Everything Week

Pearl’s birthday falls at such a perfect time to celebrate summer, that we really need an itemized list to remember everything we did to make her birthday special.  We had celebrated with Grammy and Poppop early, so the parties really lasted nearly three weeks. The night before her birthday we said goodbye to seven (which is our little ritual). 

On the day she turned eight, we tried to complete everything on a list she made up, which included a family cherry picking party—this just means picking cherries at the local orchard, but she loves it--lunch with the whole family, and tea party with her stuffed animals. 

We spent two days at Cape Henlopen, a State Park in Delaware. The girls instantly turn into beach girls when we go, and Ruby and Sapphire were especially delighted with the beach. Sapphire made friends with all our sand neighbors, especially the ones with good toys.  Nana came down too and distributed birthday Frozen towels, which were a huge hit. Sadly, Nana took sick and had to abandon the beach on our second day.  

 

The birthday bliss ended with a low key pirate party with two little friends, ice cream sandwich-pirate ships for dessert, and some pirate hats. It turns out it doesn’t take much! They made a plank bridge into a deadly plank that everyone loved to walk.

In the midst of this week, we had over sixty people over to our new home, and some of them came multiple times for lunch during the youth retreat. This is exactly how we wanted to be using our larger space.  The youth spent their mornings painting a Rescue Mission property before stopping by our home for lunch and devotions. The girls loved hanging out with them in the afternoons and around the inescapable campfire.  We slept at a home kindly opened to us for the retreat, and Ruby asked if that was now our new house, poor confused little thing. The youth stayed up late goofing off and asking questions about the Bible.

Hours after the retreat ended, Daniel’s black belt test candidates were rolling up our driveway. About twelve of his students spent the night here, showing their skills at forms, breaking, and stamina.  They were amazing guests. While I am not part of the karate world, I do admire the deeply respectful, helpful attitude it engenders. They went for a run in the middle of the night and were up before me, working out on mats under our carport. The little girls were very entertained by everything they did, and I was able to rest while an exhausting fever laid me low. I'm now on the mend.

There and Back Again, with Photos

Overlooking Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives

The travelers are home. They arrived in time for lunch after being on a plane for twelve hours and another couple of hours driving in from Newark, NJ. The jet lag hit late in the afternoon, and little Pearl is all tucked into bed, snoozing her way back to Eastern Standard Time.

I'll just share some photos they brought back.

Pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed a man blind from birth

The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem

Petra, the crescent valley

En Gedi, Pearl's favorite place because of the waterfall; this is the area where David and his men hid from King Saul

Fitted out for the narrow, watery, dark Hezekiah's Tunnel, Jerusalem

The Garden Tomb, Jerusalem (1st century tomb with rolling rock)

Atop the Temple Mount, in front of the Dome of the Rock

in the Jordan River, near where John the Baptist baptized Jesus

Our Little Traveler

Here's my little traveler in Petra, Jordan. They had a great day there.  One of the other women took charge of the camel-riding party and haggled for rides. Pearl rode a camel named Suzu.


I'm told she hasn't been homesick once, but we do talk every day, and her days are full.

Now they are in Jerusalem. Today they saw the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount.

They were also going to see the Garden Tomb. This is not the actual tomb, but it is from the same period. What a great thing to do during Lent.

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