Seven Quick Takes on the AO ‘At Home’ Retreat

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I usually reserve these Quick Takes for Friday or Saturday, but I couldn’t wait to share about the lovely weekend I was blessed to be a part of! Several months ago, I read on the Ambleside Online Forums that they were planning a retreat in Indiana, the first one they’ve had in 10 years. I really wanted to go, but highway driving is very stressful for me and I didn’t know anyone in “real life” who was going. My husband basically insisted that I go and said he’d take me and the kids and do something fun in the area with them. Then I saw a post on the forums from a lady in the general area wanting someone to go the retreat with her, so I offered to come along if she’d drive. It ended up that her husband drove us, and their seven year old came along to spend time with her dad while we enjoyed the retreat. We live about an hour apart, so we kind of met in the middle (hubby dropped me off). She brought some recording of talks from the homeschool convention in Cincinnati which we enjoyed on the way there – it’s always good to find other people who appreciate Andrew Kern and Christopher Perrin!  😀 I am very grateful to Olivia and her husband for letting me tag along and dropping me off at my house on the way home when it was out of their way. And my husband is grateful that he didn’t have to entertain five kids by himself in an unfamiliar place! 😉

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 Here’s the view from my hotel window – so flat!

I really should have got a picture of the church. It was lovely, especially the sanctuary with the ornate ceiling and stained-glass windows. The time zones were pretty wonky there, though, and caused quite a bit of confusion. One time I saw the time suddenly change by an hour while I was on my phone at the hotel (which claimed to be on Eastern time). On Saturday, the schedule and my phone did not agree on what time it actually was so I just had to ignore my phone and go to the next thing on the schedule!

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I did not meet all of the Ambleside Advisory and Auxiliary who were there as they were, understandably, in high demand and I am very reluctant to approach people who are already conversing with someone else (especially when I don’t know them!). Leslie Laurio (and perhaps Karen Glass as well?) was at the desk in the entryway to greet us and help us find our name tags and folders. And Anne White was one of the first to come up and talk to me after I got there! Of course I had to tell her I was a fellow Canadian, albeit an expat now. 😀

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I was also grateful that a place at each table was reserved for an Advisory or Auxiliary member, so I was able to meet both Lani Siciliano and Kathy Livingston that way. And Naomi Goegan very kindly came up and chatted with me after the Friday night session, when I was standing in the corner tired and not knowing what to do. Such gracious ladies all, even though they were probably dead tired themselves!

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The biggest surprise of the weekend was that Cindy Rollins was there!!! It was kind of a last-minute decision, as one of the Advisory could not be there, and they asked Cindy to come and speak in her place. Olivia and I (and probably most of the ladies there) had no idea, and we were looking at the schedule, saw Cindy’s name, and actually wondered if it was just going to be a recording of one of her talks. 😀 And then we were standing in the lobby and I looked over and saw her (I think I had to do a double take) and said, “I think that’s Cindy Rollins over there!” I think Olivia was a bit more perceptive than me and had already figured that out. 😛 Cindy actually sat in front of us during the evening session, and of course we had to introduce ourselves. And the funniest thing was that my friend Dawn knew Cindy was going to be there, and asked her to say hi to me. So Cindy knew that I would be there when I had know idea that she was coming!

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One of the loveliest things at the retreat was singing hymns together, as well as a dinner blessing set to the tune of the Doxology. I loved it so much that I want to make a few copies so we can all learn it and make it a dinner tradition in our home! 🙂

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I’ll share some snippets from my notes in another post, but one session I wanted to mention here was taught by Megan Hoyt, who gave us an overview of the lives of the composers AO has scheduled for the coming school year. She made Palestrina, Schubert and Brahms seem like real people instead of just names, and you could tell she really loved her subject. I have her book about Hildegard von Bingen, and she is working on a website that should be a great resource for those wanting to teach their children about composers. She also had a few copies of books that were used to teach music appreciation in Charlotte Mason’s schools in the  early 1900s. I found the one she especially recommended, The Listener’s Guide to Music by Percy Scholes, on Ebay and look forward checking it out.

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