September So Far

 September has been rolling by quickly! Here's some snippets of how it's been going around here...

9.2.22 - 

9.3.22 - 

Annah came home for a night!

Caeden has been taking his guitar places and sometimes we get to hear him play a little bit. Apparently, he recently serenaded students and teachers outside during a fire drill at school. I hear he also plays in the hallways and sometimes outside the high school office.

Sylvia was home for 2 nights and requested a  dinner at Texas Roadhouse!

9.5.22

I made a pumpkin cream cheese bundt cake and it was gone very quickly. 

I did also make 2 loaves of pumpkin cream cheese bread, which lasted almost a whole week.

I will not be bothered by finding Caeden's backpack in random places around the house. All too soon there will be no backpacks to find in random places around the house.

9.6.22

I didn't have any lessons to teach, so Jeremy and I went to DQ for supper.

Last month the water tower in Arrowsmith got painted as some repairs were finished inside it.

This month, it got repainted a nicer, calmer color of blue. (Apparently someone didn't approve of the first blue.) It was silver and had never been painted. It does look nice as you drive into the village now.

9.10.22

The marching Mustangs competed at Washington HS Marching Band Invitational today. It was 94 degrees out, very humid, and not one cloud or breeze in the sky. They had to walk a looooong way to and from warm-ups in full uniforms carrying instruments and then go right on the field to perform. One student passed out before they even made it to warmups, and others had to stop in the medical tent after the performance because everyone was overheated! It was a tough one! They did a good job though. The band is mostly seniors and freshmen this year.

9.13.22

I've noticed it is starting to look like Fall in some places.

On my way into the high school this morning...

9.14.22

More Fall. On my morning drive to work.

The neighbor's cat by our house, watching Jeremy

All grades except seniors were required to do MAP testing this week. The HS principal found volunteer jobs for the seniors to do today to earn the next MAP testing day [in December] off school. Caeden and these guys were on cleanup duty around the school grounds.

9.16.22 

Jeremy took Caeden to a glaive concert in Indianapolis! Glaive is younger than Caeden, but Caeden has been a fan of his for a while now and was super pumped about the concert. He LOVED it!

9.17.22

The Marching Mustangs competed at the Normal Marching Band Invitational at IWU today. They had a great performance and earned 3rd place and best color guard!

Here is a video of their performance. Their show theme is "Candy Crush" and includes the songs:

Sweet Caroline, Sugar Sugar, Cake Medley, Lollipop, and a mash-up of Sweet Emotion and I Want Candy. I think it's pretty fun, and the audiences are liking it too!

And crowds always love when the band does their Monster Stomp off the field!

My fall allergies really had me down this weekend, so we didn't stay to watch the rest of the bands after Ridgeview performed. We took Caeden and stopped at Moe's on the way home. I guess Caeden is now a "Queso Guru."

9.18.22

Though we haven't been active members at Point of Change, the church we were very active in planting and growing, for a couple of years, the 10 year anniversary celebration was today and the guys went to represent our family. The church was just basically given a beautiful, large, old church building two weeks ago, and today's service was held there. 

I stayed home and tried to rest up and watched the service online. 

The 10-year video made me cry. So many memories with this church, these people, in the last decade. 

9.19.22

Our weather radio went off many times between midnight and 3am, and we found ourselves in the basement for 20-30 minutes around 1am for a tornado warning.

This is Homecoming Week at Ridgeview, and today the spirit day was "Anything but a backpack." Caeden wanted to haul a dresser around school all day, but we didn't have one that would work. So, he carried his books and Chromebook in a cardboard toilet paper box!  

9.20.22

Today the homecoming spirit day was "Teacher/Student Swap," and students were supposed to dress like their favorite teacher and teachers could dress like students for the day. A lot of students dressed like specific teachers, and a few teachers dressed like any generic teenage student, or created their own student persona for the day. But TWO teachers actually dressed specifically like Caeden! 

Mrs. McCoy messaged me last night to ask if I thought Caeden would be ok with her dressing as him. I thought he would be honored and offered to bring her some of his clothes. She had already planned on jeans with frayed edges, Vans, borrowed drumsticks from Mr. Marchese, and figured out how to style her hair up to look like Caeden's! I offered a hoodie or jeans, then she asked specifically for Caeden's black and white striped shirt. I had to laugh because he has 3 or 4! I took her 2 and a hoodie. She also rocked the headphones like Caeden does most days at school. She came into the library to pose for a photo before school and she even got his posture down pretty well!

Mr. Leinweber was a total surprise, and a friend of Caeden's walked me around the school to find and see him at breakfast duty. He later showed Caeden that he'd been taking notes on his phone when he came up with outfit ideas for weeks! I really love the post-it note patches on his jeans!

Yearbook photographers got Caeden and Mrs. McCoy together in her classroom. She told me that Caeden laughed so hard when he saw her that he started a coughing fit, so she counted it a success!

She even borrowed an energy drink can from another student so she could complete the Caeden "look!"

Pretty great teachers who know a kid well enough to dress up like him! T

hey say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Caeden was completely surprised, and maybe even a little honored.

All of the teachers who dressed up "like students"

Surprise Birthday Drive-In

Such a beautiful and refreshing Sunday today!

PoC had a great live online service. There is really something cool about worshipping at home in our living room, just the 5 of us. I don't miss the morning rush and worrying about how and when everyone is getting to church and what they're wearing and what car(s) are going where when for the rest of the day and where we are eating lunch and what else is going on and, and, and!!! It's so nice to settle in and just spend time worshipping with my family in my home!  (I do miss the making music part, but those who are helping are doing a great job.)

After lunch today, we were outside for a bit. 

This evening, all 5 of us got in the car!  We tried to remember the last time all 5 of us got in the car together, and we couldn't. We figured it must've been around the holidays sometime. It was really nice to go out for a drive and see all the green and new life of springtime! We have definitely been cooped up at home too much for too long!

We were actually heading to church!  But not to go inside.

All these cars were gathered (6 feet apart) to surprise Samuel Keller on his 16th birthday!

Even this guy kept it a surprise!

It was so awesome to see some of our church family and dear friends!!!  I was so overwhelmed I had to hold back tears for the entire time we were there!!!

Kim got Samuel and the whole family to come through the building to the "garage" part, and she drove around to the outside and opened the door and we all started honking and shouting happy birthday when we saw Sam.

He was pretty surprised!

Caeden was so happy to wish his buddy happy birthday!

It was SO GOOD to celebrate Samuel today and see loved ones, even though we weren't allowed to hug anyone.  (It is hard!  PoC is a very friendly hugging church!!!)

We love our these dear friends, and are so thankful God put us together in life! 

I emailed all my piano and voice students this week, and have loved hearing back from them how they are using their music and what they are doing during this difficulty.  One dad responded that he is playing music from different eras and genres for his kids each night!  So cool--a little "music history class" in their kitchen and they probably don't even realize they're learning!  That same dad said to me "I think this was God's way of reminding everyone what is truly important in this world." Yep, I think he's right.

Another person said to me, "God has a plan in everything, and I pray we can use this time of a slower pace of life to really evaluate where we are in life and how we are using our time in service to Him!"  Ohh yes, and did I need to hear that!!!

During this past week I have been able to connect/reconnect with friends I haven't made time for in a while.  One morning my friend Kim called me after she sent me and Jeremy a text to check in and I told her I was having a rough morning.  We talked for probably 45 minutes, and I bet we haven't talked on the phone in years!  She was such a comfort to me!

One day, Pastor Todd issued a Facebook challenge to our church to reach out to 10 people, and I did that.  I delivered a couple of the bags I crocheted last week to friends and was able to visit--from 6 feet away--with Jenna and Will (and Martin) for a while.  They are such cheerful people, and Jesus' light just shines out of them...such a refreshing joy to just talk with them for a little bit!

I also texted dear friends that are far away that I haven't caught up with in too long, and had sweet conversations with Lori and Cora.  Ohhh, that does a heart good!

Friday evening I received a really difficult message from a friend and I have been extremely upset and emotional about it all weekend.  I decided to fast my phone for the weekend, and it has helped not to have it in my hand as much as usual.  

Saturday morning, the girls and I started an online women's small group with several women from church.  We will be studying this book, and I am really excited about it!

For the first couple weeks, we are just chatting and praying together, since we need time for our books to arrive.  It was so wonderful to see the faces of some of our closest sisters in Christ on the zoom meeting yesterday, and to hear about what the past weeks have been like for them, and to pray for one another and feel encouraged!  Every person is experiencing the situation differently, but we can all appreciate and support one another through it.  Such peace and comfort in that!  I am so grateful to have the time to be part of this group and study, as it occurs during a time when I would usually be teaching and unable to participate.  Thank you for that, God!  

We have loved our PoC online worship service each Sunday morning.  Sundays have been crazy busy for us for the past I-don't-know-how-many years! It is so refreshing to get up and come to the living room and worship at home, then have lunch and spend the day relaxing together.  A beautiful sabbath, really.  I know it is still a lot of work for those on the church staff, the worship team that is rehearsing and playing, and especially the technical staff.  They are doing a great job, and it is so meaningful and wonderful for our congregation.

Annah recorded this for her recital at school.  We've all enjoyed hearing her learn this very difficult piece these past few weeks!

Today was a gorgeous day here, and we all got at least a little time in the sunshine. Jeremy spent a lot of yesterday outside removing a stump in the yard, and starting to fashion a fire pit in the corner of our yard at Annah's request.  Today, he and Sylvia threw a little nerf football back and forth for quite a while, and Sylvia spent time skateboarding, of course. Sometimes it would be nice to have a bigger yard, but I am thankful for the little spot we have.

Annah stood on Sylvia's skateboard and has pretty good balance.  I got on for about 7 seconds and found it pretty scary, haha.

This evening, I noticed these flowers by the garage looked so pretty in the sun.

Ryan came to join us for church this morning.  While I made lunch, there was a game of Skip-Bo over my puzzle.

I made soft pretzels this evening, thanks to my friend Tracie finding flour and yeast for us!  They were supposed to be a 30-minute recipe, but took about 3 times that long since they get boiled in baking soda water, egg-washed, and then get broiled after being baked.  They were so good though!  Next time I would double the recipe if I'm already going to do that many steps.

Silliness...