Living Lovely with Family

Today's Living Lovely with Family at Mt. Hope Chronicles asked for ways we celebrate milestones: "achievements, graduations, birthdays…how do you mark milestones with your children?"

Achievements: We don't do much except verbally congratulate our kids. We've never been much into rewarding them with "things" for jobs well done. Most of the time, it seems that the achievement itself is enough for our kids. For example, our daughter will be moving from one level in American Heritage Girls to the next level in a few weeks. Her celebration will be walking under the archway, having her vest taken off by us, and having the next level girls put on her sash. Then again, our oldest son will be getting his Eagle Scout next fall. That will be an achievement we mark with a ceremony and reception completely focused on him. But we haven't reached that milestone quite yet...

Graduations: Here in the South, we have kindergarten graduations. I'd never heard of such a thing until I moved here and I did roll my eyes secretly when I heard of such a thing, but I have to admit it's really sweet. Our homeschooling support group has a fantastic graduation ceremony each year. The picture above is from Duncan's two years ago. And next year we'll graduate our first high schooler! I have no idea how we'll celebrate that milestone. Where I grew up in upstate New York, graduation parties were the thing. It was unbelievable. Pretty much every weekend of the summer, someone was having a graduation party. These were huge parties with the big white tent and huge amounts of food—and were basically open to anyone who even remotely knew the graduate. (Of course at a small school, everone knows everyone anyway.) Those were awesome parties. I believe it's customary here to do something on a much smaller scale. I'll be looking into that.

Birthdays: First of all, we do not do school on birthdays. That's a big celebration. And we have one very important tradition. On the night before the birthday, Randy and I print out about a dozen of the birthday child's new age (16 was the most recent) in big, colorful numbers and tape them all over the house. This started sometime when our oldest was little, and we can't seem to stop. Even right now there are a few "16s" left around from Jesse's birthday 3 weeks ago. It's a common in March, August, and December for visitors to ask: "Why are there numbers all over your house?" Another birthday tradition is to take the birthday person out to dinner at his/her favorite restaurant. Since we rarely eat out, this is a huge treat for everyone. And of course I make a cake and the kids usually have a friend party.

And that's seriously about it. I lack a certain amount of sentimentality about milestones, I suppose. I don't get all teary-eyed at "significant" birthdays, and we're just not into rewarding our kids materially for every achievement. We think they're great; we tell them we think they're great; and most importantly, they know we think they're great.

Living Lovely with Family

Today's theme at Mt. Hope Chronicles' Living Lovely with Family is budget vacations, and that's something I'm quite familiar with. For years and years, our vacations consisted of doing only one thing: visiting friends and family. Our only cost was gas and food for the road.

When Jesse was three, Dr. H's uncle got married in Hawaii, and that was an amazing vacation. Between Randy's uncle's frequent flier miles and the generosity of his parents and grandpa, we paid not a dime for the trip. That's what happens when you are poor graduate students with the most adorable little boy.

Hawaii was an exception, though. The rest of our vacations were really spent making the long drive from Iowa to Indiana, New York, and/or Tennessee. (Traveling with two kids in a two-door Toyota Tercel without air-conditioning is really not much fun.)

After graduate school, though, when Mr. H. became Dr. H., we bought a van and drove from Iowa to New Orleans. That was probably our first "non-family" vacation, although it was for a friend's wedding.

We'd both been to New Orleans before separately (him in college for fun, me pre-kids for business), but it was totally different—and quite wonderful—as a family vacation. We had a great time.

Since then we've taken two family vacations to Disneyland (one included a few days at Tybee Island) and last year's family vacation to Williamsburg, and the rest: back to the budget vacations.

We have August in upstate New York in my hometown: swimming, sailing, hiking, canoeing. Sounds like luxury and worth hundreds of dollars, I know, but for us it's just the cost of gas and road food, just like it was years ago. My parents are wonderful and gracious, and I wouldn't trade this budget vacation for anything.


Our other regular vacation: camping.
We live at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We camp. We hike. We eat a lot of s'mores in the summer. We create a lifetime of memories.

I'd like to do the Grand Canyon and New England and the Black Hills. Backpacking through Europe would be amazing, and I dream of us breathing deeply in Scotland. But for now, I'm happy with mountains and lakes. And maybe one big trip every couple of years.

Do you have vacations to share? Be sure to visit Living Lovely with Family and share your stories!

Living Lovely with Family

This week's theme at Mt. Hope Chronicles' Living Lovely with Family is annual traditions. We have a lot!

January: My Dad's birthday. For some reason his birthday, more than anyone else's, always merits a good family party. Usually my two Tennessee brothers (I also have two in New York) and their families come over to our house, and we have a rousing night of card playing.

February:
• On Valentine's Day we have two traditions. First, I always create a scavenger hunt for the kids that leads them through the house, with little piles of candy here and there. (Jesse no longer participates but appreciates his candy in one lump sum.) And for Valentine's dinner we always have spaghetti because that's what Dr. H. and I had on our first Valentine's day together, when we were poor college students.


• Generally during the last week in February, the daffodils are in flower at Cades Cove in the Smokies. We pick the perfect sunny Sunday, pack a picnic, and take a drive around the loop.

Easter: I used to do a fabulous Easter egg hunt at my house. It was so much work that I decided just to do it every-other-year, and I think this is probably the year I should be doing it (actually, I think I was supposed to do it last year). It really was fun, but now we usually just have one family over after church and have the kids hunt some eggs.


Family Trip: Our new tradition is to take a family trip in May. We like to do this during the second week of the month, after classes are done at UT but before the school are out for the summer. The first year we had a fantastic, amazing vacation at Disney World, and last year we went to Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. This year we are planning a much smaller scale trip to a few Civil War sites in Nashville and Chattanooga.

4th of July: Dr. H. and Jesse have been gone for years during the 4th of July because of Boy Scout camp, so the kids and I generally head over to my brother John's house for a cookout and insane fireworks. My brothers should not be trusted with explosives, but it does make the evening exciting!

August:
• New York: For probably nine or 10 years, we've gone to my hometown, where my parents still live half the year, in upstate New York during the first two weeks of August. Swimming, sailing, bonfires, and the comfort of my parents. It's a vital part of my summer. I thought last year would be our last one, as my parents put their house on the market, but it still hasn't sold. We may still have another vacation there!

• Scouting Family Camp-out: This is a new annual tradition—just started last year—but we have our reservations in again this year. This is for our Boy Scout, Cub Scout, and American Heritage Girls families. We had a fantastic time last August and look forward to it again this year.

October: Soup and Pumpkin Party. This is one of my absolute favorite annual traditions. We have a bunch of friends over—around 50—and have a night of soup (everyone brings a pot) and pumpkin carving. Probably more than anything else—possibly even more than our Christmas traditions!—our kids will remember this chilly autumn evenings spent in the midst of dozens of friends, the warmth of soup, and the smell of pumpkin guts.

Autumn in Cades Cove: For years, the kids and I have taken one perfect day in late October or early November to drive around the Cades Cove loop. We take our school books with us, find a warm spot, and read. The kids climb in the barns, and we stop and visit each old cabin, even though we've seen them all dozens of times. Somehow this closes off autumn for us and allows us to welcome in winter.


Christmas and Thanksgiving have loads of traditions of their own. We always have Thanksgiving at one of my brothers' houses and then have Christmas here at our house. We always go to our city's Christmas parade and come home with sacks full of candy. We always cut down our Christmas tree at the same tree farm, and it's usually a balmy, spring-like day. And we absolutely must make and decorate a few dozen sugar cookies, besides all the other cookies we make during December.

What yearly traditions do you have? Share your thoughts at Mt. Hope Chronicles!

Living Lovely with Family

This week's theme for Living Lovely with Family at the very lovely Mt. Hope Chronicles: special treats, random surprises, and seasonal activities.

Special treats makes me think of, well, food. I often bake cookies and cakes. The problem is that I am usually baking these treats to take to some kind of function—church potlucks, scouting events, parties, etc. It always cracks me up and somehow touches me tenderly when I make a batch of cookies and they say, "What are these for? Where are we going?" When I assure them that they cookies are just for us, they are simply gleeful. Note to self: make more desserts.

Admittedly, I'm not particularly good at random surprises, probably because I don't particularly enjoy being surprised—caught off guard or unable to take part in the planning. (I probably need therapy for that.) But my kids do love to be surprised, and I'm working on being better on that. Just the other day my daughter asked me to sometimes not tell her when friends are coming over so that she'll be surprised. "But don't you want to clean your room first?" I asked. "Good point," she said. (She may need therapy later, as well.) But I do have a few surprises up my sleeve. Like yesterday I said to the kids, "Did I mention that we are having spring break this week?" They loved that.

But usually it's just little things, like sometimes I'll swing by and pick up a movie for them and let them watch outside of their "technology time-zone." (Translated, that means that my kids can't normally get on the computer, Wii, TV, etc. until after 4 p.m.) And here's a little something that they absolutely love: The Order of the Queen. This is a special edict issued by the Queen, whereas the day is declared “Game Day,” “Baking Day,” “Movie Day,” or such. No regular schoolwork is allowed. I'll print out an actual edict in an Old English-type font and roll up as a scroll to be opened at the usual start of school (if you have such a thing) or stuck under their doors.

That makes me think about another surprise that we had in college which I think I'll start implementing around here. Each spring we had a special day to look forward to: a surprise day off, with all classes canceled and lots of festivities going on around campus. This would be called "Marvelous Monday," "Terrific Tuesday," "Wonderful Wednesday," etc. depending on the day of the week, which had to be perfectly sunny and delicious. We wouldn't know until that morning, when we'd find an announcement slipped under our doors. I think I am going to have to work on starting a "Wonderful Wednesday" tradition around here…

And finally, seasonal activities. For us that pretty much means being in the mountains.


We live just 20 minutes away from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and the mountains hold something special every month. We often take advantage of a warm day in January for a hike. Late February brings our annual trek to Cades Cove to sit amongst patches of daffodils and soak in the blue spring sky. In late March the wildflowers awake and the redbuds and dogwoods color the forests with purple, white and pink. April brings the true onslaught of wildflowers, and May through September are camping months. Autumn is astoundingly gorgeous in the mountains, and we take several hikes during October and November. December is the one month that we don't normally go to the mountains, but of course there is no shortage of seasonal activities during the Christmas season!

How does your family make connections? Share on your blog and leave your post link over at Mt. Hope Chronicles. And while you're there, take some time to peruse and be inspired!

Living Lovely with Family

I love this new meme at Mt. Hope Chronicles. Heidi's blog is one I never miss. I actually feel peaceful, serene and inspired when I visit her blog! When she announced that she was starting this new meme, I had to smile because for about a year I've had a note to myself to start a "Family Friday" meme. I am so glad she is doing this!

This week's theme—the inaugural edition—is to simply share on your own blog what you do (hope to do in the future, have done in the past, or remember from your childhood) to make daily connections and memories with your family.

The first daily connection that popped into my head is the family dinner. We do, indeed, eat supper together every night with few exceptions. But what really connects us—and what connected my own family growing up—is that we read together every day.

We have been reading aloud to our children from literally the first day that we brought our oldest home from the hospital. It didn't matter then what we read; I can remember Randy reading such things as the Journal of Systematic Botany and Western Civilization to Jesse when he was 3 weeks old. More than anything, we wanted our children to hear language and the sounds of our voices and the way that words fit together.

It seems that in the early years, we spend most of our days reading. All three literally cut their teeth on a hefty board book edition of Good-Night Moon. We always read three books at naptime and three books at bedtime, until they reached the chapter book stage. For awhile we read three chapters each evening, but as the books become longer, the chapters do too! I was blessed to be able to read to my oldest in the evenings until he was probably 12. I think our last evening read-aloud was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, right after Watership Down. Our younger two are eight and 11 now, and we continue our tradition of evening snack and a couple of chapters in the current book(s).

Because we homeschool we also read together during the day, as well. I probably spend an hour to two hours each day reading aloud to my younger two children. We always have a read-aloud going on (right now it's Across Five Aprils), as well as various history, science, and Bible readings. Of course I don't read to my oldest anymore, who is a junior, but his love of literature is deeply rooted. Rarely a day goes by that we don't talk about what he's reading and how he likes it. I love that he tosses away books that are clumsy and trite or have painful dialog.

I have two other posts on reading with children at my SmallWorld Reads blog: here and here (finding books for children).

If you have a daily family connection that you'd like to share, head on over to Mt. Hope Chronicles!

And if you'd like to win a $20 gift card so you can buy more books at amazon.com, check out my 20th Anniversary Bash to find out how you can win!