Destry's High School Graduation

Well, I've given up on getting my blog caught up, but Destry's graduation was such a wonderful day that I want to make sure it is recorded.  Then my blog will just have a big hole from the summer of 2016. 

One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that your child's education is personalized, and their graduation ceremony can be personalized as well.  While Briana wanted a simple ceremony at our home with outdoor games and fellowship for her celebration, Destry decided to combine his graduation with a senior recital since his music has been such a large part of his high school years.  His friend, Brandon, is also a musician who plays both acoustic and electric guitar and his mother, Alana, is a dear friend, so we decided to celebrate them together.

We rented the auditorium of a local community college and more than 300 people came to celebrate the conclusion of this season with these two young men.

Destry and Brandon

The young men took turn performing their pieces.  Destry played Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin and Clair De Lune by Debussy on the piano.

Brandon played Amazing Grace, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, and Acoustic in G on his guitars.  They also performed one piece together, E minor instrumental, with Brandon on the electric guitar and Destry on the piano.

On the violin, Destry played Bach's Partita 2 in D minor, Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabanda, and Giga as well as Beethoven's Romanze Opus 50, Adagio cantabile.

Most of their senior recital can be watched here.

After their senior recital was over, we got to watch the slide shows they had put together, then we parents said a few words, conferred their diplomas, and gave them our blessing.  Alan "called Destry out" as he had done previously at ages 13 and 18 as a man of good character, hard work, and one who thinks, in the presence of all our friends and family and declared him his "beloved son in whom I am well pleased."  He also worded a blessing upon him based on Philippians 1:9-11:

 "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.  That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

Everyone was invited to stay for a taco bar and the unique desserts chosen by the guests of honor--Brandon chose homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk while Destry chose ice cream sandwiches. No graduation cake for these two, they chose desserts as unique as they are.

Me with my friend Alana--happy after a successful day celebrating our boys.

It was a wonderful, wonderful day.  We've poured our hearts into these guys, and we're looking forward to seeing what the Lord does both in them and through them throughout their lives.

Savor: April

This is such a season for savoring, and April brought many more moments to savor.

Because. . .of course! BOOKS!  Sharing book with family--even better!  I snapped a picture of Alan reading Robinson Crusoe to the kids--I love how engrossed they are.  And Tyrell "reading" to Aryana was too precious to resist.

I got to go to another Beth Moore conference with my sister and my sister-in-law.  This is such a great annual tradition, a time of renewal and great fellowship. . .

and laughter.  Always lots of laughter.  (I totally busted Marcy stealing Andes mints from the bathroom of the fancy restaurant.  giggle)  And Shayla and I introduced Marcy to sushi.  I KNEW she would love it!!!

I so treasure these girls, and our relationships!

A first with our friends, Troy and Caren, we tried out a local movie theater that serves a meal during the movie!  How FUN is that?!

More savoring with Kiana, she read her first chapter book ALL BY HERSELF--a Magic Tree House tale.  She was SO tickled.  She has also been having some fun experimenting with her hair.  She wanted to get it straightened, so I let her get it done (no chemicals, just a flat iron).  It was cute, but I like her curls better.  She did too.  She was soon in tears, "I miss my curls".  I'm glad she decided she loves the curly hair the Lord blessed her with.  treasuring. . .

I'm so thankful for Kidan who occasionally pitches in to help me with a hairstyle.  She is so much faster (and BETTER) than I am, and this style was particularly cute.

And finally, Destry's last concert as concertmaster with the Des Moines Youth Symphony, his last high school performance.  After all these years of running him to lessons and rehearsals. . .

savoring. . .

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

I enjoyed this book very much, lots of great tidbits to ponder as Pausch shared his last lecture knowing he had just months left to live. He was a visionary man who focused on his childhood dreams and how he had lived those dreams even in his relatively short life and used this venue to leave behind a piece of himself and some words of wisdom for his three children ages 5 and under. I borrowed this from the library, but am considering picking a copy up to give my son as he ventures off to college and into life on his own.

Some great quotes:

"The instinct in our house was never to sit around like slobs and wonder. We knew a better way: Open the encyclopedia. Open the dictionary. Open your mind" (22).

(It's a good thing to be criticized and corrected) "because when you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you" (37).

"Shatner was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn't know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn't want to leave until he understood. That's heroic to me" (45).

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something" (52).

"It's such a shame that people perceive you as being so arrogant, because it's going to limit what you're going to be able to accomplish in life" (68).

"The only way any of us can improve is if we develop a real ability to assess ourselves. If we can't accurately do that, how can we tell if we're getting better or worse?" (112).

"I know you're smart. But everyone here is smart. Smart isn't enough. The kind of people I want on my research team (or anywhere) are those who will help everyone else feel happy to be here" (118).

"When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it's really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do" (146).

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted" (148).

Aryana Joy Age 2

Two years old. The years can fly by, even as the days seem long, so it seems a little strange to think that she turned two in April.

Aryana is a dainty little thing at barely 20 pounds, but there is a whole lot of person in that little body!  She is very verbal, the most verbal any of my kids have been, knocking big sister Briana out of that status.  Over and over again, people look at me in surprise at her sentences and say she sounds like a three-year-old.

She is definitely a mommy's girl, needing to be near me every moment, even to the point of yes, still having her time in momma's sling.  Perhaps that is part of why she loves playing mommy with dolls and stuffed animals, wearing them in her little sling.

She also loves to be outside and play with all the animals, from baby lambs to baby chicks, cats, dogs. . .she doesn't care. It's so cute to see the lambs following her around.

She is absolutely the most "MORNING PERSON" I have ever met.  She gets up in the 5 o'clock hour every morning and is just the happiest person you have ever seen.  She sleeps great, goes to bed willingly (with her little dog "Rosie"), she is just ready to go in the wee hours of the morning.  Someday I am going to use this to my advantage and she can make breakfast for the family while I sleep until 7 am.  wink

All settled into her "big girl bed", moving from the crib to a toddler bed.

HAPPY, HAPPY second birthday, you precious little cutie.  You are aptly named as joy simply emanates from within you.  May you trust in your Heavenly Father as the source of Joy throughout your life.

Dr. Seuss Party 2016

I realize Dr. Seuss's birthday, and our party celebrating him, was back in March.  But we're playing a quick game of  "catch-up-the-blog." This was the third Dr. Seuss party we've had over the years. I had the first one when Briana and Destry were little, then another one three years ago when Easton and Kiana were 5 and 6. When another homeschooling mom mentioned that she would like to do one but didn't have the house for it, I decided to do it again. Easton, Kiana, and Tyrell were 9, 8, and 5. The perfect ages.

Tabitha, Carrie, and Tami brought their kids over along with fun ideas and snacks. Sara's children, unfortunately, got sick so they weren't able to come.

We made books of their footprints, 

fish crafts (with glitter! My kids NEVER get to do that!),

read books, played games,

And ate a themed lunch: pizza pockets, fish sticks, green deviled eggs, ham, goldfish crackers, and fish swimming in hello water.

 It was lots of fun once again. I'm so thankful for friends who pitch in to make fun memories like these.

Savor: March

Since this post was sitting in my drafts folder, I will go ahead and post this reflection of what I savored in March. Once again, it was mostly about relationships (with a big accomplishment thrown in). 

Friendship.

I am a friendship sort of person.  Some people don't seem to need many friends, but I do.  I thoroughly enjoy my people, and this month I got to savor some special moments with special people.

Dear friends John and Amber and their children spent a weekend with us.

My friend Misti made a pitstop on her way from Delaware to Montana.  We were both so excited to spend the evening together that we couldn't even look like semi-normal people!

"Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold."

John and Amber and Misti have been friends for many years.  But I am also savoring the development of newer friendships.  Tami, left above, is a new friend and I am treasuring our growing friendship.

I pulled together a few other couples and we did one of those nights where an artist walked us step-by-step through painting a picture.  It was an absolute blast!

 Neither Alan nor I have a gift for painting, but we had a lot of fun and I treasure this memory.  The "lovebirds" hang above the sink in my kitchen.

A night out with the kids to eat sushi.  

A rare Sunday afternoon with just my big kids.  We slipped out to watch London Has Fallen, a one-guy-takes-on-100-and-wins sort of action flick.  These two are busy living their own lives, which is as it should be, but I savor the moments they share with Mom.

And finally, I treasured Kiana's excitement this month as she joyfully announced that she just read this story in a Highlights magazine ALL BY HERSELF!  Learning to read has been challenging for her, but she didn't give up, and this was her first experience with the joy of reading. I had to snap a picture as I savored this moment with tears in my eyes.

Mere Motherhood

Mere Motherhood: Morning times, nursery rhymes, and my journey toward sanctification by Cindy Rollins

I loved this book!

Oh, it wasn't amazing, I must admit. It's a memoir from Cindy's 30 years of homeschooling, not a how-to-homeschool book, so don't open it expecting that. And really, for a memoir, it's frustratingly vague. Yet I understand her desire to protect her children's identities and not "air the family's dirty laundry". It's not always a fascinating read, but it was like a warm conversation with a good friend--an encouraging breath of sweet fresh air. I've been homeschooling for 16 years, so that's long enough to read between the lines of the various trends (good and bad) in the homeschooling movement that Cindy lived through.

I wouldn't have gotten as much out of it even just five years ago. I daresay this is not the best book for a younger, newer homeschooling mama. She likely won't appreciate it as much. There are things we simply don't know that we don't know until we get there. But maybe reading it will help her connect the dots when the time comes. And I came away both encouraged and inspired.

I chuckled aloud several times as I read, especially as she gently poked fun at herself: "Each morning we sang a new hymn, verse by verse. . .I was a bit neurotic about learning all the verses. Now I know that is called self-righteousness" (46) and "Obviously we weren't in the the habit of buying horses; we just read books about horses" (50) and after having drugs the first time for her ninth and final delivery "I would never be an obnoxious mother-in-law bragging that I had ALL my babies naturally" (64). LOL I thoroughly enjoyed her voice.

I also loved the way she sprinkled Scripture throughout (in her own voice, no quotation marks) and her frequent but casual references to great stories like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. She is definitely a book-lover.

In a nutshell, Cindy's book shares three main ideas (among other smaller ones) she has learned in her homeschooling journey: 1) It's easy to let our relationships with our children become idols in our hearts. 2) Be careful not to take too much credit or too much blame for the successes and failures of your children. 3) Motherhood is a tool for our sanctification.

She shares things that worked, and things that didn't. She warns those of us in the trenches not to make mistakes she made. She transparently shares the joys and struggles of various seasons, including her current season during which she has moved and no one knows the "former her" who homeschooled nine children but now see her with only her last child almost ready to leave the nest. (wouldn't that be so weird?!)

There were so many great nuggets sprinkled throughout. I could definitely chat this one out side-by-side in a couple of red chairs! I'll try to limit myself to just a few quotes:

"Motherhood is sanctification. Perhaps way more sanctification than you ever bargained for. . .There is no trite way to explain the heart-wrenching joys and sorrows you have seen. There is no way to warn the mommy next door or your daughter-in-law. It is a walk of joy that often includes the tearing off of the old dragon skin one painful layer at a time, made all the worse because you didn't even know you were wearing dragon skin. No one ever does" (ix). 

"my lifelong pattern of hanging out with people who are smarter than me" (89). (I try to do this too!!) 

"I suppose that I should have raked in a lot of wisdom and knowledge, and yet, the further up and further in I go the less sure I am about what I know. I know a lot less today than I did thirty-five years ago. . .After all these years, I don't know as much as I thought I did, but I hope that makes what I do know more valuable" (135). 

(about reading aloud) "When we cannot escape ourselves, we can escape to other worlds together"(139). 

"It seemed that I had worked passionately for nineteen years on a beautiful product and, in the end, he had become something entirely different than I intended. I did not recognize him at all. How could I go on creating beautiful pottery pieces if they weren't going to turn out as I had intended or hoped? Until one day I had an epiphany. I was not the potter. A potter was shaping my children, but it was not me. . .My son was not my product. He was the work of a great artist: the Creator of all" (156). 

"Part of the sanctification of motherhood is learning to trust God with our children. . .Our children must not become 'Our Precious'" (161).

AND MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE BOOK:
"Josef Pieper tells us that leisure is the basis of culture. Most moms would laugh at the idea of leisure, but that is essentially the gift homeschooling gave us--the leisure to learn" (163).

Marriage Cruise, Take Two

Alan and I had a wonderful time again on the Love Like You Mean It Marriage Cruise with two other couples (back in February).  This season of life is so busy, and I love the opportunity to focus on "savoring" my husband.

Our 25th wedding anniversary is next year, and after seeing so many people's marriages fall apart (including my own parents) in this season, I am sensitive to be extra diligent in protecting our marriage.

We once again went on the cruise with some good friends.  My friend Wendy lives in Oklahoma, so the cruise provided a great excuse to see her and her husband John.

And Troy and Caren are good friends who live near us and suggested the cruise in the first place.

Part of the fun of the cruise is eating--escargot, alligator, our daily omelet, pizza, desserts, ice cream. . .

The cruise was supposed to go to Jamaica and Grand Cayman.  We were especially excited to go to Jamaica since that is Tyrell's birth heritage, but unfortunately, someone on the cruise had a health situation arise and we had to turn around and go back to the States  So we ended up back on Key West, which had been a destination the year before.

Thankfully, what we really cared about was having a good time and being with our friends, so riding around in a golf cart with our new selfie sticks and laughing 'til we almost peed our pants was enough to ensure we had fun.

Our second stop was the Bahamas.  Alan and I explored the island from the poorest of the poor native islanders to the extravagance of the Atlantic resort.  The stark extremes were striking.

The conch we tried here was A-MA-ZING.  Much better than what we had in Key West.

As usual, we heard some outstanding lessons from speakers including Lysa TerKeurst and Dave and Ann Wilson.  Some of my favorite tidbits from the lessons include:

• Don't worry about falling out of love; worry about falling out of repentance.
• We tend to think our greatest need is to be loved, but our greatest need is to learn HOW to love.
• Forgiven people forgive.
• Unforgiveness is like drinking a cup of poison and expecting the other person to die.  We cannot harbor unforgiveness and expect to achieve oneness at the same time.
• Satan does all he can to dim our light by making us turn from the battle around us to battling one another: 'You're not meeting my needs!'
• In conflict, someone has to de-escalate the situation.  Who? Whichever one is most mature.
• Inside every man resides a punk and a prince. The one you speak to is the one you call out.
• Stop speaking to the problems and start speaking to the potential.
• My job is to be obedient to God.  God's job is everything else.

Selah was absolutely incredible.  What amazingly gifted musicians!

A major highlight of the week for me was the ballroom dancing classes Alan and I took (and we talked Troy and Caren into taking one with us!).  It was SO MUCH fun, I know my mouth was stretched into a huge grin the entire time.  We laughed and goofed and had a blast.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  Once again, the buffet was closed and it was time to head back to snowy, cold Iowa.  While we don't plan to go on this cruise again next year, I do hope we'll get to go again someday.