A good day!

Today was a good day.  For one of the first times in her life, I allowed Kate to leave our little town with a friend (who wasn't related to us! ha  ha!) and spend the day with her.  I know, I know, the child is 9 years old, and I probably should have allowed it a long time ago, but I'm one of "those" moms... I am WAY over - protective.  But, really, I'm OK with being a little on the "cautious" side.  Any-hoo, Katie Beth had a FANTASTIC time.  They went to the Ft. Worth zoo and saw all the animals (the penguins were her favorite), and they got to stuff an animal in the gift shop, they rode the train, and then, to cap off a perfect day, they ate supper at the hibachi place.  She was tired but really happy.

The rest of us had a fun day, too.  A few of my friends had a garage sale today, so I helped out there this morning.  While I was at the garage sale, Luke took the little girls on an "adventure".  Abby had so much fun she is still talking about it!  They went walking down to our creek and tried to skip rocks and looked for fossils and laid on the big rocks and put their hands in the cold waterfalls.    They were dirty and happy when I got back home.  We then headed to town for Miss Campbell's 2nd b-day party.  What fun!  A bouncy castle, a water slide, a wading pool, a huge sand box with green and purple sand... it was a kiddy paradise!  (Wish I had remembered my camera!!)  After the party, a good bath was in order for all of us!  Then Luke and I took the little girls out to dinner before Kate arrived back home.  (I kind of thought that Abs and Gracer might miss Kate today, but you know, they really enjoyed being "buddies"... Abby really got to play the role of the big sister, and, you know, she was pretty good at it!!)

Hope you all had as good of a Saturday as we did!!  

Thankful Thursday

 Before I start listing, I should probably give a little background first... Earlier in the week, a young man from our town unexpectedly passed away.  He would have turned 26 this weekend.  He began having a seizure at home, and then went to the ER.  They are still unsure, but they think he had a blood clot that went to his lung and killed him.  He was a husband.  He was a father to two precious young children.  All week I have just been sick over what his wife and children are suffering through right now.  If you have time, pray for the Carter family.

Then last night, I get a call from my partner who teaches Sunday School with me each week.  Her daughter (who is roughly the same age as me), went in to the hospital to have some fairly routine surgery.  She went into cardiac arrest during the procedure.  Luckily, she survived.  She was awake again, but they were monitoring her very closely.  My partner said that when her daughter woke up, she said, "Mom, I saw the light."    This gave me chills.  This woman has children and a husband, and they are praying about adopting another young child from the Ukraine.  She has much to live for.  Please pray for her, too.  Her name is Julie.

I give all this background, because I think my "thankful" list will probably be a bit more serious than usual, and I just wanted you to know where I am today.  A little shell-shocked, and totally thankful and humbled.

TODAY I'M THANKFUL FOR....

1.)  My family.  All of them.  Especially my husband, for I am unsure how I would "move on" with the business of life without him.

2.)  God.  

3.)  My life.  I am so richly blessed.

4.)  Being wonderfully and mercifully forgiven.

Chicken Update

I know you all have just been waiting with baited breath for an update about Abby's chickens(ha!).  Well, they all are 4 doing fine and growing at a ridiculous rate.  We were HOPING for 4 hens, and even had an old wives' tale that told us how to pick hens out from roosters.  Supposedly, if you hold them upside down by their feet when they are babies, the ones who do not fight and flap their wings are hens.  We dutifully performed this test and made our selections based on the results.  Well, now that they are growing, it appears that little trick is accurate... about half of the time.  That's right.  We are thinking we have two roosters and two hens.  The little purple chicken (named "Dumpling") has begun to perch himself on top of the water jug and "crow" (if you can call it that... it sounds like a sick little whistle.)  I'm hoping he never figures out how to really let loose and crow.  I like my sleep.  I don't want to be awakened at dawn by a happy rooster.  (I don't want to be awakened at dawn by anything! ha ha)  Wish us luck... how far do you think we could REALLY move that chicken pen away from our house?!?!?!?!

Under the weather...

So, after church yesterday, I started feeling not so good.  Queasy, nauseated, achy, the whole nine yards.  Luckily, two of my three kids had gone home with friends for the afternoon.  Grace is MUCH easier alone, so I pretty much curled up on the couch and let her watch TV and play around me while I napped and rested.  Luke was working, but luckily was able to come home for a little while.  Luckily, I feel better today.  Weak, but better.  The good doctor has checked me out, and luckily it is just a virus, likely the same one Grace had last Thursday.  Love the little gifts she gives!

Ball Pics...

No snazzy titles today... I guess I'm not feeling very creative!  Just wanted to share the "official" ball pictures of the girls for this year.  They are looking mighty cute, if I do say so myself!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful today for "sistah-luv".

Works for me Wednesday!!

Works for Me Wednesday

You can find lots of good tips over at Rocks in My Dryer

It's always fun to participate, so here's my best tip that "Works for me"!!

When trying to organize a playroom, you just have to suck it up and buy some good organizational containers.  I have always wanted these racks with colored bins, but would never spend the money.  I finally broke down and bought them, and they have made ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!  Everything has a place.  

I got my handy-dandy label maker and labeled each and every bin.  The older two girls can read, and so they can clean up the play room by themselves.  They know where every single toy belongs, and they can put it back there all by themselves.  (I tried to take a close-up photo of one of the labels, and my camera didn't want to focus on a image that close.  Not a very good picture, but you get the idea!!)

It works for us!  Hope it works for you!

T-Ball

I finally remembered to take my big lens with my camera to one of Ab's T-Ball games and got some really good pictures of her in action.  The picture above is the big athlete, and she's "baseball ready".

The picture below shows Abby, up to bat and ready to whack the ball. (The only problem is, her feet were in the wrong place, so Coach Charles had to fix her feet.  It was just easier to pick her up and move her than try and explain where her feet should be!)  Cute, cute, cute!



Here's Ab in action, making her way safely to first base!
Her team is doing great!  Go Rangers!

Play Date

Today marked a kind of "milestone" for us... Gracie had a friend come over to play while the other two girls were at school.  We picked Miss Emiley up from pre-school and she and Gracie had the house to themselves, with very little interference from me.  They had lunch and then they sang a little karaoke (but that didn't last long, because the microphones weren't working correctly...).  They played dress-up and played with the kittens.  The picture above shows the girls in a play tent, all dressed up, with Pancho and Lefty.  What fun!  They truly had a ball... their only complaint was that it wasn't long enough.  I had to agree.

Jack and the Beanstalk

I'm spending some time trying to play "catch up" from the last few weeks... it seems that I haven't taken the time to post very often about all of our activities (probably because we have had so many activities! ha ha)

Last week Abby's kindergarten class presented a play, "Jack and the Beanstalk", during their music class. Abby was one of the narrators, and she did so well. Here she is, saying some of her lines. Their music teacher does such a good job with the kids and using things that they already have as props. Look at these two boys... the one standing in the chair with the green paper wrapped around him is "the beanstalk", and the other boy is "Jack". He is climbing the beanstalk. Cute!
At the end of the play, the teacher has all the students stand in a semi-circle around the class room and the audience comes around and shakes their hands. The children thank them for coming, and the audience congratulates them on a job well done. She encourages the children to look the adults in the eye and speak properly. She has taught the about a nice, firm handshake. Wow. What a teacher! Here is Abby, in line and ready to shake hands.
The play was fantastic! Way to go, kindergartners!