Shakespeare???...

Quote of the week: (okay, first the background, then the quote.)

Yesterday, I was giving a violin lesson to a young boy in our church. He was about to embark on playing the theme of the Surprise Symphony. I thought that it would be a good time for a quick story so I related (singing included...I guess I could have let that part out) the dramatic story of why the Surprise Symphony is called the Surprise Symphony and how the composer didn't want the prince to fall asleep, etc.

So I asked my student, "Do you know who wrote the Surprise Symphony?" His friend, sitting at the table and listening in, ventured a noble guess...
"Shakespeare?"

Summer 2011 Memoirs

I woke up at 5:30 last Monday to get an early start on homework. My mom got up shortly thereafter and the two of us opened windows to enjoy the warm Labor Day air. Off in the distance, I heard geese flying over and honking to one another. It's a strange sound, really. But to me, it was familiar and emotional - it meant fall was on the way!

There have been numerous reminders that the fall is one the way and all the things with it: the drums of the highschool band are once again audible in the girls' bedroom; at Sunday lunch, pumpkin pie was once again a dessert choice; with the resumption of the school schedule, the excitement of academia once again rushes through my veins.

Of course, with the beginning of something comes the end of something else - and the something else has been one of the best summers of my life. I think I say that every summer - but that only proves with what bountiful grace, my God provides day after day exactly what I need and what I want. So instead of chronicling every detail of this amazing summer, I want to share with you a few distinct memories of this bountifully rick summer.

1) My first memory is very simple and it's of a flower. I was sitting outside on our back deck doing devotions, when a flower in my mom's flowerboxes caught my attention. It was beautiful, intricate, and perfect. I think it was a shade of purple. In that flower, I saw the handiwork of my amazing God. He transcends time and space, and yet He deigns to design and create flowers! This summer one of the books I read was Chesterton's Orthodoxy. In it, he says basically that it is the child's mind that sometimes grasps closer to the truth when it appreciates the simple, "repetitive" beauty and joy. Chesterton notes that every morning, when the sun comes up, it is God saying "do it again." When God ordained for that flower to blossom on our back deck, it was Him reveling in His own creative power and saying "Do it again." This first memory sets the backdrop for the rest, because it is this very God who cares for flowers, Whose Hand was evident throughout the whole summer, guiding, protecting, and blessing.

2) The next memory has a much less peaceful setting! It is a memory of three teenage girls rushing out the door with a rather frazzled father, who despite all his warning for a good timely plan, has had to motivate the girls out of the house. Sheryl has already chronicled several details from Bethany, Sheryl, and my day in NYC, but she did not mention the ignoble fact that we were very close to missing our bus for reasons which my memory is a little foggy on - something about dressing, breakfast, make-up, hair, etc. etc. That was the beginning of a fantastic day of adventure this summer in which we girls walked our feet off getting lost and refinding ourselves all over lower Manhanttan!

--- More was to follow, but since it never did, I have decided to post this old entry anyway.

Carlson Sightings in Kentucky and the Bronx

A little less week after Bethany Hammermaster flew home, the Carlsons were on the move again, well, at least We Three Kings Kids traversed afar. Andrew launched himself on Resica Falls Resort for a week of Boy Scout Camp, and Julie and I migrated to Kentucky for the Reformed Baptist Family Conference. Andrew's week at Camp was highly successful, receiving five merit badges, and since then has earned another one!!!! It's always exciting to hear from him at the end of camp how many he earned. Some of them he hadn't even planned on working on!!!

While he diligently whizzing through the badges, Julie and I left on July 5th at 1:30 AM with six others to make the treck down to Kentucky. Don't worry...many of us were able to sleep for a good bit of the first few hours. Eleven hours later, the conference campus came into sight and a week of amazing preaching and fellowship began. You can listen to all of the sermons on sermonaudio.com: My personal favorites were Pastor Jeremy Walker's mini series on 2 Kings 13 and the Three Arrows or Six. I would encourage you to listen to them! I found them convicting and invigorating!

(This picture is of the boys' sandwich box tower...They had the entire room watching them and donating the boxes. We all cheered when it finally toppled, but not after getting very high!)

The schedule of the conference was basically: Two morning sessions, lunch, the afternoon for games, naps, etc, dinner, an evening session, and then the rest of the evening for fellowship. Julie and I attempted racquet ball with Catherine Morrison and Jon Larrazabal as our teachers. ...Let's just say that I don't think Julie and I were...um...naturals. Actually far from it. I did accomplish PEGGING Catherine Morrison with the ball. She had a nice round welt for the rest of the week....battle scars, you know. We also played volleyball and Round Robin, both of which were tons of fun.

"Bethany, Meet NJ. NJ, Meet Bethany."

Imagine it: Five strange looking characters hanging around the Continental security checkpoint in Newark Airport. One young male was enjoying doughnut holes and a water bottle. A middle aged gentleman was explaining to his fellows why he had insisted upon carrying a luggage cart up the escalator. A middle aged woman stood with a cookbook and spiral notebook attempting to plan a menu. A young, almost 20ish female offered meal suggestions, and another young female sat on the floor reading The Assassins attempting to not eat any more doughnut holes. Such the security guards saw at 11:30 PM on the 15th of June, 2011. Why did the Carlsons, for such were the five characters, sit this way around the Continental secruity checkpoint in Newark Airport on the night of 15th of June, 2011?

They were expecting a visitor.
Yes, we have just had two amazingly brilliant two weeks with Bethany Hammermaster, one of the famous cousins living in Washington State. The two weeks consisted of running a garage sale, setting up a pool, and getting sick. Okay, that's not all of what the two weeks consisted of. Since a blow by blow retelling of the two weeks could be rather long and, especially for you all, a little painful, I'm simply going to pick a few of the highlights from her visit.
1. I loved introducing her to all of our friends out here. Our friends and our cousins have both had to listen to my rapturous rants about the other, and so I was delighted to finally have my two "worlds" meet.
2. We went into New York City twice during her visit, and during the first one, we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I already love the museum, but this time, my enjoyment was compounded with the fact that Bethany was wandering the rooms with me. The two of us stood in front of painting numerous times and said to one another, "Can you believe that it's really a painting? It looks like a picture!" ...and with the help of Julie and several security persons, we successfully found a Rembrandt.

















3. The second time we went into the City, Bethany, Julie, and I took on the metropolis by ourselves and tried to look like we knew what we were doing. Acting thus, we confidently walked onto the express Subway and laughed our heads off as our stops flew by. (For those of you who don't know: Express subways don't stop at each and every stop. They pick you up at one stop and whiz you to a far-away stop. If you want to stop at every station and get off at the station you were hoping too, Bethany, Julie, and I would suggest making sure you are getting onto the LOCAL subway.) We also confidently wandered a bit more than we normally do, but the entire trip was a success: We found Ground Zero, Trinity Church, Balto, and Alice in Wonderland (Another statue in Central Park). One highlight within this highlight was the fact that we discovered Alexander Hamilton's grave. Despite of what you might think of Hamilton, I consider him a genius, so was THRILLED to find his grave. And, throughout the day, most importantly, we created memories.

4. On one Thursday, Julie was going to take her friend, Becca, out for the morning. Bethany and I went along to spend time with Becca, and for something different, spent the morning at the mall.

5. Another highlight was learning how to waltz. I've had it explained to me several times, and Julie and I have tried to figure it out from closely watching waltzing in movies, but to no avail. Now Julie, Andrew, and I all know how.




Obviously, we made many more than five memories or had more than five highlights of our time together. But these are "a few of my favorite things."Even though Bethany left last Wednesday, the events have not ended over here.

Thursday was Julie's 20th birthday, and in celebration we went swimming with friends and attended the stupendous performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey.

This weekend is filled with VBS prep, packing for Boy Scout camp (Andrew), packing for the Family Conference (Julie and me), and the other every day activities!

What's Been Going On?

The snow is gone; ice has melted; School is finishing...and the blog has been neglected. The last few posts on this blog have consisted of running, and lots of snow, and sabotaging of research projects. Let me tell you now about what been happening recently ...or at least catch you up on the last month or so.
May 10th, almost an exact month ago, was our annual co-op presentation night. For the third year, my friend Bethany and I organized it. I always look forward to this night, and this year was no exception! As the second to last day of co-op, I also had my last day of Writing V, one of my favorite, if not my favorite, class this year. This was no ordinary class meeting...we dressed up (or attempted to dress up) as Roman citizens, headed outside, and snapped several pictures, formal class pictures and otherwise. I would post the final class picture, but I haven't yet gotten it from the photographer. ....but we did have fun in the glorious sunshine. King Arthur and the Knights of the Square Table of Opposition (Formal Logic) also successfully killed the fallacious dragon that had kidnapped the fair damsels in distress.

That Friday, after a week that seemed to never end, full of studying and tests, JULIE FINISHED HER SECOND YEAR OF SCHOOL!!!!! Three cheers for Julie!
...We hope the long week didn't
cause mental damage.



The next Tuesday (May 17), CO-OP FINISHED!!!!! We were all very excited about the lightening of our school loads. The last hour of co-op was especially fun as I and my fellow thespians performed the Shakespeare scenes we've been rehearsing since January.

The scenes were (Sorry the pictures aren't great quality...no flashes were allowed.)

Two Gentlemen of Verona (starring Emily Maynard and MeiLing Roberts)

Othello (starring Andrew Fischer and Mattie van der Swaagh)

As You Like It (starring Mr. van der Swaagh, John Gross,
and Emma Smith, and Lindsay Tamuzza)

and Macbeth (starring Bethany Seiter and Sheryl Carlson)

The next couple weeks were taken up with the non-co-op school and choir! Four practices and two performances later, the NJHSA choir had acquired a new plaque from the Rutgers Choir Festival to add to its collection and had learned a medley of Les Miserables songs in record time!

We enjoyed Memorial day at the town parade where the Boy Scout troop marched and at a co-op family's house for dinner.
This Sunday (the 5th) to Tuesday (the 7th) we enjoyed the company of good friends from Texas, the Simpsons...

or at least some of them. On Monday, we enjoyed traveling into the city and seeing the progress of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center.
I hadn't know how much progress they had made, so it was slightly shocking to see how far they had progressed! This building, according to plan, will be double the height it is now. We also enjoyed touring St. Paul's Chapel (the church which has withstood the NYC fire of 1776 and 9/11) and Trinity Church (to those of you who know and love National Treasure I, you'll understand my excitement of seeing inside the church! ....Also for the NT fans, notice the Picture of Wall Street and Broadway)

We also rode the Staten Island Ferry, from where Daniel Simpson took the amazing pictures of the Statue of Liberty. We also enjoyed seeing Wall Street and stopping at Starbucks. (For any of you who like Starbucks' fun drinks, I would recommend their Mocha Coconut Frappachino.....Yummmm.) The Simpsons spent Tuesday at our house recouping before heading down to Washington D.C.

The youngest Simpson, Hannah, and I really enjoyed getting to know one another. On Monday night and Tuesday morning, she contentedly sat on a swivel chair listening to Adventures in Odyssey on my mp3 player, keeping me company while I worked through the last two chapters of economics. Hannah reminded me quite distinctly of me as a little girl...all the way down to the love of Asiago cheese bagels.

And now...the summer has come. All of us at 38 Washburn Road are greatly looking forward to all of the different activities planned for the summer: next week Bethany Hammermaster is flying out for a couple weeks, a family conference (that Julie and I are going to), Boy Scout camp (which Julie and I are NOT going to), Grammie (or Mom) McCormick flying out, VBS, Pastoral Modules, and a grand finale to the summer with a trip to Seattle for the marriage of Emily Watts to Danny Villa! Stay Tuned! We'll try to keep you posted.

Note: Great pictures from NYC were taken by Daniel Simpson, Presentation Night pictures were taken by Mattie van der Swaagh, and Shakespeare scene pictures taken by Sharon Seiter

My Teaching Video

For education class, our final project was to compile the videos that we had filmed of ourselves over the semester and make a video showing our "journey" towards better teaching. I thought I'd share it with you all. Enjoy.
A better quality version is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP0NJKgbrRM

A Spark of Humor

I am working on a research project (not paper) about the Nestorians in China. I have to create an annotated bibliography, and was reading through William of Rubric's account of the Nestorians in Mongolian China, when Sheryl sabatoged my computer and wrote my annotation for me. I thought you all might enjoy it too:

William of Rubrick’s Source on These Horrible People

Translated by someone who knew no Chinese, this source is written by William of Rubrick’s based on the observations of his second cousin’s great aunt, who visited the Nestorians personally. Rubrick heard first hand from the second cousin’s best friend, who heard it from the second cousin, who heard it from his mom, who heard it from her mom, who heard it from her sister. Rubrick’s second cousin’s great aunt flatly contradicts that the Nestorians were really in Persia at all (They jumped immediately to China), and did not want to make any converts…that’s why there were not many made. This was for several reasons: 1)They knew no one would want to listen to their beliefs. 2)They didn’t really believe the beliefs themselves and 3)They were infamously terrible rhetoricians and couldn’t present their case for their lives. Rubick goes on to relate how the Nestorians had been planning on working on their rhetoric, but had been unable to find and secure a copy of Aristotle’s Rhetoric.

This was for two reasons: 1)The printing press was not yet invented, and the monks at the local monastery would not lend their one copy to those whom they considered heretics, and 2)They looked in the wrong section of the public monastery library, since they had forgotten that Aristotle’s teacher was Plato. Therefore, they were looking directly after Socrates, and since Plato wrote so much for Socrates, they couldn’t get through all of Socrates books before the library closed. If they had more time however, they could possibly have, after working through the writings of Socrates and Plato, eventually gotten to the Aristotle section. However, even if they had, they would not have been able to check it out. This is for two reasons: 1)The monks, as was aforementioned, would not lend their one handwritten copy of Aristotle’s Rhetoric to heretics and 2)They had forgotten their library cards as well as having an already over due book.

Well, she probably doesn’t have a future in historiography, but maybe she should become a comedian!

Ice-Encased New Jersey

Hi Everyone! Yep, It's me again and this time I am not focusing on the few ice spikes (see below) we have in the front of the house, but the ice encased yard we have. Yes, everything is covered in ice. Pictures speak a thousands words, so instead of trying to explain, here's some pictures:

Now for a couple of the bushes and dogwood tree:

Now to finish, a shot of the wintery and icy yard and a shot of the tree. The sheen on the branches on the tree are sheets of ice.

As normally happens when we have this icy land, it only ever stays for a little bit. It's turned to rain and the ice has started to melt.

...AND MORE SNOW...WITH ICICLES!

If you either are living on the East Coast, or are following the weather on the East Coast, you know that NJ has been hit again, and again, and (guess what?) again with snow. It's been rather strange, and a great winter. We've had snow on the ground for over a month now, and about every week there's a new snowstorm that cancels something...today it's co-op. Therefore, I decided to use some of the extra time writing a blog and sharing some of the pictures that I took from the storm last Wednesday into Thursday. Wednesday's storm started morning and throughout the day became worse and worse, eventually canceling prayer meeting. Thursday morning it had pretty much stopped snowing, but the roads were pretty bad for the morning. Thankfully, Andrew and I were still able to have our dress rehearsal for our choir concert, which was on Saturday night (amidst light snow fall!)

Explanation to the the pictures above: The first is our back porch engulfed in snow, some of it from previous storms. The second is our front porch's view into the winter wonderland, and the third is of one of my favorite sights and I hope I can paint some day: the fresh snow on the trees.

I've discovered that this snow storm, and the days following it, were PERFECT conditions for icicles. We don't normally get icicles, but we, along with about everyone else on our street and neighborhood, received those growing spikes off of our roof. It's been warming up just above freezing during the day, which lets snow from the roof melt, making the icicles grow and dripping all the water onto our front step. Then, as the afternoon wares on, it dips below freezing again, and we have our own little ice skating rink...literally on our front step! The next day, once it's melted a little, Andrew normally gets out there and breaks it up, just in time for the cycle to start over again. Anyway, I found icicles the perfect photography objects:
Here's a shot of the front of the house's icicles.

I wish the camera had behaved and focused on the front icicle, but I still thought that it was a cool picture.

These two are two loners above the back porch. (Notice the snow still on the tree branches behind them...one of the most BEAUTIFUL parts of snow storms!)


I know I gave you the sensation of being among the icicles, but here's one from behind the icicles looking out.


Now for some more close ups (both on the front porch):
I love the design of the second one! God truly is an artist!

And for some reason, I took this one. Don't ask me why...I'll tell you anyway: I thought it was gorgeous and slightly ironic to have this icicle and the bright blue sky above it.

So there's an update on the weather and icicles in NJ. All the inhabitants of the snow engulfed house are doing well...one has been traveling the world (Daddy) and is now getting an unexpected visit to the family in Seattle as his flight into snow-ridden Newark was canceled. The rest of us are keeping busy with school and other such activities. I hope that you, my gentle readers, are doing well too! (Sorry. I've been waiting to call someone my gentle reader for a long time.)