Cherry Days

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

I love a parade. Cliche but true. This year 4th of July coincided with the Cherry Days Festival so we drove north a bit for something different. Let me just say the good folks of Utah show UP for a parade. It is not uncommon for people to come out early – even the night before – and tape off their spots along the parade route. Our family? Not so much. We are more likely to be grabbing folding chairs and sunglasses while corraling people into the vehicle last minute and walking up and down searching for that last empty spot. Which is basically what we did. Didn't matter though because once things got started everyone ends up in the street anyway.

July in Utah is one long party beginning with the 4th and ending on Pioneer Day on the 24th, give or take a few days of pre- and post-event celebrations. Translation: you'll be seeing more of this. : )

I hope your holiday was safe and fun-filled.

Summer Reading for Mom (and others)

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

While I don't feel I am getting nearly enough reading done in general, road trips have afforded me some blocks of time to dig deeply this summer. As so often happens, all of these titles found me by way of serendipity.

Spiritual: In This House of Brede This has been sitting on my shelf for perhaps 20yrs now. Such a shame! It is now dog eared and beloved. I have filled pages in my quote notebook from this novel. There is tremendous application for all of us in the domestic monastery.

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Social/Memoir: In Contempt Our son convinced us to watch the OJ documentary. We did a bit of wiki searching during which was enough to whet our appetite to know about some of the main players. I grabbed this Chris Darden memoir from the thrift shop and am about a quarter way through now. The goal is to finish in time to drop it off to the Denver boys at the end of the month. It reads much like the tone his character portrayed on the documentary – quiet, even, insightful.

Home Ec: The Science of Good Cooking - People, this is saving my backside. Over and over and over. I bought this for my oldest daughter one Christmas and it sat for a year or more. We dug it out last month and decided to taken the time to really learn the science of food preparation. Admittedly most of my focus has historically been on ingredients versus process. Because I don't enjoy it I have always rushed through the process. We are taking one recipe at a time and trying the techniques. EVERYTHING has worked so far. I am buying one for all my big kids' households.

Education: Ordinary Children, Extraordinary Teachers – because…. Marva Collins. Enough said, right? Just found this one and it is probably a good sign that I have already turned down the corners of pages in the introduction. I love this woman. She was one of my first teaching mentors and continues to inspire.

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How Lincoln Learned to Read - This one jumped out at me from the library shelf while waiting for the children at chess club. It is a collection of cameos of the unique educations received by a handful of famous folks. This is my favorite sort of educational theory volume. It describes a variety of experiences and you are left to consider which common threads run through them all.

What are you reading this summer? I am looking for new novel suggestions and hoping to begin a classic.

the things that can’t be rushed

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

As we approached our 31st anniversary this week we found ourselves thick into debate prioritizing some major expenditures for our home and family. We have not always seen eye to eye on the best way forward nor what should come first. Taken all together, the list of things needed to maintain and improve a home can be overwhelming. We were a little overwhelmed.

I sat awake in bed the other night remembering a visit to our hometown years after we had left it. I remember remarking at the family homes of childhood friends: the lush landscaping, the improvements made to the old houses. Having become a homeowner I had new and deep admiration for the time and investment that represented. Having lived in some new developments I had a great appreciation for the fact that some things, like young trees, just took time to mature. No amount of effort or income could make it happen faster.

Our family friends had been planted in those places for 30 and sometimes 40 years or more. They were of modest incomes and could not make big dramatic changes at any given time. They were not of the big ticket "house flipping" era but rather of the "a little at a time" and "slow but steady" progress approach. Here and there they added a deck, reworked a kitchen, built a garage, poured a solid driveway, replaced siding. The improvements did not make for a stunningly different picture by themselves but the cumulative impact over many years was significant. Morover, these midwestern folks were not just doers but maintainers.

You need to be both in love and life.

Society today is focused on a package that sells. It presents love and life as a full and complete brand when real day to day living is much more incremental. It doesn't always look appealing at a particular point in the process. Kitchens look a lot like a disaster zone when you've dismantled all the old cabinetry. Gardens look devastated when you are uprooting dead shrubbery and tilling up rocky ground. The laborious, dirty, discouraging work is an integral part of forward progress though.

My husband and I are two very different people and sometimes act much like the 16 year olds we once were in that small town, fighting over the unwieldy paper road map on the side of a rambling back road trying to reach our destination. Sometimes there is a huge difference in our individual visions of what "better" looks like. That can build a wall between people or it can stretch them to embrace different perspectives and try things they hadn't considered. We have done both.

If there is "extreme makeover" in life then it isn't my reality. It isn't about finally making it or even getting it right in the "reasonable" time frame anyone may have set for that. However, I woke up today with the man I woke up next to 31 years ago. We are not marriage gurus. We are just two flawed people trying to get it right. Not by any stetch of imagination do I expect we are now magically inocculated against disaster. We do know good ways to face disaster at this place in life and pray for the grace to always choose those ways. I have profound gratitude for having returned to laughter time and again.

That is the gift that today is for me – the trying and failing and trying again and the cumulative very, very good things that three decades has blessed us with.

Doubt Management

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Summer for me has long been a season of recharging. This year has been especially encouraging as I have been reunited with cases of books that were stored while we lived overseas. For many reasons I continue to be drawn to the quiet voices that helped me form a solid and sustaining vision for my life so long ago.

It is not uncommon, when we make an honest assessment of ourselves and our personal strength and abilities, to feel unequal to the tasks before us. If we lose sight of Who called us to that big work and Who it is Who is going to see us through it can be daunting to say the least and paralyzing at its worst. These words spoke to me when I was rereading an old favorite in a waiting room this week:

"Doubt management is rooted in the Word – in truth. When you have doubts, what are you doing with those doubts? Where are you turning your thoughts? It should be to the Word…. "Casting down all imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

When the doubts came she had to put them aside – out of her mind. It was all a matter of what she would do with her thoughts. Would she allow them to dwell on the doubts – would she feed her mind on those doubts and let them root and grow? Or would she take her thoughts captive and use God's Word to replace her doubts with His truth?

When God calls us to a task, He also enables."

Managers of their Schools

What I know to be true today is that what we feed tends to grow. Some confidence and optimism verses to nourish our thoughts:

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phil 4:13

"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor 12:9

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:6

"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you He will not fail you or forsake you." Deut 31:6

'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' Isaiah 41:10

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

believe me

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

“Believe me, life can be much simpler. And you'll discover an energy for the things in life that really matter.”
―Emilie Barnes

life art

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"I can’t be the only one. I can’t be the only one who has these moments when I consider how I spend my days, reflecting on the poetry, art, literature, and music that I immerse myself in and ask, what is the point of all this anyway?

Don’t get me wrong! I love what I do……. But there are moments that come at unexpected times. Moments when I think, sure I love this stuff. But is my love of it enough to give it value? Is my love of it enough to justify crafting an entire education and a life around that love? I mean, I’m not curing cancer here."

So begins Angela Stanford's reflection on why we do what we do: cultivating an artful life, spreading beauty, sharing inspiring words. Is there a point? In a dark and increasingly deadly world does any of this really make a difference or is this just 'fluff' as one woman said to me some years ago.

Stanford goes on to share how a friend helped to answer that question for her here.

This isn't fluff, this is the stuff that makes life worth living.

The Big 5-0

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Not me (yet) but my partner in crime officially went up and over the hill right on Father's Day. We had almost a complete set of our children here to celebrate.

A gift like nothing else.

That $4 worth of tiny squirt guns?

Priceless.

Working on the new teen car with his favorite brother-in-law to be who can fix just about anything.

There was a lot of food, a lot of noise, a lot of doubled over and tears rolling down your face laughing. There were more serious talks about life, love, money, faith, fears, and careers. We don't have all the answers but we can listen and can share an awful lot of ways we personally know how to screw up. We can put our heads together to tackle big challenges. We can pray over the things we can't seem to figure out. So we did. We do. We consider ourselves so lucky to hear what is on their hearts.

As our friends' children are entering teen and young adulthood they have questions. How did you….? What do you do if…..? How?

The short answer is only by the grace of God. One thing that rings truer as time goes by is that we have very little by way of formula or guarantees but we have them. We have us. Love does cover a multitude of sins – theirs, ours, and those whose stories overlap with ours. For that we are grateful every day.

So this is what Father's Day at 50 looks like here with the people he has spent 30 of those 50 years with, people we love fervently.

"And above all things have fervent love for one another…." Peter 4:8

Road trip: Cedar Breaks

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"Do you want to ride along to the meeting? I don't think there's anything to do." That's how the conversation about this road trip began. It ended the way it usually does. Of course we wanted to go and of course there is something to do. There is ALWAYS something cool to do on the road and Cedar City was no exception.

A few days ago we had friends from England visit. They were asking if those white patches on the mountains could still be snow. Yes, is the answer and we drove right up to the top to see it. It's a little chilly at 10,000ft but the views were incredible. We were surprised by a little marmot before we left. Per Wild About Utah that is indeed the treat we thought it was. (virtual field trip to hear the marmot story here and the whistle here)

Southern Utah, where you can watch a fiery sunset and have a snowball fight in the same spot in June. So much fun.

* disclaimer: despite the illusion due to the angle of the camera, the railings are quite far from the actual edge of the canyon wall. There is a wide margin of level ground all around the overlook railing. In the marmot image the railing is still further to the right. Bottom line, I'm the biggest worry wort mom ever. Zero danger there. : )

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a happy find

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

It is said to see the birds you must become part of the silence. If that is so then it is especially interesting that it was Brendan who found the little quail (yes? I am pretty sure but could be wrong) all puffed up in the cool evening air. This boy is a ball of energy much of the time but, then again, nothing gets past him. He knows I have tried for a year now to get a good image of my favorite little birds here. Occasionally they make there way up here, but the largest flock of them live one street down. If we are on the road early enough we see them scurry as fast as their little legs can carry them. Once the babies are big enough they follow behind in a line and without fail I break out into C'mon Get Happy. (version with happy little animated partridges and the bumper sticker I should own here)

Too much totally irrelevant sharing? Sorry.

Anyway, he was out after dinner the other night and caught a glimpse of this beauty. He carefully tiptoed back inside to tell me to get my camera then led me quietly back where he found it. It really made my evening.

Causey Reservoir

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Summer kicked off for us with a hike high above Causey Reservoir. This was a new-to-us trail. It's rated moderate and is an undulating (read: uphill both ways) path with a good balance of shade and views. Incredible views. The upper fields were in bloom with some flowers we haven't seen on other trails.

There were a lot of us but not too terribly much other foot traffic, even on a holiday weekend. As you can see, despite being religious about my daily workout I am still lagging behind even the 7yo. Yes. It does at least afford me some wide angle shots of this incredible place and my people in it.