March 1, 2011 6:06 p.m.

You’ve all heard of sports injuries, but music injuries?

Well, it happened like this.  Chips has been pretty excited about practicing two pieces on the violin for an upcoming competition, one in which he has an opportunity to win some nice green cash.  So, needless to say, as money motivates Chips dearly, he is very motivated to practice for this one.  So for about three days, he stepped up his level, length, and intensity of practice until he discovered on day four (last Thursday) that he had soreness in his left forearm during practice.

After hearing horror stories from our violin teacher about students having to quit violin after years of study, I told him to back off considerably, to play softly and conservatively, to practice only in 15 minute segments.  He did this on Friday, and had some discomfort (he describes it as mild – t0 moderate pain – not sharp, not burning, more like “squeezing”) during the second 15 minute segment.  Ditto on Saturday.  So I told him not to touch his violin until he went to his lesson on Monday afternoon.

We did this, yesterday, and when we reported the situation to Miss S, she seemed rather alarmed.  This did not make me feel better.  I knew Chips had been practicing like Superman the week before, and 20/20 hindsight wasn’t going to do us much good, I was afraid.  A bit later, Miss O arrived at Miss S’ house to practice with Chips (she is his accompanist for the March 6th competition) and she seemed alarmed, too, at first, but was more reassuring to us by telling us of similar situations she as been in (as a professional violinist) and how she has wrapped her neck and shoulder and used Icy-Hot, etc,. etc.  It was a bit disconcerting to see the expressions on both women’s faces as they discussed the matter between themselves in Russian, while I sat and scratched my head and was afraid to ask any more questions.

So we decided to give practice a try with Miss O at piano, and Chips played very conservatively, with no vibrato.  He played both pieces, and Miss S asked him if he felt pain.  He said “No, not really”.  She acted better after this.  So Miss O left and the lesson continued on a bit, with Chips working out various details that needed correcting – but softly and carefully.  Miss S sent us home with a bottle of Chinese Red Flower Oil.  Very sweet and caring of her, n’est-ce pas?  But when we got home, Chips’ admitted to me that the pain had returned by the end of the shorter than normal lesson, although it was slight.

We stopped by our pediatrician’s office on the way home and a nurse took a quick (free) look-see and decided that it is likely a muscle strain and not tendonitis.  Just advised us to rest it, and take ibuprofen round the clock for a few days.

So we are going to carefully resume practice on Thursday, for a couple of days, because the competition is Sunday afternoon.

We are also going to set new guidelines for Chips’ practice sessions from now on.  Shorter segments, rest periods, slower speeds, vary the music more, etc.  Not repetitive jam sessions of playing a piece over and over again at full performance tempo, the way Chips’ likes to do it.

If there is anybody out there with any experience with this sort of thing, please send me a comment.  It is hard to know how much healing time is needed.  This is on my mind a lot this week.  Thank you!

February 27, 2011 7:00 p.m.

This is the chair that I never have any time to sit and read in.

This is me sitting and reading in it on this beautiful, paradise-like Sabbath afternoon!

And it isn’t even Mother’s Day.  I am a blessed lady. (note: I am trying to stay ahead of Chips’ Calvert reading).

February 27, 2011 4:03 p.m.
We made our vacation plans for this year already.  We will travel in September, as is usual for us.  I found out about this huge campground on the beach at M*rtle Be*ch, So*th Carol*na.  It is called Oce*n Lak*s Family Campground and it looks to be fantastic.  It has more activities to do than any RV park we have ever visited, and we have been to many.  If you recall, we saw RV parks much of the way across America last September when we made our van camping trip to Mamm*th Cave, the Badl*nds, Mount Rushm*re, the Bl*ck Hills, Dev*ls Tower, the Be*rtooth Highway, Yell*wstone, the Grand Tet*ns, and Rocky Mo*ntain National Park. 

This year we are staying closer to home, only a day’s drive northeast of here.  This campground has all sorts of amenities and is still reasonable – camping fee for a paved site will be only $44 a night plus taxes, and we get access to everything they have.  What a deal!!  This is true Breezy Point style.



The campsite we reserved is in this photo.  Look between the pool and the ocean.  Count three sites “up” (toward the ocean) and three sites to the right and that will be where we will be living for a whole week in September.

Yippee!  We are excited.  Come September!

February 27, 2011 3:41 p.m.


On Friday, I did something very untypical for me.  A friend suggested going strawberry picking, and it was a kind of spur-of-the-moment thing.  Well, I am not that much of a spur-of-the-moment kind of person, so I was surprised at myself for jumping at the opportunity.

I replied to my friend, and then I went into the school room and announced to my children that a surprise awaited them at midday if they could complete the majority of their lessons by around 11:30.


I never witnessed such incredible work efficiency as I did that morning!  It was a true “LOL” kind of moment!  Sweet Girl completed all her work, and Chips got everything done except Geography and a bit of Reading.  Considering all he had done, that was good enough for me.


So after eating lunch, we piled into the car, and I drove to the strawberry farm without saying where we were going or who we would be meeting.  It was a sort of “mystery car ride”.  They were pretty excited when we pulled into the driveway of the strawberry farm, and especially so when they saw which friends were already there!


I am so glad my friend got me to drop lessons for a few hours.  It truly was a beautiful afternoon to go strawberry picking.  But unfortunately for me, I forgot to bring my camera there.


I hate when I do that!


But I do have photos of the evidence from later on that evening.  These strawberries are tasty beauties!!  Are they ever.

February 27, 2011 3:23 p.m.

Well the weather around here has grown rapidly warm, so much so that I can’t even imagine the chills that seemed to constantly be part of my life up until a week or so ago.  I feel like we have jumped from winter to late spring, all of a sudden. 

Sweet Girl received her first test set back from Calvert School.   It was her first taste of feedback from her new Calvert A.T.S. teacher for third grade.  It was interesting, for when she sent her first test in to Calvert, she was so excited to “meet” her new teacher.  I found this curious, to think that meeting the new teacher is still such a thrill even when it is through the mail, instead of in person.  I remember well the anticipation of discovering a new teacher when I was in public school .  Well, it turns out that her new Calvert 3rd grade teacher is a true veteran, having been an Advisory Teacher at Calvert for 32 years!  How amazing is that!?  I think what I was doing 32 years ago – let’s see, that was 1979, and I was in high school.  This teacher has served three thousand Calvert students through the years; isn’t that amazing?  I feel very fortunate that Sweet Girl has such a teacher, who has seen so many students’ work through the years and has such a good benchmark for evaluating Sweet Girl’s work.

So, her first set of tests was great.  Sweet Girl got a 1 (Calvert’s equivalent to an A) in Reading, Composition, Spelling, Math, Mythology, and Geography.  She got a 2 in Social Studies.  And she got an “incomplete” in Science.  Here is why that happened.  The first 10 questions on the science test had these directions: “write the letter of each word next to its meaning”.   Then there were several definitions given with blanks next to them, and another column with science terms such as “a. observe, b. conifer, c. inherited trait, d. metamorphosis” etc.  Well, Sweet Girl, instead of writing “d” when she meant metamorphosis, wrote “m” instead (for she was thinking of the first letter in the word rather than the letter besides the word).  This meant that all 10 questions were marked incorrectly.  So the teacher wrote “Retest Required” for science, and did not put a grade to it.  She wrote in her letter “I do not like to give a grade of four (4) on a first test, so I am giving you an incomplete…… send your retest with test 40”.
Anyway, I was thankful that this teacher’s extensive amount of experience gave her the wisdom to handle the situation this way, and it prevented Sweet Girl from experiencing the shock of seeing a 4 on the grade sheet.  It also gave me a chance to explain to Sweet Girl about the way letters appear besides answers  so that she doesn’t misinterpret this on a future test.  It is unclear to me whether her teacher realized how the mistake had been made.

Some homeschool mothers are pretty much against this kind of testing in their homeschools.  Whereas I can understand their point of view (I think) I am glad to have tests with our Calvert courses.  Yes, they can be long, and we do spread it out over several days (in Chips’ case) due to its length, but it does give our children an opportunity to get used to testing and make these kinds of mistakes now, when the stakes are low, before these unforeseeable types of errors are made when they are older and the stakes are high.

February 20, 2011 9:37 p.m.

If you buy a boy a package of freeze-dried Ramen noodle soup
When you get home from evening service,
pretty soon he’ll put it inside the microwave oven and press the button.
If he presses the button, he’ll go off to play and forget that he didn’t add water.
While you are sitting in the kitchen, you’ll begin to hear a hissing and crackling sound,
Whereupon you will open the door of the microwave --  just in time..
..To allow stiflingly rank smoke to fill the kitchen.
Entirely.
And when it fills the kitchen, pretty soon the smoke will fill the entire house,
And your family will run around opening windows and doors
And turning on exhaust fans.
After that, everybody will be driven outside, eyes watering and gasping for fresh air
to the breezeway to enjoy a leisurely Sunday evening supper, what’s left of it.
Even the dog will not want to be in the house.
And the rest of the evening you will want to spend outdoors;
The night, too. 
And your boy will end up practicing his violin for all the neighbors to hear
Outside underneath the stars, amidst a chorus of barking neighborly dogs,
And he will soon work up another appetite,
And after his practice is over, pretty soon,
He will request another Ramen soup.
                                                   -- Anonymous

February 20, 2011 3:59 p.m.


We are now in the throes of music competition season.  Yesterday we had one strings audition for both children, and they did just fine, having both secured the “Superior” ratings they needed to proceed to the state level.


Then yesterday evening, I was advised that we needed to quickly throw together an application for a concerto competition for Chips in late March.  As part of the competition, I had to write a short biography for Chips (in case he wins, for the state newsletter) and include a photo.  To get a feel for how to do this, I checked out prior newsletters to read what was written in the bio’s of other student winners of the recent past. 


At first, I found this task daunting and intimidating, and it brought to the surface all of the insecurities of a homeschool mom.  But now that it is finished, I feel pretty good about it.  What do you think?  Does this sound like a cool kid or not?


[Chips], age 11, has been a violin student of S______ G_____ for nearly five years. He first began to study violin at the age of 3. He has been homeschooled since preschool and is now doing sixth grade level work. [Chips] is no stranger to music competitions. In 2008 [Chips] was Elementary Solo winner for FMTA District __. In 2009 he took first place in O___ Music Club Elementary Solo Scholarship competition; In 2010 he was FFMC State Winner for Medium I Solo. In addition, [Chips] participated as violinist in an all boys’ piano trio with S____ Music Institute (M_____) that was FFMC State piano trio winner three years in a row (2008 – 2010).

When [Chips] was four, he and his family moved out to several acres in the country, where he and his sister developed a love of nature. He and his family have camped extensively throughout Florida, the Southeastern U.S., and Blue Ridge Parkway. His camping experiences culminated last autumn in a cross-country trip across America, touring 13 different states and 7 National Parks. [Chips] is also active in his church, participating in its choristers group. He enjoys relaxing by reading mystery novels, swimming, bicycling, playing piano, and repairing his friends’ digital watches.

February 14, 2011  9:00 a.m.

I want to share a short video of two hymns that Chips performed with a friend at our homeschool talent night the other day.  The beginning of the video was cut off, but his friend had been saying "I am going to perform with [Chips], my friend..." and then he introduces the hymn titles.  It was very sweet.  This boy is very gifted on the piano, and has had lessons for only two years.  He just won a piano competition, called [O-town's] Got Talent, in our nearby city.  We are proud of him, too, and we hope our sons will be friends for a long time.

February 13, 2011 11:33 a.m.

I’ve got the flu and the flu’s got me. 

February 10, 2011 4:32 p.m.
Alas, today is a sick day at our house.  No lessons, just library books, videos, and naps.  Both children have the flu and are spiking fevers.  When one is up, the other is down, and vice versa.  As of this writing, Sweet Girl has hit 104 and Chips is at around 100.  Then in a couple of hours, it could be the other way around.  I hate to see them this way; they are so infrequently sick like this.  And they are supposed to play violin for a talent show tomorrow night that they have been anticipating for a long time.  I do hope they recover quickly.

We spent the weekend traveling to “Pepsicola” to visit Self-Reliant Man’s parents.  They seemed to be doing as well as can be expected.  Without going into too much detail about them, his mother is in an assisted-living facility.  His father isn’t.  Anyway, here are some photos of the children with them this weekend.

February 2, 2011 11:01 p.m.

Perimenopause strikes again.  This time I have had a headache since Sunday morning.  Tension headache, floaty feeling.  Very annoying, and we are about to travel, too.  Please pray that it gets better quickly.  Last time I had this headache was about six months ago and it lasted for nine days.  This is only day five.

Other than that, things are great; Chips just completed his first test set in Calvert’s Sixth grade course, Sweet Girl’s first test set is on its way back to us in the mail, and I got a new dishwasher! 

Also, we are about to travel to visit the grandparents.

Just this darn tension headache, or else everything would be perfectamundo.  Like I always say, and I mean it moreso every time --  hormones, you can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em!

Maybe if I post pictures of the dishwasher going in I’ll feel better.

There.  Isn’t that pretty?  And Chips helped his dad install it.   Have a blessed weekend!

January 29, 2011 10:23 p.m.


Why the Universe is the Way it Is by Dr. Hugh Ross

It is not often that I write a book review.  Hey, these days, it is not often that I finish a book.  But after a year or two of sitting on my shelf, I decided to pick this book up and read it, and am I glad that I did. 

The author is an astronomer who early on in life came to faith in Jesus Christ after discovering that the Bible was unique among holy books in that it corroborated what he knew from science to be true about the earth and the universe, as far as its creation, structure, and origin.  Not only this, but the writers of scripture allude to details about the heavens and the earth that are scientifically accurate as we understand science today; however, as scripture was written thousands of years ago, and there is no way that the ancient writers could have known scientifically what we know today, it must be that they were truly inspired by God.  Now that may seem quite unbelievable, especially as many believe that there can be no true agreement between science and the scriptures.  The scriptures are about God, and science is, well, about science, and never the ‘twain shall meet.  So don’t even try.  But Dr. Ross tried some 25 years ago or more, and succeeded in identifying a model of creation science that is compatible with scripture, as well as with the mainstream understanding of physics, astronomy, astrophysics, geology, et al.  No bad science.  No bad theology.  After all, God reveals Himself in scripture AND in creation.  Shouldn’t a more complete understanding of both end up in agreement?

In this book, Ross sets out to set the latest scientific discoveries about the universe in the context of the Creator God’s goodness and love for the human race.  He gives the reader a glimpse into the exquisite fine-tuning that God has done in His created universe to provide for the existence of humanity,, and to allow for humanity to discover and learn much about the universe.  I once heard it said that we have no idea how much God has done for us, individually for our lives, and collectively for our communities.  That one day in heaven we shall finally come to know all the ways He has bent over backwards on our behalf to bless us and sanctify us.  We already know some of these things, how God made such a beautiful world, how He sent His Son to take on the sins of us all.  But there are so many things we are unaware of: things related to all that science has revealed about our created world, from sub-atomic particles through physical laws and up to the immensity of the universe.  Why is the universe so vast?  Why did he bother creating galaxies, stars, and planets that we will never even discover?  Why is the universe subject to decay? Why does the universe have the composition it does?  Why is it as old as it is?  Why is the earth and our solar system located in such a relatively dark corner of the universe?  Where does God reside relative to the universe?  Why is our planet located exactly where it is?  What do the scriptures indicate about the new creation to come and how does this relate to the present creation?  The writing style makes discussion of recent discoveries in astronomy to be very understandable to the non-scientific mind.  I appreciate this, because much of physics can be barely comprehensible to 99% of us.  The author helps us along by writing in terms that we all can understand.  Nevertheless, portions of this book do take some effort to digest.

The first half of the book is primarily scientific in scope, but the second half is more of a theological description.  What hints does the Bible give us about the future of the earth and the universe?  What do we know about the realm to come?  What will happen to the present four dimensions that we experience?  What limitations might we be freed from in the new creation?  Why isn’t our present universe more “perfect”?   How does the Bible explain the universe’s features?  All of these questions are tackled somewhere in this book, and in other, more detailed, books by this author.

I appreciated the discussion on making sense out of the evil in the world.  How can we explain the presence of evil in this universe?  What significance and meaning can it have for anybody, except in the context of the fact that we were created for another place, another realm, to come, that is above and beyond the created order that we observe and experience now?  In fact, it is only in this truth that any reasonable explanation can exist for the presence of evil. 

I truly have appreciated this book, as I do most of Dr. Ross’ books, because it gives me even more specific reasons to rejoice in the goodness of God toward us, to be amazed at His grace and condescension, and to be more aware of the incredibly huge investment that God has in humanity; or to put it in Ross’ words “How much the Creator has invested  and will continue to invest for humanity’s sake is astounding beyond all comprehension”.  This book reveals so many more reasons to give Him all our worship and adoration.  We truly have no clue about all that the Lord has done for us since before time began. 

Another thing that this book does is excite the imagination about the new creation.  If we all gave more thought to the wonders of eternity, we would walk so much more faithfully in this present life on earth.  Scripture has given us a little bit of information about what this eternal realm will be like for us, and Dr. Ross couches this description in scientific terms, explaining some of what may be different about the new creation, and how it will succeed and supersede the old (present) creation after it has passed away. 

I found this book to be a real faith-builder for me, peppered as it is with scripture references, for the author is a Christian theologian as well as a scientist.  I think it is an important book for Christian and skeptic alike.

January 22, 2011 10:57 p.m.

Dear friends, it is getting late and we need to get up for church early, but I wanted to take a moment to post these three video links from our recital yesterday.  It was two hours long!  Sweet Girl played after about a half hour, and Chips (and his duet partner) were the final acts of the evening. 

Then we all went out for milkshakes!  Yummmm....

Here they are..

Sweet Girl's two solos..

January 21, 2011 1:02 p.m.

That’s right.  Our annual pre-Federation recital is scheduled for this evening.  Sweet Girl will be performing two solo pieces, and Chips will be performing two solo pieces, as well as two duet pieces with another boy.  Should be a loooooonnnnngggg recital, but we are looking forward to it.  Maybe videos soon?

January 19, 2011  2:52 p.m.


Did I ever tell all of you that I have the best readers ever?  Well, I do.
For example, just within the past few months these are some of the nice things my readers have done for me:

• Lois and her family from The Prairie Family Chronicles actually took time out one day in September to meet our family on the afternoon we drive through her town.  What a fine afternoon that was!

• Linda in Scotland at Occasional Scotland knows that we enjoy good children’s literature and “read-alouds”, and she has shipped books to my children on two separate occasions, all the way from Scotland.  I am appreciative of her generosity toward us!

• Marjie at Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet continues to encourage and entertain me with the most insightful, thoughtful, and often witty comments.  She knows some things about my everyday life, being another Calvert Mom and owner of a sweet and adorable huge doggie.  Thanks, Marjie!

• A college friend in Pennsylvania who recently read about Chips’ interest in postage stamps sent him several stamps from foreign countries.  Thanks, C.W.!

• A high school friend (yes, you read that right, and high school is a long time ago) who recently read about the Palm Pilot that Chips never got through Amazon (but got a violin bow instead) has just shipped him a free one that she found in her house yesterday.  To quote a popular expression: how “cool” is that?  Thanks, S.G.!

And others of you, and you know who you are, continue to be faithful readers, even when I have days, weeks (months?) of creativity block.  I am amazed and appreciative of you, too.  Who says virtual friends aren’t “real” friends!?!?!  I beg to differ.
So, what do you think?  I may not have that many readers, but …… do I have the BEST READERS EVER or what? 
Thankful for you!

January 19, 2011 2:32 p.m.

This is what our home looks like after a visit to the library.  It was so quiet here that I had to check to see whether I was home alone!

And this is a sampling of what things have looked like here lately on account of Chips’ and Sweet Girl’s positive attitudes toward work..

and yes, Chips really likes blankets, night and day!

January 18, 2011 2:10 p.m.

It is kind of difficult to know exactly how to express this, but I will try my best.

We took our wedding trip nearly 17 years ago, to Lake Louise, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.  Throughout the entire week we were there, in May, there were clouds and mist hanging in over the mountains so as to prevent viewing the complete glacier.  This was compensated, though, in the fact that we were able to enjoy daylight until 10 p.m..  I remember walking from shop to shop in Banff one “evening”, feeling like it was about 7 p.m. when in reality it was after 10!

Then one day toward the end of the trip, for a few hours, the clouds lifted and we were finally able to see everything.  We were able to see what all the photographs had promised would be there to see…  It was only temporary, but we were able to see it then, and I still remember the experience to this day.

 

 

This is a reflection of how I have been feeling this month.  I feel as if the clouds have lifted in my spirit this year.  Of course, I wasn’t exactly realizing to what extent the clouds were obscuring anything, unlike my vacation at Lake Louise.  But looking back over past months, I now realize that I had been living through a kind of desert time in my spirit, as well as a mental dullness, which I was only partially aware of, and to which I attributed my age, of all things!

Only now do I see how much the “cloudiness” was obscuring, especially in contrast to my present experience and view of things.  For example, as I mentioned in a recent post, I have been blessed with a keen interest in reading scripture, exceeding that of the past few years.  Of course, we always had our routines, my reading in the morning, teaching our children the catechism and looking up and discussing scripture references, etc., but like anything, it was always motivated in part by a certain amount of dutifulness: like anything else in life that we remind ourselves is worthwhile but which gets to be a little “old” with time.  Now when I read scripture, context and meaning just seems to jump off the page at me. 

In addition, I have been feeling a greater sense of energy, an increased ability to concentrate and focus (and, therefore, be able to read books), and a stronger desire to minister to others through encouraging them.  There is a greater sense of fulfillment in the activities of every day, and more patience with the nuts and bolts of our homeschool than I have had in a long while.

I don’t know what the difference is, other than a tossing of one calendar into the trash and a posting of a new, 2011, calendar.  Can’t say it is that, necessarily.  I also don’t know if it is related to body chemistry, hormones, nutrition, or a few additional pounds of weight (hee hee), but I tend to think it has more to do with the Holy Spirit than anything else.   I would often remind myself, or read of the work, the gifts, and the fruit of the Spirit and long for a greater share as I would wonder if everybody’s spiritual journey could always seem as “dry” as mine.    But for now, at least, some of these benefits have become a more visible part of my experience.  And for that I am very grateful.

Jesus said:

If you love me, you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. 

JOHN 14:15-16

January 11, 2011 5:48 p.m.

1/11/11

Joy in the simple things.

Yesterday, we completed a week’s worth of Calvert lessons, or five lessons, in the Third and Sixth Grade courses.  I had been bracing myself for a lot of stress and strain and short tempers.  Actually, the very first lesson day was very long due to a lot of Math warmup for Chips.  But since that day, all of the others have gone great.  Part of the reason, I know, is because we haven’t had many afternoon activities scheduled.  This means nowhere to go mid-afternoon, which translates to being able to get through our lesson work without the mad dash out the door to wherever.  This is very helpful for me.  Another reason is that I have been very self disciplined about not surfing the internet until lesson time is over.  Not at all, from waking up until the afternoon.  It has helped keep the days efficient.  But the other reason is that both children have had pretty good attitudes about their lessons.  Sweet Girl has displayed a lot of enthusiasm about learning.  We begin talking about a topic and she just takes off with it, bringing in all sorts of relevant examples, experiences, opinions, and details.  Chips has whined about a couple of things, but overall has been pretty cooperative and happy in his work.

Over the weekend, we began to take down our Christmas decorations.  We normally keep them up through Epiphany, so they are often still up a week after most folks have put theirs away.  Saturday morning, we started in after breakfast taking down the tree, and then everything else afterwards.  Both children pitched in with good attitudes and effort.  As a result, we were able to get things done more quickly than I ever remember.  Our working together cheerfully made for an idyllic scene.  Their behavior, even our entire Christmas season this year, has been terrific.  It was a good break, followed by a healthy start into a new school year.

Even Self-Reliant Man is happier these days.  He is very satisfied with the accuracy and precision of his new air rifle.  It is everything he had hoped for.  How ‘bout that?

In addition, over the Christmas break (he was home 17 days in a row) he was able to fix a problem he has lived with in his hobby car for about 30 years.  Thanks to the internet, he discovered that the carburetors in his car had been rebuilt improperly, both of them, in the same way.  He took them apart and replaced one part which had been installed improperly … twice … and reassembled them.  After installing them, he is able to start his car just about on the first try, no matter the temperature or weather. 

Well needless to say, he is just tickled over this, and has been driving the car to work ever since, any sunny day that he can (psst… he can’t drive it in the rain, but that’s a story for another time).  It was a perfect example of the money savings that can be realized through internet research.

We are also moving into the music performance and competition time of the year, as I mentioned in a previous post.  A week from Friday, we have a recital in our schedule.  I truly am looking forward to it.  In addition, we know a boy in our church who is a gifted piano student.  Chips will be working with him, beginning this Friday, to be able to perform two hymns together (on piano and violin).  Also our lessons have been great these past few weeks with our violin teacher.  The children are, indeed, nearly ready for their springtime competitions.

Chips eagerly anticipates the arrival of a new bow in the mail.  You see, he was wanting some sort of a gadget for Christmas, something like an electronic organizer, and I ordered an older, used Palm Pilot

from Amazon.   Just the kind of thing he would love to tinker with, exploring all the functions , a step up from the multi-function wristwatch.  Well, the device never did arrive.  I guess we had been “had”, but Amazon stands behind their sales and refunded us. 

Chips has been frustrated with his 3/4 length bow because he always seems to have to adjust the horsehair tension between pieces, each piece requiring a different tension.  As this is not the best position to be in on competition day, because he will have to play five pieces in immediate succession before a judge in February, we decided that a new bow is in order.  So we told him we would apply the Palm Pilot money to order him a decent bow.  He was okay with that idea, and voila, we ordered a carbon fiber bow for him.

I am guessing that the bow could have a positive psychological effect, on account of it not being the cheapest one available (like all the bows he has had until now).  We anxiously await its arrival.  It will surely enhance practice time, you know what I mean?

Long story short….. I am finding a lot of joy in my day job these days.

January 3, 2011 11:01 p.m.

Would you ever hand your credit card over to a virtual stranger and allow them to walk off with it out of your sight?  It sounds crazy, I know, but many of us do it routinely when we use our credit card at a restaurant.  We hand over our card to the server, and the server takes our card out of the dining room, to another room, sometimes for several minutes.

Last week our family went dining out to a local BBQ restaurant.  I paid, as usual, with my Discover card, placing the card into the folder and handing it off to our server as I have done so many times before.

The next morning, Sweet Girl and I went to our local post office to stock up on stamps.  I reached into my wallet for my credit card --- and it wasn’t there.  My smile disappeared as well, as I hastily reached into the other part of my wallet to hand cash over to the postal clerk. I didn’t mention at the time that I was missing a credit card, and pondered it on the drive home.

When I got back in the house I announced to Self-Reliant Man that I didn’t think the waitress ever gave our card back to us last night.  I immediately headed to the computer to check Discover.com to see if there had been any unauthorized charges placed on my account.  I realized that I had to input my card number to access my account (and I didn’t have this due to my card being missing) so I set out to get my husband’s card.  As I was doing this, the phone rang.  It was Discover Fraud Protection Dept, calling at that moment to report unusual activity on my account.

It turned out that someone had tried to make a purchase at the Playstation.com website but it didn’t work out because the person had typed the wrong 3 digit number from the back of the card.  This attempted transaction was flagged by the Discover system and resulted in a phone call to me.  They cancelled my card immediately, and said that they would be issuing me a new one.

How about that?

So when the restaurant opened, I called them up to speak to the manager on duty and tell her what had happened.  I mentioned the name of the server, although it is possible that another person was responsible for the attempted purchase.  The manager looked inside the restaurant safe, and sure enough, my card was there.  This disturbed her, as now it really looked like one of her employees was the culprit (and not another customer).  After all, the server failed to return my card to me, and this coincided with the unauthorized use of the card.  She told me that it was the policy of the establishment for the servers to run the credit cards themselves.  This looked pretty bad for this server.  I told her the server had been especially pleasant, and even ran after us as we were going out the door to return Chips’ chapstick.  The manager told me she felt shocked and disappointed and that she would have to think long and hard about how to go about handling the problem.   She thanked me for notifying her, although in reality I had dumped a burden on her.  As far as I know, I am the first to call her about such a thing, but in reality this may not be true.  I told her that maybe she should sit tight for awhile and see if any further complaints come in before jumping to conclusions.

Anyway, another lesson learned.   Maybe restaurants should go back to the practice of having the customer stand at the cash register line.  Or maybe restaurants should use portable card scanners at the table.  Solve one technological liability with more technology, perhaps?

We certainly live in a different world than my parents did.  This is the second time an unauthorized charge came across my Discover card this year.  The first one was six months ago when I found a charge of $350 on my monthly bill – for an Amazon.com purchase.  It looked like it had been an inside job at Amazon, but really my number could have been acquired from a restaurant server.  Fortunately, I got that one resolved.  This time, I have to notify all the merchants and organizations that I have a new card number.  It is a pain.  But, I’ve got to wonder about folks who do this sort of thing; they really do need our prayers.  And I truly hope they get caught, and that nobody gets punished undeservedly.

January 2, 2o11 9:07 p.m.

I want to wish all who check in to this blog a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011.  I also hope that you have had a decent amount of time to enjoy your friends and families and to recharge for the year to come.

I have to say that our family was exceedingly blessed this Christmas and New Year’s break.  First of all, Self-Reliant Man has been able to spend a string of 17 days in a row home with us and it has been great having him home all this time.  In past years, we used to kid that he probably couldn’t wait to get back to work, but not this time.  We have had many nice, slow-paced days just doing things like watching Christmas movies, reading books, viewing Christmas lights, and doing some light projects around the house.  Also, admittedly, there have been some days of sneezing, sniffling, and chills, so we have had the full Florida Christmas experience.  After having record cold temperatures and hard freezes, the temperature topped out at 80 degrees today.  Wild ride!

I have also recently been blessed with a hunger for reading scripture.  I have been poring through the books of John, Romans, Matthew, and Hebrews and they have been great to read over the past few days.  I recognize the fact that I need all the grace and help I can get as I buckle down to begin a new school year.  No, I don’t expect everything to go smoothly and smiley, and I certainly have reason to expect bad attitudes from time to time (why should this year be any different?)  Whereas I cannot control attitudes, I can at least do something about my own attitude.  Yes, the work load is going to be great; yes the days are going to be busy; yes, there is going to be a lot of driving and scheduling beginning with this very first week of January.  So I really need to depend on the Lord’s help and grace to take each day at a time, as it comes, and to focus on glorifying Him in each single day. 

On a practical level, one thing I need to do is to discipline myself about the mornings.  What I choose to do with each morning can “make” or “break” an entire day.  If I start writing and answering emails, and checking all my listservs, and visiting this website, and that website, and one thing leads to another, and then Facebook, and then hitting “like” and leaving comments on peoples’ posts because I feel guilty if I don’t ….. well, then let’s face it – I can derail the events of an entire day.  So my prayer for us is for myself to be self-disciplined about the way the first half of the day unfolds, especially in the hours leading up until noon.  Secondly, as weather permits, I am committing myself to allowing between 20 and 30 minutes of relaxing in the sunshine at some time around the middle part of the day.  I have discovered that as soon as I forget about keeping up my vitamin D intake, I start to feel the effects (aching bones).  And then I get more short-tempered, etc.  You know how it goes.  Do I have a strategy in place for hormonal fluctuations?  No, not really.  I wish I did, but I haven’t the solutions for hormones, yet.  Like I often say about hormones: you can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without ‘em.

I know the challenge is real.  I know the academics will be more demanding this year.  This year, I will need to really teach good study skills and habits to Chips.  I am not so sure that his personality naturally leads into this, so this is one more area where prayer and grace will be needed.

This is the time of year where we enter the home stretch for music competitions, too.  Sweet Girl is entering one event for FFMC: Violin Solo, for which she is practicing Bach’s “Minuet One” and “King William’s March”.  She is developing a nice and smooth sound, although her performance is extremely attitude-dependent  (smile).  Chips is entering three FFMC events: Violin Solo, Violin Concerto, and Violin Duet.  These events call for memorization of three pieces, and two additional pieces (for the duet) that do not need to be memorized.  In addition, he is going to help a boy to earn his Superior for Piano Accompaniment by playing the other musician’s part for two pieces (his solo pieces).  Finally, Chips and one boy from our homeschool support group are going to perform two hymns, “Be Thou My Vision” and “Fairest Lord Jesus”, for our homeschool talent show.  Chips on violin, and the other boy on piano. 

Long story short, is that all these events will require us to go meet and practice with the other performers every week this month – one boy on Monday, another on Wednesday, and the third on Friday.  Lots of driving, but it’s only temporary (I have to keep reminding myself).

So Tuesday will be the big day – back to school day!   But in the meantime, we couldn’t have hoped for a more restful and spiritually rejuvenating Christmas break than this one has been.  Jesus said “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”.  This is as true in 2011 as it has ever been.  He has given us all another year.  Let us be good stewards of it!

A blessed 2011!