April 23, 1011 11:41 p.m.

I am just thrilled to be able to share this video. Ray is a very long time friend of our family's. His wife and I have known each other for about 35 years. Anyway, Ray was the recipient of a heart transplant, and yesterday he got to meet the family of the woman who was his heart donor. Such a blessing, and a blessed time to meet, during Easter weekend, a time when we cherish resurrection life. See the video and article below:

Local Woman's Heart Goes On In Central Fla. Man - Health News Story - WPBF West Palm Beach

How neat is this?


p.s. of course they got some of the facts wrong, in particular Ray's city and county of residence. Remember, the news media always gets something wrong.

April 21, 2011 1:20 p.m.

Just in case anybody is still thinking that “birthers” are a fringe group in America, here is the #1 bestselling book on Amazon.com today.    Just couldn’t help noticing.

April 20, 2011 7:33 a.m.

Here is an historical bar chart of the history of Federal surpluses and deficits.  The picture tells it all.  I normally don’t like to get too political on this blog, but seriously, to think – the Dems and Reps arguing, almost shutting down the Federal government, over whether to cut the budget by $32 billion or $40 billion and finally settling on roughly $38 billion.

(Double click on the photo to bring it up in full size.)

Can you even see 38 billion on that graph below?  It is like slicing off a sliver of a stick of butter.  What a joke! 

Looks like the joke’s on all of us. 

 

April 19, 2011 7:04 p.m.

Sorry to leave you hanging, friends, really, I am.  But this past week was anything but typical.  There were so many different things going on; we have been out of our routine, and unfortunately the first thing to go was my bloggy life.  I hope you don’t feel too neglected.

Thank you to Linda, and anybody else who was concerned about our well-being over the past week, especially as my prior post was so foreboding.  Sweet Girl, I am happy and thankful to report, is completely back to her normal healthy self, and has been for several days now.  So much so, that she happily went swimming yesterday for the second time this season.

Besides, that, Monday the 11th was Chips’  11th birthday!  He had a nice, quiet day at home with us.    His birthday was a bit unusual in that the celebrating part of the day was long in coming.  We always wait for Self-Reliant Man to arrive home from work before celebrating anyone’s birthday, however Self-Reliant Man was slow in getting home that day.

It went something like this: in the morning, he drove his silver car to work, except he got a third of the way there and the car started acting up, so he drove back home and instead took his red car to work.  After work, he began the drive home except the red car turned out to have a problem and had to be driven into a side street and parked because it never would have made it all the way home.  This was when history was made, for Self-Reliant Man determined that he would not be able to fix his car on the side of the road and that he would actually need a tow!  This is the first time this has happened in all the near 17 years we have been married, ladies and gentlemen.  Usually Self-Reliant Man is able to fix his car well enough on the fly to get it home, even if it requires a quick trip or two to the auto parts store in the process.  But he knew that type of miracle wasn’t going to happen this time, so Self-Reliant Man called a tow truck.  Did you hear that, everybody?  SELF-RELIANT MAN CALLED A TOW TRUCK!  Whew.  Got that off my chest.  Here is a photo from that eventful evening.

This is the silver car, that could not make it to work in the morning.

And this is the red car that could not make it home in the evening.

These are the two children who are enjoying every minute of the experience, as well as the husband who is not enjoying the experience. 

Any questions?  Yes, we recovered from the history-making day, and yes, Chips eventually had a pleasant evening celebrating his birthday with cake and presents.

Other highlights from the week included…

Another Science Day at our house, this time to learn all about BLOOD!  That is our wonderful teacher holding up a giant model of a red blood cell. 

Here was our first brave participant in the blood typing part of the lesson.  What is your blood type?  Do you know?

Speaking of science, here are Chips’ models of hydrocarbon molecules.  I know I didn’t know what a hydrocarbon molecule was in sixth grade.  But then, there are a lot of things in the Calvert Sixth Grade course that I never had that early in my education.

Finally, best of all, is the next photo…

Here is a peaceful moment of team work between Sweet Girl and Chips, folding the laundry together.  This was too sweet to miss with the camera (although it isn’t that rare, this level of mutual cooperation certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence, you know what I mean?)

So, bloggy friends, things are moving along pretty well at our home.

So far this week, other opportunities have included:

1. Both children did a violin performance for a very elderly woman who is in hospice care, the mother of our neighbor, and the actual owner of the violin that is being loaned to Chips.  I have to say that, although she was largely unable to speak, this lady thoroughly enjoyed the music!

AND

2. Today and tomorrow the children are taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  They actually eagerly anticipate the “Iowas” and consider these days to be “free days”.  Go figure.  I am glad that tests don’t make them nervous.

AND

3. Today we paid a visit to a luthier to have an adjustment made to the violin loaned to us in this post.  Nothing serious, just an error in setup on the part of the violin shop it visited last (way up north of here in Vermont).   This is a man in his seventies, who supports himself staying very busy in his in-home shop where he doctors string instrument such as violas, violins, cellos, and basses.  A neat short documentary about him is here.  It was neat visiting him today, after seeing him in this video. 

Well, I am truly humbled if you made it this far in this post, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

April 9. 2011 10:13 p.m.

Today is the fifth day of Sweet Girl’s pneumonia symptoms.  Unfortunately, things aren’t turning peachy as quickly as we expected it would back on day three.  She is still having her ups and her downs in terms of energy level.  I am trying to respect her condition and get her to rest as much as possible, even when she doesn’t feel like it.  This is not easy to do with an eight year old who is as physically active as Sweet Girl.  This evening was the first time we took her out in public since Tuesday.  A meal at Z*xby’s, a short supermarket trip.  It wiped her out.  We will have to take it more slowly, I think.  Please keep her in prayer for a rapid and solid recovery, and that we will have wisdom in how and when to reintroduce her ordinary activities.  We haven’t expected violin practice all week, and we did just a half a school lesson on Friday, but even this proved to be too taxing.  Much of the time she feels okay, but she goes through periods of feeling tired at various points in the day.  

She has been watching a lot of videos, and reading a lot of books all week long.  Funny videos tend to make her cough.  This is probably a good thing, no? (to clear out the lungs.)

I had pneumonia when I was in fourth grade, and I don’t remember how long it took to get over it.  I just remember it was December, up north, cold and dry, and I did not have to go to school for a long time.  One week?  Two?  I just don’t remember.

April 7, 2011 11:22 p.m.

Something old, something new, something borrowed…..

I happened to mention to my neighbor friend, Gail, on the phone two weeks ago that Chips had just graduated to a full-size violin.  That was when she told me that she had a violin, but that it was still up in Vermont with a friend to whom she had lent it out for a few years.  The friend plays in a string quartet.  My neighbor was looking for an excuse, however, to request it back, and telling her friend that a young man next door might want to use it would be a perfect excuse.

Unbeknownst to us, her friend came down to our sunny state for a weekend getaway last weekend, staying at the beach with our neighbors, and at Gail’s request, she brought the violin with her.

Two days ago, Gail called to say she had the violin and was bringing it over to our house.  And she did, although there was a thunderstorm warning in progress at the time.  She got it to us, and ran back home in time for the downpour.  Her purpose in bringing it here was so that Chips could play it all he wants, thereby keeping it in good condition, because “a violin needs to be played to stay in good condition”.  Presumably, this could mean years, as it was for her friend in Vermont (5 years).  She spoke as if this was a win-win situation. 

Now let me tell you about this violin.  It is Italian-made, 1926, and comes with a beautiful octagonal pernambuco German-made bow.  This violin has nice warm tones and Chips reports that the bow handles very nicely, and is lighter and better balanced than his 3/4 carbon fiber bow (that we were so proud of two months ago, remember?)  His full size violin, that we already own, sounds to him like “ice” (his words) in comparison.  I tried to get a sense of the value of the instrument through Google, and let’s just say that although we don’t know the “price”, we do know we have been nicely blessed.  This is a fine, vintage instrument.  We can’t wait until our teacher sees it on Monday.  What will she say?  This is definitely a win situation for us.  Dare I say that it might sound even better than our teacher’s violin?

Here are the photos.  The new violin, the one we own already, is 12 years old but in violinspeak one would consider it to be “new”.  It is on top.  The vintage Italian violin is on the bottom. 

The cases (new one on top, old one on the bottom),

and the instruments (new one on top, vintage one on the bottom).

So I ask you, how nice (and trusting) is Gail, and how “cool” is this?  This is a very happy, happy thing for us.    Now, bring on the competitions!

April 7, 2011 10:10 p.m.

The good news is that Sweet Girl continued to improve a good deal today.  Her energy level was up, her cough was down.

The bad news is … nothing!   We have no bad news to report here at Breezy Point today.  Thanks be to God!

Happiness is…

being too sick to do school lessons,

but not too sick to watch a favorite video.

April 6, 2011 4:11 p.m.

Hi everybody, and thank you for praying for Sweet Girl!  She had a pretty restful night last night, once I got her to bed (around midnight) and appeared comfortable whenever I checked on her.  The oral prednisone helped her a lot.

I took her to her pediatrician today, and she listened to her chest – still heard some mild wheezing, so she wanted me to continue the nebulizer for a couple more days.  But after looking at her past records (she has had just 2 or 3 illnesses with wheezing through the years) she views this asthma situation as somewhat isolated, and doesn’t think we will need to continue on with asthma meds (or nebulizer) after Friday.  In fact, she said she probably won’t have to come back again until her well visit in the summer, unless she takes an unexpected bad turn in the next couple of days.

So, Sweet Girl feels better, and that means I feel better.  She has been more active all day today, but this afternoon it caught up with her and now she is napping.  I am very thankful for the progress she has made over the past 24 hours.  Things are looking much better today than they did yesterday.

So neat that there are so many readers in the blogosphere who pray and care!  Thank you!

April 6, 2011 2:45 a.m.

What a difference a day makes. 

Over the weekend, Sweet Girl  did some sneezing and had some mild allergy symptoms, we presume, from the mounds of pollen in the outdoor air due to the season.  She never was one to be an allergy sufferer, but all of us were feeling symptoms around here, so we weren’t too surprised at this.

On Monday evening, she went to bed but had just begun to develop a cough.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, she woke up feeling lousy, exhausted, with a low grade fever, and not wanting to eat, read, or do anything except lie on the sofa.  She complained of chest pain when coughing.  She felt nauseous by late morning.  And then by midday, I noticed she had developed a pattern of labored breathing.

Got her to the pediatrician’s office by two, and we were there for 2-1/2 hours.  It took two breathing treatments to get her where she needed to be.  Turns out she was diagnosed with an attack of asthma and concurrent asthma-induced pneumonia. 

Friends, I don’t know what to say except this all came up in the span of a half a day.  Monday she was healthy, Tuesday she was very sick.  Monday, I had a healthy daughter, Tuesday I have an asthma sufferer.  This is a first for our family; none of us has ever had asthma.  I do remember that Sweet Girl had a lot of eczema when she was a baby and that this is sometimes a warning that asthma could follow some day.  Well, I am sorry to say that she is eight years old now, and it has arrived.

So when Self-Reliant Man arrived home from work in the evening, he walked in on the sight of Sweet Girl receiving a nebulizer treatment.  A bit of a surprise for him, too, I might add.  And the kitchen counter is now adorned with zithromycin, prednisolone, albuterol, and a plastic tube, mask, and machine.  Welcome to the asthma club.

So now I am up in the middle of the night checking in on her breathing, giving her another dose of pednisolone, and setting my alarm for another hour later.  At the moment she does feel comfortable, so I am not going to get too bent out of shape over the fact that her breathing is rapid.  Doctor told me not to overreact at this.  After all, she does have pneumonia, too. 

We have another appointment in the morning.

All prayers gratefully accepted.  This, too, is for a reason, I know.

April 2, 2011 10:01 p.m.
In my life this week...
When I have time, I am cutting and pruning vines, cabbage palms, low hanging branches, and tall weeds in various places around our yard.  This is a never ending job, and even though I spend hours doing it, a casual observer cannot tell I have done anything.  However, I mustn’t let that deter me.

In our homeschool this week...
Sweet Girl completed her third test set in Calvert School’s third grade course.  We made the decision to split her test over two days’ time, and it made everything much more relaxed.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
Monday evening brings a Mom’s meeting with one of my homeschool fellowship groups.  Tuesday brings kickball (P.E.) with the other homeschool fellowship.  Wednesday brings an early morning chapel performance for Chips and his friend, J, at a local Lutheran school.  They will play the same hymns they played at the talent night and dinner theatre.  Then, hopefully, things will slow down toward week’s end.

My favorite thing this week was...
Seeing the children performing their little hearts out at our church dinner theatre last night (April 1st).  It was an entertaining, hunger satisfying, and exciting time for all who were involved.  I hope to post more videos of this event soon.

What's working/not working for us...
My staying off the internet until one o’clock every weekday has been helpful in allowing us to get done with lessons at a reasonable time.  I have also enjoyed, very much, keeping up with Chips’ literature, history, science, and geography reading, even though they are those dread textbooks.  I am particularly enjoying geography, now, as we are doing some in-depth learning of all the eastern hemisphere countries.  Yesterday, I read about Israel. 
Sweet Girl’s social studies textbook is turning out to be a little more enjoyable than I expected it would be.  When I first saw it, I wanted to barf  was dismayed, to say the least, but I guess it is because I had such low expectations of this subject that I am enjoying it all the more.  Strange…
What’s not working is the internet being “down” when we have extended rainstorms, as we did on Wednesday and Thursday.  We went 24 hours without functional internet service, and it put my students behind on the online portion of their work.  Chips is behind by about 7 videos.   I hate having to rely on a robust internet connection for homeschool, especially when we don’t have such a connection!

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
I am always thinking ahead to the day when we start high school.  And as I think, and peruse websites, the Potter’s School Classical Track is becoming more and more attractive to me all the time.  But I still have plenty of time to make this decision.
I also really agreed with this post over at Old Earth Creation Homeschool blog.  We cannot rely on the magic textbook for the high school subjects.  Our students are young enough that they still need more guidance.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
None other than our son, Chips, in his performance here yesterday evening.  We still cannot believe what we hear and see, and we are so proud of him and his on stage poise and confidence, no matter the size of the crowd.  The Lord has really given him a gift!

April 2, 2011 8:14 a.m.

Yesterday was the annual dinner theatre production at church.  It was a fundraiser, and those who attended enjoyed a nice dinner as they watched the show.  Chips and Sweet Girl are members of the children’s chorus, and were able to perform “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from Annie and “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound of Music.  They had a lot of fun on stage with props, dressed and acting like hard-working orphans with brooms, rags, et al.  On “So Long, Farewell”, Chips got to sing the boy’s solo line with the high G, and got decent applause for doing so (even though he wasn’t too keen on taking the part).

Chips got the opportunity to play two hymns with his friend, J, who is a piano whiz kid, just as they had for our homeschool talent night.  And J played “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” piano solo, which he did well and confidently.

But the video I have to share right now is of Chips playing the J.S. Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, 1st mvt.  Although the performance got off to a rough start, he settled in quickly and finished it off just fine.  The room is noisy (dinner is being served) but this is probably the only opportunity I will have to record him performing this piece (the state competitions will not allow recording). 

So Chips, take it away. . . . .

 

April 1, 2011 3:33 p.m.

It promises to be a Reallybig Show, tonight, folks.



A reallybig, reallybig show!

Details to follow in a future post.