Harbor Life Ministries

School’s out for Hannah! She finished work tonight in her last workbook.

Hannah is home-schooled, with her mother supplying her curriculum along with the scope and sequence. She also grades Hannah’s tests.

Saturday often is a day to sleep in but, being away from home, the plan was to get up at 7:30 and be ready for breakfast at 8:30.

Well, we all did end up sleeping in and got up at 8:30, but were ready for breakfast by 9 AM, with everyone showered and dressed. The day was spent at the Ohio State Fairgrounds where the Quarter Horse Congress was being held. We walked a great deal looking at all the exhibits and then watched the horse events. It was a few of the girls? first time at a horse event. We had fun. We returned back home, on our way stopping by a shoe store, every girl?s dream. We spent about half-an-hour trying on and playing with shoes… what fun!!!

Babies don’t come easily and neither do baby blankets. Ask Natasha. About the blankets, that is.

Several times she’s started her baby blanket and then, just when things are going along at a nice pace…oops! Twice she had to unravel the entire blanket and start over from scratch. It was time to call in the calvary.

Volunteer Linda Paddock lives no more then 20 minutes away from the Norwalk house in Huron, Ohio, and she’s an excellent knitter. In fact, while her husband Russ “knits” wood pieces together in his hobby (called “intarsia”), Linda then finds time to knit. Both of them are retired and spend hours on their respective interests.

Linda was able to give Tasha some pointers to help her stay knitting. She also had a look at Tasha’s scarf she had knitted for her mother, and gave advice on how to keep the final product from rolling.

After December 8th, Tasha’s due date, we may be able to finally ask: which was easier, the baby or the blanket?

For a long time we’ve heard of the fabled Milan Melon Festival (in Milan, Ohio, not Italy) and their even more renowned treat that’s served up over the 3-day run of the event: melon flavored ice cream and sherbet, served, if you like, in melon bowls.

If I had been offered to try a cantaloupe-flavored Slushee or similar treat, I probably would have turned it down. I’ve had watermelon-flavored drinks, gum and candy, and it doesn’t do much for my palate. But ice cream? Ice cream is always good, and in this case the dish came highly recommended from two people who wouldn’t possibly mislead us: Eric and Kim Phillips, the former youth sponsors at the church we attend in Norwalk.

(I shot some video of everyone trying the musky treat and then used some Photoshop tricks to animate it–see below).

I liked the ice cream, although I wouldn’t put it high on my list of favorite flavors. But then, we chose cones instead of melon bowls, so maybe that took something away from it. I did manage, in the experience, to get cantaloupe ice cream on my Veggietales T-shirt. I’m sure Mike Nawrocki or Phil Vischer could write a catchy song about it, if they chose.

There are some winters where you feel sorry for the people who own snowmobiles and snowblowers, and you believe the scientists are right about global warming.

The other winters are good winters, even if it means too many back-breaking shoveling days, because winter north of the 38th parallel is supposed to be white on most days that fall between Christmas and the day when the buzzards return to Hinckley.

So when the school shuts down for a snow day–something that legislators believe should happen no more than five times per winter in Ohio (although morning delays can happen as often as you like)–the focus of most young minds will shift to the “Hill.”

In Celina, the “Hill” is a man-made pile of ground in Eastview Park that acts as a barrier in summer to keep the long balls from rolling into the pond. On a snow day in winter, however, the Hill–which is only maybe 50 yards in any direction from its summit to the flatlands at the base–is filled with hundreds of kids. It’s like the mall on a Saturday in mid-December.

That’s why we sledded at night, usually after 11 p.m. If we wanted to go day-sledding we would leave Celina altogether and head 6 miles due east on the double-lane, to the first exit with a ramp up. From the top of the ramp, the Hill–which was only snow-covered when we had at least 6 inches of snow due to the tall weeds–gently sloped down about 500 feet to meet an Ohio Department of Transportation fence.

No one else knew of this place. At least we never found anyone else sledding on our hill.

Norwalk has a “Hill” too. It’s called Hogan’s Hill and it’s all natural; nothing manmade except the guardrail that separates the children from the traffic which seems to pass dangerously close. Thankfully the road borders the peak of the hill and not its base. That’s the river’s job, although it meanders far enough away from the bottom to keep from being dangerous to slide into.

We made our first trip to Hogan’s Hill today–Sara, Kara, Kavin and me. It’s about a five minute walk to Hogan’s Hill and now I know that the excitement from sledding in Norwalk comes from walking on Elm Street, which has no sidewalk on the hill side of the road. Just the guardrail.

Just to prove I haven’t turned 50 yet I gave Hogan’s Hill a try. It was a lot of fun but after trudging back up the hill I proved that I’m closer to 50 than I am to 40. Maybe I discovered the origin of the expression “over the Hill.”