Don't forget

- This morning when the girls processed with the other children at church singing, "Silent Night" while holding candles (well, ok, they were battery operated tea lights dropped into plastic cups. But they looked pretty good in dim light!)

- Evelyn unwrapping all the tea lights and putting them in the cups the night before

- Evelyn and Amelia finding the tea lights at the dollar store (since their mom waited until the day before the performance to shop for the candles)

- Amelia and Evelyn helping to cut out pictures for the ornaments we made, then Evelyn helping to put them together (hot glue guns have quite an attraction) and Amelia then labeling them all.

- That both girls love to read (Magic Tree House books have been one of Amelia's favorites, along with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries series. Evelyn likes those, too, but says her favorite book of all time so far is "The Girl Who Could Fly." And of course we're finishing Harry Potter right now.)

- That Amelia lists the only food she likes as pizza and ice cream. (What?!? No Red Lentil Indian Curry??!?)

- That Evelyn is a tomboy and hates dresses and skirts, but wore a skort today with a good attitude since it was the Christmas presentation at church and I said wearing shorts over leggings was just not quite performance attire.

- Evelyn's sweet voice singing when she accompanied me to the rehab center to carol for my friend Melissa. How lovely of six of my church friends to join us. What a special memory that is.

- Amelia snuggling on my lap during the sermon today after all the performances were finished. Have to enjoy those moments while they can still happen. Sigh.

Consequences

I'm not sure how I feel about admitting this, but Alan and I started watching The Walking Dead on Netflix and we have been watching too many episodes at a time.

Last night I dreamed the zombies were pouring into the room I was in and I was attacking them with--get this--a serving spoon. Good thing the alarm went off just as I was thinking, "I should have grabbed a fork."

Insomnia

At least I can be somewhat productive on these nights when I can't fall asleep. I wrote out my to-do list for tomorrow and crafted 21 homemade ornaments. And lookie-here: a couple of blog posts.

In the not-so-productive category goes the watching of youtube interviews with the cast members of The Walking Dead.

First Time for Everything

Tonight Amelia came downstairs saying she couldn't sleep. Why should Evelyn ALWAYS be the one getting up over and over after bedtime? :)

And of course, when I took Amelia back upstairs, Evelyn woke up. She's been a light sleeper since the day she was born. Amelia has slept through thunderstorms and tornadoes.

And while it is not a first, this is in the "unusual" category--Evelyn did NOT come downstairs saying she couldn't sleep. :)

Heard Recently

This past Sunday was the lovely, joyful, beautiful annual Christmas concert at my parents' church. I've had the honor of joining their choir to sing in it for the past few years, and have gradually been adding my singing friends to the choir as well, so it is like this wonderful shot of so many things I love all at once--music, singing, friendship, Christmas--and it starts off the Christmas season for me.

After the concert the church hosts a dinner, and typically the tables of desserts are as long as the dinner buffet tables. Alan and I were enjoying visiting with some friends, when our girls and their cousins ran past. Amelia stopped and said, "Mom, do I HAVE to have any dessert?"

I had this sudden vision of putting on a stern face, pointing my finger at her and saying, "Young lady, you MUST eat your dessert!"

Who's child is this, anyway? :)

2014: The Year of Harry Potter

I confess, for a long time I felt that Harry Potter couldn't possibly impact me like other series had--The Chronicles of Narnia, The Little House Books, Lord of the Rings. 

But I was wrong. I'm reading these books for the first time as I read them aloud to the girls. We started them last year, right before New Year's Eve 2013 on our road trip down & back to Florida. We've been watching each movie as we finish each book. We're in the last book now.

I am going to re-read them all again when we finish...which will be very soon, sadly.

This is our Halloween picture from this year. I think I've posted it already. Since then, Aunt Becky has given the girls their Christmas presents early--"real" versions of Harry's and Hermione's wands, which would authenticate this photo even more. (So would a scar--would you believe both Amelia and I forgot to put a scar on her forehead??)

Here are some of my favorite things about the Harry Potter series:

- Harry and his friends seem real. They have real quirks, real faults, and real strengths. They fight and they make up. They work at love. They struggle, they fail, they experience victory. They grow into teenagers who have attitudes but also feelings and that unique maturity of unadulterated youth.

- Harry's unique power against the dark lord has nothing to do with himself, but with the fact that his parents--his mother in particular--sacrificed their own lives to save his.

- Most of the characters have a very real depth. For protagonists, their faults eventually show themselves and there are always consequences. For antagonists, there is always something that makes the reader empathize, understand, and gain insight into what makes them who they are. 

And...some of my favorite quotes:

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. (Albus Dumbledore, Sorcerer's Stone)

It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. (Albus Dumbledore, Chamber of Secrets)

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. (Dumbledore, Prisoner of Azkaban)

If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. (Sirius Black, Goblet of Fire)

Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness. (Dumbledore to Voldemort, Order of the Phoenix)

Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth. (Dumbledore, Half-Blood Prince)

2014: The Year of the Wedding

Cousin Savannah married Mel in May--the girls were flower girls, which made a GREAT memory for them. So lovely of Savannah to include them, knowing they'd never been flower girls before. They got married in a lovely little town in Connecticut, just north of NYC, and did everything themselves--set up the church's banquet room (below) for the reception (staying up all night the night before the wedding!), did all the decorations, and even made their own hard lemonade for each guest (which came with a warning label.) Dad beautifully officiated the wedding, and Mom and Alan ended up providing music--what a bonus that we have such a talented family. Savannah's friends (opera students like herself!) provided music, too--glorious voices!

Then, in July, cousin Jennie Bisset married Jed in another little town in Connecticut. As you can see, Evelyn enjoyed using her fan in the 200+ year old church that had no A.C. We stayed overnight in a hotel and enjoyed walking around the pretty little town. We also had GREAT cups of coffee with Uncle Steve and Aunt Joan the next morning in a coffee shop they discovered.

In August, our friends Paul and Carol saw their oldest daughter, Emily, married to John Patrick. They very graciously asked Alan and me to do some music for the wedding--a big compliment since so many of Emily's family members play in professional orchestras. Actually, I sang at Paul and Carol's wedding, 25 years ago! I think brides who use the same singer their PARENTS used should get special prizes.

The wedding was at a monastery near the University of MD, where John Patrick and Emily met. It was SO beautiful!

It is a strange feeling when you are attending a wedding because you are friends of the bride's PARENTS....

My Cool Husband

This is from Alan's trip to Bremen, Germany, last April for a jazz conference. He took some really cool pictures on that trip. (And obviously, someone took a really cool picture of him.)

Still About Toys

With my recent life-is-busy hiatus, I have put myself in danger of having the lowest-amount-of-posts-ever-in-a-year since starting this blog. Oh dear. Now there are SOME things one would LOVE to be the lowest-ever-in-a-year (amount of unnecessary money spent; amount of money spent repairing one's old house; summer temperatures; the number on the bathroom scale) but the blog posts are not one of them.

I'm going to make a herculean effort to rectify that. So...above demonstrates one of the current toy obsessions at our house: Lego Friends. While the American Girl Dolls still rank high and the Loving Family Dollhouse still gets a lot of time too, these things top the Christmas lists for our girls. Honestly, I'm glad they still like toys. All the boxes will be flat soon enough! :)

Here's to keeping up the posting! (Now, if I could say I walked a couple miles for each post...then we'd really be getting somewhere....)

Warm Weather Memories

My cousin Jennie Bisset got married in early July in Connecticut--it was lovely to get away for  weekend and enjoy some family time!

The wedding was on a sound--a tropical beach theme in New England. Very pretty.

Sister duet at their piano recital. The flower headbands were from cousin Savannah's wedding back in May. :)

Someone's TEN!!

It was October 16th, and some girls got up to do the annual birthday tradition of opening the presents that had come in the mail. I love their faces in the pic below.

Great Aunt Betty had gotten wind that the now-ten year old was going to add a few holes to her head.

Grandma and Grandpa Blackman made sure the birthday girl would have some new clothes.

And then we walked on our traditional birthday breakfast out. (Yes, those are Harry Potter glasses. This was the first year I've ever purchased Halloween costumes. Usually we just rummage in the dress-up bins right before heading out into the neighborhood. But not this year. The plans were laid. It's been our Year of Harry Potter.)

So for all those other years, we walked to Dunkin' Donuts on the girls' birthdays. This year, Evelyn wanted to head to our neighborhood bakery, where she satisfied her longing for some carrot cake. And Amelia enjoyed a slice of homemade pie--warmed up, of course.

And this picture just melts my heart. Sisters.

And voila! The pierced ears!! I'll have to get Evelyn's permission to post the videos of the event. (All posts must be approved by those appearing in the pictures, of course. We've definitely reached a stage of caring. And of course, caring is good!)

Happy 10th birthday, Evelyn. You may never have a one-digit age again, but you are certainly one-of-a-kind. Your exuberance is infectious and your people-loving personality spreads so much joy! We love you.

What's going on?

Selfies of Astonishment in the Kitchen after removing one's French Braids to find a case of the frizzies.

I know the kissing sisters are cute--but what are they kissing in front of? A back door that did NOT used to be there! The back door is now moved...to allow better flow into...a soon-to-arrive screened in porch!

The whole back of the house gets a new roofline (instead of two rooflines--one for the laundry room/bathroom and another for the porch) and then the back porch will be screened. Home improvement is like most kinds of improvements. Things have to be messy and crazy for a little while before they get better.

 Sunflower field...hadn't seen one of these since ND 2012...so I stopped to take a picture.

I was on my way home from here--Sandy Cove on the Susquehanna River, where the RVR staff retreat had been. What a GREAT couple of days...refreshment, recalibration, rejoicing!

Just some people I love...

The Hamiltopians gathered once more in Hamilton for old times' sake...and were the last people at the Clementine. We had to stand out on the sidewalk and rip ourselves apart from one another. :) How we miss these dear friends and the lovely meals we shared in one another's homes during that sweet season of life!

The girls chose a shopping spree for Labor Day. Evelyn spent one of her dollars on this little carousel ride in the mall. Obviously Amelia is enjoying the benefits of a benevolent big sister.

I'm taking a wild guess that Evelyn enjoyed it, too :) And doesn't she look cute in the hat she bought? It was the only item of clothing purchased...the rest of the expenditures were things with which to play...so sweet!

Touring the Hometown

For the past couple of years, Mom and I (sometimes with Courtney in tow!) have celebrated Mother's Day and/or birthdays by seeing some local sites. A few weeks ago we had our belated celebration of both for 2014.

My agenda was to tour the famed Basilica, take B-more's free tour bus to the Inner Harbor to do some walking, and eat an early dinner in the Locust Point neighborhood. Would you believe I took Mom to the wrong church?? She knew it...but kept quiet as we enlightened ourselves on Universalist Unitarianism in a historic, 1817 church building that really didn't seem like the Basilica I'd remembered singing in with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society...so we still have a Basilica tour on the bucket list!

We got off the free tour bus at the Inner Harbor and walked to Federal Hill, then toured the Sculpture Garden at the American Visionary Arts Museum.

I have a genuine love for quirky art, especially if it's made of found items, recycled materials, or garbage. :) And Mom looks cute on that funky pink donkey! (Makes me wonder if Mom was ever in the Donkey Race in an RVR rodeo??)

While I'm not typically a fan of glittery items, I love all the mosaics using broken glass and mirrors. See Mom peeking out from behind the glittery egg?

The glittery mosaic bus. Someone thought, "I think I'll cover an entire bus with broken glass and all sorts of other random things (I think the hood of the bus contains bunches of plastic flowers and a plastic swan--the kind sometimes found on grandparents' lawns.)

Mom and I walked and walked and walked through Baltimore streets. Seriously, I wonder how many 70+ women walk as much as Mom did, and how many younger than that could have logged our 14,000 steps for the day?? (Like the dolphin fountain in this newer, upscale neighborhood?)

I managed to get us to the restaurant at the ONE hour of the day that the kitchen is closed. They still serve food--just nothing hot. We had a choice of about three salads. Again, Mom was super nice about it, and we enjoyed our salads al fresco. 

In retrospect, we should have walked around a little more and gone to one of the many corner restaurants in Locust Point. However, until we walked more AFTER our meal, I didn't know how many corner restaurants there WERE in Locust Point!

But those little oopses didn't dampen the experience of being together, and we enjoyed lots of walking and talking on an absolutely glorious day!

I appreciated this.

This is how I would write if I could, well, write like this. Here's to turning our backs on trends and enjoying what we have!!

Evelyn Quotes

I wish I recorded ALL the great and memorable things our girls say.

(See Evelyn in the tree in the picture below? She found a "secret hideout" at a local playground that was pretty awesome. It even came with an entire set of clothing, including undergarments, left on the ground. Hmmmm....)

Yesterday Evelyn informed me she thought it was really unfair that women take men's last names when they get married. "I'm not changing my name when I get married," she said. "My husband is going to take MY name." (Given the fact that my in-laws have no grandsons with the Blackman surname, this might just work in the family's genealogical favor...)

(This pic of the cousins makes me smile, with Evelyn holding court so dramatically.)

I wish I'd record all the funny things Evelyn says (and does) in her dreams and sleep. She's a sleep-walker, sleep-talker, light sleeper, and a hard-to-fall-alseeper. (Amelia has literally slept through tornadoes.)

Tonight Alan and I heard Evelyn's frantic voice calling in distress from upstairs, "Mommy!! Mommy! Mama!! Mom! Mama! Mommy!!" I ran upstairs.

She was sitting on the side of her bed. "What's the matter, sweetie?" (Yes, I call her "sweetie.")

"I'm fine," she replied, crawling under her sheet. I could tell she wasn't really awake.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

She put her head on her pillow, "I fell asleep. I dreamed."

She closed her eyes, "I dreamed I had to call your name."

Her voice began to get quieter as she drifted off. "I had to call for you...because I have to follow you," (voice trailing) "...into the future."

Well, then, let's just hope I lead well. :)

(This, by the way, is one of my favorite pictures ever of the cousins!!)

Summer

Our neighborhood street festival...besides snow-cones, the girls love riding their scooters down the middle of the street. :)

We walked to the local bakery on my b-day. On theirs, we go to Dunkin' Donuts. But it was my b-day, so it was local and lovely!

We spent a long weekend in VA Beach with Mom and Dad Blackman. One day the girls & I headed to the boardwalk rides, and at night we introduced Grandma & Grandpa to "Spot It."

The girls on the VA Beach ferris wheel. One of my new favorite pics of them. :)

On July 8th, a sudden, violent wind storm blew through RVR, snapping huge trees. Several campers were injured and one was killed. It's been a summer of enormous heartache and healing at RVR. Evelyn was a camper that week, along with several other staff kids. Our hearts still break for the dear mom who lost her son. Please pray for Antoinette Benns as you think of her.

RVR was inundated with cards of sympathy and compassion. These are just a few, posted in the camp office. My favorites were often notes from other camps around the country offering encouragement from God's Word.

It's been tempting to feel jarred and upset by the jolting rhythm of summer 2014. But what a reminder in the sea, whose rhythms are different every day--sometimes glassy and lilting, at other times choppy, forceful, and violent. But the sea is constantly moving, active, and alive, and I am refreshed by it. May life, infused with God's Spirit and Word, offer daily refreshment in its activity and alive-ness!

Choked Up...

Today was the girls' final baseball game and awards day, with their Orange Crush team placing 4th. It was a proud moment when the coach announced that the team's Christian Character Award was going to...Evelyn Blackman. :)

Walking on Sunshine

I went to a songwriting seminar once that used "Walking on Sunshine" as an example of a fantastic, poetic song lyric (by Katrina & the Waves. I would NOT have gotten that right on a game show.) We instinctively understand what "walking on sunshine" would feel like as an emotion. Of course the idea of creative, metaphoric songwriting can be turned on it's head--let's just say it like it is: "I'm Happy." Catchy music counts. 

These pictures are from a couple of Saturdays ago when Alan and I split the girls and had a little one-on-one time. 

Evelyn and I hiked in nearby Herring Run Park. It was a ridiculously beautiful day.

And this is my ridiculously beautiful daughter looking particularly lovely in the pretty shirt her ridiculously sweet sister bought for her. :)

We were walking on sunshine...happy!

Growth Spurt.

Tonight Evelyn finished her own dinner as well as Alan's and Amelia's, had second helpings of pasta, a large salad and a smoothie for dessert.

When I kissed her goodnight she asked me what was going to be for dinner tomorrow. :)

Normal Day

I go through cycles of recording each day's events on the calendar. Often I miss a bunch of days then go back and try to remember what we did. In reviewing March 10th, I guess I had a memory lapse and simply called it a normal day. Evelyn then added her own thoughts and highlighting. She also added detail to March 17th, when we took down the Christmas cards while listening to the girls' favorite Christmas CD--a collection of holiday songs performed by the barks and meows of dogs & cats. (CD compliments of Mom Bisset several years ago. She knows we're trying to raise music snobs here.)

 So what DOES happen here on normal days? Well, it might mean having a friend for a play date, dressing up in costume and putting on an original play.

 It could involve riding in the car. Upside down, apparently.

Maybe a fort will be made in the basement--a dormitory--and it will be so cold that cloaks must be worn. The residents will drink tea that is "head to toe warmers."

Lots of Harry Potter will be read aloud.

Smoothies will be made and drunk, and sometimes a smiley face will be found at the bottom of a glass. Always a good omen.

A day would not be normal around here without some form of silliness.

Maybe that's why "normal day" elicited a "ha ha!"