Celebrating 90 years of "Sisu"

Today, my grandmother, Ellen Elizabeth (nee Minkkinen) Grothe is 90 years old. She is full-blooded Finn, raised on American soil by immigrant parents. Just a few weeks ago, the entire Grothe clan (mostly) gathered in Scandia, Minnesota to celebrate her and her "sisu".

Here is the word defined by Urban Dictionary:

a uniquely Finnish quality; the word used to typify the Finnish spirit; a concept that is at the heart of how all Finns view themselves; a certain feature or value considered by Finns to be typically Finnish - endurance, resilience, tenacity, determination, perseverance - an inner reserve of diligence, capacity, the ability to face head-on and always overcome - bravery, empowerment, inner strength Gritting your teeth, continuing to fight against an overwhelming enemy, clearing a forest with your bare hands, continuing on to win a race even after falling. Sisu means that you finish what you start, you don’t quit in the middle of a job, and you don’t whine.

Wikipedia says this:

Sisu is a Finnish term translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. It has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The meaning is equivalent in English to "having guts", and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. Sisu has a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain it.

My grandmother was one of 12 children. She was valedictorian of her high school. She bore 11 children naturally. That's "sisu" enough for me, but that's not all she did. She raised ten children while running a farm AND teaching school to several grades in a one-room school-house! She went back to school to get her Bachelor's Degree while a single mother, still raising 7 of her children. She lived in the inner city for a while and taught in Minneapolis Public Schools. She passed her tenacity and work ethic down to her children who, in turn, passed it on to my generation. I feel so fortunate to have received a small amount of her "sisu".

At the celebration, her friends, two of her siblings, and most of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were there.

My Uncle read some excerpts from Proverbs 31 about my grandmother. I can't remember all the verses he read, and I'm not sure in what order, but it was basically this:

An excellent mother, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
She works with her hands in delight.
She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household.
She girds herself with strength
And makes her arms strong.
She senses that her gain is good;
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
She makes coverings for herself and her family.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and bless her;
"Many women have done nobly,
But you excel them all."
Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.

Mother

Grandmother

Great Grandmother

(Chris is in the photo so that the little ones will sit for the photo.)

I love that Johann got to meet his Great Grandmother. He calls her Gigi (or G.G.) for "Great Grandma". Anytime he sees a picture of her, he says, "GG"! In fact, he LOVED when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and everyone clapped. Ever since, if we sing "Happy Birthday", he says "GG"!

Grandma, I think you are an amazing woman. I am so blessed to know you!

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY!

I LOVE YOU!

Remembering Janice Lowry Gothold

Chris' cousin Jon, Johann, and Janice

Chris' cousin-by-marriage just recently passed away after battling liver cancer.

She lived a very full life and touched countless lives with her personality and creativity. She will be sorely missed. Her spirit continues to live in the lives of her loved ones and the art she created. In fact, the Smithsonian has collected many of her journals and has them in its archives.

Check out her website: Janice Lowry

Small House Update

The house we bought is #5. It is actually a picture of the work room in the detached garage. We thought that was going to be our big project. Not so.

We closed escrow on September 10, but we are still not living in the house. We thought we would change a few things which were mostly cosmetic (but also made the house cleaner). As it turns out, we had to take care of some structural damage before we could even lay the flooring to move in. It was too emotionally draining to write about. Hopefully, we will be moved in after a few more weeks and will have done enough that we could post before and after pictures. But, seeing as it took me a month to write this, don't hold your breath.

We have been blessed with a place to stay and a community of people surrounding us, offering us a plethora of provision (child care, encouragement, labor, expertise, storage, etc.)

We are grateful and once it is live-able, we will be excited to have a home.

We get the keys tomorrow!

Maybe this seems "out-of-the-blue" to some of you, but we are almost officially home-owners. Scary and exciting. Just for fun, take a look at the numbered photos below and make your best guess at which property we actually purchased. (I chose from photos of homes we almost and actually put offers on. I tried to choose the "worst" shot from each home.) Once we actually have the keys in hand and begin solidifying plans of attack for working on the home, I will write a new post telling you the answer, and giving more pictures of our actual home.

Mom, Dad, and Brita: I'm sorry, you are not allowed to guess, as it would not be so much of a guess as it would be giving the answer away.

#1: (Those are apartments peering into the back yard)

#2: Gotta love the Do-It-Yourself tiling in the bathroom.

#3: Read the poster on the wall and you can imagine what the rest of the house looked like.

#4: Too bad you can't see some of the statue fountain fixtures in the rest of the back yard.

#5: Converted living space with dry rot in the rafters

#6: You can pretty much see the entire master bedroom in this shot.

Comment your best guess and see in a few days if you were right!

Adventure Camp: Day #5

The last day was less of a day as it was an afternoon and evening.

We met up in downtown Civic Park for some wrap-up sharing and discussions, games, and family barbecue.

We shared our favorite parts of Adventure Camp in a big group. The one I remember most was shared by a 4th grade boy from our street. When I asked him if he wanted to share (not everyone did), he quickly replied, "yes", with a stifled smile. He shared almost as though he thought we might think his answer was dumb, "Playing in the sand was kind of fun." But, I remember that day at the beach when his siblings and their friends were jumping the ocean and he chose to stay with the boys from our church, playing in the sand. They were way into it. I began to replay the week in my head. Whatever the church boys were doing, so was this kid from our street. He followed them everywhere. Then, I replayed the times I had stopped by his apartment this summer. He and his three siblings are always home. He told me he plays computer games during the summer. His mother told me that the father works in the day (until night) and she works from afternoon to evening. I think playing in the sand really was fun for him, but I think what made it so fun was playmates. The kids on our street don't invite friends over to play, and they don't have anyone to drive them over to someone else's house if they were invited somewhere other than the street on which we live.

His oldest sister, in 7th grade, was a bit more aware of her desire for company. When we were giving affirmations in the next activity, she probably was the most vulnerable. We would take turns throwing a ball of yarn while holding onto a part of it. The ball would unravel as one person would toss it to the person saying an "appreciation" to someone in the circle. Most kids would say something like, "You were really fun on the bus." Not her. She threw the ball to a girl from our church and said, "Thank you for being a good friend." They will be going to the same school as each other this fall. I hope they really will be friends.

When the ball of yarn had been tossed to everyone, we asked them to notice how we were all connected. Just like the roots of the Redwood trees, helping each other to grow tall and strong, keeping each other from falling. Like a lighthouse helping ships find their way. Like taking care of the plants and animals on the farm while they give us things that help keep us warm and fed. We reminded them that we need help each other some times by reminding one another what they are good at and what we like about them. We need to remind each other that God made us each unique and special and that we have important things to contribute to the world.

We sang some more songs together.

Then, we did what they were all REALLY waiting for... waterballoon games.

Once we finished our games, families started arriving and the students played on the playground while we got the food ready. When it was ready, we called everyone together. We told the kids that we had so much fun with them, and we gave them a copy of a group picture from Adventure Camp. Chris told the families from our street (and Emilee translated) that we are enjoying getting to know them and that our desire is to "do life" with them. (i.e. we don't want to just serve them because we are better, because we aren't. We want to share life with them because we are neighbors and we have been given life to share it and enrich the lives of others). The mother who came along on every day trip communicated her thanks. She said she and her kids really enjoyed the trips, they were all new experiences, and they never would have had those experiences otherwise. The families made sure to ask if we were offering tutoring again in the fall. I'm praying for more volunteers.

I didn't get any pictures of the actual picnic/eating part. Chris was grilling, I was helping serve, and we were both trying to connect with the families (the women from our street gravitated to their own table), while keeping watch of our very active toddler.

Purely logistically, the week went really well. All the kids stayed safe. The bus arrived every morning - early. We stuck to our schedule so we didn't get charged extra from the bus company. We had an awesome bus driver. All the activities planned were enjoyable. The kids got along. Johann stayed with a friend from church for the first two days and then with his auntie B for days 3 and 4, and he did really well.

The over-all goal of continuing to build relationships with the families we met through tutoring was... I hesitate to say "achieved" like we are finished with a task... so I will say that I feel the relationships have "deepened." We look forward to future relationship building in tutoring this fall and have high hopes for Adventure Camp 2010! I hope the video below will excite you, too!

Adventure Camp: Day #4

Day #4: Muir Woods & Muir Beach

This is actually the first trip on which we ever imagined taking students.

Before we started tutoring at the Elks Lodge, two girls would come over to the apartment for homework help. We would sit with T.V. tray tables right outside my apartment door. I didn't know their parents that well yet, so I didn't feel comfortable allowing them inside. I would either have Johann in a bouncy seat next to us, or have the monitor with us while he was sleeping inside. One of the girls was reading about Redwood Trees and had no idea what they were. The reading excerpt was so dry and boring to her because she didn't have enough experiential knowledge to help her visualize the story. I remembered watching her play outside with all the younger kids in the summer-time, just a few months before, and wished that the next summer, we could take her to go see the Coast Redwoods because they were only about an hour away. Little did I imagine, then, that the following summer we would be taking nearly 20 students and a handful of parents. That same girl's mother came along every day, all week. On this day, Chris said he overheard her marveling at how beautiful the redwood forest was.

Our first spiritual discussion was ... introduced, but not in delved into.

We talked about how big and tall the Redwood trees are and how much harder (and sometimes easier) big and tall things can fall over. So, we talked about how the Redwood trees have roots that go OUT, instead of down. Not only do they go out, but they go out three times the height of the tree, overlapping and intertwining with the roots of all the other Redwood trees in the grove. They help each other to grow up tall and strong. The students were losing focus at this point, and were much more interested in the banana slug behind me, so I stopped there. I tried to continue the thought process while walking by asking a student what helped her to grow strong and tall. Her answer? Eating her vegetables.

In hindsight, I question whether the inquiry method of teaching really is the most effective.

After a short walk through the woods, it was off to eat lunch on the beach. After consuming enough, some of the students just couldn't restrain themselves to wait for the rest of the group to finish lunch. We were thinking of having a little group activity immediately after lunch, but for kids who had never been to the beach before, it almost seemed impossible to wait until someone told them it was "time" to go in. It was a cold day, and the ocean was even colder... but they were so excited, it didn't matter. Shoes were off, and pants were rolled up, but "teasing the waves" didn't last long, as evidenced by their wet pants. One student practically went swimming, fully clothed. Seriously, she just jumped right in and landed on her stomach in her long sleeved shirt and denim jeans. We could hardly be mad at her for doing so, either. A bit concerned that the waves would wash her away, yes, but once we chased after her and made sure she wasn't going to do it again... the huge smile plastered across her face made us long for such pure joy, and we indulged her whim to get drenched in the only clothes she had brought.

A bit unfortunately, when the group gathered for songs and our spiritual talk, these swimming students were quite cold. I'm sure it was quite a challenge to be fully present, but perhaps they soaked in some of what Chris said. He re-capped all the beauty of creation that we had experienced together in the week and said that we believed that it was not an accident. He further explained that we believe in a God who created all of this, and that He created all of them and thinks it is good. He knows every grain of sand on the beach and every hair on our heads. Chris explained that it is because of God and His love that we wanted to have Adventure Camp.

Adventure Camp: Day #3

Day #3: Lake Anza in Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley, CA

Once we arrived, used the bathrooms, and ate our snack, we were ahead of schedule. So, we made a visit to the Botanic Garden first.

On our hike, our spiritual discussion was going to be about what keeps us going when we get tired, what proper nourishment and apparel are necessary to help us continue on our journey. That plan got scratched because we misread the trail map, went the wrong way, had to stop to ask for directions, and then backtrack to get back to our trail. So, instead, we talked about what helps us find our way again when we get lost. We also commended the students for their great attitudes during the whole ordeal that helped us continue to have a positive experience (even if not ALL the students really did have a positive attitude).

Once we got on the trail, it was quite an enjoyable hike. Once Chris and Emilee gave a little lesson on poison oak, all the students helped each other stay away from it. To the best of my knowledge, we all avoided getting poison oak on our bodies.

We hiked down to Lake Anza where we ate lunch together and then enjoyed a good hour of unstructured play - just swimming together in a cold lake. One of my favorite moments was when a student in my group was running out of the water, shivering, and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this is SO fun!" Every time I've been over to her apartment to gather forms or give information for our trips, she has been inside in the summer time, watching T.V. Not cartoons, mind you. It was always a Novela. An adult choice. I know it sounds simple, but it just warmed my heart that we could help make her summer days a little more eventful, and a bit more geared toward what would be fun for her and make her feel special. Hopefully, it was memorable.