Semester Wrap-Up

Two months since my last post! I'm fairly certain I've reached a new low in blogging, but I'm not ready to give it up any time soon. I treasure this decade or more of my family life I have recorded here, and I always hope that someday, I'll start blogging again regularly.

This semester has been an adjustment for me as I began teaching writing classes for Brave Writer. Man, I love these classes and the Brave Writer lifestyle and being immersed in partnering with students as they find their writing voices!  I have devoted most of this semester to teaching not only Brave Writer classes but also my own classes at our co-op, so I am really relishing this break.

The really big news, though, is that Duncan is now officially an Eagle Scout! We ended this semester with his ceremony this past weekend. It was a perfect ceremony. There was not a dry eye in the room when my Dad, age 92 and an Eagle Scout himself, gave Duncan the Eagle charge.

Here are a few more photos from this wonderful day.

We're so proud of him. Boy Scouts has been so central to our lives for so many years, from Tiger Cub to Eagle Scout for both of our boys. Randy is glad to still have another year and a half as Scoutmaster. He has as much fun (most of the time) as the boys do—and the adventures! Randy read a list of all the activities Duncan has participated in during his years in Scouting, and we were all quite astounded. Hundreds of nights spend camping, hundreds of miles hiking and biking, hundreds of hours of community service. Duncan has earned the Triple Crown of high adventure, meaning that he's gone to three of the four high adventure camps (Philmont, Sea Base, and Summit). He'll top that off with a fourth in February when they spend a week in Minnesota at Okpik Winter Adventure, dog sledding, skiing, sleeping in an igloo… Incredible!

So that's what has been happening in our own Small World during the past  couple of months. Laurel got home last week, and I am treasuring time with her. She's finished first semester of her junior year with another 4.0, and I couldn't be prouder of my beautiful daughter. Jesse also finished his first semester of graduate school with a 4.0, which he was absolutely thrilled with. His first class was a statistics course, and that has never been his forte.

I hope to catch up more, to blog more frequently and capture more of the every day moments that I love so much. In the meantime, I'll be trying to get that last minute shopping done, baking cookies, and watching Christmas movies like crazy.

Merry Christmas!

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September/October

The past six weeks have whizzed by. Between teaching co-op classes and working as a writing coach for Brave Writer, I've had little free time.

But we've had some fun!

Randy and I got outdoors a bit…

Hiking at the Big South Fork

I visited my girl in Nashville one weekend...






Randy and Duncan had some hiking (20 mile hike), whitewater rafting, and mountain biking adventures…

Duncan finished his Eagle Scout project and went to spend a week on my brother's orchard in NY…

Duncan about to head off on his first solo flight

Laurel and her boyfriend came home for a nice long fall break…

Baking dessert for us

Laurel and Hunter hiking at Charlie's Bunion

And, well, wow! I'm only just now pausing to take a breath after these first six weeks of the semester! Dad also spent a week in New York, so I spent lots of extra time with Mom. Jesse started graduate school this semester, so we haven't seen him very much. He did pop in for dinner one night when Laurel was here, though.

Randy's brother and his wife came up for a short visit for his Mom's birthday, and we always adore spending time with them. They are selling their house in Charlotte and moving to Florida, and we will dearly miss having them just a few hours away. :(

I have one more week off until I start my next six-week Brave Writer class. I've been getting all kinds of things done around the house, including *gasp* reducing our book collection. We took about 4 boxes of books to our local used book store today!

School is going great for Duncan. His schedule is a bit light this year so far, so that's been nice. He has his Eagle Scout Board of Review coming up this week, so we should be announcing his Eagle rank soon!

And that's what's happening in our own Small world.

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Back-to-School Wrap-Up

The last day of August seems to be the last day of summer, even though I know we still have a few more weeks until the autumn equinox. This has been an incredibly full summer, packed with camps and classes and lots of fun excursions. Our biggest excursion was our two-week trip to five national parks—but I'm planning to blog about that separately. For now, I'll just say it was a phenomenal trip!

Laurel left for Nashville a couple of weeks ago for her junior year at Lipscomb University, and she turned 20 there a couple of days ago. Fortunately, she came home over the weekend, so we were able to celebrate with her a few days early.

Twenty! Not a day goes by that I am not overflowing with utter gratitude that I have this daughter. She is truly a lovely human being. I love to see her as she becomes more and more confident in who she is as she navigates the world. And since her birthday a year ago and a semester in Europe, she has done a lot of world navigating—literally!


Yesterday was our first day of co-op. Duncan, who is a junior, is only taking two classes at co-op this year: my Classic Literature and Art Appreciation/Art History, which I'm co-teaching. Here he is with two of his best friends at co-op:

Duncan is focusing this week on finishing his Eagle Scout project, and we'll add in precal, plant science, and computer science next week.

Jesse also started back to school this week! He's beginning a master's in public policy administration at the University of Tennessee. He's still working full time for American Airlines and just taking one class this semester, but he's excited to get back into academics. It's hard to believe that he graduated from college three years ago!

And I start something new this week, too. I am now a writing coach for Brave Writer, and I'll be coaching my first class of The Writer's Jungle Online for the next six weeks. I'm thrilled to be a coach for this incredible writing program but even more excited to be part of the Brave Writer world!

This weekend will be our last traditional outing of summer: our  Scouting family camping adventure at  the Big South Fork. We've been doing this for around 12 years now—and this year is looking chilly and rainy, but we wouldn't miss it for anything!

And oh! The eclipse! That was truly amazing. My brother and his little boys just happened to be visiting from New York during that week; he had no idea until a few days ahead of time that the eclipse would be total here.

My brother: "Act like it's the end of the world!"

We were right in the path of totality and WOW. I mean, it's just impossible to explain how eerie and otherworldly our little patch of life became during the hours before and the two minutes of totality. It was strangely peaceful and yet wildly charged. We're hooked and agreed to head up to our hometown in New York for 2024.

And that's what's been happening in our own small world.

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Mid-July

I can't even comprehend that this is the middle of July already. One of my FB friends posted that her daughter headed back to school today-- a private school, but still. Ahhh! I feel like summer is just getting started. I've been in the South for 17 straight years, and I still can't get used to mid-July being nearly the end of summer.

Duncan was at church camp for a week, and then Randy and Duncan were at Boy Scout camp for another week. We managed to squeeze in some fun days when they returned: hiking, kayaking, disc golfing.

Quick hike to Spruce Flat Falls

Afternoon kayaking

Disc golf on a Sunday afternoon

While they were gone, Laurel painted her bedroom, and I've been packing up our guest apartment. We plan to get new carpet and flooring put in in preparation for my parents' inevitable transition from their own home to our apartment. We're thinking that it will be within the next 6 months, but it could be longer than that.  The apartment used to be our schoolroom, and w-o-w. Do we ever have a lot of books! I sold a bunch of curriculum but there are just those books (OK, eight tubs of books) that I just cannot get rid of. The memories!

We had a huge red oak tree taken down. Now we have a backyard full of, well, dead wood. I look forward to getting that all cleared away and reclaiming our yard! Feels like a lot of physical things are changing around here. Old tree gone, young girl room paint gone, maps and posters and books gone. My little family is growing up.

So, we made a big decision a couple of months ago: Duncan is going to do 5 years of high school. It's a weird new thing that's gaining popularity around here. He was set to graduate and go to college at age 17 (2018), and we just started second-guessing that decision for various reasons. From a financial standpoint, it would be really difficult for us to have two kids in college at the same time. If he waits another year, Laurel will have graduated from college. Another huge reason is that he just doesn't seem quite ready to go to college. He's having fun-- he's 16! Nearly all his friends are graduating in 2019, the year he really would have graduated had we not skipped 7th grade. Ultimately, we all felt that waiting until 2019 to graduate is the best course of action.

His next couple of years, we'll be able to spread out his last requirements so that he won't have to be overwhelmed with school. He'll be able to pursue some interests that otherwise would have been pushed aside for required classes and college applications. We'll be able to travel a little without worrying about getting behind. OK, OK. And I get to have two more years with him at home. I admit, I'm happy about that.

Right now we're just all acutely aware of how precious time is together. This week our older son lost one of his best friends in a motorcycle accident. Halden (on the left) and Jesse have known each other since they were little guys. They've had countless adventures together and have lived together in an apartment for the past year or so. Halden's dad was president of our support group for years, and we just love their family. Halden was full of adventure and creativity. He could fix anything and was always ready to try the next thing. To say he will be so deeply missed seems inadequate.

Halden and Jesse, heading out on the quintessential road trip to California, 2013

"He goes free of the earth.

The sun of his last day sets

clear in the sweetness of his liberty.

The earth recovers from his dying,

the hallow of his life remaining

in all his death leaves.

Radiances know him. Grown lighter

than breath, he is set free

in our remembering. Grown brighter

than vision, he goes dark

into the life of the hill

that holds his peace.

He is hidden among all that is,

and cannot be lost."

(Wendell Berry)

Rest in peace, sweet Halden.

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Oh, June

Oh, June! What a month. Wild weather, brand new things, project finishing, and space to breathe. It's been a fast but fabulous month. Well, except for that wild weather.

Oh, stormy weather! We've had some crazy weather this month. Some kind of "microburst" hit our county, and our neighborhood had trees down all over the place. We amazingly didn't have any down, but my parents had a couple. That's my Dad with the chainsaw while Duncan and Randy clear branches away. {Don't tell him he's 92.} Did I mention our internet was out for 10 LONG DAYS? Ten.

 Oh, so lovely! Laurel's best friend, the daughter of one of my best friends, got married at the beginning of the month. Laurel was, of course, her maid of honor and a spectacular one at that.

These two girls, best friends since kindergarten.

Laurel and her boyfriend, Hunter

All of us moms with the mother-of-the-bride, our Caroline, next to me

First dance

It was a beautiful wedding, and I didn't even cry until I hugged Bess. Laurel gave a spectacular maid-of-honor speech, with is no small feat to a crowd of 250 people. Sometimes it's hard to absorb that this next phase of our life is here: the marrying years. I try not to think about it too much, about little girls dressing up and playing baby dolls and then just getting married. It's too much.

Ah, June brings, after weddings and weather, some space to breathe. While Laurel was taking a summer college algebra class at the local community college and Duncan was spending his days finishing data entry for his Eagle Scout project, Randy and I enjoyed some hiking days. He did a couple of overnighters (his hiking blog tells all) and I had a fabulous 8.2 miler with a friend.

We made it to Indian Flats Falls! Victory!

Algebra and Eagle, Algebra and Eagle. That's been our mantra during the weekdays of June, but we've had some fun weekends. We had a pop-up party with lots of lovely friends one weekend, and Father's Day weekend was highlighted by paddleboarding at the nice cold quarry on a hot, hot day.

That's me. All my yoga balance work pays off in paddleboarding!

I love this man. And what an amazing father he is to our kids!

Laurel and Hunter at the swimming area

The inevitable push-each-other-off-the-paddleboards war

And now here we are at the end of June, or nearly. Laurel has her algebra final today, and Duncan has finished the bulk of his Eagle Scout project. Camps for him are next: first church camp and then Boy Scout camp. Laurel's headed to Nashville this weekend to see her people, and that weather left a calling card again today:

Yep. Branch, meet Duncan's windshield.

Sigh.

June: in with a bang, out with a bang, and all softness in between.

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Mother's Day 2017

Just a perfect Sunday afternoon in the Smokies.

 

Just a quick and easy bucket of chicken and a couple hours of nothing but simple conversation and swatting away of gnats. 

 Just a beautiful daughter who indulges me as I learn to use the "real" camera.

  

  

Just the simple joy of hammocks and a favorite book and no cell phone service.

 

   Just an evening of strawberry shortcake, a game of Sequence, and a walk around the yard with these ones I love.

It's all I could ever want. It's more than I would ever have dreamed.