Miles and I started it with some appearance therapy: haircuts and a stop at the YMCA for a new coat and bag.
Doesn't Miles look like David Cassidy??
Next, we hit up the library where Miles read to Cary, the therapy cat.
It's not so much that he needs help reading, but that he finds reading to a cat so incredibly calming. His favorite animals are "calm" ones; just ask him.
Afterwards, he enjoyed some WiiU (at the library!!) before we left for the egg hunt at Smithfield Plantation!
We hugely enjoy what has become a Blacksburg tradition at this historic farm. We'll miss it next year!
Miles really bonded with the blacksmith this year. Adele, not so much.
This was the year Adele really was able to get into the egg hunt. She followed directions with enthusiasm.
The eggs need to be pursued, don't you know!
Miles performed admirably too.
Miss April in 18th century costume gives directions.
Oh, Springtime in Virginia. Thank you God for one more.
That night, we lit our vigil fire at home and said prayers..
The kids are doing this awesome thing where Miles reads whole Dr. Seuss books to Adele and I am off the hook!
The next morning, we arrived in time to help light the vigil fires at church:
Stole this picture from our curate!
The Easter Vigil service is hands down the best of the year. I will miss it sorely next year! Beginning in darkness and telling the stories of God's action throughout the Old Testament, the dry bones, the acclimation at dawn and the shouted Alleluias... the moment when the lights come on and you can see the profusion of flowers on the altar; it's breathtaking.
At Easter brunch between services, I decided to avoid the mimosas this year. It was a good decision.
Adele and I had time for an Eastern morning selfie:
Before we left, a kind friend took our family picture. Happy Eastertide to all!
We leave for Maryland tonight and tomorrow morning, Jon and I will, if all goes well, board a plane for Colorado. Please please pray that all goes smoothly and that we find the right house for us while we're out there!
(The Resurrection Gardens started sprouting brownly on Good Friday, and turned green just in time for Sunday!)
Please send us good energy, and any tips for spotting potential problems with houses which one is considering buying!
March is nearly over and I've hardly updated at all. I know you all understand. All my projects are like cooking pots and they're all just simmering and have to be kept that way. My planner is rapidly becoming my mainstay in life. Should I accidentally murder anyone, it will most likely immediately become a hoarcrux. My planner that vital.
We have been keeping (extremely) busy, though. Here are some highlights:
The weekend before St. Patrick's day, we caught the storyteller at the Lyric theater doing a St. Patrick's themed session for free! Blacksburg never fails to provide fun, wholesome stuff for kids.
Psst... don't tell Adele, but this extremely talented young woman is the same one who impersonated Princess Esme for Adele's birthday party this past year...
We continued to attend Wednesday Lenten suppers at church. Major side perk: I get to hang out with babies:
Me and sweet Hazel
Spring has finally asserted dominance over Blacksburg.
Miles' science fair finally came and went. His hardy carpenter ants live on, to chew scraps of meat and honey in their jar in Miles' room, to this day.
I was so proud of the way he articulately and enthusiastically described his project to the circulating judges. He really hardly needed any prodding to describe the whole process and all that he's learned.
The turnout was excellent! Adele got to meander around and participate where she could.
Meanwhile, Adele has been making enormous strides with potty training. Like, she's pretty much there. We went from utter despair that she would ever use the toilet at all, to near perfect confidence that she will use it every time, in a week. It was just as the friendly woman at church told me one week: she had to make up her own mind. When Adele makes up her mind to a thing, that thing shall be done.
She's been like that since birth.
The Ariel doll was the long-anticipated prize for making it a week without accidents. This is such an enormous relief to our family! Thank you, Patron Saint of Preschoolers, whoever you are!
Last weekend, Jon was gone for even longer than usual (he works 6 hours a day on weekends, at the library). But it's ok, because he was winning this at a conference:
Obviously, it's on the refrigerator. "Best Paper"!!!
Warmer and warmer, and closer and closer to the main action of the semester.
Actually, it's all felt like main action. This will go down as one of the more intense semesters of our life together.
Fortunately, there is sunshine, flowers, and Eastertide!
It does help, when you lift your eyes to the hills, wondering where your help will come from this time, that those hills are increasingly green and fragrant.
This entry might sound tired. I've been busily writing all week. But I'm tired with the kind of satisfaction that comes from hard work that's behind me now. I'm taking a moment from my toil this semester, now that it's the last day of spring break, to reflect and to feel good about where we are, and to let you all know how we prosper.
The Pylons, lovely in the increasingly bright evenings.
We're multitasking over a lot of simmering projects right now. We're looking to buy a house in Pueblo, did I report that? We finally decided the rental market would just be too much of a gamble, and besides, we weren't seeing a lot of houses for rent that fit our needs anyway. We're borrowing and accepting gifts and putting ourselves very much on the hook for it, but it feels like time. We have plane tickets: we're spending our 10th anniversary this year looking at houses in Pueblo.
I can't believe this is real.
Please pray we are able to navigate this, that we have the resources we need. We have no connections or friends in the area. It feels awfully vulnerable to be doing this alone. The homeowners our age that I've spoken to were able to make use of family and church connections to help them with various aspects, and it's more than a little daunting to know how very much we're on our own.
Sunrise out our office window. Pirate House.
Jon is preparing for a research trip to DC of 4 weeks duration. He needs to take it, dissertation-wise, before we leave the Eastern Standard Time Zone. However, we have no idea at the moment how we're going to make it work. He didn't get a fellowship he was really hoping to get, that would have funded the trip and then some. He doesn't have anywhere to stay. He's applying for a travel grant from the graduate school, but we're not at all sure he'll see that money.
Meanwhile, I'm going to need to find a babysitter. Jon is our childcare this year, and I can't afford to take time off work. Someone will need to get Adele from preschool and Miles from the bus stop, someone will need to care for them until I get back from work. So far, no luck on any of these fronts.
I've spent the week trying to focus on things I can control. I wrote my research term paper for the semester. By Wednesday of this week. I finished my capstone proposal paper and bibliography for my thesis. I got ahead on my reading journals. This comforts me in the face of all I can't nail down yet.
I still can't face the fact that I'm leaving Blacksburg in three months. This town has nurtured us so well. It feels ungrateful to leave it.
2016
2013
2014
But the little, less momentous things keep us grounded.
Miles' ant experiments have gone very well! We have a trifold to assemble now, to display his work, and we'll be sitting in a little booth at the elementary school science fair next week with our little ant pals in a jar. I find this delightful.
The election is at least a distraction from our own drama; it's the country's drama, so there are a lot of sharers in that to fellowship with.
The kids are Bernie fans. Just ask them.
Miles recently had to dress for his future career:
So glad he isn't aspiring to be anything that would have required more of a costume! I'm short of time lately.
Adele recently attended a birthday party for a girl in her class. Even though it was pretty clearly an all-girl party, and even though the dad was taking brothers of the party guests to the movies, guess which boy elected to stay and party with the girls?
There he is. At least he's trying to be useful here and help his sister with her anti-social streak.
She was so done.
I'm still involved in our Sister Parish committee, even though everyone knows we're moving, at this point. A couple of our members updated our SP bulletin board at church. I stood and admired it for a really really long time.
Recently, I received a response to the letter the children in Children's Chapel sent to the children of San Andres Itzapa. We sent that letter in February of 2015. But mail travels slowly in Guatemala. Anyway, we received 36 letters! Most were from children, a couple were from the families we stayed with (including one to me personally and one to the entire church), and we also got several hand-made postcards!
I've spent a fair amount of time this week translating letters. I'm preparing a chapel lesson on Saint Paul's epistles, and giving the children one more chance to write letters to their Guatemalan "pen pals' before the responsibility goes to someone else. This feels good.
It's warming. I'm dreading Daylight Savings Time and the resumption of classes deep down to my bones, but it's warming. That helps.
We've had a few family campfires again. That helps too.
Surprise: there were still some color crystals still left at the bottom of the pit!
Nothing like an unexpected rainbow.
I'm resuming my duck pond walks and feeling deja vu. I began to have the creepy feeling that change was upon us about this time last year.
Well, as Otis said, it's been a long time coming. But it's nearly upon us now.
Even real ducks don't like to stand in rows, so it's no wonder I'm having a little trouble organizing these figurative ducks.
