Home-lost isn't hopeless

Our favorite boy besides Douwe is without a home again now and we have been visiting him about once a week or so at the children's shelter where he is staying. Since I was a little kid, I have been introduced to many many fictional characters that somehow survive the worst nightmare of all: coping in a big world and strange new places without the benefit of having their very own parents nearby to protect or care for them. Here are some of the most memorable home-lost fictional children that come to mind, from books I read as a child, or books I have read in the last couple weeks. Recommended, especially if you are looking for a story that reminds us how it is not ridiculous to keep hoping that Love will work its magic eventually, somehow, in the lives of children who have been put into a seemingly hopeless situation . . .

Edgar Mint ---- The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Anne Shirley ---- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Bud ---- Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Astrid Magnussen ---- White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Emily Starr ----- Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
Sara Crewe ------ A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
the Pevensie kids---- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Harry Potter ---- The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
Fannie Price ----- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre ---- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Stanley Yelnats ---- Holes by Louis Sachar
Gilly Hopkins ----- The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Huck Finn ----- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
David Copperfield ----- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Mary Lennox ----- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Liesel Meminger ---- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Dorothy Gale ----- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
the Alden kids ---- The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Prince Dolor ----- The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock
Heidi ----- Heidi by Johanna Spyri
James Trotter ---- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Rebecca ---- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Long weekend on the Gulf of Mexico

The three of us traveled for a long weekend to Anna Maria Island on the gulf coast of Florida in early February, to visit with Mom and Dad Groen and 5 of Mom's siblings and their spouses who were staying down there for a month.

We stayed at a beautiful lodging about two blocks from the Wielenga group, and I recommend this place to anyone . .across the street from the beach, and 2 nice pools on site. . .Tortuga Inn. We spent most of our time by the pool swimming, one morning at the beach, and one day at Myakka State Park to see the alligators on a boat ride. There were also a lot of birds to see, and a fun hike that was called a canopy walk because it had a structure high up in the canopy level of the trees.

Solar System and Outer Space

It has been a few months since my last update . .mainly because I never take a camera anywhere lately. . . .
here's a few shots from around the house in January . . Douwe got really interested in the solar system and kept building models all over the house. He ran out of little balls for the moons and used froot loops, and the black bracelet from Abby's wedding is having a second job as an asteroid belt.
The Magic School Bus book "Lost in the Solar System" gets main credit for getting Douwe curious. There is something fascinating and mind boggling about outer space once you start looking into it. All I knew from 5th grade science unit were a few terms like rotation, revolution, orbit, and the names not order of the nine planets. In the last few months we've checked out some books about Mars, Black Holes, Voyager, The Sun, and Asteroids, etc. and it all blows my mind. The vast distances, the dance moves of various orbits, the amounts of energy involved, it is all astronomical. We got a treat of a field trip to the Planetarium in Merrillville and saw a show about Mars, followed by a simulation of the night sky that day. It is so complicated, I wonder how scientists can even figure all this stuff out. How can radio waves travel so far to send photos from so far away? Most of it is over my head.