrong.)

Daddy: Justice, who made you?
Justice: Mickey Mouse.

He continued to insist the right answer was Mickey Mouse. Oh dear.

Harry Potter 7 Part 2, and Returning to My 18 Year Old Self

That's right, folks, Josh and I saw Harry Potter 7 Part 2 last night at 12:01 AM with my sister Marnie and brother-in-law Chris. Although we thought it was fitting, perhaps expected, that we should don wizard cloaks and take a stick as a wand, we went normally clothed. It's probably fair to say that we were among the minority on several counts: age, choice to attend in muggle clothing, and having responsibility in the morning. It was really something to see the entire theater flooded with Harry Potter enthusiasts. I've read all 7 books and thoroughly enjoyed them, but for most of these kids it seemed to be more than a casual enjoyment. Harry Potter was a lifestyle. I thought the movie was fabulous- it's been 4 years since I read the book (and if you're a faithful blog reader you'll remember that we were called out of Harry Potter 7 part 1 due to Justice deciding to freak out on our dear babysitter), but from what I remembered it seemed to be a faithful rendering of the book and I really enjoyed it.

Well, we resumed the responsibility of our true age this morning bright and early when the boys awoke well-rested and ready to attack the day, despite our 18 year-old late night. Though I'm slightly envious of 99% of the other attendants who are still in bed until noon, I'm glad we went- it's not every day that you watch a movie with a jillion kids who clap when someone throws a good spell.

Happy Birthday to Our Precious Howie

Today our boy turned 4. I can't believe it- it's so cliche to say the time has passed quickly, but the time has passed so quickly! We're so proud of Howie. He's growing into an intelligent, caring, protective, funny little boy and he's such a delight. He is the joy of our hearts and we've spent a wonderful day celebrating thus far. Here's to you, Howie!

P.S.- Here's a funny story for you- Grandma and Howie were playing yesterday and Grandma had some kind of problem. Howie said to her, "you have a problem, Grandma, and I have the solution." Whether or not he did, he said it with utter confidence. This is the kind of stuff that makes us laugh the day away!!