Goodbye/Hello

Goodbye school year.  Goodbye lesson plans and staff meetings.  Goodbye homework, math facts, tests, projects and book reports.  Goodbye packing a lunch every day.  Goodbye polo shirts.

Goodbye alarm clock setting and early mornings.  Goodbye time spent riding together in the car working on memory work and spelling words.

Goodbye sweet students who grew and learned so much this year and who made me cry with special last-day-of-school gifts and kind words.

Goodbye perfect-for-us teachers who were caring and accommodating when we repeatedly broke our bones and who set high standards and challenged us do our VERY best.  Goodbye wonderful classmates and co-workers.

And hello summer!!  Hello birthdays and service trips and Mount Hermon and vacation!  Hello rollerblading and bike riding and hoop shooting! 

Hello board games and Just Dance and neglected toys!  Hello staying at our friends' house until 10:30 pm!

Hello time to spend getting lost in a great story and watching our to-read book piles get shorter!

Hello hockey playoffs!

Hello grilling burgers and corn on the cob and fresh berries we picked ourselves!

Hello rest and relaxation and adventure and new memories and quality time as a family!

Adventures in Blueberry Picking!

Ella and Delia have a few more days of school to go, but I am done and, after today's Memorial Day activities, it's beginning to feel a lot like SUMMER!

The girls were great helpers this year, sampling each variety before deeming it bucket-worthy.  They worked hard to help fill 4 big buckets.

 Of course, it is impossible to resist a little snack and rest in the shade of the blueberry bushes from time to time!

We mean business when we go to pick blueberries.  There are no other blueberries that compare in quality or price to the ones at our friends' farm, so we stock up.  Today we picked just over 25 pounds-- enough to fill 8 big bags for the freezer.  Hopefully we'll make it past just January with this year's supply!

Blueberry Buckle... muffins... pancakes... shortcake... ice cream topping, anyone? :)

Insta-Blog

For about a year now, I've been narrowing my Facebook friend list.  I still use FB regularly to message church friends and school parents.  I love it for staying connected to old and current friends.  But, lately I am getting tired of the ads, the politics, the everyone seeing everything.  So, I've been testing out something new-- Instagram!  One week in and I am loving it. Much more private, much more personal-image-based.  And you get all those cool photo filters and tools! :)

Here are the pictures I've posted to Instagram over the past few days.  They tell the story of our week...

I was totally spoiled on Mother's Day!  The girls had the adorable idea to put on a fashion show...with all new clothes, shoes, and accessories they picked out for me!  They were thoughtful about my favorite colors and patterns and picked things I'll wear to work and church.  It was super fun to see what they thought I'd like and also fun to get some things that I would not have bought for myself!  A favorite was the matching turquoise Converses Delia got me, because she wanted to be "shoe buddies".  I know this kind of thinking probably has an expiration date! :)  The girls also made me some sweet things at school. Above shows Ella's newspaper article, featuring her writing and drawing about my famous stroopwafels and the quote I apparently say the most: "Focus, Ella!"

  

The update on Delia's arm is that she's just going to stay casted for a while longer.  Our surgeon is confident that, even though she is being very slow to heal right now, in 9-12 months the bones will have found each other and grown back together.  We feel nervous that Delia's arm is not going to be at 100% for a whole year yet and we are preparing for what our Rehoboth trip and Mount Hermon will look like with a cast (no crevice hike, no ropes course), but what can we do?  We trust our doctor and believe that God is certainly capable of regrowing bones!  Last Saturday we had a little fun and pulled out all the old casts.  This picture is already outdated.  Another orthopedic appointment on Thursday saw the removal of the green cast for a new, coolest-one-yet, pink polka dot cast!

We are entering our last full week of school!!!  Even though we've been doing lots of end of the year stuff and I put up the last bulletin board of this school year, it still doesn't feel quite real.  How fast this year flew by!

Big news for Dave!  On Wednesday he lead his last Youth Group Faith Night ever!  He took his seniors out for pizza before the meeting and our family snuck in an hour before they came to celebrate this important milestone with Daddy.  For 12 years we've given him to the Youth Group every single Wednesday night.  We're excited to see what this day of the week looks like when he gets to be home with us!  It was definitely a bittersweet night.  Dave is happy to be done and excited about pieces of the transition that are coming together perfectly and providentially, but he shed some tears as he spoke words of blessing over the students on his last night.

Each week it seems we watch our 11 year old Lily slow down more and more.  We know hard decisions and sad goodbyes might be getting closer for our family.  For now, we just love her and take care of her as best we can.  More than anything lately, Lily seems to appreciate a good rub and snuggle, so we oblige!

Even though I haven't posted in a while, you can see that life has still been full of big and small events!  If you'd like the abridged version of this blog, find me on Instagram! :)

The Broken Bone Saga Continues

We're feeling very frustrated.

Instead of typing out the whole explanation again, here is a copy of the email I sent the family on Friday afternoon...

We are just getting back from today's orthopedic appointment for Delia.  We went to this appointment excited that the cast, pins and stitches were all going to be removed.  We had actual plans tonight to celebrate enduring the past 6 weeks and all the healing.

Well, we learned through the x-rays today that pretty much no healing has occurred.  Even after the surgery, Delia's left arm bone is still in a misaligned, broken, spaced-out position.  They put her back in a long cast and said we'll discuss "our options" at the next appointment.

Also, because she was absolutely hysterical, they would not take the pins out either. Instead we get to go back to the Operating Department some time next week, where they will have to sedate Delia in order to do this procedure.

So, I guess keep praying that some miraculous healing occurs in Delia's arm in the next few weeks!  They didn't specify what "our options" are exactly, but I'm pretty scared they involve a second surgery.  And it seems a pretty good bet that Delia will continue to deal with this break through the summer. :(

Thank you, family and friends!

(This is Delia with her buddy Cora.  Delia and Cora were born one month apart.  They are in the same class at school. Their moms are good friends.  They share a last name and a similar feisty personality.  And now they share broken left arm bones as well!  Can you believe it?!)

Race for Life

Ella has been looking forward to running in this 5k for the Pregnancy Center pretty much from the moment she crossed the finish line at last year's race.  She still fancies herself a runner, even though she hasn't gotten to do it as much this year.  She had her running partner (Daddy) taken out by a knee injury at the end of Spring Break, but still committed to the race and didn't let that stop her.  She's been running with some wonderful young women from our church.  One Saturday, Miss Katie swung by to pick her up for a training run and at today's race, Miss Monica was kind enough to be her running buddy.

 Here we are, the three amigos in the Walking Club-- "Busted Knee", "Broken Arm", and "Out of Shape"! :)

 And here is Ella and her new favorite person in the world.  Miss Monica was her Sunday School teacher a few years ago and the two have maintained a sweet friendship.   Monica was thrilled to run with Ella today and, even though she's a pretty serious runner herself, told us that Ella set a brisk pace and worked her hard today!

 With less than a mile to go, our paths cross and the runners pass the walkers.  It was so fun to see Ella smiling and looking really strong with a couple miles under her belt!  We had some cheers and high fives for them.

She was awesome in this race last year, but did EVEN BETTER this year.  She finished the 3 miles in 32 minutes and came in 14th place overall!  We think she was the first kid to cross the finish line too.  

This is such a fun thing to be a part of.  Our Pregnancy Center met and exceeded their fundraising goal through this race!  We love this cause and taking a morning to not only support it, but to also hang out with tons of church and school friends and to see Ella shine as a runner, is a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday for sure!