Piano lessons

David wanted to take piano lessons this fall, so we found lots of friends and family members with pianos that we could practice on! His goal is to play Beethoven and he's getting there. During the recital he heard another student play Mozart, so that's his new plan. It's good to know where you're headed!

He played great at the recital and memorized the three songs a couple of weeks in advance! Now if he could just remember the spelling words as quickly each week. :-)

Happy Birthday David!

David had a great birthday with friends. This year we decided to ask classmates to the Muncie Children's Museum to spend the morning playing and having fun!

Summer Travel

It's getting easier to travel now, so we wandered Indiana and a little bit of Illinois this summer. Here are pictures of our adventures.

David is a big Civil War fan. He likes to learn about Abraham Lincoln and this time in the nation's history. He is amazed by the Underground Railroad and was really excited to visit Levi Coffin's house. He enjoyed hearing the stories about how their family hid runaway slaves on the way to freedom.

Then we ventured to Chicago for a short stay to visit Legoland.

But the real star for vacation was seeing the Museum of Science and Industry. We were both AMAZED! We liked the Tesla Coil that shows electricity (it was originally in the building when it housed the World's Fair. David liked the tornadoes, and everything else!

Here's the Zephyr

And the plasma ball

And the train layout

And the steam locomotive

And the doll house

And the U boat

Back to School

More than a month ago, David went back to school. He attends EWA and is a first grader this year. He really likes school and is doing great! 

Here's the first day of school picture...in the dark. If you've watched the headlines, we were part of the group who never saw the bus the first morning of school. And the bus stops at our house so early (6:15), even for two early risers after two weeks we became car riders. :-)

What did you do this summer?

The summer was an absolute whirlwind. It was my first summer off in almost 30 years, and I'm afraid that we overbooked. Between speech twice a week and all the other activities, we hardly had a chance for a summer vacation!

David was named "Superhero of the Month" at Cole Academy where he takes gymnastics lessons.

David also participated in our church's SERVE Week, which for now is Vacation Bible School. Mom was a teacher for the week too. Here the entire group sang for the celebration night. When they are big kids they work on service projects in town during the week and have fun and fellowship. David also did a second week of VBS with friends at a different church.

David also completed two projects in Mini 4-H. Here's pin cushion for Sewing and the next image is the poster for My Pet and Me.

He also participated in Math Camp. His cousin Katie did too for her grade in school. This is the "after party" picture at the water park.

And finally there were swim lessons. Somehow we got it all done! Goodbye summer!

Tidy Up

We've been busy the last several months trying to get organized and clean up. There have been a few projects that have needed to get done, and now we are happy to say that they are complete!

Here's what we've been working on:

David wanted his bedroom to be painted in his favorite color...orange!

David also asked for a play gym in the backyard. A friend gave us a slide they were no longer using a couple of years ago, so we are putting it to work now. David also has two telescopes in the "treehouse" section.

He spends a lot of time on the bar, swinging back and forth with an occasional flip.

And we had this table repaired and refinished. The top had a 1/4 inch split down the middle and it looked pretty tired. It looks better than new now!

Happy Easter and Grandma June

David is ready for Easter -- he colored three dozen eggs on Saturday with Grandma Arla. They really have fun each year and we've managed to get quite an assortment of creative tools for them to use.

Sadly, our neighbor Grandma June passed over the weekend. June was 100 years young, and she and David were good friends. This is his first experience with death, so now he's learning about what happens when someone dies. We've had a couple of discussions about going to Heaven and having Jesus in your heart. While we are sad for us, we're happy for Grandma June and look forward to seeing her again.

Swim

David started swim lessons with Sam and Katie's swim club. They are a first-class act and he is really learning! I would guess that he will get rid of the swim noodle soon and be able to swim on his own. He's been a quick study and isn't afraid at all. 

So what do you do all day?

I had the chance to "retire" early from Ball State at the end of November. It seemed like a good idea and one that I had been considering for some time, but never thought it could be a reality. But working in a full time position, caring for David as a single parent, and keeping a yard, dog, and house going all at the same time was overwhelming some days so thankfully my dream worked out.

The funny part is that I must look way younger than my driver's license indicates, because I quickly learned that saying "I'm retired" produced an instant quizzical look from almost everyone. I soon discovered saying "working from home" was much more acceptable.

Now the latest question is, so what do you do all day? Surprisingly, quite a bit! While the pace is no longer set at a race, I've managed to fill up every day, and not with naps and Young and the Restless.
Soon my five month anniversary of working from home will be here, and it's been an adjustment, but it's been good. Here's a few things I've observed:

1 - Career change. This has given me the opportunity to really try a career change -- teaching. My master's degree is a few years old and I just never had the guts to try it out...and I love it! It's hard and extremely time consuming to grade 26 three to five page papers (much more time consuming than I imaged) but I hope that I give as much as I get from the students in the classroom. In fact the week before spring break I was trudging into the office and said prayed that God would reveal that if I'm supposed to be doing this, then he should give me a sign. Within five minutes the answer to prayer was in my inbox with a "thanks for being one of my favorite professors" email.

2 - Volunteering. Before David, I had time to volunteer at church and in the community. But the time for volunteering was too much of a luxury for the past five+ years until recently. Now I help out in one of the kindergarten classrooms in the Muncie schools. I'm not sure who was blessed more...me or the children or the teacher. Last week when I arrived I heard a whisper, "She's here!"

3 - Women's Bible study. I've had the chance to do this every Tuesday morning and WOW--what a group of spiritual leaders! We've been working through the book The Circle Maker and it's just been an amazing experience to be in the presence of these godly women. We encourage and support each other and this has really helped me grow as a person and in my faith.

4 - The no stick zone. There are no sticks in my yard. Or my neighbors' yards. And I've already mowed once and half of my mulch is down. Enough said.

5 - Joy of the school bus. I was a bus rider all of my school years and nearly every day my mother greeted me at the door and wanted to know about my day. Now I get to know the joy that comes from seeing the yellow bus pull up to our house Monday through Friday. It's good stuff.

6 - Quilting. I've finished the binding on a quilt, cut out a new one, and am working on a bag for my laptop. It's been a long time since I've been able to work more than a few minutes on a sewing project, and its nice to be reacquainted with several UFOs.

7 - Cleaning out. There aren't too many closets and drawers left to clean out. So far I'm up to four trips of donations to the Muncie Mission or Goodwill, and it feels good.

8 - The dog. We walk almost every day and when I'm at home, she doesn't have much of a chance to sleep. Now we both sleep through most nights. And we're getting ready to re-take the Therapy Dog test so we can visit in the community. Oh, and no more "accidents" on the carpet.

9 - Eating in. We ate too much fast food (or I skipped meals) on a fairly routine basis, but now I'm learning to cook again. David has been helping in the kitchen, and I have enjoyed teaching him a few things that I would haven't taken the time to do in the past. Hopefully this can be a life skill for him too!

10 - Photo books. I didn't have (or take) the time to make scrapbooks or photo books for David as he grows up. I finished his life book in the fall, but there are five more years waiting. So I'm working on the next one now and really enjoy it. It's a gift for our kids to know who they are, so they can figure out where they're going. Now to keep up the momentum!

Spring Break Fun

David and I had a fun spring break. We kept busy doing lots of activities, and David got to go with me to Ball State to see what happens at big kids school one afternoon! (He thought it was pretty cool!)

We visited with friends from daycare, Janelle, Adleigh and Addison.

David practiced dog training with Holly.

We visited the Children's Museum. The exhibit on the circus was really fun!

We traveled to Kokomo to meet family for lunch. David trained Aunt Marti and Aunt Carolyn on how to use his "smart watch."

We traveled to Cincinnati to see the zoo and Jungle Jim's.

And we visited the twins. David read a book to Baby Levi and helped feed Baby Allie.

This was the first break that I didn't pay someone to watch David or take him to Disney. I have a new appreciation for day care providers and teachers. It was a lot of work to keep up!

Musical Astronaut

February was a busy month - We went to the Children's Museum and learned about the first space mission with the Liberty Bell. David was amazed that a man could fit into that tiny space capsule! Space is pretty cool, and we often look to the sky to see where the moon is and any planets that are visible. This morning he asked why the moon looked white, but in pictures of the moon with astronauts it looks gray. (I'll get right on that!)
 




We also visited the symphony for the first time. David thought the show, Beethoven Lives Upstairs, was a pretty big hit. I can tell he has an appreciation for music, and he's asked to take piano lessons next.

After the symphony, we had fun at the school's Mother-Son Game Night. He thought it was funny to wrap me up in toilet paper