Ft. Loudoun in August

Our friend Chris is always trying to talk Dr. H. into joining him in reenacting. Today probably wasn't the best day to entice someone into the world of reenacting. It was easily 98 degrees at Ft. Loudoun for the 250th anniversary of the Surrender of Fort Loudoun to the Cherokees. And those guys were wearing wool, and a lot of it.

We sat in the shade and watched the battle and then walked around and talked with Chris and his kids, who are also in period dress. We watched a guy baking cornbread in an outdoor oven and a blacksmith making bullets. Duncan got advice on how to be a man from a nearly-naked Cherokee. We sweated a lot, but not nearly as much as those guys.

We got back into our air-conditioned van and went to an air-conditioned supermarket to buy groceries, which we are now cooking in our air-conditioned home on our indoor stove.

I'm glad Dr. H. is passionate about hiking and camping in the nice, cool woods in the summer, 'cause wool just makes me itch.

Heartstrings

I don't think I've ever used that word before, except when referring to the senior citizen group at our church, which is called "Heartstrings." But all week I've been feeling those proverbial heartstrings being tugged at—that sweet and sad mixture of memory and present-tense.

This past week our friends the Johnstons came to visit from Iowa. They were our best friends during our five years there when we were in graduate school. We attended the same church and were part of the most phenomenal small group ever there. It wasn't hard to leave Iowa—after all, we were coming to our dream job in our dream location— but it was hard to leave our small group friends, especially Kris and Del.

You don't have the chance too many times in your life to connect at such a level. Double soulmates, I think of them as, because the four of us connect so strongly, not just Kris and me. And the minute our younger boys spied each other, they were like magnets. Neither Duncan nor Will were born when we left Iowa, and they were only 18 months old when we saw them last. I'm pretty sure they were together all but two hours this whole week —and that was only because Duncan didn't want to go horseback riding. Our girls got along great, too, but the boys just really hit it off.

We made the most of every minute they were here. We did all kinds of fun touristy things that are so much more fun when you have someone who can not only appreciate them, but laugh at them. We drove around Cades Cove and saw two bears and a bunch of tourists taking pictures of them from 5 feet away, played in the river, picnicked and swam at the lake, went horseback riding in the mountains, shopped the outlets in Pigeon Forge, and went river tubing. The weather was absurdly hot, but we all survived. The kids played about 10 hours of the Wii and stayed up outrageously late every night. We ate great food and had great conversation.

I missed them before they even pulled away this morning. Our house feels empty, and we're all kind of moping. I have this same sense of sadness with other friends who visit and leave: why can't we all live near each other? How sweet life would be to be able to gather in all our soulmates in one place. Well, and it would have to be here in Tennessee, of course.

And so now I'm returning to my regularly scheduled life, which is so very good right where I am. We just need one good day of moping and reveling in the gift of good friends.

Linked up on Finer Things Fridays and Just for the Joy of It

Reading in July

Are you looking for some summer reads? Head on over to my SmallWorld Reads blog to check out my reviews. Here's what happened in July in my reading world:

Read and Reviewed
(click for review)
Mountains Beyond Mountains
My Name Is Asher Lev
Picture Bride
Elizabeth and Her German Garden


Favorite Book of the Month
Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev, without a doubt. But it was a great reading month, and all the books are highly recommended.


Currently Reading
The Help. Love it.


Tribute Reposted
Happy 50th to To Kill a Mockingbird


To Be Read in August
Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman


Books Added to My Ever-Growing TBR List
Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson (mentioned at Books and Cooks)
My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira (Reviewed by at Bookworm's Dinner)


Movies-From-Books Watched
Ramona and Beezus, based on the series of Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. I loved, loved, loved this movie! Highly recommended.

Saturday Miscellany

* Poor Randy. He is out on the sun porch, AKA the pet room, cleaning up cat vomit and the ants that are flocking to the vomit. Pets are so disgusting and so much work. I have no idea why we insist on having them, other than that we truly adore them. Most of the time.

* I would feel guilty that he is out there doing such a nasty job, except that I've been working my butt off all day, painting and cleaning. One of my goals this summer is to paint the guest bathroom. I have just one more coat to go, and I'll be done! Of course, I also got distracted and decided to paint a dresser and some picture frames.

* This has been a fantastic summer for company. We are truly blessed. In May, we had the Campbells (incredible friends we met via blogging, yes really) and the Shields (soulmate college friends), and Randy's family. In June we had Randy's brother Greg. In July I got to have lunch with some of our best friends from our Iowa days, and on Monday, our other best friends from Iowa are coming to visit. I just feel so grateful to have all these people in our lives. Also, my house has gotten several good cleanings this summer!

* Duncan spent the night on a boat with his friend last night (and his friend's father and grandpa). He had a fantastic time and stayed up really late. Today, he is trying everything to stay awake. This mostly means that he is eating and talking nonstop. He's still awake, but I'm exhausted. I am trying all kinds of things to distract him so that I can have a few minutes sans chatter. Up next: corn shucking.

* I've now finished Week 6 of Couch to 5K. I am so not a runner, and I've always despised running, but I love this program. And I ran 25 minutes twice this week! Having friends to do this with makes all the difference in the world. I can do just about anything if I have someone with whom to talk.

* Speaking of talking, shucking the corn only distracted Duncan for 5 minutes. That kid is fast. He is now crawling between the cabinet and the refrigerator, chattering all the time. Next distraction: I've told him to go in his room and pick up 50 items.

* You know what's sad? Schools in my city started back a week ago. The school is right by the city pool. Imagine being in school on a hot day in July, watching people swim. I can deal with the whole starting-school-before-Labor-Day thing, although I find it irksome. But starting school in July? I'm pretty sure there should be a law forbidding that.

* And here's another thing that's irksome (I've never used that word before, so why not use it twice?): the pools around here close tomorrow, August 1. It's so absurd, I can't even think about it without grimacing and wanting to write a letter to the powers-that-be.

* Duncan's back, after cleaning up 50 items, playing the piano, and looking at an argiope spider. I've completely lost every thought in my head. He just announced, "I'm hungry." Shocking.

Anything irksome happening in your world today?

Reading Poetry with Children

“Whatever you do, find ways to read poetry. Eat it, drink it, enjoy it, and share it.”
~Eve Merriam

Poetry is terribly misunderstood. Most of us were introduced to complex, often incomprehensible poetry when we were in school and learned quickly to dislike it. But poetry doesn’t have to be a jungle of symbolism and metaphor, heavy with hidden meaning. …

{I'm over at The Homeschool Classroom today. Catch the rest of this post over there!}

Peaches

It's peach season in Tennessee, which means I spend a few weeks as a peach broker. My brother has an orchard full of incredible peaches, and I have dozens of repeat customers begging for them. In return, I get all the peaches we can eat and some to freeze. We've had peach cobbler, peach muffins, peach shakes and smoothies, and of course lots of just peaches. Here is this morning's peach muffin recipe, which is my favorite yet:

Peach Muffins

1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 banana
1 c. flour
1/2 c. oatmeal
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. plain yogurt (or vanilla)
1 c. fresh, diced peaches

Cream butter. Add sugar and beat until light. Add egg and banana and beat well. Add vanilla and yogurt and beat again. Add flour and baking powder and beat. Finally, stir in peaches. Drop by spoonful into muffin tin (I use liners). Bake at 400 for 20 min. Makes 12 muffins.

Peach season always makes me think of what might be my favorite poem by the poet Li-Young Lee. There are few poems that speak to me in such a place as this one does, the place where I was a girl raised in the midst of apples, peaches, apricots, plums, and cherries. That orchard within.

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

- Li-Young Lee

Hope you can find some locally grown peaches where you are. They are good for the soul.

~Linked up with Tasty Tuesday and Tuesdays Unwrapped

Monday Memory: Summer on the Lake

This has been a hot, hot summer so far. I don't think we've ever had a hotter one in the 10 years we've lived here. My daughter is now a year past the play-with-toys age and fully into the "what should I do?" age. I dislike labels, but she really is a 'tween, even though she'll be a real teen in a month.

I was thinking about what I did when I was that age during the long summer days. I don't really remember being bored, although I suppose I must have been at times. I am pretty sure my life consisted of four things: reading, lying out in the sun, talking on the phone, and playing in the lake.


When I was 14, 16, and 17, I got new playthings: baby nieces. Sometimes they lived near us, sometimes they didn't; but I loved to pass the time with those little girls. They are all grown now with babies of their own.


This is my first summer in perhaps my whole life not to visit my hometown in upstate New York in the summer. I think there might have been a couple of years when we lived in Iowa that I couldn't make it there. But now our house belongs to someone else. He kept our sail boat, and I hope he spends some hot summer afternoons catching a bit of wind on Seneca. I hope he invites some friends over for an evening bonfire and watches the big orange moon rise over the water.

It would be enough to make me weep, if I hadn't done all my weeping already.


Do you have a Monday Memory to share? Leave a link in the comments. I'd love to visit.

In the Smokies: Laurel Falls (and why we don't go there)

Laurel Falls is one of the most visited spots in the Smokies. It's close to Sugarlands Visitor Center, which is close to Gatlinburg. And it's paved, so it's wheelchair and stroller accessible.

When we first moved here, we took a picture of Laurel and Jesse in front of this sign (Duncan wasn't yet born) and swore we'd return every year to take their picture by the sign. (Laurel, by the way, was not named for these Laurel Falls but for the laurels in upper East Tennessee where we went to college.)

The thing is, we really don't like to go to Laurel Falls. In fact, this was the first time we have been in about seven years. Randy needed to drop his car off at the Sugarlands so that he could hike from Laurel Falls back to the Sugarlands, so Duncan and I decided to hike the first portion (just up to the falls) with him. (You can read about the rest of Randy's hike on 900-Miles.)

It's not that the trail, being in the Smokies, isn't pretty. I don't think there is any spot in the park that isn't beautiful.


There are a few nice views along the way.


And trail-side treasures.

And hiking in general is just a good thing to do on a summer day.

What I don't like about Laurel Falls is that this is what you see at the end of the trail:

All these people, and many, many more to come (a bus was just letting off as we returned to the parking lot), taking pictures of this:

It's probably about the least impressive falls in the Smokies. I felt sorry for the people hiking up with such great anticipation. I felt like apologizing. One lady was huffing and puffing on her way up and said, "There had better be something amazing at the end of this trail! It had better be a pot of gold!" ("Or," her husband replied, "a bar!") I hope she found this to be worth her efforts. I suppose that if you don't know some of the other beautiful spots that the Smokies has to offer, you could be thrilled with the pot of gold at the end of this 1.3 mile trail.

P.S.
Dear Tourists,
I am happy that you are here exploring our beautiful park, and I'm glad you are getting exercise and fresh air, but please don't wear high heels when you hike. It's just silly.

Linked up on Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset, Moonrise

Yesterday evening Randy and Duncan took a quick hike on the Foothills Parkway while they waited to pick Laurel up from her Bible study. And this is just one of the many things I love about where I live: with less than an hour of time to "kill," you can hike through the woods and up to the top of a tower and see the sun set and the moon rise over the Smoky Mountains.

Linked up at Wordless Wednesday, Seven Clown Circus, and 5 Minutes for Mom.

In the Evening

It's easier to sit around the house, to scatter our own ways. To play a mindless game on Facebook or send a few emails while the kids play in their own rooms. If you are a parent, you know how it is. We are tired in the evenings. Introverts like Dr. H. and me crave down-time, without chattering activity. For us, an after-dinner walk keeps us from cocooning.

For years and years we've ended our day with an evening walk. We've walked countless blocks in Ohio, Iowa, and Tennessee. I can remember perfectly all the different places we've lived and the routes we've walked with a baby in a stroller and one riding a tricycle; or one on a bike, one by the hand, and one in a stroller; or just all of us on foot.


Something about an evening walk lets us be together quietly. We comment on the new plants in a neighbor's yard or wonder why that yellow dog on the corner lot isn't out barking. The temperature finally cools down to a bearable point, and the sky takes on the evening softness.


We nearly always have the same destination: a big open hill just a half-mile from our house. Laurel finally feels confident enough to walk the dog, who is strong and not particularly well trained.…

and Randy carries a plastic sack in his pocket for the dog's evening deposit.


When we reach the big hill, we let the dog run free. She and Duncan always take off together for the first run. Because she is part Australian Shepherd, she herds us. It's awfully cute and a bit annoying.


Sometimes we bring along the frisbee.


Sometimes we just sit and talk about nothing much, like how dry the grass is…


and watch the train go by and the airplanes take off.

An evening walk is just one of those things that grounds us, that makes us take a breather from the busyness of life and the buzz of technology.

“Few people know how to take a walk.
The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Linked up on Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting with the Sky and Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer