At any rate...coming out of hiding to wish everyone a Most Blessed Advent and the Merriest of Christmases! Or Happy Hannukah! Or whatever else you might be celebrating!
Here is our card for 2012:
Amy
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Most Neglected Blog Award - Winner!
Well, maybe not THE Most Neglected Blog...but definitely in the top percentages! Somehow I just cannot seem to find the time or the will to write in this blog. Must. do. better.
At any rate...coming out of hiding to wish everyone a Most Blessed Advent and the Merriest of Christmases! Or Happy Hannukah! Or whatever else you might be celebrating!
Here is our card for 2012:
Amy
At any rate...coming out of hiding to wish everyone a Most Blessed Advent and the Merriest of Christmases! Or Happy Hannukah! Or whatever else you might be celebrating!
Here is our card for 2012:
Amy
Monday, August 20, 2012
Back to School...
Well, we did it.
We got back to school.
A lot of driving, a lot of carrying boxes, clothes, dorm room decorations, a lot of buying school supplies and arranging lesson times, just A LOT!
But we managed!
Today I did homeschooling with the 2 left here...Calvert 1st grade for Sarah Ying and Calvert 5th grade for Josh...
Plus it was the first day of school for the 2 at ASFA...9th grade for Hannah and 11th grade for Abby...
Plus it started the first full week of classes at UAB School of Nursing for Moriah...
And classes start Wednesday at UA for Samuel.
Whew.
Amy
Thursday, August 2, 2012
The Swimming Pool
I know I have mentioned it before.
Our farm has a swimming pool in a central location. It is next to the original old farm house on our property...that has been there for well over 100 years. My husband's grandparents lived in the house and somewhere around 1960-something, his grandmother had a pool built for her grandkids and the community to enjoy. The current pool is the descendent of that original pool.
It has been modified 3 or 4 times now. But, many of its parts date back quite a way and it is rather larger than your average pool and more than slightly cantankerous. I have been doing the maintenance on this pool for close to 20 years now. We have sort of a love-hate relationship, the pool and I. When we first came back to the farm after Jim graduated from veterinary school, the pool maintenance work was divided up between all the farm families. We made up a schedule and everybody did 1 or 2 weeks through the season. The farm crew mowed the grass of the sizeable lawn. Everybody chipped in for the chairs, the plants, the floats, etc. Everybody took turns shopping for the chemicals, sweeping the deck, carrying off the garbage. It was a community effort.
But as everyone else's kids got older, they quit using the pool so much.
And it all fell to me.
Not that I REALLY mind.
Totally sounds like one of those "first world problems" to complain about the burden of a swimming pool, I know! And anyway, it gets so very VERY hot here in the summer (heat index yesterday 109 degrees...and yes, it did actually feel like 109 degrees!) there is honestly not much else for the kids to do if you want them to exercise and spend some time outdoors. But, usually what happens when we go to the pool is they play and I work. I vacuum the pool and test the chemicals and clean the skimmers and backwash the filter and on and on. Then I water plants and hose the deck and clean up the garbage. And I mow the lawn. The kids play and splash around and jump and dive and just about the time they have had enough for one day...I am finished with the work. And since I really don't enjoy swimming in the pool all that much, we usually just head on home at that point. So...they play and cool off...I work and get even hotter. Sometimes I will jump in just for a minute. Just to chill a bit before we go. But usually it is just simpler to leave my swimsuit at home.
But, this year... this year I have re-discovered the joys of the pool!
Not during the day time when the kids are "rocking the pool" so it looks like the wave pool at Geyser Falls in Mississippi.
No! Rather, at night!
Abby and I are running again. She is doing 5K and I am working my way up to that. We run every other evening when the sun has just set, while there is still enough light to see. It would be cooler to run in the early morning, but the dew is so heavy and we are on a dirt road making it more than a little messy...and then there are the spider webs.
So we run in the evening. It is drier then (with fewer spiders.) It is hotter, too. But I plug in my marshmallow ear buds anyway and listen to Robert Ullrey tell me that I am "doing great!!!" on his Couch to 5K podcasts. I slog along, pounding my way through this week's workout until I am dripping with sweat and gritty dirt is stuck all over me.
And then...we go to the pool!
Just Abby and I.
We jump into the car and crank up that a/c and drive to the pool in our sweaty running clothes. And we do the "Nestea plunge" right into the deep end, sometimes without even bothering to take off our socks. That water feels absolutely fabulous when you have gotten as overheated as we have. It is not too cool...getting more like bathwater now that it is August. But it feels completely wonderful when you have been running. After a few laps, I just lie there floating, looking up at the stars coming out. With my ears under the water, I can barely hear anything...just the distant chirr of the cicadas...quiet underwater noises.
It is so peaceful.
The bats are coming out by now. They fly by, dipping down for a drink of clean water. They swoop around for a second or a third pass until they have gotten their fill. Then they fly off on their nightly hunting excursions.
I don't know if it is a runner's high ... just that little bit of much needed solitude ...the blissful coolness ...or what. But I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the goodness of such a simple pleasure, thankful for the beauty of nature, life's experiences, Jim's grandmother and her generosity, ...pretty much everything.
It is almost prayerful.
Meditative.
Euphoric.
And it makes all that annoying pool maintenance work seem like nothing.
Amy
Our farm has a swimming pool in a central location. It is next to the original old farm house on our property...that has been there for well over 100 years. My husband's grandparents lived in the house and somewhere around 1960-something, his grandmother had a pool built for her grandkids and the community to enjoy. The current pool is the descendent of that original pool.
It has been modified 3 or 4 times now. But, many of its parts date back quite a way and it is rather larger than your average pool and more than slightly cantankerous. I have been doing the maintenance on this pool for close to 20 years now. We have sort of a love-hate relationship, the pool and I. When we first came back to the farm after Jim graduated from veterinary school, the pool maintenance work was divided up between all the farm families. We made up a schedule and everybody did 1 or 2 weeks through the season. The farm crew mowed the grass of the sizeable lawn. Everybody chipped in for the chairs, the plants, the floats, etc. Everybody took turns shopping for the chemicals, sweeping the deck, carrying off the garbage. It was a community effort.
But as everyone else's kids got older, they quit using the pool so much.
And it all fell to me.
Totally sounds like one of those "first world problems" to complain about the burden of a swimming pool, I know! And anyway, it gets so very VERY hot here in the summer (heat index yesterday 109 degrees...and yes, it did actually feel like 109 degrees!) there is honestly not much else for the kids to do if you want them to exercise and spend some time outdoors. But, usually what happens when we go to the pool is they play and I work. I vacuum the pool and test the chemicals and clean the skimmers and backwash the filter and on and on. Then I water plants and hose the deck and clean up the garbage. And I mow the lawn. The kids play and splash around and jump and dive and just about the time they have had enough for one day...I am finished with the work. And since I really don't enjoy swimming in the pool all that much, we usually just head on home at that point. So...they play and cool off...I work and get even hotter. Sometimes I will jump in just for a minute. Just to chill a bit before we go. But usually it is just simpler to leave my swimsuit at home.
But, this year... this year I have re-discovered the joys of the pool!
Not during the day time when the kids are "rocking the pool" so it looks like the wave pool at Geyser Falls in Mississippi.
No! Rather, at night!
Abby and I are running again. She is doing 5K and I am working my way up to that. We run every other evening when the sun has just set, while there is still enough light to see. It would be cooler to run in the early morning, but the dew is so heavy and we are on a dirt road making it more than a little messy...and then there are the spider webs.
So we run in the evening. It is drier then (with fewer spiders.) It is hotter, too. But I plug in my marshmallow ear buds anyway and listen to Robert Ullrey tell me that I am "doing great!!!" on his Couch to 5K podcasts. I slog along, pounding my way through this week's workout until I am dripping with sweat and gritty dirt is stuck all over me.
And then...we go to the pool!
Just Abby and I.
We jump into the car and crank up that a/c and drive to the pool in our sweaty running clothes. And we do the "Nestea plunge" right into the deep end, sometimes without even bothering to take off our socks. That water feels absolutely fabulous when you have gotten as overheated as we have. It is not too cool...getting more like bathwater now that it is August. But it feels completely wonderful when you have been running. After a few laps, I just lie there floating, looking up at the stars coming out. With my ears under the water, I can barely hear anything...just the distant chirr of the cicadas...quiet underwater noises.
It is so peaceful.
The bats are coming out by now. They fly by, dipping down for a drink of clean water. They swoop around for a second or a third pass until they have gotten their fill. Then they fly off on their nightly hunting excursions.
I don't know if it is a runner's high ... just that little bit of much needed solitude ...the blissful coolness ...or what. But I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the goodness of such a simple pleasure, thankful for the beauty of nature, life's experiences, Jim's grandmother and her generosity, ...pretty much everything.
It is almost prayerful.
Meditative.
Euphoric.
And it makes all that annoying pool maintenance work seem like nothing.
Amy
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Amanda deLange
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/2012/07/amanda-de-lange-1961-2012.html
Yesterday the world lost a great woman, Amanda deLange. And I lost a friend...though one I never had the chance to meet face to face.
I first corresponded with Amanda online in 2005 when she started the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'An China. I spent way too much time online in those days...researching adopting from China. Members of a yahoogroup that I was on knew Amanda, so I got know her too, and we often wrote back and forth. I started supporting her work and recommended her to everyone I knew would be interested in putting their money into a charity where 100% of the funds went to help orphaned children. Amanda was so open and willing to share the day to day details of her life and what it took to care for the children. I think that was part of why people were so drawn to her. As Starfish grew she worked night and day to care for the children. She arranged medical missions for surgeons to come and provide life-changing procedures. And as she added more and more children to her home, she allowed volunteers to come in and work alongside her with the children. She used her own savings, charity funding, monthly donations from corporates and individuals, even money raised by kids selling lemonade to provide specialized nutrition, medical care and surgeries for orphans with special needs. She worked at this for 7 years providing care for 168 children, arranging almost 250 surgeries. Eighty-one of her children (so far!) were adopted by families in China and all over the world including the US, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Australia. Her life and work made such a difference to so many, not just the children, but all those who were allowed to take part...the donors, the volunteers, the medical teams, everyone. She made everyone feel essential and special. She would post equally on her blog about kids who raised $20 and corporate sponsors who gave thousands.
Last summer our Moriah went to Xi'An to volunteer with Amanda. Words cannot describe what a meaningful experience this was for her. We feel so very fortunate that she was able to go there and see the work that Amanda was doing and take some small part in it.
We dedicated the Eucharist to Amanda today at St. Michael's church.
Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon her.
Amy
Yesterday the world lost a great woman, Amanda deLange. And I lost a friend...though one I never had the chance to meet face to face.
I first corresponded with Amanda online in 2005 when she started the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'An China. I spent way too much time online in those days...researching adopting from China. Members of a yahoogroup that I was on knew Amanda, so I got know her too, and we often wrote back and forth. I started supporting her work and recommended her to everyone I knew would be interested in putting their money into a charity where 100% of the funds went to help orphaned children. Amanda was so open and willing to share the day to day details of her life and what it took to care for the children. I think that was part of why people were so drawn to her. As Starfish grew she worked night and day to care for the children. She arranged medical missions for surgeons to come and provide life-changing procedures. And as she added more and more children to her home, she allowed volunteers to come in and work alongside her with the children. She used her own savings, charity funding, monthly donations from corporates and individuals, even money raised by kids selling lemonade to provide specialized nutrition, medical care and surgeries for orphans with special needs. She worked at this for 7 years providing care for 168 children, arranging almost 250 surgeries. Eighty-one of her children (so far!) were adopted by families in China and all over the world including the US, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Australia. Her life and work made such a difference to so many, not just the children, but all those who were allowed to take part...the donors, the volunteers, the medical teams, everyone. She made everyone feel essential and special. She would post equally on her blog about kids who raised $20 and corporate sponsors who gave thousands.
Last summer our Moriah went to Xi'An to volunteer with Amanda. Words cannot describe what a meaningful experience this was for her. We feel so very fortunate that she was able to go there and see the work that Amanda was doing and take some small part in it.
We dedicated the Eucharist to Amanda today at St. Michael's church.
Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon her.
Amy
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
More Milestones!
I know it has been 5 months since my last post and I am, therefore, by definition, a very bad blogger. But I am crawling out of hiding to post another major milestone. Not the one you think...NOT posting about Sarah Ying losing her front teeth. Much more important than that! She went to the dentist and had no cavities!!!! First time in 5 years! This is HUGE, people! (Almost as huge as the dental bills we have paid for the 7 crowns, uncounted fillings, etc., etc.) A check-up without cavities! And the dentist gave her 3 loose teeth a little help, so the tooth fairy will have to be very generous tonight. The tooth fairy is so very relieved to not be paying $90+/filling...I am thinking she will be very generous indeed!
Whew!
LOL
Amy
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Alabama All-State Orchestra Festival 2012
Another All-State accomplished!
Lots of practicing, lots of fun, lots and lots of camaraderie!
Totally loved the conductor, Jim Bates, that they found for the Consort Strings this year! Josh and all the other kids really rocked their pieces! Highlight was the big "HEY!" they all yelled at the end of their stellar performance of Postcards from Russia. Check out their youtube video here.
The Sinfonietta was also wonderful this year. But, Hannah wasn't in it. Her focus was somewhere else (not sure where exactly) when it was audition time back in October.
Abby and all of the Festival Orchestra members also really played their hearts out. They did Khachaturian's Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia, Gershwin's American in Paris, a new composition done for the festival and a Shostakovich piece that I can no longer remember the title of. Total mother fail. Also total photographer fail, since the above shot is the only one I have of Abby. But the concert was fabulous anyway. Even though we were all recovering from a virus and then Abby had a stomach issue the day of the performance. Her orchestra was conducted by Fawzi Haimor who will be leaving Alabama for the Pittsburgh Symphony soon. :o(
Despite everything, the All State Festival was a total blast as usual. Well worth all the effort that goes into it (and that is quite a bit) and we loved every minute. (Well, ok, maybe not EVERY minute...but, you know...)
Amy
Lots of practicing, lots of fun, lots and lots of camaraderie!
Totally loved the conductor, Jim Bates, that they found for the Consort Strings this year! Josh and all the other kids really rocked their pieces! Highlight was the big "HEY!" they all yelled at the end of their stellar performance of Postcards from Russia. Check out their youtube video here.
The Sinfonietta was also wonderful this year. But, Hannah wasn't in it. Her focus was somewhere else (not sure where exactly) when it was audition time back in October.
Abby and all of the Festival Orchestra members also really played their hearts out. They did Khachaturian's Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia, Gershwin's American in Paris, a new composition done for the festival and a Shostakovich piece that I can no longer remember the title of. Total mother fail. Also total photographer fail, since the above shot is the only one I have of Abby. But the concert was fabulous anyway. Even though we were all recovering from a virus and then Abby had a stomach issue the day of the performance. Her orchestra was conducted by Fawzi Haimor who will be leaving Alabama for the Pittsburgh Symphony soon. :o(
Despite everything, the All State Festival was a total blast as usual. Well worth all the effort that goes into it (and that is quite a bit) and we loved every minute. (Well, ok, maybe not EVERY minute...but, you know...)
Amy
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
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