The Story of our Wedding Part Two

It was so, so hot that day. The sun was blazing  and keeping everything toasty; it was the kind of summer day during which you can see the heat in the air. My soon-to-be sister-in-law, Cathy, came into the dressing room and snapped a photo of me standing there in my underthings (crinoline, no dress, and my veil hanging from my hair) with my arms held straight at my sides so that I wouldn't sweat. It is one of my favorite photos of that day, just like she told me it would be.

I finished dressing for the ceremony, and we took some photos without Eric so that we wouldn't see each other before the ceremony. The rest of the photos were taken after the ceremony. We got some beautiful shots of the two of us in the gardens at Roscoe Village. It was hot, but it was a beautiful day for picture taking!

The ceremony was lovely. I know that I am biased, but aren't I supposed to be? We planned and planned and nit-picked every detail, and it came together so perfectly. I grasped my daddy's arm, the double doors in the back of the sanctuary were opened, and we stepped into the aisle where the most beautiful man I ever knew stood awaiting my arrival at the altar.

Every bride should be met at the altar by a man with the exact look on his face which Eric had that afternoon. He spoke no words, but he said, "You are the most gorgeous person in the world, the loveliest angel I have ever seen." I felt beautiful when I saw the look on his face that day. It was like everyone else in the room disappeared, and it was only the two of us in that moment, our eyes met, drawing us to each other.

I don't care if that sounds cheesy. It is how it happened. I am a hopeless romantic.

The ceremony was everything I dreamed it to be. There was music. Then there was more music. A flute choir played Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze as a prelude. Pachelbel's Canon in D played as the wedding party entered the sanctuary. Julie, who accompanied for both of us for various college recitals, played the piano while Ashley, another friend, trumpeted "All Creatures of Our God and King" and Dad walked me down the aisle. Two friends, Christy and Dan, sang several songs. An original song Dan wrote for the seating of our mothers (oh so beautiful) that he debuted at our wedding before singing it again as his own mother and mother-in-law were seated at his wedding two months later, the classic wedding favorite, The Lord's Prayer, and a duet, Through All the Years.

Eric and I sang to each other. It was a song called Faithful Friend, which we both love so much. I first heard it as I sat next to my friend, Eric, at Lakeview Wesleyan Church one Sunday. Eric didn't know that we were going to get married yet, but I knew that morning as I sat next to him in church that we would sing that very song at our wedding. Once Eric decided that I would be his bride, he agreed that it was a perfect song for us to sing to each other. I always dreamed of singing with my new husband at my wedding, and I am pleased to tell you that I married a man who is an incredible singer and who was able to make that dream come true!

We took communion together. We read our vows to each other, which we wrote ourselves. Eric kissed his bride. Sigh. It was perfect. We handed a single, red rose to each of our mothers. The Hallelujah Chorus began to play, and we waltzed down the aisle together, husband and wife.

To be continued...

The Story of our Wedding Part One

I remember my wedding day like it was yesterday. I want to believe that everyone feels that way about their wedding day. Don't you wish that for other people? For yourself? Weddings should be surrounded with idealistic thoughts. Beauty, serenity, joy, blessing. I loved my wedding day. The entire experience was wonderful.

I remember what I wore to our rehearsal. I wore a favorite summer dress instead of buying something new, sleeveless, blue with flowers on top and tan on the bottom. We headed to the church and rehearsed the ceremony that would be one of our most favorite blessings. We giggled and smiled and enjoyed the rehearsal dinner together with those friends and family who we loved so much. Our parents, siblings with their spouses and kids, college roommates, long time friends, and others who were special to us were part of that evening. It was a beautiful evening filled with the anticipation of the next day.

After the rehearsal dinner, Eric drove me back to my parents' house. We sat in Mom's gorgeous, serene flower garden together and talked about the next day for just a few minutes. Eric held my hands in his as the sun was starting to get lower in the sky, and we prayed together. Eric headed to a hotel so that he could spend the last night of his unmarried life alone with the Lord, and I headed into my parents' house as a single lady for the last time.

I was concerned that the anticipation would be too much for me to sleep that night, and that proved to be true. I remember God blessing me with gentle thunderstorms that night. I slept with the window above my bed open, listening to the rain hit the river, watching the lightning dance on the ceiling. Eventually, I slept, and I wasn't tired the next morning. I awoke early enough to enjoy a warm bubble bath, and then I headed to the salon with some  of my bridesmaids.

My hair was pulled into a lovely half-up do with twists on the side and curls flowing down in the back. My fingers were shining with a French manicure with just a little sparkle in it. We left and went through McDonald's drive-thru to buy Happy Meals because everyone kept telling me that I had to eat lunch. I ate in the dressing room while applying my own make-up. I wanted to look like me on my wedding day, so I chose to apply my make-up myself.

To be continued...

Influence

The opportunities which God chooses to give us can sometimes be surprising. We moved here 14 months ago, and, while our adult neighbors all seem to prefer to keep to themselves, their kids do not. We live between two sisters and their families. The girls on one side of us are 9 and 12, and the kids on the other side are older, in their teens and maybe even early 20s. On any given day, you will find children ranging from age 8 to 14 all playing together in our yard, in the old factory parking lot two lots down from us, in one of the other two yards, or even on Elm Street, which separates us from one of the neighbors(please be cautious on  Elm Street local readers!). At times, our 14 year old neighbor very contentedly tosses a ball around with our 8 year old daughter (I am mindful and supervise this). 

I have to admit that I am a little flabbergasted by this. So many people have told me it would never be this way. I believe this is the way it should be, but it seems like so many disapprove of this slower pace of growing up. Our society seems to believe that children should only play with kids their own age. Why is that?  I was told years ago that I needed to consider pushing my then 6 year old child to give up some of his childish ways, that, if I didn't, other kids would start to notice that he was different. The follow up point to this person's thoughts was that she had done that very thing because they can't be little forever. It broke my heart for her child a little.

Thankfully, neither of my children have ever had any trouble finding friends or playing with other children of all ages. Age is a non-issue to them since they haven't spent any time in a segregated classroom other than those at church. I will hold onto this little nugget of goodness.

What is surprising me the most is how much our 12, almost 13, year old neighbor wants to spend time here. She comes over almost daily to spend time here. She plays outside with our kids, and I mean she really plays! Yesterday, she and Ava made a mud hole under our big tree in the side yard and then spent the entire afternoon making mud pies and decorating them with tiger lilies. They had a blast! Twice in the past week, she has joined us for our family worship time. She goes to church with us on Wednesday evenings. She asks to join us for dinner or to spend the night, and she has joined us for a movie night more than once. She is here more than her 9 year old sister!

I don't know what will become of this great opportunity we have been given to be an influence in this child's life, but I am grateful for it. I never imagined myself influencing soon-to-be teenagers, but here I am. Can you believe that both our 12 and 14 year old neighbors actually added me on Facebook? 

What I think is that the world gives teens a bad wrap, and I want to enjoy building these relationships and knowing these kids for who they are, even if there is a little grime there. I pray that the Lord guides my footsteps and words in this great opportunity to be Jesus to these great kids who live beside us, and I pray for my own kids that they can be influencers also. 

What a great and holy privilege it is to be used in this way. This...I never imagined.

And That's a Wrap!

Another school year lies behind us. It was, by far, the most emotionally taxing year of our lives (and that part isn't over yet), but we managed to get the schooling portion of our life accomplished in the normal amount of time. Sort of. We usually finish in May, but we don't usually miss a month of school for pneumonia and bronchitis. While I'm all about the philosophy that you don't have to catch everything up and tie your school year in a neat bow, I am also a realist. There are topics that need to be covered, and missing a month of school means something didn't get covered, right? Right.  Schooling in June was fine, but I sorta feel like we missed the best month of summer. Here's to hoping for better health during our next school year.

This is a year in which I can say that we covered all the subjects, and I know we covered them well; but did we have fun? Eh. Not really, or, at least, not as much fun as we usually have. There was fun, but there wasn't enough. We usually do a lot of fun projects, art lessons, read-alouds, crafts, and field trips. We didn't really get to do much of that this year, but I am not complaining at all. I am grateful for the flexibility that homeschooling has allowed us so that I can take a Tuesday and spend the day with my mom at her chemotherapy appointment (love spending that time with her), or drop everything and earn a little cash by running some Amish friends to the Cleveland Clinic, or take a mental health day when life gets so incredibly taxing (and let me tell you, life has been more taxing than ever).

That said...fifth grade is now in the past for Lukas. He is tall and wears a men's size 8 shoe. Do you know how much a boy's shoes cost as soon as he hits a size 6? Oy. Size 8. No one prepared me for this, so I am here to prepare all of you who have little boys. Get ready for it! 

Obviously, Lukas' shoe size has no effect on his education, but it is shockingly mentionable for a blog post, don't you think?

Okay. Maybe not. 

Back to the topic of this post (I told my husband last week that I should donate my brain to medical research because no one can jump from one subject to the next the way I can)...Lukas worked diligently this year. At the beginning of the year, he was working through some vision therapy, which helped to improve his math scores and decreased the amount of time it was taking him to accomplish his other school tasks (like...cut it in half!). It was definitely not his favorite thing to do (ha! He pretty much hated it), but I can see how it very much helped him academically. He has never really struggled with academics, other than a little with math, and he didn't struggle with math at all this year thanks to the therapy fixing the eye muscle issues he was having. He carried an A in math the entire school year! We don't generally give our kids grades, but Teaching Textbooks keeps track of his scores, so it isn't hard to figure out.

Moving on to sweet Ava...She has also had great success this year but, thankfully, she does not wear a size 8 shoe. Heehee!

At the beginning of the school year, I pulled out the books on the Sonlight 2nd grade list. I wasn't surprised when she wasn't really able to read them in September, so we dug into the Pathway Readers (much to Ava's chagrin) we had been plugging our way through. 

In February, just as Lukas finished therapy, Ava began vision therapy, and, around that same time, she seemed to develop a little more dedication to the educational process (that wore off in mid-May making the last month and a half of school rather trying at times). Those two things combined brought great success in reading. She is now reading her way through The Beginner's Bible, which she will continue to read throughout the summer break, and she is still doing vision therapy 2 days each week until August. I am so very, very proud of her. She finished her reading lesson this afternoon, and then I pronounced her to be a 3rd grader. She was sitting on the couch snuggled next to me and very wisely asked me if she could scream before actually screaming. Of course, under the circumstances, I allowed her to scream with excitement.

In the foyer. NOT sitting next to me on the couch. 

Here are some of my other highlights from this school year:

• Finished the Narnia series
• Discovered Homeschool in the Woods history unit studies and Bible supplements
• Enjoyed teaching science for the first time with Answers in Genesis' World of Animals and a little of the World of Plants
• Lukas really started to apply Biblical passages during our family Bible study each morning
• Our 24 Family Ways family Bible study
• Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. If you haven't read it, you will love it every bit as much as your kids.
• Island of the Blue Dolphins. I loved, loved, loved introducing this story to my children, my favorite book since 4th grade.
• Several Five in a Row books including Owl Moon, Miss Rumphius, The Story of Ferdinand, and several more. Five in a Row is always a highlight.

Ava had her list of highlights:

•  Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle 
• History
• Finishing Narnia 
• Bible projects
• The Salamander Room

Lukas' highlights: 

• History projects
• Bible projects
• Discovering the 39 Clues series

Now let me add a further highlight to this school year. Lukas just stated that he found a book series that he loves reading so much that it was a highlight of his school year. Yeah. That pretty much ROCKS!

If you are a blogger who wrote about your school year (whether or not you homeschool), I would love to read all about it! Leave me a comment, and I'll check it out.

Telling the Story

I got my first journal when I was in 7th grade from my Great Aunt Ruby. She wrote on the tag "key on back cover" and I thought it said, "key on wrap paper." It was years before I discovered that key inside the back cover. If you had read her writing, you would completely understand! 

I began writing in it immediately. I remember that I began my first several entries with "Dear Diary" before realizing that I wasn't really the "Diary" type. It reminded me of a Judy Blume character. I wasn't talking to a book. My journal was between me and Jesus. After that, I just wrote about whatever was on my mind as if no one in particular would ever see it, but I always knew that God knew exactly what those pages said. 

In junior high and even high school, I remember writing a lot about boys. I wasn't overtly boy crazy. I didn't date a lot in high school, but my journals from those days definitely tell a story about a girl who liked a few boys but wasn't brave enough to tell them.

My first date is in my high school journal. My first big break-up. The story of a failed scholarship audition followed by a couple much more successful auditions. Prom. Graduation. Parties. I loved high school, and my journal certainly reflects that.

I was thinking about this today and how my journal has changed since then. While I wrote about what God was doing in my life in high school, I spent a lot more time writing about my faith in college. Since college, my faith journey is what the words on my journal pages reflects most of the time. I am glad for that.

My journals contain talks with God. Poems I've written. Scripture which spoke to me and on which I meditated. Stories of our lives. Ups. Downs. Prayer requests. Praises. Confessions. All the drama that is in my head. My journal is my story. It speaks volumes. It speaks private thoughts that I have shared with no one. I use it to work out the hard stuff, to remind me of the tough stuff that God walked me through, that He carried me through. Reading old entries is good for me. 

My journals are the story of God in my life.

There are holes in my journals, long periods of time when I didn't write anything. Life got in the way. Babies. Major moves.  Spiritually dry times. Times when I didn't connect with God daily. 

Those holes speak volumes too. They speak of how God sought me out and always brought me back. He not only accepted me, but He gathered me from afar when needed. He sought me out like every Good Shepherd does. 

Some day, I hope that my children enjoy this story of God in my life. I hope they read the struggles and the pain and the praises and the joy with every emotion that I felt as I wrote them. I hope they see a few tears in the smeared ink.  I hope they hear the laughter as I tell of the times that God moved in glorious ways. I hope that someone, someday is completely blessed by what God has done in my humble journey and that they realize what I most want them to know from reading those pages...We've all been there. We are not alone. We all hurt. We all get blessed. We all have a story.

For now, it is my story, and I will keep it to myself.

How about you? Do you tell your story somewhere? Do you blog? Journal? I know it isn't for everyone, but try it. It is amazing what God can do through something so very, very simple.

10 on...Errrr...12???

I have been missing the fun of taking 10 photos on the 10th of each month. It was Sunday evening when I realized it was June 10th, so I decided to do it on the 11th. However, I had an uber-productive day on the 11th here in our humble abode, so I didn't actually take 10 photos. I thought it would be fun to do 11 on 11, but here I am, posting this on June 12th, and I still only managed 10 photos. But really? Don't you think that 10 photos is enough for any one blog post anyway? Anywho...here goes. This month it's 10 on 12.

 I cut Ava's hair, and it is much shorter than usual. She decided she wanted piggies and then called this her country girl look. Please note, she is biting her lip on purpose, but the buck teeth look does lend itself well to her country girl look.

 Ava really wanted this to be included in the 10 on 10 post. She is obsessed with doing this and various other dance moves right now. This always happens right after her recital when she sees older girls doing different things. It's completely adorable.

 This is the book I'm studying with a group of ladies from church and my trusty journal, which I love. God is speaking to me so much through it, but not necessarily in the way the book is intended.

 It's another pic of Ava, but I couldn't resist. She is reading from The Beginner's Bible. I'm so proud of the progress she has made in her reading skills in the past 5  months!

 Yummy iced latte!

 Lukas working hard on his math.

 I washed and folded a TON of laundry!

 Surprise! Lukas entered the Transformers Prime contest (with Eric's permission) and he won! He found out today when FedEx showed up at our door with these Transformer toys, which Lukas LOVES! Perry is also excited. Haha!

 Bible project. This is the fish and loaves. Behind each one are the scriptures that tell you where to find the miracles of Jesus in the Bible. It's going to be part of a lapbook, but we have several more projects to complete first.

Today was my dad's birthday. He wanted a raspberry and orange Jello cake with cool whip on top. Isn't it pretty?