The Adventures of Adriel, Christina, and the Kids

Catching up...

2010-02-28T21:48:00.001-08:00

A few of the things that have been keeping me too busy to post here lately:

In January I went to the SHOT show in Las Vegas to help with the Leupold booth and get a feel for what other's are doing with video and interactive in their booths. That is one huge trade show!

Also in January and related to work, I launched the Redfield website. This was a five month project on my part, as well as great work with a few fabulous partner companies. Thank you Mind's Eye Productions, Fluid Images and Planet Argon! There's another exciting component coming soon to the Redfield site in a few weeks - for now go to the site and sign up for the email newsletter and we'll drop you an email when it's live.

At home I've jumped into making a more functional workspace for myself, the first step of which has been building a workbench - which I just finished this afternoon. This is based on the "21st Century Workbench" design from Popular Woodworking. I'm hoping that one day I can pass this along to one of my grandchildren.

I was able to take my dad's vise and use it in the end-vise position on this bench:

The drawers in the middle of the table can hold tools and bits while in the middle of a project, or flipped over for a smooth table-top.

Pretty 'n' Pink

2010-01-16T17:26:00.001-08:00

The Grandpa Quilt

2010-01-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

I have been blessed with in-laws that I both love and respect; and so, I miss my father-in-law very much. In the eighteen months of so before his passing I had really gotten to know him. With Sherie off to Turkministan Dave became a regular at our dinner table and in our family time. He played Wii on rainy days, wrestled with the girls, shot with David in the backyard and had wonderful conversations with Adriel and I about life and God and the kids.

After Dave died I decided that it might help David if he had something to comfort him and remind him of grandpa so I asked Sherie for any shirts that the boys hadn't taken so that I could make a quilt. She generously brought over a whole bag of clothes. Never-mind that I had never been interested in quilting or that I had no idea what I was doing, if my boy needed a quilt I was going to figure it out!

As a side note, it is amazing the things I have learned because my kids needed me to learn them. That is a post for another day though.

It turns out that I had enough shirts for multiple quilts so I decided that David's quilt should not be the first one. I didn't want to make all of the mistakes on his, so I made a trial quilt. I had a lot of help from the quilting moms at The Well Trained Mind board who tirelessly answered my questions and gave detailed instructions.

Making this quilt was, by turns, fun, challenging and full of grief. The shirts smell like Dave and they reminded me that when we saw him we all got great big hugs. The kids were a great joy to Grandpa Dave and if he ever tired of them we never knew it. He was the kind of person who made you feel better just by being around him and when you talked he really listened.

In honor of this amazing man, here is the first David H. Henderson memorial quilt. The kids call it the "Grandpa Quilt".

Layout

Putting it together

Center squares pieced

Tied and quilted

Mim says "It's nice and snuggly" -

all wrapped up in her Grandpa Quilt

~Christina

Goodbye Dad

2009-12-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Big Questions

2009-11-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to the garage for something and Miriam followed me out. The casket is out there and we had explained to Miriam that Grandpa's body would go in there when he died but we had also explained that he would go to heaven to be with Jesus. She asked me "How we get Grandpa's box to heaven?" You could almost see the wheels of her mind turning, contemplating the lack of wings and jet engines. So I explained that while his body would go in there, Grandpa's soul would go to heaven.

How do you explain a soul to a three-year-old?

I tried.

I failed.

She nodded and humored me anyway.

Tonight Mim asked to snuggle and so cuddled on the couch between my girls she asks "How we get Grandpa's soul to heaven?"

Wow. In this day filled with playing outside, cartoons, painting, play-dough and dolly birthday parties her little mind had been turning around the conversation of this morning; trying to figure out what it all meant.

How does a soul get to heaven? I don't know. Do any of us really know?

I told her that Jesus would come and take it to heaven. That sounds reasonable.

How can someone so small ask questions so big?

~Christina

Today I built my dad's casket

2009-11-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago the surgeon stepped into the waiting room and told mom and I that dad was dying and there was nothing more that could be done. A week ago dad returned home from the hospital with help from hospice services. Paul arrived, Sean arrived, and Anna checked in through video chat. We spent a day looking at old slides and reliving times past. Smiles, laughter, tears together.

These are dad's last days here with us. A few more at the most. Time is very short.

Dad's patience, kindness, and selflessness have always moved me. And all the more now. Each time I visit he is weaker, and yet his warm love still shines through the broken body - it is not a false veneer, it is true and it does not break even in his weakest state. He is a Godly man like no other I have met. I will miss him dearly and will look forward to seeing him again when my own time comes.

Today I had the honor of helping build my father's casket. Craftsman Nate Currier expertly led the project, I followed along the process as best I could. My son David also joined in. It is a day that I will remember the rest of my life, and I am thankful to have been able to help create this token for my father.

- Adriel

Of Kids and Cousins

2009-10-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

A photo I took this weekend of our kids with their cousins on the Betz side of the family. Left to right - Gabe, Miriam, Sophie, Gracie, Abbie, David.

Spider

2009-10-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

A big spider spun his web in our backyard this afternoon.

Weekly Report- Week Three 2009-10

2009-09-11T13:48:00.001-07:00

For the first time in over five years we have a child in public school. Abigail started her first day of third grade at Keizer Elementary this year. She is having a great time, her teacher is considered one of the best and she is making friends. The girl who sits next to her in class is "super nice mom". She even gets to ride the bus (a whole 5 min. each way) which she is thrilled about. We hope and pray that Abigail will have a wonderful third grade year.

One of Miriam's crafts this week was playing with food coloring and coffee filters. My hands were a sickly grey-green color after this but we had a great time. Here are some of her creations.

The boys and I are leaning about the first European settlers in North America and that is a lot of fun. Soon we will move on to the American Revolution which is my favorite time period. The boys are also doing Apologia General Science and learning that Jr. High level science is very different from the elementary science we had been doing. There are tests! You have to study! You have to take notes! It has been interesting and all of the experiments have worked so far.

In another few weeks we will finish up Lively Latin book one and move on to book two. We have just moved beyond learning nouns and verbs to learning some adjectives. I am supplementing with occasional reading and translating from Ecce Romani for fun and to get them use to actually reading in Latin.

Weekly Report- Week Two 2009-10

2009-09-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

The second week of school was off and running but anyone who does memory work knows that you need to come up with ideas to keep it interesting. I had the kids take turns following directions , in Latin, about what to draw. They worked together to quickly draw these pictures on the white board and I had to come up with the coherent Latin sentences to prompt them. It was a fun and different way to review our vocabulary.

For Miriam I am using Hearts of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven. We read the story of Noah, the ark and the Rainbow this week. This is her rainbow craft. Abbie joined in but neither of them got the rainbow covered in colored paper as was the idea. They had fun though!

A note about our memory work. This is one area where I am the most proud of what we are accomplishing. So often in educational circles you hear "rote memorization" decried as old fashioned and useless. In a classical education memory work is imperative to create the foundation upon which further learning will be built . To really understand anything you must first learn the vocabulary and foundational principals of that discipline. That is what we hope to do with the memory work in our home. Our studies in Latin, English grammar, math, bible and history have all been made easier and more satisfying because of our memory work. Latin isn't so difficult to translate if you know your vocabulary. Math isn't as tough when you understand the directions to "find the sum" and American history is richer when you know "Paul Revere's Ride".

Tantum scimus quantum memoria retinemus

Loon Lake - Rain and Sun

2009-09-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

It was Miriam's turn to camp with dad and she wanted to play in the sand, so Loon lake was the destination this weekend. We arrived to a downpour, played in the drippy sand afterward, and then enjoyed dinner in the rain. We escaped to the tent and played Hi Ho Cherry O until bed time. It rained all night, but a giant evergreen kept our tent dry.

Right after we packed camp in the morning the sun broke through and we enjoyed a good four hours on the Loon Lake beach in perfect 70+ sunny weather.

(Miriam did the sand angels without any prompting.)

(Our tunnel/bridge/wall project.)

Olallie Lake

2009-08-31T18:54:00.000-07:00

David and I enjoyed a guy's night together at Olallie Lake this weekend, Camp Ten to be specific. David was in charge of the camera, so here's his top pictures:

Weekly Report- Week One 2009-10

2009-08-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, So last year I took cute "First day of School" pictures of my kids. So adorable! This year I didn't take a single picture all week. Lame, I know. My only excuse is that the weeks leading up to the start of school were quite the upheaval but I am not going to get into that craziness.

So we started year six of homeschooling and I have to say that this was the first year I was not looking forward to school. Once we got started I was pleasantly surprised to find the routine of school relaxing and it occurred to me that I actually do enjoy teaching. Yep, I get a kick out of explaining that prepositional phrases can act as adjectives and then demonstrating how to diagram those prepositional phrases.

If that hasn't convinced you that I am nuts then let me tell you about Latin.

I picked up a copy of Ecce Romani used, for a steal. It was my one curriculum impulse-buy of the season. It uses an immersion method of teaching Latin which means instead of chanting endings and memorizing vocabulary they throw you a paragraph in Latin and tell you to read (with some of the vocabulary defined at the bottom of the page). This has been a ton of fun, even David likes it! ER is a full Latin program but we are just using the reading text to supplement our Lively Latin.

We made it through the first week and we managed to fit everything in. We will need to tweak things a little over time but I think it will be a good year.

San Juan Island

2009-08-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeremy and I took our annual guy's trip last week, this time to the San Juan Islands. What an awesome trip in a beautiful part of the world!

Orcas Island -

Roche Harbor -

From the ferry deck -

A lonely sailboat - seen from the peak of Mount Pickett, Orcas Island -

After kayaking a few miles out to an uninhabited island we "captured" it for the day and enjoyed some spectacular views from "our" island -

Ferrry through heatwaves (Click to enlarge) -

We found this little USGS survey marker on the island, set in place in 1939 -

Coming back into Anacortes, after passing through the thin but dense fog bank -

Paper mill against Olympic Mountains - From the ferry coming into Port Townsend -

Wooden boat, Port Townsend -

2009-08-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

So, I picked the cucumbers today

and then grabbed just a few sprigs of basil. Pesto anyone?

(I have no idea what I am going to do with all of this.)

10 lbs of cucumbers

2009-07-22T20:18:00.001-07:00

Christina and I just harvested 10 lbs of cucumbers from the garden, with many more on their way. I'm looking forward to some pickles!

Garden Update

2009-07-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

The heat is here and the garden is beginning to put out the next round of crops in plentiful numbers! Everything is huge - the tomato bushes, cucumber plants, corn, and pumpkins are taking over.

That is the cucumber patch behind the girls (lot's of pickles coming soon!), a pumpkin plant in front left of the frame, and some cantaloupe directly in front of the girls.

Compare that to just six weeks ago:

The pumpkin leaves are magically large when viewed from Miriam's height. (Those are the out-of-control cucumbers in the foreground.)

Abbie stands near the sunflowers, beans and some more pumpkin plants.

The first round of corn is almost ready to be picked and the second round of corn is taller than Miriam already.

Abbie at the end of the tomato row, with the raspberry bush behind her showing shoots over 8 feet tall.

Abbie and Daddy Camping

2009-07-21T20:46:00.001-07:00

I took Abigail camping this weekend. Indian Henry was our destination, but since it was full we continued on deep into the Mt. Hood National Forest, to a tiny campground at the end of 6 miles of gravel road. Even that deep into the national park we took the last available spot at Hideaway Lake Campground. The lake itself is maybe 10 acres, sits at 4000 feet, and with only 14 campsites it was a quiet and isolated place to camp, even better since our site was right on the lake shore. The time together was great - we chatted, cooked, fished, swam, hiked, and roasted "smarshmellows."

Here's Abigail's video tour of the camp site and some pictures:

Catching Up...

2009-07-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few months and I've been all but ignoring the blog, so it's time for some quick catching up....

Dad's been in and out of surgery and seems to be doing well, back to walking and eating well each day. The pathology reports look good so far. Praise God!

The kids have been taking swimming lessons and they all seem to love it. I'm a little jealous of the swim instructor that Miriam is absolutely in love with, but she still seems to have plenty of love to give me when I get home.

The cat and dog have still been annoying each other. Here Kodak demonstrates his dominance by eating from the Morpheus' dishes and then taking a nap in Morpheus' bed.

Christina's been canning, starting with a year's supply of strawberry jelly. Mmmmm.

We celebrated David's 12th birthday. (With a fancy cake by Christina!)

We went on our second annual 4th of July camping trip to Lake Merwin with our home schooling group. We couldn't have asked for better weather, the water was perfect for swimming, the nights warm, and a bit of wind here and there for sailing. Here are some shots from the bike parade.

Last weekend David went to the Youth Shotgun Clinic, I think we found a sport that he really enjoys! There were about 75 kids at the event, and David was put on a team with just two other boys, so he got some great hands on training. Here are some shots and a video of him being coached by Tom Jones, the club president and Skeet state champ, who we were lucky enough to be paired with the for the day.

One morning a balloon flew right over our house, that was fun.

The garden is growing like crazy, I'll try to get some shots of that in later. For now that about catches us up so I can get this blog guilt off my back. :)

- Adriel

What I have Accomplished in the past Week

2009-06-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

It's Summer! We are having a great time with swimming lessons and bike riding but every homeschool mom knows that Summer is the time to really clean your house,de-clutter...... and of course, plan next year's subjects. So that is what I am doing. There is still much to do but here is a list of what I have done in the last week or so.

Cleaned out my bathroom cupboards
Deep cleaned the bathroom (Adriel's says "I didn't know the floor could get that shiny.")
De-cluttered my bedroom
Cleaned off book shelves
Purged old binders and collected still useable school supplies
Ordered next year's school books (and got some great deals on used books)
Sent messages to sellers letting them know the books I purchased arrived
Negotiated a smashing deal on strawberries for jam ( I am my father's daughter after all)
Cleaned out the hair supply drawer
Cleared my desk
Set up my sewing stuff on my desk
Made a little pouch for my Nike Plus
Read two of the kids literature books for next year (Mostly while on a treadmill)
Finally found Jeans that fit David (It was more like David is finally up to a waist size that exists)
Dealt with Mim having a tummy bug (why do they always throw up in my bed??)
Turned my torn slacks into shorts
Started training the dog

I still have a huge list of things to do but it is nice to see a list of what is done, rather than what remains. The last weekend in July I have arraigned for my sister and my parents to take the kids for 4-5 days. My goal is to get all of my first semester and pre-school-year stuff done while the kids are having fun with cousins and grandparents. Before then, I need to have the house all de-cluttered, the school supplies organized and all of the lit books read.

~Christina

Giant Radishes

2009-06-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

Our radishes keep getting bigger and bigger. We can't pick them fast enough, and every time we go out to the garden they're even larger. Many are now baseball sized. They still taste great!

Kings

2009-06-11T20:05:00.001-07:00

What if you took King Saul and David and put them into modern time with modern world events and modern ways of thinking about things... that's the premise of NBC's "Kings." Very intriguing, quite dramatic, and we found ourselves really enjoying The characters in this show. This is one of the best shows I have seen, I would gladly give up LOST to keep up with Kings instead.

Unfortunately NBC pulled the show from the spring lineup after five episodes because it wasn't drawing the hoped for audience. But ITS BACK! Starting on Saturday evening at 8pm the sixth episode will air and each Saturday after that the series will continue through the season conclusion.

You can catch up on the first five episodes at NBC or Hulu.

We want to see this show back for a second season so check it out, and if you love it be sure to let NBC know!

Show trailer:

Our two favorite characters are David and Michelle (replacing Johnathon of the biblical story):

The Garden

2009-05-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Our garden project is coming right along. We're already getting to pick a few things that we started during the winter - a few lettuce leaves here and there, some onions, and we plucked our first fat radish out of the ground yesterday. Here's a look at the finished garden beds, mostly empty and ready for the starts:

Radishes:

Our corn row against the back fence, with the first plants coming up and many more starts coming soon to fill up this row:

Many starts and seedlings ready to be added to the garden:

Full Sail

2009-05-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Last year we launched our newly restored sailboat, the "Christina Marie", on it's maiden voyage in Lake Merwin, WA. We kicked off this year's sailing season again at Lake Merwin, it might just become a yearly kickoff tradition!

Our dear friends the Nielsen's joined in the sailing fun on Saturday. Here's some shots that the ladies took from the shore as Jeremy and I took the kids for a spin around the lake.

We couldn't have asked for better weather! What a great way to kick off the sailing season! The Nielsen's hosted us at their place for the evening and we returned to the lake the next day for another few hours of sailing fun before heading back to normal life.

One great bonus was that Jeremy was called into work for an early morning tugboat job and I was able to tag along. Getting up at 3 a.m. wasn't so bad, seeing the Willamette in it's predawn tranquility from our four story vantage point in the tower tug was amazing. And feeling thousands of horsepower in the engine room below us respond to Jeremy's touch was exhillirating. Here's a few shots of the sister tug leading the way back to the Shaver dock after we pulled a ship from it's slip.

My friend Rachel

2009-04-23T20:19:00.001-07:00

My friend Rachel died suddenly and tragically this weekend, a blood clot took her life quickly and without warning.

Rachel and I first met when I was ten and attended boarding school together, living together in the same dorm for five years. Though we were a grade apart we were nearly always in the same classroom together. There were only about eight of us at that boarding school and Rachel was truly like a sister to me. After leaving the school and moving on our different ways we remained pen pals through high school and we've more recently kept in touch through our blogs with occasional comments back and forth. Because of our shared experiences growing up together Rachel's notes have always been meaningful.

I loved reading Rachel's blog posts, they were encouraging to me because she so clearly loved God, her husband and her children. I will miss her updates. And I feel so deeply for the loss Scott and the children are feeling now, I can't even imagine what that would be like. I am having a hard time understanding why things like this happen in our world, but I do know that Rachel touched many lives, including mine.

I pulled out the "Indonesia" pictures a few days ago. There was Rachel participating in my silly school presentations about rocket launches and nuclear power plants. Rachel was always there, interested in my crazy inventions. She was the first "customer" of the dorm phone system I wired together. Rachel validated my quirky interests and looking back I see how valuable her input was in my life.

Just a week before her death Rachel along with her husband Scott were rejoicing in the birth of their 3rd child, Caynah Grace ("Powerful Grace"). In describing the name she said "I know Who has a Powerful Grace and I wanted my daughter to be 'labeled' with our Lord." How profound that is now.

Rachel leaves behind two other children, Aleah and Bruce.

Scott, I have never met you but I know you are a great man and I'm praying for you, I'm so sorry for your loss. May God bring a powerful grace to you. Your farewell to Rachel is beautiful. Joshua, Caleb, Mr. and Mrs. Allen, you are all in my heart and prayers as well.

Goodbye Rachel. May you bring special blessing to God!

- Adriel