Head shot

 

Isaac is training in piano and voice at THE BLAIR ACADEMY in Johnson City, TN. He is in the advanced program for voice. They recently took head shots, and I wanted to share them on my Blog. I think they turned out pretty well!

Isaac karate flashback

Percy Jackson

Isaac went to see his friend Eliza perform in a play in Morristown! Theatre people really stick together. 

Liberty Camp

 

We are back from Liberty University. I am hoping I can obtain more photos, but I think they are on some Instagram location that I can't figure out how to get access to. Isaac spent a week at Liberty in a musical theatre program, and he had an AMAZING time. 

We were able to stay at our friends, the Yerrington's house. Unfortunately, they were in Spain, but they let us bunk there anyways. That be some good friends. :)

We arrived on Saturday, stopped at Yerrington's to change clothes, had dinner with our friends, Randy & Whitney Belt, and then went to the show. The Belt's daughter was in the camp as well.  In fact, they are the ones who told us about it. I'm so glad they did. Isaac had an amazing time. 

There were 50 girls and 20 guys, and Isaac said he just became friends with all of them. Everyone was nice and kind. There was no drama (outside of actual theatre drama.) They just had a good time together. He got to play numerous roles, but his "biggest" was Kenny Rogers. He did a great job. 

John and I went with just the Pomegranate. Sidge covered the farm, and Abigail was starting her own high school camp in Florida and spent one night with her friend Reagan so they could get her started at camp while we were gone. 

I LOVE LIBERTY. I really hope Isaac can maybe go there for college. It is just four hours away, and it is so nice to see Jesus AND the arts go together. :) 

Life has been ...

....

busy here.  I am on a New Member Committee so last week I made 18 phone calls to introduce ourselves and interview potential new members to our cooperative. We had a graduation, a graduation rehearsal, and a dinner for Tusculum supporting the memory of Chuck Bowlin. It was just a lot!

While school is mostly done now, little Pomegranate is still finishing up at the Kotynskis. She will be done at the end of the month. Our olders are mostly completely done although all of them will do math throughout the summer. 

Here is a little update on all of the kiddos: 

Isaac: Isaac is now 17 and is working at Yoder's almost 30 hours a week! It's a great job for him, and he seems to really enjoy it. I think it's fantastic that he can practice in an area like customer service as I think his life will involve a lot of "schmoozing" -- especially if he goes into the Arts. He is also still taking piano, voice, and guitar. Theater is mostly finishing up for the summer. He will be attending a theatre camp at Liberty University this summer with Randy Belt's (John's co-director at the ER) daughter Rylee. I am super excited for him. Generally, Isaac has become a pretty easy kid to parent. We had some challenging growing pains when he was 14-15, but mostly, now, he is enjoyable. He also has a girl that he likes :)

Elijah "Sidge": Sidge is 16. He still takes Karate two days a week. I think he will probably get his black belt by the time he graduates high school. He is working on the farm, hunting, and also working for other people (Daniel S., Aunt Betsy, Gabe, Grampa) sometimes. He is now driving as well which really helps here -- even though they share a vehicle. Sidge will be taking full-time college classes this fall which will be a very big change for him. His classes will be on Mondays and Wednesdays so he will have time to work on the farm and get some outdoor, hunting time in. While he does enjoy playing his allotted time of games on his phone each day (30 minutes), he is otherwise listening to hunting or some political podcasts (he likes Charlie Kirk) or reading. He is soon to leave for Columbia on a mission trip which is super exciting!)

Abigail: Abigail will turn 14 in July. She is still very involved in ballet. She probably is my least "liking" of school, and while she is a very good writer, doesn't even enjoy that all that much. She is really gifted with photography and spends time editing those items. She is going to be attending an overnight youth camp in Florida (WITHOUT her brothers as they have theater and mission trip). Abigail LOVES her friends and her social group (including a certain young man :) and is very intentional about her relationships -- something I never saw with the boys. 

Hannah: Hannah is 11 and as spirited, spunky, silly, and sweet as ever. She is just a spit-fire and so full of life. She loves ballet, and Ms. LoriAnn asked her to help at the princess and beginner camps this summer. She is super smart and schoolwork comes very easy to her. (If it doesn't, she can easily get frustrated as it isn't "normal" for something to feel hard.) She is very good on the farm as well, and if Sidge can't help us, Hannah is the next one in line to step in. She is the best cook and seamstress in our house and remains incredibly creative (and a bit messy :)

 

(More) Prom Pictures

Prom pictures are coming in from Melissa Hankins who took them for prom this year. Wanted to make sure to share them.

 

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost 

 

On May 7, 2007 my husband walked into our bedroom with our big old Dalmatian and said “Scrubs is ready to be a big brother.” He had gotten the phone call while I was napping that Bri was in labor in South Florida. It was her due date and coincidentally Bri’s 17th birthday!

 

We put our action plan into place and within an hour we were off on the ten hour drive from Elgin AFB to Fort Lauderdale to meet our son. 

 

At 2a on the morning of May 8, we arrived at the hospital. The large woman guarding the nursery did not want to let us in as we we didn’t have a “magic bracelet” but Joni showed her bracelet and with all of her 5’2” prowess demanded our entrance. “I’m not sure you understand,” she said. “They’ve been waiting ten years for this little boy. They are coming in.” 

 

(You weren’t supposed to have cameras either but Joni brought one and snapped the picture of us meeting our son for the first time.)

 

Isaac turned 17 yesterday. He is an uber talented musician (which he inherited from his DNA as we learned when he was young that there were professional cellists in his birth family). He loves theatre, music, piano, guitar, and collecting Hot Wheels cars. He has a wicked sense of humor. Hes got a job at Yoders sweet talking to old southern folks at the cash register. 

 

He’s driving to Nashville with Dad and his brother (with whom he gets along with amazingly well) on Saturday for a concert — the only thing other than money that he’d want for his birthday. 

 

He hopes to go to college (maybe Liberty?) and major in some sort of music and has chosen to follow Christ and I can’t help but think, Brianna Van Wyck did the hard thing at 16 years old. With a snap of her fingers all of his talent could have disappearred into abortion, but instead, when her doctor said “you have choices” she said “I’ve made my choice. I know who is going to adopt my baby.” (Although she hadn’t called us yet so … there was that.) 

 

Happy 17th birthday to the child that made us parents. And thank you Bri for choosing the less traveled path. It HAS made all the difference.

Mr. Cellophane

 

This past Saturday, Isaac performed a music theater number for so parents and grandparents. There were about 15 performances, and I have to be honest, I really thought Isaac's was one of the best. It was so entertaining, and just really fantastic. I am so proud of him!

Improv

Isaac has been doing improv theatre two nights a month. Here he is (below) in a picture with his friend Eliza. I love the theatre community and the friends he has made. Music and theatre truly fill his tank. It's just so crazy as he would have been the last kid I ever would have thought would love this stuff. But he does!

Isaac's Yoder Job

Hard to believe I have a child now old enough to have a real, bonafide job. But I do. I find it quite interesting/emotional to think that good ol' Yoder's is his first employer. 

Yoder's holds a very special place in my heart. Living "out in the boonies" can be a challenge, but Yoder's being around 7 minutes from our house has always been a highlight of our location. It's a great place to grab a good sandwich or last minute supplies like milk or eggs. When we first moved here, my little boys were only six-years-old. SIX! And now, ten years have gone by and he is working there. 

So proud of him!

 

What the boys are up to

Sidge earned his purple belt last night in karate. He is now three belts away from black! His older cousin, Gabe, really looks out for him and is sort of mentoring him on this journey. He is pictured above in the back corner. his teacher, Ben, is in the front right corner. John went to watch Sidge test last night. Ben told JB he really has the potential to go far with this if he wants due to his strength and his size. 

We don't do many "sports" in our family in the traditional sense. I've really tried to let my kids interests' lead what we do. The girls LOVE ballet. And while not a traditional sport, I can tell you that I have learned how difficult is by guiding my girls through it. Truly I think it may be more difficult than many traditional ball sports. But I'm not trying to get into a debate. 

Sidge continues to move forward with karate. Breaking his arm last year set him back quite a bit, but I think he's returned to his previous interest in it now. Isaac quit karate and is not doing any athletics anymore. I think getting his black belt will be a major accomplishment and also help him in his future job endeavors with the TWRA. (More on that in a second.)

Both boys are now sophomores, and it is exciting to see what their futures may hold. Sidge is planning on doing something next year called "middle college." This is where he will get his associates degree while in high school. It requires a lot of diligence as you are basically a full-time college student in high school, but he graduates with two years of college completed. He then plans to go to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville as a commuter student (it's about an hour from us) to get his biology degree. From there, he hopes to enter the TWRA. Once you have your degree in Biology, it is a 5.5 month program and you are essentially a wildlife officer. 

Isaac is going to lighten up on his school load and really dive into music and theatre during his last two years. He only needs about 7 more classes to graduate once he finishes this school years. He will do those and take a few of them at Walter State so that they apply to his college degree program. He is currently hoping to attend Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia which is about four hours from us in the fall. But, he has to get the money together for that as we are not paying for college. So we will see how that goes! He is currently mentoring with five different musician/theatre people in preparation for what he wants to do with his future.

Wicked!

On the  night we picked up Tijmen from the airport in Knoxville, Isaac and I took a night out together. We went to a really nice movie theatre in downtown Knoxville. Unfortunately, I had no idea there was a parade going on right outside its doors so it made for a challenging (but fun) evening.

We ended up eating at a Mediterranean place across the street from the movie theatre entitled KOPITA. It was DELICIOUS!

A quick sidenote: I knew nothing about the movie or play, Wicked. Isaac and I loved this movie. It was outstanding. I am pretty sensitive to "wokeness" thrown into a production. There was a little bit of this, but generally, it was incredibly clean and well-done. We enjoyed it incredibly!

Three sold out shows!

This is Isaac's college-age director, Gracie. She was OUTSTANDING. She truly encouraged and supported all the kids so incredibly well. I was blown away by her. 

Some of the kids went out to celebrate after the show. Here's a photo of some of them. 

A close-up of Isaac. I love this picture of him. 

Grama Joni came in for the show. We forgot to take a picture of just the two of them at the show so we took this one at home. Wearing makeup seems much weirder when he gets home. 

We had a lot of people that came out to support Isaac. Here is a photo with his youth leader, Mark and two of his youth/homeschool buddies: David (orange) and Lucas. Honestly, I don't want to list everyone who came because I know I'll miss someone, but we were so blessed. 

I was SO incredibly proud of Isaac for his performance this past weekend. He performed a ten-minute skit (part of a showcase of skits) on Tusculum's campus. Here is a news piece that discusses the show. 

I cannot believe they sold out all three shows! In fact, the last show (on Sunday afternoon which Ms. Leslie (piano/voice teacher) and Ms. Ruth Kross (long-time friend!) were able to attend saw people being turned away. How fun to sell out the theatre. 

At the end of the production, Isaac was invited to be a part of GLAWPIGT. This is a BIG deal and is a huge accomplishment for youth in our community. I believe Isaac's future will include music/singing/acting in some form or fashion. How cool!

Theatre?

 

Something new is happening here in our home. Isaac is taking a stab at theatre, and I have to admit, he is pretty talented. He has a LOT to learn of course. But when he performed the required monologue for us here at home, we couldn't help but be a tad bit ... shocked. The kid actually can act! He has no fear of being on stage. He feels right at home there. So now he is doing piano, voice, guitar, theatre, and he is probably going to start some ballet in the next few months to help with his on-stage abilities. I can't believe this kid!

Youth Retreat

The entire group at Chik-fil-A on the trip. Love us some Jesus chicken!

Travis Chapman (far left) is the new youth minister at our church. His sons include Lucas (in glasses right behind him) and David (in green in the front. Isaac has become friends with both of these guys because they are renting our trailer in Mosheim while they await the building of their house. Isaac roomed with Lucas (who is nearly the exact same age as him) during the trip. 

The Boys' youth group went away to Cleveland, TN for a four-night Youth Retreat. Sidge didn't wan to go this year, but Isaac was totally on-board. Isaac is technically 9th grade age, but we have him in 8th grade, so he really could choose between middle and high school as to which retreat he wanted to go to. He chose to go to the middle school retreat.

However, everything almost fell through when Abigail came down with COVID on Saturday morning. We decided to test Isaac on Monday morning, and when he was negative, we let him go to camp. If he hadn't have been able to go, he would have gone to the high school retreat instead which is the second week of July and would overlap with the "GUY TIME" coming to the farm. (I am taking the girls to Mississippi for two weeks, and John will be staying home with the boys.)

While Isaac was gone, John was on nights, so Abigail slept with me, and Hannah stole Isaac's bed. We said we weren't gonna tell him, but we did, and he took it okay because Hannah and Isaac have a very special relationship. Those two really get along, and I think he was fine with Hannah using his bed!

Karate grappling

The boys have been doing karate for around five years now I think. Ben Sparks does SUCH an amazing job with them.  They have learned SOOO much. They got to grapple each other the other day, and I got a video. Ben always has to watch very closely when the brothers are grappling because they can get carried away. So fun to watch all they've learned. 

Ballet videos

Abigail just finished her first week of ballet intensives. Following a week of very hard work every day from 11-5, the girls (and some guys -- including Isaac who helped partner!) put on a performance. I managed to get videos of the dances that had a lot of people who are special to us in them. I don't share links to dances of other kids without permission, but because these were already performed in front of an audience, I feel they are free for me to share. Here are the links! 

Modern dance (includes niece Ana and our dear friend Maryah)

Partnering (includes Abigail, Isaac, and our niece, Kari)

Ana and Partner (our niece Ana partnering with a young man from ballet)

Gabe with Partner (nephew Gabe partnering with Ay-la)

Class dance (features Abigail and niece, Kari)

Kari (group dance)

Ana dance (includes Maryah)

Abigail's group dance (includes friends Johnna Beth, Ella, and Sarai)

Older girl group dance (includes Ana and Maryah)

Cedar Point

I LOVED wearing my prAna dresses at the park. They are SOOOOO comfortable and have totally changed my mind about wearing dresses. I could wear both of them with tennis shoes and a hat. I was SO cool and SO comfortable!

I brought a book and read while waiting in line or while sitting outside while my kids were on rides.

What a great amusement park! They had GOOD beer!

The birding trail that the two kids did.

This ride was CRAZY!

My three main amusement park people. Abigail will ride some rides. But Sidge just isn't very interested. 

Our team!

Virgin strawberry daiquiris on the beach. They kids LOVED this.

One extra kid in the car wasn't AS easy. But we made the 9 hour drive each way work. On the way there, we stopped at a thrift store famous for their HOT WHEEL car booth and Isaac spent about tan hour picking out what he wanted.

While we aren't into HOT WHEELS, we all found some other very interesting items at the thrift shop.

Our hotel. Waiting for our room. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready until nearly 6pm. 



We had promised our Isaac a "Big 13!" However, COVID derailed those dreams. So instead, we told our kids they could all have a "Big 14!" Isaac had wanted to go to Cedar Point. It is one of the biggest roller coaster parks in the USA. He also sweetened the deal by telling JB that there was a very popular birding migration route/festival that went through that area. (I had no idea this park was in such a beautiful place. Right on Lake Eerie. It was SO amazingly beautiful.)

Unfortunately the BIG birding time did not correspond with the dates the park was open so we had to settle for not-so-good birding in order to get the park. 

We stayed at THE BREAKERS right next to the park. We opted to not take our RV because, truthfully, gas prices meant it would take a long time to tow and cost a lot of money, and we would have trouble with getting back and forth to the park while simultaneously getting birders where they needed to be. The hotel was nice albeit expensive. I also am just not into the incredible prices of everything! I mean a chik-fil-a sandwich in the park was $10! Highway Robbery! 

We drove up on Saturday. Our room wasn't ready on time on Saturday. (Apparently they don't guarantee room ready time due to the type of hotel they are?) So we took the kiddos to a HIBACHI grill inside the hotel. This was the first time Gabe had ever been to Hibachi, and my kids hadn't been since they were small. Here are some pictures from the dinner!

On Sunday, I took Isaac and cousin Gabe and little sister Hannah to the park. John took the birders, well, birding. Later in the day, he actually got back in time to join us at the park so we did it together in the evening as well. 

On Monday, we all went to the park together. We took some breaks in the heat of the afternoon. The kids also enjoyed the pool and hot tub. 

And on Tuesday, we drove home.

I have realized that I am just not very into amusement parks. 

• Crowds are ... crowded. 
• Heat is ... hot. 
• Lines are ... long.
• Food is ... expensive.
• People are ... odd. 
• Concrete is ... not grassy.
• Rides are ... scary.

That should sum it up. I loved getting to see my boy Isaac do what he loves. (Although, at 14, they have to play it cool so you don't get to see the excitement as much.) I also loved to see how into the rides Hannah was. In fact, she was the one who "forced" Gabe and Isaac to do the drop tower -- something neither of them was very interested in doing.

In the end, Isaac got to ride every single one of the 16 coasters that were open. (The big grand-daddy coaster DRAGSTER RIDE that the park is famous for was not open. In fact it is down for the entire year.)

We had a wonderful time. A highlight was riding the SNAKE RIVER EXPEDITION with John and our three youngest kids. This is sort of like Disney's RIVER CRUISE. While we were on the ride, a boat in front of us actually broke down and the riders had to be removed from the ride. As a result, our actors had to ad-lib an extra 10-20 minutes of material, and they were really good at it. I also find pleasure in watching people do things they love (like act, sing, perform, play an instrument) despite not being Brad-Pitt level acting.

We are home now. More and more I think to myself: I love being with my family, but I feel like I have travelled enough for a lifetime. I really just love being on my farm!

Saying "please" (with sign)

Long before cell phones with video, everything we took was on digital camera ... this was one of the first times I caught Isaac using sign -- something we LOVED using with our children.

More flashbacks of Isaac