How we do it - { scouting }

Here's a little post to prove that I am okay, and it is November 1st! Yay for me!

For all the moms of boys out there. . .

With so many boys in our family, you know it'll be either sink-or-swim for us when it comes to Scouting and Faith in God. For a while we really struggled with a routine for it. Poor Exacto barely finished by the skin of his teeth (ON his birthday for his Wolf!) for several of the early ranks. With them gone all day to school, and then homework and sports and music when they got home, it really was tricky. Then Fluffy became a Cub Scout, and Exacto entered Boy Scouts, and we were really floundering.

Luckily, I have a brilliant mom, who raised 5 Eagle Scouts and was a den mother herself for years and years. She suggested the following, and it has worked like a charm for us ever since.

1. Get yourself some Little Debbies, or a charming, inexpensive substitute. :)

 

2. Put them into the birdhouse that your Wolf scout made for one of his requirements with a diligent den leader (no way could WE have pulled off this good of a job!)

 

3. Require your sweet son to spend 15 minutes a day (time it!) working on either Scouts or Faith in God. Be available to help, but try to have the burden of looking in the book for what to do, etc. on HIS shoulders whenever possible.

4. When he signs off a requirement, let him choose a treat from the birdhouse!

This is working so well for us, because it has become part of the daily routine. We include it with the practicing they do. (They only have to practice on the days that they eat--ha :). Fluffy is more than halfway done with his Bear and it's only been a few months since he started it. Exacto just finished his 1st class (he turned 12 in June). And I have finally caught the vision--guess what? Scouting is FUN! Who'd have thought?

(caveat: I should mention that we have stopped all sports for now. Music is so important to us, and there really isn't time to do both that and sports AND Scouting. Scouting is the Church's program for the boys in that age group, and so we consider it necessary. But you could totally make this work with sports and Scouting, of course. :)

I'm so grateful for this idea from my mom! Just had to share for anyone out there overwhelmed with helping their boys get this done.

What can I say? In this family, SUGAR TALKS. :) It's all about routine and sugar, mmhmm.

Day 49 - { time }

Look back on time with kindly eyes,   
He doubtless did his best;   
How softly sinks his trembling sun   
In human nature’s west!

~Emily Dickinson

This past Sunday was our 3rd opportunity to attend the annual SHARE memorial service and balloon release, held at the hospital where Benjamin and Rosebud were born. I groaned and started praying when I saw the forecast -- heavy chance of rain and possibility of tornadic activity.

The highlight of the event is writing notes to our babies, attaching them to the balloons, then riding the elevator to the top of the parking deck, where a song is sung, and the balloons are released. To have an Arkansas-style storm, complete with tornado sirens going off, would put a decided damper on things. I know I wasn't the only one praying for the skies to be clear at least during the balloon release!

When we arrived, it was threatening but not actually raining. It had already poured buckets that morning, but seemed to be holding off for a while. The service was beautiful, and we proceeded with faith to fill out the notes for the balloons.

 

 

Our family's balloons got tangled together as we went through doorways and rode the elevator, but we decided that was nice and symbolic. :) Some of us still held on to our own string so we could feel the pull skyward. Still no rain.

 

 

It was pretty windy, and when we let go, the balloons quickly drifted behind us, passing right over the hospital.

 

 

Rosebud's balloon got stuck in one of those lower trees (you can barely see it in the picture above), but soon the wind pushed it out and it wended its way up alone.

 

 

Such a feeling of peaceful contentment comes when I am with my husband and my living children and we are remembering together our Benjamin, who is so present in our hearts, but invisible to all who see us. Something about being with people who recognize that there is one more person in our family--who look at the 6 of us together and visualize 7--always makes me happy.

 

 

We came in and gorged ourselves on sugar (especially those younger male members of our family :) and as we headed back out to our car to go home, the rain started to fall with a vengeance. The tornado sirens went off, and suddenly there was lightning and thunder and all heck broke loose. We ended up having to wait in the parking garage for a while, listening to the radio to know when it would be safe to get on the road.

What a miracle! We thanked Heavenly Father for holding back the rain until after that special event.

But the really amazing thing was this:

I realized that earlier I had been praying for the sake of the new babylost parents, and not so much for me! I couldn't stand the thought of those recently bereaved moms and dads, with that awful rawness of grief that I remember all too well, missing out on this special chance to have their children recognized and remembered. I would have been disappointed, but okay if this time we couldn't release the balloons!

Now that is a miracle!

 

Thinking back on the past two October 31st's and November 1st's. . . . there was a sort of panicky desperation to those days. . . .I wanted to avoid any reminders of what had happened on those days in 2007.

This year it is different. I still have no intention of celebrating Halloween. I think that will always be too painful (which is too bad, because Rosebud would be awfully cute in a little costume. :) As we approach those days of significance again, I am amazed and grateful at what I feel now, three years later. It is more of a peaceful longing sort of feeling, rather than fear or depression.

How grateful I am that the grief has indeed lost its sharpness. It is not unbearably heavy anymore, although its bittersweet pang still comes daily.

It will be okay.

Thank You, dear Heavenly Father, for bringing me through three years' Time .

Hummer loves being in our family. . . I think.

As we pulled away from the house the other day in our swagger wagon, Hummer commented from the back:

"I need my family to survive."

< pause >

"That's why I don't run away."

new beginnings for the ASO

DC is gone for the first rehearsal of the symphony season. This year is exciting because of a new music director for the ASO, Philip Mann. I can't wait to hear how things went tonight!

 

And here is Rosebud sporting her Maestro Mann hairdo in honor of the occasion.

Thilent Thurthday: rosebud attack

 

 

 

 

all S.O.O.C. ~ taken 9/6/10 by exacto :)

Day 48 - { the north wind }

“From the Gate of Kings the North Wind rides, and past the roaring falls;
And clear and cold about the tower its loud horn calls.
'What news from the North, O mighty wind, do you bring to me today?
What news of Boromir the Bold? For he is long away."

--Tolkien

Growing up as a desert rat, I remember hearing people groaning about the high temperatures in Tucson, and then inevitably someone would always say, "Well, at least it's a dry heat." I always wondered why on earth that made a difference. Then the DC Fiddler moved us to the South and, honey, I learned why that makes a difference. Poor Arkansas gets most of its weather from the gulf, I think. And that means wet heat.

This past Friday brought the north wind, and with it a blessed aridity that helps this Arizona girl feel like life in Arkansas is again well worth living. Rosebud and I headed out to meet the boys walking home from school. Doesn't she look quite the intrepid stroller adventurer in this shot? :)

Nothing like a blue sky and streaky clouds and a drop in temperature and humidity to make me very, very happy. Something about the fresh clarity of the air makes me feel like exercising and cleaning (gasp!) and doing all sorts of healthy, productive things that make me whiny when it's humid. It's like spring fever, except it hits me in the fall here.

. . . . .now it's five days later, and back to the soggy warmth from the gulf. It's okay, though. That delicious foretaste of autumn lingers with me and I know it will be here to stay before too much longer.

Isn't it amazing, this dynamic, beautiful world Heavenly Father created for us? I hope there are still seasons in heaven. As long as I live in the South, though, the north wind will still be my favorite.

A catch-up and a keep-up

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? 
    -- Jane Austen, P&P

What happens when a professional musician comes home, takes off his tux, and gets on the floor with a cheesy 1/8 size violin and 3 silly little boys? (This video was taken almost a year ago, but I just can't resist. It's too perfect for the new blog. :)

(Fluffy and the fiddle are reading from Kevin Henkes' Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.)

 

And Project 365 Rosebud continues! These pictures are from last week, and she is now 8 months old.

(tragedy! I need to put some weights on her head to stop her from growing so fast!)

 

She is now officially uninterested in my camera.

 

No crawling yet.

 

No teeth yet.

 

And no sleeping through the night.

(Exacto formed a stuffed-animal barrier here to keep her from falling off the bed.)

 

Just sheer cuteness.