tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20320397616481212292024-03-05T07:39:20.976-08:00Sure of what I hope for...Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.comBlogger201125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-91745070490941438262020-06-02T21:52:00.001-07:002020-06-02T21:52:24.004-07:00My Highland Dance NotebookSo here I am, more than three years after my last post, picking right up where I left off, in a manner of speaking.<br />
No, I didn't forget about my blog. I can't even say that I got really busy and couldn't post, although, like nearly everyone, I would say that I'm busy. No, I didn't post for three years because we had a big change in our lives, one that I wasn't permitted to blog about. It was such a huge thing that I couldn't see myself blogging about normal everyday things without being able to speak about it, so I just didn't blog.<br />
It's taken over four years (since it all actually began), but I'm nearly to the place where I can post about it. Soon. For now, though, I was feeling like I wanted to do some writing about another little development and so I'll start with that.<br />
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Back when Honour was Highland dancing, I designed a little notebook for her that I had printed at Staples, to make notekeeping during dance class easy. As a private music teacher, a notation book is essential; I would never dream of sending a student home and asking them to practice without having detailed exactly what they were to work on. Why should dance class be any different? <br />
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To increase the chances that she'd take more effective notes (or to give the teacher's assistant a structure), I had the notebook printed up with subtitles of all the dances she was working on. Highland dance is nice and structured that way; each dance level has a common set of dances most teachers will work on with their dancers. This is supported by competition organizers who will then ask for those dances at competitions or festivals.<br />
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I had the idea at that time of having the book professionally printed, and perhaps try and sell them to some of the shops and vendors that I often saw at Highland Dance competitions. I did a bit of looking into how to get it printed, but didn't get very far and then it became one of those "someday" projects.<br />
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Well, "someday" has arrived!<br />
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A few weeks ago I was reading through a post from a Facebook group I'm in where SAHM's were listing their "side gigs", or extra ways to make money while they are mostly at home taking care of kiddies. I noticed that one woman talked about publishing "low content" books on Kindle. I checked out what she listed, and found that low content means very little actual writing. Her books were journals of various types, that she had created pretty covers for. This is when I discovered that Kindle offers something called Direct Publishing. You upload your book in digital form, and when someone orders it, Kindle prints that one copy and ships it out to them. This was perfect!<br />
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Now that I'm on break between my masters courses (oh yes, another development I'll have to write about sometime soon), and we'd been given a challenge by our financial coach (oops, another development!) to somehow "find" $500 during the month of May, I thought this would be the perfect time to try and get this project off the ground. It took me a little longer than I thought it would (don't these things always?), but as of yesterday I had all five books uploaded, approved, and listed on Amazon. To help promote them, I created a website on Wix, and also a Facebook Page. I've already got 23 likes!<br />
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So here's a few links to check out my project:<br />
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The Facebook page:<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/My-Highland-Dance-Notebook-107873557614858" target="_blank"><img alt="Highland dancers" border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="946" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7UJecJiVfsAOvl_-Dc2uYiCgJ-4CDJXVSseJydPaWBI1YNR527Cv_ykADA729stSR6xRA42ZCTWKZFm5pbZelBqTMuWcJmBniMa5utf0FUfwxdE-33_x_BlgsOvWb65wedz-j_YmeiY3/s640/FB+Page+pic.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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The website:</div>
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<a href="https://6kentsnonetheriche.wixsite.com/highlanddance" target="_blank"><img alt="Highland dancers" border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="1067" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmbtG_M5igvt8wT61oWlKj3UdrlCwKaz36kkrOZqFXY3DXl7xo7kOlE2SDl20sNvt0dS2bp8cXosUP3JRbZ0UsO6HGNbEQoaFlihlZLeXWe6hbq62rLgnV9OnrxpOsSDeLFnGaOTB3TVr/s640/Website+pic.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0892DP573" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="My Highland Dance Notebook Primary Level" border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtv_Bg80hWweNPXRHV8QnacsKTnLK3_7_xsbcRSbhjG6QLDfjy_hiQUw14LB6bEQRFXPqSugauSHfa1xxY-bXlMAhf3TgI4UcyDKJAgdUOFCHyHZY4Q2SR6xtxvFs0BsVqmkT0e-U3Lm5/s1600/Primary+Cover.JPG" title="" /></a>Or hey, you could just go straight to Amazon and buy them!</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089267YG1" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="260" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXBIdme0KIBi6bOrxrMz6_Q413HTnkG5mbBnXua_PBX_BkVH-loTGg0uNxaGIEdttpJFByUbRJ3hrj_4ajEb1cZwOLh_xSom16DDSDURVK88k8KMj48U6M___omvTturq46qfSFp95hpM/s320/Beginner+Cover.JPG" width="257" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08924DG73" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="262" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPBWa9SPuosg_l5df4W0THLBIQokq6d7ryRHbi9xqPasH4tEJEc513DkRULvIRJJ-7LUG-rrwvMebG7urp5oX8mRdroGzIC1iv-XMLpxIOtPVmwzzlbH7mbFxWMeFA1YITUp5_iBEy6QqU/s320/Novice+Cover.JPG" width="258" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08991TJC2" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKhIj0shNSlX86GXPuadHx87vamgZ9WkLBH3ZZ6iKOIL30YZ0x7grk7izdyjYGEAyf3zsEYUfHodZYyreA9LAh3QMrC7qA6sLmAdtEIS2PWDnXYovic2nrPwdGr8E8hajWZgz06S7CKIx/s1600/Intermediate+Cover.JPG" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0898Z75VZ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8eyKb3i0__u86CZhk3zUSH1pm60LLR1I7G6PEb8suDTrp9wK3dTKjLfFYvi8KIxQM8vfGQ-Voezn5os0RCu4N0zpzWR6CCze6bwyXGzhwILKyuZZ9jb_C6ls9yzj4XMYGvHc5OcQvzYGt/s1600/Premier+Cover.JPG" /></a></div>
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As you can read about on the website, I've included more than just subtitled note pages. The notebooks also have corresponding pages with check-charts for monitoring and encouraging practice at home, log pages for documenting details of competitions, check lists for all the items you don't want to forgot as you head to competitions and finally, a journal section with prompts for the dancer to get their thoughts and feelings about Highland dancing down in writing. Oh, and a few pages of cute badges for when the dancer masters each dance of that level.</div>
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So if you know of any Highland dancers, please feel free to share any of these web locations. This is a great resource to organize and memorialize the Highland dance journey!</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-12950448910079988662016-10-08T12:32:00.001-07:002016-10-10T06:32:43.879-07:00From Mvelopes to EnvelopesI think we may finally have done it.<br />
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For about 14 years now, ever since Jairus was about one year old, we have been working at controlling our budget. It started with the great crash...the weekend that we realized that we had absolutely no money to our name, lots of debt, bills owing, etc, etc, etc... In the words of Miss Nelson..."<a href="https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/miss-nelson-is-missing/9780395401460-item.html" target="_blank">something must be done</a>".<br />
I've written before about how at that point in our lives, James had been handling the finances, but as our family grew, our organizational system needed to evolve. We agreed that I would take it on, and to this end, I started reading and researching the best ways to do that. I started with a Dave Ramsey book, which was probably the best place to start. I also read some Mary Hunt and we attended a Michel Bell seminar through, I think, Focus on the Family. We would later step up our Dave Ramsey education by attending a Financial Peace University course and then moderated the course for another couple. I used resources from Crown Financial (the late Larry Burkett's ministry) and this led us to <a href="https://www.mvelopes.com/" target="_blank">Mvelopes</a>, an online budgeting system that uses virtual envelopes. <br />
I've now used Mvelopes for over 12 years for the most part, loved it. It revolutionized our finances and we saw a huge improvement in our budgeting. Between that and the FPU, we got out of debt completely, (except our mortgage), and completed the baby steps up to number 3 (#1 Baby emergency fund of $1000, #2 Pay off all debt, #3 Full emergency fund of 3-5 months of expenses).<br />
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Then we built our house. That pretty much put us back to #1, with the exception of the debt, which we still stayed far away from (builder loan converting to mortgage not withstanding). Since building, it's taken us a few years to regain our equilibrium. The Mvelopes was still working for us...sortof. Over and over I'd find that we were overspending and putting many envelopes into the negative. A number of times over the last 4.5 years I'd actually had to just wipe all the envelope balances and start all over again, as we had so many negatives that our account had hit rock bottom, even though some envelopes still showed a positive balance. It just felt like an endless cycle that I didn't know how to address. <br />
I had a niggly suspicion that using "real" envelopes might help, and in fact, for a number of months had made it my goal to start using them. I was meeting with a couple friends regularly to keep accountable with finances and ending our sessions with a goal for the next time was a common occurrence. Month after month passed and I didn't follow through. We had made a few paltry attempts to start using paper envelopes, but we'd quickly realized that planning was essential. You couldn't show up at the bank and ask for a wad of cash and only THEN try to figure out what denominations you need. When old timers describe how they'd cash their paycheque, come home, sit at the kitchen table and divide it all into envelopes, they never mention how they got all the money in the right amounts (What, were they paid in one dollar bills?). Then there's the modern issue of automatic withdrawals. Close to half of each paycheque we receive actually needs to stay in the account for automatic bill payments like mortgage, or online payments as all of our utilities are. These two big issues were an admittedly small hurdle that I just never got around to sitting down with my calculator and figuring out. So it never happened.<br />
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About a year and a half ago, I discovered that there is just one Dave Ramsey ELP (endorsed local provider) in Ontario. His name is Phil Medler and he lives way out near the border on the south west side of the province. Fortunately he does Skype and phone consultations. I submitted an email on the DR site and he shortly got in touch with me. We had a phone consultation and quite honestly, I don't remember how the conversation went. I knew however, that I wanted to take the next step and have at least a baseline session with him and figure out if he had any solutions to our problem of overspending, and also our imbalanced budget whereby our housing was far more than the recommended percentage. It would be $175 though and that was a big chunk for us. I put it into the list of what we hoped to use our tax return on both last year and this year, but it didn't happen either time.<br />
Last summer when we were up to Fair Havens, I was excited to hear that Phil was up camping as well, and was offering a week long finance class after chapel. We were unfortunately only staying until the Monday of that week, so we attended just the one day. It was a great session and I was pleased that he was putting his own spin on the DR stuff, as I sortof felt that we knew all the DR principles already. This year I was even more excited to find that he had returned, and it was during one of our full weeks of camping. James and/or I attended each day except for day one as we had an important meeting back in Hamilton that we had to come home for.<br />
Sometime midweek, Phil announced to the class that anyone attending would be welcome to schedule a consultation with him at NO cost. This was the opportunity I'd been waiting for! We ran up right after the session and quickly made an appointment for the beginning of the next week (SO glad we stayed for three weeks this year!).<br />
The consultation was very helpful and encouraging, but it was actually the last class session the week before that ended up being the most helpful. It was on...you guessed it...paper envelope budgeting.<br />
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I sat through that session and for a good chunk of it, kept thinking in my mind, "Aw we don't need to do this....we have a better way....the online Mvelopes is far superior and up to date with modern budgeting...". However, deep down, I had a funny feeling that this was actually the answer we'd been looking for.<br />
By the end of that class, James and I looked at each other and agreed....we had to do this. At the very least we needed to give it a try.<br />
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It took a few weeks until we could actually start and I worried during that time that I was just making more excuses. I'll admit, I was scared to do it. I was scared it, and I, would fail at it. I knew how hard it was to stick to the grocery budget and while my early budgeting days saw me pulling over my cart before the check-out line to add up my purchases with a calculator and putting back anything that went over, I'd gotten lax about this, telling myself that we "deserved" that particular item in the cart. <br />
The weekend in between the class and our consultation, it was rainy and dreary. Perfect day to stay in the trailer and work on the budget. It was due for an update anyway and I made sure to add to the grocery amount. Then I figured out how much money we'd be withdrawing with each paycheque. This is made easy since our budget is pretty streamlined: each paycheque is planned and allocated according to an excel spreadsheet some kind person shared with me on the Crown forums a number of years ago. The final step was to figure out the denominations for each of these withdrawals. We were set.<br />
As I said though, it took a few weeks because I couldn't make a big withdrawal, even after a paycheque, until our Mvelopes were all cleaned up of negative balances. I didn't even quite make it to that point; I had to just jump in with one foot and figure out adjustments on the fly one day when a paycheque had come in and I knew if we didn't go for it, we never would.<br />
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To make the whole thing more palatable, I stopped at the dollar store and picked up a couple of mini file organizers. I had had one of these years ago when I thought I would try paper envelope budgeting and ended up just using it to organize receipts, business cards and the like in my purse. Now I sat at the dining room table with the organizers, a new box of dollar store envelopes, and my withdrawal. It felt really good to get it all squared away, even if there wasn't much cash in each envelope yet. Phil recommended keeping a rather small number of envelopes on your person at any one time. My online Mvelopes has grown over the years...I probably have at least 50 envelopes there on the site, although many don't get used much as we don't have the budget to fill them on a regular basis. Phil said around 5 envelopes would be good, but I knew I couldn't pare it down that much. I started with nearly double that: gas, groceries, Afton's violin lessons, "extras" (what we call milk and bread money), treats, and a few more. Over the last month they've expanded to include medicine, car repair (which came in handy when I was out the other week and the Pilot suddenly broke; I had to stop and buy a part and get over to my mechanic--I was very glad I actually had the cash on me or I wouldn't have made it home!), kids commission, diapers/formula, parking, eating out, toiletries and kids miscellaneous. <br />
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Phil recommends some pretty strict rules when it comes to the envelopes. No borrowing from another envelope for a different purpose is probably the hardest. I would say that we've been about 90% successful with this, and when we've not held to it, it's been for nearly emergency-level reasons, or for a tiny amount (ie: swiping a quarter or loonie to get a desperately needed coffee). I don't intend to let it go beyond that, and Phil advises that if you find you've run out of something then take note and budget more for it next month. This sounds good theoretically, but I'm not sure how we'd make it work in all practicality. Our budget, as advised by both Phil and Dave, is Zero based. So if I needed to re-allot money to another envelope, then something will get less of course. There's not much wiggle room in our budget...it's not like I can take from the "blow" money because we don't have any...even though this is something both Phil and Dave say you must have. I get the premise behind this (so you don't go crazy with the tight budget and overspend) but I just can't bring myself to budget money to James and I to spend on whatever we want, when there are so many budget items that so desperately need it. Ours is pretty much a budget of necessities.<br />
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So now, the report. How is it going? <br />
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Amazing!<br />
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Even though I was scared at first that we just wouldn't have enough money for stuff we needed, I hung on to the fact that we have lived the last 10 or so years with no credit card, and with few exceptions, have had enough money for all our necessities. Even if we constantly had negative envelopes, they usually got filled eventually, which means, we DO make enough money to live on, it was just a matter of timing that properly. And I was right! (At least so far...). I didn't think I'd have the discipline to stick to the confines of each envelope, but I've been like a nazi about it! (is that offensive?) I'm hoping this isn't just a "honeymoon" phase and that it'll get harder to stay disciplined. <br />
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It's been great with the kids too. We got back into our commissions practice this summer and every week each of the kids has a "zone" to take care of and they get a dollar a day for that. (I know, not much...but it's what we can afford with 4 kids. Better than nothing!). It's been great to actually always have the money on hand to pay them, instead of saying "you have to wait until your dad gets paid". And now when they ask for stuff, I can either say, "use your commission" or "there's nothing (or something!) in the envelope for that". I was really excited this year at the Ancaster Fair because every year we buy lunch there as a big treat...but usually we don't really have the money, but I'll take it from the account anyway. This year we actually had eating out budget--cash! Afton's violin teacher prefers cash and usually I've had to run to a bank and then get change if only the ATM was open but now it's all done and waiting for me in the envelope each week. Such a great feeling!<br />
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I still like to use both Mvelopes and the paper envelopes though. The Mvelopes is great for big picture organization, and of course to keep the auto-debits and online payments in check. We have a lifetime membership to Mvelopes anyways so it's nothing for us to keep using it.<br />
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So that's the finance update! I highly recommend the old fashioned paper envelope system!<br />
<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-45740396470880420412015-12-01T07:01:00.000-08:002015-12-01T07:02:25.738-08:00Celebrate the Christmas Season with Vivaldi's GloriaI love it when two of my favourite things come together: Christmas and Vivaldi. :-)<br />
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Tonight, I'm presenting another webinar for Landry Academy, at 9pm. This is the third in my "Celebrate" series that features a composer and their masterpiece. (A year ago at this time was Handel and his Messiah and this past spring I tackled Haydn and his Creation). Along with the webinar, I leave each attendee with a gift; a devotional that I have written myself that connects the scriptures used throughout the composition, gives biographical info about the composer, and then some musical instruction while listening to a movement of the piece. Last year my Handel devotional was 25 days long and was intended for Advent. Haydn's was much shorter, at only 7 days (to match the days of creation) and this fall, the Vivaldi devotional is 12 days...no, not for the 12 days of Christmas! The Gloria happens to be 12 movements long. I also create a youtube channel so that each day, if you are using the devotional, you can tune in and use that resource to play the daily music segment. It's always a lot of work to put these all together, but I really enjoy it!<br />
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So, if you happen to check my blog today, and you are free tonight for about 30 minutes starting at 9pm, hop over to the Landry site <a href="http://www.landryacademy.com/our-team/webinars/" target="_blank">here</a> and log into our webinar classroom. If you've never done so before, I would advise giving yourself an extra 10-15 minutes, as some computers have to download the launching app for Blackboard Collaborate, the program we use to facilitate the online classrooms.<br />
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Oh, here's my "blurb"!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">"One of the most joyful sounds we hear around the Christmas season are the sublime violin stylings of the adored Baroque era composer, Antonio Vivaldi. His "Gloria" is a rich musical tradition for many during the holidays. But how to introduce his music to our young families? The average orchestra concert hall is not a place we can easily bring our small children. Landry Academy's "Meet the Composers" teacher, Leslie Kent has just the solution for you. Join her TONIGHT at 9pm for a webinar that will give you the tools you need to painlessly introduce your children to one of the finest composers in the Western tradition. Each attendee will receive a free gift that will enhance your advent traditions. Hope to see you there!"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">~Leslie</span>Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-91953858309759295202015-09-06T21:31:00.000-07:002015-09-06T21:31:39.517-07:00Such blessingI'm so excited; this picture will soon grace my living room wall...<br />
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Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-88811041325828930342015-08-06T21:35:00.000-07:002015-08-06T21:35:41.714-07:00Teeball!We've just come off a very exciting weekend. World Teeball Tournament!<br />
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Yes, I now have two little baseball players in the house. Who would have ever guessed? Let me tell you all about it. :-)<br />
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I have a friend I've known for a few years through homeschooling circles named Jacy. A few years ago she was teaching Jairus sign language and we've had lots of discussions both online and face to face about schooling choices, special needs and many other topics. Baseball has been one of those. I knew from her email signature and mentions on FB that Jacy was a baseball coach of various leagues.<br />
At the end of 2013, Jacy and her kids moved to Caledonia and the next spring, I started hearing about her running baseball in Haldimand county. We talked seriously at that time about my kids joining, but between gymnastics and highland dance, our summer schedule was just too full. Baseball sounded fun though.<br />
This year when she began talking about it again, I realized that we could possibly be involved. Add to that the recommendation from the sports psychologist to get Verity into other physical pursuits, and I was keen to try this out. I had enjoyed baseball as a kid in elementary school--always made the school team, and I was concerned that my kids master the basic skills of catching and batting. So near the end of May, we began coming out to teeball practices.<br />
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At first, Verity was not convinced. Afton was more enthused. Sadly, there weren't enough girls of Honour's age to get a team going and Jairus....well, we needed to feel out where a good place for Jairus would be. After a few practices though, and the awkward "I'm not sure what to do" phase passed, Verity was much more agreeable, and the day the uniforms came home, she was downright excited. James was also pulled in to assist Jacy with the coaching, as she needed base coaches. We really had no idea what this meant. :-) Both the girls developed some nice skills and Verity's athletic training was evident as Coach Jacy groomed her for 1st base. Being from a town on the Grand River gave us the name the Riverdogs. Their uniforms displayed a cute yellow dog on a navy background, cracking a bat in half with his teeth.<br />
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Our first game was played as part of a one day "Friendship" tournament in Hamilton. We showed up bright and early for the start of it, got one game played (lost), went to breakfast as a team at a nearby restaurant and watched the downpour begin. The rest of the day was called due to the rain. :-S<br />
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One of the teams we were supposed to play came out to Caledonia a couple weeks later though, and played us on a Sunday afternoon. We tied that game, but received the participation medal from the tournament at that time. The kids, (plus Jairus for being bat boy) were pleased with this.<br />
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We all knew that the BIG event of the season was going to be the World Teeball Tournament in Ancaster over the first weekend of August. As the weekend approached however, our numbers were low. Jacy had to reach out to some other players she knew of from other sources. It was questionable right up to the day or two before the tournament whether or not the kids would be able to play. Coach Jacy pulled it together though, and we had enough to go to Ancaster in the nick of time..<br />
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Meanwhile, in my house, things were getting chaotic. We had rsvp'd to a wedding over a month before for the Friday afternoon/evening, without realizing that the tournament would start on the Friday night. James ended up attending the 3:30 service with me, and then returning to Hamilton to get the girls and head over to the tournament while I went on to the reception. I got home that night to hear that they lost. Considering their track record, it wasn't surprising. Honestly, I think most of the team and their families felt that our little teeball group would barely survive a game or two. We had also scheduled ourselves to leave for Fair Havens, for 2 weeks of trailer camping that weekend. Sometime in the few weeks leading up to the tournament, we realized that we'd have to put off our departure. At first I figured it would be Saturday night, no biggie. Then that was adjusted to Sunday when we realized there was at least one guaranteed Sunday game. Again, our expectations were pretty low and we thought we'd be on our way after that Sunday game...<br />
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Saturday morning we were up at 6am to leave the house by 7 to arrive at the diamond for 7:15. Gametime was 8am and Coach Jacy wanted lots of time to warm up and mentally prepare the kids.<br />
We were playing teams from all over Southern Ontario and Saturday morning was against a team from Windsor. I was shocked that teams had come a four hour drive for this tournament!<br />
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I sat with a group of parents who watched in surprise and amazement as the kids played, frankly shocked that they held their own so well against this very strong team. We won 31-17! A few hours later, they faced an all girls team from High Park in Toronto. They were a very good team and the Riverdogs lost by 8 runs.<br />
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As we packed up our camping stuff on Saturday between games and in the evening, we were sure we'd play our two scheduled Sunday games and be on our way by mid-afternoon. During that first morning game against another Windsor team, I sat with a set of now-familiar parents and marked the score as best as I could track on a piece of scrap paper. I wanted to know when I could start planning our departure. It seemed eminent when the Riverdogs lost by only one run. We still had one more scheduled game however, for 12pm. A loss here would have us on our way to Fair Havens...so of course...we won. This bumped us into another game at 4pm. Surely we would lose here and be on our way, right?<br />
No way!<br />
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The unthinkable had happened...we had made it to the quarter finals against an Ancaster team, playing on Monday morning. We were torn...so happy that the kids had done so well, so unhappy to be missing our holiday! I now recalled a conversation with the girls on Saturday night, when they asked what would happen if we won our games and had to stay until Monday. Thinking that it was nearly an impossibility, I flippantly told them "Then we stay". They were appalled at the thought, but I insisted that supporting our team was paramount. Now I was so glad I had, even in my unbelief, prepared them for this turn of events!<br />
The first Monday game was at 9am, a welcome change from the 6am alarms we'd needed the day before. Still, I harboured the expectation that we would likely lose, and then we'd hit the road. I had already sent a message to the program coordinator at Fair Havens on Saturday night, letting her know that Jairus wouldn't be at his program Sunday morning (so that his assistant wouldn't be waiting unnecessarily) but assured her we'd be there for the evening. I had to message her again on Sunday night!<br />
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Good natured, even though she got out!</div>
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Coach Jacy instructing.</div>
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Best bat boy ever!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkfLkJy9wbug3pr0XqPKMLtmGrSSt6VlE1GeSqoxtzLqYtISeknmlqjZfY29kwKHJifhR-zcSu5EoWv61Hbho6N7w2QeFEW0PRO2GQCJgnEhJWgV0FkaVXwK1LA8s1HrnfwfiMlFus3Uk/s1600/Picture+074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkfLkJy9wbug3pr0XqPKMLtmGrSSt6VlE1GeSqoxtzLqYtISeknmlqjZfY29kwKHJifhR-zcSu5EoWv61Hbho6N7w2QeFEW0PRO2GQCJgnEhJWgV0FkaVXwK1LA8s1HrnfwfiMlFus3Uk/s200/Picture+074.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">This series was an amazing play by Verity and the 2nd baseman. She described the whole thing to me--how she went for the pop fly and missed, but he was right there behind her to get it!</span><br />
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It was during this game that I started to understand some of the logic of teeball scoring. In teeball, every player goes to bat, so it doesn't matter how many outs there are (except that outs mean less runs, of course). It wasn't until one of the other moms came checking my scoring attempt over my shoulder that she started talking about how many runs we'd need to be assured of a win. At first I didn't get what she meant, but then as her and another couple talked, I began to realize that there would come a point when we'd be so far ahead that it would be physically impossible for the other team to bring in enough runs to win or even tie. Teeball games are 5 innings, but they can be cut short when that magic number is reached. During this game, it came down to a moment when the Riverdogs needed 3 more outs to eliminate the possibility of Ancaster even catching up.<br />
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And suddenly they had done it. We were in the semi-finals. When I met Afton coming out of the dugout, I congratulated her and gave her a big hug. She was pleased, and then asked if we were leaving for FH now. I realized that she didn't understand the significance of what happened....I explained with as much excitement as I could...and she started to cry. Oh no!<br />
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I had emailed my parents and sister the night before to tell them what was going on. They'd all been away that day visiting my brother in Parry Sound so I wasn't sure if they'd be up to coming out to the game, but it was so exciting that I knew I at least needed to let them know. My mom texted during that first game to ask if they'd be playing again at 11:30, the scheduled time for the semi-finals. As soon as the game finished, I confirmed that they would be playing only 45 minutes later. They arrived just in time.<br />
Again I kept a rough score as the game proceeded, warning anyone around me who checked it that I couldn't vouch for its' accuracy...I found it too easy to get caught up in the game and miss some runs. It ended up being an extremely dramatic ending. It was down to the end of the 5th inning...the last batter, with one runner on base. If they both got home, we would be tied and have to go into another inning. Last batters are typically the strongest hitters and this was no exception...but the Riverdogs were ready. They gathered the ball and got it back into homeplate where our backcatcher was waiting. The runner already on base came in...that brought the score to within one run of each other. Then our backcatcher, with the pitcher helping, got the ball in hand and stomped on homeplate, well before the last batter got in. We had squeaked through with a victory by one run. I sat in shock and looked around at the other families of our team...no one was really celebrating...I think most of us were not quite sure it had happened! Slowly the realization set in however...we were in the championship game.<br />
By later in the day, all the games had become delayed. The 3:30 championship game wouldn't be starting until 4:30 at the earliest. I took Honour and Tia (family friend) and headed home to get the van packed up. I was determined that we would be on the road as soon as the game was done. For us, it was a double win--either way, we'd be on holidays in our favourite place in the world!<br />
<br />
Well, to make a long story short (too late!) the Riverdogs played valiantly, matching the championship team from Windsor point for point for the first 2-3 innings. Then slowly the other team pulled away for a final score of about 28-21. I have to point out, however, that we had played 3 games that day...9 games over the whole weekend...they were exhausted! The Windsor team however, had been "seeded" into the championship and hadn't had to play at all that day!<br />
<br />
It was such an incredible weekend. I got to know a number of other team parents quite well as we sat chatting through the games. I watched both my husband and my daughters improve by leaps and bounds--James as he coached, and the girls as they played. All the children went through nearly a metamorphosis that was incredible to watch over the course of the four days. One of my goals in putting the girls in teeball was that they'd know what it was like to be part of a team and work together. They experienced this in spades. I can't say enough good things about the Haldimand Riverdogs and Coach Jacy!<br />
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-14437533779414571022015-08-05T21:49:00.000-07:002015-08-06T10:26:19.127-07:00The Lure of the EliteRecently we've experienced quite a detour along the comfortable road we had been traveling. It's been not a little distressing at times, as detours so often are. I'll start with the dance detour.<br />
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You might remember our <a href="http://leskent.blogspot.ca/2013/08/when-to-stop-and-when-to-go.html" target="_blank">plan</a> about a year and a half ago, to help Honour set goals for her Highland dancing. This had been coming along well. She had come within two weeks of reaching her graduating-to-intermediate-level goal, which was still great, and she managed her own personal goal of winning a trophy, as you might have seen <a href="http://leskent.blogspot.ca/2014/05/nicola-mcmaster-memorial-highland-dance.html" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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Last fall saw a bit of a stall with dance, as she began to have pain in her feet, just after reaching intermediate level. I was suspicious that it was due to all the new dances she had to learn for intermediate and the different stylings they employed. As the end of the summer neared, we decided to get some help as the pain was not going away. Honour's teacher recommended an osteopath in Hamilton and so we went to see him...2 appointments later, I was not impressed and nowhere near convinced that this was helping. She took a couple weeks off and it wasn't any better. The family doctor had thought it was likely plantar faciitis, so next I tried a massage therapist in town who was also nearly done her osteopath work. I liked her a lot and Honour had about 6 sessions, this time taking more time off--I hadn't felt that the previous break was nearly enough for her body to heal. She was off for well over a month this time and went back just before Christmas. Physically, things seemed improved. Just in time for the mental side of things to plummet....<br />
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Honour has always been my sensitive one. Add to this, a teacher who tends towards the 'no-nonsense' style of teaching and you have a recipe for occasional rough spots. Usually when Honour came home from dance class bummed because her work wasn't noticed, or she was reprimanded unfairly, I would encourage her to toughen up and deal with it. A fact of life.<br />
However, one night in February proved to be that famous breaking straw. I won't go into details, but she came home more than bummed...fighting tears (and sometimes losing) and distraught until far after her bedtime. I decided that a face-to-face with the teacher was needed. A few days later, I stopped by her house to get a sense of the situation from her perspective. And I learned that sensitive or not, sometimes you need to stand up for your kid and remove them from a situation beyond their ability to handle.<br />
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At first we considered another studio and contacted a couple teachers. Over the weekend that followed however, Honour allowed her mind to consider an exciting prospect...a new activity. She asked a few days later if she could try swimming instead of dance. She'd done it for nearly 5 years...I realized that it was really not a terrible thing for her to try out a new sport. <br />
So I looked into a couple clubs in Hamilton and she tried them out. One club won out for a few reasons and now she's been going to a once a week 60 minute practice and really enjoying it.<br />
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I already look nostalgically at her kilt and Aboyne costume in my closet...and at her dancing pictures and videos. Maybe she'll go back sometime...maybe she won't. But I'm trusting that God is behind this move and accepting that he is perhaps finished using dance in her life to accomplish his purposes. She's got nice strong legs for swimming now!<br />
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This all might have been a little easier to manage if a similar thing hadn't been happening with Verity at the gym, at nearly the same time.<br />
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Last summer/fall marked the start of Verity's 6th year in gymnastics. She would have been 4 years old when she started with a one hour daytime class once per week. I remember how quickly she picked up all the beginner skills and each year after that saw her progressing quickly through the rec and pre-competitive classes. She tried out for the competitive stream at some point...I can't remember quite when, and with no difficulty started the longer classes. By the time we moved out of Hamilton, she was going once a week for a 2 or 3 hour class. It sounds a little long, but they always stopped for a significant break (often I sent essentially a meal for Verity to eat halfway through) and considering that they had to fit work on 4 elements (beam, bars, floor and vault) I could see why it took so long.<br />
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Fast forward to the summer of 2013. We had moved Verity to a gym closer to our new home and she had made the transition well. She had a nice group of friends all around her age (8 years) and level of skill, and she was up to 3 practices a week for 4 hours a shot. Again..sounds like a lot compared to your average childhood activity that meets once per week for an hour...but having been involved in this sport now for 5 years, I knew that the amount of time Verity was spending was nothing compared to gymnasts at the provincial or national level...or beyond. 18 to 24 hours a week was not unheard of, and if Verity actually went as far as Olympic level, she'd easily be training as much as your average part or even full time job. I know, Olympics? Sounds a bit crazy...but I wasn't about to underestimate my middle born daughter...she has a competitive streak a mile wide, and had confidence and fearlessness in the gym to match. Her coaches were confident of national level competition in the next few years.<br />
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By the next summer, she was up to 18 hours and we were looking at a total of 9 competitions for the following season, including 3 provincial qualifiers. The first was scheduled for early December. She now trained with a small group of girls who were anywhere from 2 to 4 years older than her.<br />
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About 2 weeks before this, Verity came home from the gym to tell me that she'd fallen while on the beam. Just the thought of this made my toes curl. She seemed fine however, and hadn't seriously injured herself...at least not physically. I called her coach and got the low-down on what had happened. She'd been attempting a move on the beam that had her reaching backwards (not sure which, she had a few backwards moves on the beam at this point) and that was when she'd fallen. Her coach explained that she'd given her a bit of time to process and deal with it, sit out for a bit, try the move on the floor, and then slowly got her back up on the beam. It seemed like a good strategy.<br />
But it didn't work.<br />
By the time the qualifier rolled around, Verity's routines had had to be altered. Her coaches removed a few elements that she was now too scared to try. She was developing a block. We assumed time would heal this, and that by the next qualifier in February, that she'd likely be back to "normal".<br />
But it didn't happen.<br />
She went off to an invitational in January and had better results than the qualifier, bringing home a few medals. She was thrilled with this and I was sure it would kickstart her back into her usual fearless self at the gym.<br />
But it did not.<br />
We reached February and the second qualifier. With each day that passed, Verity became more and more distraught. Each drive home from the gym was now filled with frustration, anxiety and self-disappointment over skills she was unable to do. She was certain her coaches were disappointed with her, certain they were angry. I spent much time in conversation with her head coach and knew this wasn't the case, knew that they were not angry, but I could not convince her. "Coaches are different when parents aren't around, mom", she would say. I was left speechless at this comment. I trusted her coaches; I trusted her. How could I put their word above hers? But how could I put a child's perceptions above these professionals?<br />
The week leading up to the qualifier was far worse. She was not sleeping, not eating right, complaining of headaches, stomachaches, having nightmares. When I woke her up in the morning, she would have a pinched, panicked expression on her face. "I can't do my back walkover on beam, mummy, what am I going to do?!", she'd gasp.<br />
Finally, 2 days before the meet, I'd had enough. My 9 year old daughter was going to have a breakdown and I refused to allow it. I grasped her shoulders while standing in the mudroom and with a little shake, told her that she was not going. She was not going to compete that weekend. Truthfully? It was reverse psychology. I was sure that if I said this, she would relax, she would calm down and soon be back to normal. As the day and evening wore on, she would think and muse on the situation. She'd realize that she just couldn't <i>not</i> go to the meet. By the next day she'd come to me and say, "I'm ok now mummy, I'll go to the competition".<br />
But she did not.<br />
In fact, the next day, we took her to a sports psychologist. We had started looking into this a few weeks earlier, and this happened to be the day of the first appointment. I was hopeful that the psychologist would be able to see exactly what was ailing her, have some words of wisdom; a pep talk of sorts, and boom, Verity would be alright and raring to go the next day. This ended up being the farthest thing from reality.<br />
The psychologist, a woman working in the sports department of a nearby university spent some time talking with Verity on her own, and then James and I and Verity together. It quickly became clear that all would not be returning to "normal" anytime soon. We had one very sad and upset daughter on our hands. The psychologist agreed that her not competing the next day was a good thing, and in fact included a ban on all future competitions for that season in her recommendations to us. Cutting back her hours was another. We were dismayed, and I was terribly glad James had decided to take time off work and join us that morning. I would have dreaded the prospect of going home and trying to explain all of that to him.<br />
We talked to her coaches and made the changes. She would go back down to 12 hours of training and re-join her group from the previous year.<br />
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Everything would be better now, right?<br />
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A few weeks later, we went to see the psychologist for a follow up appointment. I had hardly given it any thought; we had fixed this, right? We'd pulled her back and eased her stress load, and she was going to be fine now, right?<br />
So wrong.<br />
Again Verity spend some time talking with the professor in her office, and then I joined after a few moments. It was not enough. She was still not ok. More changes needed to be implemented. The psychologist assessed Verity and diagnosed her with a "textbook" case of burnout. I was stunned. We'd been long aware and wary of this dreaded evil of elite sport; burnout. We'd read articles and journals on the topic; my husband had done a fair bit of research in the name of being forwarned and therefore forearmed...but it hadn't been enough. It had slunk in undetected despite our best intentions and efforts. The recommendation was now a total and complete severing of Verity from the gym. This was what she wanted and this was what needed to happen if we valued her mental, and even physical, the psychologist said, health.<br />
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How can a parent choose otherwise in the face of such possible extreme consequences? Yes, she'd loved it since she was a small child. She had lived, eaten and breathed it for nearly 70% of her lifespan. She could hardly keep herself from doing flips, cartwheels and tucks all over our home (even after 4 hours at the gym) and anywhere we went during the day. She was known to all our friends and family for her constant need for gymnastic movement, for this incredible gift of physical talent. It gave her immense confidence...(sometimes a little too much confidence...) and I recognized in her the same sense of identity as a gymnast that I felt as a child, being known for my singing.<br />
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But now it was all over. James and I were heartbroken, confused and even a little angry. Why was this happening? What could God possibly be doing through such a shocking turn of events?<br />
We still don't have answers. We're still not sure why it all happened. What we do know is that Verity has undergone a huge change. She no longer runs into the living room and flips onto the couch. I don't enter her bedroom to find her standing on her head, or draped over the edge of her bed in a lazy back walkover. She has completely lost her joy and love for gymnastics, and that's been the hardest thing to understand and accept of all of this. I read through a book the psychologist recommended: Little girls in Pretty Boxes, an expose of sorts about gymnasts and figure skaters. It was pretty shocking and disheartening. It did make me re-evaluate why I could possibly have wanted my daughter anywhere near such an industry. But I know that it's to be taken with a grain of salt; it's also American and I know that we have some significant differences in Canada. We also became familiar with a set of developmental building blocks that the psychologist gave us a copy of.<br />
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More information on these levels <a href="http://canadiansportforlife.ca/parents/ltad-path" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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Verity has been quite content, if not even happy, to be done with the gym. We termed it a "break", just to give her that option of returning if things should change. But it's been nearly 7 months now, and her attitude is no different. I also know that she feels she couldn't return to the gym now, because of what the other gymnasts would be thinking or even saying about her having quit for so long. She remembers what they would all say about others who quit previous to her. It's a sad, but inevitable reality.<br />
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So our detour has become, seemingly, permanent. James and I still question if we did something wrong...perhaps we shouldn't have involved her in this sport at all...perhaps we shouldn't have let her ease up into 18 hours of training over the years. Or on the flip side, perhaps the psychologist was wrong and we just handed our daughter a horrible life lesson; that's it's ok to quit when the going gets tough.<br />
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For now, we trust. There's a song that I return to when things get hard and confusing. When James and I had broken up (when dating), when we experienced marriage difficulties, when Jairus was born, when we buried our second son.<br />
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<b><i>I will trust you Lord, when I don't know why</i></b></div>
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<b><i>I will trust you Lord, 'til the day I die</i></b></div>
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<b><i>I will trust you Lord when I'm blind with pain</i></b></div>
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<b><i>You were God before and you'll never change</i></b></div>
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<b><i>I will trust you...</i></b></div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-91826912902794355102015-06-22T10:19:00.000-07:002015-06-22T10:19:30.752-07:00FREE Webinar tomorrow night!Hello Loyal fans,<br />
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(LOL!)<br />
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Just in case anyone is checking this and would be interested, tomorrow night you can see my lovely face live in webinar through Landry Academy. Those deets again are Tuesday, June 23rd at 9pm.<br />
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This webinar is entitled "Celebrate Creation with Joseph Haydn" and will include a mini-lesson on Haydn just like I teach weekly for Landry PLUS a free bonus: A 7 day devotional about Creation--both the Biblical event and the oratorio by Haydn, written just for this webinar by yours truly.<br />
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You can access the webinar <a href="http://www.landryacademy.com/our-team/webinars/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. I would suggest you log in about 15 minutes early, especially if you've never used Blackboard Collaborate as then you'd likely have to download their launcher app. The webinar will take about 1/2 an hour.<br />
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This is the second webinar I've presented which will hopefully continue as a series--the last one was Celebrate the Advent Season with Handel's Messiah which I presented last November. It was a great success and also included a 25 day Advent devotional (so if you'd like to see that, scroll down the page of the above link and you'll see it there--webinars are recorded so that anyone can watch them at any time :-) ) I have plans for a Bach webinar/devotional about St. Matthew's Passion and also Vivaldi and his Four Seasons. Very excited about these!<br />
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So remember, tomorrow, June 23rd at 9pm. See you there!Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-83131133694359255812015-02-01T12:04:00.000-08:002015-02-01T12:04:12.686-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Absolutely beautiful.</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-40844635251433246922014-12-15T22:07:00.000-08:002014-12-15T22:22:28.996-08:00Lord, Have MercyQuite by accident, I stumbled upon this tonight.<br />
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I was replaying the portion of Handel's Messiah from today's <a href="https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2014-11-18.1816.M.F0414BA352436B1637A48969057870.vcr&sid=2012319" target="_blank">Advent devotional</a> segment this evening. It's the trio from Young Messiah (1994) of Larnelle Harris, Steve Green and Michael English singing Surely, He Hath Borne our Sins. I could listen to it over and over. We started watching a few more Young Messiah pieces from the same concert recording. I used to listen to it many times over in my late teens and early twenties.<br />
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And then James and I noticed that in the line up there was a video from Moody Church Media. Well, we certainly had to look at what that was. And this resulted in a little walk down memory lane, accompanied by this perfectly gorgeous piece that I'd never heard of before. The soloist is a man that studied at Moody with me, but I think graduated a couple years after me. The conductor is the iconic Gerald Edmonds, one of my teachers at Moody, music director at Moody church for 27 years, and the man who along with David Davis, I credit with teaching me how to conduct.<br />
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15 years ago, this was our church home for the duration of our time in Chicago. I walked across that stage, through those choir seats and up and down those aisles more times than I can count. I conducted children's choirs and even the adult choir once from that stage, I directed the children's christmas pageant from those steps, and I scurried through the back passageways behind those rounded-top doors with a headset on each year during Candlelight Carols, helping to get the Nativity actors out on their cue. Behind the left door (stage right) and up a wee hallway was the recording room that I could always find James in....if he wasn't up at the top of the balcony at the live soundboard of this massive, 4000 seat church in downtown Chicago. It had a children's program so large that I would 'make my rounds' each Sunday morning to provide music for each class, of each department of the Sunday School.<br />
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Phew. Didn't realize how much I missed all that until just now. I've now listened to about 5 versions by other churches or choirs and Moody's is by far the most beautiful and sensitive. Give this a listen, mom. I guarantee you'll like it.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4iwF7tNS3O4" width="560"></iframe>Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-35071748928451286932014-12-01T21:40:00.000-08:002014-12-01T21:40:50.632-08:00Adventures of a Landry Teacher<br />
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That's me! I'm a Landry teacher.</div>
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Let me tell you all about it....I've been wanting to for months, but I've been SO busy preparing and teaching my Landry class that there has been ZERO time to blog. But now I will try and sneak it in, while I'm waiting on Livechat for my budgeting program to get fixed.<br />
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Last spring, I saw an email come through from one of the many homeschooling associations/companies/organizations/support groups/whatever, that I subscribe to. The subject line said something about a job opportunity. Always interested in a way to make a little more money, I looked right into that.<br />
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It looked like a pretty interesting/good deal to me. Teach online, from my house, get paid for it! Very cool. I submitted a resume and proposal of what I could possibly teach. Landry specializes in providing online classes for homeschooling students.<br />
A few weeks later, I heard back from Landry and they were interested in me! They set up a phone interview for shortly after and I "met" one of the directors, a lady named Karri. She seemed very lovely and it was an enjoyable interview. She told me that by the end of the week (this was a Tuesday, I believe) they would let me know if I had passed into the next level of interviews, and would do a demo class for them.<br />
End of the week nuthin'. They emailed before the end of the day. I took this as a good sign. :-)<br />
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So my next rite of passage was to create a short, 5 minute presentation about my specialty with powerpoint. I LOVE making powerpoint presentations. So fun. I said to James the other night that I realized why I love making them so much....because it's rather like scrapbooking, but digital.<br />
Somewhere along the line, Landry had said that they were interested in me to teach a class called "Meet the Composers", a music history-type course. Sounded good to me. I've never actually taught music history, but I've taught pretty much everything else in terms of music, and 5 semesters of Music History and Literature with Dr. Strandt had to come in handy somewhere!!<br />
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I made my presentation on Vivaldi (my fav) and spent some time getting acquainted with the programs they use for running Landry--Blackboard Collaborate for actually teaching, and Haiku for personalized class web pages, which is where you post all the assignments and such. <br />
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My audition/demo teaching came and went with no problems. I felt it went very well, and settled in to wait for the week or so to pass until they called with my verdict. Even though I was confident, I was still a little nervous...<br />
If I got this job, it would go a LONG way to helping pay for Verity's gymnastics. This past summer she moved up to 18 hours of training per week. We had hoped to pay for the whole year in one shot and relieve the stress of monthly payments, but it wasn't possible. If I got the number of students they anticipated, it would more than pay for her whole year. How awesome would that be!?<br />
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Of course, by now, you know that I got the job. Yay!! I got to work making my syllabus and beginning to create the class. I had the whole summer (well...most. Landry starts early, about mid-August) so I was not worried. Even though I knew I had to create 15, 90 minute classes complete with powerpoint, assignments, tests, etc., I thought it would be no problem. I had the whole summer, right?<br />
Well, first off, we got a foreign billet student. I didn't know until a day or two before she arrived from France, that I had to spend at least 1-2 hours per day teaching her English. And of course showing her our fine country. Didn't get as much work done during that time as I'd hoped...and that was most of July.<br />
And...it just took much longer than I anticipated. I got my syllabus done by June 30th (about a month to do that) and got to work on fleshing out my research. I can't remember when I got that done, but I sat every day during the first two weeks of July, for 2 hours while my kids took swimming lessons, working on it at the pool.<br />
Once I had all my info, it would take me 2-3 hours to write my lesson, 4-6 hours to make the powerpoint (I was teaching grades 4-6, I knew I needed LOTS of graphics), another 1-2 hours to make up the student notes outline and then, say 2-3 hours to find all my music and create the assignments and class pages for that week. Sooo, that's like a week working at a part-time job. And since I was still teaching in the evenings during the summer, and of course still at home with the kids all day, it would definitely take me a week, if I sat down every spare moment and worked on it. I had four lessons fully done by the time classes started. My August holidays at Fair Havens fell during my second week of classes, so I was still working madly on classes, as well as having to arrange to go somewhere with decent internet to actually teach the class that week (thank you inlaws that live close to camp!!)<br />
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So anyways, I did manage to get far enough ahead of myself that I only scraped close to class time once or twice, and it was all good. This week is the last class and I'm set to go. I've actually started my prep for next semesters class, which is sort-of a continuation of this semester and sort-of not. This semester focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque, and next is Classical, Romantic and Modern.<br />
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As well as teaching the class, another interesting opportunity arose. Landry often holds 'webinars' that teachers give on all kinds of topics, and it's a way to provide the general public with samples of Landry teachers, as well as provide some free expertise of various topics of interest. My department has apparently made it a tradition to hold a week of webinars in November (one each night) specifically on the arts and Christmas. My class had been quite small this semester; nowhere near the numbers that had been talked about in my interview, so my department head thought a webinar would be a perfect opportunity for me to bump up my profile. I put my mind to the task and came up with (who am I kidding, the credit is all the Lord's) making an Advent devotional. Despite the fact that I was stressed to the max trying to get the rest of my class created in time to teach it each week, somehow, I felt that I could 'fit' in creating, essentially, a book.<br />
I killed two birds with one stone, for a good part of it though. The idea was to make an Advent devotional based on Handel's Messiah. Each day would include scripture from the libretto of Messiah, a discussion or explanation of the scripture, application to life, etc, and then a bit of biographical info on Handel, which of course I had already prepared for my class. Each day's portion closes with a link to a youtube video of the featured Messiah chorus or aria for that day. As a homeschool mom, I loved this idea because it would cover my daily devotions with my kids--with an Advent flavour no less, a bit of history, and then application and music appreciation. Messiah is gorgeous but who takes four young-ish kids to a 2 hour performance of it? Not this crazy mama! This way, they'd be exposed everyday for the month of December and hopefully by the 25th, be in love with Messiah. In more ways than one.<br />
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It, of course, ended up being a fair bit more work than I thought (I am the queen of underestimating, I do believe) but the end result was quite pleasing. I presented the devotional during a 1/2 hour long webinar which had a very pleasing turnout of about 40 people. My 'free gift' to all attendees was access to this devotional at no cost. :-)<br />
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You too can have access to it as well! All webinars are recorded, and you can watch the recording <a href="http://www.landryacademy.com/our-team/webinars/" target="_blank">here</a>. Just look down the list until you see "Celebrate the Advent Season with Handel's Messiah". <br />
No, no, I can't give away the devotional link...you'll have to get that by watching the webinar!! Heehee!<br />
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So now my budget problem is not fixed...they have created a trouble ticket...sigh. And it's time for me to go to bed...Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-61439124942192393202014-10-09T11:46:00.000-07:002014-10-09T11:46:19.112-07:00This is why I'm off FacebookI can't seem to embed it, so you'll have to (gasp) click one extra time.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wimp.com/correcthumanity/#close">http://www.wimp.com/correcthumanity/#close</a><br />
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Well, it's not the entire reason, but I'll get to that later.<br />
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-72680130392910866792014-10-04T21:33:00.000-07:002014-10-04T21:33:00.727-07:00Jairus and the Soccer Tournament<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This is our second year involved in a local, and rather large, homeschooling group called T.E.A.C.H. (To educate a child's heart). I really enjoy and appreciate what it offers us, as of course organized sports are not something we can easily conjure up for ourselves. This year, as last, only Jairus and Honour are old enough to actually participate in the sports programs. Last year they both did basketball, floor hockey and a bit of baseball. The program runs for 3 weeks of two hour sessions that they call "skills and drills", and then after that the teams are chosen. Last year neither Jairus or Honour made any of the teams, but this was understandable because they were both among the youngest of the groups. Well...and because Jairus' main goal was to have fun. :-)</div>
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As this new school year started, I saw that soccer was being held. We missed it last year for some reason. As soccer is pretty much Jairus' favourite sport, I knew there was no question that we'd go to it. Verity's gym schedule made it tricky, as she needed to be in Caledonia at the same time as soccer started in Brantford. We split the difference; Verity was early and we were late.</div>
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After the 3rd skills and drills session, we were packing up to go when the coach for the boys team came over to me. He worked with Jairus last year with no problems, so I was pleased to see him coaching the soccer boys. As he approached, he had a grin and was chuckling a bit. He told me that if I thought Jairus would be ok with it, he would put him on the team. I was pretty surprised, and I guess it was obvious. He explained that he'd made it clear to the boys that skills were not going to be the only deciding factor to making the team, but that attitude would count for a lot. He described Jairus' encouraging behaviour with the other boys and said that he wouldn't mind at all if Jairus was on the team. He cautioned that Jairus may not get much actual field time, but this was something he was telling all the boys. I was SO pleased, and told him that I'd talk to Jairus and let him know. Truthfully, I wasn't sure how much Jairus would actually understand; after participating in the sports last year for only the 3 skills and drills each time, I thought he might not realize that these were actually part of the try-out process. However, that night as he was going to bed I mentioned it to him, and he really did seem to understand--and was pleased and excited.</div>
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This past Monday he had his first set of exhibition games, which since I had to work, James took the day off to take him to. It was a good afternoon and Jairus got a little time on the field.</div>
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Friday of this week was the big soccer tournament, attended by the area Christian schools. T.E.A.C.H. is a member of the organization. </div>
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We got there just past 8:30am and got Jairus into his shirt, cleats and shin guards. The morning was warm and bright, with a strong wind. Jairus started to get warmed up with his team.</div>
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The boys had 4 games that morning and I wasn't surprised that Jairus didn't get to play in any of them. Happy as he so often is, it didn't seem to bother him. Often as I checked on him, he'd be hopping around with an extra ball behind the bench, or standing near the coach, like a little assistant. During the breaks, one of Jairus' friends invited him to play around. :-)</div>
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Rain was in the forecast for around lunchtime, and unfortunately the weather man did not lie. By 12:45 or so, the rain started to fall and many kids took shelter under the big tarp someone had wisely brought.</div>
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They had won 3 games out of 4 during the morning but the rain made things difficult. They lost what was a semi finals game which sent them into a consolation game for 3rd place. The first half of the game saw the boys let in 4 goals...not so great for the team, but good news for Jairus! James had arrived by this point and we were both excited to see the coach's wife help Jairus off with his jacket. He was on the field!</div>
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Now that he'd gotten on the field, my next goal was that he'd kick the ball. Jairus is not terribly aggressive out there and would do a lot of running around a safe distance away from the action. But finally he was in the right spot at the right time...and gave the ball a good kick (in the right direction!!). I was just thrilled. Despite the soaking rain, he had a great time.</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-28108757200808583242014-10-04T19:22:00.000-07:002014-10-04T19:24:46.960-07:00Lindley Pumpkin farm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There is just nothing more fun than going on a fall trip. When I was a kid, my most favouritist (yes, that's a word) place was Chudley's apple farm. LOVED that place. This year, our farm of choice was Lindleys in Ancaster. We went with quite a large homeschooling group organized by my friends Jen and Rachael.</div>
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First we took a wagon ride through the farm and out to the pumpkin patch. Here's some of my widdow pumpkins. (lol)</div>
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Then we got out and had our pick of hundreds of pumpkins. We were the first group to come through!</div>
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Then we wagonned back and the kids got to feed a small collection of farm animals, sat through a wee educational blurb about pumpkins and then had an apple for a snack around some tables set up under a large tent/shed. I remarked to a friend as we chatted that my kids were never so interested in eating apples...doing it with friends seemed to make all the difference. Then they got to play around on a few slides and climbers...and investigate the Halloween decorations already set up.</div>
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Each of my kids brought home a pie pumpkin. The big girls chose big pumpkins, Afton chose a medium sized, and Jairus chose a wee little tiny thing. They were all set to carve them, but I reminded them that the farmer had warned that these pumpkins were for making pies and had a very tough rind. They were really better for making something....like a pie. Verity decided that this was exactly what she wanted to do. By some miracle, I had everything needed in the pantry to make a pumpkin pie. So, Google to the rescue to teach me what the heck to do with a pumpkin in order to get it into pie consistency. First, we cut them in half and the kids did the gunky part--scraped away all the innards and seeds.</div>
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Honour decided that her pumpkin was going to have a face, however she had to create it.</div>
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Then, I cut the pumpkin (yes, I, no we about this part) into large chunks and the kids got them all into the pots. It made A LOT of pumpkin.</div>
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That's only half of it!</div>
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When the pieces had boiled away for about 1/2 an hour, they were soft enough to come out and cool on racks for a bit.</div>
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Honour was determined to make use of ALL the pumpkin parts (Man, she would have made a great pioneer). This was her "pumpkin guts broth", which actually smelled quite nice and I used it as the base to the pumpkin soup we ate that night. She of course also roasted all the seeds. Yum. :-)</div>
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Amazingly, I had a box of Crisco in the fridge (I NEVER have that stuff) and Verity and I were pretty impressed at how easy it was to make a pie crust. Another googled recipe for the proper spices later, we had a very pretty, and VERY yummy pumpkin pie. And TONNES of pumpkin left over to make more for next weekend!! Happy Thanksgiving!!</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-30585133079080020632014-05-03T19:22:00.000-07:002014-05-03T19:22:09.436-07:00Nicola McMaster Memorial Highland Dance CompetitionDid I say recently that Honour had "not yet accomplished" winning a trophy? :-)<br />
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-28757736954339714892014-04-27T21:36:00.000-07:002014-04-27T21:44:46.777-07:00Spring FrenzyIt's not uncommon to have people comment, upon hearing I have four children, "My, you have your hands full", or otherwise similar sentiments. Usually I just smile and nod and agree. Busy...sure...[shrug]. It's just my life?<br />
This spring has seemed particularly busy, with most weekends taking us from here to there and back three times.<br />
It started with Honour's first competition of the season as I blogged about before. A couple weeks later we realized that my worst fear was upon us....Honour and Verity had a competition <i>on the same day.</i> Eeeks.<br />
Fortunately they were not at exactly the same time. Honour was in Niagara Falls in the morning and Verity had to be in Milton for around noon. It was Palm Sunday on top of it all, and I was needed at church in the morning to sing with the praise and worship team. We devised a plan....<br />
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We've gotten to be fairly good friends with one of the families at the gym, and they mentioned that they'd be willing to take Verity to the competition if we needed them too. At first I thought it wouldn't be necessary, but we soon realized that it would be a good idea. <br />
So, James and Honour left the house quite early on Palm Sunday, around 6am, as this comp started a little earlier than most. They arrived in good time--scheduling success #1. I left a couple hours later and dropped Verity off at the friends house, then continued on to the church.<br />
The service started at 10:30, and the team sang early in the program, so I was good to leave just before 11. I hopped in the van with the rest of the kids and my sister Maya, and we made our way to Milton. I arrived even before the girls were let into the gym to start warm up. Scheduling success #2.<br />
Verity's competition started a little early, which really didn't help our cause in the end. I took advantage of Maya's cell phone (I don't have one) to text with James, expecting that by that point, Honour's competition would be done and there would be news of how she did. Unfortunately, despite their early start, the awards ceremony hadn't begun. I would find out later that the competition was incredibly packed, with four stages running simultaneously to service 300 dancers. Scheduling blooper #1.<br />
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Verity's competition was moving along nicely, and I had expected that James and Honour, who were planning to head to Milton once they were done in Niagara Falls, would miss an element or two, but as the third element came and went, and still they hadn't left the Falls, I began to dread that they would miss the entire thing. A text from James to say that he'd locked the keys in the car certainly didn't ease things along. Scheduling Blooper #2....<br />
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Finally, the victory text arrived: Honour had won three medals, a first in her Fling, Third in Sean Truibhas and Fourth in her Sword Dance. Yay, another stamp! They hopped in the car to try and get to Milton in time...<br />
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Meanwhile, Verity's last element was quickly approaching--her beam routine. She had a rest period right before...but alas, her group moved to the beam section of the gym and began their practice run throughs...<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1u8ha6Lk2rQRCB5I8B0WZtB6ou6IR5MJv7GS4FzfDy2C1g4xw4adX3KU0JXHG-xKLGv7iYjN_89GsZiR0WvvFUdJ5w_vk14qnC-svwCFeEmhKLunHNS-1uzZIpKDaEQIrxD6NTJ4tlR4B/s1600/SDC16037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1u8ha6Lk2rQRCB5I8B0WZtB6ou6IR5MJv7GS4FzfDy2C1g4xw4adX3KU0JXHG-xKLGv7iYjN_89GsZiR0WvvFUdJ5w_vk14qnC-svwCFeEmhKLunHNS-1uzZIpKDaEQIrxD6NTJ4tlR4B/s1600/SDC16037.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
I kept craning my neck to see through the high windows from the bleachers to the foyer, but it was Afton and Maya who saw them first...about 20 seconds into Verity's routine. :-S<br />
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This past weekend was slightly better. Verity was scheduled for late Friday afternoon in Mississauga, and Honour was entered into a competition in Ajax the next morning. <br />
<br />
Friday started with a trip to McMaster to meet with a PRS family I'd met online, through my PRS Facebook group. Their little one is still in the NICU and scheduled for a jaw distraction tomorrow morning. It was really nice to connect in person and (hopefully) be an encouragement. After getting trapped in the NICU during a fire alarm, I then ran down to 2G where James was frantically motioning for me to get into the examining room for our appointment with the neurologist. Jairus had an incident a year and a half ago that we suspected was a seizure. Subsequent tests confirmed that he had underlying seizure activity present in his brain. We had hoped the appointment would explain everything....but not so much. Bottom line is that they wouldn't or couldn't confirm a seizure and we are left in hyper-hover mode. Sigh.<br />
We had determined that there wouldn't be enough time to go home after the appointment before heading to Mississauga so we had planned to go straight there from Hamilton. It was a good plan as of course the specialist appointment went much longer than we thought it would. We arrived just in time for Verity's 4pm registration time.<br />
Unlike Milton which was extremely crowded, Mississauga's facility was roomier and overall her flight was smaller, so less families were in attendance. It made for a much more pleasant way to pass the 3 hours that we were there.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/93084215" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> </div>
<a href="http://vimeo.com/93084215">Bars at Mississauga</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7644961">Leslie Kent</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1bPWUv77T-xKni5_8o_nACkTuGGoQzOZM1GooLxLE2ZZQcRu09fNuXNFcRIFRmw701JpPCERrOEw0-XA7279k6fMi8np5eLQWxyWEY0pBIuiOjJCybYLij2kSDvLYxi1yId33g4ZIsL2/s1600/SDC16136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1bPWUv77T-xKni5_8o_nACkTuGGoQzOZM1GooLxLE2ZZQcRu09fNuXNFcRIFRmw701JpPCERrOEw0-XA7279k6fMi8np5eLQWxyWEY0pBIuiOjJCybYLij2kSDvLYxi1yId33g4ZIsL2/s1600/SDC16136.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Verity was the only attendee from her club for this flight, something that's not happened to her before, but I encouraged her by pointing out that she'd have her coach, Katie, all to herself. She started with the parallel bars, moved to the beam, performed on the floor third, and finished with the vault. Her back walkover on the beam was flawed again, as her first meet, but at least this time she hopped back up and tried again. The second time around she was successful. The other events seemed to go well, but she'd decided not to include her newly attained front tuck in her floor routine, as she'd been out from training all week due to a strep throat infection. Still, the two back handsprings were impressive.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/93084214" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/93084214">Floor at Mississauga</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7644961">Leslie Kent</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Her vault was also more confident and she stayed on her feet, unlike the last meet when she landed on her butt. All this earned her a gold standing for both floor and bars, and silver for the beam and vault, for an overall rating of gold. Yay!<br />
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Up until right after Verity's comp, I actually wasn't going to be able to go to Ajax, as I had my last Musikgarten class to teach mid-morning. I was pleased to be able to tell Honour at dinner that my director had moved the class to the following Saturday. It ended up being a <i>very</i> good thing that I went...<br />
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We got up around 6am for a 7am departure. We were about 10 to 15 minutes late leaving, and there was a bit of slow traffic through Toronto, so we arrived about 15 minutes into the 30 minute registration period. No problem, right?<br />
Hum. HEW-mungus line-up. I had thought this was a 'little' competition. Hum. Not so much. Now to mention a slight glitch...<br />
The day before the registration deadline, I had realized I couldn't send it in because I didn't have any cheques. They were on order, and I had been expecting them any day, but they hadn't arrived yet. I called the organizer to find out if they'd accept an email money transfer, but before I could even suggest this, she told me to email in Honours info and bring the cheque on the day of. That sounded great to me, and I immediately sat down and emailed her with the registration particulars.<br />
It wasn't until a day or two before the competition that I had a troubling thought; she hadn't emailed back to confirm the registration. James pointed out that they didn't confirm with snailmail registrations so why would it be any different for email? Spam boxes, that's why.<br />
When we got back from Mississauga with Verity, I emailed the organizer and asked her to confirm that she'd received Honour's registration. She didn't email back. Hum.<br />
We set off anyways, with a printed copy of my original email in my purse. Good thing...<br />
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Sure enough, Honour's name was not on the list.<br />
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Some slightly tense moments later, as I sweetly insisted that I had followed the organizers instructions, all was well. They conjured up the number #249 for Honour.<br />
Glitch number two arrived only a few moments later when the Flora dance began and I realized with horror that we had forgotten Honours underskirt. Fortunately, a quick trip out to the vendors in the hall furnished us with a new one (for a mere 40$). Ah well, her old one was pretty sad looking.<br />
After that, things motored along. Honour's group was quite large, so I was nervous that her chances were slimmer than usual. It was also a 10 and up group, which meant she could very well be competing against 16 year olds--and some of them did look around that age. We were there alone, as another competition had her teacher and some of her dancemates off in London. <br />
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Once her Flora was accomplished, I got her into her kilt for the rest of the dances. There was only 15-20 minutes or so between each dance, so she would do a quick run through of the upcoming dance, and then we'd wait back on the bleachers for the announcement to line up. Fling was next, always a strong dance for Honour, followed by Sword, usually strong as well, and finishing up with Sean Truibhas (say trews). That last one has been slowly becoming more confident for Honour.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/93084213" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/93084213">Sean Truibhas</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7644961">Leslie Kent</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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As usual, after the dancing was done, we all waited anxiously in the bleachers for the results to be tabulated. The first phase is always the worst; waiting to hear if her number would be called. Her newly added #249 would be the first called, if it would be...<br />
And there it was, "249". Phew.<br />
Then comes the raised hope that perhaps her medal would be a first, second, or third and win her a stamp. Flora results were called without even a nod at Honour. Fling was next....and there she was, walking confidently over to the official to receive her first place medal. Yes!<br />
And now a more recent phase introduced....Miss Diannes students are often winning trophies. Honour has not yet accomplished this. But as I watched her receive another first a moment later for her Sean Truibhas, I began to feel a little tug of hope...that was two dances out of four that she'd won first place....<br />
It was not to be, however, as the girl who'd won first place for the other two dances had also won medals behind Honour in the Fling and Sean Truibhas. Ah well. Happy for a stamp today!<br />
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Now, it was Jairus' turn for the spotlight, a rare occasion. As soon as we started to gather up our things to leave Honour's competition, he caught my attention by patting his chest and making drum motions. "Me?", he asked, "Me?". At hearing my answer of "Yes, Jairus, your turn now", he responded excitedly "YES!".<br />
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The drive back seemed to take even a little longer than going out there, and it was mid afternoon before we stumbled through the front door. Verity needed to go <strike>begging</strike> soliciting the neighbours to buy her latest gym fundraiser, as money was due back yesterday, and I needed to confirm that Jairus had all the wardrobe needed for his concert debut with the beginner band at church.<br />
His white shirt just barely made the grade, slightly short in the sleeves, but acceptable, and after a frenzied search around the house, we located his navy clip-on tie. By 5:30 we were on the road again for his 6pm call time.<br />
This is the first year that Jairus has been playing in the beginner band. Last fall, the director, also his former public school music teacher approached me and asked if he might want to join. We managed to finagle the rehearsal times into the schedule every Tuesday night and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his new musical expression--the drums. He played out in one church service prelude but this would be a 'real' concert. It was called Blazing Brass and it was a fundraiser for sending kids to music camp.<br />
We arrived a couple minutes late and Jairus immediately went up to run through the songs with the group. We had an hour until the concert started so I relaxed and spent some time chatting with church friends.<br />
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7pm arrived and the concert began. Jairus filed out with his bandmates. Unfortunately, the first song they would play was combined with the Junior band and their drummer took the stool. There wasn't anything else for Jairus to sit on, the leader was on the other side of the platform and of course none of the kids around him thought to help get him a chair to sit on....so he stood for the first 20 minutes or so, until their song came up.<br />
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He 'assisted' the Junior band drummer for that first song on the floor tom, which I got video of, but you can't really hear his part. Then they played a song on their own and that's where he really shone. He was on the snare and was well practiced. I thought he did just perfect--even when he wasn't watching the director and beat one final tap after everyone had stopped. His grin sent mild chuckles through the first few rows of the sanctuary. <br />
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James had to stay back and help with tear down, as he'd been the soundguy for the evening, and since supper had actually been a late lunch of Swiss Chalet leftovers, the kids were now hungry. A final celebration at Wendy's was the answer, made even better by some friends joining us.<br />
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Am I busy? Do I have my hands full? Absolutely. Is this a bad thing?<br />
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I wouldn't trade it for the world. :-)<br />
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-6483467693408015912014-04-06T19:10:00.000-07:002014-04-06T19:53:13.671-07:00Birthday Boy...I mean Young Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Last Sunday we celebrated the 13th birthday of Jairus Donovan Kent, our first born and on this earth, only son.<br />
It was a marvelous, glorious day.<br />
It was his actual birth-day, as of 4:34am on Sunday the 30th. I had decided a few months ago that I wanted to do something <b><i>really special.</i></b><br />
Last year we were invited to a birthday party for the son of good friends. He was also turning 13. It was quite a large affair, with many friends and family. There were lots of beautiful decorations with a medieval/knights sort of theme, which I thought was quite appropriate for the occasion. There was a guest/scrapbook out for everyone to look through and sign with messages of encouragement. It was fun to see pictures of the young man, as we've only become friends in the past year or so, and not watched him grow up as many there had.<br />
The thing that touched me the most was a brief time during the party where my friend and her husband had asked some church elders and senior family members to come say a blessing over their son. It was a really beautiful, meaningful time and I just loved it. I decided to be a copycat. ;-)<br />
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To start, I sent out snailmail invitations just slightly more than a month in advance. Any sooner, and I was afraid people would forget; any later and I worried they would already have plans. And I chose real, paper invitations because people are so apt to ignore Facebook and email notifications. After much consideration, I decided to limit the guest list to only family for a few reasons. A) Our house couldn't handle much more--I have a large family. B) Growing up, my moms family (2 brothers, a sister and all children involved) met monthly to celebrate birthdays. Thems fond memories and I wanted to have one of those again.<br />
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So I used the online planner from Staples and personalized one of their invitation templates with Jairus' picture and sent it off to be printed. I ordered about 60 copies and got them sent out quickly. We had a good response and in the end, probably about 85-90% positive rsvp's. I was pleased.<br />
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I decided to make it straight-forward and low fuss: 3-5pm would be the timing, with simple finger foods to snack on (veggies with dip, fruit tray, hummus and pita chips) and 3 home-made cakes which would hopefully be enough to feed everyone. I was expecting around 50 people. (Note: I don't do home-made to impress anyone, I do it because generally I'm not fond of store-bought cakes. :-) )<br />
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I started cleaning the house an impressive 5 days before the party and marveled at how much less stressed I was by the weekend when only a few jobs remained. By Sunday afternoon, everything was sparkling and ready to receive our guests. The kids were beyond excited to see their family and especially, cousins. My one oversight was...of all things.....Jairus' birthday gift. We'd intended to get him a digital camera but a few days before his birthday, he spotted an archery set in Canadian Tire and was highly excited. He took an archery class at camp last year, and since my husband also learned it at the same camp as a child, we decided it would be a good present. However, I forgot to pick it up the day before, so a quick stop on the way home from church, aided by bags to cover the gift on its' way out of the store, solved the problem.<br />
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I had purchased the perfect little scrapbook. It said 'Family' in lovely stitching on the front of the handsome brown leather cover, and each page had room for one photo and a few lines for signing. My plan was to take a picture of each family as they arrived, print it immediately and have them sign the page with their photo above. It didn't quite work out, as the printer gave us problems. Instead, I had everyone sign a page, and printed up their pictures the next day when I had time to fiddle with the printer. I filled the rest of the book with pictures from the day, which my uncles wife was gracious enough to take and leave with me before they left.<br />
It was a beautiful, sunny day, which I was so grateful for, as it gave family the option of gathering out around the porch swing, which many did. We had plenty of food, plenty of cake and it was clear that many were happy to spend the afternoon catching up with family not often seen. I had our ancestry.ca family trees displayed on the TV and tried to encourage people to look through it and add information that was missing or mistaken. I pulled out the two large scrapbooks I made for Jairus; one detailing his first 2 months of life in hospital, and the second the remainder of his first year. I was pleased to see them being passed around and enjoyed.<br />
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[Great]Grandma 'Hutchie', Nana (my mom), Sherri with shy cousin Donovan.</div>
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My brother and his wife, all the way from Parry Sound.</div>
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Verity with cousin Samuel</div>
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Cousin Jacquie's hubby Michael, standing with my Uncle Tom</div>
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Jacquie and her daughters, and her mom, my great aunt Wilma</div>
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My sister Lauren, standing with my dad's twin brother Dave. Uncle Dave had a liver transplant just a few months ago.</div>
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All the kids mesmerized by Jairus' slideshow</div>
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Jairus' Family</div>
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For a number of days before the party, I worked on a powerpoint presentation. Any other 13 year old would likely have made a big presence known. He'd have told his stories and reminded everyone of his antics growing up, his triumphs and successes. Because Jairus isn't really able to do that, I decided to make a voice for him.<br />
Once everyone had arrived, we gathered in the main room and reflected on the life of Jairus.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/91204797" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/91204797">Jairus Birthday Slideshow</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7644961">Leslie Kent</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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The first song was the same one I sang at Jairus' dedication.<br />
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After the video, my dad, James, and his dad had prepared words of blessing and prayer. They stood with their hands on Jairus' shoulders, in front of all our family and spoke of the challenges he has faced, this momentous occasion of his 13th birthday, and their faith in what God alone can--and will accomplish through Jairus. Here is what my father said:<br />
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The Blessing of Jairus</div>
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Today is a special day for Jairus as we gather together to say happy 13th birthday. It hardly</div>
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seems possible that 13 years ago James, Leslie and Marie spent the night at McMaster waiting</div>
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and waiting for Jairus to arrive. Meanwhile, I was at home all nice and cozy in bed when</div>
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Marie called somewhere after 5 am to inform me that I was now a papa since Jairus had</div>
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arrived. Then I remember seeing him with a bunch of tubes in his tiny little body – but that</div>
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start to his life hasn’t stopped him from growing into this young man we have here before us</div>
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today.</div>
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Jairus you are no longer a little boy, not a pre-teen – you are a young man. Many times</div>
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in life we wonder why things happen. We may question why did God and does God allow</div>
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Jairus to have certain challenges in his life while others do not? Jairus, scripture tells us</div>
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that before the foundation of the earth, God Almighty planned for your life and planned for</div>
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you to be a man. Psalm 139 says that He created your inmost being. He knit you together in</div>
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your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. All the days ordained for you</div>
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were written by God even before you were born. Today we are recognizing publicly what</div>
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God has done in you. Your nana and I are thankful and joyful that God has given you to our</div>
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family as a gift. You have a great ability to make lots of people smile and laugh. You are a</div>
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wonderful grandson. We love you and bless you with the promises of God. You are His and</div>
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have been set apart from the world for his Holy purposes. I bless you with God’s everlasting</div>
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love, wisdom, peace, and joy.</div>
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We pray that God will provide you with all the resources you need to overcome the spiritual,</div>
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physical and emotional challenges you face as you grow and develop your faith and trust in</div>
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Him.</div>
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Numbers 6:24: Here just as God commanded Moses to have Aaron say to the people of Israel,</div>
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I say to you Jairus: The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon</div>
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you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you His peace.</div>
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Romans 15:13: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by</div>
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the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen!</div>
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As they finished, I had a cake ready with 13 lit candles. I walked the length of the kitchen and living room, past family filling nearly every square foot, and we sang. There's nothing like a family that can sing together. I carried the cake up to Jairus and his face was beaming. And I remembered how difficult it used to be for him to blow out candles. He took a great breath, and snuffed them out in three tries.</div>
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Then came the gifts. Such generous family! If anyone had asked, I had advised gift cards, because Jairus <i>loves</i> to carry around cards of all kinds. He got gifts cards plus much more!<br />
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My father in law, making a point to his sister and her husband, Anne and Don</div>
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We were so tickled when he finished, and my mom suggested he stand up and thank everyone. He jumped to his feet and in a big voice that everyone heard, did just that.</div>
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The whole afternoon was really wonderful, and I loved how so much of our family came out to be a part of Jairus' celebration. The kids were really tickled to meet 'cousins they didn't even know'!</div>
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The last few years, as Jairus has drawn closer to adolescence, I've worried. I'm a mom, of course I've worried. As his speech development stagnated....as his academics faltered...as I began to realize that our home might always be Jairus' home, I've worried. And I've asked God, what is your plan for him? And this is where that pesky trust comes in. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<i>9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned,this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”</i><br />
<i>3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the <b>works of God might be displayed in him.</b></i></blockquote>
The second song in the slideshow was not just chosen because it's a current house fav, that gets us all singing and dancing around the joint. I realized that it said exactly what I'm hoping and trusting in for my son.<br />
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My life</div>
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I know it's never really been mine</div>
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So do with it whatever You like</div>
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I don't know what Your plan is</div>
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But I know it's good, yeah</div>
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I wanna tell You now that I believe in</div>
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I wanna tell You now that I believe in</div>
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In You, so do what You do, oh</div>
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I'm an empty page</div>
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I'm an open book</div>
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Write Your story on my heart</div>
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Come on and make Your mark</div>
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Author of my hope</div>
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Maker of the stars</div>
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Let me be Your work of art</div>
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Won't You write Your story on my heart?</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-76755041128199483232014-03-02T22:05:00.000-08:002014-03-02T22:05:57.266-08:00One Relieved Mama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today was Honours first Highland dance competition since July 1st of last year. You might remember that I blogged about some of our challenges last <a href="http://www.leskent.blogspot.ca/2013/08/when-to-stop-and-when-to-go.html" target="_blank">summer</a>. The plan I laid out there has been <i>somewhat</i> successful.</div>
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Honour <i>did</i> go to physio, and the therapist <i>did</i> have a few exercises to do, and we <i>did</i> do them a few times over the summer. But then school started, I stopped doing the exercises and so Honour did too. She <i>did</i> ride the stationary bike for a bit over the summer with James. But then that slowly petered out. She <i>did</i> use her highland dance notebook for longer than the previous two measures, probably a few months. But that also lost steam. Her dance chart has had up and down popularity. It's not yet all filled in; I think it has about 20 more spots on it or so.</div>
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Circumstances didn't help her determination very much. There were a couple competitions in the fall that we couldn't put her in because of lack of funds. End of summer is a killer time for us, as we wait for my various music teaching jobs to kick back in. I was also suddenly realizing that I wasn't as aware of the competitions any more, because I don't attend any of her classes like I used to. Once I started teaching three nights a week, I lost the luxury of sitting in on her classes for an hour or two a week to keep abreast of the goings-on. James was usually picking her up from class and he didn't think to check the bench her teacher usually leaves the application forms on, and Honour didn't have the initiative or courage to ask herself. </div>
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She was registered for a competition in London around the third weekend of November, but two days before it, James was rushed to hospital with what turned out to be a pulmonary embolism. Then there were no more until the new year.</div>
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Honour triumphantly brought home a handful of competition registration forms about a week and a half ago. The deadline for the soonest one was only two to three days later, so I rushed to get the forms in the mail when suddenly I realized that she didn't have her new 2014 dance card. I had to race to get that sent to Whitby and hope against hope that it would get back to me on time. It arrived four days ago. Phew! Then I had to get the form sent off to join the dance organization that was hosting the comp, or else pay a fee for non-membership. Since the fee for membership is about the same cost as non-membership fees for two competitions, and her next one in a few weeks is being hosted by the same group, it made sense just to join in case another comp comes up later in the year. I only hoped it would arrive and be processed before today's competition, lest they stop me at the door and make me pay the non-membership fee in order for Honour to compete. Then, as I was doing all this mailing, I realized that her Aboyne costume didn't fit any more. It had been snug and short-ish last summer at Embro, so I knew it would be hopeless now. Kijiji and a dance mom from Welland came to the rescue with a gorgeous practically new Aboyne outfit that we picked up only two days ago. The final challenge came when we got home from getting the new outfit and I had her try it on so I could take pics to send to her teacher for approval. Her ghillies (dance shoes) didn't fit. I suddenly remembered how snug they were last summer and how much she had complained about them. Sigh. Providentially, one of Honours dance studio friends had outgrown her hers and was willing to pass them down. By yesterday afternoon, everything was in place. (If you don't count staying up until 1am hemming the new skirt, and lengthening her old crinoline).</div>
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The competition was in Cambridge, which is about a 45 minute drive from our house--when the weather is good. We had to be there for 8:30am and didn't really have any option but to bring all four kids. James was scheduled for some gigs this afternoon so we had to take two vehicles, which I wasn't thrilled about. Despite many of the roads being yucky with a thick layer of snow, we still made it on time.</div>
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The competition looked to be not as large as many we've been to, and I was happy about that. Checking the program, I found that Honours group only had 10 girls. Usually we've seen groups a little larger, even up to 18. </div>
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We got her registered and then found some of her studio-mates along with one of the junior coaches getting warmed up. Ghillies on, vest hooked up, everything looked good and we were ready to start. </div>
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The Fling was on the docket first and I was glad for that as it's a strong dance for Honour and her best known. Her group was called to line up and after saying a prayer with her I watched her cross the gym to find her spot, spray bottle in hand to take the dust off her feet.</div>
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I should have realized that after so many months of being out of competition that the first dance up would likely be rough. I knew she had been nervous and it really came out as she became distracted and completely missed some crucial steps and turns not too far into the dance. My heart sank and I felt tears threatening. She returned to the bench and refused my comforting arm across her shoulder. Her face was miserable and I finally left her to work it through on her own.</div>
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With the groups being smallish, it wasn't long before her next dance was up, the Sword. This is another one that she's done well a number of times before in competition. Up she went to stand before the crossed swords and with my nearly silent cheering from the bench, she worked her way cleanly through the three sections of the dance. Relief made it's first appearance and she was a different girl returning to our spot on the bleachers.</div>
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The Sean Trews was soon upon us, a dance she's competent in and has placed 3rd and 5th in previous competitions, back in Beginner level. She seemed to handle this one with no issues, though I find these days that I'm not as adept at seeing missteps or bloopers as I was back in beginner level. The distinctions are becoming too fine for my rudimentary skills.</div>
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We bustled off to the change room to don the new Aboyne and have it checked by Rachel, the junior coach. One minor adjustment to the length of the skirt, accomplished by flipping the waistband down once, and she was beautiful and ready to go. I felt my nervousness return as Rachel made last minute corrections to the final step of her Lilt--ones I felt certain she wouldn't be able to get under her belt in time. Still, she went out and performed quite well I thought.</div>
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By 11am, the dancing was done and the waiting began. The judges and organizers have to gather all the scores and determine the medal and trophy winners--this always takes a bit of time. About a half an hour later, they began awarding the Primary level dancers with their participation gifts, followed by medals for the top scorers. Three tiny boys, always a hit with their kilts and vests, cleaned up most of the first, second and third place finishes.</div>
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Honour's group would be the last announced, so we waited through the two Beginner levels, and one Novice level, before the numbers for her level were called. In Highland dance competition, only the dancers who receive a medal are called to present before the audience, so that tense moment as the MC calls out the list of numbers is a killer. Too well I remembered the previous 3 or 4 competitions when Honour's number had not been called. Saddest parenting moment ever.</div>
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The relief that washed over me as I heard that blessed "2-2-5" today was enough to bring me to tears, which I hopefully hid from my benchmates, none that I knew personally. I watched her delighted face light up and she skipped to join the line, her dance card clutched in her hand (her lanyard has gone missing to hang it from her neck).</div>
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I had been praying simply that she bring <i>something</i> home, any medal placement at all--and she had up to 6 chances per dance. Once she joined the line of winners and the possibility of returning home empty handed was banished, my hopes began to rise once more. Could she possibly win a first, second or third, and earn a stamp on her card? That barren, stampless, Novice level card until now?</div>
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The previous group finished their awards and Honour's line trooped up to the staging area. They began with the Fling award and I hardly listened--we knew there was no chance of a Fling win. Next, the Sword. First place was called....second place....number 225!! I was stunned and thrilled and James and I flapped our hands at each other.</div>
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Sean Trews was dance number three and I nearly fell off the bench as 225 was called for first place. The lady beside me, waiting for the afternoon competition to start with her older daughter, turned and beamed a smile of congratulations. The Lilt awards were called without a peep to Honour however; I guess she must have misstepped somewhere along that line.</div>
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What a happy, relieving day! As a dance mom friend remarked when she heard the news, "Aw, Honour's got her 'groove' back!". :-)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKeBIkNIDiWCNMob3-WOrnDW1OsPqI9pxxizHrh0PAXbgSPPON3mVOgJFU8qevLxn1nTnmBBns4G8yOA819v_qLXeZjYJsO76I74vzyuAOgsdt9OZTHHbulInMsK2peUU92ugI3PmYnnlQ/s1600/new+aboyne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKeBIkNIDiWCNMob3-WOrnDW1OsPqI9pxxizHrh0PAXbgSPPON3mVOgJFU8qevLxn1nTnmBBns4G8yOA819v_qLXeZjYJsO76I74vzyuAOgsdt9OZTHHbulInMsK2peUU92ugI3PmYnnlQ/s1600/new+aboyne.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></div>
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I spent the afternoon finally organizing Honour's medals onto this presentation board that her teacher gave us way back near the beginning, nearly 4 years ago. It took a bit of searching through emails, facebook posts, messages and many files of pictures, but we finally compiled all the dates, dances and placings of all her medals, save for two which are still confounding us. At the bottom are the medals she's received from her annual dance exam. Honour is now highly motivated to reach her next goal: make it up to Intermediate level by the July 1st Embro competition. I'd better get her registered for more competitions!</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-14835377347074946052013-12-14T10:36:00.002-08:002013-12-14T17:44:48.846-08:00Our Operation Christmas Child FundraiserAs posted about below, we recently went on a trip to the Operation Christmas Child processing centre in Cambridge, Ontario. We went for two reasons: to take our boxes in person, as we missed the cut-off date for local drop-off centres, and also to see the insides of this wonderful operation!<br />
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When you drop off a box for OCC, they ask that you also donate some money to help cover shipping. We decided to raise our shipping funds by selling the books the kids made after our trip, about their tour around the centre. Our goals is to raise $30 to give to Operation Christmas Child to cover the shipping costs of the four boxes we put together. Here are the books!<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HB5I5HW" target="_blank"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51szcC2LI%2BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-69,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HB087XE" target="_blank"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AF1AQpG5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-69,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HB08A9A" target="_blank"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TaUF6nXxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-69,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HB5WW80" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HB5WW80" id="main-image" rel="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81I33R2JmYL._SL1500_.jpg" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41agJ9HT0DL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-69,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" style="display: inline;" /></a><br />
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Thank you for your support of my kids and Operation Christmas Child. :-)Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-38996835140280877882013-12-10T21:28:00.001-08:002013-12-10T21:28:49.594-08:00Rocking around....the Operation Christmas Child Processing CentreToday we took a fabulous trip.<br />
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For many years now, we've packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritans Purse. This year was no different.<br />
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What was different however, was that a few days before collection week, my husband suffered a pulmonary embolism. This pretty much threw the house into turmoil for over a week. There was no way I could get our boxes over to the usual drop-off site. Once things settled down, I started nosing about for a way to get our boxes delivered to the right place. I recalled talking to a woman at a Christmas party a few years ago about how she volunteered for OCC at their processing centre in Cambridge. A few calls and I discovered that we could indeed take our boxes there ourselves, and also have a tour around the facility. I jumped at the chance!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5BHOemvSlXek66_svG1R7z5ZaaIUAwkL9s1mcAabgQGQ-q22YWzerfovxejuM9V6C4xmadSL7i5tShWu8fKlA4ca98aJFjyb7h6dStQHi7Sv4tKIir7QGIxyljU-u-gZKefE7NHOrIOD/s1600/SDC12687.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5BHOemvSlXek66_svG1R7z5ZaaIUAwkL9s1mcAabgQGQ-q22YWzerfovxejuM9V6C4xmadSL7i5tShWu8fKlA4ca98aJFjyb7h6dStQHi7Sv4tKIir7QGIxyljU-u-gZKefE7NHOrIOD/s400/SDC12687.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our tour started down a hallway with a wall of donors to the cause. All these businesses donate various things needed to run the processing centre--items for incomplete boxes to coffee for the volunteers.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfyogIFloD_Ty0617wc6YCxeyKcaNZ_PGytm34dHUWuR9ezvxFNdfXgykquN24naIQBg8QJWjhv_T1DwCD3BieL6BghgoMSn2bE5OtuYJuU5mWxWEdxefc4znIZAWavXdaY3qRI6zeHwu/s1600/SDC12688.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfyogIFloD_Ty0617wc6YCxeyKcaNZ_PGytm34dHUWuR9ezvxFNdfXgykquN24naIQBg8QJWjhv_T1DwCD3BieL6BghgoMSn2bE5OtuYJuU5mWxWEdxefc4znIZAWavXdaY3qRI6zeHwu/s400/SDC12688.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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In a training room, large posters detailed what items were not allowed in boxes. We were disappointed to find out that chapstick, something we usually put in our boxes is not allowed. Our lovely guide Becky explained that it's too much like make-up and many countries consider that inappropriate for young girls--and it can also get them kidnapped for trafficking purposes. :-(</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1AQsBQYrjp87hzzbBb6bL0UzVg5nKrNFzZKKGGPkFZYcn32Jsja9F-VirBqeTgSfV4ylJPnXyHGvXEadu7B65tKUwRbZwwiPlBIDbEMjR1prucAgmVeWlfRzkmtevjN6O8kROFO9j0LK/s1600/SDC12689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1AQsBQYrjp87hzzbBb6bL0UzVg5nKrNFzZKKGGPkFZYcn32Jsja9F-VirBqeTgSfV4ylJPnXyHGvXEadu7B65tKUwRbZwwiPlBIDbEMjR1prucAgmVeWlfRzkmtevjN6O8kROFO9j0LK/s400/SDC12689.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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These articles taped up in the training room are stories of happy children receiving their boxes, and also an amazing story about a woman from Romania who received a box as a child. She moved to Canada as an adult and now helps OCC to continue to spread the blessings she received. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtVzARh9DaWnC1__3QNrXoRJfVLjYYyKM8mBXA9KfmWu7opBnVGN0yQW5MwGOz3AMj-YM91Vcc9cOFVUJysdpt02wye1CE_fEvXFtgSvBkUV_-s8dYUv-X3QpNjkmVhmcCcJTLaZWgxTR/s1600/SDC12690.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtVzARh9DaWnC1__3QNrXoRJfVLjYYyKM8mBXA9KfmWu7opBnVGN0yQW5MwGOz3AMj-YM91Vcc9cOFVUJysdpt02wye1CE_fEvXFtgSvBkUV_-s8dYUv-X3QpNjkmVhmcCcJTLaZWgxTR/s400/SDC12690.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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More pictures posted on a hallway wall of thrilled children opening their boxes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4NzKE_OUFL2v8O_UIVUjB-8PAvFEICtKgxaqNmqsmyZGUBYmcN49REYw72SIZGCv302J9kPBFo5vBThEWbpIvzGrGMNE4XVIUU6QahcwJMr_E5ksmYfBsyLFR4P_nZVB5uPXMcYvRpsz/s1600/SDC12691.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4NzKE_OUFL2v8O_UIVUjB-8PAvFEICtKgxaqNmqsmyZGUBYmcN49REYw72SIZGCv302J9kPBFo5vBThEWbpIvzGrGMNE4XVIUU6QahcwJMr_E5ksmYfBsyLFR4P_nZVB5uPXMcYvRpsz/s400/SDC12691.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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I loved this picture...and the caption.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrb9rPElhxM5YtByoAfaDRnkq7hze1FQA44SnJeRWkPtQCCLJCbR_7zv02f30jrAa2odOr0_Sgt6pawGcodK55-uOBz5_h9oLOsnMz-w0AG8cPC18-jJyd-9p_sxICV1o-zMGJJtCPs0SR/s1600/SDC12692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrb9rPElhxM5YtByoAfaDRnkq7hze1FQA44SnJeRWkPtQCCLJCbR_7zv02f30jrAa2odOr0_Sgt6pawGcodK55-uOBz5_h9oLOsnMz-w0AG8cPC18-jJyd-9p_sxICV1o-zMGJJtCPs0SR/s400/SDC12692.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Donation section. These boxes organize all the 'inappropriate' items and ready them to be sent to local charities that need such items. I love that nothing is wasted!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HbajMRXLWYjw5aZkBYT-CwjTPnjRkJT7CaoPIxLpzn6x6enNdB34zmIj6p-OByN7ekYBzKfeNKHFLR03ATD58itK3ecT9f02vs6FckaAdC-cINy24mXlrvJjsw1B8mlDp8enlkqu_VYy/s1600/SDC12693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HbajMRXLWYjw5aZkBYT-CwjTPnjRkJT7CaoPIxLpzn6x6enNdB34zmIj6p-OByN7ekYBzKfeNKHFLR03ATD58itK3ecT9f02vs6FckaAdC-cINy24mXlrvJjsw1B8mlDp8enlkqu_VYy/s400/SDC12693.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is a shipment ready to be sent to Haiti. Each box you can see holds (I believe) 25 shoeboxes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sfHDjj4H01WYX3VSB6vJgRmbZx_Oxmb2tSuigzhSSFzBV1EDo4RQS0PFOZlAhkh1rnZtsRCBaTL_eRZYYd-M-CFfCW4XcPMzXN4oC1_usRq5CFajgbr-UmJmryfDZigazUkudY2fAWCx/s1600/SDC12694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sfHDjj4H01WYX3VSB6vJgRmbZx_Oxmb2tSuigzhSSFzBV1EDo4RQS0PFOZlAhkh1rnZtsRCBaTL_eRZYYd-M-CFfCW4XcPMzXN4oC1_usRq5CFajgbr-UmJmryfDZigazUkudY2fAWCx/s400/SDC12694.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The odd-sized packing section. For non-standard sized shoeboxes.</div>
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Another shot of the Haiti shipment.</div>
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The processing line. These are the stations the volunteers man to check each box and make sure it's ready to ship.</div>
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The shoebox hospital....</div>
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...complete with ambulance. When a box has been overstuffed, has broken open, or needs extra items to fill it completely, it gets sent to the shoebox hospital where volunteers nurse it back to health. :-)</div>
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"Cured" boxes, heading back to the processing lines.</div>
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The volunteers came back from their break and we got to see them all get back into action.</div>
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The craft idea table, for groups and individuals who like to spend time during the year making items to go in boxes.</div>
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The cafeteria, where the volunteers have their lunch and snacks.</div>
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A map showing where Canada's boxes are going.</div>
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The tally board. Amazing!!</div>
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Information about another ministry arm of Samaritans Purse--water purification units for communities without potable water.</div>
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The OCC "Store", selling gently used items, and some OCC momentos ( t-shirts, ornaments--we brought one home for our tree to remember the day) to raise funds to buy items to fill sick or underfilled boxes.</div>
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Our wonderful tour guide Becky! She did a great job!</div>
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It was just such an invigorating and thrilling trip. I was really emotionally moved to see those huge stacks of boxes and hear some of the stories. I was discouraged this year to happen upon some articles and blogs criticizing OCC, and while it didn't cause my faith in this organization to waver, I did wonder about some of the points of contention I'd read about. I asked Becky about a few of the things I'd read: things like the problem of items going to children that couldn't use them--like winter hats to hot countries. She pointed out that even in hot countries, such items are still needed as their cooler seasons are to them, as our icy winters are to us! Or at night time in many of these countries, it still gets rather cold.</div>
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Most of all, I came away from our tour today more convinced than ever that <i style="font-weight: bold;">God is using Operation Christmas Child</i>. He's using them to bless children, and most importantly, lead many of them to Christ. One criticism I read was that OCC puts religious literature in the boxes, and parents of these children don't realize that they're sending their kid off to get a box and religious instruction will be a part of it. Becky assured me that OCC is granted permission to put the tracts, storybooks and other literature into the boxes. It's not foisted upon unsuspecting families. To be honest, this criticism did not bother me much; I'm afraid I see the issue of reaching children with the gospel as more important than a parent who may object. <i style="font-weight: bold;">We're talking about their everlasting souls.</i> I would face an irate parent over this issue any day rather than face the Lord someday and admit that I wimped out of sharing the gospel with a child in this way.</div>
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One final story that Becky told that really did me in....she talked of a town where a set of twins were waiting to receive their boxes. I think the strict rule is that a child has to be there in person to receive their box. The day of the distribution, one twin was sick and could not go get her box. Her sister went without her and returned home with a single box. When they opened it up....they found that there were two of everything in that box that had only been meant for one child. I was SO moved and amazed....God is present, even in these little details, there is no doubt.</div>
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I will never forget our trip to the Operation Christmas Child processing centre, and hopefully my kids won't either! Packing a box will never feel the same!</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-58457074605130184812013-10-11T18:19:00.002-07:002013-10-11T18:21:49.571-07:00Ancaster FairFor the last few years, I've taken my kids to the Ancaster Fair. It's close by, and on one of the days it's free for homeschoolers. Good deal!<br />
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Last year as we went through the School Fair building, the kids oooh'd and ahhh'd over all the exhibits. Art work, posters, needlework, crafts of every kind. I could tell that my four were wishing they had entered something.<br />
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So this year we entered their mosaics. Honour also entered a small painting she had made and a ball of yarn she spun and dyed with her Grandma Kent this past summer. As well as her mosaic, Verity entered a baby hat she knitted with her hoop. Because Jairus and Afton only entered their mosaics, I hoped their pieces would do well.<br />
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All but Jairus' entry received a "Prize winning entry" ribbon, which I guess is fourth place. The lowest placing was a small sticker in the shape of a ribbon that said "Thanks for entering", so I was glad that they at least got the ribbons. Jairus' clock received 2nd place, which means he gets 3$ while the girls I believe get 1$ for each of their ribbons.<br />
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A satisfactory first showing in the Ancaster Fair School Fair. :-)Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-37263423393364753572013-10-11T18:04:00.000-07:002013-10-11T18:04:51.407-07:00Autumn CandlesI'm not on Pinterest, and I refuse to be. However, I get daily emails from <a href="http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/" target="_blank">this lady</a> (she's got a good thing going there) and a few weeks ago she had one of her homeschool Pinterest parties. I didn't "attend" but one picture did catch my eye, so I peeked at it, and followed the links to it's original home. I thought these mason jar candles were SO beautiful, and they seemed fairly simple to make: a good craft for the kids. <br />
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<a href="http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/node/102">http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/node/102</a><br />
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So we went out gathering leaves and pressed them in a pad of paper. We let them dry there for two weeks, just as the instructions said.<br />
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Exactly two weeks later we opened up the notepad and each kid chose out a jar. We seemed to have amassed a collection of mason jars and other dollar store jars.<br />
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We set to work pasting the leaves onto the jars using Mod Podge I had picked up at Michaels. There was some frustration on most everyone's part trying to get the leaves to actually stick and stay on the jars. We found that the maple leaves seemed to stick down the best, while the oak leaves were quite thick and would only stick in the centre. With mason jars being square-ish, it was nearly impossible to stick leaves around the angles. We tried letting the Mod Podge dry a bit to become tacky, but it didn't make much of a difference. We ended up holding parts of the leaves against the jars, waiting for them to stay down.<br />
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Finally we managed to get the leaves mostly pasted on, and let them dry for a couple days. I think I'll hunt around for some ribbon to dress up the tops, instead of just putting the rings back on.<br />
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-69291216946421649792013-09-27T11:05:00.000-07:002013-09-27T11:05:42.058-07:00Discovery Centres! (AKA Lapbooks)A few years ago, at our local homeschooling convention (OCHEC) I attended a seminar on Lapbooks. Now, this was a concept I was almost completely ignorant about; I'm not even sure why I attended. I have a vague memory of watching this lady up at the front, sitting on a chair or stool with this folder...on her lap. Hence the name. :-)<br />
At the time, honestly, I thought it was a little weird. Where did this idea come from? How did it evolve? Why was it something so fabulously wonderful that it prompted a whole seminar at the convention? After watching the presentation, I still thought they were a little weird, and I still didn't quite "get" them. Still, I filed the info away in my brain...and it resurfaced a few days ago.<br />
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I now think they are FABULOUS. SO fun. Such wonderful organized creativity in one little package. Love it. But I still think the name is weird. So in our house we renamed them Discovery Centres. The only problem is that the templates I find use the word Lapbook....oh well, no biggie.<br />
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Our first foray into Discovery Centres was a few days ago after a little field trip to the Chiefswood Historical Site, the home of the late E. Pauline Johnson. Since moving to this area early last year, I had driven past the site numerous times and thought it looked like a nice little place to visit and complement our Canadian history lessons. We scheduled our trip for a few days ago. We invited a couple other families who live close by, but schedules did not align, so off we went on our own. I love doing group trips, but I also enjoy getting out on our own, just me and my four. :-)<br />
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It was a very nice trip, with a very informative and gently speaking curator who managed to insert just enough questions throughout his presentation that my kids were kept engaged and interested. This is not the first old historical house we've been to (Laura Secord Home, The Gage house of Battlefield in Stoney Creek) but we found this one to be in particularly good shape, with lots of original artifacts, which just makes it all the more fascinating. I had prepped the kids the day before with some reading about E. Pauline Johnson off the internet. I find that having a base of knowledge makes all the difference on trips like this, as the kids instantly connect what they see with what they've learned about already, and this engages them all the more.<br />
Usually after these kinds of trips, I try to have them all make a scrapbook page or two. This is fun, but I was inspired to try the Discovery Centres. Verity actually got me thinking about it, as a few days ago she and Afton were spending all their free time catching grasshoppers and crickets. Wanting to take advantage of this natural interest to promote some further learning and skill practice, I found a lapbook unit (free!) on grasshoppers. (links later). Verity started putting it together, but then our trip day arrived, so she's not completed it.<br />
I decided they would need a demo to see, in living colour, before attempting to make our own DC's. So I perused the list of units and downloaded one about honeybees. Fascinating! I learned some facts myself! Here is my demo:<br />
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In a nutshell, two (or more, if you like) file folders are refolded and pasted together to form this unit. Inside, are all kinds of mini books, flaps to open, cards to pull out, cute pictures and fold out 'centres' of information. A bonanza of easily accessible info for your visual learner! (Verity found this totally overwhelming, lol).</div>
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I decided to start a little simpler for the kids and their Chiefswood Visit Discovery Centres, so they just used one file folder. Behold!</div>
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I asked them to pick which thing inside the DC they liked the best...Jairus chose the fold out picture puzzle. On the outside of the flaps we pasted a picture of the Chiefswood house and when it opens up; a picture of the antique piano we saw there. Each kid picked a different picture to go 'inside the house'.<br />
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Verity chose to show her 'matchbooks'. Simple paper folders with a tab to tuck in, like a matchbook. We posted various pictures inside and they wrote some info about the picture on the inside of the flap.<br />
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Honour likes both her matchbooks and a mini tabbed folder. It served as the title, with a labeled picture of Chiefswood on the front, and it opened downward to reveal information about the house and its' inhabitants.<br />
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Afton couldn't decide on her favourite. Here she is showing the tri-fold booklet that explains E. Pauline Johnsons heritage (Mohawk and British), with pictures of her parents and Pauline in Native and British garb.<br />
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She also liked her mini tabbed folder and matchbooks.<br />
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My favourite, which no one demonstrated, was the 6 petal flower (you can see it in the top right of Afton and Honours, bottom right of Jairus and Verity's). It folds out to show icons on each petal of the Six Nations. We made a stop at the tourism centre across the road after the House and learned a little more about this community that we live so close to.<br />
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The beauty of these Discovery Centres is that all the work has been done for us! The grasshopper and honeybee units I found <a href="http://www.homeschoolshare.com/honey_bee_lapbook.php" target="_blank">here</a>. All the templates that we adapted for the Chiefswood DC's were found <a href="http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php" target="_blank">here</a>. It's like a treasure trove of awesome resources to make these very fun learning resources. We'll be making lots more of these!Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-80176810566224875682013-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:002013-08-16T14:32:33.635-07:00A new ventureOf all the experiences of the world, horseback riding is right up there with pottery making for me. I've tried it, back in my early teens, pretended to like it and haven't gone near a horse (or a pot) since. (Ok, I think James took me for a carriage ride in Chicago one year).(and I don't mind painting pots, just throwing them).<br />
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However, the horseback riding gene must have slipped through to my daughter, likely through James' mom. When we first started making our trips out to 'the property', Verity spotted the many farms along the way, some with horses in the fields and asked if she could take horseback riding lessons. I gamely said sure, not realizing a) what our finances were going to look like after moving (a mess) nor how much such a venture would cost. Needless to say, I put her off for more than a year after getting into the house.<br />
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Finally though, I felt I had to follow through on my word, however hastily spoken. I devised a plan whereby the grandparents would help out with the cost of some lessons for her birthday. The plan came together nicely and Verity excitedly headed off to a month of weekly hour and a half lessons at an <a href="http://www.southerncrossequestrian.com/" target="_blank">extremely impressive</a> facility about a 1/2 hour away, just west of Brantford. (Burford to be exact). I was pleased at the advantage homeschooling offered again, as we could have our pick of daytime slots.<br />
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She LOVED it. I didn't think this kid could take to something as easily and enthusiastically as gymnastics, but she did <i>really</i> well with it. I puffed a little with pride when after nearly every lesson, the teacher raved about how quickly and easily she was picking it all up, and how accurately she was remembering all the previous lessons.<br />
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Here she is learning how to care for the horse. <br />
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And up she goes!</div>
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Doesn't she look like a pro!? (Sorry, didn't mean to gush...can't help it!)</div>
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Verity and 'Pearl'.</div>
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She loved the lessons so much that of course, she asked to continue. 12 hours of gymnastics a week, plus the finance aspect of both that and further horseback lessons pretty much forced us to have to say no. But, hating to disappoint her so, James and I decided that we would take advantage of one of her summer training vacation weeks from the gym, and scrape together enough to send her for day long horse camp in August. She's already gearing up! So excited!</div>
<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-19411927444007597762013-08-16T13:48:00.001-07:002013-08-16T13:48:27.327-07:00Pompeii's got nuthin' on usArt is a subject that I like very much, enjoyed immensely in school, was passable at, but so far have not done alot with in our homeschool. My girls are fairly naturally creative and enjoy a basket of craft materials as a gift. Verity seems especially drawn to sewing, knitting and other yarn/wool crafts while Honour is more likely to be creating something with paper and markers. She's a good little draw-er, she is. <br />
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Both the big girls have been out to some art classes a few years ago that I was quite pleased with, but they were in Grimsby, were not held on a regular schedule (just a term of 8 or so weeks) and they were not convenient to get over to.<br />
Then this past spring we signed up for an outdoor drawing class. We joined a couple other homeschooling families and trooped along the edge of the escarpment in Dundas, drawing and doodling, noodling and sketching, as the teacher directed. <br />
Partway through this class, I saw an email come through the homeschool list about an art fest and my interest was piqued. I forwarded the email to Honour and she was interested too. So I signed them up. We had a good couple of months to create our pieces for the festival and so I kept my mind open to ideas.<br />
Shortly after, Verity's reader was about Pompeii. She became (rather eerily) interested in all of those casts of dead people; I was more interested in the mosaics. As well, we'd run across mosaics in our history studies of ancient times. Wouldn't mosaics be fascinating to learn and impressive to take to the fest?<br />
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We started off with a good ol' fashioned trip to the library and took a BOOK (yes, no Google involved!) out on our subject. It was a rather good book, with lots of explanations and definitions of terms, etc. It showed lovely pictures of simple projects. We did break out the Google at one point when the book referred to a man in France who had<a href="http://curious-places.blogspot.ca/2011/01/la-maison-picassiette-chartres-france.html" target="_blank"> mosaicked</a> his entire house; actually his estate. Everything from his headboard to the dog house--covered in mosaics!<br />
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Next we gathered our materials, after deciding which project each kid wanted to do. Jairus wanted to do the clock face, Honour a plant pot, Verity a birdhouse and Afton a serving tray. I found the bases, tools, grout, adhesive and 'smalti' at Michaels, Home Hardware and Dollarama.<br />
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Then, some planning on paper.<br />
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Some projects needed prepping, like Aftons tray needed to be painted white. The others needed a coat of sealant to roughen them up and prepare the surface to receive the smalti and adhesive. We used real mosaic adhesive as well as some thicker silicone for the vertical projects. Then, the mosaicking began.<br />
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It was a little scary to glop that grout over the whole thing, but once we started wiping...</div>
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The beauty began to shine through!</div>
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They were all very pleased with how the projects turned out, and our display at the festival was well received. The mosaics are now sitting in a place of honour on a shelf in our great room. What a great experience!</div>
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<br />Leshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13733375660267369746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032039761648121229.post-21232797150989964432013-08-04T11:25:00.000-07:002013-08-04T21:41:15.977-07:00When to stop and when to goA couple weeks ago, I stood in the doorway of the music studio I teach at and had one of those conversations with a mom. One of those conversations that sortof makes me want to thump my head against the wall. (I was going to say stab myself in the eye with a fork, but that seemed a little overdramatic).<br />
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Her 7 year old daughter had been taking voice lessons with me for about a month to six weeks. I had been sensing that the child was bored and dissatisfied with how things were going. She wasn't doing any practicing at home, the mom had mentioned that she really didn't know how to help her daughter practice, so even though I left copious notes on the ipad she'd brought for me to take notes on, including links to practice videos, there had been virtually no improvement or learning going on. They were going to quit.<br />
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She stood with me in that doorway and told me that she hated announcing that it was time to go to singing lessons and hearing her daughter whine and complain and put up a fuss. She didn't do that for dance class, she told me. I had suggested early on to this family that a childrens choir might be a better choice for one this young, but they hadn't been interested in driving the distance to the nearest choir.<br />
The mom continued to tell me that when she threatened her daughter with quitting dance, her daughter was very distraught, but when she did the same for singing, her daughter didn't care. This to her was evidence that they should quit.<br />
Needless to say I was fairly annoyed about all this. I tried to connect with her as a mother of young girls as well--daughters who also give me a hard time when I say its time to go to practice or rehearsal. I shrugged and commiserated that it was those times that we as moms have to decide whether to hold our ground or decide its time to move on. It took everything in me not to let my annoyance take over, allow sarcasm to rule and shnark at her that it was time to grow up and be a mommy and not let her daughters bad behaviour determine her path in life.<br />
But I didn't, mostly because I really have walked in those shoes, nearly weekly. I find "cheerleader" added to my hat stack as a mom, nearly every week for one of my girls, when I say "Time to go to ________practice", and the groaning begins. I know the consternation of working though the mystery of whether I'm being a good parent to keep forcing them to go, or a good parent to recognize that said activity is not really their thing, and let them move on.<br />
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We came to the crossroads of this exact issue with Honour about a month ago. She's been highland dancing for about three years now. At first she did very well and the teacher told us she had a lot of good, natural qualities a dancer needed in terms of her body type. At the end of her first year of classes, she started competing and it took her a full year to get her six stamps and move from Beginner level to Novice level. (Which is a normal rate of progress). This year on the one year anniversary mark of the start of her competing, she not only did not get a stamp, but she didn't even get a medal (6 places awarded in four dances, out of about 15 dancers). She has yet to get even one stamp in the Novice category. To say she was getting discouraged was an understatement. She was ready to quit.<br />
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I was SO torn. I don't believe in letting kids quit. I don't believe in not finishing what you start. But what would be 'finishing' in this situation? There are two more levels above Novice, each of them harder and harder than before. This highland dance future was looking bleak. I decided to get some advice.<br />
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I messaged a friend whose daughter is one of junior coaches at our dance studio. Surely she had gone through this with her daughter at some point. I messaged with another friend whose daughter dances with Honour, but who's been dancing longer than Honour. I messaged with my cousin who inspired us to consider highland dance in the first place, who I would consider 'successful' in dance, having completed all the levels and topped her highland career off with a trip to Scotland to dance in the Tattoo. And of course, I talked to my mom. With the advice and encouragement of these ladies, and some intensive prayer to ask Honours heavenly father what would be the best plan for her, we came to a decision. Not only that, but I determined a plan to implement this decision--possibly even more important. We were not going to let her quit, and here was how we were going to help her stick to this path:<br />
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1). She was going to have to practice. As a musician and music teacher, this is a no-brainer for me, when I tell my students to practice. However, I had been lagging on this front when it came to Honour and dance. I'm very concerned about becoming a 'soccer mom', and didn't want to push a level of dedication or commitment that would raise eyebrows. However, her beginner days of doing well in competition on only 2 hours of dance class a week were long over. She clearly needed to practice. So I pulled out the first go-to idea I usually implement with my students: The Practice Chart. I tried to make it attractive so she would be drawn to filling up all the little boxes with happy face stickers. Notice that I did not put dates across the top. I knew that it would be unreasonable to expect her to practice every day, especially with holidays (like we're on now, hence why I'm blogging) so her goal will be to simply fill out every block.<br />
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Then I upped the ante with the following chart as well. This goes on the fridge next to the practice chart. We also decided that she will get something VERY special when she fills the chart...something she's wanted for a long while....a [used] ipod. No, I don't see this as bribing. It's providing incentive, which we ALL need to achieve our goals.</div>
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2). She was going to have to exercise. I've always maintained that I keep my kids in 'something physical' as homeschoolers because they need that. They don't have gym class. However, 2 hours of dance a week is not really cutting it. Again, resisting the soccer mom picture in my head, the idea of working out above and beyond both her practicing and her classes seemed like too much. But after musing upon this some more, I decided that exercising (reasonably) could do nothing but help her, and would benefit her for the rest of her life.<br />
Her teacher has always recommended that dancers ride a stationary bike, so I put out the call on Facebook to see if any friends had one. Actually, I decided that I needed two, because I've learned that Honour needs a buddy. And James would be her riding buddy. I managed to find a bike on FB and also a bike trainer which Honours' bike could go on and convert to a stationary bike. They started with five minutes upon waking in the morning, and they've not been doing too badly. I'm encouraging James to increase slowly--five minutes for five days, six minutes for six days, etc. Honour has been liking the time with her dad one on one!<br />
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3) A notebook, made just for her. This was one of the recommendations from my cousin and my friend whose daughter dances with Honour. During rehearsal, corrections and suggestions are called out left, right and centre. Really, it would be difficult for even an adult to remember what to do once at home again. So not only did I get her a notebook, but I designed and had one printed up just for her. I can't seem to convert it into an image that blogger recognizes so I'll just describe: It has a cute highland dance picture I found online and I inserted "Honour's Highland Dance Notebook" across the bottom. I also designed the pages printed inside with subtitles down the left of all her most common dances with lines to write down the notes. Her teacher and the junior coaches were <i>very </i>impressed and have been helping by writing the notes down for her. My goal is that she'll become proficient at taking her own notes though.<br />
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4) Physiotherapy. I've had some minor concerns about Honour's musculature for a few years. I could see her posture starting to droop and at 7-8 years old, that didn't seem right to me. She also struggles terribly in highland practice during the stretching; she's very tight through the back of her legs and up her back through her neck. This is something I had a problem with as a kid too and I cringe every time I watch her in practice and the coaches are trying to help her stretch farther. I can feel it up my own back and neck! I started seeing a physiotherapist for some back discomfort and so I asked the therapist if she would be comfortable helping Honour too. So far it's been helpful to me to have her enthusiasm to do our exercises together. <br />
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5) Goals. I've always been a lousy goal maker. For whatever reason, I've always had an aversion to goals--they somehow feel confining to me. Or perhaps its just that I'm scared I won't achieve them. I remember sitting on the lawn of Irwin chapel many years ago with James, him with his notebook out, me balking and whining that he was 'making' me think of some goals. I think unfortunately I've encouraged him away from that kind of behaviour. Anyways, I've embraced the idea anew, at least where Honour is concerned. We sat down and talked with her about her future in highland dance, and what she wanted to accomplish; what we wanted to see her accomplish. Being my sensible first born daughter, this was an easy task. We laid out our vision for her: that she a) move from Novice to Intermediate level by next July 1st, and b) that she continue at highland dance until she achieved Premier level, which follows intermediate. This may take anywhere from two to four years from this moment. With the new practicing and exercise measures in place, hopefully closer to the two years. We told Honour that we didn't have any expectations of her becoming a champion, but if that happened, we would be thrilled, of course. What we wanted for her, was to establish some habits of physical discipline in her life, the determination to stick with something until she was done, and to work towards a standard of excellence in something. I would say that these are goals for all the activities we put our children in. Finally, I want her to be able to look back at her highland 'career' and feel a sense of accomplishment that she ran that race to the end. I don't want her to forever consider highland as that thing she did well at, at first, but then later flunked out of. We told her that once she reached Premier level, she could choose whether she continued or not. She was agreeable to all this, and even added her own goal of winning a trophy at competition. :-)<br />
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I feel a great sense of satisfaction that we've set out a path for her that is achievable, and yet will require some hard work. Now when she complains about going to practice, I have all this to point to--and it won't be all my own expectations. <br />
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Now I just have to deal with a disgruntled Verity, who feels that she should be able to earn an ipod too....<br />
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Honour at Embro, 2013. Wearing her new (to her) kilt...a 'real' one now, no more kiltie!</div>
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(I love that I caught some photos of her up in the air. :-)</div>
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