Wordless Wednesday (Sweet Summer Finale Edition)

As the second week of school gets underway here in Tallahassee, we say goodbye to summer with the Sweet Summer Finale of the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge.

I suppose I could look at the summer as something that started full of anticipation:

and ended up empty:

but I think it is just the opposite.

As a family, we started the summer with room for growth:

and were given so many flavorful moments, such as:

Turning 15 (Tenley) and 12 (Wayne):

Discovering a whole new country and its incredible people in Guatemala:

And remembering that the people (and animals!) who are right down the road are full of discoveries too:

It hasn't been the easiest of summers as we struggled with Wayne's continued job hunt after a downsizing; we definitely felt exposed as some of our protective shell was bitten away:

But as we say good-bye to summer, I know that we come out of it with memories for which to be grateful and the knowledge that so many people, in real life and in the blogosphere, are in our corner.

To all of you who made the summer fun, bearable, amazing, una gran aventura, and full of the knowledge that we have overflowing blessings, thank you -- you put the delicious finale on the summer of 2011:

 I am linking this Wordless Wednesday post up to the final Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge sponsored by Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud and Alicia of Project Alicia. Thank you, Kristi and Alicia, for the time, heart, and passion you have put into this project. I have loved every minute (except for when I sliced my hand doing the "Refreshing" theme!) and cherished the opportunity to do something so "cool" when it was so blasted "hot" outside!

Mother's Milk/La Leche de Madre (A Let's Reverb Prompt)

The August 2011 "Let's Reverb" prompt is: Describe an unexpected moment, activity, sighting or conversation that touched you during July. I have responded via a vlog:

Featured in the vlog:

The wooden nursing symbol teether is from Little Sapling Toys.

The picture of the Guatemalan woman is from:  Nurturing Across Cultures and the RebozoWay Project (the Nurturing Across Cultures link should be used if you want information).

Thank you to Little Sapling Toys and Nurturing Across Cultures for permission to use these images.

Get the Picture? (A Mama Kat Writing Prompt)

This week, random.org "assigned" me Mama Kat prompt number five: top ten reasons why you're glad you're done with school. Due to the time consuming nature of life, I have had to choose just one reason for this post.

I am glad school is behind me because I will not be in any more...

School Pictures

Do you have any school picture horror stories?

Wordless Wednesday (Not THAT Blue Sky Edition)

I found this week's Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge theme (blue skies) quite challenging. After all, each blogger is working with the same basic material:

Unfortunately, as I alluded to in Sunday's post, my son has spent way too much of this summer looking at someone else's engineered blue sky rather than the real thing:

I attempted a photo session for this theme that incorporated a kite and some of Tallahassee's beautiful blue skies. Unfortunately, mother nature did not get the memo and forgot to send even a whiff of wind (sigh). But Wayne and his friend Hunter still had a good time, and it was awesome to see them enjoying a blue sky that wasn't trapped behind a screen and manipulated with a joystick:

(Pictures taken at Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park)

I am linking this Wordless Wednesday post up to the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge sponsored by Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud and Alicia of Project Alicia. This week's theme is "blue skies"! Next week's theme is "sweet summer finale" (and there are prizes!!).

Breakfast on the Track - Solo

Every year, Gulf Winds Track Club has a "Breakfast on the Track" (BOT) mile run in mid-August. On the plus side for my experience yesterday (8/20/11), my best time in the past six years that I have been running the event (10:49:95). On the minus side, the fact that my "favorite young runner" (my 12 year old son) was not with me because I didn't even ask him if he wanted to come. Here is a picture from last year.

Breakfast on the Track 2010

There was one other BOT when I was alone, but that was because Wayne Kevin was participating in a kids' triathlon, not asleep at home on the couch.

At a Kids' Triathlon

As I have watched his exercise activity decline over the past year and a half, I have grown increasingly sad. As I told my friend Leisa,

"I am a little heartbroken about this but Wayne has hit that intersection where any natural ability to hang with sports has been outweighed (pun sort of intended!) by his weight gain and lack of training. For so many years he participated in everything, including kids tris, and although he was never really a "contender," he enjoyed himself. Now he gets so short of breath he really can hardly complete a mile and had to drop out of the kids' tri in May in the middle of the swimming portion. We thought it was exercise induced asthma but it's really mainly being out of shape and not training. I haven't been a drill sergeant about it b/c a) I am so slammed working as much freelance as I can due to economic issues and b) I am concentrating on my own running goals -- he has to want to do this himself - I won't handle him with kid gloves anymore. Although he did do RealRyde [spinning] with me some this summer and that was good."

 

 

An Easier Year (2005 maybe?)

Photo Credit: Tallahassee Democrat

Wayne Kevin is the barefoot runner

 

I still recall the embarrassment of the President's Physical Fitness assessments of my elementary school years -- lumbering through the "dash," attempting (and completely failing to do) chin-ups, and some other athletic "tests" that I didn't remotely succeed at. That is why it was such a relief when my daughter, Tenley, succeeded at many of the the active endeavors (gymnastics, cheerleading, dance) she tried and when Wayne enthusiastically embraced so many athletic activities -- tennis, running, kids' triathlons, one season of Pop Warner football, two seasons of  flag football, and recreational gymnastics. During summer of 2010, the "shortness of breath" episodes started kicking in, and the pediatrician prescribed an inhaler. That same pediatrician, when Wayne Kevin had his physical this year and listened to my description of the strenuously difficult time Wayne had with his most recent mile, and the DNF during the swimming portion of the kids' triathlon, introduced the idea that this was not asthma, it was ...... out-of-shapeness (thorough diagnostic representation on my part, right?). In a kid who did not train between events, how could I argue?

 

 

Springtime Tallahassee Mile 2009

 

I can't make him train. I am responsible to a degree for a summer spent primarily in front of a video screen while I was freelancing at night instead of making him walk a mile or even a yard ... of course he does have two parents but between his dad and me, neither of us succeeded (much) in reinforcing any type of physical activity.

 

And although I am ecstatic to be moving closer to my goal of running a 5K in under 30 minutes, I am bereft at seeing the road to physical fitness growing longer and rougher for my son.

 

When Leisa responded to my message, she said this:

 

"At some point we can't push and have to focus on ourselves. You keep getting to your goal and hopefully he will come around. The more active he sees you hopefully it will make him turn another corner sooner rather than later!"

 

Have you dealt with a child (or, heck, with yourself) losing motivation and sliding backwards? Any tips?

 

 

The One (A Mama Kat Writing Prompt)

This week, random.org handed me Mama Kat writing prompt number one: Write a short story prompted by your favorite song. I'm kind of glad.

The One

Each item in the shop had the aura of “vintage.” He picked up a ring whose heart-shaped stone reminded him of the mood rings that had been popular in the mid-70’s and still surfaced occasionally as a fad among the kids he taught drama to.

The shop owner said the ring had arrived as part of a “catch-all” basket full of costume jewelry that had not sold at a recent estate sale. It wasn’t worth anything monetarily, but something about it spoke to him.

When he showed the ring to his granddaughter later that day, she slipped it on, half as a joke.

“Ha ha – I am going out with Jake tonight – maybe I’ll tell him my 'other boyfriend' gave it to me to throw would-be suitors off track,” laughed Tierney.

“Where did you learn such an old-fashioned word as ‘suitors’?” asked Jed.

“I am old-fashioned that way. I still believe in ‘the one,’” said Tierney.

“You’ll find him. You’ll know.”

As Tierney and Jake snuggled on the porch swing later that evening, he mused out loud about how their lives would change when college started in the fall. “We’ll see each other at Thanksgiving break – that’s not so far off.”

Tierney joked, “I wonder if you’ll even be returning my calls once you get sucked into campus life,” and mentally started looking ahead to the long run she and her running partner Dave had planned on Saturday. These long runs were the highlight of her weekends, and an important part of her training regimen.

When Saturday arrived, she and Dave eased into a rhythm around mile three, waving at the other runners fitting in their mileage. “I can’t wait to run cross country at Eastern Carolina,” he mused.

As Tierney considered the distance between Boise and Eastern Carolina, she realized that words were leaving her mouth way ahead of any commands her brain’s thought/traffic control might intend. “So will you be here for Thanksgiving?”

“Probably not,” said Dave. “I think Jocelyn plans to come out and see me,” he mused as he offered Tierney a hand to climb a ridged area on the trail that had gotten slippery with the recent rain. As he squeezed her hand, she realized that the ring her grandfather had shown her was still there, digging in as he tightened his grip. She also realized that she liked the way her hand fit in his.

Tierney’s pulse rate did something hinky, something completely unrelated to the change in the trail’s elevation. Why on earth would her heart choose now to skip one beat?

As she arrived home, cooled down, rehydrated and began her shower, Tierney glanced again at the silly ring that her grandfather had bought a few days prior.

A ring with a history she would never know. One heart that may have represented unspoken connections between couples before she was born.

She had held hands with Jake a hundred times. Only once with Dave.

In one clasp, her heart had returned a call.

A call from Dave.

This is the song behind the story.

Wordless Wednesday ("Help"ful Friends Edition)

I love movies, but I don't actually see many of them, especially within two days of opening night. When my coworker and friend, Beth, said, "Let's go to The Help," I started to give my usual "too busy/too much to do/don't want to spend the money" response but something stopped me .... we had read the book together in book club and had all looked forward to the movie .... and the world was not going to come to a screeching halt if I took a couple hours out of my Friday night to watch a film.

The theatre was packed, and I ended up with my friends (and friends of friends) to my left and a guy named Tony and his wife to my right. I recruited Tony to take our picture; he delegated to his wife. On the second try we ended up with this:

(Photo Credit: Tony's Wife)

But I really think this "outtake" most effectively captured the spirit of a "fun with friends" night at the movies:

 

(Photo Credit: Tony's Wife)

It was a big "help" to my spirits to have a night of "fun with friends"!

I am linking this Wordless Wednesday post up to the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge sponsored by Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud and Alicia of Project Alicia. This week's theme is "fun with friends"! Next week's theme is "blue skies."