The month of May. I don’t have a lot of
words right now. We are still in a pandemic. But people are surfacing
again, desperate for human contact. This month we watched a policeman
murder a black man, which led to protests of despair around our country
and even the world. It’s been a heavy month. I am joining in prayer and
opening my ears to listen to those who are hurting, while trying to
instill a desire in my kids to love everyone and to stand up for
everyone. In the midst of this hurt, we have tried to keep life as
normal possible for our kids. Isaac finished preschool without a
graduation ceremony. Jack finished second grade and misses his friends.
The boys surpassed 50 nights of sleeping in cushion forts. It’s been a
mixed bag, emotionally. Praying that June is better. Praying for healing
of those with covid-19 and those who are hurting from experiencing
racial injustice. Praying for healing and uniting in our country.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Sunday, May 24, 2020
CVSD: Day 74 (Mother's Day Make-up)
Every year we try to go on some kind of adventure for Mother's Day. Often we hike. We have paddled our kayaks (one year we paddled through the lock at Chickamauga). And we have taken bike rides. Every year is a different adventure. Kind of like motherhood.
This year we had to postpone our Mother's Day adventure. But on Memorial weekend we were finally able to go. My pick was the Huckleberry Knob hike on the Cherohala Skyway.
If I am being truthful, I am generally the
kind of person who doesn't like to do the same trip twice. However, I am
finding that there is joy in repeating experiences and finding something,
or somewhere, you truly love and returning again and again.
This was our third trip to Huckleberry
Knob, and perhaps the best. As we drove, we all recognized different
landmarks. Mostly random places we have stopped to let the kids pee on
the side of the road over the years! Hah!
The first time we came,
I carried Isaac to the top on my back and Jack probably whined about
the two-mile walk. Last year, Isaac was the one doing the whining. This
year, they raced each other to the top, and then back to the car!
Jack had the idea to bring his kite this year. Initially I told him no. But after explaining that whatever he brought he would have to carry, we came to an agreement. He carried his kite, as well as his own snacks and water, and his rain jacket. Isaac volunteered to carry his own backpack with snacks and water as well. We have come a long way from that first time of me carrying Isaac and Daniel carrying all the other stuff!
Hiking and adventuring with my little family is probably my greatest joy in life. I look forward to returning to Huckleberry Knob again.
Thankfully, even though it was raining all around us, and we even heard some thunder in the distance, we didn't get rained on!
After our hike, we drove back down the mountain with Isaac insisting that Daniel drive Hyper Speed while he gleefully laughed in the back. We got back down to an open restaurant that is creek side that we have stopped at before.
I took the kids to wade in the water, while Daniel braved the line. People were fairly good about distancing themselves. We enjoyed coke floats and hot dogs (for the kids) by the creek. It was a lovely day.
Past Mother's Day Adventures:
Monte Sano Hike (a couple of weeks after Mother's Day), 2012
Hays Nature Preserve (a couple of weeks post Mother's Day), 2013
Family Time (no Adventure as Isaac was just a month old), 2015
Paddling Lookout Creek, 2016
Huckleberry Knob Hike, 2019
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
CVSD: Day 70 (Second Grade Highlights)
Of all our years homeschooling (this is year three), second grade has been my favorite so far. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, we have found our groove and both Jack and I know what the expectations are. Two, we joined a Classical Conversations co-op this year, which meant we had a guaranteed weekly meetup with friends. And three, we were studying the Middle Ages, which is just plain fun. Fun for me because I love history, and fun for Jack because knights and castles and dragons.
As I said, our co-op was studying the Middle Ages. We actually combined Classical Conversations with Ambleside Online Year Two (a Charlotte Mason approach), and the two curriculums lined up perfectly. Both Jack and Isaac learned the timeline of the world (from ancient civilizations to the 2000s) and also memorized 24 history sentences.
I can't tell you how exciting it has been for me to see them connect discussions or stories we are reading to the history they learned. For instance, we were talking about Gutenberg one evening over supper. Daniel (who was out of context for the conversation) asked what Gutenberg was. And Jack immediately said something to the effect, "Don't you know? He invented the printing press!" Isaac goes around singing about the Absolute Monarchs and Ghengis Khan and all sorts of random things. I absolutely love it!
In addition to the strong history emphasis, Classical Conversations has also given my boys a good grasp of the geography of the world. As they get older they will begin drawing maps of countries of the world, but for now they are getting great familiarity with geography, and can easily find countries on a map.
As part of our Charlotte Mason approach to our year, we read an amazing array of books that related to the Middle Ages. Each week we read 5-8 living books about history, science, and other subjects we were learning that week.
In addition to those books, we also read 19 novels aloud. I adore that my boys are developing a love for good stories (Jack read an additional 12 chapter books on his own). Here are the books we read aloud or listened to over the course of this school year:
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery (Book 2)
Nevoremoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Book 1)
The Wild Robot Escapes (Book 2)
The Door in the Wall
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow (Book 2)
Where do you think you're going, Christopher Columbus?
The Bronze Bow
The Green Ember (Book 1)
Little House on the Prairie: Farmer Boy (Book 2)
Ember Falls (Book 2)
Ember Rising (Book 3)
Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew (Book 1)
Henry Huggins (Book 1)
Stuck in the Stone Age
The Story of Dr. Dolittle
The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
The Call of the Wild
Ember's End (Book 4)
In addition to all of this classroom learning, we always take advantage of as many outings and field trips as possible. We visited the LST-325 when it was docked in Chattanooga, as well as the Nina and Pinta. We visited farms, went on hayrides, rode horses, and learned how maple syrup was made. We made time for regular hikes (weekly when possible).
We camped and the boys learned how to fish. Jack participated in Cub Scouts and flag football. We heard Abraham Lincoln give an amazing speech. We visited parks and saw three plays at the Children's Theater (including The Lion King Jr., Mary Poppins, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).
We tried to do science experiences as often as possible throughout the year. We failed at making rock candy, but our family all had surviving eggs in an egg drop challenge. We made rockets with baking soda and vinegar, and used a lemon to power a battery, and we can't forget that Daniel taught Jack how to weld!
Thanks to social distancing orders, our last two months of school were vastly different from our normal, but we carried on with weekly Zoom co-op meetups, and were grateful to have a large collection of books already checked out from the library to keep us going.
Since the isolation started our boys have become really adept with their bike skills (they will be ready to hit harder mountain bike trails soon), they learned how to rappel in our back yard, and they built a platform treehouse in our backyard with materials we had on hand.
Today we celebrated the end of the school year by driving to Dunkin Donuts and Sonic. It was the first time for the kids to ride in a car in some time. Jack observed that his head felt funny and it seemed like we were going too fast in the car.
We have no idea what summer holds for us. I am hoping to start doing regular hikes as the trails open up. There will be bike rides to take and creeks to explore, hopefully with friends at an approved social distance. In the fall we will pick up where we left off, beginning third grade (hopefully our co-op will be able to meet).
Isaac will be joining our homeschool this fall for kindergarten (thankfully he already has a sense of our rhythm and how we learn). While the isolation of the pandemic has been hard, I am so grateful that how we do school was not affected drastically.
Monday, May 18, 2020
CVSD: Day 68
Our state cancelled its Shelter-in-Place order at the beginning of the month of May, and we have been back to the social distancing/safer-at-home mentality for the last 18 days.
For us, we have the luxury of continuing pretty much the same. Daniel is still working from home. Our homeschool has been carrying on as usual (Jack completes the 2nd Grade on Wednesday), and we have mostly ventured out for groceries only.
However, we have been starting to loosen up. We started ordering pizza (delivered or curb-side pick-up) and even food from a few other places with easy pick-up. I discovered that our local Chinese restaurant now how online ordering, which I am grateful for.
I have also noticed that we, along with most of our neighbors, are out walking and riding bikes more frequently. And more kids are playing in the open spaces at our neighborhood park.
I ran by our recycling center today for the first time in close to 3 months. They have streamlined the process, making it a drive through situation. You are supposed to go on the same day as your trash pick-up. There was only one other car there and I had no problem unloading my items and keeping the appropriate distance.
Last week, our local library had a mystery bag sale of children's books for $3 a bag. I went and ended up with two bags of books for my kids – lucky for us, they even matched up with what they have been learning this year. While there I struck up a conversation with another mom, a stranger. We ended up standing in the parking lot and talking, through our masks, for 30 minutes. It's like we are so starved for conversation with other grownups (outside our own homes) that we just talked about a bunch of topics we were mutually interested in. That conversation would never have happened in the pre-quarantine days.
Quarantine life is hard, but it also has good moments sprinkled in. Especially the ones where we aren't in such a hurry and have time to chat with a stranger.
Daniel went last weekend to help a friend work on his car, and this past Saturday he rode dirt bikes with another friend. Slowly easing back into friendships, while maintaining distance. Likewise, my monthly book club has talked about meeting in person this month – in camp chairs in someone's front yard. I think we are all ready, but also cautious.
Friends of ours are starting to camp and we are looking into what campgrounds are opening and determining how safe it will be, and considering the possibility of camping with friends. We are hoping to start some mid-week camping trips soon... we cancelled our summer trip out west but are looking into more places closer to home that we could explore.
At the same time as we are loosening our standards, we are seeing Coronavirus cases start to jump. I think this is to be expected. It's not big jumps, but numbers are increasing, though still low. I think the next couple of weeks will be the most telling. In the meantime we are mostly staying home, and wearing our masks when we are out.
Life feels tentative, but hopeful right now.
For us, we have the luxury of continuing pretty much the same. Daniel is still working from home. Our homeschool has been carrying on as usual (Jack completes the 2nd Grade on Wednesday), and we have mostly ventured out for groceries only.
However, we have been starting to loosen up. We started ordering pizza (delivered or curb-side pick-up) and even food from a few other places with easy pick-up. I discovered that our local Chinese restaurant now how online ordering, which I am grateful for.
I have also noticed that we, along with most of our neighbors, are out walking and riding bikes more frequently. And more kids are playing in the open spaces at our neighborhood park.
I ran by our recycling center today for the first time in close to 3 months. They have streamlined the process, making it a drive through situation. You are supposed to go on the same day as your trash pick-up. There was only one other car there and I had no problem unloading my items and keeping the appropriate distance.
Last week, our local library had a mystery bag sale of children's books for $3 a bag. I went and ended up with two bags of books for my kids – lucky for us, they even matched up with what they have been learning this year. While there I struck up a conversation with another mom, a stranger. We ended up standing in the parking lot and talking, through our masks, for 30 minutes. It's like we are so starved for conversation with other grownups (outside our own homes) that we just talked about a bunch of topics we were mutually interested in. That conversation would never have happened in the pre-quarantine days.
Quarantine life is hard, but it also has good moments sprinkled in. Especially the ones where we aren't in such a hurry and have time to chat with a stranger.
Daniel went last weekend to help a friend work on his car, and this past Saturday he rode dirt bikes with another friend. Slowly easing back into friendships, while maintaining distance. Likewise, my monthly book club has talked about meeting in person this month – in camp chairs in someone's front yard. I think we are all ready, but also cautious.
Friends of ours are starting to camp and we are looking into what campgrounds are opening and determining how safe it will be, and considering the possibility of camping with friends. We are hoping to start some mid-week camping trips soon... we cancelled our summer trip out west but are looking into more places closer to home that we could explore.
At the same time as we are loosening our standards, we are seeing Coronavirus cases start to jump. I think this is to be expected. It's not big jumps, but numbers are increasing, though still low. I think the next couple of weeks will be the most telling. In the meantime we are mostly staying home, and wearing our masks when we are out.
Life feels tentative, but hopeful right now.
Friday, May 15, 2020
CVSD: Day 65
Our church was fasting together (to various degrees) for the entire month of March, and along with fasting we were reading the book Revival Starts Here (which is a great resource if you are curious about fasting). At the time, I was participating in a 24-hour fast once a week and specifically praying for ways to grow closer to both my family and Daniel's family. For various reasons, including the busyness of life and living in different places, we have all been drifting apart in recent years.
I never dreamed a pandemic would happen midway through that fast. But I can say that over the last 2.5 months, I have reconnected with my siblings and parents in ways I could have never anticipated.
We check in more frequently and have started doing a weekly family video chat every Friday afternoon. So while I don't care to be quarantined for this long, I am grateful for this chance to reconnect with my fam. We were just all too busy before the world ground to a halt.
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
CVSD: Day 63 (Last Day of Preschool)
I am feeling a lot of emotions today.
Including grief that our littlest has come to the end of his preschool
experience. There was no Mommy's Night Out (it would have been last
Thursday night). There was no preschool graduation. No year-end party
for his class.
Instead
we drove through the parking lot this morning, and Isaac's teachers handed us a
paper sack of his stuff through the window. We chatted briefly, took
some pictures through the window, and then we were off.
I
held back tears. Isaac didn't say much. To be honest, he has been enjoying all of his
time at home with his big brother, but I think if he understood that
there was no more preschool, he would be sad.
I'm
sad that our time at Signal Crest is over, but also smiling because our
time there happened at all. Six years of dropping our little boys off at
this wonderful place. We love our community and I am grieving that this
chapter of our life is over. Without any fanfare.
Wednesday, May 06, 2020
CVSD: Day 56
We did an Egg Drop Challenge as a part of science today (we were supposed to do this a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never!). We are in the final weeks of school, and to be honest, I'm not sure how the summer will go since some type of a schedule keeps us all sane. Normally that would include swim team, but right now, who knows?
As for the Egg Drop Challenge, we were all winners! Even from 25 feet, all of our eggs survived. The soft ground might have had something to do with it. The parachute options the boys used really slowed down the descent.
In good news, after seven weeks of coughing, I seem to be cough free, which is a relief!
Tuesday, May 05, 2020
CVSD: Day 55
I am caught in this weird place of being hopeful for the future and
wanting to plan things, but also being completely unsure of the future,
which makes me shut down a bit. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
We did a little pseudo camping this weekend. And we are dreaming up
backpacking and paddling trips. I don't know if they will happen, but
talking about our dreams feels good...
We spent the weekend doing some camping-related activities in the back yard. Jack is obsessed with building and maintaining a campfire and is getting pretty adept at this job.
We made some really delicious meals over the campfire including a Philly Cheese Dog, reminiscent of my favorite hot dog from Good Dog. We also cooked chicken strips over the fire and roasted apples for dessert. The kids were stoked to make smores on two different nights.
We are all really missing camping with friends this spring, but are hopeful that there will come a day in the future when we can camp again.
Friday, May 01, 2020
Weekly Hikes in April
We were sheltering-in-place for the entire month of April, so most of our outside activities came to an abrupt halt.
However, we did take the boys on a few bike rides, including Isaac's first ride to the Brow. This is about a 2.5-mile, round-trip ride from our house to a beautiful view of the Chattanooga area from our mountain. This ride includes some big hills – which Isaac chose to walk – but he completed the ride and we are so proud of him!
In addition to biking, we walked down to Green Gorge one evening. The boys were concerned about it being closed (Jack is a major rule follower), but where we entered, there were no signs posted. It was so nice to take a quick walk next to our favorite little creek.
As far as being stuck on our property for a majority of the month, we still spent lots of time outside. Daniel taught the boys how to rappel on our rock face and Jack has become really adept at setting everything up.
The boys have also been working with Daniel to built a small treehouse out of materials we have on had. And we had several campfires during the month, which was nice.
The boys are staying committed to sleeping on our screened porch in their cushion fort. Twenty-eight nights on the porch as of this writing.
As of May 1st, our shelter-in-place orders have lifted. We are still practicing social distancing, but are optimistic that we will be able to do more hikes in the month of May.
A look back at monthly hikes for this year:
January
February
March