Sucess

Why are some homeschooling parents sucessful, and some have children that wind up hating everything their parents stand for? It's something I've wondered often through the years, and it's a more relevent question than ever. I've moved past the state of "homeschooled child" and "homeschool graduate" and am not entering the season of "homeschool mom."

New Baby

It's a new baby :-)
Life is a three ring circus these days!


She's completely precious, and almost always nice. Life is wonderful. :-)

New Beginings

Autumn is my favorite time of year. It always seems more like a new beginning time of year than New Years. I don't know why I always feel that way. Every year, on the first cool day, I get a feeling that wonderful things are just around the corner. And as it happens, they often are. Here is this year's wonderful thing :-)
It's amazing how much life can change in a year. A three weeks ago, I became a mother. And Wednesday, my little sister became a mother. Talk about unreal.


The moment they put my baby in my arms was perhaps the most surreal of my life. Just looking at the picture overwhelms me with emotion. I couldn't get my mind around the fact that she was MINE. A little soul to cherish, train, love, and show the way to the Saviour. It's a little scary. Now, after a lifetime of watching other people raise children, and trying to figure out why some things work and some don't, I'm the parent. It a awesome, overwhelming, and humbling thing.

We named the baby Ianna Lynn. People keep asking where we got the name. Well, we got it from that most un-romantic of places, a baby name book. But it's like this. Most of the names we both liked were fairly common, like Elisabeth or Victoria, and we wanted something a little unusual. We also kind of wanted something that reflected our families' heritage, which for both of us is mostly Scottish, German and English. And last, but not least, we wanted something with a meaning more profound then "dark-haired girl". Ianna is Scottish, and it means "God is gracious".

A few hours after Ianna was born I was laying in my room, thinking about the events of the day. Poor Andrew was trying to sleep, but I had a thousand things to say. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning Andrew told me that Ianna was born with her cord wrapped around her head, her body, and her neck. Thank God, she was fine, there weren't any related complications. "I think we picked a good name, Love" Andrew said. And as I lay there, with my mind racing, I thought about the totally amazing, painful, and altogether overwhelming experience of giving birth, I agreed. Things couldn't have gone much better. My labor was short, and without complication, and the people I loved the most were there to share it with me. My nurses and dola were wonderful, and I felt like everyone there contributed something that I needed. Here's Robin contributing some much needed laughter. She declared that the chairs were uncomfortable. (And they are, as I found our Wednesday. I was not invited to join her on the bed when she was the one in it, though ;-) )

So anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to say on the subject sometime. And for now, I'll leave you with some more pictures.

Here is Ianna with Selina two weeks ago:

And yesterday. Neither one of them look to happy, but they wouldn't both be awake, fed and happy at the same time.

For some reason this one decided to come out small. Oh well, it's still cute.


And here's my little family. So yeah, I'm pretty much the most blessed woman in the world :-)

Baby Picture and Maturnity Clothes

I've had two sonograms now. This is the first one. It was amazing to see the little bitty baby looking like -well - a baby! It's was about an inch long, but it was amazing that it already looked distinctly human.

I'm done with my first trimester! YAY!! I feel better, and I'm starting to not fit into my clothes. Robin and I broke out the box of clothes we dubbed the "Too Big for Us Box, May it Live forever". That just sounded better than "May it Live 'Till We Get Pregnant". One way or another, they are no longer too big. One perk to not fitting in anything you own: you get to go clothes shopping. Which is always fun. And on top of getting a whole new wardrobe, you get to buy fun baby things. I love buying baby things. They are all so CUTE!


While I've even seen pictures and all that good stuff, it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm really having a baby. I mean, when I was younger I always talked about "When I'm married and have kids", but I can't quite believe that it's really real!

But two sonograms, three months of being more or less sick and a growing belly all bear testament to the fact that it is all really, indeed real. So, on that note, I'm going to go clean house so I can clean out the spare room so Baby will have a place to live when it gets here :-)

Wedding and Such

So many things have happened the past year. My blog has been totally neglected, and I doubt if anyone even bothers to check it anymore. Every time something of note happens I thing "I should blog about this" but there are so many important un-bloged-about things that it seems that I can't post about the latest life changing event till I post about all of the preceding events.

I can't believe I have been married more than 2 months! Time is flying so fast.

It's funny, really. My wedding went off without any major glitches, but I keep having dreams that for some reason we have to have another ceremony and SOMETHING is always a disaster in these dreams. Last night Robin was talking while the preacher was trying to talk. I thought you were supposed to quit having wedding disaster dreams after the wedding was over...

The real life wedding though, was wonderful. It really was a little surreal. I remember Kevin saying that he didn't remember much of the sermon from his wedding, and I thought "I"m listening. I'm even paying attention. I think I'm doing pretty well." But, as it happens, that is practically the only thing I remember him saying. Oh well. Fortunately, I have a video coming, so I'll be able to hear all the good advice and maybe retain more of it.

But for all the blur, there are some things that stick out clearly in my mind. My dad calling me out of the brideroom to practice pulling my veil back. Teary eyed, I might add.

Gramy comming into the Bride Room saying that Grandpy was asking to see me. When he came in he was teared up. He hugged me tight. "I wish you all the happiness in the world, Darlin'. You deserve it." He almost made me cry.

The image of my poor bridesmaids shivering outside the church won't be forgotten. I felt bad, 'cause I had a nice warm cape and they were all huddled up together. It was windy too. My veil and train were a mess coming into the church. And there was something wrong with that darn doorway. My train snagged on it and my veil got caught. One side came unattached from the flowers in my hair, and I was very glad that Sarah and Mom had pinned the flowers in so well.

Right after we said our vows I knelt next to the love of my life and we partook of the first Holy Communion of our married life, a visible symbol of our unity with Chirst and his Church. I was swept away in the utter beauty of the moment. Some of our dear friends and my dear sister were singing "The Lord Bless you and Keep You", and they sounded heavenly. That moment defined my wedding for me. We were had been joined in the holy bonds of marriage, and we knlet there together before God, and it was perfect.

Another precious moment was as I was coming out of the room where the cake was, I stopped and gave a hug to one of my great uncles who had come in from out of town. His wife died recently, after a long bout with leukemia. He seemed to be doing well, and he gave me the most touching good wishes of the day. "Well I hope you marriage is as good as ours was, except that it lasts longer."

All in all, everyone was wonderful, my wedding party (especially my sister) pulled all the little details off wonderfully and it was the happiest day of my life.

And for all the questioners who ask "So, how's married life?"

It's wonderful. In some ways it seems a little unreal. I've always known what I wanted to do with my life, and now that I'm doing it it seems like it can't really be me. But on the other hand, it seems like the most natural thing in the world to meet Andrew every evening when he gets home from work, and to fix his meals and wake up every morning beside him. I'm loving each little season right now, and learning that none of them last forever, and they all have joys and trials, and that they are all wonderful in their own way. I miss some old seasons, and I'm looking forward to some coming up, but I love our little time of "just the two of us"

I felt that I simply had to post all this today, because tomorrow I have my first doctor's appointment for Baby, who will be here in late October, and I might have related thing to say :-)

St. Louis and Such

So I'm informed that I never post. Which has been mostly true I'm afraid. So to make up for lost time I'll post some pictures of what I've been up to for the past three months or so.

This is what I did. I was in St. Louis from the beginning of February until last week with the Capasso's. Elise is the mom and the children, from left to right, are Ilenia, Viviana and Isabella.


This is me with the two older Capasso girls, Isabella and Viviana. We are freezing. I did a lot of that...

Ilenia didn't like the cold too much...

How about that sled?

We make bread (Translation: I made bread with the cute, but rather unhelpful help of three year old Vivi) I thought this picture of Ilenia was too cute.

Andrew came to see me and took this very cute picture with Ilenia.

We took a road trip to Chicago and visited some friendly nursery rhyme characters.

Me in Chicago.

This is Easter. It snowed. It was insane.

These are the flowers Elise informed everyone Andrew sent her for Easter. But he didn't. He sent them to me :-)

Me and my Tissy. I managed a short visit to see the McDonald's while I was up North.

:-D

Viviana is a sweetheart. She was the only one of the girls that didn't have an aversion to the camera that day.

I'm Alive!

Just so all my dear readers (all three of you) know, I'm still alive. I'm just in St. Louis until April 15 with not much time to blog, alas! Actually, I have posted since Christmas, but Blogger hates me and insists that I wrote that post in November. So anyway, that's where my latest post is. It's titled "Growing Up". Just in case you care. If you don't, why are you here? Just a thought...

So anyway. Maybe sometime I'll actually have something to say next time I post. Until then, Adiu!

Growing Up

Growing up is a strange thing. When I was a child my mom would sing a line from some song that went "Life used to be so simple, but it's not simple anymore." I remember analyzing that and thinking "When was life simple? I don't think life's ever been simple." And really, mine never was. The complexities of life started to show out about the time I was four, and things haven't been simple since. I remember hearing people talk about childlike faith and wondering what was so wonderful about childhood. I figured I must have missed out on whatever that magical childhood was that everyone talked about.I remember thinking when I was about 10 that I had filled my quota of difficulty and was entitled to have everything go my way from than on. But from the vantage point of 21 (gosh, a I that old already?) I can see that there is a quality trust inherent in childhood that is precious. As children we believe things because... well because someone we trust said so. And that's enough. It's a scary place to be when it's no longer enough that Mom or the preacher said so. I now understand why so many young people lose their way. The old standards of judging truth aren't there anymore. Unless one believes that if God says it that's enough, one could fall very far indeed. It has frightened me at times to see how far I could stray from everything I hold dear. I have looked at myself and been terrified at what I saw. I have seen that I, in and of myself am unable to fully trust in what I believe. I have clung to the hand of my father, and seen that I wasn't strong enough to hold on. I have known that he was holding me, that his grip was stronger on me then mine could ever be on him. And I have been given the strength to hold on by his grace, one day at a time.


Something I love to ponder is the beauty of each season of life. There is the complete dependence of a new baby, and the wonder of a little child just starting to explore the world, asking always "What's that?" There is something that makes me smile about a ten year old learning to hold adult conversations and talk about important things.


There is youth, a season when anything seems possible, when we are willing to risk everything in hopes of being movers and shakers. I guess beause it's my area to explore right now, I'm partial to youth. There is a zeal to it that I find fascinating. Through much of history it has been young people that have changed the world. There was a line that struck me as I was watching Amazing Grace recently. One young man said to his friend "We're too young to realize that certain thing cannot be done. And we can do them." And they did. These two young men, William Pit and William Wilberforce, where the movers and shakers of their day. They changed the world. Often, when we are young, the price that would daunt someone with more knowledge of the world seems payable to us. I wonder if perhaps that's why God set things up that most people fall in love and marry in this season. Because by 40 we see all the risk that's involved in loving someone, and perhaps we'd be less willing to venture into something so very... risky.


I think the same may be true of friendships. There is something different about the friendships that someone very young and someone older. I look and my grandmother and the friends she's had all her life and those she's made since she was middle aged. It's just not the same. And frankly, I can understand that. I've never spent the night crying over anyone I didn't love. But it's still worth it. I guess I'm still young enough not to care.

And yet again, there are the seasons of Middle and old age. Honestly, I don't really understand these seasons. I can see that my the time one has reached these seasons one has gained wisdom. The preacher Sunday said something that I think might sum up some of the blessings of having spent one's youth. He said "I'm 68 years old. One of the advantages I have that you young people don't have is that I've lived most of my life, and I can tell you that God is always faithful. See, you still have your lives ahead of you and you don't know what it's going to hold. But I know that God is always faithful." It reminded me of the words of the Psalmist. "I have been young and now I am old, but I have not seen the righteous forsaken..."

So I guess that's pretty much it. As I look over this past year, I can see that God is faithful. And I guess that thing called faith comes in when I look at the coming year and say "God will be faithful." So happy New Year, everyone.