








Posted in Children, Family, Parenting, Photography, Trains, Travel, Vacation, tagged Busch Gardens, Busch Gardens Tampa, Children, Dreams Come True, Family, goals met, Journey, Joy, Life, Love, new beginnings, Parenting, roller coasters, Summer Vacation, Tampa, thank you!, Thanks God!🥰, Traditions, Trains on May 30, 2021| 2 Comments »
Posted in Band, Children, Family, Life, Parenting, Photography, The South, Travel, tagged Caged, Drum & Bugle Corps, Family Fun, Freedom, God Does Things, God is Love, Marching Bands, Southwind, Summer Vacation, The Cage, Touring, White Gloved Lady, You’re Always Right! on July 7, 2019| 4 Comments »
Today marks the start of the annual tour for Southwind, an elite drum and bugle corps representing the Southeast region’s best percussion and brass players.
(Oh, and coincidentally, today marks this blog’s 8th anniversary – thank you to all my readers and friends for 8 incredible years!!! xxxooo). Back to Southwind:
They will travel nearly 6,000 miles in six weeks, performing and competing in cities throughout the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest, culminating with a world class competition at the Colt’s football stadium in Indianapolis.
Southwind began 40 years ago and carefully selects its members from rigorous auditions and recommendations. This year, its members hail from 15 states. Lucky for us (and our son who plays the euphonium), they chose our county as Ground Zero for their many weeks of rehearsal camps leading up to today, so we didn’t have to go far to visit him.
Last night they held their dress rehearsal, before they leave tonight for Valdosta, GA, their first stop on the tour circuit. We will catch up with Southwind again next Saturday in upstate Alabama for one of their competitions, before they head north for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan and points beyond.
Some highlights from yesterday:
The schedule is dizzyingly intense, with few breaks
Shoe blow-out is common – these students engage in marathon-training conditions in blistering heat and are fed special high-energy diets and go through gallons of water a day
Did I say “blistering heat?” This was what the sign said yesterday as I was leaving camp at 4:30pm
The supplies and resources necessary to pull off a tour of this magnitude are phenomenal. How every detail comes together is a miracle of the many staff and volunteers who expertly think of everything!
You just never know who’ll show up on tour with Southwind!
(wonder if this guy ever wishes he’d taken up the trumpet instead?) Everyone helps haul the instruments, props and supplies
Meals are served outdoors and consist of lots of high protein, high carb foods. I’m told that spicy and sugary foods are off the list for the most part.
It takes a crew to wash the uniforms, a crew to cook and clean up, a crew to keep track of the students, a crew to organize and pull off the tour, etc. Check out the Southwind website to see their talented Visual Staff and Percussion Staff.
Warming up on the field while the rest of the Corps unloads
Full percussion warming up with brass getting ready behind (note everyone’s gallon jugs precisely at their sides)
Just like a pro ball team, each position/section has its coaches. For the Corps, this includes experts in fine-tuning (literally, as in ensuring drums are properly tuned). The coach listens to each drum carefully, getting down to drum-level with his ear and instructs each player accordingly to ensure perfection.
Each instrument has to be inspected, each day
For each performance, they have a very short amount of time to assemble all instruments, props and supplies, so they learn, among other skills, how to, um, for lack of a better term, haul ass
The drum majors take the field. Yes, that is a roller coaster in the far background but it was so hot we didn’t see anybody on the rides!
The dress rehearsal turned into an un-dress rehearsal, as the searing heat even after the sun went down, prompted them to spare the uniforms for the tour and they did the rest of rehearsal in their bibbers (and white gloves – never ditch the white gloves, so sayeth the Lady, no matter what the conditions!)
The choreography, precision and talent are mind-blowing!
The performers put their heart and soul into each note
This year’s show is called, “The Cage,” in four movements. The first movement portrays what it is like to feel caged – the constraint, the sacrifice of self, the pain of stuck-ness. The second movement illustrates the frenzied attempts to break out of the cage, unsuccessfully.
Movement three is about what we might call learned helplessness, or accepting our circumstances, perhaps complacency and/or ditching the dream to be free and happy. Choosing to settle. Learning to be “happy” and giving up on potential.
In the last movement, the cage finally opens and we experience the joy of true freedom, being able to live life to its fullest capacity and the relief of being out in the open at last.
The show is copyrighted so we are forbidden to upload videos of the performance (plus we don’t want to give our secrets away to our competition before the tour!), else I would have loved to share the power of the sound and theatrics this talented group of students and staff produce.
And, just like a ball team, they have their own mini-ambulance
Away from the action, empty hangers, backpacks and instrument cases line the fence
Ready to roll up the road to the next venue!
I caught up with him after last year’s show in Hiram, GA
Thanks, God, for opportunities You give us and our children to exercise talents, discover new skills and to experience great adventures. Thank You for freeing us of the many cages of our own making in which we ensnare ourselves….and may we always fully trust and be free in Christ.
(This hot summer – and now 16 and driving! – he values a shorter haircut than last year lol) – Godspeed, Jonathan William and all of Southwind!
Posted in Beach, Children, Christianity, Culture, Family, God, Humor, Parenting, Photography, tagged Bamboo, Elderberry Flute, Lagoon, Summer Vacation, Surfing on June 3, 2012| 13 Comments »
Boredom simply cannot co-exist in a place like this:
We are fully one week into summer vacation, and already we have tackled some of the most daunting of educational tasks set forth for parents – tasks not otherwise taught in the classroom, such as:
Always a step ahead, I posted this on the fridge shortly after school dismissed. Just in case.
A couple of trips to our fave local swimming hole have highlighted our first week of summer vacation. The pretty pink and green and peach beach bungalows line the street to the right and face the beach, and a short walk under the bridge toward the dunes takes you to the sea. Everyone’s so busy looking seaward, they often don’t see this little gem with clear waters and a swift current in the middle, but calm enough near the shore for children to play without worry. Tourists cannot be found here, but the best shells can, which get cast aside by the current along with fun fish and marine life to swim with. It is known as “the lagoon” to all but our three-year old, who begs daily to “go to the ‘goon.”
We go back and forth between the sea and the goon in any given day. There was some nice surfing and boogie boarding to be had yesterday. I was going to post some of these yesterday for the Weekly Photo Challenge (theme: Today), but once we got home, we had four children to de-sand and we were exhausted. Phoo. I’ll have to find another picture for the Today theme. In the meantime, here’s my “Yesterday” theme:
As a child therapist, I recommend children have no more than two hours per day of “screen time,” defined as any electronic activity, including video games, television, movies, computer, etc. “Educational” screen time is included in this limit. Excessive screen time changes the neurological pathways developed in children’s brains and inhibits their ability to master critical tasks such as delayed gratification, independent thinking, imagination and creative problem-solving. It also invites symptoms along the lines of ADHD, traumatic stress, anxiety, oppositional-defiance and various unwanted house guests.
Here is a picture of what our screen-deprived 13-year-old did with his free time his first week of summer vacation. He was reading a book about local edible plants over one of his uncountable bowls of cereal (he’s at that age, y’know), and rode his bike around looking to harvest elderberry, understanding that only the berries and flowers are non-toxic. He soaked the flowers and concocted a very yummy drink, and took the stalk and hollowed it out and made this, with the intention of making more and selling them at an outdoor market or crafts fair:
Here I was, afraid he was going to saw off his arm when he took off out of the house with a sharp implement. And then he brings this beautiful instrument to me, concerned because he accidentally made the hole at the right too big and unsuccessfully tried to cover it with Scotch tape to make it sound right. It didn’t work. So off he went on his bike with the saw again, and this time came back with a big harvest of bamboo. Maybe that will work better than elderberry.
I’m curious how he hollowed it out, but I’m afraid to ask and just grateful he has all 10 fingers, got a good grade in algebra last week and that his garden is yielding awesome produce for us to enjoy. I will remember those things when he comes to ask me why his baseball jersey is not clean in time for the Monday night game when he forgot it was crumpled in a heap on the floor of his bedroom instead of tossed in the laundry basket….I will remember, having one math geek, one science geek, one special needs and one with a major-not-yet-declared, that some of the best learning happens hands-on and outside the classroom.
God, thanks for summer vacation, for creative pursuits and thinking outside the box. Thank You for children and the beach and “alternative education.” Help us to savor the days….God, thank You for teaching us all in Your own ways, for showing us that learning happens in a variety of ways and places and formats, not just where we expect it. Thank You for allowing us to transition from homeschooling to regular schooling and, for the summers, back to homeschooling. Thank You, God, that education is a lifelong process, no matter how old we are.
Oh, yeah…I was supposed to return to the small campus of a women’s university in Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains this weekend for my 25th college reunion. Was it worth instead being at the goon and engaging my children in non-classroom educational activities? Heck, yeah!!! (Who else would have assigned the 9-year-old sentences for making oral fart noises?!). Priorities…
Posted in Culture, Family, God, Life, Photography, tagged Gulf of Mexico, Horseshoe Crab, Lionfish, Moon Jellies, Summer Vacation on May 27, 2012| 10 Comments »
Moon Jellies
Dour-looking lionfish. This non-native species has invaded the Gulf:
(Photo not available: Didn’t have nerve to photograph music stars/entourage from Nashville visiting island…just act normal/nonchalant, you know – they appeared to be cherishing their anonymous privacy)
Underside of a male horseshoe crab:
Um, not sure what to title this…any ideas?
Colorful sunset over a newly mown hay field:
(Photo not available: this I saw in an amusing, evidently unedited email alert):
“Beachy Middle and Beachy High School delayed releasing students by about six minutes this afternoon while Beachy Police checked out a report of a student with a firearm at a residence near the two campuses. Beachy Police say it turned out that the firearm was a BB gun and the kid was minding his own business in a backyard.”
And the crowning sight of all sights…
Aftermath of first day of summer vacation (or the latest I Spy Challenge at our house): Tonka truck, upside-down ambulance, Mardi Gras beads, sock under couch, misplaced shoes, mostly-naked Mr. Potato Head, Thomas the Train train wash, grounded airplane, rubber dragonfly, Star Wars DS game chip box (empty), hand bell (middle C), screwed up plastic slinky, upended keyboard, broken craft/mask, Pixar Cars pillow, extended light saber, random assortment of Matchbox cars, John Deere tractor and pull-back school bus with stop sign that used to come out but is now broken off and long-lost.
Sigh.
Hey, God…thank You for distracting me from life’s challenges, with all things beautiful and busy. I figured You brought me back into the field because You needed something else done, but I didn’t expect a mess-o-crap to hit the fan within the same week as receiving that piece of paper. Dang, Lord! I barely had time to celebrate before there came the threat to my livelihood…and no sooner had I begun to wring my hands over that, then came the (unrelated) threat to my life. Thank You for equipping me to do what You need done. Protect and reassure. Thank You for lawyers and doctors and policemen, and all those You use to bring about Your will. Use us all as You see fit. Let us stand tall and be blessed through both good and evil. Let us understand it is You that we serve.
And thank You for my new motto carrying me through these new, fiery trials: Fear Never Conquered.
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