Caroline Returns Home

Caroline comes home today.  Julie has left for Charlotte to pick her up at the airport there (and catch a little shopping with Leah in the meantime).  Caroline has been visiting her Florida relatives.  Not sure what all they've done, other than a short excursion down the Keys to snorkle.

It seems like a long time since we've all been together at home.  Between this trip, church camp (twice for Caroline), and the Texas trip, it's been a month or so since we had a full house for a full week.  (That is, if you count the house full when Caroline is most frequently off doing teenager things, doing them anywhere but home.)

Anyway, i look forward to her return.

Sweet Sixteen

Caroline turned 16 this month.  It's a great cause for celebration for a wonderful girl, a precious daughter.  And great cause for fear & trembling, and much prayer, for her dad.  For with this milestone comes car dating and a driver's license (actually, that won't come for a couple of months), and i'm not sure which is scarier.

For her birthday, Caroline received a notebook that her mom compiled, filled with notes of advice and encouragement and love from key people in her life.  Siblings, aunts, cousins, grandparents, friends, teachers, parents.  Here's an excerpt from my letter to Caroline...

When i met your mom, it didn't take long for God to send a lightning bolt through my heart, searing the truth that we could love each other for a lifetime or more.  That the deal included you made it the bargain of a lifetime.  Here was this incredible 2-year-old girl -- spirited, fun, bright, engaging, bold, loving, adorable, and just so very... alive!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen, Caroline!  I love you.

First Plane Trip

Emily & Jackson got to take their very first plan trips this summer.  I escorted them to Texas to visit their grandparents.  Jackson was especially excited, but both were bouncing off the walls on departure day, from the natural stimulant of adventure.  We had an early evening non-stop from GSO to DFW one Thursday in July.  Julie drove us to the airport, and then i navigated them through the traveler's ropes of baggage check in, boarding passes, security checkpoints, boarding by zones, row numbers, overhead and under-seat compartments, tray tables, seat belts, drink carts, long waits to use the restroom, how to flush in said restroom, and baggage claim. 

Jackson was thrilled with the acceleration g-forces upon takeoff.  Emily wanted to enjoy it, but couldn't decide if she should be nervous and worried instead.  Our only trouble on the flight itself was a bit of bickering about whether Emily's window would be open or shut, and the aforementioned bathroom waiting. 

I tried to take Jackson as soon as i saw the flight attendants rummaging around with the carts, but the rear was blocked by a drink cart and we were suggested to try the first-class restroom.  There, it too was blocked by a cart and also said it was occupied, so i ahem-ed the guy up there and asked if there was a 2nd one up-front.  He met me wide-eyed, alarmed, and barked that i wasn't supposed to be up here.  My first thought was that this was some silly class warfare thing, the coach intruder being shooed away.  I stepped to the side to show that Jackson was with me, and that he needed to go bad.  He repeated, still with urgency, that i couldn't be there, and should return to my seat.  I said that his colleagues had sent me up here because the back was blocked.  That's when he finally revealed that i was unwelcome not because i was coach-scum, but because he had the cockpit door open, apparently serving drinks to the pilots.  That certainly was a better explanation for his alarm than what i had thought the problem was, so we dutifully went back to sit down.  The crew guy later came back to apologize, not with an apology per se, but with a fuller explanation and a chummy pat on the shoulder.  It's all good.

The kids behaved really well on the plane.  In part because i promised that they could erase their 15 minute time-out to be enforced once they got to Poetry, as long as they were good on the plane.  Quite the ingenious leverage, if i must say, although i admit it wasn't planned that way.

My brother Marty picked us up at DFW, accompanied by his two oldest daughters.  That was a nice treat.

P.S.  For the return flight, the kids turned into grizzled travel veterans.  Jackson had already been promised the window seat, but Emily asked if she could have the aisle, leaving ol' dad in the middle.  They both snoozed, so i had a little precious head pressed against each shoulder.

WIRN: July 2007

What I'm Reading Now

Summerland - Michael Chabon.  This noted novelist takes a turn with teen-level fiction, with a treasure of a tale about baseball and a whole new world of imaginary creatures.  It's The Sandlot meets Harry Potter.

River of Doubt - recounts the adventure of Theodore Roosevelt, post-White House, and an entourage of naturalists on a trek in deepest South America.

String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont - stumbled across this in the local library (i'm shocked it was on Amazon, though that provides an excellent example of the "long tail", another book i recently read)

Let Us Pray

There is a raging controversy right now here in our county.  For probably ever, the county commissioner board has opened its meetings with a short prayer.  I'd bet that (not that) long ago, one of the commissioners led the prayer, but now the board invites local ministers to give the invocation.  The controversy ignited when the ACLU threatened a lawsuit unless the board ceased the current practice, claiming that the Supreme Court has ruled it un-constitutional to have "sectarian prayer" in government meetings.  Their view is based on a flawed understanding of what "establishment of religion" means.

So far, the board has stood its ground, enlisting the legal support of a group similar to the ACLU, though with pretty-much opposite views on the constitutional interpretations of the religious freedom clause.  The local paper's letters to the editor have seen the usual collection of cranks on all sides weigh in.  Here's my take...

For anyone to suggest that there is a definitive answer on something like this really hasn't been paying attention to the mess that SCOTUS has made of the 1st amendment.  Going at least as far back as the nutty Lemon tests, the court has swayed in the wind on religious freedom, such that no one can really say with ACLU-like confidence that precedent is so obvious.  It is most dismaying, then, to see the county attorneys cave and say they won't defend the county if it goes to trial (wouldn't that be a fireable offense where you work?).  In this situation, at worst, it's an open question, particularly with a fresh court.

But let's consider a common sense understanding of religious freedom in the context of publicly offered prayers.  The solution proffered by the agitators is the least likely to be the constitutional one.  They demand that prayers not invoke the name of a deity.  That strikes a reasonable man as a case of the government dictating the content of a prayer.  Surely that is the most objectionable possible outcome for a free people.  I'd rather see no prayer at all than a dictated-content prayer.  A moment of silence perhaps.  The last thing we need is the government telling us how & when & where we can pray.

Besides the coercion angle, there really is no such thing as a "non-sectarian" prayer anyway.  There might be a mealy prayer, a meaningless set of nice & inoffensive phrases, offered to this newly created "government god", the Anonymous God of the Greeks that Paul countered in Acts 17.  Here in America, some 2 millennia later, that god is making a comeback, apparently.

 

An Emily Acrostic

Emily created this.  I'm guessing she did it school, because i found it laminated.

Explores places

Minds her Mom

Is very fun

Likes candy

Yawns sometimes

Then there is a P.S. of "sometimes" with an arrow pointing to the 2nd entry.

RiverRun Film Festival

Winston-Salem and our local North Carolina School for the Arts host a growing-in-stature regional film festival called RiverRun.  This was the first year (of 5) where i've been able to attend any of the screenings, and i was impressed.

First, the festival marked the first time, in my 7+ years here in Winston-Salem, that i've stepped foot on the NCSA campus.  It's very nice, and quite the hidden gem in the community. 

Over the 3 days, ending yesterday, i caught a few full-length features and documentaries, two collections of short films, and a Saturday-morning block of animated cartoons for the whole family.  I wanted to see more, but got blasted with a bad headache on Saturday afternoon.  Plus, the weather has been gorgeous around here, so you don't really want to spend too much time in a theater.

If i knew how to make a bulleted list, i would do so right here, to list the movies i saw, not including the shorts.

1.  Ten Canoes - tall tales from Australian aboriginal tribe called the Yolngu

2.  The Rape of Europa - documentary about the Nazis', primarily Hitler and Goering, plunder of European art, and the effort, in part from the US military, to recapture and restore the treasures.  While ancillary to the main topic, i was also intrigued to go learn more about the Siege of Leningrad and the battles for Montecassino.  This won the audience prize for best documentary at the festival, though i voted for this next one...

3. In the Shadow of the Moon - documentary about America's race to the moon, featuring extensive interviews with the Apollo astronauts, and never-before-seen footage of the moon voyages.

4. Son of Man - a nearly faithful retelling of the Gospel story, though set in modern-day Africa.  This was my favorite "narrative" film.

5. The Trials of Darryl Hunt - documentary about a notorious Winston-Salem case that saw a young black man accused, convicted, and jailed for nearly 2 decades for a brutal rape/murder of a young white woman, a copy editor for the local newspaper, back in 1984.  This powerful film tracks the legal and community efforts to free Mr. Hunt, who was ultimately exonerated of the crime.  This should be required viewing locally.  It premieres on HBO this Thursday.

P.S.  On Friday night, Julie & i attended a "Creative Chaos" party for the festival, complete with funky neon-colored hats, glow stick necklaces, and Cirque de Soleil type entertainment.  We didn't know a soul there (well, except for that one guy out of nowhere that Julie gave a big hug to), and so wondered how much fun it would be.  But we soon fell into conversation with the Thompsons.  He is in publishing in NY, specializing in finance and business books, and shuttles back and forth to Winston.  She is the marketing director for the NCSA.  We ended up chatting for more than an hour, and had a great time.

My Mommy-less Weekend with a Virus-y Toddler

Last weekend, Julie flew to Kansas to attend her cousin's wedding.  So i got to be Mr. Mom for 3 days, starting that Friday morning.  Piece of cake.  No problem.  A rotavirus had other ideas.

There was absolutely no sign of David being sick that morning.  But soon after i got home from taking the older kids to school, David threw up.  I didn't think much of it.  I mean, that's what little children do.  Of course, i was thinking more of a little baby - they puke all the time - and should probably have been a bit more alarmed.  Instead, i just cleaned up the kitchen floor, changed his shirt (i started to type "onesie" but couldn't leave it that way), and went on with the day. 

Julie had left me a short page of instructions, and one tip said to make sure David gets at least 3 cups of milk daily.  OK, let's get that started, since he's thirsty.  One bottle of milk coming up.  And did it ever come up!  All over our big leather recliner, while David took his mid-day nap.  Down in the cracks and creases.  Nice.  It's on now.  Me against whatever bug has invaded my little guy's body.

I should mention, i suppose, if it's not too selfish, that i was suffering from a severe sinus headache myself.  A sick kid and a sick sole-parent is not a good combination.  It was a wonder to me, though, to note how the headache seemed to disappear whenever duty called.  (Speaking of which, David also kicked in with frequent bursts of diarreah.  We've got it coming out of both ends, and i'm not sure which treasure smelled the worst.)  And then the headache would suddenly reappear as soon as it was over and i could (theoretically) relax.

By the time Julie checked in from the Atlanta airport, David had thrown up 3 or 4 times, and had dripped diarreah across the kitchen floor.  When i gave the report, she didn't believe me, thought i was messing with her.  Combined with her missing two flights out of Atlanta, and the specter of flying into a big thunderstorm in Wichita, i thought maybe she'd see the signs and come home.  Selfishly, of course.

The kids soon came home from school (but not before David puked in the car seat while we were in the car pickup line), and Caroline proved to be a tremendous help.  She held David a good while, giving me a much-needed rest.  He slept a lot, and couldn't / wouldn't eat much, and so he grew lethargic.  We made sure he didn't get dehydrated, an effort confirmed by his frequent wet tears, with lots of gatorade.

On Saturday, there was fortunately no vomiting, but we did have a rise in fever.  So i gave David a dose of children's Motrin, and that helped.  His diet was still mostly gatorade, a cracker here and there.  Mostly, Caroline & i felt like we were just hanging on, trying to make it through the 2nd of 3 days.  But things were looking up, especially once my headache broke Saturday night.

But Sunday we were back to the puking.  David would alternate between lethargy and bursts of energy and sunshine.  Meanwhile, we all waited for mom to fly home.  She said she would try to catch an earlier flight, but didn't.  And then they were long-delayed in Atlanta again, waiting for storms to clear here in the Triad (we actually all gathered in the basement in the late afternoon, after a nearby tornado warning).  And then Leah's luggage didn't arrive, and they had to wait for the next flight for it.  And then they had to stop for gas, and got lost in Greensboro.  By the time they got here, everyone was already in bed, and David was little better than he had been all weekend.

The final tally for our 3-day ordeal was somewhere around 30 diapers, one full packet of wipes, 3 crib bedspreads, 5 kid t-shirts, a dozen or so kitchen towels, a tube of diaper rash ointment, and a full roll of paper towels.

My dad asked me later what i'd learned.  I told him i didn't have the mental energy during it all to come up with any grand themes.  It wasn't a pure object lesson in being the stay-at-home-parent, because the kids aren't normally taken with a rotavirus.  But i did think about the plight of the single-parent, because there were plenty of moments where i just wanted somebody, anybody to come help me.

P.S.  As i touched on, Caroline was a great help.  I was enormously impressed with her.

More on Mike Huckabee

I'm mystified why Mike Huckabee isn't getting more press in his quest for the 2008 presidential nomination.  For anyone interested in learning more, he's set up a series of videos on Youtube outlining his views.  Pretty much standard fare for a conservative Republican, but if you think like me, you should find plenty to like.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=explorehuckabee

I also liked his series of 4 videos about his decade as governor of Arkansas.  This first one, linked below, covers the interesting story of his on-again, off-again inauguration day.  You can find the other links from this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FazJu0vYs6g

The Bike Trail to Damascus

Due to two trips that Caroline had bracketing the Spring Break weekends (one to Sea Camp for school, and another to visit Harding University), we couldn't get away to the beach or anywhere like that this year.  So, instead, we took a day trip up to Damascus, Virginia, near where that state borders both Tennessee & North Carolina, for a family adventure on the Virginia Creeper Trail.

The VCT is a bike trail, built on a former railbed for a train called the Virginia Creeper.  If you do the route we did, the trail is 17 miles long, mostly downhill.  We used the outfitter in the link above, and they hooked us up with 3 adult bikes, one of which pulled a baby buggy for David, and another which had a tag-a-long attached for Jackson.  Emily brought her own bike.  They haul you up the mountain in an aging van, along quite a winding road for more than a half-hour.

The key word in that description above is "mostly".  While the first few miles of the trail have a nice downhill grade - almost too steep, imo - the last 3 miles are flat.  So, for the first half of the trek, i'd say Emily had the most fun, and David the least.  David didn't know what to think about riding in that buggy with the wind whipping in his face.  Plus, he needed his nap.  He did settle in by the end, though.

But by the 2nd half of the trail, i'd say Jackson had the most fun, and Emily the least.  Jackson said it was the most fun thing he's ever done, "more fun than the Gamecube".  Which is saying quite a lot, if you know his gaming habits of late.  For Emily, i kept warning her to take it easy and not pedal unless she had to, but she was enjoying it too much and got worn out. 

But i didn't know this part about Emily until later.  Caroline (pulling David) and i (pulling Jackson) pulled out ahead of Julie and Emily with about 5 miles to go.  We just figured that they were close behind, because no one had really gotten far away from the pack the whole time.  Jackson & i stopped a couple of times, as much to rest as to wait up for the stragglers.  Since we were by then close to the finish, we went on to the outfitters and turned in our bikes, and waited for Julie & Emily.  When they didn't show up for a few minutes, i decided to load into the Suburban, and drive back along the trail to look for them.  Sure enough, we found them walking their bikes, Emily in miserable tears and clutching her side.  I carried her & her bike to the car, while Julie finished the trail.  I think, though, once the agony wore off, that Emily actually had net-good memories of the adventure.

I'd recommend this day-trip to folks in the area.  It's a beautiful, and mostly relaxing, ride along a mountain stream.  It can get a bit crowded, and you have to watch out for careening teenagers.  And you may want to be cautious if you have a 9-year-old princess like we do.  Based on this experience, i'd say 10 for girls, and age 9 for boys, before letting them go on their own. 

The tag-a-long was great for Jackson.  Once he got the hang of it, he had a blast.  I think it really built his confidence for balancing on a bike.  He pedaled a lot, even though he didn't have to at all.  It's more work for dad, though, as it was tough to balance (maybe we didn't have the thing tightly secured).  And you can't go slow with it, like you can a regular one-person bike.  So we either had to careen downward ourselves, pedal hard on the flatlands, or stop altogether.  It wore me out.

P.S.  Another funny line from Jackson... When Julie pushed out ahead of the crew one time, Jackson marveled, "how does she go so fast?  She's just a mom!"