We have a lot to celebrate in the Hanson family this month.
The four older kids completed 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. Since we homeschool our children, that’s also a celebration of Hannah’s enormous and dedicated investment in their lives.
Baby Annaliese turned 9 months old, and she is chattering away these days and just on the edge of crawling. Her sisters adore her, and we often have to remind them to continue their chores, homework, or bedtime preparations instead of playing with the baby.
We celebrated Evangeline’s 8th birthday with sub sandwiches from Jersey Mike’s, a family game of Settlers of Catan, and rollerblading. She loves helping people, and she keeps excitedly offering to carry water, snacks, and other things for me in the new bag she got for her birthday. It’s blackberry season, and she hunts daily for ripe ones in our backyard and “stashes” them to share with the family.
Ashlinn and Carys asked me to write a “pining” duet for violin and flute. I wasn’t sure how towrite a pining duet, but I gave it a shot. They confirmed it’s sufficiently pining, and they are working on learning it. As a music lover, I’m thrilled to see them enjoying making music and even more thrilled that they invite me to join in with them. While they are growing in their independence, I’m thankful that our teenagers still want to do things with me.
Elena (age 10) drew these beautiful birds, and when Hannah told her how great they were, she downplayed it because, “I drew them from looking at a picture and not from my mind.” She has also drawn some pretty cool dragons.
Evangeline has been drawing alongside her older sister and asked that we share these works that she’s proud of too.
Also in the artistic vein, our oldest, Ashlinn, completed this lovely embroidery project.
We’ve had our cats Claire and Thalia for over a year now, and I totally underestimated how much they would change our lives. The kids have stepped up in taking care of the cats and find so much joy in playing with them, cuddling with them, and watching their antics.
About 20 years ago, I wrote a song inviting God to change the course of my life, which I never got around to recording. As a way to unwind on a recent sabbath day, I decided to put together a drum track for it. That turned out pretty well, so I tried recording an electric guitar part on top of it in this free software I downloaded. The joy of creating pulled me along to record more parts until it matched the power-filled, energized, thick, rock vibe I envisioned so many years ago.
You can check out the mostly-finished version here, and I hope it brings you joy and enlivens your soul.
Blessings until next time! -Caleb