Last Saturday (July 26), after we rushed home from our annual family vacation, we attended a “farewell” party for a man who has been an instrumental part of the Land of Lakes Choirboys organization since the very beginning. He is leaving the organization to take another job in southern MN, one that affords him the opportunity to build some security for retirement. He did not leave by choice, but by necessity. It is an unfortunate fact that a struggling non-profit organization like the choir cannot afford to provide retirement benefits for it’s employees. That being said, John Fitzgerald leaves a legacy at the Land of Lakes Choirboys second to none. While the music is arguably the most important component of the choir experience, in John’s eyes the boy always came first. To paraphrase P.J. Fanburg, a former choirboy and the young man who will be taking over many of John’s responsibilities with the choir, for John “the quality of the musician was more important than the quality of the music”.  As you can see from the pictures above, John took the time to visit with each and every choirboy who attended the party — and there were a lot of them! But that is John’s way — to make each and every boy feel special, feel important. He is genuinely interested in the boys as individuals, and not just as corporate members of a remarkable choir. Thanks, John!

In tribute to John, many current and former choirboys gathered to sing for him one last time (although I have no doubt that he will be a frequent visitor and will attend many Land of Lakes Choirboys concerts in the future). The song they sang is one of the choir’s “signature” songs — “Minnesota Morning”, by Jeff Brooks. Mr. Brooks has dedicated this song to the Land of Lakes Choirboys, and even attended the farewell party in person! Here is a video I took of the occasion. Grant and Mark both sang this song when they were in the choir, so they participated in the tribute.  Isaac attended the party, but because we were on vacation when the rehearsal for the song took place (and his choir has not learned this song) he did not feel comfortable singing, so he stayed in the audience and watched along with Art and myself. 

John Fitzgerald, you will be missed!

I am doing something I have never done before — writing a post to be submitted in the future.  I am doing this because I am going to be MIA for a week or so.  We are heading to our annual “family reunion” week up north (as we say here in Minnesota — which is pretty much “up north” to everyone else in the entire USA).  I just don’t want my old and new friends to think you have been abandoned!

I have never before called this annual trek a family reunion, but in truth, that is what it is.  My sisters and I gather at the same place, during the same week each summer, with as many of our children as can make it.  Most of the “kids” are grown to adulthood now, I have the only kids that are still truly kids.  All others of the generation we have borne are out of high school.  Some are married, some are even bearing their own children!  Our parents always join us for a few days, but never for the whole week.  We have our rituals.  We always exchange our birthday gifts for the year during this week in the summer, regardless of when our actual birthdays are.  My actual birthday DOES happen to always fall during this week, so I feel extra special.  I get to have a birthday party with my sisters every single year.  We always spend one day just shopping.  If we are lucky, we get to go shopping at “Crazy Days” in the nearest town to the resort where we stay.  It’s a highlight.  It’s the same junk you can find in nearly every tourist town across the country, but we love it because it is our tradition.  I always visit my favorite bookstore, Beagle Books, and ask the friendly and knowledgeable owner for her recommendation – and then I buy it.  We eat our evening meals together every night, each of the sisters taking a turn being the cook for the night.  The men take over for us one night, proving they are still “hunter-gatherers” by supplying a bountiful harvest of sunfish, crappie, northern, and walleye for our main course.  We go out to eat at Rocky’s Pizza on our first night there, because we are all too tired from packing and traveling to worry about cooking.  We go out for breakfast at the West 40 on our last morning together, at the end of a week that always seems too short. We trade books with each other.  We drink coffee in each other’s cabin every morning — whose cabin it is depends on who has the freshest pot.  We talk, and laugh, and sometimes cry.  Occasionally we get on each other’s nerves.  We bask in the summer sun and our sisterhood.

I am so blessed to have a family that enjoys being together.  I thank God and my parents for the environment of love and harmony that has always existed in our family.  I hope my own boys have the same kind of friendship with each other as they make their way in the world as my siblings and I have always enjoyed. 

I’ll see you all next week when we get back!  

(The next generation – taken 2 years ago, all but one were able to make it that year)

 

I don’t have much time for a lengthy post today so a few pictures will have to do it.  From my recent strawberry-picking outing.

And unrelated to strawberries, but still colorful and lovely:

(For those wondering what I will do with all the strawberries — right now they are all in my freezer — minus the ones we ate fresh, of course!  Eventually they will be used for freezer jam, strawberry shortcake & ice cream topping, smoothies and slushes.  Mmmmmmmmmmm!)

We have butterflies!

Sunday morning Isaac went out to the kitchen to check on the butterfly progress and was excited to discover that our first two butterflies had been “born”!  I was a little disappointed that we missed the big moment, but quickly realized that we had four more opportunities to catch the “big moment”.  After we returned home from church, we spent some time observing and playing with our newborn friends.  We brought them fresh cut flowers from our garden, hoping the feed them if they were hungry after their long sleep.  They didn’t seem much interested in the flowers, surprisingly, but they were docile and friendly and we were able to gently handle them. 

One of our first-born’s

An empty chrysalis.

Checking out the flowers.

It’s feet feel sticky!

Notice the two dots on the lower wings?  That tells us it’s a boy!

Making friends.

This chrysalis is nearly ready to hatch.  The walls are becoming more transparent and you can begin to see the familiar monarch wing pattern showing through.

In the morning (Monday) two more of the chrysalises were obviously about to hatch.

The chrysalis cases become almost as clear as glass!

We decided to release our first two butterflies (both males) to give the next butterflies more room.

We brought the cage outdoors and opened it.  Isaac says goodbye. 

At first the butterflies seemed reluctant to leave.  I turned the cage around so that the opening faced the morning sun….

One of the butterflies took flight!  It flew high up into a nearby oak tree where it alighted on a leaf and rested in the sun.

The second monarch followed suit, landing only a few feet away from the first one in the same tree.  They stayed there, sunning themselves, for over 1/2 hour!  When their wings were closed, they were almost impossible to see.  We could only glimpse them because we knew where to look, and occasionally they would open their splendid orange and black wings, almost like they were waving at us!

We closed up the cage with the remaining 4 chrysalises and brought it back inside.  I walked away to get a cup of coffee and Isaac announced “Another one is hatching!”  I rushed back and opened the screen for a better look, then grabbed my camera to record the action.  Because it happens so quickly, I missed most of the beginning and didn’t get very good video.  However, the next chrysalis (#4, if you are keeping count) began to open soon afterwards, and this time I was prepared!  Here is video of both “births”.  Naturally, I think the whole thing is fascinating, but it really doesn’t get “good” until about 3 minutes in, when the second butterfly begins to emerge.

Here are a few more pictures, showing the growth of the wings.

The first set (lower ones) of wings are covering the abdomen.

The tip of the second (upper) set of wings is just barely peeking out.

Now both sets of sings can be clearly seen.

Both butterflies are at full size.

Update this morning:  6:00 AM — I woke up and went to let the dogs out, then checked on our butterflies.  The 5th chrysalis was open and the newest butterfly had just slid out.  I watched it closely for exactly 11 minutes, seeing the wings grow to full size.  Watching with my eyes instead of through a camera lens gave me a better perspective.  I could really observe how the abdomen contracted while it was pumping up the wings.  I will never tire of watching this transformation miracle occur!  For me, it is a vivid illustration of how painful changes in our lives — places where we cannot see what the future holds, and cannot imagine what the next step is — are all a part of God’s great plan for us.  We just need to hang on, be patient, and trust God to bring us through the uncertainty and change into a beautiful new place.  It gives me hope.

LOOK THROUGH EYES OF HOPE AND SEE A BUTTERFLY INSIDE THE CATERPILLAR, HOPE KNOWS THAT BEAUTY IS WAITING TO BE BORN IN THE UNLIKELIEST PLACES … Thea Miller Ryan

 

Beauty is waiting to be born all around you, and even in you.  Especially in you.

 

We have had a fun summer project happening at our house. A retired couple from our church asked me if I thought Isaac would enjoy raising monarch butterflies. When I responded “Absolutely!” they generously made arrangements to bring us a butterfly cage they had constructed, fully loaded with 5 caterpillars, milkweed for the caterpillars to feed on and twigs for them to climb around on. After a couple of days, we noticed there were 6 caterpillars in our cage! Apparently there was an un-hatched egg on one of the milkweed leaves, and our “Late Bloomer” became our favorite caterpillar (mostly because we could easily distinguish him from the others since he was so much smaller). The summer schedule being what it is, we planned to head out to the lake over the 4th of July. We made sure there was plenty of fresh milkweed for our caterpillar friends, and just before we left on the evening of the 3rd, we noticed that one of the caterpillars was hanging from the roof of the cage in the tell-tale “J” formation that signals it is getting ready to shed it’s skin and move into the chrysalis stage. Indeed, when we arrived back home late Saturday night, the 5th of July, we discovered that 4 of our caterpillars had made the transformation, and the fifth had J’d up and was ready to change. By Sunday morning, there were 5 chrysalis’s in the cage. Our Late Bloomer continued munching and growing, however — as always, just a few days behind his cohorts. This morning, I discovered him hanging from the roof. He was ready to move on as well. I vowed I would not miss this moment, so I parked myself next to the cage with a good book and kept a close eye on Bloomer. At about 11:45 this morning, he seemed to get somewhat agitated, wiggling and struggling in an unusual way. Pretty soon he started to straighten out and what I can only describe as “contractions” began to occur along the entire length of his body. I quickly grabbed my camera, put it in video mode, and called the boys to come and watch! I have posted, for your viewing, the video I took of this incredible transforming process. It happened surprisingly fast, as you will see. I hope you enjoy it and find it as interesting as we did!

According to reading I have done, the chrysalis’s should be ready to hatch into butterflies about 10 to 14 days after they form. That means all but late bloomer should hatch before we leave on our annual vacation up north. We might have to bring Bloomer with us and release him up there, if he has not hatched by the time we leave. I don’t know how exactly we will transport a chrysalis that is only a few days (or perhaps hours) from hatching, but be assured, I will find a way!  Failing that (or if I discover that it is too hazardous to the butterfly) I will ask our neighbors to release Bloomer after he hatches.  (I keep calling Bloomer HE, but I won’t actually know his sex until after he hatches — you can tell if a monarch butterfly is male or female by it’s distinctive wing pattern.)

My sister, who homeschooled my nephew and now teaches at a small, private Christian school, suggested I make a “lapbook” about this project with Isaac.  I had never heard of a lapbook before, but after checking into it online, I can see that Isaac and I would LOVE this approach to documenting all that we are learning (because we are truly learning about this together).  Hopefully I can put some of my many scrapbooking skills and supplies to good use and make a lapbook that will be a permanent reminder of our butterfly adventure.

PICTURES:

 

 

 

 

The butterfly cage shortly after we got it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A view of three of our caterpillars.  You can tell which one is Bloomer (the little one).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloomer munching away at a milkweed leaf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isaac keeps a close eye on things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first caterpillar makes the move to become a chrysalis, while another caterpillar “looks on”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close-up of the first chrysalis.  You can faintly see the outline of what will become the butterfly’s wings through the chrysalis walls.  Eventually these walls will become more and more transparent, and the monarch colors, the well-known orange and black, will show through.

This is how I found Bloomer this morning.

You can see the difference between the new chrysalis and the one that formed two days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

The cast off caterpillar skin (and lots of caterpillar poop — who knew caterpillars pooped so much?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new chrysalis about 1/2 hour after forming.  It is already starting to look more like the others.

 

 

 

 

 

Six caterpillars-in-waiting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESOURCES:

Monarch Watch

Making Lapbooks

It looks like I will be busy the rest of the summer.  I wonder if I will get through my reading list?

 

Youtube video about an amazing program for WWII vets called “Honor Flight” that my siblings and I are trying to get my Dad signed up for.  Here is the clip:

It would mean so much to my Dad to be able to do this.  The founder, Earl Morse, wants to honor the heroes from a past generation for what they did to protect the world and our way of life.  In my eyes, Mr. Morse is a hero as well.  More information about the Honor Flight program can be found here.

Thank you, heros of any generation, who have fought to protect and defend our freedoms.  I am grateful.

UPDATE:  My Dad went on the honor flight on April 17-18, 2009.  It was an AMAZING experience for him!

 I love all of the seasons, I really do.  Nothing compares to the splendor of blazing fall foliage.  A winter landscape that is covered with a newfallen blanket of snow makes the whole world look sparkling and refreshed.  Spring buds and blossoms are the harbinger of new life.  But summertime – sweet, sweet summertime.  In summertime my life takes on a different hue.  I spend more time with family, more time with friends, more time with the earth in general.  The pace of life does not slow down at all in the summertime, but my mindset does.  I drink in life more deeply.  I enjoy the moments, whether they are quiet ones or busy ones.  I plan less and yet somehow seem to do more. 

Since I last blogged, I have been immersed deeply at the waters of my life.  To try to briefly describe the past two weeks really will not do them justice, but I will  make an attempt, nonetheless.

On June 19-21 I had the great pleasure of spending time with my sisters.  Growing up, I barely knew my older sisters.  They were 10, 8 and 7 years older than me, and we didn’t have much in common.  My younger sister and I were like a second family, bookends on the other side of our only brother.  Our recollections of childhood mainly revolve around each other.  She and I did not always get along so well as little girls — and we had some especially rough moments as teenagers, but now all five of us sisters have grown up and grown into our sisterhood.  Our age differences don’t seem to matter anymore.  We have common ground now –we are all mothers, wives, and daughters of the same household and heritage.  We cherish our bonds that grow stronger with each passing year.  We spent our days together in Wisconsin Dells.  You may remember that about three weeks ago that particular area (along with many others in the midwest) was hit with torrential rainfall and subsequent flooding.  The town of Wisconsin Dells is situated along the Wisconsin River and what used to be Lake Delton, a lake that was created back in the 1927 when a local entrepeneur and construction company owner decided to create a resort area by excavating a shallow lake basin and building a dam to contain the waters of Dell Creek and control it’s flow into the Wisconsin River.  On June 9th, Mother Nature decided to undo what had been done nearly 81 years previously when the heavy rains washed away a portion of a road that separated the lake from the Wisonsin River and drained the lake within a matter of 4 hours.  The devastation of the lakeshore ecology and the local economy did not prevent us from having a wonderful time together, but it did serve as a reminder that we are not nearly as much in control of our fate as we would like to think we are.

 

   Five sisters enjoying dinner at a local restaurant.

 

 

 

  We went for a ride on a ferris wheel — something I haven’t done in perhaps 10 years!

 

 

 

  This used to be Lake Delton

 

 

 

One of the houses destroyed by the flooding.  The owners could not purchase flood insurance — they were told it was “unneccesary because the lake was dam-controlled.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Returning home from Wisconsin, it was time to turn my attention to Vacation Bible School.  Our church hosted five evening sessions, which ran Sunday night through Thursday night, from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, and included a dinner for all of the kids and staff.  My responsibility for the week was as music leader.  I taught the kids songs during opening exercies and sang with them again at the end of the evening.  In between times I helped out in the kitchen.  The theme for the week was “Beach Party – Surfin’ Through the Scriptures”.  Each day focused on a new “Beach Be-Attitude”, which included Be Obedient, Be Kind, Be Forgiving/Forgiven, Be Bold, and Believe.  The music reflected these “Be-Attitudes” with fun, singable tunes and lyrics, often with a Beach Boys or tropical “island” sound.  I’ve uploaded a couple of videos from our last night (the kids were full of energy and the staff was getting a little worn out by the end, as you may see in the videos).  I also have to include this cute picture of Isaac and some of the other 4th and 5th grade boys (they went by the grade they would be in during the next school year).  The little girl in the picture is the younger sister of the boy on the end in the red t-shirt.  She would really just like to be “one of the boys”.

 

 

The day after VBS ended was Art’s birthday (June 27th).  We decided to go away together for the weekend, using a gift certificate for a Lake Superior north shore resort that Art had been given by his office staff for Christmas in 2006 (it’s about time we used it!).  We invited our best friends and next-door-neighbors to join us.  We had a relaxing time together enjoying the natural wonders of our fair state. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent time at Gooseberry Falls and explored the small town located near our resort.  We marvelled at the lupines that grow in profusion and at the majesty of Lake Superior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was back to reality as I had to spend some time catching up on work at the office.  Today I am home, and I am acutally looking forward to spending time weeding in my flowers.  Tomorrow I begin preparations for the 4th of July weekend.  We are spending it at the lake, with friends and family, food and fireworks. 

Life is Good.