A Glimpse of Divine Kindness

"Only as we drink down the kindness of the hearts of Christ will we leave in our wake, everywhere we go, the aroma of heaven, and die one day having startled the world with glimpses of a divine kindness too great to be boxed in by what we deserve." 

~Dane Ortlund, "Gentle and Lowly"

September was full of glimpses of Divine Kindness.  Katherine and I picked fruit at the local orchard as often as possible, then we preserved whatever we didn't eat immediately.

Our family enjoyed the Conway Symphony Orchestra's free outdoor concert as they kicked off their season,

while we waited for the concert to begin, we utilized our travel Clue game and devoured the free paletas from Las Delicias.

Katherine began rehearsing with the Arkansas Youth Orchestras on most Saturday mornings, so Aaron and I took advantage of the built in date opportunity for "coffee and calendars".

And my dad has begun to join us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings for "bike and breakfast".  So many good things to soak up on this side of the world!

September

To help our warm September mornings get off to a smooth start, I like prepping breakfast the night before, like these blueberry banana overnight oats. 

September found us visiting supporting churches, 

subbing more often for music teachers in the public schools, 

and auditioning for the Arkansas Youth Orchestras.

We begin to anticipate the changing of the seasons.  Although in Arkansas, autumn is slow to come, it does come.  So we soak up each farmers market with its bounty and its friends.

 After getting each student in the right place and prepared for a great year of learning, cellotrio settled back into routine and our own school year at the end of August.

We love being closer to family again so we can celebrate special days, even when we need to postpone the festivities a little bit.  Aaron's lovely mom graciously waited for space in our schedule so we could spend some birthday time with her.

Katherine is studying American History this year, so we pulled out "American Cake" by Anne Byrn to help bake our way through history.

Sarah Goes to Dallas

 Slowly, I will attempt to catch up on the last couple of months.  The pace has picked up as our kids have spread out.

We moved Sarah from her home in Siloam Springs where everybody adores her,

to Dallas for grad school.  Friends and family showed up to help load everything that Sarah owns into two vehicles.

Choate "Cellotrio", as we now refer to ourselves, stayed at New Life Ranch and woke up to a rainy Saturday morning for the long drive.

One more opportunity to all be together again,

then we were off to drop Sarah in her new home.

We also took the opportunity to share with a Sunday School class in a supporting church 

and to hug some necks before we left Dallas to head back home to central Arkansas.