Swimming Lessons

I don't remember ever taking formal swimming lessons but I do recall being fearful of the water and a very hesitant swimmer.  I didn't want that for my children, so they were enrolled in swim lessons at a local pool when they were quite young.  One of them needed the lesson experience to overcome fears much like I had and the other needed the lesson experience to learn technique even though swimming seemed to come naturally at a very early age.  

Recently, I visited with some of the grands as they were wrapping up their last day of swimming lessons for the summer.  They had been in a two-week course to learn techniques and gain confidence as a swimmer.

Linley's class was first.  Because she is two, she was enrolled in a Mommy and Me class.  If you ask me, the Mommy part was just for the security of the teacher where Linley was concerned.  I don't think she really felt much need for her mother!

As soon as we arrived, it was pretty clear that Linley was ready to get going!  She was the first in the pool and began her swim-time almost immediately.

She thought it was her duty to stretch the rope across the pool to designate the shallow from the deep end of the pool.

The teacher worked with her a wee bit and then she was off splashing and kicking toward her mother.  She was quick as a flash and I almost missed the instruction part of the lesson!  The teacher had a short conversation with Jessica and Linley and left them to practice while she worked with other children and their mothers.

Soon, she was pushing a pool noodle across the pool and it looked to me like mom was having a hard time to keep up with the little splasher.

The teacher came over for a bit more instruction and, once again, Linley and mom practiced.  Then, it was time for the fun part...

First, she practiced her sitting dive technique.  She was in such a hurry, that mom hardly had time to back away to give her room to jump into the pool!

Next, came free-form jumping from a stance on the side.  Each time she would instruct mom to back up a little further and so she could swim to her.  At one point, we heard her say, "You can let go, I've got this!"

She enjoyed herself and splashing and moving around in the water so much that I had a really hard time getting a picture of her face because it always seemed to be in the water!

Our little fish at the pond that day really had a big time at her final swimming lesson.  She was rewarded with a blow pop but I think mom was exhausted!

Then, it was time for big brother to showcase what he had learned.

Harris and his group started with a quick push off the side, keeping hands out front and swift kicks to propel them across the pool.  He and a little girl were constantly working on the deeper side of the rope.

From one side to the other, each child would push off and swim with the teacher watching and giving instructions.

His group practiced floating on their back and used the pool noodle to warm them up for the sitting dive and swimming across the pool as well.

Next, they practiced a sitting dive, swimming across the pool to the other side, and swimming back to their original spot again.  Harris was smiles all around.  Then, it was time for the big finale - jumping off the board!

The first time required a little extra to screw up the courage.  However, once he got to the ladder, he was quickly headed back to get in line for another attempt!

Summertime fun!  Ah! There's nothing like going to the swimming hole!

Big Stuff!

I am ever so grateful that our children share pictures of what is going on in their lives.  I'm so thankful that they frequently send us videos and pictures to share windows into the lives of our grandchildren.  I think I am ever so much more grateful lately than ever before.

This past week we got some photos which shared some big stuff that is going on in Bryan and his family's life.  While they are somewhat accustomed to being at home more than most folks because Bryan and Jessica both work from home, the break from school and preschool and church and just getting out and about has still been a bit of a strain on them, I think.

Rainy days which keep the littles inside are always tough for children who thrive outdoors.  So, when Jessica sent this photo of Linley with her bowl of pop-pop this week, we couldn't help but laugh out loud.  Mike also said he wished he had a big ole bowl just like that and could sit beside her in front of the TV and munch all afternoon long during a rainy afternoon!  Big stuff for this girl!

Then, at the end of the week when the skies were blue and the temperature was warm, we got photos from Bryan sharing a bit about the fishing trip that he and Harris made, we had another opportunity to smile and enjoy.

I love the serious look on Harris's face and how he is holding his mouth just right to get the job done.  In the moving shot, we could hear Harris say, "Oh Gosh!" and when we saw the fish, we could certainly see why!

It seems like another boy was pretty excited about their haul as well!

After seeing the message below, I really wish I had seen the action shot of Jessica!  I recall a time when she and Bryan were visiting on a football Saturday and Mike fried fish.  She showed us how much she liked fried fish that day and I'll bet she got her fill at this old-fashioned fish fry as well!

Big stuff!

Oldies - Number 3

This week's oldie-but-goody is one I'm sharing with my daughter-in-law, Bonnie, in mind.  At Christmas she was asking us to recall what our favorite Christmas gift was and, honestly, I cannot recall one that stands out above the others.  Maybe I was thinking of this photo from my youth or maybe I was thinking of all the times I sat in the floor and played with my Barbie dolls when I answered her with this as one of my many favorites.

My great-grandmother gave me a doll that just hit the scenes and the marked the year I was born.  My mother didn't really like her because she had always hated it when somebody shortened her name or called her Barbie as a nickname but I thought she was really wonderful in her grown-up curvy body and all the fancy clothes that could dress her for any fantasmical occasion. 

She was that original Barbie in the zebra-striped suit with the straw-colored hair and I thought I was something special to have her.  By the looks of things, I must have been about five-years-old because I'm wearing a broad, snaggle-toothed smile, a cow-lick splitting my straight bangs, and beaming with pride at my newest wonderful toys.  Shown in this picture is the fancy canopy bed, complete with Barbie-pink bedding and I recall wanted a bed just exactly like it.  I also see the stylish black, patent-leather carry case that Barbie and all her clothes, shoes, and accessories were stored in when not spread across the tiled floor (that was probably made of asbestos) of the den.  Front and center are the fancy, white plastic dressing table and stool, adorned with curlicues and gold, with Barbie, herself, sitting upon with her legs crossed all prim-and-proper.  I remember having a little plastic hairbrush for Barbie and a hand-held mirror with some sort of reflective foil on it as well.

In the background I see the fireplace that Daddy built himself with his novice brick-mason hands and the old churn where he plopped his Co-op cap when he came in from the barn.  It looks like I was a polka-dot lover from the beginning in that cute little multi-colored number and my trendy pedal-pushers (known as capri pants these days).  I'm guessing Mama was glad I was playing something calm and didn't have things sprawled out everywhere because she was at least eight months pregnant with my sister if the date on the photo really indicates the date the photo was snapped. 

Times were simpler then and I really was a lucky girl to have such fancy toys to feed my imagination and creativity.  I remember wrapping her and myself with all sorts and bits of fabric and trims to dress us up and pretend we were worldly.  Over the years Barbie has been criticized as a toy and I certainly understand how the concept of her as a model and image might mess with a young child's mind.  But as I look back, I just recall dreaming and being creative to come up with fancy attire for that doll as she lived my fantasies of what grown-up life might be.   I've seen my daughter and granddaughters play with Barbies in much the same way and it brings a smile to my face because I fondly recall hours of quiet play on my knees with that first Barbie and my big imagination whiling away the time.  Good times!

Oldies - Number 2

Last week I started a new series that I hope I can keep up or at least contribute to from time to time.  While cleaning out, we have run across some old photographs that really bring a smile to my face - and sometimes side-aching laughter as well.  I'm starting out with photos of myself, not because I am ultra-self-centered, but because I feel like I am the one who should be humbled first!

Today's photo is one that I fondly recall.  I grew up when Franklin was a small, rural town in Tennessee where not much happened.  One big event each spring was the Franklin Rodeo.  The Rodeo was started in 1949 by the Franklin Rotary Club.  It is known as one of the longest-running family events in Middle Tennessee and one of the largest rodeos east of the Mississippi River.  When I was a little girl, the rodeo was a BIG deal!  We never missed the parade if at all possible.  There were local civic clubs represented with floats made on wooden hay wagons and pickup trucks with scout troops riding in the back and beauty queens sitting on the back of a convertible.  One of my aunts was even selected as Rodeo Queen in her day.  The Rodeo was HUGE!

When it was Rodeo Week at school, we all became cowboys.  I don't mean the kind I really was that took a stick out into the pasture and drove the cows up to the barn at milking time, either.  I mean the kind that wore leather cowboy boots, bandannas, and cowboy hats and rode the range.  At the end of the week, we all were allowed to dress like the cowboys we dreamed of being.  Well, sort of.  You see, there was a dress code at my school and girls had to wear skirts or dresses - no pants.  So, jeans and chaps were out altogether for this old gal, no matter how rugged you were out on your fantasy range.

I well remember that Mama made me a new outfit just for Rodeo Day.  I believe that it was hand-crafted of chambray or twill of some sort and accessorized with a bandanna.  My boots that I tromped around on the farm in were cleaned up and I was allowed to wear them instead of my normal 'school-shoes' which were probably Mary-Janes or, maybe, some sort of Keds.  Best of all, I got to wear a cowboy hat as well.

When I look at this photo today, I see the scraggly barbed-wire fence built with cedar posts that Daddy cut himself which surrounded our rocky yard and the old tool shed in the background.  I see the old second-hand car that Mama took me to school in that sent us careening into a neighbor's yard one morning (another story for another day).  I see the cedar pole that was used to hold the power line that Daddy and Granddaddy ran from the house to the milk barn leaning off 'toward Aunt Sally's' as my parents' used to say.  I see the date when the photo was developed and remember that scalloped-edge the picture had and sort of long for the old days when that is the only way we could get photos developed from an old Brownie camera at the local drug store.  I see my seven-year-old, second-grade, spindly arms and knobby knees and wish I was half that skinny now.  Gracious! We were poor country folk but I was smiling just as happy as can be to be dressed in my Rodeo Day finery.

As a teacher, looking back, I probably would have dreaded Rodeo Day like the plague because it would have been such a disruption.  All those kids in hats and boots and hyped up about the next day's parade and big rodeo would have been rowdy and certainly not interested in doing anything school-like!  Looking back as a kid, though, I recall just how fancy I thought I looked and how lucky I felt to get to go to school looking so decked-out.  Good times!

Giddy-up, Cowgirl!