Once a week for now - and not very good, at that

I noticed that the last time I posted was one week ago so I thought I better post again to hold up a vague semblance of blogging. Somehow, I truly believe that I will be more consistant starting in September.

Let's see:

We have one more week before SCA starts. I worked on my lesson plans some this morning. I will teach 5 classes either at home or at SCA: Latin I, Latin II, English Lit., AP European History, and Algebra with Benny.

I painted at the church building a couple of days this week. I enjoyed that. (All except for the loud oldie songs that erupted from the stairway the last day. I could have done without that.)

I coached my first volleyball game. We lost, but I was VERY proud of our teams and their effort against a polished opponent. Our gals were brave and gracious - what more could you want?

We're expecting company from Bloomington anytime now so I must go for now.

Have a great week!

Poached eggs

Last night when I caught Benny rummaging around in the fridge for plunder at 11 p.m., he held up a tupperware with some boiled eggs and confessed, "I'm poaching eggs."

Poached eggs. Suddenly I was reminded of my childhood. And with that reminder came a horrible realization. I had never made poached eggs for my family. Imagine that! But I have eaten many a poached egg in my younger days. They were prepared for me by my grandmother. And so I thought to myself, "I need to expose my children to the wonderful world of poached eggs." "I had to endure them, shouldn't they? Wouldn't they grow up all lop-sided without having tasted poached eggs?", I asked myself. Well we wouldn't want that, now would we?

So this morning I went surfing around to find a website that would show me how to poach an egg. Here's the best one I found, and you aughta read it. It's hilarious. If it has the same effect on you as it did on me, you'll probably be talked out of ever wanting to poach an egg!

NOT MARS SPECTACULAR, MARS INACCURATE!

Here's a clarification on the post before last titled MARS SPECTACULAR which proves you can't believe everything you read on emails.

Mars coming closer, but not closest The Times-Standard

An e-mail is circulating alerting readers that Mars will be closer to Earth than it has ever been in recorded history. True. But that happened Aug. 27, 2003, when Mars came to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth. That record is expected to be broken, but not until 2287. In the meantime, stargazers can look forward to Oct. 30 when Mars will pass to within 43 million miles of Earth, compared to an average distance of about 140 million miles. With that in mind, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on Wednesday. Because it takes more than six months to reach Mars, NASA says the best time to start the trip is a month or so before closest approach. NASA says that by the end of October, when Earth and Mars are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. To get an idea of how fast Earth is racing toward the red planet, NASA gave the following on its website: “By the time you finish reading this sentence, you’ll be 25 miles closer to the planet Mars.” NASA adds: “Earth is racing toward Mars at a speed of 23,500 mph, which means the red planet is getting bigger and brighter by the minute. In October, when the two planets are closest together, Mars will outshine everything in the night sky except Venus and the Moon. (You’re another 50 miles closer: keep reading!)” NASA explained the close encounter: ”It’s simple orbital mechanics. Think of Earth and Mars as two runners on a circular race track, with lanes corresponding to planetary orbits. Earth, running fast on the inside lane, circles the course in 12 months. Mars, plodding along an outside lane, takes twice as long to go around. Every two years, approximately, Earth catches Mars from behind and laps it.”

Here's the source link back to the newspaper article for your reference:

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_2925880

So there you go. This comes from a newspaper so it must be reliable since newspapers always get it right. Riiiiiiight. (There I go flippantly thowing in a universal statement again where it don't belong!)

This is (for real) Joshua's work car ... I am not delusional!

Here's Josh with the work car that he got to use all summer. He will unfortunately have to give it back next week when he leaves. Nice while it lasted!

(Nota Bene the blog entry for, Monday, July 25th, to better understand this blog title - if you're the curious type.)

MARS SPECTACULAR!

The 47th Pea sent this to my email:

Ok Momers, here it is again. And it still looks pretty cool!

:P

FW: A note for your calendar for Aug. 27th.

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Ha, ha - fooled ya!

You didn't think I'd post today, did ya? (If you call this a post.)

I was going to end at that, but now that I'm here I guess I'll tell you a little news.

Robert finished his huge, long paper for one of his presbytery requirements. Hooray!

Ben started soccer practice this week.

Josh will be here two more weeks. Boo hoo.

Canny whisked off, all important like, to go to an editor's meeting for her college paper today.

Amy and I are kicking off volleyball this week. She's playing for her second year and I'm coaching for my first year. Looking forward to making them run a bunch of laps. Should be fun.

Let me end with a famous quote from one of those young people's bands I hear around the house.
"I wish we all could make our mothers proud."
(You see I was listening to to words after all. ;-)

Summertime time warp ...

Time seems to warp and bend in the summer. (Einstein probably already discovered this, but leave me alone to my rambling.) Have you ever noticed that you're supposed to have more time during the summer to do all these things you've been meaning to do, but somehow in reality you seem to have less time than ever? How is that? Take blogtime for instance. I seem to never have time to blog these days. I find myself thinking, "I haven't blogged in ages. I need to sit down and do that." And then the time warp kicks in and I find myself carried away into three days into the future. You shake your head in disbelieve, but I tell you it's true!

During the school year, I have much more going on. I'm running down 15 or 20 tracks at a time. I can blog and clean and cook and sleep - all at the same time. No problem. But not during the summer. No-sir-ree. I think there's a scientific explanation for it - something to do with chemistry or physics, or something.

My car

Here's a pic of my sweet, green Jaguar.

There's a story behind this car.

You see the kids and I started seeing this car almost every time we drove to school last year parked in front of the courthouse here in Kokomo. I very much admired it and commented thusly every time I saw it.

Soon my admiration grew into delusion, and I began to believe that the car actually did belong to me. I just never got to drive it. I had other people working for me who drove it for me.

Time wore down the kids' grasp on reality and they started to believe that the Jaguar was mine as well. Each new time we saw it one of them would say, "Hey Mom, there's your car!"
And I'd say, "Yes, I had someone wash it this weekend. Looks nice doesn't it?"
"Yeah, looks real good."

I told my husband, and later, my visiting mother-in-law, and they all believed me.

So it is time to share my car with a wider audience. What do you think of it?

In the hiding place of thunder

(Written earlier this morning.)


Couldn't sleep to the normal wake-up time this morning. My eyes popped open and I knew I had to get up. At 5 a.m., I gave up the fight to go back to sleep. Now the dull light of morning is chasing the darkness away.

::Gets up to fetch her bifocals.::

This is a new thing for me - having pieces of glass in front of my eyes. I've had them a few weeks now, and being a person who's never had to wear glasses, it comes as a sort of absent-minded habit now to sit down to read or write just to immediately get up and find the glasses in order to sit down a second time to begin again. It's my normal routine now. A minor inconvenience of which I'm very thankful.

Out of my living room over the hospital and down the street, the beautiful moon shines. I've been a moon-watcher for as long as I can remember.

I haven't told you about our sunroom yet. It's the breezeway that connects the garage to the house. With windows on either side, this bright room houses some of my larger houseplants. A couple of hanging baskets dot the ceiling. A foosball table sits on one side and a table and chairs sit on the other. I like to sneak out there in the early morning when I can to breath the fresh air, listen to a dove, and read my bible.


Last night, Chili and I sat in the sunroom and experienced a thunderstorm together. You don't just watch a thunderstorm, you experience it. You hear it, you smell it, you feel it. The storm was right on top of us when we first joined it. I came into an encounter with the huge sky last night. This encounter was not visual, but aural. As peals of thunder rumbled across the large expanse of the heavens, I could hear the awesome claps of thunder mark their clear progress across the sky. That was the first time I've noticed that rolling thunder can communicate the expansiveness of the sky.

Not to mention the rain. I mean, the Lord does such a good job of watering the ground. Just a couple of days ago the girls and I were watering the flowers of a friend who is out of town. Last night, the Lord watered those flowers much deeper in less time than we could have done. Our God is an awesome God!

6 o' clock is drawing closer now and I think I'll make my morning cup of green tea and take it and my bible to the sunroom. I hope the Lord will meet me in the quiet of the morning as He did in the thunder of the night.

(Title for this blog entry was taken from Psalm 81:7, "You called in trouble, and I rescued you; I answered you in the hiding place of thunder ...")

Uuughh!

(Isn't that a famous Charlie Brown line?)

I still don't have time to blog today - but I want you to know that you're still important to me, my precious, and I haven't forgotten about you or forsaken you completely.

We'll catch up later. Bye!

Off to Kentucky

Yesterday was spent packing - so this morning we're ready to go.

Our family is leaving this morning and driving to Kentucky to attend a 5-day conference called Covfamikoi (pronounced ku-vu-ma-koi). The name stands for Covenant Family Koinonia (Greek for Christian fellowship or communion with God or with fellow Christians). It's sponsored by our Presbytery - so people from churches all around the Mid-West and all the way down to Florida will attend. We'll have the chance to get to know a lot of people while we eat together, attend morning classes, play games in the afternoon, and have various activities at night.

I'm going in the official capacity as the Nursery Coordinator. Sounds impressive, huh? We traded our mini van with the York's huge 15 passenger van so I could carry 5 porta cribs and some big wipes and animal crackers, etc. I don't have to man (or woman) the nursery all the time, I just have to recruit others to do it. So I'll make public announcements and comb the dining hall armed with my trusty clip board and sign-up sheet.

Should be a great way to break the ice with new people. "Hello, I'm Suzanne. Would you like to volunteer to watch some cute little babies?" Aught to be interesting.

Talk to you when we get back.

Daily light

Everyday life suits me fine.

You know, I'm not one of those people who has to have an exciting "event" always brewing on the horizon to keep me interested in life. Real life is amazing enough. I mean, just think about it. Every morning, the Lord renews His mercy. He keeps on giving me the gift of faith. I can't think of any thoughts that inspire me more than those that anchor my everyday life. Christ is my center. Christ is my foundation, my source for all things, my fountain of life. My life is so bound up in Him, I have no life without Him.

Just living in this light, this realization, transforms my life into more than everydays.

The remains of the day

Life-saver: Sonic has $1 burgers every Tuesday night. Ahh! Sweet!

My brain makes weird connections sometimes. I was just thinking how blogging is like private devotions. I make myself believe that if I can't commit to it a decent chunk of time, I should skip it altogether. Not a good approach. Both are, I guess, time investments. Of course, the vast difference in the value of these two things makes the comparison quickly looses its effect.

But just writing that intro reminds me of another comparison between blogging and private devotions. I often find that at the start, my mind draws a blank, but if I just make a go of it (respectfully), thoughts will soon start to flow. The hard part is making the initial attempt.

On to other things: Thursday Josh, Candace and I are going up north to check out the University of Chicago as a possible grad school for Josh. Should be a good trip. More on that later.

Other summer pursuits include guitar and Latin lessons. I'm going to teach guitar lessons to a friend this summer, and I'll tutor a girl in Latin for a few weeks too. We'll be gearing up for next year's Latin II class. Really looking forward to teaching two levels of Latin next year, and tutoring this summer will help me get back into the language. I guess I better play the guitar too to toughen up the ol' fingers.

Here are some of our backyard photos:
Like I told you last blog, we had a backyard fellowship the other night. There was a lot of visiting, baseball playing, bubbling, cat petting, and even some attempted pinching. Thought you'd like to know that. You have some fun too.

Not much remaining in this day so I better go.

Little girls and a cat

We had a backyard fellowship
At our house tonight.
Meat on the grill
With friends around
The citronella light.

The volleyball
Flew through the air,
The ladies looking on.
A guy played baseball
With the boys
Round the corner on the lawn.

With waning light the fireflies
Showed forth
Their fleeting glory.
The Psalms arose
From every voice
The everlasting story.

But on this night
I'll hold inside
A special memory
Of three small friends
Who pet a cat
That sat upon my knee.

Center stage

The lights dim. The conductor, well-beloved and humble, speaks the opening words. The audience is put into the right mood.

The orchestra starts to play The Barber of Seville Overture. The music pokes fun at “real” opera. Thoughts of old Bugs Bunny shows freely roam through minds. The players express their fun-loving joy. Rehearsals and practice behind them – now they have just the music. Some play without pause, others stop to quickly turn a page. A silent service.

The reaction from the audience is immediate and sincere.

Conscious of those who come behind. Sliding chairs. Moving stands. Making room. Waiting patiently. Most of the players exit the stage.

A quintet remains to perform a Corelli piece comprised of six movements. Moving from walking rhythms to more lively tunes, the players’ hard work and skill are swallowed up in musical expression. The first and second violinists enter into a lively interplay with one another. Both violists and the cellist enter the frolic as well.

The crowd responds with delight.

Every musician returns to the stage. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is introduced as a baby grand piano is wheeled to center stage. Three musicians move gingerly forward taking their places at front stage. Joel, a tall, confident high school senior, holds his violin. Next to him standing composedly is Katie, a lovely flutist. Seated next to her is Lindsay, the radiant, graceful pianist. The conductor sets the stage for the music and turns to his orchestra. His hands motion the instruments into playing position. All is ready.

The familiar concerto leaps forth. After the first movement, the audience is not able to contain themselves and claps and cheers loudly. Performance decorum demands silence between movements, but decorum would never do at a time like this. Silence is no response for such wonderful music. The audience too must have the center stage so an involuntary outburst of clapping and cheering ensues. Two more movements round out the concerto and allow the audience to clearly hear the solo instruments.

The final piece to be performed is Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. The performance is powerful and dramatic. The music ends. The audience jubilantly rises in standing ovation. Flowers are presented. The air is electrifying.

But wait. It’s not over yet. The orchestra has a surprise in store for their beloved conductor and his wife. To celebrate the very day of their 22^nd wedding anniversary, the players have prepared some waltz music so the couple can dance. The music begins and the lovers dance. Center stage belongs to them now. Smiles are all around. The song ends and the dancers bow. Then suddenly the players begin to play a second waltz. The crowd laughs to see the conductor and his wife’s dance prolonged. They dance again, start to bow only to hear the players begin their third waltz. The hilarity compounds and the conductor pleases the crowd with silly antics looking at his watch, borrowing a cane from an old lady as he pretends to grow old during the dance, and hooking his wife toward him using the cane as his arm’s extension. To the delight and amusement of the audience, the players let the couple complete their dance after the fourth waltz.

Wonderful interplay. Wonderful music. Wonderful day.

This is the true story of Saturday's concert performed by the KASH (Kokomo Area Schools at Home) High School Orchestra. The conductor is John Christenson. Candace, Amy, and Ben are all players.

Supper goes awry

Sisters and email, what can you say? It's always interesting. Like take the past few days for instance. One wrote that she has unearthed a couple of old family recipes of main dishes that we used to eat as kids. So one of them came back later reporting that she had made one of the dishes and it brought back childhood memories. So the other made the dish and reported back too. So I set out to re-discover this lost cuisine, but didn't fare so well. (No pun intended.)

Here's an excerpt from my email to them.

OK, OK, so I realize that I'm the only one who hasn't reported on my journey down memory lane with dinner recipes from childhood, and all, but I guess I'm expecting everything to just fall into place. I had really good intentions today. I mean, I printed out the email with both recipes on it, and I actually got a pan out and filled it with water and set it on the stove to boil to prepare the noodles. Then I really looked at the recipe.

"Hum, pimentos. I don't have those. Oh well, I don't think you really HAVE to have pimentos for this dish. OK, I'll get the cream cheese out of the frig. Where's that cream cheese? It was here yesterday. ... Blast those kids - eating all the cream cheese just when I need it! Little varmits eating me out of house and home!

"Whatever, OK, I'll just scratch the casserole.

"Now for Plan B. No prob, I'll just make the other one. Let's see. Bacon - check; flour - check; mush soup - check; American cheese - hum, don't have that ... but I do have the creamy, yellow cheese stuff in the jar ... reckon that'll work - check; 4 well-beaten egg yolks and 4 stiff-beaten egg whites - well, aren't we picky - check. Why do the old '60 recipes have to be so labor intensive? ::sigh::

"Directions, directions - here we go. It says, 'Fry bacon.' OK. ::cuts open the bacon and gets out the pan.::

"Then is says, 'Drain on absorbant paper.' Well, duh.

::scans through the recipe:: "What the...?! You mean to tell me this takes 55 mins. to bake? Man, they even cooked slower than we do these days! I mean, I gotta BE at my exercise class in 40 mins. Oh well. I'll REALLY do it tomorrow. Yeah tomorrow, that's when I'll make it.

::Looks in the pantry. Spies a can of Progresso Soup.:: "Now, that's more like it!" ::Finishes the last bite when the first kid enters.:: "Where's supper?", says he.

::Thinks about retorting, "You tell me where the cream cheese is, Bucko, and I'll tell you where supper is!" Bites her tongue and with an angelic smile points to the fine selection of soup in the pantry.::



Well OK, so I stretched the truth a little with that angelic smile business. I was just trying to come up with a happy ending.

Early morning in our neighborhood

This morning I woke up around 4:30 and was amazed to see the first dim glow of the morning seeping around my curtains. I took this picture about 4:55 from our dining room to show you that the sun is starting to come up PRETTY early here in Kokomo, Indiana. I don't plan to be up that early in a week on June 21st, the longest day of the year. I'm sure the sun will be up long before I will!

Smothered chops

Back from Texas.

Pros:
> Canny's grad;
> seeing home folks;
> being back home in the pineywoods of East Texas.

Cons:
> Not near enough time;
> time flew by;
> wish we had more time.



Tonight I'm going to the Women's Night Out with our church ladies. Yippee! Prayer, fellowship, and eating out! Great combination!

Started to seriously work on Rob's and my reading project this week. I plan to spend several hours each day on the project - he'll end up spending even more time on it than that. It's pretty cool - we go on walks and talk about what we've been reading. I'm reading about Scottish church history and he's reading sermons about the application of Scriptural and historical covenants. We'll both eventually read all the material. Profound subjects. I'll let you know more about it as I soak it up and try to make sense of it. I'm starting out with a lot of questions.

Umm, I can smell the smothered pork chops, ::thinks about cracking a joke about chops, but decides it's entirely too corny:: :::Her readers sigh with relief::: but I can't eat them - have to save my appetite for dinner with the ladies. Poor me. :-(

Sweet summertime

Summer’s here. Gone are the days of weekly school planning, lecturing, grading, and making of lunches. (Well, I guess I’ll still be making lunches – just not before 8 o’clock in the morning.) Sure, I’ll be plenty busy doing just about the same things I do during the year around the house, but I’ll be busy doing them during the summer. That’s the difference. Do you see what I mean?

I have a specific pile of books I want to read. I’m actually going to read the same books my husband is reading about the covenants of God and man. I have been VERY interested in this subject for a few years and this summer I finally get to delve into it and read about it and think about it. It is nice to have a season of personal study on a highly interesting subject without a lot of other mental distractions. I don't normally study theology books (that's more in Rob's line). I usually just want to read books to help assist me in private devotions. But we're doing something a little different this summer. The neat part is that because we'll be reading the same books and thinking about the same things, we can discuss them together. We've done that with one book, but never with a group of books. It will definitely be a syntopical study, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

The main priority now is making the final preparations for Candace’s graduation. Rob and I have already gone over each other’s speeches to make sure we aren’t saying the same things. We’re not. My excitement and anticipation is growing as we approach our oldest daughter’s high school graduation. This is a special time indeed. The time of graduation is the perfect time to look back on a person’s whole childhood. What’s it’s been. What she’s meant to me as a mother, and to her father, and to her brothers and sister. What a wonderful time. I could almost write more oratory right here and now, but I’ll spare you. Just come to the celebration with us if you can!

Tomorrow’s our 21^st anniversary! Guess where we plan to eat. None other than Kokomo, Indiana’s Texas Roadhouse! Yeah, we’ve never eaten in that restaurant so we thought we’d give it a try. Nice name.

We had our last regular Wednesday night bible study in our home tonight since we don’t meet for them regularly during the summer. It was very thought provoking tonight. I like it because we go verse by verse and have a format that encourages us to dig a little deeper into a passage. Tonight, we studied Act 13.

I’m sitting here typing in our den which we’ve turned into Josh’s room for the summer. He’s sitting right behind me on his computer. We had to put them this close to share this DSL plug. I don’t know how the boys have it hooked up, but they’ve fixed it somehow.

Well, I need to ready myself for bed. G'bye

Quick note ...

One more day of our co-op school for me. Yep, tomorrow's the finals for the two classes I teach and my final in Hebrew. Both in the college-prep English class and in the Latin class, I've made some dandy four page tests. In Hebrew we will have to translate 5 out of 9 verses from Genesis and parse the highlighted words. I better go study some more or I won't do so hot. Makes me feel like I'm in high school all over again - just the studying for a big test part not the loads of endless energy part. Oh well, better go study.

Oh yeah, we'll be driving to Texas in a week to celebrate Canny's graduation. Yippee!! Hope to see you there!