"A Wink and a Smile"

A bit cool and overcast , but it was fun to spend some time with 4 of my 5 girls and the hubby. My girls had no troubles climbing. If anyone was a little hesitant it was me. The girls scaled the rocks and big steps with the greatest of ease. I was a bit more cautious in finding the perfect spot to put my foot. We all noted the beautiful scenery. GREAT DAY followed by a some errands and fish tacos!

Because if you are my "friend" on fb, you will have seen this ... We've had a few days of doing nothing, but hanging out in the home. Southerners cannot deal very well with ICE/SNOW and well, this time the weather people were correct. We got HIT and my girls/hubby got some time off. Today, we had 2 swim meets (High School and USA), 2 basketball games (for daughter #3 and #4), and a Communion INSCRIPTION service at Church ... ALL CANCELED! I must admit it has been nice to do nothing. We played in the SNOW/ICE There was some game playing ... BLOKUS . I love that game! MOVIE watching went on. Gotta love NETFLIX ! While I was very excited to go on a dinner date, I was happy to be home with the family. Maybe SUNDAY will bring a little one on one time with my main squeeze.

DROVE to NJ for the Thanksgiving week. 20 hours of drive time EACH WAY. The drive there was straight through with 3 little stops. WE ... shopped ate a lot of food consumed several glasses of wine (well I did ... not all of the "we") went out with the hubby 2 nights to meet up with High School friends slept very poorly in a little twin sized bed (I should have at least brought my own pillow) met with an internet mommy friend that I have known for 8 years THEN ... drove back home over the course of 2 days. STILL ... catching up tired busy overwhelmed *I'll try to get back to some blogging soon ;)

I'm taking a few minutes to update the blog while eating my shredded wheat and rice milk ... sounds yummy, eh? I just got three little girls off to school while the other 2 are waiting on me to start their day. Homeschooling is getting a little better. This school year had a shaky start, but we seem to be settling into a groove now. I put on my running shoes the other day for the first time in a few weeks. We've had so much rain and mostly that was my excuse for not running. Yesterday I had a pretty good run while listening to "A Wrinkle in Time" on my iPod. I find that stories and podcasts are much more stimulating to me than music while I run. I always get bored with playlists and after a few songs, I feel like I am watching the clock. It has also helped to have some sunshine ;) Swim team is starting to get busier. We just had our first meet 1.5 weeks ago and we will have one this weekend. The girls did great at the first one ... really cutting their times from the...

I caught this advertisement on the Faith and Family sidebar today. Some great quotes!

My husband's company spent some volunteer  time on Thursday setting up the arts and crafts tables that would be part of the June 5-7th festivities.  Later on he got an awesome tour of the new village that they just built adjacent to the Heifer International  Headquarters.  His excitement over this really made us want to bring out the entire family. "Since 1944, Heifer International has helped 10.5 million families in more than 125 countries, including the united States, move toward greater self-reliance.  Heifer provides small-scale farmers with livestock like cows, goats, chickens, and sheep, so they can use the milk, meat, manure, and other benefits to improve nutrition and income.  Heifer also provides seeds, fodder, and tree seedlings to improve soil quality, precent erosion and improve crops.  In addition to providing livestock, Heifer teaches the practice of agroecology: the use of natural resources using social, cultural, economic, political, and ecological methods that...

I'm sure you have heard of the term ... A helicopter parent is a term for a person who pays extremely close attention to his or her child or children, particularly at educational institutions. They rush to prevent any harm or failure from befalling them or letting them learn from their own mistakes, sometimes even contrary to the children's wishes. They are so named because, like a helicopter, they hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach, whether their children need them or not.  Last night was one of those crazy evenings ... rushing to and from swim practice,  trying to make dinner and bathe 2 little children before heading to a bible study.  I left my husband in charge of homework and bed.  While at my bible study my 10 year old texted me saying that she needed a mushroom for science.  So at 9:30pm I am stopping at the local grocery store to pick one up.  When I got home I put it in the refrigerator.  My daughter was already in bed. This morning I do my usual reminders ....

We've made a pretty big decision recently. Our plan come August is to get rid of our DirecTV and the many channels that we have. Our family life is super busy and most of the time any of the television watched is just fluff. I wouldn't mind so much, but with a DVR we can watch hour after hour of fluff. I could get rid of the DVR, but then I probably wouldn't approve of many of the things the girls watch. We (the husband and I) have been playing a little "trick" on our girls by hiding some of the viewable channels that they like to watch. Most notably ... Disney 1 and 2, Nick, Cartoon Network, and a few others. The first day we just got rid of a few channels (Disney) and I noticed the next day, my girls found the "other" channels (Nick)and started watching SpongeBob over and over. When Nickelodeon was removed, I noticed a whole new channel that they liked and it wasn't a "kid" channel. While I was gone for a few hours yesterday...

Let's see we have from top L to R ... {k}, {m}, Minnie, Mommii and then from bottom L to R ... {b}, {c}, {e}, Grandma C and Grandma G Of course who could forget the boys ... Charles, Dadii, Jesus, and Snoop Dogg Wii (LOL) had a great time with our brand new Wii . Thanks to a late Christmas gift from Grandma C we got it on Saturday morning. The girls had a great time with all the sport games and of course making these characters. Even my husband and I had some fun last night ... bowling, boxing, tennis, and golf. You can really get a workout with that boxing! I have to say that my favorite character is my husband ... I seriously think that this looks just like HIM (usually he wears glasses)!

Sometimes you THINK you need to get back to the "old", but really when something is working well ... WHY change? This is a question that I keep asking myself. I am being rather vague, but this relates to something I have been doing for less than a year. Decisions can be so hard. This still needs a lot more thinking. Tonight I watched American Idol all by myself. Faves for tonight were David Archuleta and David Hernandez. The other David was pretty good too. I was really hoping to be blown away by Michael Johns, but he was just so, so tonight. I do think he will remain safe because he does have that "it" factor ;) My hubby is sick and all the girls went to bed early. Our house has been battling a stomach/fever bug for nearly a month now. It never seems to get terrible, but one day you may feel sick and then next day better, and then sick again ... very weird! I feel GOOD, but I should not speak too loudly. I read a really amazing book that I can't stop thinkin...

I think it has been that way for a few years now. I'm not sure why, but winter months are usually a lull for me in the picture taking department. Maybe it is because I enjoy taking outside shots and winter isn't always conducive to that. I do have some springtime picture ideas in my head. It's hard to believe, but we are already nearing the end of February and spring really is just around the corner. Soon the trees and flowers will be budding/blooming here. The girls will start going outdoors more often (they need to RUN!) and I will head out with them. For now I will just look back to some of the photos that I really did like from our fall escapades. Recently I changed out the photos on this "family" wall. I love how it came out. The pictures just scream VIBRANT !

Before having children I just hoped that I could do as well, if not better than my own parents in raising children. NOW , I think I will be successful if I instill the love, faith, and values that will ultimately make my children do a better job with parenting than myself. That would really be an achievement! *Of course I also hope that they would think I did a pretty good job too ;) An interesting privilege meme, below the cut. (Edited to add: From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.) Bold the true statements. 1. Father went to college 2. Father finished college 3. Mother went to college 4. Mother finished college 5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor 6. Were the same or higher class than your high ...

Makes my heart go pitter patter ... Dear Mommy, You are the very best mother in the whole wide world! Thank you for loving and caring for me. Thank you for being there for me whenever I needed you. Thank you for everything! You have lots of patience with me whenever I make you mad. When I am sad or confused, I know I can always go to you, and I love that special quality of yours. The reason why is because you understand my problems and really listen, then try the best you can to help me. I love you so much, and you love me! I love one memory of you with me. The memory was the time when you let me learn to babysit and stay home alone. The reason why is because it made me feel more responsible. I knew you really trusted me, so I haven't let you down. That memory is so special to me. I love you so much, {ej} *I am such a lucky girl. Thank you LORD for letting me find this letter in my mix of stuff tonight!

That is where my brother and his family are right now. YAY!!!!!!!!

What God Hath Promised -Annie Johnson Flint God hath not promised Skies always blue, Flower-strewn pathways All our lives through God hath not promised Sun without rain Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain. But God hath promised Strength for the day, Rest for the labor Light for the way, Grace for the trials, Help from above, Unfailing sympathy, Undying Love. Today I am thinking of my brother and his family as they had to evacuate their home. My prayers are that hopefully (SOON) these fires are contained. It must be so scary. Right now I am just anxious to talk to my brother and make sure that he is now in safe arms. I can imagine he is also very worried about his animals (5 dogs and a horse).

I have heard this over and over again. YESTERDAY was such a lovely day. I am not sure I could actually remember the last day that I could say that. After getting a rather late start to our day, I took the 3 girls to the library (the 2 older girls are still in NJ). Maybe having just 3 made my day a little less chaotic, but it was nice. When we returned home from story time, I gave everyone lunch, and then little {C} went down for her nap. {M}, {B}, and I had "tea time". They both like making passion tea, so I decided while they drank their treat, I would do something productive. We read 3 of our library books, then we moved onto some "lessons". For {M} that included some math drills with a workbook that we have ... she did okay. For {B} that was a review of letters and sounds from Little Stories for Little Folks . She was enamored with it for about 10 minutes. I realized it is because it was all review for her. Time to move onto the blending of sounds and the actual...

I have TONS of pictures from my trip to FL. Lots of really good ones. Some of them I would like to play around with, and many of them I would like to make into a photo story (something I have not done in a while). MAYBE I will get around to it this week. I did promise my brother, so that has to make the process go a little faster. GUILT works ... huh! Anyway, a sneak peek at a few that I liked ...

I get tremendous joy from seeing and taking pictures. My Dad, my sister, my uncle ... all photo happy people as well. We live in an age where digital is now the norm, so I think that love has taken hold of many people. Some day I would really like to take a class, and KNOW my camera, and all of its capabilities. For now I just enjoy the quickness and ease of snapping away, deleting, uploading, etc. There are some people who say that when they go on vacation , they don't want to be bothered with taking photos (or too many of them) because that would take away from the "moment". For me, I am happy being behind the lens. Watching things from the sidelines is part of who I am ... a quiet one, an observer. When I can see a picture, ... days, months, years from now, I RE-LIVE the moments all over again. Seeing those wonderful memories is priceless to me and to my children who also LOVE to see themselves in pictures. Through a photo, we all get to remember the who, what, when, w...