2011 DRURY FAMILY UPDATE - Posted January 1, 2012

LAUREN

Lauren is 6 years old now and loves kindergarten. She draws and paints and plays school with her sister and most of all enjoys playing dolls and making a mess of her room when her parents are not looking. We find Lauren singing wherever she is: in the car, at dinner, at church, in her bedroom, even in the bathroom (actually: especially in the bathroom).

Quotes of the year from Lauren:

• "God doesn't make chicken nuggets; they're not real."
  
• "My jack-o lantern looks weird--I think I put on too much eyeshadow."
• Dave asks: "Do you know who I love?" Lauren replies with nonchalance: "I know, it's me!"

KARINA

Karina loves to do cartwheels and handstands in the living room and is deeply engaged in after school art and also in art camp at Taylor University. Outside of school, she loves to play school--setting up her bedroom as a fully functional classroom, where friends and siblings all receive her keen instruction.

Story from this year:
Karina cleaned the bathroom and got paid some money from Kathy. She said: "Oh, good, I need more money... I gave $3.75 at church this week and you know the $5 I made from selling the gift cards I made? I gave that too so now I don't have money, so thanks!" (This was all the money she had at the moment, apparently she hasn't learned about tithing, just about generosity--total generosity, that is.)

MAXIM

Max launched into his Scratch computer programming deeply this year, creating animation videos and learning all kinds of things. Even though he's now in the 5/6th youth ministry at church, he still likes Legos and Star Wars--but he's now officially a "big kid" and no longer a child. He informs us from time to time that he is in "adolescence." Yes, Max, we've been there too.

Story from this year: Dave comes into kitchen to find Max fixing a bowl of predawn breakfast-- pouring out some fiber cereal.
Dave: "Why are you eating my cereal?"
Max: "We have testing at school today; they told us we have to eat a healthy breakfast."
Dave: "How do you know that's healthy?"
Max: "It doesn't have any marshmallows in it" ... after several bites Max begins rummaging around the kitchen cupboards.
Dave: "What are you doing?"
Max: "Where's the sugar? That stuff tastes horrible!"

KATHRYN

Kathy sadly lost her last remaining grandparent (Grandma Mae Veldheer) this year. But the year was full of many joys as well. All three kids in school much of the day, Monday through Friday. The extra time in Kathy's life filled up with Kids Hope mentoring, volunteering at the schools, gardening, cooking healthy, and exercising far more than ever before. She still loves to plan vacations and made her 15-year anniversary cruise with Dave one to remember.


DAVID

It was a key year at College Church as the massive SoulShift (www.oursoulshift.com) emphasis and What If outreach campaign both kicked off and reached outside of the church walls pretty far. He continues to write, edit and do research on his Fridays, and some of the same skills are now needed at the Church too. Every now and then Dave and a few other Marion Dads play video games together to be irresponsible and thus recapture some of their lost youth.