A sledding some would go…

February 19, 2016 | Stacy

We haven’t had much snow this year (PTL!!!) but when we did timed out just right in our busy schedules. The youngest two had a planned afternoon with Nan, so I offered the oldest four a trip to the hill at the high school. Tabitha decided she’d rather hang with Nan, so Stewart, Nigel, and Marie gave their snowboards a test drive. The hill is big and it was a little harder than they’d expected.

I, of course, observed from the car. I ventured out on occasion to catch an image with my zoomy-zoom lens.

They are crazy

February 7, 2016 | Stacy

and I love their version of crazy…

Pioneer Girls

January 27, 2016 | Stacy

We had a few bumps in the road in September as we awkwardly recognized that American Heritage Girls was not where we were supposed to be. On a whim one Wednesday night at 6:10 P.M. I asked the girls, “Do you want to go to Pioneer Girls tonight?” Pioneer Girls is a program that meets at our church and one we had never participated in for a variety of reasons. Two of the girls quickly agreed and we were ready to be there by 6:30. Marie was a hold out; she wasn’t ready to embrace something without some time to think about it.

As I dropped off the girls the woman who would be Marie’s leader said she’d actually prayed THAT DAY that our girls would go to PG. Mind you, she and I had never had a conversation about such a thing and until 6:10 P.M. I’d never considered it.

The following week I made Marie go. I said she had to go three weeks and at that point she could decide what she thought. When I picked them up at 8:00 P.M. the first words out of Marie’s mouth were, “You were right, Mom. This is great.”

It is by far the least structured evening programming we’ve ever been a part of, but it is working well for them. I’ve been helping once a month and have gotten to be in different classes. I’m not sure what next year holds, but it has absolutely been perfect this year.

There was a little awards ceremony tonight.

Most of the girls loved it.

Aren’t they sweet?

Mammal madness

November 24, 2015 | Stacy

Normally Hanny sits in on Tab’s science, but when we got to the end of the chapter and I wanted to do the review questions she bailed. The idea of just droning on and on about what kind of mammal each creature was seemed boring to me, and would NOT have held Tabitha’s attention. Enter siblings. Literally. Two of them entered the room on their way outside to play ball. I asked them to grab markers and do an exercise with us. For reasons known only to God they didn’t balk or ask questions; but, indeed, they each found a marker.

And we had fun. I think Nigel won? Maybe it was Tab. It didn’t matter.

Instagram fun

November 17, 2015 | Stacy

My new favorite thing is Instagram.
When you have so many awesome subjects, it is easy to see why.

Number 83

October 20, 2015 | Stacy

Do you see that smile?

She was granted permission by the orthopedic PA to play soccer again. The toe she broke June 8th was finally ok. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!

All season long she donned her uniform when she went to cheer on the other players. Today she donned it, as well as her cleats, with a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, the coach would let her play a bit in the first play off game.

I hate to admit it, but I was skeptical. Why, I reasoned, would a coach put in a player he had never seen play or practice in a PLAY-OFF game?

I dropped her off, and headed back to the house to pay the Spanish teacher and get up the baby. I then headed back to the field.

Many fields were in use as a number of games were going on. I couldn’t figure out which field was hers because I couldn’t see her on the sidelines anywhere.

That’s because SHE WAS PLAYING!!!

Why would the coach let her play? I’m not 100% sure, but I think it has a lot to do with him caring more about GRACE than goals.

Some Sunday!

October 11, 2015 | Stacy

Three months of the year Nigel ushers each Sunday.
About 4 times a year Marie and Tabitha sing on the Praise Team.
On random days throughout the year, Stewart sings with the choir.
On OCCASION the choir sings WITH the Praise Team.

Somehow. SOMEHOW. It came to be that all four of them would be participating this Sunday.

Our row was EMPTY until sermon time. But in the best possible way.

It was nothing but a FLUKE that my girls weren’t wearing pink, or orange, or floral! The fact that they blended in was just cool. The music was what stood out. And it was delightful.

Because four of them were dressed up, I thought to throw the little girls in matchy dresses and threw my camera in the car. As we left the church and walked to the grassy area, I decided to do the photos on the bench that was placed to remember Pastor Jeff. I first just intended to grab some shots of the kids, but ended up calling over a friend to have him take some of the whole family. I don’t know if we will do Christmas cards this year, but if we do – act surprised!

Selfies

October 1, 2015 | Stacy

the girls and I went to what we thought was a play about Helen Keller. It turned out to be some whacked-out, talk-to-the-fourth-wall, workshop, ballet thing. Confused? So were we. But we did get a fun photo before it started.

As the little girls were at Nan’s and she was happy to feed them, and the boys were at home with left over pizza, I took the girls to Subway for lunch.

They took this selfie a little less seriously.

I love that I have the privilege of doing life, every day with my kids.
I love that Subway was an unusual experience.
I love that Tabitha shared her cookies with Marie.
I don’t love weird plays that don’t deliver…

Hard news and endless shrimp…

September 18, 2015 | Stacy

You may remember Marie broke her toe on June 8th in Oregon.
And you may remember we had it diagnosed on July 30th.
You may remember that she has been out of her freshman modified soccer season.
Well, today was follow-up day with the orthopedic PA. At first glance at the first XRay it looked completely healed, BUT another view showed there was still a part of the fracture that had yet to heal. On one hand I was overjoyed to hear that FINALLY some healing had taken place. BUT it was devastating to my darling Marie. She was composed as we finished up the visit, but her very real disappointment manifested itself in the car and made for some of the most gut-wrenching driving I’ve endured in a few years.
Good conversation. Reminders of God’s goodness. Remembering that she and I still had our evening date to look forward to.
I treated her to Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp.

A lobster pizza appetizer.