Taken From My Journal - April 21st

"I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin." 

-Joshua Bell

We went to Sabrina's last recital with Cathy's violin studio yesterday. I finally told Sabrina that we just weren't going to continue paying $100.00 a month for zero practicing. I may be offering a generous number here, but I don't think Sabrina has practiced more than 8 hours over the last twelve months. I wasn't going to even plan on last night's recital because the girl has spent all of an hour on this piece and, as of Saturday, had yet to play completely through the piece.

But she did a 45 minute cram session yesterday and insisted that she was ready to perform the piece. I was slightly disgruntled because we didn't really have time for this event, and I knew she was unprepared. To add insult to injury, we got to the concert late and couldn't find any seats. I was ready to drive home and come back for the last twenty minutes as Sabrina was at the tale end of the concert. But Neil was able to scrounge up two seats here and there. There I sat, one ornery mom.

Then the recital started. Pop Goes The Weasel, E string concerto, Tugga Tugga Stop Stop, May Song, Allegro, Minuet 2, Gossec Gavotte, and the lump formed in my throat. Oh these beautiful little pieces. The hours and hours I had spent with my spunky little toe head learning these pieces. I could see her standing up front in her little lady bug skirt and patent leather Sunday shoes, half-size violin perched under her arm. I could see her nervous little body playing those pieces. Those pieces that will forever be engrained in my memory and will forever and always remind me of Sabrina. The tears started to come as I thought of her never playing her violin again.

And then Sabrina got up to play Sarabande. This thrown together piece that I was sure would be a disaster...she nailed! She nailed it. This beautiful daughter of mine enraptured the audience with her colorful and passionate piece. She played with emotion and dynamics and vibrato. There was nothing mechanical about it. It was purely musical. I sat there breathless, and said to myself, "This can't be it. She can't be done. She has to continue. The passion and music within her soul must continue to have an outlet. We will find her another teacher."

I looked at Neil, and I think he knew that his precious $100.00 a month was slipping through his fingers. And so the hunt for a new teacher begins.

The Perfect and the Good

"If we shadows have offended, 

Think but this, and all is mended.." 

-William Shakespeare

Wednesday was Earth Day. I hugged not a single tree on this day. Planted no trees or even a shrubbery. I was not posting photos of myself caressing a flower or loving nature on instagram. You see, I was preparing for a somewhat more obscure observance, but one I was pretty excited about.

Yesterday was National Talk Like Shakespeare Day. What? You haven't heard of this holiday? For shame. I hadn't either, until last week when I was looking on the National Day Calendar for any excuse to celebrate. My children are growing up too fast. They will literally be out of my house in six years. I want to pack these last years with as many family memories as I can conjure up. I'd love to have a party everyday. I know this is unreasonable, but we can at least celebrate Shakespeare this day. 

I had one week to pull off this small event. It would be a surprise. This one was mostly for Sabrina since her love of Shakespeare, especially Hamlet, borders on the obsessive these days. I put about $300.00 worth of stuff in my Amazon cart, then narrowed it down significantly. I went against my normal reasoning and paid for shipping to ensure that the items would get here on time. What I saved at Amazon, I spent most feverishly at Hobby Lobby. There was a plethora of gorgeous brown toned ribbons, and I believe I placed a roll of everyone in my cart.

I had visions of grandeur as I concocted this little idea in my head. There would be hand stamped cards at every place setting with clever Shakespeare quotes. There would be a jar of quotes to pick from during dinner. There would be scones and homemade raspberry honey butter, and lemon shortbread cookies, coated in powdered sugar, and fresh squeezed lemonade. Par for the course, I woke up with a massive headache yesterday morning, and spent a good deal of the morning trying to get rid of it. My ideas were too grandiose for the time allotted. For once, I decided not to allow the perfect to get in the way of the good. The kids had no idea what my vision was. They had no idea there was a vision. They would walk through the door thrilled with any sort of a celebration, even one without handcrafted place cards or homemade shortbread cookies. So I did my meager best and figured it would be good enough.

I was excited that Mr. Shakespeare's bust arrived in the mail on time. He was my favorite. The children walked through the door and, much to my joy, they were surprised and delighted. Slightly puzzled at first "Happy National Talk Like Shakespeare Day?" But they quickly embraced the holiday with as much fervor as they do Christmas and now insist that we celebrate this day every year.

This mug, covered in Shakespeare insults, was supposed to be holding a darling bag of homemade lemon cookies. Instead, it was harboring a bag of sour gummy worms. Seems more fitting for a mug of insults, don't you think?

There's that lover of Shakespeare whom I adore so much!

It was time for our authentic Elizabethan dinner, or at least my sad attempt at an authentic Elizabethan dinner.

An authentically roasted medieval bird, a.k.a a Sam's Club rotisserie chicken, garlic rosemary fingerling potatoes, which were homemade and were delicious, and some carrots. No scones. The fresh squeezed lemonade looks strangely similar to a bottle of Simply Made, but let's not split hairs.

Neil cut the bird, we turned on our collection of Old English Melodies, the collection we had purchased from our favorite restaurant Ye Lion's Den before it went out of business, may it rest in peace. And we feasted while listening to Greensleeves and Scarborough Fair.

Nestled in with the silverware were Shakespearean bookmarks for the kids and band-aids decorated with Shakespearean insults. You know, for when you want to add insult to injury. The kids began to read their favorite insults from off their mugs. They found the perfect break-up line, "I do desire we may be better strangers."

Among our other favorite insults: "highly fed and lowly taught"
                                  "quintessence of dust"
                                   "not so much brain as ear wax"

Oh man, Shakespeare was a genius. There was no time to clean up. The high school was putting on A Midsummer's Night Dream, and we had to hurry if we were going to get seats. It was a delightful production. They even used one of our favorite insults. If you're really ticked off at someone, just call them "a canker blossom". Spencer fell in love with the play and insists on performing this one someday. 

It ended up being a great evening despite the lack of scones and homemade lemonade. Jonah thanked me five times for the evening, Sabrina insisted that it was the best night ever, and Spencer mentioned this morning on the way to school, "Last night was fun". I think it was a night even the bard would have approved of.

And The Rain Chased Us Out of Town

"A grove of giant redwoods or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great or beautiful cathedral." 

-Theodore Roosevelt

It was time to go home. We said goodbye to our little beach shack and got on the road.

The further down the coast we went, the rainier it became.

I had been craving me some Mexican food this whole week, because I crave Mexican food every day of the week. The one Mexican restaurant in Bandon was closed due to a family emergency one day. I swear, it closed at 2:00 p.m. on every other day. So when we found this place in Brookings, I did my little happy dance in the van and prepared to gorge on chips and salsa.

The food did not disappoint. I left one happy momma.

Next stop, Jedediah State Park for some redwood trees. I can't be near the California border and not go visit my tree friends. It was kind of eery driving through this forest in the rain. 

And it was kind of wet and kind of cool walking through it in the rain.

Neil was the keeper of the camera. Like I said, I was trying not to ruin yet another camera on vacation. 

Once we were sufficiently drenched, and had taken our last photo, we hopped in our van, and the rain chased us all the way to Medford.

Where we stopped at Shari's restaurant for some Marionberry pie in honor of Pi Day.

The next day, we drove twelve hours through this ugliness.

We decided that when the Lord was beautifying the earth, He must have gotten to Nevada and decided He was tired. I'm sure He said, "Just throw some sagebrush out there and call it good, I spent all of my creative energy on the West Coast, and I've got nothing left."

Oh well, after several hours in the Nevada desert and eating lunch in Winnemucca, Layton didn't look so bad. Home is always a happy place to come to, even when you've meandered across gorgeous beaches and forests. I just wish those forests and beaches were a little bit closer.

Oregon Coast Trip - Let's Wrap This Up Shall We?

"Sky above our heads, Sand beneath our feet, Life is Good."

I have a photo of three little toe-headed munchkins sitting on a log just like this in front of this very lighthouse. Jonah was there too, growing inside my belly, we just didn't know it yet. That was 13 years ago. The constant passing of time is a crazy thing.

I have an even older picture of a fairly newly married couple sitting on yet another tree in front of this very lighthouse. That was 18 years ago. We've changed a little. It was 18 years ago that I fell in love with the Coquille River Lighthouse.

One of our favorite things to do when visiting this lighthouse is to walk along the jetty. It can be quite treacherous. People have been washed off the jetty by rogue waves and have drowned. We only ventured because it was low tide, and we weren't even brave enough to walk to the end of the jetty. I took few pictures, because the ocean mist and wind was pretty crazy. The Oregon Coast has ruined an appalling amount of my cameras. I was trying to preserve my camera on this trip. But Jess got a few shots.

You can feel the cold and the mist just looking at this couple and their fogged glasses.

Once safely off the jetty, it was time to fly kites. An absolute Watson-Must-Do while on the coast. Every year I forget to actually pack kites, so every year we buy kites at our favorite shop in Lincoln City. We have quite an assortment in our basement. You don't need any skills to fly a kite on the coast. Simply let go of the kite, and the wind will take care of the rest. I believe Sabrina was actually looking for seashells while kite-flying. Her kite just floated on ahead of her like a dog on a leash.

Sabrina had to do some beach combing before sending her kite up.

Darn that cute couple, making it impossible for me to put my camera away.

Now this is a familiar picture. Neil spends much of his time assembling kites on the beach for excited children. Sabrina actually made the mistake of letting go of her kite at one point, forcing Neil to hunt through a massive gnarly patch of driftwood to retrieve it. The things this man does for his children.

I have a faint memory of an afternoon with my dad flying a kite in the field behind our house. I was only three years old when we lived in that house, but that moment with my dad was so thrilling that the memory is forever etched in my mind. For this reason, I love to watch my children fly kites. Even when they are virtual adults. It makes me happy. I hope this will be one of their anchor memories.

I love watching this sweet boy of mine getting out all of his energy without any restrictions. He can just run and run to his heart's content. 

Goodbye sweet little lighthouse of mine. We'll try to bring all of the children with us next time.

With the remainder of our time, the kids wanted to check out the shops in downtown Bandon. First stop, Coastal Mist chocolate shop and bakery. That we would find such delicious Belgian chocolates and pastries in such a sleepy town as this made us all very happy.

Sabrina fell in love with this wall and insisted that I take a picture because she absolutely adores Gene Wilder in this movie.

This is the single very expensive but so scrumptious chocolate that I bought for myself.

We noticed that the shops in Bandon closed at 4:00ish and 3:00ish, and sometimes at whatever the heck time they felt like closing up shop. We fell in love with the locals as we wandered from shop to shop.

Then there was the bookstore with this policy. Only in quiet little coastal towns.

Some more signs that we couldn't help but chuckle at.

Then there was this sign found just around the corner from our beach shack. It's true. There were gooziz ranging all around this particular home.

And there was more than one sign like this found around Bandon. If your dog needs a potty break, well he'd better go find himself another log.

It's 4:00, and the town is officially asleep. If only the rest of us lived life a little more like the folks of Bandon Oregon.

We came home and indulged in our decadent pastries.

And we relaxed and watched some t.v. after a most enjoyable week.

Is that another macaroon I spot? She's a sucker for them.

And this is when that panicky feeling sets in. When the trip is coming to a close and you wonder if you saw all the things you wanted to see and did all of the things you wanted to do or whether you relaxed sufficiently. On this the last night in our Bandon Beach Shack, the answer was undoubtedly Yes!