Do you ever have those events where someone brings something up, and one thing leads to another, and pretty soon you’re talking about something totally different? That just happened to me.
I was telling a story that most of you have heard before, about how boys react to their full name being used, which led to a discussion of underclothes, then underclothes for sports, which reminded me of Noah’s old friend/boyfriend, Blake, which started me thinking about when he first started hanging around here, and how much different things are between now and then.
So, an actual update for the summer of ‘23.
The only actual children (i.e. - minors) I have living with me at this time are Craig, Connor, and Curtis, who are 17, 14, and 12. Craig is working this summer, so it’s just two boys around the house, unlike the old days (say, a decade ago), when I had Daniel (18), Mickey (17), Noah and Barry (both 16), Johnny and Josh (15), Bryce (14), I think Parker (12) was already living with us then, and Van was 10. I think this was after the Colter boys moved in with us, so that would have been Jeremy and Ethan (both 13), Leif (10), and Kenny (
. Of course, this was back in the day when Jordy and Dex, the Malones, Marchants, Strouses, Cavanaughs, Tidwells, Loomises, Reasoners, and Lanes - probably amongst others - were all regular guests (some of them more or less living here at times).
These days, most of the younger boys friends are my grands (children and nephews). Rhett (14) and Ryder (12 - Chris’ boys), Dylan (17) and Brennan - 15, PJ’s boys), Glen (15) and Paden (12 - Marcus’ boys), and my Steve’s cousins' sons - Andy (14) and Ollie (12). I think them having that many friends who are related to them might have slowed down us meeting the number of large families we had in the past (or so many kids from large families making friends with our family), but Linc (15) Bo , (12), and Royce (11) Tidwell all hang out here a lot, as does Ennis Strouse (15 - and still a favorite of mine for a number of reasons) and Dillon’s boys Drake (15) and Ed (12). It is a decent sized group, but nowhere near as big as we used to have. Also, none of the boys are as sports crazy as Noah and Mickey in particular used to be. Between those things and what seems to be increasingly hot summers (last year was the fourth hottest summer on record for this area, and we’re already on pace to beat it), and the smaller number of kids hanging around, we’re not being as organized. We are still getting out early in the day to do some active stuff, and we are still doing the weekly reading series, but it’s a lot less organized.
I should say we do have a much bigger group home for vacation. Colleges are still recovering from the pandemic (rather, college schedules are, I suppose I should say). Kenny and Devon both graduated high school this past May, which is why I didn’t count them as minors, and they’ll both be going away to college this fall.
The boys home for the summer are Colt, Leif, Kaden, Van, Parker, Liam, and Ethan, and Chance. The last four should have already graduated, and Parker did graduate on time. Chance just graduated in May (same with Parker, but he’s younger), while Liam and Ethan still have to go back for a bit of finish up, after the pandemic through their plans off major league.
Parker’s degree is heavily involved in computers, so it wasn’t as hard for him to keep up with a lot of his work as it was for Ethan, who’s degree required a LOT more supervision and performance. Parker already has a job, and he’ll be joining my sub-territory in Austin later this month, where he has a starting job in a kind of commune, where he’ll be making good money working on game development, but he’ll also have help and supervision available if needed.
Chance had planned to live here one more year, until Craig graduates, but Craig is working, and they’re both pretty happy and stable, and Craig received an offer for a really good job in Dallas, so he’s going to be moving soon as well.
I think that’s it for the general stuff for now.
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