The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

[ecurbh]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...
• Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

[SuziQ]

Only three couples were able to make it, but we had a blast!! Our parish is doing small faith sharing groups during Lent, and we decided that we're going to be one of the groups! ;o)

[Fedora]

Yikes! The dogs would be a bit of a challenge, but it's good that you have lots of places to run. It makes all the difference if you can run outside, I think. I used to run through all the different neighborhoods in my part of town, and I'd especially look for the areas with the big fancy houses to make it fun and interesting.

Maybe you could get one of those sound devices for controlling pets that would scare off any dogs that look dangerous. I'm thinking of trying to find something like that for when I'm riding my bike out in the country.

Good idea! BTW on that note, at breakfast this morning I was reading the paper and a 63-pound female wolf was just killed on the very trail I was thinking of jogging on! This is the second wolf killed around here in the last 10 months. We haven't had many here since the 19th century, but there's a couple growing populations in the state now. The enivronmentalists convinced the DNR to release some in the western part of the state on the basis of an estimate that their population would peak out at 100. They're up to 300 now. . .

[Fedora]

>Only three couples were able to make it, but we had a blast!! Our parish is doing small faith sharing groups during Lent, and we decided that we're going to be one of the groups! ;o)

Sounds like a good activity! What does a faith sharing group do exactly?--besides create dirty dishes for the hostess, I mean :)

[JenB]

I'm back... drive wasn't bad, little brother I dragged along was annoying, but otherwise ok.

[Fedora]

I'm back... drive wasn't bad, little brother I dragged along was annoying, but otherwise ok.

Welcome back! :) I just got back, too--just got done exercising. So how many annoying little brothers do you have? :) I have two, LOL!

[JenB]

Heh, four, in age going from 15 down to 8. The 8 year old has Down Syndrome so sometimes he's on more of a four-year-old level. Something I should have considered before dragging him along... he kicked my seat the whole hour back.

[Fedora]

Four! That's a lot!--I had enough challenges trying to babysit two! :) The worst time was when I was given instructions not to let either one out of the house. One would try to run out one door, then when I went to catch him the other one would dash for the other door! I can't imagine double that! Well, actually I can: one time I babysat for a couple at church that had four kids between the ages of 2 and 6. During the course of babysitting them I came down with the flu and became to weak to keep up with them. They wanted to play continously. They decided to turn my martial arts belts into a jumprope, which they attached to a swing their parents had for them in the living room, and they managed to pull the swing over on its side and knocked a plant pot onto the floor. That was the last time I babysat for them :) Anyway, how does the Down Syndrome affect the 8-year-old? Does he do stuff like that a lot? Sounds like maybe he wanted attention :)

[JenB]

Probably he did want attention. He has a short attention span and gets bored in the car very easily. He's a very high-functioning kid, basically just a little delayed... he's the only one going to a school right now. There's a Catholic school in our area for kids with disabilities and they are just great.

It would be worse if I didn't have two younger sisters. They help out with the boys... and, as of August, I'm out of here...

[Fedora]

Probably he did want attention. He has a short attention span and gets bored in the car very easily.

When I was that age I think I staved off boredom when riding in the back seat by reading books. If I wasn't reading I think I got bored, too. My brothers and I would poke at each other until my Mom would say, "Stop touching your brother!", so then we'd put our hand an inch away from each other and say, "I'm not touching you!" :)

He's a very high-functioning kid, basically just a little delayed... he's the only one going to a school right now. There's a Catholic school in our area for kids with disabilities and they are just great.

That's nice they have a specialty school like that in the area. In our school system they had a separate division in the "regular" school, which resulted in the kids with disabilities often getting picked on on the playground.

It would be worse if I didn't have two younger sisters. They help out with the boys...

That does help!--my Mom always wished she had some girls to counterbalance the three boys :)

and, as of August, I'm out of here...

I guess you must be leaving for grad school then--you enrolled somewhere already?

[JenB]

Haven't enrolled anywhere yet, no. I have one offer in and am waiting to hear from the other schools.

My mother would never have let the little guy go into a public-school situation... disabled kids here do get shoved into the public schools, but my brother attends a private school.

I just wish he could read! Then like you said, he could take books in the car.

[Fedora]

> I just wish he could read! Then like you said, he could take books in the car.

Does he like picture books? That's how I learned to read. When I was that age my parents kept me (relatively) quiet by giving me comic-books to read--that and The Hobbit and Star Wars :) From the Star Wars novelization I made the transition to reading other movie novelizations, which is how I got into reading adult books--mostly Stephen King at first.

[JenB]

Yeah, he likes picture books, but not for an hour at a stretch. Plus when he gets bored with them he will on occasion chuck them at my head, which is really bad when I'm driving.

[Fedora]

> Yeah, he likes picture books, but not for an hour at a stretch. Plus when he gets bored with them he will on occasion chuck them at my head, which is really bad when I'm driving.

Yikes! Yeah, it does sound like he wants attention :)

So what else are you up to today? I'm getting ready to go out to eat with my parents in about an hour, and killing time in the meanwhile. Was reading a book on European Mythology last night that had some stuff on European traditions about elves and dwarves, which was kinda interesting to relate to Tolkien. Next time I go to the library I'm going to look for that Doomsday book. Meanwhile I started reading Silmarillion again. I tend to read several things at once like that and jump between them periodically.

[JenB]

I'm just hanging. Sort of doing homework, sort of just surfing... I vacuumed out my car, and later I'm running to the grocery store, we seem to be out of vegetables.

I'm kind of in a sleepy mood, don't really feel like doing anything.

[Fedora]

> I'm kind of in a sleepy mood, don't really feel like doing anything.

Me, too. Still recovering from that smoke alarm going off in the middle of the night and waking me up at 3:30 or whatever it was. Ugh.

Speaking of which, I think I'm gonna go lie down for a bit before we go out to eat. I'll check back after that. Have a good afternoon!

[JenB]

See you around, then.

Her voice echoes around the empty Hole... come back to me, and say my land is fair!

[2Jedismom]

I'm on pins and needles!

Matthew has to sing 11 hymns for his choir teacher to get a gold star to put in his hymnal (they gave him a hymnal year before last when he successed in singing the 11 hymns...then from then on you a star to put on the inside cover each year you sing 11 more hymns.)

Anyway, they've always worked with them and then had them sing them...but not this year. I just found out they have to learn the hymns at home, then tell them they know them and then sing them to them at choir!

So all week, we've been practicing the first 3. He has to quote the scripture that the hymn is based on then sing the hymn for the teacher.

I hope he gets checked off!! Then it's on to another 3-4 hymns to learn this week.

[2Jedismom]

Anyway, he just left to go to choir...I had him a printout of the lyrics, made a cassette of the first three songs and had Steve drilling him on them all the way to church!

[JenB]

What hymns is he doing?

[2Jedismom]

Today he is doing "Go Tell it On the Mountain", Great is Thy Faithfulness, and "His Name is Wonderful". Pretty easy, actually...but on top of everything else, I never got around to helping him that much!

I'm sure he'll do fine...he had them pretty well down when he left.