We've Been Busy!

It has been a while since my last post.  Visiting with a dear friend tonight, I realized just how long it has been.  So I thought I would post a few pics of what has kept us so busy.

We had a visit from some of our Texas family.

Here are Daniel and his cousins playing in the kiddie pool.  My Mom and SIL also came.  We had not been with any of them since March, so we LOVED getting to spend some time together.

We have also been in the softball tournament frenzy.

Hannah played outfield this year.  At first, she was disappointed not to be playing catcher (her postion for the last two years).  But she soon grew to love playing outfield and did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.  Which, of course, I just did! ;)  I was quite relieved to see the change of position and to see her grow into her new role on the team.

The team chose the name Luna-chicks and they came in 2nd place this year in the 10 and under kid-pitch division.  That's a pretty awesome accomplishement for the 1st year of kid-pitch softball.  I was very proud of these girls.

We also have faced some adversity.  Well, mostly Hannah had to face it.  In an earlier post I shared that she had won the talent competition for our county 4H program, and that she would get to compete in the district competition.  Due to a mix up in the paperwork, she was not allowed to compete.  We found out about an hour before the competion that she was instead signed up to give a speech.  She was quite disappointed, but after gathering herself, she threw a speech together with the help of some wonderful, amazing people.  She delivered this speech with grace and dignity, and though I hated all her hard work practicing her song was for nothing, I was so proud of her for rising to the occasion.  She showed a lot of maturity that day.  It was gratifying to see that and to know that despite my many, many goof ups as a mother, the Lord is blessing her to grow into a pretty special young lady.

We are off to Philadelphia for the 4th of July and a visit with my sister's family.  I'll try to post some pics when we get back.  God bless y'all and America.

Possible Blog Titles

My daughter just informed me that if she had her own blog, she would entitle it "Sausage? Yuck!".  Or perhaps "A Crazy Girl's Ideas".  Or maybe "Give Me A Horse If Ya' Got One".

Perseverance + Patience = Progress

I have decided it is time for my 3.5 year old to learn to write his name.  I have tried to teach this to him, off and on, for the last six months, but he has never been receptive.  I have decided, however, that his lack of reception is all about attitude and not about ability. So, I determined to start and not stop until this lesson is learned.


Yesterday, it took 1 hour to get him to write 3 capital D's.  That is one D every 20 minutes.  By the time we were finished, we were both stressed and exhausted.  Today, I almost talked myself out of this task, but I remembered my determination to not quit.  I reminded myself that the problem was attitude.  And I prayed for patience.  Here is our result after 35 minutes.

I was so pleased with him!  We had to have one "meeting of the minds" to convince him that he was, indeed, going to practice writing his name today.  Once he realized I was serious, he sat right down and worked at it.  He had many mistakes, and his attention would easily drift, but he completed the task, one letter at a time.  YooHoo!

As a reward he got to throw water balloons at a target I drew on our carport with sidewalk chalk.  This was great fun!

Afterwards, he took a paint brush and painted the carport with the water and sidewalk chalk mixture.

This has made me wonder what other things I am letting his attitude dictate we do or not do, as opposed to his ability.  And what is my attitude hindering me from accomplishing myself?  Attitude versus ability.  An epic battle, that today, at least, the good guys won.

Fried Brain, Happy Heart

I ordered my daughter's curriculum for next year!  I am sooooo excited, and I can hardly wait for those glorious packages to begin arriving.  I am switching to The Well Trained Mind program, so buying curriculum took a lot of research, thinking, evaluating, and deal shopping.  My brain is fried!  Literally fried! (Hah! not literally!  that is one of my pet peeves..saying something is literal when it is not.  If my brain was literally fried I would not be typing, or thinking, or breathing, or anythinging.  Okay. I will quit being peevish!)
So though my brain is fried, my heart is happy because I feel like, for the first time since I have started homeschooling, I am really pursuing learning for my child.  The books I ordered will be challenging for her to learn.  The lessons will be challenging for me to make.  But we will not be pursuing spoon fed learning and teaching.  We will be pursuing excellence.  And while we may not obtain excellence, the pursuit of it is invigorating!  It makes me want to laugh!  HA! HA! HA!

Laugh With Me

If you have not read my previous post, A Glimpse Into My Brain, you should before proceeding to read this post.  Otherwise, you won't understand the irony.


I opened my box from Sur la Table this morning to remove my tortilla press.  Guess what was in there.   A coffee pot!  I guess my subconscious recognized the box was to big for a tortilla press.  I called the company this morning, and they were wonderful.  They apologized for the mistake, though I am pretty sure it was UPS's mistake and not Sur la Table's.  They offered to send my tortilla press overnight for free (shipping free, not the product), but since we are going camping I told them regular shipping would be fine.  So, instead, they are going to refund my shipping cost completely, and they are sending UPS out here to pick up the coffee pot and send it on to the poor lady in Virginia who is trying to figure out how to make coffee with a tortilla press!  Maybe she could use it to grind her coffee beans?   So, this week, we will have store bought tortillas, and we will try the homemade kind soon.

Y'all have a great day, and remember to smile when things go wrong.  It won't fix anything if you are mad or upset, and laughter always helps relieve stress.  Look for the funny!  If you are like me, it is quite easy to find!!!

A Glimpse Into My Brain

The following is a stream of thought I just had over the past few minutes, as best as I can remember.


Oh, I'm glad we figured the camper out and Lyndol was able to fix it.  What was I doing?  Oh, getting Daniel a drink.  This house is such a wreck.  I've got to tackle it like a crazy woman tomorrow.   Crazy woman...sounds about right. Why am I in the kitchen?  Oh yes, the drink.  I've got to get all this camp stuff out of the way, and I can't forget to run by the library.  And I want to make those muffins and tortillas.  Which means I need to pick the blueberries and get out my tortilla maker.  I haven't even opened the box yet.  I hope it is in there. Oh, shoot!  Daniel's drink, not Hannah's.  (wrong kind of cup)  Laundry.  I've got to get that laundry done.  I can't even pack until I do at least one load, if not two or three.  I can run a load tonight, and I can't forget the dishwasher. Put this in, and this.  Soap.  And done! Did Hannah wash her eggs?  I wonder in anyone needs eggs.  "Good night, buddy. (kiss, kiss) "See you in the morning!  What?  Your drink?  I left it on the counter.  Be right back"  I've got to write a blog post, but what do I have to say.  I should just show them what a mess my brain is!

Addendum:  When I read my husband this post, he told me he had already gotten a drink for Daniel.  Sigh.

Brain Lapse

Hannah competed in a vocal competition last night for our county's 4-H clubs.  This was her first time to sing in a competition.  She was super excited, and I worked to make sure I was ready to document the occasion.  I cleared and charged my video camera, put it in my purse, and pulled it out as soon as we got to the venue.  I found a seat that would give me an excellent filming angle.

As Hannah and her daddy (he accompanied her on the guitar) went to their places, I was grinning from ear to ear.  She announced herself plainly and confidently, nodded to her daddy, and sang Grandma's Feather Bed superbly.  The audience was clapping and laughing, her eyes were sparkling, and she had a blast.  When she was done, the audience applauded loudly, and as I started to clap, my hands hit the still unopened video camera that I had forgotten was in my hand.  That's right.  I completely forgot I even had the video recorder, much less remembered to film this occasion.  I was completely caught up in WATCHING her, and I completely forgot about recording her.  SIGH.

She won first place, so I might have another chance to record her at the district competition. It was a great evening, and she did such a good job.  I wish I could share the video with you, but you'll just have to take me at my word.