Part 2 of Fourth of July pictures....
^The Pastors playing Corn Hole
Monday, July 7, 2014
Fourth of July - Part 2
Fourth of July - Part 1
We went to a friends house for a Fourth of July celebration this year. We had a blast! I took so many pics, I had to break them up into two posts.
>> I added a bunch of family members to my email list after posting the Swim Team pics yesterday, so if you didn't get to see those, pop on the blog and check em out!
Peace out!
Oats
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| Will you tune my guitar? Oh btw, the tuners broken :) |
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| Pals |
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| Grilling s'mores? |
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| Chuck on garage duty to make sure Caleb doesn't escape |
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| Grandmas are the best! |
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| Somebody had to do it... |
Peace out!
Oats
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Summer Fun - Swim Meets
Wow! Almost a year since I've been on here. Sometimes I read another blog and suddenly feel inspired which is what happened this time, so really I'm being a copy-cat :) However, I thought I'd make this more of a photo blog. We've been to a ton of fun places this summer so far and I've been taking pics all along. I thought I'd start with yesterday and work backwards.
Swim Meet
^ First thing in the morning it can be a little chilly while waiting for your event!
^ Swimming the breaststroke in a relay
^My big guy doing the butterfly. Great form here!
One of my peanuts doing the backstroke. This is his first year doing swim team.
^ Proof that they do actually care about one another every once in a while.
^ On the starting blocks
^ Keep your eye on the prize
^ Waiting for the tag in a freestyle relay event.
^ "Hi mom!"
^ This poor girl and her teeth. She has lost 4 now really close together and none of them have started popping through yet. Makes me want to give her freckles and a straw hat :)
Hope you like the photos. I still have some people receiving this via email. If you don't want to anymore, just let me know. I know some of you I haven't been in contact with for quite a while (but that doesn't mean I don't still think about you!) God bless!!!
Swim Meet
Hope you like the photos. I still have some people receiving this via email. If you don't want to anymore, just let me know. I know some of you I haven't been in contact with for quite a while (but that doesn't mean I don't still think about you!) God bless!!!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
We're not po' no mo'
I had no intention of writing here today. As a matter of fact, I've had no intention of writing on this blog lately at all. Then a friend closed up her blog today. Made me sad. So many times I head out to Facebook trying to 'connect' with people, but without really connecting. Actually I'm more of a lurker... I actually try not to post much out there also. However, I miss connecting with people... like really connecting. What happened to talking with someone on the phone forever. I know, I know, life has gotten busy. We all have kids. Who could have a normal phone conversation anyway. But I miss sharing just normal daily activities with other people. And not in a just post it on FB kind of way.
So I remembered that Blogger has a 'Next Blog' button on the top of their tool bar. I thought, I'm just going to go surfing on random blogs and see what I run into. Surprisingly I was very encouraged. EVERY blog I hit was from a Christian person discussing their family, their faith, and life in general. Some were by pastors, moms, dads, young adults, the whole mix. I noticed that some blogs like mine hadn't been updated in a while. Some were even years old. After browsing for a while I came back to my own blogs and started reading some of my old posts.
I was struck by the amazing path that God has brought me on and what all has been accomplished in the past years. I read posts from my 'I'm Coming Home' blog that chronicles my journey in leaving corporate America and becoming a SAHM. Near the end of that blog, I talked about the many things God was blessing us with at the time. It made me realize how far we've come.
Today, we had a family night. My husband works many many hours so that I am able to stay home, so as a compromise, we've made weekends off-limits for working. However a friend really needed my husband's help this past Saturday. My compromise was that we would have a big family night on Saturday night and go out to dinner with some of the $$ he earned Sat morning. The place I have been most dying to go to recently is for a Japanese Hibachi dinner. With our family, this meal easily costs over $100. Even as much as I was craving the food there, I'm not really willing to spend $100 to go eat there because I think of all the other things we could do with that money. However, one of the places locally has 1/2 price hibachi on Tuesday nights. Soooo, we moved our family night to today.
We enjoyed this awesome meal and then headed over to Chuck E Cheese to spend some left over tokens we've had for a while. The kids had fun. My husband and I had fun. The food was delicious. It was all in all an awesome night!
I used to make comments to my kids that since I quit working we were poor. (BTW, I highly suggest not doing this, but hindsight is 20/20) So my kids just think we're poor now. So as we were driving home from our hibachi dinner, I told my kids, "well guys, we aren't poor anymore, cause poor people NEVER get to have hibachi!" LOL! I'm kind of chuckling to myself even thinking that, but it's true.
The reality is God has blessed us AMAZINGLY the past couple of months. Oh sure money is still tight. But the things we've been able to accomplish and spend money on has been WAY better than it was 2 years ago. This fall every one of our children will be participating in some sports activity in one form or fashion. It's a huge blessing that we are able to do that!!
So after all these events, I was really glad that I chronicled the journey we've been on. It's encouraging to see how far we've come and how much God has provided and been there for us. Which led me to want to write today's events down and remember just where we were today. It may not always be this good, but it'll help me remember that God is always there and He has good plans for me!
(LOL, I just reread this post before publishing and the double negative in the subject is driving me crazy. However, I'm going to just leave it cause it fits. But I wanted to let y'all know, I noticed it :)
So I remembered that Blogger has a 'Next Blog' button on the top of their tool bar. I thought, I'm just going to go surfing on random blogs and see what I run into. Surprisingly I was very encouraged. EVERY blog I hit was from a Christian person discussing their family, their faith, and life in general. Some were by pastors, moms, dads, young adults, the whole mix. I noticed that some blogs like mine hadn't been updated in a while. Some were even years old. After browsing for a while I came back to my own blogs and started reading some of my old posts.
I was struck by the amazing path that God has brought me on and what all has been accomplished in the past years. I read posts from my 'I'm Coming Home' blog that chronicles my journey in leaving corporate America and becoming a SAHM. Near the end of that blog, I talked about the many things God was blessing us with at the time. It made me realize how far we've come.
Today, we had a family night. My husband works many many hours so that I am able to stay home, so as a compromise, we've made weekends off-limits for working. However a friend really needed my husband's help this past Saturday. My compromise was that we would have a big family night on Saturday night and go out to dinner with some of the $$ he earned Sat morning. The place I have been most dying to go to recently is for a Japanese Hibachi dinner. With our family, this meal easily costs over $100. Even as much as I was craving the food there, I'm not really willing to spend $100 to go eat there because I think of all the other things we could do with that money. However, one of the places locally has 1/2 price hibachi on Tuesday nights. Soooo, we moved our family night to today.
We enjoyed this awesome meal and then headed over to Chuck E Cheese to spend some left over tokens we've had for a while. The kids had fun. My husband and I had fun. The food was delicious. It was all in all an awesome night!
I used to make comments to my kids that since I quit working we were poor. (BTW, I highly suggest not doing this, but hindsight is 20/20) So my kids just think we're poor now. So as we were driving home from our hibachi dinner, I told my kids, "well guys, we aren't poor anymore, cause poor people NEVER get to have hibachi!" LOL! I'm kind of chuckling to myself even thinking that, but it's true.
The reality is God has blessed us AMAZINGLY the past couple of months. Oh sure money is still tight. But the things we've been able to accomplish and spend money on has been WAY better than it was 2 years ago. This fall every one of our children will be participating in some sports activity in one form or fashion. It's a huge blessing that we are able to do that!!
So after all these events, I was really glad that I chronicled the journey we've been on. It's encouraging to see how far we've come and how much God has provided and been there for us. Which led me to want to write today's events down and remember just where we were today. It may not always be this good, but it'll help me remember that God is always there and He has good plans for me!
(LOL, I just reread this post before publishing and the double negative in the subject is driving me crazy. However, I'm going to just leave it cause it fits. But I wanted to let y'all know, I noticed it :)
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Homeschool Mom Moment
Yesterday, my husband asked me to wash his uniforms for work. Of which, I gladly complied. However, when he awoke and asked about his uniforms, I realized I had not dried them yet. As I was quickly moving individual pieces of clothing into the dryer, I found a clean pair of uniform pants. I started the dryer with a shirt in it and a few moments later also found a clean shirt already in a pile of folded laundry. So imagine the dismay I felt when my husband realized today that I STILL had not dried the load of uniform clothes from yesterday. Luckily, I had the shirt dry from yesterday and just had to dry a pair of pants. However, it's moments like these that make me think I am SO bad at this job.
From then, I swirled into a self pity mode of all the things I do wrong and can't keep up on. Then a situation from church on Sunday came into my head. My children were in Sunday School. My husband stepped out of the sanctuary for a moment and inadvertently heard what was happening in the class. Apparently, some of my children kept speaking out of turn and the teacher had to remind one of them THREE times to raise his hand before speaking. I started to think "oh great, my children are the ones who can't raise their hands and act like civilized people". I even asked my husband today if I could go back to work... somewhat half jokingly, somewhat hoping he'd say sure.
So even later this evening... well into the early morning hours, I sat watching some TV. I turned off the TV before heading to bed and just sat in the dark silence enjoying the light show that was happening outside. I said a quick prayer, like a "what am I doing, Lord?" type prayer.
As I sat in the darkness, memories of a book club I attended last summer came flooding back. We studied a book called "Home School Supermom, NOT". In it, and in countless other stories I've heard from home school moms, we question our ability to do this. We ask ourselves if we are messing up our children for life. Will they get into college? and etc. Over and over I've heard stories of moms who have asked these same questions and have gotten to the end and realized they DIDN'T mess up their kid. And YES they were able to get into college. And YES some people do have messy houses!!
I felt encouraged just by the memories and I think the spirit of the Lord was ministering to me. So I wanted to share my encouragement with others. The devil wants to steal our joy and make us feel incompetent to do what God has called. But through Him, we are able to do all things (Phil 4:13) He has equipped us to do this great work (2 Tim 3:17, Heb 13:20-21).
I hope this encourages you to press on in whatever God has called you to at this moment. It's probably not easy, but God has a purpose and a plan in it! Press on toward the goal of the prize (Phil 3:13-15)!!
From then, I swirled into a self pity mode of all the things I do wrong and can't keep up on. Then a situation from church on Sunday came into my head. My children were in Sunday School. My husband stepped out of the sanctuary for a moment and inadvertently heard what was happening in the class. Apparently, some of my children kept speaking out of turn and the teacher had to remind one of them THREE times to raise his hand before speaking. I started to think "oh great, my children are the ones who can't raise their hands and act like civilized people". I even asked my husband today if I could go back to work... somewhat half jokingly, somewhat hoping he'd say sure.
So even later this evening... well into the early morning hours, I sat watching some TV. I turned off the TV before heading to bed and just sat in the dark silence enjoying the light show that was happening outside. I said a quick prayer, like a "what am I doing, Lord?" type prayer.
As I sat in the darkness, memories of a book club I attended last summer came flooding back. We studied a book called "Home School Supermom, NOT". In it, and in countless other stories I've heard from home school moms, we question our ability to do this. We ask ourselves if we are messing up our children for life. Will they get into college? and etc. Over and over I've heard stories of moms who have asked these same questions and have gotten to the end and realized they DIDN'T mess up their kid. And YES they were able to get into college. And YES some people do have messy houses!!
I felt encouraged just by the memories and I think the spirit of the Lord was ministering to me. So I wanted to share my encouragement with others. The devil wants to steal our joy and make us feel incompetent to do what God has called. But through Him, we are able to do all things (Phil 4:13) He has equipped us to do this great work (2 Tim 3:17, Heb 13:20-21).
I hope this encourages you to press on in whatever God has called you to at this moment. It's probably not easy, but God has a purpose and a plan in it! Press on toward the goal of the prize (Phil 3:13-15)!!
Friday, June 14, 2013
Cause my mother did it, and her mother did it....
Have you ever heard the story about the mother teaching her daughter how to make a roast. She said first you cut off the two ends. The daughter asked "why do you cut off the ends?" The mother replied because that's how my mother taught me to do it. So they went to the grandma and asked, "Why do you cut the ends off of the roast?" She replied, "because that's how my mother taught me to do it". So they go to great grandma and ask her, "why do you cut off the ends of the roast?". She replied, "because my pan was too small! I had to cut off the ends to make it fit".
So my correlation to this story? My sons are tall for their age, but most of them have small waists. My son got into the next size of pants for length, but the waist was too big. Being the quick and frugal mom that I am, I rolled down his waistband to make it a little tighter. Well now a few years later, he still insists on rolling his waistband down. I just noticed that he even did it to his pajama pants!! Ten years from now, when this is a big fashion fad, you'll know where it came from :)
So the bread yesterday turned out delicious! So good in fact, that we made another batch yesterday. We gave one loaf away and gobbled the second up quickly. With a family of 7 people, a loaf doesn't go too far. Even the two loaves from the next batch are almost gone this evening.
K heading out for a worship practice. Have a good night y'all!!
So my correlation to this story? My sons are tall for their age, but most of them have small waists. My son got into the next size of pants for length, but the waist was too big. Being the quick and frugal mom that I am, I rolled down his waistband to make it a little tighter. Well now a few years later, he still insists on rolling his waistband down. I just noticed that he even did it to his pajama pants!! Ten years from now, when this is a big fashion fad, you'll know where it came from :)
So the bread yesterday turned out delicious! So good in fact, that we made another batch yesterday. We gave one loaf away and gobbled the second up quickly. With a family of 7 people, a loaf doesn't go too far. Even the two loaves from the next batch are almost gone this evening.
K heading out for a worship practice. Have a good night y'all!!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Summer Projects
Trying to do some organizing now that summer is here. It's hard. I'm a little overwhelmed. I know if I just start picking away at something eventually progress will be made. So here I go....
Today I baked bread for the first time. Now I feel like a "veteran home schooler"... well kind of :D It's baking in the oven as we speak. I'll let you know how it comes out.
It's been raining today and the boys baseball game got cancelled. I'm kind of sad. I actually love watching them play. I've been keeping score this season too which has given me a whole new view on it. I've been running stats for the team too. Their record is 2-7 right now, so we're hoping to get more wins!!!
Now that summer is here, another change in our family has been the use of the Wii and computer. We normally have a weekends only policy for electronics, but with all the extra time for the summer, we decided to adjust a little. If the kids do extra chores, not their normal ones, they can earn Wii time. Never have I had children volunteering to hand wash my kitchen floor and sort laundry!! I think I could get used to this! Just wish there was more I could just "send them off" to do without supervision. This place would be immaculate!
My other summer project is painting our front stairway. I've always envisioned this kind of mural in there of a nature scene. Now I am NOT an artist... so we'll see how this all comes out. I usually have these great pics in my head and are sorely disappointed when I'm not able to make it happen. I think I have my expectations set properly this time though. I'm just now painting the base blue color that will be the sky. I decided to let my 9 and 10 year old help. Oy yoy yoy... just a little stressful. Pretty sure I'm going to go back to doing it on my own :)
My daughter is working on a loose tooth. This will be her first one out. She's a little sensitive to pain, so she's already been "working" on it for days! It's quite loose. Maybe today she'll let me do the string thing and just YANK it!! Ha, if that happens you can be sure there will be a youtube video to follow.
Hope you are all having a blessed and relaxing day!
Shout out birthday to my dear friend Cat!! We don't get to see each other as much as I'd like these days, but I still cherish your friendship!! I hope you have a fantastic birthday and may God pour out his blessings on you this next year! Love you girl!
Oats
Today I baked bread for the first time. Now I feel like a "veteran home schooler"... well kind of :D It's baking in the oven as we speak. I'll let you know how it comes out.
It's been raining today and the boys baseball game got cancelled. I'm kind of sad. I actually love watching them play. I've been keeping score this season too which has given me a whole new view on it. I've been running stats for the team too. Their record is 2-7 right now, so we're hoping to get more wins!!!
Now that summer is here, another change in our family has been the use of the Wii and computer. We normally have a weekends only policy for electronics, but with all the extra time for the summer, we decided to adjust a little. If the kids do extra chores, not their normal ones, they can earn Wii time. Never have I had children volunteering to hand wash my kitchen floor and sort laundry!! I think I could get used to this! Just wish there was more I could just "send them off" to do without supervision. This place would be immaculate!
My other summer project is painting our front stairway. I've always envisioned this kind of mural in there of a nature scene. Now I am NOT an artist... so we'll see how this all comes out. I usually have these great pics in my head and are sorely disappointed when I'm not able to make it happen. I think I have my expectations set properly this time though. I'm just now painting the base blue color that will be the sky. I decided to let my 9 and 10 year old help. Oy yoy yoy... just a little stressful. Pretty sure I'm going to go back to doing it on my own :)
My daughter is working on a loose tooth. This will be her first one out. She's a little sensitive to pain, so she's already been "working" on it for days! It's quite loose. Maybe today she'll let me do the string thing and just YANK it!! Ha, if that happens you can be sure there will be a youtube video to follow.
Hope you are all having a blessed and relaxing day!
Shout out birthday to my dear friend Cat!! We don't get to see each other as much as I'd like these days, but I still cherish your friendship!! I hope you have a fantastic birthday and may God pour out his blessings on you this next year! Love you girl!
Oats
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