The end of last month brought the beginning of many new endeavors in our lives as well as the revival of old endeavors.
One of the continuing new endeavors has been leading my son’s Cub Scout den.
Wednesdays, twice a month since September, we’ve been working on our requirements for the boys to become Wolves and then graduate into the Bear den for next year. By this time of the year, the boys have completed what they must do to be a Wolf and have moved into doing the “electives,” which means we’ve been learning about the Native Americans and secrets languages this month. We only have 3 more meetings in April and May, and then we’ve done for the year. It’s been one more extra commitment that I didn’t originally plan to take on, but I can honestly say that I’ve truly enjoyed learning so much about this honorable organization and the important values which becoming and graduating through the Cub Scout levels instills within boys.
I am happy to be a part of teaching not only my son, but also others his age how to be young men of character in a formal setting and through real life, enjoyable experiences.
This month I also completed the revival of one of my old favorite endeavors, which is hula dancing. We had our family potluck dinner show on the 26th, then we had the privilege of being asked to perform at the annual Spring Break Music Fest last Sunday, and it was every bit as fun as I remembered it to be. Hula is such a flowing and beautiful way to tell a story to music with your hands and body, and I have missed being a part of this lovely group of ladies and under the tutelage of two very natural and talented Polynesian teachers. Finally, I was asked to go on a sunset sail at the end of the month, which is something I have not done much of during my time on the island, but which I thoroughly enjoy every time my gracious sailing friends allow me to join them. When you live on a small island, sailing takes you away from it all (kind of like the old “Calgon” commercials claimed to do with a simple bath in the tub). It makes you feel as if you have taken a fabulous trip to “another tropical island” in the beautiful blue-green waters of the Pacific, when you really only took a small 10 mile circle in the lagoon of the island you already live on. Like hula, there’s something very soothing about sailing for me. I don’t think I could ever become a long term, overnight sailor myself, but I do enjoy the occasional “dip” into the waters of what being a sailor is like. It’s one of the many atoll life experiences that you can participate in easily with good friends, good food, and not a lot of expense that is usually only reserved for special vacations and tour groups unless you are able and willing to invest the start-up money, time, and energy in becoming a sailor yourself.
Last but not least in the March endeavors part of this post, I have finally stepped more completely into the self-publishing world and contracted with a publisher to produce my first two children’s books, written when my boys were little, and illustrated by my boys over the past 2 years. They finally finished their pictures (16 per book), which was no small feat, and I’m ready to put myself out there and see where it leads. Even if no one but family and friends purchase the books, and I only break even, I would always regret it if I didn’t give this lifelong dream to become a children’s book author a shot. Yes, it’s at my own expense, but the boys being a part of the experience makes it not only a dream fulfilling adventure, but also a family heirloom making journey. I’ll let you all know when the books are available at the online bookstores, so you can check them out and let me know, honestly, what you think. J
Before I move on to the last part of this post, I don’t want to leave out my fiancé and the details of his latest endeavors, which includes participating in his first Brew Masters Home Brewing Competition at the Spring Break Music Fest. He’s brewed 5 different batches of microbrew since he began in January, and the third, a Chocolate Hazelnut Porter, was the one ready to serve that day. There’s a strong learning curve to brewing. I never realized how scientific and complex it can be, and it’s been very exciting to watch the process, even though I’ve not been much help throughout it to my “’Absentee Brewer, “ who is only able to brew on the weekends when he is on “my island.” It’s so much fun to make your own foods. I’ve been making my own bread lately, and we’ve been creating a small container garden of lima beans, peppers, herbs, and so forth. There’s something so fulfilling about doing it all yourself, and some days I can’t wait to move back to the states where we can experiment with having our own garden, and I can take classes at the local community colleges and such for learning new skills to apply to our lives. It’s fun to try something new. It keeps life fresh and exciting every step of the way!
The second part of this post involves Sunday School Adventures. I’ve been teaching Sunday School since my babies were in the nursery, and in all that time, I’ve had plenty of interesting mornings with plenty of children’s antics and issues, but the last Sunday in March was one for the record books. First off, I had 11 students that morning (the class covers 1st through 5th grade students, but the numbers vary from 6-8 on a regular basis to over 10 on a busy, busy weekend), and classroom management of this particularly lively group was already proving to be a challenge from the start of class. About ½ through our class reading of the Bible story, one of my regular sweet, sweet girls (who happened to have her forearm and wrist in a cast) suddenly looked up and told me she had a marker cap stuck in her cast. She began trying to pull the cast off her arm in order to get to the cap, which by this time had traveled down to the middle of her forearm. I asked her not to take it off and then sent her downstairs with a friend to get her mom for help. The class quietly went on while they were away except for one little friend who began ever so barely noticeably crying at her seat with her head down. The other children kept trying to talk to her about it, but having had this little girl in my class since she was in preschool, I knew she sometimes just gets uncomfortable and needs to work through it on her own, so I asked everyone to focus on the story and not her. Pretty soon, I started wondering about my friend with the cast and how she was doing. About that time, they walked back into class telling me that waited for a while downstairs, but didn’t want to bother the adult class, so they didn’t go get her mom. Then, she started crying in that hyperventilation kind of way. At this point, there was no one who could calm her down except for mom, so I asked the others to continue with the story together while I took my troubled student back downstairs and called her mom out of the class for help. Upon returning to my class, I decided not much more was going to get done in terms of our story and activities for the day, so we quickly finished up and started getting ready to go. Then, my quietly crying friend at the table came up to me, wrapped her arms around me, and asked for help. I queried her on what was wrong, and she told me she didn’t feel good, then started to throw up snot and spit into her hands. As I turned her toward the trash can, I asked her sister to take her to the bathroom, and I took a deep breath, knowing we were almost done for the day. Right after that lowest point of the class, the high point arrived when my casted friend came up to tell me excitedly and with a huge smile on her face that her dad had gotten the marker cap out of her cast! Praise the Lord for getting us all through the morning safe and sound. Who knew Sunday School could be so fraught with perils? ;) I wonder what next week will bring…
