Lately

Lately:

We spent the weekend at my cousin Britney's to take care of her 4 kids while they were away celebrating their 10 year anniversary. We went to the zoo with 6 kids and while it was crazy, it was a blast!

A woman at church recently was moving and tried to sell her piano. When she had no luck she decided to give it away for free! So now I have a piano here in Athens and I am going to try to build up a studio here to help make some money while john is still in school. I am grateful to be able to contribute and to use my love for music to help others and our family.

We have great neighbors.  The other day the I bought a pool at Walmart for $7.88 and filled it up from the sink bowl of water by bowl of water.  The kids jumped in their bathing suits and ended up washing the cars out in the playground! They used a whole can of shaving cream and they loved it!

We have been studying creativity and imaginination at joy school and the kids learned about spontaneous delight at Amy's house and we played with shaving cream and they had so much fun! I love what joy school is teaching them, sometimes Joy and Happiness is a learned skill.  It is so important to find joy in everyday life.

Yesterday the kids and I went to Sandy Creek and hiked the trails and went to the nature center.  They were running full speed through those trails and Avett didn't even care when he would fall and trip over the roots on the path, he would just get right up and keep going,  I loved their enthusiasm for nature.  It's in their blood I know it! 

Evaleigh has been taking an art class and she loves it. We go once a week to the Lyndon House to a beautiful art studio and she creates something, a take on a Van Gogh sea scape or land scape.  She was very proud of the horizon lines she painted two weeks ago.  I feel so proud when i see her creating and being comfortable in her own element.  She loves art so much. 

thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving happened by accident this year, and it was fantastic! We originally planned on my family and Bekah's family together at Stock Gap.  But about 3-4 days before Bekah had the idea to meet up with everyone at our great Aunt Barbara's mountain house in Lake Toxaway North Carolina.  Then it just mushroomed from there, both of my brothers and their families came too and my father and grandparents and my aunt and cousin Sarah.  

When we got there my dad and Jen pawpaw and grandmaw had just left to take pawpaw to the hospital. Right before we had gotten there Pawpaw's dog and Sarah's dog had gotten in to a fight and pawpaw tried to break it up but ended up getting bitten and knocked to the ground.  He was completely fine but they took him in just to be safe.  We waited until 2:30 when they all got back to eat, except that we fed all the kids at 1.  We were all hungry but happy to wait!

The weather was perfect and the scenery was so lovely. My sister in law asked me to take pictures of the twins since they are graduating in May! I ended up having the sweetest conversation with them where they told me the things their parents have given them and taught them over the past 18 years.  It was incredible to hear them speak and gave me such great faith in the kind of men they will become.

It was a great day full of family togetherness. I loved meeting my new niece Maddison, it gave me baby fever to have another daughter. BIG TIME.  I still have faith that the timing of our next baby will be when the time is right.

I am so grateful for our blessing, there are so many, too many to even enumerate or count.  The Lord is so gracious to us and blesses us in a way that could never be repaid.  That is my prayer every night, complete awe of the beautiful and happy and blessed life we are living.

a southern summer saturday

A couple of weekends ago my sister was here with her babies and my father came to the house to see everyone. It was one of the most charming and perfect Saturday's I've had.  

Ma father came in with Chic-fil-a for everyone and it was a lifesaver as my sister and I are learning that cooking, serving, feeding, and cleaning up after 4 children and 4 adults is quite the commitment!

Afterward we all went to the living room where Evaleigh and Parker took turns alternating putting on ballerina shows and ninja shows.  It was one of the first times our children have ever performed for us like that and all of the sudden I just felt like such a mom beaming at Evaleighs every move.  The had the perfect flick of her wrists and her movements were just so natural.  She got up on her tip toes, in her hand me down ballet slippers from ruby, as good as I've ever seen any ballerina do!  She extended her arms and looked over her should with drama and poise. I was so proud to be seeing this for the first time and to watch my father take it all in with his laughter about it all.

Then the children got restless and antsy inside so we moved the concert out doors. We drug out the patio furniture, plugged in the sound system and it was the perfect back drop for the rest of the sunny breezy afternoon.  

Everyone just played their part perfectly, john threw discs around the yard and the children went in and out of running the find them and following him around. Evaleigh continued to dance on the porch.  Joe slept on the couch inside. Avett fed the cows.  Rebekah and I talked while dad pulled the kids in the wagon, drove them around in his car, and just simply observed the memories in the making. The kids all had Popsicles on the porch and was just as summer Saturday's should be.

I'll always cherish that day.

summer with the kids

I just love this time of year.  Popsicles and sticky hands, corn dogs and dinner outside, picking warm breakfast blueberries right off of the bushes first thing in the morning, and staying up until after 9 so the kids can catch fireflies in a jar.  Summer in the south is pretty magical.  I've been so exhausted lately and it has affected my mothering.  I sure hope I can get a better handle on my schedule so I can give the best I have to my kids during the day. Our days may be crazy and filled with screams and not a whole lot of listening but they are also filled with love, kisses, dancing, and always a lot of music.  They may be hard times but they are such good days and days I know I'll miss. 

Away

We've been in Florida on the ranch with our family for the past week, it's been lovely. Evaleigh has exploded with firsts in the past week. I think she is just trying to keep up with her cousins. She rode her first horse, cut her first tooth, started talking and making so many more sounds. She tried her first lemon, she started making fishy pop sounds with her mouth, and is just getting cuter every single day. I just don't want to even go home!