National Bible Bee

This was the 3rd year in a row that Charis qualified to compete in the National Bible Bee Competition, held this year in San Antonio, Texas. There was some angst related to the decision of attending, as she felt rather overwhelmed with her other school activities (which include a competitive speech class with apologetics emphasis). But after much prayer and discussion, she decided it would be worth making the trip.

So, the week before Thanksgiving, we packed up our family of 10, stuffed the van to the gills, and made the day-and-a-half trip to San Antonio, stopping at my friend Karen's house in the Dallas area for the night. We spent 4 nights in the hotel, where the kids took complete advantage of the warm weather to enjoy the water park during our free time. Between that and the Family Fun Area set up, it truly was a vacation of sorts! Charis was much more relaxed this year, having resigned herself to not being as fully prepared as she would have wished, but we are of course still so proud of her for her time and efforts spent studying God's Word.

Like last year, we met up with a number of friends in the area throughout the week, including one family whom we had gotten to know as newlyweds during our first duty station in San Angelo, Texas, from 1997-1998! We've had all our kids since moving away from there, obviously, so it was fun to meet each other's kids in person for the first time. One of their sons qualified for Nationals as well, so that's how we all happened to meet up!

It was a good time of spiritual refreshment and fellowship, plus time to make family memories and set aside some of the current confusion and stress associated with Verity's diagnosis.

Seanin was delighted with the fountains!

Rhema, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with water!

Charis (3rd from right) and the girls in her oral round session.

Charis on stage (not that you can see her, lol, but you can see her
photo on the big screen--the middle one!)

The whole family!

The little boys learn about ancient writing materials

Our family plus the T family, whom we have known all our
married lives! Total of 12 children between us!

Summer Summary

Oh, Summer, where art thou??

I remember...back in the day...when we first began homeschooling, we lived in Las Vegas. It was stinkin' HOT in the summer, and so we happily took our "summer" break in March or April, when it was pleasant outside and we had easily breezed through our school materials. We'd order the next core early and begin another round of school when it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. With a couple of babies born during our 4 years in Nevada, plus quite a bit of traveling to Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, we enjoyed our free and easy and flexible schedule, pretty much doing school "year-round" but taking breaks whenever we wanted.

But our next few moves happened during summer months (2009, 2012, 2015), with babies also arriving in summer months (2011, 2013, 2015). So it just made sense to keep a more "regular" school-year calendar.

With last summer bringing us back overseas PLUS a new baby, this summer was bound to be less...stressful, I suppose. But it was busy nevertheless! Here's a rundown of some of our summer highlights:

* Charis, Tobin, and Arden attended the Christian Youth in Action training camp the first week in June. Run by Child Evangelism Fellowship, this training prepares teens to share the gospel with children during 5-day clubs held throughout the summer. The kids learned how to completely run a club by themselves, from leading games and songs to teaching Bible and missionary stories, Bible verses, and review and application activities. It was a lot of work, but they all agree they are glad they did it!

* Immediately after this intensive training week, Charis left for a week-long missions trip to a reservation in South Dakota along with a team she has accompanied 4 different times now. She loves those kids and got to specifically use the skills she had just cultivated the week before as she interacted with kids and shared the gospel.

* Kenna, Lucan, and Zaden had swimming lessons the first two weeks in June. Seanin and Rhema and I enjoyed some quality hang-out time.

Zaden loved getting rides in the boat!

Seanin braved the big slide by himself at the park!

* Tobin enjoyed another great week at Camp Cedars with the Boy Scouts! This year was even more fun for him since he actually knew boys in the troop! Unfortunately, he missed out on a family visit...

* We got to spend some time with our CO family when Joel and Sarah and their boys came through for a few days' visit on their way to a family reunion in Kansas (or maybe Missouri, I can't remember). We especially enjoyed an outing together to see the train park and then get some ice cream in the Old Market.

Charis, Anders, Zaden, Arden (before his summer haircut!!), Cade, Lucan, Kenna

* I flew to Salt Lake City (alone! Without children!) to attend the Young Living Convention. I met up with some friends and had a fabulous time learning more about essential oils and the incredible opportunities available to us. I pumped while I was gone, and while Rhema wasn't thrilled about the goat milk she got in a bottle, she did fine and resumed nursing without missing a beat when I returned.

* On June 28, Ted and I celebrated our 19th anniversary! Actually, I think our date night was the next weekend, but we DID get out for a date. And now I can't remember what we did...pretty sure we went to eat at Sinful Burger...oh! I think we saw Finding Dory! And then Ted took the kids to see it during the discounted matinee show the following week.

Charis made this darling baby Dory for me after seeing the movie!

* We had friends come through and stay with us the night of July 4 on their way back home from a trip. We had a relaxed visit over some yummy grilled food and somehow failed to see any fireworks.

* On July 15 our baby Rhema turned one! Charis made a fabulous birthday cake for her and we had a simple family celebration.

* The last week in July Charis attended a Bible camp with some of the kids in the local youth group. Aside from sleeping in a bunk the first night that had bed bugs in it (!!!!!!!)...she says it was a great week. (Mom is trying to refrain from further commentary here...)

* The first week in August our backyard hosted up to 16 kids during the last 5-day Club of the summer. Charis, Tobin, and Arden all taught 4 clubs, which kept us busy several weeks in a row as we drove to Omaha and Bellevue to other host homes. So it was nice that the last one was right in our yard with kids we knew, mostly from church but also a few from the neighborhood.

* On August 8 the kids took the online Bible Bee test, the culmination of 8 weeks of study over the summer, working through their Discovery Journal to dig into John 13 - 15 and also 14 different memory passages.

* August 10 - 14 I took another trip, this time to San Diego for a "Naples Reunion" with a number of ladies who were stationed there at the same time. It was SUCH a blessing to go! I stayed with my dear friend Joyce, co-founder of Missione di Luce with which I was involved during my time in Italy. She, like many of the ladies I met up with, now lives in San Diego. It was a joyous, refreshing few days as we caught up on each others' lives, prayed together, laughed together, and definitely ate good food together. I'm thankful for the opportunity to go.

We spent all day at the beach, people coming and going as their schedules allowed. Sooooo nice to relax and talk!

Sheri opened her home for sushi-making at lunchtime and lots of hang-out time through the afternoon.

I think this is almost everyone who was able to make it!

* August 14 was Seanin's 3rd birthday! Charis made another amazing cake, and we had a family celebration at home.

* We had a local Bible Bee celebration in our backyard August 20. Nine families had registered for the summer study, and while not everyone was able to complete everything, the feedback seemed overwhelmingly positive. We rejoice that kids spent time in God's Word, learning how to study the Bible and memorizing verses that will renew their hearts and minds! Also, we praise the Lord that Charis was able to qualify for the National Bible Bee Competition again this year.

Kenna receives her certificate and chooses a verse to recite (John 13:34-35).

* On August 24 Zaden turned 5! We had a family party for him since his birthday was on a Wednesday. We had to work around a friend's schedule, but we did finally have a friend party on September 2. Hooray! Two cakes, lol!

I took Zaden to get a haircut a couple of days before his birthday. Everyone was very sad at how short his hair is now, but I still think he's a cutie-patootie!!

We have generous friends who let us borrow this inflatable water slide for the friend party! It was a hit!

Brothers and friends!

Aaaaaaand that's the story of our summer! All good things must come to an end, I suppose. We actually kicked off our school year on August 29, so I will try to be better about keeping more remembrances on our blog as the school year gets underway!

Florence for Mother's Day

One place Ted and I really wanted to visit before leaving Italy was Florence (or Firenze, as it's called there). We had spent one day there in 2013 but left feeling there would be plenty of time for a return visit to do justice to the many sites in this beautiful city. Bwahahaha!! Two years later we had to scramble and make an effort to get there, but it was worth it!

I wish I could say we went as a family, with our children soaking up all the culture and being excited to see museums bringing to life the pages and pictures from art and history studies. But. Only one of our offspring was interested, even eager, to go to Florence! So we agreed that Charis would accompany Ted and me on an overnight trip!

Tobin and Arden (who I had really hoped would choose to accompany us) stayed with a friend. When they insisted they really didn't want to go, we decided we would take them at their word and not risk bringing along potential whiners and feet-draggers, lol. Our friends Anna and Alaina Z agreed to stay with our younger kiddos in our temporary living facilities and earn some extra spending money. (And I think they truly earned it, lol.) It was SO nice to leave early in the morning to catch the train and NOT be lugging little ones, strollers, diapers, pull-ups, extra snacks, and so on! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!

Ahem. Here are Charis and I on the fast train as it's pulling out of downtown Naples. You can tell it's early because we're both wearing our glasses, lol.

We arrived mid-morning and found our hotel fairly easily, dumping off our bags so we could be free to begin sightseeing. First stop: the Academia to see The David!! And other great sculptures and some early instruments...very cool for us.

Then a yummy lunch...followed by the baptistery, the palace, crossing the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) to another palace, capped off by an amazing dinner and a well-earned good night of sleep, and Day 1 = done!

Baptistery

Ponte Vecchio

We will miss mozzarella di buffalo!!

Mmmmm...bruschetta...

Day 2! Another full day trying to squeeze in as much as possible before we needed to catch the train back to Naples. We started with the bell tower at the Duomo before the crowds got too crazy. As we made our way there, we discovered it was a marathon day...good thing we started early! How fun would it be to run the streets of Florence?! At 7 months pregnant, I wasn't too eager to try it out! Hard to believe I had run a marathon 7 months prior...I huffed and puffed my way to the half-way point (approximately) of the tower, then rested while Ted and Charis climbed the rest of the 402 stairs to the top!

Then off to the museums...first the Uffizi...

...the Bargello...

Dante's house...

San Marco...

...and finally, the basilica of Santa Maria.

And then a dash to the train station (after some more gelato and shopping), and we were able to crash on the ride back to Naples! We packed in a LOT in those two days and made some wonderful memories. What a way to spend Mother's Day! I'm so grateful for the time and experiences I got to share with Ted and Charis.

Venice with a Friend!

After I got sick and had to sit out a day trip to Venice, Ted and my friend Carla hatched a scheme to get me to be able to experience this lovely city before our move back to the States. The weekend after Easter was really our only option when it came down to the wire, so we grabbed some cheap plane tickets and left Naples EARLY Sunday morning for a girls' trip to remember!

We arrived at our hotel around 9am, and the congenial proprietor allowed us to stash our stuff there early and gave us tips for navigating the city and finding his personal favorite restaurants. We had a full day of exploring, starting right after breakfast! Aaaaahhhhh....caffe e cornetti, how I will miss you!!!

We toured the Grand Canal listening to Rick Steves' audio guide, getting off to explore various places.

Inside the doge's palace. I believe they said this was the largest meeting room in Europe? It could hold 2600 people! Can you see Carla standing waaaaaaaaay over there?!

The palace is in the background to the left; this view is from St. Mark's Cathedral.

After an incredibly yummy dinner, we got to attend a Vivaldi concert with the musicians dressed in period costumes! It was fantastic!

Monday morning we went to the islands of Murano and Burano. I loved the colorful houses on Burano!

See my lovely glass necklace? One of my favorite finds! It came from Murano, famous for their glass-blowing techniques and products.

All too soon we had to head back home, but since our return date happened to be Tobin's 13th birthday, there was still a huge draw to get back to my family! I cherish the time I got to spend with Carla, talking and praying together as well as exploring this amazing, historical city. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to experience it for myself, not just vicariously through Ted's pictures!