August

Rebekah had to do a group assignment: 24 people were on an island, helicopter could only take 12. Who stays and who goes. I found her thoughts - I guess I should say I found her group's thoughts - interesting (almost as interesting as her spelling) but notice the answers to "Paster" and "Famous Celebrity." Clearly I need to up my game. 

Pastor - Helicopter - He is no help

Famous Celebrity - Island - He can entertain

 

When daddy came home we had some celebrating to do. Rebekah and her blue moon ice cream. 

Huge amounts of ice cream were consumed. 

Without going into detail, I've been struggling somewhat lately. I ran across this and thought I should keep it for a continual reminder. 

There are times when you play with your food.... 

Don made this one. I sent it to our choir director saying we were all ready for choir to start tomorrow. 

Rebekah's is a little more in-depth. 

Rebekah feeding the ducks. 

Which I recently read is not a good thing to do. Not sure how I'm going to stop that tradition but I'll work on it. 

Not sure if herding the ducks is a good thing or not but look at her go. 

Enjoying the neighborhood park.

After one long day I went out to the back porch to sit for a while. I noticed.... I was not alone... And here I thought the frog issues were getting better. 

Mom gave me much zucchini which means much baking. Aunt Kim gave me this recipe. Even Don eats it. 

This one I found on the internet. Zucchini Blueberry Snack Cake with Lemon Butter Cream Frosting.  I like how the blogger calls it "snack" cake. So one can eat this for a snack. Nice. It's really good. The frosting is wonderful too. I like the lemon flavor. I assume it would be more "snack" like if you left out the frosting but I really like the lemon flavor. So far everyone who tried it has liked it. 

Sometimes I go through my phone and find things like this:

The food processor my mom in law gave me started shorting out many months ago. I found as long as I held it in place it worked okay. This month it finally decided it had enough and stopped working. My mother decided I needed an early birthday present. This one slices (at any thickness you desire), shreds (at two different thicknesses), processes, and even dices. I have no idea what I will dice but I will be doing that soon.  

I think I mentioned Rebekah caught a cold and the school asked us to stay home until we could make sure it wasn't Covid. I assume you also know that my little girl has great amounts of anxiety and worry. So, when you're home worrying about Covid.... 

My favorite picture of me and my grandpa Barney came on facebook again so I thought I'd save it and put it here. I assume I've done that before and it's somewhere in my blog but now it's here too. Rebekah was shocked that was me. Apparently I look much different. Motherhood and marriage will do that to you. 

We face the sunrise so I miss the sunsets at our Columbus house. This is the sunset in front of our house. I told Don maybe we need to go on dusk walks so I can enjoy the sunset again. 

I've loved our family zooms. This is a screenshot of a family zoom where we had all the siblings. It was a mini family reunion. Not sure when we will get everyone together again so I told everyone to get close to the screen and say cheese. 

A more casual picture while we were together incase the first one didn't work out. 

And yet another one. This one had a few of Spencer's kids so I thought I'd capture what I can. Who knows what mom's yearly calendar will look like this year. Darn Covid. 

4th Grade

Our journey begins mid July with a new student orientation, offered by the school - not even something I had to beg for. I'm already very impressed. The school was lovely; clean, organized, child friendly, etc. I'm officially excited. 

A week or so ago we found out Rebekah's teacher. A boy. 

Rebekah: four teachers of 4th grade, 3 girls and 1 boy, and I had to get the boy.

Me: I talked to Miss Kelly and she said that Ryan LOVED him. 

Rebekah (complete with eye roll and dripping with annoyance): Ryan's a BOY....

Daddy was going on a business trip the week that school started so we did the annual blessing that Sunday night. 

Girl loves her daddy.

A few days before school started we timed the bike ride to school. Not bad. 

Then we celebrated by going to the local donut shop.

Had to get a picture before we biked over to share our goods with grammy for I knew they wouldn't arrive so pretty. 

Our back to school night was a back to the front lawn of school to meet your teacher and drop off supplies. I actually liked the informality of the whole thing. Rebekah was somewhat shy about meeting her new teacher but she eventually started chatting with him. When we got home we sent a message to daddy. 

That evening Mr. Wells sent out an email suggesting we as parents send a paragraph to introduce our student to him. So I asked Rebekah what things I should include.

And then I did our usual back to school interview, this time using YouTube as a medium so we have the full video intact. Oh yeah, and the video is proof that she will not be wearing that shirt in public again. 

Rebekah then took the camera and interviewed me. Not sure if you could tell from the last video but I wasn't feeling too well. Allergies? Cold? The dreaded virus? Who knows. Just not up to par. But it was just voice so I wasn't worried so much about it. Video, however, is different. I may look somewhat tired and apathetic. I assure you I was not. I do love my little girl tremendously. In fact, the last thing I said on the video was and remember always I love you, but she turned it off before that. 

And so tomorrow starts 4th grade. Wasn't she just pre-k? Didn't I just do kindergarten round up? Sigh. I'll be lucky to get through this year still taller than The Bee. 

Many Days Later

Much has happened. Including Rebekah getting sick and the school requiring her to have a Covid test before she is allowed to return. Welcome back to public school. However, let us go back to the initial day of glory.

Rebekah woke up early and was all ready to go around 7:40. Impressive. I made her slow down for a few pictures. The first one she wanted on her bike. Apparently riding bikes to school is way cooler than I originally thought. 

Without the helmet but with the personality. 

We got to school in good time. The ride was lovely. As soon as we parked the bike and the helmet came off the anxiety came. She asked me to walk her to the front door. We passed the principal on the way who told us that we shouldn't be riding bikes without a permit (I explained I filled out the permit and sent it to the secretary, who even sent a thank you as a reply) and that we shouldn't be walking where the bus riders were walking (I explained his secretary asked us to walk like we were bus riders). It seems the principal and the secretary need to spend more time together. 

We made it to the front door and off went my brave little girl. I admit, I stopped, watched, and got teary-eyed. 

I was right on time for pick up although it took quite some time for them to release Rebekah. She came out happy with a big smile on her face. I asked her on a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being best day ever, 1 being horrible, what was her first day. She said 9.9. 

Then we were off to grammy's. Love this reunion picture. 

Grammy then fed us strawberries and ice cream bars. Rebekah decided to make hers a strawberry ice cream bar. 

A great successful day. Although I'm rethinking the two bike trips to her school I am doing. I barely start the second one before my legs try to talk me out of it. But I'll keep on it for The Bee. 

Back to the present day: As I alluded to, Rebekah caught a cold and was down Wednesday after school. Thursday I called the school and told them I wouldn't be bringing Rebekah in. The nurse called me back and told me I needed to have Rebekah tested for Covid before I bring her back. I had the nurse on speaker phone - I have everyone on speaker phone these days - and so Rebekah hears and promptly thinks she is going to be hospitalized and die. The nurse suggests I send her to Madison County Health Department, but I call her pediatrician thinking this is a job for a kid friendly environment, considering Rebekah's already freaking out. Skip to the end, they got me in that afternoon. The sweet pediatrician who saw us (our normal doctor wasn't in) was so kind and caring with Rebekah. After the nurse did the test - which was not pleasant - the doctor assured my dramatically crying girl that she would in fact not die but most likely be tired, sleep lots, watch tv a bunch and feel better in a few days. That's if she had it. The doctor was not convinced. 

Then we waited. And waited. Friday night late we got the news she that Covid was not detected. However, if you continue reading the test results state, "A not detected result does not rule out the possibility of Covid-19...." Seriously?! So why did we just put Rebekah through that? 

Skip to today where I'm waiting on a call back from the school as to whether I can bring Rebekah back. A year and a half of e-learning, then finally bite the bullet to get her back in school and she lasts 5 days. As it is I am wondering about taking her back into school, but the last year and a half have been really hard on her education and emotions. She needs school. She needs the friends. She needs the peers learning with her. And so after much prayer I leave it to God in His infinite wisdom, His loving kindness, and His tender mercies. Can't wait to see what happens. 4th grade - bring it on! 

July - The Second Part

Rebekah finding out that we just bit the bullet and bought plane tickets to Utah for over her fall break: 

The house daddy grew up in.

Swim time with Clara and Audrey. Clara is her longest friend - at the tender age of 18 month Rebekah taught Clara how to jump in muddy puddles. And even after Clara's mom still encouraged the friendship. 

Moving is hard. Spent a good half hour looking for Rebekah's headphones to find them right by Rebekah's bed. 

Had some good views out the back door.

Grammy had enough time and enough love to make Rebekah's new friend a blanket. 

The end of a bike ride and Rebekah finds some sprinklers. Must always stop and run through sprinklers. 

Rebekah and her filters. 

We went to pick up a friend from Columbus. 

It was a great reunion. 

A great end to a great month. 

July Books

 

History of New Orleans. Slavery heavy but it is the pre Civil War deep south. It was good but nothing I would go out of my way to recommend. 

I started this book around the November election and (skip to the end) I stopped reading because it (mixed with the election of 2020) made me ugly cry, however I returned it with the intention to maybe try again. I tried again. I still had a hard time with it so I looked up more information about the author thinking if I knew more about her maybe I'd understand the book more. My biggest issue is I come away from this book feeling attacked not educated. My suggestion: read Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi instead. 

Beautiful fiction. Definitely a curl up with a blanket and a cup of chocolate book. I've recommended this to other friends and they all agree, one even saying, "It is definitely one of the most captivating books I've read - ever! Beautiful story! It just captured my heart and I had tears when it ended because I didn't want it to be over." So don't just take my word for it. 

Another WWII era historical fiction but this one was more about what was going on in England during the war. Enjoyable and recommendable. 

This started out as a historical introduction to the Constitution and then discussed the Bill of Rights, Amendments, and then spent much time on the Supreme Court. It was good information. More of a lecture series so it doesn't read like a book.

Yet another WWII era book. This one, like the last, was more about what was going on in London during the war. It was okay. You won't miss much if you pass it by.  

This historical fiction about early / pre revolutionary war America set in the Carolinas. In the middle of the book I wondered if the main character actually existed and did all that the book said she did. Apparently she did! The author includes a section at the end explaining how she wrote the book given the information at hand, what is speculation and what is real. It was really quite good. I'd recommend it. 

Yet - another - WWII historical fiction books. Why do I keep reading them? I guess because occasionally one is really worth while. This, sadly, in my opinion, was not. I liked how it started in Russia, Sibera to be exact, and the main character goes from being a Russian peasant to being in the Russian military. But honestly I think the author tried too hard with too many side stories and too many things to shock the reader and so forth. I liked the Alice Network better but even then she's not my favorite author.  

While I usually enjoy H. W. Brands, this one was hard to get through. I've read more engaging books on both John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. I liked his comparison of the life of the two, finished with his thesis that Brown started the war with his blood and Lincoln finished it with his, but the rest seemed to loose my attention.

Middle grade fiction addressing drug abuse and also friend drama. It's okay. Had some good points about watching for signs around you to understand more of what's going on. 

Addresses the 1860's cholera epidemic in London, how the doctors figured out how the disease was being spread, and how it started the modern sewer systems we have today. Interesting book. Oh, and you're going to want to wash your hands and question your drinking water for a good long time. Just sayin.