This is me, Cedar, with my youngest son, Twill, and some flowers we wanted to share with you. I really like flowers, and writing songs about them. Like this one that I have been playing with on my sunrise runs through the prairie:
Like a flower I am smiling back at you
With this fragile life you have given me
And I don’t need to know what’s around that bend
Cause my heart is rooted in your loving hands
So like a flower I am smiling back at you
This is my husband, Chris, and an instrument he made with a computer, some wires, and produce. He is currently exercising his passions for coding, music, and teaching at the Summer Computer Science Institute here at Carleton College. Chris has an abundance of passions, so we celebrate every chance to combine them in a single activity. He also loves learning other languages, reading, and running, and has found ways to do those simultaneously too. All the boys love coding or doing math or playing games, or anything at all, with Chris. We are all very excited to enjoy his company more on sabbatical!
Chris and I would like to introduce you to our band of merry men.
This is our silly and confident Lewis. I could never have anticipated how outgoing and adventurous he would be at 9 years old. He has come full circle about our adventures overseas, from not wanting to go at all to being the most excited youngster. His favorite thing to do this week is tell and illustrate stories with Stewart in their room. He also loves playing piano, reading, and sudoku right now.
Lewis has an innocence that has always delighted me, as seen here on our bike ride to Chippewa Falls. Instead of racing to keep the lead, he kept wanting to stop to blow the seeds off these “giant dandelions.”
This is our sweet and spicy Stewart. He wants to show you a cool rock, and has most days, for the past 8 years. He was the one who started the growing collection of treasures found in the bushes around campus here at Carleton. His favorite thing to do right now is jump out and scare you any chance he can find.
Stewart does not like all the comments he gets about his red hair. But he does love many other things, especially kittens, drawing, climbing trees, and splashing people. He also picked up an impressive British accent from the camp counselors that we enjoy immensely and wonder how it will mesh with the Australian one.
This is our daring and adventurous Wesley. He climbs higher than I should probably let a 5 year old climb, on a daily basis. His favorite thing to do right now is pretend to be a kitty, because kitties like to climb trees, almost as much as Wesley does.
Wesley really misses his kitten, Muffy. But he has made a pet, Sockie, by drawing a face on one of his socks. He also loves looking at pictures and videos of our adventures. Wesley is learning to read and write with determination in the midst of all this. He also loves math as much as his brothers and Chris, so there’s a lot going on in him right now. He will get to start kindergarten in Australia, hopefully!
This is our goofy and sensitive Twill. He is adorable, but be careful, he loves to throw those pine needles, and anything he can. Twill acts like the 3 year old that he is, but he doesn’t talk like one. Not a day goes by without him asking the following:
What is that smell?
What was that sound?
What are we going to do when I wake up?
What are you going to do when you leave the room?
Will you talk to me a lot?
Is God done making me?
Why do we have to eat food/drink water/ sleep?
Twill really needs to know what is going on, and that’s a bit challenging when I don’t know what each day will bring. So we have been trying to give him some stability and predictability on this big adventure.
That’s the Johnsons in a nutshell at the moment!