Five Minutes of Thanks

Time for my yearly moment of seeing how many things I can say I’m thankful for in five minutes. Honestly, I feel like this post gets shorter every year. I promise it’s not because I’m any less thankful…it’s simply harder for me to pause and think about something that doesn’t have to deal with work, the kids, the house, and my endless list of endless things that need to get done!

 

My Savior. His sovereignty, mercy, and strength on a daily basis. Taste! Since I barely have any of it (yes, it looks like I’ve had Covid!), I realize how important it is. Good food. Coffee, especially. My husband. My three energized kids: Emry, Ethan and Elly. My brothers and sisters. Time in New England this summer. Our little home. The hope of a nicer, larger home with more space (and a second bathroom!). Color. Curiousity. Funny little things Ellyson does. Sleep! (Especially as I lack it thanks to Ellyson.) Good friends. My job and co-workers. Our church family. Love, faith, mercy, grace. Blue skies, tall trees, time outside. Exercise. Truth. How important that is in a world that just lives in the midst of lies and lying. Justice. Holiness. Books! And books! And some time to read them. Puzzles, games, time with my kids. The creativity of the world God has created. The Bible. Warmth. Snow. Fall colors. Allyson. My parents.

Roller Skating

Growing up, roller skating rinks were all the rage. They went along very well with the disco scene, neon clothes, poofy hair, and rock music of the 1980s. I can remember several friends having birthday parties at roller skating rinks. I also owned at least two pairs of skates in my childhood. I skated well enough. No fancy tricks, but I didn’t fall down either.

 

As a teenager, our church would go to “Christian” skate night every other month or so. That was fun – a time to skate with people you knew. But we moved away from that church when I was 14. I don’t recall putting on a pair of skates again until I was 26 year old.

 

Honestly, having skate night during staff week at Camp Ridgecrest was probably a thing for two reasons: 1) tradition, which camps are all about, and 2) those making the decisions were my age and it was nostalgic. Certainly the college kids I worked alongside didn’t remember disco balls, neon clothes, or rolling up your baggy jeans. For while most of them had been born in the 1980s, they were too young to remember that decade. A trip to the skating rink as they grew up in the 1990s would have been rare. A few of them had never been on skates. And while it’s like riding a bike, I have to say I don’t remember an hour of skating hurting quite so much afterwards!

 

So, I nostalgically skated again the summers I was 26 and 27, but I have not put on a pair of skates since. This past summer Emry took on a sudden interest when a friend of the girl next door would be over, skates always in hand. Emry and I negotiated a deal on purchasing her a pair of skates and then the girl next door got a pair as well. Their styles are very different. Ava takes on skating all limbs flying and lots of landing on her backside. Emry takes on skates with a heavy dose of cautiousness and the desire to not fall at all. It’s taken her a while to get decent at skating, but at least I don’t have to worry about lots of holes in her pants from tumbles.

 

With skating being “the thing”, Ava had her 6^thbirthday this weekend at the local skating rink. I have not been to a skating rink in 14 years, but I’d have to say they are now more like the ones I remember in the 1980s than the one I went to in 2007. Neon lights, disco balls, and even some of the clothing has returned with full vengeance. Almost like a bad dream on constant replay.

 

Emry loved the skating rink. She loved how smooth the floor was compared the neighborhood sidewalk. She took to it easily and enjoyed her time there. His first time on skates, Ethan was less excited although quite willing to try until he discovered how slippery the rink is. Now they have “bumpers” kids can skate with, PVC pipe things on coaster wheels a kid can push along as they skate. He tried that and was okay, but once he discovered the arcade games….well, he didn’t do a whole lot of skating. As for me, I didn’t put on any skates. Had I been feeling more myself instead of coming off some flulike bug, perhaps I would have. I’ve always enjoyed skating. But the rink itself? Neon lights and rocky music was probably great as a kid, if I even noticed. Now? Well, let’s just say my kids won’t be having birthday parties at a skating rink!

Ethan trying skates out.

 

Emry zooming around.

Nature Hikes!

When I was a kid, I remember only one homeschool field trip that was a nature hike. And since homeschool field trips in that day and age were very well planned, it probably had some point like leaf observation, or birds, or trees or all of the above. I honestly can’t recall. The only thing I remember was it ended in playing kickball in a field and thinking that I could finally tell my teasing dad that we really went to a field on a field trip. 

 

To be honest, taking eight kids on some walk along a trail was probably way more work that my mom had time for. It was enough work taking three this last week! So, I don’t at all begrudge our lack of nature hikes. For one, I wouldn’t have cared. Nature? Outside? A walk? Why couldn’t I just stay home, hole myself up in my bedroom, and write? That would have been my general reaction to the mere suggestion of a nature hike had Mom brought it up. 

 

But I’m all about it now. Sort of. I’m all about being outside, getting my kids out of the house and running around with friends. The nature part I could still give and take on. Like me, I imagine my kids will know the difference between a deciduous tree and a coniferous. But that’s probably as far as it will go. I do try to tell them the names of the handful of trees I know, the few flowers I can list, and the gist of gardening. It’s just really hard to teach something you have absolutely no interest in. I could talk about the Statue of Liberty, the Founding Fathers, and even how to properly diagram a sentence all day long. To go out, gather some leaves, and try to identify them…there’s an app for that, right?

Knowing that about myself, a friend at church inviting us to a nature group she’s involved in was very exciting. My kids can learn something I know nothing about and someone else can teach them since I really have no interest in learning it myself! (Don’t tell my kids that.) Leaves, trees, and bushes aside; they also had a blast wandering about the woods with both new friends and old. Emry complained when we had to turn back (after already hiking 2.5 miles) and wanted to just continue all day! And it was a unusually lovely November day to be out, sunny and not very cold.  Best of all, we came out with all eleven kids and not one of them fell into the brook!

Movie Night

 Like most kids, my kids enjoy watching movies. And like most kids their age, that usually means something animated. Today, there is probably a hundred times more animated movies than I was a kid and they’ve seen a lot of them. This summer I decided we’d have an actual “movie night” on Fridays, an evening dedicated to watching the movies I watched as a kid: Swiss Family Robinson, Pollyanna and Old Yeller.(Okay, I haven’t shown them Old Yeller yet. That can be a really hard movie to watch…) We’ve continued the practice, although now Ellyson usually stays up as well instead of heading to bed early. It usually looks something like this:

More and more, Ellyson has to be right in the middle of everything Emry and Ethan do. It can be blocks, drawing, Legos, school, movie night, or even playing on the Wii. She is not about to be left out, and she is not shy about pushing her way in as needed. Just like another baby sister I know…

 

But this picture reminded me of another picture from long ago:

 

Emry and Ellyson (2021)

 

Melissa and Katey (1982)

Emry: WOW Student of the Week

By the time dance came to an end last year, Emry seemed to have lost some interest, curious more about gymnastics than furthering her dancing skills. That was fine with me as I want her to try many things and signed her up for “Acro” at her dance studio. Basically a tumbling class and only a time commitment of four weeks, she would at least learn the basics of gymnastics so she could decide if she liked it. Unlike me at her age, she doesn’t constantly turn cartwheels, walk across anything that resembles a balance beam, or flip over any set of bars within reach. So, I wanted to be sure she really wanted to switch before I figured out the cost and commitment of that. And while she enjoyed Acro, on the other side of it when I asked if she wanted to be on the B-bopper team again, she said yes and didn’t ask about Acro or gymnastics.  So, I signed her up.

 

I really like the B-bopper team because 1) I really love Miss Kelsey her teacher, and 2) it improves her skills for a whole year instead of two sessions and focuses on lots of practice, tons of improvement, and works towards a goal of competition. I wasn’t completely sure how she would do as the weeks went on, though. Much to my surprise, she’s thrived. I’m not a dance professional (I can only remember my first three positions), but even I have seen improvements. She loves the songs Miss Kelsey chose for both Winter Showcase and competition, and she’s excited about going each week. The other week I overhead two other moms talking about their daughters griping about practicing throughout the week and it dawned on me that Emry doesn’t complain about her daily practice. She might ask me if she can’t just do it later, but she doesn’t gripe. Practice has simply become a part of what dancing is all about.

 

This week, Emry was nominated as one of the three WOW students of the week:

 

W – Works Hard

O – Outstanding Attitude

W – Willing to Help Others

 

I’m very proud of our little dancer.