blessed beyond measure

Now in its third year for the boys and me, Exploration Season has begun. Born out of a need to fill the nights when Brandon has to work home football games at his school, we take off and discover local treasures. The rules are simple: it must be within an hour of home, it must cost little to nothing, and it must be something that either we've never done before or can't do often. Today we hit Riverside Park in Lynchburg. A place I have driven and walked by countless times since I started working in Lynchburg in 2005, but having never actually entered the park, I had no clue what hidden treasures lay inside. Until now. Of course the boys were immediately drawn to the playground, so we burned off some energy there. Then after a perfect picnic dinner under the trees, we hit the trail. A Virginia Civil War trail, no less. Who knew? And who could have known what breathtaking surprises awaited us around the winding bends. First up was a locomotive in the process of being...

It was as I stuffed toys onto the shelves in Aden's closet, cleaning up the house for the nth time that day, that it hit me hard. It won't always be this way. And my not-terribly-emotional self was engulfed in sadness. Time is going too fast for me. Some days, it's just too much. My Trey, beginning second grade today (photos to follow) . He still enjoys playing with me, and will even get in on some creative endeavors with his brother. He holds tight to toddlerhood, still refusing to go to bed like a normal person. He plans what he'll do as a grownup. He rejoices over his favorite foods and still gives me the occasional, "Hey Mama, watch this!" He spent almost an hour cutting large holes into eighteen post-it notes, labeling them with numbers, and placing them at strategic locations around our house to create his own miniature golf course. And though the everything-in-its-place part of me might feel a compulsive need to get these paper scraps off the...

While we don't get many encounters with famous people here in the boonies, one group who has been pretty faithful to our area is the Duck Dynasty crew. In 2013, Willie Robertson came to the Wildfire Men's conference in Lynchburg, and Missy came to the Extraordinary Women's conference in Roanoke. This past spring, Jase came to speak to the Wildfire men, and this fall I will see Miss Kay at E-Women. Unfortunately, the boys haven't been able to participate in these events, so they were super excited to find out that Mountain Man would be at a local minor league baseball game. Of course, we had to indulge them. Mountain Man threw out the first pitch of the game and then judged the best beard contest between innings. Like with the rest of the Robertson gang, we learned that Mountain Man in person is exactly who they portray him to be on the show. For they had to delay the game because it took Mountain Man so long to talk his way through which beard was the best. Love...

With the completion of every item on my two-page-long pre-vacation to-do list, we stuffed the car full and pointed south. Very, very south. To Giga and Poppop's home away from home in St. Augustine, Florida. Such a blessing. Of course with so many hours spent in the car, anything could (and did!) happen. Shoes were thrown, my husband fell head over heels in love with Siri, and we listened to several episodes of Andy Griffith, a car-trip tradition for us. Trey talked for almost the entire 12-ish hours of driving, and Aden was lulled to sleep a few times by the hum of the engine and his brother's monotonous mumbling. We took advantage of the nearness and, for the first time in six years, I was able to see my Aunt Karen and Uncle Barry at their home in Jacksonville, right on the river. This was really the boys' first true encounter with them, as Trey was just a baby the last time we were together. Aunt Karen quickly climbed into favorite-great-aunt contention, showe...