Excitement!

There've been several exciting things happen these past weeks.

Today is another snow day for town -- the YMCA closed -- so I'm spending my time on the computer today instead of walking the treadmill with Christy.

There is good work to be done on the computer. Amy and Tina at Blue Sky Daisies and
Twila are working hard to get this Charlotte Mason book out the door, which, for me means, read and tweak, read and tweak! 

I started researching for this project around the time of Grandma Phoebe's funeral (2018) because I remember talking to some family about it. So it's been a bit; it's thrilling to see it coming together for the Spring!

The big snow we had a couple of weeks ago gave me opportunity to do some wilderness trekking. Doesn't this snow remind you of sand dunes? Or undisturbed sediment on a river bottom?

I walked down the north field in Harrison's snow boots. I didn't make it to the main road (I think that's about a mile) even though I was plenty warm. Turns out it wasn't cold on the way north. But the way south was against the wind, and my ears were not as protected as they could have been. Brrr. 

Jonathan bought a film camera at a garage sale and these four pictures are some of the ones he got back from his first roll of film. 

Jonathan in silhouette. 

(Guess how many tries it took me to spell silhouette. 

Too many.)

The beautiful Gabry.

Snow angels in the big snow.

He did a good job photographing.

Some of the other excitement last week was our friend Emmey Harris on Collegiate Jeopardy!! We were over-the-moon excited to watch her compete. She came back from negative money (I think it was -$600) to win the round! She will be on ABC again Friday night (tomorrow) for the Semifinals, or you can watch it on Hulu the next night (which is what we'll have to do, so I'm not going to get on Facebook all day Saturday so I can be surprised when we watch it.) 

(Hopefully I'll remember to stay off Facebook.) 

(Please remind me if you see me on Facebook, that I need to stay off so I can be surprised.)

This is Emmey and Elizabeth at our house in Iowa with Emmey's dad Cody. 

Sha babies!

And the other excitement last week was attending Super Start with Harrison and the youth group. The excitement describes the feelings of the all of the youths at this event and not necessarily the feelings of the adults at this event. If you love loud noises, spot lights shining in your eyes, and sleeping on cold gym floors, then this event is for you!

Actually, I had a really good time. A friend (Brittany) and I got to go together, so that definitely upped the quality of the weekend. 

Also, look at these sweet faces. 

Before each session would start, there would be 5 minutes of count-down screaming. 

Five full minutes.

Of screaming. 

The event knew us though; they provided earplugs.

I asked Harrison what his favorite part was. He said it was Small Group time. Super Start had an app for the phone so that Small Group was interactive (brave of the youth ministers to pass their phone around to 4-6th graders though 😳). 

Brittany's daughter Bonnie.

Breakfast at Krispy Kreme! 

After a cold, restless night, a large caramel latte hit the spot. Mike (our youth minister) had it worse than we girls did though; he had a boy with a stomachache up a good portion of the night. Nothing that didn't pass though; thank goodness it wasn't the flu!

Brittany and I.

One of our girls had her birthday that Saturday, so she got to go up on stage and receive a gift.

CIY does Super Start. They do know how to put on a fun time for the kids. And they shared the Gospel; several times in different ways. 

Our group taking a picture with two of the stage actors. They were funny and the kids thought they were really cool. 

Lunch at Incredible Pizza in St. Louis. 

Harrison's favorite game at the arcade was Star Wars.

We always super appreciate the youth leaders we've had in our lives. They do the crazy, fun, tiring stuff for our kids. They teach them the Bible alongside us. 

We've always had great ones: Levi, Danny, Richard, others here and there, and now Mike. 

This is a favorite dessert of Jonathan's. I made it for Valentine's Day for the family. 

Strawberry Pretzel Dessert. 

Weirdos. 

Every time we open the kitchen door, they attack the back porch door begging for food.

See. We feed them.

Soft foggy Sunrise. 

Naturally gaussian blurred.

 

Snow Days

Everything shut down for the big snow this past week. At the beginning of the week, the town turned out to fill up with gas, stock up on groceries, and run errands. And it turned out that the town knew what it was about. 

We had two days of most everything being closed. Since we homeschool and Phillip works from home, not too much was different for us. We still did school and work. We just couldn't go to the Y or the coffee shop or meet up with friends. Not that we could have driven out of here even if those places had been open. 

Mr. R had our driveway and lane cleared once the snow stopped (thank you so much!); then Jon was able to go to work, Phillip met with a friend for lunch, I took Harrison to birthday parties, etc. 

This was a dry, blowy snow. 

So we have large patches of grass in our yard and then tall snow drifts against the house and shed. 

What I especially love about snow right now, is that the kids can get themselves dressed for it. And then enjoy it with me watching from a window. I'm glad they have each other to play with. Harrison did have to bribe Phoebe the second day. He promised to play poker with her if she would go outside with him. And then Jon just joined in after he saw them out there.

Jon is a good older brother. He's helping Harrison get all the snow off in the sink. 

The first day I had grilled cheese and tomato soup waiting for them when they came in from the snow. The second day they cooked whatever it was they were hungry for. Phoebe made Mac and Cheese. Jon made pancakes and bacon for him and Harrison. I probably had boudin' that my parents gave me. (Does anyone around here like boudin'?) Phillip has been liking nachos for supper lately. 

"he can skip rocks so i feel pretty lucky" 

😂

I swiped this picture from Elizabeth's Instagram. 

This led to a whole discussion amongst the family about men and sports. Phoebe thought Jon and Dad were going to be okay since Dad had played t-ball and basketball (and is already taken) and Jonathan had played soccer. But she turned on Harrison, who was insistent he would never play sports, and said, "How are girls gonna be attracted to you if you don't play any sports?!" 

And he retorted, finger in air: "Knowledge!" 

And then it resorted to everyone agreeing that Harrison already has no problem endearing himself to the girls, and Harrison wished for a broken nose so that the girls wouldn't say he was 'adorable', and Phoebe told him that would only make him more ruggedly handsome so just deal with it.

All of that from Liz's adorable instagram picture of her and Amos.

This landscape has me imagining a trek to the South Pole. I cannot imagine walking through this icy cold knowing that your respite was going to be a tent you had to set up and a fire you had to make yourself. If that's even how South Pole trekking goes. 

Brrrr. I'm glad I just have to trek from a warm vehicle to my warm house. I have to admit the adventure of it is a little romantic though.

 

A Weekend Full of Kids

Phillip and I got to take a few days to get away to Joplin. We had purpose in going there, but it's a fun way for just the two of us to be together as well. 

We packed up and said goodbye to the kids and spent the morning at His Place coffee shop in town. You really can't beat their biscuits and gravy! The owner told us the secret to the gravy, but I won't betray him by giving it away online. 

Phillip's been working on Restoration History lessons on the weekends, so after we had breakfast, he worked on those and I read about Calvin Coolidge for a possible upcoming project. 

Then we left for Joplin.

Elizabeth came to have pizza with us in the hotel room after she got off of work. 

It was so good to see her!

Jonathan wanted to FaceTime before she left. Boys being goofy.

We went to her two classes the next morning. This one is Timothy and Titus.

This one is Gospel of John. 

They were both excellent classes. It made me miss my Bible college days. Phillip said he enjoyed taking the class knowing he wouldn't have to type up notes or study for a test or write a paper.

Doug Welch taught Gospel of John and he started his class with an art study segment on a painting of John the Baptist. And then Elizabeth told us he doesn't give tests, but he has students write out every week what they remember. I wonder if he's familiar with Charlotte Mason? 

And he had an excellent observation from John 1:21 when John the Baptist was asked if he was Messiah or Elijah. He said, "I am not." (side note: juxtapose that with Jesus' "I Am" statements later in the gospel.)

 Mr. Welch was telling the class to make that verse ("I am not") their theme for ministry. He said, 

"Ministry doesn't pay well......

..........unless your currency is affirmation." 

Oh, how true I have found that to be! It's okay to appreciate affirmation; some of us are wired up that way. But there are a lot of pitfalls that go along with it, and ministers would do well to be aware so they can avoid them.

Anyway, great classes; I envy Liz (slightly).

We went out to lunch with Elizabeth and then went to see her parking garage art that we had not seen yet.

She had work to do, so we again went to a coffee shop to work on our projects.

And the whole reason for our trip was to meet Amos! 

We went out to brunch and spent several hours getting to know him. 

He's so great! He and Elizabeth met last summer, I believe (?). He's a youth minister in Oklahoma and works with CIY during the summers. He was raised in a homeschool family, does photography, videography, enjoys theology, and is very easy to talk to. The two of them are sweet together. We enjoyed our visit!

And then today was Youth Sunday at church where the kids and teens helped lead the service. The youth crowd that usually sits up in the balcony was asked to come down and sit in the pews, and a troop of middle school boys followed Harrison to our bench. They were well-behaved, attentive young men!

Kevin (the song leader today) had the younger kids come up on stage and lead some songs. Then Jackson Franke did an excellent job leading in some camp songs. 

I told one of the older girls that she did a good job standing up there singing, and she told me she had been embarrassed. I asked her why she stayed up there then (most of the other kids had left the stage). She said, "I wanted to encourage the little kids to stay on stage and sing." I told her I was proud of her for having courage. 

Jonathan did the communion meditation! This was his first time speaking in front of a real crowd. He spent a lot of time preparing and practicing. We were very proud of him! You can see the service at this YouTube link: Youth Service. Jonathan is at the 17:00 mark.

And Kemper Franke (the preacher's youngest son) preached for us. I think this was his first time in front of a "real" crowd also. He's given this message in shorter versions with the youth group and at camp. Another great job! 

And then the youth served us a meal for lunch and cleaned up afterward (meal service was Phoebe's part, but I did not get a picture! Sorry, Phoebes). I love that these young people get a chance to practice service and participation in all areas of the church. 

 

A Taste of Real Winter

We've had some reminders of what Real Winter is like up here in the Midwest. Of course Missouri doesn't get it as bad as someplaces like Wisconsin or Montana. 

Winter isn't the favorite season for any of us, I don't think (although Phoebe would prefer to freeze than to sweat, so this might be her preference). So much about it is confining instead of freeing. Plus, there are so many ways to die. 😜

But I'm enjoying the community spirit about it around Vandalia. Everyone is in the same boat ~ we all have to get out of our driveway; we all have to wear long johns and hats and gloves; we all have the heat turned up. Maybe it's my temperament, but I enjoy being "in" things together with others. Even if those things include bitter cold weather. And this is our first winter back, so I may very well be bemoaning the cold in a few years. But right now, I'm enjoying the change of having snow and the community spirit surrounding it.

Phillip had his 47th birthday a few weeks ago. We celebrated with Boston Cream Pie like we usually do. 

A church friend came over to visit for a warm afternoon right before the snow came. She lives only a couple of miles away in a house that was owned by Phillip's great uncle back in the day. It's a stately home with a wrought iron fence surrounding it; I love driving by it going into town.

We got about 4 inches of snow last weekend. Phillip took this picture of our house from the mailbox.

Harrison woke up to the snow and he came running out to Phillip: "At first I thought my window had frosted over. Then I noticed the water pump had snow on it! We should take a picture of the house from the lane!" He was very excited. The kids have all played out there together. And I got on Amazon to order water proof gloves and boots and a mud rug.

Jonathan had to work, so he didn't get to "play" in the snow until it was almost evening.

He named his "snowman" Doug. Elizabeth texted, "That's terrifying." That was more of the reaction he wanted instead of the "Ohhh, he's so cute!" that he got from the youth group girls. I thought Doug looked a little like the Michelin Man.

Sunset.

Phillip and Jamie are teaching Restoration History at church on Sunday nights. 

Last Sunday night was their first session, and they did an excellent job. There's so much I've forgotten from my college classes! 

Phillip and Phoebe playing velcro darts in the boy's room.

Cocoa and toast is our cozy winter evening tradition when we're all at home and a little bit bored.