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Three Photos from School

Friday 22 March 2019

The Books

I am fortunate to teach three honors classes. This means I work with kids who, by and large, do everything I ask of them. So when I said, “As you read the chapter on Tom Robinson’s testimony, you need to note passages of importance,” this young lady took it seriously. Plus, she has her own personal reading she’s keeping up with.

Spring

The cherry trees outside my classroom are starting to blossom. Everyone is taking note.

Notes

Once we’re done with To Kill a Mockingbird, I have a special lesson for the kids: a local trial lawyer comes in and discusses the case from the point of view of an attorney who has himself defended individuals against rape and murder charges. How would an actual lawyer with such experience view the case? It’s always eye-opening to the kids.

To prepare for it, I have the kids make detailed notes about the case from the testimony of Heck Tate, Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson. “Make schematics of all the movements,” I say. “Make sketches of anything described in detail. Make sure you note what you know explicitly from the text and what is inference. Also make sure you note what things are less than clear.”

Story

Monday 18 March 2019

His homework: write a realistic story.

“What does that mean?”

“No dragons and such.”

He wrote a story about a little boy who eats cereal for breakfast and watches Tom and Jerry as he eats.

Where do you think he got that idea?

Saturday Growth

Saturday 16 March 2019

The day began with a bit of unusual work: pulling old wiring out of the attic. At first, the plan was just to remove them from the area over the old carport. But when in the afternoon I began the second part of today’s tasks — adding insulation to the lower part of the house — I realized I could pull almost all the wiring out — just about the whole length of the house. It was a relic from the past: old 10-gauge wiring used for long-removed baseboard heaters.

We took a break around lunchtime for E’s first game of the season. Emil had his first break of the spring season in the second quarter. (Youth soccer is divided into quarters.) He beat the last defender, sent his shot past the goalie toward the far corner, and would have made a goal but for a few inches.

Afterward, it was back into the attic for me. In the end, I put in several bags of insulation and took out one full contractor back of wiring.

Floor Joists

Wednesday 13 March 2019

are in. Our builder tells us he will be done with framing, plumbing, and wiring by next week.

Sunny Day

Sunday 10 March 2019

We finally had a warm-ish, sunny day today. I know — other parts of the country are still buried under snow, but this is the south. It’s not supposed to be this cold this long.

We also managed a bike ride at our favorite little haunt: Conestee Park. We took our favorite trail — White Tail Trail — and immediately had a problem: the Boy, jabbering away and not quite watching what was in the path ahead, hit a root which wrenched his handlebars out of his hands, causing a wreck with him lying on the ground in a bit of shock and the bike on top of him. He began sniffling and almost started crying, but I talked him down: “Deep breaths. Deep breaths. You’re okay. Deep breaths.” He calmed down almost immediately and was up for a reattempt of that trail that knocked him down.

That’s strength.

Changes

Saturday 9 March 2019

The other day, I was looking through old posts here and noticed this picture:

I had forgotten completely that when we bought this house, there was an enormous antenna on the chimney. I found the image in Lightroom’s catalog, played with it a bit, and then found this image:

This was from about 2008. The bushes in the foreground are long gone, as are the pine trees and dozens of sweet gum saplings, which I thought, at first, were some kind of maple. What an idiot.

That is all to say, things change around the house. Since we moved in twelve years ago, we’ve replaced the windows, replaced some doors, remodeled a bathroom, remodeled the kitchen, added insulation, replaced the outdoor sewer line twice, redid the landscaping in front of the house, replanted the front yard at least three times, repainted a few rooms a couple of times,  replaced the whole HVAC system, and dozens of other little things.

Today began the first of another change: remodeling the carport to make it an extra room and to convert the laundry room into a bathroom. Nana and Papa are moving in with us, and I began the transformation today by removing the brick steps up to the door. It wasn’t necessary, strictly speaking, but we’ll use those bricks to close up finally the gaping hole left when we removed the old heating system.

An odd feeling, realizing that our house is about to undergo its most radical change.

(Click on images for larger version.)

New raspberry location
Will they get enough sun? I doubt it.
Inspection
The mess
What remains
Pile

Shelebration

Friday 8 March 2019

The Boy only took a couple of evenings to memorize his short poem for his class’s “Shelebration,” which was a celebration of Shel Silverstein’s poetry for children. (“Did he write anything but poetry for children?” Yes, in fact, he did.) It’s quite short, after all — four lines:

They could be poison ivy,
They might be poison oak,
But anyway, here’s your bouquet!
Hey–can’t you take a joke?

Fortunately, the performance was at the beginning of the school day, else I would not have been able to attend. K, having other obligations, was unable to attend. Thus, the Boy would have been probably the only child there without a parent or grandparent in attendance. Which would have been heartbreaking for him, I know. It would be for anyone.

After the performance, when we (read: E) were partaking in the after-show snacks, he was very clingy, very physically affectionate. I looked around the room and realized quickly that he was being more physically affectionate with me than any other child with his/her parent that I could see. I was touched and a little worried. Was he that glad I was there or was he just a bit clingy, a bit lacking in confidence that I provided by being there?

Ash Wednesday

Wednesday 6 March 2019

“Repent, and believe the Gospel.”

Sometimes that’s easier than other times.

Rain Approaching

Sunday 3 March 2019

A normal Sunday morning: breakfast followed by Mass, after which I took some time to photograph the lower church for Fr. L for the project we’ve been working on. I focused mainly on the altar and the statuary as I only had forty-five minutes or so.

After lunch at Nana’s and Papa’s, the Boy and I headed out for some exploring. Is it exploring if you keep going back to the same spot?

We wanted to head out for a bike ride after the Scout den meeting this afternoon, but the rain began anew. We’re something like seven or eight inches above average for the last twelve months, and it doesn’t seem to stop. Every week there’s a rainy day or two.

When the rain slowed a bit, we went back to our normal exploration spot: the normally-tranquil stream that we can leap across was impassable.

Saturday Adventuring

Saturday 2 March 2019

The first day of spring work — outside collecting hundreds of Sweet Gum seed pods to prevent potentially thousands of saplings, mowing, cleaning.

Dinner at Nana’s and Papa’s, preceded by some exploring.

Tuesday Play

Tuesday 26 February 2019

The Boy has wanted a Rubik’s cube for some time now — a week or so. For him, it’s felt like an eternity. We ordered him a pair from the South American River Store: a 2×2 and a classic 3×3. This evening, I worked with him on the 2×2, trying to show him how to move corners around. It’s a two- or three-step process most of the time, and while he’s making progress, he’s still got some time before he’ll feel comfortable working a 3×3. And that’s just working one color.

I never learned how to work a cube fully. I could do one side, two sides. I think I got three sides once or twice. But a fully completed puzzle? It never happened. I had a book, but it just didn’t make sense.

Now we have YouTube — which means I’ll defeat this beast before I die…

Sunday from Monday

Monday 25 February 2019

Yesterday, the sun finally came out. I had dreams of taking the kids to the park with the dog and playing with the Boy in the backyard — exploring, he calls it. But it was one of those days that seemed to finish before they began.

After a lunch of waffles, we made it to the creek to do a little exploring. We were both curious to see the effects of all the rain on our favorite locations. The impromptu bridge we’ve always used to cross the small creek was all but gone, washed away by the water of a week’s rainfall. Not deterred, the Boy insisted that we could find another way across. We did. It involved accidentally putting his entire left foot into the water. While wearing school shoes.

What were we thinking, heading out in school shoes?

Later, after the camera’s battery died, we found a new little spot where we could climb down to the water. The Boy slipped on the way down and spread mud all down the back and side of his jeans.

“Mommy said these are my best jeans,” he informed me with a giggle.

Saturday

Saturday 16 February 2019

The Boy and I began the day early for a Saturday. My alarm went off at 6:15 but I snoozed it until 6:30 — that was really the plan when I went to bed last night, I must admit — and we both go up and had breakfast and cartoons (Tom and Jerry) before heading off to Clemson University for the annual Clemson Day for South Carolina Scouts.

It’s supposed to be in the main stadium, which makes it a great draw for everyone, but this year, with the weather questionable, it took place in the football team’s indoor practice area. (You know a football program is bringing in a lot of money for the university when they have a couple of outdoor practice facilities and an indoor one to boot.) Clemson football, soccer, volleyball, and track athletes ran the kids through drills and games for three hours, with each rotation ending with an autograph session.

“Parents, please remember that the autograph time is only for the kids,” the announcer reminded everyone several times.

As I suspected, the Boy was not keen on participating at the beginning. He’d been excited about going when I first mentioned it many weeks ago, but the excitement had waned as the day itself approached, and he suggested that he might just stay with me on the sideline and watch.

I tied gently encouraging him, but he wouldn’t budge. Finally, I went nuclear: “Buddy, I didn’t get up at 6:15 on a Saturday to sit with you on the sidelines.” Once he got out there, he was fine.

In the afternoon, a little exploring.

Wednesday Afternoon Exploring

Wednesday 13 February 2019

We had a few minutes of sunlight left after dinner, so what did we do? The only thing there was to do — head out to the wilderness that forms the border between our neighborhood and the one next to it and explore.

On the way down, the Boy taught me some ninja tricks, like how to sneak around. Quite a light step that boy has.

Every time we get back here, the Boy suggests that the next time we come, we need to bring some snippers and take care of all the thorns we have to navigate. I’m of two minds about this: on the one hand, it would ease our journey, and it would make some portions accessible. Still, the challenge is half the fun. And it gives us a chance to toughen up.

“Oh, I have a thorn!” the Boy will cry out.

“Tough it out. Push through it,” I reply.

Plus, it’s not our property, I explain…

Early February Sunday

Sunday 3 February 2019

It should have been a positive experience — you don’t expect to come home from a Cub Scout meeting with an upset little boy, but that’s what happened. After the meeting, all the den leaders and assistants gathered for a quick meeting and the boys went off to play for a while. The Boy walked over last, and when he did, everyone decided to play Sharks and Minnows and declared that the Boy was the shark.

Exploring in the area bordering Papa’s condo

I instantly had a bad feeling about it.

“Minnows in!” E shouted enthusiastically, and everyone ran into the play area, dodged the Boy’s attempts at tagging them, and made it to the other side.

“Minnows in!” E shouted, still smiling, still enthusiastically.

The same thing happened.

Then the taunting started. It wasn’t mean-spirited taunting. “Nana nana boo boo you can’t catch me” — that type of thing. But the truth was, the Boy couldn’t catch them. Several of them were just too fast because they were naturally faster or because they were older, and the Boy still has not developed a good Sharks and Minnows strategy. (Then again, who has?)

And so they continued. Two times. Three times. Four times. Each time, the Boy shouted “Minnows in!” with the same enthusiasm and smile, but I could tell it was starting to be strained.

Finally, after the fifth time, with the taunting increasing, I called the Boy over and said, “Time to go.”

“Okay,” he said. No begging to stay. No asking for five more minutes. Just a quick response and a jog over to my side.

As we left, one of the boys said, “I could walk to the other side, and you couldn’t get me.”

“This would be impossible in summer with all this kudzu.”

“How’d you feel about that?” I asked as we walked to the car.

“Bad.”

We talked about it more on the way home, and the Boy declared simply, “Scouts are not supposed to act like that.”

There was no real maliciousness in the boys’ actions. They were just first- and second-grade boys being silly boys. But our boy — the Boy, forever capitalized — is especially sensitive to such things.

“I’ve learned I can’t trust a lot of people,” he confided on the way home.

It was a sad parenting decision, but I suggested that might be a good idea. Sometimes it’s best to be a little skeptical about people, I explained, in simpler terms. “Trust is something we earn. Don’t just give it away.”

We got back to the house, snuggled a little, and everything seemed okay, but tonight, while brushing his teeth, he confided to K, “I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

Neither can I.