Celebrate Life 2014...

I honestly don't know where to begin.  I have had 13 1/2 hours of sleep in the past 3 1/2 days.  When I put it like that, it doesn't actually seem that bad, but I think that maybe it is...

I think the last time I kept such a busy schedule at Celebrate Life was my senior year of high school!  This week/weekend was so much fun, and I am blessed to be a part of the lives of so many amazing teenagers!

Some highlights...

I have a new ONU sweatshirt.  It was cold and rainy, and I finally gave in and bought one, because I decided that it would be cheaper than going to the hospital for pneumonia.  It wasn't much cheaper, but a little bit...

I have come close to perfecting a very pleasant tone of voice that helps people to understand how very important it is that they change my daughter's talent event schedule to coordinate with her quiz schedule...  Or maybe my reputation proceeds me...  I'm going to choose to go with the nice tone of voice theory...

We had 23 people from our local church who participated in this event, and I had the opportunity to have real conversations with many of them.  Most of the others, I managed to at least wave at as I ran by in my new hoodie, all tied up around my face...

Our student worship arts team had the opportunity to perform on a college stage and to be judged by excellent musicians.  They received a rating of "good" for their effort, which wasn't as well as they did at District Celebrate Life, but was pretty decent considering two of the three vocalists had throat and voice issues going on.  Mostly, I am proud of them for working together as a team and making significant progress over the past several months.  A 15 minute performance can go well or not, but building relationships and learning how to worship God, in community, cannot be judged by a score sheet.  These guys are winners in my book, hands down!

We had one student who played soccer and several students who earned ratings of good, excellent, and superior in vocal talent, art, and speech.  Grace received a perfect score on her original piano composition, which she played and sang.  Seth received a superior on his sculpture.

The MI District Bible Quizzing B team (Daniel, Cassie, Hannah, Abby, and Kyle) took 3rd place in their division.  Our A team (Grace, Amber, Kaitlyn, Seth, and Dominic) took second place in their division.  The final round came down to the last question, and Seth made a great jump, securing the chance for the win, but it just didn't go our way this time.  Seth worked as a real team player (per normal), and I couldn't be more proud of him if I tried!  He ended up placing 18th in the preliminary rounds, putting him just outside of the top 16 quiz-off.  Grace, Amber, and Kaitlyn all quizzed in the top 16.

Grace finished 6th, individually, missing the A Team for Q by just 2 points.  I am struggling a little bit with this, because my intuition was telling me to tell her to sit on the last few questions, and if I had gone with that instinct, she would not have made a second error in the round, which cost her 10 points.  But coaching at this level is not easy, and we all make mistakes...  I'm not going to say there weren't any tears, and quite frankly, I think it's OK for a 12 year old who has worked hard all year long to memorize the entire books of Romans and James to feel a little disappointed at this outcome.  But what I can't get over is how quickly she recovered and moved on with a good attitude.  Grace spoke, during testimony time, about the importance of not only knowing what Scripture says for the sake of competition but for the sake of living a Christian life.  I told her earlier in the week that your true character comes out much more clearly when you lose than when you win.  Her character shines, and I am so blessed to be her Mom.  I am thankful, everyday, that my kids love Jesus and want to follow him.  I can't think of anything that matters more.  If you don't think that I was the one crying, while she was talking (happy tears), then you don't know me very well.  She comes by the tears honestly...

I have to admit, though, that there were some more tears for me, and if anybody thinks that was about Grace's score and final placement, they don't know me either.  Actually, what happened was that another quizzer, one whom I have seen growing in leaps and bounds, as a person, over the past two seasons, and one for whom I pray often, came up to me and spoke some words that caused me to feel a little overwhelmed at how amazing these teenagers really are.  I love what God is doing in their lives.

And then, as if that wasn't enough crying for the day, I felt compelled to cry when another teenager gave her testimony about quizzing, because she is someone who meant an awful lot to Grace in her first season (and this season, as well)...

And I might also have cried when I realized that Grace was on the phone with yet another quizzer, hundreds of miles away, who was speaking encouragement and helping Grace through her disappointment!

This is why I love Teen Bible Quizzing.

Well, we finally got all of the teens home safely and picked up our little ones at Grandma's house.  I should probably try for a couple more hours of sleep tonight.

L.

District Celebrate Life, 2014...

Mostly this post is going to be embedded FB post videos.  DCL was really fun and definitely a success as far as all of the entries our youth group brought!

One picture...  This is Seth's sculpture which received mixed scores from the judges (not exactly the most orthodox display of creation I've ever seen, but extremely theologically loaded and helpful, nonetheless), and it will be moving on to RCL in May:

The trio that Grace did with Kelsay and Kyle received an excellent:

Post by Phil Michaels.

The worship band, which practiced together for 2 1/2 weeks, managed to pull off an excellent, and I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of their effort:

Post by Phil Michaels.

Grace's keyboard solo unfortunately came apart at the seems a little bit because of a memory lapse, but the judge gave her a superior anyway:

Post by Durand NYI.

Grace's vocal solo with accompaniment, which is a song she wrote, herself, received a superior:

Post by Durand NYI.

In addition to all of the above events, Grace's still photography is moving on to RCL, as well.

The only really questionable event of the weekend was bathing suit snow angels...  This event will not take place in May...  Oh, wait...  I don't think this was part of the competition...

Post by Chad Hadfield.

What a weekend!

L.

Admittedly...

... we have been behind on our holiday art projects!

But the turkeys are finally painted!

L.

Dinosaur Camp, Day 5...

We made it to the end of the week!  The truth is, my favorite part of the day was when Seth and Grace came busting through the back door and talked, non-stop, about camp until the only thing left to do was watch the camp highlights video!  I love how much they love camp.  I also love how good it feels to have them home again!

But before they came home, there was much left to do in the realm of the dinosaurs!

So... last week I cleaned out the school/art closet.  You would not believe the treasures I found buried in there!  Among them was an unopened package of face paint in a variety of colors.  Who knows how old it was, but I thought I'd better give it a try.  May I present the cutest dinosaurs ever:

M-Rex:

Triantops:

Tricurlytops:

Oh, come now...

This is the face you would make, too...

If you were about to be attacked by three roaring dinosaurs:

I proceeded to pack a dinosaur picnic (boiled dinosaur eggs, Jell-O dinosaur eggs, dinosaur fruit snacks, dinosaur PBJ, if you've been reading, this week, you get the picture) and to load my little monsters in the van for a trip to "Dinosaur Park"!  We have not been there in years.  It is dirty, and sometimes the inhabitants border on creepy.  But... you know... it has dinosaurs!  We invited friends (I hope that doesn't immediately put me on the bad friend list - I promise we'll invite them to a cleaner park next time) and had a ton of fun!

Picnic Time:

 

Riding Tyrannosaurus Rex:

Oh look!  Another one of our kind:

Loving on the Brontosaurus:

"Mom!  Take a picture!"

This "baby" still loves to swing...

I'm going to hang onto that for as long as I can:

After a couple of hours of melting in the sun, I let the kids sit on the couch sipping water and watching more from "The Land Before Time" series until their eyes glazed over.

I did manage to hang much (although not quite all) of our dinosaur drawings from the week:

It's been fun.  I think maybe next summer we'll try pirate camp...

L.

Beautiful Day...

I couldn't have asked for a better day to kick off our summer vacation!  Snuggling in the morning with Miah, followed by lots of Saturday morning cartoons (Darkwing Duck was our cartoon of choice today), a great workout, homemade Chinese food for lunch, and some good time outside with perfect weather.  Back inside for showers, some silent reading time, dinner, and now it's time for Garfield and Friends.  With any luck, everybody under age 10 will be in bed by 8:00, we'll all get some good sleep, and we can repeat this over... and over... and over again...

Somebody loves her new "toy":

Seth made a pretty awesome landscape on the stairs:

Miah continues to love the fact that she is allowed to 

color "on the floor"

Adding paint to the mix was a huge hit:

L.

Moments At The Kitchen Table…

Miah is such a little artist lately.  As always, she is cracking me up with the things she says.  I never know what will come out of her mouth!  Today, as she finished drawing “Miah and Mama” at the kitchen table, she stopped and asked, “Do ya like it?  Do ya?”  As of late, Miah has gotten in the habit of asking every question this way, “Can we do it?  Can we?,”  “Is it time yet?  Is it?,”  etc.  I find this exceptionally cute.

Of course, I loved Miah’s picture.  One of my greatest qualities as a mom is the ability to genuinely gush over every piece of art.  I truly love every paper to which these kids of mine put a crayon…

When Miah was finished coloring she asked, “Can I stay in here forever?”  Uh… no.  But I love that she wants to…

L.

I Feel Great...

... after writing words that I'm not going to post, because I still have some social filters left.

Here's the part of my day I still feel inclined to share...

I feel like this day started a hundred years ago.  I’m tired.  And yet I wished for a few moments of quiet in the middle of the night to get these thoughts out, and here I sit…

Let’s start with Ian’s last Upward game for the season.  Even though his teammates gave him the ball over… and over… and over again, the kid just doesn’t shoot.  He likes to pass.  He is the king of assists.  One of the referees even lifted him up to make a basket, today, and Ian laughed hysterically and dropped the ball!  I love that kid.  He did earn an offense star for his t-shirt, today, as well as a star for Christlikeness.  Rolling his eyes, Ian said, “Another Christlikeness star?”  This led to a conversation, amidst contained laughter, about how he should want to be Christ-like all the time!  Unless Ian makes a 180 between today and next season, I don’t think he’ll play basketball again.  He really did enjoy his coaches and the other kids, and they were great, but Ian doesn’t love basketball.  What Ian loves is drinking Gatorade on Saturdays…

He did get a shot off at the end.

You can see from the angle here that it didn't go,

but it's all good.

Seth and Grace had a big day at their first District Celebrate Life!  Seth entered a drawing and received an excellent rating, so it will go on to Regionals.  Grace did a piano solo, which received a superior rating and a vocal solo, which received an excellent, so both of these events advance, as well!  In addition, they were recognized for their fourth place finish as a zone quiz team and for their individual places from two weeks ago.  As it turns out, one of the district A team members has decided to play volleyball at RCL, so Seth gets to move up, and both he and Grace will quiz on the A team at regionals! 

 Here’s the haul from today:

And oh…  Caleb who had a rough basketball season seems to be the only family member talented enough to catch flying t-shirts…  

 I think he’s going to have to grow into this one:  

L.

I Am No Seamstress...

However...

Even though I can't sew (yet), I have always been pretty crafty.  So...  I was delighted when I came across directions for a no sew pillowcase dress!  This did require an iron... and I don't really "do" irons, but I decided that if I could think of it as an art tool as opposed to... well... an iron, I could probably do this...

Here is the first of Miah's new dresses for the summer!  It's even cuter with her in it, but by the time I pulled the camera out, she was asleep.  In addition to this one, I have material for four more and for two matching tops for Grace.  Grace is, of course, not as thrilled as I am about this...  (she hates "pillowcase" anything, but I think she can get over it long enough to take some great pictures with her baby sister)!

Tell me what you think!

 L. 

"Calebisms", Part 2...

This is a picture of, "Mommy and Shamu"...


I don't think it's all that difficult to tell which one is which...

But why are we so close to the same size?

Lisa

I Am A Tempermental Artist...

... Hope that title packs all the punch it's supposed to!

I honestly think I would be happy if I quit school right now and spent all of my "spare" time (ahem... yeah, well that after the kids are asleep time, anyway) learning to play instruments, writing music, writing books, taking photographs, and pulling plugs on monitors and sound systems that make me feel cranky...

The only real problem with that is that my profile will likely forever proclaim that I am a starving artist if I do this...

I am going to lose my mind if I don't produce something worthwhile soon, though, and I think that people are starting to see my wrath on this matter...

I have a headache...

And so, I ramble on once again...

Lisa