Botanical Gardens 2

The majority of the rest of our walk through the Botanical Gardens was done with continuously lagging feet.  It's a big park and wore us out!  So every time we had a chance to take a break we took it!  Here are some favorite spots to rest and play in...

And here is a sign for you to read for your enjoyment...

Our favorite part of the sign was the 'no running fights' part... I guess fights that do not take place while running are okay?? There was another sign that had us laughing in a rather rueful way but it is not presentable in its language... sorry!  Below is a picture of W and I making a waterwheel turn...

One of the most fun places for our family was the Russian Garden.  There was a red castle in the midst of a beech forest. The children loved climbing up into it and being laid siege to.  It even had a long parapet to patrol.

B loved the Black-eyed Susans and took lots of pictures of them...

The hammocks were made of logs tied together and hung in large groups on platforms under pine trees.  It would have been a great place for a nice long nap!

Now, there were so many other fascinating and lovely sights to see but I will add just a couple more unique ones.  The first is the bed swings.  "Bed swings?" you ask. Yes, bed swings!  No, this is not a hammock... or rather it's a hammock of another kind.  Once again they were in large groups under overhanging trees...

And, lastly, a video of W. walking across a log bridge.  All of us girls about had heart-attacks when he decided to try it.  For one thing, there were no rails and it was pretty high up off the ground.  It was  very narrow, and there were nets lining the ground underneath that had sticks poking through them so they were not reassuring!  I thought you'd like to see him crossing it... as much for the shrieks from his sisters as anything else!  B had to add some fun by shaking the bridge with his foot for added terror on the girls' part!

My favorite part of the experience was when the girls changed miraculously  from shrieking in fear to begging to be allowed to try it also!! I wish I could put lots more pictures as there was lots to see there (and we only covered half the park) but this post is long enough!! Hope you all enjoyed!

Botanical Gardens 1

  Well, it may take some time but I am determined to upload several of my favorite photos of the botanical gardens we visited... here is a link: http://scenery.cultural-china.com/en/122Scenery3590.html
   When we first arrived we came to the Lily Garden which, as usual in China, was very random.  It was not the season for the lilies but it had 2 huge fish that the children enjoyed climbing on...

  There were also some busts of an assortment of famous people that surrounded the fish...

   We also found a 'rock garden'.  When we saw 'rock garden' on the map we had the idea that we would find a place full of all different types of rocks, however, what the 'rock garden' ending up being was a lot of tall rocks with inscriptions carved in them...

   Even though it wasn't quite what we expected of a rock garden (especially the rock hound among us), the area was really beautiful.  It would have been interesting if we could have read the carvings.
  We also found some lovely water areas to stroll through.  Below are a few of them...

  One of our all-time favorites was the myriads of swings and hammocks we found through-out the park.  Our most beloved was a very tall swing, maybe 3-4 stories high, that the children could have stayed on for the duration of our visit.  Here is a picture and a video...

 LOL! That video makes me want to go back and swing some more!  I'll stop with that for now. Next post I'll add some more pictures of the Botanical Gardens as this post is already long enough!  I still haven't gotten to the Russian Gardens, hammocks, Black-eyed Susans, etc.  It was such a beautiful place!

Consecrate

   The word consecrated means "dedicated to a sacred purpose" or "to make or declare sacred; especially : to devote irrevocably to the worship of God by a solemn ceremony" according to Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary.  I looked it up because I was confronted with this word by my Lord this morning during my time with Him.  I was asking Him this morning why it was that it seemed like when I was meeting one person's needs I was denying another's.  Why does it seem that I can't hold myself to the boundaries I have set for myself?  I make rules for myself in regards to the spending of my time (such a precious and limited resource) and then promptly break them.  First my Lord reminded me of the word self-discipline.  "Yes," I replied, "that is my great weakness!" Now, I have been reading in the morning in 1 Thes. and have been greatly blessed.  So after presenting these questions and concerns to my Lord I turned there to be "encouraged and charged to live a life worthy of God." 2:12.  I found in chapter 4 the words purity, consecration and honor.  They are beautiful words... words to live by.  "For God has not called us to impurity, but to consecration." 4:7.  What is impurity?  It is, quite simply, anything that is not of God.  Here is what I found in chapter 4 to be a consecrated life... 
  1. love of the brethren (far-reaching, globe-circling)
  2. love one another (close by)
  3. live quietly
  4. live peacefully
  5. mind your own affairs
  6. work with your hands
"so that you may bear yourselves becomingly..."  So that 'mind your own affairs' part really hit me hard... if my own affairs aren't running smoothly then why am I taking an interest in anybody else's?  And there is consecration... and self-discipline.  One word shouts loudly in my mind at this thought... Facebook! With Facebook I can mind everyone else's affairs simply by running down the home list which comes up first no matter what, and isn't it fascinating!!!!  Purity, honor, consecration... rethinking my time and how to make every moment one of consecration to my Lord.  My life is 'devoted irrevocably' to His will. Does my life exhibit that truth?  If a life doesn't exhibit consecration then is it indeed consecrated?  That old, favorite hymn came to mind:
"Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
let them flow in ceaseless praise."
 

Birthdays

A couple of other fun things that have happened in the last 2 months... birthday parties! I will post some pictures of E and A's birthday parties.  E. had a ladybug party.  My two oldest have grown out of the love of themes for their parties and I confess I'm so glad I still have some younger children that love themes as they are so much fun to plan! Here is E. as a ladybug...

  And here are the ladybug pet rocks we painted...

And the cake, of course... no fancy stuff but fun!

A very ladybug time was had by all!
           After E. came A.  A. had a "My Favorite Things" party so we concentrated on some of her favorite things such as purple and baseball, treasure hunts and dodgeball.  Just a few pictures of all the fun we had with our friends...

Here is pretty A. playing a circle game with her friends... "Our favorite colors" and "Our favorite activities" went around the circle and it was a very purple and blue circle!  Next we headed out for a treasure hunt...

They found the treasure hidden in a tree guarded by stinging caterpillars, yikes!  Who knew?  After playing some mini baseball and mini dodgeball (no pictures, sorry, the official picture taker had to go home and wash off the stings from the caterpillar!) we headed back in to have lunch and cake... purple cake made from black rice flour... a very visually confusing thing to eat!

And finally the divvying up of the treasure!

Birthday parties are so much fun!!!!

Staycation 2

Here are a few more pictures from our staycation, just a few of the fun things we did...

  We had a beautiful time visiting Bei Ling Park!  There were such pretty places and it was so large that we actually felt surrounded by greenery which is something very refreshing in city life.  The water lily pond above was one of our favorites and I had to include a picture of the one squirrel we saw.  It is really funny to think of us being excited about seeing a squirrel when we felt they were such nuisances to us in the states... always stealing our bird food.  But we haven't seen one since we got here and this one was very interesting in coloring, sort of red with markings.  Not like our typical grey squirrel at home!
  Something we did a couple of times was to stop for ice cream.  We do not eat ice cream except on special occasions because of dietary restrictions so the children really enjoyed this.  Here is a picture of some of us with our ice cream...

  We got a triple scoop and each chose a flavor!  Yum!!
     One other place we went to during our staycation week was the Mansion of Zhang Xue Liang.  Very fascinating!  Here is a link for some info about him... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Xueliang
And here are some pictures of his early home...

  The statue was, obviously, added later!  You can see the interesting combination of Chinese and western style architecture.  The man's life was also fascinating!  What an interesting time to be living in China.

  This last photo was some of the children and I in front of the pagoda we were not allowed to climb up to... thankfully we didn't see the sign until after we made the climb! LOL! I hope you've enjoyed a very brief picture tour of our staycation. 

Staycation 1

  We, as a family, loved our week of 'staycation' this summer.  We spent all our time having a good time (or trying to) and now are, hopefully, ready to get back to work.  Today I am going to tell you about some of the things we did.  It may take a few posts to share since I want to include some pictures.  We began with a trip on a sightseeing tour bus in our city.  It is a double decker, which is fun, and we got a fun view of everything.  Here are some things we saw from our perch...

  These are some of the interesting sites to see on the bus (we were on different buses... one was open topped and one was enclosed).  The above building in the last picture is supposed to be the shape of the old Chinese coins.  There was a hole in the middle that made it handy to put them on a string.  The old Chinese building in the second picture is the rear gate to the imperial palace.
The next post will be of the park we visited and a stop for ice cream!!

The Race, The Prize

      It is discouraging when you have high hopes for someone's growth in right-thinking and right-living to see them happily fail with seemingly no thought to the incongruity of their actions next to their purported beliefs.  It is a challenge to continue praying and even to do so more fervently.  At the same time it is a good opportunity to stop and review one's own weak areas.  We never want to be satisfied with where we are in the race of life... we must keep striving toward the mark.  What a glorious mark it is!  What a prize is offered!  What am I holding onto that I am, in reality, holding up as a competing prize.  What am I seeking after that can possibly compare with the prize that is already offered me?
     This morning L and I were up at 6am to head out for the vegetable market.  I can't count how many times I have been told that I should go to the vegetable market instead of Wal-Mart because it is cheaper and the vegetables are better quality.  I have been to the vegetable market before, many times, actually, but I dislike the smell and the fact that I am cheated right and left because I am a foreigner.  The last part bothers me especially.  I'd rather pay more at Wal-Mart with everyone else than pay more alone at the market.  I got up early and went this morning because I thought there would be a crowd and I'd hear the other people's prices and be able to bargain more intelligently.  Well, I was shocked to find the market hardly even open and many of the vegetables left over from the day before.  So much for my thought that markets were best in the early morning.  Strangely, I KNOW there are early morning markets, very early.  One market opens at 3am.  So the next thing I have to work out is did I just go too late or does this one just not open till 'later'.  After being heartily cheated this morning I guess my other thought is, 'when does Wal-Mart open in the morning?' LOL!        The two market methods do have some similarities... we were at Wal-Mart once when they wheeled out an entire cart of halved pig carcasses to take from the off-loading area over to the meat area (which I despise and avoid).  I confess to revulsion in my very sheltered soul.  This morning though was a step beyond, a man in a hooded raincoat slipped past us with half a pig slung over his shoulder... blood dripping down the raincoat worn for that very purpose.  Needless to say we removed ourselves from his pathway. This part of the race is not my favorite!
     One thing I love to do is get out my hymnbook at night and sing songs to the girls once they are in bed and the lights are mostly out.  It brings back memories of my grandmother who loved to sing hymns with me.  She wrote me out a list of her favorite hymns at my request once which is a treasured possession.  I love how peaceful it is for both the girls and for myself.  The old hymns are full of such inspiring thoughts.  "O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free! Rolling as a mighty ocean, in its fullness over me, underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love; leading onward, leading homeward to my glorious rest above."  What a prize!