The new year brings promise and adventure
We are continuing to school our younger ones while the olders find their wings. Having 2 sets of children with space between to reflect and catch your breath is good. We remember the joys and trials when they are yet to come again, but they have past and will in the nearer future as well.
Our UE graduate, James is working with a friend doing manual labor- for how long we don't know or care, because for know he has the chance to experience the joy of "some" money while beating his body into submission with a thrill of accomplishment. We praise God for this season in his life. He is a thinker; programming instead of verbal communication. This requires many time-warps of sitting confined in one place, a chair with no blood circulation happening. What a joy to experience the movement and back-breaking labor involved in roofing and siding and all kinds of do-it-yourselfer knowledge that he truly wants but we can only give once every 2-3 years. He continues to grow in spirit as well spending time with a man we highly esteem but yet is not a intimate friend of ours. This allows him to have a set of Godly friends without our circles interweaving. Every adult child you raise should have this opportunity for his friends to highly meet your approval and yet be all his for growing discernment and emotional attachment.
Katharine continues out at USI, and has chosen to continue this fall as a super senior with the decision to double major in English and History. She has the goal to do graduate studies after this and finish with a masters in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages).
What a whirlwind she has been. This little meek of a mouse has grown wings and now uses them to shelter and nurture all those around her. She continues to be challenged and grow thru being involved in leadership at Student Christian Fellowship. While claiming all these as "her people", loving them and allowing God to mold her thru them, He continues to mold her in His image. She has a new "people" in her life as well. A sweet friend that is a common friend with Beth(Joel's girlfriend)- Aaron. If you have not seen her facebook page, you may not know how special he is.It is a joy to see her beaming. Aaron is a Godly young man that has as much passion for life and discipleship as Katharine herself. He is in a university working on his graduate studies right now. Their lives do seem geared toward the same focus. Katharine's life is still centered around campus and as such decided to move back on campus this semester. We see her on weekends and bits and bobs in between. Continuing to work in the dance store has filled the need for financial and sanity. Life is always better if you can see tangible goods and contributions for your efforts. She takes classes inbetween and makes it work. God is good and gracious.
Joel is still loving ISU. It is amazing how God continues to work in spite of us. I was fearful about sending him to Terre Haute for his schooling. After all, it is a rough place and him being there has confirmed that. But, in spite of that, God knew this was were he would grow and be challenged into becoming the self-dependable, responsible young man he is. It is not easy and several times last year, being an RA was particularly tough. He has had to seek the counsel of people he trusted and once again God has given him grace thru his leadership team and advisers. This semester started better with some experience and self-evaluation of what does/doesn't work for him and his emotional/physical stamina. He is learning more than what he needs to know to do his job. He finds friendships within his professors and peers. He continues to be a steady source of support and sanity in a world of chaos and sadness thru Christ. He continues to love and treasure Beth as she has chosen a particularly difficult double major, she is always grateful for his love and support. She has a great family-support for which we are thankful. She has been a dear friend for many years and her family as well. We love watching her grow and be nourished in the college He has given her. God amazes us by supporting our kid's financial needs as well. Thru work-study, scholarships, and even a new scholarship Joel received thru an art contest he won this past month, God continues to provide for our children so they will have a small amount of debt. They have had to earn these thru seeking and waiting, but God is the one we give all the credit to. "He loves them more than we do" Gary and I often often remind each other.
We have added another new component to our family dynamics. Even though we continue working with Camp Reveal thru the summer, we have added Patchwork Central (Washington Ave)thru the school year. They are an inner-city after-school program that has tutoring, book club, arts n smarts (the children work with different media-clay, painting, sculpture, and 3-d art), and jr. leader activities. We volunteer 2 days a week and have come to know and love the students, workers, and volunteers as family. My kids love it. They are able to make friends and pray for these friends. They get to work with being a helper/child and are treated as leaders. We get to see what hard work it is to nurture and love these kids in a tangible way while still feeling useful and humbled. School sometimes gets neglected on our patchwork days, but I do know we value our time more as when we have days of catch-up realizing that work-shirked costs more than when diligently done. I have been able to lead a painting class with the kids on the days we go.All of the kids were able to put their work for sale in the Food co-op next door to earn money. It is fun to see them able to earn something for being creative and resourceful with their ideas. Their are several kids that have worked their way into our hearts and for that we praise the Lord: He loves them more than we do.
Micah will start high-school next year. he will be 6 months younger than the average school kid, but since he wants to be a vet, time is ours to juggle with . We may need the extra year for college-prep classes as we did for Joel at Ivy Tech his final year at home. Micah loves his cats. Shirley is the one above you on our header. He took this picture of her sleeping on his bed which she does on a daily basis.
We were able to see what a vet would do first=hand last year. Upon returning home form a late graduation party in June, we discovered a new chick we had recently bought had been scalped. She had coincidentally worked her way onto the mother hen side of our chicken house. We have a sweet momma game hen that had hatched 2 babies the same week we had purchased some new chicks for Rural King. As nature dictates, the momma hen is a fierce thing that will come at anything to protect her chicks. We needed both sets on the floor to scratch and peck and do what hens and chicks do. we had a partition in the middle of our only hen-house room. Our poor little sebright chick had gone over to the other side in response to the clucking of the momma hen. Momma got her in a corner and pecked her til she lay still and non-resistant. When we found her several hours later she was not only in shock form loosing blood and cold, she had lost all the skin/feathers from the nape of her neck in the back to the top of her head. We called her brownie for the beautiful coloring of a golden sebright hen. The kids knew if she did not survive the next 24 hours, she would n't make it. She not only survived, she became a favorite. The skin grew back but only half the feather shafts returned. Even though she is only 11 months old, she is full grown know. She has her favorite spots and continues to be the petted one. As her nature is, she would be prone to skittish and violent outbursts from us trying to hold or cuddle her. Caroline tamed each of the game ones we have early, so they have retained much of their chick-like tendencies toward curiosity and lack of shyness. I have painted our little Mille Fleur game rooster "Fluff" (not very original is it? :-). He is so pretty when he puts on his dandy airs. Micah enjoyed seeing how to devise ways of keeping on a bandage for a poor little chick who resists any kind of foreign object in her presence much less touching her. How to put on enough neosporin to keep out infection without causing her to scratch it open as it feels different than skin. How to let her have some freedom when she really wants to be cuddled all day. How to teach her how to scratch for bugs. We had to be her fellow chicks because they rely on each other's chirping and clucking to know what to chase after and eat. They truly are flock animals.
Caroline is in 5th grade now. She likes to manage her own affairs (much like her big sister before her did) but still needs the love and encouragement on those confusing days. She enjoys school (more playing than doing) as well as making cards, designing stuff whether it is a new outift, a dresser arrangement or a new table place-card for a guest.
Our UE graduate, James is working with a friend doing manual labor- for how long we don't know or care, because for know he has the chance to experience the joy of "some" money while beating his body into submission with a thrill of accomplishment. We praise God for this season in his life. He is a thinker; programming instead of verbal communication. This requires many time-warps of sitting confined in one place, a chair with no blood circulation happening. What a joy to experience the movement and back-breaking labor involved in roofing and siding and all kinds of do-it-yourselfer knowledge that he truly wants but we can only give once every 2-3 years. He continues to grow in spirit as well spending time with a man we highly esteem but yet is not a intimate friend of ours. This allows him to have a set of Godly friends without our circles interweaving. Every adult child you raise should have this opportunity for his friends to highly meet your approval and yet be all his for growing discernment and emotional attachment.
Katharine continues out at USI, and has chosen to continue this fall as a super senior with the decision to double major in English and History. She has the goal to do graduate studies after this and finish with a masters in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages).
What a whirlwind she has been. This little meek of a mouse has grown wings and now uses them to shelter and nurture all those around her. She continues to be challenged and grow thru being involved in leadership at Student Christian Fellowship. While claiming all these as "her people", loving them and allowing God to mold her thru them, He continues to mold her in His image. She has a new "people" in her life as well. A sweet friend that is a common friend with Beth(Joel's girlfriend)- Aaron. If you have not seen her facebook page, you may not know how special he is.It is a joy to see her beaming. Aaron is a Godly young man that has as much passion for life and discipleship as Katharine herself. He is in a university working on his graduate studies right now. Their lives do seem geared toward the same focus. Katharine's life is still centered around campus and as such decided to move back on campus this semester. We see her on weekends and bits and bobs in between. Continuing to work in the dance store has filled the need for financial and sanity. Life is always better if you can see tangible goods and contributions for your efforts. She takes classes inbetween and makes it work. God is good and gracious.
Joel is still loving ISU. It is amazing how God continues to work in spite of us. I was fearful about sending him to Terre Haute for his schooling. After all, it is a rough place and him being there has confirmed that. But, in spite of that, God knew this was were he would grow and be challenged into becoming the self-dependable, responsible young man he is. It is not easy and several times last year, being an RA was particularly tough. He has had to seek the counsel of people he trusted and once again God has given him grace thru his leadership team and advisers. This semester started better with some experience and self-evaluation of what does/doesn't work for him and his emotional/physical stamina. He is learning more than what he needs to know to do his job. He finds friendships within his professors and peers. He continues to be a steady source of support and sanity in a world of chaos and sadness thru Christ. He continues to love and treasure Beth as she has chosen a particularly difficult double major, she is always grateful for his love and support. She has a great family-support for which we are thankful. She has been a dear friend for many years and her family as well. We love watching her grow and be nourished in the college He has given her. God amazes us by supporting our kid's financial needs as well. Thru work-study, scholarships, and even a new scholarship Joel received thru an art contest he won this past month, God continues to provide for our children so they will have a small amount of debt. They have had to earn these thru seeking and waiting, but God is the one we give all the credit to. "He loves them more than we do" Gary and I often often remind each other.
We have added another new component to our family dynamics. Even though we continue working with Camp Reveal thru the summer, we have added Patchwork Central (Washington Ave)thru the school year. They are an inner-city after-school program that has tutoring, book club, arts n smarts (the children work with different media-clay, painting, sculpture, and 3-d art), and jr. leader activities. We volunteer 2 days a week and have come to know and love the students, workers, and volunteers as family. My kids love it. They are able to make friends and pray for these friends. They get to work with being a helper/child and are treated as leaders. We get to see what hard work it is to nurture and love these kids in a tangible way while still feeling useful and humbled. School sometimes gets neglected on our patchwork days, but I do know we value our time more as when we have days of catch-up realizing that work-shirked costs more than when diligently done. I have been able to lead a painting class with the kids on the days we go.All of the kids were able to put their work for sale in the Food co-op next door to earn money. It is fun to see them able to earn something for being creative and resourceful with their ideas. Their are several kids that have worked their way into our hearts and for that we praise the Lord: He loves them more than we do.
Micah will start high-school next year. he will be 6 months younger than the average school kid, but since he wants to be a vet, time is ours to juggle with . We may need the extra year for college-prep classes as we did for Joel at Ivy Tech his final year at home. Micah loves his cats. Shirley is the one above you on our header. He took this picture of her sleeping on his bed which she does on a daily basis.
We were able to see what a vet would do first=hand last year. Upon returning home form a late graduation party in June, we discovered a new chick we had recently bought had been scalped. She had coincidentally worked her way onto the mother hen side of our chicken house. We have a sweet momma game hen that had hatched 2 babies the same week we had purchased some new chicks for Rural King. As nature dictates, the momma hen is a fierce thing that will come at anything to protect her chicks. We needed both sets on the floor to scratch and peck and do what hens and chicks do. we had a partition in the middle of our only hen-house room. Our poor little sebright chick had gone over to the other side in response to the clucking of the momma hen. Momma got her in a corner and pecked her til she lay still and non-resistant. When we found her several hours later she was not only in shock form loosing blood and cold, she had lost all the skin/feathers from the nape of her neck in the back to the top of her head. We called her brownie for the beautiful coloring of a golden sebright hen. The kids knew if she did not survive the next 24 hours, she would n't make it. She not only survived, she became a favorite. The skin grew back but only half the feather shafts returned. Even though she is only 11 months old, she is full grown know. She has her favorite spots and continues to be the petted one. As her nature is, she would be prone to skittish and violent outbursts from us trying to hold or cuddle her. Caroline tamed each of the game ones we have early, so they have retained much of their chick-like tendencies toward curiosity and lack of shyness. I have painted our little Mille Fleur game rooster "Fluff" (not very original is it? :-). He is so pretty when he puts on his dandy airs. Micah enjoyed seeing how to devise ways of keeping on a bandage for a poor little chick who resists any kind of foreign object in her presence much less touching her. How to put on enough neosporin to keep out infection without causing her to scratch it open as it feels different than skin. How to let her have some freedom when she really wants to be cuddled all day. How to teach her how to scratch for bugs. We had to be her fellow chicks because they rely on each other's chirping and clucking to know what to chase after and eat. They truly are flock animals.
Caroline is in 5th grade now. She likes to manage her own affairs (much like her big sister before her did) but still needs the love and encouragement on those confusing days. She enjoys school (more playing than doing) as well as making cards, designing stuff whether it is a new outift, a dresser arrangement or a new table place-card for a guest.