We officially have a blue devil in the house!

 

After YEARS of work -- since 4 year old tee-ball.... to "playing up" as a 13 year old in the Senior League (on a 15-18 y.o. team)... Mercer made the JV team at the high school! 

They had a tough week or so of conditioning before try-outs and then fielding one day / he pitched another day of tryouts.  He said he did well.  I'd say so! 

He will be taking the bus over from the middle school every day.... EVERY DAY.... (eek!) to come practice.  So, in addition to him getting up and out the door by 6:30 in the morning, he has to have all of his baseball stuff to take with him -- carry around the halls each day -- and then ride the bus over to the high school with all of his school stuff (to keep up with!) and change / join the practice in session.  Whew.  It's going to be a lot! 

We were reading the player packet though... they will feed the boys on game-days that are Monday through Friday and then bus them to wherever they need to go!  We would have to drive over to the visiting school... but they would bring him back to the school on the bus and we'd have to pick him up there.  

From our understanding, the 8th graders may not get a lot of play-time.  But - it's still a good experience for them.  There are several people that we/he knows from the Little League where he was playing for all those years.  There are others that I know as students / former students.  As it turns out - there are 3 JV players that live on our street!  We've already cashed in on a "can you bring my son home" exchange / reciprocated!  

The boys had picture day today.  The JV team's uniforms haven't come in yet... so they were possibly wearing the Varsity team's home or away jerseys?  (The varsity team chose to be photographed in a cream-colored throw-back style jersey.)

But - I snapped a quick photo... his FIRST in "Marietta blue." 

It will be an interesting year!!

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We "celebrated" Saturday night by taking him out to dinner - he chose hibachi.  

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On a completely different note.... look what happened at school this week!! 

I taught science at my previous couple of schools... so over the years, I've collected / keep / display some science-y things in my room. When Isabella & I were raising the butterflies earlier this fall, everything was "done" in early October.

The chrysalises that did not do anything... I took to school to add to the display. I put them at the back of my classroom on a ledge with a bunch of other stuff that's already there. I assumed they did not survive -- they would not emerge.

To OUR surprise one day in class this week - a 10th grade boy says nervously "um, Ms. Groves.... there's a big bug in the window sill." I was a little nervous - b/c although I'm fascinated by bugs & nature - I don't love BIG bugs. I was so relieved to see that it was a PIPEVINE SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY!

Y'all.... this thing.... was "hibernating" for OVER 3 MONTHS. (The typical time inside of a chrysalis is 10 - 14 days 'til they emerge.)

*** NATURE IS FASCINATING ! ***

I caught it in the window sill in a dollar-store pencil tray w/ holes. And made a "make-shift" cage 'til bringing home and putting back into the butterfly net that we put away 3 months ago!

Unfortunately, this guy (or gal) will not survive if we put outside in 30+ degree temps of January. So, he/she/it is here at our house...nectaring on fruit slices 'til his time with us is done. Until then, we'll nurture and enjoy this beautiful creature.

(Adult Lifespan of Pipevine Swallowtail: 6 - 14 days)

Short holiday weekend

Tomorrow is MLK Jr day.  

We have the day off.  But - even if we didn't... we'd probably get the day off due to weather.

Earlier in the week, there were predictions of significant snow and accumulation.... but as the weekend drew nearer, we were just deemed with rain and some snowy rain mix.  The rain delivered.  We got a ton!  The ground is soggy and wet.  But - it stopped.  Then it started to snow... and snow... and snow... for hours.  But, nothing really stuck except in the bushes and on cars.

Isabella and I (then hip-hop joined us later) went out to check it out... make a couple of snowballs to throw at each other and at least play in the wet stuff as much as we could. 

Here are the pumpkins in our back yard "compost corner" that have not done a thing!   looks kind of cool with the snow on them.

Hip-Hop

And - as I was carrying in some firewood... I noticed a VISIBLE six-sided snowflake!  I've loved the science and math behind snowflakes, hexagons, etc for a number of years.... and to actually see one - this one MUST have been giant to have seen it with my own eyes -- although in real life (not zoomed in on my camera) it was only about 1/4" across.  Usually you have a super-zoom or a microscope to see the hexagonal formation!  

(All snowflakes contain six sides or points owing to the way in which they form. The molecules in ice crystals join to one another in a hexagonal structure, an arrangement which allows water molecules – each with one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms – to form together in the most efficient way.)

(I feel lucky to have seen this -- like finding a 4-leaf clover kind of lucky.  ha!)

From the same science blog:  perfectly symmetric, six-sided snowflakes, while beautiful, are exceedingly rare – perhaps one-in-a-thousand at the most

If you look closely at our front porch -- you can see our old (small white) refrigerator on the front porch behind the column!

Todd went to work today (the snow did not stick to the roads so he's OK).  He couldn't go in yesterday because we were tending to changing out the refrigerator in our kitchen.  It was a HUGE task!  Last weekend, we worked on moving some things around in the utility closet / cleaning out a bit.  We were going to move our kitchen refrigerator down there... and move in a new one that we bought on New Year's day into the kitchen in its place.  (The original one in our kitchen was 20 years old - purchased on my 30th birthday -- which still works great but was showing a bit of wear and the ice maker hasn't worked for a number of years)    We had been eating very creative meals since New Year's - trying to clean out the fridge and freezer.  Yesterday, we had coolers and cooler bags inside all over the entire kitchen + outside all over the front porch (the temps were in the low-40s so it was like "refrigerator" weather outside / kept the food cool.  We had to take the refrigerator doors off + the utility room door off the hinges to get our old refrigerator in + remove shelves.  It is seriously wedged in there!!  But - wow - what a difference it makes to have SPACE in the fridge!!

I took Mercer to his basketball game while Todd reassembled the old refrigerator and utility room door.  When we came home from his game - still no 'fridge... and we were getting nervous because it was going to be dark... and they were several hours late!  (Todd had to cut the water at the street b/c the water line under the fridge wouldn't cut all the way off.)  We needed water for the kitchen sink -- but also for the bathrooms!!  

The guys did arrive.  It was dark.  They came in, looked around and said that the 'fridge wouldn't fit!!  But - we had to take the back door off the hinges, move furniture out of the back hall and the room behind the kitchen... and come in a different way.  

It was still a tight fit -- a piece of moulding that was sticking out 1/4" from the wall got ripped off (thankfully did not damage the stainless steel... whew!) but these two (not big) men got this 450 lb monster of a 'fridge into the kitchen, set up, Todd turned on the water.. and everything worked!    It took awhile for the temperatures to get to where they needed to be so we could empty the coolers and cooler bags... but before we went to bed - we had our kitchen pretty much back to normal.  Yay!  I hope we don't have to do this again for AT LEAST another 20 years!!  

It's called a french door style refrigerator with 2 drawers.  The top drawer is a refrigerator drawer.  The bottom drawer is the freezer and has a piece that slides to create a separate compartment in the freezer part.  I like the back-lighting on the interior.  Our kitchen got an major upgrade with this new appliance.

There is something sad to report: the young man who was working on our bathroom last summer / fall passed away just after New Year's.  I'm not sure what happened.  He did not finish our project -- so that he could go to rehab (his 2nd time according to his mom).  She told us that after rehab he was going to move to South Dakota where they had family and start over.  It sounds like (according to the eulogy) that he moved to Minnesota instead and was working with a group of people who were clean... and then he got sick.  His mom drove to Minnesota to pick him up around New Year's and brought him home where he died several days later.  I'm not sure what happened ultimately.  

We - of course - were not happy that he was not able to finish the bathroom, but clearly did not wish him any ill-will to him -- he was a really really nice guy overall.  We were saddened to hear about his passing.  I know his mother and I feel for her.  His sister gave a really heart-wrenching speech at his funeral.  I also know his little brother - he was one of my students at the PBL school I worked at.  He was a talented cello player as well.  What a tragedy.

As mentioned, we "released" someone to work on the bathroom again - redoing some of the tilework that was done previously and finishing the bathroom project 100%.  Then, we're supposed to get the floors in the room behind the kitchen done as well -- which started all of this renovation stuff (damage to the floors which we thought was due to a roof leak so we replaced the roof... etc!)  I sincerely cannot wait until it is complete!  Our house has been in disarray / something noticeably wrong with it since 2 summers ago!  Our bedroom has been used as a construction zone since last summer.  Todd picked up more tile earlier this week... almost all of our floor space is covered with tile / spread around!  Tuesday the new contractor is supposed to start.  (I suppose this depends on the condition of the roads.)

Isabella and I made tie-dye shirts and socks last weekend.  Here she is sporting one of her shirts.   

Mercer was supposed to have his high school baseball tryouts on MLK Jr day, but it's been cancelled.  There's nothing else to report - but if we do something interesting - I'll update the blog.  

warm thoughts......

Hot cocoa after playing outside!

Quick update to ring in the new year

Not a great statistic, but... the United States hit an all-time high record of 2.2 million positive Covid cases in the country in 1 week. Thankfully the latest variant, Omnicron (which has a rapid transmission causing the surge at the end of the year) is not as deadly.  There is less hospitalization from this variant -- about half the hospitalization rate than was reported with Delta variant.  

The milestones at the end of the year for Covid:  5.4 million have passed world-wide from this disease.... including over 824,000 in the US. 

I'll get this out of the way:  beloved actress Betty White died on New Year's Eve at the age of 99.  She would have been 100 in mid-January.  I honestly thought she would ALWAYS be around... she seemed to keep going and going and going (like the Energizer bunny)!  

There have been a lot of images of her with dark hair published this last week from her early time in acting.  Didn't recognize her like that but this is the Betty my generation remembers.  (Golden Girls, skits on SNL and irreverent TV commercials). She was a legend!

And how the year officially ended here in our household:

Our new year's celebration was a bit of a dud... it started with a TORNADO warning!  In December!  It was caused by a low-pressure super-cell.... something that is seen in the plains and has not been documented in Georgia since 2006.  In the end, it was fine but the whole thing was so strange.  

We made lettuce wraps and egg rolls for a twist on a unique NYE dinner.  Isabella wasn't feeling well and slept through dinner, but she was awake for ringing in the actual new year.  (ish)

I feel like 2020 and 2021 were "survival."  I want 2022 to be Intentional.  Nurturing.  Enjoyable.  And - definitely much much more self care!

I think that we may be able to move past some hurdles and some challenges... and hopefully have a positive year ahead.  Mercer had a chapter close in 2021 (his little-league baseball run ended... he moved into a different age group).  He also has a spark of interest in one of his classmates -- it's so sweet and innocent... really cute.   

Isabella has possibly ended her stint with little-league as well - as she moved up to "kid pitch" and did not enjoy it.  But - she started (therapeutic) horse riding in 2021.  She's meeting with a therapist on a consistent basis (not over zoom like before). She also started piano lessons in December.  Hoping she can find her thing.  

I had a chapter close as well - finishing up the teaching certification program in May of 2021.  The school year is off to a better start than my 1st year (doing virtual), but has still had some challenges.  I am hopeful that I'll be able to continue to grow in my new position and add my flair.  (I have about 8-10 students who are voluntarily staying after school to learn more about sustainability and LEED.  I have one student who is also interested in biomimicry... I am sooo excited to nurture this interest and grow in this area too!  It feels like this year is more dynamic than last year was -- and we're only 1/2 way through it at this point... we're about to enter "competition" season with that cool design project we did last year hybrid.)  So - there's promise professionally as well.  (Again - so grateful that I changed jobs... have I mentioned that in the past blog post or two??!!) 

Todd's small firm is staying busy.  They're dabbling in a new building type to help diversify and hopefully do well in the ebbs-and-flow of the economy.  Hopefully that pans out in the end and is a good business model!

So, we ate a traditional New Year's Day southern meal to hopefully bring about prosperity and wealth.  Beans and greens are healthy too, right?  

We finally played games (that we didn't get to play on New Year's Eve) -- our new FAMILY favorite that even the 13 year old likes:  Uno Flip.  We bought some new appliances.  We released a contractor to finish the work on our hose that the previous contractor didn't finish. 

We did science experiments.  And we binged-watched Lego Master's TV show series.

The new year seems to be off to a good start.

From the talented poet Amanda Gorman

"New Day's Lyric" (per interview with ABC) was written to celebrate the new year and honor the hurt and the humanity of the last one.

May this be the day

We come together.

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,

Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren't ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.

*

This hope is our door, our portal.

Even if we never get back to normal,

Someday we can venture beyond it,

To leave the known and take the first steps.

So let us not return to what was normal,

But reach toward what is next.

*

What was cursed, we will cure.

What was plagued, we will prove pure.

Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,

Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,

Where we weren't aware, we're now awake;

Those moments we missed

Are now these moments we make,

The moments we meet,

And our hearts, once all together beaten,

Now all together beat.

*

Come, look up with kindness yet,

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,

But to take on tomorrow.

*

We heed this old spirit,

In a new day's lyric,

In our hearts, we hear it:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we've fought

Need not be forgot nor for none.

It defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.

And - from the Boston Globe:

Gorman offered an alliterative response when asked what inspired “New Day's Lyric,” telling the AP that she “wanted to write a lyric to honor the hardships, hurt, hope and healing of 2021 while also harkening the potential of 2022.”

“This is such a unique New Year’s Day, because even as we toast our glasses to the future, we still have our heads bowed for what has been lost," she wrote. "I think one of the most important things the new year reminds us is of that old adage: This too shall pass. You can’t relive the same day twice — meaning every dawn is a new one, and every year an opportunity to step into the light.”