Friday

What did he drive?

And where did he drive it?  To Piggly Wiggly!  Yes, we live in the country!

We went on an field trip to Amish country, just north of us.  It was a wonderfully gorgeous day.  We were not allowed to take photos of the Amish folks we saw, so I snuck a couple of shots with my cell phone.  Here is a field of corn:

And Luci at the front of the wagon, as we rode around the county.

After a picnic lunch, we headed out to David Crockett State Park.  He is not Davy Crockett...Davy is a Disney creation.  And the residents of Lawrenceburg will will tell you so!

A lovely covered bridge in the park.

Guess who was my photographer?

Who is that in that tree??

It's Luci!  As soon as I snapped this one, she yelled, "Get me down!  NOW!"

Look what that sneaky boy did when he thought I wouldn't find out....

What David Crockett might have used.  His belongings were washed away in a flood, so these are re-creations.

Yes, this is a still.

Here's the recipe for those of you who are more adventurous:

(we had a special tour)

How do you make fried chicken?

That was the question from Luci last night.

We were eating leftovers from KFC (yes, Feingold friends, I know it's a no-no but my children don't react to KFC for some reason).  Luci had a piece of chicken with the accompanying grease (that's the finger-lickin' good part--you know, fat's where it's at) on her plate.

Mommy, how do you make chicken?

First, you have to catch a chicken, then....

No, Mom, after that part!

Well, you take the piece of chicken, and put flour on it.  Then you fry it and there you have it, it's fried chicken!  (See, I'm just like Julia Child.)

Do you use oil in it?

Yes, you fry it in the oil.

Oh good, she says, pointing at the yellowish grease on her plate.  I was afraid that was pee!

Hum if you don't know the words!

John has had a lot of fun watching our hummingbirds. We've had as many as seven at a time at our little feeder, and today I think there were more! We have to refill the feeder every day.

Yesterday John held the feeder to get the birds to come in close.

You can see one looking in the window, wondering where his feeder is!  He's looking in the usual spot and could not find it.

Five birds in this shot--

Moon Festival

Sunday night was lots of fun.  Zhang Lin (Linlin) ,Luci's Chinese teacher (we took a class in May and June at UNA) invited our family to UNA's Chinese Student Association's Moon Festival dinner.  Linlin is from Guizhou, just like Luci!

Moon Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival) can be compared to our Thanksgiving--lots of food, visiting family, and traditions.  It is the second-most important holiday in the Chinese calendar, with Chinese New Year being the first.

Traditional Moon Cakes were passed around.  Our table got these little treats to share...never fear, there was no bean paste in the middle of these!  There was a mixture of nuts in the middle.  We liked them better than the bean paste version, but Linlin did not; she prefers the bean paste.

Tren,  one of the students we've met at library functions.  He's lots of fun.

Two more lovelies from China...it was so nice to see Bridgyt's daughters again.

Luci was very shy most of the night, until...until they took a group photo!  She's there, right in the very middle.  Double click on the photo to enlarge it.  When we got home, I asked Luci what she thought about the dinner.  It was lots of fun!  There were tons of ME there!

Linlin and Luci

Luci's Description of Me....

I want to play with someone who is...

ninety-seven

and has

green eyes

make up

glasses

a beauty mark

freckles all over your face

and eyebrows that nobody can see

Never Forget

Ten years ago today.

We don't live any where near Ground Zero in New York City.

We are about 1,000 miles away from the Twin Towers site, and it is so different here in little-town America.

But September 11, 2001, touched us, too, in a profound way.

The morning started out lazily for me.  John went to work and I was hoping the boys would sleep in.  Homeschooling is nice that way, you can sleep in some days.  We had just gotten home from a big trip to Disney World two days before and I didn't want to get back into our routine yet.

As the boys slept, I kept the TV muted.  I had on a headset that let me listen to the television.  I'm a news junky, so I had the TV turned to NBC's morning program.  I can't even think what it's called now. The show that Katie Couric used to be on.  I was at the computer, on our slow dial-up, checking email, when I heard something odd on the headset.  I rushed to the TV in our bedroom to watch the horror unfold.

The boys stayed asleep until after the second tower collapsed, around 9:30 our time.  I remember very vividly thinking that I need to go give blood.  There will be an urgent need for blood.

After the first tower collapsed, I knew the second would, also.  I thought, I don't need to go give blood.  They are all dead.  Everyone of them.  They're all dead.

It was so arresting, thinking that.  I felt my heart would stop, it hurt so to think about what was going on.

Then the news unfolded over the day that yes, we were indeed under attack.

And the realization that I am married to a military man.  And he'd be needed somewhere.

I don't remember calling John, but I am sure I did.  We were both just stunned by what was going on, as was all of the United States.

The boys got the day off of school.  I was in no shape to teach.  They were 5 and 9 years old.  So innocent!  And their world just changed.  Did they even know it?

They would know it very soon.  The next afternoon, Bryan and JT played in our woods with their swords--they were knights in King Arthur's court, slaying dragons.  John and I watched them behaving like the little children they were.  It was a gorgeous day.  John told me that he had called his Army Reserve unit and asked to be put on the short list to go where needed.  He gestured towards the boys, who were running through the trees, and said, "That's what we're fighting for."

Sunday following 9/11 I went to Radio Shack and bought my first cell phone.  I knew that John would be called up and I wanted him to be able to reach me where ever he was, at any time.

The very next week, on Tuesday, September 18, John had a trip to Florida to work on something to do with Operation Enduring Freedom.  Whatever he did there was secret to me.  It was awful putting him on a plane that morning!  I took the boys to the commissary (the grocery store on the military post).  I was so upset, near tears the whole morning until John called and said he had landed.   I was very short with the boys in the commissary.  They were acting up and I was already at my breaking point. One of the retirees who was shopping there that day came up to me and patted me on the arm and said, "They're fine, Mama."  Reassuring me, and letting me know that I needed to hold it together for my children. 

Over the next eight years, John went on four separate missions as an engineer.    Building targets, he said.  Kuwait, DjiBouti, Qatar, Afghanistan.  Finally getting to put all he learned into practice.  We stayed home and prayed and managed.  We were all so happy when John's last deployment ended two days before Christmas, 2009.  

Oka Kapassa: Return to Coldwater

Friday was a wonderful day full of learning.  Luci and I joined some homeschool friends (and a horde of local fourth graders) on a field trip.  We went to Spring Park for the Oka Kapassa festival commemorating the time Indians spent in Tuscumbia during the Trail of Tears march.  During that forced exodus, the Native Americans stopped in Tuscumbia before moving further west.  Generally they were treated well by the North Alabamians, and this is honored every year by a gathering here.  There is singing, dancing, and demonstrations of Indian life as they "recollect Tuscumbia," as Creek Indian Chief Chilley McIntosh desired.  His full quote is,

"As long as our nation remains upon the earth, we will recollect Tuscumbia."

Luci wanted to dress the part.  She had some money to spend and I was very surprised that she did not buy some jewelry...there were some lovely beaded necklaces and bracelets.  My girl chose a bow and arrow set!

Playing in the dirt with Mamie

Okay, Mom, I want to go play now!

This one cracks me up.  I wondered how the true Indians there would react to Luci's outfit, since most of what we saw of female dress resembled Laura Ingalls Wilder's outfits rather than Pocahontas'.  Didn't have to worry.    Here is a Poarch Indian man taking Luci's photo because she looked so cute "and Indianish, Mommy.  I look Indianish."

The reason for the gathering:

I just had to snap this one:  The woman walked up, using her walker, and took a photo with her cell phone.  The boys are always teasing me about my cell phone, saying that mine is one "that old people use.  It's like those jitterbug phones, Mom!"  My phone is not quite that bad.

But maybe it is for old folks...because this lady's cell phone is identical to mine.  Sigh.

Luci and Kenzi posing with two hoop dancers--Grandfather and Grandson both danced, and the girls were impressed!

Working with clay

My Indian maiden with Montana, one of our homeschool friends

Throwing a hatchet!

 

Loved this vignette

The ladies had noisemakers on their legs--this woman had traditional noisemakers.  I could not tell what they were made of.

But this woman's were easier to figure out--tin cans!  The noisemakers weighed up to 15 pounds per leg.

Luci, Kenzi, and others with the dancers. 

Really gorgeous!

Statue commemorating the Trail of Tears...one of our homeschool friends asked his mother what the statue was for, and Luci told him the story.  A proud mommy moment!

My favorite shot of the day:

Silly Songs

Heard today in the van...

Luci and JT arguing, Luci singing, ♫ The hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the foot bone, .... ♪

JT:  Stop!

Luci:   ♪ Fruits-fruits, fruits and vegetables, Fruits-fruits, fruits and vegetables... ♫

JT:  Mom!  Make her stop singing about fruits and bones!

Me:  You both have until we get home to solve this, or there's no tv, no computer, no video games after schoolwork is done. 

JT & Luci discuss, and then:

Luci:  I'm so sorry, JT.  How about I sing a song about how much I love JT?

     ♪ ♫ 

     I love my JT!

     I love my JT!

     Wherever I go, nothing keeps meeeeeeee

     From loving my JT!
     ♫  ♪  ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪

Rain, Glorious Rain!

Tropical Storm Lee came our way.  It was not as vicious as Hurricane Irene, thank Goodness.  But up here, nearly 400 miles from the Gulf, we managed to get 7.41 inches of rain during the past two days.  SEVEN and nearly a HALF inches.  It all came in a nice, soaking rain, too--not horrendous flooding that seven inches would usually make. 

Totally made up for the previous lack of rain. 

And the heat wave has broken!  We've had 90* and higher (with humidity through the roof) nearly every day since early May.  Today's high was 62*.

Wish we could send some of our rain to Austin, Texas.