Category Archives: Education

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Dolly’s Ambitions: A Tribute to Ammon and Carter

. Dolly Parton, Education, Family, friends, HOSA, Mental Fitness, Parenting, writing . , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy September 2026. I have not posted a blog in two years. After Dolly Parton’s death, I returned to my blog to share my initial heartbreak and thoughts; however, WordPress, the blog platform, had locked me out. Why? Well, the email I had used since I first created the blog was obsolete. The email provider was exclusive to our area of Ooltewah, yet not a provider here in our area of Knox County. The process to change the parent email to blog took over two weeks, y’all!

The process finally ended today, September 12. I was ecstatic. I wanted to dedicate my return blog to Dolly…. but something changed this morning. First, I want to blog ASAP so I will not lose the momentum. Second, I have several blog posts semi-ready for Dolly but not quite, so… Dolly is going to help me praise and lift up my most precious gifts, Carter and Ammon, in this blog. This morning  they just took another round of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. We brought them home after the test, and I began to clean the kitchen countertops. Near the coffee pot is a wooden, Dolly quote “Cup of Ambition” and two cute cups where another household member and I could share a cup of coffee together. My mother, Georgie Caylor, saws these sweet Dolly knick-knacks several years ago, and she bought them for our kitchen. My mother has been a Dolly Parton fan for nearly 60 years. I have been a fan for over 55 years.

Mamaw (Georgie Caylor) Bought this coffee set for us several years ago. As you can see the wooden “Cup of Ambition” and the cute, clear coffee cups with butterflies and Dolly’s signature.

Folks, I love and appreciate Ammon and Carter’s “ambition” to be both successful high school students as well as future pre-med and medical students. They also have such wonderful hearts for creating useful organizations and serving others. They have made their high school chapter of their HOSA https://hosa.org/ club grow by leaps and bounds. They were the only underclassmen to qualify for the 2025 international convention, and this year, Carter finished as #10 Internationally in his category of Nutrition. They have helped create their chapter of the National Science Club and they are co-presidents of the school’s Model United Nations. They are also very instrumental in driving their high school Key Club (service club) activities for its community. These two busy Beavers (pun intended… its their school mascot) will be sending in applications for prospective universities quite soon, and we are all anxious to see what God has in store for them.

As Carter and Ammon ambitiously step into their senior year and begin the journey of applying to colleges and universities, our hearts are so full. We are incredibly grateful for the bright, ambitious young adults they’ve grown into and for all the love and support you all have poured upon them since birth.

This next chapter brings big decisions, high hopes, and plenty of stress. Sean and I would be so deeply grateful if you would keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this season—for clarity as they choose where to apply, peace of mind through the waiting, and confidence in wherever their paths lead next.

Thank you for loving them alongside Sean and me! God is Great, and so are you all. Oh, and thanks, Dolly, for helping me connect your beautiful, heart-filled “ambition” to Ammon and Carter’s ambitions.

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Baking with my “Babies” (yep, almost 15 they are!)

. Education, Family, Family Kitchen Time, Food, Parenting . , , , , , , , , ,

Both Carter and Ammon enjoy cooking and baking in the kitchen. I know Mamaw Wimpy was an excellent, country cook, but I never talked with her and spent time actually cooking and preparing meals. With Nanny, on the other hand, I was constantly in the kitchen with her watching and learning and even trying new recipes. The food was always delicious, but, better yet were the conversations during our kitchen time. I loved that bonding time and learning family history time. Ammon, Carter, and I are not to the family history stories yet (too busy with their iPads and such) but we will get there! Just being together baking and cooking is wonderful enough.

Carter fixed a tasty Turkey-fried rice that I carried to school last week, yet I have no photos. It was admirable none the less. One reason I don’t have a photo is because they prepared it at 8:30 one night while I was doing lesson plans for school. Ammon has baked twice this past week while during “down time”, and  I’ve been free to snap some pics. Ammon made some blueberry scones with a biscuit recipe last week; they rivaled Bojangles’ Bo-Berrys. On Friday night we mixed and placed homemade biscuits in the fridge for this AM’s breakfast. They were AWESOME. Today’s breakfast was treat for me since I have been working with a calorie deficit since July 21. We had biscuits, fruit salad / ambrosia ( a Nanny Caylor -learned treat) , grits, and a breakfast casserole ( eggs, ground sausage, and tater tots ) . I was in “Breakfast Hog Heaven” !!

Baking with my children is such a blessing. Whenever I bake and give some culinary advice, I channel my Nanny, and know she would be proud that the Alexander-Caylor cooks live on with the Caylor-Browns during baking and cooking time.

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Pianos : Haven’s Seasons of their intrigue

. Education, Family, Learning, Music, piano, Preschool Unit Plans . , , , , , , , ,

I have a cousin who got an upright piano when she was 9 years old. I was 5 years old at the time. I was intrigued with her playing. No one in my family (not even her parents) was musically inclined, so neither my parents nor hers became mentors for Little Haven (LOL…. some of you probably don’t know that until my dad, Haven <6 ft. 4 inches>, died when I was 16, I was “Little Haven”…. still short of course but not being compared to Daddy) . I would peck out some notes from time to time when I visited her house, and she finally taught me ONE SONG ; “Bone Sweet Bone” . My “musical talents” were channeled into the French horn many years later where I became good enough to be 1st chair in high school 3 out of 4 years, District Band placement (5 years in a row), Solo & Ensemble ribbon winner, etc (never made All -State… LOL). However, I’ve always been intrigued with the piano. 

Fast forward to 2012 in the Caylor-Brown household with Haven, Sean, Carter & Ammon. Sean had a keyboard that he had bought but never learned how to play, and I hauled it out of storage into the Bonus Room for Ammon & Carter’s preschool, music lessons. They tried to concentrate but I found myself on it the most pecking out “Jingle Bells”, “Happy Birthday”, and simple, one-handed songs. One evening, I finished up the kitchen chores, walked upstairs into the Bonus Room, and one of the two or perhaps both children (they covered for each other) had walked on the keyboard and snapped off a key! They were reprimanded, but they didn’t care, and I put the keyboard away. 

2022 – Ammon takes an interest in the piano. A kind friend from church, Sierra Boyd, offers to give Ammon free lessons during the school year. Ammon accepts. Here at the house, Ammon practiced on the keyboard which we had “repaired” by replacing the snapped-off key. No matter what time of the day/ evening Ammon played, I would stop and enjoy the sounds of the keyboard “dreaming” of one day having a piano in our midst.

August 2023. While at school, Sean texts me about a “Piano to Give Away!” that was on Facebook. We all agreed that it would fit nicely in our living room. We simply had to find moving people to safely get the piano to our house. I was at school, so Sean began the communications. The piano arrived at our house on Friday evening (August 18, 2023!). It is even nicely tuned to be over 50 years old. I know the piano is first and foremost for Ammon, but I fell in love with it immediately. Carter is even interested in lessons now as well. Would you like to guess Haven’s inaugural tune?….. Weeeell, it was bum, bum, bum……. “Bone Sweet Bone”. The space where the piano sits looks as though it was waiting for the piano for these almost 19 years of living here.

As I close this blog entry, I simply want to give thanks to God for placing this opportunity in front of us and giving me an opportunity to, perhaps, fulfill a childhood dream of mine of learning how to play the piano ; a 52 years old dream! I hope and pray that, if you want, God will bless you with an opportunity to fulfill a dream or goal that you’ve had stored in your heart for a while. God is great and sometimes “mysterious” in His timing. 

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Cashel & Cahir, Ireland: July 18, 2023

. Education, European Destinations, European History, Family, Family Travel, Ireland, Irish History . , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our last traveling day across Ireland found us in Cashel and Cahir Ireland. The two towns are just 11 miles apart, but it took over 2 hours to get there from Dublin Airport. It was our second and final car rental while we were in Ireland. Since Cousin Beth Stoker, Mike, Ben and Bradley had visited the Rock of Cashel summer of 2022, we wanted to go. The limestone rock that appears as a mountain rising above the plains of Tipperary is quite impressive. The pre Christian, Celtic pagans used the hill for worship and other rituals before one of my favorite, Christian, historical figures, St. Patrick, preached to them on this very hill. St. Patrick then baptized their King Angus, and converted the area people to Christianity from this very spot.  I was a bit disappointed that the Cashel Gothic cathedral is in ruins and St. Patrick’s cross was a replica. We weren’t even allowed to see the original cross. However, Cashel’s Romanesque church that is/was attached to the Gothic cathedral is intact. It is called Cormac’s Chapel, and its sculptures, arches, and frescoes are classic Romanesque. The extraordinary Irish added their own “signature” to Romanesque art with its high pitched roof. The round tower and the Celtic cross-laden cemetery helped add to the extremely Irish-Celtic spirit of our travel day.

Cahir was just a few minutes away, and Carter had shared that we needed to tour Cahir Castle. Once again, Carter did a great job researching another Irish, historical gem. The Anglo-Normans literally built up a fortress rising from limestone rock in the middle of the River Suir. There were zero entrances/secret passages from the bottom of this fortress. It is a complete structure with no interior ruins like so many of the Irish castles people find. It was not taken by any invaders until one of Queen Elizabeth I’s “favorites” , Robert Dudley Earl of Essex took the castle in 1599. By the time the English Puritan Protector, Oliver Cromwell, took over the castle in the 1650s it was not the Butler hub-bub as it was. My two favorite parts of the castle were the sliding, portcullis gates that would trap a group in 3 seconds flat, and the trap doors in one of the towers. I was transfixed to the geese swimming in the Suir River. I had never seen domestic geese swimming thusly. Be sure to look for the Earl of Essex’s cannon balls in the sides of the castle.

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Westminster Abbey: Poets’ Corner – December 28, 2022

. Books, Education, European Destinations, Family, Family Travel . , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Crossing the bar

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

Sunset and evening star,

      And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

      When I put out to sea,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

      Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

      Turns again home.

   Twilight and evening bell,

      And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

      When I embark;

   For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place

      The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

      When I have crost the bar.

After traveling the world since 1984, my favorite “museum” (it’s really a living, breathing church) is Westminster Abbey. For anyone who is nerdy and loves some world famous literature, they will not want to leave Poets’ Corner of the abbey.

I opened with Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”. Alfred, Lord Tennyson is buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey. He was England’s Poet Laureate 1850-1892. I researched Lord Tennyson for a literature project in college many years ago. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is a world famous poem as well.  The Bronte Sisters have a memorial in Poets’ corner. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte gives me chills when I read such quotes as Cathy’s “Nelly, I am Heathcliff!”. For us who have felt a spiritual bond to a loved one it is a “punch to your soul”. My favorite short story of all time, “The Happy Prince”, was written by Oscar Wilde. If you read only one of his short stories, read that story. It still makes me cry; “You have rightly chosen,” said God, “for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me. What the heck happened??, you have to read the story. You won’t be sorry. Oscar Wilde is NOT buried at Westminster Abbey, but in Paris, France. He was a pauper when he died, but fans raised money for his monument where he is buried. Sean and I visited the famous cemetery the spring of 2008. However, Oscar Wilde also has a stained glass window at Westminster Abbey.

I am not a huge fan of Medieval pieces of literature, but every few years, I enjoy a review and read of “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer. He is buried at Poets’ Corner as well. Musical composers at Westminster Abbey? Well, George Frederic Handel , composer of “The Messiah” is buried at Westminster Abbey. He was, indeed, German, but lived and composed in England. The first public performance of Handel’s Messiah took place in Neal’s Musick Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin, in the shadows of Christ Church Cathedral on April 13,  1742. Ammon, Carter, Sean, and I toured that cathedral and locale on December 22, 2022-Thursday. I am finishing with the world famous, Charles Dickens. He is the author of “A Christmas Carol” ( 1843) and my 2nd favorite novel (Gone with the Wind is my first) A Tale of Two Cities (1859). I love and think of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, when I read “ It was in vain for Madame Defarge to struggle and to strike; Miss Pross, with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate…”  Please read and see how love triumphs over hatred written through Charles Dicken’s plume to paper.

I hope you all can enjoy some of our photos from Poets’ Corner, a bit of this read, then find some of these pieces of literature to enjoy, ponder upon, and perhaps develop a liking for.

Haven

From Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, the Caylor-Browns wish Everyone a Happy New Year 2023!

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Mesmerizing Maples

. Acción de Gracias, Education, Family, Learning, Nanny & the Alexanders, Parenting, Seasons, Thanksgiving . , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday November 8, 2020: Sunrise. Two Maple buddies: the red maple to the left in the distance & the boxelder maple close right

My love of deciduous trees started with the onset of 10th Grade (1981-1982). Daddy had bought me Copper and Chief, my two beloved Black and Tan coonhounds in August, and we four were spending hours in the autumn-laden ridges of Varnell. As we would either walk up and down the ridges, talk, or listen to Chief and Copper begin their innate, melodious bawling, we would discuss the trees of our woods. We mostly spoke of the noble oaks, but, of course, the maples were embedded in the woods as well. As I write this entry which is dedicated to maples, our oak trees behind our house have burst forth with color. Seriously, on Friday November 6, 2020, the oaks were green as green can be. By Sunday the 8th, they had turned reds, yellows, & oranges!

My father, Copper, Chief, and I spent the whole winter tromping through the woods that later went bare, of course. Then, the spring of 1982 came with all the new green and rebirth of plants, trees, and flowers. My 10th grade biology teacher had assigned to us a final project where we were to complete a spring flower and leaf album of 25 plants and flowers we could find in our environment. I asked Daddy to help me. One evening, he and I walked the woods behind our house with Copper and Chief. Several days later, Daddy and I walked Nanny’s yard collecting leaves. It was May 15, 1982 (Nanny’s birthday and my dad had made her a birthday cake while I mowed Nanny’s yard.. it was Saturday.. we had a family celebration after I mowed). Thirteen days later, Friday May 28, Daddy was dead. I had to finish the album without him to turn in after Memorial Day, and Nanny came to the house with some old-timey botanical magazines (We had to have those Latin, botanical names written by those leaves, ya know!) that she had collected through the years to help me fumble through the finishing touches of the album. Well, I finished it, and, sadly,  I did not make a 100…. I made a 97. I think my teacher doubted some of the Latin names just between us readers; however, that love of studying and labeling flora has stuck with me.

As I wrote this past July, this COVID season has made me see things through my nature loving – Cherokee ( Yes, Pap Edwards…. Edwards Park Varnell , GA at Plainview…. Cleveland Road was my Cherokee ancestor to the Caylors… great-great-great grandfather) eyes. Walking with my family or jogging by myself on this land has tuned me in better to my surroundings, and I am very grateful that God’s spirit touches my spirit with the love and desire to research and share about my environment.

 I hope you enjoy our mesmerizing maples. I’ve placed a photo of the entire maple tree with a side-by-side photo of its autumn colored leaf/leaves. Also, Thanksgiving 2020 may be another 17 days away, but I do want to say an early “Happy Thanksgiving!” to you all. God is great. Peace / Shalom.

red maple (acer rubrum)

boxelder maple (acer negundo)

field maple (acer campestre)
sugar maple (acer saccharum)
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Last Classroom Tip!

. Education . , , , , ,

I could probably spend an hour of lecture and showing examples of this, but I hope I can do it justice in a few paragraphs. In the ESL classroom, I would recommend a Multicultural Station. It may be difficult with physical environment constraints, but maybe you could stack them in plastic boxes.

Okay, it will take several weeks of research and collecting, but it’s doable. When you know the demographics of your students, it is much easier. From the nationalities/cultures of your students you should collect 1)salutations and expressions of courtesy  and TRY to learn to pronounce them correctly 2)translations of some of their legends, poetry, etc. 3)games, and 4)arts and crafts.

The thing about an ESL classroom is that it is dynamic. It USUALLY doesn’t stay stagnate, and you will be welcoming all sorts of students from a variety of different countries at any point in time (In 1995, the Fulton County School System in Georgia had ESL classrooms with 14 different languages in them, and they were always changing). When a new student arrives, spend a day or two (time used at your discretion) and work with the kit with you old students and new student to hopefully acclimate your former students to the culture of the new student, and the new student will be thrilled that you all are welcoming him/her with familiar things they are use to.