by Susan | Sep 19, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
I stumbled across this picture of Hannah and I taken at a wedding back in 2007. She was eight at the time. The photo was in an archive of the wedding images taken by someone else and I’d not seen it before. Discovering it felt a bit like Christmas morning.
by Susan | Sep 6, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
Today was the first day of high school for Hannah. Hand me a tissue, please. She is now a Lady Knight, playing JV Volleyball at Narraguagus High School. Today was her first high school sporting event and first ever volleyball match. She played one match and scored a...
by Susan | Aug 6, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
Why does fourteen seem so much older than thirteen? Today we celebrated Hannah’s fourteenth birthday. I’m troubled by the passing of this day – more so than any birthday before. Maybe it’s because she’s entering high school next month, no longer a little girl in...
by Susan | Jul 26, 2013 | On My Mind
We are fortunate to have a wonderful summer camp program run by EdGE, a program of the Maine Sea Coast Mission. Hannah has been attending the EdGE after school and summer programs for years. As a rising high school freshman, this is her last year to participate in the...
by Susan | Jun 17, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
Hannah has taken to making her own cards for special events. I think they are the best. She knows Paul longs for some goats to add more commotion to the Farm. Hence the subject for her Daddy’s Day card. When did she become such a talented artist? Don’t you...
by Susan | Jun 10, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
It’s been a long week full of firsts and endings. Hannah graduated from 8th grade tonight and officially moves on to high school. She has anticipated this day for weeks, excited about moving on to high school. The reality of it left her (and me) feeling a bit...
by Susan | May 4, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
Hannah needs an updated photo for 8th grade graduation festivities in the works, so we had a mini photo shoot this afternoon. She’s happy with my amateurish attempts. 8th grade graduation already? She’s growing up entirely too fast!
by Susan | Mar 19, 2013 | In the Kitchen
Thoughts of spring are on the back burner. Snow is falling, school let out early and the snowfall forecast is now 10-18 inches. There’s a pot of bean soup on the stove and French bread ready to go in the oven. It seems like a good day to introduce Hannah to...
by Susan | Feb 20, 2013 | Hannah's Cutting Board
This is vacation week and sadly, we’ve all been a bit under the weather. Hannah and Paul have “The Crud” for the second time around and I’ve finally succumbed. Needless to say we haven’t been doing a lot of fun vacationy kinds of things...
by Susan | Feb 14, 2013 | On My Mind
Paul and I shopped separately for our Valentine’s gifts for Hannah. What are the odds we both end up giving her the same card? Purchased in another town? Hope you spend Valentine’s Day with your sweetheart!
by Susan | Feb 7, 2013 | On My Mind
Hannah, age 13, has an email account. It’s rarely used. In my ongoing effort to watch over her and keep her safe online, incoming messages are copied to my email box. Midday, I saw a message allegedly from her arrive in her inbox and took a peak. The message was...
by Susan | Feb 4, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
Tonight was bittersweet. Junior High basketball season (dubbed the craziest season of all) is all but over. The girls played (and won) their last regular season game at home tonight. The eighth-grade players (all three of them) presented their mothers with flowers. A...
by Susan | Jan 26, 2013 | On the Farm
Hannah has been chomping at the bit to skate on the duck pond. After a week of highs in the single digits, Paul pronounced the pond officially frozen. So this morning she laced up her hand-me-down ice skates and inched her way out onto the ice. She’s not an...
by Susan | Dec 27, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
This is my latest favorite picture of Hannah. She’s snuggling Purfessor Snape (aka Boo). For Christmas I gave her a framed copy of this for her room. Snape is her best friend and Hannah is his human. He guards her. At night he’s parked on the foot of her...
by Susan | Dec 26, 2012 | Out and About in Maine
This morning, the day after Christmas, it seemed as if we were settling in to be couch potatoes. It was brrrr cold, but sunny – the calm before tomorrow’s storm – so I suggested a hike up Catherine’s Mountain. Hannah and I headed out with...
by Susan | Dec 24, 2012 | In the Kitchen
We finally got around to our Christmas cutout cookies this afternoon. Hannah decided rather than traditional Christmas cutouts, the cookies should be have a Downeast Thunder Farm sort of feel – moose, lobster, bears, and chickens. Quite the menagerie. A moose...
by Susan | Dec 11, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
A basketball game day, all of the players have to dress up (i.e., no jeans and jogging shoes). As I watched Hannah get ready, it struck me like a bolt of lightning that my little girl is growing up. From the borrowed scarf to dress up? a t-shirt to the tiny brush of...
by Susan | Dec 5, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
It’s junior high basketball season. That means between two jobs, and now with basketball pick ups, drop offs, and scheduling in games, I have entered the craziest season of the year. No, it’s not the holiday season – it’s basketball season. I...
by Susan | Nov 20, 2012 | Ducks, On the Farm
Yesterday morning, Hannah set her alarm for o’dark-thirty. By 6:15 a.m. she was out at the pond chipping away at the ice to make a swimming hole for the ducks. She worked at this for 30 minutes before the school bus arrived. I wonder how much longer this display...
by Susan | Nov 17, 2012 | On My Mind
Each of our five porch posts now bears one of these pretty balsam fir swags Hannah created. Hand-crafted, she decorated them with things she found in our woods – pine cones, white pine branches, and ribbons of birch bark finished off with a raffia bow. I’m...
