A Few Pictures

Just so I don't forget

To me.

You like to go places, but you do not like hotels.
You are a homebody.
Business trips with your husband are just like when he's away on business trips and you are home.  He works long hours, doesn't have a chance to talk very much and is on the phone until at least 11:00 every night dealing with problems at work.
The kids may say that they had fun, but their behavior was horrible and they missed home.  A lot.

You really do want to be Amish even if it's only for a few days.
Your hair was made to wear a bonnet.
Clotheslines and cornfields really do make you happy.
The clip clop of the horses hooves and those piles of poop all over the roads made your kids' day.
Amish Whoopie Pies, lemonade and Kettle Corn are so yummy.

A Hot Mess

It has been so hot here the past few days, so we decided to break our normal routine and have outside play time in the morning.  I was watering flowers and Maggie decided to fill her watering can up, too.  Within a couple of minutes, she was standing ankle deep in a "pool".

Neither of our girls like to get dirty unless it is their idea.  We encourage this kind of play!  They are happy to rub sand all over each other in the sand box at home, but not at the beach.  And they are more than happy to dig a hole beside of their swing set to create a "pool".  This part of North Carolina has red clay, so both girls had red clay mud covering their feet...and hands...and somehow Ellie had some on her cheeks too.  Maggie said it made sense why some animals covered themselves in mud to stay cool because her feet were "just as cool as they could be".  We stayed outside for a couple of hours and then came inside for baths and lunch.  It was a great day!  (They also made pyramids out of the mud and they were thrilled to go out and look at them last night and see that they had dried and looked like they were made out of modeling clay.  Can you tel that we talked about ancient Egypt last week?)


We are going on a bit of an adventure next week.  Big Daddy needs to be out of town all of next week and since July 4 is on Wednesday, we are tagging along!  I'll be spending all day with the girls while he is taking care of business and it's not something that I've ever had to do in a new town.  So...I'm hoping that the hotel is close to something fun, but they have a pool, a t.v. and also telephones that we will be unplugging so the girls can do their thing.  They usually have the best time just playing around in the room, but we have never been in a hotel for this long with them.  I would greatly appreciate your prayers that we have safe and happy travels!

Once again...

Once again it's been a long time since I posted anything.  We have been busy with homeschooling stuff and just daily life.  Big Daddy has been out of town a lot, (this is the third week in a row) but he's home every weekend.  We have been playing in the sprinklers, and going to Nana and Paw Paw's a lot in the evenings.  It just seems like more fun to play outside when there's more people around.  And my brother-in-law made these:

(pictures are sideways but I don't know why!)

a tire swing

and a big 2 person swing !

 My parents (and sister) live on family land that once belonged to my great grandparents.  The house that my dad grew up in is right next door.  My grandmother passed away nearly two years ago and my dad bought the house recently.  There are several old maple trees, so my brother-in-law fixed swings for the girls (Callie, Maggie & Ellie) in one of them.  These swings are in the tree that my grandparents used to sit under all the time...and my dad probably played under them when he was little too.  This is now our evening hangout!

Big Daddy and I celebrated our twelve year wedding anniversary this past weekend.  I still can't believe that I've been married that long or that I was so young when I married!  We had an all day date that lasted about eight hours.  We had a light lunch, saw a movie, shopped, walked around, had dinner and then walked around before wandering home.  Maggie and Ellie spent the day with my sister and my mom. Since they live next to each other, the girls just sort of float back and forth.

And that is a little bit of what's going on around here!

Challenges

I thought being a mom was hard, but being a homeschool mom is so much harder.

Going to the beach and having it rain three out of four days was not always easy.  Fortunately, I am blessed with two girls that love staying in hotels and the sun popped out long enough each day for us to enjoy the sand, water and to explore.  

Being "single" again after several weeks of not being single is tough...and lonely.

Starting a diet right after a birthday party when there's left over cupcakes in the house is hard.  Thankfully, I have lost two pounds in the past two days and feel slightly encouraged.

Seeing these two smiley faces makes everything seem better.

Three

This is our birthday girl!

Ellie Grace celebrated her third birthday with some time at the beach.

Right Now

It has been three years since we woke up here and not there.  Maggie has officially lived here for as long as she lived in Sanford.

I have a polyp growing my uterus.  It hurts sometimes.

We are looking forward to going to the beach soon.

Big Daddy and I are really enjoying our first year of being the proud owners of a blooming hydrangea!  (It was my Mother's Day present last year)  Hydrangeas remind me of my Grandma's house and the place where Big Daddy and I spent our honeymoon and many summer weekends in the first few years of our marriage.  I have little bouquets scattered through the house.

We are all sorts of excited about an Ice Cream Social with our homeschool group to celebrate the end of the school year.

We are still talking about the fun trip we took last week to have dinner with our friends in Sanford. Maggie and Ellie were able to love on Gammy Gladys and play with their friends, while I had some much needed time with my favorite mommies.

Ellie loves her homeschool preschool time.

Big Daddy and I are planning a little trip for our twelve year anniversary that's coming up.

First and Last

 Maggie had her first (and probably last) dance recital this past weekend.  I only took pictures during the dress rehearsal the night before, so that I could be fully present for the actual recital.  Sadly, Maggie has decided that dance isn't her thing and she'll be trying something new during the next school year.

I am so NOT a dance mom, but I really enjoyed the recital and the little bit of hype that surrounded it.  Maggie's favorite part of the recital was killing time with her friends while waiting their turn to perform!  

 Of course, a cheap plastic trophy and flowers from your dad are also nice.

Maggie received her first trophy when she won "Clubber of the Year" in her AWANA class a couple of weeks ago and she was thrilled to add another trophy to her collection.

A Little Brain Dump

I feel like the past 6 weeks or so have been so crazy and so many things have happened in our lives.  From the death of Mike's mom to Maggie turning six.  I decided the best way to document some of the stuff that we've had going on is to do a recap.  Is there any other way that I'll be able to look back in a month and remember what happened?

• Turning six was lots of fun!

According to Maggie, this scooter is "the best gift ever because it's a dream come true".  Nana rocks!

• We celebrated our first "Homeschool Field Day".  Both girls LOVED it and wanted to do it again!  It was quite a production getting 130 kids organized by age and gender and rotating them through all of the events.  My favorite thing was when the girls played tug of war!
• Maggie had her first dance pictures taken in preparation for her recital and the end of her first year of dance.  They had pictures taken at the dance studio and they wore the outfit for jazz and tap.  I decided to take a few in her ballet outfit too.  I'll be taking some in her jazz outfit at some point because I have very little faith in the picture (singular) that the photographer took.  I paid for "10 edited images" and she snapped one picture so fast that I don't even know how Maggie was posed.  I guess I'll get one image edited 10 different ways.  I have no idea!

Ellie cried and wanted in on one picture!!

• Maggie has finished first grade and started most second grade work.  We are doing another year of first grade math, but in a different curriculum.  She does well at math, but gets very stressed out if she doesn't understand a concept immediately.  I am hoping by going through another year of first grade math she will gain some confidence.  We are doing several lessons a day since we're at the easy stuff, so she'll be in second grade before I know it.  Another beauty of homeschooling!!
• Ellie has started preschool "work" at home!  I have attempted this before, but didn't stick with it.  She'll be doing some of the basic things that Maggie learned in her three year old preschool class and hopefully more.  I asked if she liked preschool and she said, "Yes! It's ottsa fun!!"
• We had hoped to send both girls to summer day camp at our church, but Ellie's camp is at the same time that we'll be at the beach and Maggie's camp has become an overnight camp.  After a discussion, we determined that none of us are quite ready for that.  Maggie thought it sounded like fun, but said that three nights away would be too long unless we would come and stay a couple of nights.  Maybe next year we will all be ready!
• And did I mention that Maggie lost her first tooth!?

That gets me caught up on the past few weeks, I think.

Right Now

I write a lot, but it's in my head.  I think about the things that I want to remember (like yesterday when Ellie said, "Look, I'm just like a little rolling pin." as she rolled across her bed!) and the different things that we have going on from day to day.  In the end, there are too many other things that keep me from writing (or typing).

Maggie lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago and (finally!) learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last night.  She is six and I homeschool her and I wonder how in the world that happened every single day.  We have taken a couple of weeks off from any school work (but we learn every single day) and will start second grade next week.  The break has been nice, but Maggie thrives when she has work- and her behavior is much better!

Ellie is such a mess!  She is so funny and sweet and she doesn't put up with any junk from her big sister!  She has really shown me what a sponge children are.  Most of the "bad" stuff that she does, she learned how to do from watching her sister.  She seems to be strong-willed like Maggie and she also has the same sweet spirit.

I cannot believe that Big Daddy and I will celebrate our 12 year anniversary in June.  I cannot believe that we got married so young or that we are getting so old!  I'm happy to say that our marriage has lasted longer than the appliances that we bought the first few months of our marriage.  We replaced our washing machine in January of 2009 and just bought a new dryer this week.  So, our appliances died before we did!

I now have the sewing machine that I have wanted for so long.  I have made pillow covers and curtains for Maggie's room.  In just a minute, I'm going to work on a couple of little tote bags.  My sewing machine makes me smile!!