Monday Miscellaneous

{I’m sorry that the Fitness Friday post was not posted last week.  The computer was not working on Friday {it was an easy fix though – yay}.  I did get in three days of exercise last week.  I’m shooting for four days this week.  I will post on Friday.} 

 

::outside::  I just saw a hummingbird fly from the garden.

::listening to::  quiet.  The kids are at their Grandparent’s house.  Occasionally, the puppy barks for no reason.  I think he misses the kiddos. 

::giving thanks for::  Grandparents.  My kids were blessed with some great Grandparents. 

::pondering::  act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God (paraphrase of Micah 6:8)

::reading::  This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti – actually rereading this and soaping through the book of Romans

::thinking about::  how to handle all of this blog moving business.  It’s kind of overwhelming and scary.  I’m trying to decide if I should import this blog to another or just start fresh at the new place.  (Or possibly just stay on blogger) Decisions, decisions

::creating::  I created a Cars 2 party this past weekend for my Littlest Man (coming tomorrow).  Today, I’m creating a new blog (maybe) and working to create a clean & organized school area.

::learning in the school room::  We are not actually learning in the school room.  However, we are learning outside of the school room.  We are gearing up to get back to our school schedule soon!

::praying for::  those involved in the Colorado shooting…they have been heavy on my mind these past few days

::feathering our nest::  We’ve done a little rearranging and I’ve been decorating.  We started going to garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores to find things for the house.  It is so fun…and the prices are usually good too!

 

::gardening::  This is the time of the year that I always lose my gardening steam.   It is hot outside and prepping for school comes to the forefront of my mind.  Both are great reasons for me to be inside.  The garden needs some sprucing up and some replanting.  I need some motivation to get out in the heat!

::planning our week::  church fellowship at a water park and readying the school areas for the first day of school

The pictures are of our birthday boy over the past few days of celebrating his turning 4!

I hope your week is off to a great start!

 

 

Summer fun

I can not believe that June is almost over!  Summer has been zipping by and we’ve been busy having fun!

Memorial Day Weekend

We kicked off the summer with a trip to the lake.  While there we fished, swam, and played with worms.  {smile}  Well, the little ones played with worms while others fished.  I’m sure the fish swimming below the pier enjoyed the worms being thrown into the water. 

Swim team

This summer, Bryce, our oldest son, competed in summer swim meets.  Grant was also going to compete but ended up with a broken collar bone after a Memorial Day weekend bicycle accident.  He was, however, at every swim meet to support and cheer on his older brother through all of the competitions.  I’m very proud of my boys!

 

Birthday sleepover

Emma turned nine and had her first ever sleep over with a few friends.  We took the girls to Cracker Barrel for supper, swam in the light of tiki torches, made ice cream sundaes, hosted tea parties, and played & crafted.  I think we all even slept…a little bit…

Gone fishin’

We headed down to a local park to do a little fishing.  We didn’t get any fish because we got there a tad too late and it was too hot.  Or we may not have gotten any fish because we skeedaddled out of there after we saw the alligator foot print in the mud!

 an alligator this way comes

Splashing in the water fountains

The city’s water fountains provided cool relief on a hot day.  During our last visit there, Emma and David ended up being interviewed by the local news station.

Add to the above activities:  daily swimming in our backyard pool, working in the garden, wrangling chickens & a puppy, learning about Jesus at Vacation Bible School, and having fun with friends.

I think I know why summer is flying by so quickly…because we’re having so much fun!

 

16 years

Sixteen years ago, I married my best friend.

Sixteen years ago, we vowed to work on this marriage

~in good or in bad, in sickness or in health, in richer or in poorer~

And boy oh boy, have we seen it!

We’ve seen it all.

And we’re still together

sixteen years later.

Honestly, there have been times when we both wondered if our marriage could weather the batterings of those bad times, sick times, and poor times.

But we forged on - both of us totally sure that God put us together and that was just where we would stay.

 

This love, this joy, this peace, this comfort

are such great gifts from God.

Gifts that He gave to me through David.

Thank you God for Your many blessings!

David, Thank you for sixteen wonderful years.  Thank you for the laughs and the way you take care of us.  Thank you for serving us all with your servant heart.  I am thankful for every day of these past sixteen years…even the sick, bad, and poor ones.  I didn’t enjoy those times at all but I was glad that you were there with me through them.  I look forward to many, many more years – hopefully ones of good, health, and richness.  But for sure, years of you and I together raising a family and sharing love & laughter. 

I love you forever and always.

It’s the little things…

that make me smile.

Things like…

canning green beans from our city garden

my littlest boy catching a fish and that smile {oh! that smile!}

the load of pine straw that my husband raked up and brought home while he was out camping with our sons

 

a son who is growing up and shows me glimpses of the man he is becoming

the oohs and aahs from the backseat as we passed a truck loaded with many pallets (actually some oohs and aahs came from the front seat too)

flowers picked out by my kids for Mother’s Day – they know just what I like

beautiful, fun sisters

 

chocolate cherry tomatoes

a little buddy sleeping during a math lesson

 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend full of many smiles!

A backyard birthday party ~

Our Sunshine Girl turned 6 back in April. 

We had the party the first weekend of May and I’m just now putting pictures on the blog.

The reason for that is that I didn’t take one picture!

Nope.  I forgot!  I always get so busy at parties and family functions that I forget to pull out the camera.

But my dad saved the day and sent some birthday party pictures to me.

Thanks Dad!

We usually keep birthday parties kind of simple.  However this year, we decided to give Sunshine Girl a “friend and family” party.

I asked her what she wanted and she said, “Mermaids.”

Since she had boys at the party too, we went with a mermaid and pirate theme. 

Actually, it was more like an under the sea theme.

And even though we had a bigger than normal birthday party this year, we still kept it simple. 

 

 

Just crepe paper, tissue paper, snacks, cupcakes, a treasure hunt,

and water balloons!

(The chickens were a huge hit too.  Particularly when Tundra decided to sit on my sister-in-law’s head.  That one’s still being talked about around here!)

Plus friends and family…

And Sunshine Girl loved it!

And I love that!

 

 

Our week {April 15 – 21}

A collection of our memories from the week ~

 

 Learned about the letter j {making a jellyfish}

 had a yummy stir fry – fresh from the garden

 watched the Air Force Thunderbirds fly over our house as they practiced for the air show – had to call Daddy and tell him all about it {smile}

 enjoyed strolls in the garden

 and enjoyed a little help in the kitchen on fajita night

 spent some time with my husband and friends at a weekend retreat

 picked the first batch of green beans and golden wax beans for the 2012 garden season

 Grant passed district Bible drill (he is number 9 in picture above)

 This should actually go on next week’s post but I’m going to post it tonight.  Grant passed the state Bible drill tonight!  It was his third year to pass at the state level.  {smile}

Christmas 2011 memories

The decorations are put away.  The Christmas food goodies are almost gone.  But the memories…they last forever! 

Our Christmas was wonderful.  I really loved having Christmas fall on a Sunday.  My Mom, Dad, and Uncle came to worship with us on that day.  I loved that.  Then we all went to our Little White House for some family fellowship.  And I only got one picture on the actual day of Christmas – one. whole.picture.  Not even a good one at that…

However, that’s not all of our pictures.  We have some wonderful memories from our 2011 Christmas.

Christmas with family and many cousins

A Christmas parade (one of two that the kids went to this year) and lots of candy catching

Friends and gingerbread houses

Lots of laughs, candy, and icing (and two mamas had some time to talk)

 (cracks me up every year but each gingerbread house always reflects the personality of the maker)

Christmas lights at Roseland

 

 See the smile on his face?  That’s because he was bouncing the ball that floats on the water! 

Opening a joint gift to all the kiddos (the one in which we surprised them!)

Christmas was great and now we are just enjoying some days of hanging out with each other and cleaning the house before we start a new year and school starts up again.

I hope you and your family have had a wonderful Christmas season.  See y’all soon!