Timothy earned his Arrow of Light this month! Can that little Cub Scout shirt get any more decorated?
This is one of Timothy’s Webelos leaders. He has been really good.
From December to May we won’t have a Cub Scout. That will be a change. It also means that Richard will have a small reprieve in Pinewood Derby Car making.
The kids are posing with their piano teacher at the Fall Recital, which also happened to be Mark’s first piano recital. The younger children in the studio played Halloween pieces and dressed up in their costumes. Mark is Boba Fett from Star Wars. He played a spooky song called If You Dare! and he did a great job.
Daniel played Rondo Sonatina Op. 20 #1 by Frederic Kuhlau and The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. Daniel is very expressive and I don’t think I will ever get tired of hearing him play Joplin.
Timothy played A Neat Beat by Mier and he rocked the house. He is a wonderful pianist. Just… wow!
This is a picture of Paige and her teacher rehearsing the Shostakovich Concerto No. 2 Op. 102 for two pianos before the recital. Paige has two performances in the next few weeks for this piece. It’s beautiful.
Paige played Sonatina Op. 88 #3 Mvt. 1 by Frederik Kuhlau for the recital. She did a lovely job and she always has the grace to smile and give a confident bow after her performances. That’s hard to do.
Watching our four children perform at this recital was really something special.
Daniel celebrated a birthday last week with Chinese food, cheesecake, and a new motorized scooter.
I’ll tell you a little bit about Daniel, age 14. He joins clubs and auditions for things. He’s a pianist in the jazz band, a member of the Senate, and this last month dabbled in debate.
This week he is in a roadshow where he wears a shark costume and plays the scary theme from Jaws on his cello.
He plays The Entertainer all of the time and his favorite dynamic is fortissimo.
He earned 10 merit badges this summer.
He has a good friend in Texas with whom he still Skypes almost daily after many years of separation.
He loves engineering and computers. He mows our lawn. We depend on his rope skills, strength, and ingenuity on family trips and projects.
He has a growing circle of spiritual, outgoing, and interesting friends.
He was so happy last night to see the new episodes of Studio C. He is also a big fan of The Piano Guys.
I look forward to the things that Daniel will do this next year. He’s definitely worth watching. My health problems during my pregnancy with Daniel meant that he went through a rough time along with me. I knew that we should name him Daniel because he miraculously came through the lion’s den before he was born and I knew he was a great spirit before I even met him.
The kids have been in school for a month now. Four weeks seems to be the magic number for finding a routine at our house. Our mornings begin around 5:15. For the next 3 hours I watch the family leave one by one. I try to interact with each one before they leave. The evenings and mornings go by quickly, but we’re finding the time to do the homework and extra curricular activities.
Timothy is playing fall baseball 2 or 3 nights a week. Here are a few photos of him as pitcher and catcher. Richard handles all of the practices and games while I go to Wednesday night youth activities and chauffeur the kids to piano.
Half of our family was away this weekend to have a grand adventure at Fish Creek with Richard’s family… and my brother Paul.
They camped, rode 4-wheelers, hiked, and explored.
We were all led to believe that it was just for the boys, but the pictures don’t lie. Richard’s sister was there. 😉
They came home dirty, exhausted, and smiling. It looked like a successful trip to me.
I’ve been hoping for some photos from the Scout Camp that Daniel attended this summer to add to this post, but my feelings for what occurred with Daniel don’t require a photo to convey.
Scout Camp was just what Daniel needed and I will always be thankful for his leaders.
Parenting has made me feel very inadequate lately. Some of this feeling comes because I know that I am a flawed person. Some of this feeling comes because the kids don’t need me in the same ways that they used to and I’m trying to figure it all out. The kids are trying to figure out who they are and some days they long for more independence, but on others they need extra support.
I will admit that one of my biggest challenges in parenting is how to handle all of the technology that my children want to use. Some days it seems like all I do is monitor time spent on the computer, Wii, and watching Netflix. We have set time limits, but screen time tends to blur capacity for self control. It’s no fun being the screen time sheriff, but I am diligent. Some days I feel like a martyr. I sacrifice my easy tone and adopt an uncomfortable iron will to keep them from being tied too closely to the computer and television. It’s parenting in the trenches. The enemy is in the house and it takes courage to keep it at a distance.
Daniel has needed some space and I have struggled to help him find the it while still parenting and guiding. We sent him to Scout camp hoping that the time away would nurture his need for independence, challenge, and friendships with other young men.
When he saw me for the first time after camp he gave me a long hug. I don’t know why. Whether it was the corny songs and cheers, the camaraderie of leaders and friends, the nights under the stars, particularly poor cooking, a week away from the computer, or a combination of all of these things, I was grateful for whatever it was that brought Daniel to a place that he wanted to give me a hug.
This state of grace that Daniel was given at camp was a magnet for the young cousins at our family reunion. He spent time wrestling and nurturing them. He caught them in the freezing river and waded them to shore; he was helpful and he was magnificent.
Daniel is an amazing young man and he has grown more patient and unselfish this year. He’s also grown about 5 inches. Anyone under that kind of physical stretching is going to have some adjustments to make in the way he moves, talks, sits, and interacts with the world. I’m cheering for him all the way.
I love this boy.
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Richard went to Cub Day Camp with Timothy. It was a fun time and Timothy earned quite a collection of activity pins. I nearly ate his orange soap carving when he left it on the kitchen counter because I thought it looked like a piece of cheese.
I said goodbye to the kids this week and I am a little sad. Someone gave me an unexpected discount at the store and I sobbed for 5 minutes in my car about it. I hyperventilate when I hear a song on the radio that matches my mood. Every emotion is ready to jump out with any provocation, especially when I am alone.
Who knows how many hours I agonized over the decision about schools this summer, but peace eventually settled in my heart. I’m not sad about the decision. I am sad because I miss the kids.
They are going to have a good year. They have friends, they have goals, they are great students.
While at the Church garden last night the boys discovered this tomato. We think it looks a like a profile of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.
Our theme is fun this week. We ate shaved ice from a stand down the street. I took the younger boys to shop for Legos. They saved a lot of money over the summer and were itching to spend it. To commemorate their new love of Hobbit-lore, Timothy bought the Lego set of Bilbo Baggins’s home which includes a round door, maps, a garden, lots of food, Gandalf, and several dwarves. Mark bought a Ninjago Lego set with a front-end drill that works by a gear mechanism. He loves gears. Left on our bucket list of summer is a trip to the pool and completion of a reading goal for Timothy.
I’m going to throw a back to school party this year. I’ve never done it before, but I think we could all use a pep rally and some homemade ice cream.