April Surprises

 Every spring I am delightfully surprised to see the blooms that pop up in our woods once again.

This time of year some like to prepare their hearts to celebrate Resurrection Sunday--Easter.
I learned this week of a 7-Day Art Challenge: Thriving in the Light of Easter--#resurrectionthriving.
Every day we were given a theme and Bible verses to inspire a creative response.
Day 1: Given eternal life
I focused more on the price paid for the eternal life I can enjoy. He took my place, ". . . he was pierced for our rebellion. . ." (pastels on tar paper)

Day 2: Healed in Body and Mind
On this day I thought about the abundant life His healing made possible for me. In response I want to give back using the gifts He has given me.
In fact, on the evening I was working on the giving hands, I was so carried away enjoying the process that I forgot my regular responsibility, to pick up Rebecca from her program at the church.
They called 30 minutes later. I saw the name, did not even answer, just ran to the car. She was the last one there. Hopefully she was not permanently damaged, ha! Actually, she likes to run around the church for a while and is never ready to leave right away. She spent the night here the next day and we had fun.

I haven't progressed much this week in the WRITING area. It was a very full week for both of us.
Michael and the drive team left Wednesday afternoon for the Indiana state FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) in Kokomo.

I stayed home again, this time because of my responsibilities on the organizing committee for the 9th annual Barton Rees Pogue Poetry and Arts festival. I set up some of our art on Friday night, before our local author's event--a couple of Michael's clay sculptures, daughter Leah's piece and my most recent watercolors. However, I felt we needed to fill the space better and tell the story of Leah's "Shattered Woman." So, the next day I brought "Serenity" and "Youth", the two bronzes.
The story behind Leah's piece starts with the disaster that struck the lost wax process. Unbeknownst to us, Leah collected the broken pieces. Michael did not give up, came back to the project and painstakingly restored each part, and finally was able to complete the bronze pour. "Serenity" is a beautiful masterpiece.

This year Leah finished her very meaningful rendition of "Shattered Woman" using all the rescued pieces.

She did not enter any poems this time. I didn't either. Instead I was one of the adult poetry judges.

Alongside the beautiful sculptures, my watercolors looked rather silly. So when they handed me the prize for Adult Artist, I knew there was a mistake, they had the wrong Koch. I went to the front desk to point out their error, and saw that the votes were for the following specific paintings, by title! Ha! Those were not even my favorites. Strange things happen.

The most exciting surprise of the day was that Michael won the Woodie Flowers Award for Indiana, a most prestigious honor and long overdue recognition of all his contributions as lead mentor for the robotics team. 

Go here to read the essay the students wrote that won him the nomination. Then watch the emotional moment when all the former Woodie Flowers awardees greeted and congratulated him.

It was a very good day for the entire team. Space Walrus, their googly-eyed robot, performed very well with the help of a great drive team. Team 1720 captained the #2 alliance; once again made it to the finals; is currently ranked third in the state; and headed to World competition next week! Oh, PhyXTGgears also won the Autonomous Award for their climb mechanism!

Wow! What a weekend! How was yours?