Grade 6 Year End Camp Out

So I’m going to start my updates a little out of order, since I know that this is the one that Marietta really would like me to do and she has been soooo patiently waiting for it.  This is a REALLY LONG post with lots of pictures of the good time we had.

On June 22nd the girls successfully finished another school year.  Rebecca will be heading off to Grade 5 and Marietta to Grade 7 in the fall, but in the meantime they get to first enjoy their summer holidays.  Our tradition has been to go for ice cream (and usually lunch or supper) on the last day of school.  Because of evening plans we did this right after the closing assembly, with Rob meeting us for lunch and ice cream in downtown Attercliffe.

It had been a busy week but the order for the afternoon was a nap and so when we returned home we all climbed into our beds for a good nap so that we could each enjoy our evening/night … Rebecca at her friend Taylor’s, Matthew at Grandma’s and the rest of us at home, camping, in the yard with 18 other Grade 6 (or should I say Grade 7?) students.

The idea came for a class camp-out sort of last minute, but not too last minute for we still had enough time to pull it off.  I’m not really sure what triggered this idea on Marietta’s end, but it was a comment from her that sent the idea rolling.  She made a remark a couple weeks before school ended that it would be neat to have the class for a sleepover … she does not really remember this comment or what made her think of it.  I remember clearly thinking “hmmmm, that would be fun, good memories and shouldn’t be too hard to pull off”.  But I didn’t say anything for I didn’t want to spout off something that I hadn’t really thought through completely. I stored it in my head to speak to Rob later.

The idea actually got forgotten for a few days before I suddenly remembered that if we wanted to do this I would need to get going ASAP!  Rob was game, so I called up my dear friend Ange and her and Dave were game to help out on the night of, so invitations were prepared and handed out.  At first we tried to surprise Marietta and Brent as well by not telling them and just making up the invitation to be handed out at school … but due to school politics we had to change it so that the invitations came more directly from the kids and it did not look like a school function.  So Marietta and Brent got to have their own little secret for a day until they handed out the invitations the next day at lunch time at school.

June 22nd arrive and the weather was beautiful.  The kids had a half day of school that day so we requested that they all be brought at 6:30pm … tummies full from supper, but still enough time to play for a while.  The kids promptly decided to soak themselves down by empty our water barrel in whatever fashion they could – water guns, buckets, etc.  Once the water was gone and they had that out of their system we moved on to some games to help dry them off.

Our most successful game for the evening was Kick the Can(Ball), a game I grew up playing on the school playground.  Since my kids have not heard of or played the game I suspected there were plenty of other kids who also had not … suspicion confirmed.  Now they all know how to play kick the can.  I think it was a hit as they played it for quite some time and then started up their own game the next morning.

At one point we saw a cop car slowly drive by but didn’t think too much of it, figuring they were just checking out what we were up to.  A few minutes later we saw a cop car slowly coming again … but this time he slowed down even more and signalled into our driveway.

As you can imagine we were all quite curious what this was all about and the kids quickly abandoned their hiding spots to come see what was going on.

Apparently we didn’t break any law, they just saw a perfect opportunity to give a little helmet lesson and hand out some coupons for free frosties at the local Macs store.  So after the kids all promised that they would wear their helmets when biking (you have that here in writing parents, I heard them :) they were given coupons.

After a few rounds of Kick the Can we decided to move on to play British Bulldog.

   

Jaden gives up

In the below pictures the kids got an idea to create a chain to catch the few leftover kids trying to bypass the bulldogs.

In the process of looking up how this game was played (I remembered playing it when little but couldn’t recall how we played it) I came across some sites that said this game was banned at school due to the roughness and accidents from it … we learned a bit of what that was all about … maybe the cops should have expanded those helmets to include all contact sports.  Thankfully we saved ourselves a trip to the Emergency, maybe technically we should have gone but we chose to just wait it out at home … guess it helped it was our own kid, if it had been anyone elses kid it would have put an even bigger damper on the evening.  I don’t think Marietta will be playing British Bulldog again anytime soon

I was not outside when the accident happened, so I didn’t see what happened, not that it would really have made much difference as it probably didn’t like like anything too major.  Apparently Jake and Marietta were both running full speed and they ran into each other, clunking heads.  We’re not quite sure how, it seems Marietta’s mouth collided with Jake’s eyebrows/forehead.  Marietta decided to take a break after that and Rob asked her a couple times if she was okay and she just stood by the barn saying she was fine.  I was in the house and she came to me and started crying that her lip hurt and saying “There’s a party outside mom, but I don’t remember planning a party”  Not sure what she was getting at I just casually told her “That’s because you didn’t plan it, I did”  A look at her lip showed a pretty deep gash but it hadn’t gone all the way through and since the bleeding settled after a short bit we decided it didn’t need to be stitched.

Now I will say that in former years Marietta has been known to dramatize things, stretch the truth, exaggerate, make a mountain out of a molehill, look for attention through injury, etc. so I did downplay her injury and play it cautiously to the point where I wasn’t very sympathetic at first.  I know that she no longer does this to such an extent but we continue to remain cautious.  When she kept saying “I don’t remember anything mom” I thought she was stretching it a bit, so I would ask her simple questions: what is your name, how old are you (which she answered wrong saying she’s 12 when she has not yet had her birthday), etc. She could answer these questions, but she began to cry and look lost and become frustrated and almost scared (rightfully so) and then I began to become concerned.   Rob came in the house about this time to find her crying away in the bathroom, her tears were because she couldn’t remember anything, not because of her lip injury.  We start some further questioning: what day is it? what’s going on outside? why is everyone here? what did you do today?  She did not know what day it was or why everyone was there, she began to cry when we explained to her that she had finished her last day of Grade 6 (she loved Grade 6), shaking her head and saying she couldn’t remember that.  She had no clue about the closing assembly and could only vaguely recall that we went out for lunch when we prompted her on it – she remembered doing something but couldn’t remember what.  She had no clue what they had done that evening or how she had got hurt.

After some discussion as adults we decided to just keep an eye on her.  I’ve been in Emerge for concussions before (Rebecca) and knew that there was little they did for more “minor” head injuries.  Ange had been through Brent’s injury last spring and knew that they had just woken him and questioned him from time to time but there wasn’t much else they could do … so we figured we’d just stay home instead of ruining the evening by sitting in Emerge when likely they wouldn’t do anything more then examine her and tell her to rest.  We suggested Marietta lay down but she want to remain involved, so she headed back outside to try enjoy the evening.  Unfortunately she did not feel much like participating in anything … not that it mattered as she has no memory of what happened until around 11:30pm, then things slowly began to come back.  By morning she was back to maintaining a memory of what was happened, but still confused and asking silly questioned that made us realize she didn’t remember things from the night before … e.g. she found a sparkler’s package and asked when we did sparklers.

Some online research shows us that she suffered from a moderate case of Post-traumatic Amnesia (PTA).  She was slightly over stimulated during her recovery time, since she joined in the party again and soaked up some attention as the kids kept asking her questions to see what she remembered.  She would continuously ask people what happened and had no idea that she had just asked that question minutes earlier.  Looking at pictures the next day she was able to vaguely recollect a few parts of the game of British Bulldog, but besides pictures doesn’t have any memory of the party from the time she was hit until just before bedtime when she came and joined us in a game around the fire.

After game time the kids sat around the fire and roast some hotdogs, spiders, and marshmallows while munching on some of the goodies they had brought.  Since they seemed to be entertaining themselves they would just come and go and do their thing, some sitting by the fire, some playing, some hanging out at their tents.  A game of Ghost in the Graveyard was attempted but ended up not being too successful as everyone seemed to know a different version of the game and couldn’t  figure out what way to play.

Trying to figure out how to roast a wiener when the fire is so big and hot … Syvannah’s version

  

Jacob’s version … you can’t quite get the full version on the picture as it involved some sort of dancing back and forth and stabbing the stick out in the process.

Sparklers

Rainbow Fire (copper pipe with cheap garden hose in it … lasts anywhere from 15 min to hours)

Gathered for devotions

 

We had devotions at 11pm because several kids were saying they were tired and wanted to go to bed.  Not often you hear that and we were a bit suspicious of why they would want to go to bed, but decided to have trust in their good judgement of knowing it’s time to sleep.  After devotions the kids were free to go to bed if they wanted or they could stay up until 12am.  The rule was that they had to be in their tents at 12am and after that they could not come out unless they had to go to the bathroom.  They had to respect others in their tent who were trying to sleep and not disturb them.  All the girls were in one tent and the boys were split between two tents.   About half the kids went off to their tents after devotion and half stuck around or wandered around, slowly we had a group that played a clapping game around the fire until midnight.

As chaperones we had not expected to get any sleep that night, so we were pleasantly surprised when all was quiet by 1am.  While they had to stay in their tents we could not force them to sleep and we figured we’d here chatting and such well into the night … but I guess we wore them out good enough and they were all asleep pretty quickly and we hesitantly went off to our tents to get some sleep.  While they did go to sleep sooner then we expected they also woke up sooner then we expected.  We’re not quite sure what time the firsts woke up, Rob thought he heard some talking at 3am … but for sure by 5am kids were awake and shortly after 5:30am they were rolling out of their tents.  We arrived at the fire around 6am to find they had managed to get the fire going again and were warming themselves around it.

While it was earlier then expected, once we were up and at it we were glad that it was nice and early as it allowed us more time in the morning to relax as well as do some more things.

The kids were quite impressed with how fast we were able to fry up breakfast on the hot plate over the fire.  It was a job that required cooperation.  Tejada cracked eggs, Rob put them on the hot plate, Ange flipped them about as fast as they went on, Marietta held the pan ready to have them scooped into when done. 

The same with the pancakes, you had to be on the ball to prevent them from burning … good job Rob and Ange!!!

Breakfast was ready in no time and after devotions everyone gobbled up their share and off they went to play a game of Kick the Can,while the adults sat around the fire sipping tea.

We were impressed with how well Dash did.  We were worried he would be annoying and need to be put in his pen … which would mean he would bark half the time.  But he did great at watching and mostly staying out the way.  It worked better then previous get togethers because there were no younger kids that were afraid of him.  The kids gave him adequate attention but when told to go lay down he would listen.  I think he suffered from withdraw symptoms after they left … he definitely loves all the extra petting and playing he got.

Jethro has a talent with animals and he and Dash hit it off pretty good.  Here Jethro is getting Dash to roll over.  While Dash will do this for us, he did it very well for Jethro if asked and when the other kids would ask he would sort of look at them and pretend he didn’t know what they were asking

   

The kids were eying Rob’s trilliptical bike and so any who wanted to try were give a chance to see if they could ride/drive it. 

They quickly discovered that it’s a lot harder then it looks … but a couple of them were persistent enough that they were able to get make it work

 

Seven kids on the tire swing … I took the picture but then I quickly looked the other way … it’s one of those things were you don’t want to be over paranoid but it just seemed like a lot of weight on the swing … Rob would probably say it was fine, so I’ll have to trust him on that one

The morning started off cool but quickly warmed up and we organized the kids into teams to get a game a baseball going

This last game was a success also.  Waterballon Volleyball.   The girls had played a similar version of this game during their Play Day Timothy years but instead of one big sheet they had towels between two of them

It took a bit for them to get the hang of throwing the balloon and understanding how to launch it without getting their towel all wrapped around the balloon

But as the game went on they got the hang of it and the balloon would go back and forth quite a bit before it would break

Since they didn’t all really get wet during the volleyball game we filled up the water barrel again and away they all went with their water guns … couldn’t believe how far the water in the barrel went, but it kept them busy for a bit as they were still working on emptying it when their parents arrived to pick them up.

You were home-free when filling up at the water barrel, but once you stepped away from the barrel it was fair game to be sprayed or dumped on by buckets for those who did not have a water gun (I think we were 3 or 4 guns shy of having enough, so that worked pretty good)

 

By time the water was empty and everyone was wet it was past 11:30 and parents were there to pick up their kids.  From the feedback we have gotten it sounds like the kids had a great time.  As hosts we were happy with the kids behaviour and had a good time with a good bunch of kids.  We haven’t made any promises as we know how much things can change from day to day, let alone year to year, but based on how things went this year I think we may be doing this again next year.  While Rebecca was quite upset at first about the fact that she could not be there (we felt it best to keep it strictly Marietta’s class) we did tell her that it is our hope that we could do the same for her when she completes Grade 6 … she did point out a little hitch in that plan … I will probably be in Ottawa with Marietta on her Grade 8 trip … but we’ll worry about that if the time actually comes.  In the meantime we are thankful for the good time we had this year.  We love our country property and what it allows us to do!! We had lots of fun! We are especially thankful that Marietta’s injuries were not any more serious and although it’s sad that she doesn’t remember most of the party, we can be thankful that her memory came back after a few hours and she did not suffer any further adverse affects fort he incident.

This is what happens when you invite 19 Grade 6 kids over for a camp out party!

It's okay parents ... the police thought we were a good place to stop off and give some lessons on wearing a helmet when biking. In exchange for agreeing to wear their helmets the kids all got coupons for a free Froster from Macs

Kid’s Response

I never did get as far as writing about how the kids responded to the news of Rob quitting school.  I will start by saying that it did weigh heavily on the girls knowing that their life in this area was temporary.  The transition from the city to the country did not originally go as smoothly as expected.  The girls did have some trouble making the adjustment to their new school and surroundings.  I suppose we were a bit naive in thinking that they would absolutely love the new place and not desire what they were used to.  We thought that since they already knew people in the area it would be an easy change, but in reality this probably made it more difficult as they have some preconceived ideas about the place and the people that they had to overcome.  It definitely took some time to settle in here, longer then we expected, but in the end the kids love it here and do not desire to move back to their old home in the city. 

With memories of their last move in their head the girls were move apprehensive about the idea of having to move again.  This time we were not so naive and although they could get a bit of comfort out of the fact that it just takes time and with time they were able to like this place, it still made the thought difficult.  I feel for all preachers children who have to live with this constant feeling of being uprooted at any time.  The girls settled in her and mostly found their places but always in the back of their mind was the fact that it wasn’t permanent.  When they talked at school about future grades and activities they were always left realizing they wouldn’t be there then.  They struggled with the fact that whenever we talked about things we had to think about the fact that we were only here for a few years and that what we acquired might need to be moved a long distance.

Only a couple weeks before the girls found out we were staying I again had to comfort one of them as she cried about not wanting to leave here.  This was even more difficult to do because I had a pretty good sense that she wouldn’t need to leave and wanted to just say so.  I have reminded them time and again since that we have to live each day to it’s fullest.  If we spend all our time worrying about the future and trying not to get to detached because of that fear then we would never enjoy the life we had at the moment.  We would talk about how we had to just make the best of the time we had where God had put us at that time and not worry about what was to come because we had no idea where God would lead us.  Maybe the next place would be better, maybe worse, maybe we wouldn’t leave at all.  All of these things were talked about.  I also tried to convince the girls that if they would just learn to get along and be best friends then they would be able to take their best friend with whereever they went … that theory never worked  ;)

At one point in the past year Marietta had said to me “This isn’t really nice and I don’t really mean it that way, but I wish that dad will fail Classis”   Her theory was that if Rob failed Classis then she would get to stay here longer and be able to graduate from Grade 8 with her class.  While she didn’t want her dad to do bad or fail, she did want to stick around a bit longer and she figured this way to accomplish this wish.  In the end she could have gotten her wish anyways, since Rob was originally going to postpone going to Classis.

So when it came time to tell the kids that we were going to stay Rob told Marietta that she would get to graduate with her class.  At the same time he told Rebecca that she too would get to graduate with her class.  Marietta was too busy processing her side of the information.  This wasn’t total news to her since we had already told them with the decision to postpone Classis that she would likely graduate with her class, but she was processing that now Dad was confident she would get to.  Meanwhile I was watching Rebecca who nearly jumped off her seat when she heard that she would get to graduate here too.  But when Marietta did not catch that part of the conversation I seen Rebecca settle back down, probably thinking that she had misunderstood.  But her little mind was working, because when Dad restated that Rebecca would get to graduate too she was quick to ask “We’re staying here??”  Now Marietta clued in as well.  As we explained the decision to stay Marietta grins and says to Rob  “It took you six years of school to figure that out?!?!?”  She was joking, although probably part serious too, but we had a good chuckle. 

I should add that Matthew is completely oblivious to all that has changed.  In his 4 year old mind he never understood that we would be moving on at some time.  It’s not that we didn’t tell him that he would go to a new school sometime, but he simply didn’t understand and that was just fine.  So nothing has changed for him.

For the girls this was totally new news and they are still adjusting to the idea, with extreme excitement.  They tried not to act too excited about the decision, likely because they thought this would hurt dad’s feelings, but we knew that they were just glad that the uncertainty of their future was gone (not that it is truly gone as our future is always uncertain).  Lots of questions come about the future the biggest one being where we will live.  Now they just have to learn to be patient as all these things will take time.

For Rob and I it’s almost like this is old news now.  More in the sense that we’ve been wrestling with it for the past year.  We’re thankful that the wrestling back and forth of what to do is gone and now that the decision is made we’re ready to move on.   It feels a little like when we were dating and making plans for our future. It’s just seems that much more difficult when one thinks of purchasing a house in the high market today while trying to pay full tuition to elementary school and pre-tuition to high school (knowing that that will increase in a couple years).  Ouch! And we thought it was difficult when we bought our first house.  Yet we’ve learned a lot over the last few years and the old saying “the money is always there” has rung true in more ways then one. So we can move on in the faith that if our focus remains on Him then He will continue to care for us.

City or Country?

Marietta is currently working on an assignment for her Math and Language Arts classes where they are learning about graphing and voting.  They have to get votes on a question and then present the findings.  Marietta’s question is: Would you rather live in the city or the country?  Since she is getting a rather bias response when asking students at a country school this question she is looking for some more input from a wider audience.  Along with this question she is looking for individuals to explain why the chose the answer they do as she will need to use this information to write her Language Arts paper.

So, dear readers, would you rather live in the city or the country?  Please explain the choice you make.

Thank you!

Where to Now

While our lives have taken a different direction this does not mean that we are lost in what to do.  We are actually somewhat excited, a whole new world has opened up to us.  For Rob it was never that he felt like a failure if he did not carry on, he knew, and had been warned going in that if at any time the work seemed to much to never be afraid to stop.  The struggle to make the decision came more from the concern of whether we were doing the right thing or would he be giving up too easily? was the Lord telling us something through the various events that led us to this?  when one reaches a mountain does one right away give up and turn a different direction or does one find a way to climb that mountain?

Sometimes I joke that the reason we had to go through this was to train me to accept Rob for who he is.  Each school year had it’s stressful times and almost all school years Rob talked about quitting (except for Year 2 at the College) when it came to crunch time saying he wasn’t cut out for this.  And each school year I stood by him and said I supported him in whatever decision he made, except if he quit school he could not going trucking.  This usually sent him back to his desk with a new determination to stick to what he was suppose to be doing since his other love was not an option.

Rob is a licensed mechanic turned pig farmer.  When he decided to go to school he needed a job to support us for the first part of his schooling while he was part-time.  This job ended up being trucking (he had acquired his AZ license when he was a mechanic), more specifically wide-load trucking.  He often said over the past few years that of all the jobs he’s done he loved trucking the most.  The diesel is in his blood and each summer he looked forward to getting back in the truck to relax and refresh himself, ready to tackle another school year.  While one can love certain things in life, one also has to determine if these are proper things to love or be involved in.  In the case of trucking it usually meant that Rob would leave in the wee hours of the morning and come home after dark when the kids were in bed.  This would results in long periods of time where he seen little or nothing of the kids (although now that they are getting older this is getting slightly better).  This was okay during the summer when we were trying our best to bring in as much income as possible during a short period of time and where we knew that he would return to being with us for breakfast and supper again in a few months … but this job is not ideal or in my opinion (I know some will argue with me) right for a family man. God teaches us that the man is the head of the household and this is awfully hard to accomplish when the man of the household is never home.   Rob has always agreed with me on this aspect but this does not mean that the pull to go trucking is not there. 

What to do with his life if school ended did play a short term factor in the decision making process.  Rob looked at various ways he could use the training he had to benefit others (e.g. Christian counsellor, teaching) and at various jobs that would allow him to apply his diverse abilities while still being home and involved in church.  In the end the decision came to return to his favourite job at this time.  Will this be long-term??  We have no idea.  What we do know is that in making this decision we came to realize that the last few years had taught us something about the value of money and family time.  Sure more hours means more money, but it means less family time.  God has given us our children and we promised at our baptism to raise them to fear the Lord to the best of our ability … if we are not there are we raising them? are we raising them to the best of our ability?  Raising our children does not mean providing them with every want, but providing them with the basics of life and nurturing them in the Word of God so they can grow to serve Him.  I hope that we can keep this focus as Rob returns to work … with a few restrictions on his working hours. 

Rob will be returning to his part-time summer job in a full-time capacity, working for Ike and Heather who run a trucking business that moves modular office buildings.  His work will involve a little of this and that - shop time, manufacturing/engineering time (see here for a bit more on that end), truck time, PR time and likely some office time too.   When he is in the truck we cannot apply those restrictions on his working hours, but he is geared towards only being in the truck from time to time, with his main work being closer to home in the shop.  This is where he has to learn to set his limits, being home for supper and the evening for family time and other evening events/meetings and if the extra hours are needed then he will have to rise early and put those hours in during the morning hours when the family doesn’t notice the difference … and when he has to truly evaluate if the work is so necessary to be done immediately that he has to get out of his cozy bed earlier (let’s just say that Rob is NOT a morning person).  Rob is determined to work hard on learning this and as family we hope that we can help him to stick to this so that I’m not always saying “you know how much I hate your job”.  I love that he loves his job and that he loves to go to work, but I hate it when it takes him away from the kids so much.  But yet through these past years, especially these past months I had to come to realize that this is where Rob excels and together we have to work out how he can best go about doing what he loves and still be home enough to function within the church and his family.  This is a challenge that I am sure many families deal with.

For the time being we are looking forward to the idea of having a husband and father who is actually here when he is here.  Who is here for more then meal times.  Who is here in mind and body when he’s home (hopefully).  Who has time to do stuff with the kids after supper or on Saturdays.  Who is able to take care of the kids when I have a meeting at night.  Who will be able to attend church and school events/meeting again.  Who will be more physically involved in our lives and church life.  Who will have a social life on days other then Sunday.  Who does not have to stay up until late at night (or early into the morning) working at his desk six days of the week.  Who actually has statutory holidays (we just enjoyed one, it was so nice that he didn’t have to study).  Who can actually go away on weekends.  We are really looking forward to these changes and the others that come with likely staying in one location long enough to actually think about some day owning a home and putting time and effort into that home.  Let’s be honest … who really looks forward to living in a glass house?  I am not the least bit upset about the idea of leaving that prospect behind.

All in all we look forward to the coming change and the adjustments that will come with it.  Realistically I don’t think it will truly set in until September when Rob does not return to school and when we slowly begin to distance ourselves from the going-ons of the seminary life.

Change in Direction

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” Proverbs 16:9

As a family we have been reading the book Training Hearts Teaching Minds by Starr Meade- for our evening devotions and we recently worked through the topic of God’s providence. When it comes to God’s providence we as humans want to try and understand immediately what God is planning for us. We wish that we could see ahead to understand why we must go down the road we are going, or maybe that he would drop us a little note to guide us in the right direction … or just send a bolt of lightning that wakes us up and clarifies our situation. Whatever it is that we are wishing for, the end result is the same, we do not know what God’s purpose is for us in this life, each day again we start fresh and we move forward in our desire to serve Him to the best of our ability and that is the best that we can do. Sometimes we can look back and begin to get a small glimpse into God’s plan by seeing how the pieces fit together even at times where we thought things were all going wrong. Ultimately, as we go through each day of our lives, we know that God is there, watching over us, guiding us, caring for us and we must trust in Him every step of the way.

It can especially become difficult to see and know how to accept God’s providence when one has to make a decision … where neither decision is against God’s word but yet a decision has to be made. God has a purpose also for putting these trials on our path and He has His reason for why the answer to the decision is not immediately clear, but as we walk through this decision-making time it can become difficult and murky to understand if one is making the choice for their own benefit or because they want to serve God as He desires them to.

For the past seven months we have been working our way through one of these decision making processes.  Many times in the past seven months I had thought through how I would write this blog post if/when the day came.  I’m sure if I wrote each of them down at the time I would have a large variety of posts to work my way through.  Whether any of those posts would have included the peacefulness that we now have in our decision I am not sure, but they certainly would have displayed the rollercoaster ride that the past months have been like, especially for Rob.  At certain points in the last seven months I would call it a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, going one way or the other or just hanging there wondering what was next.  At other times it was more like a pendulum swinging back and forth from one decision to another, sometimes at a rapid pace, other times more slowly.  Regardless it has been stressful, making for many discussions and prayers and I am glad that we can now move forward with the clear decision we have made.

On April 27, 2012 Rob wrote his last exam for year 3 at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary (CRTS). With one more year of school and a couple more sets of exams he would be done 3.5 years of University schooling and 4 years of theological training and have his M.Div.  We were finally in the home stretch. What we did not know at that point (although in all honesty we suspected it) was that this was Rob’s very last exam ever at the CRTS.  As of last week Rob has decided that he will not be returning to the CRTS in the fall but hopes to instead to graduate in September with a Bachelor of Theology

Back track some months and one would see the rollercoaster ride that it took to get to this point.  I made brief mention in my Survived Year 3 post that Year 3 was indeed the hardest year for more reasons then one.  While I could go through several posts of all that caused these stresses I will save you the agony and suffice to say that during this time Rob came to know that he had to seriously consider whether he was truly cut out for the ministry.  There were many aspects to consider but in the end it came down to whether he was really cut out for this.  Those who know Rob know that he is not necessarily a desk boy, he is a blue collar guy with a natural ability to be a handy man at everything along with being a mechanic, engineer, truck driver and farmer.  He loves the outdoors and everything about the country.  Yet for 6.5 years he worked hard in his office from sun-up to long past sun-down with his heart set on bringing the faithful word of God to His people.  There were times that he wonders if he was cut out for it, but not until this year did he truly have to begin to question his ability to continue. 

In the end it’s probably best to describe it as Rob does … from a perspective that is from Rob’s natural side.  Rob has had to opportunity to work with guys training to be mechanics and he has seen one guy come through who had two left hands, at the end of the day this guy could get the job done, but in the meantime the mechanics would be shaking their heads wondering what he was doing or how he was ever going to be efficient in his job.  This is Rob at his desk.  I don’t think anyone can say that he did not try hard and that he did not put his hardest and most into his work … at the end of the day the work got done, but it took longer then the guy with the natural ability and that extra time did not allow him the freedom to put the extra special touch on what he was doing as he was just doing what was needed to get it done.  For Rob the biggest struggle was getting his research on paper to present in a clear and concise manner for others to hear and learn. With the realization that a minsters number one job is the preaching of the word he also knew that if one cannot do this aspect of the job well then the rest of his job becomes a bigger challenge.  The struggle came in determining whether it would just take time to learn how to better put things on paper (realistically he had only written 5 sermons during his three years of school) and while sometimes it just seems right to go with ones natural ability he also had to work through whether the easiest route is the right route.

In January it was decided that Rob would not go to Classis this summer to Speak and Edifying Word (SEW) but instead would work with two of the professors on writing sermons to help him gain experience in this area.  This decision was met with some ups and downs at times as he wondered whether it would be better to just get out there and try the job … but in the end we see this was the right direction to go as Rob did not even make it through his first sermon and the answer became clear.  I don’t know if anyone can explain, not even Rob, why the answer suddenly became clear at this point.  Nothing different happened, the sermons routine presented it’s regular struggles of trying to get it together after the research was done … but for Rob it suddenly became not only clear but peaceful.  Prior to last week it was always a swinging pendulum but the pendulum suddenly stopped.  It has been almost a week and pendulum remains in the same position, Rob no longer questions whether to keep going or stop, the only questions remaining are the ones that we cannot answer and do not need to look for the answers to: why did the Lord lead us on this journey in the first place?  why did it take over 6 years to reach this conclusion? is there a purpose to the fact that he went long enough to complete with a BA? what does the Lord have in store now?  how does he use what he has learned to benefit others? etc.

We know that we can now go forward without being pulled in many different directions and for the time being that is simply what we do and we take one day at a time, knowing the God looks after us each day and that He has a purpose for this also.  We have ridden the rollercoaster from time to time in the past in our lives.  This hasn’t made us any more experienced or better at the ride, but it does teach us time and again to rely on Him alone, to have patience and take the ride with our faith in Him knowing that at some point we will arrive at the end of the ride … one way or another.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”  Proverbs 3: 5-6

Missus Teacher

During the past year Marietta has taken Voice Lessons and Matthew would come along each time.  Marietta’s teacher, Mrs. C. would occasionally take the time to teach Matthew some music concepts, giving him some papers to take home and work on.  Matthew loved being big enough to learn something like the girls and looked forward to this.  When Marietta stopped taking Voice Lessons with Mrs. C. Matthew lost out on his music instructions … until a new teacher came along.

Marietta decided to take on the challenge of teaching Matthew.  It started as just fun but when he showed an interest in learning and was doing well in it we decided to keep going with this idea.  Most afternoons after school Marietta and Matthew work together for about half an hour learning piano.

I looked into what piano books to start Matthew with and ordered a set, but then found out they were on backorder and with Matthew getting impatient to get going on his lessons I dug out the books that Rebecca started with and since they said they were for ages 5 and up I decided it was worth trying him on them and saving myself the money of buying something else.  So he is now working his way through Alfred’s Basic Piano Prep Course Level A and is about a quarter way through the Lesson Book.  When Rebecca started we also had her working with all the other books in the series – Theory, Technic, Notespeller, Activity and Ear Training, because the series was new to the teacher she had and he wanted her to order them all.  We now only use the Lesson and Theory book for each level. I usually only buy the book once and then copy it for the other kids to use so Matthew has lots of copies and lots to work with.  Most of it is colouring, I remember Rebecca complaining that she had to do more colouring (she was in Grade 2 when she started so that much colouring wasn’t very thrilling).

Matthew works diligently at his lessons as Marietta assigns them.

Each day when Marietta gets home from school he pulls out his books and is waiting to start his lessons.  He is very disappointed if he has to wait for a bit because Marietta has homework or Rebecca needs the piano first.  Often Marietta will work side by side with him, doing her own homework or piano while Matthew works on his theory.  Marietta is very good with him and they work well together.  Marietta realizes that teaching Matthew is not an example of how it would be to teach other students, Matthew is an eager student and a quick learner … two things that make for fun and fast learning.

   

Matthew learned the key letters by animal names (this is how Mrs. C. taught it) – Abby Ant, Buzzing Bee, Curious Cat, Dabber Dog, Ellie Elephant, Friendly Frog, Gomer Goat – and is working on his note timing (Happy Half-Note, Quinsey Quarter-Note, Hokey Whole-Note and  Quiet Quiggly) and some basic “songs” for his fingering.

With the age gap between the girls and Matthew we see how Matthew is always striving to fit in with what the girls are doing.  For a period of time whenever the girls talked about school Matthew would talk about what he did at school that day (to the point where we began to wonder if he realize it was just his imagination).  You could tell he felt left out and wanted to be included in what they were doing.  For the past half year he has been very ready to go to school.  He used to play very well on his own but now is not so willing to play quietly by himself but wants someone to play a game with him or do interactive things with him.  He pulls out his colouring book and works on it throughout the day and just generally shows signs of being ready for school.  Since he already recognizes and writes all his letters … something he learned on his own without anyones help, and also knows the sounds of most of the letter.  I really did not want to be teaching him more as then he would find school boring next year.  He knows enough that I don’t need to worry about him next year, but I do want him to still be challenged a bit and not lose interested because it’s not stimulating him enough.  So music seemed like a good answer.  He gets to learn like the kids but it doesn’t take away from his schooling.

Hopefully they both keep at it as it’s a good experience for both of them.

After I posted I realized that I forgot to get to why I had the title Missus Teacher.  I just find it so cute when I’m working in the kitchen and I hear Matthew saying “Missus Teacher”  to Marietta.  I’m glad they’re having fun with it all.

Survived Year 3

April 27th was a day of celebration in our home … not until the afternoon … but regardless it was a day to celebrate.  Rob wrote his last exam that morning and could sigh with relief that Year 3 was behind him.  By that point in the “game” it’s not so much a question of whether he passed but simply that he survived to the end of the year … the marks will arrive in a few weeks to confirm if Year 3 is truly completed.

Year 3 has by far been the most stressful year in our house.  In reality this was not all because of the school work, but it was school related.  Rob knew that this would be a difficult year due to the courses he had to take this year, so as far as the work load goes this was no surprise.  As far as some of the other stresses that arose this was not expected and certainly caused a rollercoaster of stress throughout the year.  Rob also seemed to always have all his major large papers due at the same time making it just a little more stressful.  But in the end it all got done and the year is behind him now.  He left early Monday morning for a truck run to Calgary … while I don’t appreciate it when he’s gone for long periods, I do know that this is exactly what he needs at this time.  He loves the truck and it’s a good place for him to unwind and work through his thoughts which at this stage in the “game” are very mixed up and need some processing.

The tradition is that after the last exam pictures are taken of the student from the year and then they proceed to have a potluck lunch the the professors, professors wives and staff.  This year it did not work for us to make it to the Potluck due to an already extremely busy week and the fact that we were hosting the annual Year-End BBQ that evening.

Due to the change in the school year structure school is finished earlier now then it used to be.  This poses a problem when the tradition is to have an outdoor BBQ, picnic and fire and it’s still April.  The weather was not looking very promises as far as temperature goes, but at least there was no rain in the forecast. 

Since most of the student live in the city they did not expect the extra wind that we get out in the country which further reduces the temperature and made for a very chilly evening.  We found a corner beside the house that was in the sun and out of the wind, but even there it was still chilly.

Moving around is a better way to keep warm then just sitting in one spot.

  

The BBQ is potluck style, as pretty much all student functions are, with everyone bring something.  Burgers, sausages and hotdogs were served along with salad and lots of hot chocolate. 

   

After supper in the shop we were all chilled to the bones and decided to move indoors for dessert to thaw out.

Johan brought dessert … the first cake he’s ever baked.  Everyone survived so it must have been okay! :)

We all piled into the living room for some chatting, joking, general good times.

 

Thankfully the wind died down a little later on and we were able to get a fire roaring and spend some time outdoors around the fire, something that many are not able to do since they live in the city.  We had our chance to roast marshmellows and chat around the fire … and surprisingly even though the weather wasn’t that warm our backs weren’t even that cold sitting out there. 

There you have it … the end of the 2011/2012 school year.  The students now have four months to kick back, relax and do nothing … haha … if only!