five things april 13th edition

Lucy waits for the weekend.

1. I think I'm getting a handle on things. Isn't that about the craziest thing you've ever heard? The house is a wreck and I have a ton to do, but still. I have the handle in my hand at least.
2. I think Neel and I have a hot date tonight. Hotter even than the night when we went to the grocery store. We're chaperoning Callum's Cotillion. I know. I don't know if I'm allowed to take pictures, but I'll try to sneak in at least one Instagram photo and recap the event on Monday Mash-Up.
3. I think I should probably give some more serious thought to the fact that my birthday is coming up. You know how some years you think about your birthday a lot and other years it slips past you? This is a slip past kind of year. For starters, it's on a Monday, and yawn. Who wants a birthday on a Monday? Callum's forensics competition is the Sunday before, so that kind of kills that day. We're all so busy right now and Neel will be heading out of town for a chunk of time right after. No one is feeling really celebratory. I'm totally okay with that, but I am starting to wonder if I need to start thinking about getting myself a little present. Thoughts?
4. I think that despite my disinterest in shopping, we still need some things. We have a new media cabinet (finally, thank you Lord), but we need dining room chairs, a desk for the family room and a very specific, as-yet unfindable liquor cabinet for our butler's pantry. So see! All hope is not lost.
5. I think I'm envious of all the great links you guys always find, and I'm just going to say that I'm hopeless at that. But Callum found some great Instagrammers who are posting awesome photos of beagles and corgis. Even he's better at seeking out this stuff than me.

big day {life}

Big day for our boy yesterday.

A blazer and tie kind of day.

We spent a good portion of the morning getting ready.

Neel found the buttons the hardest part. I finally had to step in.

Ever since he was able, Callum has participated in a local public speaking tournament. Several of the area schools are involved, and students in fourth through eighth grade compete in cagetories such as poetry, story telling, original oratory and prose. At his old school, Callum first participated in original oratory in fourth grade. Originial oratory is where you research and write an essay taking a stand on a topic. Last year, at his new school, he tried out for prose. His new school is much bigger than his old school, and it's quite competetive to even get on the team. First are the tryouts in the fall to make it on the team. Then, after working hard all winter, everyone on the team participates in a Speak-Off to see who ultimately goes to the competition. The rules of the competition dictate that only two boys and two girls are permitted to compete in each category, and his school has worked it out that this is the fairest way possible. Still, sounds pretty brutal, doesn't it? But these kids are tough, and they work hard. Last year Cal made it to the Speak-Off and fell just short. He was an alternate to the competition. He was disappointed, but not deterred.

Yesterday was the Speak-Off for this year's competition.

Parents are invited to the Speak-Off, and we get to see the results of our kids' hard work. It's nervewracking.

He pretty much hit it out of the park.

Callum's sixth grade homeroom came to watch the competition (harder to perform in front of them, perhaps than in front of a bunch of judges!), and as Neel and I headed down the hall to leave after the Speak-Off, we heard all his friends cheer as Callum walked back into his class. He had to wait all day to get the results of the judge's decision, but you know what?

He made the team.

dispatch from the front lines {life}

I'm here. I'm here. I know that my desk looks relatively clutter free, but it hides the chaos in my mind. It's pretty amazing what losing one day to an ear infection (not mine) and one to Ikea (although I wouldn't call that lost, exactly) can do to set you behind. There's not a lot to report from here. I'm madly trying to meet about twenty bajillion different deadlines. My eyes are tired. We went to the mall Monday night to get Callum new shoes and the boy took for-ever picking them out. Longer than me. In the meantime Neel got a new phone, and I got exactly NOTHING. Not even lipstick.

Which brings me to an alarming point (and one that has my husband quite gleeful). The shopping urge seems to have, ahem, left me. I have some specific things I want (J. Crew cropped pants, new lipstick, a new handbag/smaller camera bag (oh, and a new camera lens, but that doesn't count), but the urge to just go and get things.....heavy sigh. Gone. Should I be concerned? Trust me, Neel isn't.

I did get out to the grocery store yesterday (now that was thrilling), and I said "hi" to this woman who looked vaguely familiar. It was an okay "hi." Not stalkerish. And it was only after I said it and she did too did I think, does she look familiar (remember, I work alone all day, people)? Anyway, I went about the rest of my shopping (and maybe I should do this everyday because the check-out ladies were so sweet to chat with!), and as I was getting in my car, I saw that same woman come out of the grocery store and get into her car without any groceries. Who goes to the grocery store just to browse? I know I left the mall last night empty handed (even though Callum left with shoes and Neel left with a phone), but I don't think I've ever left the grocery store empty handed. She didn't even have a muffin.

I um, kind of darkened burned the latest batch of Chex Mix (And if you can get Chex cereal, you can find the recipe on the box. I've been making it for so many years now that I kinda wing it, and I'm happy to share my version, if you want. The less-dark variety, that is.), which could be problematic when it comes to making our own. You have to watch that stuff every minute, apparently. Erin was a dear and hooked me up with several possible containers, and we even looked at one at Ikea, but dude we need BIG. I think I was envisioning more wide than deep, so I guess there's some shopping I still have to do.

We got Callum's dresser put together, but there's much left undone. I need a whole other Easter break just to recycle the flat-pack boxes.

Monday Mash Up, April 9

What a weird weekend this was. Did everybody (who celebrates Easter, that is) have a nice Easter? I told you I thought we'd low-key it; I just didn't know quite how low key we'd get. Callum had Friday off from school, and while I worked he hung out. Saw some friends briefly, but kicked it around the house. We had an appointment for some baseball stuff at five and went for dinner afterward. (I could mention that I wasn't the biggest fan of the restaurant Neel suggested before we got there, but that's okay. He agrees with me now.) I noticed that Callum was looking a little glassy-eyed at the baseball stuff, but didn't think much of it, given all the allergies we've been dealing with. (And seriously, at one point this week, I thought about doing this as a Google search: Cold or allergies: who the hell cares?) Ah, but sure enough, around 10 Friday night, Cal's ear started hurting.

Why is it always at 10 on a Friday night?

He hasn't had an ear infection in years, people. But we remember. Poor guy was miserable. Restless and in pain. We tried to go to bed, but had to come downstairs and doze off to a ball game on ESPN. First thing Saturday morning we were off to Urgent Care insted of Ikea the way we planned. That was a huge bummer. And the kicker? Not just one ear infection, but TWO. And a likely sinus infection too. Lordy, boy.

Neel suggested that since we didn't have plans for dinner that night, we push our Easter meal forward a day and try for Ikea on Sunday (and like an Easter miracle they WERE open!). So we went even more low-key than we'd originally planned. All I can say is thank goodness for Neel. I pulled a potato recipe from the April Everyday Food magazine I'd just received (And what's up with that? Aren't they supposed to come mid-March?), tossed some boiled eggs on top of some steamed asparagus (and trust me, I have whole posts to write about asparagus), and threw the ham in the oven. We ate in front of Oceans 12. We were partway through the marathon. We dyed some eggs. We ate some cookies. We pushed on through.

Callum managed Ikea on Sunday. We all did. I felt lousy enough (Cold or allergies: who the hell cares? All I know is I'm coughing like a tuberculin patient on her last days in the sanatorium and I have no voice.) that I actually ordered TWO Dr. Peppers before we headed home. I don't ever, ever, ever drink soda so this was a BIG DEAL for me. They were so, so freaking awesome. All in all, it was a pretty successful day. 

Cal likes his new dresser, and I'm glad we were able to fit everything in the car (Which, Erin, is named Bernie Mac, by the way.). More important to my boy, perhaps, is that we let him hop on Instagram. He's @calhound and would love some followers. It's a social media gateway drug, I get that. But it's one I can get on board with and control. So we're fine with it.

Oh! Did you happen to see? We were on the news a lot on Friday. Not us personally, but our little community. When this happened. We'd actually anticipated it for awhile, but it was still pretty stunning. More stunning was that no one was killed. The actuall crash site is about 20 miles from our house, but it's in an area we used to frequent regularly. Callum's old school was blocks from where the crash happened. My doctor is down there, and I have friends who live and work down that way too. The jets fly low and are loud, and it's long been a concern for the community that the civilians bump so very closely to the movements of the military. It was very much a concern for us when Cal was in school down there. His school was and still is in the flight path. The noise from the jets is hard on little ears, and in the backs of our heads was always the worry about a crash just like what happened on Friday. Still, no matter those safety concerns, I've always been proud to be neighbors with these hard working men and women. That was as true Friday as any other day. You can read it in the article I linked to, but the pilot had to be cut down from the building they crashed into...they'd ejected at the last possible second. And then he apologized to the people who helped him for destroying their homes. Pretty impressive, that. We're so grateful that no one was killed or more gravely hurt.

How are you guys? Was your weekend better than mine? I'm banking on an uneventful week after all this. April feels booked solid and my birthday is coming up, so it had better be.

five things april 6th edition

1. I think that despite the fact that I haven't had the time or energy to comment on your blogs this week, reading them has been a real delight. Kept me going. Also, see #3.
2. I think we're trying to decide how to do a gardening post for Neel. I have tons of photos, a lot from last weekend. And I could trot them out as we go. But right now I'm thinking of saving them so Neel can write his own post. I feel sure that like Callum's, his post will include the phrase "So, so freaking good," in relation to something...
3. I think one of the most lighthearted moments of my week was the 20 or so minutes Erin and I spent tweeting about this and all its counterparts. I think we might need a movie marathon this weekend. Because nothing says Easter like a good caper movie.
4. I think I'm not so great at Easter. We're not terribly churchy, so that's part of it, and we have no family around us. Sometimes it feels hard to trot out a big meal for just the three of us, but that's likely what we'll do. I should start thinking about that.
5. I think it's pretty nice how even though I have to work today and Monday that with Callum having those days off it feels like a four-day weekend. I could use a four-day weekend. What are you up to, pups? We might head to Ikea tomorrow. Callum needs a dresser. He's using the dresser that I used when I was a baby! And then Sunday, well, that's Easter. And you can see how far I've gotten with that. Any suggestions?

love you, ducks! happy weekend! xo

snacks? check {life}

For us, the hardest part about Callum getting braces was giving up popcorn. We've been eating popcorn as a snack around here since he was the smallest of babes, and I had to pick off the fluffy bits so he wouldn't choke on the kernels and husks. Back then we called it "pop-pop." Fast forward to the school years and popcorn was an afternoon staple around here. The first snack Callum could really make himself.

It's been nearly a year now, and I'm still struggling to find a good after-school snack (boy needs to eat when he gets home) that's not too over-the-top unhealthy, is satisfying and that Cal can manage himself. Lately we've been buying Chex Mix at the grocery store and gobbling bag after bag of that. Apparently we need crunch. Every winter, at Christmastime, I make homemade Chex Mix for us to snack on...it's a tradition around these parts. And while I'd thought about making Chex Mix for our everyday, somehow I resisted. I wanted our traditional holiday snack to still feel special.

This weekend I caved. I'm tired of buying bags of Chex Mix (tasty though it is) with processed ingredients when we all love the homemade versions so much. When I make it, we determine the mix of stuff (heavy on chex, heavy on nuts, light on pretzels), and while it's not completely healthy (can you say butter?), at least I know what's in it.

My decision to cave and go ahead and make it, off season, was met with universal praise. 100% of my constituents approved. I have two problems now, however. First, living with this stuff in the house while I'm working home alone all day. And second, if a big container of this manna from heaven is going to sit on my counter, I am going to need a prettier, air-tight container. Can you get on that for me, Erin?

peppered {still+life}

Hi guys! Just popping in for a quick sec to say I'm totally swamped and overwhelmed and slurpy from these #(@&! miserable allergies today. I caught Callum's allergy. Thanks! I'm so lucky though. I got to take some great pictures this week. You're going to have to wait a bit longer though, and for the ones from this weekend too. I need to get them delivered before I can blog about them and my people won't be picking them up until Thursday. So patience my friends. That particular post will be worth the wait, I promise. In the meantime, Callum has been totally absorbed by this (and who wouldn't be, I ask you?).

When he's not listening to this, at least. He turned in his Patton project yesterday, and Neel had it playing when he came downstairs. If you can, listen to the whole thing. It's pretty much a hoot. I was planning to write a whole post about how we celebrated (steak on the grill and Ocean's Twelve), but man, I'm worn out. I don't want to forget this part though. This project took all winter. It was his first big research project and his teachers did a great job guiding the kids through the process: notecards, bibliography, outlines, rough drafts. The whole smash. (In case you were wondering, Lucy did her project on Julia Roberts, Thea's was on Eleanor Roosevelt and Violet did her project on Momma.) Yesterday morning, as we crossed things off the checklist and placed each part of his project gently in his folder, he turns to me and says, "Will I ever do another one of these?"

Oh, Callum.

one pot (for annie) {life}

Now that we're firmly moving into warmer weather and gloriously long spring and summer days, I thought it was high time I gave Annie the recipe for the hearty, one-pot sausage and bean dinner that regularly graces our weeknight evenings.

I feel bad that it took me so long.

This is a ridiculuously easy meal that we make ridiculously often. On this particular night, I baked everything in the oven, but often enough, I'll simmer it on the stovetop. It's all in one pot, either way.

Beans, tomatoes, onions, chicken sausage, garlic, a splash (or seven) of sherry and some vinegar to finish (one of the best tricks I learned from the Kitchen Counter Cooking School), and you have a perfect meal without a lot of fuss or cleanup.

Thinking that my family was tired of it, I'd stopped making it for a few weeks, but one night when pressed for time (and we generally always have these staples in the house), I popped it back into the rotation. When I told Callum what we were having for dinner, he said, "I love that meal." So in the rotation it stays. I'm sure it'll be just as good all summer...

Here are the deets:

Two cans white beans (I use great northern)
1 white onion, chopped in wedges
Any tomatoes you have on hand, roughly chopped (I halved a handful or two of red & yellow cherrys)
Some garlic cloves
A pack of chicken sausage (or any sausage, really)
Sherry
Balsalmic vinegar

IF you're doing this on the stove top, in a heavy skillet, slice the sausage into inch rounds and then lightly saute to release some of the oil, then add the onion and garlic. Once soft, add the beans, tomato and some sherry. You could also add some brown sugar if you want. Let this all burble nicely together for awhile (as long as you want, really), until ready to serve. Once ready to serve, add a splash of vinegar and stir.

IF you're doing this in the oven, put all the ingredients (except the vinegar) into a baking dish at once. Instead of slicing the sausage into rounds, make some slashes into each link and place on top of the beans. Pop the dish into a 375º oven for 30-45 minutes. This is a very forgiving meal (When we made it the night I took these photos, Cal & Neel were over half an hour late from school and dinner sat just fine. All was well.), so you can fudge on the longer end if you need. When ready, add a splash or two of vinegar and stir and serve.

Monday Mash Up, April 2

All things being equal, we had a pretty decent weekend. I was a photo-taking fool all weekend long. My back aches from bending over my table at my studio, and my hand feels permanently fused to my camera. I'm not complaining! Some of the photos I'll share with you this week. Not all, though. Sorry. I'll feed them to you in tantalizing (I hope) bits. That bottom right picture will have to suffice for now.

Callum has been absolutely miserable with allergies this week (hence the inhaler). On Thursday after baseball practice he had to stay up late doing homework and still didn't finish. After getting up early to complete it Friday morning, I promised him dinner of his choice that night (Somehow I don't think those were the parenting tips you guys were talking about!). His friends were home that night, so we took them along, and I'm so glad we did! We tend to hunker down on Friday nights. Maybe catch a drink in the front yard with neighbors, but by the end of the week, we're worn out and we cherish our time alone just us guys. Neel had the thought to invite Brian and Jimmy along to dinner, and it means so much to me to be spontaneously generous like this. Both for those boys and for Callum. He rides into school with them every day of the week, eats lunch over there many a Saturday, and is generally absorbed into that family in the best of ways. Anytime I can do something in return, I want to. Plus, it was just fun! Brian and Jimmy had never been to hibachi before, and we had to walk them through it a bit, but after the chef left, Brian turned to us and said, "This place is pretty awesome!"

Cal's baseball game was cool and drizzly. We kept hoping the rain would stay away and fortunately it did. Everytime it looked like it was going to dry up, I'd put my umbrella down and it would start drip, drip, drip again. Finally I just kept my umbrella up the whole dang time. I really, really promise that this won't become a baseball blog. But I have to tell you a little bit about what happened on Saturday. Cal's team won 21-1. They had to call the game after two hours for time, and thank goodness really. You know it's bad when you're pulling for the other team to get a hit, score, do anything. I love sport, and winning's great, but there's little joy in a victory like that. But here's an excerpt from the email that Cal's coach sent after the game. I hope everyone understands why we pulled back the attack against (the other team.)  I could tell some of the boys were getting frustrated by not being able to keep running and scoring.  I will never ask a player to get out intentionally, but if the game is very one sided I will hold them back from stealing and extending base hits.  After the game multiple parents from (the other team) approached me to say thank you for not running up the score and making it worse than it was.  With all that being said, I couldn't be prouder of the boys today. Compare that to what college fans did after a WIN in a basket ball game (As my dad said, way to stay classy, Kentucky). I love Callum's coach, and I'm so grateful that my son gets to learn from him.

Saturday night, we missed Earth Hour for the first time in years and got totally absorbed by Storage Wars on A&E. Why have I never seen this? It's like Antiques Roadshow, but livlier!

Sunday, was, of course, the grocery store and more photographs. The weather was glorious here. Neel spent the day in the garden. He's putting in a new fence, panel by panel, and he asked me and Callum to help him get one board level. After he got the board screwed in, the level fell on my head. That didn't feel great but we survive these things. When it first happened (big metal level falling from a height and bouncing off my head), it hurt a lot. Cal was so sweet. He rushed and grabbed me a Gatorade and sat me down. I'm fine. Harder headed than I thought, I suppose.

It hasn't been all base hits and gorgeous blooming phlox this weekend. Callum has felt really miserable pretty much the whole go, coughing and sore throat. No fun. Not the best of moods perhaps either. As he gets older, I feel the need to be careful of how much of his internal life I share, but suffice it to say, he's, well we've, had a rough day or so. As I sat on his bed late last night, standing my ground on some point or another, I was reminded of you guys. Saying that you wanted parenting tips. HA! Me in my jammies, forehead wearily resting in my hand as we argued around and around, and his cough echoed in my ears. I think about all those mommy bloggers out there. What are they writing about? Planning birthday parties? I'm terrible at those. Potty training? Those days are long behind me (although we did manage them pretty successfully, if I do say so) What to feed a picky eater? Callum never was a picky eater. What could I possibly say that hasn't already been said? Especially when I am, so often, uncertain of the job I'm doing. So maybe one day I'll write about this journey I've been on as a parent...taking the long view, rather than the day to day that you see here so often. It is the greatest, hardest job. Raising him is the single most significant thing I've ever done.

Remember this? The whole time I've been writing this post, Lucy has been barking at a step. A step. The dog's crates, food and water are all in a sun porch off our living room, just one step down from the main part of the house. Neel tripped coming up that step (it's also the room where he's been starting his seeds this early spring), and broke off the tile on the step to reveal the wood beneath. So the step looks different and feels different. And Lucy has been barking at it. Not constant barking. Intermittent. Every so often she'll come into the family room and bark at Neel. Her room is broken. It's pretty sweet.

five things, march 30th edition

1. I think I am utterly humbled and have no words to thank you enough for all the love and support you showed my boy on his blog post this week. He couldn't wait to do it and was so excited to read all of your comments. From around the world! That you took the time to write such thoughtful words to him means the world to me. That some of you who read, but rarely comment were willing to do so for him touches me beyond what I can express. I am an odd sort of sentimentalist. I fall sappy at funny times. Callum always expects me to tear up and cry at movies (and that stupid baseball poem), but really, I am rarely moved by ... I don't know ... (she flaps her hands helplessly) stuff. I tend to be pretty matter-of-fact, so he doesn't know how lucky he is (to not have an overly weepy momma). All of this to say, I was very, very moved by your support of us. I didn't want to say so in the comments of Cal's post; it was his post after all. But from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
2. I think I am such a worrier. I wake up worrying about the tree that has bare patches that aren't budding and why the peonies haven't come up. I worry about homework, and how we'll manage our new baseball schedule. I worry that I'm letting people down and leaving things undone. I'm pretty sure that the only thing that will calm my monkey-mind is some shopping. And a facial. It's been far too long for both.
3. I think I need someone to explain to me why all the moisturizers that have SPF in them have to smell like sunscreen. I need recommendations people. Preferably something with retinol, for oily skin and not too smelly.
4. I think I was very clever to have figured out how to manage our new baseball schedule (one worry managed!). We're not even coming home. On baseball game nights, I'm picking Cal up from school and taking him to Panera for dinner (free Wi-Fi!) to grab a bite to eat and do some homework. Then we head to the ball field, and Neel meets us there. It's not ideal, but it's better than coming home and heading back out again.
5. I think if you live in the U.S., you can't turn on the news without hearing the story of Trayvon Martin. Mark's going to stop reading right now. He hates it when I get political. I never get political. I feel political, but here, at least, I don't get political. And I still won't. That's not what this blog is about. But Travon Martin was somone's son, and I have a son. Every cool morning Cal wears a hoodie much like the hoodie that Trayvon Martin was wearing. He mostly does it only when I tell him to, but still. It's his go-to outerwear of choice. A boy, a man-child, should be able to wear a hoodie and walk home without fear of being shot. Without fearing the man that's following him in the car. I am not saying this very eloquently, but I see my own boy walk out the door to school in his "sweet new kicks" with his hoodie pulled up, and my heart breaks for that family. So when I hear them say, "We are Trayvon," I understand.

chasing spring {life}

I'd feared, with such a warm winter, that spring would be something of a let down. It hasn't been.

Our front yard is exceptionally beautiful at this time of year. The phlox are coming in, the azaleas are starting to pop and the peonies are pushing their way above the earth. But it's this particular corner that always has us swooning. Scarlet azalea, pink redbud (already turning green), all against the purple of our fence, the green of our steps and the gray of our house. The earth is coming back to life in glorious fashion. Even on this dreary gray day, the vibrance of this pocket of my yard amazes me. However.

Spring's dark side.

Her evil sister. The pollen that coats every surface. Pretty remarkable, isn't it? If it rains, you can see it pool around the edges of the puddles. This particular pollen is from the pines. Unwelcome visitor.

Totally worth it though.

Callum Sees City Life {life}

Hi, this is Callum. This picture is taken from a dock along the Ashley and Cooper rivers and the bridge feels like the Gateway to Charleston. I came to Charleston with my camera to take pictures for a geometry project I had for school, but using a camera piqued (vocab word!) my interest in photography and made me want to take pictures like my mom. The bridge has triangles and they were the first of many triangles I saw in the city I named the Triangle City.

The photograph on the left is of our beautiful hotel, the Mills House, and the picture on the right is of one of the many beautiful houses in Charleston.

This is our lovely but quite skittish horse Jasper who gave us a wonderful carriage tour of Charleston. We saw lots of beautiful Victorian homes and century-old churches. The only sad part about the tour was that my mom dropped a tin of lip balm in the middle of the street. We went back to check on it after the tour, but it was crushed (probably by a horse).

For lunch one day we went to the restaurant Slightly North of Broad where we had the gift of sitting by the kitchen where we could see the food being made and the fresh produce.

Because we were on vacation, my mom and dad let me have a wonderful Coke.

For an appetizer we had mussels, and they were SO SO freaking good. This was a good thing because since I wanted to try something new I ordered chicken livers which I didn't like so much. Then my dad gave me his drum fish which was too tough for me so we all nibbled on my mom's beef carpaccio. The other nice part about this restaurant was that this was the real start of my photography adventures in Charleston. After that I was literally addicted to taking picutres.

This was the restaurant where we had dinner. I had rockfish. The best part was the duck fat fries. It was a good thing the food was so good because we walked a two thousand nine hundred million miles to get there.

On our tedious (vocab word!) walk back from Lana, we were pleased by the site of this cool fire station. Here's the engine.

This is the boat that we took to go to the famous Fort Sumter where the Civil War started.

This was our first close up of the fort.

Nearing the end of our visit at Fort Sumter, we were suddenly bombarded! We had to run back onto the boat for shelter.

On our last morning in Charleston, we finally went to a bakery that I'd seen at the beginning of our trip and had wanted to go to the whole time! This is an image I took of the outside of the bakery.

The picture on the left are the baguettes you saw from the outside picture. On the right you have an image of my delectable (vocab word!) cream cheese bagle that I got for breakfast that morning. As I said before this was our last day and the end of the beginning of my first chapter in photography.

opening day {life}

Finally, finally baseball season is here.

Callum has been waiting for this day for weeks. As soon as he got up, he had his game face on.

Saturday was Opening Day of our Little League season.

There's a lot of history surrounding baseball in the United States, and a lot of history surrounding Little League too. As you may remember, Callum started playing baseball for the first time ever this past fall. It was Little League Lite.

We learned this fall that the Little League where Callum was playing was going through a sad transition. For various reasons, Fleet Park Little League, which had been in existence for more than 50 years had to leave the facility that serves nearly 500 kids a season. We'd missed all the strife of trying to stay in the same location. And we missed all the strife of trying to find a new one. By the time Callum started playing baseball, an agreement had been met with another city Little League and plans were set in motion for Fleet Park to continue as a joint operation. All that was left to do last fall was say goodbye. Even for us, who'd been there such a short amount of time, saying good-bye to Fleet Park was hard. The Little League had invested $100,000 into the facility over the years, and it took as much as it could with them. Our city really stepped up. Nearly $200,000 was invested in the Little League that we joined, in rebuilding dugouts and regrading fields. Lights were transfered and scoreboards too. There were construction setbacks and weather setbacks, but everywhere people stepped up. The city stepped up and found money and people to help make this season happen, and dozens of volunteers from local businesses to parents and coaches chipped in to make Saturday happen. It was a beautiful thing.

So the Opening Ceremonies were quite impressive and featured a local sports anchorman, a city councilman and the vice mayor. I would have perhaps suggested that they have brought the big kids onto the field first and save the little guys for last (they got quite wiggly as the speakers went on and on and on), but nobody asked me! For those of you not familiar with Little League, the boys teams are named after Major League Baseball teams, like the Yankees, and the Braves. The Girls Softball teams have awesome names like The Ladybugs and Violet's favorite, The Pony Tails!

Callum's on the Red Sox. If you understand anything about American Baseball, you'll understand that we're all trying to come to grips with that.

Most impressive to the kids was RipTide, the mascot for our local minor league team. When I saw that he was grabbing cameras from people, I quietly slid mine behind my back. Even though I was using Old Faithful, there was no way he was getting his hands on my camera!

The ceremony was sweet, with a banner contest, and the Little League pledge, and the national anthem, but really, everyone was itching to play. And finally it was time to get to the field.

One of the things I love about baseball is the ceremony of it. I grew up watching baseball with my dad as a kid and listening to World Series games on the radio in the fall. Little League is that same world made small.

The umpires chat before the game.

The batting helemts await their hitter's turns at the plate.

The chalk lines the infield and the kids warm up, tossing balls from base to base before the game. It's all the same.

The boys sit in the dugout, getting instructions from their coach. I made sure to hang out here long enough to find out where Callum was starting in the field.

Third base.

It was a rough game for our Sox. After getting behind early, they battled back to take the lead only to lose in the bottom of the last inning. Cal didn't bat the way he wanted, and I know he was frustrated. He got more patient by his last at bat, drawing a walk, but he got stranded on base in the bottom of the last inning. It's a long season, though, and there's a lot of baseball ahead of us. Starting with tonight.

At the Opening Ceremonies, one of the managers of our local minor league team spoke. He's been coming to the Opening Ceremonies of this Little League nearly every year for 50 years. And nearly every year he reads the following poem, being careful to note that it was for little boys and little girls.

HE IS JUST A LITTLE BOY
He stands at the plate,
with his heart pounding fast.
The bases are loaded,
the die has been cast.

Mom and Dad cannot help him,
he stands all alone.
A hit at this moment,
would send the Team home.

The ball meets the plate,
he swings and he misses.
There’s a groan from the crowd,
with some boos and some hisses.

A thoughtless voice cries,
strike out the bum.
Tears fill his eyes,
the game’s no longer fun.

So open your heart,
and give him a break.
For it’s moments like this,
a man you can make.

Please keep this in mind,
when you hear someone forget.
He is just a little boy, and not a man yet.