Officially commissioned

In September, Molly was officially a commissioned member of the YCET team. She received her commissioning (and t-shirt) from Bishop Iffert.

Wool Fest 2025

We went to Wool Fest this fall as is our annual tradition. This year we went on Saturday instead of Sunday afternoon. The weather was lovely but we missed having Christopher and Clara with us.

Emily joined in for a quick photo. She was there with her boyfriend's family.

Oh yeah - and Sabrina drove us there which was a new experience.

Lucy goes to the woods

Lucy got dressed at 5 am and went out into the woods to pursue the mighty whitetail. It was an early morning but she was excited about the possibilities. We setup shop in the corner of a field and waited for the sun to rise. It was fun being out with her and though we didn't come back with any meat there will be other hunting in the future I'm sure.

Frassati at the Aronoff

We got dressed up and went to see a play at the Aronoff about St. Pier Giorgio Frassati.

The girls were moved by this touching story about a man who loved to serve, to climb and to worship the Lord. We had a lovely evening.

Molly’s on the board

Today is opening day for youth firearm deer season. A rite of passage for each of my kids is to go out deer hunting when they're 15 years old to harvest their very own white tail.

First Christopher shot a 4 point buck in 2020. Clara shot an 8 point buck two years later. Sabrina shot a doe last year and this year it was Molly's turn.

Now Molly is the least likely of my kiddos to have anything to do with blood and such. So I made a deal with her. If she shoots the beast, I'll take care of the rest. What I hadn't accounted for was that young Molly would be motivated to one up her siblings.

So this morning around 8:30 am Molly shot her first doe. And then about 15 minutes later she took out doe #2.

True to my word she didn't have to lift a finger after the deer were located. We knew right where doe #2 was but it took us about 45 minutes to find doe #1.

We were joined by some friends in the field and after some necessary preparation the two deer have been delivered to the processor.

At the moment I'm back out in the field with my friend and his son serving as a guide as they prepare for their own harvesting adventure.

Sabrina’s first race

Sabrina competed in her first ever mountain bike race this weekend. It was hot but she raced like a champ taking 5th place in her division. (#6 popped a tire before the race but details, shmetails).

It was fun to see her do her thing at England Idlewild.

Deck refresher

We spent some time this Labor Day weekend restoring the deck. We knocked off all the paint that was peeling, sanded it down as best we could and then slapped some stain on most of the deck. There's still work to be done but it's good to make progress.

A New Day

It's a new day around here. On the first day of her Junior Year, Sabrina drove the morning school drop off route. Molly and Lucy were good, quiet passengers while we inched our way through traffic. I liked how the sun flares were picked up in this snapshot.

Sabrina attends GSA

Sabrina attended a three week session of the KY Governor's School for the Arts in July 2025. She spent countless hours studying and practicing her skills as a vocal performer. We don't know where this is going to lead but it's pretty clear she's very talented and dedicated to vocal music.

July 16

Well today we learned the answer to a few questions that have been on our collective mind for several months. We learned that Clara is going to be heading up to Detroit for her year long mission and we also heard from Christopher's former co-op employer that they'd like to have him back at KZF. There are many moving parts for our young family at this stage and today is one to reflect on and be thankful for all the gifts that God gives us.
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Twinning at camp

Clara and Lucy are at Challenge Camp this week. Clara is the teen leader for a group of middle schoolers which include Lucy. We're waiting to see how this goes for them but I suspect they'll have a great time together.

Here's a photo of the two of them on Twin Night.

This photo of Lucy looking older than I think of her in my mind reminds me that the days are long but the years are short.

Outstanding recognition

Clara was honored as the outstanding YCET Member. Here she's pictured with the Bishop.

‘Twas the night before moving out

I snapped this photo of Annette and Christopher shopping at Kroger around 9 pm on Sunday May 11 2025 aka Mother’s Day. I was tired and ready for sleep but instead of slumbering in my bed I was lumbering at the grocery store with my bride and my son shopping for a week’s worth of groceries. Christopher had just completed an internship at an architecture firm in downtown Cincinnati and was preparing to start summer classes the next day

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Verona Vineyard on a Saturday night

Here's a photo of Annette and I snapped by one of our girls (either Sabrina or Lucy) at Verona Vineyard from a Saturday evening a week or two ago. We went out to listen to a former school counselor who is trying to make it as a Nashville musician. Sabrina seemed to really enjoy the performance.

We had a nice time but the beautiful evening stroll with my beautiful bride was absolutely lovely.

Lots of happenings

There's a lot happening in the Howard household these days.

Clara's senior photos from Ault Park. Christopher meeting his goddaughter in Milwaukee. Sabrina and Molly singing in a Boone County joint choir and band concert and Lucy being Lucy at Verona Vineyard.

Lots of fun and happenings!

Ryle Choir Concert

Earlier this week the Ryle Choir program held a concert with Gray Middle School's 8th Grade Choir.  Molly and Sabrina sang with the acapella group featuring Molly's first solo!  Later in the concert Sabrina was recognized as one of five outstanding choir students who have been invited to UK to audition in person for the Governor's Scholars of the Arts program.  If she's accepted, she would likely attend this summer at a local college campus in KY and continue to learn about singing and vocal performance.  We were fortunate to have our entire crew attend the concert with us so the moment had to be commemorated with a family photo.    

Pre-Assessment Concert

 Ryle and Gray combined their bands for the pre-assessment concert held earlier this month.  Unfortunately because of a time mix-up, I arrived late and didn't get to hear or see Lucy perform.  However, I did happen to snap a photo of both Molly and Lucy along with their friend Jessica sitting in the stands clapping whenever the 8th grade band completed their set.  

NKY Select Band

In February the NKY Middle School Select Band held their annual concert at Highlands High School.  Lucy performed and was watched by most of the family.  

Molly's face is directed toward the photographer, not the musicians.  

Blessings abound

This story needs to be remembered because it's a concrete way we can know of God's abundant blessings.  

Christopher is in his second year as an architecture student at UC.  He has entered the phase of his academic journey when he's expected to rotate between classroom and co-op experience.  He took a class in the fall that was intended to kick-start his job search. Unfortunately time after time he ran into issues where either the position that was previously vacant had been filled or the software program he is learning in school doesn't match the one used by the firm.  He went out with a manager of a local architecture firm hoping to get a position but unfortunately the firm wanted someone with experience in their software program so again he was left looking for a position. 

So this was the way of it for several weeks and later months.  I tried to help by introducing the topic of architecture with anyone I encountered.  One afternoon I was on a walk in the county building when I bumped into someone I met at a luncheon several months ago.  She was in the building along with another associate from her employer for a meeting.  Since I suspected they knew or hired architects I once again dutifully brought up the topic of architecture and co-ops.  Her associate said he graduated from the same school as Chris with an architecture degree and discovered through his co-op experience that he wanted to go into construction instead.  He agreed to pass along Christopher's resume so I fulfilled my end of the bargain by connecting the two of them.  This conversation happened in December.    

The weeks continued to pass and even though he was on Christmas Break, Christopher had to continue to try and connect with firms seeking a co-op position by early January.  Low and behold around the week of January 6th, Christopher received an inquiry (I can't recall if it was a phone call or email) from a local architecture firm asking if he'd be available for an interview.  This was completely out of the blue but it turns out the chance encounter with the construction company representatives resulted in this connection.  Chris interviewed and then waited for the committee to make a decision about his qualifications.  The following week he was offered the position and he started working on Monday, January 20th. This opportunity was truly a blessing from above but the blessings didn't stop there. 

Sometime in late December or early January my brother called saying he was thinking about selling his Mazda.  It was on a Friday afternoon when he told me some of the details about the vehicle and what his selling price was.  It was an attractive offer but I didn't have a reason for another vehicle nor extra money laying around to pay for it.  I jotted down the dollar amount from his offer and simply continued to go about my business.  Fast forward a few weeks when I received at home a package from a vendor I worked with 3 years prior when I owned the insurance agency.  Inside the envelope was a check with enough money to pay for a small car.  As it turns out, this package arrived on the day after Annette's Evening of Reflection with Regnum Christi when she agreed to formally join the organization.  So it could not be ignored that she was taking steps to get closer to God and at the same time His generosity flowed abundantly this time in the form of a check that had been previously promised over 30 months ago.  

I say all of that to pre-empt this photo below.  Here, Chris is getting a last minute hug on his way out the door to his first architecture co-op job.  

Even budding architects can use a hug from their mom from time to time.  

Sledding with South Americans and Repairing a Dryer

Yesterday we hosted some Regnum Christi folks at our house for sledding and dinner. We outfitted the 5 missionaries and 2 consecrated women with snow clothes then took them up to Ryle for an hour worth of sledding. When they came back, they placed all the wet, borrowed snow clothes in an heap on the floor and then chowed down on some delicious venison barbacoa tacos that Annette prepared. We played a game of multicultural charades and then around 9 pm they left and headed back to the consecrated's house in Cincinnati.

It was at this point when the children informed me that the clothing in the dryer wasn't drying. Consequently, I researched the dryer on YouTube and after using a multimeter to test it out I ordered the parts on Amazon. I'm hopeful I can get it fixed using locally sourced parts because Amazon won't have them to me until Thursday.

It was not how I expected the evening to go, but then again you never know what's going to happen some days.