A Little Grumpy~Favorite Fridays

We are getting closer and closer to moving day.  In just three weeks the moving truck will pull up outside our house and pack our memories up in a whirlwind of bubble wrap and newspaper.  

It seems like I just started my Favorite Fridays post, which details the things that I will miss about this Madison suburb in which we have lived for the past decade-plus.  

But time continues to tick by, and soon we will be settling into our home out west. Before we go, I have a few other "favorite things" to chronicle about the Mount Horeb, WI area;
The Grumpy Troll, New Glarus Brewery, Botham Vineyards, and Wollersheim Winery.  

These four destinations, all close to, if not in the center of, Mount Horeb have become favorites of my family.  Their uniqueness, quality of product, and memories that they've brought to us are unmatched.  Whenever we have out of town guests, you can rest assured that we will bring them to at least one of those stellar places, if not more.

While The Grumpy Troll may be a microbrewery, with my favorite brew being the Spetnaz, my favorite thing there is the Grump Chips.  All of the food, actually, at the Grump is, is out of this world.  As a rule, , when Jeff worked on the road, I would call in our take out orders and he could pick it up on his way home.  They recently added a gourmet pizza parlor upstairs, and as good as that is, I'd choose to eat downstairs any day of the week.  

We made up the game "Evie Trivia" when we were there once...they have trivial pursuit cards on the table, and we'd draw the card out and make up our own questions..."Who calls Evie Jo 'Sunshine'?"  She'd say, "Grandpa Dick."  "Correct!"

New Glarus Brewery is perched atop a hill on the outskirts of the Swiss town of New Glarus, WI.  Being in New Glarus, or at the brewery is like being transported to  a little town in Switzerland.  As a matter of fact, the weekned that we move is the celebrated Polkafest in New Glarus...one of our favorite events.  

The most popular of all New Glarus brews is Spotted Cow...however my favorite is Moon Man.  Moon Man, in my opinion, puts Blue Moon to shame.  

The brewery, which recently completed a rebuild, is worth a trip in and of itself...often hosting live music, and always worth the cost to "taste."

Wollersheim, I'll admit, is somewhere that I haven't been lately; but after THEIR reconstruction, I found that I could enjoy time on the terrace, with Prairie Fume and some cheese, while Evie played quite contentedly in a sandbox just next to our table!  I recall it being one of my most hopeful days of her young life, because her sensory issues were at their height and I rarely could relax for even a half hour without having to keep her entertained.  Put her in a sandbox, however, and she could play for an hour without complaint.

Finally, Botham; much smaller in distribution than Wollersheim, but actually more my style.  We have enjoyed concerts in the barn on brisk fall days, warm days overlooking the rolling hills of the countryside on the terrace, and personalized Evie-Jo shows on the stage when live music wasn't available.  

My favorite of the Bothem wines?  Probably the Finis or the Riesling. 

I plan to pick up a few bottles for mom and I to enjoy each night as we road trip out to Nevada.  I'm hoping that Norm and Rita will ship us some bottles as birthday or Christmas gifts too.  *hint, hint*

My Cup Lifted, the name of this blog, originated from my love of wine, and my love of the life with which  God has blessed me.  I lift my glass to Him, to this beautiful town, and to all our friends and family say proudly, as the Hefty family has taught me:

Gsundheit!

   

 

Saturday Morning Coffee~Favorite Fridays

One of the Hefty Traditions, dating further back than I know, is gathering for Saturday Morning Coffee.  

Every Saturday morning, even in sub-zero temperatures, Jeff's parents, uncle and our family get together at one of our houses to chat over a few cups of coffee.  On special Saturdays we even might have other aunts and uncles join us! 

Pre-children, Saturday Morning Coffee was pretty much filled with discussing topics of importance in our lives:  work, homes, plans, politics, and headline news.  Once we had children to entertain, we incorporated some games like wii or eureka into the mix.  

The food at on Saturday mornings is always delicious.  I sometimes make scones from scratch, or there might be breads, muffins and rolls....but a really great treat is to have a yummy Kringle.  (Will they have those in Reno?  I don't think I'd even heard of a Kringle until moving to Wisconsin.)

Whatever we do, and whatever, we eat is not as important as the tradition and what it signifies.  

Saturday Morning Coffee is one of the things that makes moving to Reno a difficult decision.  Jeff and I wanted to live in one of our hometowns so we would have family nearby.  The close relationship that Evie has with both sets of her grandparents, and even her great-grandma, is evidence of that closeness in proximity.  

But there are a couple reasons that making this move is also important to us and to our growth as a family.

First, as amazing as both our families are, God is the ultimate priority in our hearts.  As much as I used to say we could never leave Madison because of the wonderful doctors, educators and our families, I realized when this opportunity presented itself that our faith must be bigger than our fears.  If we have the strong faith we say we do, then we need to show it by going where God sends us.  

Jesus asks that we take up our cross and follow him...and sometimes that means leaving the comfort that we have built around us.

Second, this will take our marriage, our family, to another level.  Jeff and I need to see what we, as parents, partners, and individuals can do for our family.  When Jeff's parents first wintered in Florida, I'll admit that we were a little scared to see how we could handle things without our built in "back up".  We would need to find a sitter for hockey Saturdays, and we'd need to figure out how to always pick Evie up from daycare on time.  That first winter, when we accomplished all of this, and when we saw that God provided all of the answers to those questions... I think we realized for the first time that we ARE good parents!  

We never knew what we were capable of because we never had to try anything different.

Saturday Morning Coffee is proof that family values still exist.  It's about coming together at a given time each week to catch each other up, and build each other up.  We are sure to FaceTime in whenever we can (although the 8 o'clock CST start time will be a challenge).  And we will always look forward to it when we are home for a visit.

2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten ~ Favorite Fridays

There are so many parks in Mt. Horeb that I can’t even begin to tell you about all of them.  In fact, I can honestly say that there are likely some parks that I don’t know about and haven’t visited.  Still, on this Favorite Friday, I would like to write about a few of my favorite parks.

One of my favorites is Grandma Foster Park on Main Street.  

There was one summer that Grandma Foster’s was our park of choice.  There wasn’t a huge hill to go up or down and that was beneficial considering Evie was riding in a wagon at that point in time.  The slide was often in the shade, and that helped it stay cool as opposed to heating up in the late afternoon sun.  There weren’t too many challenging ladders or bridges at Grandma Foster’s as there were at other parks, and that helped considering Evie’s delayed walking and unpredictable clumsiness.  Grandma Foster’s was a simple solution for the days when we just needed to “get out” and break up the monotony of a day.

Another of our favorite parks is Boeck’s Park by the Mt. Horeb pool.

When Evie was REALLY little we called this park Green Park because the play structure has a lot of green parts to it.  There is a steering wheel atop the structure and Evie used to pretend she was driving a bus.  We would sing either “The Wheels on the Bus” or “Get on the Bus” (by the Dooblebops) as she steered her way through her town. 

There’s also a little “window” with a ledge underneath the play structure; we’d often pretend we were shopping and checking out at that window, or we’d pretend it was the window at a fast food restaurant.  We stopped going to Green Park once Evie got old enough to want to swim at the pool.  It was just too difficult a fight everyday to be at the park and have her want to be in the pool.

Of course, our number one park in Mt. Horeb is the ever popular Grundahl Park.

Not only is it the largest park in Mt. Horeb, but it boasts some of the greatest summer activities.  Relay for Life is at Grundahl each year, our family reunion is always at Grundahl, Summer Frolic takes place there, and I’ve held many a birthday party for Evie at Grundahl Park over the years.  Another awesome activity at Grundahl is the Wednesday Night live music in July.  It’s like a mini-version of Concerts in the Square at the Capitol in Madison, only without the crowds and without the parking nightmare. 

 

In addition to the large play structure (complete with a twirly-whirly slide), Grundahl also has an AWESOME couple of hills to roll down, and enough wide open space that we could fly kites there without too much danger of getting our kites caught in trees.  Sometimes, when we had enough energy to do so, we would even “run the bases” at the softball diamond.

I know that Reno, (and the suburb we will live in called Sparks) will have parks.   

Somehow, though, I know that they won’t seem as wonderful because they won’t have the memories attached to them of flying Sesame Street kites and watching all of Evie’s first “independent” climbs up ladders and stairs.  If I weren’t opposed to defacing public property, I would gladly carve into each of the play structures at our favorite Mt. Horeb parks:

2 good 2 be 4 gotten

Favorite Fridays~Our Journey through Oz with UW Hospitals, Clinics, andthe American Family Children's Hospital

Ironic, isn't it, that the place I wanted to flee from so desperately this past Tuesday is the place that I write about today as one of my favorite things that I'll miss about Madison when we move?  But it is...in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wanted to get home from Oz too, but she made some amazing friends there, learned a lot about herself, and did some MAJOR growing up.

When our house first landed in Oz, it was because Evie was diagnosed with WAGR...and the first friend we made was Glinda and the Munchkins...all the doctors, nurses, and staff at our own little UW clinic here in town have been amazing.  Following up on ear infections, UTIs, and wanting to ensure that, not just Evie, was comfortable, but also Jeff and I.  We have been blessed with doctors who want to learn, and want to be a part of this journey of discovery with us.

So, they showed us the yellow brick road...a path toward satisfaction in this life...a path of hope, with a promise of a future.

We met our "Eye Team" at Dr. S's office.  I was still a frightened new mom, with a rare syndrome clogging up my brain.  I just knew I wanted to get back to Kansas...to that innocence BEFORE WAGR.  

We not only took our first scary steps with Dr. S~ countless exams under anesthesia when Evie was just a few weeks old...surgeries beginning around 3 months; but he taught us how to "think" in those early days and encouraged us to keep our positive outlook on things to come.

We went to the Waisman Center next to meet with a geneticist.  For some reason, being at the Waisman Center, and seeing all the services they had to offer families made me feel better.  I never felt like I was stuck in that place between wanting to accept the diagnosis and wanting to just be "normal".  

At the Waisman Center, being DIFFERENT was being NORMAL.

Dr. W made lots of recommendations, accepted the advice of the International WAGR Syndrome Association (like by referring us to a pediatric endocrinologist just so we could get to know one), and helped us feel free to FEEL.  

We may have been broken-hearted, but we were reminded that even broken-hearts can heal.

When we entered the forest; dark and foreboding, we heard that Evie had Wilms Tumor.  She would have to undergo chemotherapy and have her kidney "re-sectioned"; have part of it removed.  The doctors, nurses and staff of the Hematology-Oncology department, as well as our urologist, gave us courage to persevere.  

Again, I think it's very rare to find doctors who will gladly look at "mom" or "dad" and say, "You know many more people with WAGR than we do...what do they say?"  It's not like we mapped out our treatment, but when Evie's ptosis was so bad, our doctors listened when I said that people with WAGR responded much more dramatically to vincristine, just as those with Down Syndrome do...so, they held the vincristine a couple of different points in Evie's treatment.  

They gave us the courage to be advocates, while also allowing us to mourn and experience the grief of cancer.

We made it out of the forest and into the sunny Poppyfield of having a child who survived cancer.  While there, you like to catch up on some long over-due sleep, but you also still have some scary moments like all of the follow up scans and some much needed re-building of the immune system after having been wiped out by chemo.  We had to rely on our local clinic, (who we first met when our house landed in Oz) to rescue us on several occasions:  UTIs, pneumonia, and sinus infections abounded those first few years post-chemo.

Once we reached the Emerald City, probably around age 6 years for Evie, we were really in a good place medically.  Not so many appointments, a lot of "Six Month" follow-ups.  It was a fabulous place, a that medical utopia.  Our newest team of docs and nurses with the endocrinology department showed us that Evie was still a "horse of a different color" and she was celebrated for it.  Suddenly it was a "Jolly Old Land of Oz " and the daily "fear" that we seemed to have looming over us was dissipating.  

Our work was not done yet, though...we still had more that the Wizard wanted us to do.  Our broken-hearts had more they would need to endure.

The Wizard told us that, if we wanted to return to a "safe" place, we would need to kill the Wicked Witch by filling the hold in her heart.  The hole wasn't an immediate threat, but was looming where ever we went; taunting us and letting us know that it WOULD need to be dealt with eventually.  In spite of our fear, we knew that before we got to our knew home in Kansas (ummm....Reno)...we would need to take care of the Wicked Witch. 

Our friends from along the way came with us to the Witch's castle...Our favorite sedation nurse, Judy, who we hadn't seen in about 6 years was the nurse taking care of us from 6:30 am check-in until her shift ended at 2:30 pm.  We chatted all day long, (Evie was sedated, so that made chatting EASY!).  And even Dr. P,  our oncologist, stopped in on Monday night after Evie's surgery to say "hello" as she had seen that Evie was in-patient that night.  Having friends like these who travel this journey with us makes life so much more enjoyable.  They don't just care about us when we are on THEIR schedule; but they seek us out whenever we are in Oz.

The Wicked Witch is gone, and we wait for the Wizard to clear us for our return to Kansas...(um...Reno...).  And, although I wanted to flee from the hospital whenever I could...the smells, the sounds, the sights...I also knew that some of the most life-changing days of our lives were spent right there...in Oz.  We learned, we loved, and we fought courageously.

No, Aunt Em -- this was a real, truly live place. 

And I remember that some of it wasn't very nice....

but most of it was beautiful.
But just the same, all I kept saying to everybody was, I want to go home. And they sent me home.

Dorothy ~ The Wizard of Oz

Favorite Fridays~Our House

We moved in the week after returning from our honeymoon in Quebec City.  
I got tendonitis in my arm during the move,
I felt awkward and foreign in our new home.
But then we painted, 
And soon I learned that the faucets in the bathroom turned the wrong way.
We got two black kitties.
It became our home.

Swirling staircases,
Peeling paint on the porch,
A country kitchen,
With a window to the north.

A window; right next to my coffee pot, 
The first thing I see in the morning is:
Snow flying, 
Rain pouring,
Fog rolling,
The sun or moon glowing.

An office; still painted mint green today,
We thought we'd change it, but never did.
In that office I heard dad say that Grandma Ev was no longer with us;
And years later, my mom say that my dad was now gone too.

A living room; with the grape vine stencil border~my labor of love.
I also labored there for 17 hours before going to the hospital to have Evie.
There we rocked Evie when we brought her home,
Brought her home from specialist appointments,
From surgeries, 
From chemo.  
In that living room we felt the joy and pain of love.

A bathroom upstairs; once Pepto Bismol pink,
I was in there doing my hair when Jeff told me
Grandpa Turk had suffered a stroke, 
And just over a year later, it was in that same room he told me
Our niece Emma had been born.
Kitties rattle the door knob to get in to that room,
But then "meow" with agony when the door shuts them in.

The kitchen with floor to ceiling cupboards and ceramic tile counters, 
It's the first room I fell in love with.
Carving pumpkins, doing crafts on snow days, making popcorn.
Success with a recipe; and failure at times.
I was never afraid to fail in that kitchen,
It was a place where you could just try again.

The front porch...a small room filled with Oz;
Coffee in the morning, and a good book in the evening.
A place to listen to church bells, 
To smell the summer rains,
To sleep in the cold, crisp air when Evie had croup.

Our house felt like a stranger 12 years ago;
But feels like a best friend today.

We have grown up here;
Woken up to dark days, and suffered through painful nights, 
But felt God with us through it all...
Here, in this house.

We have celebrated here;
Enjoyed the company of friends and family; laughed, sang, and danced,
And known God was the one who blessed us with it all...
Here, in this house.

Favorite Fridays~Eureka!!!

Even though I have been writing about my "favorite things" that I'll miss about Wisconsin when we move to Nevada, today I've decided to write about one of our favorite card games. I can't take credit for this game; we learned it from my mom who learned it from a friend of hers.  But, I think it's a game that everyone should know about because it enables ANYONE to play.  There's no speed involved, no strategy, and that makes it easier for those who are younger, older, or may have a disability which prevents them from performing well in other games.  

Eureka~the rules:

• You need two full decks of cards with the jokers removed.
• One deck of cards is the deck used to "call" the cards; the other deck is dealt out into piles according to the number of players until ALL CARDS ARE DEALT.  (A player or two may end up with more cards than the others; but that doesn't matter.)
• The person who is calling the cards may or may not also choose to play.
• The CALLER flips over the first card on the top of the "call" deck, and calls out the first card; for example:
• The Queen of Hearts!
• Whoever has the Queen of Hearts will say, "I got it" or "Woot woot" or "Boo-yah"  (you can choose to tailor your response to your own personality.)
• Then the Queen of Hearts is thrown into the center to start the discard pile.
• The CALLER will continue to flip the cards in the calling deck over and will continue to call out the card that is flipped.  The PLAYERS will continue to shout out when their card has been called and will throw their cards into the discard pile.
• The first PLAYER who runs out of cards (because the caller has called out all of his or her cards) will shout EUREKA!!!!

That is where the game may normally stop.  However, our family (and other friends have contributed to the fun "Hefty Rules" of the game) we've made up some other additional fun "antics" for Eureka.  We continue to call out all the cards until everyone has thrown all of their cards in. 

When a player has only one card left, and no one has called EUREKA yet, we start a drum roll on the table. (It adds to the excitement of waiting for that first person to go out.)  If we have a LOT of players, or if someone may be sensitive to loud noises, we may only drum roll using our pointer fingers to muffle the noise.

Once the first person goes out, we then start chanting "SECOND PLACE", until the next player goes out, and so on and so forth.

We also will say that the LAST person to go our wins a NAP.  (That was added by my friend Jessica T...I think she really wanted a nap...)  Needless to say, the parents are always holding out hope that they will be the last one out.

We call the Ace of Spades the "Prettiest Card in the Deck".  Have you ever noticed that before?  The Ace of Spades is always a little fancier than the rest.  So, when we have all the players dealt out, Evie will say, "Who has the prettiest card in the deck?"  As you can tell, it doesn't matter if we know what cards everyone has, because, again, there isn't any strategy to the game; it is, quite literally, the luck of the draw.

Well, that's the game we know and love called Eureka.  It is definitely one of our favorite things.  I'm so glad my mom's friend taught her to play it, and glad my mom taught us.  We even play it over FACETIME!  It just takes a wee bit more coordinating, but when you have the hang of it, it's no trouble at all. 

I'm hoping this gives all of you a great new idea for playing on those rainy days, snowy days, and every day in between!

Favorite Fridays~Our Schools

Evie's teacher helping her make wool into a ball on a field trip.

I just had Evie's last IEP in this school district.  That was a really hard thing to do considering I'd always imagined her graduating from here; having walked the halls and sat in the desks of the schools that I'd been working in these past few years.

I know a good school can be hard to find, and I know that a good school for a student with special needs can be even harder.  I'm convinced that in this school district, Evie would have been blessed to have been educated in every school; from the Early Learning Center all the way to the High School.

I appreciated the schools, the teachers, the teacher's aides, and the staff even before I started working in the district.  However, once I started working in the schools; sitting in the classrooms with students, participating in some of the problem-solving and planning that is required to best serve the students; that's when I fell in love with the school district.  I started to see how complicated a single day can be for students and staff; and how hard the employees work to make the day be as seamless as possible for each student.

A great school isn't a school that is without problems or challenges.  A great school is reflective and evaluative and constantly strives to be better.  A great school is a school that is aware of it's strengths AND weaknesses, and will soar with it's strengths and continue to improve in it's areas of weakness.  The schools here are definitely GREAT schools.

We haven't gone these 6 years here without an issue at school.  But, whenever we DID have an issue, I knew that I could call or e-mail and I would get a prompt response and a slew of people who wanted to help fix whatever was wrong.

 
One area that I see as a strength here in our schools is how they include the children with special needs and nurture and grow the relationships of the "typical" children with those of the children with special needs.  

As a parent of a child who has a number of disabilities, my greatest fear isn't that she won't get a job, or won't go to college...my greatest fear is that she won't have friends.  

However, the first reaction Evie had to me telling her that we are moving to Reno was, "Oh...oh no...I will miss my friends so much."  That made my heart swell and my eyes WELL with tears.  Her first thoughts were of her FRIENDS.  Hallelujah, thank you, Lord...

Then I had to tell her teachers...

That was heart-breaking, because I got to hear things like, "Her smile in the morning reminds me of why I became a teacher," "She is our ray of sunshine," and "We like look for an excuse to visit with Evie."  It was not going to be easy on them to hear that she's not just not moving on to the next school in the district, she's actually moving hundreds of miles away.

I know that we have all shed many tears, (many of her friends' moms told me their children cried when they said Evie was moving *insert sad-face here* ), and I know we'll shed many more.  I thank God that we were able to start our journey with Evie here though.  What a beautiful way to see the best in people; as they support, love and celebrate our special girl.

Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.  William Butler Yeats

Thank you, to all her teachers, therapists, aides and friends; thank you for lighting a fire in Evie, and a fire in the hearts of her friends...

Favorite Fridays~The Truth

For quite some time now, I have been attending a Bible study on Friday mornings at our church, New Hope.  While some Bible studies are focused on coffee and chatting, these studies are TOUGH; but in a good way.  They teach the Truth.  I have often left on Friday mornings emotionally drained from learning about God's love, God's grace, and God's sovereignty.

The Bible studies that New Hope's women use are called Precept Upon Precept because they are structured with the understanding that scripture does not contradict scripture, and that in order to understand God's Word, we need to study the Word in depth; from the root.  This can be a tedious process, and it does not go unnoticed by Satan-he loves to try to derail me when I'm in the midst of these studies.  While I will miss Fridays, Sundays and every day in between at New Hope when we move out West; right now I'm still focused on what I learn there. Our current study of the book of Daniel has shown me clearly how I am to deal with our struggles as a more mature Christian.

Let me set the stage for you:  Daniel, a youth still at the beginning of the book, is being groomed for a position in King Nebuchadnezzar's court. The king, with a pagan belief, hates Christianity so much that he has even been changing the names of people from Christian names to those related to a pagan belief.  Daniel and his four closest friends were raised Christian and held fast to that belief.  

But what has impressed me the most, and led me to some soul-searching is not just the fact that they hold to their faith in the midst of oppression under a pagan king; it's more the fact that, even in times of extreme pressure, Daniel shows his faithfulness to God in how he reacts to certain situations.  

Chapter 2 of Daniel is a great example of this, and could not have come at a better time for me.

King Nebuchadnezzar has dream and calls together all the sorcerers and magicians in the land to ask them to tell him what his dream was and explain his dream to him.  When they refuse to tell him his dream, claiming that he has asked something that no human could ever do, he becomes enraged.

This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.  Daniel 2: 12-13

So, literally, their are people hunting down Daniel and his friends with the intent to kill them.  Here is how Daniel reacts to this circumstance.

Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.   Daniel 2: 17-18

Now, while my first reaction to my day yesterday (learning the heat in my car was broken, knowing that Jeff needs to get his car fixed, knowing that we will be paying for our health insurance in full this month since it's through COBRA,  and trying to fill out loan paperwork through the bank so we can buy a house out West)...my FIRST reaction was to think, "put a shout out as a prayer request so people will pray."  However, the motive behind that reaction was NOT to get prayer on our behalf, it was, I think, to notify people of everything I had going on and POSSIBLY to gain sympathy.  (Sad, but I have to be honest about my heart's condition).  

My SECOND reaction was to post a status update to Facebook saying something like, "Satan really is trying to derail me" or "I really hate it when one thing after another happens and each one has $$$$ attached to it."  But then I realized, "Tammie, this is NOT a big deal.  God will provide, and you whining on Facebook will do nothing to help the situations." 

Thankfully, I refrained from these first reactions, because I would have felt really sheepish once I dove even deeper into Daniel 2.  You see, Daniel's prayer is answered and God reveals the meaning of the king's dream to Daniel!  Yay, God!!! 

So, if your life were in danger; IMMEDIATE danger, with your potential executioners just waiting for the time to come to kill you, and YOU were given the answer to the question that the king is so desperately seeking which will SAVE YOUR LIFE...what would you do?

I would run from my home and directly to the king's court so I could say, "Wait!  Stop the slaughter! I have the answer!  I have the answer!!!!"

But instead, Daniel takes the time to offer up to God a heart-felt prayer of thanks:

During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:
"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”
Daniel 2: 19-23 

Wow...our dinner prayer is often much shorter than that prayer.  I would be so pre-occupied with saving myself that I would never think about saying a prayer of thanksgiving BEFORE going to king and telling him the meaning of his dream.  I would go straight to the king's court and remember (maybe) to say a prayer of thanks to God later than night as I was falling asleep.

Can you see why I'll miss these Bible studies?  I hope to continue to order the materials and share my thoughts with my fellow Bible study attendees from across the miles, and I hope to stay true to that plan; but we never know what we will find when we get to our new home.  Perhaps there will be a Precept Upon Precept Bible Study in the area; perhaps not.  But I know that God is faithful; he'll be faithful to me just as he was to Daniel.  I just need to learn not to be such a reactor; so guided by my emotions that I forget who is ultimately in control and who has authored my days. 

New Hope; NOT just the title of Epsiode IV of Star Wars, but also a church based in the Word of God; founded on the Truth.  Just another of my favorite things.

Favorite Fridays~Summer Frolic

No doubt about it, one of my FAVORITIST things about Mt. Horeb is the Summer Frolic.

The first weekend of June (well, not last year, but that's not important), something magical happens in Mount Horeb.  First you see the banner go up over Main Street to serve as a reminder that the time has come~then up goes the banner that hangs on the Military Ridge Trail Bridge that passes over Springdale.  You start to hear names of bands that will be performing, and maybe you’re even start saving up some cash so you can play a card of BINGO or two.

It’s Summer Frolic.  The most wonderful time of the year…

Frolic takes place at Grundahl Park, and really, all over town.  There are parties at houses, games of croquet, parades, sales up town, and softball games in the ball diamonds.  I would ALWAYS overindulge on brats …but never so badly as the summer I was pregnant.  I think I actually went to the fairgrounds one morning to get one of the first brats served that day. 

  

Jeff and I got in the habit of throwing a Pre-Frolic party…usually as a good reason to bring our Hockey Section friends to Mount Horeb during a “warmer” month than we usually see during hockey season.  Even on the rainy years, we could always find a way to have fun~catching up with good friends has a way of making any weather endurable.

I’m not a huge carnival ride fan, but the Super Slide always proved a favorite for Evie, and the gal who runs the slide remembers her from year to year; which is charming considering the number of kids that poor gal must meet every day.  

Believe it or not, Frolic has even shown me some of the most encouraging sights of my life!  Last year, for example, right when we arrived at the midway, one of Evie’s dear friends from school joined us on the Ferris wheel, and after that, I was just ancillary!  Evie’s friends took her on ride after ride after ride.  They helped her on, and helped her off.  

Every ounce of me wanted to help, but every ounce of me knew I shouldn’t…she needed her friends, and her independence.

There are always GREAT bands to play in the music tent; every year~cover bands who would sing all of our favorites from the Beatles, to Poison, to Journey. 

There’s just something about dancing under the stars with a cool June wind blowing off the cornfields from the west while singing Sweet Child of Mine.  Nice.

Then there’s the Frolic Parade; the arduously long parade; the parade with every fire truck from every the city in Wisconsin.  Well, maybe not that many, but it feels pretty close!  Our house is a prime location for seating as we are just one house off of Main Street; however many times we’d sit by Jeff’s parent’s house with them as they lived closer to the Frolic grounds; and as Evie got older, we started sitting by her buddy Jack’s house too.  In other words, we’ve seen the Frolic Parade from all angles and at all points in time.  

And then it's over...we may decide to straggle on down to the fairgrounds for one last game of BINGO, or a spin on the Carousel, but Sunday marks the end of Frolic.  The carnies pack up their portable rides, the striped tents come down, and the whir of the generators that power it all quiets and finally fades into the humming of hungry flies and curious crickets.  Soon the excitement will rebuild just down the highway in Verona at Hometown Days~but for the time being, Mt. Horeb rests in the post~Frolic peacefulness of knowing that summer is well on it's way. 

I'm not sure if we'll make it to Frolic this year or not; but if last year was our last year, then it was certainly the best year...