Lemme tell ya 'bout Freddie.

Freddie's saving up for a Paw Patrol watch. It's a special kind with Marshall on the cover and digital  nimations that make it seem, I think, like the user is interfacing with Ryder himself. For those of you without personal knowledge of "Paw Patrol," I know this seems like complete Greek, but trust me - it makes PERFECT sense to Freddie. 

Anyway, he came across this must-have arm candy at Wal-Mart earlier this week. I told him, as I always do, "Perfect! You can ask for that for your birthday or Christmas." That pretty much always works, but this time, he said he wanted it sooner. He didn't want to wait until then. I told him he'd have to save his money - and that, maybe, his daddy would have some jobs he could do around the office to bring in some coin. This was a VERY exciting prospect for him.

Jeremy decided instead to have both boys - Jones decided to save for a Chase (again, Paw Patrol) action figure (again, first seen this week at Wal-Mart) - help him pull the MANY weeds in our yard (related: on Monday, Freddie walked outside and said, "Mama! It looks like we're growing a garden!" Leave it to Freddie to look on the bright side of things). They started last nite and worked for about an hour before bed; they did the same tonite. 

All that to say, Freddie is COMMITTED to earning this watch (which, I swear, he will wear exactly twice before forgetting it even existed). The boys and I headed to Greenville today. Before we left, Freddie pulled a quarter out of his treasure box. I told him, "Buddy, I thought you were saving your money to buy that watch!" I think he thought he could buy it with that quarter, but for whatever reason, he took it with us as we went on our merry way.

I asked Jones to carry one of the bags I was taking along. I asked Freddie to carry my purse. Neither of these bags were heavy at all. Still, when I got to the van, Jones said, "Mama! Freddie dragged your purse on the ground." Instantly, I was angry. I LOVE this purse. This purse came from my parents, by way of a store in New York City, which is the ONLY PLACE ON THE PLANET THAT THIS PURSE IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. It's perfect - kelly green and big enough to hold an Epi-pen, my camera, the Mother's-Day-gift wristlet I use as a wallet, and whatever assortment of little boy trinkets I collect while living my life as the mom of two young sons. There's also, usually, a bag of peanuts and a phone charger. Oh, yeah, and some Imitrex.

You get the picture. 

I looked at the bag and saw its beautiful green smeared with black, the smudge of a sidewalk in dire need of a pressure wash. The smudge could, possibly, come off with soap and water. The HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PURSE, however, cannot be patched. Angrily, I snapped, "FREDDIE! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!"

Freddie has the tenderest of tender hearts: "I'm sorry," he humbly said with a bowed head. 

I walked away to put something in the basement. He followed me, and when I turned around to look at him, he stuck out his open hand. Resting in his palm was that quarter he'd taken from his treasure box. Softening, I said, "What's that for?" He said, "For YOU, so you can buy a new purse."

I took the quarter (there are consequences for foolish choices like that, and he needs to understand that ruining someone else's property will usually cost himself something, too); I also apologized for losing my temper with him and told him that the good news was that I was going to be in New York next week and could go buy myself a new green purse then. I probably won't (they ain't cheap!), but I can, if I choose to, and the point isn't the purse. The point is that my child has the softest, sweetest, most precious heart, and that is worth more to me than all of the kelly green handbags in New York City.

Lake Chatuge 2019: Week One

Our first weekend of the year at Lake Chatuge was a lot like every other weekend we spend at Lake Chatuge. Well, I take that back. This one was different. First of all, it rained - torrentially and almost non-stop, which made for VERY peaceful sleep. It also left a lot of time for game-playing in the house. It precluded our traditional trip to the Treat Store (Boundary Waters), but it didn't keep us from "guarding Aunt Nancy's dock," as she told the boys to do, and it didn't keep us from participating in the weekend's Main Event - the Cardboard Boat Race!

Part of 31st Lake Chatuge Antique & Classic Boat Rendezvous, the race involved spending two hours building a boat using nothing but cardboard, an Exacto knife, and Duck Tape. Both boys were going to participate - one would work with Jeremy, the other with Mr. Pressley, but when we arrived - in a Saturday morning rain that could be characterized as "monsoon-like" - Jones decided to tap-out. That left the Pressleys and Jeremy to work on a boat for Freddie. 

Taking Randy Cunningham's advice that "Duck Tape is your friend," they fashioned a simple skiff and covered the entire bottom and most of the sides in gray tape, earning it the moniker "Old Gray Boat." Jeremy raced alongside Freddie, who did a fantastic job in his first race, while his proud and encouraging brother stood at the midway point, cheering, "That's my brother! That's my brother!" which, the more I think of it, may have been ripped off from a very similar boat-racing scene in "Stuart Little."

Sadly, the Boat Show won't be back at Chatuge next Summer, but it wouldn't surprise me if Freddie and his crew didn't follow it to Lake Lure this time next year!

Oh! And something else out-of-the-ordinary happened on this trip! Jones MAY have broken his nose. Whether it was broken or not, we aren't sure, but it was definitely busted, bloodied, black and blue, and swollen after a fall off of the porch swing. He cried when it happened but handled the aftermath like a champ!

This was the beginning of Croco-Mama & the Rhino Bros.

Freddie's Preschool Graduation

Don't look now, but Freddie Pressley is a preschool graduate!

The ceremony was great - Freddie led his class (alongside Emily Claire Smith) in the Lord's Prayer - and according to Mrs. Delalio's announcement, he wants to be "a digger man" when he grows up.

He will be GREAT at that.

If you ask Freddie, though, the highlight of the whole experience for him was likely riding the school bus from the Early Learning Center to the main campus. He's been very sad about the fact that he never got to ride one, and JoJo did it on the regular (going from school to PE and school to the library as well as to three different field trips), so when torrential rain made it necessary to transport the graduates, I knew he'd be thrilled, and was he ever thrilled.

It was also pretty cool that Jeremy was asked to deliver the closing prayer at the ceremony. Afterwards, the boys and I had lunch with my mom at the Blue Rooster, and after that, we headed to Lake Chatuge for our first visit of the Summer.

Like a lightning strike, our year at HCA has come to an end. I am so grateful for the incredible experience that we had there. Should things not work out in our homeschooling adventure, I would feel 100% comfortable sending the boys back to Haywood Christian.  In fact, we're already planning to be on campus at least once a week. Mrs. Herbert has cleared us to attend chapel, so I'm so thankful for that!

GiddyUp Junction

Tonite, the boys graduated from their first VBS program of the summer!

Since Sunday nite, they've been participating in the Giddyup Junction VBS at Mrs. Shana's church, Burnett Siding Missionary Baptist Church. They have had a BALL, and I have LOVED the incredible crafts they've brought home. The first nite, they painted rocks to look like cactuses; they also   made "WANTED" posters, and for the grand finale, they made mop horses, which was perfect, because ever since week started, Jones has been tying up and taking care of an imaginary horse. As soon as he got the mop horse, he told me his pretend horse died.

Ain't that a shame?

Here are the most memorable parts of the week:

1) I walked in on Tuesday nite and noticed "You'uns Prayer Wall." The kids had given their prayer requests, and the teacher had written them on the wall. I saw "People at St. Jude's" and immediately assumed Freddie'd made that request - he's been praying for the kids of St. Jude's ever since he heard about them during the Trike-a-Thon last month. I was thinking what a tender hearted little fella I am so proud to have. When I talked to him, he confirmed that he'd made that request. It wasn't ten seconds later that Jones told me Freddie had punched a little girl in the nose, because she kept cutting in line. That's pretty much the yin and the yang of Freddie Bear. He has the softest heart I have ever seen in a kid - but he's also has him limits when it comes to classroom etiquette.

We talked about the thousand reasons why hitting ANYONE - especially a girl! - was wrong, and Freddie was humbly remorseful ("I'm just sorry," he said with his head down). At bedtime, I was curious as to how hard he'd hit her (Jones said her nose bled. Freddie said it just "got red"), so I asked him. He very earnestly told me, "Like a baseball hard? I don't know. SHE knows. I don't know."

In retrospect, I guess it was a stupid question.

2) After the graduation ceremony and subsequent pizza supper, the boys went out to play on the church playground. Jeremy overheard a little girl ask Jones why his daddy walks like he does. Jones said, "He walks like he's got a sprained ankle," and then he did what Jeremy called a pretty spot-on imitation.

3) As Jeremy told me about the exchange, we commented about the abundance of gnats bedeviling us under the church's picnic pavilion. Later, as we drove him, Jones got whiny and said, "Mama, I feel like there's a bug in my ear." I'm on HIGH tick alert, so I pulled over as quickly as I could and looked. Sure enough, there WAS a bug in his ear. It wasn't a tick, thank God, but it was one of those gnats that'd been bothering Jeremy and me earlier in the nite.

So that was week one of VBS. I'm assuming there'll be a few more weeks of the same - our church hosts its VBS in mid-June, and I'm planning for them to attend at both of our lake churches (Oakwood at Hartwell and Mount Pleasant at Chatuge). They seem to really enjoy it - Freddie asked every nite, "Are we gonna play GAMES?!?" I think he loves the physical aspect of it, while Jones prefers the imagination component. I'll be honest: I love a couple of hours off, that churches up here serve DINNER before Bible school, and that the boys are hearing the Gospel over and over again and from different people, so it's a win all around!

Jones's Bug's Awards Day

I'm not sure how in the world we got here so fast, but today, Jones's year at HCA came to an end with Awards Day. Jones came home with the Most Growth Award, the Diligence Award, and, most importantly, the Christian Character Award. The whole elementary school also sang a song that was their theme song for the year ("I Wanna Live Like That"), and Jones was very sad to leave his classroom. In fact, after the year he had with Mrs. Clackett, he'd be content to stay a kindergartener forever.

I am so proud of him and so thankful for the year he's had. He's learned so much and matured even more. Though I'm very excited to start homeschooling in the fall, we will all miss HCA and be forever grateful for the time our family spent there!

HCA Field Day!

I'll say this for Field Day: it's WAY cooler now than it was when I was a kid. Back then, we were expected to suddenly be Olympic athletes - with the 50 yard dashes and the javelin throws and all that. Nowadays, it's more about standing in wading pools and passing water balloons to your classmates or playing "tag" with a wet sponge.

Kids these days, y'know?

I hadn't planned to volunteer for Field Day; I REALLY need to be working on my book, but Jones said he wanted me there, so ...

He had a BALL. I was afraid he wouldn't love the wet-ness of it all. Outside of swimming or being at Splash Country, he is not a huge fan of getting wet, and at the beginning of the first game, he was definitely a little unsure, but he settled in and thoroughly enjoyed himself, which I thoroughly enjoyed being a witness to.