Education and Intelligence

We started school 8/18. Today marked the first day of the second school week. Now that we have a full schedule (all co-op classes included), the days are already longer and patience has already been tried. Overall, everyone is doing well and working hard and learning well. I love the structure of school. We all manage to accomplish so much more with a defined agenda. Summer was fun and lazy, but it is good to get back to reality.

It rained most of the day today, and now the sun is finally out. The rain resulted in a typical problem: Aspen would not do her duty in the rain. Schooling meant little time to devote to a finicky dog. At one point, I just gave up and made her stay outside until she went. Aspen was already wet, so why should she continue to try to avoid getting "wet" by going out into the bushes or yard to do her thing? I figured she should surely realize that if she would just go #2, then she could come in out of the torrential rain.

Dogs don't reason like humans. Aspen did oblige me by adding to the already wet grass. She did not oblige me by taking care of other matters. I let her in. Elle gave Aspen a bath, dried her off and let her loose - all with my blessing. Aspen slept for a while on the girls' bedroom floor while I checked science questions.

A short while later, Aspen's MATTER was quite visibly deposited onto my family room door mat. No surprise there, but I still managed to feel incredulous. Who is less intelligent, the dog or the mom? (And who's homeschooling three kids?)

Buddy Boy

At the end of July, my baby boy (Joel) turned 19 years old! This is his last year of being a teen; I know it will go more quickly than the last 19 years each have.

We celebrated his birthday very simply; we each gave him something to help him on his way as both a college student at Georgia Tech and a roommate to three other students. When Brian came home from work, we surprised Joel (and Aliya!) at work by bringing cupcakes and singing happy birthday in the restaurant - quietly, of course! :) Joel took the remaining goodies to the kitchen to share with his co-workers.

I spent one week thereafter remembering Joel as a baby, a little boy, and now a teenager who is quickly growing up into a thoughtful young man. All while remembering things about Joel, I realized he was going to be living downtown to be closer to school and to avoid the snarl of ridiculous traffic that Atlantans everywhere have come to dread. (Abby has great pics on her blog - check them out!) Joel being here even less; that is a sad, strange, empty feeling. The endearing part is how Joel has continued to hang around home even though he has been paying for an apartment he has yet to move into - until this past week, that is. I have not complained once about his delay; neither has he or any of the rest of us! But now his things are there and he shall stay downtown during the week.





He has led himself well and gotten all his finances in order, his schedule in order, and his new home in order. He starts school at Georgia Tech in three days to finish a degree in electrical engineering. Lord willing, he will finish in about five semesters and consider graduate school somewhere else. It took a long time to pick his life's vocation; let's see how it all goes! He can't wait to start school again, and we can't wait to see him thrive and work hard and learn new things and meet new friends.

That having been said, I will miss his fuzzy face around here - and I do mean fuzzy. I think he is handsome as ever. I will miss his happy voice, his clever, sometimes ornery sense of humor, & the way he banters with the girls and engages with them. I will miss the mess he leaves on his bedroom floor & doing his greasy work laundry (theoretically). I will miss pouncing on him in the morning with stolen kisses on his sweet, sleepy head. I will miss hearing about all the complex physics problems (blow-by-blow) and not understanding an iota of it. I will miss the late-night talks about God and life and matters of faith and Scripture. I will miss sharing struggles and prayers together and long drives in his car with the windows down. I will hearing his bass rumbling upstairs, and his whistling and humming. I will miss seeing his beautiful smile every morning before he heads off to school. The great thing is, I will only have to miss these things for five days... Thank God for the weekend!

So Joel, my friend, I love you and think you are the best son God could ever have given me! I am grateful every day for the gift of you, and cannot wait to see how God shapes you into the man He has planned for you to be. You continually provoke me with your faith, your perseverance, your convictions, and the boyishness which wants to hang on for dear life! :) I love you, my son, my only one.

Vacation, Life, Etc.

My family and I went to Virginia for vacation for the first part of July. We stayed with various friends and had a very relaxing, refreshing time. The weather was a bit rainy, but it cleared away the smoke from the Dismal Swamp and made for an endurable beach day. No thunder or lightening, so sitting on the beach in the cold rain (for all of ten minutes) was kind of fun! The weather cleared a bit, but the clouds stayed on to keep it cool. We went again on a sunny day. The flags were red, but it did not deter us from tackling the waves.

We saw D.C. in one day. That was both amazing and exhausting. By the end of the day, Brian was hoisting Gabrielle up onto his back for the final trek into the art museum. (Our favorite event of the day, by the way - the museum, not the hoisting.) We enjoyed seeing all the sights with older eyes as our kids were too young to enjoy the nation's capital when we lived in Virginia. We'll never forget the Potbelly Deli.

Going to church in Chesapeake was a blessing as well. We saw many familiar faces, including ones either visiting from HERE or moving from THERE to HERE. We enjoyed the messages, the worship, and seeing a bigger picture of what God is doing in the hearts and lives of so many. Going back gives us a chance to reflect on what God has done and what He is currently doing. Ironically, it helps to keep us looking forward with anticipation.

Thank you to all who made time to get together to play Mexican Train dominoes once again! We must make it at least a semi-annual tradition. I so much enjoyed seeing all the grown up children and hearing what God is doing in your lives and hearts and prayers. What an amazing time of fellowship in the midst of cut-throat dominoes. Christel remains the reigning champion, but we will be back... You all have inspired me to pursue a more faithful prayer life, and to seek more of the Holy Spirit's work and power in my life - all of our lives.

Thank you to all who hosted us and so generously provided places for us to rest and relax. You will hear more from us in detail! (Good old-fashioned mail!) We are grateful for all of you and for our friendships that have lasted through many years any many address changes!

Thank you to those who invited us over to reminisce, share, laugh with us!

Thank you to all who invited our kids to various events and parties and functions! You are very kind and gracious!

The girls were faithful to document much of our trip with their trusty cameras. They ran out of batteries and charges near the end of our visit; some main events may be missing. Check out their blogs to see what was captured! "Elvis" the photographer won the picture contest. (You know who you are...) You can see his snapshot of Joel on the main page of this blog. (The haircut looked much better by Day Four. The cut was not Joel's fault...)

It is good to be home again. Good to be in our own beds, in the hot and humid heat of our current state, which we shall probably never become completely accustomed to! Good to see the faces of new-found friends again, and to hear the frogs at night, fight off persistent mosquitoes, and clean our own house, wash our own dishes, do our own laundry, and fall back in line with the daily routine of reality. Yes, it has taken a week to adjust, but I'm getting back on track.

What's With the Name?

Dear Anonymous Viewers: To understand where the reference to trees comes from, look up the Bible verses referenced under the blog name. :) Can you see the forest through the trees yet?

Er... that WAS bad. I will quit blogging now before I hurt myself.

Beef with Cheesy Names

Notice the food terms? I do like food. It does not like me as much as it used to; or better put, it likes me too much and wants to hang around much longer than I would like it to!

My girls like to tease each other (lovingly) by calling each other cheese nicknames. Things they do are translated into terms like "macaroni with cheese," "extra cheese pizza," "string cheese," ( for our diminutive daughter), "cheese puffs" (for our round-cheeked girl), etc. You get the picture. This is all done with laughter and joy. Really!

If I could just get them to redirect this creativity toward my blog. It was their idea in the first place! :) I do not like the name of this blog. So I am going to poke fun at it just for something to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The current name evokes pictures of six unmoving and massive figures like those seen in the Lord of the Rings movies. Kind of creepy. I don't want to be one of those. I have often referred to my "Jensen" legs as "tree-trunk" legs. I really don't wish to be reminded of that every time I log on. That also reminds me too much of the food issue. Hmmm... how about a flowery name like Evergreen? Too reminiscent of an old pop song I never really knew well or liked in the first place.

Branching Out? Tree House? (Nut House in Certain Seasons), Greentrees? Willow? Redwoods and Saplings? Aspen Grove? The Orchard. THE Grove. Groovy Grove. Run, Forest, Run. Magnolia Blossoms for the girls. Alders for the elders. MAPLE for the boy (programming pun). Cedars of Lebanon.

OK, Mockernut Hickories it is. For today.

To see the fine features of this marvelous tree, cut and paste the following link:
http://www.trees-online.com/types_of_trees/mockernut_hickery.shtml

Thanks for enduring this post. And posts are made of trees, so it's all good. (And still corny....ahh, food again....) I'll spare you any additional pain. End of post.

Summer

The kids are back from Denver. They ended up on a different flight because of delays with their original flight. The wonderful folks at Midwest Airlines served them well! We got them back an hour earlier, even though they left an hour later than originally scheduled. This worked out well - even with the extra security check they had to endure. (Nothing was confiscated.)

They came home, full of excitement and refreshment, eager to show all their pictures and tell us everything that happened the entire time. It is SO good to have them back! Thank God they are safe and happy and blessed! Thank you to all who hosted them!!!!! You made their summer an unforgetable one! They enjoyed seeing you all again and enjoyed the beautiful mountain weather; albeit a bit colder than they have been used to!

Joel is back to work, Aliya is looking for paid work, playing soccer, and enjoying summer life. Abby & Elle have a clean-swept room (thanks to Elle and I while they were gone), and it feels great! They are enjoying friends, the pool, and getting tans with lots of sunscreen. I have tried my hand at the tanning with lots of sunscreen, but not much is happening for me. I have more freckles. The girls have a few more adorable freckles, and much more melanin everywhere else. How are we related?

The house is taking shape. Brian has repainted our kitchen, put up the moulding under the new counter tops, and is working on replacing the piping in our house (polybutelane). Then he can have a drywall party to help finish the basement. I can't wait!

I need to do some gardening. So gardening friends, infuse some of that love of the earth and the great outdoors into me. I have weeds growing considerably larger than my azalea bushes. Why do I not pull them? Because they are spikey and stubborn. Does this say anything about my spiritual life? Hmmm..... I have a flower bed up front with lots of various "leaves" and no flowers. Time to redo it. My gardenia bush is blooming, then failing. Time to prune off the old buds and allow some new ones to appear. They smell so wonderful! We have trees growing where we thought we had pulled them. How do we keep up? But I am not whining. I love my yard; I just need to love it enough to do more about it! That is on the agenda today. It is not quite so hot, so it is a perfect time to get going.

One interesting thing happened. We had petunias (?) growing in our front porch pot last year. We bought a million of all the same color and planted them everywhere in all the pots we had. This was my idea of creative gardening. We let them die out at the end of the season and did not, ahem, do anything about cleaning them out and replacing them with seasonal flowers in the fall. Now we somehow have a new, freshly blooming pot of petunias on our front porch. I have done nothing but let them grow.

So is the lesson that I really just need to let nature take its course? Or do I really need to pull those weeds? Don't answer that.

Too MUCH sugar???