Almost Summer

Eagle Scout

Although Active Sons successfully passed his Eagle Board of review in January, it wasn't until his April 29th Eagle Scout Court of Honor that he was awarded the Eagle Scout rank. Active Son shared his Court of Honor with a fellow Eagle Scout--good thing, too, as planning the COH was almost like planning a wedding (invitations, programs, venue, speakers,photographer, gifts, cake, etc.) and I was able to share planning responsibilities with another mom.

In a time in which we don't often celebrate rites of passage for a young man, it was a joy to to see Active son affirmed by other men and leaders in his community for the steps he is taking towards preparing himself to be a leader and servant in his community.

Active Son receives his Eagle Scout neckerchief

All the Eagle Scouts present at the Court of Honor, saying the pledge

Delivering his speech to award his mentor pin to the person who had most helped in along the path to Eagle, Active Son quoted former slave and educator Booker T. Washington, whose biography he had recently read:

"The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women."

Active Son acknowledged not only his mentor, but others who have had a significant influence in his life.


For my part in the ceremony, I had only to receive my 'mom pin' and stand next to Dear Husband as he read a tribute which he had prepared for the occasion:

Active Son. Congratulations on the achievement of Eagle Rank. When you joined Cub Scouts years ago we did not know all that would be involved to complete this high rank. If I had known, to be honest, I would not have believed that you could do it for it has proved to be a journey fit for a man. Looking at a boy, I was indeed short-sighted. How did it happen?

Scouting has contributed to the development of your abilities. You have always tended to be active and athletic. Scouting has given you a place to learn and develop in recreational activities as well as knowledge of the outdoors and many areas of interest. As an athlete, scouting has instilled a confidence in you to lead others. Your budding coaching career is the fruit of this.

Scouting has contributed to the development of your character. You have always enjoyed and appreciated people. When you wanted to join Scouts it was initially to be with your friends. Through Scouting, you have grown to be more loyal in your friendships as well as feel the importance of kindness, courteousness and cheerfulness. You have seen that it is not only to your parents that you need to submit, but to other leaders as well. Older scouts have set a good example for you which you then have followed.

Scouting has contributed to the development of your soul. You have always feared God and been responsive to spiritual things. You like to go to church, youth group and Bible Studies as well as serve others. Scouting has highlighted the importance of reverence for God. With this support, you have grown in your understanding of the Scriptures, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the goodness of life with Him.

These are ways your mother and I have seen you grow from a boy to a man through your Scouting experience. You have done an excellent job at completing the Eagle Scout Rank. May this be the first of many achievements you attain in the development of your abilities, your character and your soul. We are very proud of you our son, Active Son.

Four Eagle Scouts of Troop 806

Next year Active son will have the unique opportunity to share the position of Junior Scoutmaster with a fellow Eagle Scout; the current Scoutmaster will oversee the Junior Scoutmasters as they lead the troop. Congratuations, Eagle Scouts and congratuations to Boy Scout Troop 806, which has advanced seven Eagle Scouts since it was chartered six years ago.

(Thanks to Ashley for the pictures!)

Happy Birthday Artist Son

Artist Son turned 14 last week, and because his birthday falls during our family's high season for activity, he is the only one who didn't receive a birthday tribute on my blog last year. As it is, we've only half celebrated his birthday, with the rest of the celebration on hold until life slows down a bit at the end of the month.

This has unofficially been the year of Artist Son's 'coming out'. Ever the quiet, philosophical, focused child, we, his family, have long delighted in his thoughtful, contemplative nature. Among us, he has long held the reputation as the one who uses the fewest words to say Really Wise Things. And now that he is maturing and and stepping out into the community others are beginning to notice what we've known all along.

Last year he was content to stay at home, but this year he decided he would like to get involved in a couple of small group bible studies. I've received comments from surprised adults who had never really heard Artist Son say much before, that he is the initiator of thoughtful, meaningful comments and interaction. I've observed him become a valued member of the youth group and music team, and he has splashed onto the (very) local art scene by receiving his first commission. He works diligently at his studies and organizes himself so that he has plenty of hours to devote to his art; drawing and painting are slow and careful work. We are so thankful for the aesthetic beauty which Artist Son brings into our lives.

Happy Birthday, Artist Son! You have long been a blessing to our family and it is with joy that we watch God make you a blessing in the lives of others.

Chocolate.Chocolate.Chocolate.

I usually am inspired to post a recipe to my blog when I make something and people other than myself declare its goodness. Such was the case of the Chocolate-Pudding Cake I made this weekend.

Friday was Artist Son's birthday and as he planned to spend the night at his Guys-Small-Group-Bible-Study leader's house with the rest of his small group I offered to make a cake. Artist Son's pick: Chocolate-Pudding Cake. And since on the same evening we were hosting Active Son's small group at our home I made two cakes. Later that evening Active Son reported that one of his friends had exclaimed after eating a few bites of the cake, "this is the best thing I've tasted in my life!" Wow! Quite a compliment, however I defer the compliment to my easy, no-fail recipe.

This recipe makes a generous 9x13 size dessert, however you can halve the recipe for an 8"x8" pan. Very easy, very delicious. Even more delicious served with ice cream.

Chocolate Pudding Cake~
If you're not familiar with pudding cakes they require faith. You pour hot water over the batter before it goes in the oven. Then it forms a cake-like layer on top of a think creamy sauce as it bakes.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (divided)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups hot water

1. Heave oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Put flour, sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, the baking powder, and salt into an ungreased 9 or 10inchx13 baking pan. Stir with a fork to mix well. Add milk and oil. Stir until well blended.
3. Sprinkle brown sugar, remaining 1/2 cup cocoa and the chocolate chips over the batter.
4. Mix vanilla with water and pour evenly over top.
5. Bake 30-35 mintes until surface looks dry and brownie-like.
6. Makes more servings than you probably need to eat so invite someone over to share this!

Salaam/Shalom

Reuters photo by Ali Jarekji

"Children hold black balloons in a rally to mark ‘Nakbeh’ outside the United Nations office in Amman on Wednesday. Palestinians mark ‘Nakbeh’, or catastrophe, as a day of mourning for the establishment of Israel in 1948 after which an Arab-Israeli war brought the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians." Jordan Times, Thursday, May 15

I didn't don a black and white checked keffiah (scarf) in commemoration of Nakbeh Day, as I noticed some youth in our neighborhood had done however I will link to this article by world famous conductor, Daniel Barenboim, brought to my attention by Oldest Daughter. Barenboim, a Russian Jew, was raised in Argentina and Israel and is the 'only Israeli in the world who can show Palestinian passport at an Israeli border crossing'. Together with intellectual and close friend, the late Edward Said, Barenboim began the West-Eastern Divan, an annual orchestral music workshop which brings together Israeli and Arab musicians in an effort to promote peace through understanding. (Oldest daughter at one time hoped to participate in this unique workshop/orchestra and even successfully auditioned for it, however, in the end she wasn't able to participate as she is neither Israeli or Arab. Some of her musician friends have enjoyed their participation in it over the years.)

Barenboim proposes a two-state solution. I share Barenboim's short-term pessimism, and I hope, long-term optimism. And, like Barenboim, and I am both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli. I don't think the two designations must be mutually exclusive.

A Family Affair

On Fridays in April and May, the mostly likely place to find most or all of our family is on the ball fields. With Dear Husband as Commissioner and coach, Active Son as coach and player, Artist Son as player and sometimes ump, Oldest Daughter as Team 'Mom' for the team Active Son coaches, Tayta as player, and yours truly as faithful fan and the-one-who-attends-to-miscellaneous-details, we are usually out of the house by 8a.m., returning home after the Seniors' game in the late afternoon.

The Commish advises a student umpire

Tayta gets a hit for Team Cinnabon and is a valued defensive player in right field

Artist Son makes a call, umping his first Coach Pitch game

Active Son gives running instructions to his player on 3rd base

Team Mom mans the dugout and keeps the players organized

Artist Son helps his team at 2nd base and, after a hit, makes a run for 1st

Coach Dad gives the Secret Signs

This picture isn't out of focus; that is dust, and lots of it. We return from the field tinged a brownish grey and I learned long ago that is futile to buy socks for my players in any color but black.

Active Son pitches his team to a 4-3 victory

Friday, we were able to return home with a good amount of victory satisfaction: Active Son's Kid Pitch team batted like never before to beat a formidable rival and Active Son was on his pitching game through seven innings of a tight game. And, if anyone tunes into Al Jezeera, watch for a feature spot on Amman Little League Baseball; their reporter and camera men were at the fields on Friday to shoot some footage and interview one of ALLA's coaches and a couple players. Perhaps baseball will continue to gain a following in the Middle East.

Field Guide to Jordan

Most unusually, I found myself home alone one evening last week, with nothing that had to be urgently accomplished within the next few hours, so I headed off to a local bookstore for some book browsing--something I hadn't allowed myself the luxury of for months. As I arrived at the check-out counter, I noticed the book below; it took me about 10 seconds to decide to add it to my stack of purchases.


Field Guide to Jordan

This newly published field guide to Jordan is all around brilliant and is just the kind of book I wish had been available ten years ago. Kudos to author and photographer Jarir Maani and to the extended Maani family, an obviously talented and artistic clan judging from the photo and illustration credits (Annes Maani, Sari Maani, Sinan Maani, Habeeb Maani, etc., etc.)

The guide is divided into five color coded sections: Geology, Archeology (by period), Environment, Flora, and Fauna and is packed full of beautiful, high quality photographs. Considering that the only other guide to birds in Jordan cost about JD 30 ($44), I was very glad to find this broader guide for a mere JD 15. The guide has already been thumbed through by various members of the family, has helped us identify a bird we saw in Wadi Dana in March, and has been taken to bed for night-time reading by 13yo nature-loving son. Highly recommended.

--Edit-- Wow! The Field Guide to Jordan just got better. The producers have created a great website for the guide. Go here for the press release and here for some great images found in the guide.

To Obie or not to Obie

That was the question. And last week, Oldest Daughter answered it in the affirmative, deciding to accept Oberlin Conservatory's offer of admission. Much relief and rejoicing has come with the making of this decision and we continue to thank God for all the ways he has provided and continues to provide for Oldest Daughter and our entire family.

Oldest Daughter received offers of admission from three of the four schools at which she auditioned and from those three she narrowed the decision to Eastman School of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. Originally, Eastman was her first pick school, though during the last couple of weeks of the decision process Oberlin rose in her estimation and the full tuition financial package they offered clinched the deal.

And, since the decision has been made we all find ourselves excited about the opportunities God continues to graciously provide for Oldest Daughter. Via facebook she has already met other 'Con' freshman, some of whom share her faith in God and one young woman in particular, a fellow Con student, who is looking forward to being her roomate. Additionally, Oldest Daughter has received a scholarship to attend a faith based chamber music program at Oberlin this summer so she will have the chance to spend some time on campus, get to know some of the faculty and meet a few other Christian Con students before school begins in September.

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for and encouraged us throughout this wild ride!

Running to the Lowest Point on Earth

On Friday, Oldest daughter, another young woman, and myself, joined in the 'fun', participating in a 10K run ending at the Amman Beach, the Dead Sea, Jordan. The stouter of heart, lungs and legs, ran the half marathon (21K), the full marathon (42K) or the ultra-marathon (48K!). I believe over two thousand runners (and a few walkers) from all around the world participated in this increasingly popular race, held annually to raise money for the Jordanian Neurological Society.

Though Oldest daughter and I were in sort of residual shape from our tri-weekly running schedule pre-audition trip, we had just resumed running a couple of weeks before the race. So, we definitely weren't in tip-top shape, but we were all able to complete the run without walking and in just over an hour.

Why run a 10K? A couple of my friends asked that question...and a couple more are inspired to try to run with me next year! One of the college students that ran the race suggested that running to the "Lowest Point on Earth" was definitely one of those things to check off on the to-do-before-I-die lists which seem to be popular with this generation. Hadn't thought about that as a motivation.

My real motivation was ending Oldest Daughters pre-college fitness training on a positive and accomplished note. My, and especially Dear Husband's, goal for our kids is that they will head off into life with the desire and ability to lead a healthy life, of which physical fitness will necessarily play a part. To that end, the kids have learned to do daily exercises and we run, during the school year, three times a week. The running has never been a favorite part of Oldest Daughter's life, and that is putting it mildly. Dear Husband has, not so secretly, desired that Oldest Daughter discover her "Inner Athlete" and I think that participating in the Dead Sea 10K helped her to do it. "That really wasn't too hard," and "That was kind of fun," were words she actually spoke after running the race!

Flowers Holding Hands

(But you already know that I get a little loopy about flowers every year at this time.)

Gardening Woes

I ask you, do these lovely daisies look like weeds? Perhaps they appeared to be in the strict definition of the word 'weed', a plant growing in a place where it is not wanted, in that they were carpeting my front flower garden in a bit of a haphazard fashion, with a few empty patches here and there. They had re-seeded themselves from last year's annual flower. Unfortunately, due to the sporadic nature in which their seed was distributed, and thus growing, our gardener (no we aren't of the upper class; I am odd enough in that I work in my flower garden, but tilling the soil and spraying the trees would be completely unacceptable work for us to do ourselves.) determined these lovely African daisies were weeds, and hoed up the whole lot of them. Glad I had taken a picture first! Not only are they gone, they hadn't matured enough to disperse their seeds for next years bloom.

I am a little embarrassed to admit I had what amounts to a temper tantrum when my husband broke the news to me. I huffed and puffed, and I think I may have stomped my feet a few times. This lasted about three minutes and I recall hearing the kids chuckle as they observed my outburst. Then I settled into my coping-with-life-in-Jordan mindset of 'hayk il' haya', 'such is life', or 'illi fat, mat', 'what's done is done.' On with the day.

Another woeful tale: Pictured above is the last of my beloved foxgloves, and it met its demise last summer. I'm missing it this spring. Once upon at time I, amazingly, found six potted foxglove plants, foliage only, at a roadside garden stand. I had never seen a foxglove in Jordan before and I've never seen one since. I purchased all six and was thrilled when they bloomed the following spring. Five were planted in one spot but one, pictured above, found its way to another corner of the yard. When we returned to Jordan from the States at the end of the summer I found that the group of five foxgloves had disappeared. Not died, but completely disappeared. I'd never had anyone steal plants before! The following spring my lone foxglove bloomed like never before, almost as if it were making up for the others being stolen, sending up three beautiful stalks. That summer, our landlord hired painters to paint the stairwell. Can you guess where they dumped the paint thinner?

This beauty of a Ranunculus was blooming in my garden last week, the first to burst open this spring. Unfortunately an unidentified neighbor has decided they have a penchant for beautiful Ranunculus flowers; it was picked just hours after I took this picture. Three more yellow blooms were picked when they opened a couple of days later and the first white bloom, gone its first day in full bloom.

So, I'm feeling bit mopey about my flowers and, overall, unmotivated to plant this spring. I think I'll just enjoy what is already planted and growing as it will soon be to hot to do any planting anyway. Sigh.

Captain Abu Raed

I've mentioned before that I don't watch many movies. Even less frequently do I watch movies in the theater. Until Friday night, the last time I saw a movie in the theater was when our family went together to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But, Captain Abu Raed (pronounced Ra'ed), the much acclaimed first film by Jordanian producer and director, Amin Matalqa, was definitely a film worth seeing sooner rather than later.

I'm sure that much of the recognition that we, as a family, responded to in Matalqa's artistic endeavor has to do with the fact that we have have lived in Amman for many years; for Dear Husband and I, most of our adult lives, and for our children, their entire lives. Though the lives and struggles portrayed in the film were not ours, exactly, they were lives and struggles which belong to friends or other Jordanians we've lived among and observed--so I guess, in some second party way they have been our lives and struggles as well.

With few exceptions, Matalqa does a fine job of accurately portraying life in Amman, particularly the contrast between lower socio-economic East Amman and Western influenced upper socio-economic West Amman. No exaggerations here. The cinematography, though a bit dramatic in places, was wonderful, and we all enjoyed recognizing familiar places in the film (today when we went on our family run at the park, Younger Son and I marked the exact spot where Tareq had been selling biscuits/cookies).

Though I enjoyed seeing this movie in the theater, I have to admit it is the kind of movie, that when it is over, you wish you were instantly in the privacy of your own home, alone, or with others who had just seen the film. Once we had silently navigated the chaos that is City Mall on a Friday night and were secure in the privacy of our car we began a discussion of the themes of the movie: hope, sacrifice, redemption, which lasted until after we arrived at home. While the film had some sort of resolution and what one might call a happy ending, these were in no way complete.

It was the incompleteness of resolution, among other things that caused me to consider this a good film and a film worth watching. My kids rarely appreciate me applying my analytical judgment to the films they/we watch and my philosophical awareness was only heightened as I had, just last week, read Dorothy Sayer's excellent essay, Toward a Christian Esthetic, published in Letters to a Diminished Church, Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine. In this wonderful essay, which deserves several blogs posts of its own Sayers explains the marks of a true poet or artist:

"A poet is a man who not only suffers the impact of external events but also experiences them (You only experience a thing when you can express it--however haltingly--to your own mind--also Sayers) He puts the experience into words in his own mind, and in so doing recognizes the experience for what it is. To the extent that we can do that, we are all poets. A poet so-called is simply a man like ourselves with an exceptional power of revealing his experience by expressing it, so that not only he, but we ourselves, recognize that experience as our own."

About the recognition of truth that we get from the artist's work she writes:

"I mean the recognition of truth that tells us something about ourselves that we had not been always saying, something that puts a new knowledge of ourselves withing our grasp. It is a new, startling, and perhaps shattering, and yet it comes to us with a sense of familiarity. We did not know it before, but the moment the poet/artist has shown it to us, we know that, somehow or other, we had always really known it."

Matalqa is a poet so-called and his film touches, in some ways, on this recognition of truth as Sayer's defines it. Captain Abu Raed is not a film which merely entertains, provoking the experience of emotion that usually accompanies experience without our having had the experience, nor is it a film of pseudoart, which "seeks to produce the behavior without the experience," but rather it is a film which provokes recognition and thought anew about Jordanian society and the challenges its citizens face.

As Captain Abu Raed recently won the World Cinema Audience Award at the recent prestigious Sundance Film Festival, I'm pretty sure it will be showing in theaters of some sort in the U.S. sometime in the near future.

Mind the Gaps

Last weekend, Dear Husband and I enjoyed the privilege and blessing of overseeing the Youth Retreat of our International Fellowship. Over 60 youth from 12 countries, six helpers, Dear Husband, myself, and one other parent traveled to the beautiful northern Jordanian town of Ajloun, retreating to a hilltop surrounded by pine forests, with a view of of the Crusader period castle which sits a top an olive tree covered hill.

The theme of the weekend was "Mind the Gaps", a play on the recorded reminder broadcasted in the British Underground, and all the talks and small group discussions were concerned with the topic of relationships. Dear Husband laid the foundation for all relationships by teaching from Psalm 103 about our relationship with God.



College student and high school student (Oldest Daughter) leaders helped the youth consider what the Bible has to say about our relationship with Adults, Peers, and Sinners (recognizing that referring to unbelievers as sinners was a slightly inaccurate as we are all sinners, but it helped to complete the acronymn).


After each talk, small groups, led by a student leader, meet together to discuss the principles and truths presented in the talks, and to pray for one another.


On Friday morning we journeyed over to the castle, a fortress built during the Crusades by Azz ad-Din Usama, relative of Salah ad-Din in an effort to limit the expansion of the Crusader Kingdom. The castle was part of the chain of beacons which could transmit news by pigeon post from the Euphrates frontier to Cairo headquarters in twelve hours. (The Rough Guide to Jordan)


The Youth participated in a castle activity developed and carried out by the student leaders. It reminded me of a sort of Pilgrim's Progress mini-journey: Proceeding in groups of three, two youth helped guide one blindfolded youth through the castle, stopping at various points to hear student leaders read various passages which explained the gospel.


The youth had to answer questions about the gospel before proceeding on their journey and they had to discern truth from error as a couple of leaders where positioned along the way, tempting them to go astray.

Whenever there was free-time, these youth played and played hard. It was such a blessing to watch all these city kids set loose in the country as they ran freely in the fresh spring air.

Presentation of Team Chants

I think that Dear Husband and I were both surprised to discover how much we enjoyed spending the weekend with all these great young people. I really have not had so much fun in a long time. May God bless this next generation as they grow in their knowledge of Him!

An Ajloun Sunset

Comic Relief for Paganini

Most people probably don't need comic relief from listening to Paganini compositions now and then however I know that our family would have appreciated this video a couple of years ago when Oldest Daughter was playing this concerto hours a day and into the night. Paganini's infamous works for violin are what I refer to as "hyper violin" and they are anything but soothing and relaxing. Though I enjoy listening to Oldest daughter play a Paganini caprice now and then--how fast those fingers move!-- I can say that this 'artist's' rendition of Paganini mirrored my inner emotions a couple of years ago as I listened to Oldest daughter play this over, and over, and over, and...

Auditions, the rest of the trip

And a grand trip it was! After Austin we spent 10 days in Houston, several before, and a few after Oldest Daughter's audition at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. We loved the Rice campus and the Shepherd School of music; the buildings and grounds are beautiful and all are situated on a well planned loop so it is easy to walk, bike, or shuttle bus to anyplace on campus.

Lovett Hall/Administration Building, Rice University

Rice's Shepherd School of music boasts a spacious, state of the art facility and a relatively small student body of about 300. While there we were able to observe some of the excellent musical activities that are taking place at the Shepherd School: a lovely faculty concert, an orchestra rehearsal, and a studio class in which students play for their teacher and each other.

Alice Pratt Building/Shepherd School of Music

Leaving behind warm weather and great friends in Houston, we next flew to Cleveland, Ohio and took a city bus, which was, thankfully, empty except for one other passenger, to Oberlin. We were quite a sight trying to manage all our luggage which was a bit excessive due to a number of books, a sleeping bag, and other miscellaneous things we had purchased to take back to Jordan. The bus driver remarked wryly to Oldest Daughter, "Don't you know that school is over in another three months." I told Oldest Daughter that she should have replied, "Oh, I'm just coming for four days."

Oberlin was such a contrast to Houston! The college and conservatory have only undergraduate students and they are located in a small town. The feel of the campus is old, beautiful, and a bit earthy in individual/hippie/liberal sort of way. The students we met were bright, articulate and involved.

Spending a lot of time in 'the Con' student lounge while Oldest Daughter practiced, I observed a lot of musical and creative energy. It became easy to pick out the voice majors--they were the ones who dressed particularly stunningly and/or sang scales as they walked down the hall.

The 'Con'~ Oberlin Conservatory

Immediately after her conservatory audition, Oldest Daughter auditioned for and was accepted into a summer chamber music festival begun by the head of the Con's string department. While not an acceptance to music school itself, it was an encouragement.

A spacious practice room with a view~ Oberlin Conservatory

Oldest Daughter was able to experience a variety of practice rooms, and while this may seem like a minor point of interest to some, to a performance major who spends four plus hours a day in one it is more than a passing consideration. Our unofficial practice room rating:

1. Shepherd School of Music (no question)
2. Oberlin Conservatory
3. and 4. We are in disagreement here. I say UT Austin is third and Eastman, easily fourth, but Oldest Daughter would put Eastman before UT Austin. Eastman is the only school where the practice rooms were, at times, all full.

Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York

Oldest Daughter loved the "feel" of Eastman. The urban location, the old building with wood trimmed everything, the beautiful concert halls, the student housing, and the impressive violin faculty, a few of them Russian, which felt familiar to her as her own training has been of Russian pedagogy.

While visiting Eastman we were privileged to stay with a long ago friend and her Eastman faculty husband. They graciously hosted us in their Perfect Accommodations condo located directly behind the school, generously sharing their home and lives with us while we were in Rochester.

Not sure if you can read the sign but Eastman seems to be getting a lot of mileage from a Kaplan/Newsweek quote naming them 'The Hottest Music School'. They obviously were not referring to Rochester's less than balmy winter weather.

A Post-Final-Audition-Celebratory Latte at Java's

I think Oldest Daughter looks very relieved and just a little tired in this post-final-audition photo. I wonder if I should mention that she has not take her violin from it's case for six days--though I believe it may be coming out tomorrow.

As we watched the presidential elections analysis ad naseum on television it occurred to us that having a CNN reporter shadow a music school candidate would make a great human interest story. A young cellist we met twice on the music school circuit was applying to eight schools; another violinist, to five, flying in and out of various locations each weekend. Her father asked me, "is your daughter falling behind in school? Mine is." Well, yes, but the fact that we homeschool and are 'flexible' means that we have until June before we have to acknowledge that we are behind and by then, hopefully we won't be. A teacher whose student was auditioning at one of the schools queried me at the financial aid session, "Is the tuition really that much??" Hopeful parents listening outside audition doors, keeping time with their children's music and parents sitting with their child inside a tiny practice rooms while their child practices before an audition. More stress then I like to experience on a daily basis. And though, while at UT Austin, I enjoyed a double bass solo more than I imagined I could ever enjoy a bass solo, I was daily thankful that my dear daughter had chosen the relatively small violin for her beloved instrument. Thanks for keeping it simple, dear ; ) What an adventure we have had!