So what's new with the younger set?
Both Chicklet8 and Bantam11 now have one semester of virtual schooling under their belts. Both finished strong, with straight A's. No surprise for Chicklet, since I work closely with her every day, but for B11, it was quite an accomplishment!
As a final project for both Social Studies and Language Arts, he had to write a dialogue between a famous character in history and one other character, as if it were a scene from a play, complete with stage directions. It had to be something that could have happened--no cars or aliens in ancient Greece, for example. B11 created a scene in which Alexander the Great and his top general argue vehemently about whether to keep fighting the Battle of Granicus or surrender to the Persians. The scene ended with them both being killed, thus settling the question--and changing history forever! It was well done and humorous, but I was concerned that his teachers didn't mean for him to rewrite history. He argued that it could have happened, and it was better to rewrite history than to rewrite his whole assignment. We added a few lines to show how history might be changed if they lost the battle, and we were both delighted when he got full credit from both teachers!
I have been very pleased with the kind of projects, like this one, that he's been assigned through iQ Academy. They are creative and engaging, and they require the student to think and use what they've learned. For sixth grade, it's been a comfortably challenging level of work for B11. He can read material and answer questions independently, but occasionally he has these bigger projects that require a little more of him--reading directions carefully, checking over the grading rubric ahead of time, drawing information from several sources, having someone proofread. I like having just that much involvement, but I love it that someone else grades everything!
I also like how they give him the week's worth of work on Monday of each week, although nothing has a drop-dead due date until the end of the semester. He has had little difficulty staying "on pace," but it's been great for him to learn how to manage his time to get it all done. Occasionally he's gotten behind by an assignment or two, and he's learned how much easier it is to stay on track than it is to catch up--a valuable lesson if there ever was one!
Chicklet's program--the second grade Little Lincoln curriculum through Wisconsin Virtual Learning--is similarly flexible. They tell you what day you should be on, but it's fine if you submit assignments late or early. We'll be taking advantage of that flexibility during the run of Willy Wonka, I'm sure! Her workload is a little heavier than I like for second grade and her abilities, so I modify assignments in order to stay on track (with the blessing of the supervisor who checks in with us every few weeks). For example, I'll let her answer questions verbally instead of writing out them out--if comprehension is the point of the exercise, not grammar or writing--or I'll write down her ideas as she brainstorms possible topics to write on, conserving her limited handwriting energy for the actual composition. We only have to submit a few assignments a week, so we have that leeway.
I must say that I've been happy with our choice to use these virtual schools this year. It has really been good for B11 to be working so independently, and it has been good, this year, to have the accountability to force me to spend a great deal of time investing in Chicklet. I chafe under it sometimes when life gets crazy, missing the days when we could just cancel school and make up in the summer. If she gets two days behind, due to sickness or other activities, it's a LOT of work to make up. And we rarely have enough time or energy left over for art, cooking or sewing, to our continual disappointment. But she's learning a lot and becoming more independent as we go. I'm planning to re-enroll them both for next year.
And B5? For kindergarten, he's not in a virtual school, so I'll include his activities in a different post. There more than just academics going on around here!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Reading
I've been waiting eagerly for the last of my Christmas gifts from Papa Rooster to arrive...
a pre-ordered copy of this long-awaited book.
Ann is the friend and blogger at Holy Experience that I've been recommending for years! And I'm lovin' the book even more, if that's possible, than her blog.
It's longer. It tells more about her life and her story, tying together events and ideas she's posted on her blog.
And the content...it is touching the deepest longings of my heart! Here's a taste.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Teenager No More
Well, I managed to get in that post on parenting teenagers while I could still say that I had three of them.
But no more!
Today, my oldest turns 20.
He's been a relatively easy teenager. Give him a computer or a book, and he's perfectly content for hours. Even days.
His birthday wishlist contained nothing but books, an assortment of graphic novels and encyclopedic reference books.
Oh. No. I mean these kinds of reference books:
Librarians love him.
For Christmas, he asked for (and received):
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
But no more!
Today, my oldest turns 20.
He's been a relatively easy teenager. Give him a computer or a book, and he's perfectly content for hours. Even days.
His birthday wishlist contained nothing but books, an assortment of graphic novels and encyclopedic reference books.
Oh. No. I mean these kinds of reference books:
Librarians love him.
For Christmas, he asked for (and received):
I know, it's hard to tell. But it's a Lego set--the Corporate Alliance Tank Droid.
Yeah, his little brothers love him too.
He's a loveable guy. Dad and I love you too, B20!
A birthday Scripture passage for you:
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(from Isaiah 40)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Further Thoughts on Parenting Teenagers
I am so grateful for all the encouraging words of wisdom and blessing after my last post! Thank you, friends.
It seems that so much of parenting teenagers is about doing the best you can, appreciating all that you can, and trusting--in God, in yourself, and in the best that's in your kids. And finally, it's about accepting that there are no guarantees of "success."
One friend, who's been through it already with his own teens, gave this helpful perspective:
I really like those last ideas, especially. As I said in my post, I have been surprised to come up so squarely against my own issues, not just those of my teens. It helps me to think of God using this challenge of parenting teenagers to parent me, to teach me to "grow up" in my faith by letting me experience how helpless I am without Him...just as I'm trying to teach the same kind of faith and trust to my own children.
We're all on the same journey--and none of us will arrive, this side of eternity.
But maybe we can help each other get a little further down the road!
It seems that so much of parenting teenagers is about doing the best you can, appreciating all that you can, and trusting--in God, in yourself, and in the best that's in your kids. And finally, it's about accepting that there are no guarantees of "success."
One friend, who's been through it already with his own teens, gave this helpful perspective:
There is so much advice out there, most of it predicated on a falsehood, i.e. if we just do the right thing, then our children will turn out right. That right there gets us off on the wrong foot with the wrong set of expectations. God always does the right thing and look at us!
It has been said that it is not the teens who are damaged in those wonderful years of parental conflict and confrontation, but the parents. I think there is a lot to that. ...Many parents simply do not find parenting to be that happy thing they thought it would be. Fact is, we are flawed human beings trying to raise other flawed human beings. That is not exactly a recipe for success is it?
I think that is another way that the ‘how to parent industry’ misses the mark. At heart it is a theological issue. It assumes more of the parent than should be assumed. Too, I wonder if God is not continuing to parent us as we parent our children. Which means that it is not a matter of the arrived helping the journeying, but the journeying helping each other. All of us in different places on that journey, yet all moving together.
I really like those last ideas, especially. As I said in my post, I have been surprised to come up so squarely against my own issues, not just those of my teens. It helps me to think of God using this challenge of parenting teenagers to parent me, to teach me to "grow up" in my faith by letting me experience how helpless I am without Him...just as I'm trying to teach the same kind of faith and trust to my own children.
We're all on the same journey--and none of us will arrive, this side of eternity.
But maybe we can help each other get a little further down the road!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Long Time Coming
Friends, in the comments of this post, many of you said you enjoyed my previous posts on parenting. Which made me cringe, I must admit. We are certainly doing a lot of it, but parenting is a sore point with me, these days. This post has been a long time coming, but I think I am ready to share.
I read lots of books on parenting when my kids were all younger, but nothing really prepared me for teenagers. In our case, our teens--especially #2 and #3--"came of age" just as we moved to a new state, pulling them away from established networks of Christian friends and adults in their lives, their church and Christian activities like theater and homeschool classes.
Without Christian friends at first, they struggled to make good choices. Even now, with a Christian school and Christian friendships, we are still adjusting, and it's hard to sort out what is character stuff we would have been dealing with no matter what, and what is still regrouping and regaining what was lost in the year or so after our move. It has required a lot of time and attention, and these struggles--so consuming and painful--just aren't topics one can post on a blog.
But maybe, as one "a little further down the road" now, I can share some of the feelings that have surprised and thrown me. Maybe I didn't read the right books, but it would have been helpful to anticipate not just "dealing with teenagers" but "dealing with your emotions about having teenagers." No one told me, but it's a double whammy: their stuff, and your own stuff, simultaneously.
If you are a parent, you are probably aware of your own issues. Parenting just brings out the control freak, the perfectionist, the idealist, the nag, the preacher, the drill sergeant or the ostrich in us. It brings out the best and the worst, and for many years, I think we have hope that the best in us and in our kids will win out in the end.
Having teenagers does a number on parents because we suddenly realize that the finish line with this child is in sight. In just a few short years, they will be gone, and we worry more than ever about their deficiencies and the things we want them to have--character, skills, values--before they leave home. We renew our commitment to character-buiilding at the same time that they begin to show interest in doing without our advice and help. In fact, they often violently reject it.
We are so concerned for their well-being and for their future, that when they reject our concern, our wisdom, and our direction, it hurts. It makes us angry. Then we say things we're not proud of, and we are rotten examples of the character and values we want so badly to instill. It's humbling.
Plus we want them to like us. They aren't little kids anymore; you can have a grown-up conversation with them and enjoy grown-up activities with them. They can keep up with you, physically and mentally. And you've put a lot of good stuff in there over the years, and you enjoy it as it starts to come out and become uniquely their own. You can just see the fabulous human being that's in there, behind the attitudes and dumb choices they make, and you redouble your efforts to parent them wisely and helpfully. And they push back, and it hurts, because we care so much, and we get angry, and the painful, humbling cycle continues.
We know we have to start letting go, start letting them make some of their own decisions and their own mistakes. They become involved in activities that take them outside of our homes. We lose some of the control that we've always had, logistically--they have teachers assigning their workload, employers arranging their schedules, other parents giving them rides. They start telling us their schedule instead of us telling them what our family is doing this week.
It's all normal, but it's so disorienting! I went through a grieving period, as I realized that I would never again have all my chicks in the nest together, under my wings, under my protection and my direction. That homey, happy thing called "our family" and "homeschooling" was changed forever as my older chicks began to leave the nest for longer and longer periods of time. Things are different even with the younger kids, as their eyes are also on the goings, comings and doings of their older siblings, and they get ideas that they should be entitled to similar privileges and practices.
Actually, I'm still grieving, still adjusting to the new norm. I'm trying to re-form my nest around the younger three, while still supervising the fledgings who are often far from home, and it stretches me thin. I second-guess decisions we've made: at what ages we gave them cell phones, their access to friends through texting, the music on their iPods, the movies they watch, whether we should have homeschooled them into high school.
I keep concluding that we've made good choices, overall; so why have we had all these difficulties? As a young parent, it was easy to assume that if we did our best as parents and kept our kids' eyes on God, then with God's help and lots of His grace, we'd navigate, as parents, as happily and hopefully through the teen years as we did through the terrible twos and threes. And part of me is clinging gratefully to the truth: that our teens do love God, and us, and want to please us both. But another part of me is reeling from some of the other truths about my teens and their attitudes and mistakes they have made.
And I am helpless. I can't fix them. I can't change their histories, though I have great hope that someday these errors will be blips in their testimonies. I see them walking with the Lord in the future, but I feel helpless to change who they are in present.
I can demand their respect, but I can't make them be respectful. I can ask for their cooperation, but I can't make them cooperative. I can value things that are good, true, beautiful, worthy, but I can't change their tastes and appetites for some things that are not worthy of their attention and energy. I can love the best and the worst in them, but I can't control their thoughts, words and actions.
And I begin to second-guess myself. Would our relationship be better if they had not been homeschooled? Were all those years of investment in them misguided? Should I have done something different with my time and energy? Would they be more humble if they had gone to school for junior high? (Certainly the low point of my own life.) Should I do things differently with my younger children? Am I the problem? Would they be better off in school?
Yes, it's been painful. It's been humbling. I have grieved in the most tender places of my heart, and I have burned with anger in the stony places. I have felt farther from God than I have in years, and I have felt closer, in the helpless, hopeless, wordless prayers that fill my times with Him right now.
And that's just dealing with normal stuff, folks. They're not into drugs or alcohol or getting pregnant or even getting tattoos, although Blondechick did get her belly button pierced for her 18th birthday (with our half-hearted blessing, which she wanted, even though the whole point was to do something she didn't need our permission to do!). Our teens are following God as well as they know how, and they are working hard in school. They struggle with being respectful and responsible at home, but they're not in open rebellion. It could be so much worse.
And yet, that day-to-day stuff has been so much harder than I expected.
I read lots of books on parenting when my kids were all younger, but nothing really prepared me for teenagers. In our case, our teens--especially #2 and #3--"came of age" just as we moved to a new state, pulling them away from established networks of Christian friends and adults in their lives, their church and Christian activities like theater and homeschool classes.
Without Christian friends at first, they struggled to make good choices. Even now, with a Christian school and Christian friendships, we are still adjusting, and it's hard to sort out what is character stuff we would have been dealing with no matter what, and what is still regrouping and regaining what was lost in the year or so after our move. It has required a lot of time and attention, and these struggles--so consuming and painful--just aren't topics one can post on a blog.
But maybe, as one "a little further down the road" now, I can share some of the feelings that have surprised and thrown me. Maybe I didn't read the right books, but it would have been helpful to anticipate not just "dealing with teenagers" but "dealing with your emotions about having teenagers." No one told me, but it's a double whammy: their stuff, and your own stuff, simultaneously.
If you are a parent, you are probably aware of your own issues. Parenting just brings out the control freak, the perfectionist, the idealist, the nag, the preacher, the drill sergeant or the ostrich in us. It brings out the best and the worst, and for many years, I think we have hope that the best in us and in our kids will win out in the end.
Having teenagers does a number on parents because we suddenly realize that the finish line with this child is in sight. In just a few short years, they will be gone, and we worry more than ever about their deficiencies and the things we want them to have--character, skills, values--before they leave home. We renew our commitment to character-buiilding at the same time that they begin to show interest in doing without our advice and help. In fact, they often violently reject it.
We are so concerned for their well-being and for their future, that when they reject our concern, our wisdom, and our direction, it hurts. It makes us angry. Then we say things we're not proud of, and we are rotten examples of the character and values we want so badly to instill. It's humbling.
Plus we want them to like us. They aren't little kids anymore; you can have a grown-up conversation with them and enjoy grown-up activities with them. They can keep up with you, physically and mentally. And you've put a lot of good stuff in there over the years, and you enjoy it as it starts to come out and become uniquely their own. You can just see the fabulous human being that's in there, behind the attitudes and dumb choices they make, and you redouble your efforts to parent them wisely and helpfully. And they push back, and it hurts, because we care so much, and we get angry, and the painful, humbling cycle continues.
We know we have to start letting go, start letting them make some of their own decisions and their own mistakes. They become involved in activities that take them outside of our homes. We lose some of the control that we've always had, logistically--they have teachers assigning their workload, employers arranging their schedules, other parents giving them rides. They start telling us their schedule instead of us telling them what our family is doing this week.
It's all normal, but it's so disorienting! I went through a grieving period, as I realized that I would never again have all my chicks in the nest together, under my wings, under my protection and my direction. That homey, happy thing called "our family" and "homeschooling" was changed forever as my older chicks began to leave the nest for longer and longer periods of time. Things are different even with the younger kids, as their eyes are also on the goings, comings and doings of their older siblings, and they get ideas that they should be entitled to similar privileges and practices.
Actually, I'm still grieving, still adjusting to the new norm. I'm trying to re-form my nest around the younger three, while still supervising the fledgings who are often far from home, and it stretches me thin. I second-guess decisions we've made: at what ages we gave them cell phones, their access to friends through texting, the music on their iPods, the movies they watch, whether we should have homeschooled them into high school.
I keep concluding that we've made good choices, overall; so why have we had all these difficulties? As a young parent, it was easy to assume that if we did our best as parents and kept our kids' eyes on God, then with God's help and lots of His grace, we'd navigate, as parents, as happily and hopefully through the teen years as we did through the terrible twos and threes. And part of me is clinging gratefully to the truth: that our teens do love God, and us, and want to please us both. But another part of me is reeling from some of the other truths about my teens and their attitudes and mistakes they have made.
And I am helpless. I can't fix them. I can't change their histories, though I have great hope that someday these errors will be blips in their testimonies. I see them walking with the Lord in the future, but I feel helpless to change who they are in present.
I can demand their respect, but I can't make them be respectful. I can ask for their cooperation, but I can't make them cooperative. I can value things that are good, true, beautiful, worthy, but I can't change their tastes and appetites for some things that are not worthy of their attention and energy. I can love the best and the worst in them, but I can't control their thoughts, words and actions.
And I begin to second-guess myself. Would our relationship be better if they had not been homeschooled? Were all those years of investment in them misguided? Should I have done something different with my time and energy? Would they be more humble if they had gone to school for junior high? (Certainly the low point of my own life.) Should I do things differently with my younger children? Am I the problem? Would they be better off in school?
Yes, it's been painful. It's been humbling. I have grieved in the most tender places of my heart, and I have burned with anger in the stony places. I have felt farther from God than I have in years, and I have felt closer, in the helpless, hopeless, wordless prayers that fill my times with Him right now.
And that's just dealing with normal stuff, folks. They're not into drugs or alcohol or getting pregnant or even getting tattoos, although Blondechick did get her belly button pierced for her 18th birthday (with our half-hearted blessing, which she wanted, even though the whole point was to do something she didn't need our permission to do!). Our teens are following God as well as they know how, and they are working hard in school. They struggle with being respectful and responsible at home, but they're not in open rebellion. It could be so much worse.
And yet, that day-to-day stuff has been so much harder than I expected.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
More Buchanan on Liturgy
Our most significant relationships and events have a liturgical shape to them. They have rites of passage. Birthdays and homecoming, graduations and goodbyes, Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter, birth and death and marriage: all are marked by words and actions, songs and symbols, customs and traditions that enact them and complete them. And all those things also provide us with a means of entering them. What is a birthday without a cake, at least one candle on it, and a huddle of well-wishers, wearing clownish hats, singing in their ragged, hoary voices?
What is a birthday without liturgy?
What liturgy accomplishes is nothing short of astonishing: It breaks open the transcendent within the ordinary and the everyday. It lets us glimpse a deeper reality--the timeless things, the universal ones, the things above--within the particular instance of it. (emphasis mine)
~Mark Buchanan
(from the Introduction to The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Mark Buchanan on Liturgy
(From the Introduction to The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath)
Liturgy. I chose that word with care.
I was converted within a Low Church tradition, where the building's walls are stark, the music simple, the prayers clumsy and direct, made up as you pray them. I have only ever belonged to that tradition. And so early on I picked up the tradition's historic suspicion of High Church, where God is approached through a sometimes elaborate system of symbol and ritual--robes and candles and prayer books and lectionaries--and almost everything is scripted.
That scripting is liturgy.
Yet over time I began to realize that the Low Church is just as bound by liturgy as any church, and maybe more so because we think we're not. The Low Church enshrines--makes a liturgy of--austerity, spontaneity, informality. And we have our unwritten but nonetheless rigorously observed codes and protocols. We love our traditions, even our rigmarole, every bit as much as the next guy, only ours is earthy, rustic, folksy.
So I changed my mind about liturgy. It certainly can become dull and rote, but so can anything--water polo, rose gardening, kite flying, even lovemaking. Even fly-fishing. Just as often, though, maybe more so, liturgy can enrich these things. At its best, liturgy comprises the gestures by which we honor transcendent reality. It helps us give concrete expression to deepest convictions. It gives us choreography for things unseen and allows us to brush heaven among the shades of earth.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
College News
I know some of you have been praying for us and our decision about Bantam19 returning to college next semester.
I know, because we've come to remarkable clarity on this issue: We are sending him back.
In my first conversation with his adviser, she wasn't sure if he could handle college. She's the one who first planted the suggestion that he might do better focusing on one course at a time. But in that first conversation, it was also a revelation to her that B19 has autism, though I thought she had been told that from the beginning, as I requested.
In our second conversation, after meeting with B19 several times to discuss his writing, she had a completely different take on him. This time she strongly encouraged me to give him another chance. She was frustrated, as we have been, that the support that he needed wasn't set up for him from the very beginning. She assured me that if he came back, he would have a very different experience.
That conversation alone seemed to strongly point toward allowing him to return. Oh, and regarding his weight gain from eating in the dining hall, she assured me that next semester, a Fitness major would be assigned to work out with him and in her words, "keep him on the straight and narrow." What else could we ask for?
Well, passing grades, we thought.
So when his grades were posted and he had pulled in two C+'s and a C, we were very pleased. If he can do that well without any support, in his first semester of college, we figure he can probably pass enough classes to graduate.
His Algebra grade is still not showing up, and we are all hoping for a D-. B19 doesn't speak Math. But his algebra teacher gave him hours of extra time on his final, and when he still wasn't done, she offered to come back in after the Christmas break had begun so that he could finish it. I couldn't believe it! Turns out she has an autistic son too. Her willingness to go the extra mile with him spoke to us. Another confirmation to give the kid another chance.
Finally, we received a couple of financial windfalls that just seemed like God saying, "What further objections could you have?"
So Papa Rooster is taking him back to school tonight. He has a MWF 8:00 class in the morning. (Something I managed to avoid ever taking when I was in college! But he's a better morning person than I am.)
It's been nice having him around for vacation. He's been helpful with dishes, and playing Legos with younger brothers, and even helped sort Barbies from Playmobil from Hot Wheels from K'nex. He also managed to lose 12 pounds in the last month, by avoiding dessert and carefully not eating till he was full, but only eating to put something in his stomach--his own discovery. He also used our treadmill almost daily, at least to walk for awhile, and he told me today that he's looking forward to an exercise routine and getting fit.
So we are really encouraged, in many ways, and I am eager to see how this second semester of college goes for him.
Thank you, those who have been praying for him, and for us.
Thank you, Lord, for such clear direction for his immediate future. Thank you for him, and for who he is, with all his eccentricities and delightful quirks. Thank you for such good relationships with his younger siblings, who will miss him. Bless him, Lord, with support and friendships and knowledge opening up before him. Give him diligence and perseverance, and teach him to communicate his needs and limit his distractions. Thank you, Lord, for loving and caring for him continually. Amen.
I know, because we've come to remarkable clarity on this issue: We are sending him back.
In my first conversation with his adviser, she wasn't sure if he could handle college. She's the one who first planted the suggestion that he might do better focusing on one course at a time. But in that first conversation, it was also a revelation to her that B19 has autism, though I thought she had been told that from the beginning, as I requested.
In our second conversation, after meeting with B19 several times to discuss his writing, she had a completely different take on him. This time she strongly encouraged me to give him another chance. She was frustrated, as we have been, that the support that he needed wasn't set up for him from the very beginning. She assured me that if he came back, he would have a very different experience.
That conversation alone seemed to strongly point toward allowing him to return. Oh, and regarding his weight gain from eating in the dining hall, she assured me that next semester, a Fitness major would be assigned to work out with him and in her words, "keep him on the straight and narrow." What else could we ask for?
Well, passing grades, we thought.
So when his grades were posted and he had pulled in two C+'s and a C, we were very pleased. If he can do that well without any support, in his first semester of college, we figure he can probably pass enough classes to graduate.
His Algebra grade is still not showing up, and we are all hoping for a D-. B19 doesn't speak Math. But his algebra teacher gave him hours of extra time on his final, and when he still wasn't done, she offered to come back in after the Christmas break had begun so that he could finish it. I couldn't believe it! Turns out she has an autistic son too. Her willingness to go the extra mile with him spoke to us. Another confirmation to give the kid another chance.
Finally, we received a couple of financial windfalls that just seemed like God saying, "What further objections could you have?"
So Papa Rooster is taking him back to school tonight. He has a MWF 8:00 class in the morning. (Something I managed to avoid ever taking when I was in college! But he's a better morning person than I am.)
It's been nice having him around for vacation. He's been helpful with dishes, and playing Legos with younger brothers, and even helped sort Barbies from Playmobil from Hot Wheels from K'nex. He also managed to lose 12 pounds in the last month, by avoiding dessert and carefully not eating till he was full, but only eating to put something in his stomach--his own discovery. He also used our treadmill almost daily, at least to walk for awhile, and he told me today that he's looking forward to an exercise routine and getting fit.
So we are really encouraged, in many ways, and I am eager to see how this second semester of college goes for him.
Thank you, those who have been praying for him, and for us.
Thank you, Lord, for such clear direction for his immediate future. Thank you for him, and for who he is, with all his eccentricities and delightful quirks. Thank you for such good relationships with his younger siblings, who will miss him. Bless him, Lord, with support and friendships and knowledge opening up before him. Give him diligence and perseverance, and teach him to communicate his needs and limit his distractions. Thank you, Lord, for loving and caring for him continually. Amen.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Dedication Service
January is our birthday month at Light of Christ, and yesterday, we celebrated four years as a mission church--by officially becoming a parish. It was a great occasion to pull out all the stops!
We had incense...
Bells (xylophone)...
Violin...
Guest musicians...
Assorted singers, including a children's choir...
Our teenagers leading us in worship...
Banners...
Flowers...
and a visit from our Bishop!
We officially installed Father Rooster, our acting vicar, as our new rector, with prayers, charges and symbolic gifts...
A warm handshake from our new senior warden...
And an embrace from our deacon, the man who founded Light of Christ...
...and who, in a previous life, was Father R's college roommate. Yup, they go waaay back. (And never, back then, could they have imagined this day!)
We ended with the usual recessional, led by our acolytes...
...and a not-so-usual recessional addition: the bagpipes! (and our children's choir)
[A side note: Early in our history, one of our spiritual fathers gave us a prophetic word: "The children will lead you." And they have led us in many ways. Our children lead us in numbers (they out-number the adults), they have been the first to go forward for prayer, our young acolytes lead us into and out of the sanctuary each week, and it was beautiful to have so many of our teens and children involved in our musical worship at this service. I don't know whose idea it was to have the children's choir join the recessional at this special service, but it brought tears to my eyes to see it! I think there is a lot more leadership coming from these young ones.]
Bringing up the rear, our new--and handsome--Rector...
...and our beloved Bishop.
Since he was here, we had Confirmations in the service too. That meant visitors and a fuller-than-usual congregation--even more celebratory!
One man who was being confirmed had invited family, but they were unable to attend. He said as he was feeling a moment of sadness, he sensed the Lord saying to him, "Do not despair, for your family is all around you." He says, " And as I looked, it was true, my family was there with me." It was so good to hear this testimony, and to share his feelings. There is such a sense of family and home at Light of Christ.
And...to heap celebration upon celebration, it was my birthday. What a great day of rejoicing for us all!
Photo credits: Nathan Jacobs
Thank you, Nathan!
We had incense...
Bells (xylophone)...
Violin...
Guest musicians...
Assorted singers, including a children's choir...
 |
| (B11 and Chicklet8 are there; and Father R's brother on the far right!) |
 |
| (This was B15's first time, and it sure warmed a mother's heart to see him up there singing with his sister.) |
Flowers...
and a visit from our Bishop!
We officially installed Father Rooster, our acting vicar, as our new rector, with prayers, charges and symbolic gifts...
A warm handshake from our new senior warden...
And an embrace from our deacon, the man who founded Light of Christ...
...and who, in a previous life, was Father R's college roommate. Yup, they go waaay back. (And never, back then, could they have imagined this day!)
We ended with the usual recessional, led by our acolytes...
(B15 doing double-duty, here as crucifer)
...and a not-so-usual recessional addition: the bagpipes! (and our children's choir)
Bringing up the rear, our new--and handsome--Rector...
...and our beloved Bishop.
Since he was here, we had Confirmations in the service too. That meant visitors and a fuller-than-usual congregation--even more celebratory!
One man who was being confirmed had invited family, but they were unable to attend. He said as he was feeling a moment of sadness, he sensed the Lord saying to him, "Do not despair, for your family is all around you." He says, " And as I looked, it was true, my family was there with me." It was so good to hear this testimony, and to share his feelings. There is such a sense of family and home at Light of Christ.
And...to heap celebration upon celebration, it was my birthday. What a great day of rejoicing for us all!
Photo credits: Nathan Jacobs
Thank you, Nathan!
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Falling Into Place
This Sunday is our big day at Light of Christ! As you may remember, we've had a timeline of events that have had to fall into place, leading up to this week, when we officially become a parish.
On this week's agenda:
Annual meeting (check)
Vote for By-Laws (check)
Vote on Vestry members (check)
First Vestry meeting to interview potential rector and his wife (check)
Vestry decision to call a rector (check)
Special Sunday service: Dedication of a Parish, Installation of a Rector, Confirmations (coming up!)
On my personal to-do list for the next 21 hours:
Change sheets on guest bed for Bishop and Mrs. Bishop
Plan three meals for the Bishops, make grocery list, go to grocery, and cook
Make sure 4 kids know their musical parts for Sunday
Mete out cleaning chores to deserving children
Leave up Christmas decorations till after this weekend
Homeschooling and piano lessons
Laundry
Guess I better get some sleep, if I'm going to accomplish all that by the Bishop's arrival on Friday evening!
Happy Epiphany, everyone!!
On this week's agenda:
Annual meeting (check)
Vote for By-Laws (check)
Vote on Vestry members (check)
First Vestry meeting to interview potential rector and his wife (check)
Vestry decision to call a rector (check)
Special Sunday service: Dedication of a Parish, Installation of a Rector, Confirmations (coming up!)
On my personal to-do list for the next 21 hours:
Change sheets on guest bed for Bishop and Mrs. Bishop
Plan three meals for the Bishops, make grocery list, go to grocery, and cook
Make sure 4 kids know their musical parts for Sunday
Mete out cleaning chores to deserving children
Leave up Christmas decorations till after this weekend
Homeschooling and piano lessons
Laundry
Guess I better get some sleep, if I'm going to accomplish all that by the Bishop's arrival on Friday evening!
Happy Epiphany, everyone!!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Thank You!
Wow.
All you blessed souls who commented on my "Five Years" post--some of you for the first time--I can't thank you enough for your kind and encouraging words!
You have inspired me, all over again, and just when I need it most. I especially appreciated hearing what you all enjoy reading. Lately, it's been so easy to think, "Oh, who wants to read another book review, or another post about my kids, or parenting, or our church? Folks probably are getting bored. Other bloggers have more and better things to say."
And then I start thinking about what we're going to have for dinner. Or notice how all the kids have disappeared without doing their chores. Or check Facebook. And leave posting for another day.
So thank you. Your words have started my words flowing already--in my head, anyway--on a couple of topics that I've really been blocked on, as well as a dozen other things I could write about. Now, to find the time...but the inspiration is a gift to me!
Comments are still open on "Five Years," if you wish to add yours!
All you blessed souls who commented on my "Five Years" post--some of you for the first time--I can't thank you enough for your kind and encouraging words!
You have inspired me, all over again, and just when I need it most. I especially appreciated hearing what you all enjoy reading. Lately, it's been so easy to think, "Oh, who wants to read another book review, or another post about my kids, or parenting, or our church? Folks probably are getting bored. Other bloggers have more and better things to say."
And then I start thinking about what we're going to have for dinner. Or notice how all the kids have disappeared without doing their chores. Or check Facebook. And leave posting for another day.
So thank you. Your words have started my words flowing already--in my head, anyway--on a couple of topics that I've really been blocked on, as well as a dozen other things I could write about. Now, to find the time...but the inspiration is a gift to me!
Comments are still open on "Five Years," if you wish to add yours!
Monday, January 03, 2011
Five Years
Well, friends, family and readers...
old and new...
faithful or sporadic...
...At A Hen's Pace just turned FIVE years old!
Five years ago, New Year's Eve seemed like an auspicious time to start a blog. It's one of my few New Year's "resolutions" that ever really stuck.
In the last two years, I've had to slow down the hen's pace to just weekly or biweekly scratchings. And the hen doesn't get around much anymore (to other's blogs), to my own disadvantage and disappointment.
Still, better at a hen's pace than not at all, eh?
Many readers have stuck with me since the beginning...and new readers have come along...all encouraging me to keep going. Because as much as I enjoy writing for posterity--as a record of our family's activities and what God is doing in our lives--it's a lot more fun writing for an audience!
old and new...
faithful or sporadic...
...At A Hen's Pace just turned FIVE years old!
Five years ago, New Year's Eve seemed like an auspicious time to start a blog. It's one of my few New Year's "resolutions" that ever really stuck.
In the last two years, I've had to slow down the hen's pace to just weekly or biweekly scratchings. And the hen doesn't get around much anymore (to other's blogs), to my own disadvantage and disappointment.
Still, better at a hen's pace than not at all, eh?
Many readers have stuck with me since the beginning...and new readers have come along...all encouraging me to keep going. Because as much as I enjoy writing for posterity--as a record of our family's activities and what God is doing in our lives--it's a lot more fun writing for an audience!
SO--to help celebrate my fifth "blogiversary"--leave me a comment!
I've disabled the spam detection step, to make it as quick and easy as possible.
Just say where you're from, if nothing else, but it's also nice to hear what kind of posts you enjoy. I love suggestions!
Blessings, friends! Thank you all!!
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