The graduates

Aren't they cute?

Time for a change

Really, I just didn't want my mother's day post on top anymore!

I have started my semi-annual process of clearing out the kids' closets and drawers of things they have outgrown and finding a place for things I shoved on the shelf until later when I had time to do something with it. Well, now is that time and I have huge piles of stuff and need to figure out what to do with it. Too bad our storage building is also nearly popping with things we shoved in there until later. My motivation for starting was the nudge I received last week from the lady who gives us a lot of the hand-me-downs for Kathryn. She emailed to say she has more and asked (again) if I have any to give back...

Anyway, I really enjoy these homey chores that I just don't have time for while I am in school. They give me an outlet and are something I can use to take a break from looking at the computer on these long work days. I know it seems a little weird to daydream about doing chores, but sometimes I do while I'm really busy with school and work things... I think about how things used to be when I had a lot of free time and how they'll be again some day. There will be a day again when if I want to indulge in my OCD tendencies of organization, I can. And I will!

My mothers day weekend...

I don't like mothers day.

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, and I love the thoughtful handmade gifts they give me each year.

But I don't like mothers day because I don't have my Mom. Some years I'm OK, but this year I have been teary and sad. I'll be glad when some time passes, and I get distracted again from thinking about what I don't have.

This year, we went to dinner with Jason's family Saturday night and then we went to church Sunday morning. Later in the day, we went on a long walk on a new trail we had seen that goes along one of our rivers. It was perfect. And of course I have pictures:

Happy Mothers' Day to all moms

Graduation invitations

In my haste to get the invitations in the mailbox before the mail carrier came, I forgot to put my name on them!! So, if you get an invitation to a graduation of some unknown person in my county, it's me... And sorry for the anonymity - it was not deliberate!!!

An anniversary

When facing big events in my life, I tend to get reflective. Does anyone else do that? Facing graduation, the uncertainty of the next couple of years in school, my upcoming anniversary (11 years!!), etc. I find myself looking back.... As I was cooking dinner last night, I was thinking about how different I am now than I was before Jesus saved me. I realized my "anniversary" of becoming a Christian is also here. It seems like it's been a million years, but it hasn't been quite that long...

14 years ago, when I was 17 years old, I attended a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) weekend, which is a Lutheran run program for making disciples and leaders of teenagers. A couple of friends who had already gone asked me to go. It is a 3 day program, each day focusing on a major theme of being a Christian. The first day is DIE day - it focuses on the death of Jesus. It teaches how Jesus faced a brutal death on the cross - not for anything He had done wrong, but for what I had done wrong. The 2nd day is RISE day - it focuses on the resurrection and how Jesus conquered death to bring new life to those that believe in Him - even those that had committed the sins that put him on the cross. The 3rd day is GO day - it focuses on making a commitment to serve God and take what you have learned to the world around you. On GO day, there is a re-confirmation ceremony. All of the other kids had already gone through confirmation and were renewing their commitment to God. Well, I realized I had no commitment to God.

From the previous 2 days, I had learned of the sacrifice Jesus made for me (and you!) and the joy of his resurrection. I wanted to make a commitment to God! I wanted Jesus to know that I now understood what He had done for me - as much as I could at the time. He had died in my place. He had died for the sins I had committed. He took my punishment. In tears, I asked Jesus to help me know how to be His, and I consider that the first day of my Christian life. Through the years, Jesus has become more and more real to me and has become the One I can always count on, even when people disappoint me (and they surely will). He is the One that will never leave me - even if people do (and they surely will).

There were bumps after that. I didn't know what it meant to be a Christian and didn't really have a church family to help me out, so I struggled along for a few years with finding myself in Christ. I had a lot of doubt and a lot of anger at God and at the people in my life (and sometimes still do even now). I still struggle with trusting and following and submitting. I am still stubborn at times and say no when I should say yes. I still do the wrong thing when I know what the right thing is. I am still filthy rags compared to His goodness and holiness. But I am SO very thankful that He loves me anyway.

I just wanted to share my joy today and share again how thankful I am that God loved me enough to die for me and loves me enough now to forgive me when I do the wrong thing. For I truly believe life is hopeless and shallow without Jesus Christ as your guide.

Did you know he loves you that much too? It's true! The Bible tells it:

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 10:9,10 "If you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him (the son) will not perish, but will have eternal life."

Big brothers....

Kathryn lost her third tooth last night after being kicked in the mouth by her loving brother (who swore to us he didn't kick her! Sorry, kiddo - the tooth on the floor proves you did!)... It's not often Kathryn gets paid for being abused by her brother - lucky her, now she gets a trip to Dollar Tree for a new toy (or a plain ol' dollar - but she has chosen the toy so far...)

2 things

...and I call them 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2"...no, sorry. Dr. Seuss on the brain...

Julian made this solar system for one of the sections in his Awana book:

And this beautiful iris bloomed yesterday. This particular plant had some sort of deformity last year and did not bloom. This is the first time I've seen these colors in an iris. This (and many others blooming at my house right now) are from Grandma Knight who shared with me when I told her how beautiful her flowers were. I hope one day my flower gardens look as wonderful as hers!

I had a wonderful half day off today. Not much work work, no school work. Great day!

Blog overload!

Excuses, excuses. I know I have been really slack in posting pictures lately, and I really have no excuses. I have been so distracted with school and work that when I have free time, I just want to sit and stare! Not really, but I forget about blogging and really have been missing some great picture taking...

This week Julian, Kathryn and I have been sick (a nasty stomach bug), and I missed a lab and a test - a first for me - and they missed 4 days of school! Thankfully, my professor will let me make up the exam on Monday. Poor Julian and Kathryn are more than ready to go back to school - they are SO bored.

Last night, I was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa, an honor society of 2 year colleges. I didn't get any photos of that....I'm sure Jason did - we'll see if those turn up on here. It was a good end to a pretty yucky week.

Graduation is a month away - and I can't wait (only 6 more days of class!). I am excited for the summer and play time! I'm debating whether I'll learn to use my new sewing machine this summer. We'll see. I might just sit on the couch and do nothing...

until next semester starts!

Awana Grand Prix

The kids had the Awana Grand Prix today, and despite our procrastination getting their cars ready, they did pretty well. Julian finished 3rd in the T&T/Trek division and Kathryn finished 2nd in the Cubbies/Sparks division. I, unfortunately, had some battery issues with my camera, so I'll need to wait on Jason's pictures to show the trophies at a later date....

I have to say, I loved being able to sit back and watch the race and not worry at all about the details of it or how things were running. I appreciated all of the workers and knew how much time they must have put into everything. Ben, the man who put the cars on the track, was actually in the hospital last night after getting dehydrated, and his Dad (the commander), Daniel stayed at the church until at least 10:00 last night working on cars. We went by after my induction at 8:30 for weigh in, and they worked with Kathryn's car (which had a bad wheel or axle or something) until 9:30, and they looked like they were still working on some of the kids' cars then. Kent, one of the boy T&T leaders made a car that was amazing! He actually hand made 40 separate pieces to put together. There were probably 10 adult cars in the competition (which I did not get pictures of - hopefully Jason did).

Julian and Kathryn are the only new kids at this church, I think, and they were really welcomed and everyone was so happy that they did well! This is a small church, but they are so welcoming and so friendly. There's nothing fancy about them or their church, but I know we'll be back next year for Awana too, because they are really serious about teaching the kids the word of God. What a great way to start the day!

Easter

Just a few pictures from the easter egg hunt after Easter dinner at Grandma Knight's house:

Julian's 9th birthday

It's hard to believe my baby is 9! Julian's birthday weekend was really great, and after the work I put into his room, it was nice to have the weekend with family to relax and have fun. Saturday we celebrated with my family for our monthly gathering and Sunday we celebrated with Jason's family at his Grandma's house. Both days were a lot of fun, and helped Julian have a really great birthday.

Saturday:

Sunday:

Julian's 3rd grade performance.

These pictures are from Julian's 3rd grade performance which was way back in March. This year, the focus was on music and dance from Africa. I loved it, especially how excited the children were about it. They had so much fun doing the African dance to the song. Julian was one of the readers, and although he was nervous, I thought he did a great job.

Last year was China, this year was Africa, I wonder what next year will be?

Ok, here we go

So much has been going on, and there has been little time to blog about it all! First, the shower:

Our shower had a hole in the floor! Jason has patched it a few times, trying to make it last until we were ready to replace the shower. Unfortunately, the bathroom was built around the shower, so we knew when we replaced it, it would be a major project. Jason and Robert started working on it more than a month ago, and we were finally able to use it for the first time on Friday.

First, Jason took the wallpaper down, since the sheet rock had to be cut out around the shower unit and would be replaced later. Then Robert and Jason cut the shower unit in little pieces to get it out. The reason the original shower had a hole in the floor is because the people that built our house did not really finish the floor under the shower, so it had very little support. Jason and Robert completely rebuilt the floor and framing for the new shower. They had to plumb a bit as well before the new shower could be installed. The new shower was in 4 pieces, so it went in easier than the old one came out. So after the new shower was put in, Jason had to replace the sheet rock around it and do all that joint compound stuff. Finally, it was dry enough to caulk and prime so we could use it. We even splurged and got a fancy new shower head, which is great.

I know this is not terribly interesting, and probably is not exciting for anyone that hasn't used our shower. But we are over the moon because of it!

Julian's room

Several months ago, Julian asked us to make his room more grown up. I told him we would re-do his room as his birthday present this year. I originally painted his room when he was about 2 - when Ronda was pregnant with Evan! I loved it with the little boy cars, trains and airplanes. But, my little boy is growing up and when we were talking about how we would do his room, he told me he did not want any characters or designs on his walls. I worked on it Wednesday through Friday of last week to get it mostly ready for his birthday. I still have a little bit of touch up painting to do (I have had back luck with tape the last few times I painted...don't know what's up with that), one more coat of paint on the doors, and I will probably hang things up today. But, after sanding the designs off, 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint, it is mostly finished. I'll post pictures of the final final - if I can remember to!

Chalkboard artwork

I recently caved and returned my children's confiscated chalk, and they immediately went to work creating chalk-art. At the moment, I am choosing to ignore the piles of chalk dust created from said artwork...clean up will happen some other day.

These photos were actually taken by the children:

There's something 'bout the Southland in the Springtime

Ok, so both of these pictures are actually taken in the 'Southland in the Wintertime', but only by a few weeks, and that Indigo Girls song has been stuck in my head since the official beginning of Spring Friday. (I may have to visit Amazon mp3 and download it).

I love the rapidly changing weather here in the South in late Winter/early Spring. You just never know what you're in for. This morning I had to scrape frost off my windshield, and the expected high today is 65 degrees. Lovely!

March 2nd

March 9th

Fink day

This weekend was Evan's 7th birthday. It is hard to believe he is 7 years old (even harder to believe Julian will be 9 next month). I am supposed to be studying for a biology test tomorrow instead of blogging, but I wanted to add these pictures quickly for your enjoyment!

Snow

We had a good snowfall - finally - on Sunday afternoon through Monday morning. We didn't use the ruler to measure, but I think we got about 4 inches, more in some places. And for some reason, we got more in the back yard than the front yard and Jason's truck had more than my car....weird!

Here are some pictures....

Julian's DS

The game Julian got for Christmas has been a big hit for everyone in the house. Kathryn likes playing, but even more than that, she likes watching everyone else play. It's like TV! Julian gets a little testy when he plays, so I wanted to get this picture of him letting her watch.

Kathryn

Two updates:

1) Finally, Katie has gotten the hoop earrings she has wanted since getting her ears pierced. They were hard to get in, and I don't think I'll be able to get her to let me do it again (we'll have to get a different kind of hoops for her next time).

2) She lost her first tooth! Somehow, she thinks this means she doesn't have to get braces now?? I don't know why - I don't think braces have even been mentioned for her, but anyway. Losing teeth means no braces!

100th day of Kindergarten

Today is the 100th day of school, which they celebrated in Kathryn's class. It was a big day for her, and she is all smiles coming home!!

Hiking at my school

This morning we went for a short hike on my college's campus. There is a nature trail which is 3 miles long. At least I think I was told it is 3 miles long. I didn't take my pedometer and can't remember if that's what my professor told me. This is the trail my environmental biology labs play around in. We all needed to get out of the house for a bit, and the weather was so nice today. It was forcasted to get to 60 degrees, although I think it may have been warmer even than that.

The trail was nice because we were the only ones on it. Well, we did pass one man with his dog, but that was towards the end of the trail, and I think very close to his house. It was maintained, but not manicured at all. Fallen trees were mostly cut away from the path, but the path was something you had to actively look for. Julian said it was his favorite path so far, which is great since it's only 20 minutes from home. I had only been on the beginning part of it with my class, so it was nice to explore some new ground.

Here are some pictures. Nothing amazing, as you'll see. It was really just a patch of forest with a trail marked. But I really liked it!

Congratulations, Julian!

Last night, Julian finished his first T&T book! We are very proud of him - and he is really proud of himself.

I love this...please read

Small Victories of a Stay at Home Mom

Julian

30 minutes of reading for homework