So Far This Year . . .

Our year has been pretty quiet so far. We are getting settled into the swing of life in Knoxville, enjoying visits from friends and relatives and doing a few CRAZY things.

Rebecca wasn't able to be here on her actual birthday, but we celebrated a few days late with a rather sad-looking but tasty cake. Note that it is swimming in icing:

From Catch up on blogging

Nathan had really hated to leave the guys on his soccer team in the Tri-Cities when we moved here last year. He now plays for the Ambassadors here in Knoxville. It turns out that this team is full of great guys, too. Nathan was able to switch his loyalty and play his heart out against his old team and enjoy beating them! It was also nice to be missed. His old teammates came up and asked him how much they would have to pay for him to back off on defense next time. Here is the "good game" after the game. Nathan is #17. ,/

From Catch up on blogging

We enjoyed visits from my family this Spring. My sisters came in March, and my Dad came in April. He treated us all to a few days in Gatlinburg, and we did some hiking while we were there:

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

One CRAZY thing we did this Spring was take a 24-hour trip to Washington, DC on the Megabus. We left at 10 pm on a Sunday evening, spent a Monday in Washington, and then returned at 10 pm that night. It was spring break, but it snowed heavily much of the time.

From Catch up on blogging

The other CRAZY thing we did was that Caleb and I did Color Me Rad. I've decided I don't really like those races. The color is fun, but it costs $40 each, and they don't even have a clock running. I mainly ran in it so that we could get some good photos. But Terry took video instead. And Caleb tried to run it without getting any color on him, which pretty much wasted that $40. Oh well.

From Catch up on blogging

Holidays 2012

Blogging about the holidays in July just seems wrong. But skipping it seems even wronger (don't you love inventing words?).

One of the first orders of business during the holidays was to take family photos for our Christmas card/letter. Unfortunately, this letter was never mailed, or even written, for that matter. However, in case you need a recent photo of the Seaman family (ours or extended) for your fridge, you can print out one of these below:

From Seaman Disc

From Seaman Disc

We started two new traditions this year. One was to build a Lego Christmas village. We got the first collectible set this year, and the kids had lots of fun putting it together. We hope to get a new set every year and build them from scratch (well directions are included). The kids had lots of fun with this. I have no pictures of the completed Lego set, but lots of photos of the goofing off:

From Thanksgiving 2012

From Thanksgiving 2012

From Thanksgiving 2012

The other new tradition was to have a family game night with "Minute-to-Win-It" games. Got the idea on Pinterest. And it was a blast! We were glad that our house renovations were progressing to the point that we could host the entire extended family.

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

An older tradition is to make sugar cookies with all the cousins, and we did that, too: Another fun thing was that Rebecca got her Poppa to help her make a photo booth, and she made some props to go with it. We look forward to even more fun with it next year, as with all the excitement of the games we forgot to use it much. Here are a few of the funny photos she made with it:

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

From For Facebook (Christmas 2012)

Fall 2012

One of our coolest memories from last fall was the Lego Competition at the Tennessee Valley Fair. Noah won "Best in Show" for his Hollywood film studio:

From Catch up on blogging

and Nathan inspired the judges to create a whole new category - "Master Builder" - when they saw this spaceship:

From Catch up on blogging

Then when Rebecca went with Noah and me to see the displays, the three of ended up entering (and winning) a Lego building contest.

From Lego Competition - 9/15/12

The boys have been asked to help promote this year's contest at several library events this summer. Noah is busy working on this year's entry.

Besides Lego, our boys were involved in the Venture Scouts. They learned to shoot at a local shooting range (I did, too) and also learned to blacksmith. We went to a scout Rendezvous where the boys spent a very long day teaching dozens of cub scouts how to blacksmith. Here are some photos from that day:

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

Caleb also ran cross-country in the fall. I enjoyed watching him in the Marine Corp Mud Run:

From Catch up on blogging

We also took some cool hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains. Here we are at The Chimneys:

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

And here we are at the fire tower on Mt. Sterling:

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

The weather was mild, so we kept our pool open for a long time - long enough for Noah to carve pumpkins poolside:

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

and for Terry to hurt his back on the diving board and require an ambulance ride to the ER:

From Catch up on blogging

We are so glad that his back wasn't broken. He was back to "normal" in a week or so.

Rebecca got to come home for fall break, and her arrival coincided with the Fall Festival at our church. My favorite photos from the fall were the ones taken there:

From Fall Break 2012

From Fall Break 2012

From Fall Break 2012

From Fall Break 2012

From Fall Break 2012

Back By Popular Demand, Moving Part 2

Actually, back by one person's request - my Dad's. Obviously, the move and changes in our lives took a lot of my energy in the last year. Once I felt like blogging again, I was behind and couldn't really figure out how to catch up. Then I considered just jumping back in and letting that year of my life appear blank, but that didn't feel right, either. In related news, I didn't send out a Christmas letter the last two years. It's nice to know that somebody noticed. So, I have decided NOT to skip over the last year but to just do a few abbreviated posts to catch those who care up-to-date. As I was preparing to do this, I also realized that I was way behind in reading posts from family members who are doing a good job keeping up with blogging (Yay - Allison, Katie, Lisa and Rebecca!) because I had typically used my blog as a porthole to theirs. I really enjoyed those posts and wish I had some cute toddlers to spice mine up with. But, alas, my kids are growing up way too fast. Anyway, with further ado, here is my first attempt toward catching up-to-date with my blogging. We moved to Buckingham Drive (aka, "The Palace")in early August.

https://plus.google.com/photos/106680165472319420873/albums/5896792490382691409/5896794137427274258?pid=5896794137427274258&oid=106680165472319420873

From Catch up on blogging

The move itself wasn't too bad (mostly because 2/3rd of our stuff was still in storage in Johnson City). But it's hard to overestimate the chaos we lived in the next few months as we renovated the kitchen and installed new (actually old, reclaimed flooring) on the main floor. The following pics give you a little idea:

From Catch up on blogging

From Catch up on blogging

I was without a kitchen (except a stove and paint sink in the garage) and without a laundry room for several months. My new stove was actually hooked up on Thanksgiving morning. I plan on doing a complete "before vs. after" post on our house at some time, but that will have to wait. Even though renovations aren't fun (and they aren't over yet!), we are blessed to have gotten this huge house at FAR below market value. The location is so convenient, and we love being around the corner from the Green Belt trail.

What's Up?

I was inspired by the ladies on the Five in a Row board and Ann Voskamp to choose a word for 2013. I had heard about this concept for several years now but hadn't fully understood the purpose of the exercise. So right after Christmas I read the book "My One Word" and got really enthused about doing this. 

I've spent the last few weeks "interviewing" word candidates, praying about it, and looking up scriptures and definitions, and just listening to my heart. I also talked to Terry, Cathy and my sisters about it. 

You know, if I had stopped there and not even chosen a word, I think it would still have been a worthwhile exercise. Trying to distill my hopes for growth into one word has really helped me to get a handle on my heart. 

I'm aware that choosing one word means NOT choosing other great words, and that sort of bothers me. I am tempted to choose more than one. But that sort of defeats the purpose, and, Lord willing, there will be other years. 

I did, however, purposefully choose a word with multiple meanings. Is that cheating? Perhaps, but I like to think it just means I'm getting a lot of bang for my buck. 

So the word for 2013 is SEASON. It has three primary meanings which I will list in order of importance to me: 

season: A time of some continuance, but not long 

Mom's death and Rebecca's departure to college has really got me thinking that the time I have left with my kids at home is short. I don't want to waste it (and I can waste time with the best of them), and I also don't want to spend it looking back and wishing they were younger (and I was younger, too). Mostly, I want to spend this season doing what God wants me to do and trying to listen to Him daily to figure out what that is. 

season: that which gives a relish (noun); to render more agreeable, pleasant or delightful; to give relish or zest to by something that excites, animates or exhilarates (verb)

This part of the definition has both a literal and figurative meaning to me. I want to enhance the flavor of my family with my good attitude and kind words. I also want to speak the love language of my boys (including Terry) by feeding them good food. I want to do a better job with family mealtimes. This is an area where I often "grow weary in doing good." I think having great meals and good table conversation is really one of the most practical ways that I can make the most of this season of life.

season: to become mature; to grow fit for use 

I don't want to fight against becoming older but let God mature me and use me right here at age 51

So that's it for now. One of my biggest time wasters is the internet, so I want to turn off the computer now!

Moving to Coker Avenue

On the eve of our second move in just over 3 months, I'm finally getting around to blogging about our first move. It feels a bit like writing a late entry to a diary or putting an already-completed item on a checklist just so that I can check it off, but I can't let all my photos and memories go to waste by just skipping on to the present. So here is the belated story of our move from Johnson City. I packed about 100 boxes, trying to be ultra-organized with color coding and carefully labeling each box.

From First Move

Then I had to leave quickly for Arkansas to spend Mom's last days with her, and my family (minus Rebecca who was still at college) was left to do the rest of the packing and moving without me. So the labels of the remaining boxes became things like "Kitchen Randomness" and "Dad's Crap." I was also distressed to find titles like "Bathroom Cabnit," but spelling has not been a strong suit with my kids. We were so blessed to have some great helpers, especially two of my friends, Tina Riley and Laura O'Bryan. Terry was pretty stressed and still can't even talk about the help that Tina gave without tearing up. I had been so emotional about moving from this house that I loved, so I'm glad that I wasn't there to see this site. It still makes me sorta sad to look at it:

From First Move

Some of our stuff is still in Johnson City, piled up in a warehouse that belongs to one of Terry's clients:

From First Move

On the way to Knoxville, the boat trailer had a flat on the interstate, and the next day, Terry clipped the gutter when backing up the moving van. Like I said, I'm glad I was not there. They basically just dumped our junk in the house before driving to Arkansas. So though I didn't have the joy of packing, I definitely DID get to unpack.

From First Move

When we returned from Mom's funeral, the house was waiting for me, and Terry carried me over the threshold to our new, temporary home.

From Funeral Photos/Coker

From First Move

Tomorrow we rent another moving van and move to our new home on Buckingham Drive (well, except for the stuff that is still in Johnson City - we'll have to move that later).

4Kay 4Mom

From 4K

This past Saturday, I ran in a 4K. It was a 4K - for Kay - Kay Yow, that is. She was the NC State Women's Basketball coach that died of breast cancer a few years ago, and the race was held at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, which is not far at all from our new home. The race raised money to fund research for all women's cancers, It felt good to participate in an event that might make a difference to someone like my sweet Mom.

They had a moment of silence before the race for all those women who had died of cancer. I got pretty choked up but tried to hold it back since I was getting ready to race (though I guess tears and sweat mix pretty well). After the moment of silence, they released pink and white balloons into the blue sky and we were off.

From 4K

The race was pretty easy with the exception of this killer hill right at the end. It was really quite brutal.

From 4K

This grin on my face is because I am actually beating this skinny girl behind me.

From 4K

Terry took me to the race and cheered me on (and took photos). He wasn't too crazy about getting up early to go, but he was sufficiently rewarded by free Starbucks coffee and a massage while I was running.

Bleeding Hearts

This is a post I have written over and over in my mind but just never could get around to posting. I had plenty of light-hearted things subjects that I could have posted on (and hopefully will, once I get this post out of the way), but they seemed trivial compared to what my heart has been going through this spring.

As most of you know (since only family and a few close friends probably read my blog), my mother is dying. She has been suffering with both Stage IV cancer AND dementia - a sort of double-whammy that took us all by surprise last fall. Instead of complaining, she chose to count her blessings and set the example of quiet trust. I've been blessed to be able to spend lots of time with her the past six months. Even as her mind was betraying her, I have memories of laughing with her, singing with her, reading to her and even calling the hogs with her. My heart is bleeding as she lies in the next room on probably the last day of her life, but my heart is also full because of her love.

Also, as most of you know, this spring we decided to sell our beloved family home in Johnson City and move to Knoxville. To say this was not an easy decision is the understatement of a lifetime. I am so sentimentally attached to this house and the memories we have shared in it. Our family has so many great friends that we have made in the 22 years we have lived in Johnson City. In fact, I have lived there longer than I've lived anywhere in my life. We didn't know when we signed the papers that the timing of our move would coincide with my mother's passing and that I wouldn't even be there to help pack. I never got to say goodbye, but I had a bigger goodbye going on.

Many years ago, we planted a bleeding heart bush right by our back deck. You can see it from the kitchen window. It has flourished to become the largest bleeding heart plant I have ever seen. I just love it! In fact, bleeding hearts are now my favorite flowers. The little delicate pink hearts hanging all in a row take my breath away with their beauty. My daughter has grown to love it as well. For her, it has inspired many photo sessions, watercolors, drawings and even jewelry-making attempts. It was just one of many things we would have to say goodbye to when we moved away.

This spring something happened to this plant that never has before. A late frost killed the blooms, and the plant that normally would have bloomed through July had only a brief window of beauty. It was almost as if it was grieving with us. But something else also happened - the plant put out a "baby" just a few feet away - a small shoot of a new plant that we could dig up and take with us to our new home. Rebecca has it sitting in a pot in her dorm room right now. Our hearts will go on.

And that's sort of a metaphor for what's going on in my life. I know that God will heal my broken heart.

One song that has meant a lot to me this spring is "Come Lift Up Your Sorrows" by Michael Card. I love these lyrics, and I am learning to worship God with my wounds. It is the sweetest worship I have known.

"Come lift up your sorrows and offer your pain
Come make a sacrifice of all your shame
There in your wilderness He's waiting for You
To worship Him with your wounds, for He's wounded too

In this most holy place, He's made a sacred space
For those who will enter in, and trust to cry out to Him
And you'll find no curtain there, no reason left for fear
There's perfect freedom here, to weep every unwept tear"