I was looking through an old folder on the computer for photos of my son when he was two and bumped into a slew of photos of the kids and our pets at this house – of memories made at the house or around it. I thought I’d share some of those on the blog today for a break from all the rambling I usually do. I believe all of these photos were taken with my Nikon d750, with a variety of different lenses I have owned over the years.
We live in a small area, with small, family-owned grocery stores and weekly community newspapers. I’ve been reading the small community paper where my husband now works since I was a child. Actually, I also wrote for the newspaper in my senior year and then later after I graduated college.
The Rocket-Courier comes out once a week, every Thursday, and it’s one of the most avidly read newspapers in the region, not only because it’s chocked full of local news, but because it features news and cozy, fun, small town features like Just Ask Alice (a fictional advice column where questions are answered by a somewhat sad, somewhat grumpy-looking old lady) and Jester Hill, a fictional town with hilarious fictional characters. Once upon a time it also offered some pretty interesting views and stories from the editor/publisher in a column called The Way I See It, but he’s retired the column as he prepares to retire as well.
The newspaper has been owned by the same family for about 150 years. In this day and age, full of negativity and meanness and selfishness, it is refreshing to read Jester Hill and Just Ask Alice, which I have found myself gravitating toward every Thursday when I pull the newspaper out of the mailbox.
This is Alice, by the way:
Her photo appears on the masthead of her column and also on coffee mugs and t-shirts. Who really writes her column? Well, Alice, of course. Who else?
I thought I’d offer a couple of excerpts from the two columns to my blog readers, since most of you probably won’t read it anywhere else and probably wouldn’t subscribe to the newspaper unless you have a personal interest in the area.
From Jester Hill this week:
Sunday Services at Jester Hill Community Church were no open to the public but were available to view online thanks to the effort of Justin Floop, who is president of the Jester Hill High School Audio Visual Club. Halfway through Reverand Thaddeus Bump's sermon, the feed accidentally switched to the movie, "Bikini Chain Gang." Five minutes of the film ran before Justin realized what was happening and corrected the situation. Bump was embarrassed by the incident until he found out that the online collection plate broke an all-time record. New week's sermon will including a showing preview of "Bikini Royale."
***
Able Davis was picking up a prescription at this drug store Friday when he noticed a man going down an aisle with a shopping cart filled to the brim with toilet paper, sanitizers and bread. Incensed at the thought of all the hoarding going on, able proceeded to dress the man down, calling him selfish and inconsiderate of the elderly and other people who need those items. "If you're done," the man responded. "I have to get back to stocking the shelves." *** Madame Elesha, a Binghamton fortune teller, was the entertainment at Saturday’s annual Jester Hill Grange banquet. After her stint, Madame Elesha was talking to Fred Sturzenegger over coffee. She asked Fred if he ever had premonitions. Fred replied that he never had, but his grandfather knew the exact year, month, day and time of his death five years before it happened. “That’s impressive,” Elesha observed. “Not really,” Fred said. “The judge told him.” *** Omar Dwight has long resisted going to a chiropractor, thinking one wouldn’t help him with the numerous aches and pains. Finally, he decided to give one a try after dealing with a sore back for a month. After just one treatment, he felt 100 percent better. After the appointment, he was telling the gang at Bierney’s Tavern about it. Sam Stedge, the proprietor, who had heard Omar comment for years about his lack of faith in chiropractors, asked him if he had changed his tune. “I stand corrected,” Omar said.
Alice answers a variety of questions, some related to the virus everyone is talking about and a couple about the government in general.
DEAR ALICE: You may have been asked this question before, but can you tell me why it takes our federal government so long to accomplish anything? — WAITING IN WYSOX
DEAR WAITING: It takes government so long to make things happen because they have to carefully deliberate every decision to make certain that if it’s the wrong decision, the other party will get blamed for it. — Alice.
***
DEAR ALICE: Have you found any other benefits from social distancing other than it helps curb the spread of the Coronavirus?
—HEALTHY IN HERRICK
DEAR HEAL: Yes, it’s a great excuse for not spending time with people and at places that I don’t care for.
—ALICE
***
DEAR ALICE: Is there anything we can do to improve cell phone service at our house? We only have a signal strength of one signal bar, and we have to go outside to make or receive calls.
—NO CELL, NEW ALBANY
DEAR NO: You probably wouldn’t want to do this, but my niece Stephanie says that ever since she had that metal ring stuck through her eyebrow and a gold pin in her nose she can talk on her cell phone in places where others have no service at all.
—ALICE
***
DEAR ALICE: I can’t get married to the man I love because there is a law against it. But I hate not being his wife. What should I do? (I’m enclosing a picture of my man so you can see why I love him so much).
—SINGLE IN SYLVANIA
DEAR SING: You shouldn’t have sent the photo, and pardon me for saying this, but the Halloween pumpkin I had on my porch last October had more teeth than your uncle. Get a life, get a job and get out of the relationship with a blood relative.
—ALICE
How about you? Do you have any funny columns or features in your hometown paper? Or are you in a larger city with larger newspapers? Let me know in the comments (if you want).
Here we are: at the final week in our current house. It’s been a bitter sweet time as we are excited to leave this area in some ways (some bad memories from here) and sad at the same time (we have some really nice neighbors). The other day we received some snow and I looked out at the hills that hug this Valley, at the snow clinging to the pine trees and said to my daughter (who is 5): “Look at the beautiful trees out there. Isn’t that amazing?” She let out a heavy sigh and said: “I’m going to miss those hills.”
Somehow she always seems older than she is, which seems to be a familiar trend with my children.
Of course, we will still be surrounded by hills at our new home, which is only about 45 miles away from where we live now.
We get the moving truck Tuesday and start loading it up, most likely on our own since everyone is afraid of everyone else these days, (understandably),
I’m not really sure how we are going to load up the couches and heavier furniture, but right now we don’t have a choice. If we don’t move out we could lose the mortgage it took us months to get and the buyers of our house could be in the same situation.
I’m a total wimp anymore with all my weird health issues or hormones, or whatever, so please pray I get some strength next week and can help get things loaded up. Luckily we have a couple of days to load the truck before we have to be totally out of the house so it will give us time to pause and gasp for air.
Last week (and the week before) I started re-reading some familiar, cozy books to help take my mind off various stresses. One of those books was About My Mother by Peggy Rowe (mother of Dirty Job’s fame Mike Rowe). The other is The Light in the Window by Jan Karon. It is the second book in The Mitford Series. After Jan Karon made an announcement about them on her Facebook page, I even found a fan club that is reading the first book this next month and we can all share our favorite parts and talk about our favorite characters. That should be a nice distraction (if I have Internet at the new house during the month because we aren’t sure how long it will take to get Internet hooked up with all that is going on.)
I’ve been following Peggy on Facebook (her interviews with Mike are hilarious!) for awhile, and am looking forward to her new book, About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known: Ruminations and Revelations from a Desperate Mother to Her Dirty Son, which will be released on April 14. I don’t normally pre-order books, but I pre-ordered this one on Kindle.
I not only started re-reading the book but had a gift credit for Audible and downloaded the book there too, which Mrs. Rowe reads herself. I needed that for something uplifting to focus on while I go to sleep at night. I fell asleep listening to her the night before.
For those who might be interested, here is the description for About My Mother:
A love letter to mothers everywhere, About My Mother will make you laugh and cry – and see yourself in its reflection.Peggy Rowe’s story of growing up as the daughter of Thelma Knobel is filled with warmth and humor. But Thelma could be your mother – there’s a Thelma in everyone’s life. She’s the person taking charge – the one who knows instinctively how things should be. Today, Thelma would be described as an alpha personality, but while growing up, her daughter Peggy saw her as a dictator – albeit a benevolent, loving one. They clashed from the beginning – Peggy, the horse-crazy tomboy, and Thelma, the genteel-yet-still-controlling mother, committed to raising two refined, ladylike daughters. Good luck.
When major league baseball came to town in the early 1950s and turned sophisticated Thelma into a crazed Baltimore Orioles groupie, nobody was more surprised and embarrassed than Peggy. Life became a series of compromises – Thelma tolerating a daughter who pitched manure and galloped the countryside, while Peggy learned to tolerate the whacky Orioles fan who threw her underwear at the television, shouted insults at umpires, and lived by the orange-and-black schedule taped to the refrigerator door.
Sometimes it takes a little distance to appreciate the people we love.
The description for About Your Father:
Peggy Rowe is at it again—this time giving a hilarious inside look at growing up Rowe, both before and after Mike’s rise to fame.
Since the day they said, “I do,” Peggy’s previous “doting” lifestyle met with her husband John’s minimalist ways and became the backdrop for years of adventure and a quirky sense of humor because of their differences. From thoughts of wearing headlamps in the house to save energy, to squeezing out the last drop of toothpaste with a workbench vise, Peggy learned to pick her battles and celebrate the hilarity in each situation.
Once their boys were born, woodstove mishaps and garbage dumping tales were the seed for Mike’s obsession with doing dirty jobs and the comical presence he is known for today.
As Mike rose to fame, Peggy was his biggest fan—who gave motherly advice and constructive criticism, of course. She baked cookies for Mike to take to Joan Rivers for a Christmas party hostess gift, and even wrote fan letters under faux names and mailed them from different cities to Mike’s producer.
By the time Mike hits it big, Peggy and John retire to face more adventures, with a lightning strike in their condo, an elderly friend who ate marijuana leaves, and entering into celebrity status by making Viva paper towel and Lee jeans commercials, plus so much more.
Peggy’s stories relive the details that intrigue and entertain old and new fans alike. So if you want a bigger, even funnier take on the Rowe family, About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known delivers.
– Amazon
One of the other things that helped keep us distracted this week from the moving stress (and other things) has been watching the bald eagles on the livecam sponsored by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. This week my daughter and I missed the egg hatching because it happened at night but we were able to see the mama eagle feed the baby some fish the next day.
That was exciting for both of us since it was a first for us both. We have heard that the other egg hatched, but haven’t seen the new eaglet yet. The baby in the third egg apparently didn’t make it because some of the people in the live chat said the father eagle crushed the egg and fed it to the baby that lived. Gross, but nature.
We were watching another live cam feed and it looks like the egg that those eagles were taking care of is not going to hatch, unfortunately.
We have also enjoyed watching the Orangutans on the San Diego Zoo’s live cam.
The weather was a little weird this week with some sun, some rain and then actual snow one day. The up and down temperatures seems to be how spring is here, though. My daughter enjoyed running into the snow and standing under the gutter spout to get her hair wet, as well as trying to get me wet by throwing snowballs at me.
Getting groceries and supplies has been a little odd with everything going on and while we once looked forward to care packages with treats in them, we were all (okay, just me) excited to get a care package from my parents with two of the hottest commodities around the nation right now (there are disinfectant wipes under the toilet paper :
I ordered a few things from Walmart online two weeks ago and just received the items this past week. I’ve decided not to order from them again at least until after we move and maybe not at all until after things settle down a little with this virus.
The whole situation with all of this stuff in the news, by the way, has left me looking a bit like this lady below, who I plan to write about next week:
So, how about all of you? How are you holding up? What are you reading, watching, doing? Let me know in the comments.
Here we are to the final chapter of A New Beginning. That you to those of you who followed me on this journey and for sharing your thoughts. I plan to have the Kindle version of this book up sometime in April after it has been proofed, edited and even revised.
The sun was bright, glistening off the cars in the church parking lot and through the leaves of the trees. Judson’s fingers were intertwined with mine as we walked out of the church, on our way to Edith and Jimmy’s for lunch.
Judson let go of my hand as we walked toward the top step and looped his arm through Jessie’s while she slowly made her way down the front steps.
“Here, Miss Jessie,” he said in his smooth Southern accent. “Let me help escort you down the stairs.
His Southern politeness always sent tingles of adoration rushing through me.
Jessie looked up at him with an expression of delight. “Oh my! Such a Southern gentleman!” she declared.
Judson laughed softly as they progressed slowly to the next step. “Anything for you Miss Jessie.”
“Now, Judson, if that is indeed true, I need to ask you a serious question.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Are you going to marry Blanche soon or what? You two have been holding hands and looking all sweet at each other for quite a while now. I’m not getting any younger and I’d like to see her happily married before I die. Now, how about you move along and just ask her to marry you already?”
Judson looked startled and laughed. “Well, Miss Jessie. It’s really up to Blanche if she wants to marry me. I’m game if she is.”
Jessie snorted. “’I’m game if she is,’” she said in a mocking tone as she paused on the bottom step. “Will you just listen to that? Young people today, I tell you. What kind of proposal was that, young man? I thought you were a Southern gentlemen. You better do it right.”
Judson grinned, looking at me. A rush of butterflies swirled in my stomach. I recognized that grin as the same one he’d had before he tossed me in the lake the week before and the one that crossed his face when he dropped a fishing lure that looked like a spider on my lap a few weeks before that. What was he about to do?
I pressed my hand against my cheeks in disbelief when he stepped off the last step with Miss Jessie and dropped to one knee in the dirt at the end of the church stairs, in front of everyone walking out of the service. My face flushed warm and I knew it must be red.
“Blanche Robbins,” he said, holding his arms out to his side dramatically, exaggerating his Southern accent even more. “Will you consent to be my wife?”
I walked down the last two steps, Jackson behind me, and stood in front of Judson, unsure if I should laugh or cry.
He leaned closer to me, looked up and whispered, “I don’t have the ring yet, but Miss Jessie ordered me to do it right and to hurry up about it so I figured I better listen and obey.”
I glanced at Jessie and tried not to laugh. “I’ll consent to be your wife, Judson T. Wainwright,” I said in my best Southern accent, curtseying slightly.
“Whoo-hoo!” Emmy’s voice broke over the splattering of applause from those standing outside the church as Judson stood and drew me close, kissing me gently. “I knew my plan would work,” she giggled. “And it only took three years.”
Miss Jessie patted Judson the shoulder. “Thank you, young man. You’ve made this old lady very happy. Now, don’t take your time planning the big day. Hurry up so I can be there.”
Judson and I laughed as we hugged her.
Several members of the church shook our hands as they walked by to their cars, congratulating us.
Judson leaned close to Jackson, who was now standing behind me. “Hey, buddy, is this okay with you?”
Jackson grinned a familiar mischievous grin, sliding his hands into his front dress pant pockets and leaned against the railing next to the stairs. “I get to call you dad when you two get married, right?”
Judson’s teasing grin faded into a more serious expression. Tears glistened in his eyes. “Absolutely, kid. If that’s what you want.”
“It is,” Jackson said, his tone matter-of-fact and displaying a maturity that surprised me, but also made my heart swell.
Daddy walked toward us, hands in his pockets, standing in a pose almost identical to Jackson’s.
“Well, I guess gone are the days of the man asking the father’s permission first,” he said, a mischievous grin on his face.
Judson looked alarmed and I could tell he was worried Daddy was really upset. “Oh sir, I’m so — ”
Daddy laughed loudly and slapped Judson hard on the back.
“No worries, my boy, I would have given you that permission. You’re like family to us already.”
Judson shook his hand. “Thank you, sir.”
Edith, Emmy and Lily surrounded me, Emmy holding Faith, Lily cradling Alexander.
“We’ve got to start planning!” Edith cried.
“We should have a June wedding,” Emmy said. “Or September. With all the leaves falling down around you. Outside, by the lake, where you first kissed.”
Edith turned to look at Emmy, then back at me.
“You two first kissed at the lake? Why didn’t I hear about this? You mean that weekend we went out there all together?”
I sighed. “We can talk about it on the way to your house for lunch.”
Edith kept talking. “Did he kiss you or did you kiss him? Is that why you were so quiet on the ride to the adoption agency that day?”
I walked toward the car as she continued to talk, laughing, and hugging Jackson close.
“We’re finally giving you the wedding you deserve,” Mama said, smiling through the tears, three months after Judson’s public proposal. “This dress you made is so beautiful.”
She lifted the veil and laid it back on top of my head. “And you are so beautiful too.”
She cradled my face in her hands and kissed my cheek.
“Thank you, Mama.”
Edith was a giddy mess on the other side of the room. “It’s almost time! I am so excited! My little sister is getting married!”
Emmy was almost as giddy. “And now my best friend is going to be my cousin-in-law!”
Lily, whose demeanor had brightened slowly over the last year, smiled in amusement at the giddy display before her, pushing a strand of blond hair off her shoulder.
“You look beautiful, Lily,” I said. “I’m so glad you agreed to be a junior bridesmaid.”
She lowered her eyes sheepishly, her cheeks flushed red. “Thank you for asking me,” she said softly.
I had been apprehensive about Edith and Jimmy bringing Lily home with them, but now I couldn’t imagine life without her. She’d been quiet, withdrawn, and frightened her first few months at their home. Eventually, though, she began to open up more, finding interests that girls her age should have. Her mother had signed papers to make Edith and Jimmy her legal guardians six months earlier.
Edith enrolled her in school and took care of Alexander during the day, bringing him with her to the shop most days, sometimes asking Mama to help watch him. In the evenings, Lily helped to care for Alexander, changing his diapers, giving him his bath and laying him down at night after his final bottle. Edith and Jimmy both wanted Alexander to call Lily “mom” when he was old enough to talk and referred to themselves simply by their first names. While Lily called them by their first names, I could see that she saw them as her parents.
The door to the Sunday School room opened and Marion peeked around it.
“I have your something old,” she said with a smile.
She stepped into the room and handed me a small, delicate white handkerchief with pink flowers embroidered in the corners.
“This was my mother’s,” she said. “She gave it to me and now I want to give it to you.”
“Marion, I can’t take this…”
She laughed and winked. “Oh, sure you can. I carried it with me at my wedding with Stanley and so far that’s going well so it must be good luck.”
I tucked the handkerchief into the sash of the dress. “Thank you, Marion.”
“I have your something blue,” Emmy said, sliding a small blue flower into the curls piled on top of my head.”
“And you’re already wearing my something borrowed,” Edith said, gesturing to my shoes. “Don’t forget those are mine. I want them back after the wedding.”
I looked around the room at the women who were and had become family to me, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with emotion. I knew Miss Mazie, Hannah and Buffy were all waiting in the sanctuary with the rest of the guests.
As a teenager, I’d never imagined myself married and then when I married, I’d never imagined myself divorced. Once divorced I felt my chances at love were gone, but here I was, about to be married again, this time to someone who not only loved me and my son but also God. And here were the women who had helped me through it all, standing with me to rejoice in what I saw as a happy beginning after an unhappy season in my life.
“Okay, come on,” Edith said waving her hands in front of her eyes as tears welled in them. “Blanche is about to cry. Mama is about to cry. I’m about to cry. And if we cry we are all going to ruin our make-up. Blanche, reapply your lipstick and let’s get this show on the road. There is a handsome man upstairs waiting to marry you and a handsome boy standing next to him waiting to hug you both.”
I sat on a bench next to the window and looked in my purse for the lipstick. My hand touched an envelope I had shoved in there earlier that morning. I’d found it in the mailbox and when I saw the postmark, had quickly shoved it in my purse so no one else would see it. I slid it out and looked at it for a few moments before opening it.
“What’s that?” Edith asked, zipping up the back of Emmy’s dress.
“It’s a letter,” I said, staring at the words on the paper.
“From?”
“From Vietnam,” I said softly. “From Hank.”
Edith and Emmy looker at each other and then walked over to stand next to me, looking over my shoulder. Mama and Marion joined them.
Dear Blanche:
Just writing to let you know they shipped me to Vietnam four months ago. I won’t lie, it’s hell over here. I’m getting what I deserve and I know it. If I don’t make it back, tell Jackson his daddy was an idiot for never getting to know him.
Hank
I folded the letter, slid it back in the envelope and slid the envelope between the pages of my Bible, placing Hank where I should have placed him a long time ago – into the hands of God.
I flipped my veil over my face. “Come on, ladies. Let’s go. I have a new beginning waiting for me.”
In case you missed it, I shared Chapter 33 of A New Beginning yesterday. I will be sharing the final chapter in a special Fiction Saturday tomorrow.
In case you missed my short story series, Quarantined, you can find the first part HERE.
You can pick up the first part of Blanche’s story on Kindle for $2.99 (or free until April 10 if you have Kindle Unlimited. )
I’ve also been writing a short story called Quarantined about an estranged couple who get stuck in their house together during a “virus outbreak” without really going into what the virus is or much about the situation surrounding it.
Chapter 34
I hooked my braid up on top of my hair with a hair pin, smiling as I saw Judson’s reflection in the mirror grinning at me.
“Need any help?”
“I think I can manage,” I told him with a smile.
He sauntered toward me and placed his hands on my arms. I looked at our reflection together in the mirror, a mix of contentment and excitement rushing through me. I closed my eyes and leaned back against him as he lowered his mouth to my neck.
“Are you sure we have to go this wedding?” he asked in a husky tone, his mouth now on my ear. “We could just stay here and —”
I turned to face him, laying my finger against his lips. “You know we can’t do that. This is a big day for Marion and Stanley.”
His arms were solid around my waist, his mouth turning upward into a grin under my finger. “I know, but I can dream, can’t I?”
I took my finger away and kissed him, my hands against his chest, reveling in how I could kiss him mouth the way I had wanted to for so long.
“Gross!”
Judson and I laughed at Jackson standing in the doorway with a disgusted expression on his face.
“Come on, we’re going to be late to the wedding,” Jackson grumbled. “You can be all kissy later.”
“Okay, buddy,” Judson said, stepping away from me and ruffling Jackson’s hair.
“Hey! I just combed that!” Jackson laughed, pushing his hand away.
“See you three at Marion’s!” Mama called from her bedroom as she hooked an earring in.
“If your mother ever finishes getting ready,” Daddy whispered as we passed him in the living room.
“I heard that, Alan!” Mama called.
Sitting together inside Judson’s truck a few moments later, Jackson between us, I reflected on how close the three of us had become in the last six months since Judson and I had told each other how we felt. We saw each other almost every day either at lunch at the diner or at dinner at my parents’ house. In some ways, it was like my parents had already made him a member of the family, even without a ring on my finger.
A faint smile crossed my lips as I remembered a day a week ago when Judson had been working on the construction of a new hardware store in town. Two young women had apparently left their office for lunch and were sitting across the park from the site, chatting and watching the work being done.
“Can’t beat the view from here,” the one with her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail said with a wink.
“Oh?” I asked.
“Those construction workers are easy on the eyes,” the other one, a brunette with hair spilling across her shoulders said, popping the top off her Pepsi.
“Are they now?” I asked slyly, following their gaze to where Frankie Benjamin, Tyler Simpson, Emmy’s dad and Judson were busy on the roof.
The two women were sitting at a picnic table, facing the site as they ate.
“Which one would you pick?” the blond asked, taking a small bite from her sandwich.
“Definitely the one in the white tank top,” the brunette answered. “He’s a cutie.”
She was talking about Frankie, who I knew was single and looking.
“For me it’s the one in the blue T-shirt,” the blond said, biting her lower lip.
I watched Judson climb down the ladder from the roof, the blue T-shirt he was wearing highlighting his sculpted upper arms perfectly. His faded blue jeans weren’t looking too bad on him either.
“Which one would you like to go out with?” the blond asked me with a wink.
I smiled, my gaze still focused on Judson. “The one with the blue shirt really is something else, isn’t he?”
The brunette gently tapped her friend in the arm. “I told you,” she said. She looked back up at me. “I’ve been enjoying watching him for two days now.”
“Ah. I see.”
Judson looked up as he started to climb back up the ladder, saw me and smiled broadly before dropping his tools into the back of his truck and heading toward me.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” The brunette tapped her friend in the arm again. “He’s coming this way.”
My heart was pounding as I watched at the way he was watching me as he walked, his smile broad, his eyes intensely focused on mine. When he reached me and placed his hands on either side of my waist and pulled me gently toward him, I felt the same weakness in my knees I’d felt the night we’d kissed on his porch.
“Hey,” he said softly.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the women watching me with surprised expressions.
“Hey,” I said back.
“I missed you while you were gone. Did you have a good trip to see Miss Mazie?”
I giggled. Honestly giggled. Since when had I started doing that?
“I’ve only been gone since yesterday.”
“Yesterday was a long time ago. I’ve had to go all this time without being able to hold you or kiss you. I want to hold and kiss you now but I’m pretty sweaty and I don’t want —”
I knew it was juvenile, but I wanted to make sure those women knew who Judson belonged to, so to speak. Before he could finish his sentence, I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck and pulled his head down to mine.
I let my mouth linger on his lower lip as I pulled away several seconds later, making sure I gave those gawking women a good show.
“This is certainly the best job site visit I’ve ever had,” he said with a small laugh.
“I brought you some lunch,” I told him. “I can head back to the car to grab it if you want.”
He grinned down at me and I let go of his check. “I’d like that,” he said. “Let me get it for you. We can sit on the back of the truck and eat.”
As Judson walked toward Daddy’s car I smiled sweetly at the women. “Enjoy your lunch, ladies.”
I practically skipped toward Judson’s truck, feeling both foolish and giddy, leaving the women watching me with stunned expressions.
I laughed softly at the memory as Judson drove toward Marion’s.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” I said. “Just thinking about last week with those women at your job site.”
He smirked. “You mean when you planted one very long, passionate kiss on me to show those women who I belonged to?”
I tipped my head back and laughed while Jackson squirmed.
“Ah, man. Gross. Can you two just knock it off already?”
At Marion’s, guests were already gathering in her backyard for her wedding with Stanley. They had planned a small event with a few friends and family and Pastor Frank officiating.
“I’m going to go see if Marion needs anything,” I told Judson, walking up the front steps.
Inside the front door, my stomach lurched at the sight of a man talking to Thomas and Midge in the living room. He had the same long nose, green eyes and attractive square jawline as Hank, but his features were softer, his mannerism more relaxed.
Marion stepped off the bottom step of her stairs, her hair piled on top of her head, a flowing, purple dress showing off her slender figure.
She smiled at me and touched my elbow. “Blanche, come in and say hi to Tom.”
Tom turned toward me, his smile warm and inviting.
“Blanche,” he said stepping forward with his hand outstretched. “Good to see you again.”
It seemed strange I had only met the younger brother of my ex-husband once before, but he’d left the area after high school and hadn’t returned until after his father had passed away. Even when he had returned, his visits had been brief and I often avoided Marion’s during them to make sure she had plenty of time alone with him.
I smiled and took his hand. “Hey, Tom. Looks like we have two Tom’s here today.”
Thomas grinned and winked at me. “Yeah, but I’m the better looking one, right?”
Midge nudged Thomas gently in the side with her elbow. “Oh, Thomas. You’re so silly.”
The way she looked at him, though, showed she definitely thought he was the best looking Thomas in the room.
Hank’s brother laughed good-naturedly at their banter. He looked at Jackson who had walked through the doorway and was now standing behind me.
“Hey, is this Jackson?” He held his hand out and Jackson looked at for a moment, then took it. “Nice to meet you, bud. I’m your Uncle Tom.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jackson said in the adult tone he’d been speaking in more in the last year.
I could tell he wasn’t sure what to make of the man standing before him and was trying to determine how exactly the man was his uncle, especially since he’d never met him before. It wasn’t lost on me his mental wheels had been turning more now that he was 9-years old, wondering who his biological father really was. He’d seen photos of Hank at Marion’s, knew she was his grandmother and knew most children had two sets of grandparents. More than once he’d started a conversation I thought would end up with a discussion about his father, but at the last minute he’d changed the subject. I struggled with deciding if I should press the subject with him or not.
Tom looked at me and smiled. “I can see you’ve done a great job raising him, Blanche.”
“Thank you, Tom.”
“I hope we can talk later. I’m going to go see where they need me for the ceremony. I’m walking Mama down the aisle.”
I watched him walk across the room to Marion, who was now talking to an attractive red headed woman in a red blouse and white skirt. Tom leaned over and kissed the cheek of the redhead and then smiled at his mother. I let out a long breath, not even realizing until then that I had holding it practically the whole time Tom was talking to me.
I was glad to see him here to support his mother, happy to see how happy it made her, but hoped there weren’t any other surprises in store for me.
“Hey, buddy, I’ve got us a seat in the front row,” Judson told Jackson as he walked inside the house. “It’s a great spot to watch your mom being your grandma’s maid-of-honor.”
My muscles relaxed when we were all outside in the yard, music drifting from a record player Stanley had set up. It had been silly for me to worry Hank might be here somewhere. I knew Marion would have told me. As far as she and I both knew he was in basic training in North Carolina still. We hadn’t heard from him since the night he and Judson had fought outside my shop.
For more than six months I had felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I refused to let that weight come back, especially during such a wonderful time for Marion.
I stood behind Marion as Pastor Frank led them through their vows, much like I had with Edith the day she married Jimmy. I watched Stanley watching Marion as the pastor spoke, his eyes brighter than I could ever remember them, his smile warm and only for Marion. A small tremble shuddered through Marion’s hand as he slid the ring on her finger and I knew it was anticipation of good things to come for her life.
When I realized Judson was watching me, I couldn’t read his expression. As our eyes locked a smile flitted across his lips and I desperately wanted to know what he was thinking at that moment. Jackson sat next to him, looking incredibly bored. Next to Jackson sat Lily, a small smile tugging at her mouth as she watched the exchange of the vows. She seemed enamored with the entire process. Edith held Alexander facing out on her lap and he clapped his hands, giggling as Stanley promised to “take this woman and to have and to hold her.”
My gaze slid across the rows at Mama and Daddy holding hands; at Thomas with his arm across the back of Midge’s chair, smiling broadly; at Midge watching him adoringly; at Tom and his wife sitting next to each other and his wife taking his hand in hers, gently rubbing the top of it with her thumb.
Like I had at Edith’s wedding, I felt a twinge of envy at this beautiful moment, at this time when family and friends could show their love and support of Marion and Stanley’s marriage. I’d run off with Hank, so I had never experienced that moment and longed to have a similar experience one day.
Pastor Frank’s voice pulled me from my reverie.
“And now by the power invested in me by the state of Pennsylvania, I pronounce you husband and wife.”
The reception was simple with finger foods and homemade desserts and tables set up around the yard. Lily and Jackson took turns pushing each other on the tire swing and joy rushed through me at the sight of Lily being the child she had probably never had the chance of being before.
“Hey, Blanche.”
I turned with a plate full of cut up veggies and cheese and smiled at Tom.
“It was a really nice ceremony,” I said.
“It was,” Tom agreed. “Listen. . . This is going to sound weird, but I wanted to catch you while I’m here and tell you that I’m sorry for how Hank treated you. I know I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I feel I need to apologize on behalf of my family somehow. He has a lot of anger in him. I know. I had it too. It’s why I stayed away so long.”
He leaned against the tree we were standing next to, folding his arms casually across his chest. “But that anger is like a cancer. It will eat you up inside and destroy you and everyone around you. I almost let it and would have if I hadn’t found God and Mary. I’ve been praying for my brother, hoping he will find his way out of the darkness someday before it’s too late.”
I laid my hand against his shoulder. “Thank you, Tom.”
He nodded then glanced over my shoulder toward where Judson was sitting talking to Mama and Daddy. He looked back at me again with a smile. “It looks like you found someone who will treat you right and I’m so happy for you, Blanche. This new beginning is certainly something you deserve.”
If everything goes as planned, the next seven days will be our final days living in this house. The moving truck has been booked and most of the house has been packed up. The animals are on high alert; they know something is up.
Despite the craziness going on in the world around us, we’ve been told the sale of our house and the purchase of the other one can be finalized on Friday of next week.
My mind had been preoccupied with worries of a virus and empty shelves so much in the last two weeks that it was only this week that I started to say to myself “This will be one of the last times we draw on this sidewalk,” or “This is one of the last times we will watch a show together in this house,” or “This is one of the last times I’ll wave at that particular neighbor from across the street.”
Much like the news these days, it’s all a bit surreal for us right now.
My daughter played in the water that always settles in that one place in our driveway after the rain one day last week and I thought “This is one of the last times she will ever jump in that puddle in our driveway.” Then I remembered that soon it won’t even be “our driveway.”
My son rode his bike toward me and as I looked through the photos I thought “this is one of the last times he’ll ride his bike down that street.”
There are a lot of memories in this house; first cries, first steps, first lost teeth. There are ghosts too — a kitty in the corner that’s no longer there; a puppy on the end of the bed whose also no longer there. We owned four cats and two dogs (not all at the same time) while living in this house and three of those cats and one of those dogs are now gone.
We’ve lost a lot of relatives in the last 16 years we’ve lived here — grandparents, a special aunt, aunts and uncles. We’ve lost friendships and some innocence. With all that we lost we gained a lot too. We gained wisdom, appreciation of what we had, and a stronger bond with God and between ourselves.
I’m nervous about this move. I won’t lie. I’m nervous about doing it when the world is upside down around us.
But part of me is excited too.
There are new memories to be made, more experiences to be had, and maybe even a few new beginnings too.
American parents! How are you doing?! Are you surviving with all the kids home? I know, you love them, but it can be overwhelming when you’re not used to it.
Pennsylvania’s governor announced Monday that public schools will be out of session for another two weeks so parents may be further stretched and stressed about how to continue their children’s lessons. On Saturday I shared a post with some advice and ideas about how to tackle this hurdle.
I had already started writing another post to help parents in need of resources to help with educating their children during this time and planned to post it this week before I heard the news about the extended closure Of course, and luckily, many parents can either connect with their teachers online or were sent home with work for their children to do.
But, on the off chance some of you weren’t provided with these connections, I’m jumping off my previous post and adding a little more information and some additional links.
If you have further links or know of bloggers, etc. who have lists of resources and ideas for parents who are homeschooling against their will (so to speak) let me know in the comments so I can include it in future posts.
When I mentioned Notgrass social studies/history curriculum this past weekend, one thing I didn’t explain is that it can be used to cover English and Bible as well because the curriculum (there are a variety of different sets for different ages to choose from) offers reading, creative writing, a “Biblically Thinking” assignment, and vocabulary.
The America the Beautiful curriculum includes various books on various subjects that can be read separately or at the same time as your daily reading to support what you are studying. These are usually classic books such as Homer Price and Little House on the Prarie and somehow tie into the history lessons the child is reading about. We have been reading other books , either for our local homeschool group’s book discussion (though we never made it to one of the discussions for various reasons) or on our own, so we have only read one of the suggested books so far (Homer Price, which we are currently reading).
Notgrass offers a variety of history curriculum for a range of ages (elementary to high school). It does cost, of course, but you could find the curriculum used on eBay or other sources (including a used homeschooling curriculum group on Facebook) and then sell it when you are done.
In addition to the resources I mentioned Saturday, we have also used Easy Peasy Homeschool in the past, which is a free homeschool site that can be used as a complete course or supplemental resources.
For math, we are currently using CTC Math. This math site can be used for children of all ages, but we are currently using it for our 13-year old. There are some things we like about it, but one we don’t like is that when the student completes their online assignment, the program does not show them what mistakes they made and how the teacher came to the answer. There is a subscription fee for this program, but you can choose the monthly option.
In the past, we have also used Teaching Textbooks for math. We are not using Teaching Textbooks at this time because we are waiting for them to upgrade so they no longer need to use Adobe Flash, which is being phased out of web sites in the next year and which browsers are now blocking, making accessing their lessons difficult for us at this time.
Someone has started a Google Docs link with a list of live streams and other online events and what time they are being held. Many of these are for younger students.
For my youngest, we use The Good and The Beautiful’s language arts curriculum (we haven’t used their math curriculum yet), which I mentioned Saturday, but I forgot to mention that we also use ABC Mouse, which I’ve heard is offering their service for $5 a month for the first two months because of all that is going on. We pay $10 a month to use it and it provides lessons to help toddlers, preschoolers and Kindergartners learn their alphabet, numbers and a variety of other subjects. It is all online learning and utilizes characters, games, videos and ebooks to educate.
My daughter loves it, but my one issue with it is that she likes to spend more time dressing and changing the appearance of her avatar than actually doing her school work, so I have to limit her fashionista time when we log on. We don’t use ABC Mouse every day. In fact, I don’t spend a super long time on set lessons with Little Miss. I find her attention isn’t great so short lessons broken up throughout the day are best for her. We also use everyday situations as an opportunity to educate.
The past couple of weeks we have used a couple of the links I had provided Saturday and so far my daughter (who is a huge animal lover) has loved the live animal cams at the San Diego Zoo (she is in love with orangutans and the siamangs) and any of the lessons about animals on the Classroom Magazine that Scholastic is offering for free for the next 30 days.
My daughter has loved PBS’s Wild Kratts for a couple of years now and has learned so much about animals she simply regurgitates it now. When we were watching the African Safari Exhibit live cam Monday I said I thought I saw some antelope and she informed me: “Normally they live on the Serengeti.”
I said, “Oh. Wow. Okay. Well, how many 5-year olds know that let alone can say Serengeti?”
She said, “Well, other 5-year olds don’t watch Wild Kratts like I do.”
So, there you go. Check out Wild Kratts streaming on Amazon with the PBS Kids app so your younger kids will know as much about wild creatures as my 5-year old does.
My daughter and I also spent a good amount of time watching the bald eagle on the live cam in Hanover, Pa., sponsored by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Just watching that eagle sit there on his/her egg (not sure if mom or dad was there Monday) was so relaxing and we plan to watch every day until, and after, the eggs hatch.
We have a bald eagle nest near us and people go to look at it, but some people yell and say we need to leave the eagles alone. They are afraid all the people looking (it’s off a main highway) will chase the birds from the nest, but they keep coming back every year so I don’t think they will. Plus, most people who take the walk to the area to see the nest are quiet and respectful, take a photo if they can, and then tip toe away. We may try to go see the eagles when the weather is better.
Michelle at Blessings by Me also suggested Super Charged Science for free and paid science lessons.
Here is another article listing tons of online learning options.
The Great Courses Plus is offering 30 free days of its online courses with the promo code FREEMO.
One of the only things I am loving about all of this craziness (because there is not much to love at all!) is that the tradition of reading to children is coming back by authors who are offering live readings of their books each night around bedtime.
Those you can follow include:
Andrew Peterson and his The Wingfeather Saga.
Author Christina Sootornvant reading from her book Diary of an Ice Princess.
This site has list of a bunch of other authors/illustrators and celebrities doing the same thing.
For adults, or older children, who enjoy William Shakespeare and Patrick Stewart, he is reading one Shakespeare sonnet a day on his various social media sites.
There are tons of bloggers writing about their “suddenly homeschooling” or “continuing homeschooling” situation, including:
All Things Momma (who shares some ideas for entertaining your young children at home and educating them at the same time.);
and Kat at The Lily Cafe.
and, of course, Heather Dawn at Every Small Voice, who I mentioned in Saturday’s post.
If you have any other bloggers who are chatting about all this, please feel free to share their links in the comments and also share any other resources you know about.
What a week, huh?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to interject politics, worries, or virus numbers from around the world in this post, so you’re safe.
The only thing I will say about it all is that I have discovered a couple new things from not being able to get the groceries I usually do. One, I had no idea that Bob Evans potatoes came in individual servings. I rarely eat them but picked them up when potatoes were running low in our area. We’ve eaten these at my parents and they aren’t the best, but they also aren’t the worst. Two, a local pizzeria near us makes amazing pizza and I wish we had ordered pizza from them in the past. We know this because we ordered two of their pizza making kits and the ingredients were fresh and resulted in incredibly tasting pizza. Once the restrictions in our state are lifted, we will be sure to order from them again.
As many of you know, if you’ve been a long time, or even short time reader of this blog, I don’t handle stressful situations well. I especially don’t handle the unknown well. Not knowing what might happen from day to day or if someone I love will come down with this virus and become very ill is very draining on me.
BUT — and yes, this is a good BUT — only by the literal grace of God, I have been able to stay calm and surprisingly positive throughout this situation affecting our world.
It isn’t that a couple of nights haven’t been ruined by me laying awake and scrolling through a mental list of “what-ifs” but I’m able to push those thoughts aside a lot faster than I used to be. I’m handing so much more over to God than I did in the past. I am remembering (for once!) the words “the battle belongs to the Lord!” When a reader told me she remembered my post and wrote those words on a piece of paper and hung it up on her house to help her get through all of this craziness, I was not only touched, but it encouraged me to do the same.
I have not been doing as much reading as I would have liked to this past week, even though my brother encouraged me to do a 24in48 readathon. The idea is to read 24 hours out of 48 hours. Um… yeah. Not really going to happen. Probably ever. For me anyhow. (Edited this to add this comment of clarification from my brother: “Just to clarify that is the idea. That is not the rule, especially this time around. I think what’s happening this time is that a lot of people are gathering together and talking about books, even the little that they are able to read. One participant suggested a goal of reading 10 minutes each hour or listening to an audiobook for 20 minutes, which I think is doable. Today, for myself, I am going to post once or twice on Instagram and stay away from Instagram Stories, read Sunday Salon posts like I normally do, and read as I can while avoiding all news altogether.” (You can read the rest of his comment in the comments section and check out his blog for what he’s doing to keep his mind off of things.)
Anyhow, I probably read a total of an hour on Saturday and may read an hour Sunday so two hours total. I’ve been having trouble focusing on reading (much like my brother) between current events and packing up our house to move, plus homeschooling (which we do all the time, as I mentioned in my post yesterday) playing with my 5-year old (who thinks she needs constant entertainment at this age), writing a short story for my Facebook pageant Instagram author account, and finishing up A New Beginning.
Isn’t it cool how I made myself sound really important and busy in the above paragraph? Looks good on paper/screen, right? In reality, it looks like a Picasso painting that’s been puked on.
While I am thinking or writing about books, in case others are not yet aware of this, Scribd, which I had never heard of before, is offering their subscriptions for free for the next 30 days. That includes almost all of their ebooks, audiobooks and even sheet music. My brother told me about this and it has been nice to have because all of the Romana books by Beverly Cleary are currently available for free there and my daughter loves Romana so I am reading the books to her before bed.
For myself, I am reading the second book in the Mitford series by Jan Karon, A Light in the Window and also Falling for You by Becky Wade (continuing the nice light romances I mentioned last week.)
We were able to get outside in between blasts of heavy rain on Friday, which was very much needed after a damp, cold week. It was 71 on Friday and dropped to 37 by Saturday. Talk about messing up sinuses. I’ll share a few photos from our day here and then probably do a separate post later in the week when we all need a break (another break) from the bleak news cycle.
We usually visit my parents on Sundays but with everything going on we decided to skip this weekend even though we think we’ve most likely exposed each other already. My dad is 76 and pretty matter-of-fact about things so last week he told us “We’re in our 70s. We could get a cold and die at this point so I’m not really worried.”
My dad is a young 76. He is still very active so keeping him in one place hasn’t been easy. Earlier this week he said “Well, I guess we should try to not travel much during all this,” and we decided together our family would stay home for this weekend and maybe next, but after that, we are moving and may need to stay a couple nights with them.
We are praying none of us catch this before then so we don’t have to sleep in our van or car until we get the keys to the new house (apparently we have to be moved out prior to signing our closing papers to sell this house and can’t have keys to the new place until the sale of this house is final. Yeah. Fun times.).
We enjoyed a visit with them last week and while the trees are still bare, we did some signs of spring starting to show up.
So how about all of you? What are you reading, writing, watching or simply doing right now? Let me know in the comments.
If you are a parent whose children attend public or private school and now they are suddenly home you may be panicking a little. That panic may be because you know they are going to drive you crazy, or it may be because you are afraid they are going to fall behind on their lessons. Either way, you’re feeling the stress right now.
Welcome to the world of this already homeschooling mom. *wink*
Seriously, though, stay calm. It’s not as hard as you think.
Maybe your child’s teacher has already given you lessons, paperwork, etc., but maybe your child has already worked through it or would simply like some supplemental educational resources. Either way, I’ve pulled together some links and advice that might help you feel a little calmer about the situation you’ve been placed in.
Blogger Heather Dawn from Every Small Voice had some great advice about this on Friday, actually, so make sure to check out her post as well.
One of the most important lessons I have learned from homeschooling is something Heather mentioned on her blog as well and that is that homeschooling is not going to look or act like public school and that is okay.
As I told a friend this week: The issue is that a lot of parents think homeschooling has to be exactly like public school, in that the kids have to be sitting in a class for six hours at a time. That’s not the case. Kids aren’t even in instruction time all day at school. They have recess and lunch and study hall and getting on and off buses and by the time they are done they really have only had 2-3 hours of instruction time, perhaps a little more as they get older.
Also, with younger children, everyday activities can be a chance for learning. For example, when my daughter wants to play a game or watch something on my phone she has to type in my passcode and has been learning her numbers that way. If she wants to watch one of her kid-friendly shows on YouTube, she and I search for it together, which helps her practice her letters.
On Friday my daughter and I were outside drawing with sidewalk chalk and she was practicing writing her letters at the same time. Homeschooling creates many hands-on situations like this for every age.
Unlike what some may think, homeschooling families do not simply sit at home playing video games, though they probably have more time to do that than some students since they don’t have homework. They do all of their work during lessons, which means homework is completely unnecessary.
And speaking of lessons, some students are self-sufficient when it comes to their lessons and assignments and some students require the parent to be more of a teacher to them. Every age group and student is different. Our family has set curriculum that I research prior to each school year, but we also supplement with a number of resources, both written and digital.
We currently use America the Beautiful for our social studies; Apologia for our Science; CTC Math for math; Saxon Grammar and Writing for part of English and we read books through America the Beautiful and on our own for English.
For my 5-year old we use The Good and the Beautiful.
I won’t lie that we have been pretty thrilled with the free resources popping up for parents who have been flung suddenly into a homeschooling situation so I want to share some of the links I’ve found that have popped up recently, as well as resources we use in our regular homeschooling lessons.
So far, we have enjoyed Mo Willems, who is the current Kennedy Center Artist in Residence (literally), and is offering an art demonstration and lesson for young children every weekend day at 1 p.m.
Michelle at Blessings By Me mentioned a resource in the comments and I’m adding it here. Supercharged Science will send you science experiments via your email and explanations of the experiments, according to Michelle. Thank you to her for this additional link!
Crash Course offers digital learning on their YouTube channels related to history and science and current events. Their channel is aimed toward older children maybe 12 and up. My son has already been a little more mature than his peers so it’s hard for me to gauge the age that this would be appropriate for accurately. You might just want to watch a couple videos and see if the channel would be right for your student. We use their videos as supplemental resources for our Social Studies and Science.
Speaking of YouTube, you can find a lot of supplemental videos there for a variety of subjects, but always be sure to vet them and double-check they are from reliable sources.
Also on YouTube are a few videos from a farmer friend of ours. It’s good for students to understand the importance of farmers, especially right now when people are panicking about a possible lack of food. Mark creates videos to educate children and others about dairy farming. I don’t know how he even has time with all the work he has on the farm! My 5-year old really enjoyed this one.
I also saw a blog post from Cornerstone Confessions that shared a huge list of online activities to support music education.
I’m barely on Facebook, but I did happen to catch a very extensive list of sites offering either virtual tours of museums and zoos or other educational opportunities. The sites range from offering ways to learn about art, history, culture, and music and other academics to simply offering ideas for child-related activities. FYI: not all these sites or activities are free.
Have any tips of your own for parents who are “suddenly homeschooling”? Or links to blog or sites that do? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave links (I’ll check my spam in case any of them get kicked in there.)
