Mother's Day

Today I found myself realizing I had not thought of my own mother on Mother's Day, and I immediately was ill with myself. I conjured up ideas of my future of when my girls might forget me....and then gently, I realized that with my mother having been gone for 33 years and my maternal grandmother gone for 6 years, I hold the torch high in their honor daily.

 My brother texted me and complemented me on my parenting, but still gave top ranks to our own mother... memories are very strong. Sometimes, we strengthen them with hope and a skewed perception of "how we remember it". My girls are already doing this with their own childhood. I hear them tell stories and I think, "where was I?" I have no memory of that.

I look around at so many friends and family and think how large this task is of being a mother. I am knee deep in it and there are days I am sure my two would order a new one if it were possible. But, we are stuck with each other. It is a good thing. That glimpse in the rear view mirror that speaks louder than any spoken sound. That begging many nights after teeth are brushed to just snuggle for a few minutes... the disciplining and discipling that go with this title... I just keep going, hoping that my efforts are blessed and multiplied.

Flowers, good food, a nap, presents and a day on the calendar to promote this love, it is cherished and I am grateful. And today's gifts of an organized plastic ware cabinet, a math paper finished without a whine, towels folded, a laugh that echoed through the house and girlish chitchat...now that is a mother's day!

No April showers, but ....

There was plenty of other events to keep us busy during the month. 

Olivia turned 9. We celebrated our sweet young lady. She is such a joy to have in our family. She has talents that are growing and increasing. She is a great ball player and a huge help to me around the house. She is finishing third grade with good grades and looking forward to a summer in the pool! I love how she is sensitive to the Lord's leading and will speak up when she feels injustice. Her fashion sense keeps all of us on our toes too! 

 With friends at the Springs and Uncle Aaron the great watermelon slicer!

 Easter morning was celebrated around here with candy, but it did not over shadow the truth of our Lord's resurrection.

 Beautiful girls, inside and out!

 Our annual pic with Grandpa. He is soon to be 93 and we love to catch him on the holidays for a picture. Plus the girls like to see how they are catching up to him in height!

 Celebrating Olivia's birthday at the park with friends from Co-op.

 She had her best plays on short stop this year. She is quite the serious player!

 Our lefty must make the pitchers a little nervous, because most of her times up to bat she gets walked.

 This is Stormie. He joined our family this month. He is a wild man in the evenings . He thinks if I am in the kitchen he needs a treat. He loves to  play with the girls, and loves to hide in Stephanie's bedroom!

 This girl never stops reading. She has a book usually within a short distance of her. This was during her sister's game.

 Stephanie plays right or center most of the time. She can bat either right or left handed, but I think she likes to cheer in the dugout the best!

 This girl has a stance that means business and can hit a ball with some gusto!

 The girls had friends over recently and they had an OBLECK war. It is still on the back porch floor!

 The kids worship band lead in the adult service the other day. Out of the mud was the song and both the girls have great voices. It was nice to have Dad on the guitar too!

 Our last field trip was to DeLeon Springs near Deland. The kids got in the cold water, but not me! Oh no ma'am!

 These girls are growing up into beauties. Boys beware!

We have had the chance to have Finn, my nephew over a few times this month. He is hilarious and is a stinker!

Olivia's narrative writing

(Spelling and Grammar were left as she wrote it)

The week that changed my life
They were terribly mad. People were so angry. Nicademus said anyone that claimed he was the Son of God would be crucifyed! I was at the olive garden when Roman soldgers came. They shoved me out of the way to get to a man named Jesus. He was on his kness talking in this launge I did not understand. I watched the soldgers take the poor man away. When they took him I followed them. I grabed my donkey and casually followed them.
We walked into Jerusalum. My mother took me up on a mountain in Jerusalem. It is called Golgath. It makes me feel like this man is going to get crucifyed. I thought maybe this man in not inasinte (innocent). I went back home and woke up at the crack of done and went back to the top of Golgatha. There was screming and crying……
It was Jesus. He had shed his blood. He was wearing a crown of thorns, crying. He said I love all of you. I am dieing for you, he said in a weak voice. In that moment I started to weap and said I love you. I believe in you and thank you for dieing for me.
That’s not the end of the story for a nine year old girl in Jeruslem. Three days later I was there with Mary when the angel came and said Jesus is alive! It hit me. JESUS IS ALIVE! I said it again in a rejoycing voice.

By Olivia Porvaznik
4/2/2012

Swimming with Mana & Tease

Steve used his first vacation day of the year cashing in on our vouchers we bought back in December as a family Christmas gift. It was to go swimming with the manatees out on Crystal River. We went way back in 2006 as a school group, but Steve missed it. So, we went out in search again for the manatees...we were worried since it was such a warm winter. The girls put on their wetsuits and we all got settled on the pontoon boat (which I loved) and off we went, our captain was a hoot too!

After an hour, this is all we saw except a turtle or two and hundreds of birds. We were getting hot and a little more worried.... but we were making the best of it. This gator is really only about 3ft. long.

From that point on though, Olivia was our watchman for critters. Steph sat on the front of the boat, eyes peeled.

Time was running out, and so we stopped at a water hole and everyone got in the cold spring fed water. We saw a huge snook and after a while we loaded up and headed back.... then right around the corner, literally...

...this is who showed up. Mana and Tease...yep, that is what we named them. They swam for a while, looking for a channel to go down and settle for an afternoon snack.

Once the boat stopped and everyone got their gear, it was swimming time. It was AMAZING! They were so sweet and huge. Everyone got to touch/pet her. The girls loved it! So did Steve.

Steve was the last one to get out of the water. Another one of the reasons our captain was so great is that our tour went an hour over, just so we could get to have this memory. Super great. We used Native Vacations as our tour guides. Check them out...super reasonable if you buy the tours through Groupon!

Fossiling on Peace River

Three mommas, six kids (14-7) and a slow moving, low river equals a day of exploring. We went south about an hour out of Lakeland, and found a spot along the Peace River. We got out with all of our gear which included colanders! Yep...they are great for washing away the sediment and leaving fossil behind. "We" is going to be used to explain our days events, but I was not a part of the "we". Because if you look in the first picture right above the head of the boy with the black shirt on, it is a very large gator slide. I was gator patrol for the day. And I oohhed and ahhed at the sharks teeth found, little as they were. It was still cool that in the middle of Florida, in fresh water, you can find sharks teeth. Yeah, it is pretty crazy! We found stingray teeth too. What a great day, and we saw NO gators!

I was watching for eyes popping up out of the algae and grass!

This was just three of the many we recovered.

Olivia had a hard time since she slid down moments after arriving and sprained her wrist. It was pretty painful. For everyone.

This was the mud spot choice of the day.

I loved all the Cypress trees that lined the river.

More friends and water!

Faith and her kids were here for a few days and we had to hit the beach...and a few other places. This was part two of spring break. We went over to Pine Island and even a cloudy day ended up great. We saw critters... horseshoe crabs, blue crabs, and birds! When I told Olivia that the creature she was holding was a distant relative to the roach, she gagged! ha!

Watching the tide come in was an amazing sight.... the wonders of His great hand!

What an optical illusion. Stephanie looks ten feet tall!

This was her sand art!

Time with friends and hay!

Last days of winter of 2012... sunny and hot! Windy too! Alma and Chloe were here from NC and so we made our spring break stretch over a longer period of time and mixed in a few days of school...we are winding down anyway, so we called it a day of PE! HA! Seriously, the kids went and jumped hay bales for hours. I know, that is real close to serious redneck fun and even hillbilly entertainment to some...but they loved it. I became especially exciting when they all(7) piled up on the golf cart with Olivia driving (what?...yes, that is my response too!) and they ran into the dumpster on the nursery property! It bent the steel bar across the front that protects the engine area ... and apparently turned the dumpster a full 90 degrees. She lost her license. No one was hurt. We were picking splinters out of shins and hands, elbows and feet for days! But it was so much fun!

Good family fun!