Family – Page 5 – everything He gives

leaves like a quilt

October 31, 2016 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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Can it really be the last day of October? I don’t want to see it go. I have barely posted this month, besides my faithful yarn along posts, which is probably more interesting to me than to most of my readers. Dear reader, I’m sorry!

My little corner of the world has been spinning rather wildly, and this month has been busy. The first two weeks of it, my older brother was in town with his son, and I tried to squeeze in as much time with them as I could. The kids and I have been outside as much as we can be. They’ve started this new rhythm since the weather has cooled and the mosquitoes have died down, running to play outside as soon as they are done breakfast until Phoebe and I start school. They are out most of the rest of the day if we are home. Phoebe and Noah and I have been reading Island of the Blue Dolphins for our chapter book, which has inspired much of their play. Coincidentally, someone gave us a tee-pee also, so Phoebe has been busy playing that she is Karana gathering abalones and watching out for the Aleuts.

I just can’t get enough of the color and the beauty of this season. During a walk one day to our neighborhood park, Phoebe exclaimed: “the leaves are like a quilt!” I’m so thankful for the perspective of a child! School has been going so well with Phoebe, I really love doing it. It is taking up a decent amount of my time and energy, thus my lack of blogging this month. We really love Phoebe’s co-op as well, the community we are all finding there, and I’m always amazed at how much she is learning and retaining. She has started a bit of music theory and learning to play a tin whistle, which she loves. Brandon and I are beginning to talk about Christimas/birthday gifts for them, as their birthdays are quickly approaching. I’m knitting each of them a sweater, which I really think I will feasibly have done in time. We’ve talked about giving each of them a musical instrument as well for their birthdays. Noah is dying for a drum, Phoebe has wanted a violin for some time. But we are still undecided.

We continue to hope for more improvement in Phoebe’s health, her diet, her growth, her eating habits. This month has been hard for me in that department. I realize my frailty, my weariness, my weakness. The pastor at our church yesterday was speaking about running the race (of faith) with endurance, and that part of what gives us strength for the race is the hope of Heaven. I was thinking about how my heart hurts and gets weary over this journey with Phoebe, and realized yes, this is part of it. This is not something that seems to be resolving easily with her, or quickly, and we wear out. We long for an end in sight, something we can fix our eyes on and run toward. Yet this is more ambiguous, uncertain. Our medical team is beginning to recommend more testing. She will go to Brenner Children’s Hospital in Wake Forest next month to see a pediatric specialist in Celiacs. I’m hopeful that we will have more help from there, steps we can take, things we can try, something.

We can’t trick-or-treat and don’t want to deal with having to rifle through the kids candy and pull out what isn’t gluten-free. I’ve just planned some simple and fun activities for us here at home, and found candy and chocolate that the kids can have from a local health store. We carved our pumpkin over the weekend and maybe will let the kids dress up and just walk around our quiet, mostly-old-folks neighborhood.

Anyway, so thats a bit of what our October was like, the best month of the year, and why I have been pretty absent in the blogosphere. I want to not miss these days, these moments. I want to capture it all, to write it down, to hang onto the glory of these days, each falling like golden leaves, slipping to the ground. Now, behind us, underfoot, all stretched out like a mosaic, like a quilt.

odds and ends

September 19, 2016September 19, 2016 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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We did a little walk last week in our neighborhood, which is a regular occurrence for us. I called it a nature walk, so Phoebe brought her nature journal and crayons, and we set out to look for things that were interesting, new, and to take note of what is happening in the woods around us during the month of September. We found a massive spider web (can you see it in the picture above with the building behind it?) which she sat down to draw, while the little ones played bubbles with me, then we all headed to the nearby playground. It was the first time it felt like one of our “fall” walks, and my heart skipped a beat. I live for fall in the mountains of NC. Something in my sort of wakes up, and I would say I am most inspired by fall and winter. The mornings feel just a little bit cooler, there is the first hint of that distinctive smell, the first scuttle of leaves across the pavement. We hear acorns constantly dropping on the metal roof of our neighbors house. I plan to be outside pretty much every day, since the mosquitoes will finally leave us alone.

I finished knitting my first sweater for my nephew and am sending that off this week, and planning knits for each of the kids for their birthdays. I hope to make each a sweater, but Brandon tells me I’m probably being too ambitious.

School so far has been going really well. Phoebe seems to drag her feet in phonics, though I think it’s because the book I’m using to teach her is mostly geared toward auditory learners, and she seems to be more hands-on. She loves math and asks to do it constantly, mostly because of the math manipulatives I think. She is so incredibly bright and quick to memorize and I’m finding that doing school together gives us just some mother/daughter time that we both are enjoying so much.

Our ordinary days together at home are so full of learning opportunities. We cook together, talk about odd or exciting things we see out in the world. We observe the changing seasons, we talk about heart matters as we live alongside one another and sometimes treat each other harshly. We read scripture and recite memory work. After nap time a few days ago the three children wanted snack on the porch and I stood at the doorway and watched them all squished together on one side of their picnic table, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they could be more spread out. But there they were, all squished on one bench, munching and giggling and playing. It was a happy moment and made me so thankful for this chance to home educate and have Phoebe here with us. The younger two would really miss her.

A few days ago Phoebe turned to me at dinner and asked, “Why don’t we ever give our food to the poor and needy?” I was taken aback by her question, quite happily, and we talked about it for a few minutes. She was thinking, then she bent her head and folded her hands spontaneously and prayed “Dear Lord, thank you for this lovely dinner. And we pray for all the needs, and the poor and the hungry that you would give them food. And we pray for all the mean and the selfish an the bullies, that you would help them and that you would take them away and that we wouldn’t have to see them again. In Jesus’ name, amen!” My heart was melted (even as I fought laughter over her requests for all of the “mean and selfish.” Thank the Lord He is more merciful than we are.) Needless to say, we are cooking a meal this week together to drop off of at a local homeless shelter. “And a little child shall lead them,” right? 😉

I don’t have particularly spectacular things to say about all of these random odds and ends, but these are the little moments that I don’t want to forget, these are the things of “now,” this is the good stuff that I treasure.

harbingers of autumn

September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 MarthaKimball2 Comments

I never used to pay attention to the way the bright spring green ages, deepening into the dark green of autumn before green gives way to brown, gold, scarlet. Last weekend, I felt that particular itch in my soul to get up and away into the mountains, and I took the kids (with my mom) to one of my favorite areas, Black Balsam. There’s something about this place that quiets me, and somehow hiking those familiar rocky paths and setting my eyes on that wide and wild view that makes me feel like I can breathe. There’s so much glory. The kids were such great hikers, even Philippa hiked the whole way and refused to be carried. So we kept the pace of a child, which is a good pace for a tired soul. It is the pace that allows you to notice things like darkening green, brilliant goldenrod, red and orange sumac, queen anne’s lace, all the harbingers of autumn. It is the pace that allows for wonder. It is the pace that allows you to really see and remember that this season is passing and giving way to another, so drink it all in.

our first camping trip

August 16, 2016 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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Two weekends ago we took the kids on their very first camping trip about an hour and a half away to Smokemont Campground. We met up with my two best girlfriends from college and their families, which seriously made it the best trip ever. We borrowed an 8-person family tent from some other friends of ours. I can’t believe we haven’t invested in one sooner! We fit a queen-size air mattress in it and our rickety old pack and play for philippa, and still had plenty of room for the other kids to sleep on the floor plus keep all of our stuff inside. The best parts were:

seeing our children (9 now altogether, with 1 on the way!) play together, biking around and basically running a bit wild

phoebe’s first time tubing in the river

gluten-free s’mores around our campfire at night

Travis’ endless supply of french press

walking from one campsite to another to visit each other and chat

late night time with my two besties talking about life and homeschooling and all of our ailments now that we are in our 30s

sleeping with the fly off of the tent beneath an inky bowl full of stars, listening to the river + crickets

noah asking me if we could just go home or if we could get in the van and lock the doors

waking up warm and cozy, snuggling long in bed while brandon made me coffee

bacon + eggs (best part of car camping, besides air mattresses)

children with tousled heads and jammies playing in the morning light

We had no major incidents, which will probably give us a false sense of success and victory going into our next family camping trip. It was only one night, but it felt like a restful getaway and I’m hoping we can squeeze in another trip in the fall. I felt very inspired by my two girlfriends who have efficient setups and systems for their family camping trips.

Come to the Family Table

August 9, 2016 MarthaKimball1 Comment

If you’ve been around my blog for any time at all or know me in real life, you know I value the table and the ministry of good food. In fact, I have dedicated a portion of this blog to “the table” (see sidebar). As a busy mother of three little ones ages 5 and under, meal time can easily be hectic, loud, and disconnected. My home often seems too shabby or dirty to invite others into. In our culture addicted to “busy” and “hustle,” meal time can essentially be nonexistent, with family’s running through drive-throughs and inhaling food as they race from one commitment to another. Even in the Christian culture, I wonder if meal time and gathering in one another’s homes has become sort of a lost art, a lost way of communing together, seen maybe as less valuable than serving in our local church. Have we forgotten how often Jesus met with others around a table spread with food? How often hearts were opened around a table? That is what drew me to Ted and Amy Cunningham’s book, Come to the Family Table, my own hunger to reconnect with a very simple and seemingly lost ministry.

The message is Jesus, and the tool is the table. The table is still the place where we bring uncommon people together. God uses the home and our table to bring different backgrounds together, whether rich or poor, conservative or liberal, regardless of religion or past or present. We are all about inviting people to church, but what about inviting people into our homes? Around the dinner table walls come down. This is the beauty of hospitality. God can use you and your home. (Cunningham, Come to the Family Table)

The book is organized into two main sections. The first five chapters make up part I of the book, which centers around “the family table is for us.” These chapters lay the biblical foundation for savoring meals as a family around the table, practical tips on how to make meal time a priority, and even talk about developing a family constitution. The last five chapters of the book make up part II, centering around the idea that “the family table is for others.” The authors discuss hospitality, giving simple tips and also encouraging consideration that gathering around the table with others might be a powerful way to invest in the marriages and families of others. Each chapter ends with a recipe, a game or conversation guide for meal time, as well as an appropriate devotional and prayer.

I loved the way the authors focused on the family table (even in a restaurant setting) as a way to first reach out to each other in our core family, but then also as a way to reach out to all of those around us. Rather than seeing our time around the table as a chore to hurry through or a meaningless physical experience, authors Ted + Amy Cunningham redeem the table as a powerful tool for kingdom work and ministry. Ultimately, they reveal that the family table is a way to savor and enjoy Jesus. This book is full of tools, tips, recipes, games, conversation starters, ideas for hosting and ministering to hurting friends and loved ones, ways to include and value children at the table, and so forth. The recipes include are simple and wholesome: blueberry lemon muffins, chicken soup, zucchini coconut bars, one-pot apple cider chicken bake, giant stuffed meatballs, sweet or savory crepes, to name a few.

This would be a great book for those longing to reclaim mealtime as a time to slow down and reconnect with each other. This book would be a great help for newlyweds who are just beginning to think about opening up their home and practicing hospitality. This book would be a fun and easy read for a husband and wife and a way to discuss dreams and goals for their home. I also believe this book would be a great encouragement to families who feel they have little time to minister to others, a reminder that serving God truly can be as simple as a cool glass of water to a person in need given in Jesus’ name. The Cunningham’s writing was light, helpful, humorous, welcoming, Christ-exalting, simple and yet packed with meaning. I felt as if I had been invited to their family table. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick read and will definitely be reflecting on it for some time to come.

Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

ordering the home

August 8, 2016 MarthaKimball4 Comments

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I heard this song last week while watching Shauna Niequist’s launch party for her book Present over Perfect that releases tomorrow. I can’t stop singing it. It made me cry because Brandon and I have been in the process of looking for our very first home. We have been renters for 10 years and have saved a downpayment many times only to have to spend it on hospital bills, pregnancies, and obscene amounts of car trouble. It has been a long and rocky road, requiring a ton of trust and patience in the Lord’s plan and timing. I am probably more comfortable with waiting at this point than we are with moving forward. It has become normal and it feels safer.

Our lease is up at the end of this month on this rental we’ve been in for the last two years, and our landlord is only willing to sign a six-month lease rather than going month-to-month, so we are back on a holding pattern somewhat, it seems. I trust the Lord’s timing and am thankful that I don’t have to hurriedly pack up a house during this month meanwhile starting my very first year of homeschooling with Phoebe. My sanity is thankful. But my heart longs to have a place that I have the right to call home. We’ve always lived in borrowed spaces and, as grateful as we are for our many many blessings, that does take its toll after so many years.

Anyway, I’m hoping I can sing these words over our new home one day soon. Until then, we call this temporary place our home. It teaches me time and again that my place here in this world is ultimately temporary and God is preparing for us a Home that will be everything our hearts have always been restless for. The longing is piercing, but it isn’t bad to be reminded of the reality of the tension we live in. We really were made for a better place, the paradise of His presence and His perfection, and our souls know our exile.

So it’s been on my heart to get our house in order. Things tend to pile up and clutter when you have three little ones. Mentally I need to quiet the home, declutter, take care of the piles gathering dust here and there, minimize and sell what we don’t need or use. I want to carve out a small space in the home for schooling supplies to make a special little spot for Phoebe.

Phoebe and Noah have been sharing a room since Noah was 3 months old, and they have pretty much loved every minute of it. Philippa has been in her own room. For a long time, Phoebe and Noah have been party animals at night after lights are out, usually coming out to go to the bathroom a handful for times, plus giggling and jumping around out of their beds. Noah seems to be the rabble rouser, and Phoebe, on the healing journey with an autoimmune disease, is the sleepier one who tends to drag during the day because of the late night shenanigans. So we decided to separate them, putting Noah in his own big boy room for the first time, and moving Philippa into Phoebe’s room. Noah and Philippa are little BFFs and if we put them together, they would only keep up the late night party pattern. So, last week we moved beds and furniture around. The kids thought it was great fun, and they’ve been sleeping well in this new arrangement. Noah was a little scared the first night all on his own, but I think he was really proud of himself in the morning and I think as the second-born/middle child, it feels really special to have his own room. We’re still working on moving decorations around and finishing up, which seems sort of silly if we may end up moving soon, but I’m feeling the need to get the house in order and organized as much as possible before school begins. Everyone keeps telling me its only kindergarten and it is really no big deal, but I know it will be adding a sizable chunk to my weekly workload and I will feel more prepared going into it with house projects crossed off my list.

In an ideal world, at least. 😉 Everything is in disarray and disorder for now. I try to make a few small goals a week toward this end, keeping up with all my usual weekly work keeping a home running, always working toward order, and learning to enjoy the inevitable chaos.

the language of flowers

July 29, 2016July 29, 2016 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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“The earth laughs in flowers.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A little while ago I typed this question into google: “what is the purpose of a flower?” Interestingly, most of the links that came up talked about the scientific purpose of a flower in the process of reproduction and pollination. In fact, many of the articles said that the “sole purpose” of a flower is for reproduction for the plant. Of course, on a scientific level, that is true! But if I were to ask you what the purpose of a flower is, would that be the first thing that would come to mind? I find that to be a rather sterile view of the world (never mind the irony). Surely art has something of value to say to us and not science only. I was a little surprised that nothing about the cheering effect of flowers was mentioned. Or their smell. How about the way they are used to make perfumes? Or the fact that they have long been acknowledged to have medicinal and therapeutic benefits?

My little Phoebe-girl loves picking flowers and creating little bouquets and arrangements. I asked Brandon to make her a flower press so she can begin keeping them in a more lasting way. Maybe it’s just my quest for permanence, my longing to hold onto these fragile days that are blooming and fading so quickly. How these kids are growing! How I cannot seem to hold them down and keep them still and just this way for just one minute. To keep Noah just as he is, trotting out of bed early in the morning, always playing “lion” and referring to himself as the lion (such as, “the lion wants a snack,” and “lions don’t like thunder,” etc.). Or this game that phoebe and noah play together frequently called “boswell” where noah is the cat, boswell, and phoebe is his owner and walks him around on a “leash.” Or how philippa is talking up a storm and constantly bowling us over with her personality, always trying to keep up with phoebe and noah, loving to read the “fock” (fox) book every night (“I love you Because You’re You”).

These days are so weary and exhausting and full and busy just with the simple work of running a household and keeping everyone fed and happy, and then all of a sudden everyone has grown again and I just want to hold everything down for a minute and keep it still so I can take it in. But the days just keep going, time just keeps ticking away. I suppose thats part of why I snap so many pictures, this quest to hold onto these days and not forget them.

Anyway, as for the press, Brandon made it for phoebe this past weekend and she loves it! She felt pretty special that daddy made something just for her, and she has been busy pressing flowers. I want to get her a little simple journal where she can glue the flowers in, but she also may make some cards with them for thank you notes and such. It’s a simple thing, but one that I think helps her pay attention to the natural world around her, the beautiful things that God created not just for the holy work of reproduction, but also for the holy work of beauty. I can’t wait to use the flower press as a way for Phoebe to begin a nature journal and as a way for her to catalog different plant species in the future for educational purposes. But for now, I want her to pay attention to and simply enjoy the beauty she finds around her.

He created our souls to be moved and affected by beautiful things. It’s why we give flowers to someone who is grieving. It’s why we bring flowers to someone who just had a baby or who accomplished something great. It’s why we spend a fortune on fresh blooms for a wedding, sprinkling them all around, signifying new life is beginning. It’s why a girl gets a fresh bouquet and immediately breathes them in deep.

Beauty has a high and holy power to turn our heads and turn our hearts. It is a beam, a shaft of light in the dark, and if we trace the beam back to the source, we see the beautiful God whose incredible mind created all of us and all of this, and we sing, Glory!

Last weekend my soul was aching to get up into the mountains, to escape the heat wave we’ve been suffering through, and also just to feel like we got away a bit from the house and our ordinary routines. We went with my parents for a picnic on Sunday afternoon to nearby Craggy Gardens. After dinner Noah kept begging us to go for a hike, so we meandered through one of the little hiking trails, walking slow, looking for things to wonder over, exploring and discovering, and phoebe collecting treasures, of course. Feathers, rocks, found string, pretty leaves, flowers. I find her little treasures all over the house, tucked in pockets, drawers, baskets. Fancy that, how to a child, every little thing can be heavy with significance and beauty and purpose.

(If you want to make your own flower press, some simple instructions can be found here or this is a cute one for purchase if you don’t have a handy man around. The book I snapped pictures of is this one here, a seasonally organized simple craft book using everyday items found around the house.)

settling back in

July 23, 2016 MarthaKimball1 Comment

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I love being home. Our family trip to upstate New York was fun and restful in some ways, chaotic and exhausting in others, but regardless, it is always so nice to come home. When we drove in from NY on a Monday afternoon, Brandon had about two hours to quickly unpack and then repack before his flight left for a week-long work trip in California. So, even though we had a week back at home, it didn’t quite fully feel like we were “back to normal” without Brandon around.

This past week it was good to get back into our usual rhythms. I’ve noticed that I don’t quite feel settled into a place until I’ve been cooking or baking in it. Making that first loaf of homemade (gluten-free) bread and filling the house with that smell feels like coming home. I was busy this past week making gelatin gummies for the kids, a big batch of granola for Brandon and I, bread and “snack bars” galore. Phoebe has stopped eating her usual Lara Bar snack in the mornings and so I scramble to find something she will eat in place of it. She is pretty limited with what she will snack on and we are trying so desperately to increase her caloric intake, so for her to drop a favored food always sends me back to the drawing board and results in lots of receipe testing.

Our days have been simple. The weather has been roasting hot and humid (ugh), and the kids have still been busy outside, coming in with cheeks flushed with heat. I don’t love summer, but I try to make the best of it. Picking blueberries and flowers from local farmstands, and savoring the daily afternoon thunderstorms helps me endure it. Our little porch garden hasn’t done very well, and I miss having the larger plot we had at our last rental. Sigh. Dreams for the future. Yesterday we had a really informal “half-birthday” party for Phoebe and Noah at my parent’s neighborhood pool with their favorite little pals. I didn’t snap any pictures (gasp!) but it was fun all the same. Their half-birthday was really back in June (20th and 23rd) so when you celebrate the half-birthday late, what on earth do you call it? It was such a treat for the kids, though, who often find it hard to have a party with their friends around their birthdays (which are the week of Christmas). It was fun for me, too, to see the children playing and swimming together and gather with some of my favorite friends.

I’ve been busy finishing up a few knitted projects. My brother and sister-in-law brought back some yarn from Iceland for my birthday and I knitted some slippers for myself with one ball of it. I’ve tucked them away for winter but I’m already longing for those first cool wisps of fall air. I also finished up the Antartkis shawl that I made for a lady I used to babysit for back in my high school days. It was what I solely worked on during our trip to NY so I was able to finish it fairly quickly (for me) and she picked it up this week. I loved knitting it, especially since there was no purling and it was a really simple/easy pattern and yet still interesting. When I’m knitting something I grow attached to it in some way, all that time spent fingering the yarn and bent over it with concentration and enjoyment. It’s hard to give it away or to attach value to it, but also such a sweet thing to be able to make something special with my hands for someone else!

Phoebe’s homeschool co-op begins in about a month (!!!!!) and so my mind is shifting to all the projects around the house and all my piles of clutter and unfinished business that I hope to have organized before our first year of school begins. A friend has offered to give us a couple of twin beds for the kids, and so I think we’ll be rearranging bedrooms for the children. I’m craving a major house purge. I’m hoping to organize my desk area and clear out a little space that can be for schooling. I’m also hoping to squeeze in a camping trip with some friends before school begins, too. It feels way too soon to be talking about our first child going to school, and the sentimental part of me is resisting this big change, even though I’m super excited to begin, too. So many books to read! Curriculum still to pick out! School supplies! House projects! And still, to fit in time to read long snuggled with children on the couch, to stay up late for fireflies and late evening walks. I want to hurry through summer because fall is my favorite, but also am so mindful that this is our last summer EVER before our lives begin to revolve around school, and so I want to enjoy each muggy, buggy day.

the very favorites

July 16, 2016July 16, 2016 MarthaKimballLeave a comment

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And yet in all of the festivities, these are the very best moments of all.

Morning coffee on the porch, everyone greeting the day slow, groggy-eyed holding warm mugs and snuggling.

Brothers bent over tackle box.

Auntie feeding nephew.

His little round tummy and bright happy eyes.

Sisters in a row, catching up and catching wind in their hair.

Sibling date (sans our kids!) in the town of Watkins Glen, getting pizza and Ben & Jerry’s and the most delightful little yarn store.

Walking the marina together.

Tubing and wakeboarding and running the boat until it ran dry.

Campfire gatherings in the evening, knitting and talking and playing guitar.

Squirt guns and barefoot bike rides and bubbles.

The boy coloring all over his body and face during nap time, “Line Man” as daddy declared him.

Mom and Dad stealing away for a tandem kayak in the whipping sun and wind.

Nap time watercolor quiet.

All the babies sleeping soundly under quilts.

Early morning glory in the sky and last sunsets set aflame with 4th of July fireworks.

All this glory, all these holy ordinary moments, hemmed in by sunrises and sunsets. Morning and evening, days ticking by, and us trying to squeeze from them every last drop, us trying to savor this never-to-be-repeated now. These are the very best moments of all, the ones we almost miss, the ones we pass over. It’s all good, but these are my favorite.

(Other trip posts here, here, and here.)

origins

July 14, 2016July 14, 2016 MarthaKimball3 Comments

These are among some of my favorite pictures from our New York trip. What special times they were, filled with a lot of significance for this family. One of the goals for our trip was to see Brandon’s family’s roots, the places where his parents grew up and met, the schools and streets they walked, the trails they frequented. Many of these places are also the soil for Brandon’s earliest and happiest memories. For years I have heard stories of all of these places–what a thing to be able to visit them and to watch the next generation running through these familiar fields.

So one day of our trip we spent hiking Watkins Glen State Park right by Seneca Lake, climbing through the moody canyon. The pictures speak for themselves, don’t they? It was gorgeous and when we finished a huge downpour threatened to fall, so we made it out in perfect time.

Another day we drove to Breesport, NY and drove through the rolling country roads to the big yellow house where they spent their first years as a family, caretaking for a big abandoned asylum. This house holds some of their happiest days, the house with the pond and a white duck named Ellen, who came when Brandon’s dad would call and laid eggs for their family to eat. The swing set they played on and the sloping hill that is perfect for sledding. From there we went onto Elmira, seeing Brandon’s grandparent’s home, visiting with them there, walking the grassy trail behind their house to the creek they caught crawdads and splashed in.

I count us fortunate to have been able to see and share these places with Brandon’s parents and grandparents while we still can!

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