Every summer we designate a theme for the season! This typically reflects our plans or desires with a lot of motivational overtones. This year we had way too many changing factors that sometimes left us feeling overwhelmed, unprepared & with many a plan B, C, D all with the same kind of open ends to them.
So my daughter said how about, "Just Wing It!" to which I unthinkingly responded sure & realized it did not have a motivational undertone so suggested "Just Wing It (but with a plan)!"
Thankfully we did submit to trusting God's plan for us. As I look back over the last 7-8 weeks I do find evidence of God's plan - the one that is always good for those who trust in Him!!
As a family we had quality time together, traveling to drop Rutha off at an NSLC camp at Boston. On our way there we did a quick 2-hour visit to Yale, a preview of college visits that will begin this year. Yale was great - steeped in history & very impressive. When we picked her up we took a mini-vacation wandering the streets of Boston, took a highly informative tour of Harvard with Rutha as the informed guide! She was quick to point the similarities between Yale & Harvard & extrapolate these to other Ivy's & also the differences. Rohun had stated that when he went to college he would have to get his bike as he could not see himself "walk" between buildings. So a sign at Harvard had us disqualify it on these exact grounds!
And then headed on to Newport, RI, reliving memories on many visits when Pramod lived in Providence with family and friends. It took us 15 years to return back there. It was Rohun's first & he enjoyed it a lot! Did the usual Cliff Walk & a visit to the Newport Creamery to have the famous "Awful Awful" shakes.
Rohun did some fun recreational camps in our town, a basket ball camp at Peddie School & then a Speech & Debate Camp. He did enjoy debate so hoping he grows into that sport as he is such a good reasoning thinker - continues to keep us entertained with his arguments for years now!
He is off to the NASA camp in Huntsville, AL & we hope he enjoys that too.
Rutha also finished a camp at the Waksman Institute of Molecular Biology at Rutgers University. She enjoyed the 2-week experience and learnt a lot. Last year through the school run Waksman program she had a clone published in ncbi - a national repository & in the last 2 weeks has 3 more submitted, Proud of her! I made a concerted effort to listen to several of the 36 kids in the program describe their project that reflected their hard work & talent but have to admit was crushed by how little I know of molecular biology & the DNA of a duckweed!! She took the train & shuttle everyday. This is one thing I worried about at the beginning of the summer - how would I manage multiple drop-offs & pickups - but God placed another friend to help who diligently dropped her off at the train station as she went on to her work place & many times gave her a ride back too!
The weeks so far were also marked by visits from friends & family - starting with a surprise visit from my sister on my birthday weekend!! Loved how they pulled that one on me. All the visits were marked with great conversations, laughter, long walks, biking, 6-flags, movie & game nights for kids with their friends & just catching up! The Guptas, Safir, Bhimpures, Kinneys, Vishwakarmas, Pramod's friends from IIT and many others...
I did an awesome parenting seminar in my church for 3 hours. A great line that I read recently was “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” It is one more nugget in the parenting toolkit & resonated with me like another one did which is if you don't tell your kids who they are, somebody else will! It is deep...
I went to Chicago for the Joint Statistical Meetings - the highlight of this one was seeing my roommate from Penn State after 20 years! This led to connecting with our 3rd roomie! Also met other friends from Penn State.
Its been a hectic summer and basically we've been winging it so far!
So my daughter said how about, "Just Wing It!" to which I unthinkingly responded sure & realized it did not have a motivational undertone so suggested "Just Wing It (but with a plan)!"
Thankfully we did submit to trusting God's plan for us. As I look back over the last 7-8 weeks I do find evidence of God's plan - the one that is always good for those who trust in Him!!
As a family we had quality time together, traveling to drop Rutha off at an NSLC camp at Boston. On our way there we did a quick 2-hour visit to Yale, a preview of college visits that will begin this year. Yale was great - steeped in history & very impressive. When we picked her up we took a mini-vacation wandering the streets of Boston, took a highly informative tour of Harvard with Rutha as the informed guide! She was quick to point the similarities between Yale & Harvard & extrapolate these to other Ivy's & also the differences. Rohun had stated that when he went to college he would have to get his bike as he could not see himself "walk" between buildings. So a sign at Harvard had us disqualify it on these exact grounds!
And then headed on to Newport, RI, reliving memories on many visits when Pramod lived in Providence with family and friends. It took us 15 years to return back there. It was Rohun's first & he enjoyed it a lot! Did the usual Cliff Walk & a visit to the Newport Creamery to have the famous "Awful Awful" shakes.
Rohun did some fun recreational camps in our town, a basket ball camp at Peddie School & then a Speech & Debate Camp. He did enjoy debate so hoping he grows into that sport as he is such a good reasoning thinker - continues to keep us entertained with his arguments for years now!
He is off to the NASA camp in Huntsville, AL & we hope he enjoys that too.
Rutha also finished a camp at the Waksman Institute of Molecular Biology at Rutgers University. She enjoyed the 2-week experience and learnt a lot. Last year through the school run Waksman program she had a clone published in ncbi - a national repository & in the last 2 weeks has 3 more submitted, Proud of her! I made a concerted effort to listen to several of the 36 kids in the program describe their project that reflected their hard work & talent but have to admit was crushed by how little I know of molecular biology & the DNA of a duckweed!! She took the train & shuttle everyday. This is one thing I worried about at the beginning of the summer - how would I manage multiple drop-offs & pickups - but God placed another friend to help who diligently dropped her off at the train station as she went on to her work place & many times gave her a ride back too!
The weeks so far were also marked by visits from friends & family - starting with a surprise visit from my sister on my birthday weekend!! Loved how they pulled that one on me. All the visits were marked with great conversations, laughter, long walks, biking, 6-flags, movie & game nights for kids with their friends & just catching up! The Guptas, Safir, Bhimpures, Kinneys, Vishwakarmas, Pramod's friends from IIT and many others...
I did an awesome parenting seminar in my church for 3 hours. A great line that I read recently was “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” It is one more nugget in the parenting toolkit & resonated with me like another one did which is if you don't tell your kids who they are, somebody else will! It is deep...
Its been a hectic summer and basically we've been winging it so far!
