moments

 (typical breakfast)

 We've been having some STORMS in East TN recently.... lots of basement flooding, but we're grateful for the rain that so many need!

 Lily is really into her baby dolls right now!  Grandma has gotten Lily some great dolls and Granny has made some beautiful and creative outfits to fit them.  This makes for hours and hours of fun - wardrobe changes and tucking them in for naps, etc. 

 I don't think there is anything sweeter than seeing my child play with the children of my best friends.  It's like that connection that we have always shared was passed down in our children...

 Lily, showing Meemaw her "foot bracelet" (for some reason, she did not like the term "anklet").

 and sharing her balloons. 

 

 Here is Lily with Aunt Martha, Kelsey, and Mary!  We were so fortunate to be able to cross paths with them on I-75! 

 

  Our Porch Party reunion with her friends Wiley, Bryant, Mercury, Ezekiel, and Samson.  I love seeing kids play in the backyard.   Lily missed out on the picture below, but it was such a fun evening with our favorite families!

What We've Been Up To...

We're in Michigan right now, but here are some pics from the last week. Epworth pics are coming! Above, Lily with her "robot face"

This girl LOVES lemonade!
A variation of her pirate face.
We played in the creek with Lilys best friends, Elijah, Molly, and Anna! It was so fun and a welcome relief from the heat!
Just jumpin'
running through the water


Playing operation.
Early morning outside.

So Good to be HOME

During the seven years of our marriage, Jeremy and I have been thinking a lot about what "home" means. Is it the place where you spent your formative years growing up? The place where you go back to visit your family? An area that you love and have good memories? Is it simply...the space where you live? I know we all have different interpretations of what home is to us.

We also have been influenced greatly by our favorite author/poet/activist Wendell Berry, who writes in the novel Hannah Coulter,

"I think he gave up the idea that there is a better place somewhere else. There is no 'better place' than this, not in this world. And it is by the place we've got, and our love for it and our keeping of it, that this world is joined to heaven."

Jeremy and I chose to move to northeast Tennessee three and a half years ago because we wanted to live here. This area, where we spent four years in college, called us back and, in hindsight, it seemed to call us home. Since our return, we have been on a tedious journey of figuring out why and how to stay...and how to explain this surity that we belong here to others?

Many of you have probably already heard the news: Jeremy got a job offer from Indian Trail Middle School in Johnson City last week! We consider it NO less than a miracle. Our gratitude, peace, and relief is overwhelming. I won't attempt to describe it to you.

And so, for now, it seems that we are finally home.

We do love it here. We love the mountains, the foothills, the moving water and lakes, the surrounding community, our church, the weather, the red dirt, the friends we have made and the friends we have kept, the regional music, the farming culture, the academic culture, and sometimes we are even amused by the redneck culture. (To name a few...)

This place is ours. This is the place "we've got." This is our home.

Will we live here for the next ten years? I don't know. Will our daughter develop a southern accent and begin lengthening one syllable words to two syllables? I don't know. Will we always feel this way about East TN? ...don't know. Will our pace of life slow down and adapt to the slower, more intentional culture that surrounds us? Will we begin to have lengthy, heartfelt conversations at the checkout counter in the grocery store? Will start spending our days off at "the lake" with flotation devices, coolers of soft drinks, and bags of Doritos? Will we adorn our vehicles with Nascar paraphenalia and allow the mufflers to rot off? Will we be ok if all those things DO come to pass? Absolutely. (Maybe not the muffler part...)

Our daughter was born here and we are all three excited to continue to grow up here. The roots that we have been growing have been kept shallow, until now, because we just didn't know for sure that we could stay. And now, with a feeling of being truly "joined to heaven" I can gratefully say...

It's so good to be home.

________________________________________________

Here is a (poor) video of the song from which I stole the title of this post. It is by the Everybodyfields, a local band, and this song is about living in East TN. The lyrics are posted below since they are a bit garbled in the video. Enjoy.




I was sick about the time we hit Virginia,
I had tombstones down both sides of my face.
Driving all night home from Boston,
I was so tired of being away.
Thinking about summer time and heat waves
And a town, it hardly ever snows,
Hitting apples with a baseball bat in August,
That's where I want to go...
So good to be home.

Well sidewalks down here, they go forever
and they always seem to meet you with a smile.
If they don't park the cars out where they shouldn't
I believe you can see clear for a mile.
Well there's a tree on Maple St., it turns so yellow,
it turns lose the leaves; the ground, it turns to gold.
My car, it always knows what gear to be in
and my feet can always take me home.
So good to be home.

Well the lights here, they can spin the head of a young man
into thinking that the whole town loves you.
But your heart is not protected from the city
it might help to get you through.
Well the downtown has given me some problems
and we've all had some growing up to do,
walking on cars and across the tops of buildings,
I think that God was probably laughing too.
So good to be home...

Down the street my neighbor's son is walking,
the north side is getting bigger all the time.
I owe the girl down at the library some money,
she says she's just gonna let it slide.
In my mind every single day is sunny,
it's so bright it almost hurts my eyes to see.
When the rain is pouring out over the gutters,
thank the lord just to be here in Tennessee.
So good to be home...

Half a mile now from the border,
half a mile just to roll my windows down.
Sitting, staring at the windshield,
telling myself "not too much further now".
I call David up to see what he is doing
and I pass him as he's getting in his car.
Down the road and take a right down State of Franklin
and we'll spend the night away down at the bar.
So good to be home...

A Day in the Life of a Lily

Hi Everybody, my mom wants to post a bunch of random pictures, so I am going to narrate them and tell you what my days usually look like. After I wake up (anytime b/w 6:30 and 7:30) and I eat breakfast, I usually play with my toys for a little bit. I still like to read with my mom and dad, but I am too busy recently to pick up books and read by myself often. I love climbing in and out of my rocking chair and pushing it around the whole house. I also like to stand up in it, but I'm not supposed to.Sometimes friends come to visit us, like my "aunt" Sarah! She was in town and I got to play with her this week! It was so good to see her.
My mom has been letting me help with the dishes recently. Mostly, I like to splash water on everything within reach.

My current passion is doors. I love opening and closing them frequently and trying to operate the knobs. When I want one open, I say "Kna-Knock".

Our neighbor got some chickens recently, and I love them!! We can hear the rooster crow in our apartment and every time he does, I get really excited. We also have planted a garden in our backyard and my mom and dad are so excited about it. I really want to walk around in it, but they tell me to be careful of the "babies". I am confused at how the plants are babies, but I know not to get near them.

Every morning, my mom and I go water the babies. I really want to help, but I am only allowed to stick my hand in the water...
....and sometimes my face too.

I really like watching all the animals that are out and about this spring - especially the phoebes that are nesting under our deck!

I usually help my mom go get the mail every day and then I like to help carry it back. Sometimes I throw it too.

The real fun begins when my dad gets home. I like to try to put on his clothes and I talk about him all day long.I love being naked right...and riding my tractor. I must be an East TN girl!
I love playing in the bathtub before I go to bed, always. I am even starting to put my face in the water.

Well, thats all the pictures for now. Ba-Bye.

Update

You might have noticed it's been awhile since I've posted. I was knocked out by a stomach flu-ish variety pack sickness for almost 5 days, and now Lily has it. So, its been lots of fun around here!

Anyways, I wanted to give you some quick updates on how we are all doing:

Lily has learned how to pick her nose, obviously. Maybe not so much pick as insert her finger. It's been hard to see her feeling bad these past few days. This is her first real illness. She has recently added the word "no" to her vocabulary and uses it often...too often. The nice thing is, she can answer yes or no questions easily! She uses signing for yes, and adamantly says "no!" more often than not. Sleeping at night is going well, but napping is very irregular. One of my favorite things that she does right now is compare pictures of things in her books to her life. For example, she'll see a picture of a lamp in a book and say "I have a lamp!" (which does not sound that clear, of course) and point to where the lamp is. The same with many, many objects: fish, chairs, baby dolls, flowers, toys, etc.

Jeremy is still excelling in his internship at our local middle school, while finishing up his masters at Milligan. He is not as fond of middle schoolers as high schoolers, he has learned. It's nice to know! He is in the thick of the tedious process of looking, applying for, and pursuing teaching jobs (HS English) in this area - there just isn't a whole lot available with two colleges feeding teachers into the local school systems! We are really hoping and praying to stay here in this place that we love and that is our home. And, I have to brag a little bit, Jeremy has a 4.0 so far in this program and always gets excellent evaluations!

Casey is still staying at home with Lily and LOVES it. I feel so fortunate to be able to do this. In the past year, I have started to cook less with processed foods and more from scratch and tried to cut back our household expenses to the minimum, and I am proud to say that I have improved in the kitchen. I am also serving as the Assistant Women's Soccer coach at Milligan for the spring and I LOVE this too. It's nice to be a part of something I really just get. It's just for a couple months, but right now it's a blast. I am looking forward to planting flowers soon and starting our vegetable garden!!

More posts coming soon!

UPDATE, its about time!

It's been forever since I've taken the time to write a quality update on what Lily is doing, learning, saying, etc. So, instead of trying to catch you up, I'm just going to tell you the latest!

She has become very compassionate and loving to her babies, stuffed animals, and bath toys. Her sweet hugs and kisses show no difference between doll or animal, foam block or rubber ball. They are all loved by Lily.

Mimi and Papaw got her an aquarium for Christmas and last week, we got it up and running! Here is Lily's first glimpse of her new pets, which Jeremy and I have named, "Uh-oh" and "Ball" (so that Lily can say their names). :)

She also loves peek-a-boo (still) and this video shows her latest version - the eyesclosed way.

Here is a brief video of Lily singing.

She is saying new words* every day! Here are some of the latest: chair, table, clock, block, pot, bread, glove, coat, shoe, snowman, potty...to name a few. She is obviously very verbal and less athletic. We've noticed when she is around other toddlers that she is less active than they are - less of a climber, more cautious in general, and content to watch. It's so interesting!

(*it is understood that only her parents can understand these words, right?)

Also, I just want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards and gifts! Lily received so many special presents from friends and family this year, and we are so grateful. Thank you ALL for caring about us and loving us. We are so grateful for you.

Silly Lily (11 Months...)

Here are some of Lily's latest new things....

She has started to realize that she can have an opinion about food. She refused two of our "old faithfuls" today - peas and pears (not mixed, of course). Things she does love to eat? Peaches, Bananas, blueberries, plain bread, veggie booty, and I am sorry to say, random items on the carpet - mostly dirt and grass. This was an interesting thing that happened this morning: I walked in her room to get her up from her AM nap and noticed something was missing....her pants. Somehow, she took them off and threw them out of the crib, onto the floor. I didnt know she was capable of removing an item of clothing by herself. She is.
Have I mentioned that she is into EVERYTHING??

Lily LOVES phones too. It is the only thing she has wanted enough to throw a mini-fit about. Whenever my phone rings, she starts saying "da-da" since it is usually him that is calling and I sometimes put him on speaker phone - pretty cute :) In the absence of a real phone, she enjoys talking on remotes, random toys, teething biscuits, and the occasional stuffed animal.

Lily climbed in this swing all by herself the other day - it was a little awkward, but she was pretty proud of herself.

Lily Mae will be 1 in 3 weeks....I dont want to talk about it.