Yesterday Daniel and the boys went to watch Motocross with friends while I stayed home and enjoyed some quiet and took care of some mundane tasks like swapping out their winter for summer wardrobes. They got home around 11pm last night and excitedly told me all about their day. It took Jack and isaac a little while to settle down enough to fall asleep. I’m so glad they had a fun afternoon/evening with just the guys.
Third Grade and Kindergarten are in the books for Jack and Isaac. This was our fourth year homeschooling and first year with both boys learning side by side. It was an excellent year with a focus on American History and lots of hikes with friends.
Jack and Isaac have grown so much this year. I love that I get a front row seat for their education. Home education is not without its struggles but the freedom and flexibility are worth it.
We completed 36 hikes with friends this school year, finished our second year of Classical Conversations, and took a 7,000+ mile road trip to see a good chunk of the United States including 9 National Parks and Monuments. We read hundreds of living books covering all manner of topics. We did experiments, baked delicious things, and learned poems together.
The school year ended with a
tonsillectomy for Jack, but even that didn’t stop us from getting in the
last of our curriculum for the year. The last 15 months have had a lot
of abnormal elements due to the pandemic, but we made the most of it. We
met with friends every Monday afternoon at parks all over the area. We
hiked every Wednesday. We found new normals and good within the
abnormal. Here’s to a fun summer ahead!
Since Jack was little he was a heavy snorer. On and off it would occur to me that maybe this wasn't normal. When he would fall asleep in the car, I would notice that he would snore and sometimes gasp loudly in his sleep. It was something I noticed but didn't think to mention to our pediatrician. He never got strep or had problems with his throat or ears.
On our recent trip out west, it came to my attention and on a wellness visit right after the trip I mentioned it to our pediatrician. She immediately said his tonsils were probably too big and referred us to an ENT. She used words like tonsillectomy and two-week recovery and small chance of a hemorrhage. It freaked Jack out a bit.
We got an immediate appointment with the ENT of our choice. Jack was nervous but I told him he could ask any questions he wanted, or if he was too nervous he could tell me and I would ask. The ENT put us at ease right away. He spoke to Jack and asked him what was going on and Jack told about the snoring since he was little, the gasping in his sleep, how he is often tired the next day. The doctor joked that Jack didn't even need us there since he was so adept at communicating. The ENT agreed with our PED that the tonsils needed to come out. He said kids should never snore like that. My only regret is that I didn't bring it up sooner.
We saw the ENT on a Friday and had surgery scheduled for the following Wednesday. The doctor's office said they didn't require a covid test for surgery but that the hospital might. The hospital did, so we had to run in early Monday morning for that test. Thankfully covid tests are very benign these days compared to the brain swab they were doing last year. Jack's covid test came back negative and we proceeded with surgery Wednesday morning. We had to arrive at 7:30am for some blood work and prepping with the anesthesiologist.
The
boy's Grandpa and Abuela Moore came to hang out with Isaac for the
morning and Daniel was able to join Jack and I before surgery got
underway. Isaac enjoyed time with grandparents, including going out for Mexican and getting to eat some of his favorite foods. He definitely milked all of the ice cream and popsicles that Jack would get during this ordeal – he is a sympathy eater for sure!
Funny story: I used the valet parking that the Children's Hospital offered. The attendant gave me a ticket that he said I would need to pick up my car. After Jack and I got settled into the hospital room I realized I didn't have that ticket any more. I frantically checked the waiting room and then asked a nurse to come sit with Jack while I retraced my steps from the morning. I checked all the elevators and went back outside. I remembered stopping at a bench before going inside and sure enough, that ticket was on the ground under the bench OUTSIDE! I took it to the attendant to confirm that it was actually my ticket. Thankfully it was. I was really sweating the possibility that someone might have found the ticket and stolen our car!
Once I had the ticket in hand, I tucked it into my wallet and went back upstairs to sit with Jack and wait for Daniel. Daniel was a gem and brought me coffee. Shortly after the nurse brought Jack some "silly juice" or medicine to start chilling him out for the anesthesia. He got pretty loopy. He kept laughing uncontrollably and telling us that his arms felt heavy like he was on the planet Mars where gravity is stronger. Then he started to sing to us. Later he would tell us he remembered all the silliness.
Surgery went really quickly. I think the actually surgery lasted about ten minutes. They removed both his tonsils and adenoids. The doctor came back to talk to us and said all was well. It was about thirty minutes before they wheeled him back to us. He was still groggy and slept for about an hour and a half before waking up. We got him to drink apple juice, a mashed up popsicle and Gatorade and then they said he was good to go.
We had strict instructions to alternate tylenol and ibuprofen around the clock, every three hours, for the first seven days. The doctor said days 4-7 would be the worst. Once home Jack was in good spirits. He ate lots of ice cream and popsicles. Several friends brought him goodie bags to help him stay distracted. We let him play video games and watch movies.
He was very concerned about not getting to play outside for two whole weeks. We made him skip his cub scouts camp out, but we did agree to let him go to a friend's birthday party as long as he promised not to get his heart rate up. He enjoyed fishing and wading in the lake and finishing the day by the campfire.
True to the doctor's notes, Sunday through Tuesday were the worst for Jack. He didn't want to eat or drink anything, not even the medicine. We really had to coax and explain how important it was to stay hydrated. He was tired of sugary food and boycotted just about everything.
I called the ENT on Tuesday and they said this would be the worst of it and that he would probably suddenly feel better when the scabs in his throat fell off. They did call in a prescription steroid (one-time dose) that seemed to help him. On Wednesday morning he woke up and he really did feel significantly better, just like they said.
Wednesday afternoon we went to Ben & Jerry's to celebrate that he was feeling better. In the coming days he really struggled to force himself to eat. It was like he was traumatized and scared it would hurt even though he felt better. We finally explained that he wouldn't be able to do swim team if he didn't start eating calories. We don't want him focused on calorie counting, but you have to have energy to do things like swimming. Our skinny boy was even skinnier by the end of those two weeks post surgery. He has now bounced back and is eating normally again and no longer in any pain. He no longer snores and seemed to feel better overall.
The Cumberland Trail is a grassroots trail maintained by volunteers that spans some 300 miles from Cumberland Gap in Kentucky to its southern terminus at the Signal Point Military Park on Signal Mountain. Currently there are 210 miles of the trail that are open and complete with more than 50 trailheads and 28 sections.
It's a trail that I have been pursuing on and off for the last 18 years. Daniel and I did several sections in the northern part of the state when we were first married and living in Cookeville. I believe the first time we came across the Cumberland Trail was during our first visit to Cumberland Mountain State Park just east of Cookeville. We eventually went on to explore part of the Obed River, the Crab Orchard segment, and the Laurel-Snow Wilderness (all of this happened before blogging and social media).
When we first moved to Signal Mountain I noticed a sign for the CT at Signal Point, just two miles from our house. Over the last seven years we have been chipping away at portions of the southern-most sections, a few miles at a time.
We have explored most of the trails in the Tennessee River Gorge Section including Signal Point Edwards Point (I may have a little bit of bias toward the Signal Mountain trails over all the others!), and the Pot Point Loop (lower section). I have been told a new section recently opened up on our mountain and intend to check it out soon. We have done a decent amount of the trails in the North Chickamauga Creek Section over on Mowbray Mountain including Montlake Road to Stevenson Branch (Ladies Backpacking Trip) and shorter portions to Strip Mine Falls and the Hodgekin Loop with the kids.
The Three Gorges Segment has some of my favorite scenery. The Mowbray Pike Trailhead has some great waterfalls and rock formations that are lovely for climbing and bouldering. It is one of our family's favorite spots.
In the Possum Creek Gorge section
we have hiked from Little Heiss Mountain down to Little Possum Creek.
This was one of our longer hikes with kids (five miles and some lessons
learned for our hiking group!).The kids and I have also hiked a part of the pocket wilderness in the Laurel-Snow section with our hiking group and a couple of years ago the boys and I did part of the Piney River section.
Today we did a new section the northern end of the Mowbray Pike trail (Three Gorges Segment) starting at the Little Soddy Trailhead at Hotwater and Sluder. It has a much smaller parking lot and is less maintained, but lovely none-the-less. We did a quick out and back (3 miles total). The kids loved exploring the rocky streams that are typical for this area of the country. How blessed are we that we have so many well-maintained trails on every mountain in the vicinity!
The kids had a blast
skipping stones. All of the stones were incredibly flat and would easily
skip 3-5 times. The kids also took a dip in one of the pools they
found. It was only 70* out, but they did not care a lick! They caught a
crawdad (crawfish/crayfish depending on where you live), a lizard, and
noticed lots of mountain laurel, a Pharoah cicada (live) and the shells
of many cicadas that had already shed. It was a fun day! This will be a good
spot to revisit for swimming in the hot months ahead.
All of these section hikes we have completed are short, not full sections, but the little legs that go on hikes with us have covered a lot of ground on the Cumberland Trail. Some day I hope to complete all of the sections. Maybe my boys will as well.
If you are looking for a new trail to try, you really can't go wrong with a segment of the Cumberland Trail!
This was my 38th hike for 2021 (38/52). We did 3 miles bringing me to 118 miles hiked this year.