Another Month of Writing on the Wall

I had a somewhat quiet month on Facebook in September; in fact, I seriously contemplated taking a break from Facebook altogether!  But in the end, I decided not to; and here are a few things I scribbled on my wall...  :)

Sept. 1 - The soundtrack for my afternoon... As I prepare for a houseful of eagerly-anticipated guests, this beautiful music fills my ears - and my heart. 
Sept. 4 - While I took Josiah and David to piano lessons, Moriah helped her daddy harvest potatoes.  What a big girl!  :)

Sept. 6 - I read this earlier today, and I continue to feel challenged (in a very good way!) by it. These are the words of D.A. Carson: "People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." Yes. And ouch. And "Lord, I need you; please help me..."

Sept. 9 - Tonight's make-my-spirit-sing moment came as Josiah, David, and I drove through the dark on back country roads, heading home from the first rehearsal of the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir. After we had talked for a while about how rehearsal went (and admired the beautiful crescent moon, which was playing peek-a-boo behind a couple of clouds as we rolled along), Josiah smiled and said, "I'm really glad I'm in Concert Choir. It feels like I'm shaking hands with an old friend." I know exactly how he feels. 

Sept. 12 - In the midst of all the solemnity of yesterday came a joyful evening, spent with a friend I've known virtually my whole life. Erin W. and her family joined us at Riven Rock for what might be our last outing of the year to that beautiful spot. My usual delight at being in that little piece of paradise was multiplied by being in their company. I'm grateful to Erin for being spontaneous and meeting us there on short notice!!

Sept. 13 - Jeff harvested a bunch of tomatoes from our garden tonight and is now making homemade spaghetti sauce to can. As a result, the whole house smells like Olive Garden...which is not as wonderful as you might think. It's actually rather torturous. I keep sitting here waiting for the breadsticks and salad to appear, but so far, no luck. I'm probably going to dream about capellini pomodoro tonight! 

Sept. 15 - Jeff used his phone to take this picture of Tobin (with his hands in the air) and I while we were at Six Flags, and he posted it to his Facebook

Sept. 17 - When I was a little girl, I memorized a verse that brought comfort in the midst of fear: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." (Psalm 56:3, in the King James Version, of course, which is what all my earliest memory verses were learned in!) My fears now are different than they used to be; no longer am I scared at the thought of monsters under my bed or Indians sneaking into my house to sleep on the couch at night (seriously, I used to think that if I got up in the night and tiptoed out into the hallway to look down the steps, I would see an Indian on the couch, a fear brought on, I'm sure, by reading Little House on the Prairie a little too vividly!). These days my anxieties center around the craziness of this world and the condition of the church. How dark the world has become! How frequent are the senseless tragedies that inflict deep sorrow on unsuspecting people! How weakened in their convictions are those who supposedly bear the name of Jesus Christ, but instead appear to live no differently from those in the world! How ineffective so many of us, myself included, have become at penetrating the darkness with the light of Jesus! What is to become of us--this country, my precious children, myself? In the midst of my anxious questioning comes that old, familiar verse, and--believe it or not--I actually hear it resound in my head in the voice of a small child. Those words which my parents made sure got planted in my heart so many years ago now return to bring comfort to the soul of a 37-year-old woman. "What time I am afraid..." and I am afraid, Lord, You know that... "I will trust in Thee..." I do trust You, Jesus. Help me trust You more!

Sept. 18 - In a violin lesson earlier today, Josiah started learning an Irish piece ("Si Bheag, Si Mhor"...which no one around here knows how to pronounce!) . So tonight I was looking for some videos of it on YouTube and, in the process, found this toe-tapping piece. Irish music is so much fun. 
Sept. 20 - You know how sometimes you hear a mispronunciation so often that it starts to sound right in your ears? Well, that's how I am with the word "potato." You see, my dear Tobin pronounces it "topato," and he's done that for so long that now, every time I try to say it, I have to pause for half a second to make sure I say it correctly. I hope that tonight, when our dinner guests get here, I won't embarrass myself by announcing that for our main dish, we're having sausage and topato casserole!! 

Sept. 26 - BEAUTIFUL example of a father's love for the women in his life. (And if you're like me, you won't be able to make it through this with dry eyes...)

Sept. 26 - I have never had as much fun with science as I'm having this year. I can't believe I used to think science was boring! Boring?? Not a chance! Not when there is flat-out AMAZING stuff like this to discover!!! :)
Sept. 26 - I just hopped online and did a task (ordering standardized tests for Josiah and David) that I've literally been procrastinating about FOR MONTHS. Know how long it took me? Well under five minutes. Remind me again why I put this off for so long??? 

Sept. 28 - I've been hearing the name of "Matthew L." ever since the fall of 2007 when he and Josiah were in the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir's Beginners class together; but in the past several years, I've been hearing it more and more often. Besides the obvious delight of making beautiful music, one of the things that makes SVCC rehearsal nights fun for Josiah is the chance to see Matthew and hopefully have time to talk a little with him. Tonight, six years after these pictures were taken, Matthew--and his family--finally came over for dinner; we had a blast! 

Sept. 29 - Moriah today  :)

Sept. 30 - David made me cry this morning. Oh, he didn't mean to, of course; as a matter of fact, he didn't even know that he did. But when he came to me with his music for the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir in his hands, and he asked me to play the piano for him as he sang, and then with a voice as clear and pure as an angel, he sang "How Far to Bethlehem," I COULD NOT keep the tears from welling up in my eyes. I had to blink really fast and think about distracting things like key signatures and musical intervals so that my emotion wouldn't carry me along any further, and I was able to get myself under control before he - or anyone else - looked at me. But whew, that was close.  I'm not sure what exactly made me so teary. Besides the beauty of the music, I suppose it was the thought of this boy, who burst from my body 12 days early (8 years ago) and gave me a new view of what mothering is all about, who is louder and more energetic and funnier and bouncier than I imagined one of my children would be, this boy who is like none other...to watch him grow into a responsible, thriving member of the SVCC and to hear the talent flow from his lips...well, it's enough to make a mother cry.  I have a feeling, if anyone glances my way during the Christmas concert when the Prep Choir is singing that beautiful song, they'll see me dabbing my eyes with a tissue and biting my lip to try to hold back the tears. But that's a good thing, after all. 

Recipe Box - Egg Salad Wrap {The Shortcut Way}

I have a few foods that I could eat every day, for quite a few days in a row, without uttering one word of complaint.  Egg salad is one of those foods.

There's a problem though: it feels like egg salad takes sooooo long to make.  Boiling the eggs and then shelling them and then finally getting around to making the egg salad itself seems to me to be about two steps too long of a process.  Which goes to show how lazy of a cook I can be sometimes!  :)

The other day when I was craving egg salad but not enthused about making it, an idea popped in my head: a shortcut way to make an egg salad wrap.  

I tried it.  

I liked it very much.  

I'm looking forward to doing it again!

Here's how I did it:

First I scrambled two eggs and threw a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce into the pan with the eggs.  Then I spread a thin layer of mayonnaise and mustard onto a soft flour tortilla.  I put a generous helping of green olives into the tortilla, put the scrambled eggs on top, and rolled it up.  As quick and easy as that, I had my egg salad wrap.

No boiling the eggs for 14-16 minutes.  No shelling them (my least favorite part).  No dicing the olives and mixing the other ingredients.  Just a couple of minutes of simple labor, and the job was done.

I like it when shortcuts turn out so well!  :)

Where Josiah Spent His Summer

All summer long, if I was in the house and called for Josiah without hearing an answer back from him, I knew immediately where he was: here.

Here under this strong old maple tree.

 Here on this patch of ground by the corner of the house.

 This was Josiah's spot.

 I cannot count the number of hours he spent there this summer...

 ...nor the number of foes that he fought and defeated.

 I can't fathom the business plans he mentally sketched out...

 ...most involving, from what I could tell, his desire to have an ostrich farm someday.

 Sometimes he would come into the house and call out, "Mom, can I look up the price of ostrich eggs?" or some such question.

 He would get the information he needed, then return to his post: watching, defending, dreaming.

 Now that the weather is getting cooler, he doesn't get to spend as much time there as he did during the hotter months; but he's not deterred for long.  Donning a sweatshirt and jeans rather than the shorts-and-no-shirt outfit that he usually wore in summertime's heat, he still faithfully returns to this spot.

In fact, after too much time indoors, he's a little like a caged animal.  "Can I please go outside?" he pleads sometimes when he's been cooped up for too long.  "Go," I say, knowing that the time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine will do him good.

There's just something about this tree and this spot that brings him great joy and contentment.  His affection for it has given rise to a new name for the tree.

It is now Josiah's Tree!  :)

It's Easy to Say...

...to a friend who is overwhelmed by the endless tasks of being a wife and mother and homemaker and whatever other roles she's filling, "Don't worry about the stacks of laundry.  Don't fret if you haven't mopped your kitchen floor in weeks.  Don't put yourself down because you think you're doing a terrible job.  Relax!  Love your family!  Go on a date with your husband!  Get down on the floor with your kids!  Spend time with people, because compared to that, nothing else really matters."

It's even easy to say that to myself, but so much harder to really believe it and live by it.

Likewise, it's easy to say to another homeschooling mom whose five-year-old son is having a hard time learning to read, "Don't worry about it.  Don't push him in this area.  Put away the reading curriculum.  Give him some time.  He'll come around.  Just focus on having fun snuggling together while you read to him.  Make up funny rhymes together.  Use straight pretzels to make letters once in a while.  Keep the process of learning fun, but DON'T force him to try to master reading at this age.  If you do, you'll actually do more harm than good.  PLENTY of people don't learn to read until they're six...or seven...or eight, etc.  And when they do, they often zoom ahead in their reading and 'catch up' to where they're 'supposed' to be.  So don't worry about it.  Don't stress.  It's OK to drop the reading lessons!"

I can even say that to myself, but...

...sigh...

it's still a little hard to believe it and act accordingly.

But I'm doing it.  After Tobin and I got through 10 or 12 of the lessons in the book I used to teach Josiah and David to read, we sort of hit a wall.  Things weren't going well.  My beloved Tobin Bear was frustrated; although he could say the sounds for individual letters, combining two or more of them seemed to really stump him.  So, after talking with Jeff, I decided that it wasn't worth it to force the issue.  It was time to put that book back in the homeschool closet, to be taken out again at some undetermined point in the future. 

But not before Tobin is ready for it.

Meanwhile, my favorite kindergartner happily does his math lessons, listens while I read to him from a children's Bible and from Mother Goose rhyme books and from many, many other books, LOVES when we do the Kindergarten BrainQuest cards together, and soaks up knowledge from daily life.

 Besides that, he loves animals, a fact which we noticed way back when he was only a year and a half old (I actually mentioned that in this blog post from July of 2009).  Sometimes it's stuffed animals that gets his attention, as in the case of these two tigers that he built a special shelter for.

 He even tucked them in cozily for a nap.  :)

 And sometimes it's real critters, as in the case of this very long, very black caterpillar that Jeff found recently (whenever Jeff finds something interesting like that, he always gives it to Tobin...because Tobin is the one who cares--and isn't scared).  :)

I know in my head that pressing the pause button on Tobin's reading lessons was the right thing to do; but honestly, it makes me feel a little inadequate.  I sort of feel like if I had only done a better job of preparing him...if I had been more consistent with using the letter magnets on the frig with him...if I had read to him more...if I had chosen a different reading curriculum...if I had--oh, who knows?--done SOMETHING differently...then Tobin would already be on his way to conquering the world of reading and would already be able to experience firsthand the great pleasure that reading is.

But then I realize it's time to--again!--give myself the little speech I could so easily spout off to any other woman in my situation:  "Don't worry about it.  Don't push him.  It's OK."

It's really OK.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday {Girl in the Window}

Just like her big brother Shav used to do...  :)

Capturing the Ordinary Moments {Video Edition}

Some time ago, I had completely filled up the disk of our old camera, the one I use mostly for short little videos; and, although I didn't mean to procrastinate about downloading them to our computer, that's exactly what I did.  Weeks went by, and occasionally I would think, "Oh, I should grab the camera and video this or that," then remember regretfully that the disk was full.  And then, of course, I would think, "I REALLY need to download those and clear the disk."  And then I would forget. 

Until the next time I wanted to take a video of something...

It happened over and over again, until finally - yesterday - I decided to do it.  No more procrastination!  

Something funny happened yesterday though, as I was doing that long-put-off task. I was preparing this post and was planning to get it finished last evening; but since the numerous videos in it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to load, I didn't get it ready in time.  While I was waiting, however, I happened to look back at previous posts that included home-videos and I discovered that - lo and behold - exactly one year prior, I had been doing the exact same kind of post: a video dump to clear the disk.  Is there something about September 22 that inspires me to do this?  :)

Well, this year I broke the tradition a little because I didn't get the post finished until September 23rd.  Maybe next year I'll do this kind of post on September 24th.  :)

These videos are not very recent.  As a matter of fact, the first six I posted here were taken all the way back on March 24 of this year.  Here is Shav demonstrating his counting skills, and my favorite things about it are the way Shav shakes his head and says "no" when I ask if he can count and then the way he tries to carefully enunciate "four."  :)

This next one shows how Moriah moved.  She's come a long way in the past six months.  :)  Besides watching her do her version of crawling, I also like hearing her voice say "a-da"...and the way her mouth moves when we ask her to say "dada"...but actually it's Shav's voice that says the "dada's" you can hear.  :)

Shav and I have this little thing we do: I sing a little song to the tune of "Happy Birthday," (the words are simple - "Shavi Pavi, I love you"), and during each line, he says "I'm right here!"  This is the song I use if I need to wake him up - or just want to put a smile on his face.  :)

In the video above, he gives his "I'm right here" answer very calmly, but the next video shows how he normally says it.  He tries to burst out with it as soon as I start singing the next line of the song.  :)

Another video of Moriah crawling.  :)

Shav saying the names of our family members, which reminds me of the second video in this post on my old blog, except that time, it was David saying everybody's names in his sweet childish voice.  :)

OK, this makes me laugh.  I'm not sure why Shav decided to dance this way, but a three-year-old can even look cute doing that.  :)  (Video taken on March 26, 2013)

On the same day, Tobin joined in the dance.  It's hard to hear the music, but it's actually a Spanish CD about colors.  The boys call it the penguin CD because there's a penguin on the cover.

Just a regular ol' evening at home with the family - March 28, 2013.

All the rest were taken on May 14, and my specific goal was to record how Moriah moved and got around when she was 13 months old.  :)

I also got to watch David doing handstands, one of his favorite things to do indoors.  :)

I sure do love my family.

I sure do love my life.

I sure do love having my camera disk cleared off and ready to be filled up again with more snippets of that life.  :)

What This Blog Needs Is...

...more pictures of sleeping kids!   Because even though there's a whole category for it, you can never have too many pictures like this.  :)  (No, I'm not sure why Shav's ear is so red; maybe he had just rolled over shortly before I took this.)

Another thing you can never have too many pictures of is your great-great-grandmother's quilt.

Put a sleeping boy in Della's quilt, and that is a picture worth taking.  

And blogging about...  ;-)

Thoughts While Listening to My Younger Self Play Piano

I originally wrote this nearly three months ago, on June 27.  I never got around to posting it because I wanted to include a little video blurb and I didn't download that video clip from our old camera and upload it to this post until just tonight.  No, I don't have a problem with procrastination.  Why do you ask??  ;-)

Yesterday evening, I looked at the mound of peas that needed to be shelled, then thought to myself, "I'm gonna need a tape."

You see, during these summer evenings, when the windows stay open late, and the cool breeze rushes in as it's drawn by the attic fan, and my hands busy themselves with household tasks after the children are tucked in bed, I often reach for an old cassette tape to listen to.  Some of them I listen to and then get rid of, part of the endless decluttering project that is a continual part of my life; but some I decide are worthwhile enough to remain in this household and take up a few square inches of space.

The one I listened to last night falls in the latter category.  :)

I didn't actually realize what it was when I plucked it out of the dusty cassette case in the garage.  All I knew was that it was a mix of some sort that I gave to Jeff in the fall of 1996.  I put it in the player, turned it on, sat down with my bowl of peas, and began to listen.

Piano music wafted through the air.  Lovely piano music.  And I thought, "Is that ME playing??"  Then I heard a mistake and realized that it was indeed me.  :)

A few of the pieces were from my high school senior recital which I performed in March of 1993.  Most of the pieces, however, were from my college years, when I was a music major at Messiah College and spent countless hours in the tiny, unadorned practice rooms in the lower level of Climenhaga music building.  Many of the pieces were piano solos, but some of them were me accompanying various ensembles.  It was fascinating to not only be reminded of pieces that I had completely forgotten about, but also to hear the changes in my music-making from 1993 until my college senior recital in March of 1997.

While my fingers busied themselves with pea pods, my mind busied itself with a swirl of thoughts.  Thoughts like these...

~ I was great once.  (Sometimes when I sit down to play a piece for my boys and find my fingers stumbling over themselves, I think with some sadness about how well I used to be able to play and how far I've fallen from that.)

~ I certainly hope that, when I get to heaven, I'll find a grand piano waiting for me--and I'll be given hours and hours to practice and become good again!  :)

~ What was the name of that piece anyway?  (Those pieces were such a part of my life, I'm sure I never thought I'd be unable to recall their names!)

~ I thought Jeff fell in love with me because of my smile, but maybe it was really because of the way I played Moonlight Sonata.  ;-)

~ If that 19- and 20-year-old self could have had a glimpse of my life now, what would be the most surprising thing: that I've been pregnant 7 times, have 5 living kids, and want another one,  ;-) that I homeschool them, or that I live in my parents' house?  :)

~ Was the audience clapping so loudly because they really thought I did a great job...or because they were just glad that set of 20th century dissonant pieces was over?  ;-)

~ Well, that wasn't exactly a flawless performance, but it wasn't too bad, I guess.

~ I remember when that girl criticized my playing in that piece, and the memory of that still stings.

~ I'm so glad I learned how to make mistakes AND KEEP GOING.

~ I'm even more glad that out of all the things I could have devoted my time and energy to during those years of my life, I chose music.

~ I hear these pieces (choral ones, in particular) and immediately begin to WORSHIP.

~ I hear Sera's voice in the choir.  I wonder where she is these days.  Maybe I can find her on Facebook!  :)

~ I played the ORGAN to accompany the choir??  Woah.  I had totally forgotten THAT!

~ When Mr. Hartzler asked me to accompany the piece "This Endris Night" for the Junior Choir during my first year at EMHS, I had NO IDEA what a big, glorious door he was opening for me and how much accompanying would mean to me, especially during the next seven years, but even continuing until now!

~ I can't believe my hands did that--moved so fast, expressed such emotion, created such beauty.  I just really can't believe it.

And now, here is the short video clip I mentioned earlier.  Keep in mind that the audio quality is pretty terrible; it's a camera recording of a cassette tape being played, after all.  But it is a snippet from one of the pieces I played during my high school senior recital.  Oh, and the picture that's visible there?  That's my brother David giving me a bouquet of flowers at the end of that recital.  :)

For silly fun, here are two other "Thoughts While..." posts:
~ while mopping my kitchen floor
~ while rehearsing for a Suzuki concert
:)

A Very Special Family Day {The Full Report}

A couple of years ago, I kept a "Jehovah Jireh" page in my planner - a spot to write down ways that God unexpectedly blessed us, mostly in the financial realm.  It was certainly faith-building to record the manifold ways He provided for us, and my heart of gratitude overflowed as I remembered His blessings.

I haven't been keeping a list like that this year; but if I were, this would be on it in big letters:

WE WERE GIVEN FIVE FREE TICKETS TO SIX FLAGS AMUSEMENT PARK!

Five.  Free.  Tickets.  That, my friends, equals a whole lot of money!!  :)

These tickets were a special blessing because earlier this year, we did not make our traditional trip to Kings Dominion because they didn't have a homeschool day, as they have in years past (2010...2011...2012).  Buying amusement park tickets at full price is simply not an option for us, so we broke the news to our disappointed boys that we wouldn't be able to go this year.  Little did we know that God would give us the opportunity to try out a new-to-us amusement park later in the year!

Since Moriah was young enough to be free, we only had to buy a ticket for Shav, and the rest of us were covered with the free ones - an astonishing provision!  I really can't get over it.  :)

And so we set off on a cool September morning, eager for a day of fun...

The first ride we found after arriving at the park was this merry-go-round (or carousel...I tend to favor merry-go-round while Jeff usually says carousel...oh, well, no big deal...tomato, tomahto).  :)  The boys really liked this one because of the variety of wild animals on it - not just horses!

Josiah's a little obsessed with ostriches right now, so he was happy to ride on this fine specimen.  :)

 This was in the kiddie section of the park and was actually a snoozer of a ride for David; but he, being the dramatic boy that he is, tried to make the best of it.  :)

 Tobin and Shav got to ride a little train.

One of the favorites of the day was being inside this building where there were tons of soft foam balls and you could shoot them at each other.  All the boys, from big to small, had fun with this.  :)

I tried to do a selfie with Moriah.

I'm not very good at them.  ;-)

And then Moriah got to walk, and she was so very happy.  :)

All summer she's been going barefoot; but with our weather suddenly being cooler, it dawned on me that I needed to get some shoes for her, since she didn't have any that fit.  Last winter she wasn't walking; and even though I put little shoes on her from time to time just for the look of it, she always kicked them off pretty quickly, which wasn't a problem really.  But obviously I couldn't let her go barefoot all winter long this year!  :)  I actually bought these shoes for her the day before this trip, and this was the first time she had gotten to walk in them.  It's a good thing she liked them!  :)

David is such a devoted big brother.  :)

Tobin and Shav ride...

...while Moriah stands outside the fence and watches.

Remember the kiddie ride David was so bored on?  Well, here's the real deal...

...The Tower of Doom.

Jeff convinced Josiah and David to go on it with him (I volunteered to stay on good ol' terra firma; after all, somebody had to watch the little ones!)  ;-) ...

...and up...

...and up they went.

And then they came down.  Quickly.  So quickly that I couldn't even effectively capture the moment with my camera.

But when he got off, David kissed the earth, so maybe that tells you something.  ;-)

Josiah, David, Tobin, and I went on this one, although you can't see Tobin and I in this picture.

Moriah fought sleep as hard as she could, but finally - around 3:45 p.m. - it won.

I'm pretty sure it was the longest she'd ever been awake before, since she's still very much a two nap a day kind of gal.

Josiah and David went on this ride.

And Moriah slept on.

Tobin and Shav on the helicopters...

Jeff took David, Tobin, and Shav on this ferris-wheel-type thing.

My favorite ride of the day was this water ride (although riders hardly got wet, so it wasn't much of a water ride!) that I went on with Josiah, David, and Tobin.  The line was the worst we encountered all day, and I didn't enjoy that; but the ride itself was a whole lot of fun!

Jeff, waiting at the bottom for us, timed it right to get this picture of us.  :)

We rode a few more rides (and some that we rode earlier were not pictured, because after all, even a devoted camera woman can't get a picture of everything!).  ;-)  As a matter of fact, we stayed there and rode rides all the way until the park closed.  And then as we walked out, we paused for one last picture.

As we drove home, we munched on chicken, carrots, and cinnamon buns while the sky got dark.  And my heart sang a refrain of thankfulness to God for the gift of such a special family day!