Cloverbuddy

Our cloverbuddy, Hendrix!

He's been a bit of spiritual fodder. It's taken a while to process his presence. So 3 seems unreal in so many ways, yet in other ways it's like he's been around forever. And even sort of like a 4-leaf clover feeling -- when standing in an abundant patch of clover and there's just that one. And as lucky and blessed as it feels when we find a 4-leaf clover (mostly Vanessa since she seems to have a history), I'm feeling more lucky and blessed to have found this clover in an abundant patch of enduring family.

Like a 3-lobed clover, Hendrix truly symbolizes faith, hope and love to me. And even when days are hard, I can't wait to soak up and feed on the next year with him, our 4-H year. I hope Hendrix always knows that I pledge to continue to always pray for his HEAD, HEART, HANDS, and HEALTH, forever and ever, amen.

NOTE: Pics. . . ha, ha! The tie wasn't a part of the picture, originally. But his dad knew the best bribe for getting Hendrix to take off his "football shirt" and PJ pants, to humor his mommy with a few pics -- "Hendrix, do you want to wear a tie like Daddy? Daddy will let you pick out one of his ties." Daddy happened to be home (ironically because of our unlucky van) when I was making a 2nd real attempt at pics, about a week after the 1st attempt.  It worked! Although for a second, after returning to the great room dressed and ready, he realized he had been duped, and he was going to have to do something someone else wanted him to do to keep his end of the deal.

Interestingly, Hendrix is the one who picked out the hat and clovers at the store one day, about a month ago. Upon letting him buy the things, I thought Oh, maybe we can get him to take pictures for me with these things. A couple weeks passed and when we attempted, he refused to take pictures, even with bribery offers of suckers and playing video games. And in the beginning, the only thing I wanted in a pic was for Hendrix to put on his nice grey shirt, just one more time, before passing it on. 

During the 1st attempt, Hendrix had carried everything away, pulling clovers off the wall, throwing the hat across the room, and placing his clothes far away from where I was attempting a couple of shots. During the 2nd attempt, I didn't put clovers and the hat back in scene -- by that point I was going to be happy with my kid dressed for a pic. But Hendrix stopped the shoot to go grab the clovers and hang them on the wall. He also sort of wanted to hold the hat.  

I'm certain we'll always remind him of the year we wanted to take his 3-year-old pictures, and how he demonstrated his strong will to try and maintain control of the entire situation.

Building Snow

It was the best packable snow and conducive temps in a few years! We made forts and ramps and had fun throwing snowballs. It was certainly the heaviest snow of the year too, basically too heavy to shovel more than necessary. We had a fun and were outside for what seemed like forever.

Hendrix: "Sounds Like a Rainbow"

The name Hendrix is a variation of Henry, but of course Vanessa was thinking of Jimi Hendrix when she asked that we name her little brother that. Many people only think about the skewed image of Jimi Hendrix portrayed in the media of his time and by the ultraconservative reactive impressions of his rebellious and what was truly a short-lived party life.

When I think of Jimi Hendrix, I think of the tragic consequences of some misguided life choices, a life that was incredibly gifted and talented, who knew and felt God, but was caught up in the drowning out of his pain and hurt. His life was just beginning but without the tough love and support, it was inevitable it would end so early. Even so, though, I believe God still had a purpose for Jimi Hendrix's life, not only to spearhead music trends, but to allow those who followed to realize there are consequences to all of our choices and extra hard ones when we push out God with fame and desires of this world.

As a child and in his innocence, Jimmy loved to draw and paint and listen to music. Eventually he tied together his passions to create imagery with music -- the guitar became his medium for recreating such visual art in his head. He was colorful and incredibly innovative but sadly we never got to fully experience what he could have done with such amazing talent.

Our Hendrix is as colorful and a rainbow in so many ways. God started dropping hints of him about a year before he blessed us with his presence, using rainbows. Hendrix's personality is so very colorful and vivid, just like a rainbow. The following are suggested characteristics of Hendrix, found online and in various other places that describe meaning behind the name. I would say they are spot-on, and the picture above just kind of supports that, don't you think?

* Independent
* Individualistic
* Ambitious
* Strong-willed
* Inventive
* Successful

Zaney Fast

What a great first time playing basketball for Zane! He's got quite the passion for it. He's learning fast. He was fast and kept amazing defense. He was eager for the ball, making some shots, 2-point and foul. He got some rebounds and stole the ball a few times.

He was on a team with players who had a couple of years of playing together -- Magic. They won many games but not the final. Zane was anxious for the last game knowing that the opposing team was made up of mostly 3rd graders who had been playing together for a couple of years. Even so, they played well and hard all the way to the end.

Mechanical Masterminds 2018/19

No doubt there's no better feeling than to be announced grand champions of district and to move on to the state competition. But state became this year's stopping point, and that's okay because the Mechanical Masterminds did amazingly well for the 2018-19 season. And they are eager to and determined to try again for the 2019-20 season.

A few years ago Vanessa was asked to join her Avery Elementary FLL LEGO team, but she had other wishes for how she wanted to invest and spend her time then, so we declined. Then after a rough 2018 summer season and not being able to play soccer in the fall, Vanessa's predicted goals changed suddenly when the newer independent team, made up of a few fellow Avery classmates, extended another invite. As I told Coach Ivan, it would be a perfect time for Vanessa to try it. He talked about how the season could be long and wanted us to be prepared for that. Vanessa was ready and eager and it showed in her dedication to the project meetings and her attempts to do well.

At both district and state, the practice robot rounds did not go as well as they should've. In both cases the team problem solved and perservered, and pulled off impressive rounds.

 At state, the robots were so far off in the practice round it was sort of a panic and freak out, but the 1st scoring round with Drew and Vanessa resulted in an impressive score of 196. What a comeback feeling!

 Tough judgment call!

After a hard follow-up meeting, the Mechanical Masterminds are determined to refine project processes and team dynamics. They are excited for the 2019/20 season to come!