Music and more music

Benjamin recently rescued a ton of music from the recycling bin at his university, so we enjoyed watching the last week of the Met's free operas with scores in our hands.  We discovered that reading along enhances our viewing even more!

My last professional development class for the summer was actually a music class.  It was focused on general music teachers, and having always taught in the orchestra classroom, I learned so much.

We had fun trying new things, and as always, the people I met along the way were the cream of the crop.  This class reminded me of how much I love sharing music with students and what a joy it is to be a music educator.

Family and Fellowship

 

Getting to spend time with family is one of my favorite things about being back in Arkansas.  Four of my cousins recently joined us for supper,

and it was so very nice to catch up with them, to laugh, to talk about books, and to enjoy good food (tacos and apple crisp with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream) together.

We also watched as this mama robin go back and forth to feed her two growing babies with all sorts of good squirmy, squiggly things!

Life Long Learning

 

I am loving all of the professional development classes I get to take to keep my teaching license current.  Last week I attended a session about Arkansas' book awards, the Charlie May Simon and the Arkansas Diamond.

I promptly put as many books as possible on hold at our library and created a book corner with post it notes for reviews.  So many good books!

I also attended another two day session where we studied more of the geology of the Arkansas River Valley, particularly at Mt. Nebo and Petit Jean State Parks.

In addition to learning a ton about rock formations, I enjoyed getting to know other teachers from around the state.  I was the only non science teacher, and they welcomed me into the bunch like I had been teaching science for years.  

We finished our hot day of climbing around on rocks with stopping for cold and refreshing ice cream.

Happy birthday, Olivia

Families who play together really do stay together.  Play, fun, laughter, and the creation of lifelong memories are essential for keeping your relationship with your adult kids strong..  Play is a "love currency" that makes a deposit into your children's lives no matter what their age. 

 ~Jim Burns, "Doing Life With Your Adult Children"

We began Olivia's birthday celebrations by stopping at Rock N Java for coffee and a lovely view on our way up to meet the rest of the crew.

Sarah, Benjamin, and Hannah arrived at the Air BnB shortly after we did, and they were toting an incredible birthday cake made by the one and only Sarah Choate.

Olivia's birthday request was to attend Opera in the Ozarks again.

We've made some sweet memories here before, and we built on that foundation.

The next morning, we got a call from Kings River Outfitters 

to let us know that the rain was cancelling all of the float reservations for that day.

So we stayed in and played lots of games, including "One Night Ultimate Daybreak".  Which wasn't my favorite, but the rest of the family loved it.

We went back to Opera in the Ozarks for a second night and thoroughly enjoyed their performance of Cendrillon.  It was musically excellent and absolutely hilarious.

Saturday morning dawned cloudy, but a quick call confirmed that we could get on the river that day, so we checked out and loaded up our picnic lunches.

The sky kept getting darker, but we paddled and laughed and didn't have to worry about sunburn.

However, about halfway through our float, the heavens began to dump buckets of rain, so we paddled as quickly as we could while making lots of memories together.  These are definitely my favorite people to play with!

 

When our friends, the Huntleys, contacted us about spending the night, we immediately responded with a big YES!  We've known this crew since before Adam and Ruth were married.

They equip Bible translation in Cameroon and CAR, and I love it whenever our paths cross.

We crammed so much joy into only a few hours together.

Their five children are treasures, especially since we miss having little ones around our house.

S'mores, chalk, books, laughter, guinea pigs, coffee all combined for lots of sweet fellowship.

Pause

 "Just as God's shabbat completes the creation of the universe -- by demonstrating that the proper response to the gift of life is celebration and delight -- so too should our Sabbaths be the culmination of habits and days that express gratitude for and joy in the manifold blessings of God."  

~Wendall Berry, forward to "Living the Sabbath"

After all of that running around, we were gasping for breath in every way.  Pausing to enjoy fresh produce from our incredible farmers' market, inviting people to come to the house to share waffles and to visit, reestablishing our routines, all of these help ignite our delight and gratitude.

Shakespeare Summer

Every summer in Arkansas, we look forward to the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater.  But this summer they made the difficult decision to cancel due to COVID concerns.

Thankfully, the Firebrand Theater offered an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's "The Tempest",  We recently discovered the opera setting of "The Tempest" by contemporary composer Thomas Ades, and it's one of our favorites.

We were ready for opening night, sharing milkshakes from the Purple Cow (always go for the peanut butter chocolate) and enjoying the lovely evening.  When a real tempest hit.

We huddled underneath blankets in the hopes that the rain would last only briefly, but it didn't let up, and the outdoor performance was canceled.

We made it back the next night, though, and thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Shakespeare's classic.  Hopefully, next year's festival schedule will be full of plays for everyone to enjoy again!

Fossils

Now that we are back in Arkansas for a few weeks, I'm turning my attention to enjoying my professional development hours to keep my teaching license up to date.

Our educational co-op offers some incredible classes.   Although I do want to continue growing as a music educator, I also want to grow in life long learning of every type, so I recently took a class about the geology of the Arkansas River Valley and learned a LOT.

We spent one day driving around central Arkansas looking at rock formations and finding fossils and the second day we spent in the classroom discussing what we saw and learning even more.  The Arkansas Geological Survey has some great resources...go take a look!

Independence Day

Exhausted from our trip, we celebrated America's Day of Independence with sparklers and an early bedtime.

But by July 7th, we had rested enough to tackle making cassava pudding in honor of Solomon Islands Independence Day.

The girls did all of the shopping and the work to assemble the pudding.  

In America, frozen, grated cassava and canned coconut milk make the process go a lot more quickly.  

Even if the final product doesn't taste nearly as good, we're still grateful for the opportunity to make and eat a little taste of home.

Back to Birmingham

As we circled back towards home, we once again swung through Birmingham.  

This time we stayed with the Hicks family who also serve in the Solomon Islands.  Many things bind our hearts together, and one of them is a shared love for music.

 

They took us to a beautiful little jewel of a park with a lake.  

This was the perfect place to laugh and play and to enjoy God's beautiful creations of people and plants and animals and water.

Albany, Georgia

When we knocked on the door, we were greeted with a happy squeal.  Both families had big kids who are quickly becoming independent, so our gatherings are a little bit smaller these days.

With no little ones around, the mornings are quieter now, too, with time for Jesus and coffee on the porch and space to take a walk around the neighborhood lake.

The Kelleys learned how to play President, which elicited much laughter.

We're so grateful for these friends and for the time we shared serving in the same church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which cemented our hearts together so many years ago.