Caught in the Act
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•11:34 PM
On account of this post of a month ago, some of my faithful readers and friends have inquired about Baby Girl's eyesight. I apologize for not updating this topic earlier.

It turns out I have not taken her to the optometrist. Since she has a history of causing me to take her to the doctor on false alarms, I decided to sit tight in this case and try to make my own surreptitious observations of her reading and eyesight habits without talking about it.

It turns out I have several times caught her in the act of easily reading books and signs from both near and far distances. In fact, I confess, I even set her up a couple of times to determine this (i.e. the time she was reading the book to her daddy, and daddy moved the book away from her so he could "see the pictures better" and she kept on reading just fine).

So, I firmly believe that Baby Girl has good eyesight, and that this matter can wait until our regular eye appointment in July.

Thank you for asking!
, | comments (2)
Unexpected Blessings
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•10:47 PM
My heart is full this week. In a good way.

It's a bit complicated, but I will try to keep it brief.

Last summer, I wrote a post in praise of my children's violin teacher. She is a mature, fairly recent immigrant from Russia, who is perhaps one of the finest violin teachers in our state.

Lately, as we have been looking at our expenses, the extreme cost of our violin lessons has been staring me in the face. Our teacher is contracted to teach us through our local Suzuki school, and the Suzuki school is the middle man, taking quite a chunk of money off the top for our lessons. To keep this post as short as possible, I will speak of apples instead of cash. As I explained it to our children (by analogy), each week, we pay 5 apples for violin lessons. Our teacher, Miss S., who does all the work, gets 3 apples, and the Suzuki school pockets 2 of the apples.

Our dear teacher, in addition, teaches independently of the school, charges her students just 4 apples, and gets to keep all 4 apples. But we cannot go to her directly, as I will explain below.

I told her this week about another music conservatory I researched nearby that offers violin lessons for just 2.66 apples. She asked who the teacher would be. I told her it would be Miss K., a teacher who she also respects as a decent and competent teacher. However, this teacher also teaches for the Suzuki school.

Now here's the catch. I cannot go to our teacher, Miss S., directly, nor go to Miss K. either, at the other music conservatory, because they both have an agreement with Suzuki school not to teach any of the Suzuki students privately apart from the Suzuki school. Not unless the student leaves the Suzuki school for an entire year and goes to some other teacher before coming back to them.

Therefore, as I and my children love Miss S., we are stuck paying 5 apples a week, with Miss S. only getting 3 of those apples. No, we can't go to the other conservatory at 2.66 apples, and no, we can't go directly to Miss S. for 4 apples (all of which she would get to keep).

It is a stinky situation, but that's the way it is. We've been putting up with it for several years.

Fast forward to yesterday. The phone rang, and it was Miss S. She had a proposal. We currently log in 75 minutes of lesson time with her a week to the Suzuki school. She wants us to reduce the registered lesson time to 45 minutes. Yet, she will continue to work 75 minutes with us anyway. In other words, we get the same instruction for 3 apples instead of 5. Of course, this means she loses 1.2 apples each week, but she is not concerned with that.

I am flabbergasted.

She also tells me that the time will come when she will have to pass Little Son on to another violin teacher, her ex-husband; that he is a "more professional teacher" than she is, and that he can teach by demonstration the more difficult concertos (like Mendelssohn's). Unfortunately, Miss S. cannot play violin for longer than five minutes due to arm pain; likely the result of a mastectomy of years ago.

Miss S. has taught and led many students right up to college. Many have received scholarships on account of their violin skills. Through the years, though, she has decided to pass a few of her students on to her ex-husband. They have gone on to win large scholarships and even become soloists. She does this for the good of the student, not for her own self-interest.

By now I have tears in my eyes.

By the end of the conversation, after much insistence on her part, we make a compromise. We settle on registering our kids for 60 weekly minutes of instruction, with her actually providing 75 minutes at no additional cost. In effect, this removes the price of the middle man for us. We will now pay 4 apples per week, instead of 5. But she will now only get 2.4 apples per week for her efforts, instead of 3. The amazing thing is that she was willing to work for even less.

No matter to her. She does it for the love of her students. She assures me the sacrifice is insignificant to her. And truth be known, she will probably teach our kids for longer than 75 minutes on many days, too. She will teach them right up until the next student shows up at her door. That's just her way.

So that is why my heart is full today. We are truly blessed to have Miss S. in our lives. Her integrity and selfless dedication are outstanding. I hope that we can find an opportunity to be a blessing to her someday, too.
, , , | comments (3)
Can I Still Call Her "Baby Girl"?
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•10:24 PM

Sunday was Baby Girl's Sixth birthday. She was very excited, although we had nothing special planned, but she did get to go to a birthday party for a little three year old boy near us who has the same birthday.

Baby Girl can be amazingly self-effacing for a young child. The entire time she was at the little boy's party, she never mentioned to anybody that it was her birthday, too.

After that, we wanted to know what she wanted to do for birthday dinner. She wanted to go to a local pizzeria; you know, the kind that reminds Mommy of her younger days in New Jersey. That's my girl!

Funny thing was that she selected a white pizza covered with spinach. It was probably Self-Reliant Man's last choice when it comes to pizza, but he accepted it with good cheer (just picked all the green stuff off onto his plate).

One of the highlights of the day was the Bitty Baby doll that she received from her "Mimi". She hasn't stopped playing with it since.

She also received a girl's hardcover Bible, too. She has really been checking that out since Sunday as well, especially all the memory verses that it highlights throughout.

Big girl bedroom furniture is on its way, and I cannot wait until we receive it. Yet, it is bittersweet for me to remove all the baby and toddler furnishings. Sigh...

I still cannot believe she is six. As I was kissing her goodnight at the end of the day, I asked her, since she is now an official "Medium-Sized Girl", can I still call her "Baby Girl"?

Of course, being who she is, she nodded "Yes". Thank goodness. I will never ever stop wanting to call her "Baby Girl".
, | comments (1)
Here is Our Latest Camping Report
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•3:45 PM
We returned this weekend from our latest camping trip. We camped at Lake Louisa State Park outside of Clermont, in the central part of our state, not far from W*lt Disn*y W*rld. As state parks go, this one was unique. It was situated among rolling hills with a great variety of vegetation and landscape. The hiking was great, and that was our main activity. So many trails to explore! Some of them were equestrian trails, but despite the lovely weather we had (highs in the low 80s) we didn't see a single horseback rider. We also didn't see many hikers, and I have no idea why.

This campground is not the best choice for tenters, because there is almost no shade, but it was fine for us van campers. We found the other campers to be very friendly here. They were mostly snowbirds, who travel by RV from the northern states and Canada and spend their winters in our state, moving from campground to campground. Some were "full timers", too. Since the campground is only about five years old, the facilities (restrooms and showers) were modern and very clean. We really appreciate that, too.

Here is a collection of pictures which depict various memories from this trip, in no particular order. I have discovered that putting photos in a certain order on this blog can be too time consuming!

Little Son and Baby Girl are gradually learning to be helpers at camp. Here, Little Son is helping out in the camp kitchen.
Violin practice occurs only on the days we eat, of course. It doesn't matter if the location is a campsite. In fact, violin practice brought about some friendly neighboring campers as an audience. The result was that we have made new friends with whom we plan to keep in touch.
At night, right before lights out, we spent some quality time in the van, using it like a real RV. Here the male side of the family is doing some reading. Self-Reliant Man is relaxing after a long hike and catching up on his spiritual reading.
We caught a beautiful sunrise over Hammond Lake one morning.Little Son gets the credit for taking this great nighttime family foto (or is it a phamily photo?).
Both early mornings, over Hammond Lake, we witnessed the flights of between 4 and 9 hot air balloons. They never got much closer to us than this, though.
While hiking one day, we caught a sky writer writing across a strip of sky directly in front of us. Look at the picture. Already the plane has written "JESUS". By the time he was done, the entire message was "JESUS 4 GIVES". It was a case of perfect weather, and perfect timing!
Mommy is bringing up the rear again. There were plenty of hills. Puff puff.
We found a picnic table to snack at both hiking days, just where and when we needed them. Here Little Son captures our smiles after a refill of granola bars, applesauce, and diet soda.
This is what our campsite looked like most of the time.
Can't have a lake without taking at least one sunset photo. This was over Dixie Lake.
Just look at those beautiful cypress trees behind the children!
Here is Self-Reliant Man, once again, catching up on his (ahem!) spiritual reading.
One of the hiking trails was full of wild orange trees, and also a few tangerine trees. The tangerines tasted great, but the oranges were like lemons. They sure looked picture perfect, though. Looks can be deceiving.
I have to admit, it is not easy to keep all our hikers smiling. On account of the abundant sunshine, I did detect some whining in my group. I will chalk up the lessons on being a Happy Hiker to "Character Education". Yes, my children can be real characters, and yes, I am their educator. All of the time.

That concludes our 2008-2009 camping season, but we are already thinking about next year!
, , , | comments (4)
Just so you know..
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•10:35 PM

This Thursday we embark on our latest journey.

Four glorious days in our Sprinter van.

This will be the last camping trip of the season. We are very excited about it!

We will return home on Sunday. Details will follow after wards. Until then, have a blessed and sunshiny week, and thank you for being such a faithful reader.
, | comments (3)
Budgeting
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•9:38 PM
I've never done this before in the same way. Sure, I've written up budgets, and I've done some broad brush tracking of our spending.

But this time, I am actually logging every dollar that we spend. When Self-Reliant man comes home from work, I ask him how much was spent and on what. Yes, he cheerfully answers my question each day. So far.

I just need to know, what if the unthinkable happens? What if Self-Reliant Man were to lose his job? How would we do? Would we get by? What would we have to sacrifice?

Right now, we should be able to live on what my husband earns, plus save a few hundred dollars a month. But do we ever do it? It seems that we have what should be occasional large expenditures, but they aren't occasional, you know what I mean? For instance, since Christmas, we have had to purchased:

a set of four tires
a replacement alternator
a root canal
two dental crowns
replacement parts for our tractor engine.

Plus we are looking this month at getting a bedroom set for Baby Girl (which we had planned to do for her sixth birthday all along).

Additional things we could purchase in the near future are: replacement parts for broken garage door opener, replacement ice maker for refrigerator, replacement pool hoses.

Reason #1 for owning less stuff: less stuff that needs to be fixed! (Do teeth count?)

So you see, a good budget should allocate funds for occasional big spending. Plus it should cover all the normal expenses. The trick is, keeping the occasional spending just that.......occasional.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to do it?
, | comments (2)
What Churches Should Be - Part 4
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•9:10 PM
Continuing my series from Marva Dawn's book Is It A Lost Cause?

Question #4: Are there some people in your congregation that you don't like?

Do we seek out a community where we will feel cozy and comfortable, where we think we won't have any social frictions because everybody is so like-minded?

Do we simply plan to leave a church to find a more compatible one when conflicts arise?

If so, how will we learn to love those who are not like ourselves? Wouldn't it be great if our children could observe us actively loving others in whom we don't delight?

I was thinking about this today, for even though we have settled on a church to attend for now, there are some things about it that don't enchant me. I was fretting a bit because it doesn't seem people are all that friendly. We are relative newcomers, but I need to cut these folks a break. This church is unique in that every Sunday there are a fair amount of "tourist" attenders: people who stop by and worship here when they are on vacation in the area, people who just want to hear the pastor, who is nationally known, preach. So these members are used to seeing a fair number of unfamiliar faces --- Every. Single. Sunday. Most of whom will not be back. So it is no wonder that they don't all extend themselves to us.

But as I was meditating on that today, I had to ask myself: why should everything about a church enchant me? Should I not be content that the church teaches the truth, that it has God-centered worship, that it is stable and growing, that it is a good steward of its resources, that it offers educational, fellowship, and service opportunities for our family? Since when does a church have to be custom-designed to suit me?

Wouldn't it be great if I just learned to accept a church with its imperfections, even as I hope that I will be accepted?
, , , | comments (0)
Baby Girl Theology
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•9:02 PM
So we were doing our morning scripture discussion this week. I was sitting on my bed with pillows propped behind me, and Little Son and Baby Girl had picked their routine listening spots. We are talking about the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 6, and I reminded my children of the earlier discussion where Jesus taught that Christians are the salt of the earth.

To which Baby Girl replied: "and sinners [the non-Christian type] are the pepper of the earth!"

Guess I'll never read that passage the same way again.



note: My annotations in [brackets] above.
, | comments (0)
A Happy Day Today!
Author: Breezy Point Mom
•10:02 PM
I am pleased and proud to announce that Little Son was the First Place Winner of the violin solo scholarship competition of a local music association in our state. He was just thrilled, and so were we. He wanted to win this very badly, mainly because there was a money prize. Okay, so it was a ribbon and $25, but that is a very huge sum of money in Little Son's world.

There were four contestants in his division, and we were so pleased with his performance. His 1/2 size violin just sang out beautifully throughout the small sanctuary of a local church that hosted the competition. It was a difficult piece with a lot of vibrato and a distinct mood, and he captured it: it was by far the best we have ever heard him play in public.

We were just proud as could be today, and we celebrated with a big dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We were joking around at the dinner table regarding the possible factors that may have contributed to his success, but he summed it up best when he said "I knew when I was up there that God was helping me." It was a great opportunity to talk about giving all the glory to the Lord at times like these. That's what it's all about, after all.

Days like these really help me, too, because violin is such a difficult road sometimes. Those of you out there who are violin parents know what I mean. This has been very encouraging to both us parents.

By the way, Self-Reliant Man finished the job of changing out the alternator yesterday, and it was more difficult than one would expect on account of the design and layout of our vehicle's engine compartment. But he did it, and I am proud of him, too. Unfortunately, he is not feeling well today. At first, he thought it was muscle aches due to the physical strain of the repair work, but now I am afraid he might have flu or a bad cold. Please keep him in prayer.
| comments (6)