A walk for beauty

I went on a little walk around my parents yard late this morning, just to look for beauty.  

There was a lot of beauty to be seen; I just needed to be intentional to look.

Jeremy's 45 birthday!

It's Jeremy's birthday today!  

He turned 45, and we celebrated with a DQ ice cream cake--his favorite!

These guys are very proud of their "quarantine hair!"

Sylvia found out this week that she was chosen to be drum major for marching band this fall.  However, this comes with knowing that there may not be a marching band season, or it will look very, very different than in the past. It was another sad reminder when she had a zoom meeting with Mr. M and the band leadership team today. I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, and all the kids decided to go with me even though it was raining. Caeden decided to go down the slide at the playground in the rain, just to be silly.  

It actually was nice to get out and walk around even though it was raining.  I jokingly sang this song that I learned in elementary music class, thinking they would laugh and make fun of me, but they actually liked it. It is one that has stuck with me almost my whole life now.

Ryan came over tonight after work and there was some Mario Kart for Jeremy's birthday. 

Happy birthday, Jeremy!  We love you and are so thankful for you!!!

Last Day of School?

Today was the kids' official last day of school--more than 2 weeks early, actually, due to the COVID19 shelter-in-place order and remote learning.  Honestly, neither of them had much actual class work this week, but each had a few Zoom meetings to see their teachers and classmates and say goodbye for the summer.

I honestly almost forgot to do last-day-of-school photos, since they haven't grabbed their backpacks and driven off to school for 61 days!

Sylvia actually liked the online learning for most of her classes. She liked that she could go back and re-watch specific parts of lectures as many times as she wanted to. She liked the fact that classes and lectures weren't interrupted with other students' asking questions. She missed in-class discussions, friends, music, and lots of other things though. 

Even if the end of it was odd, there were plenty of awesome, amazing things during her junior year. 

Caeden did not like remote learning at all--except for Zoom meetings with his favorite teachers/classes, Biology and English. It wasn't that a lot of work was done during those Zoom meetings, but the teachers needed to see their kids just as much as the kids needed to see each other and their teachers! (On one Zoom with his English class, kids were apparently showing each other around their houses, and kind of having a show-n-tell where they were trying to come up with the weirdest random item they could find in their house.  One student showed up with a baby, and he won!) I know for sure that remote learning was just as hard for the teachers (if not harder) as it was for the students. For Caeden, it was very hard to stay focused and complete his work at home. He usually does almost all of his work in class, and he feels like home is where he unwinds and doesn't think about school work.  So staying on task with classes on his own was a bit rough. Also, Caeden is such a social person; not seeing his classmates and friends has been the hardest part. We did grant him the concession of SnapChat, and he has connected with so many friends that way...it has been the best thing for him, really...as much as I hate SnapChat and hate to say that.  

His freshman year started out loaded not only with new classes and high school academic responsibilities, but vocal jazz, marching band, cross country, and fall play keeping him at school for about 13 hours a day! Talk about ending the school year in complete opposite! 

Now officially a senior and a sophomore, oh wow!

I'm calling this group the "socially distanced skateboard gang."  Coby bought Caeden a skateboard and gave it to him today so he could actually skate with them; so sweet. And they got Jackson to come along too! 

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17

Jeremy went to Meijer today.  He found fruit roll-ups on sale for $.99 a box.  

They are unicorn tattoo fruit roll-ups.

Today's SnapChat filter comic relief...

 

 

Sylvia and I went for a walk this afternoon. 

The trees in bloom around the village are so pretty right now!

We visited Magnolia's magnolia tree again.  Soooo beautiful!!!  Now I have a new wallpaper for my phone background!

My fuchsia tulips bloomed today!

And the grape hyacinths are full!  (And the dandelions are creeping in too, of course.  I let this one stay because Sylvia said she likes the color it adds.)

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.