Sometimes I wonder how schizophrenic our family's educational choices must appear to others.

We really have tried it all, it seems--homeschool, public school, charter school, private school, virtual school, Christian college, state college, technical college, even college-for-high-school-credit.

True, for many years, it was only the first two--homeschool and public school. (That's not so insane, is it?) The rest were prompted by our move to Wisconsin, and our kids becoming high school and then college-age students. Because we lack a crystal ball, we've been gaining experience by the trial-and-error method. And...because God uses it all. And because one kid is not like another.

So.

Because we are Wisconsin residents, we have this virtual school option. It has been nice to take advantage of. With all the other things going on in our lives when we first moved up here, it was great to have someone else making assignments and grading them, and holding us all accountable during a crazy time. It was a lifesaver that first year we tried it, for B14's 6th-grade and Chicklet's 2nd-grade year.

It was also the perfect thing for B17 to switch to after 8th and 9th grade at a private school. For many reasons, we wanted to bring him home and he wanted to come home, but he did not want to be homeschooled and I did not want to homeschool him! The virtual school was a great solution.

This year, however, the virtual school just hasn't worked out so well.

I already wrote about our decision to pull out Chicklet10, early in the school year, and I described some of our difficulties with B14 here.

After deciding that we would replace his social studies curriculum with our own approach, it was only a short leap to the conclusion that we could just do the same with his other classes...and it made such a difference when he no longer had a reason to be on a laptop! Suddenly he was reading again. He was getting his work done in a reasonable time, and he was playing piano for fun again. He started playing games with his younger brother and sister when they were all finished with academics. Overall he seemed to regain motivation and become his old self again.

And he admitted that he had been spending hours playing online video games before. As I suspected! He was just so quick at switching to a school screen when I would check on him or make him sit at the kitchen table, and I could rarely catch him. I couldn't sit with him for hours on end, making sure he was only doing schoolwork. We probably could have installed some kind of software that could have helped, but when I did searches, everything I found was designed to block certain sites; what we needed was a blocker for everything except sites we designated. (I'd still like to find one--please let me know if you know of one!)

So no wonder he was unmotivated by math problems and Latin exercises. How could they compare to the excitement of a life-or-death mission? I can't fault the virtual school for his poor choices, but it seemed clear to us that virtual curriculum was no longer a good option for B14.

Then all we had left in virtual school were B17--who was and still is doing his own thing, in 11th grade--and B8.

B8, in second grade, had really enjoyed it at the beginning, but he was getting bored.  Increasingly, he began copying his big brother's bad habits, and was sneaking onto Lego.com when he was supposed to be watching the short instructional videos. The workbook pages were often too easy for him, or they were too time-consuming for what they were worth. Though this curriculum had challenged Chicklet when she was in second grade, it wasn't a great fit for her brother.

And I began to think how nice it was in the days when I didn't have to scan and send anything in, when I could let them read all day if they wanted, and not feel like we still had this other busywork that had to be completed before we could call it a day of school. I thought of all the field trips we took when my oldest three were in elementary school, without counting the cost of getting "behind." I thought of the things I would have B8 focus on if he didn't have to do seemingly arbitrary assignments every day. I thought of how, instead of spending time concentrated on one child, B8, I would rather spend that time with all three, reading aloud and doing unit studies.

So I pulled out B8 too. The school was sorry to see him go, because apparently we were exceptionally diligent about getting work turned in. (I just can't ignore a checklist, I guess, and other people's expectations!) But I was NOT sorry to see the laptop go back, because the kids all knew the password to it, which the school had set and we didn't have admin privileges to change. Every time I went to the grocery or took a shower, somebody would be tempted to sneak on it. Good riddance, I say.

And we are enjoying our new-found freedom immensely! Each one is doing short lessons targeted to his or her needs, for grammar, spelling, writing, handwriting, vocabulary and math. For science, they choose a book from my shelf of elementary science books, and all three have been reading Usborne's Starting Point Science (we have all four volumes and they rotate). They also watch Bill Nye, the Science Guy DVD's from the library. For social studies, they read. We are focusing on American history this year, so they've read biographies and other chapter books, and we watched the John Adams mini-series recently too.

For reading aloud, we're taking a break from the Little House series--just finished Farmer Boy--and have started The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We're also doing a poetry unit, with a book that came with Chicklet's curriculum, A Child's Introduction to Poetry, and I love it because it's more than just a poetry collection; it explains poetry categories, such as narrative poetry, lyrical poetry, nonsense verse, limericks, haikus, villanelles, etc. They are writing their own poems too! For Bible, we have been reading Journey to the Cross for the Easter season, which goes beyond telling the story, explaining Jewish and Roman customs of the time period. We're also memorizing Colossians 3:12-17.

We now have more regular trips to the library, and Chicklet and B8 always are engrossed in their finds for a few days after our visit.  Chicklet and B14 continue piano, B8 is starting spring soccer, and they all attend theater classes too. B14 was selected to be on the Improv Team from our area! His team will compete against 8-9 other teams in June, and he can't wait. He's also taking a voice class. B8 is in a voice class as well, and Chicklet is taking dance, covering two styles--Hip Hop and Modern.

We had a nice Spring Break, spreading it out by doing lessons on Tuesday/Thursday for two weeks, and we also went on a couple field trips with friends. (Maybe I'll do a short post about that separately.)

So we are not regretting our drop-out status. We are learning just as much...and enjoying it more!

Schizophrenic? I prefer to think of ourselves as "flexible" and "responsive to student needs."

So there.

I don't have photos. (Yet.)

Well, here's one, from the very start of Holy Week--beginning our Palm Sunday service

This has not been my year for a super-meaningful Lent.

But it's okay.

The one practice I've been keeping up is the daily devotional Jesus Calling. I've been reading each daily paragraph twice, morning and night. Such an encouragement to pull away, to look at the bigger picture.

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." It's the answer to so many problems, great and small.

The between-time hours, though, have been so full. And as I write, I realize that lately, what life has been full of is many joys and fun challenges! In addition to routine labors and responsibilities, of course. But so many exciting things in the works.

Let me count them.

Aladdin! Yes, it's over. But the photos remain! Papa Rooster was the professional photographer this time, and one of the things he offered to parents, besides a cast photo and the usual groupings, was a souvenir photo book of photos taken during performances. He's been teaching himself InDesign so that he can create  each page as a photo collage, and I've helped him a bit with layout for some of the pages. It's going to be a beautiful book! I've also helped him organize the parents' orders, tally them, order them, and organize the prints to hand out. We also created a production disk of photos from the show, with B22 on the job of burning those and creating labels with the Aladdin graphic. I have a new appreciation for how many hours go into photography besides just snapping the picture!

My One Act class!  Two weeks ago, all 14 students "auditioned" with a monologue and then we did cold readings from the script. My teen aide and I cast the show that night, and the next week, we passed out scripts and did a read-through. We discussed the characters' personalities, relationships, ages and motivations. Next week we'll start blocking it. We have two hours a week to rehearse until our performance on May 21. It's called "The Taming of LaRue," and it's a comic Western loosely based on "The Taming of the Shrew." The kids have lots of potential and it's going to be fun to pull it out of them!

Tom Sawyer! Auditions were last weekend and rehearsals start tonight. B14 was cast as Judge Thatcher, Becky Thatcher's father. He's about the tallest boy in the cast this time, so it seemed inevitable that he would end up in an adult role. Chicklet10 is Ruthie, a School Child, and B8 is Boy 2, also a School Child. (He was the "Child" in Aladdin, so our little joke is that he's moving up the ladder, since as "Boy 2," he now gets a gender and a number!) We haven't seen the script yet, but since they are named characters, they probably each get a line or two, and B14 will have quite a few. I will not be on the makeup committee, as usual; I asked to be on tech, so I can learn more about those aspects of directing. Now that I've been an intern director, I'm eligible to be on a directing team "for real," and I want to keep expanding my knowledge of all that goes into it!

Easter Vigil! For the past four years, I've been the director of all readings for Easter Vigil, plus the Passion reading for Palm Sunday. At our Easter Vigil, these readings are rarely just straightforward reading; we add music, dance or drama to accompany them. (See photos from last year's Vigil.) I wasn't really up for doing another year, but found myself in the role again, being urged to simplify as much as possible. So we are repeating several things from last year, performing two readings as songs, and using fewer kids. It's a bummer, really, since we have so many kids at Light of Christ, but it does simplify things from a rehearsal standpoint. (Next year, I want to take just two or three of the readings, not all nine, and then I will have time and energy to better incorporate more children.) The other thing we did to simplify was to cut--gasp!--one of the optional readings, Isaiah 4:2-6, God's Presence in a Renewed Israel. I had no inspiration for it, and when I saw it was not listed on The Lectionary Page for this year, we all agreed we could let it go.  I also delegated the Passion reading this year, which we always do as a reader's theater type choral reading. So thankful for Abbi, who took that on, and for Mrs. A, who created a schedule for sound checks for Saturday morning. (And for John, who gave ideas to get me going, and Lisa who is Master Coordinator for all of Holy Week and forced me to set helpful deadlines!)

Holy Week! Now that the administrative elements are over--emailing people to ask for involvement, creating rehearsal schedules, more emails, creating "scripts," sending followup emails--what's left is what I'd call the fun stuff. (Although as I type that, I wonder if I'm going to enjoy five rehearsals back-to-back from 3:30 to 8:30 or 9 on Monday.) Besides reading rehearsals, I also am singing in one music rehearsal, and then there are nine final run-throughs/sound checks on Saturday mornings.

Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday! It's the big week of our church year, and our whole family is psyched! Blondechick is singing for several of the services, and B17 is running sound at all those rehearsals and services, and learning a new sound system we just purchased because we are meeting in a new location now. We had a minor calamity of sorts when we learned that the Kemper Chapel, where we normally hold all our services, had been rented out for a wedding on Holy Saturday. Because of the impossibility of moving everything on Saturday night to be ready for a Sunday morning service, we had to find a new location for all of our Holy Week services. The best option, after we tested it out by meeting there on Sunday mornings, turned out to be the Simmons Gymnasium at the other end of the Kemper Center, and now we are considering meeting there permanently on Sundays. Although it's a gym, it's beautiful. Stay tuned for pictures!

Homeschooling! What's new about that, you ask? One by one, we've ended up withdrawing kids from the virtual schools they were enrolled in, until now only B17 remains laptop-based in his lessons. The younger three are now spending a lot more time reading, and we are all loving it. More on that in a post to come.

Spring Break! Friends from our old stomping grounds are coming up for a day next week, or maybe we'll meet them in Chicago, if it's good weather. We have passes and Groupon deals to several museums we are going to visit after Easter, with friends, and I think we are going to take a day here and a day there and call it spring break.

Summer plans! They are a-percolatin'. Not fully brewed yet, but fun and exciting to think about.

Thank you, Lord, for all these joyful, enjoyable things to plan and do and think about. Thank you for my kids, husband, friends, church, and theater group to do them with. A couple nights ago, I dreamed that I was working in a maternity unity in a hospital, and there were all these babies there in the nursery, and being born in other rooms, but there was a hurricane or tornado on the way. Do I fear that something will happen to wipe out the joy and excitement I’m feeling? I pray for your protection for all these new things; like all children, they are Yours.

I like that title because it's alliterative and descriptive, but I could never, in a million words, say ALL that I would like to say about Aladdin! It was one of my favorite theater experiences ever.

Much of my enjoyment came from being a part of it from the beginning, as the intern director. From auditions, callbacks and casting on through rehearsals and a hair-raising production week--(we missed an entire dress/tech rehearsal due to a snowstorm)--it was such fun to be a part of the whole process. I couldn't have imagined a better team of directors to work with and learn from.

And the kids! They were just amazing. I saw such dedication from dancers, actors, vocalists and "triple threats." It was really rewarding to work with them.

Another reason this show will be unforgettable was that nearly all our family was involved! We had four kids onstage--for the first and probably only time.  B22 ran a spotlight, I directed, and Papa Rooster was the parent photographer who took backstage shots (for a "behind the scenes" photo CD), headshots (for the program), and costume shots (for candy bar wrappers sold as souvenirs, and for badges parents could purchase which identified them as the proud parent of the cast member[s] pictured). For the first time ever, he was also the professional photographer, who took the cast photo and other professional group or individual shots, as well as photos during shows which can be ordered through his website individually, on a disc, or in a photo memory book. Big learning curve for him, but a great opportunity to do what he loves and is so good at!

I don't know how I can possibly choose from among the hundreds of photos he took, so I will limit myself to just a few of our kids' big moments...and encourage you to go check out the rest! (I will post a link once his website is ready to go live.) Such beautiful costumes and colors...it was visually stunning. I wish I could post video of the dancing too--such high-energy, Bollywood-style, FUN stuff!

So here's a taste! (Click to enlarge each image.)

It was B8's first show, and he got to wear a mic and deliver a few lines of advice to the snake charmer. ("Maybe, if you'd play some better music, the snake would come out.")

After  singing throughout a high speed chase slow-mo pursuit with strobe lights, Aladdin (B17) and his three friends finally escape the Palace Guards...

...and Aladdin gets to catch his breath during a flashback scene of simpler times when his mother was still alive. This sweet trio was such a touching moment, every night.

Meanwhile, Jasmine has to endure the attentions of another suitor, Prince Zorak (played by B14), "the most sought-after prince in the known world, with the best education, training, and of course..."

"...good looks."

The Prince Zorak scene included a Treasure Dance, a guys' Sword Dance, and girls' Servant Dance. While his entourage presented these gifts, Prince Zorak did his own interpretive dance moves around the stage. (I could have chosen 20 awesome photos from this scene alone--between Zorak's facial expressions and the expressive dancers, it will be worth it to view the whole album, once it's ready!

B14 also played the Captain of the Palace Guard. Here he interrogates Aladdin who, to protect Jasmine, claims she is his sister. "What's her name?" "She...bah...  Sheba! That's her name! C'mon, Sheba, Mother is looking for us. Silly Sheba, we're supposed to be washing vegetables. Come with me, Sheba..."  B14, watching suspiciously as they exit, sneers:  "Vegetables?"

Aladdin takes Jasmine to his hideout, where he and his friends perform a fun musical number to introduce themselves. "Jasmine, you ain't seen nothing near/ The kind of friends you've got right here...."

But the Palace Guard bursts in to arrest them. (It's okay if you snicker at B14's turban. We all did. Sometimes it was totally lopsided; sometimes it looked like a diaper. It added comedy to his character.)

Jafar takes Aladdin to the Cave of Wonders to get the lamp, and an earthquake seals him in.  He meets the Genie of the Lamp, but he needs persuading that the Genie is really that great and powerful. It takes a colorful musical number--complete with 16 blue-faced mini-Genies, confetti cannons and a Magic Carpet--to convince him. (Ya gotta enlarge this one...Chicklet 10 and B8 are the blondes in matching green in front.)

This was a tech rehearsal, and the mini-Genies aren't blue, but I like this "Going up!" shot of the end of Act 1, with the Magic Carpet spread out in front (and B8 in green,  there in back.) Strobes and a sound effect were added too.

In Act 2, B14 (back row left) also got to be in "Prince Ali's" (Aladdin's) entourage, in the hardest and best dance number of the show. He really enjoyed this third role.

At the end of the number, he and a friend carry his brother out on their shoulders!

The Magic Carpet Ride looked really cool with blowing clouds projected on the backdrop and dry ice creating clouds  onstage.

It became a little less romantic--and cuter--after the Mini Genies joined in the number. Usually they were in shadow,  but this shot was from dress rehearsal. (B8 in front, C10 in back, in matching green.)

B14, as Palace Guard, had a line in which he tells Aladdin and friends, who are prisoners, to "Quiet down in there." In rehearsal, just for fun, he banged on the gate with his elbow and pretended he was in agony from hitting his funny bone. The director said, "Let's keep it--but make it bigger and keep groaning over and over." It was a stupid gag, but he did it so well, it was a crowd-pleaser!

Aladdin and friends escape and sneak into Jafar's lair dressed as women. That's B17 (Aladdin) in red there in front.

As he dances with Jafar, Aladdin's head covering falls off and Jafar recognizes Aladdin! A swordfight ensues until Aladdin snatches up the lamp and Jafar breaks it with his sword, freeing the Genie and doing away with himself.

In the front row, in green, B8 and Chicklet 10 sing "oooo's" as the wedding party arrives. See B17 in white in back?

And you'll have to enlarge this one...all four on one stage! (B14 is behind the Sultan, to left of Jasmine.)

My job was to hit Play on the computer for each song, sound effect and piece of transition music. It's no one's favorite job--just a little stressful to always get the timing right--but I was finally feeling a bit more comfortable by the last show!

I had such a sweet time in California with my aunt and uncle!!

Totally in catch-up mode now, and struggling to find time to write a post about it. I have pictures--but they are located in several places, from which I don't normally upload to my blog, so that's another obstacle.

And Aladdin is just around the corner! We move our sets and light/sound equipment into the theater this Saturday. I'm busy selling tickets and realizing I need to immediately borrow or order shoes for the older boys, and buy and dye canvas tennies for my younger two. Oh, we need no-show socks too. And Showcase is tomorrow night too--yikes! Better make sure they have what they need to wear for that too!

I am also scrambling to pull together curriculum and a lesson plan for B14. Last week, I took him out to lunch for his birthday, and in a heart-to-heart conversation, he convinced me to let him drop the virtual school altogether and go back to pure homeschooling, which he remembers fondly as the last time he enjoyed school. He says the computer has taken over his life, since he started virtual schooling, and I agree! So, one more thing to add in to this week. Mostly, I just want to get him reading again.

But my California trip was a blessed time of R & R. My aunt and uncle are so gracious and easy to be with. We didn't do lots--the big day was going to a set where McDonald's shoots most of their commercials (my uncle's brother works there), and visiting the Nixon Library on the way home. On other days, the big events were walking around the neighborhood, going down to the ocean at the San Clemente Beach and Dana Point, going to Costco and a few other errands, and going to dinner at my cousin's house. We were in the car heading to Saddleback, Rick Warren's church, when I became ill, so that was disappointing. Slept it off and felt fine after that, though; my body seemed to be confused by the time change, different food and caffeine at odd times.

My aunt and uncle have the gifts of conversation and laughter--my cousin too--and I mostly just enjoyed sitting around and talking and laughing! It had been years since I had seen them all, and it was so good to catch up. I also enjoyed hearing about their experiences in the past; I heard many stories I had not heard before or could only vaguely recall. My uncle is quite a character and tells a colorful story! And it was inspiring to see their faithfulness to God, and His hand at work over the course of their lives. It was so good just to laugh, relax and worry about nothing while I was there! (Noooo stresssss....)

I soaked up what warmth and sunshine I could, too, though it was quite chilly while I was there. I hadn't been to CA in 17 years, and I honestly didn't remember it that well. I'd forgotten how hilly it was, and how exotic all the plants are, and I couldn't believe how green and beautiful it was, even in February! I can really see why so many people love it there. It was a great place to get away.

Still hope to post some pics later!

Thanks so much, Aunt and Uncle, for a wonderful time and for taking such good care of me!

I have half an hour, here in a rare morning at Panera, before a doctor's appointment. Since I am at Aladdin rehearsals every weekend, I have lost my usual Saturday morning sanity break, so I am grabbing some time alone while I can!

Rehearsals have been such fun, though. I love the kids, and I am learning so much from the other directors. It's helpful to see other's teaching styles with the various elements of dance, vocals, character development, blocking and more.

The older boys finished up their first semester at eAchieve, their virtual school. B17's course load will remain the same, except he will begin a new college class. He took Speech last semester at Gateway, a local technical college, and did fine. This semester we applied--through the  Youth Options program, which means the school district pays for it--for a class at UW-Parkside, which is here in town.  The only one that was approved that was also offered this semester was Intro to Philosophy. Not the first class I'd want him to take at a secular school, but at least his dad was a philosophy major in college, so he'll be able to give some perspective on the material. And hey, free college credit is a beautiful thing.

Blondechick will also be at Parkside this semester. She officially transferred and will be taking a full load of classes, as well as continuing to work as a waitress several nights a week. Right now she is basking in Florida--a last hurrah before classes start next week--with her dad, who is attending an industry conference and moderating a panel discussion on the Affordable Care Act which goes into effect in 2014.

But the rest of us went to the Wisconsin Dells last week, to stay overnight at a waterpark called the Kalahari.  We found a great deal online through Travel Zoo--it was $150 a night for a 2-bedroom, 2-bath suite, which included six passes to the waterpark and two passes to their indoor theme park, which has laser tag, rock-climbing, etc. We gave those to B17 and B13, and the rest of us had more than enough to amuse us at the waterpark for two days. Outside, the temps were in single digits, so it was perfect timing! It was a nice way to celebrate B22's birthday week and the halfway point of the school year.

B13's fall semester was lackluster. He is tempted by video games and a novel he is writing, when he should be doing school, and it's hard for me to monitor him when all of his school assignments are online. He can't work at his desk in his room anymore; instead he has to sit where I can see what's on the screen of his laptop. Still, I can't be in the room with him all the time. I am certain we will not do a virtual school with him again next year, but we were torn about what to do for this semester. With the goal of cutting down the time he spends in front of a screen, we dropped one of his elective classes for this semester, and we also decided to let him take an F in his social studies class for this coming semester. (It's only 8th grade; it won't appear on any transcript). History is usually his favorite subject, but he has hated this class. The online textbook is boring and unwieldy, and he spends more time trying to find information in it than he does learning anything interesting.

Instead, I am having him read the 10-volume A History of US, by Joy Hakim, and take multiple choice tests covering the material. He will research and write an essay every other week covering a topic of interest that comes up in his reading, so I'll get to work on writing with him, something I've been wanting to do. He'll also read biographies that we have in our homeschool collection. We'll continue this plan for 9th grade, too, and that will be his American History high school course. The best part is, it was someone from the virtual school who gave me the idea of substituting my own curriculum for the remainder of the semester, so I don't feel too awful about ignoring those assignments each week!

The two younger ones are ticking along nicely. B7 and I do his lessons from the virtual school, and I modify them sometimes so that we can more quickly move into reading time! He and Chicklet are really getting into their library books, bringing home lots of easy chapter books--Magic Tree House, Junie B Jones, Hardy Boys Secret Files series, Rainbow Magic Fairy series--that they can dig into. Chicklet has her workbooks, and she's doing Teaching Textbooks for math and really enjoying it. We are also doing Calculadder math drills daily. I don't remember why, but the timed tests freaked out my oldest two, so I gave up on it with them and never tried it with the middle two. But B7 and Chicklet are willing and eager to try to beat the clock every day, and I am so thankful to finally have something working well for learning facts!

My last piece of news is that next week, I am going on vacation. Not a family vacation--just me. My aunt and uncle in southern California are graciously hosting me for six days! This aunt is my dad's sister, and she used to come to the farm in Ohio with her son, my cousin, for about a month every summer when I was growing up, so I feel close to her.We also look alike, family friends in Ohio always tell me. Since my grandma passed away, we don't rendezvous in Ohio like we used to, and when they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past fall, I considered going, which started the whole plan evolving,  Now it's almost here, and I can't wait!  So much to do, though, to get ready to be gone.

That took more than thirty minutes.

Perhaps my next post will be from sunny CA, but I am not promising. I may be too busy vacationing from all responsibility!

Time for a little recap of the family news, eh?

First, the holidays. On Christmas Eve, we held our usual Christmas Eve service at Light of Christ.

B13 as crucifer at the service's candlelight beginning.

Father Rooster gives a children's homily. No childcare on Christmas Eve; it's a short, early, family service, over by 6 p.m.

Our hosts, who are also newlyweds!

Grandpa and my sis-in-law.

These Christmas cardigans once belonged to my Ohio grandpa.

My brother driving the tractor with his wife perched behind him; the kids are our two youngest and most of theirs.

Our only nephew/boy cousin, and the youngest of 5...all 7 and under!

You know what's annoying?

On New Year's Eve, it was seven years. Seven is a number of completion, in the Bible, isn't it?

Guess I need to either wrap it up, or keep at it for another seven!

It's been harder and harder to find time for writing. Seven years ago, the critical mass of our family was still at home, and barely into the teenage years. (Our oldest was nearly fifteen, but concerned more with Legos and sci-fi than any typical teenage interests.) Our chicks were mostly in the nest and under our wings; two weren't even school-age yet. I could count on some time in the evenings after they went to bed; we had a good routine, and I knew what I was doing, more or less. It was a good time to begin blogging.

As always, I am surprised at how many books I read this year. I think more than half of them were audiobooks, which I listen to primarily in the car or while cooking. A good number of those were children's books and re-reads, because often, I just needed another audiobook for the car, and I think a good book is worth reading more than once. I also read a lot of plays this year, since I have been teaching drama classes. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is to read plays! I placed them all together at the end.

I also notice that I only have a few nonfiction books on the list. I have been chipping away at the same half-dozen for the past six months and haven't finished any of them. I keep starting new ones that look good. Well, there's always next year.

Here's my list!

The View From Saturday (E.L. Konigsberg)
I really enjoyed this book years ago, and I re-read it to remember why! It has a unique structure, with four children each narrating part of the story of how their lives came to intersect on a 6th grade quiz team. Their stories are interspersed with the story of the championship round they are engaged in, in the present, and with the story of their teacher, Mrs. Olinski, who chose each of them for the team. Themes are accepting those who are different, accepting one's own uniqueness, sticking up for others and the value of one's own experiences. This book starts out slow and builds, so it may not be the best for a struggling reader, but avid readers will love it. By the author of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, one of my all-time favorite children's books.

A Father's Tale (Michael O’Brien)—At A Hen’s Pace review here.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)

"Behold, I bring you news of great joy which will be for all people:  

Tomorrow, we are driving down to our old stomping grounds in DuPage County for a church service--a Consecration Service to dedicate a new building to the Lord.

Church of the Resurrection (one of Light of Christ's mother churches and our home church for 17 years before we moved to WI) has been a mobile church for 22 years or more. When we first joined, they were worshiping at West Chicago High School. When we outgrew that auditorium, we moved to Edman Chapel at Wheaton College for two years; then it was on to Glenbard West High School, where they have been ever since.

We had no storage there at the high school. (We are incredibly blessed at Light of Christ to have a storage room at the Kemper Center!)  Everything--sound system, Sunday School and nursery supplies, altar, banners, lectern, etc.--was kept on large wooden carts on wheels, that were loaded up after church and pushed up a ramp onto a truck. No access to anything on the truck during the week!  Then on Sunday mornings, everything had to be unloaded from the truck, unloaded from the carts and the truck parked elsewhere. In severely cold weather, there was always a story about how the truck wouldn't start. The volunteer who drove it had to get there at some ungodly hour like 4 a.m. to have extra time just in case, and even then, there was often a story of how God provided some person or means of getting it started when the usual tricks didn't work.

Over the years, this congregation has attempted to find a building, or a piece of land, in a very land-locked area. They've looked at warehouses, old grocery stores, and the rare church building that has come on the market. They've looked at parcels of land, all far away from where they want to be, and even settled on one in Winfield that wasn't too far out, a few years ago. They began the process of getting zoning and city approvals--we had just moved, so I don't remember all the issues, but I remember the heartbreak that many of our friends went through as the needed approvals were refused, despite what had seemed like an open door initially. Many questions arose: Weren't we following the Lord's leading? Did we hear wrong? Why didn't this work out?

It was another two years or so before a property came on the market, an old warehouse right in downtown Wheaton (near FE Wheaton Lumber, if you know the area). A parishioner who is in real estate heard about it just days before it went up for auction. He was able to buy it for about the price of the land alone, and he offered to sell it to Rez at that price if they wanted it. The more they looked into whether it would work or not, the more perfect it began to seem. It was not far from Wheaton College, which was important for the large number of students who attend and participate regularly; there was adequate parking; there were no significant zoning hurdles; and its border on one side is Lincoln Marsh, a nature preserve. Overall, a great location in every way!

The warehouse itself is no ordinary warehouse, either. It was designed by David Haid, a distinguished Chicago architect who is probably best-known for designing the window-walled residence which is the site of the car-crash-through-the-window scene at the end of the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Like that building, this warehouse is also notable for its light and the placing of windows. Along the front of the building, which is the longest wall of the sanctuary area, there are windows for the top 20 feet or so.



Same angle, closer up, months later...



You can see they are building up the stage, and that curved portion on the left wall is a choir shell. Pretty great to have that huge service door in back, too, huh? (All the better to bring on large set pieces for the Easter Vigil!)

Here's the lobby area outside the sanctuary. The wall on the left will be a changing display by the many artists at Rez.



And another lobby entrance which will house RezCafe, the coffee house area.



And now, what relief that the Winfield parcel didn't work out! For just a fraction of the millions they would have had to spend to build from scratch, Rez now has a building--a really cool building--with room to grow! (There is room for a basketball court in just one of the many spaces they are leaving unfinished for now; in fact, it's right through the doors at the far left in the photo above.)

More photos, including the whole top floor of offices and Sunday School classrooms:


What an exciting time. We've only been waiting 20 years or more for this day to come...and now, it's here! Praise be to God!!!

(Slideshow below includes the last Sunday at Glenbard West and the procession from the high school to the new building, with stops at the old Ministry Center and Wheaton College.)

Sometimes God leads by circumstances.

So Blondechick is attending Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. It's a private Christian college that's not too difficult to get into, it's close to home, and she got a voice scholarship. Overall, it's been a good experience for her, but we have had to question whether it's worth the hefty price tag.  Papa R's income is high enough that we get little aid other than loans, and what we are expected to pay is far more than we can afford on a pay-as-you-go basis (especially after she switched her major and lost $1,000 a semester).

Up till now, God has provided us with lump sums--through bonuses, tax returns, a gift, the sale of our camper--that have paid the bill each semester. Five semesters in a row, including B21's year there, and each time, it has seemed like clear direction from God, that the money was provided.

For this next semester, we just don't have the lump sum. No cash bonus yet, with the new company, and we now have a high-deductible medical plan with no dental or prescription coverage. So it looks like we're going to need a good chunk of our savings to pay for wisdom teeth surgery in January for B17, and other ongoing health expenditures.

So we've been praying and talking to Blondechick and the TIU financial aid office. The plan now is for her to live at home next semester, take a few classes at the local UW school, keep waitressing at Olive Garden, save up, and defer the decision of where she wants to finish school. I'm planning to take B17 on some college visits this spring, and she may come along, but she's just not eager to go away to school. (Who would guess that our most extroverted child would be so keen to stick close to home?)

After the initial disappointment, she's now looking forward to moving back home. When she's been home to visit, she has hated to leave and go back to the dorm. She says she feels most herself here, and one thing she is concentrating on, personally, is who she is in Christ, and living from that center. Not trying to be what the world tells her to be, which is all wrapped up in appearance, image and personality; it's been easy for her to play that part, but she's in a different place now. It's been good--so good!--to see her respond with her whole heart to God's working through circumstances in her life recently. This move home, though a disappointment, has that same feeling of being something painful to give up, that God will use for good if one just lets go.

We're eager to see how he continues to lead her through this next phase of her journey!

It has been 20 years since that first little bundle of pink entered our world...

Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know all that lies beneath the surface, all the worries, the fears, the anxieties. It comes out as frustration and impatience, but really, it is all about fear and worry--that I am not doing enough or doing the right things, or raising my kids right or teaching them the things that really matter. I worry about our money and how we spend it. I worry about our kids and their problems and choices, and what I can do to help and teach them better. I worry about my health and my stress level. I worry when Papa Rooster and I aren't on the same page. I feel lonely sometimes, even in the midst of a large and noisy family, even in a church filled with good friends. Sometimes I just want someone to hold me and let me cry on their shoulder. It's hard always being the grown-up. 

But you have called me your child and told me to call you Father. You have instructed me to give all my cares and anxieties to you. You want me to find strength in you, not in myself. You have said not to worry about tomorrow, for each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Yet you also have given us a whole book of instructions teaching us to be wise and not foolish, the Proverbs, which strongly recommend thought for the future, responsibility and hard work...so I know it is not wrong to have these concerns.  It is my attitude of worry, rather than trust, that is wrong. 

I have to do my part:  mothering, housekeeping, budgeting, taking care of myself, teaching my kids and communicating with my husband. But I don't have to bear the whole weight of responsibility for how well or how badly it all turns out. In fact, I have no control over outcomes.  I act as though I do, quick to blame myself for anything that goes wrong, thinking I should have managed things better, and quick to self-congratulate when things go well. But I don't have to live as if it all depends on me--Heaven forbid! In my weakness, you are strong. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In repentance and rest is my salvation, in quietness and trust is my strength.

I was catching up with a friend last week, sharing some current worries, and she said comfortingly that those are really hard things to walk through. I laughed and told her that actually, these things feel relatively inconsequential compared to the stress I've carried for the past few years, which is finally lifting a bit in several areas, and I'm actually feeling emotionally lighter than I have in a long time. Suddenly, the tears began to flow, and my friend pulled me in and hugged me tight as I sobbed. I wasn't sure why I was crying, but it felt like such a relief just to say out loud that things had been really hard.

I do tell God, daily, how weak and helpless I feel. I do pray fervently for his intervention in my life and circumstances. I do have friends to share my struggles with. I think I mostly put my trust in God, and I often experience His joy and peace even in the midst of difficulty and struggle. I can be my bubbly, cheerful self and it's not an act. But it is also true that it takes energy to hold myself together when I just want to fall apart. It is stressful when I can't be completely open about struggles with one of our teens or in my marriage. It takes energy to be the anchor of the family when I feel like running away. I get tired of being strong. It can even be an effort to trust God, when I am so tempted to give in to anxiety and fear.

These have been stressful years, and they have taken a toll. They have been harder than they needed to be; I know I have trusted too much in my own strength to get through them. But as I write, I can give thanks to God for his strength and help, his mercy and care--and his grace. I am amazed at His answers to my prayers. In each of the areas that have been so difficult, I can rejoice in the ways He is working. He is managing outcomes that I could not have engineered, couldn't have dreamed of or hoped for. All are still works in progress, not free of concern or stress yet. But God's work, not mine, is so evident. It is proof that I can trust, that I can lean, that I don't have to be anxious or worried.

Still, it's a hard habit to break. Oh Lord, forgive my unbelief.

In your weakness, I am strong. Apart from Me, you can do nothing. In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength.

Lord, have mercy, daily, upon me.