Pandapas Pond on the Cusp of Summer

 Memorial Day seemed like a time to be outdoors. We had no grill-based parties to go to, so Pandapas Pond it was.

What a perfect, golden-warm weekend it was in the New River Valley!

A goose tries to hide its goslings. 

Geese are still my mortal enemies, as cute as their Young are. They were charging people totally unprovoked, and worse, they had the nerve to SCARE MY KIDS. We are not friends.

Picnic on the pond!

Look, a juvenile frog!

Lillypads.

 Now, ducks I can support. Look at those dear little "duckel-lings" as Adele says.

We saw LOADS of turtles. 

 Miles' ambition was to play pooh-sticks. It's pretty difficult to play this game in a slow-moving swamp, but that couldn't stop him.

 Adele won! He didn't mind at all.

Pleased as punch. 

We are at the end of our school-year schedule. This is it! Friday is it, rather. You must forgive a long gap in blogging, and, probably, a bit of a dump upon our return from Florida in a couple of weeks. There. will. be. pictures.

"Then we had the irises..."

“Then we had the irises, rising beautiful and cool on their tall stalks, like blown glass, like pastel water momentarily frozen in a splash, light blue, light mauve, and the darker ones, velvet and purple, black cat's ears in the sun, indigo shadow, and the bleeding hearts, so female in shape it was a surprise they'd not long since been rooted out." -Margaret Atwood

Our trip to see the Price House Irises has become a yearly pilgrimage. This was our 4th spring of Irises. You can see some changes in the kids since last year, and how they have sprouted since 2012!

 On May 17 they were still not at peak. This is a late spring, indeed.

Still. Inevitably, the spring and summer do come. Praise God, that they do.

 They were digging around in the closet and found some elements of their 2012 Halloween costumes, the Owl and the Pussycat. They drew appreciative stares at the market that morning.

 Price House was closed for graduation, but the yard was open for frolics!

Hokie colored iris!

What a little paradise this yard is to us. 

They've added some improvements, like this grove of tree stumps. 

 Then, off we went to the library for storytime, and the market for lunch. Classic Blacksburg morning.

The kids show off their storytime crafts. 

 I taught Children's Chapel on Sunday. The lectionary text was from John 14, in which Jesus famously proclaims himself The Way. The children and I spent some time being honestly bewildered together about how a person can be a way somewhere, and how Jesus can be the way still, even though Jesus isn’t physically with us. When I showed them a pic of Jesus, one said, “Oh, that’s from when Jesus was real.” Phew! But we talked about how one thing Jesus can do when you’re his friend is forgive you. And we decided it’s better to be a friend than to follow rules, because if you follow rules as the way somewhere, you can mess up and break them and get lost for good. But if you have a friend with you as your way, your friend can forgive you when you mess up and you can still get where you’re going.

They always teach me.

Miles & his CC buddy, with their "friendship with Jesus" icons. 

 We are counting down the days until our Florida trip. Adele had a long talk with me this morning about the alligators, the beach, her swimsuit, and how it would be our "whole family." They have two more weeks, I have two more weeks, of the usual routine of work and daycare before SUMMER! 

Bright, and still brighter the days. 

61 Things About Mom

Mom before I was born. Dad took the picture. Other pictures may be found at my "10 Years" post. 

Gail Marie Cornell  Revell

1953-2001

My mom would have been 61 years old today. I have great memories of growing up with her, but that doesn't make every year I've had to spend without her in any way okay. Death robs us every year of good people who ought to be with us still, and I refuse to believe that this is other than a great injustice and tragedy, God's sovereignty notwithstanding. I do believe she lives in other ways than in memory, but without any way to host her at a birthday celebration today, I feel the need to make a litany of remembrance. I miss you, Mom. Happy Birthday. 

61 Things about Mom,

On her 61st Birthday

1. She didn't like her nose.
2. She twirled a baton in high school.
3. Her high school's team was the Churchville Chili Saints. When she left high school for a Christian College (Roberts Wesleyan), her high school year book printed that she was "leaving the sinners for the real saints!" (She was known to be passionate about Jesus)
4. She was allergic to cats. 
5. She loved Peter, Paul and Mary. 
6. Her skin was very fair, so that she could not tan no matter how much time she spent outdoors.
7. She loved spending time outdoors, and took any excuse she could find not to be indoors.
8. She used to make sun tea. 
9. She refused to eat at a chain restaurant when we were out of town. 
10. She felt a need to be at Lake Ontario as much as possible, and divided her time at family camp between talking to EVERYONE and sitting and watching the waves, quiet. 
11. She used to stay at church for 2+ hours after the service ended just talking to EVERYONE.
12. She thought interracial marriage was just fine. 
13. She loved cotton and wool over polyester, and snapped up peasant blouses and hippie sweaters when she saw them in stores. 
14. She never lived there (that I know of) but used to visit Love-Inn, a Jesus-People commune started by Scott Ross in Freeville, NY. 
15. She loved birkenstocks all her adult life. 
16. She laughed really loudly. 
17. She did a terrible job, as a girl, of keeping her white gloves white and keeping her carefully curled hair, um, carefully curled. 
18. When she and dad had to break off their engagement, she ran brokenhearted to Colorado and started dating a motorcycle-riding hippie. 
19. This motorcycle-riding hippie later sang "The Wedding Song" at her wedding to my dad. 
20. She loved Colorado. The song "I Can See Clearly Now" always reminded her of the skies there. 
21. She wore an orange pantsuit on her first date with my dad. 
22. She loved when as a girl, her dad gave her rides on his tractor. 
23. She once invited like her whole elementary class to her house for a birthday party her parents didn't know she was having. 
24. She once got a fashionable layered haircut in late 70s (or was it early 80s) and called dad, crying: "I look like a chicken!" 
25. Her ears weren't pierced until she was in her late 30s. 
26. She always wanted to live in a house with a big front porch. 
27. She read the Harry Potter books before I did. I used to tease her for reading kids' books. You can imagine how I repent of this now. :-)
28. She loved trees, and would pull the car over to look at a particularly beautiful one. 
29. She loved to pick berries and always wanted a fruit and vegetable garden.
30. She was a pediatric nurse practitioner. 
31. She wore a beeper.
32. Her mother once asked her why she didn't go into geriatrics so she could assist them in their old age. She replied, "But mom, I just love the babies!"
33. She'd wear cartoons on all her accessories at work to amuse and comfort kids during checkups. 
34. She got her master's degree while I was a baby. 
35. This means that before I was one, she worked part time and got her master's degree. 
36. She used to fund-raise every year for Easter Seals, which works to support and help kids with birth defects and other disabilities. 
37. She did her master's degree thesis on the health benefits of breastfeeding. 
38. She had miscarriages and losses for years before she used the right combination of medication that allowed me to be born. She didn't fully believe I was really going to be born until I was. 
39. That said, when I was born after a long, grueling labor, she was so tired that when Dad announced, "It's a girl!" she could only say, "That's nice." And fall asleep. 
40. She made me play-dough from scratch. 
41. She always wanted to be crafty and tried everything from puff paints to ceramic painting. 
42. She used to complain about having no "fine motor skills." Dad braided my hair when I was a girl. 
43. Every year, she'd paint candy molds and make chocolates for almost everyone we knew.
44. She loved football and cheered loudly for the Buffalo Bills.
45. She used to be able to conquer anything or win anyone over on the telephone. 
46. She used to throw open the curtains in the morning and sing "Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory." I didn't find this so endearing when it was happening as I do now. 
47. When one of us kids got a good grade or won some distinction, her face got a shining animation to it: "Honey, that's excellent!" she'd declare. 
48. She took a passionate interest in her whole community. She was always on the phone with someone, talking them through a crisis. 
49. Her 40th birthday party was at Discovery Zone. 
50. When she got diagnosed with cancer, I was at summer camp. When I got back, she let me tell her all my camp stories and sing all my camp songs before she told me (gently) that she was sick. 
51. She wore wigs when she lost her hair, but preferred the feel of turbans and hats. 
52. She had a high school boyfriend named Bobby who broke her heart. 
53. As a teen, she had a very pretty best friend named Linda who she secretly thought was only letting her tag along and would drop her some day. 
54. She loved Captain Kangaroo, as a child.
55. Also as a child, she used to watch Mary Martin play Peter Pan on tv and then run full tilt around the house trying to take off into the air. She was hoping some day she would.
56. She used to listen to Jars of Clay while she had chemo. 
57. She researched every kind of alternative therapy and medicine she could find to support the chemo and the surgeries, because she was stubborn. 
58. Even when she was so sick that it was all she could do for one day, she tried to get outside. I remember her going snowshoeing during her last winter. 
59. She loved Nicole C. Mullen's I Know My Redeemer Lives. We got to see Ms. Mullen sing it in concert a few months before Mom died. 
60. That last summer, she went camping at Kingdom Bound. She slept in a tent, with her oxygen tank. She wanted to go!
61. When she died, it looked as if she'd taken her own oxygen mask off. She finally got to fly. 

"As full of spirit as the month of May, and as gorgeous as the sun in Midsummer." Henry IV

 May weather is a reminder of all the sweetness life contains. It's just angelic. The polite May sun just shines gently, because it's just so happy, but it wouldn't want to overheat us and make us uncomfortable. Birds just don't stop; they love life so much in May. I want to live out of doors.

With my daily dose of loratadine, of course.

The Virginia Tech Women's Center recently advertised "Body-Positive Yoga" in the Hahn Horticulture Garden (one of my favorite Blacksburg parks). Obviously, I had to be there.

One hour of heaven. So rarely can one do salutes to a sun one can actually see. 

He's singing like nobody's listening. 

 Last Friday, I had a tour of Miles' elementary school, Gilbert Linkous Elementary. Readers, this little school is going to be so great for him! There are classes in science, music, PE and computer in addition to the basic 3 Rs. Classes are small and fairly diverse, and the library was just precious. It's going to be just perfect for Miles.

One of three kindergarten classrooms; the kids were at an activity at the time. 

 Also on Friday, Miles presented me with my favorite Mother's Day gift he's ever given me.

 That was all I really wanted or needed. I'm set.

Still, we had another mother to celebrate. Jon's mother, Cindy, turns 60 TODAY, the day after Mother's Day. Her husband, Dave, knew how much she's love to see her kids and their families for the occasion, so after I finished the GRE test in Roanoke (SO glad that's over! It went well), we bundled into the car and headed for Maryland!

During the rainy drive, we saw several spectacular rainbows. As if the Virginia countryside weren't beautiful enough.

 We spent the day eating, joking, laughing, playing, and lazing around with family. Perfect. 

 Marshall & Michaela have a new car. He graciously allowed the kids to give it a driveway spin.

Adele & Marshall are old friends. Like, since her infancy. 

 I took about six of these group shots. These were the closest to perfect:

 It's hard to get so many people to not blink (or in the case of Miles, not "imitate the action of the tiger." (JC)) at one time.

 The ride back was much smoother as far as kid behavior than the way out. Still, we were very glad to pull into our driveway. Despite appearances, sleep never goes as well in carseats!

What a gorgeous weekend. Happy Mother's Day, and I wish you sunshine and all the pleasures of May.

Hello, May!

We are engaged in the happy work of wrapping up another semester at Virginia Tech. I have turned in all my work my one monster paper (and presented it successfully!), and I believe Jon's finished his spring assignments too. Hoorah!

Here, the kids hold some of the toys Grandma sent them in their Easter package. Animals that light up and vibrate! They're thrilled, naturally.

And thank you, Grandma, for sending us one of each! Whenever possible, we try to get them things in twos. They just... don't always share as one might wish.

Check the matching Blacksburg Steppin' Out Festival t-shirts they "won" playing games at the International Street Fair! They were so pumped. Adele will grow into hers one day.

Among the booty in the Easter boxes were a pair of kids' learn-to-use chopsticks! There are little spaces for little fingers to learn the positions:

Finding out he's gonna have to share. 

 Miles managed to hold onto his temper as Adele took an extended turn with the chopstocks. She was successful, too! We've since bought a second pair.

Who knew Adele would be so adept?

This morning the kids were watching a documentary on China (a reward for getting ready quickly). Miles was so dreamy. When I joined them he said, "Mum, I want to swim in the Yangtze River. I want to go to China. But I don't speak Chinese." He looked glum.

So, obviously, I'm now looking for books and programs to help him learn some Mandarin. Let me know if you know of any good ones!

I'm helping out in the office and preparing for the GREs these days. I hope to send in my scores next week, along with my application to grad school. Wish me luck on May 10.

Heading downtown for a farewell lunch with "our" student, I ran into a Blacksburg favorite: Dr. Moon! He's a kind of hippie drifter street artist, and you just never know where he's going to pop up.

 He was playing Cat Stevens and just generally making everyone around him smile.

This was our last day with our student, who graduates this semester! She'll be heading off to her first job in GHANA this summer, and we thought it was so cool the tile above her head in the restaurant just happened to be colors of the Ghanaian flag.

Sunny endings make for sunny new beginnings. There is just so much, this summer and beyond, to look forward to.