Holidays in Knoxville

The Seaman extended family celebrated Christmas on Friday, December 23rd.  We had lots of fun conversation - some of it centered around hearing Rebecca's engagement story and talking about wedding plans (date not set yet).

Highlights were our family gift exchange

And this cheesecake (which Papa already requested for next year as his only gift!):

Recipe here.  I feel like I have finally taken my cheesecake to the next level.  Rebecca and Joseph say they want cheesecake for their wedding, so I may be just in time!

He Put a Ring on It

On December 1st, Rebecca attended a Military Ball in Virginia with Joseph (apparently actually called a "Dining Out" - which sounds really lame to me).  I had a hunch that he would be popping the question at this event, but Terry (who had given permission already) didn't think it would happen until the New Year.

I began to think Terry was right when we hadn't heard from Rebecca and it was getting quite late in the evening.  We went to bed, and Terry fell promptly to sleep.  I was still awake when I got a text from Rebecca asking if she could FaceTime me and her Dad in a few minutes.  Turns out female intuition rules!

Joseph designed the ring himself.  Isn't it pretty?

Terry had a hard time sounding excited because he was half asleep.  I was thrilled, and we got her brothers to come upstairs and join the call.  Noah one the prize for the most enthusiasm!  He looked something like this:

Rebecca and Joseph tell the story from their point of view on their wedding website.

Thanksgiving Memories 2017

Seems like on Thanksgiving, the food takes center stage.  We are "mighty thankful" (to quote my Pa) for it:

We must be creatures of habit, because the food signs Rebecca made a few years ago can mostly be re-used.  This year's excitement was Nana's dressing catching on fire in my garage oven!  It was totally black, and I really wish I would have taken a picture.  We all mourned a little.

I like these pictures contrasting the regular homemade rolls (with one eaten out of the middle - just for testing purposes):

and the gluten free ones:

One thing I have to be thankful for all the time is that my body seems to be able to handle gluten just fine!

And last, but not least, we did have one photo with people:

Other Thanksgiving festivities involved decorating for Christmas.  I even gave Rebecca and Joseph a "couples project" to light the front porch.

Another thing I'm thankful for this year is the fresh coat of paint on the house, and my new shutters.  It makes a huge difference!

One last Thanksgiving activity was a great game of disc golf.  Joseph even made a hole-in-one!

My Half Marathon Story (Including My Response to the Race for the Cure, aka Pink Stink)

I have been running since 2001, but this year I finally decided to try a half marathon.  I've considered it several times but mainly put it off because I didn't have anybody to "do it with."  Early this year, my little sister, Carol, said she was interested, and Rebecca agreed to train with me as long as she didn't have to run in the actual race (she hates running in a crowd).  So I decided to go for it!

Now we had to choose a race!  Carol and I had originally planned to meet halfway in Memphis, but we didn't think we'd be ready for a spring race.  Then she hurt her foot and it was looking like it was just gonna be me, so I chose a race close to home - The Secret City Half Marathon in Oak Ridge in November - just a day before my birthday.

Rebecca was sweet to train with me - though we rarely ran together.  Instead we just kept each other motivated to take longer and longer runs.  Occasionally we ran together on the greenway near our house.  I love this trail!  Here we are on the trail by one of my favorite signs reminding us of what kind of exercise is really important:

I found that I actually enjoyed my long runs -  I listened to books on tape, podcasts (True North Community Church and How Stuff Works were my favorites at the time), and kept a pretty slow pace.  Along came October, and when I hit about 10 miles and felt like I was hitting a wall!  Turns out most people drink water and take some nourishment at longer distances.  I didn't want to carry water, but I planned a drink from the fountain on the greenway halfway through and bought some Gatorade energy chews to take along (once I figured out these were just high-priced candy, I switched to gummy worms).  That did the trick.  

The week before the race, Rebecca and I did a trial run.  We ran the entire 13.1 miles together.  I actually got a runner's high for the first time in my life!  When I mentioned it to Rebecca, she wasn't feeling it and told me to shut up!  

The day of the actual race, Rebecca just came along as my cheerleader and photographer.  She even ran the first mile with me with her camera in hand!  I was so glad that it didn't turn out to be cold, windy, or rainy (originally all three were in the forecast).

The rest of my family and a few friends followed me from a distance using an app called RaceJoy, which let me hear their cheers along the way.  Terry was even able to time his cheer perfectly and played the theme from Rocky just as I was crossing the finish line!  

All in all, it was a great experience!  I didn't lose any weight and actually gained a few pounds right after the race (which turns out is typical as your body retains LOTS of water as it thinks you are literally running for your life). Oh well.  Another bummer was the race T-shirt.  It was obnoxiously ugly.  If you don't believe me, look here:

I run mostly for heart health and cool T-shirts, but I also like running for causes.  One cause I'd like to be able to support is the Race for the Cure - since my dear Mom died of breast cancer in 2012.  However, I can't support an organization that gives huge donations to Planned Parenthood.  There are other problems, which you can easily find out about by reading articles from a simple Google search.  Here is just one - "Think Before You Pink."

So I have found a breast cancer organization that I support instead (there are plenty of others).  If you'd like to join me, check out Lump to Laughter, a Christian organization that ministers to women with breast cancer.  

When Did Everybody Else Get So Old?

I was asked to review this title by Jennifer Grant and thought it would be a fun read.  It's full title is "When Did Everybody Else Get So Old?  Indignities, Compromises, and the Unexpected Grace of Midlife." Interestingly, right after I started the book, I had an opportunity to get together with a few of the ladies from the Fayetteville High School class of 1980.  It was fun to see these gals and think about how far we've come and the good things that are still in store (like grandkids!). 

Back to my book review, though.  Being a very introspective person, I really enjoyed how Jennifer didn't just share stories from this season of life. She thought about their deeper meanings.  I think my favorite part was when she analyzed the phrase "midlife crisis."  She said it comes from the German word Torschlusspanik, which literally translated means "gate-shut-panic."  Apparently the term dates back to the Middle Ages in reference to the panic medieval peasants might have experienced as they rushed to make it back inside the city gates before they closed for nightfall. In the case of middle age (instead of the Middle Ages), it's the alarm and anxiety you feel when you realize that the door is closing on many opportunities.  For me I feel this most keenly in regard to motherhood and homeschooling.  The door is closing!  I want to stick my foot in it or maybe even take it off the hinges altogether, but that's not the way it works.

This fall I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about the things I have left undone.  It became a real burden for a while.  I've heard that debts can be defined as sins of omission - and I was feeling a lifetime of debt that I was actually starting to lose sleep and shed tears over. Then I realized that Jesus didn't just die for the bad things I've done, but for the good things that I didn't do.  What good news!  I don't have to worry about that door closing.

"having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." ~ Col. 2:14 (NASB)

Noah as Mr. Darcy

Sometimes during the season of being a mom of three teenage boys, it's hard to see how they could possibly become marriage material.  This summer it was fun to see my youngest play a romantic leading man - Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." 

I got to watch him dress up in breeches and an ascot, dance, propose numerous times and use LOTS OF BIG WORDS!

The dress covered in mud

Dancing

Mr. Collins makes a call

The fight

The first proposal (rejection!)

The second proposal (success!).  Love the reactions of the girls.

Taking his well-served bow

Thanks to his big sister for taking these photos and for giving him a love of Jane Austen - which helped him land this part and be super-excited about it.

Eclipse Navy

This summer I got to see my first total solar eclipse!  It did not disappoint.  

When we were in grade school, both Terry and I have memories of going out on the playground during an eclipse and being extremely underwhelmed.  Seeing a little shadow on the sun was just not that exciting.  But I heard there was something more as these words from an essay by Annie Dillard describe . . .

"I had seen a partial eclipse in 1970. A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it."

Fast forward to this summer, and the hype here in Tennessee was extreme.  I even talked my sister and her husband into coming for a visit during the eclipse.  This event was all people talked about for almost one week.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard the word "totality" - I would be totally rich right now.  I was so glad I had remembered to order eclipse glasses on Amazon before we left for Greece.  But then the media started saying that some glasses sold were not up to standards and MIGHT MAKE US GO BLIND.  The ones I bought were not on the list of approved manufacturers, but they seemed alright to me when I tested them out, so I just chose not to worry about it.  I got pretty cracked up at the warnings about keeping pets from looking at the sun.  Some coyotes may howl at the moon, but have you ever seen a dog or cat looking at the sun?  

So we had our glasses, but I had not anticipated the run on moon pies.   I had to settle for some Little Debbie ones, which weren't quite as authentic as the Moon pies invented right here in Tennessee.

So we had our glasses, and our moon pies, and a PLAN!  Our original plan was to drive to Sweetwater along with maybe half a million other folks and watch 2 min. of totality with some friends there.  But then Terry's friend and brother came up with a better idea to beat the crowd and go see 1 min. of totality by water.  Seemed the right thing for the SEAMANS to do!  So Scott and Ann hosted a big lunch at their lake house, and then we all headed out in boats to the line of  totality several miles down Melton Hill Lake.  There were four boats in our little navy, and we were the first to head out.

You couldn't really drive with eclipse glasses on, but it was a fun look!

As you can see, this part of the eclipse party was mainly an opportunity to take fun pictures in goofy looking glasses.  It was exciting seeing the progress of the eclipse, but the main event was the 30 seconds before and after totality and the total eclipse itself.  I followed the advice of many experts to just enjoy the moment by NOT taking photos - instead just focusing on the sounds (the crickets), the immediate cool temperature and being able to take off the goofy glasses and see the sunset in all directions and that spectacular image! 

I was in awe.  Seeing the total eclipse brought an immediate smile to my face that I could not wipe off!

It was truly a spiritual experience.  I kept thinking of Psalm 19 - 

The heavens are telling of the glory of God

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands!

Dady to day pours forth speech,

And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, there are no words

Where their voice is not heard.

Their line is gone out throughout the earth.