Catching Our Breath

Since last posting, we attended our denomination's annual presbytery meeting in Peoria, Illinois--and had a great time! Special thanks to the hospitality of this family, to a lot of food and more fellowship added in from this family, and to the Peoria church planning such a good time for us all.

We ate, we talked, we played games, we talked, we enjoyed music, we talked, we danced, we talked, we went to Wildlife Prairie Park, we talked, we read, we talked. And did I mention that we talked? We met lots of new folks, and look forward to staying in contact with them and seeing them again, as well as meeting still more in the future.

Here are a few pics from presbytery weekend.

Playing and singing at the Evans home

The Riggenbachs, some of whom Keith and the girls had met 3+ years ago at a Father/Daughter Retreat in Georgia. They live just down the road from the Evans family and attend church with them.

Some of our TN folks on the train at Wildlife Prairie Park

Ditto

Mr. Pickles of Arizona making up a square for a dance--with seven small youngsters--all probably 5yo and under, I'd say. I agree with our pastor's wife, who said, "Now THERE'S a man."

I love this one, of Keith and our 17yo dancing together (He's in the white shirt; she's in the blue dress)--as well as including the best-dressed man there (and a good dancer, too, I understand!)

More dancing--from TN and CA, this time

Sheri and Cara

Impromptu music with Jeremy...

...and dancing on the lawn

5yo really likes slides

This weekend, we spent up in our church's area, taking advantage once again of the hospitality of this family. We also got to know one of the families from California that was in Peoria last weekend, since they were visiting this family for a few days. And what a pleasure they are. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them a bit.

This weekend's events included a recital that our 15yod participated in, a birthday celebration for our pastor and one of his sons, a movie night ("National Treasure 2"), soccer for some, and of course worship and fellowship on Sunday, as well as a celebration of a couple more birthdays.

Those actually involved in the recital. They all did a great job. As well as I know most of these, I didn't even know some of them played, and they did difficult pieces beautifully!

After the recital, at the Harvest Grill

Oh, yes, and I made mozzarella and ricotta with my pastor's wife, who has done it a few times. I'm looking forward to doing it here, now. Both cheeses were delicious!

Two great weekends. Now we're looking forward to next weekend, when we'll have a guest pastor, and he and some (or hopefully all) of his family will be spending the weekend fellowshipping with our church.

In between, we worked on academics (officially nearing the end of this "year") and chores. Did some good garden work. The girls finished their formal dresses, including the one 17yo designed herself.

15yo in her formal, after the recital in which she participated

17yo in the gown she designed

ahmmmm...a friend, after the recital (in which he did not participate)

Gramps and "Brown Sugar" celebrating some birthdays

Some of the other birthday partiers Saturday evening

Lovely cake and decorator for Sunday's birthday celebration

Happy birthday, you two!

I fixed the Swiss chard, pretty much according to this recipe. It was really pretty good!

Mary Susan

BTW, I've always been tolerant of it, and understand where the concern might come from, but those folks who think homeschooled children have a socialization problem really don't have a clue, do they? Over the past two weeks, we've been in crowds with an age range from less than 1yo to close to 81, I'd say, and there just doesn't seem to be a problem. No, to be more precise, there ISN'T a problem. All the folks interact with each other, no matter what the age. It's beautiful! And for your FYI (as Chesley says), these circumstances are not unusual for our kids and families. As in any crowd, some are less talkative than others, but communication among all the ages is no problem. As Keith said this weekend, these kids are lightyears ahead of where we and our then-peers were at their age! (and I'd say that's true not only in communication skills, but in all areas of life!) All praise and thanks to God!!!

Happenings

Pastoral headache

About a week ago, our pastor and his family came for a two-day visit. (We live 2.5 hrs away from church; not an ideal situation, but well worth the drive there and back for worship and fellowship. One-anothering is a bit more difficult, but we try.)

They did some good work for us: helping clean out the barn, weed-eating, milking, painting, etc. And Keith and the pastor built some drawers for the pastors' daughters' closet.

Only one injury worth mentioning--our 5yo tumbled forward off a flying turtle. Great "toy," and he does well on it, normally, but went headlong this time into the concrete, resulting in a fat lip, a scab below his nose and a slight one on his chin. A couple of drink-spills, and that was it for mishaps.

The fat lip was gone by the time this picture was taken a few days later.

Anyway, it was great to have them here, as always, and it's so nice now to see the trim in the kitchen and dining room painted, the pond area trimmed, and the barn cleaned out!

This past weekend, my sister came for a visit, which thankfully is not unusual. We celebrated Mother's Day as well as our father's birthday. We (my sister, 5yo son, and I) also had the...um...the opportunity, I'll say, to celebrate a 4yo friend's birthday--at Chuck E. Cheese's, about an hour away from here. Can you say "sensory overload"? Good folks, and it was good to see them, although not much socializing went on; just too loud there to hardly even talk with someone right next to you! But good to see them all, anyway.

The garden is beginning to produce. We've been eating asparagus, strawberries, lettuce, onions. And I believe more lettuces are ready, now, as well as Swiss chard, which I've never fixed or even eaten. I've looked up how to fix it and am looking forward to trying it.

We've spent a lot of time in the garden this week. In addition to picking strawberries, we've also pretty much finished up the planting for now, and I spent a lot of time yesterday cultivating and thinning out some of the crops. I'm looking forward to seeing how some of our stuff turns out. I feel like our upper garden this year is pretty much experimental. My parents have had a garden--the "lower" garden, here--for years, and we can always count on good stuff from there, but last year we started another one, where we are trying to keep away from fertilizers, pesticides, genetically altered seed, etc. We did this last year, but were quite lax from the start; we're trying to be more diligent this year. Thus far, we're doing much better than last year.

Mary Susan

More Music!

We just got home from hearing some great bluegrass, and it was, oh-so-good to hear it again!

It's been awhile since we've been able to get anywhere to hear (or for the kids to participate in) some good pickin'. But at 15yo's fiddle lesson this week, her teacher, the awesome Tom Brantley, told us about a fundraiser tonight at the community center (for the center) near his home, where dinner would be served, and he and some of his friends would be playing. So we actually managed to get there this time. (He often tells us about events that we just don't seem to be able to get to!)

Dinner was typical (burgers, dogs, or chicken sandwiches; baked beans; potato salad or chips; various desserts made by the local folks). The music that followed was fantastic, as we've come to expect from Tom and his friends.

Tom had his wife sing a number with him and a couple of others, and even had our 15yo daughter come up and play "Going Up Big Sandy" and "Harvest Hornpipe" with them, and, like old times at the Pickin' Parlor, sing "Blue Moon of Kentucky." These were great, as were the rest of the numbers--and the finale was phenomenal: "Orange Blossom Special," with Tom on fiddle, Jackie Miller (a Gibson rep who also plays fiddle with the Reno Brothers) on mandolin; Tyler Anderson on banjo (one of the many instruments he plays; he's a member of the Soul Pickers, but if you follow the link and go to the bios on the website, the picture of him doesn't look at all like him; I passed it up looking for him!); Richard Starkey (a Martin rep; the link is one of many when you search for him; this one is a youtube video of him performing a song in a shop, it looks like) on guitar; and Cindy Miller (Jackie's wife) on bass. It was incredible.

We've got to get out to these events more often!!

Mary Susan

Singing the Psalms

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month. And that means that we'll have a Psalm/Hymn Sing after church. And that's nice.

This is a time when attendees (don't have to be a member of our church) have a chance to sing Psalms and hymns together, to learn parts to at least one, to sing a piece that one or more of them have prepared, to recite passages of scripture they've prepared, etc. It's a neat time.

We've only sung the Psalms since attending this church (or rather, the church from which this one was planted) about 2.5 years ago. I can remember someone I used to know who was a church organist and had attended college for church music: she knew many of the Psalms because of all the music she'd had to learn--sometimes, without even knowing they were Psalms!

So now, our family is learning many of the Psalms because we actually sing them at church. And why not? I mean, the book of Psalms is, basically, a hymnal, right? And the music on so many of them is lovely--especially when we learn the parts, under the able and much-appreciated direction of TJ. Singing the Psalms is so worshipful, and adds greatly to our worship services. The act of worship has come to mean so much to me, and I so look forward to the service each Sunday.

A practical bonus: Our pianist has recently begun to turn over the playing responsibilities for the one special Psalm/hymn of the month--the one we learn parts on for that month--to some of the younger folks in the church, thus giving them more experience in playing in different situations.

Mary Susan