Who's who?

Here's Janine and her friend Lizzy in their Halloween costumes. They are...wait for it...dressed as each other! Yes I know it is hard to tell them apart, the costumes are that good. But that will simply have to do.

It's all great fun and a very clever idea. The study center they both go to on Fridays prohibited Halloween costumes. But sometimes restrictions focus creativity and this is one of those situations. Good job girls! Everyone liked it.

Saturday at the Warhol Museum

This past Saturday Janine, her friend Tessa, John and I visited the Andy Warhol Museum in the North Shore area across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh. This is the Silver Pillow Room, a recreation of one of the installations at the Factory, Warhol's New York studio. While we didn't see Grace Jones or any other celebrities, the photo below is our parking level reminder. I was reassured that Grace's fierce eyes would be guarding our car.

End of Summer

Here's the four of us about a month ago for Sarah's end of summer dinner out. We went to a restaurant in the Fairmont that was very creative so naturally we all had to have a taste of each other's dinners.

...just getting back into posting here. We will add more later...

Sunday Morning

It was great to have Sarah with us over Thanksgiving. This morning she shared her kitchen creativity. We had a breakfast of various cheeses, apples, toasted, thinly sliced bagette and a hash of cabbage and onions.

It all was very good, but the blessing was to spend some time with Sarah just chatting and sharing our thoughts.

Thanksgiving breakfast

Last night I assembled, and this morning I baked, a cheese, spinach and egg strada. It was very simple and tasted great. It may become a new Thanksgiving tradition. Than as I was cleaning up the kitchen sink backed up due to the 10 egg shells I put in there from last night's assembly. Once again a large number of egg shells groud to precise 1/4 inch squares makes the perfect drain trap bolus.

Thankfully this time I know spotted the problem before turning on the disposer and waste water spewed under the sink.

But I am thankful for so much today. We have been through so much this past year and a half after the death of my wife Bobbie. The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful family, church, neighbors, homeschool and acting networks, the Caring Place families and staff. The list goes on and on.

Now on this happy confluence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, may The Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine unto you. And make He continue to hold us all in the hollow of His hand.

School Bench

Here's Janine and crew in a Saltworks sketch on bullying and a school bench. They are performing for some school assemblies tomorrow morning and this is one of the better ones. It is a well-written piece, But, while some of it made me cringe, it ended well.

Don't tell Moses

These are two burning bushes on the north side of our house and they are at peak color on top. However the bottom looks like it has a way to go yet. These are the largest of our burning bushes, the others are in the front garden. The rest of the year these are pretty dull shrubs. But right now they sure are not.

After the game

Here's Grace after the game. DePauw won 3-2 over the College of Wooster scoring the winning goal in the last 90 seconds.

DePauw kept Wooster bottled up in their own zone for the first 20 minutes, but could not put it past the goaltender. Wooster jumped on the opportunity once they got into the DePauw zone and were ahead for most of the game.

We all had a great time sitting with the parents of most of the ladies. Many more were there because it was senior day.

Family resemblance?

Here's Janine and her Gramps in Cloverdale, IN this past weekend. Cousin Grace plays field hockey at DePauw University and we all came in for a tournament. Great to see her play, even greater to be with family.

Last call

This is the loveliest work I have done all summer. Nothing that is. Sarah bought a basil plant this spring, planted it and we have used it intermittently.

Now we have this wonderful bush of these fragrant leaves. What to make with it? Pesto? Salade Calabrese?

Whatever it might be, we won't let it go to waste.

First Signs...

The first signs of fall a seen this morning in our front yard. The top photo is a maple that has started to loose leaves a bit early. Still I like to highlights on the top.

Bottom is a burning bush that is just about to get going. These seem to be the first leaves to turn in our yard. We always know the locust in the back yard is last.

Last Day of Summer

Today, Saturday September 21, 2013 is the last full day of summer. The azaleas in front of the house are beginning to show it too. This one is a nice bronze while the other one looks like it needs to be fed!

We have all enjoyed the front garden this year. The garden was Bobbie's complete diversion. Once she got started weeding, planting, moving, building or whatever she would keep going even after dark. She completely lost track of time. Her mother liked to say she took after her father in that way. So when friends help, it really means a lot.

Special thanks go out to Andy who with some help from Mariann has kept the garden weeded and neat. It's one less thing for us to worry about around here. They let me participate by calling me in for hazard removal like poison ivy and hornets' nests. Andy, Mariann and the Ballet Ladies have been such a blessing to us over this past year.

Here's proof of the care, a cleome, an annual that is self seeing from the year before. For these to bloom in September, you have to leave them alone earlier in the year. Thanks!

Freshman Moves In

Sarah moved in to her dorm yesterday and starts classes on Tuesday at Rutgers University. Here's one of the directional signs. Sarah is studying acting at one of the top programs in the country the Mason Gross School. Her roommate is a friend from Pittsburgh. This is a great achievement that is a reward for her determination and drive.

We drove to New Brunswick, NJ on Friday and had dinner at a very nice Southern Cuisine/Soul Food restaurant near the campus. When the waitress found out Sarah was an entering Freshman, she brought out ice cream in a cup served on a platter. Written in strawberry sauce on the platter was "Welcome to RU!"

After dinner we went to a nearby Bed Bath and Beyond for a hold order of extra bedding. Next door was a Barnes and Noble with the same interior layout at the one in Cranberry near our home. I took Sarah back to the children's section, pointed to the stage and said, "this is just like where it all got started." When Sarah was about five she loved to go there and perform for then three year old John and infant Janine as well as Mom, Dad and Nana. She even got to put on a show for Grammy and Gramps once when they were visiting from Lincoln.

It was a full-circle moment, but I knew it was not a "finishing" moment. No, no if anything it was the start of something new.

Sarah Graduates

Here's the deck's eye view of Sarah's graduation party. Well actually it was more than that. When you homeschool you have a lot of room to be creative. So we also had a graduation ceremony for her as well. Here in front of family and friends, she gets to graduate as both the top and bottom of her class.

As I said in some brief remarks, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires 180 days of instruction for each student every school year. For Sarah it is more like 365. She is always engaged in the world around her thinking things through critically with an open mind to the possibilities. Seeking truth using the compass of her faith.

Then Becki Toth, one of her mentors, gave a commencement address which was much better than the platitudinous stem-winders at most commencements. Instead of reminding Sarah to be true to herself, (She knows that already) Becki offered a list of situations, some funny, some serious, all meaningful. Then she reminded everyone to encourage Sarah, and remember the day. Yes we will Becki...we will.

Overall however we would not have gotten here had it not been for the dedication, hard work and love of my late wife, Bobbie. She is the one who got this all started and kept with it when things got tough. But then again, in some way I know she enjoyed it as much as we did and perhaps even more so.

Carrie Furnace

This past Wednesday we went on an Enrichment Day field trip to the Carrie Furnace in Braddock, PA on the Monongahela River. This is an historic site associated with the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area. It is just about the last of the  non-operational steel mills left standing in the Pittsburgh area. The smoky city gave way to the medical research/ robotics city. But the US Steel Edgar Thompson works still operates nearby.

This is Carrie Furnace #7. It operated from 1907 until 1978 making iron from ore and moving it via special rail car (lower photo) to nearby mills where the iron was made into various steel alloys.

While the Rivers of Steel group has removed most of the hazards, this is still a generally unimproved area. Most of the tour is outdoors as most of the mill was outdoors or in open sheds like these.

How things change! When we had lunch at the Steak n Shake at the Waterfront Mall, I had to tell John and Janine that their granddad worked at the Homestead Works where the mall now stands.

Here's Janine and friends on the torpedo car that moved the molten iron from the Carrie Furnaces to nearby mills.