Our biggest little had her first dance recital this past Saturday. It was quick, complicated and BEAUTIFUL!
Her and Becky got their makeup done that morning and both looked awesome. Only an hour of work by Independence High’s best makeup girls (Thanks!)
I have watched the video of her dancing on stage so many times I will probably wear it out (j/k). Much different than last year’s summer dance recital, that’s for sure!
Love you E. The world is yours!
The kids are slowly but surely starting to take over my desk….both at home and at work <3
I really wanted the title to be a play on the awesome album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. Anyway…
We couldn’t be happier of the dedication services for our little Linc. So much love, such a great church. Thank you to everyone who came into town for it or sent well wishes. He’s covered in love by those on Earth and those in heaven as well. What a lucky boy!
Thank you Charlie Weir and Gateway Church!
This is it. Before bedtime, Lincoln picked up a book and started looking through it. His sister said down right beside him and started doing the same. This went on for about ten minutes until I pleaded with them that it was time for bed.
My grand-dad (and all the educators in my family) would be proud. <3
I have never had a green thumb…never. But the past few years, I have started to skew more green.
Last year, I completely dug up the area by the mailbox and put in fresh dirt and mulch. We (E and I) put in some flowers and had beautiful color from summer into late fall.
This year, I decided to try my hand at gardening. I’ve never had so much as a leaf come out of any of my previous attempts at lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, carrots…all fails and HARD fails at that.
With the advice of a good buddy, I decided to give tomatoes a try again this year. And FINALLY something worked. My tomatoes looked wonky at first but, man, have they been producing. We are probably going to wind up with about 100 cherry tomatoes total off of a $2 pack of seed. It’s been so cool to see what water and dirt creates. I’m excited to try more next year. The coolest thing of this has been how much my daughter loves pulling them off when they get “red enough”. She even reminds me to water them now!
We also have some lettuce that I’m hoping fully comes out before the first frost hits.
Funny part of this story – I don’t really like tomatoes.
I am a black man who went to a mostly white K-12 school system and then a mostly white K-12 college. And I work in a field that is…well, you get the jist. I, however, have to straddle both worlds because on the outside I still look different. I’ve made my peace with it and tend to generally ignore world events for my own sanity and because I narrow my world to only the ones I know and love.
My daughter and son are in a daycare that is mostly white(actually all white, except for them) in a mostly white city, neighborhood and community…stop me if this is sounding like deja vu.
I was stopped in my tracks by something that happened the other day on a little daddy-daughter outing. I know this will change in the future and as she ages but for now, I want to bottle up this innocence and spray it whenever life gets touch.
My daughter picked out this doll at the store the other day because it looks like her. Because of the hair.
Why can’t it just always be this simple?
Godparent Series – Kid #2
This was an easy one. It’s about my best friend for over 20 years. Man, has it been that long. I am the godfather to his firstborn son and he’s the godfather to mine. Even though he has to travel a lot for his job, he made the time away from his wife and kids to come visit us in Nashville a few months and meet Lincoln (and give this dad some MUCH needed family getaway time).
Seeing how Travis has transformed into such a family man, lowered his temper, raised his game and become such an amazing father has been nothing short of amazing. He has helped make me a better man, shown me how to do things the right way and given me honest and solid feedback when I ask him for advice (and given me a love for trying to grow my own food). A best friend isn’t one who just blindly agrees – we all need some challenging. Check and check.
I love his family and he loves mine and we are pretty much brothers, probably closer than many real life ones. It’s amazing we have lasted 19 years (senior year at GHS) since living in the same city with maybe a visit or two a year to actually hang in person. The app Voxer has helped a lot along with social media and texting. It’s a challenge but we make it work.
There’s a thing about life-long friends. As you get older, you forget about some of the adventures you had. Travis made me a video for my 37th birthday and looking through them, I can’t believe all the life we have lived. I forgot even BEING in some of those places. It’s a beautiful life and an awesome friendship with him as my bro-pilot.
To my Cubs-loving, movie-watching, Memphis Tigers bball fan and fellow Germantown High School thespian, I love you…man. And my son is lucky to have you in his life.
I have been on a word kick lately. There’s this phrase my daughter uses a lot now. It’s as simple as this: “I got it”. She uses it when she wants to buckle the top part of her seat belt herself (always). She uses it when we say she can have a Popsicle. She uses it when we ask her to get her shoes. You get the jist. She has got it.
What’s really cool about it is the confidence. It’s like she’s already separating from us and becoming independent. And we have given her the space to do this. Sure, we sometimes follow too close and don’t want her to fall down or make a big mess or make a mistake. But she also has been enabled by us to do things on her own and to know that we have her back should she mess up. And where did she learn this phrase? From us. Like if Becky needs a fork from the kitchen, I would say “I got it”. If I ask Becky to pick up a prescription from the store while out shopping, she’s “got it”. Three such simple words but such a different reason when used by a 3 year old and a mid 30’s person.
Sometimes, it really pays to listen to your crazy kid. They are saying more than you think.
You probably ALL know this but TCON is the Tennessee State Thespian Conference. It’s now held in Middle Tennessee (at MTSU) after years and years at Germantown High School (doesn’t it make more sense for a state conference to be in the MIDDLE of the state?). Anyway….
I could write this kind of post every week but this one has been extraordinary. Five externally women have helped take care of the kids while Mom (Becky) was away at a conference. So a big thank you again to Jenn Sanders, Patty Twaddle, Andrea Maguire and Arlenda Flannel and Keshia Williams. I wouldn’t have kept my little amount sanity without you.
Note – the week in question was back in January. I had both kids solo for the long MLK weekend and most nights the week before while the wife did rehearsals for both her spring musical AND a performance at said conference.
The world can be a hard, hard place. I think we all know that. This can be made even harder as a parent and compounded by being a person of color.
I’m no saint or even a great person. I don’t actually do much for the world as a whole. I donate blood 2 or 3 times a year – that’s it. Besides that, I give away my old junk to Goodwill. I try to spoil those I love at holidays or birthdays. I still send birthday cards in the mail – although Kid #2 has gravely disrupted this practice.
I will occasionally donate a Starbucks drink to the person behind me in the drive-thru line but, even then, I kind of want to wait around for the reaction. I hold doors open for everyone but again, if they don’t say “thank you”, I get a little irritated. I’m not the change I want to see in the world. I do believe in the Affordable Care Act as I believe everyone has a right to basic healthcare even if we have to pay a bit more money. I give my kids and my wife all that I have and whatever is left over, I try to split between my family, friends and myself.
I generally stick to myself end try to do things myself without asking for help. If I come to your house and you offer me a drink, I may be as thirsty as a camel in the desert but I might say no just out of habit. It’s just something in me. During a very difficult time for my family recently, a few random people in the world stepped in to make a few moments a lot more manageable. Thank you to:
These are all small actions but they were not asked for but just given. And even 2 weeks later, they are still embedded in my memory.
Our wonderful friend Jenn Sanders started a meal train for us so dinner would be one less thing to worry about. My co-worker Jonathan James (he of the T-Rex downtown Nashville run) donated a gift card to us as well a meal train started for us so dinner was one less thing we’d have to worry about. On the first night back, Andrea and the Maguire family welcomed us over for dinner, support and some time to have someone else love on the kids.
I’m not sure what my point here is. I guess just thanks and thanks and thanks. And sometimes…the world isn’t such a bad place. And the smallest of action can have the biggest of effects.