Chautauqua, The Home Stretch

This journey began with an audition in Chicago - one she attended really with only the expectation of gaining audition experience.  The competition was steep.  We never really entertained the thought that she might get accepted into the 5-week, intensive training program with some of the best ballet teachers in the country. 

But she did.

Then the doubts: can I really do this?  Can I be away from home for such a long time?  Can I handle the training?

But we prayed, her dear grandparents offered assistance, and she made the leap.  

So, here we are, at the end, with only a few days plus 2 big performances left. And she has done it.

We've learned that God sometimes places us in situations where we never dreamed we'd be.  She has learned that she can go to a strange place where she knows no one, and she can survive...  Indeed, she can thrive.  

She has learned that sometimes God works in very mysterious ways, allows experiences sometimes unpleasant, to help us grow.  Two years ago, in the throes of yet undiagnosed food allergies and the anxiety that exacerbated and was exacerbated by that illness, I started seeking out alternatives to her ballet training situation.  We didn't really understand why she was feeling so bad at the time, but we knew something needed to change.  And change is hard, hard, hard, but we ended up in the loveliest of ballet schools where she and 2 of her siblings are exceedingly happy.  

Last week, this child who struggled so to find peace in all that sickness and upheaval was able to express gratitude for all of it, that it led to her new school, new friends, and kind teachers who encourage their students to pursue opportunities such as the one she's had this summer.  

Dear child of mine, we are so proud of you for overcoming your fears and stretching yourself to go into the unknown.  While you've certainly grown as a dancer, you've also learned some important life lessons about challenge, perseverance, and staying close to our Heavenly Father wherever you are.

You've muscled through some homesickness, self doubt, and sore legs 😊.  You've marched into class every day for the last 4 1/2 weeks with your head held high even when you really needed 2 more hours of sleep.  You have done it. 

We can't wait to see you on the stage.

Travel Buddies

In a hotel room with all my boys today, and 2 of the three are waking up slowly.  Suddenly, the room fills with uproariously laughter.  Music to my ears.  Then Kid 118 says, "Mom, I think Crash is choking on euphoria!"  It's these little things I don't want to forget...

Cucumbers! And ballet!

It's mid-July and the weather still feels like Spring (plus muggy) but that's ok because our garden is growing like crazy!!  All the rain plus fresh compost in our raised beds = another year of monster-size plants!  All except our token tomato plant which is the evening snack of choice for somebody - I'm guessing a deer.  

You can see above how excited we get about fresh veggies in these parts. 

In other news, it's one week since I dropped oldest child off at a 6-week ballet intensive 2 states away.  She's with her saintly grandparents, so we worry not, but we do miss her presence, for sure...   Seems as if she's having a great, plus exhausting, experience with some amazing teachers.  First performance is Sunday, which we will miss, but grandma and pada will see.  Thank goodness for DVDs.  

Here she is on the beautiful campus where she's staying:

Have a lovely weekend!!

And there went June...

 

 

Rain.  Lots of rain followed by floods - not near our house, but in neighboring communities, it was quite bad.  It's better now. Three camps for 3 kids (2 ballet intensives, one basketball).  VBS, in which Joy and I handled story time and the three middles attended.  4H projects - not quite finished, but progress made.  One day trip to the children's hospital for check ups - good results there.  Fifteenth anniversary for Daddy and I.  Left kids overnight with our capable, recent-college-graduate babysitter.  Plants growing in the garden.  Yoyo learned to ride on 2 wheels.  Joy spent 8 days on vacation with friends.  2 graduation parties for nephews.  Where have the years gone?  Joy started her first high school science class - getting ahead in an effort to finish 2 courses this year.  Ballet training 20-25 hours per week necessitates creative academic planning.  One trip to vet ER.  Kitty is just fine.  Daddy flew to PA for a couple days and returned safe and sound.

For all these things, we give thanks.

(photo credit:  Joy)

Piano Recital 2015

These kids and their faithful piano teacher have officially survived another recital!  They're all smiling because it's over.  

There is something particularly nerve-wracking about music recitals...  I know well from all the years I prayed for illness the night before my piano recitals.  But, nothing feels better than successfully completing something difficult.

They all did great!  Congratulations!!

Milestone

Our firstborn baby is now officially a high school student.  We're so proud of the young lady she has become.

Yesterday, we gathered with our local homeschool community for mass with our dear bishop in honor of all the 8th grade and high school graduates.  

Afterward, we crossed the street for commencement.  Pomp and Circumstance always makes me cry.

Daddy India did a fantastic job as the Master of Ceremonies.  Earlier in the day, he practiced reading all the seniors' bios (written by their parents), so I got all my tears out ahead of time.  Sort of.

Father Jacob Meyers, a young priest from our diocese, inspired the kids to make good friends in relationships founded in faith in his commencement address.  

What a happy day!!

Four more very short years to go in this child's homeschooling journey.  Pray we make excellent use of every single fleeting moment.

Back Home Again in Indiana

It's been one week since our long-anticipated Wild West adventure came to its completion.  All but a few random bags have been unpacked, and we're back on Eastern time (sort of).  What follows is my attempt to document our travels in a journal, of sorts.  This may or may not be extremely boring (in stark contrast to all my other posts - haha), so read at your own risk!

The famous Wall Drug.  Of course we stopped!  5 cent coffee!!

 

...and while we were there, Joy made a friend.

 

We arrived home Friday afternoon (the 22nd) after what can only be considered a trek of epic proportions (in the 'traveling with semi-small children' category).  So, maybe we skipped the rock-climbing, bear hunting and white-water rafting.  But, for our family of 7 (which includes a 3-year-old and one child in a wheelchair) plus my parents, It was an eventful, fun, amazing 2-weeks of soaking in all the wildlife, scenery, paleontology, and history we could manage.  In other words, we did as much as our collective minds and bodies could handle, and maybe a little bit more.  Here are some highlights...

the Travelers Chapel right in the middle of Wall Drug

-Weather.  We got stopped by a blizzard, a tornado (or two), hailstorms, and pelting rain.  Basically, none of this slowed us down, except the one day we waited for the snow to melt and ended up in a really cool ancient Native American village site, which now houses an active archaeological dig.  Yeah.  Super cool.  Had we been rushing by to get to our destination, we would have missed it.   Plus, we ended up at a random hotel that had a totally awesome pool with nobody in it but us.  Rock on. 

Grandma and Crash chillin' in the fresh snow

-Wildlife.  I was hoping to see some bison, maybe a moose, but  I grossly underestimated what we would actually witness with our own 2 (actually 18) eyes:  In Custer (SD) State Park, we saw countless Bison, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs (plus babies), elk and mountain goats!!  Just outside our cabin, several mule deer plus a wild turkey or two were visible every day.  We didn't think things in this department could get any better, but when we arrived in Wyoming, we discovered fledgling Great Horned Owls nesting just down the lane from our cabin!!  We saw them plus a parent or 2 every day!  We could take a little walk down the lane just to catch a glimpse, but a certain ornithologically-inclined child among us made sure nobody got too close and risked losing an eye to the protective mama owl. 

the kids named the baby owls - Galileo, Blobster and Pete

Then, after a full day of driving through the mountains and hills to cross Wyoming, we hit Yellowstone and found indescribable natural beauty in the mountains, streams, trees, canyons, thermal features.  It's surreal to walk just inches above boiling mud, bubbling and steaming pools of bacterial decay and mineral deposits (which sounds kinda gross, but actually cause some stunning color combinations).  Old Faithful erupted right before our eyes ( just as we were about to give up and find a warm place to hang out).  We saw hundreds of Bison (and babies!), a moose, 2 bald eagles, a river pelican, and... 2 families of grizzly bears!!  No joke.  Don't worry - they were at least 1/4 mile away, and we had the bear spray ready.  All this plus the waterfalls, snow, rushing streams, and Asians going crazy over chipmunks, and we were completely satisfied with our visit. 

mama and baby bison

boiling mud volcano

yep - good ol' Old Faithful - just when we were about to give up on her

To make things even more interesting, snow-covered trees were falling down in unbeknownst places within the park and knocking out the power lines.  So, almost every visitor center, gift shop, restaurant, gas station (and there aren't many to begin with) were without electricity.  So, more outhouses for us.  But, we survived and had a spectacular day. 

see those black dots to the left of the tree?  grizzly mama and 2 active cubs

mountain goats!!

our buddies, the little fledglings.  so stinking cute.

-Museums.  We love museums.  Nerds are us.  On this voyage, we were far from disappointed.  Besides the ancient village previously mentioned, we visited an unbelievable collection of fossils (including an almost-complete T-Rex named 'Stan'),  a Mammoth archaeological dig site, the National Woodcarvers Museum (awesome - the complete personal collection of the man who helped Disney create their original animated marionettes), and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  The last one had the nicest natural history museum we've ever seen (sorry, Pittsburgh).  It also housed a beautiful art museum and a section all about Buffalo Bill.  We went twice.  Grandma and Pada took turns feeling ill, so they each missed one day of this fun.  Finally, and I'll admit, somewhat reluctantly on my part, we ventured to an 'Old West Village' which is a collection of real cabins that have been relocated to Cody, WY, from all over Wyoming and adjacent states.  There have also been several famous roughians whose gravesites have been moved to this same location.  Their stories are crazy - gunfights, murder, saloons - just like the movies.  Crash had a great time running all around the sagebrush and old wagons.  Much more interesting than I imagined it would be.

posted in the Crazy Horse monument museum

A little, privately-owned warehouse with a bazillion fossils.  Amazing.

replica of a Norwegian church in Rapid City, SD.  The gift shop sold all manor of crazy Norwegian fiction.  2 males among us were very happy.

those are real mammoth fossils in the process of being removed.  hard to imagine the scale from this picture, but those rib cages are Large.

Lots of funny statues of early American doctors and dentists in the National Woodcarvers Museum.

-Monuments.  Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.  Vision, artistry, perseverance.  I was particularly moved by the Crazy Horse story (the story of the monument, not necessarily the man...).  I started to type out the whole story here - snore, snore -but then I remembered Google.  I highly recommend looking up the whole story.  Amazing. 

Crash refers to this site as 'the faces.'

-The Drive.  Our trusty van, as well as some capable drivers - mostly my dad and husband- got us there and back safely.  We are grateful.  And, the award for  Most-Patient-Traveler-in-a-Car-Seat goes to our resident just-turned-3 year old.  Trooper City.  And his biggest sister took no fewer than 4000 photos of him in his strapped-in predicament to prove it.

replacing our old DVD player before the trip = great idea

 

-The cabins.  Go VRBO.  Great website.  Both places we stayed were cozy, comfy, rustic, had plenty of beds and great views.  And the owners were accessible and helpful.  Makes for a great experience.

the kids had a great time 'excavating' rose quartz from all around our cabin in SD

mama grizzly profile

me in the 'way back'

this random boulder just outside Cody, WY, appears to be held in place by that little tree.  :)

 

 Other awards go to my parents for Grandparents-of-the-Century for patiently enduring us in close quarters for 2 weeks.  Also, Joy took some excellent selfies with animals (both living - through the van windows - and others in a state of taxidermy-induced preservation), so we'll give her Best Photography. 

So, to summarize, we had a splendid and spectacular time.  But, even after the best of trips, nothing feels better than coming home to your own bed.  :)