Summer Daze

Summer moves on more slowly now as I wait for my bones to become knit together firmly, however each day brings new and interesting distractions.
Personal hygiene remains complicated, hair styling impossible, but I focus on what I can do, like walking. Most days I keep going beyond the mailbox at the top of the lane . . .

. . . and just keep going toward the Taylor University campus and explore a different path each time exceeding my daily step goals.  

Michael is a good caregiver, and with some added help and a few meals still coming, we keep the household running. 

Mondays, however, we always look forwaed to son Stephan's meal and hearing what they've been up to. This time we got to see the repaired and restored old shepherd before it was returned to MAC,  their church. Now it is displayed indoors away from the destructive effects of weather.

More art sightings: 

We had a pour painting party for Leah's adopted birthday, my friend Georgia's idea..

Here are the resulting works of art. Rebecca and I just played with watercolor.
my only contribution was a tree outline; she added the green.

That evening, however, I watched Sarah Cray's live tutorial on Let's Make Art and attempted a small card with my limited dexterity.

The next morning was my follow-up appointment at the Central Indiana Orthopedics. The double splint was replaced by a hard cast. Ouch, the edges are hard, causing different limitations! Notice the Argentine colors, albiceleste, in honor of their 203rd birthday, el 9 de julio.

Needless to say I could not join Mother for the Grace Village outing to the Kosciusko County fair. They posted a few photos, and there she is playing Bingo.

I've also been following the many reports of the visit of our sister ship Logos Hope to Buenos Aires. The highlight this week was the 40th alumni reunion with numerous photos and stories of those who gathered for the event. 

Doulos friends, how many do you recognize in this last photo?

Friday and Saturday Michael left very early each morning, but made sure I was dressed, fed and ready to fend for myself. 

It was the weekend of the Indiana Robotics Invitational. In its 20th or so year, this has become an elite event--only 68 of the best teams, 50 applicants were turned away. And we were invited, thanks to our high ranking in Indiana. Amazing! 

I was thoroughly entertained watching the livestream at home, and our little team felt God's blessing in their performance and two neat surprises: Kaylee won an IRI scholarship, and alliance #1 selected 1720 as alternates and then won the championship!

I was even able to join the UCC hiking group Saturday morning and be back just in time to watch the first match. 

Of course someone gave me a ride. Hmmm, wonder when I'll be able to drive again. Next appointment is July 30.

How is your summer going?

Friends, Family, Food and more

Rebecca and I picked these flowers on our walk. Yes, it was a week highlighted by visits and sleepovers of two grands and a great!

Many memories surfaced this week as well including many photos of our several trips to the Basque Country which always took place around this time of year. The last visit was five years ago already!

It's been that long almost since we really spent time with our main fellow-travellers--Dane and Laurie. We rememdied that, however, with a meal at our house Sunday evening and an outing Wednesday for dinner and a movie--Aladdin, quite a fantastical production! 

Michael likes to cook and he goes all out. Then we enjoy leftovers all week. I have only one photo--the delicious vidalia onion corn bread. I usually make the salads.

Stephan's Monday dinners feature something special every week and quite often we are the only guests. This time Malachi and Lexi came first and then Sam and Kristie and their other three boys. The sobremesa (after-dinner conversation) was so much fun. We heard about: 

--Sam's family's vacation in Florida, 

--Stephan and Karen's week away  at her parents in Evansville with a niece and nephew, and 

--Malachi's internship working with youth at his church, and Lexi's job and involvement with a SERVE project.

Other memories came from reading my parents' journal from 20+ years ago when they were about our age now. There are many references to the practical ways they were preparing the new meeting place of their congregation--refurbishing a pulpit, painting, plastering, cleaning, and on and on for months. Then June 16, 1996 was the first service in the new building. This hands-on involvement in the building and upkeep of places of worship, characterizes Dad and Mother's entire life.

Friday I needed to attend the quarterly Care Plan Conference for Mother at Grace Village. The plan was to take Rebecca. I remember taking Kayla, her mother, when she was about the same age to visit Grandpa and Grandma Hoyt in Winona Lake. I remember her enjoying the swing they had hung from a big tree in the front. I was in my early 50's then. This time I had Michael's help on the adventure. At the last minute he was able to come along. We had a great time with our great granddaughter and she with her great great grandma! Rebecca showed her all her little ponies, demonstrated her ballet routine (using the proper French names for the steps!), and insisted on pushing the wheelchair everywhere! 

It's been a year now since Mother lost her voice and I noticed this time that it is worse, not even a raspy whisper. Insterestingly, she and Rebecca played with her talking machine. Mother would type a sentence and the machine spoke for her. Then Rebecca typed in something, and it repeated the letters!

The grandsons were waiting at our house as soon as we arrived back home. The two younger ones spent the night so Sam and Kristie could get away to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

We had such a good time together with these bright and lively youngsters. 

Jude asked for a piano lesson. I started him by placing his five fingers on the keys from C to G trying to play each individually, i.e. play the do re mi fa sol scale. At first it was difficult to curve the fingers, isolate each sound, keep the fingering. But before long he got it! Listen here:

Jude's first piano lesson

We stayed up a bit late enjoying an old classic--Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Next morning, Chef Zion cooked breakfast--eggs the way they like them!

Then he taught me a new game - Wits and Wagers.

My friend Georgia was selling her beautifully painted shells at a large craft fair in a neighboring town. I took the boys, gave them some money to spend and let them check out the 100+ vendors. They came back with a balloon snake, a crocheted Pokaball, fluorite rocks, and a robot face-paint.

Meanwhile, Michael was riding with the Delaware Cycling Club for the first time since his surgery five years ago! 56 miles and no pain!!!

Robotics-related activities keep him occupied. He is at the shop to help the student interns hired by Dannar this summer whenever they need to use the team equipment. And on Wednesday PhyXTGears put on a presentation for 60 middle school and high school age girls. It went very well. Hopefully some of them will join the team.

We had our last Art Club for the summer and tried a whimsical Geometric Landscape tutorial. And Tuesday, on my own I tried the Floral Hand live tutorial. It's a fun time for me to learn more about water color techniques while Michael is at the weekly team meeting.

Do you have any artistic, creative, recreational activity? 

March Memories

This post highlights moments of the week more than memories from the past.
Each day counts. The things we experience add up. Daily incremental steps toward a set goal become a beautiful whole in time.

I am reminded of the value of dailyness by the calendar my neighbor friends gave me. I enjoy the challenge of locating and correctly placing the stickers for each day. So much so that I decided to make that my reward for accomplishing a writing goal for the day.

The gift was inspired by a large sticker-replica of a Van Gogh they saw hanging in a doctor's office.

Daughter Leah and I enjoyed a Coffee and Canvas event in our local coffee shop. Her paintings are always more intense, fanciful and rich in texture. Mine tend to be flat. What do you think mine lacks--a bug, a butterfly, greater contrast . . . ?

Photo credit: Laura Smith--Painting with Laura

The best part of the experience was the togetherness. We hadn't seen one another in a while. She has not been able to attend our weekly art club in some time.

Leah and her Coffee and Canvas acrylic (top)
My Coffee & Canvas painting, and art club watercolor exercise--"Surreal Mountains"

My, how the years go by! Son Stephan, our oldest, completed (as they say in Spanish) 48 years on March 12!

A memory from Stephan's 40th celebration

Sunday we celebrated March birthdays.

Stephan (48 on the 12th ), Jimmy (45 on the 26th), Destiny, Skye's girlfriend (18 on the 7th)

Family times are always fun. Jokes and laughter abound. Rebecca as the only little one around, entertained us in various ways. Her presence is still felt every time I come upstairs to the loft, my writing area, and see the arrangement of items on and around the ark.

Sam's family was missing. He had surgery earlier this month--sinus repair and tonsilectomy. Interestingly, the worst pain hits a week later.
I stopped by a couple days after the procedure to drop off some honey to soothe the throat. Malachi was still home on spring break. He is really into board games and was sharing his latest find--Splendor.

 Recently I've been reminded of a favorite author I was privileged to meet years ago. In her 80's, widowed, and healing from a broken leg, she is still writing and winning awards! I dug out her book of life stories to remember her secret. It is something that stood out when I read that first chapter long ago. I wish I had heeded her example at that time. Early on she determined to write, write, write, every. single. day, and not be distracted by the many recommended opportunities--conferences, critique groups, etc. It worked for her!

I am blessed to meet every week with a wonderful group of writer friends. But I also recognize that for too long I've been a wannabee, attending conferences, taking courses, etc. and putting off the most important. These were all very good. However, now I am encouraged to keep on plodding through the letters and the memories, pulling out pertinent quotes and information, and arranging them into the narrative about my life in Argentina, and to write, write, write.

Writer's Woes

 My intention of being very productive this week was shattered when the chapter I had been working on for two weeks or more, just simply disappeared. Two other open documents were left, but not the one in which I had invested so many tedious hours of work. That is probably a writer's worst nightmare. How it happened is still a mystery. Is it really possible that I  did not save it even once?
Experts have searched the hidden recesses and inner workings of the wordprocessing program I was using, and nada!

That is when I took comfort and courage from the words Moriah (our resident student) recently painted and placed strategically on her door as a daily  reminder of God's presence and promise.

That was Tuesday.
Wednesday I travelled the hour and half to visit Mother. I arrived five minutes late to accompany her to the dermatologist for biopsies. I set out on my own to find the place, but was given the wrong address. Next I had trouble finding the new office. The receptionist led me to a room and knocked. The door opened, startled I said, "That's not my mother." Oops! Next door. There she was, as brave and cheery as ever.

Things improved after that. We face-timed with brother Ivan in Las Vegas; got a glimpse of three of his little grands jumping around and being silly, and even caught sight of niece Tina. I entertained the ladies at our table in the dining room playing oldies music. We visited the Art studio to see what Mother had been working on. We played Bingo with the old folks.

But the best part, apart from being with Mother, was visiting Aunt Margaret, also 97.

Margaret Marshall and Kathryn Hoyt

 Margaret and Jim moved in next door to us in La Carlota when I was five or six years old. She has graciously allowed me access to all their weekly letters written during the time they served in Argentina.
Discouraged about the writing progress, I tackled the daunting task of sorting the hundreds of epistles into years. These will eventually make their way to the archives of the Grace Brethren institutions. I enjoyed reading snippets as I worked on them. Some of these fascinating stories will surely be included in my book.

1957 Marshall letters

Thursday evening a few homes in our neck of the woods suffered a power outage for several hours. The strong wind brought down a tree that blew the transformer on the corner of our land.

I experienced the extreme limitations of living without electricity in this day and age. 

There is not much you can do by candlelight. I read some, then attempted a few lessons from the cool drawing book.

Michael started the generator as soon as he got home from robotics after 11 PM. Had I been desperate enough I could have attempted the task. Maybe I was having too much fun.

The memorable event of the week was daughter Leah's 46th birthday. Friday evening we had a mini-celebration at Ivanhoe's, the local ice cream shop. Family times are fun!

Earlier in the week I scanned all the photos accumulated over time in the Leah box and then gave her all the hard copies. 

Here are a couple of early memories. We were in Germany at the time we decided to pursue adoption. Finally, when she was already five months-old, Manuela joined our family and became Leah Margit. 

How was your week? Have you ever lost a major project or had your plans disrupted?

2018 Week 52: The End

The day after our Christmas gathering, we set off for a family getaway in a vacation rental house near Madison, IN.

Upon arrival each family chose a bedroom and explored the premises. 

I found a corner to finish writing last week's Meemaw Moments so as to move on to all the new adventures awaiting us.

Each family was responsible for one or two meals. Michael started us out with a chili supper. 

Kayla and Matt made breakfast the next morning--french toast, bacon and eggs.

Matt and Kayla--french toast, bacon and eggs

Some are eating breakfast. Abuelo is teaching Rebecca how to play chess!!!

The ping pong table in the room beyond the dining room was a busy place, almost in constant use.

And so were the dining room tables, for a variety of games. 

Settlers of Catan went on late into the night, or was it morning?

The most memorably hilarious moments happened while playing Superfights. Unforgettable! 

It was so sweet to watch the two youngest playing together almost constantly.

The downstairs office, claimed by Leah as their bedroom, also became a  general gathering area with a good desk for art projects and more.

Notice Rebecca's snake

Leah's gift, a 500-piece puzzle, was the perfect-size family project for a three-day stay.

Karen encouraged us to exercise by setting times when we could join her in a run or yoga routine.

One afternoon we all drove to Clifty Falls State Park to explore and do some hiking. 

Madison's landmark smokestacks

The weather was perfect and the views spectacular.

Trail # 7

The three vehicles got separated and one ended up on the other end of the park.

:

Trail #4

For our last night together, Leah promoted and planned the first annual Koch Klan talent or variety show with the following acts:

• Sam Koch family Nativity play, Karen as narrator, actors reading their parts off the cell phones.
• Malachi shared an example of what he'd been learning at a recent seminar about contemporary youth.
• Elijah played the trumpet and solved a rubik's cube puzzle under 1".
• There were several dance acts
• I read a story from my childhood--Christmas 1945.
• Michael recited a mixed-up version of one of Aesop's fables - "The Mion and the Louse.
  

Top: Mary, Joseph and baby in the stable; Malachi's talk
Bottom: Grandpa's funny story; Kayla and Rebecca do the "Baby Shark"

This ends the summary of our family vacation and also marks the end of Meemaw Moments.
After 10 years I am considering a different focus. Wait and see.