Desert vacation

Thanks to my dear friend of twenty (!) years Leah, Lazarus and I actually had a three day vacation this summer.  In Arizona.  It was beyond lovely and restful and rejuvenating just to hang out and chat and watch the kids, but I took a lot of landscape pictures on our few little outings.

A few from the Coronado National Memorial...

Looking toward the US side

Looking toward the Mexico side

A visit to Smith Ranch Canyon (I think I got the name right...)

Historic homestead

Arizona sunset... no filter.

Early Sunday morning I took L for a stroller ride around the historic part of Ft. Huachuca.

A brief visit to Ramsey Canyon...

Playground, loved by all the constituents ages one to eight...

And plenty of fun playtime in the house.  L loved having THREE big doting siblings, since he was missing his Annie something fierce.

We flew home on my birthday and found this gorgeous sight...  Jared and his parents (with the help of Anne) installed our new interior doors in the house!  It had been nine months without them.  Happy birthday to me!!!

And I took the kids to their favorite playground for half an hour where they played while ashes rained down on us from the forrest fires in BC.  So grosssssssssss!  You can see the unnatural sky color.

Also Anne and our neighbor girl helped make me a birthday cake, and it turned out QUITE tasty, although not beautiful enough for Pinterest.  Still working on that.

When in Rome...

I finally finished a long-term project today, which took months longer than I expected.  I suppose most projects are that way.  When have I ever said, "Hey, I finished painting the bedroom in only an hour, so I painted the laundry room too, before Lazarus woke up!"?  Never.  Ha!

This was a project to do with the book of Romans.  My Bible study group spent September through May studying our way through the Epistle to the Romans, and it was my hardest, least-connected year as part of the group.  There are a few reasons for that.  One is that during the year we moved SEVERAL miles further away making getting there a longer slog.  Also, there was all the house remodeling, being pregnant, AND keeping up with my full-time work schedule while being the mother of two small children.  And of course, that would be enough.  But also, the thing starts in the 9s in the morning, and it was always tricky about do I wake up my sleeping exhausted children who came home from Gig Harbor late last night to take them?  Or do I leave them home with Jared to be sorely disappointed and grumpy when they awake to have not come with me?  And either way deal with the resulting unhappiness for the rest of the day... The other thing was the book of Romans itself.  I think it is one of the trickiest of Paul's writings to understand, and I feel that our Bible study group did a good job of trying to put it in the context of all of Paul's writings, but it's dense, quirky material, WHICH ALSO was meant to be read in one hearing as a letter, and I had a lot of trouble parsing out word by word over the course of a whole school year.  It did not feel good to me.

The very first week of class we read about how transformative the book of Romans had been for various theologians and how one or two notable people had made a point to copy the whole letter out by hand twice in order to gain a better understanding.  And I personally know someone who had done that in recent years.  So I decided right away I would do that, too.  I figured I'd work on it during the off-weeks from our group when I didn't have a page of questions to answer about our reading.  I kinda did, but I missed a lot of days here and there, and anyway, I did the bulk of it between May and now.  I finished this morning.  Hallelujah!  Each of the two copies took somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty or twenty-five handwritten pages.  The first copy I started in New Revised Standard Version and then shortly thereafter switched to the New English Translation.  That had to do with the move and things being in boxes and what I decided to download onto my phone app.  The second copy, I enjoyed immensely by comparison, as I wrote it out in The Message version. 

I'm not sure I've had any sort of transformative experience with the Epistle.  I didn't dig into it with the depth of thought which other people did.  But at least I did something.  That's what I can say.  I did it.  And I'm probably not worse off for having done it.

Now I am torn about doing our Bible study group this fall.  I transferred us to a group which is a WEE bit closer to our new home, although it's main benefit is that it is NOT the morning after Gig Harbor, and it is not one of Anne's school days.  The study is going to cover a huge swath of Old Testament history starting from Joshua, and I have to say that so far, my favorite study I have done with this group was a huge overview like that - we covered Exodus through Deuteronomy.  I think I might connect with the study really well.  It is great to have a group to talk through everything with, and to be accountable to, and to have as a support network in life in general.  Also, Anne loves the classes for her age, and she comes back with great insights and singing her own improvised songs about God which are really quite lovely to hear.

The downsides are: I still am working full time.  It's ANOTHER DRIVE.  We are having a new baby.  Lazarus has trouble with it.  And it's still *early* in the morning for us.

So there we are.  Will the yes or no win?  I am not sure yet.

Late July to August

Late July, by the way, makes delicious junk food.  But I'm not talking about the company, rather updating you on what we've been up to. 

Two weeks ago today was Jared's and my twelfth anniversary.  We had one of our babysitters come in the afternoon to play with the kids while we went hiking at Denny Creek.  I found the trail listed when I was searching for easy but rewarding hikes, because this very pregnant lady is very slow on the uphills.  It's out I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass.

Wild tiger lilies

Columbines, daisies, and unripe berries

Denny Creek water slides

Fireweed just starting to bloom

This picture does not accurate capture the height of the footbridge.

Lichens on boulder

Red berries

View back down the valley

Cascading waterfall

The following day we packed up the car and drove to the opposite corner of the state to Walla Walla.  Actually, it is a 'burb of that tiny town called College Place, home to Walla Walla University, where we were part of the Suzuki Institute.  Jared taught four Dalcroze classes each day.  I taught a book 1-3 masterclass, an early book 1 group class, coached a string trio, and taught a later book 1 masterclass.  Jared's parents were there to help us out (couldn't do it without them!).  Lazarus and Grampa spent a lot of time together, and Grandma took Anne to her masterclass and her group class and got her delivered to her music and movement class, where I met them with Lazarus and watched.  Also, Anne played on the faculty/student recital, as did Jared and I.  Grandma took Anne swimming every day, and Jared's parents borrowed our camping stove and created picnics at the park every evening for us.

This past week, post-institute was easier in the teaching department for me.  I had planned less, because Jared was originally scheduled to be at a Dalcroze workshop (he and one other were the organizers) near downtown Seattle for five days, but due to low enrollment, they only ran it on Wednesday this time around.  The extra time was good, because it turned out that the place I thought we were going to be teaching in Gig Harbor starting next month did not pan out, and I have spent a lot of time pursuing LOTS of leads for teaching space.  I still don't have the answer.  But I have ruled out:

• St. John's Episcopal Church
• Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church
• Fox Island Alliance Church
• Fox Island United Church of Christ
• Artondale Grange Hall
• Gig Harbor Library
• PenMet Parks buildings
• Paradise Theatre
• Harbor Covenant Church
• Two Craigslist scammers

In Washington, businesses usually can't rent space from a church unless they obtain a non-profit status, although there are exceptions, and I did know that going in.  Exceptions include an invitation to use the space which originates with the church and isn't a rental but some sort of a trade and cover-the-utilities deal.  Still working hard on this project and reaching out to all kinds of people!  My students are helping me brainstorm and sending me emails with ideas.

Thursday evening I bumped the tip of my bow while practicing (which I'd just had repaired earlier this summer!) and found myself needing a repair to the repair.  I took it over that very evening to the neighborhood luthier, and I picked it up Friday evening after another rehearsal.  Said luthier had JUST finished setting up a violin he'd finished making, and I got to play the very first notes on it.  He sent it home with me, and I played on it for church this morning (Albrechtsberger Duet No. 3).  He is coming by to pick it up tomorrow before he shows it to a potential buyer.

This morning before church I went out for a walk and met one of our neighbors across the street who gave me some plums she was picking off her front tree.  She was quite talkative, and I learned all kinds of things about her and her pets.

This afternoon when we came back it was all kinds of fun around here!  The next door neighbor was having a birthday party today and had rented this humongous water slide yesterday evening which dwarfs the house.  Anne was over there some last night and today with all the kids trying it out.  

The view of the rented monstrosity from my bedroom window

And also, we now live at the southern terminus of the Blue Angels' show annual, so we had some awesome fighter jet action over the neighborhood starting at 1:40.  And also, the neighbor I met this morning called the fire department this afternoon, so we had a fire truck over there.  It was actually an issue that I had more information about than she or the fire department did - no fire danger.  It involved the garbage company and an overhead phone wire going from a pole in the neighbor's yard to our house on Wednesday morning, and I had already talked with the garbage company and the power company about it, and it is under control and etc. So anyway, nap time was postponed due to all the excitement of the neighborhood...

Tomorrow morning I have one last in-person lesson with a little student who is going to become a Skype student after her move to a rural island (which means the house must be presentable by 10:00 am), plus two rehearsals for the upcoming concerts on the 13th and 14th (which has also involved trying to sell tickets in the last week and that has more work to be done) and the delivery of the retaining wall bricks for our sandbox some time between 8 am and 8 pm.  I spent some time on the phone and on email yesterday with our sandbox builder and Lowe's getting worked out exactly what I was supposed to order for his construction needs.

And then we have the Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute starting on Monday.  It's a shorter commute this year due to the move, and due to a tougher year for the institute, I am taking on a role I don't know how to do... just be the mom of students.  I am not taking any teacher training.  I'm not an observer.  I'm not teaching.  Actually Jared and Adam and I are playing on the faculty recital on Tuesday night, so I'm not totally off the hook - I have to practice and rehearse, but my main responsibility is to get Anne to her four classes and Lazarus to his one class, keep everyone fed during the day, and manage a nap time.  Wierd.  Can I do it?  I don't know. 

Then the following week we have our two big chamber concerts, I have a students' book 1 recital in Gig Harbor, I teach for two days, and Lazarus and I go to Arizona for a long weekend...

I've got other projects going on, too.  Like getting things organized to fit another person in our house and car.  I'm making progress.  We have enough beds in the bedroom now.  And enough dressers in the music room/future kids' room.  Replaced our given-away baby tub.  I actually know where the newborn clothing and diapers are.  I need to find the sling and the infant insert for the Ergo and the Boba.  And work out our three-car-seats-in-the-back-of-a-tiny-car situation.  And think about if I'm going to find a doula for a VBAC.  This week we finalized and sent out our new school year policies and calendar, although we don't have all our space rentals and recital schedule worked out AT ALL, or the chamber groups and their music.   Soon we will be working out the fall lesson and group and chamber schedule.  And Jared has been doing things like trying to get insurance for the Dalcroze workshop (which came through the day before it happened!) and getting our business more legal in the state of Washington - there's a lot more to do on that.  And figuring out where/how we're going to have group class in Renton this fall in the absence of our garage conversion.  Also I've felt randomly sicker during the 3rd trimester this time around than I have with other pregnancies.  Just to keep it fun....

So that's all the news from the Ballance household.