Break, Day 1

Every once in a while you’re handed an absolutely perfect day. A day where everything lines up so beautifully, and everyone’s heart is in the right place, and not a thing goes squirrely.

That was Friday.

While I had already decided that the kids and I would take a field trip day to celebrate the beginning of our two week break from CC, it also happened to line up with Christopher’s fall break from the second community in which he directs Challenge A. Having Daddy available meant the I was comfortable rambling a bit farther, so the Sequoyah Birthplace and Museum it was!

The museum itself is small— definitely an easy add-on to the Fort Loudoun State Historic Park next door if you haven’t already been there. (We had visited a few weeks back.) Despite it’s size, however, there was tons of great information on Sequoyah himself, as well as context for his life and accomplishments. Studying American history this year gave the kids a great backdrop to fit the pieces into; the first timeline listed his birthdate as being in 1776, which meant that all five kids immediately exclaimed, “The year the Declaration was signed!” From there, they were already drawing comparisons as to what was life in Philadelphia in that time period versus what it was in Tennessee, and what historical figures were here…

Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and Sam Houston, of course.

From there, they were off to the races, in the best possible of ways. Seriously, it was worth the price of admission just to see Simon’s eyes grow wide at reading “Red Stick Wars,” let alone finally finding his hero Davy listed among the men Sequoyah fought alongside. The disparity of treatment the Cherokee received for their service, the constant government refusal to acknowledge the Native people, and the series of ill-fated treaties and broken promises were not news to my children, but hard facts to reconcile nonetheless. All of this is above and beyond the extraordinary story of the illiterate Sequoyah actually inventing, from scratch, an entire written syllabary for his language.

Definitely worth a stop, and definitely a full day of living education.

From there, we made a literal U-turn to stop at a pumpkin patch. Our pumpkins didn’t produce at all this year, so we’re out a freezer full of pureed goodness, let alone a few pretty decorations to liven up our front porch— and try to disguise the fact that the chickens tear up anything pretty we plant in the front beds. We couldn’t justify the cost of the group trip our CC community has planned (large families have to plan way ahead for those per-person pricing things!) and anyhow, we haven’t been to a patch in years. But we drove past one on a relatively nowhere highway, and the day was already so perfect we figured, “why not?”

A sweet lady even took a group photo for us. And, we spent about $20… which included a basket full of sweet potatoes we picked up on the side.

From there, it was home. There was still a good bit of daylight left, which was enjoyed outside on our own non-pumpkin producing plot of land. We had been planning a firepit, hot dogs, and s’mores for a couple of weeks, but the weather hadn’t cooperated. Either too hot or raining, it seemed. But Friday? Friday was perfect.

Actually, it got downright cold by the time we had the fire going. Hot dogs were enjoyed. S’mores were eaten. Afterward, we sang songs, and listened to Birdie play a few fiddle tunes. John Mark brought out his tin whistle (much more portable than a cello) and played My Country ‘Tis of Thee, his song for this Cycle. We laughed a lot. We shared memories. We discussed how amazing it is to watch a hollow log burn just so.

It was, truly, the perfect day. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this little break brings!