The "Finnster, et al."

Will Begley is playing organized sports!  At our neighbor's suggestion, we started him with soccer.  Our neighbor dropped by the house one day to tell us that he though Will would be an excellent soccer player.  Well . . . If he was right - his prediction is yet to come to fruition.  He does look so cute in his uniform though.  Its not that Will is a terrible soccer player,  its more that Will's team needed A LOT of instruction. Will signed up to play on a 5/6 year old team.  However, over half of the kids on his team are four (4) years old. Most practices the coach spent a majority of the time just getting the kids to stand up.   Because of Finn's Cross County Schedule, I didn't get to attend many practices, but the of the practices I did get to attend, I can say that Will paid attention, followed instructions, and generally seemed to really enjoy himself.  So despite my frustration, I think that the experience was really positive for W...

The first big fundraiser of the year at Beech Elementary was the Fun Run.  Will brought his pledge paperwork home and sweet-talked all of his grandparents into to donating to his run.   I was able to go watch a few minutes of the run. It was pretty cute.  Each of the classes had  "walk-in" music.  Will's class walked in to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."  It is fun being the parent of a Kindergartener - they take everything so seriously!

We have been married 16 years.  To celebrate Michael and I went to eat hot chicken at 5th and Broad.  On our actual anniversary we went out with the Claytons and the Ponds to eat dinner and watch Stillwater. 

Will started Kindergarten this year!  We had not intended for him to be a Kindergartener this school year, but after moving to our new home - which is a stones throw from Beech Elementary School- we decided to enroll Will in school.   The plan is for Will to attend Kindergarten again at Davidson Academy next year.  This year he was supposed to be in K4 at DA.  But he also qualified (based on his age) to begin Kindergarten in the Sumner County public school system.  We decided to save our money and send him to "K4" at Beech.      He was a little confused at first, but generally liked the idea of being a "Buc."  Will's teacher is Mrs. Garrett.  She is a wonderful Kindergarten teacher and comes highly recommended by our other teacher friends.  Will also was able to start his Kindergarten year with his cousin Cade, his neighbor Helen, and his best friend from K3 at Davidson Academy Jack.  Jack's mom teaches at DA so I was rea...

This week Sam is home on his second ten (10) day quarantine of the month.  To put this in perspective, Sam has been in school since August 5th - today is August 31st.  He has spent more time at home this school year than at school thus far.  This is not the point of this post, but it is the backdrop.  Today, Sam rode with me to drop Finn and Will off at school.  As per our usually, we dropped Will off first at Beech and then dropped Finn at DA.  On our way to school we listened to the Bible Recap - Ezekiel 16-17 explaining how the Israelites loved the Father's gifts more than they loved the Father.  Sam had several questions.  After dropping Finn off at DA, Sam and I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts next to the school to get coffee and hot chocolate.   The line was terribly long so we sat in the car watched a music video that he and I made together.  It was a time lapse video all about Sam Begley set to music (Carry Me).  The photos s...

Today Will asked me to help him get Play Doh out of the containers. I wasn’t helping at the speed that Will thought sufficient. So he asked with a tone of frustration, “What are moms for?” I turned and curiously asked, “what are moms for?” He replied indignantly, “to help children!”  Loud and clear Will Begley, loud and clear. 

One day in September 2020, a little black chicken wandered into our yard. We had no idea from where she came.  We all thought that it was pretty neat that a chicken was in the yard - but we didn't think that she would stay very long.  As night fell, we noticed that the chicken was roosting in one of trees on the other side of the driveway.  When we woke up the next morning the chicken was pecking around the driveway.  We were stunned that she was still hanging around.  What made her continued presence all the more puzzling was the fact that she didn't seem to mind that she was constantly having to dodge certain death.  Meg, the cat that catches everything that moves (snakes, moles, birds), was always just a few feet behind ready to pounce on the chicken.  At first we kept Meg locked in the house until we could find the chicken's owner.  We wanted to return the chicken to the own alive instead of in a stew.  Much to both our surprise and her o...

As a Fifth Grader, Finn was able to participate for the first time in organized school sports at Davidson Academy.  In order to get in shape for other sports, Michael felt that it would be a good idea for Finn to run Cross Country.  Cross County practice began during the summer months.  The kids practiced every Monday through Thursday during the week.  Once school began they continued this same practice routine - but after school.  This caused quite a schedule stir for our family as Sam and Will were released from school at 3:00 and Finn did not finish practice until 4:30.  This meant that I regularly picked Finn up from practice. While the drive was not particularly fun, I really enjoyed my alone time in the car with Finn.  We were able to talk about a lot of thing in rush hour traffic.  We discussed politics, spiritual matter, bullies, relationships with friends, silly stuff and everything in between. I remember one day being astonished that he ...