Sunday, March 28, 2010

Palm Sunday

"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our sin...by His wounds, by His wounds, we are healed." This is the song the girls danced to today. We are so blessed to have a dance teacher, Ms. Barb, who loves our girls and sees a ministry in teaching them to worship with dance. I am so proud of the girls and their willingness to serve Jesus with everything.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Spring has sprung

We celebrated the first day of Spring by heading out to the beach. It is a favorite of our family. It is something we can do over and over, and it is usually combined with seeing Steve's mom and dad, and going to Osaka's. It is a place we love to go get sushi. Steve's dad will just never understand. He tells us to get over that eel and seaweed food. It always scores a ten with us!
My little beach bums! Ready to find treasures.
Within minutes, she was on a hunt for shells and jelly fish!
This one likes to pose. She makes me laugh.
At first they were shy of touching them...by the end, they were chucking them back out into the Gulf.
She loved showing them to all passer-bys.
And all those lessons have paid off!
The water was a cool temp...probably in the sixties, but she does not care. My adventurer.
She was overwhelmed by love for the surroundings, so I reminded her who's idea it was in the first place. This was her reaction.
And the day ended with the sinking of the sun. It was wonderful.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Strawberry season!

There is a plethora of strawberries in our neck of the woods, and I have not had the chance to do any canning or jam making with the girls, so we made a plan.

Bought our supplies, and got to doing the work. Neither of them are fans of strawberry jam, but I thought this could change their taste buds!

Before.
After.
We had our friends who visit everyday after school help us in this endeavor. Dylan has been making things at this counter since he was a mere one year old. Tara was more interested in eating them, but she loved squishing them too!
Olivia did not get the hair net memo!
Soon this girl will be in the kitchen alone making masterpieces!
Ta-da! We ended up with 12 jars of jam. They prefer it by the spoon rather than on a piece of toast. But they were all proud jam makers!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Go Green!

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Stephanie and Olivia played the Leprachaun scavengar hunt in our house yesterday. They were both armed with cameras and took on the challenge of taking pictures of green things. They had a blast and loved seeing their craft published.

Stephanie also wrote a hiaku poem for St.Patrick's Day

Green
Looking for green things
Grass, fruit, clothes, stuff all around
Taking pictures-Click!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Another hour

Our bodies are not agreeing with whoever it was that decided mid-March was a good time to move the clocks. We are sleeping in until nine, therefore getting the day started out with a little less oomph in our step. Actually, there is quite an oomph in my step because I can see the end of the tunnel when it comes to our school year. Come on shout "Hallelujah" with me!

Olivia is hard at work with her phonics and math. She is becoming a good reader, but likes real stories as opposed to phonics silly nonsense stories. Both of my kids seem to just "get" math. I wonder if I would have been more like them had I had less things in life to worry about. Oh, well, it is fun watching them. We are knee deep in the middle of Medieval Times, and if you could see my backyard, you would think we are recreating an old run down village. Stephanie has her wares out for sell, which include mud, rocks and basically junk she has recycled. Division has been her nemesis, but she finally conquered it this past week, so she feels like the knight who has won the tournament.

Steve is busy with work, editing three different books, becoming a wii tennis star in the moments of spare time and wondering when I am going to divulge the "Spring" to do list. Yes, it is right around the corner. With all the rain we have had, things are turning green and not just to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I feel colorful annuals on my horizon.

We might attempt making some strawberry jelly later this week...like I said I am feeling some spring fever.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ol' Roy


I know it sounds like I am calling my dog when I say Ol' Roy, but I am not....when my sweet grandpa makes me chuckle and I am telling someone about him, I usually call him Roy. I do love this man. He is so special. Today he asked me to come over to his home and go through some things of my grandmothers...we did not expect to find a few Russell Stover's empty boxes of chocolate hidden under place mats, but we did...she was quite the saver. And she did have a sweet tooth. Chocolate. Roy never did, and still doesn't, so he is not so merciful about those hidden treats. Of course, having diabetes is what he was protecting her from.

It must be that generation....living through the depression is what probably did it. They carried with them the idea of "just in case" and for her in particular, she could not have too many hankies, cloth napkins, tablecloths or towels. I should throw in for good measure, Pyrex pie plates, flatware, and Tupperware. I am blessed to be using some of these things in my own kitchen, but since my generation and those since are the "throw away and buy more later", it is hard to balance both ideals.

So, we got such laughs today concerning his length of pants. He is not one who would be described in the song, "Pants on the ground" for sure...in fact one should be written about pants being too short. Some say high waters, but he cuffs them up that high thinking it is fine! It is. I told him so. But I also told him to unroll them and let them hang. They were fine. But he needed some hemmed, and so he was trying them on for me. Olivia came in half way through and offered her stylish expertise and he took it too, and so instead of four inches being taken up, we will only do three.

How funny is it that one still struggles with peer-pressure at ninety. He wanted his hemmed pants back for Friday night, 'cause it was Square dancing night. He even asked me recently about did I think his clothes were fine. Apparently there are a few "friends" who want to give him a makeover! All those ladies, who live at this retirement home feel a need to take care of him. I surely understand. He just has that way about him. I turn to mush, and would do anything for him. Some Sundays I just have to turn around to see his sweet wrinkled bald head and keep myself from giggling about the scent of vinegar that at times surrounds him. Toe nail fungus requires vinegar, so I am told.

He is a hoot. I just had to share today about Roy. I wish everyone had a Roy.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Another morning

Another morning arrived and it seems the weather influenced every one's mood. A little dreary, a bit drippy, cool enough to make one uncomfortable, but nevertheless a new start. Before school even began, the girls and I ended up having our own little sweet time picking apart a past scripture they had memorized.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12
It was fun...I love it when I feel like God gives me insight on how to do this parenting thing. One of my greatest goals is to raise up these two girls into lovely confident strong women. I had to remind them that we are told to CLOTHE ourselves in these qualities...that we have to make a choice to put them on. They do not magically get out of bed with their outfit on, and they do not have to choose to put on skin and hair because these things are out of our control, and done for us. But the things we must make a choice to be, do or have is up to us. So today we are choosing compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Rainbow River State Park 2010

It was a chilly weekend camping over at Rainbow River State Park in Dunnellon, FL. We camped with the Symonds and had some good company and yummy food. Aaron can make up a fire! Games here and there, bike trails and hiking were in the list of things to do too! The girls fished off of a dock and all caught one, even Steve did...how funny that his was the smallest. Samantha was the first to spot an armadillo and we had two great nights of star gazing. With temps dropping into the low thirties, we were glad to have two space heaters in the pop-up! None of us ended up with Mario-withdrawal, but Olivia earned her an hour of playtime by giving Mama a good massage on the way home.

Around the fire we dreamed up vacations in the future of going out west and seeing our great country. It is such a blessing to have such sweet girls who love a life of adventure.