California Dreamin'

Eric and I were able to take a nearly-free trip to Ventura, CA in early April because of a business tour he attended. Woot! As is only proper after a trip, I am giving a report: Three Things I Learned About California

1) There are hills and mountains, and then there is the Pacific Ocean. There is waaaay less in between than I thought. At some points there is no in between.

2) Television meteorologists in mid-southern CA have to work really hard to come up with new ways to make 4-5 degree temperature variations sound interesting and important.

3) Even if your flight gets rerouted and delayed twice, and you end up getting to your beach-front hotel 12 hours later than originally scheduled, bone-tired and dehydrated, you are still in a beach-front hotel at 65 degrees in early April.

Pics!

View from our hotel

Our hotel

View from the pier in Ventura

 Looking back into Ventura from end of pier

My walk around downtown - beautiful

 Santa Barbara

Dutch town of Solvang in the mountains/wine country

Points for trying

The assignment: write an emotional appeal about something; play on your readers' emotions

Levi's result:

Today is a special day - a famous day, a day that should be spent in relaxation. It's Valentine's Day! Yes, all the kids toiling away at and in school need some time off. So, please, support the Kid's Abuse Cause today!!

Wit like the Sahara

Overheard at the lunch table:

Levi: So who's going outside to the trampoline with me? Jesse and Leah?

Leah: It's too cold. I'm going to exercise in here and just take this vitamin (by her plate).

Levi: C'mon, you need fresh air and Vitamin D.

Leah: No, I'm staying in. I said I was going to take this vitamin.

Delaney (barely looking up from her food, an askew glance at the vitamin): You think that holds any sunshine, puddin' pop?

Let's Review

Top Threes, Please...

...in movies:
* People Like Us
* Machine Gun Preacher
* War Horse

...in books:
* Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand (seriously, everyone must.read.this)
* Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking (I need to re-read this every year)
* not a fan, Kyle Idleman (did not expect to like this one)

...in things accomplished:
* new lights in the kitchen! Ding, dong, the too-dark-always-burning-out hanging lamps are dead!
* We grew enough tomatoes successfully that we were able to get tired of canning tomatoes. And we got strawberry plants in the ground that still appear to be alive.
* Wrote non-press release articles for $$ for the first time in many years. Felt good!
(I should put the bedroom re-do project on here, but because I am technical and "that way", I'm not. Because it's not quite done :)

...in homeschooling:
* Big transition - Levi taking some classes through/at the local school district. Lost some control of our time, gained new experiences.
* Either Delaney has a natural bent for understanding fractions, or I got better at teaching (must be the former). Either way, it wasn't the dramatic gloom-and-doom that long division and all previous math had portended. Whew.
* Finding Phonetic Zoo for spelling. Thank you Andrew Pudewa. Thank you.

...in the unexpected:
* Suburban stolen out of the barn in February, but Eric didn't get fired that day. One to remember.
* 60s on the twins birthday, hanging out laundry in February, gardeners and farmers planting in March. Crazy weather.
* We have a dog. She has not been hit on this road. She appears to like us.

...in God-things (aren't all?):
* Eric baptizing Sara
* deep-thinking friends who can see beyond the routine into the heart of things in the midst of soccer games, kid-running and dirty dishes
* the barn sale and all that goes with it - He never ceases to amaze us

...in music:
* Psalm 46, Jenny & Tyler
* Washed by the Water, NEEDTOBREATHE
* Rice and Beans, The Welcome Wagon

And more progress...

Before

And in progress...

The young lady

On this day where you turn 10 into 11 - even though I'm pretty sure you made me a deal last year that you would turn double digits but then stop right there - you amaze me. Like my mother, I hope you forget the times where I speak too sharply and you clam up with your thoughts, and remember our every-morning hugs and smiles.

I love how you are the best example of every-vegetable-under-the-sun eating for your siblings around here. Way better than me. How you hold up the snow pea - which had rarely-to-never graced the dinner table - and just popped it in. "Hm. Pretty good."

You and me and Spotify could go for hours. Sometimes we do, on Friday nights when your dad's patience with Tangled soundtrack songs runs out and he requests Eric Clapton or Rod Stewart and then we launch into rabbit trails of songs that you love or hate. When you have your own computer, you say, you're not filling playlists with Irish music.

You are nearing the thousands in pictures taken since you got your camera last year, and it's almost always nature that catches your eye. Sometimes people - usually sister subjects; but mostly the beauty of God's creation and close ups of things in the light that you like the look of. I like seeing how you see things.

I'm so sorry about art camp. You don't always like trying new activities with new people, and I did my best mom-gently-pushes routine and convinced you to say yes. I just knew it would be the thing for you, in my gut. And by the morning of, you were nervous but almost totally bought in. Excited, even. Telling your sisters what kinds of things you were going to get to make and try. And no one was there. Cancelled. Thank you for your maturity and grace in dealing with disappointment.

I love how much time and thought you put into your birthday menu, and how this year you decided to go easy on the vegetables for the sake of your siblings. That was very thoughtful. You are a "foodie", and I can't wait to see how the Lord uses that in your life.

Happy birthday, DK.