Amid our travels, we've only had a precious few opportunities to really be absorbed into the community and our 2 weeks in Front Royal was one of those special opportunities! What started as a whimsical exchange between old buddies turned into an invitation to teach a science and math class at Chelsea Academy while a staff member was out on maternity leave. The staff and students readily embraced not just me, but also Lori and our kids as "part of the family" and we were each enriched from being part of the community. I did have to invest a little time brushing up on physical science, but we had some good demonstrations in class...I think the best one was testing saturation by adding lemonade mix to water and the students being able to drink their demonstration at the end! The 6th grade math class is full of experts on using measuring devices and we had a couple fun days measuring things outside to collect data for some pie graphs. THANK YOU to everyone at Chelsea for including us in your lives!
The school was certainly the hub of activity (our kids got to go to classes a couple times too), but the parish community at St. John the Baptist was equally as welcoming and the neighborhood pot-luck with our friends the Nolan family on our first day in Front Royal really highlighted the wonderful sense of community in Front Royal in general. Joseph and I got to join in the men's basketball games on Friday nights too and run some full court pick-up games. Nothing like a little basketball to draw people together!
Between visiting old friends in Springfield and making new friends in Front Royal, 2 weeks seemed barely enough time to enjoy such a terrific community. We were indeed doubly blessed by both old friends and new ones!