Patriots Day

Paul and Kathryn's view of the Marathon

Our little Patriot
A fantastic walk in the woods!
For those of you who are not from Boston, Patriot's Day is the day we celebrate all that our founding father's and mother's did to help us give our freedom. It is kind of like an added July 4th. It is also Boston's excuse to hold the Boston marathon and a mid-day Red Sox game. And for us it is an excuse to spend the day together as a family!

This morning Paul and Kathryn went and watched the marathon from the 5th mile mark, which is about a mile from our house
(I had to miss it as I was booked to teach this morning only!) When I got home we decided to go for a family walk in Wayland. It was a beautiful day and it was such a joy to spend the day hiking with my two favorite people. And it wouldn't be a day of Scharlach fun without a little ice cream(thank you Ben and Jerry's for a buy one get one free coupon!) After putting Kathryn to bed, we bbq'd and had a bottle of beer. What a way to celebrate Patriot's Day!!!

A Very Happy UN-Birthday

Loving being fed by Gammy.
Fun times at the lake!

Today marks Kathryn's 6 month UN-Birthday! She is such a fantastic little girl; learning tons of new things and we are learning so much from her! Recently she has become very fond of making trumpet noises and we now refer to her as "Dizzy" as she reminds us of the great jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, cheeks and all! She also loves trying new foods, some of her favorites are sweet potatoes and bananas, not together of course! She is also testing out her ability to scoot; she gets up on all fours but hasn't figured out how to move herself from point a to point b yet.

What I have learned from her is life is too short to not be actively involved in your children's lives. Paul and I recently made a decision that I would scale back my work schedule in the fall to be home with Kathryn two days a week. God has given me a real peace about this decision and I look forward to the opportunities it will afford our family. I have also learned that because Kathryn is a flexible baby we can take her along on some of my gigs as she loves music and is quite the hit with my colleagues, plus I get to see Paul more as he is the one watching Kat while I am singing.

A Star is Born

Last night the University of Southern Maine where I teach had a 80th Birthday Celebration Concert for Stephen Sondheim. As part of this concert I was asked to sing a duet with another member of the voice faculty and to also sing a solo. The concert was so much fun and my solo included a very special guest-Kathryn. Attached is her first time on stage. She was so much fun to work with and the audience LOVED her!

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!!!

Observing the immensity of the storm!

The last week has been filled with more rain than I care to think about! With the enormous amounts of rain our basement which has not seen any water in it in over 2 years flooded yesterday. We were really surprised when we woke up Wednesday morning to a little bit of rain in the laundry room. Well, that little bit of rain over the course of the day turned into over two inches throughout the entirety of our basement. As I look at this situation I was first really upset but I soon realized that God used this to provide us with blessings and another way of seeing how He works in our lives even in the midst of our strife:

-Paul and I would not have gone down to the basement on Wednesday, but my mom and dad are visiting and needed something out the dryer so they found the water!!!
-My parents came with me to Maine and so they were able to get a sump pump there(there are NONE in the state of Massachusetts!!!)
-I am thankful we live on the front of the complex as the back of the complex lies on the Sudbury River, which completely overflowed
-Five cars were totaled in the back of our complex due to the water.
-My parents were here for a visit. They were such a help with bailing out the basement and cleaning up today!