Christmas Eve Haiku

Chilled burning bushes
Crystal birches bowing low
Christmas Eve in Maine







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'Tis the Nutcracker Season

Atira and I were at Medomak H.S. this evening enjoying Midcoast Dance Studio's annual presentation of the Nutcracker Ballet. Just a couple days ago we were at Merrill Auditorium being treated to the Maine State Ballet's shortened version of the Nutcracker designed for school children. The event incorporates explanations of the storyline as well as a peek behind the scenes, showing how the props function.












Considering that Tell made it most of the way through before asking when it would be done, I'd say they do a good job of making it interesting for the kids. Atira loved it and wanted to attend the full production so we're making a plan to make that part of her 13th birthday celebration next year.

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Surprise, it's Andrew!

When Anthony and Laura arrived with the kids this evening, I was surprised to see Andrew Whisler, fresh from Colorado, coming up the stairs as well. Unknown to me, he had traveled out to Maine with my brother's family for a second time and will enjoy Thanksgiving dinner here tomorrow. Laura thought that I knew Andrew was accompanying them and, of course, felt bad. Not to worry. I vacuumed the crumbs from the futon and Voila! one more bed available for our Rocky Mountain State friend.

I love having my brother home to visit and it's always fun to note the differences in our two families. As I walked down the stairs at one point this evening, the shoe arrangement near the door spotlighted one difference: the Romano's shoes on the left and the Gilbert's on the right.
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Birthday Suit

Today marked my eldest child's entrance into adulthood. Although I won't admit to being old, I'm quite sure that Jubal's birthday means my days of being young have come to an end. Today we celebrated a sweet little preemie in his birthday suit entering our lives. 18 years later, a new kind of suit was Jubal's gift of choice. It only required three torturous hours of shopping last Saturday.







Jubal's main party will be at a later date so tonight was just a quick birthday chorus after Jubal had a lengthy chat with his Aussie grandparents. I didn't even have a candle for his ice cream cake so Jubal had to resort to "blowing out" Jim's technological iPhone candle. It was a sad little party and we enjoyed it.









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Double Checking

While I tucked 8 year old Tell into bed tonight, he reminded me to wake him up to go to the bathroom before I went to sleep. About a half-hour later he caught my eyes as he ascended the stairs.

Me: "What are you doing up, Tell? "
Tell: "I just wanted to make sure you wake me up before you go to bed."
Me: " Don't worry. I won't forget."
Tell: " Just so I know, what time are you intending to wake me up?"
Me: "About 12:30."
Tell: (heading back downstairs). Hmmm. OK. I will prolly be asleep by
12:30."
Me: (Chuckling) "Well, I would hope so."


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Finding What You Like

After Nolan spent over a year expressing interest in learning Karate, I finally signed him up at Five Elements Mountain this past spring and it was a decision that I should have made sooner. Like his father, Nolan has never been interested in team sports.






He tried baseball when he was about seven and spent a lot of time plucking grass. I remember one game that my mom came to watch. Before heading out to the field, she gave Nolan some gum to chew with the instructions: "When you get tired of chewing the gum, don't just spit it out; Bring it to me. I'll put it in some paper and throw it away." Nolan was very obedient. When he was finished chewing the gum he jogged from shortstop, across the third baseline, to the bleachers outside the fence and deposited the wad of gum into his Mimi's hand...during the middle of the inning. Yeah. Baseball wasn't for Nolan. He tried basketball one year and that wasn't for him either. Running Club, with more focus on individual competition, kept him occupied for a few years but that wasn't quite his thing either. It took until his teen years to discover that he loves martial arts.






He's enjoying Karate three times a week and Jiu Jitsu twice a week. I love that he has found something that is completely his own, apart from the rest of the family. We recently watched his belt test at the dojo and saw him level up to the 3rd degree yellow belt.










Because they are kid's classes, in karate, Nolan is one of the oldest but his Jiu Jitsu class is a different kettle of fish. In that mostly adult class, at 14, he is the youngest. Therefore he is always grappling with those that are older and bigger. That keeps him always working harder to overcome and better his skills. This weekend he took part in his first Grappling Tournament and placed 2nd in his division. I think Nolan has found what he likes.


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Halloween Twenty-thirteen

I took the two younger kids out to trick-or-treat last night. Instead of heading to my parents' home and neighborhood, like every other year, Tell wanted to go with his friends Ben and Zack. We went with them and the Johnston boys to a Trick or Trunk event and then canvassed a few houses near the Foreman's.









The ninja and Iron Man still ended the night at Mom and Dad's, visiting for a few minutes and picking up the special goody bag that Mom always has for them. Despite the company of his friends, Tell decided that he preferred walking door to door over the assembly line feel of getting candy at the Trick-or-Trunk event.

Wednesday night, my friend Nick and I were discussing how fun and stress-free Halloween might be if we applied some Liberal socialist principles to the evening. We could find the kid that put a huge amount of effort into his costume and spent hours walking from house to house and ended up scoring a nearly full pillowcase of sweet treats. If we found a kid like that we wouldn't need to put much effort in for the evening to result in a net candy profit. Our words as we approached the parents of the hard-working child would be along the lines of: "You don't mind if I take just half of your kid's candy, do you? My kid was pretty lazy and didn't feel like dressing up tonight but he'll still want some candy later. Your kid obviously has WAY more than he needs so we'll just take some." What a haul we'd make!






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Maine State Passport Stamps #5 and #6 and Old Fort Western

When I woke up, I already knew the latter half of this day would be busy with Jubal's Semi-Final soccer game in Windham (which they won) and a Family Movie Night at church. After an early morning text from Meghan G. with a last minute invitation to join her homeschool group for a presentation at Old Fort Western, I knew I would be welcoming my bed when this time of the night arrived.......and indeed, I was correct. So in the name of brevity and sleep, most of this post will be in photo form.

We spent about an hour and a half at Augusta's Old Fort Western, the oldest wooden fort in the U.S. There was some great hands-on learning. The kids enjoyed making a shingle and checking out an old general store but with the late autumn wind nipping at us, we were glad to come into an 18th century kitchen, complete with a cozy fire.













Once the fire was built up, the kids ground their own cinnamon and sugar for some tasty homemade toast as well as stirring some delicious spiced hot apple cider while listening to our guide share about life in 1754.

After leaving the kitchen, we entered the weaving room and all the kids had a chance to add one row of thread to the ongoing bolt of fabric that will be made into some towels for their kitchen.










With the work done, our final immersion into colonial life consisted of some children's recreation: pick-up-sticks, bean bag tossing and a ball &cup. Even over 250 years later, some games are still fun.

Finished with the fort, we picked up lunch on the run and headed an hour south toward Sebago to stamp our next two passport destinations: Sebago Lake and the Songo Lock. It was very strange not to see any other person at Sebago, which is packed in the summer.






Sebago stamped, we drove a few hundred feet down the road to Songo Locks, which was also deserted. Yesterday, while reading Paddle-To-The-Sea, I had been explaining how the Great Lake's Soo Lock worked, so this was a great small scale visual for Atira and Tell.












The Songo Lock also holds a very special memory for me because, in the 80's, my paternal grandparents lived in a log cabin just down the road from the Songo Locks. In 1983 my brother and I stayed with them for a week and in addition to wading into Crooked River, dusting BauBau's nicknack collection, watching the TV-edited Fatso, and (seriously) taking a macrame class, we walked down to the Locks with BauBau to watch the small boats pass through. With one leg shorter than the other, even in her younger years, it was painful for her to get around a lot. She isn't a complainer, though and we never realized her effort until we were older. I'm thankful for the memories of time spent with grandparents on both sides of my family. It's a blessing.

A Bit of Wildlife

Headed home on Route 1 yesterday I saw the stream of traffic ahead of me on both sides of the road shift to the shoulders. I realized the sad reason when I passed, in the middle of the road, a large deer that had just been hit. This morning the boys and I saw a much nicer version of deer in the form of a small herd crossing the road not far from our house. On the way home, after dropping them off, a sharp-shinned hawk landed on the rail of the Bath Route 1 overpass just as my van passed. Then as I left to get Nolan again this afternoon, I nearly ran into our local flock of wild turkey as I rounded the house corner. Both parties were very startled. I love living in Maine.






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Incompatibility

Nolan to Jim:
"I thought all apple products were compatible."


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School, Soccer, Supper

Thanks to Meghan Gillespie, I took Tell to a 4-H hosted homeschool event at the Bowdoinham Library today. Atira was sick, so she missed this week's butterfly theme. Last Thursday they were divided into groups and were required to create a wind boat that would "sail" the length of the table.










It's a shame that we missed the first two weeks of the sessions because Tell thoroughly enjoyed them.

After dropping Nolan off at Karate, the family shot up to Waldoboro for Jubal's soccer game against Windham Academy. Coastal lost, but we still enjoyed the company of Fishers and Hodgdons on the sidelines.

If you must lose a game, at least follow it up with a delicious meal at Moody's next door. While there, I opened my very belated birthday gift from Don. It was a Sumo-sized and themed coffee mug from Japan. I love it!







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I Have Nothing To Wear

I realize that God created men and women differently. This is not news to me. Sometimes, however, we are given glaring reminders of truth we already know. This morning, I heard "Mom, I have nothing to wear." from Nolan. I have also heard it (much more frequently) from Atira. When Atira says it, she is standing in front of her closet, looking at an array of clean, hanging clothes and there is nothing that she feels like wearing or nothing that fits the occasion. When Nolan said it this morning, it meant he was standing in the middle of his room, surveying the floor, which was well-stocked with previously worn clothes and there was nothing clean to wear.


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Maine State Aquarium

Friday morning found us, along with Jen and Asa Hodgdon, arriving at the small octagonal building known as the Maine State Aquarium, overlooking a foggy Boothbay Harbor. Arriving a few minutes before it even opened was a novelty for this habitually late girl.








Once the doors were opened and the Gillespies and Johnstons joined us we entered the large dimly lit room to enjoy the many tanks filled with mostly local marine species. When local lobstermen find oddities in their traps, many times they offer them to the aquarium and so we observed a lobster that was split down the middle, half red and half black, as well as one that sported six claws. An hour into our visit an educational presentation on Maine lobsters was held outside on the covered porch.








The highlight of the aquarium were the two touch tanks where the kids handled sea stars, sea urchins, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, and scallops as well as lightly touching some dogfish and some gorgeously patterned cat shark. The field trip was a fine finish to another productive school week.







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Tie-Dye Time

We kicked off AWANA for the year on Wednesday with homemade ice cream and tie-dying t-shirts. Both were a hit.











Atira opted to have a diagonal stripe pattern achieved with accordion style folds.








Tell and Ben Foreman decided to be Elf Bros and do a Christmas-colored swirl pattern, and even though their colors and design were the same, and the dyes were applied by the same teens the finished products were distinctively different. I couldn't help but be reminded of the uniqueness of each one of us in the human race, the difference being that the creator of the tie-dye design is never sure EXACTLY how the design will come out. Our Creator, however designed us perfectly and knows us intimately. God does not deal in randomness or accidents.













Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.








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Maine State Park Passport, Stamp #3

Atira, Tell and I spent a couple of hours walking the State Park Trail that hugs the shore of tiny Mackworth Island, the home of the Baxter School for the Deaf. A causeway links the 100 acre island to Falmouth. That was a treat, as the feel of driving over a causeway brings a bit of my childhood in Eastport back to me.




At the end of the causeway was a Ranger Station. I was offered a guide book to borrow and directed to park in the one empty spot of the tiny parking lot. I had read beforehand to avoid coming at peak times as the lot only holds about 20 cars. That information would have been more helpful if the peak times had been designated. I'm fairly certain that lunchtime is one of those peak times. When we first arrived, just after 11:30, we encountered many runners and walkers, presumably on their lunch break, along the path. By 1:45, when we left, our trail encounters had thinned out, so note to self: mid-afternoon might be a better time if we go again.







Benches, allowing a chance to relax and enjoy the view, have been placed all along the trail. We utilized one for our lunch break and toward the end of the trail Atira and Tell enjoyed a swinging bench overlooking the panorama of Casco Bay.












In several places there are stairs that allow shore access and of course Atira and Tell used them all, including one on either side of the the old civil war pier.



















Governor Percival Baxter, of Baxter State Park repute, and a breeder of Irish Setters, deeded Mackworth Island to the State with the stipulation that the cemetery of his beloved dogs be maintained forever. They are buried under a massive boulder with three plaques showing the dogs' names and when they died. The governor's horse is also buried in this plot and a horse tombstone was one of the most unusual things that I saw on this field trip; the other was a fire hydrant in the middle of the woods. I'm still trying to figure that one out.










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Everything In Its Place

This morning Atira and Tell took some time to amuse themselves by filling up some water balloons and rolling them down our driveway. While clearing off the kitchen counter after lunch, I picked up the package of tiny yellow and purple balloons and wanting them to be put away in their proper place I asked Tell, "Where did these balloons come from?" He responded, "The bathroom." My voice and face conveyed my confusion. That's not the first place I would think to look for water balloons. I confirmed his response, asking, "The bathroom?". I could tell that my confusion was perplexing to him as he replied without hesitation, "Yeah. Doesn't that make sense? They ARE water balloons."

I guess so. It's hard to argue with 7 year old logic.


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Not So Fresh Start

This morning was the first day of classes for my Senior, Jubal and my Freshman, Nolan. Knowing that I needed to pick up Emily, I went out early to tidy the van and discovered that Atira's drenched shoes from our flooded tent had been left in the van overnight. There's nothing like the smell of wet sneakers to invigorate you on your first day of school.







It was strange not having Nolan around the house but much easier to manage the schooling of two kids rather than three. On a completely unrelated note, I said to Jim a few minutes ago that sometimes the toughest part of writing in my blog is coming up with a title for the post. He suggested that I just name each one "My Husband is Awesome" regardless of the subject matter.....this is one of the myriad of reasons why I write the blog, not him.


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Just Go With The Flow of Water

At the end my party, spur of the minute plans were made for us to spend Sunday evening tenting and relaxing with the Brunks around Greg's handmade firepit. By the end of Sunday afternoon the group coming over for the evening had expanded to include the Raymonds and Pendletons as well.





It felt like a smaller version of the previous night's party, this time with Mosquitos, sparklers and a tent with the rain fly just sort of thrown on.







That last one mentioned was of great significance when the heavens opened up in a downpour with thunder and lightning after midnight. Jim and Jubal had stayed up later and slept in the house and I thought maybe we should do the same. I began waking up Nolan and Tell to go inside. Atira was already awake and discovered that the tent was leaking. By the time we bolted inside, there was already a pool of water at the entrance. The sunken, water-logged tent was quite a hilarious sight in the morning.







Before leaving Buxton we stopped to visit my grandparents. Although we missed Papa, who was running an errand, we were glad to have the whole family visiting Bau Bau at once. It had been a long while.


Jim and I ended his Labor Day break together with a shopping trip to Freeport. I found the $80 backpack that I wanted for Jubal for only $25 at the L.L. Bean Outlet. Those kind of bargains make my day! Jim also took a wander through the British Goods store and was excited to pick up a small jar of Vegemite to replace the previously consumed one. I was not nearly as excited about this find.








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