"My dad is an Eagle Scout. I want to be an Eagle Scout, too."

"Never, never, never give up!"

~ Winston Churchill

From eleven-year-old first-year Boy Scout to Eagle Scout ...

Adam, Chris B, Jeremy C, and Jeffrey H

Adam presents his Eagle Project to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta/Scottish Rite - 26 handheld game systems and more than a hundred games for bed-bound pediatric patients.

With the blessing of the National Boy Scout Council, this chapter will close and another will open.

I'm very, very proud of you, Adam.


Love, Mom.

The Golden Ax

Troop 764, out of St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, WON THE GOLDEN AX COMPETITION at this year's Camporee at Bert Adam's Scout Reservation.

For the 4th year.

So they get to keep it.

Yes!

(To win, the troop has one solid piece of wood and one match. They have to make a fire with flames high enough to burn through two suspended strings, then cook a pancake and eat it. Sounds simple? That wood has to be chopped, split, render kindling and sufficient logs to build the fire, sustained and tended to reach the proper heat for cooking - all after days and days of pouring rain.)

Troop 764 also won the campsite award thanks to excellent set-up and management by patrols (they got their gear unloaded, set up tents, and stowed gear under rainproof tarps during a lull between downpours).

We learned all this last evening, during a ceremony at St. Luke's for the troop's 72nd Eagle Scout.

Very cool.

Church-wide luncheon and Easter Egg hunting

The rain broke in time for St. Luke's annual Spring Luncheon and Easter Egg Hunt. With a potluck, you never know what you'll get - just that it's all GOOD. Some years we have an amazing array of salads to go with the fried chicken provided by the church. This year, our family cooks were in a sweet mood, so the dessert table was laden with fresh pies, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, an amazing chocolate-banana trifle, strawberry shortcake, and more. We prepared a coconut sheet cake and surrounded it with hot pink Peeps bunnies, a huge hit with the Easter Egg hunters (as well as a few parents who grinned sheepishly and popped a Peep). Presbyterians love any opportunity to share and enjoy food, so the turnout was wonderful.

We had much to celebrate: a successful Mission Miles fundraiser (5K, fun run, and tot trot) that reached our goal for Youth Group missions, plentiful rain after a lengthy drought, a sleepover and camping trip for the tween and teen, and even a mini-date for T and me, margaritas and chips at El Azteca.

Meanwhile, back at Bert Adams Scout Reservation, the guys were breaking down their campsite and working hard to win the Golden Ax award for an unprecedented 4th year in a row. Can't wait to see how that one turned out. It rained the entire weekend, they had to shelter from a few severe storm warnings, yet still they had a great time, according to A, now en route back home.

The cycle of Church events and services punctuates the year, keeping us all attuned to the intertwining patterns of spiritual and everyday life. Easter means the end of another winter, the transition to the calmer days of summer, and the moment-by-moment miracles of life and living. It's poignant to hear the Cherub Choir sing "All Things Bright And Beautiful" and gather baskets in hand for the hunt - just a few short years ago, our children were wriggling and singing while their eyes were poised on the prizes waiting in a few dozen plastic eggs. Now they're in a new, wonderful time of life and just as entranced with each discovery and experience.

It's Spring. In happiness and hardship, through warming sun and gusting storms, without interruption life blossoms once again.

Take a hike

Ten miles. That's how far the kids and I hiked this morning. We looped through Dunwoody, headed over to the Perimeter Mall area, then trekked up Ashford-Dunwoody, back through the Village, and home. Finished in just under 3 hours, with a stop at Starbucks. Urban hiking rocks!

A has to complete five ten-mile hikes plus one 20-mile hike to earn his Hiking Merit Badge. That, and Personal Fitness, are all that stand between him and his Eagle project. It was a great morning for a hike - overcast, 50's. He's already completed hikes on the Big Creek greenway at North Point and Stone Mountain Park. He opted for an urban hike this time so he'd have access to restroom facilities. Just two days since Remicade, and things are still settling down. These physical merit badges are really hard for A, but he's gamely trying to meet the requirements.

It's been a hard month on so many people around us. One lost her mother to a horrible automobile accident and weeks of hospitalization. A friend is in the Northside ICU with double pneumonia and collapsed lungs. She has three girls between the ages of 5 and 14. Two weeks on a ventilator and still counting. Another mom of three young girls between the ages of 2 and 10) visited her last Tuesday, then was admitted to the same ICU the next day with Type H Influenza (the 1918 strain that was so deadly). Flu has been roaring through our preschools and schools here in Dunwoody. She contracted one of the rarer strains that is always around, but usually affects only the very young and the very elderly. She's in critical condition, also on a ventilator.

Awful.

I worry about A being exposed to flu and pneumonia - his immune system is compromised at best, and at the moment it's completely suppressed thanks to Remicade. But we can't keep him in a bubble, so keep hoping and praying for the best.

Knitting Progress

• Finished: another prayer shawl for the knitting ministry at St. Luke's. This one, also in the Comfort Shawl pattern, combined black and cream in yarns of various textures.
• 90% complete: At the instep for Jaywalker #2! I expect to finish it in the next few days, thanks to some unexpected waiting room time at Curry Honda. The van's transmission is hinky.
• Starting: Swatching for a felted runner idea, Ice Queen.
  
• On hold (temporarily): Mukluks.
  

Special delivery

Each Spring, my son's Scout troop has its major fundraiser: selling and delivering pine straw. It's very popular in Dunwoody and a terrific project for the boys. They easily fill two large moving trucks with bales and spend an entire Saturday making their deliveries on well-orchestrated routes. It's exhausting, filthy work and they really get into it.

For two years now, the guys have added a special tradition to the fundraiser. When they get to our house (and they make sure T isn't one of the parent drivers for that route), they get a little . . . creative . . . in their delivery.

Hence, I arrive home to these imaginative delivery spots. Those bales in the tree are better than 8 feet off the ground, so I'm sure a couple of the taller Scouts had some special fun. I certainly did, trying to get them down.

Males between the ages of 11 and 17 are amazingly creative when it comes to monkeyshines. And lest you think they're working unsupervised, I have photographic evidence that adults were not only aiding, but gleefully abetting.

The this year's Pine Straw Fundraising project has just begun.

Can't wait to see where my straw lands this year.

Unexpected blessings

Today's Scout Sunday service went off without a hitch, despite 20-degree temps, snow on the ground, occasional patches of ice and an incorrect notice on the local news that the entire service had been canceled. Oops.

So many things made the morning extra special. Crisp blue skies, snow still on the ground and frigid air just made the sanctuary all the cozier. A founding member of our church celebrated her 100th birthday. Our knitting circle presented her with a prayer shawl and the congregation rang the rafters with an ovation. Six babies and children were baptized. A large contingent of Troop 764 scouts, leaders, and parents led and participated in the service. Nearly every boy who'd volunteered was there. The weather and three-day weekend were great excuses to opt out, but they proudly served.

While I've been thinking about the next knitting projects in the queue, KA, who is a member of our church knitting circle and chair of the Outreach committee, has been thinking selflessly about the needs of others. The homeless shelter in downtown Atlanta needs caps and scarves immediately. I'd just finished a prayer shawl and turned it in, so now I'm setting aside Jaywalker for a couple of weeks while I whip up some warmth in manly colors.

Tomorrow is T's birthday (one of those epochal decade markers), but he's traveling on business. The kids and I are taking him out for lunch today and celebrating with cake and presents this evening. He loves German Chocolate cake - the house is going to smell really good this afternoon!

Knitting up a party

Glad tidings . . . I've finished my knitting gifts, satisfied the hard-to-find yearnings for friends and family, baked the last batch of cookies and breads for exchanges, and settled in for the heart of the holiday.

Today I'm leaving work a bit early to attend the Christmas party for my knitting circle. I call it "my" knitting circle even though my job now precludes regular attendance. I love the ROCKers - such a delightful mix of personalities that meld beautifully together. I have my treat to warm up in the Nature Center kitchen, a knitting project in hand, and I'm on my way!

The St. Luke's Presbyterian Church Rockers (Reaching Out Through Crocheting and Knitting) has a mission of creating layettes for stillborns through Share Atlanta, a wonderful grassroots bereavement organization that does wonderful work for parents of children who don't come home from the hospital. That's awfully hard to say, let alone experience. We create luscious, soft blankets, hats, and booties in a range of sizes, from premature to full term. Nurses wrap the babies in these hand-knit gifts and give parents time to hold their child and say good-bye. The parents keep the sets as a keepsake. I try to make one set each month . . . our circle has made hundreds of sets in the past two years.

The Einstein Coat is still in progress - the lower section is half finished. I want to finish it pretty soon because it already feels heavy and warm. I added a few inches to the length so it'll hit me mid-thigh. Since designer Sally Melville cautioned that the coat lengthens with wear, I hope it'll eventually come to just above the knee.

One of my many pleasures is teaching phonics to preschoolers. My business, Preschool Phonics, means I get to stay in the preschool world long after my own children have moved on to tween and teendom. After six years, my little "graduates" number more than 220, which means I run into familiar faces at the grocery store, elementary school, music studio, pool, and everywhere in Dunwoody we roam. They love to tell me what they're reading. Introducing them to phonics concepts is the core of the classes, but nurturing excitement about reading is equally important. It's so much fun to see those light bulbs click on.

Then, of course, comes a time when they don't recognize me anymore. Hey - three years is a long time to a seven-year-old! That happened at my son's most recent Boy Scout meeting, a Court of Honor when he was recognized for completing 100+ service hours and receiving the Presidential Service Award (wow). A little Phonics friend was there, watching his own brother advance in rank. M didn't recognize me at all! Ah, well. I have enough memory for both of us.

Making Do Pointer #4
School - whether public or private - will not meet all of your child's needs. Since my children were in preschool, we've had "Mom School" during the summer. I've focused on content that was inadequate or not mastered so that my children could be comfortable with each subject. I've seen many discussions about the concept of summer school in the home - that kids need time off, that summer should be carefree. An hour in the morning isn't a burden for my children, and it's such a habit for them that they are completely comfortable with the lessons. Part of Mom School is also reading for pleasure. I want to make sure, particularly as my kids get older, that t hey continue to read books they enjoy because required reading takes over so much of their time in the upper grades during the school year.