HRH

It is no coincidence that her initials also stand for "Her Royal Highness". This girl has had quite the last few months. Heck - she's had quite the last year!!!

Our little Classical Conversations group that met weekly over the last school year was truly a godsend. We not only connected with some wonderful people but learning took place in an atmosphere of fun and creativity, and enriched our overall curriculum at home. 

We wrapped up the year with special presentations given by the older kids. They picked a person (or character) of history we had studied this past school year and wrote a research paper, put together a board, and gave a presentation in character. We had  studied Ancient History and she picked the Greek goddess, "Pandora". We invited dads and friends as guests and included a themed lunch based on the girls' characters. It was a nice way to end our CC adventure! 

Sports has also been a big influence in her year. Having never really played basketball before, she thoroughly enjoyed her first year on a team. She loved her teammates and respected her coaches. She learned well the basics of the game and there was a healthy balance of competition and fun. Her ability grew by leaps and bounds! We're so proud of her!!

In the spring she participated in a short season of track. Track doesn't run too late into the spring here since it gets hot FAST! She participated more for exercise and growth more than competition but her coach sees potential and wants us to plan on her going to State next year. 

Last month we attended an awards banquet for the homeschool sports association she played for.  After a delicious potluck dinner at beautifully decorated tables, teams were recognized and players were highlighted. Awards were given and compliments abounded! Zanna received a metal for her participation in the basketball tournaments we had in Ft Worth back in April. She also won the award for most improved player on her team!! 

Her coach was so incredibly encouraging and had some really wonderful things to say about her. My heart was bursting with emotion knowing how much this meant to her. This move ... this last year ... had been a big deal for her. She didn't want to move and she was just fine with her life, her friends, her routine in Ottawa. I prayed for God to provide for her what she needed to make this be home now. He's done that in so many ways and this was just one example of his goodness towards her. 

Another unexpected blessing for her royal highness has been the sewing group at our church. What started as an invitation for her to join them in their weekly sewing day turned into her bringing a friend, bringing another friend, adding twins, and ... one more friend. This turned into a full blown THING.  What had been up till now some dear church friends who shared a love for quilting and sewing and who got together once a week to work on their projects at church turned into these same gals sharing their love of sewing with the next generation. Actually, maybe a few generations down. They never planned on teaching a bunch of kids. God certainly has a sense of humor!! 

This mentorship sewing class has been amazing. She has learned to make "quillows" (half pillow, half quilt), table runners, microwave bowls, snap purses, and baby blankets. 

She even made a quilt for my mom's Comforter Ministry!

Best of all, she finds herself influenced by a group of godly women who have embraced her with their love and friendship regardless of the age gap! In life we don't always have friends born the same year we were. That's a good thing!! 

One tradition we've been able to continue down here is going strawberry picking. The main difference is that it's earlier in the spring. 

We had our first area field trip to the Kilgore Oil Museum. Pretty much your typical Texas experience: oil is good;)

She (we)  survived our first local tornado. Wayne stood outside to take these pictures and watch the sky do funky things. Will wandered around from window to window and occasionally wandered outside to briefly make sure Dad hadn't blown away join Dad. Zanna hid in the storm closet under the stairs with a blanket, pillow, Rou Rou, and paper and pen to write her last will and testament. I was hungry and really wanted to start frying the fish I had planned for dinner. So I drank wine, wandered from window to window, watched the news (when it hadn't frozen due to the storm), and occasionally reassured Zanna that this probably wasn't the end. 

FYI - we live in the huge red box where the arrow is pointing. Awesome. 

Will and I watched it go spin over the lake we live on. It was slightly unsettling. But no damage done and we are very grateful!! 

Now back to more upbeat news.
Zanna had her end of year violin recital and rocked it! 

She played Concerto No. 2 3rd Movement by F. Seitz.
She always gets super nervous before a performance but she channels that and gets in the zone. This time was no exception except to add that she lost her music moments before the recital started. Now to be fair, we knew it was in the building. She had practiced with it before the recital started and she had it in her hand at one point. Then it was just gone. So she sat through all the performances as she was the last one to play in the program knowing that she didn't really know where her music was. Personally I would be totally unhinged at this point if it were me. We really wondered what the heck she was going to do. But as it turned out it had fallen in the theater seat between her and the girl next to her and it was revealed at the last second. Yikes! 

Add to all this fun and excitement - Camp Grandma, 2019. Even though she personally has no grandma in the area whatsoever, she was invited to a camp given by a handful of grandmas in our subdivision.  Meant to be a fun and organized day while hosting their grandkids at the lake for the week or so, this tradition turned out to be truly impressive! Complete with personalized t-shirts the grandkids enjoyed a day of crafts, a scavenger hunt, swimming at the pool, a piñata, food and treats, pontoon ride and tubing, and ended with a golf cart parade around the neighborhood. 

The weekend ended with some neighbors taking us out on their boat and letting both kids go tubing. Fun!! 

What a blessed year she's had! I had intended for us to finish her 7th grade year at the end of the week but neither of us has the energy and this morning I called it. We've done so much and accomplished so many things and she's ended well. I love that today's music is the hum of her sewing machine coming from her room as Koine plays on her CD player. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for her future and I get to watch and be a part of her becoming equipped for whatever that future might hold!

Field Trip!!

There are plenty of things that are terrifying when you move BIG - like from Canada to Texas like some crazy people do. For instance, we have no credit in the US even though both of us have an excellent credit rating. That means no one will give us a credit card ... even though they give clueless teenagers credit cards. So we are having to use a training wheel credit card where we have a $500 limit but they have $500 they are holding. It's ridiculous. Now we wait as we build credit, I guess. 

Also still waiting on immigration. We've had to get a lawyer for that and keep waiting until something shows up in the mail telling us what we're to do next. 

I also may have to sacrifice my hairstylist license. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation doesn't know what to do with an Ontario license and I can't seem to get a straight answer if there's anything I can do about it. Common sense seems to not play much of a factor - I've been doing hair for 23 years, graduated from a US state school, have held three different state licenses, and most recently ran my own business. But because my current active license is from out of country, this seems to be the only thing they care about. I've very sad about this and I'm not really sure if there's anything I can do about it. 

On the upside, it's like Christmas everyday to see what plant or flower is going to pop up next in the landscaping. I don't think I've ever been so excited about nature.

Remember the summer I tried to welcome nature into our postage stamp sized Ottawa backyard only to have it overrun by nesting birds, raccoons, and squirrels? There was NOT enough room for us and nature to cohabitate in our yard. Now with an acre and a half, nature is a welcomed friend (except for the snakes, fire ants, moles, armadillos .... you get the point). 

Purple and white irises started coming up already a month ago. I was surprised then when recently the purple/white combo irises started blooming last week! 

The prettiest gold flowers popped up by our front door a few weeks ago and they are so cheery!!! 

Keep in mind we moved in during the hottest part of the summer last July. Move in day was 106 F. We have a sprinkler system but it's hard for even that to keep up with such hot and dry conditions. So a lot of the plants/flowers didn't even start to perk up until the fall when it was back down to the 70's/80's F. And of course the spring bloomers were already done by the time we moved in so I completely missed them. 

We have these beautiful climbers covering a little gazebo and the colors are amazing!!!

I should clarify that spring here in Texas is like summer as we've known it. It's t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops kinda weather. So when I refer to summer in Texas, I'll be adding another 20 degrees onto the temp. For me that's even too hot to wear t-shirts and shorts. I pretty much wear tanks and dresses in an attempt to keep circulation going. Having said that if I plan on being inside a store at all, I'll need a sweater to throw on because they keep it freezing everywhere! 

Back to nature.

I have a berry garden, ya'll. I'm pretty excited. My plan is to try not to mess them up by doing too much so I'm just sticking to weeding the area and praying for them. 

Just waiting for these pretties to ripen up. I LOVE blueberries. Those flowers are fixin' to be blackberries. Oh, yeah!

Since this is in a fenced in area to keep away the deer, Zanna also wanted to plant some tomatoes. So far we've counted 30 tomatoes growing on our 6 plants. 

Speaking of keeping the deer out, they're cute when they're not eating your stuff ...

We've counted anywhere from 25-30 deer that roam the neighborhood. 

There's an arbor for the entrance into the berry patch and roses that are climbing their way up!! 

There's also another bush of this variety outside the back door and I've been able to cut flowers to bring in for months. They smell amazing!!! 

I've got some hydrangea bushes that are on the verge of exploding!!

I've managed to kill all the potted plants the previous owner left on the screened in back porch. Wayne's currently doing triage on some of them that seemed to have maintained some sign of life but that's not the point. The point is ... this particular pot that was left outside since we've moved in - all through the heat of summer, and more heat of fall, the cool temps of winter and a handful of storms - has managed to survive and thrive!!

I don't even know how it's possible for it to be doing so well after I've neglected it so much. Maybe that's my problem - I'm trying to hard;)

Speaking of my porch ... allow me to introduce you to my favourite spot in the house.

The other thing that has been so fun is discovering new birds! We seriously need some binoculars and a field guide to the local birds. The cardinals here seem to prefer being lower to the ground. They've been known to suddenly fly in front of my windshield as I'm driving along the backroads to get home. I've suggested they might want to fly higher but for whatever reason they favor lower altitudes around here. 

There are also bluebirds, bluejays, orioles, and my favourite - scissor tail birds! 

Their tail moves like scissors and when they fly it looks like the craziest thing!!! Sometimes these birds will be sitting in the middle of the road and wait until the very last minute to move. It's like they have a death wish but whatever. 

Moving such a drastic distance has really brought out the variety of nature and how creative God is! Add to that the benefit of living in the country and the sounds are different - we can hear the natural world around us instead of the manmade noise. It's lovely! 

These little guys hang out right outside our community gate. The turtles love to sun themselves on the logs and we drive by them and slow or stop to check them out. Some of them stack themselves 2-3 turtles high to all fit and the bottom rung doesn't seem to mind. When they suddenly catch wind that we're staring at them they all topple off and back into the water. 

Don't even get me started on the wildflowers around here. We managed to see some bluebonnets back in March when we were in Hill Country but they were just starting out and we were really too early for the full effect. Around here we had some amazing colors of our own and right now it seems that the current wildflower is Queen Ann's Lace if I'm to guess. I suppose I need a field guide on wildflowers too! They also have wisteria trees that from a distance reminded me of lilac trees.  And the dogwood trees were amazing when they were in bloom. 

It's strawberry picking time so we'll need to schedule a trip out to the field this week. I can't wait for the peaches around here to start!! 

Thanks for taking a field trip around the house with me. Come see for yourself sometime and we can sit on the porch with a margarita and listen to the birds:)