Clemmerville: Out of the mouths of babes...

The girls wandered in as I was reading some of my favorite blogs and were enjoying all the pictures of their friends when Laura asks, "Mom, why don't we have a blog?? You're at the computer all the time... (guilt, shame, condemnation, etc.) and everybody else has one."

She's right...on all counts...and as I thought through pros and cons I realized that the internet for all it's faults is a time capsule, able to hold on to the memories that my foggy brain tosses out the back door to make room for grocery lists and 4th grade math.

So, in an effort to make the most of this opportunity, the Clemmerville blog is created. Why Clemmerville?? Well, I have 4 neighbors, a family I've had little contact with, my mother-in-law, and two brothers-in-law. We all (minus the unknown neighbors) live on a plot of land that once solely belonged to my father-in-law, Jack Boger Clemmer and his bride Winnie. It has lovingly been nicknamed Clemmerville by family and friends. They moved out here when Andy was a baby and according to Winnie, you could see through the walls in some places. She remembers lying in their bed, the first night they were here and the two of them laughing, thinking how foolish they were for making the decision to move away from town onto a run down farm with a few sagging sheds and house not much better with four small boys. There are pictures of Andy in his crib with a toboggan on his head to keep him warm through the winter nights. But they had land, the one thing that there won't ever be any more of, and those boys grew up running the fields, playing in the creek, riding hor

ses, all the things that boys love to do.

Four sons brought about the division of some of that land. We were fortunate to receive a two-acre plot, set well off the road in a field surrounded by trees. I LOVE my little haven back here, and I even love being so close to Andy's family. As I sit typing, I can see Simon and Meredith outside my window, they've made a fort under the trampoline. Since there aren't any neighborhood kids to play with, mine are learning to play together and with no street in sight, I never have to worry about who might drive by. This is my one chance to give them the kind of summer I had at their age--running, playing, imagining--bushes and trees are forts, sticks are samuri swords and guns, the enemy is invisible and easily defeated, they are always the heroes.

Here are a few photos of today's fun, well, almost--the kids have past the point of letting me photo as they play and have moved into the stage where I must follow them around the yard as they choose places where they would like to pose for me. Please excuse the corny expressions on a few of these ;o)