Change in perspective and summer time fun

Well I wrapped up my first year as a stay at home mom. When I closed down my classroom for the last time last June I had this fabulous idea that I would have a couple months of adjustment and then poof I would be June Cleaver (I know! Stopping laughing.... breathe, inhale and exhale!) I have been preparing to teach in one way or another for the last 17 years. What was I thinking when I thought I would be able to make this change in a short time. I didn't feel I was as active with my kids in quality time and I certainly was no where near the vision I had in my head. So I am going to start my blogging again to share some of our summer time activities and trials in this crazy adventure called life. I am sure I will sneak in some of my baking adventures as well.

Okay on to summer fun! I found this fun summer activity list with printables on Pinterest: http://www.pluckymomo.com/2011/06/printable-summer-of-fun-kit.html  I loved this idea, it was super do-able for me. I didn't laminate the weekly page as suggested but just put the page in a page protector. I printed this activities on regular paper and glued them to construction paper to make them a little stronger before I cut them out but I am not even sure that was needed. The kids and I went through each activity and decided if it was one we wanted to do. We draw seven activities out of the bucket on Sunday, take a look at the week and figure out which day each activity should happen.  One of the first things we did was make banana bread together. Today was learn about and write Haiku's. We wrote one about our new pool.

Mommy likes floating
Savannah plays in the water
Shea swims like a fish

Shea was so excited he wanted to do more, maybe one about Mario.  Silly boy cracks me up. Both Shea and Savannah decorated the print outs we made of the poem.

Officially official

Well, it has been absolutely forever since I have blogged. I officially submitted my letter of resignation today with the intent letter for next year. I am so looking forward to being a stay at home mommy! I know that God will bless our family in ways we dont' even see as we step forward in faith. We believe whole heartedly this is what He wants for our family. Praise God for this opportunity.

Family Camping Trip

Be warned... this is kind of a long one :)

Wow!! What an adventure this was! Our family decided that we would camp at Fort Spokane Campgrounds on Lake Roosevelt. Shawn, the kids, and I decided to go out on Thursday (mom was supposed to meet us up there, but decided to come first thing on Friday morning). Well after a nice short jaunt (5 ½ hours) across the state, we made it to the campgrounds. We didn’t remember our site number so we stopped at the camp host and after a couple of tries, finally found out unlabeled sight. We got out site mostly set up and I started to grill hot dogs. We hadn’t put the rain-fly on as I didn’t think it looked like rain…. Well fortunately we smelled the rain coming and got in on quickly. As the hot dogs were working getting warm, I started cutting up cantaloupe. The wind started really blowing and I was getting concerned about yuck getting on the melon, then I heard a crack and assumed it was a branch, what I didn’t count on was that the branch was going to hit me on the head!! It was about 1 ½ inches in diameter and broke on my noggin! I had quite a knot but no blood, PRAISE GOD! Then it the rains starts coming down, not just a sprinkles but a holy moly buckets falling out of the sky, we race to get food, ice chests and boxes under the awning of our tent. I finally got plates together for the kids, Shawn and I. Then the kids and I got to sit on the floor of the tent and eat. Poor Shawn was trying to get a tarp out to cover the awning to keep some water out, hurry to get the windows up in the Explorer, and a few other quick tasks; after about 5 minutes he made it back to the tent and was soaking wet, I mean drenched. It hailed, rained, thundered, and there was lightening for a couple of hours and finally calmed down. Throughout all of that, we discovered that part of our tent was in a low spot of the site and had a small lake under it. There was lake out the front door of our tent as well and we had to go out through a side door. It was an adventure, the good news is, I am writing this on Saturday and there hasn’t been a drop of rain since, thank you Jesus, so we are dry for the moment, but I thought our starting adventure was worth sharing with my friends. On an ending note, there wasn't drop of rain for the rest of the trip and my mom thanked us for taking all the rain for the first night.

What a day!!!

Okay, this is a posting with a miracle in the middle of it, but over all a request for prayers.

This is the kind of day that I want a do-over on. I started out decided that since I am so overwhelmed (broken washer, student led conferences coming up next week-too much to do and too little time) that I would skip a staff meeting and try to get stuff done. Well apparently my boss didn't adore my plan, she hunted me down and made me go. At the meeting, we were working in groups so I was nearly in tears and told my very awesome coworkers about why I was almost in tears. Later one coworker checked on me via my neighboring teacher and someone over heard about me being worried and in need of a washer.
Here comes the miracle........
and someone remembered that another staff member was trying to give a washer and dryer away. I hunted down the coworker and we picked up the washer and dryer for free. THANK YOU JESUS!!!
Okay then I went to tutor and my girl was running late, right as she came home my uncle calls and tells me that my grandfather who had his toes amputated, is not healing well, and may have to have his leg amputated to above his knee. Because of his age (83) and his failing health, it could be dangerous. He is not a Christian and I pray for his salvation all the time. I am just heart sick, I love my grandpa so much! I know I am being selfish by wanting him to be around forever, but that is how I feel!!
I know, you are wondering, can her day get a little worse.... yes it can, just a little.
After picking up our wonderful gift, I was going back to my car and slipped and skinned my knee. Shea and Savannah both had to tell me my pants were yucky, just in case, I hadn't noticed. Such sweet honest little people. So my dear friends, please pray for my grandfather's health and salvation. Thank you so much!! and God bless you all!

I did tell my mom I wanted a do over for today and she didn't think that was happening.

I

Strokes of Brillance

Okay here is my second posting. I am hoping to make this regular to provide a good chuckle to those who are interested.

Let me tell you about a couple of "strokes of brillance" from today. Easter, one of my most favorite Holy days. I made parts of Easter dinner to take to the Patsey's house. I got the ham out and read the directions (ha, bet you thought I skipped that part), they told me I needed to remove the packaging, so I did; the black netting, pretty purple foily paper and then the plastic on the ham and put it in my pretty (new I might add) Pampered chef stonewear pan. Well after being in the oven for almost to hours, I took out the ham, it looked heavenly. I pulled off a piece and saw what looked like melted plastic on it. I pulled it off and didn't think much of it, then I was getting ready to start slicing the ham and noticed more melted plastic, apparently there was a piece of plastic on the end of the ham that I had no idea about!!!!! It melted on part of the ham and on to my new stone. Praise God, when it cooled it came right off the pan. WAHOO!! Note to self... check ham for extra plastic before baking.

But that wasn't my only stroke of brillance today! We were sitting around with the kids and singing preschool songs and I had my sweet baby Nannah (Savannah) in my lap. I was sitting right next to the table with the t.v. on it. We were singing a song that you turn the fire truck and lean, never dawned on me that I was sitting next to the corner of the table..... are you catching the picture, we turned that fire truck and banged Savannah's head into the corner. Fortunately it wasn't hard, and she has her mama's hard head. She didn't cry and I am quite certain that I felt worse than she did.

I am sure there were other moments that would make me a graduate of the school of "Well Duh!!" but I am going to stop at this for today.

Mini golfing with the kids.

I tell ya what!!! Being the competitive person that I am, not playing by "the rules" was very hard for me. Since it was a glow in the dark golf place, pictures would tough, also leaving the camera at home played a big part in none. Our kids seems to really enjoy golfing. Savannah would swing at the ball and barely make it move (that girl golfs like her mama :) ), Shea would hit the ball and then try a couple more times and just pick it up and put it in the hole and shout "I WON". After trying repeatedly to tell Savannah that the ball I was hitting was mama's, she finally got it. After I hit the ball she would pick it up and show me and yell "MAMA" and try to give me the ball. We were definitely done playing after just one round, we paid for 3. Savannah did not want to leave and fully flexed her princess muscles when it was time to go, daddy had to pick her up and carry her out of there kicking and screaming.