Lift Up Your Hearts!

It was almost an idyllic scene:  Three adults, eight children—four boys, four girls, ages 9, 8, 7, 5, 3, 3, 14 months, and 6 months—and one playground all to ourselves.

Well, almost all to ourselves.  As the children happily ran back and forth across the grounds, it was more than a little annoying to remind them to watch out for the maintenance cart that came back again and again to ... to what?

The first time, the driver was apparently cleaning up branches from a recent storm, though he spent most of his time making worried comments about the exuberantly-climbing 14-month-old and glaring at the three adults who clearly weren't doing their duty in keeping her off the dangerous equipment.  "There's an open space up there she could fall through, you know!"  Yep, she could have fallen, I suppose, but she's part monkey, part mountain goat, and part bulldozer, so none of us saw any reason to spoil her fun.  "Open space" or not, this playground is as safe as it can get without being of no use at all.  Since the days when our children played there, we've lost the merry-go-round, the high, curly slide, and a lot of climbing equipment that was far more interesting ("dangerous") than that which replaced it.

The boys had ridden their scooters into the park, and dropped them right on the sidewalk as they ran off to play on the equipment.  We'd left the scooters where they lay, because no one else was in the park to be bothered by them.  When the maintenance cart came by, I quickly moved them out of his way.  "Do you know whose scooters those are?"  "Yes; they're ours."  "Riding scooters in the park is forbidden."  "Okay, I'll let the kids know."  We meekly obeyed, though I can't imagine why he found it necessary to enforce the rule.  Did I mention we were the only ones in the park?

Finally, the man drove away.  But like the famous cat, he kept coming back.  Driving slowly through the park, peering suspiciously at the children's antics, then leaving, only to repeat the process a few minutes later.  In other circumstances I would have been tempted to call the police!  But I'm sure he only meant well, and just wanted to be available when one of the frolicking youngsters suffered an injury, since the adults were clearly irresponsible, chatting away among themselves while the children chased each other up and down and all around.

Everyone had a wonderful time—except possibly the maintenance man, and who knows? maybe he was satisfied in a perverse sort of way for having prevented a scraped-knee scooter injury.  But the experience did leave me slightly disturbed.

Reading the Free-Range Kids blog, I've heard plenty of stories of how schools, governments, playgrounds, social service agencies, and other institutions have joined "helicopter" parents in a culture of fear that deprives today's children of the opportunities they need to develop into strong, competent, independent adults.  But this was my first personal experience with the phenomenon, and it was somewhat of a shock.

The materials:  We bought a couple of posts and a second hammer, but the rest of the materials were scrounged or donated by neighbors.

The labor force:  Jonathan, Noah, Faith, and Dad-o.

The experience:  Priceless.

Video tour of the fort.  Even Faith can climb up the ladder to the top, though she hasn't tried the Jump Line yet.

With apologies to our Northeastern friends who would like to be done with winter, thank you very much, I just have to say that I LOVE THIS WEATHER!  The air conditioner is silent (would that the power mowers, blowers, trimmers, and saws were also), we can have the windows open once more, the humidity is down, and tonight I ditched my shorts for comfortable jeans.  I hear the low will dip into the 40's tonight.  :)  It can't last for long—we'll be back in the 90's by the end of the week—but we're sure enjoying it while we can.

Porter remembers days in Rochester, NY when it snowed on his birthday.  Not very often, but it happened.  It looks as if Western Pennsylvania is going to miss it by only a day or two.... 

We love having folks over for dinner:  good conversation, a chance to catch up, the opportunity to fix dishes that don't work well for two people, and an excuse to make desserts—not to mention inspiration to stop procrastinating on various indoor and outdoor work that needs to be done!  The folks who came last night are the best kind, those who cheer the meal with enthusiasm, whether it's an experimental, untested recipe, an old favorite, or plain comfort food.

Raclette is Swiss comfort food.  More popular even than fondue in Switzerland (according to my favorite authority on All Things Swiss), raclette is an easy meal (at least it is if you don't spend all day on the above-mentioned procrastinated projects).  In Switzerland it's even a budget meal; sadly, raclette cheese is a gourmet item here, but well worth it for a festive occasion.  I made the meal still more festive by choosing the colorful and flavorful Celebration Blend from Potato Inspirations; interesting potatoes are another food common in Europe but a specialty product here.

This is where Swiss purists should stop reading.  Instead of the traditional pickled onions and cornichons, we served steamed zucchini and yellow summer squash.   To my prejudiced American mind, that's a healthier as well as tastier accompaniment.  And we had cherry crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Good food, better company.  We should do this more often.  There are still more projects to be accomplished....

Note:  Raclette, the Sequel will be performed sometime during the first two weeks of May.

... and also why it's great to be attending a church close to home.

Sunday:  Palm/Passion Sunday Service

Tuesday:  Stations of the Cross

Wednesday:  Tennebrae Service

Thursday:  Maundy Thursday Service, Agape Meal, Stripping of the Altar, Prayer Vigil

Friday:  Good Friday Liturgy

Saturday:  Easter Vigil, Baptisms, Kindling of New Fire, joyous ringing of bells, First Eucharist of Easter

Sunday:  Easter Sunday (singing Rutter, Vivaldi, Handel, and much, much more!)

And these are only the services we attended/plan to attend; I've left out quite a few.

30 Reasons Why You Light Up Our Lives
(It was hard to stop!)

1. From early childhood you have loved God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
2. You were the sunniest, most joyfully enthusiastic preschooler I’ve ever known, full of smiles and laughter.
3. Your positive, happy attitude is, and always has been, quickly turned to wrath in the presence of perceived injustice, to others at least as much as to yourself.
4. You love your family intensely, all generations and collateral branches, and work sacrificially to promote family relationships.
5. All your life you have maintained a close, loving, and respectful relationship with your parents.
6. You were a totally delightful, respectful teenager, growing more and more independent without ever rejecting your parents and their values in any important way.
7. You have always found learning to be the “best game of all,” whether begging for math lessons as a preschooler, crafting your own educational program as a teen, or reading and researching voraciously as an adult.
8. You developed the most important skill needed to fuel a lifetime of learning (also useful for excelling in ordinary academic life):  the ability—and desire—to teach yourself using whatever materials are available, from textbooks to teachers to life experiences.
9. Your favorite mode of education has been what you call “learning to swim by drowning”—throwing yourself into a new situation, a new instrument, a new language, a new country; putting yourself in a situation where the alternative to learning is failure.
10. Your razor-sharp intellect and grasp of logic can be counted on to ferret out faulty or slip-shod reasoning.
11. Likewise, you readily admit when you are wrong, if presented with a clear, rational argument.
12. You are always asking thoughtful, important questions. (And always have, much to the annoyance of certain Sunday school teachers.)
13. Unlike most of us (your parents being chief offenders), you can never settle for plugging numbers into a formula or regurgitating the answer expected by a teacher, but with a dogged determination you wrestle with your studies until you truly understand the material.
14. Equally determined in your relationships, you will not gloss over problems, but wrestle with yourself and others to understand and resolve difficulties.
15. You are a very creative thinker; being self-taught in so many ways has made thinking outside the box second nature.
16. You also live outside the box:  You have become the "granola mom" I never knew I always wanted to be.
17. You never conform for the sake of conforming, following the crowd only if convinced by the evidence that the crowd is right, and  unhesitatingly taking the road less travelled if the evidence points in that direction.
18. And you are happy to blaze a new trail cross-country if there is no road at all!
19. Your sense of adventure and love of new experiences have taken your from an (unauthorized) solo exploration of the docks of Key Largo at age three, to travelling through Italy on your own, to spending a year in Japan teaching English to high school students, to graduate school (and eventually a home) in Switzerland.
20. You are a talented, skilled, and highly-trained musician who demonstrates with your life that music comes alive when it is made with and/or for others.
    
21. You waited patiently until God revealed the right man to be your husband and the father of your children;  you love him intensely, respect him enormously, and delight in being the “helper suitable for him.”
22. You have made your home into a place of hospitality, welcome, grace, beauty, joy, and peace (even though your lovely and lively children ensure that nothing is ever too peaceful for too long).
23. You are a loving, giving, thoughtful, disciplined, and inventive mother.
24. You have proven that you have the nerve and determination to push through physical and emotional pain for the sake of those you love and what you believe is right.
    
25. You are a great teacher, with a demonstrated ability—rare in someone for whom understanding often comes quickly and easily—to see a problem from the student’s point of view, whether helping kindergarten students as a third-grader, tutoring high school students, inspiring Japanese students to enjoy the English language, coaxing enthusiasm out of young piano students, showing your mother the virtues of a “tickler” system, or feeding your own children’s “happy hunger” for learning.
26. You have a good eye for seeing work that needs to be done, and a good will for jumping in and doing it.
27. You are honest and trustworthy in word and in deed.
28.  You are careful and wise in financial matters.
29.  At the same time, you are generous and giving:  of your money, your time, and your emotional energy.
30. Your heart’s desire is to become more and more like Christ each day, and to demonstrate his love in all you say and do.

What more could parents desire?

Happy Birthday!

With lots and lots of love,
Mom & Dad

Our much-beloved Bishop of Central Florida, John Howe, retired this year.  The bishop-elect was Gregory O. Brewer, and Saturday was his service of consecration.  Choir members from all over the diocese were invited to participate in a massed choir for the event.  We almost missed it.

We had an event on Friday that took up half the afternoon and most of the evening, and a concert Saturday night.  The Consecration would take up most of the (all too short) waking hours in between.  Neither of us felt we had that kind of time and energy to spare.  But God has his ways of nudging the recalcitrant, and we gave in.  After all, had he not just brought us to this church, and hence this opportunity?¹  And when would we again have the opportunity to sing with such a large and excellent choir?

Before the big day, our choir had but one, two-hour rehearsal.  The music, much of it commissioned especially for the service, was difficult.  But it was fun, and we anticipated being able to lean on a large group of well-trained, well-rehearsed singers.  Our diocese has some large and fabulous choirs.

We've sung in many choirs, and many times have heard the refrain, "We must order new choir robes."  Never, however, has the action been so quick and efficient:  a month after my first choir rehearsal, our new robes were in hand.  It was perhaps a bit unfortunate that they arrived the day before the big Saturday event—just in time for me to pick them up from the church before heading out to our big Friday event.  Of course, they needed to be washed, dried, ironed, and in my case hemmed, so I was up until after midnight that night.²

All too soon we were awake again.  Lunches, robes, and music in hand, we trekked to First Baptist Orlando, where rehearsal began at 8:30.  On driving into the parking lot, my reaction was, "This isn't a church, it's a theme park."  They really missed a bet with the parking:  the sections should have had names, like Disney's "Pluto" and "Minnie"³ or Universal's "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park."  Can you imagine it?  Remember, your car is parked in Matthew 18.  First Baptist is a huge church, which is why the service was held there and not in any of the Episcopal churches in town.  (As the new bishop pointed out in his post-ordination comments, it was also symbolic of his hopes to be involved in many cooperative efforts with other Central Florida churches.)  We assembled in the choir room, with its jaw-dropping rack after rack of hanging robes, and its equally astonishing music library.  It must be wonderful to sing in such a choir every week.⁴

Rehearsal was GREAT.  The physical circumstances were a little difficult, as apparently the church was in the middle of some big production, for which an edifice had been built that divided the choir in two and completely covered the organ.  The organist could see and hear the conductor through a television monitor, but the communication was one-way only.  It led to some frustrating, and funny, moments.  But all in all it was a wonderful experience. How I've missed the whole "musical scene" we were so much a part of when our kids were younger.  I know musicians can be temperamental and hard to get along with at times, but they are a good example of how a community of those who have significant differences, and plenty of reasons not to get along with each other, can come together to accomplish great things.  In fact, I think that's a pretty good model of how the church should be.  Anyway, it felt great to be respected, and treated professionally, and to watch the real professionals at work.

We weren't coddled, nor led by the hand.  We were expected to know the music already; the purpose of rehearsal was to put all the parts—choir, soloist, instrumentalists, lighting, sound system—together.  Did I say above that we were hoping to "lean on a large group of well-trained, well-rehearsed singers"?  Well, er, hrmph.  Right.  Of course there were a few choirs that fit that description, but aside from them, we turned out to be one of the better-prepared choirs!  I had expected to lean, not to lead!  But it all worked out well, and one of the great pleasures of the day was the experience of making such great music with so little preparation.  Could it have been better?  Absolutely!  But it was good enough, it was very good, and the time/effort ratio was fantastic.  (That is, it was for us peons.  Some folks had obviously put in a lot of work.)

We'd both brought work to do during the "down times."  Ha!  We barely had time to swallow lunch, get robed, and say a few words to the friends who were there from all over the diocese.  We were back in our seats and ready to go by 12:30, thinking we were being good and early, as the time advertised for the beginning of the service was 1:00.  I do not know how that happened, but that time was everywhere, including the diocesan website and the live video stream.  If we had come only for the service, we would have walked in at 12;50, maybe 12:55.  And we would have missed a great deal, because things actually started at 12:30!

I doubt anyone reading this has the time and patience to sit through the videos below, so I'll indicate some of the high points with approximate time markers.  It was wonderful from start to finish, however, and quite moving to be part of it.  If the choir looks scared at some points, well, it's because we were!  Singing without adequate preparation requires concentration, and work!  Once, in rehearsal, we were singing about being glad, and the conductor pleaded, "Now, could you just manage to look glad?"  At one point in the Psalm, the camera even catches the soloist with that "Where are we?" look on her face.

What the video misses by starting with the procession is the organ prelude, the choir's anthem O Taste and See (Vaughan Williams); the youth choir's anthem I Sing a Song of the saints of God, which had a lovely flute part, played by the person who was elementary school music teacher for at least three of my regular readers; two hymns (Blessed Assurance and Amazing Grace); Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man; and an instrumental piece (Veni, Sancte Spiritus) written specifically for the occasion by Andrew Walker, who directed the choir most of the time (and was fantastic to work with).

Just to prove we were there :).  Janet and Stephan watched the live video stream, from Switzerland, and caught these screen shots.

(Click on the photos to enlarge.)

View of the church from the structure that divides the choir area.

Where you land if you back up too far while taking pictures.  That's not a baptistry, that's a swimming pool!

Here's the service bulletin (pdf).

Part 1of the service.

• 0:01:05 Anthem:  Let the People Praise You by Benjamin Lane and Michael Miller.  Probably the most difficult piece, but it's the one we worked on the most.  It was quite impressive once we got it all together.  In the middle, all the churches of the Diocese of Central Florida are named, praising God.
• 0:10:00 Sanctus (Peter Scholtes)
• 0:14:50 Motet:  Ubi Caritas by Peter Mathews
• 0:33:34 Recessional hymn:  A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• 0:39:15 Postlude: Grand Choeur Dialogue (E. Gigout)

The service did a wonderful job of expressing the diversity of the Diocese.  Several different languages were spoken or sung, and many different styles of music contributed.  The only disappointment was the Communion music (between Ubi Caritas and the recessional).  It was contemporary Christian "praise music," and—difficult as this may be for those who know me to believe—I had been looking forward to joining in wholeheartedly.  It's far from my favorite worship music, but in this context it would have been joyful to sing, especially since several of the pieces were at least somewhat familiar.  But as it turned out, the choir was not expected to sing; that was left to the praise band.  We were invited to sing if we wanted to, but I soon gave up because:   (1) The speaker volume, which had been fine for the whole service, was for these songs cranked up to such a high level that I had to scramble for my earplugs, and if you've ever sung with earplugs in, you know that you hear your own voice much more than other singers, which is very uncomfortable when you don't know the song well and are trying to blend in.  (2) Some choir members were singing, but most had not been provided music and didn't know the songs, which contributed even more to my feeling that my voice was standing out.  (3)  Our choir director had thoughtfully found music for the songs when he realized that we didn't have it, but it was pretty much useless because the band didn't follow the music.  I don't think they even followed the bulletin; at least I know we didn't get to sing In Christ Alone, which I know well.  Anyway, even though it was a bit of a letdown from the choir seats, I heard that the Communion music went very well from the congregation's point of view.

If you watch to the end of the service, you'll see the oddest thing:  I think it's bad enough when people start talking and walking out before the postlude is finished, but in this case, they started tearing everything down in the middle of the final hymn, and were nearly done by the time the postlude even started.  Apparently we were working under a very tight time constraint from the Baptists, who needed the church back for their own event.

Any number of minor glitches aside, it was a glorious service and a wonderful experience.  In many ways it was like a wedding:  Those with positions of responsibility know all too well how many things went wrong, but to most people it is simply a beautiful event.

I'm really glad we didn't miss this one.

JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Elmar Oliveira, violin

John Callahan:  Pulsar (World Premiere)
Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, op.61
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Last night's Orlando Phil concert, the final for the season in our series (Classics), was certainly enjoyable, but through no fault of the excellent conductor, soloists, and orchestra, it came across, for me, as a little bland.  Listening to music performed cannot compare with making music oneself, and no mere concert can hope to compete with the experience of being part of a grand event, like the afternoon's Consecration of the Rev. Gregory O. Brewer as Fourth Bishop of Central Florida.  About that I will write much more, but I'm waiting for the complete service to be uploaded to YouTube. (Part 1 available now, if you want a preview, but most if not all of my readers will appreciate the effort I'm making to provide a guide to the very long service.)

A post about the OPO concert is in order, however, in order to say this:  Remember the name, John Callahan.  He's a piano student at Florida State University, and won the OPO's Young Composers Challenge in 2008 and 2009.  Pulsar was commissioned for the OPO by local musician and philanthropist Stephen Goldman, founder of the Young Composers Challenge.  I can't say that Pulsar made my heart sing the way the music of John Dupuis does, but even I can tell that Callahan is extremely talented and composes at another level altogether.

Osmo Vänskä, music director
Midori, violin

Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, op. 56a
Sibelius: Concerto for Violin in D minor, op. 47
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67

Our Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra season tickets brought us a bonus:  last night's concert by the Minnesota Orchestra, featuring violinist Midori, now forty years old but with a 29-year professional career behind her.  Definitely worth going out on a Friday night for.  What's more, on a weekend when we must lose an hour, we gained a day, a psychological advantage at least as real as whatever people think we gain by fiddling with the clocks.  Since most of our concerts are on Saturday nights, today felt like Sunday—until we realized Sunday was still a day away!

Thanks to my sister, I have three Trader Joe's reusable grocery bags that would just love to be used at an actual Trader Joe's.  And now, at last, Florida has a Trader Joe's store!

But it's in Naples.  Granted, we really enjoyed our visit to that part of the state back in Novemeber, but I'm not one of the "Trader Joe's tourists" who are travelling hundreds of miles to the store.  There's a store opening soon in Sarasota, but that's still too far away.

Nonetheless, I have hope.  Now that the Florida border has been breached, can Orlando be far behind?

I note that the Naples store went in where a Borders bookstore went out.  We're getting a Michael's at our former Borders.  Not that Michael's is a bad idea, but there's already one nearby, and wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to walk to a Trader Joe's?  Oh well, I'll be happy enough for one within a 15-minute drive and not on the far side of town.

Tired of waiting for Netflix to offer anything beyond the second season of the Duggar family's TV show (they're now on Season Six), I discovered the Duggar Family blog, which despite the name is a fan blog, not run by any of the Duggars themselves.  Apparently with the blessing of host channel TLC, this site has links to all episodes from the first specials through Season Five!

Now this discovery bodes ill for my overflowing inboxes, my piles of files and files of piles, and my endless backlog of past-due work and future projects.  I had to figure out a way to redeem the time, and I did.  Because the videos are hosted on YouTube, each episode is divided into three parts of five to ten minutes each.  Not only does this slice them into manageable portions that can be squeezed into odd bits of time here and there, but it also suggested my new exercise plan:  I only allow myself to watch while exercising.  The anticipation of watching a show gets me started, the distraction of the show keeps me going until the end, and the exercise requirement sets a limit on how much I'll watch in a day.  I'm a very wimpy exerciser.  Some people can watch a whole movie while exercising; I'm doing well to manage eight minutes at at time.

It's a lot more fun to watch the shows guilt free, knowing I'm doing something healthful and productive!

I realized yesterday that—until September, anyway—all of our nephews are now teenagers.  And what a fine bunch of young men they are!

For six weeks in Switzerland I was the official dishwasher, and enjoyed it.  In my appliance hierarchy, a dishwasher ranks below a microwave; chiefly, I'm afraid, because without the latter it's a pain to heat up my cup of tea, which I'm forever leaving somewhere to get cold.  Nonetheless, I am inordinately thrilled by one of the first purchases we made upon my return: a Bosch dishwasher, not the top of the line but not the bottom, either.

Our old dishwasher (GE "Potscrubber 1200") didn't owe us a thing, having served us well for a quarter of a century.  The cost, spread over time and ignoring inflation, was less than $20 per year.

Does anyone expect an appliance to last 25 years anymore?  Believe it or not, the dishwasher was not our oldest appliance, either:  we've had our stove and freezer since 1977!  The freezer is as good as ever, if you don't count the cosmetic angle; the stove is limping somewhat, but all four burners, the oven, and the microwave still function well.  On the positive side, the short life of today's appliances makes one aspect of shopping easier:  if you decide you don't like what you bought, you don't have as much time to wait before getting another chance.

For the most part, I loathe shopping and the decision-making that goes with it.  Thankfully, my wonderful husband did the preliminary research while I was washing dishes overseas, so the remainder of the process was almost painless.  We went with the Bosch on our brother-in-law's recommendation—in his business, he learns a lot about such things—as well as for its German engineering.  That it was made in North Carolina is nice, too.  We bought it from Lowe's and were very pleased with the installer (who is also an amateur luthier, we discovered).  We've had the new machine for four days, and here are a few things I've noticed that are different from our previous dishwasher.

• It's much quieter.  We chose not to get the model with a delayed start option, because this is so quiet there's no need to wait to run it, even if you have company or are watching a movie.
• The cleaning process is much longer.  In this it is much like European clothes washers, which favor low water consumption over quick work.  So far it has not bothered me that it takes over two hours to wash the dishes.  There is an express (30-minute) cycle I can use if necessary.
• The default settings include an "I'm done, come unload me" set of five loud, nagging beeps, which repeat at intervals—I don't know for how long, as I've not yet been able to ignore it past two sets.  There's a way to turn the volume down, or off altogether, which I may resort to, as the beeps sound like an alarm clock, not what I want to hear at midnight when I'm deep in slumber.
• Ta-da!  I've saved the best for last:  The dishes get CLEAN!  For reasons unknown, our old dishwasher never really worked right after we returned from our two years in Boston.  We nursed it along—for years, really—trying one thing and another, with varying success, but finally threw in the towel.  Hence the new dishwasher.  Since the new models are designed to function better if you don't rinse the dishes first, I'm having to change my well-ingrained habit of getting them pretty much clean beforehand.  (To quote the Bosch rep, "It's a dishWASHER; let it do its job.")  We're still testing its limits, and marvelling at the clean dishes.

Here she is, the incredible Ashley Locheed!  On the right is some dude named Englebert Humperdinck.  (Not the composer of Hänsel und Gretel.)  The venue is in Singapore.