"Speaking of. . . "

So, the princess is excited about dressing up as Frodo for Halloween, and rounded up all the accoutrements for her costume this evening. She'd misplaced the ring for a few days of searching, but joyously discovered it hiding on the top of her dresser tonight. She will joyfully go costumedly to school tomorrow. A bit of a busy week for her; awesomely uplifting choir concert on Monday night--lots of sacred choral pieces and a "packed house" audience. Had to give up the seats that were going to be used by the choirs not on stage. The princess certainly thrills in singing, so it is wonderful watching her having so much fun, and singing so beautifully. Having worked in the school systems for so many years, I also know a good many of the other kids in the choirs --so I have LOTS of kids to be proud of. Haven't made it through a performance yet in the past three years without teary eyes; just witnessing these kids--some that I've known since tiny grade-schoolers, others that I know to struggle so hard in academic realms--experience such joyous success in the performance hall gets me every time. Oh, the dramas of being an emotionally connected kid-loving educator! Praise God for my job and the opportunities to be a, hopefully, positive part of so many kids' lives.

On Tuesday, she had an Art Society gathering after school, and needed to return a bit later to take pictures at the volleyball games for Yearbook staff. Was quite late getting home and then had a time-consuming History project to complete afterwards. The church choir took part in the Service on Wednesday evening, so she participated there too. Tonight, she and Mom needed to do a "shop" run to seek out the remaining necessities for her Frodo costume. (I gladly stayed home to prepare dinner--and we even ate before 8:00--wow!) Doesn't it sound so exhausting to be so passionate about so many things? And speaking of the princess's passions, the play that her Acting 4 class will perform and the student director were elected recently as well. She is excited that they will perform "Peter Pan" in January, and a fellow theatrically passionate friend that she roomed with on the Shakespeare Festival trip was elected as the director. I expect they will have auditions for roles next week; she is thinking the role of Captain Hook sounds like fun. And she was also "pumped" about getting to read the part of Hermia when they read "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Shakespeare class next.

So, yeah-- we had majorly "empty nest" for most of a week about a month ago when the darling daughter flew off with 11 other students and a handful of teachers from their high school to Ashland, Oregon to experience the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They saw seven plays and had other workshops and tours as well. All of them reported having an "awesome" time. We were so happy for her that she got to go! It was her first time being away from home for that long, but she was so busy with such fun stuff that it didn't matter to her. For we parents however, it was different. Our house was deafeningly quiet; I'd never heard the variances of the tick-tocks of the several clocks in our house before. We went to the movie theater on a weeknight, ate Mexican food, went to bed earlier, and I even took a day off work on the Friday and we took a drive to soak in a hot springs and had a very tasty Thai dinner on the way home. I guess it was a preparatory glimpse of times for us a few years hence when both kids will be away to college. While we had enjoyable moments together, I will GLADLY wait patiently for the real empty nest. And, even then, I know it will arrive WAY too quickly.

We got a chance to remedy the effects of our "empty nest-ness" a couple weekends ago though. Montana public schools always schedule two PIR days in mid-October for state-wide teacher seminars, so there's no school for students. We always take advantage of the schedule and plan to do something out of town. Guess where we decided to go this year? Yes, we went to Bozeman where the son is at university and spent a couple days with him. It was good. We didn't do anything remarkably unusual, just spent the nights in a hotel room with a kitchen and made a couple of son's favorite dinners, went to the city library, soaked at the nearby hot springs one afternoon, took him shopping for things he needed, and attended church with him on Sunday. Just nice to relax and hang out together as a family. It seemed like the son enjoyed having us there for a bit as a change of pace. He stayed in the hotel room with us both nights, and we had a good time visiting. He is enjoying college life, I think. He stays busy studying for Japanese class, and hanging out with kids from the "Japan Club." He made sushi for them at a gathering this past week, I think. Also, he plays ping-pong with a friend from high school frequently, and plays chess at "chess club" each week too. Academics continue to go well for him; he reports of getting A's on most tests and quizzes when we inquire. He will most likely be home for Thanksgiving, as they "close" campus for the five day weekend, and you need to pay extra if you stay around. We're thinking he'll get a ride home with one of his friends there who's from here too. It'll be good to see him again. We do connect with him fairly often via Instant Message through Google or Yahoo, but it has been far less often the past couple weeks. He's been busy studying for tests and such, so not on-line much when we check. It certainly takes some getting used to, not knowing specifically what is going-on with your kid on a daily basis, after 18+ years of making it top business of the day. I'm sure God has valuable lessons for all of us in this "growing-up" process.

And speaking of growing-up, the daughter attended her homecoming dance a couple weekends ago. She loves to dance, so she always reports having a great time, and it's always fun to hang out with friends as well. She was excited to report dancing two consecutive songs with the boy she most likes to focus on for now--a foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic. But, the cool part of the story from the parental perspective is that she chose to wear a very charming "vintage" dress that had been her Mom's from her high school days. The "classic" dress, in fact, was handmade for the beautiful bride by her Mom for some high-school festivity 35-ish years ago. The dress fit the princess remarkably well and she looked lovely. (You are used to my purely parental-prejudice-free remarks, right?) It was "emotional" seeing her traipse happily off to her high school rapt with teenage enthusiasm, and wrapped in the love and memories of a dear grandmother and dedicated Mom.

Well, my presence is being requested now to assist with figuring out Hobbit Feet. So, guess I'll cease my "eventide ramblings" for now. Blessed Reformation Day to all. Celebrate the Truth! And we'll connect again soon.

Weather, Wisdom and Wonder

Our autumn days seemed to suddenly slide into almost-winter days here this week. Today, very wet lazy snowflakes drifted about in varying degrees of seriousness, exciting the school kids so distractedly witnessing it through the classroom window, but in the final analysis, it never stuck; just provided some nice, needed moisture. Where is "October's Bright Blue Weather?" I ask. I like the colorful, clear, cool days with crisp azure skies. Colorful foliage does decorate here and there, but winter's white strokes reach way down the mountainsides too. Guess I'll thank God for his beautiful and perfect creative artistry and seasonal wisdom and leave it at that.

Have I ever mentioned that I have lots of relatives? A couple Sundays ago, a distant cousin had organized an informal gathering of relatives, all descendants of my maternal, maternal, maternal great-great grandparents. We met at a local restaurant a few minutes from my house. There were probably 30-40 folks who stopped by in the couple of hours that I was there. I knew the most closely related ones--and had great fun visiting with some first cousins and some aunts that I hadn't talked to in quite awhile, not to mention my sister that I certainly do not see often enough. Once in awhile, someone from the other side of the room would wander into our corner and introduce themselves and we'd all discuss the familial connection. There still were plenty of folks that I didn't meet or talk to, but here's the compelling part. I was sitting enjoying the company of my "closely-related" kin when I notice this very sweet woman that I have worked with at school for the past six years walk by. I asked my great-aunt, "Is she a relative?" And, surprise! Yes, she is. When she came back in the room, she stopped, rested her arm on my great-aunt's shoulders and, equally as surprised as I, she explained her place in the family at-large. Turns out that her mom and my grandmother are first cousins. Adding to the story, her daughter also works at our school in the office, so she (the daughter) and I are straight-across third cousins. Let's add another generation; my nephew attends our school too, as does the office cousin's son. Fact is, these fourth cousins are in the same 6th grade homeroom. Very cool, I think. Some 130 years of family history sitting just a few desks apart from each other in these two charming young men. Their great-great-grandmas are sisters, and they both share the same set of great-great-great-grandparents. Wow! What a wondrous miracle God's gift of family is!

Late. Have more to share, but will save for another time. Blessings on your day, week. Hope to "talk" to you again soon.