I'm sitting in the Harts Prarie ski lodge at Snowbowl. Jon and Danner are skiing with the Flagstaff Ski and Snowboard Team. Zac is taking a group lesson - he wasn't quite ready for the ski team.
Ben is off with friends at the sand dunes near Glamis, CA. Sam is at home (work was canceled), hopefully, he'll find someone to do something with. Tom had three to four patients to see this morning. Because of the snow, he had to take his truck *grunt, grunt (Tim Allen's)*! Lots of snow means man needs big 4x4 truck. And Livvy. Livvy is in Mazatlan, MX. She'll be there until April of 2026. We're not sure when we get to see her next.
Holding onto things that matter. Learning what those things are is the tricky thing. Letting go of things that don't matter. But also, letting go to let one fly.
This past summer and fall were a lot about making memories and holding onto them knowing that the letting go was on its way. This is what life is all about.
House progress. We hired a framer to get the rest of the house framed and sided - I'm pretty sure if we had to do it ourselves we'd be working on it for the next two years. Just the frame. But, thankfully, framers came and got 'er done. Tom, Sam, Ben, Opa, and lots of young guy friends worked for several weeks getting the new roof installed and replacing the existing one. It's so nice to have hard-working men around. Tom has been working on the garage door for the last week or more. He was able to get the door in place but between school, work, and snow, he's still working. Maybe this weekend he'll have time.
Our beloved PopPop passed away in July. We sure do miss him but are glad that he didn't suffer long. Once his heart started failing, it was only a couple of weeks before he wanted to stop seeing the doctors and go home. Tom was there by his side at his house here in Flagstaff when he left for his heavenly home. The boys, especially the little ones, still talk about PopPop taking them fishing or needing help with something electronic. Tears are shed and our longing for heaven grows.
Tom officially started the Coconino Community College nursing program this May. He's been taking prerequisites for the last year or so. Along with his nursing classes at CCC, he's taking concurrent classes at Grand Canyon University so that he can graduate with his bachelor's in nursing in May of 2025. He's one-quarter of the way there are doing very well! All A's except for stinking Statistics. But, he's very happy with that B, because it was a crazy hard class for a required intro class.
Livvy spent most of last year in Mazatlan, Mexico with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She learned so much and was ready to head back when God called her to go back this January. Unlike last year's five-month DTS (Disciple Training School), she's now taking an intern class and then has a two-year commitment. She's got a great community and God is teaching her so much and is using her in mighty ways! We are so incredibly proud of her, and really what God is doing!
Sam turned seventeen this past September. He's had a
very busy year. In June he went to Alaska and spent six weeks to set-net salmon with our good friends the Beckers. Although cold, he had a blast not only catching salmon, and sticking flounder, fishing, clammed, hauling water, seeing some cool wildlife, and hand fun being Mr Sam to Lyle and Alex's kiddos, Emily, Clara, Finn, and baby Ada. He worked full-time during the remaining summer for Tesano Construction. During the school year he works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and gets his school done on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last semester he took Wood Working and Intro to Pumbing. This semester he's taking Building Construction Methods and House Wiring. Though he's not crazy about school, he gets it done. I'm hoping to give him the necessary exposure to some careers in the trades so that he knows what direction/pathway he should take after graduating next year. Sam played basketball for Northland Preparatory Academy this past semester. This semester he's once again on the Track and Field team at NPA. He's really hoping he can break the school's record in javelin through this year.
Ben just turned 15-1/2! Which means he's got his driver's permit! He's been counting down to the time for at least six months. He's a very good driver, maybe a little heavy on the foot, but so are all the men so far in this family, including PopPop. He's been driving cars and trucks around our property for a couple of years already, so he's pretty comfortable behind the wheel. What I am always super impressed with is that he can back up our huge truck with the trailer attached like it's nothing! He's gotten really into skiing this winter season. Before that, it was the Coconino High School Mountain Bike Team. Now he's adding track to his list of sports. He's trying his hand at sprints but seems very suited for long jump.
Jon, almost thirteen, continues to be our in-house tech guru. Anybody with any techy problem goes to
Jon is ALWAYS ready and willing to help. He is also my built-in babysitter, especially since Livvy is gone. He tends to be very responsible and has a heart for others, somewhat unlike his older brothers who probably wouldn't notice if a brother went missing under their watch. This past year he had the privilege of building his own computer from scratch (with some oversight from Opa), although he's already made some upgrades all by himself. He's really hoping someone else needs one so he can build again. Jon tried his hand at mountain biking this past fall. He was really enjoying it until he fell from the ceiling rafters in the addition and broke his wrist. Now he's on the Flagstaff Snow and Snowboarder Team along with Danner and Zac. He's really enjoying the chance to ski every Friday and be challenged with new skills.
Danner continues to be our spirited, talkative, creative, hunter boy. He loves listening to stories while he builds Lego creations from scratch, fashions the latest bow from a tree branch, or a blow dart from PVC pipes. He amazes us with his creative abilities seeing that he still struggles with reading. It's the gift of the learning curve! We're getting some help from a sweet friend with a new reading program that we are very hopeful will spring Danner into the ability to read all the books that he loves to listen to. He's a tender-hearted, passionate boy, who wears his heart on his sleeve. Good or bad, Danner can't hide what he's thinking or feeling.
Zacky, the littlest, is almost eight! I am extremely grateful to be out of the baby-toddler phase. Although Zac still needs help with the occasional tying of the shoes or strapping on of the ski boots, he's very independent and competitive. I do like that he hasn't fully moved out of the little-kid phase. I don't know if it's just Zac or because he's the youngest (or both....probably both), but he doesn't like to go or do things by himself (meaning without a family member), still asks for me to sleep with him on occasion, wants me to just sit with him while he builds Legos... even though all I do is scour through the pile looking for pieces of disembodied mini-figures (Danner had/has a bad habit of not only decapitating the Lego figures, he would pop off their hands, arms, separated their legs from their torsos). I have made it my mission to make all Lego mini-figures whole. Zac doesn't seem to mind that I'm not really playing with him, as long as I am with him. Pretty sweet, I think.
Life is so full of ups and downs. The hard and the happy moments seem so intertwined. Life is hard. Marriage is hard. Parenting, especially teenagers, is hard. At church, we just finished up a study on Ruth. After wrapping up chapter one, our pastor talked about how life seems a lot like chapter 1 of Ruth - "...call me Mara...I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty." If we ended there, we'd just want to throw in the towel and call it quits. But, he emphasized, Ruth chapter 2 is coming! The book isn't over yet. God had a plan. God has a plan. To take the hurt, the suffering, the hopelessness and turn it into blessing upon blessing. In Ruth, all that emptiness from chapter one gets turned around into fullness that leads directly into the line of David, leading directly to the true redeemer, Jesus. My prayer is for God's grace and redemption during this season of holding on and letting go.
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