What We've Been Up To and Some Pictures to Share!

Wow--second blog post of the day, I'm doing well!  The first one is a little heavy and reflective.  This one is just fun and pictures.  :0)

 About two or three weeks ago I uploaded all of these pictures but never got around to posting them.  I have plenty of new ones to share as well but I'll save those for later or my next blog post.  Above is a picture from Jake and Joe's first book club meeting.  They are reading the Sunshine State books and their first book was Lions of Little Rock.  It's a great book set in the 1950s in Arkansas when they were just starting to integrate the schools.  We had a good discussion and we are looking forward to the next book club meeting next week.  We read Ungifted, another great book!  Below, Joe is working on virtual school.  He is still doing amazingly well in school this year.  Praise God for virtual school and Math-U-See.  I have a changed child when it comes to academics and he is learning so much.  His ability to understand fractions has been phenomenal and I am hugely impressed with Math-U-See.  He learned to add fractions with unlike denominators this week and breezed through it.

 A few weeks ago I had a bit of down time...I made a new bookmark and even took some time to do a puzzle and drink coffee.  I don't think I've slowed down since then...  :0)

 Ellie is living in Florida now and we have gotten to go see her once.  Only once...I have literally not had another day since then that we could go see her.  Soon though!  This next group of pictures is from Mickey's Not So Scary.  Joe and I went with Landon and Dawson and Ms. Amanda and then spent the night at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  All of the boys were Peter Pan and I was Smee and Amanda was Tinkerbell.  We had a great night, got tons of candy and got to ride a bunch of rides.

 The last picture from our night was taken at about midnight when we were all exhausted and couldn't get the key to work to our room.  After complaining at the front desk, we realized we were at the wrong room.  Oops.

 Above--Grace did some chicken sitting and survived.  Below--a familiar scene for me...tutoring at Starbucks...math and coffee, two of my faves.

 A couple of weekends ago, we got to escape our crazy schedule for a few days and run away to the beach.  We stayed in a beach house a couple of hours away.  It wasn't good beach weather, it was actually pretty cloudy and cool and rained a good bit but that is truly my favorite weather so there were no complaints from me.  I walked on the beach in the morning and evening and it was so peaceful and beautiful.

 We spent one of the mornings at the zoo and it was a great zoo!  The kids fed the deer, birds, and even a giraffe!

 We played many games of Settlers of Catan as well as many games of Quelf.  Quelf is one of the funniest games I have ever played.

And, lastly--a new soccer season has begun.  Joe is on a new team with a new coach (well, new to Joe...this guy has coached for many years) and having a great time.  That mostly wraps up September I think.  We live a full life around here and I know I am blessed.  In addition to all of the fun that these pictures represent...here's what's also happening  in our "real" life--
1.  I am tutoring about 10 to 12 hours a week which takes me away from home a good bit.  The kids are doing great doing much of their schoolwork independently.  I sit with Hannah for her Geometry lessons even though she is doing virtual school.  I like knowing what she is learning and how they are teaching it.  It often helps me later with tutoring.  Grace teaches herself her math and I grade it every day and go over any mistakes she is  making.  It's hard to believe that math used to be a subject that Grace struggled with.  She is really good at it now.  She is also the one that I have changed curriculums the most with.  When one wasn't working, we tried something different or just stopped and did practice until she fully understood each concept.  Those years of hands on hard work have really paid off.  A good foundation in math is very valuable.
2.  Theatre--the kids are working hard on their latest show, Dear Edwina.  In addition to that, Hannah ran spotlight for a main stage show and spent many, many hours at the theatre.  She loved every minute of it of course and now that many of her theatre friends are driving I don't have to always take her and pick her up.  I do pray a lot though when she is in the car with another teenager.  Thankfully we are not far from the theatre!
3.  Church and youth--Sundays are usually busy mornings for us.  I am often working in children's ministry, Grace is singing in worship, Hannah is leading kids' worship and one or both of the girls are serving in children's ministry and then later going to youth.  Grace and I also got to work in a soup kitchen a few weeks ago and it was really fun and rewarding and I am hoping to go back.
4.  Cleaning...I've been in a cleaning mood lately (when I've had time) and have been cleaning those areas in our house that seldom get cleaned--cabinets and behind stuff.  This mood might be the result of my mom and her bff coming to my house in a couple of weeks.  :0)

Who's the Busiest?

I can't believe that it's been over a month since my last blog post.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record...I've been busy.  I haven't blogged mostly because I haven't had much time to blog but also because I feel like I would just say the same old thing...busy, busy, busy.  I read something on FB, I think it was a quote from some kid to her mom...something about, when did being busy become a competition?  It does feel like that sometimes, like we feel more important when we are busy, or we want some sympathy for being so busy.  I say "we" but I actually should just say, "I" because I know I feel that way but it may be presumptuous to think others feel that way.  I am doing a new Bible study by Priscilla Shirer called, "Breathe," and it's all about adding some margin back to our lives.  She specifically speaks of a Sabbath margin.  Through some of the questions and readings, I have come to realize that I find much of my value and self-worth in how busy I am and how productive I am.  Someone said to me this summer that I had way more time than they did so that was why I could spend time doing something that this person said he/she just didn't have time for.  I was actually quite offended that this person thought he/she was busier than me...or that I had so much more time for leisure.  I should not have been offended though, I mean, this isn't a competition.  I imagine that a lot of working people must think I have so much more time than them and I probably do because I don't go to a job for 8 hours of my day.  In reality...homeschooling and taking care of a home and running kids around and tutoring manages to keep me incredibly busy with no real boundary between work and down time.  I have to create the down time or it just doesn't happen...since I live at my job and there is always one more thing to be done.  I haven't been doing a good job of applying what I'm learning in Bible study because I have been running non-stop for the last couple of weeks--staying up late, using every minute of the day to check one more thing off of the list.  And, guess what...the list is never fully checked off.  As soon as one list is completed, another list is being made.  It's exhausting and I have to learn to relax.  I spent 15 minutes (I set a timer and looked at it 4 times) doing nothing today as an exercise in forcing myself to stop.  I turned the ringer off on my phone and everytime I started thinking of what I had to do next I forced myself to let it go and just breathe and pray and worship and just be.  It was a long 15 minutes but it felt good.  I have so much room to grow in this area of my life, so much to learn but those 15 minutes today were a good start.  One thing that is for sure is that the to-do list will actually never be completely done so I need to learn when to just stop and rest and let some things go.

iPhone Photo Dump...August

 Life around here as seen through the photos on my phone...I didn't get to be there for the 7 month baby photo shoot but my sister sent me pictures!  Kenleigh is clearly the active one of the two and made it very hard to get a good picture of the two of them.  She squealed and played and crawled away over and over.  So cute!  I miss them and wish it was easier to take a quick trip home.

 Two days after we got back from Madeline Island, Hannah was ready to go get her learner's permit.  The test ended up being much harder than she thought it would be and required some more studying, then she passed with flying colors!  She even drove us home...ack!  She has been doing a lot of driving, pretty much anytime we are going somewhere that doesn't require us to get on any major roads.  It makes me very nervous but she is doing a great job!

 Above is Joe's Dolly Award--basically the "Tony" of our local theatre.  He won for "Featured Actor in a Play."  Below is the latest obsession around here...Zentangling.  Gabi sent me the book and pens and we are all hooked.  I included some pictures of our creations later in this post.

 I took Grace and a few of her friends to see "A Fault in Our Stars," at the dollar movie and we stopped for candy and dinner first.  It was a fun night...these girls are super giggly but I survived.  :0)

 Above--Grace with all of her friends....below...they all left her to go to the bathroom.

 Above is a picture Joe drew of me...I'm not sure whether to be flattered or not.  Below--we went and saw Legally Blonde, the Musical for about the 5th time this summer but this time at a different theatre.  It was a great show.

 On the first day of school everyone was posting pictures of their kids.  I let mine sleep in so I took these pictures of the girls on their first day...I didn't post them but was tempted to!

 Above is a picture from our first week of school...this is a typical school day...the girls on their computers and Joe and I on the couch.  Below--Hannah and a couple of her friends take their computers and do school at Starbucks once or twice a week.  I happen to be there meeting Amanda for coffee and snapped a couple of pictures.

A couple of school pics...above I was helping Hannah with Geometry, doing constructions with a compass and a straightedge...haven't done those in a million forevers.  Below is an example of Joe's list that he gets everyday.   The list that is saving my life.  He starts by highlighting his 5 choices for the day and then we mark them off as we do them.  At the end of the week I file the 5 lists of the week in a binder and add a few notes and boom...plan book for Joe.  I have made my own spiral bound plan book every year for the last 4 or 5 years but this year I am just using a 3 ring binder with separate sections for each kid and so far, so good.  I may spiral bound it at the end of the year for my own personal storage.

Grace is enjoying her virtual school guitar class...she is learning a lot already.  It's amazing what you can learn on a computer!

Above...twinsies!  And below...my beloved bike!

Above, cool Lego book that we saw in Europe.  There are two volumes--comedies and tragedies and seems like a fun way to become acquainted with Shakespeare.  Below--two of my favorite things that just happened to also be my lunch one day last week.  I will no longer be buying those chips...they are tooooo good!  And, the last two pictures--my next puzzle that I need to have--bestselling books made into a puzzle.  If I could get the puzzle and do it while it's raining my life would be MADE.  And, the last picture--I have this thing about drinking a glass of wine almost nightly and in this cute little mason jar.  No wine glasses for this chick.