I Stood Upon the Hills- Throwback Repost

Throwback to December 15, 2011 when I posted this Longfellow poem along with this image I took in Maine. Beautiful words, beautiful landscape, beautiful memories.

I stood upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch
Was glorious with the sun's returning march,
And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.
The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light,
They gathered mid-way round the wooded height,
And, in their fading glory, shone
Like hosts in battle overthrown.
As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance.
Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance,
And rocking on the cliff was left
The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft.
The veil of cloud was lifted, and below
Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow
Was darkened by the forest's shade,
Or glistened in the white cascade;
Where upward, in the mellow blush of day,
The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way.

I heard the distant waters dash,
I saw the current whirl and flash,
And richly, by the blue lake's silver beach,
The woods were bending with a silent reach.
Then o'er the vale, with gentle swell,
The music of the village bell
Came sweetly to the echo-giving hills;
And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland fills,
Was ringing to the merry shout,
That faint and far the glen sent out,
Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin smoke,
Through thick-leaved branches, from the dingle broke.

If thou art worn and hard beset
With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget,
If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Meaning of Courage- Throwback Post to 2011

This post is one of the most viewed in my blogging history. It was stored on a blog that is no longer public, so I thought I would share it with you here. It was posted back in 2011 when my oldest was entering his freshman year of high school. I was and still am so proud of him. Life hasn't always been easy for him but he always seems to rise to the challenge in the end. Proud to call myself his mother. Below the dotted lines is the original post

xo

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"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose."

 ~Tom Krause

How many times in life have you not wanted to try something because the fear of failure holds you back?  I am ashamed to admit that it happens more often than I would like in my own life.  With everything in life there are drivers and preventers...forces that are either driving us and supporting us in our efforts to reach our goals or forces that act as roadblocks in our journey to realize our dreams.  Fear of failure is probably the most common preventer.  And courage, according to the quote above, is the ability to meet the fear of failure head on and try something anyway...even when you know the chances of losing are great.

He is going to look good in a football jersey, no?

In that case, I am proud to say that my son is a courageous young man.  Ty decided this spring that he wanted to try to make the high school football team despite the fact that he had never played organized football in his life.  He had so much going against him...he is light for his height (now over 6 foot tall at age 14 but willowy thin).  He had never played football before.  He was an incoming freshman.  He doesn't have an aggressive personality...

When Ty first told Brian and I he wanted to go to a week long camp the high school coaches offered for boys who were interested in the football program, I was shocked.  Where did this desire come from?  Didn't he know he didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell to make the team?  I honestly figured that he would go to the camp and decide that it wasn't for him.  He would see that almost all the other boys had been playing the game since they were 5 and he would be finished with the idea of trying out for the team.  So, off to camp he went.

But despite the fact that he was discouraged some days because he wasn't familiar with the lingo and the play patterns, he kept going back every day for that week, trying harder and learning more.  By the end of the week Ty had decided that yes, indeed, he did want to give it a shot and try out for the team.  I was shocked.  Really?  After seeing how far behind the game he was (literally, not just figuratively) I thought for sure he would want to try for something else, like soccer, that he had been playing since he was 5.

Brian and I both are supportive parents.  Who are we to squish his dreams?  It is our job to give support and encouragement despite the rough road ahead.   The only action to take was to support his decision, buy him the equipment he needed, and sign him up for the training camp that started the week after school let out.  All summer Ty went to agility and weight training camp three days a week.  He put his heart and soul into transforming himself into the best physical condition he could before tryouts.

This week was finally the week.  After a long summer of working hard and training, it was time to see if he could make the cut.  Football two-a-days began on Saturday.  Ty had to report to tryouts at 7AM and stay the whole day for grueling practices until 3 PM.  He had to wear the heavy equipment for the first time.  He had to learn the plays and how to be a good offensive player as well as a defensive player.  It was a huge learning curve for him.  After 4 days, the moment of truth came...cut day.  Would he make the team?

I sat in the parking lot of the school yesterday like an overprotective nervous mother.  I was shaking so bad it felt as if I had an earthquake starting in the pit of my stomach, tremors working outward to my limbs.  I was fidgety and twitchy.  I couldn't stand the fact that after all this hard work, commitment, and focus he would be called into the coach's office and told he had been cut.  It broke my heart to think about it.  I wanted my child to succeed.  I wanted him to learn that those who set a goal and fight for it win.  But you know what?  The reality is that it isn't always true.  Sometimes those who work hard are not rewarded.  Sometimes in life we still fall short despite our greatest efforts.

After an excruciating hour long wait, Ty came out of the high school gym.  He showed no signs of what the verdict was.  It was killing me...his slow walk across the parking lot struck fear in my heart.  His head hanging low, looking at his phone while texting was a sure sign he didn't make it.  "Crap, crap, crap." I thought.  How could a walk across a parking lot take so long...hours it seemed!  I started formulating a speech in my head of what I would say to make him feel good for trying....

And then he lifted his head and looked at me.  Our eyes caught each other's and a slow, casual smile spread across his face..."I made it." he said in the quietest, most calm voice I ever heard him use.

And at that moment those three words were the best words I had ever heard.  He had made it.  My son did it.  He set out to do something wild and crazy and far fetched and he had done it.  He made the high school football team that has gone undefeated for the past two seasons and he had never played one play of organized football in his life.  Holy crap.  He did it.  It took all I had not to embarrass him and scream and cry and jump in his arms like an idiot mother.  The pride welling up in me was so overwhelming, I didn't know what to do with it.  My boy did it.  And I am So.  Dang.  Proud.

Congratulations, Ty.  Not only am I proud of you for making the team, but I am proud of you for taking the chance.  Courage, my dear son, is looking that fear of failure in the face and beating it.  You did it.  You did it.  I love you, Ty!


~Your proud mama

From the Archives-- July 13, 2009 and August 2, 2009

On July 13, 2009 I posted this on a now hidden blog- I had forgotten about finding this note! Read on to find out what happened on that day and then continue reading for the update I posted about a month later...

Below is the original post from 2009
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Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

~Boris Pasternak

While we were away for the 4th of July at Deep Creek, Maryland, it was rainy and dreary all weekend long. I was sick and so was Ty. It was pretty miserable. One bright spot was the moment I found (next to the campfire ring, half buried in the dirt) a little plastic baggie folded over, stapled, and attached to a string. The string was like the kind of string they put on balloons. I could see through the baggie that there was a piece of paper folded inside. The ink was showing through the damp paper and I could read the words, "Dear friend,"

My interest piqued, I took the bag inside and felt like I was on a secret decoding mission. It was so exciting that I found something that another human being had meant for someone else's eyes. It was like finding a mysterious message in a bottle.

When I started to unfold the letter, it quickly became apparent that the note was in bad shape. It was so wet that when I tried to peel it away from itself, it would just disintegrate. This job would take steady hands and patience.

Thank goodness I packed my trusty eyebrow tweezers! I grabbed my grooming supplies from the bathroom and started to unfold the note piece by piece. I was so scared I wouldn't be able to read it. I documented my progress with pictures.

It turns out that the paper was indeed attached to a balloon at one point. I would make a pretty good detective, huh? Apparently, a private school in Pennsylvania had a balloon ascension, where they attach notes to balloons and let them go, back in NOVEMBER! The note gave the name of the school, the student's name, the phone # to the school, and an address to contact the student. The 3rd grader who sent this note requested that whoever found the note to send it back to her with information on where and when the note was found. How dang cool is that? That note traveled to my FIL's log home in the woods of Maryland, somehow got detached from the balloon, got dragged next to the fire pit, and got buried there for 8 months before being discovered. I bet the little girl had given up hope on hearing from anyone!

I packaged the remaining pieces of the letter up and mailed it back to the address on the note. I tried calling the school to report that it had been found, but no one answered...it must be closed in the summer. I hope that little 3rd grader got a smile when she received my letter. It makes me smile just thinking about it. I hope she writes back to me, but I don't expect her to. We'll see.




 Below is the original post from August 2, 2009-
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Remember that post about me finding a buried note while on vacation for 4th of July? I sent the letter back to the the girl and it was returned to me by the post office. The girl no longer lived at the address on the note. But, thanks to my keen eyes ;0) I found the forwarding address at the bottom of the yellow sticker on the envelope, so I gave it one more shot. And it worked! Check out the note she wrote back to us:

Can you believe it?!? I was shocked to find out what I thought was a note that had survived 9 months in the elements actually had survived almost 3 YEARS! She let the balloon go in November of 2006! Oh my goodness! What a neat ending to a cool story. I plan on writing back to her and perhaps my family and hers can stay in contact.



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 I believe I remember writing back one more time to her, however I never received anything back so our communication stopped. I had completely forgotten about this and I am so thrilled I've kept a blog all these years to remind me with words and pictures of these awesome memories. Thanks for checking out this throwback post from 8 years ago!!

THROWBACK REPOST- July 7, 2011

 Everyone seemed to enjoy the throwback post from yesterday, so I did another today...all the way back to 2011! The kids are so stinking cute and they were so little! I am so glad I have this older blog to look back on and share with you. Again, 2017 commentary is in italics.

July 7, 2011

This past weekend we decided to take the crew fishing.

I told them that if they wanted dinner they had to earn it by catching it.

That didn't go over too well, but what kind of mother would I be if not to motivate my brood?

So, early on Sunday morn we packed up the kiddos

and headed off of These Nine Acres to a neighbor's farm

where he has several ponds stocked with fish.

Hey, at least I was making it easy for them to catch dinner! (I was totally kidding as this facility was a catch and release area...but the kids didn't know that, lol!)

To our knowledge, this was the first time the twins have gone fishing.

They were very excited to catch a fish and T1 wanted to "pet them."

Typical for her...my animal loving gal. (Back then I used the term T1 and T2 because I didn't want to identify the twins by name since they had been in the foster care system. T1 is Natalie since she was born first and T2 is Zachary since he was born second.)

Brian setting up the little kids with their rods.

And they are off!  Who will catch the first fish?

Can I pet it?  Can I pet it?  Can I pet it?
Um, you have to catch one first!

I am happy that this year both Ty and Ladybug now bait and remove the fish from the hook themselves. Now we just have to help out the little ones. While Ty was the first to catch a fish, both T1 and T2 caught a fish too...their very first. Neither of them wanted to touch it...

Even T1 who talked incessantly the whole time about petting one! (Ty was what I called my oldest son, Tyler...and still do, and Ladybug is my oldest daughter, Brenna.)

Check out my very first fish!

No brother of mine can out do me!  I got one too!

Ladybug caught MANY but I only have a picture of this little one.

I caught one too! (that is a henna tattoo on my hand, btw)

Brian didn't catch one but in his defense, he was baiting hooks for the little ones
faster than they could let the fish eat the worm off!

No one caught dinner...

we only caught about 12 small bluegill all together. There were no whoppers to speak of...except the guy fishing across the pond from us caught a huge rockfish.

Show off.

But that is ok...

at least we had fun trying.

Have a great Thursday, everyone!


What fun looking back! Hope you enjoyed this old blog repost! Look for more in the future!

xo

Throwback Thursday Post- July 6, 2010

I've been blogging for a very long time. I was blogging even before blogging was a thing. I was blogging back when dial-up was the only option for internet. Unfortunately, several of my blogs have been lost to time, but some (after 2009) have survived but can only be seen by me. So, I thought it would be fun to take a time machine back every once in a while to see blog posts from the past. Fasten your seatbelts on the time machine...we are heading back to 2010 for this entry I posted. My kids and myself were MUCH younger then...

P.S.- I will add explanations and commentary in italics in the original post,

July 6, 2010

I am taking a day off

from posting Project 365 images

so I can catch up on the editing

since I have been out of town

for the past couple of days. (I attempted a photo-a-day project back in 2010 but only made until August or September if I remember correctly)

I thought I would take this time to

share some of the images I took

while on our mother-son weekend trip

to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.

I shared pictures already from

our first day there,

but these are from the second day.

I tried to focus on patterns 

and abstracts this day,

so it is a bit unusual for me.

I hope you enjoy them anyway!

Panoramic view of Friendsville, Maryland from scenic overlook

Sideling Hill Rest Stop

I should be back to regular posting tomorrow!  

Until then, my friends...

xoxo


See?  Wasn't that fun?  I will reshare old posts as I find ones that aren't too embarrassing. I will tag them with "throwback" in the labels if you ever want to reminisce with me! LOL. Enjoy the rest of your day.