{"id":18361,"date":"2011-09-22T05:55:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T09:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=18361"},"modified":"2017-10-13T23:08:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T03:08:08","slug":"mountain-autumn-with-grandchildren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/22\/mountain-autumn-with-grandchildren\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Autumn with Grandchildren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old.<\/strong>
\n— Mary H. Waldrip<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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Laurel hikes the roads of Seven Devils Mountain.<\/p><\/div>\n

We brought 6 and 7 year-old grandchildren, Robert and Laurel, to our cabin in the mountains of western North Carolina for some quality time, a taste of fall and the cool weather.\u00c2\u00a0 It has rained all day every day with only occasional breaks in the weather.\u00c2\u00a0 But that hasn’t stopped us from savoring every minute of our time here.\u00c2\u00a0 Frankly, with all the sunshine we get in Florida, these misty, rainy days are a rare treat.<\/p>\n

The 12 hour trip from Florida was time well spent on what DIL Shelly calls “carschooling.”\u00c2\u00a0 Both Robert and Laurel finished a whole lesson from the Calvert curriculum they use–how’s that for using time wisely!\u00c2\u00a0 Shelly is one well-organized mama.<\/p>\n

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Shelly\u00c2\u00a0 “carschools” Laurel and Molly.<\/p><\/div>\n

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An extra history lesson was added to the school day\u00c2\u00a0 when we stopped at a fun Bantam Chef diner in tiny Chesnee, NC.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We all loved it!\u00c2\u00a0 A sizable display of authentic 50’s items decorated the eatery, whose menu offered such delights as the\u00c2\u00a0 Studeburger which was served in cute ’57 Chevy paper containers.<\/p>\n

For the children, it was a unique look at a time with which they were totally unfamiliar.\u00c2\u00a0 To Bob and me, it was a stroll down memory lane.<\/p>\n

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The children were fascinated with the display, especially Robert who has developed a taste for Elvis classics, which he discovered on Pandora radio.<\/p>\n

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What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars’ worth of pleasure. — Gene Perret<\/p><\/div>\n

This boy is his own man, from his favorite music to his Halloween costume choice—Odysseus!\u00c2\u00a0 What? I’ve got to get started on that get up! I wonder why a 6 year old would choose this ancient historical\/mythical character for the annual costume event.\u00c2\u00a0 When I asked him, he just shrugged and replied that Odysseus was a cool warrior who fought monsters and got to travel a lot.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems he has outgrown contemporary\u00c2\u00a0 superheroes.<\/p>\n

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They were intrigued by the jukebox to which they fed Granddad’s entire supply of quarters, selecting tunes and watching the old 45’s load into the player.\u00c2\u00a0 In an age of ipods, Pandora and downloaded music, this ancient device seemed\u00c2\u00a0 novel and unnecessary, but so cool!<\/p>\n

We had a lengthy of discussion about how things were when Bob and I were teenagers.\u00c2\u00a0 No color tv? What!?!? No computers?\u00c2\u00a0 Laurel was shocked enough to ask if we had a bathroom in the house.\u00c2\u00a0 Robert asked if Lincoln was president then.\u00c2\u00a0 Sigh….sometimes I feel that old, but not today!<\/p>\n

Since arriving at the cabin, it has been fun, fun, fun–at least after they complete their lessons in the morning.\u00c2\u00a0 Laurel and her mother love to hike and explore the area around the cabin.\u00c2\u00a0 Robert sees no value in covering that much yardage without a football tucked close to his body and another player chasing him.<\/p>\n

Laurel appreciates the mountain scenery and thought this spot (below) was especially pretty.\u00c2\u00a0 She wondered how much lovelier it would be with shafts of sunshine breaking through the trees.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps those art lessons are having some impact, or maybe she is just naturally appreciative of beauty.<\/p>\n

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While it rains, we’ve worked on county fair projects.<\/p>\n

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She has almost finished sewing the jumper she started (with a matching dress for Molly) and Robert Charles will be sewing a teepee bag for his football mouthpiece. This will be his first sewing experience.<\/p>\n

While hiking today,\u00c2\u00a0 Laurel found these end of summer flowers, a few fallen leaves and a feather.\u00c2\u00a0 She arranged them for a photograph which she will enter in the fair.<\/p>\n

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Robert and his grandfather have spent a lot of\u00c2\u00a0 time playing chess and throwing the football.\u00c2\u00a0 These male bonding sessions usually end in the hot tub.<\/p>\n

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At the end of each fun filled day, we make s’mores in the fireplace and drink hot cocoa.<\/p>\n

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Laurel wears her smocked bishop nightie. Robert wears mismatched pj’s. Who cares, he asks.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Then they climb up to the loft to be tucked in.\u00c2\u00a0 Each tomorrow is another busy day.\u00c2\u00a0 Tonight they sang together and giggled for about 15 minutes before falling asleep.\u00c2\u00a0 Hearing them, I could only smile and thank God for my precious, happy, healthy grandchildren.<\/p>\n

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In the morning, they’ll visit Linnville Caverns and check out the Linnville viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway.<\/p>\n

Does it get any better than this?\u00c2\u00a0 Only if grandson Alastair, his parents and our son had joined us here.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m not focusing on what is not, only on the joy of these children and these forever memory days.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old. — Mary H. Waldrip We brought 6 and 7 year-old grandchildren, Robert and Laurel, to our cabin in the mountains of western North Carolina for some quality time, a taste … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,42,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18361"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37301,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361\/revisions\/37301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}