This is baby Atticus’ foot on Kevin’s hand.
Yep, way back when he was a wee newborn. (Atticus, not Kevin. ;)
I took the picture with my old phone, so it’s pretty grainy, but I love it.
Now, Attie’s in school and headed toward his 5th birthday on the 25th…It’s crazy how fast time goes by!
As Gretchen says, “The days are long, but the years are short.”
In June 2006, Kevin and I took a day off and traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just us.
Somewhere near Mabry’s Mill, we found this stone church and stopped.
Today was the birthday of two very important people to us: my son Cody, who was stillborn 12 years ago, and Kevin’s grandfather, Lawrence Simpson, who died in 1991.
In memory, we spent a while this evening at the two separate cemeteries, on opposite ends of the city, sharing flowers and memories and prayers.
Kevin says these are his only two original sayings, but I’m thinking he must be wrong…if only because he hates to be wrong so bad. ;P
He says all of this is “very true.”
Last year sometime, we got a DVD in the mail from the monks at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa. It shows them going through their days: praying, singing, and working. “Ora et Labora” is one of their mottos: Pray and work.
We have no idea why we were sent this. We probably got on their mailing list through another Catholic organization we support or something. And they were probably hoping to elicit a donation from us.
Frankly, I thought the video was a little boring, although it was interesting in its way. Kevin, on the other hand, was fascinated by it. He watched it over and over, usually while he was doing other things.
Fast forward to February of this year, Friday the 18th to be exact (according to Kevin).
For a couple of months around that time, there was a table in the commons of our church with used religious items and a box for donations. Kevin saw a Benedictine medal on the table. Two inches in diameter, the medal is pretty heavy and made of some kind of metal. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Benedictine sisters’ coming to America.
He paid a dollar for it, but that medal has become immeasurably valuable to him.
That very day, he put it on a chain and started wearing it, and it inspired him to research all of the inscriptions on it, which led him to research the Benedictine order.
Then, on July 3, our new priest Father Tony blessed the medal, and he’s worn it ever since.
At that point, Kevin says he began to officially live his life as a spiritual Benedictine oblate.
The word oblate means “to offer.” An oblate in the Benedictine order is a lay person, meaning someone out “in the world” as opposed to in a monastery, who follows the Rule of St. Benedict, while possibly also being fathers and husbands (or mothers and wives, since women can be oblates, as well).
On July 15, Kevin emailed Father Joseph Mary Lukyamuzi, director of oblate formation at Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, who encouraged him to continue on his path, offering his assistance along the way.
And then, today, Kevin’s journey came full-circle: The Clear Creek Abbey rosary we ordered earlier this week came in the mail.
All that time Kevin watched the Clear Creek video, he didn’t realize that the monks he was watching were Benedictine monks. At that time, he hadn’t studied anything about the Benedictines (or any of the many orders), and the video doesn’t spend a lot of time on the distinction. It wasn’t until he’d begun researching the order that it hit him.
God does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? :)
We took this one right after we got married.
I know that I knew I was where I needed to be,
but I had no idea just how right he was for me.
Jo <3 Kevin
<the video won’t load… looking for a fix for this>
Part of the Bluegrass Jam at James Lynch’s house, Danville, Virginia, May 31, 2011. Kevin Hawke, vocals and guitar; Jo Hawke, vocals; Ryland Hawker, banjo; Wes Holtsford, mandolin; and Laura Liem, fiddle.
I uploaded all the pictures I had from the night, along with the audio of this song. Thanks, Animoto, for making it so easy!!
This week, like every second week, Kevin has to work five 12-hour days — two on, two off, three on. It doesn’t help that last week, he was on vacation while we moved and all…
Last Tuesday, my cousin Wesley Holtsford and his friend Laura Liem, both in from west Texas, played some bluegrass music with Kevin and his dad, Ryland Hawker.
Their impromptu jam convened at James Lynch’s house. He’s Wes’ great-grandfather and my dad’s sister’s husband. (You really wanted to know the details, I know. ;)
It was so awesome! The four of them really sounded great to have never played together before!
Kevin played guitar and sang most of the songs. Ryland, of course, played banjo. Wes played mandolin and fiddle. And Laura played fiddle.
(I sang some backup and one lead, I think, but was mostly on Kid Patrol. ;)
James was dancing and singing along. He invited his brother and his fiance over to listen, too.
Even Jo-Jo, James’ little poodle had fun … although he probably would’ve had more fun if Lucas and Atticus hadn’t wanted to play with him soooo much! (I wish I’d gotten pictures of that.)
And Wesley and Laura? Wow. They are really great musicians. And both sweet as can be. I wish they didn’t live so far away!!
6/18/11 UPDATE:
I’ve finally been able to sit down and figure out my file-transfer issue from phone to laptop. What a mess!
I used my Droid X’s (awesome!!!) TapeMachine app to record eight songs … and then my phone died.
I didn’t get the beginning of the first song or the end of the last, and I only got eight songs from the several hours of playing. (I wish I’d remembered to grab the H2 on the way out the door, but we only had about 15-minutes notice.)
I’ll come back later and post the individual songs, but here’s the whole of what I recorded, talking and laughing and all in between:
7/17/11 UPDATE:
Here, finally, are the individual songs that I recorded.
The Man Who Wrote ‘Home Sweet Home’ Never Was a Married Man:
Going Down the Road Feeling Bad:
Moondance:
Cumberland Gap:
Faded Love:
Old Joe Clark:
Sally Goodin:
And some additional pictures from the evening:
