High School Musical

Disclaimer right off the bat - this will be a shameless post full of pictures that made me a proud mama this weekend.

Let me start with a question: Have you heard of drama queens?

If you're new here, my husband and I have two sons (the oldest is a college grad who got married and moved far, far away last summer. Our second son is far away finishing his second year of college. Waaaaaaa! Oh sorry, I'm ok.) We also have a daughter. The third and final child. The one and only girl.

When that girl, our only daughter, our baby, the one who is planning to graduate from high school in about 59 days (not that anyone here is counting) and leave our nest for summer camp the next day (how dare she?) is given the role of the Queen in Cinderella The Musical during her senior year of high school - well, let me tell you, you have the highest definition of Drama Queen right in your own home. (You also just read the longest runon sentence in history of writing.) How glorious! Oh please, read on.

We had the best few days. Friends came down from out of town early before the show. It was so wonderful to prepare dinner (like real food) and set the table two nights in a row. Family came. Local friends also showed up to watch our girl.

Is there anything more wonderful than friends who champion your kids? It's right up there in my book and Scott and I are so grateful to feel that love. It's noticed and it matters.

I knew Ally had a big role, one of the four leads, but somewhere along the way I must have minimized it in my mind. She says it's because I don't listen, but I reject that. I couldn't have been more suprised at how often she was on the stage, how many lines she memorized and the number of songs she sang - mostly in duet form. I had that silly, wide grin on my face during the whole show - all three nights - just like I used to when I watched my boys play basketball. She nailed it!

Makes all those hard parenting days pay off when you can see your kids excel at something they didn't necessarily have the confidence to back up when the opportunity presented itself.

What I love about this part of Ally's story is that when she auditioned, she told the directors she didn't want a speaking part. Wouldn't mind a solo, but no lines! Their response, "We want you to be the Queen." She said, "But I don't act," and they said, "We know you can do this and we will teach you."

It's one thing when your parents tell you they believe in you, but when teachers pick you out of a crowd and say, "We believe you are perfect for this part," something good happens. I love teachers like that, who see potential and draw it out even when the student is reluctant and insecure. What a gift!

Also, I have to mention how the directors made this musical special and personal for all the little girls in the "kingdom". All were invited to come dressed in their best Cinderella gowns and have pictures taken with the cast and in the carriage. It was the sweetest thing to watch these little girls stare at the big girls and approach them with awe. It was like Disneyworld at Maine Endwell High School. A real community affair. 

Here are some of our favorite moments from the weekend. It would be incomplete without backstage selfies. You'll forgive me, right? Oh and hopefully you'll spot Cinderella who was fabulous (oops?).

If the weekend wasn't wonderful enough, we were able to end it with a family skype date with our far away kids. Ben made it safely back to the US after a week-long mission trip in Poland and we wanted to hear all about it.

Picture this scene....Scott, Ally and I are cuddled on the couch hosting the chat. My mom is on the other couch, quiet as a church mouse (unseen to the boys and Brittany) but listening to everything. Eventually she yelled something and Drew exclaims, "ROSEM! I didn't know you were there! " We all died laughing. (Some of you will find that funnier than the rest of you who are thinking, "Yeah....and?")  Trust me, it was funny.

Lastly, we exchanged prayer requests for the coming week and blew kisses goodbye.  Well, the boys don't usually do that, but Brittany does.

I used to be resistant to technology, but this kind of stuff is a dream-come-true for parents. Magical in a way.

Two Of My Favorite Things

If you've been reading this blog, a.k.a. my heart, for very long you know I have lots of favorite things. We all do I imagine.

I clocked another birthday of a non-remarkable, albeit still shocking, number this past Sunday. On Friday a dear, sweet, thoughtful, funny friend showed up at my door with her husband, a cake (my favorite kind), a pastry to be saved for my actual birthday morning, a sentimental card with some spending money and a gift of two brand new books. She announced, "We are only staying as long as it takes to order pizza for dinner and eat it with you."

You can imagine my delight. What love! My favorite part? Well, I savored every detail, but of course - the books! This woman has bought me books before and always hits a homerun. She introduced me to Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts a few years ago and it changed my life. Which basically means for any future selections, I pay attention.

Favorite #1 - when someone who knows me presents me with a book specially chosen for me because it reminds her of me. (I totally despise that sentence because it says 'me' four times. Please forgive me. Ugh, there I go again.)

Favorite #2 - when I pick up a new book, begin reading and immediately identify with the author and the content. Like put the book down and have an ugly cry kind of identifying. In other words, I feel like it was written solely for me (narcissist much?) or it's so similar to my current situation that I could have written it myself.

I love when either of those things happen. Both of these favorites collided this weekend and it is glorious. I know God was behind it.

I just have to share a few morsels with you. Get it? Morsels? Bittersweet? Chocolate? Haha - sometimes I crack myself up.

Yeah, I know, don't quit your day job.

First of all, were you able to make out the subtitle? "Thoughts on change, grace, and learning the hard way." That's more bitter than sweet. After reading the title, I lifted my eyes to meet my friend's which were still on me and she said, "I got myself a copy also because I think I need it too." Oh man, I love her. Took the sting right out. This is grace.

Just the prologue alone was so rich I had to read it twice. I wonder if it will resonate with you.

"Bittersweet is the practice of believing that we really do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul. Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the callouses on our hands. Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet is beautiful, nuanced, full of depth and complexity. Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, earthy."

Rotten teeth. Check. (Hereditary from my Dad and possibly a lifetime of chocolate sweetness.) Lines on face. Check. (I don't want to talk about it.) Callouses on hands. (Well, do warts count? I have two.) So, check.

Still, the description smells like purpose to me. And I love purpose.

"This is what I've come to believe about change: it's good, in a way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good and failure is good. By that I mean that it's incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you into the palm of God's hand, which is where you wanted to be all along, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be."

Please tell me that last sentence made you shiver too. If not, go back and read it again. I'll wait for you. Talk about a bittersweet sentence. Be sure and note the beauty in it. Friend, sometimes the truth hurts, but we need to hear it.

With Easter just a stone's throw behind us, resurrection and new life have very much been on my mind lately. Specifically the end of Winter and the newness of Spring. It feels like Scott and I have been in winter figuratively for almost three years now. We ache for new life, new beginnings, new growth.

I often refer to a favorite Bible passage that has been real and relevant to so many areas and seasons of my life. God speaking:

Remember not the former things, 

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert. Isa. 43:18-19

Wilderness? Desert? New thing. Springs forth. Keep talking, Lord.

Then this:

"I believe that God is making all things new. I believe that Christ overcame death and that pattern is apparent all through life and history: life from death, water from a stone, redemption from failure, connection from alienation. I believe that suffering is part of the narrative, and that nothing really good gets built when everything's easy. I believe that loss and emptiness and confusion often give way to new fullness and wisdom."

Are you still with me? How do you feel about change? Are you fighting a change you didn't want in the first place or waiting for a long awaited change? Me too.

"...change is one of God's greatest gifts and one of His most useful tools.  ...change can push us, pull us, rebuke and remake us. It can show us who we've become, in the worst of ways, and also in the best of ways. ...change is not a function of life's cruelty but instead a function of God's graciousness.

If you dig in and fight the changes, they will smash you to bits. They'll hold you under, drag you across the rough sand, scare and confuse you. But if you can find it within yourself, in the wildest of seasons, just for a moment to trust in the goodness of God, who makes it all and holds it all together, you'll find yourself drawn along to a whole new place, and there's truly nothing sweeter. Unclench your fists, unlock your knees and also the door to your heart, take a deep breath, and begin to swim. Begin to let the waves do their work in you."

And that's just the first chapter.

I so get how real the feelings of fear and confusion can be. You probably do too. Why not let's together take this author's advice and trust in the goodness of God, who makes it all and holds it all together, including our lives and hearts? Don't you want to let the waves do their work in you? Remake you? Bring out something new? Oh I do. I do. Pick me!!

I truly believe with all my heart God will eventually reveal that He was up to something good the whole time. Believe that with me.

Keep your eyes open all around you for new growth. After all, the long winter is over - it's Spring - the season for new life. Again the verse above... "Remember not the former things or consider the things of old." New life is in front of us. Hope is in front of us. Keep moving forward. No more looking for it back there behind us. It's not there any more than Jesus is still in the tomb.

Do you not perceive it?


All bold quotes from Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
italics mine