Family and friends, virtual and real-life, I would so appreciate your prayers right now.
I am in the middle of a situation that has been gradually unfolding, and it has progressively confused and disoriented me. I should find out more, sometime this week, about what is really going on, but until then, I am experiencing anxiety like I have rarely ever had, especially over such a prolonged period. I am blessed to be one of those people without much of a tendency toward depression, but this situation has definitely been "pressing down" on me.
So it's been hard to blog lately. Normally, I use my blog to record what's going on in my life and how I see God working around me, in our family and in our church. Writing helps me process my own feelings about the difficult things, like letting B14 go to school, or my miscarriage 18 months ago. And it is so encouraging when others lend a sympathetic ear and offer up prayers for me in those situations.
But this is something I can't discuss publicly, and it's the big thing going on right now for me. I wish I could write honestly and openly about it. I have written in my private journal, to explore my feelings and to hear God's words in response to my heart-cries. And I have been so grateful for Papa Rooster's love and support.
God is working in me through these hard circumstances, teaching me things about myself and about His nature. The last two sermons I heard at church, from Papa Rooster and from Phil, both really spoke to me about my exact situation. One word for me was that when our pride is wounded, it means Christ is teaching us to be more like Him in his humility. Another was about how when we strive to get what we think we need, with hands clenched on to those things, we are actually unable to receive, openhandedly, the things God is trying to give to us. So I am trying to humbly surrender this situation and hold my hands open and upward toward God. I won't say it's easy, especially when I feel wronged, but I am clinging to Christ and to these guideposts right now. May the Lord's mercy and grace fill me.
I am also grieving for a friend whose mother died last week of cancer.
And I am really bummed to see summer coming to an end. I am not one of those people who love autumn--I find it a depressing time of year in the best of circumstances.
There. Now that I got all that off my chest, maybe I'll feel more freedom to blog about other things without feeling like a pretender! Thanks in advance for your prayers, you who faithfully pray for me. (Mom, Dad and my aunts come to mind, plus friends from churches old and new...I so appreciate you all!)
***
Hey, when I just looked up Phil and Lisa's blog to link to, I discovered pictures of Phil's ordination at Light of Christ two weeks ago! (Duh, I guess!) Papa Rooster and Randy Y, the other deacon we ordained, are in them too.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
And Then My Six-Year-Old Had Her Tattoo Removed...
It's true. Chicklet6 (now 7) got a real, permanent tattoo this summer.
Actually, it was her ten-year-old brother who gave it to her!
He was seated on the couch, randomly swinging a pencil in the air, and unbeknownst to him, Chicklet was looking on over his shoulder. She leaned in a little closer, and took a pencil jab to the forehead.
That's his story, anyway.
After a quick assessment of the wound, I immediately turned to Google. From that fount of wisdom, I discovered that lead poisoning is not a concern. All pencils these days are made of graphite, of course, and apparently there is no such thing as graphite poisoning.
The main concern with a pencil wound, I learned, was the likelihood of a permanent tattoo mark.
And sure enough, after the wound healed, a black dot remained in the center of Chicklet's fair forehead.
Had B10 made his mark on any other part of her body, we'd have let it go. Hey, it would be a good story! But somehow, I didn't think she'd appreciate it much when she was Blondechick16's age...or my age, for that matter.
So a cosmetic surgeon performed a tiny punch biopsy, and she was left with one stitch, and eventually, the teensiest scar. It should fade to nothingness by the time she's of an age to be glued to her mirror.
Do you know what's sad? I don't think we even have a picture of her very first tattoo....
Actually, it was her ten-year-old brother who gave it to her!
He was seated on the couch, randomly swinging a pencil in the air, and unbeknownst to him, Chicklet was looking on over his shoulder. She leaned in a little closer, and took a pencil jab to the forehead.
That's his story, anyway.
After a quick assessment of the wound, I immediately turned to Google. From that fount of wisdom, I discovered that lead poisoning is not a concern. All pencils these days are made of graphite, of course, and apparently there is no such thing as graphite poisoning.
The main concern with a pencil wound, I learned, was the likelihood of a permanent tattoo mark.
And sure enough, after the wound healed, a black dot remained in the center of Chicklet's fair forehead.
Had B10 made his mark on any other part of her body, we'd have let it go. Hey, it would be a good story! But somehow, I didn't think she'd appreciate it much when she was Blondechick16's age...or my age, for that matter.
So a cosmetic surgeon performed a tiny punch biopsy, and she was left with one stitch, and eventually, the teensiest scar. It should fade to nothingness by the time she's of an age to be glued to her mirror.
Do you know what's sad? I don't think we even have a picture of her very first tattoo....
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Woo-Hoo!!
Finally, we can all breathe again...
The cast list for Seussical is up, and our kids are HAPPY!!
Bantam10 is going to be JoJo, the son of the Mayor of Whoville, a big lead with several songs. It's the part he really wanted and he is thrilled. He worked so hard to prepare for his audition and for callbacks, as he's done before when he didn't get the part he wanted, and so he's walking on air!
Blondechick16 is the Sour Kangaroo, the big, brassy "bad girl" with a sour attitude. It's a lead role that will stretch her vocally and dramatically more than the parts she half-expected to get. She is looking forward to the challenge!
Bantam14 is delighted to be cast as the lead Wickersham Brother, one of the band of troublesome monkeys who taunt Horton the Elephant and steal the clover with the Whos on it. It's a super-cool role and one he's played before, although he was the youngest of the Brothers then.
He is honestly relieved NOT to have one of the bigger guy roles. He worked hard on his audition and at callbacks, and we are so proud of how he rose to that challenge, but with his new homework load, now that he's no longer homeschooled, he was worried about how he was going to juggle everything if he had a big part, too. And it's great that our new little county is deep enough in teenage boys, this session at least, that he wasn't forced into a big lead!
We are excited about the whole cast. The numbers are a little smaller than we'd like to see, but there is a lot of raw talent, enthusiasm is high, the directors are awesome, and in the end, it's going to a be a FABULOUS show!
(Anybody want to order tickets? Let us know!!)
The cast list for Seussical is up, and our kids are HAPPY!!
Bantam10 is going to be JoJo, the son of the Mayor of Whoville, a big lead with several songs. It's the part he really wanted and he is thrilled. He worked so hard to prepare for his audition and for callbacks, as he's done before when he didn't get the part he wanted, and so he's walking on air!
Blondechick16 is the Sour Kangaroo, the big, brassy "bad girl" with a sour attitude. It's a lead role that will stretch her vocally and dramatically more than the parts she half-expected to get. She is looking forward to the challenge!
Bantam14 is delighted to be cast as the lead Wickersham Brother, one of the band of troublesome monkeys who taunt Horton the Elephant and steal the clover with the Whos on it. It's a super-cool role and one he's played before, although he was the youngest of the Brothers then.
He is honestly relieved NOT to have one of the bigger guy roles. He worked hard on his audition and at callbacks, and we are so proud of how he rose to that challenge, but with his new homework load, now that he's no longer homeschooled, he was worried about how he was going to juggle everything if he had a big part, too. And it's great that our new little county is deep enough in teenage boys, this session at least, that he wasn't forced into a big lead!
We are excited about the whole cast. The numbers are a little smaller than we'd like to see, but there is a lot of raw talent, enthusiasm is high, the directors are awesome, and in the end, it's going to a be a FABULOUS show!
(Anybody want to order tickets? Let us know!!)
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Audition Revue
The following are videos of all three kids' auditions from last night. They're each only one minute, so ENJOY!
Bantam10 began, with "I'd Do Anything for You" (from Oliver).
Bantam10 began, with "I'd Do Anything for You" (from Oliver).
Bantam14 followed with "Johanna" (from Sweeney Todd).
...and Blondechick topped it off with "My New Philosophy" (from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown).
In Other News...
We had a beautiful ordination service last Tuesday night! No one got any pictures that we know of; Father Rooster was lamenting the fact that he couldn't be both priest and photographer at these events! But it was a solemn service of commissioning two very worthy men to the office of deacon, the servant of the church. Abbi wrote her impressions of it here, and I think her word pictures captured the event well.
There were clergy and friends there from Church of the Resurrection and Church of the Redeemer (Light of Christ's two "mother" churches), as well as clergy and students from Nashotah House, an Anglican seminary here in Wisconsin, about an hour away. It was such a privilege to host the service and the reception afterward, and there was something special about all those Anglican clergy gathered in that chapel--which had once hosted such occasions on a regular basis, when the campus was an Episcopal boarding school for girls. The chapel was named for and consecrated by Bishop Jackson Kemper, the first missionary bishop for the Northwestern Territory of the American Episcopal Church--and it seemed so wonderful for Anglican life to be returning to the old chapel.
Our AMIA bishop performed the ordinations, and we were blessed to host him for two nights. But what does one serve the Bishop for dinner? Fortunately, Papa Rooster has been helping with the cooking lately, which has been just fabulous, and together we made steak fajitas, homemade guacomole, acorn squash, and green salad with pesto dressing and goat cheese. Yum!
The in-school kids are all acclimating well, but the big adjustment has been for Papa Rooster and myself, having to spend so much time in the evenings helping with homework! Maybe we won't have so much homework next week--Blondechick thinks she's starting to maybe get geometry, and Bantam14 is getting the hang of skimming through textbooks looking for answers to the chapter questions. He says he's feeling a little less overwhelmed now, after two full weeks.
Chicklet7 is loving school, especially recess, music, library and gym! But by Friday, the week is feeling long to her. Bantam18 seems to be doing fine...and actually may be understanding geometry better than Blondechick. Fortunately neither of these two have had much homework.
Bantam10 and I are trying to find our rhythm at home, and I think our first task is to learn to FOCUS on math and piano first thing. He just switched to a new piano teacher who is actually insisting on playing pieces with perfect timing and having him use a metronome, and B10 is responding well to the challenge. He's also regaining his footing in his math book and working on completing a whole lesson in a shorter time than he used to take--without another student, I've been able to sit down next to him, with my own work, and keep him on task. He's been reading Paddle to the Sea (Holling) to Bantam4 as well as reading for fun, and the other day when he finished all that before 11:30 in the morning, I let him spend a good hour in the kitchen doing simple science experiments from Usborne's Science with Water.
All for now.... I have been summoned to pick up kids from callbacks! They're done a few minutes early.
There were clergy and friends there from Church of the Resurrection and Church of the Redeemer (Light of Christ's two "mother" churches), as well as clergy and students from Nashotah House, an Anglican seminary here in Wisconsin, about an hour away. It was such a privilege to host the service and the reception afterward, and there was something special about all those Anglican clergy gathered in that chapel--which had once hosted such occasions on a regular basis, when the campus was an Episcopal boarding school for girls. The chapel was named for and consecrated by Bishop Jackson Kemper, the first missionary bishop for the Northwestern Territory of the American Episcopal Church--and it seemed so wonderful for Anglican life to be returning to the old chapel.
Our AMIA bishop performed the ordinations, and we were blessed to host him for two nights. But what does one serve the Bishop for dinner? Fortunately, Papa Rooster has been helping with the cooking lately, which has been just fabulous, and together we made steak fajitas, homemade guacomole, acorn squash, and green salad with pesto dressing and goat cheese. Yum!
The in-school kids are all acclimating well, but the big adjustment has been for Papa Rooster and myself, having to spend so much time in the evenings helping with homework! Maybe we won't have so much homework next week--Blondechick thinks she's starting to maybe get geometry, and Bantam14 is getting the hang of skimming through textbooks looking for answers to the chapter questions. He says he's feeling a little less overwhelmed now, after two full weeks.
Chicklet7 is loving school, especially recess, music, library and gym! But by Friday, the week is feeling long to her. Bantam18 seems to be doing fine...and actually may be understanding geometry better than Blondechick. Fortunately neither of these two have had much homework.
Bantam10 and I are trying to find our rhythm at home, and I think our first task is to learn to FOCUS on math and piano first thing. He just switched to a new piano teacher who is actually insisting on playing pieces with perfect timing and having him use a metronome, and B10 is responding well to the challenge. He's also regaining his footing in his math book and working on completing a whole lesson in a shorter time than he used to take--without another student, I've been able to sit down next to him, with my own work, and keep him on task. He's been reading Paddle to the Sea (Holling) to Bantam4 as well as reading for fun, and the other day when he finished all that before 11:30 in the morning, I let him spend a good hour in the kitchen doing simple science experiments from Usborne's Science with Water.
All for now.... I have been summoned to pick up kids from callbacks! They're done a few minutes early.
Seussical Auditions!!!
Auditions for Seussical, the Musical, were last night!
For the very first session in Kenosha, we had a reasonably good turnout--just over 50 kids bravely got up in front of the directors and sang, danced or recited. There were not too many kids with much experience, so they are going to cast everyone who auditioned to give them all the chance to gain some.
This morning everyone was called for the first hour for a dance callback. After that, various groups of leads are called, and Blondechick16, Bantam14 and Bantam10 are all called to stay all day, which means they're being considered for leads. That wasn't a big surprise, since they do have more experience than most.
But what surprises me is my own nerves! B14 has been fighting a head cold all week, and yesterday, Blondechick began with the sore throat too. This morning her voice had a peculiar warble in it that made us all laugh! And freak out. Lord, have mercy.
And may they be less nervous than I am!!
For the very first session in Kenosha, we had a reasonably good turnout--just over 50 kids bravely got up in front of the directors and sang, danced or recited. There were not too many kids with much experience, so they are going to cast everyone who auditioned to give them all the chance to gain some.
This morning everyone was called for the first hour for a dance callback. After that, various groups of leads are called, and Blondechick16, Bantam14 and Bantam10 are all called to stay all day, which means they're being considered for leads. That wasn't a big surprise, since they do have more experience than most.
But what surprises me is my own nerves! B14 has been fighting a head cold all week, and yesterday, Blondechick began with the sore throat too. This morning her voice had a peculiar warble in it that made us all laugh! And freak out. Lord, have mercy.
And may they be less nervous than I am!!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Hanging in There
Thank you, everyone, who's been doing just that, waiting on me to come back from my too-busy-to-blog break!
I should do a birthday post today for Miss Chicklet7, whose birthday was on Sunday. But her pictures are on the home computer and I have too much other news anyway. (Next time!)
I feel like the last six weeks has been one big educational switch-a-roo after another, and the last week surprisingly, held one more. One-and-a-half weeks into our new schedule of taking Pre-Algebra and Art at the private school, doing homeschool for the rest, Bantam14 and I had to evaluate whether this arrangement was really going to work. The bottom line was that he really did not want to be homeschooled; he wanted to go to the private school full-time. We thought the workload would be too difficult for him, and we thought our original plans for his 8th grade homeschool year would be the best preparation for high school for him. But he was being passively resistant to my homeschooling efforts, so we weren't accomplishing much without a big struggle--and on the other hand, we felt like it was the wrong message to tell him that we are afraid that the private school will be too overwhelming for him. In fact, the more we prayed about it, we felt that perhaps if this is the challenge he wants, he'll probably rise to it, and we should give it to him.
So he started on Tuesday, and he's enjoying it. He's had a lot of homework to catch up on, and I've had a lot of catching up to do as well--with my own feelings!
I am feeling a lot of sadness that it seems like our tight-knit little family homeschool days are over. My three teens are all in that pulling-away stage, and I can't expect them to have time or interest in listening to me read aloud anymore, or sitting around companionably doing workbooks.
I am feeling...a little bit like a failure? I've always thought that I was capable of guiding my kids' education all the way through high school. There are so many great possibilities, with dual enrollment, for homeschooled high schooolers to start college with college credits already under their belts. I believe in home education! But my teens have not been very academically motivated without the classroom element, and I don't know if this is a failure on my part, or if it's just their temperaments and our particular situation. For example, if we had stayed in our old home in Illinois, there were a lot more classroom opportunities for high schoolers in our old homeschool group, plus they'd have had their friends in our old fully-developed theater group to fill those social needs.
So, it's just a change that took me by surprise. Part of me wishes I had known earlier; I might not have entered Chicklet7 in public school for first grade. But she's loving it, and I'm basically comfortable with that decision, for this one year at least, and things have been so crazily busy that another part of me is hugely relieved that I only have one at home toneglect teach. Fortunately, Bantam10 is my best example of an unschooling type who reads widely and randomly, and works on projects of his own making. He's currently authoring a book about a superhero called the Shadow--each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. And he's a great companion to Bantam4.
In other news, my parents visited for Labor Day weekend and we had a relaxing visit with them...and the day after they left, our baby theater group had its first night of classes! We had 64 enrolled. The parents stayed for an informational meeting, and we held an audition workshop afterwards, to give everybody a confidence boost for the upcoming auditions for Seussical. The Lord did provide a dance teacher, with a week to spare--praise God!--and there was a palpable buzz of excitement in the air at classes, coming from kids and parents alike, so that was encouraging! We are still praying for a few more enrollments before auditions, which are Sept. 18.
If you are so moved, that is a prayer request, and the other is for me personally. We have stumbled into this school year, with so many changes and different start times, plus my official job with the theater group beginning, and I just need to find my footing as far as a schedule goes. I have been living from must-do to must-do since summer began, and now with only one to teach during the day, plus a job to think about, and more kids with homework at night, my fall schedule feels so topsy-turvy from what I'm used to! That's one reason I haven't been blogging--besides being so busy, my rhythms are all off.
Things at church are picking up for the fall as well, with a lot of visitors the last two Sundays. We are resuming the Sunday School hour again, after a summer hiatus. We have a Fall Kickoff meeting that the whole church is invited to this Saturday, and next week, we are ordaining two men to the transitional diaconate (which means they'll be deacons, on their way to being ordained as priests). One of them is a young man that we are so excited about, who has been serving at Light of Christ since he graduated from seminary, along with his wife, who is the daughter of dear friends of ours. The other is one of our oldest and dearest friends, and we are thrilled to be ordaining him through Light of Christ. He has such a pastoral heart and has encouraged so many others on the path to ordination--including Father Rooster--and it is exciting to see him finally joining them.
Well, back to life...back to work...back to the laundry...upward and onward!!
I should do a birthday post today for Miss Chicklet7, whose birthday was on Sunday. But her pictures are on the home computer and I have too much other news anyway. (Next time!)
I feel like the last six weeks has been one big educational switch-a-roo after another, and the last week surprisingly, held one more. One-and-a-half weeks into our new schedule of taking Pre-Algebra and Art at the private school, doing homeschool for the rest, Bantam14 and I had to evaluate whether this arrangement was really going to work. The bottom line was that he really did not want to be homeschooled; he wanted to go to the private school full-time. We thought the workload would be too difficult for him, and we thought our original plans for his 8th grade homeschool year would be the best preparation for high school for him. But he was being passively resistant to my homeschooling efforts, so we weren't accomplishing much without a big struggle--and on the other hand, we felt like it was the wrong message to tell him that we are afraid that the private school will be too overwhelming for him. In fact, the more we prayed about it, we felt that perhaps if this is the challenge he wants, he'll probably rise to it, and we should give it to him.
So he started on Tuesday, and he's enjoying it. He's had a lot of homework to catch up on, and I've had a lot of catching up to do as well--with my own feelings!
I am feeling a lot of sadness that it seems like our tight-knit little family homeschool days are over. My three teens are all in that pulling-away stage, and I can't expect them to have time or interest in listening to me read aloud anymore, or sitting around companionably doing workbooks.
I am feeling...a little bit like a failure? I've always thought that I was capable of guiding my kids' education all the way through high school. There are so many great possibilities, with dual enrollment, for homeschooled high schooolers to start college with college credits already under their belts. I believe in home education! But my teens have not been very academically motivated without the classroom element, and I don't know if this is a failure on my part, or if it's just their temperaments and our particular situation. For example, if we had stayed in our old home in Illinois, there were a lot more classroom opportunities for high schoolers in our old homeschool group, plus they'd have had their friends in our old fully-developed theater group to fill those social needs.
So, it's just a change that took me by surprise. Part of me wishes I had known earlier; I might not have entered Chicklet7 in public school for first grade. But she's loving it, and I'm basically comfortable with that decision, for this one year at least, and things have been so crazily busy that another part of me is hugely relieved that I only have one at home to
In other news, my parents visited for Labor Day weekend and we had a relaxing visit with them...and the day after they left, our baby theater group had its first night of classes! We had 64 enrolled. The parents stayed for an informational meeting, and we held an audition workshop afterwards, to give everybody a confidence boost for the upcoming auditions for Seussical. The Lord did provide a dance teacher, with a week to spare--praise God!--and there was a palpable buzz of excitement in the air at classes, coming from kids and parents alike, so that was encouraging! We are still praying for a few more enrollments before auditions, which are Sept. 18.
If you are so moved, that is a prayer request, and the other is for me personally. We have stumbled into this school year, with so many changes and different start times, plus my official job with the theater group beginning, and I just need to find my footing as far as a schedule goes. I have been living from must-do to must-do since summer began, and now with only one to teach during the day, plus a job to think about, and more kids with homework at night, my fall schedule feels so topsy-turvy from what I'm used to! That's one reason I haven't been blogging--besides being so busy, my rhythms are all off.
Things at church are picking up for the fall as well, with a lot of visitors the last two Sundays. We are resuming the Sunday School hour again, after a summer hiatus. We have a Fall Kickoff meeting that the whole church is invited to this Saturday, and next week, we are ordaining two men to the transitional diaconate (which means they'll be deacons, on their way to being ordained as priests). One of them is a young man that we are so excited about, who has been serving at Light of Christ since he graduated from seminary, along with his wife, who is the daughter of dear friends of ours. The other is one of our oldest and dearest friends, and we are thrilled to be ordaining him through Light of Christ. He has such a pastoral heart and has encouraged so many others on the path to ordination--including Father Rooster--and it is exciting to see him finally joining them.
Well, back to life...back to work...back to the laundry...upward and onward!!
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