Yes, I know I have been negligent in updating The People on the Zumwalt Ohana happenings for far too long. So, I will try to make a short post summarizing our last month or so and catch everyone up to date (and ease my conscience).
We have retreated to the coast a couple of times in the recent past. Zak and I were able to attend a free weekend marriage workshop in Cannon Beach with the Northwest Marriage Institute. The workshop wasn't anything amazing and unfortunately Zak was the sickest I have ever seen him (Swing Flu!?), but we got to spend a little time at the coast and Koa got to have a sleepover with his friend, Caleb. The Cousers went out and did the workshop with us, so that made for a fun couple days.
Just a few weeks after that we spent about four days at Twin Rocks Friends Camp for a retreat with Zak's grad class. It was nice to get away and relax following the stress of finals. We all stayed in barracks, so the "family room" we were in had three bunk beds in it. When Koa tells stories about that weekend he says, "Remember at that bed place..." Each room didn't have a bathroom, so we all had to share a public bathroom on our floor.
Speaking of the finals, Zak ended the semester with three A's and one B. He's currently taking an intensive Hermeneutics class (the classroom work is finished, but he still has to give a sermon at Agape to finish the class), and then will be taking a Biblical Leadership class starting next month. Although I didn't get an official grade for the Greek class I took with Zak, I think I squeaked by with an A when all was said and done. I will take Greek II with Zak in the fall, Lord willing. I was planning to take a class at Western Seminary this summer called Intervention Strategies for Victims of Sex Trafficking, but in the last week before class started I discovered that the professor had changed, the class syllabus had changed significantly, and even the focus of the class had changed. So I decided it was not in our best interest for me to take the class at that time. As disappointed as I was to not be taking it, I was also a little relieved to have one thing taken off the "to do" list for the summer.
As most people know, Portland is known for the amount of rain received on a continuous basis each year. However, Portland's best kept secret is just how beautiful the summers are! This may be the biggest reason this poor blog has been so neglected! We have had some beautiful days lately! Those days have been filled with lots of gardening and playing outside. We just finished planting our corn and beans and we filled in some extra space we had left with some starts of red cabbage and bell peppers that we got from the nursery. We tried to plan our garden harvest around our trip this summer (more to come on that soon) so everything will not be ready to harvest while we are gone. Hopefully that plan will work, but if not we have faithful garden-sitters standing by - the Cousers. They will be maintaining the slug saloons, as well.
Summer not only brought beautiful weather, but also wonderful house guests. Well, one of them was actually a hotel guest, but he stopped by the house on occasion. Zak's dad was in town on business and he made time to hang out with us while he was here. What a treat that was for us, but don't worry, Regina, he didn't really enjoy it at all! :) We sent him on his way with his own little family of kefir grains and anxiously await the news of propagation.
Just recently we have had the Cousers move in with us while they are in between houses. It's been like an endless Summer slumber party at our house! We are getting very tired because we all like to stay up too late and talk. Zak recently built us a great little fire pit in our back yard and we have been thoroughly enjoying cooking dinner over it and visiting until late into the night by the fire. We have also consumed way too many s'mores and ports in recent days! If anyone has a good marshmallow recipe that also toasts well, please send it my way. Mine just melt into a big sugary mess instead of toasting nicely.
With beautiful weather comes and opportunity to get out and play some Frisbee! So, Zak and I have been hosting an Ultimate Frisbee Home Community on Multnomah's campus once a week for the past month or so. It is so nice to get out and run around again, but it has made it painfully obvious how inactive we were in the colder months. We will have to be more purposeful this year about being more active even when it's cold outside!
The boys have been growing and changing with each passing day this Summer. Koa can be found with his ball and glove out in the yard most days and will pitch (quite well, I might add) to anyone with a stick in hand. He is taking free swimming lessons right now at the community pool near our house. He keeps insisting that he already knows how to swim and is frustrated that the instructor won't just let him go into the pool by himself. We haven't gone over during "open swim" time for him to try it out, but I suppose we should. Who knows, maybe he does know how to swim and we just don't know it. Caspian has been faithfully working on crawling. He has made a lot of progress just in the last day or so and now does the inch worm crawl and can go from laying to sitting all by himself. I'm sure there will be pictures and videos posted soon since Zak recently got his new computer (after the two month saga) and will be able to edit all the videos we've had waiting to be posted.
Hopefully The People feel sufficiently up-to-date because this sleepy girl needs to head to bed! Good Night.
