Home School Presentation Night

A little over a week ago, we attended Home School Presentation Night, and had one of the funnest times we've ever had. 

Three families plus a few others were there, and we brought the daughter of Crystal's employer with us as we had been babysitting her for the afternoon. 

Here two sisters are playing a piano duet.

A grandmother was so pleased when she was asked if she would like to play her mouth organ for us all. 

Oxygen and all, she played a hymn for us.

Our three youngest children quoted and dramatized Psalm 139-1-14. Here Hannah is looking through a magnifying glass after, "O Lord, You have searched me and known me."

When Timmy quoted, "If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me," we turned off the lights! "Even the night shall be light about me." Then Danny turned on his headlamp. Just a few little things like that to make it interesting. The kids did great!

Two other cute little sisters playing a piano duet.

The younger one just played with her knuckles--so interesting.

This family does such a fantastic job of acting out stories. This one was about a woodcutter who got three chances for wishes

from a bunny (whom you can see down in between the piano and sofa.

Carrie and Rose played a nice rendition of "The Old Rugged Cross" with violin and mandolin.

Timmy juggled three balls while the audience came up with first verbs, then prepositions, then adjective, changing each time he dropped a ball. They also called out rivers of the world and state capitols! I was in charge of that part, and this picture is just plain awful of me, but I guess I must look that bad sometimes, so I may as well grin and bear it!

This sweet young lady played "Be Still My Soul" on her harp.

This play took the prize!

It was the story of the fisherman who got a big fish who provided one wish after another for the fisherman's wife.

I LOVED the fish's costume--the fishy mask and the rainbow-colored feathers plastered all over the front for fins.

Here you see the white-bearded fisherman, (with cottonballs hanging from his ears) and his snooty wife prancing around her castle in her white gown with her nose very much in the air!!!!

This family is superb with how creative they are, and the children do such a good job.

Here the two sisters from a third family are showing string tricks. (And Crystal's little friend is leaning on her shoulder! She had a good time there, after first crawling under chairs to hide, but then she participated in the bells later.  I am talking about the little girl, not about Crystal! Just imagine Crystal crawling under chairs to hide! )

More string tricks.

The little boys are singing "God is So Good."

These boys are playing guitar, "On the Wings of a Dove."

Carrie played a very fun rendition of "Tribute to Pikes Peak."

The children twelve and under were very excited to get to play bells! I had ordered a new set of these inexpensive Rhythm band bells to use with the homeschool children and possibly for Kids Club down the road, or even on Mission Helps trips.

What I do in these cases, is arrange the children according to chords of music. There are a few children with bells C,E, and G, for the C chord. Then there are children with F, A, and C, and others with G, E, D, and B for a G7 chord.

I place these three groups of children in order, and point to the right chord as we sing. In this way, children can instantly be playing music, rather than trying to learn when to hit melody notes. It is very pretty to just play the chords, and we could play two songs right away with little or no practice. We did "Silent Night," since that was the one we practiced several weeks earlier, and "ABC" the alphabet song for learning the alphabet, both in the key of C.

The children decided they wanted to do presentations more often because it was so fun!

Afterward, there were yummy snacks to share.

We are very thankful for our wonderful friends in this home school group.

Steer, Meet Mr. Snowman!

The children's snowman lasted a long time.

It even outlasted the steer coming up and rubbing his face and neck against it over and over!

Strange creature standing there in the pasture--silent, white, and still!

"Doll of snow," we learned that it is called in Spanish.

Just a doll of snow standing there. A pretend man, cold and unmoving, like the idols that heathen carve for themselves.

It had a head, but it could not see or hear. It had a body but it could not feel. It had a base, but it could not move.
It could not respond when Mr. Steer came to investigate,
to rub up against it, to scratch some itchy spot.
However grandly the children formed that "doll of snow," however real was the carrot they put in for its nose, the snowman was no more real man than the snow fence next to it.

Sometimes I wonder if we don't come up with a God-doll in our minds.
 We imagine Him holy-white but cold and still. We don't think He will respond when we come to Him. We huddle up next to His arm and assume He just stands there, stoic and still. We don't feel His love.
God, are You like this "Doll of Snow"?
Or are You like this mama longhorn, fully alive and alert and watchful over her newborn calf as we drive into the rancher's driveway to do chores?

Do You stand up there in heaven lifeless and unresponsive, or do You "lift up the horn" as the Psalms say, to defend Your people?
Thank You, Lord, that You are not a dead god.
You have ears that hear, eyes that see, a heart that feels our infirmities, and a hand that reaches all the way from heaven to earth to take care of Your people's needs!

Skiing at Arapahoe Basin, Colorado

Last Monday was the perfect day to go skiing! The children had been wanting to go skiing for a looong time, and finally Carrie got on the stick (or shall we say, she got on her skis!) and, with Jonathan's help, purchased the cheapest lift tickets online that she could find.

It was not terribly cold, and not windy at all, which was a blessing! 

And I can count all those hours for Phys Ed for our home school!

Everyone had their fat snow pants except Jonathan, and he even forgot to bring his coat, so he had to stop along the way and buy a new one which was fortunately on clearance at Walmart. I think he looks very good in black, don't you?

Oh, dear, you have to forgive his very doting and totally biased wife who thinks he looks good in almost anything!!!

The children spent the first few hours practicing on this "bunny slope" before heading for the easiest mountain ski slope which is marked the "green slope" on the Arapahoe Basin Skiing map.

There were quite a few tumbles at first!

(Which is why the children wear snow leggings for this activity!)

We had driven up in two different vehicles because the girls had to leave early the next morning from the cabin where Jonathan had work to do, to get back to work at the restaurant. So Crystal and I drove up a few hours later than the others, who left before 6. And when we finally met up together at the ski area, Jonathan's face was so full of  a radiant smile. He was just so fun to kiss!

I have seldom seen him look so happy. He just loves to ski on his Colorado mountains! And he was having a good time watching the children catch on quickly. About 10 years or so ago, we had paid for lessons for our three oldest, before Hannah was even born. So Carrie caught back on really fast, but the others caught on well, too!

 Finally Carrie, Timmy and Rose decided they were ready to try the "green" slope.

I watched the glow on Jonathan's face, and the fun the children were having, and I wished I could, too, but I knew I couldn't do it, or risk the tumbles and messing myself up worse than I already am!

 I was not feeling very happy for a few moments. Sure, I could stand there and try to "count my blessings," but that just didn't cut it.

Another mother who was standing watching her kids, too, all day, told me, "I don't even have any desire  to do that!" 

 

 I couldn't say that. I did desire to do it. And as usual, I couldn't. 

But I just stood there watching, and hiked all the way to the top of the bunny slope to encourage some of the children to weave back and forth to slow themselves down so they wouldn't streak down and take tumbles. I helped some of them up, and brought water bottles and cheered them on.

And made sandwiches for everyone back at the truck.

Before long I was forgetting my wishes and just enjoying myself. Life isn't so much about getting all your wishes fulfilled, like the wish to ski, as it is about having a purpose.

If my life purpose was to have fun skiing, then I would have ended up disappointed.

But when my purpose for the day began to take shape into just being the mom who loves to be with her family and cheer them on even if she can't do the rough stuff,
if my purpose was just taking care of their needs and keeping them in touch with who went where when,

 so they would know when to get on the lift and meet different ones to ski together,

and taking pictures for memories and to share...

then it was very fulfilling!

I hadn't gone up there to ski--but to make Jonathan happy and be with  my family.
I wasn't going to go at all, but Jonathan had said softly to me Saturday as we came home from business in town together, "I hope you'll come with us!"
It made all the difference in the world to be wanted by somebody!

 I hoped that maybe some day I would not have so  many days of weakness, and could get into better shape to where I could even ski a bit!

The children all had to rent skis (except for Jonathan who still had his 30 or 35 year old skis and boots, which Crystal teased were next to vintage!). You have to choose the right size, and then they adjust different gauges depending on your skill level, so that the skis will pop off your ski boots if you bang them too hard or take a bad tumble. The higher your skill and the more bumps you intend to go over, the tighter they adjust the ski clips to the boot.

I thought that was interesting. 

It's just like how God adjusts our trials to our skill level, and He has a "way of escape," a gauge for when the bump is too hard and the clips let go so the skis come off to make less risk of us getting harmed,

 so that we are able to bear the bumps, bangs, and tumbles as we learn our way up through the different skill levels of life.

It was fun watching different ones of the children take rides on the lift with their daddy!

None of them, not even Hannah, was afraid to ski down the green slope as long as Dad was along with them!

Somehow Dad being along made all the difference!

"With Dad, all things are possible!" I laughed.

Jonathan said that years ago he had gotten so good on skis, that he would try out the slopes where they had cones to weave around, and he got his speed and skill to where he measured at where skiers had won bronze medals at the Olympics.

Of course, he never went to the Olympics!

He just got married and had all these kids!

Hannah wanted a picture with "just Daddy!"

Daddy, the "almost Olympic" skier!

And the boys! (Sam hadn't wanted to come, much as we tried to get him to come along. He needs some boy cousins or friends to ski with!!)

 And look who got into the girls' picture!

It was a very fun day!