Ending Another School Year

We’ve had some very nice “ride with your windows down” kind of weather lately -- maybe even a bit warm for this time of year. We did get some much needed rain last Sunday. My rain gauge tops out at five inches so I have no idea how much we actually got. We needed it and could use more. The corn is growing, the wheat is turning golden, and farmers are busy cutting hay and setting tobacco.

MOTHER'S DAY / MOM'S BIRTHDAY. Last weekend was Mother’s Day and it was also Mom’s birthday. We celebrated by taking dinner to their house both Saturday and Sunday. Then Mom’s Sunday School class celebrated her birthday by bringing them food all last week. This was a big blessing for Mom.

Speaking of moms, one of the cats that we rescued from the corn field behind Aunt Mar’s house last summer has given birth to a litter of four kittens. She moved them up to the house this week so we’ve seen them for the first time. Aunt Mar loves to look out at the cats but we are probably going to have to move them to our house. The risk that one of them will trip Mom is too great. Momma cat totally ignores Mom and shoots into the house every time the door is opened.

END OF SCHOOL. We are approaching the end of school. Just two days left! The kids have been going on field trips and enjoying field day in these last couple of weeks at school. I even got to break away and go with Nate’s class to Chaney’s Dairy Farm near Bowling Green. I know he was really looking forward to having me along and I enjoyed being with him.

Ben had sixth grade orientation last week. They took a field trip to the middle school and he got to see something of what life will be like for him next year. I think he is excited, but we also think he’s a little sad to be ending his time at the elementary school.

We’re also winding down a lot of other activities. We had our final Awana Club meeting on Wednesday. Nate’s last Scout meeting for the year is tomorrow night, though he earned his Bear patch last month. Boy Scouts will wind down for Ben next week. We won’t be bored though. We’re expecting a visit from cousins next weekend and then basketball camp starts.

Also, congratulations to Mac Swann who graduated from Maryville University today.

A MUDDY MESS. Mud is a boy magnet. I have tilled up a little patch of ground next to the shop and planted some tomatoes there. Last Sunday’s rain was just what they needed. Of course, just as we were walking out of the house to leave for Scouts the boys headed for the tomatoes and walked right through the mud. They sank up to their ankles. I was not happy.

I realize I will read this ten years from now and smile as I long for the days my boys were home. I realize I will think of this twenty or so years from now when they are paying for their raising and I am enjoying the moment. I tell myself this because I struggle to find the humor in the situation when I am rushing to leave and having to wait for them to go back in the house for their ratty shoes which are all that’s clean now.

CONCRETE FLOOR LAST? My shop is now complete and I have begun moving some things in there. I say complete in that construction is finished, but I will be doing things to the inside for months to come.

Several people have asked me why in the world the concrete floor was done last so I thought I’d answer that question here. My shop is a pole barn. It started with holes dug at ten foot intervals around the perimeter of the building. Next a set of 4x6 poles were set in the holes. After that some 2x6 stringers were nailed to the poles at three foot intervals. Then the roof trusses were placed and the siding put on.

What’s important here are the bottom stringers that are right at ground level. These not only provide a place to screw in the siding for the walls at the ground, but they double as a permanent form for the concrete. The only thing the concrete guys had to form up was the doorways.

EATING CROW! The mail carriers in White House held a food drive last Saturday. The Boy Scouts participate in this as a service project. Mail carriers don't have a lot of room for extra cargo so the Scouts come in by driving a route to collect the donations so the letter carrier won't have to make multiple trips back to the post office to unload. Ben and I participated and took the route that comes closest to where we live so we happened to know several people who live on that route.

We had a great time together enjoying a little over two hours to talk and cut up as we drove the route. I got a great laugh at Ben's expense when we entered the subdivision where our friends Kelly and Kathy Raglin live. Ben thought he knew which house they live in and seeing no bag of food at their mailbox began to dog them a bit for not donating to the food drive. I just drove down the street a bit and stopped at a mailbox with a bag of canned food hanging on it. As he was getting out to retrieve the bag I said, "By the way, Kelly and Kathy live at this house." Kelly loved it when I told him about Ben's mistake at church the next day.

MEAN DAD AND SISTER. Jenna, Ben and I were sitting together in church today. During the sermon Ben was drawing on the back of an offering envelope with a pen. He must have been playing with the pen near his face because at one point he turned to Jenna and asked if he had ink on his face. She told him yes even though he didn’t. Since he didn’t believe her she turned and whispered to me, “Doesn’t Ben have ink all over his face?” I played along.

Within seconds the poor boy was so antsy he could hardly sit still. He really wanted to slip out to the bathroom, but I wouldn’t let him go. So, with his imagination running wild he began to lick his fingers and rub his face. It wasn’t too long into this before I leaned over and told him there really weren’t any pen marks on his face, then he didn’t believe me and wanted to go to the bathroom to check the mirror for himself.

I know you are thinking Jenna and I should have been struck by lightening for lying in church. We sure couldn’t resist a little fun at his expense even if we were in the middle of church.

GENTLE BEN. Ben may be the most reserved of our three kids, but he does have a very caring side. One evening Vicki walked into the bathroom to do laundry as Ben was taking a shower and caught him writing, “I love Mom,” in the steam on the shower door. She thinks he was going to add “and Dad” to it, but he got embarrassed and wiped it off.

Another time was a morning I need to go into the office early so Vicki had to get the kids off to school by herself. The boys were coming downstairs as her alarm went off and she overheard the following conversation.

Nate asked Ben, “Do you consider me a friend?”

“Yeah.”

“A best friend?”

“Yeah. One I have to live with ... and fight with.”

Joe