Our life this week and new stuff

The past few weeks I have been struggling with depression, our family has been sick (on and off) and a lot of life changes with our friends, school groups, etc were happening all at once.  This put me into a introvert avoid people lately.  This week we started getting back into a routine (from our off kilter "summer" so far) and it has been helping a lot!

We found a Summer Bridge program that is ten minutes a day of school that reviews what they learned last year, and introduces what they are learning next year, hence the name "Bridge program."  This also came with a great book list!  40 books, per child, all different books!  We took this as a perfect opportunity to explore and learn our library better and the kids have enjoyed it.  

We also have some new board games to help explore the National Parks, and we have been using Early Explorers Little Passports to give us some fun activities and learning for the summer.  The boys also wanted to learn a new foreign language, Hawaiian!!  I was glad to find it from Dino Lingo and between the books, the games, the geography, and the language, we have some great summer plans to keep us structured!

Building new forts, making new friends, taking new trips, and keeping with a calmed down home is going to make for a great summer!!

Redecorated our "homeschool" area so it's not in my kitchen.  Added a much more kid friendly living room and we are loving the relaxing, but educational area for our family.  We change it every year based on what we need, and I am thankful for the flexibility we are able to have with our school and family.

Lots of changes this upcoming year from last, and it's going to be interesting.

step one of our 120 books!

Coloring our chameleons like the books!

Exploring the National Parks

Hawaii here we come!

New school setup

Redecorated with fun bean bag chairs

Playing outside and making new imagiation worlds

Gotta take our friends to the zoo

Mira's first time in the pool!

Learning about Space and Planets with Little Explorers

Trampoline fun!

Getting to know our teens from the teen auction

Before we got it all organized!

The end result!

Every year our church does a teen auction.  This is a great way for families to "buy" a teen for work for a day, and then in turn they earn money for teen summer camps!  Last year we did this and we learned a lot from getting to know teens we normally would never spend time with.  This year with better planning we were able to "buy" the teens we needed and had a lot of fun!  I got my big projects done with lots of help, and then I also got a chance to talk with and get to know some of the teens.

Ending our hard work with Half off Frappes!!

As a mom of toddlers and young children, I oftentimes never speak to or spend time with the teenagers.  It's never intentional, but our paths rarely cross.  Last year when doing this I got to spend time with and get to know teenagers that I had never even spoken with and over the past year we developed a friendship.  This year we were able to do even more and get to know them better.  The bonus was I also had a chance to show these girls some fun stuff like "how to prep 40 freezer meals, and shop, and organize for it."  Another group of girls helped me sort through 8 sizes of clothes, multiple buckets of clothes and reorganize and label it all.  These are important skills they will eventually need, and even though I'm still learning some of it, it's fun for me to teach and show them something I'm learning as a mom!  I never learned how to meal plan, prep and plan that far in advance.  I never had to sort through and organize 4 children's worth of clothes ranging from sizes 1-8!  All of this I am learning and I'm so grateful that I'm able to teach these things to new teen girls.  Also I make some pretty special memories and make new friendships.

As an "older" (cough, cough) mom, it's important for us to reach out to the teenagers and get to know them!!  Too often these young ladies would love an older woman to talk with, and learn from.  Every girl I spent time with these past couple weeks through the auction was a sweet hearted girl, and they truly appreciated the encouragement and time from someone new.

As moms, are we reaching outside our comfort zone and getting to know the next generation?  Are we willing to be patient and teach them important things?  Are we going to be there when they need someone to talk with and get spiritual help from?  I'm so thankful for these girls, and I'm grateful to watch them grow to love God and mature in sweetness as they grow.

I cannot wait til the next teen auction when I get to meet even more new teens!!  Plus, it's great to get a month's worth of big projects done in just two days! :D

Getting our back porch retiled

Shopping for 40 meals!

40 freezer meals completed!

Doing stuff when you need to be low key.

Lately our family has been struggling with health.  My husband was very sick for several weeks, my children all got sick, and my energy became majorly depleted.  Normally I'm going 110% and hate to slow down, but the last few weeks we have been taking it nice and slow.

This is very hard for me when life forces me to go slow!  I like to always be out doing things, making fun memories, seeing new friends, etc.  The past few weeks I'm learning to be okay with slowing down for now and finding the good in each day.  

Today, for instance, I felt like I did almost nothing all day, and it was making me feel depressed.  So I did a break down of how much we really did.

Studiously working his hand writing

8:00:  The kids let me sleep til 8!!  This NEVER (or very rarely) happens.  This let us all have a quiet easy morning, and eat a warm comfy breakfast.

9:00:  We finally all got dressed, did a load of dishes and laundry, and then the kids played outside while I did some quiet Bible time, and "me" time of reading.  We also worked on cursive handwriting and each boy did their ten minute of "summer work."  This was our compromise of not starting our homeschool til August (for mommy's sake) but keeping them with some school work each day.

10:00:  Figured out what to do for lunch, and the kids worked on their 200 piece puzzle, and I got to work on my piano music a bit.  We also learned a new game called Rangerland!  This is a similar game as candyland, except you explore national parks around America.

11:00  Started our easy lunch of chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries, and the kids picked up their morning mess.

12-2: QUIET time!  The boys all did quiet reading, napping, and left me alone to rest.  This is where my guilt start to creep in.  I just realized I haven't done much at all with my kids today, because I've been low energy all day.  So I look back and realize, my boys love to read and play independently, and they know mommy is there every time they need to show me a new castle they built or page they colored.

200 piece puzzle to get done today

The rest of the afternoon was spent making banana bread, doing a delicious crockpot chili, and playing in the rain with our mud boots!  Even the days it's low key and quiet, it doesn't mean nothing was done, it just means that for now mommy needs to slow things down and enjoy the break.

For health, sanity, and refreshing, we all need these "down" weeks.  It's hard to remember there are seasons to everything.  This season is my older boys being less dependent on me, and sleepless nights due to teething babies.  It all has balance and I just have to remember to not beat myself up about not being the "perfect" mom.  All my kids will remember is the quality time and the good memories of today, not the mom guilt I was feeling. 

What do YOU do on your quiet do-nothing days??

Elijah making his Banana Bread ALL by himself!

FRESH homemade Einkorn banana bread

Snuggles with my sweet baby girl

Elijah explaining the rules to Zeke!

Family time with Fun, Fish, and Forest!

This past week we had to cancel our very fun trip to California because of health reasons.  This was a big bummer for us and the kids because we had saved, planned, and looked forward to this as a family.  Even though we couldn't do our big trip to California which included Legoland, we made a mini vacation locally instead!

Today we ALL were finally feeling better enough to do a family day!  We found Legoland in Dallas with tickets on sale, so we decided make an adventure of it!  Even though it's not as epic as Legoland California, it worked our perfectly for our age group and time frame.  The boys got to see R2D2 out of legos, a full Star Wars city, giant figurines made of legos, and they also got to go on their first real amusement park ride!  Everything there was perfectly aged for Samuel and Elijah.  Zeke and Mira thoroughly enjoyed the toddler town with slides, duplos, and a big foam lego pit!

The morning was spent riding the rides, playing legos, building race cars, and having a good family day.  For lunch there was a Rainforest Cafe and since we were on a week day there was no lines!  We got to have a great experience watching the fun animatronics and hear the "rain" as we ate!

In the afternoon we enjoyed exploring the SeaLife Aquarium!  It has the largest selection of sea horses we have ever seen as well as an Octonauts room!!  The kids thought it was so fun to go in the the "Octopod" and play out their adventures.  Although it is not the largest aquarium we have been to, it was sell decorated and set up.  I enjoyed the ambiance of the aquarium more than most I have been to.

I am so thankful that my husband was well enough to go, and we were able to enjoy a "mini vacation" as a family and a couple extra friends for fun!

Take time to plan and enjoy day aways with the family.  We look forward to many more great mini adventures this summer!

Warning:  Lots of fun pictures ahead!

Tell me what are some of the best "getaways" you have done with your family?

MusiCollege Conference and what I learned!!

This last week I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the Majesty MusiCollege!  This is a great opportunity for EVERYONE!  They do training on church piano, vocal, conducting, how to sing congregational, choral, and WHY it is so important to have conservative music in churches!

I grew up with Patch the Pirate and Majesty Music, so for me it was a great experience learning from Ron and Shelly Hamilton and their staff!  When you spend 20 years listening and being encouraged from a family, it's great to finally be able to talk with them and get to know them a little bit.

Personally the piano courses (since I play piano a lot) for me were encouraging!  It can be hard to figure out a good balance and style for piano, and it's so easy to look at the great players and get discouraged.  This was a great way to bring things back into perspective!

At the end of the conference they did a LIVE performance of "Ocean Commotion" (a Patch adventure) and all the kids got to meet the REAL Patch the Pirate!  For the boys, this was their chance to meet a hero of theirs!  I am forever grateful that my parents raised me with good music and Godly character building of Patch the Pirate and I love that my children also get to grow up and be encouraged from it as well!.

They hold these conferences throughout the country every year, and I strongly encourage all to go!  You never know how one class or song or Patch Adventure may change the course of your family!

If you are ever looking for GOOD music for your children they will love check out :Majesty Music

Boys getting ready for the concert!

Mira meeting Princess Pirate!

Sam got to see Wise Guy and his parrot!

Patch the Pirate leading the singing

A chance to meet Sissy and Patch!



I am forever grateful to the Hamilton's and their ministry for providing Godly music and training for children and adults.   I am also so grateful for my parents for putting it into our home!  Now the next generation is able to grow up in it as well.