9 Years!!!

Our oldest daughter, Hope is 9 today. I can hardly believe that 9 years has gone by in the blink of an eye.

These have been some of the most trying and difficult years in my life. I have been tested to my core and discovered some very ugly things about myself and my patience level. But I have also been so deeply rewarded and fulfilled, a feeling like none I have ever felt before.

It's funny because when I look back the tough moments are sort of a blur, but the really amazing moments are the ones that stand out so clearly to me. And that's how I hope it always remains. I hope that the tough times never overshadow my love for my child and my memory that this is all soooooo worth it.

Hope's birth was a very dramatic story and I shared it here on my blog 2 years ago. Here is the link if you'd like to read it.

We have a fun weekend planned ... today we will do 'light' school, then go to the movies in the afternoon. Our family will be here to celebrate this evening. Then tomorrow we're having a friend party at the roller skating rink. I'm sure I'll have lots of pics to share in a couple days.

Have a blessed weekend friends .... and cherish your children, they really DO grow up too fast!

Fun Jewelry

Way back in June my 3 besties got me the most fun ring for my birthday ... it's big and bright and just makes me want to smile ...

Although it's a little impractical for every day wear, I do find myself looking for reasons to wear it. Going out for dinner with hubby? Sure! Heading to church on Sunday morning? Definitely! Girls night out with my besties? Yep!

How about you? Do you have any BIG, FUN jewelry? I saw some cute, big flower rings in the Stella and Dot catalog recently. Where else have you found great treasures like this?

PS. Because I know you're wondering ... No, I do not get my nails done and they rarely look that good! I did that french manicure myself, yes indeed I did! It's not perfect but turned out pretty good for my first try. I have learned you just need a really steady hand. And they haven't looked that good since then {which was over 3 months ago!}

Who do I lean on?

I'm sorry I haven't been a very good blogger lately .... I feel like we have been so super busy since we started school again. I want to blog, I have things to say and share but it's just a matter of time and tiredness! Anywhooooo ... moving on ...


I just finished reading another excellent book and wanted to share. Most of you who have been following me for any length of time know how much I love and adore the Yada Yada Prayer Group books by Neta Jackson. It's seriously my favorite series that I've ever put my hands on. There are 7 books in the series and I promise that the more you read the faster you will get through all 7 because each one is better than the last.


Well Neta has also written a spin off series called the House of Hope series. Currently there are 3 books in the series and her 4th should be coming out sometime this winter. I just finished book number 3 called 'Who do I lean on?'.

It was just as excellent as the previous books!! I love that I always find myself growing and learning more and more in my faith through reading these books.

Oh and just in case 7 books, plus 3 spin off books isn't enough for you .... Neta's husband Dave Jackson has also written companion books that show you the story from another angle! It's actually really cool - Dave takes one of the male characters and tells his story - so it's sort of like a spin off but just different. The first was called 'Harry Bentley's Second Chance' and I hear that Dave also has another Harry Bentley novel on the way. Looks like I'll have plenty to read this winter!

Anyway, just wanted to once again recommend this series and also pop in to say I'm still here! I plan {hope} to get back to more regular blogging soon .... it always feels like it takes us a couple weeks to get into 'normal' routines again!

Wellspring Academy Week TWO!

This week seemed so scattered to me. After having such an organized and successful first week of school I'll admit that I didn't care for the scattered week. I'm looking forward to be back to regular routines this coming week. Needless to say I was not good about taking pictures and in fact have NO school related pictures for this week. But anyway, here's our weekly wrap up ...

Monday we enjoyed Labor Day by taking the day off from school andgoing to a friend's house for a BBQ/ lobster bake/ pool party. It was a gorgeous day and we had such a great time including a campfire that night - until the worst happened - our youngest ran into a picnic table in the dark and hurt herself pretty bad. She bit her tongue and had a very deep cut that bled long and hard. Thankfully our friend is a nurse and showed us what to do because otherwise we would probably have rushed to the ER! By the next day Joy was much better - just has LOTS of bruises on her legs. Here are some fun photos from that day:

On Tuesday we were all so tired from the day before so we slept a little later than normal and did not accomplish as much school work as I would have liked. The girls spend Tuesday afternoons with their Grandparents so I ran a bunch of errands to prepare for my oldest daughter's upcoming birthday.

Wednesday we did school in the morning and a couple errands in the afternoon including a doctor's appt and buying groceries. Then my oldest had soccer practice in the evening and I enjoyed a nice, long 1 hour walk {for exercise} with one of my good friends. It's sooo much nicer to exercise when you have a buddy to talk to!

Thursday was school in the morning again and in the afternoon we went to a local park that has a track and a playground. The girls had to do at least 2 laps on the track and then they could use the playground while hubby and I did a few more laps. I tried to start jogging again which was tough because it's been so long but it did feel good to get out and get moving again.

On Friday I had a leadership team meeting for our MOMS group at our church. The girls brought along their school work and did some of it while we had our meeting. That evening we went to the Fair when my hubby came home from work. It was a fun night out. Definitely a little expensive for rides, games and food but the girls had a good time and both came home with {more!} stuffed animals they had won.

Saturday morning dawned much too early for me and I would have loved to sleep in and be lazy but it was the first soccer game of the season for my oldest. So we were up and out of the house early and so proud of Hope's team who WON their game by 6-2! They played sooo well together as a team. This is her and one of her best friends, I love the funny look on the boy's face!

Capturing cute smiles after a great game!
Saturday afternoon my youngest started dance class for the very first time, she has always been so timid about trying new things but she did great and we are so proud of her! {Couldn't really get pics but will try another week.}

And that's a quick wrap up of our crazy week. Here's hoping our coming week will be normal and we have more success with getting school work done.

Never Forgotten

Three years ago I wrote a post about this tragic date in history ... if you'd like to read it click here.

May we all take a little time this weekend to reflect on September 11th, pray for those families who lost loved ones and always be mindful of the need to pray for our country and it's leaders.

By the way, I highly recommend the book Let's Roll! by Lisa Beamer a wife of one of the brave men who was on the flight that crashed in PA.

Library!

I don't know what it is about books, but they cast this spell over me for some reason! I LOVE reading, love walking through book stores, love spending time at the library. The girls and I went last Friday on a rainy morning ... there's just something about rain and books that go perfectly together, don't you think?!

These are Joy's picks:
These are MY picks - yes pretty much all children's books except for The Dog Whisperer DVD {more on that below!}:

And these are Hope's picks:

Have you seen this yet? It's called Playaway and you simply bring it home and plug in some headphones and listen! It's like a book on tape, only easier! I let the girls each pick one at the library and so far they really like it. On the back are a series of buttons to control it like play, stop, pause, volume, etc ... it's really simple and really cool. And they are about the size of a deck of cards. Great for taking in the car! PS. Forgive me if this is nothing new ... it was our first time seeing it at our local library.

So, you may wonder why I choose all children's books ... well for the most part I let the girls choose what they want to read for fun. They've gone through all kinds of Junie B Jones, Magic Tree House and Fairies books. But I want to make sure that they are also reading GOOD, quality, stories. Stories that have some backbone to them and not just silly fluff. I looked up a list of great books in my Sonlight catalog and wrote a bunch down so when we went to the library I just searched for the ones on my list and found most of the ones I wanted. These make great choices for when we read aloud together. {Which we need to do more often I might add!}

I DO have books of my own, remember, I LOVE to read?! But most of mine are either borrowed from my Mom, Mother in Law or a friend, or borrowed from our church library. I always seem to have many going at once and rarely have to search for what to read next. It's a nice problem to have!

As far as the DVD goes ... well it seems we have a naughty little puppy 'round here and we need to work on some training! Case in point ...

Um yeah, that was fun to clean up!

OK, I've delayed enough, I'm off to watch that DVD and put some dog training into practice! =)

Blog Giveaway!

My friend Jess is having a giveaway ... and how sad is this - I actually thought I might NOT want to tell you all about the giveaway because I really want to win it for myself! haha! But she said if I blogged about it I could get 3 extra entries so I figured it's worth the risk!

If you want to see what she's giving away, go here ... I promise, it's a good one!

Just For Fun!

My friend Jessica tagged me in this "Just For Fun" meme ... here are the questions she asked ...

1. What’s your favorite holiday, and why?
Christmas! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE everything about the holiday, LOVE spending the whole month of December preparing and planning and celebrating with lots of different traditions.

2. If you had a candy jar, what would be filling it regularly?
Swedish Fish!! yum!

3. What month of the year is your favorite?
JUNE! It's my birthday month, school is almost done and summer is on it's way!

4. Which of the chefs on the Food Network would you want to cook you dinner, and what would you ask them to make you?
Aack! I don't know! I do watch many of those shows but could not pick which chef I like the best.

5. What store would you love get a $50 gift card to?
Kohl's ... love that store!

6. What’s your favorite way to pamper yourself?
I fill my foot bath with hot water, sit and soak my feet while sipping on a yummy drink and watching some good TV. After my feet have soaked I do my toe nails and a mask for my face. {Yes, it's low budget and nothing like going to a real spa ... but hey, that's how I roll!}

7. What color are your toenails painted right now?
Shiny red!

8. If you could live in one other state besides where you live now, what would you choose? (Or what would be your second choice?)
Ooh, tough choice! Is it too cliche to say, 'anywhere my family is'? I really don't think I could live long distance from our families, we've been so spoiled to have them all within 2 hours of us! Oh, OK, I'll say New Hampshire ... it's gorgeous and I love it there!

OK, here are the friends I'm tagging ... Nicki, Angie, Laurel, Sarah, Hope, Janelle

And here are the questions I really want to know:
1. As a Mom, how do you find time for exercise?
2. What type of exercise {if any} do you make time to do?
3. What is your favorite healthy snack?
4. What is your favorite 'splurge' snack?
5. What fall TV show{s} are you looking forward to watching?
6. What activities do your children participate in?
7. What do you love most about Fall?
8. What book are you currently reading?

Wellspring Academy Week One

We have had an incredible first week of school! I am thrilled to pieces at my two smart, dedicated girls!








They both greeted each task with good attitudes and both earned a star on our good attitude chart every single day this week! And even with a greater workload this year we are still done around lunchtime or shortly thereafter which is wonderful! It's been incredibly HOT here this week and we've enjoyed using our pool in the afternoons to beat the heat.

This year we've added Geography - we're using a book by Evan Moor called Daily Geography. This week we had fun learning all about a globe and the equator and hemispheres and continents.
As always, we have math and language/grammar every day.

One of the best highlights of my week was this precious note from my oldest ... completely not prompted by me, I swear!

The girls do spelling 3x per week, the first day they write the words on notebook paper, the 2nd day they write each word on the white board and the 3rd day they take a spelling test on all of the words.

I was cracking up today - the girls were doing their Spanish lesson on the computer and I saw they had all of their stuffed animals lined up to 'learn' too!

This is where the dogs like to be while we're working ... right UNDER our feet!

In science this year we're learning about Astronomy ... this week they learned some fascinating facts about Astronomy and decorated notebook covers and then did a quiz on what they learned at the end of the week.

In History we're doing a study about Native Americans and we over viewed 8 major tribes and mapped out where they were located. It was quite fun trying to pronounce some of the names of these tribes! {Tlingit is pronounced klink-it!}

We're looking forward to the holiday weekend filled with soccer practice, 2 birthday parties and a Labor day BBQ with friends. Next week will be a short, 4 day week for us and I'll update you on what we did next week!

Have a great weekend friends!!

Is it really over?!

Summer 2010 was probably our best summer ever. I can't believe it's really over.

There was a day a couple weeks ago when we went to the beach and as I walked from our car, up over the sandy dunes, I could literally just breathe in the feel of summer. I could smell it in the salty water and sun tan lotion. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders and the heat of the hot sand under my feet. I could hear the sounds of kids splashing in the small waves and seagulls scoping out their next meal. I knew it wouldn't last. I knew summer was coming to a close. I knew I had to enjoy every moment.

When the January winds blow I want to look back on this post and enjoy all of these salty, beachy, sunny, sandy, summer days photos.