Merry Christmas everyone!
In skimming through the 10 (wow!) previous Christmas letters, I notice a
theme . . . any time we get an early start on the letter, our house is visited
by illness. So, out of an abundance of
caution, we waited until December 20!
It’s been a difficult year, with the death in June of
Patrick’s mother. She died peacefully,
surrounded by her husband and sons. The
last week of June was spent reflecting on her life and legacy. While we were grateful to see many family and
friends, we would have been much happier if they were visiting for a different
reason.
Patrick’s work has been stressful, but rewarding – as he
continues updating system analysis and participating in the design of new
financial software for the Illinois Department of Transportation. He’s gotten a whole new education in
bureaucracy as IDOT purchased specialized software to automate some system
analysis tasks, and he’s had to work with the state’s Central Management
Services to acquire the software and servers to run it. He’s spending far more time in meetings than
he likes, but progress is being made. He
continues to serve as a Cub Scout leader, and was recognized in the fall with
the Scouter’s Training Award for Cub Scouters (represented by a small pin on an
existing patch on his uniform)
Karen’s had the most productive year of her career, as well
as a year of personal milestones. In
March, she was one of a band of crazies who jumped into the frigid waters of
Lake Springfield as part of the Polar Plunge to raise money for the Special
Olympics. They raised $85,000 dollars,
but had to deal with the fact that they were restricted by the size of the
relatively small area where the 8-inch-thick ice on Lake Springfield had been
cut away. She followed that up in April
by becoming a published author – her article “The ‘S’ Method: Eight Effective
Components for Treating Depression” which was in the April issue of “Contact”
-- The magazine of The Illinois Counseling Association. This led to spending her summer helping a
professor at her Alma Mater, Lincoln Christian University to rewrite the
curriculum for one of the graduate-level counseling courses. She reports that after that experience she
has no desire to be a professor. She
wound up her year, by adding another new experience. She took three weeks of lessons to learn to
shoot a bow and arrow, so that she may keep up with her Cub Scouts on an
archery range.
Collectively, Karen and I completed a long-held goal in July
– we’ve finally visited every winery in the State of Illinois, and purchased a
bottle from each. We’re in the process of
consolidating our tasting notes from 110 wineries into book form, before
beginning a search for a publisher.
The boys are continuing to thrive. John is 4th grader, and the
highlight of his year so far was the Egg Drop last fall. His class had a week to build (at home – with
parental help) a container to hold a raw egg as it was dropped from the third
floor fire escape at his school. John’s
creation had the egg cradled in a nest of rubber bands, suspended from a
handmade parachute. He was thrilled when
his egg survived without a scratch.
John’s continuing in Cub Scouts as a first-year WEBELOS. WEBLOS Cubs are expected to complete 8
activity badges over two years, and John’s set a goal to complete all 20
available badges. He’s well on his way,
with 12 completed as of this weekend.
He’s learning the harsh lesson that Dad won’t sign off on everything,
and so is a bit frustrated that he hasn’t completed his WEBELOS Badge yet – he
needs one more specific badge, and will complete it with the rest of the boys
in his den in January.
Joshua’s continuing his string of excellent teachers, and is
finally buckling down and getting caught up with his classmates in math. (He continues to read a grade-level ahead of
them.) His love of baking continues, and
in fact he spent the afternoon baking Christmas Cookies with his mother. (He’s asked if he can bake bread during his
Christmas break.) Joshua’s also very
active in Cub Scouts. He was the
number-one popcorn seller in his Den as a Bear Cub. (He doesn’t know it, but he was also the 5th
highest seller of the 51 boys in the pack.)
Joshua completed the requirements for his Bear Badge earlier this week,
meeting his big goal for the year, which was to earn it faster than John did.
We had pretty good year with our very old dog (13 years),
Lucy right up until mid-December. She
has been growing ever more tired and feeble.
When the summer got hot, we quit walking her, and never restarted in the
fall, due to arthritis and cancerous tumors in her legs. The particular form of cancer she has can
lead to abdominal problems and ulcers (she’s been taking Pepcid AC every day
since July 2013), and on December 13 her ulcers flared up and we had to take
her to the vet. New medicine has helped,
but her time is growing short. She’s
lived a long and very eventful life for a dog (I was a single man when I bought
her).
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas,
Patrick, Karen, John, Joshua and Lucy
Provart Family -- September 2014
Joshua -- 8 1/2 years, 3rd grade, September 2014
John -- 9 1/2 years, 4th grade, September 2014
