Memorial Day

I remember Field Day at my elementary school as lots of cheering and crowds of people on the field. Last week we experience Field Day with our York County home school group.  About 100 kids and their families met at a local park to compete in seventeen events.  I led Pearl's group from event to event and Sapphire and Ruby joined us for most of it. Tagalongs are always present and always appreciated at home school events. Sapphire had an impressive score for the bean bag toss without really trying.

Pearl proudly took home eight ribbons. Jasper joined us to watch her compete and give some expert help in counting sit ups. We had a picnic lunch and let the kids play their hearts out on the playground for the rest of the afternoon. I think I need more empty afternoons outside. 









Schools about done here, though Pearl has to keep reading and practicing piano each day. She had a course in fishing on Memorial Day and seems to have learned the benefit of polarized sun glasses as well as how to cast.  Some friends showed us a nice fishing spot and helped keep worms on the girls' hooks.

All the fish seemed to have survived, and no one fell off the big rock. Phew! 















We moved a mile or so upstream to join a creek-side picnic and watch the water flow by. Ruby enjoyed the all-afternoon buffet, the sand, and a nap on daddy's lap.

My dad, Elder Glenn, Jasper, and Pastor Will

Over the weekend we had a much anticipated but quiet close to a big chapter in our lives. Our church finally, officially, thankfully switched denominations. It was a two year process, but now it is done. This means there were a few weeks there where I was anxiously figuring out forms for transitioning Jasper's pension and medical benefits. On Sunday afternoon our parents joined our congregation as we celebrated entrance into the new denomination--the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Some old friends from the Forks who had already made the transition were needed to induct the church, and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate with them.

I leave next Tuesday for my big trip. Packing is not so easy--I want to strike a balance between comfort and chic, but I doubt I could pull off chic any time. I'll just hope to avoid blisters.

And if you or someone you know might be interested in taking your own adventure in March 2014, check out and share the itinerary and trip details for the tour group Jasper is leading to Israel and Jordan. If nothing else, you'll see one of our family's all-time favorite photos of Jasper at the very bottom of the page.

Clinic Day

 
 



On Tuesday Ruby and I had our second clinic day at the Cleft Palate Clinic in Lancaster. They are a very caring bunch, and we are fortunate to live so close to a great clinic.

It is always a very long day. Our appointment was at 10:30, and we were there until 1pm. The clinic allows us to see all the specialists (speech therapist, orthodontist, surgeon, pediatrician, audiologist) that relate to care of cleft palates. We just end up waiting a while between pop in appointments.  She'll continue check ups until she is five, when they will start to make plans for her next palate surgery.

opening her mouth wide after the dentist left!

Ruby was sort of bouncing off the walls in the waiting area, and then, once we did get into the exam rooms, she'd clench her little mouth up, knowing they all wanted a quick peek at her teeth.  The dentist totally missed her hidden tooth because she refused to say 'ah.' In the last room, I told her the nice surgeon would go away if she just opened her mouth, so she did, and after a brief conversation, he complied. Then we were out of there.

We took advantage of being in the city to go explore Central Market. We bought some produce and enjoyed the bustle. Then we found a Mexican restaurant and ate our late, much needed lunch. We found a park nearby with a dancing fountain that mesmerized us.






The city has pianos set up around the downtown, allowing it to call itself the "Street Piano Capital of the World." I thought people were scheduled to play, since there was someone with sheet music at every single piano whenever we passed by, but I was wrong. These folks just wanted to play. The pianos are mostly under overpasses or arches, making for neat acoustics. When we finally got into the car, she fell asleep after two blocks.







Today we took a field trip to Nixon Park. The girls really enjoyed exploring the indoor exhibits.  They have an extensive animal collection and a very interactive kids' area.  Then we took a hike, but I think the highlight was trying to catch tadpoles in the creek. 

"Mommy, is that Nature?"

Sapphire is getting very good at identifying Nature, especially when we are outdoors!  Here they watch a lightning bug make its way across the path.









Other news: At our house at least, the stink bugs might be winning.

Jasper has the 2014 Israel trip lined up, so if you are interested in learning about a late March trip, let us know and he'll send you the itinerary to review.








I leave in two weeks for my European trip. In addition to guide books, I've been reading books like *Priestblock 25487* (about all the many Protestant and Catholic clergy imprisoned at Dachau), *The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau,* and the *Nazi Officer's Wife,* all memoirs, to prepare me for Munich and Dachau. I was very interested to learn about the identity issues that people from the town of Dachau have--everyone associates their town with the concentration camp, but the camp itself is actually slightly closer to another town. No one goes there to see their castle. They are marked to the point that some people deliver their babies in other nearby hospitals so that the children do not have Dachau on their birth certificates.

I hope to blog through my trip as a way to journal and keep in touch with folks at home, so hopefully I'll have some neat photos posted here in two weeks!

Mothers Day with Three

I had the best Mothers Day ever this year. It is my first Mothers Day as mommy to three little girls, and I enjoyed that as I held Ruby on my hip during worship on Sunday.  It is also the first year that I spent some time shopping for my own Mothers Day gifts, so I got just what I wanted.  Plus, as my husband reminded me, I'm headed to Scandinavia, and he wanted that to count for Mothers Day too. As I think about it, this may have been the best Mothers Day I am ever likely to have!

The day started early with a Mothers Day breakfast at church, and the Youth Group ran it very smoothly with lots of hugs for the moms. Here's Sapphire, the early riser, helping to set the table shortly after we arrived that morning.

We had friends over for lunch, and in the evening everyone but Sapphire (who fell asleep on the couch at 6pm) lounged around and watched Dr. Who.







On Jasper's day off we thought we'd explore Rocky Ridge Park without the Christmas lights. It is much less garish this way (every other time we've been there it has been to see the over-the-top Christmas light display).

The girls climbed as many rocks as they could, plus some playground toys and a few sign posts.







We've also seen a breakthrough this week in Sapphire's desire to write. For someone who would rather stare at a blank coloring page than draw on it, it seemed like she might wait to make her letters, but this week she's been writing them everywhere. "Look at my beautiful E" she'll say proudly. I noticed that Pearl is a kind and helpful assistant teacher when my hands are covered in flour and someone needs to know which way an "F" points.

The packages with Pearl's 2nd grade material arrived this week, so I got a look at the general curriculum that guides us through the year. I started reading the big girls the *Life of Fred* math book right away, and they seem to find the silly stories of math application entertaining. We read the first 7 chapters at one go, so that was a good sign. I'm not quite sure how Pearl will handle an increase in structured writing and seat time next year. She is so in love with her imaginative play time; tying her down to a table, even for brief bits of work, seems like a burden to her.

I feel a little tied to a desk lately. I'm trying to write a new chapter on the Biblical information available about the Nativity. My editor thought I needed more on that, and when I realized that I had only 4 pages about the first Christmas, I agreed.  Fast forward to a crash course in Greco-Roman Judea, Herod the Great, and the Roman census, and the challenge of making that history upbeat and palatable for non-historian audiences. At least I'll have an informed proofreader when Jasper takes a look at it.

I know it is late, but Happy Mothers Day!

We

Is this Nature?

We've resumed our nature walks now that the weather is manageable. I had great plans of taking them all winter, but it is hard to see beauty when it is drizzly and freezing.  Last week we enjoyed Jasper's day off with a visit to Storytime at the library then a long picnic and walk on the Mason Dixon Trail. I guess it was about time, since Sapphire posed the question, "Are rocks nature?"

We quickly found a picnic spot close to the water. Ruby hunkered down to enjoy the food while the others enjoyed the creek.  Ruby takes her food seriously and won't let any view--no matter how glorious--disturb her at her work. 


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Sapphire didn't have time for food with so many rocks to climb (big surprise) and she only partly fell in.  She also began her career as a trail runner by running ahead of us most of the way

We took some special shots of Pearl to commemorate her 1st grade year.  We didn't have any professional school photos taken this year, but what could be better than this?









We ended up using the walk to teach the girls about some local plants.  At first this backfired; Sapphire hugged the middle of the path and nervously pointed to any plant asking, "Is that poison? Is that?"  Soon she was able to identify poison ivy own her own.  Pearl captured these photos.

 

 

Pearl has continued to practice her addition and subtraction, and we finished our weeks of studying the continents with a week on Australia and a few days on Antarctica.  We watched some documentaries about Australian wildlife and I read aloud a very uncomfortable book about Antarctic explorers who at best only got frostbite and at worst didn't make it back to base camp.  We are nearly done our science book, and we are waiting to see how bendy our chicken bone has become during its weeks in the salt and vinegar solution. Pearl has found a series of fairy books she really enjoys reading to herself, and she treated me to a read-aloud this afternoon. She's come a long way in the last year.   



Downtown

Last week Pearl and I had an afternoon to ourselves, so we ventured into York's downtown.  I realized I hadn't been there in six years (wonder why?) when I found a now long-established soap shop where the bead shop used to be.

Pearl expressed some discomfort with the city at first--so many strangers all around.  I realize that our life in the country and small town shopping does make the transition to city life jarring.  Maybe we should experience it more often!

We lunched at Central Market and enjoyed crowd watching, then we strolled down the street to see some shops before ending up in the York Arts gallery. 

Pearl had expressed an interest in going to an art museum, and this tiny one room gallery seemed like a good introduction without making a long drive to an even bigger city.  She told me she really liked it. She didn't want to hear any of the gallery notes (which I like to read), but she flitted from picture to picture, trying to find her favorites.  We walked down the block to their annex to see some high school art. 

She was tickled when she pointed out and identified this van Gogh representation. I was a little shocked she remembered the brief study we did on him.

We popped into some shops and she benefited from a measuring lesson from the lady who runs the mini soap factory next to the market. She also got to try out a spinning wheel in another shop.  When someone asked if she was out of school for the day, we told them this was her school for the day!


Next we made our way to the hopping big city library where she read her Kirsten book and played their kid games and I collected some books for this week's study of Australia.



Sapphire spent the day with Miss D, and they baked some really tasty cupcake cones.

A few days later I had a chance to visit the local curriculum fair.  I found some great deals on things that I hope will interest the girls in their studies next year.  I've learned not to overdo it, and with space already running out for books and manipulatives, I tried to be choosy.  Some more experienced moms had set up tables just to explain different ways of doing things, and I learned about a few different ways to teach next year's math. I've already found a nice science program with BJU's science.  Those are my two weak points, and I do want to balance our super humanities household with something on the other side of the brain.

bowling with the youth group and families on Sunday

Finally, here is the promised photos of Pearl sans tooth. This only proves that no amount of side chewing and tear-and-eating can keep that last dangly thread from snapping on its own.  It popped out just at the start of church on Sunday, so I finally witnessed the drama of a lost tooth.  Ten minutes later she was over it and proudly showing off her gap.

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