Wordless Wednesday: Memorial Day Rain

More Wordless Wednesday here.

From the Archives: Memorial Day

May 28, 2007

Creighton Clarence and Helen May (Johnsen) Firebaugh

Nelson Andrews and Gladys May (Riley) Cummins

Where I come from in upstate New York, the village next to ours, Waterloo, claims that it is the "Birthplace of Memorial Day." My own hometown takes part in the famous Trout Derby on Memorial Day weekend, when Seneca Lake is buzzing with motorboats and regattas. Here in East Tennessee this day is referred to as Decoration Day as much as it is Memorial Day, where folks visit the gravesites of their families and leave flowers. But for me, Memorial Day was a day off from school, a parade in our hot band uniforms, and a late afternoon sail.

I grew up over 800 miles away from my extended family. The roots are long and strong in Southern Illinois: Cummins, Rileys, Firebaughs, Johnsens. Most of them immigrated to American from Ireland or Germany in the mid- to late-1800s and planted themselves on farms. No one moved around too much. Dix, Illinois is pretty much made up of Rileys. That's where my Cummins and Riley--the Irish-- kin are buried. The Firebaughs and Johnsens--my German kin-- were in the big city of Mt. Vernon next door, and dozens of stones in the city cemetery bear the Firebaugh name, kept abundant through my grandfather Creighton and his 11 siblings.

But when I was a little over a year old, my family moved to upstate New York. The cemeteries there bear names like Fabrizio, D'Amico, Cecere, D'Allesandro, Principio, Scuzzi, Scaramazzinno, Fospero, Ianapollo. (Imagine my midwestern parents learning to pronounce the names of my classmates!)

I have been to my grandparents' graves once or twice. I have traced their names in stone with my fingers and conjured up images of them and the sounds of their voices. I have stood and looked at a stone and thought, "This is my family. I am one of them." It is not enough, though. I have missed some vital connection because of distance. I have missed placing wildflowers on graves and kissing the cheek of a wrinkled third cousin. I have never heard a story told of my father as a little boy--other than by my father.

My friends think I'm funny because I call a certain local family "my cousins." But he is my kin---although we are fourth cousins or first cousins, four times removed, or something like that---and when you don't have the luxury of being in the midst of your kin, you make the most of what you have.

Overwhelmed

There are days like today that I am completely overwhelmed. I felt like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, with my head spinning around. (Yes, I did see that movie when I was 16. It was terrifying. And remember The Omen, with the evil kid Damien? I'm continue to be amazed the people actually name their sons "Damien." I don't get that.)

Anyway, back to my spinning head. I am overloaded. We have American Heritage Girls camp coming up in less than 10 days, and somehow we didn't quite realize the effect that Memorial Day weekend would have on camp planning. We had to cancel an AHG event due to lack of participation, and I really dislike doing that. Again, Memorial Day weekend. And then there is this little thing called "homeschooling" that we are trying to finish up by mid-week. I have a feeling we'll get woefully little done next week with all the camp planning.

It's all just little stuff, but I was feeling so overwhelmed earlier today. Preparing supper seemed like the final straw. What a simple cure: we went out to dinner. Being Dave Ramsey fans, we rarely go out to dinner; but tonight I just had to. And it was exactly the right thing to do. Sometimes, you just have to blow money for sanity's sake.

After dinner we chatted for awhile in our rock garden and then played a game of croquet with the kids, picking a few strawberries from our patch to munch on while we played. I can hardly even remember now why I was so overwhelmed.

I love perspective. And croquet is really fun, too.

Wordless Wednesday: Mid-Hike

(More Wordless Wednesday posts here.)

Psalm 65 in the Mountains

You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds,
O God our savior.
You are the hope of everyone on earth,
even those who sail on distant seas.

You formed the mountains by your power
and armed yourself with mighty strength.
You quieted the raging oceans
with their pounding waves
and silenced the shouting of the nations.



Those who live at the ends of the earth
stand in awe of your wonders.
From where the sun rises to where it sets,
you inspire shouts of joy.

You take care of the earth and water it,
making it rich and fertile.
The river of God has plenty of water;
it provides a bountiful harvest of grain,
for you have ordered it so.


You drench the plowed ground with rain,
melting the clods and leveling the ridges.
You soften the earth with showers
and bless its abundant crops.
You crown the year with a bountiful harvest;
even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.


The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture,
and the hillsides blossom with joy.
The meadows are clothed with flocks of sheep,
and the valleys are carpeted with grain.
They all shout and sing for joy!

(Word-Filled Wednesday here at the 160 Acre Woods)

Monday Memory: Roan Mountain

We spent this past weekend with some of our oldest and dearest friends at Roan Mountain, in upper East Tennessee. Roan Mountain holds many memories for us. We've hiked and camped there numerous times, spent our honeymoon there, and enjoyed several weekends with friends in the cabins at the state park. But this memory is from a hike about 13 years ago.

At the time, Randy, Jesse and I lived in Ames, Iowa. Once or twice a year, we drove the 17 hours down to Tennessee to spend a week with friends and family in Johnson City, where we'd gone to college. Usually these trips involved an excursion to Roan Mountain.

This was actually in December, so we were happy to have our Iowa parkas to wear. Jesse was just three and a half, and I didn't know it quite yet, but I was a few weeks pregnant with Laurel in this photo. That's our friend Suzie in the photo with us on top.

So much has changed since then in nearly every aspect of our lives. We were happy then, but now our cup truly does overflow. We have been abundantly blessed with children, friendships, health, family, a dream job, and a beautiful place to live. And so much more.


Same rock, 13 years later. Who knew how good life could be?

Your turn. Do you have a Monday Memory to share? Post it on your blog and sign Mr. Linky below with a direct link to that post. It's okay if you don't post on Monday! So dig down deep into your memories and get started!

It's Monday Memory Day!

Tody is Monday Memory day! Last week I was hoping for 2 participants, and I got three! One of my faithful participants is in the hospital this week with a kidney infection and pneumonia and in her last trimester with #4, so she is excused—and covered in our prayers.

I'll be writing my own memory later today. And I'll be waiting for yours… Thanks to my 3 participants last week!

Shelf Life

The good thing about a shelf breaking in a large cabinet that has a solitary purpose of holding (too many) homeschooling materials ...

… is that you find all kinds of things you forgot you had.

Yep.

Rosetta Stone Contest!

From JenIg's blog:

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

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My personal note: Jesse is currently doing Rosetta Stone Russian for his high school language credit, and he loves it! I personally would love to have the Latin program for my other kids, as I think Latin is incredibly useful in so many ways, whether your child is inclined toward the arts or the sciences.

Three Beautiful Things

1. A yard full of beautiful flowers.

2. Sunshine

3. Strawberry shortcake for lunch.

What beautiful things are in your world today?