Merry Christmas 2013!

Today my family and I outran the impending snow storm to visit Landis Valley Museum. I really wanted to see the Belsnickle, the whip-bearing Pennsylvania German figure that predated Santa and kept Christmas a little too lively for my Quaker ancestors. Pearl giggled, Sapphire kept her distance, and Ruby eyed him warily, unwilling to look away from him even for a photograph. She didn't start talking again for about ten minutes.

Our pursuit of history is so cruel!

We have had an eventful last twelvemonth, as you may know. We celebrated our first anniversary of being a family of five and then Daniel experienced a restless, painful month with undiagnosed Lyme disease before a brain scan also unexpectedly uncovered an unrelated but rather large aneurism.

you can see our cute little yellow belt on the far right

Daniel is well now. The Lyme symptoms are gone and the aneurism is safely plugged with platinum. He's working on regaining his strength after a few months of inactivity from back pain and then restricted activity leading up to the surgery. As he awaited surgery, our church lovingly celebrated his ten year anniversary in this ministry, a huge encouragement during a troubling time. This year has brought our church a new deacon board, a new denomination, and so much good old spiritual growth for us and the people we love.

His karate school is about to celebrate its eleventh year, and the school has grown to forty students in an unexpected growth spurt this year. The medical situation delayed the test for his fifth dan, but that will happen in 2014. The new year will also see him leading his second group tour of Israel in late March.

Pearl, now in second grade, decided to take an American Sign Language course for home schoolers and continue her piano lessons with a talented woman from church. Her studies of the American colonies have taken us on several trips in the last year: Colonial Williamsburg, Old Bedford Village, Revolutionary Philadelphia, and, just today, Landis Valley Museum. She likes all the playtime our homeschooling schedule allows. She continues to be sweet, gentle, sensitive, and nurturing with a fun sense of humor.

At four years old, Sapphire is overflowing with love and orneriness.  Her favorite way to spend a day is to help mix up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and work on princess puzzles. Watching her explore the world is a treat. When she asked to hear about the day she was born, I told her we thought she was so beautiful, and she asked, "What dress did I have on when I was born?" She and Ruby still have many tough moments of sibling rivalry, but fortunately it has deescalated from biting and hitting to antagonistic looks and combative pointing. At other times they form a special club they call Washy Girls, which, as far as I can figure, just means they are getting along perfectly.

Ruby, age three, has a helpful personality. Her squirminess is unparalleled. It has been amazing to watch her learn to love and cuddle. Fortunately, she has also come to appreciate reading stories, a favorite pastime around here. She asks to read her life book almost every night--that's a book parents create to help explain how an adopted child came to join the family. She enjoys Cubbies, the preschool Awana program she and Marilla attend.  Cora now takes speech lessons to help her articulation. Her favorite thing to do is pal around with her big sisters and get in the car to go anywhere.

a Norwegian stave church

I missed them all very much when I took a three week trip with a friend to Iceland and northern Europe in June. There I saw Neuschwanstein and six other impressive castles, hummed Sound of Music tunes through Salzburg, and learned to fully appreciate German bread.  My favorite spot was a museum of rural Norwegian village life in Oslo.

The trip allowed me to employ my high school German for the first time ever and collect images of European gift-bringers like the Norwegian nisse and Icelandic Yule lads for my book on the culture of Christmas.  My editor has delayed the publication date, but it should be published next year in good time for Christmas reading. I use bits of it to teach elements of writing to my students at Penn State York.

I've also had the joy of helping to oversee our church's Sunday School program and this year's vacation Bible school.  I especially enjoy teaching classes for our home school co-op because we can be so hands on and the kids are really sweet.

a Norwegian Christmas greeting

Our family has felt very blessed in this last year. Thank you for the kindnesses and prayers you have offered on our behalf.

He loves whatever is just and good;
    the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.

Psalm 33:5 

Snowy Weekend

We had a weekend of culture and family gatherings, starting with a performance of the Nutcracker. The two bigger girls went with me to that. Sapphire found it hard to stay still except during the battle between the mice and the soldiers. Every now and then I would look over to see her arms held above her head, mimicking the fifth position of  the ballerina.

We also visited Fort Hunter, a mansion and estate on the bank of the Susquehanna north of Harrisburg. I love touring historic homes, so hopefully all the girls will learn to enjoy it. I was pleased with how Pearl was able to identify most of the kitchen equipment. I found that holding Sapphire was the best way to keep her hands off the breakables.






My parents hosted a birthday celebration for three of us, and the next day was my sister's baby shower. The unexpectedly hardy snow storm made it tough for our guests, but we had a nice time together. Pearl enjoyed helping her aunt with the games.

Today we worked our Christmas architectural magic on some graham crackers and leftover candy from Halloween (and Easter!).

Pearl has been reading a chapter book called Who Was Helen Keller? She finds it fascinating. 







 Just a little anticipation around here!
.

Characters of Christmas

My mother's Fellowship Committee of very audacious planners organize a Christmas dinner for the women of their church and guests. This year my mom decorated her table with the Santa collection that used to grace my grandmother's mantle every December. Other tables had a vintage Christmas ornament theme, a red, white and black theme, a Russian nesting doll theme, and a Rochet chocolate theme.

After the meal, I was able to share a talk I prepared from the chapter in my book about the gift-bringers in different cultures. This is one of the more unusual figures. The Krampus comes to Bavaria to scare children into good behavior.  It is unlikely he will be replacing Santa Claus at the mall.

These guys are the Icelandic Yule lads. They would each arrive on a different day leading up to Christmas to cause trouble for the farmstead. One stole sausage, one bothered the sheep so they wouldn't give milk.

And here is our own little elf. Today was my birthday, so my family took me to a Hibachi lunch and then worked with me to decorate the house for Christmas. I don't think it has ever gone faster--three eager little daughters and a neighborhood friend practically had the ornaments flying out of my hand!

Thankfulness

We've had some family gathering lately, including a forty-fifth anniversary party for my in-laws. I think we really surprised them. Then we tortured them by making them reenact wedding traditions.











Last week my family headed west to Somerset County for a (slightly) snowy Thanksgiving. Sapphire took her pumpkin pie seriously.  Later she claimed the drumstick and then devoured it.

Our co-op ended for the fall semester. On our last day, I taught my little class of shorties about how we wake up yeast so it can make air bubbles to help our bread rise. They loved the kneading. I did not tell them that baking the bread kills the yeast!

Since we found ourselves ahead by a week, we took a break from school for the entire Thanksgiving week. That didn't stop Pearl from being creative in very loving ways.

I've been reading to her from Beverly Cleary's Ramona series, and she's working on the second Droon book by herself. We've also been watching the PBS series Colonial House, in which seventeen people move into pilgrim houses and see if they can make it. We much rather watch than live that experience!

I guess we make the thumbs up sign more than I realized!

Show Hope Helpers

The unappetizing mess below represents the start of our Black Walnut Ink project. To the left there you see the completion of it. Daniel and the girls collected them on their nature walk, and then we cooked them down all afternoon. It turns out November is the perfect time to do this, since the husks are supposed to be half rotten to make the ink.













After several hours on simmer we ended up with a quart of inky liquid that makes a satisfying, antique brown stain. I found the quills several years ago after a fox took out a goose, and they have come in handy. The girls practiced writing with them for nearly an hour. We think Sapphire writes better with a quill than with a pencil.



Last week Pearl and I were out until midnight on Sunday helping to run the Show Hope table at the Stephen Curtis Chapman concert at a huge church in Lancaster. Show Hope offers grants to families who are trying to adopt, but it also funds orphan care in China. They have some really progressive nurturing centers where they take sick kids and offer them treatment or gentle, palliative care for those who cannot be treated.

Our friend Diane, Pearl, and I handed sponsor cards out to folks who raised their hands just before the intermission when Stephen Curtis Chapman encouraged folks to commit to support the ministry. Then we helped process forms (she was the head envelope stuffer) when those people brought their signed cards to the table. We both enjoyed the whole concert, and Pearl was especially effected by the story and performance of the song "Cinderella" (of course). Afterward we went backstage and met Stephen Curtis Chapman.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy the concert, but I did. The performers had such humble attitudes. During Laura Story's part of the concert, we all just worshiped together, and worshiping with 1,000 people is a treat for someone from a small country church. They each had a neat testimony to share, and it felt like a mini-retreat.

Halloween 2013

With our big trip to Philly last week I did not include any of the girls' Halloween photos. They went trick or treating with a cute little skunk and dinosaur one night, and the next their daddy took them to the Halloween parade in town. There they collected more candy than seems legal, but I've since shared it with my college students who do not turn down free food, even when it is barely food.

In the last few weeks I have redecorated our family room. We spend so much time there in the winter that I wanted it to be cozy and pretty. This also allowed me to bond with my sewing machine and work on my math skills. Then, when those failed me, I ended up relying on my patience and work-around abilities too.

I love to see the girls reading. Pearl has recently discovered the joy of comic books, but she prefers fairies and princess themes to the typical superhero variety.

And here Sapphire pours over her Cubbie book. On Sunday afternoons she eagerly slips into her cubbie vest and pines for the hour when we can leave for Awana. For the two little girls, Awana means puppet shows, verse memorization, games, toy time, and table work--preschool-type activities.

This week I woke Ruby early one morning for her ear tube surgery. They popped those tiny tubes through her eardrums in five minutes, but she fussed over the effects of the anesthesia for about half an hour. We hope this will drain her ears, which always seem to show water, though not infection, thankfully.

Philadelphia Field Trip

We've been studying the colonial period and the American Revolution for eight weeks now. Before the temperature started to dive, my mother and I chose to take Pearl on a field trip to Philadelphia to see the places we've been reading about.

After the much anticipated train ride, we began with a trip to a museum that has a collection of Washington and Ben Franklin busts and portraits. Pearl had asked to see a real art museum after our foray into York last spring, and I was very proud of how she made her way around the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The colored pencils I brought allowed her to engage with the art when she needed to sit. We also saw a few works by Benjamin West, a Quaker ancestor of ours who was the President of the (British) Royal Academy in the mid 1700s.





We thoroughly enjoyed a much needed meal in Chinatown before walking through that section of the city to Independence National Park. We had planned to skip the tour of Independence Hall, but it has been greatly shortened since I was young, and now you see just two rooms, the old court room and the congressional room where all the history happened. Pearl lagged a bit there, but she made it through with the help of her junior ranger activity book.

The next stop, Franklin's Printing Press, showcased a working, 18th-century press. The rangers running it entertained us with explanations. I enjoyed seeing the cases full of tiny type waiting to be set since it reminded me of the Victorian book creation I have read so much about.

We walked a few blocks to Betsy Ross's house, which is not part of the national park. Pearl and I climbed through the narrow building, winding up and down the stairs. The costumed Betsy Ross stole her heart, I think, when she gave Pearl a cut out star like the ones on the first American flag.








Our little historian retained just enough energy to walk back to the park office for her swearing in as a junior park ranger. The gentleman did a great job engaging her in the process, and she proudly displayed her little plastic pin.

Field trips are fun!

In front of the Chinatown gate

"Rainbow!"

the rainbow ends at our house!

At the store the other day, I looked over to see Ruby standing right in the way of an older lady, another customer. I told the little shortie to scoot, since the lady obviously wanted to walk through. Ruby straddled her legs a bit to make it clear she was in the way and not moving. She eyed me. She eyed the lady. Just as I was wondering how this defiant toddler showdown would end, she looked back to the lady and said, "Password." I had to laugh. At home the girls sometimes block a doorway or the bottom of the stairs, but they give way instantly if we say the password, which has been "Rainbow" for about two years now. We do not have great encryption. Back in the store, I realized it would be faster to just tell the lady the password than to explain to Ruby that not everyone plays our game. The patient customer gamely said "Rainbow," and Ruby hopped out of her way. 

She also enthusiastically sings the two songs she knows, but only these lines enthusiastically repeated over and over, with no variation, even when we helpfully suggest the other words:
"Jesus love me...the bible tell me"
"Be wise. Be wise. Be wise"

Update: The "password" game has been outlawed. Peace must be maintained.

Quiet Week with Pneumonia

Daniel's recovery is going well. We're monitoring his activity, but he feels great, and it is wonderful not to have that aneurysm hanging over our heads any more.

Ruby, meanwhile, decided to develop pneumonia in her left lung, so her ear tube surgery has been postponed and she is on a hefty regime of medications. She doesn't act sick and is just as feisty and bouncy as usual, just with a rumbling cough.

We took a family walk to identify trees on Tuesday despite the recovery and the pneumonia. We had a relaxing time searching for the perfect picnic spot along Trout School Road. Pearl is collecting tree information for a book she's making following our unit on trees.

Later in the day Sapphire asked if we could make chocolate chip cookies "like we used to do." I'm not sure why she was feeling so nostalgic about them, but we made a batch and somehow I was left spooning them onto the cookie sheet.  They have such entertaining ideas that take a lot of prep from me, then they rush off to asking for something else while I am still cleaning up. No wonder I seem like a killjoy sometimes. I can only manage so many messes on my own.

If you have watched the girls you know that there exists a healthy sibling rivalry between Ruby and Sapphire. This has meant two kiddie picnic tables on our porch because the greater the space between them, the less arguing we hear. They also often have to go to separate floors of the house to give us a break from the fighting, though they are always drawn back together like two fractious magnets.  This morning I learned just how deep it goes. Sapphire had climbed into bed with us in the night and fell back to sleep. I awoke to hear her arguing with her sister in her sleep: "No, you can't Ruby!"

Daniel's trip to Israel is filling up, and he will be giving a talk about it this Friday at the Forks of the Brandywine in Glenmoore. See HolyLands2014.blogspot.com for the details of the trip.

Another Update

The doctor had Daniel discharged from the hospital on Thursday after he spent just the one night in the Neuro ICU. We waded home from Philly in the big rains, and he's been taking it easy here in Glenmoore ever since. He feels pretty good. The doctor was pleased that he has no headaches or anything, and his incision site, which is so tiny it is like when you have blood drawn, is healing up just fine.

Of course, he does have $10,000 worth of coils in his brain. Not that those tiny things would be worth anything to anyone else, but we are very pleased to have them. The tiny coils, made in Ireland, were each just 8 or 10 cm long, and they threaded eight or so up through his artery, his heart, and his neck into just the right artery feeding the brain. Now they have a home up there.

The large aneurysm had two tiny, mini-aneurysms growing off of its base, but the doctor said they will just watch those at the 3, 6, and 12 month check ups. She said that, hopefully, the tiny ones will disappear on their own now that the big one has been stabilized.

So, despite having brain surgery from the inside out, as the doctor called it, he feels pretty normal. He does have to force himself to rest up though! We're so thankful for the way God handled all this for us. We're also grateful for our community and the support we've felt throughout this ordeal.

Out of Surgery

All is well. Daniel came out of surgery at 5:30 after being in there for 3 hours. The actual surgery part must have taken about 2 and a half hours. The neurosurgeon said that she was very pleased with the outcome. They did not need to put in the stent, but just coiled that aneurysm full of titanium so that it will no long be a risk factor. He's in the Neuro Intensive Care right now, and they should move him to a regular floor tomorrow (Thursday). He's doing a countdown of the six hours he needs to stay very still flat on his back. Four to go! Even after that, he'll need to take it easy for several days because the procedure went in through an artery. We're very pleased. This is the best news we could get. He should be released tomorrow. He is making much more sense now that the medications are wearing off. I was ready to shut his mouth with medical tape for a while when he was bombarding the nurses with the same questions over and over. Thank you SO MUCH for all the prayers. He told the neurosurgeon that she shouldn't be surprised if the aneurysm was gone, since faithful friends have been lifting him up in prayer. Our prayers have been answered in a slightly different way, however. Phew!!

School Days

This week has given us a breather from some very busy days, but we've also had some unique experiences.

Over the weekend Ruby and I spent time at the church yard sale, but I can't say that we helped much. Ruby and I also popped in to celebrate the 100th birthday of a friend, Spin. He is pretty amazing, and probably more clear-minded than I am. Ruby's sisters had a chance to go see Sight and Sound's Noah with their Nana.

Pearl's school has given us daytime hours to spend on enrichment classes.  She's been taking piano lessons since the spring, and this last Sunday she played a much-practiced duet with her piano teacher for the worship service prelude. They gave a very pretty, harmonizing version of "Jesus Loves Me."

Pearl also began American Sign Language lessons this week.  She will happily spell the name of anyone who requests this service.

We spent a family afternoon in a local orchard. We picked nearly a bushel of apples very quickly, so this isn't the all-afternoon event it used to be when Pearl was a toddler.  Sapphire was demanding pie, so I might make that happen later this afternoon.  They all love the long peels my apple peeler makes.

 Next week we'll be traveling eastward on Tuesday to prepare for my husband's surgery early (8am) Wednesday morning. He should be in the hospital for one or two nights. We will remain out east until at least Saturday evening.



  

Children of the King

Our calendar for October is nearly empty, but September has more than made up for it. On Saturday the
girls had play practice at church, then I decided to take them apple picking, and while we were there we thought we'd use up the Maize Quest coupons they earned in their summer reading program.

I avoided the large corn maze, but we did enjoy the bamboo maze, the tipping board maze, the corn house and the three story slide.  We visited the pumpkin patch, which was fairly sincere.

That evening we headed out to the Mid Autumn Festival with the Families with Children from China group. This was our first time there with Ruby. She was not too interested in any of it except the fact that they had a table covered in scissors and paper. She went to town cutting confetti, her favorite new pass time.

For Children of the King Sunday, the kids put on the play 'That's so Daniel.' They've been working on it for months, ever since spring. Pearl was Servant 1, and Sapphire was a lion. Ruby had practiced with everyone, but when it came to being on the stage, she was much more interested in starting fights with her big sister than singing, so she was limited to one song.

The kids performed in the evening too, followed by a spaghetti dinner. I loved seeing the whole cast play together after the show. They've got such a strong community of kids here.

We had co-op this week too. My class made the soap Sapphire and I had tested earlier, and it went very well.  We talked about how oil is hard to get off without a detergent, and the kids loved stirring the pot of shaved soap and water. One mom told me her daughter lugged her new soap to soccer practice and the grocery store; so cute.  Sapphire has been allowed to join the kindergarten classes now, so she is feeling very proud. I help a little with Pearl's last class, which discusses the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. Her teacher uses a neat, engaging video that shows a guy catching creatures from the beach area and explaining their adaptations.

Today I took Pearl and a friend on a field trip. We met up with a bunch of other home schooling families to go for a trip on the Underground Railroad. Women dressed as Quakers met us at a historical home, a real stop on the Underground Railroad. We walked with them through the woods, pausing to hear about what the real journey might have been like. The atmosphere was too lighthearted to capture the fear the escaping slaves must have felt, but it did drive Pearl to gobble up a graphic novel about Harriet Tubman I had brought along for the long ride there.

I was able to fulfill an item I sold at the church auction this summer. I prepared and served local wines paired with international cheeses at a friend's house for a party of five. The pairings worked out nicely, and everyone seemed to find something they really liked. The wines came from Naylor, Allegro, Nissley, and Moondancer, all nearby wineries.

This week I also took Ruby to the ENT. They've suggested we have tubes put in her ears. She does not seem to have scarring, and I haven't noticed extra ear infections, but liquid behind her ear drum may be making sounds muffled (and they know they know the liquid is there), so they want to allow that to dry up and clarify sounds for her. They said it would be a five minute procedure, and that she'd hear better right away.  It might even be a little overwhelming as she suddenly hears how loud the world is.


My husband is still feeling tired this week; that's his main issue. He just finished the antibiotic to work against the lyme. 

Daniel's Consult

The ugly bump pointing down on this image is his aneurysm

After talking with the surgeon yesterday, we were relieved to learn that Daniel will have the less invasive surgery on Oct. 9th. This is the one where they put a catheter in via the femoral artery, then thread a titanium coil half the width of a hair up into the aneurysm until it is filled with the stuff.  The idea is that the coil will be so packed in there it will stop blood flow, and the blood vessel will, if it behaves well, create a new blood vessel wall and totally annex the aneurysm.

She said that this option and the through-the-skull clamping both have about 5% risk of some unpleasant result, either minor or major, but from what I've read this has nicer outcomes. Plus, the recovery time is much speedier this way. If things go well, he could be released the following day.  If they have to put in a stent, and they won't know that for sure til they get in, then it would be two days in the hospital. But with even with the stent, she felt that he could return to normal activity after three weeks, once the femoral artery had healed from the incision.

Just so I'm not the only one to remind him: he isn't supposed to lift more than 5lbs, and he has to limit himself to a brisk walk.

We felt very informed. The surgeon spent half an hour explaining things. We were a little late for our appointment in the Infectious Disease (ID) clinic, so we rushed over there and sat down. Then it slowly dawned on me that we were in the *Infectious* Disease waiting room, so I tried very hard not to touch anything.

Daniel's ID doctor was delighted to see us. He spent an hour and fifteen minutes going over Daniel's lyme with great enthusiasm. At one point we thought he even got a little giddy about it. We figured he was glad to see someone who did not have HIV and was really recovering; plus Daniel's lyme is so 'textbook' that they all seem thrilled about it.

I'm thrilled that the recovery is textbook too. The one course of antibiotics will have routed it, though he has some post-lyme symptoms of pain in his right forearm and wrist, plus the extreme exhaustion he faces in the early evening. The doctor seemed convinced this would dissipate, and he said that the surgery date would be fine. He'll check in with us when Daniel is back at Penn next month.

Thanks once again for the ongoing prayers!