How I Spent My Summer Vacation

     For most of us, at some point in our life, we had a teacher ask us to write an essay on what we did over the summer when we got back to school.  (Side note: for some reason, essays are called "themes" now.  Why this had to change is a mystery to me.)  Well, I thought since the first week of school is behind me, I would write my essay about how I spent my summer.  Hope I get a good grade... :)

     We started off the summer with a couple of daunting tasks that we wanted to get accomplished before school started back again.  These included adding more light fixtures to the main Learning Center, and also painting the offices.  I thought the lights would be complicated, and that the paint would be the easy part.  Was I ever wrong...
 
     Let's just say that painting over old oil-based paint is more daunting than you would expect.  I was happily painting away and thought I was making good progress until I picked up one of the dry pieces and realized that the new paint was basically just sitting on top of the old paint...it wasn't sticking to the pieces at all.  This was cause for some alarm for me, because I know what happens when you put a kid in front of chipped paint.  It's like a magnet for picking fingers.  Well, we did a little research (probably should have done it first, but come on, it's painting, how hard can it be?) and found out that the type of paint used to paint the offices originally was oil based paint specifically meant to repel dirt, damage, and other things.  This would seem to include any new coats of paint that you may want to apply.  We finally found that if we used soap, water, and a ScotchBrite sponge before we tried to paint, then the new coat would adhere better.  So, after we made this discovery things went much more smoothly.

    It was out goal to get most of those two jobs done before we took our family vacation.  We were able to do that, and so we headed out of town for a week to do a few fun things together as a family.  We like to use our fun times to also learn things, so our trip itinerary included a trip to Stone Mountain, Georgia and the Atlanta Aquarium and a visit to some family as well.

Stone Mt.

The boys at the top of the mountain. 

     For those of you unfamiliar with it, Stone Mountain is just outside Atlanta, Georgia.  It is composed of granite, and has a large picture of three Confederate leaders carved into its side.  It was very interesting to learn how they made the carving, and also for the boys to learn about the War Between the States, and the history of the area.  The boys, their aunt, and I rode the sky bucket to the top of the mountain, and then hiked back down.  It was an impressive view, and it was especially interesting to watch as a thunderstorm rolled in from the distance.

     The kids like the aquarium the most.  All of our kids really enjoy going and seeing animals, and learning about all the different kinds of creatures God put on Earth for us to enjoy.  We knew this would be the highlight of their trip, so we planned to spend the whole day there.   Some of their most favorite things to see were the penguins (we love us some penguins in this house!), the whale sharks, and the dolphin show.  It was a long day, but the definitely a fun one!  

Ready for our day at the aquarium!

Whale shark swimming overhead.

Fascinated.

In the bubble!

PENGUINS!

Our newest penguin fan!

The cutest penguin...

     In addition to seeing these fun places, we also got to visit Daddy's sister in Georgia and brother in Indiana.  First-Born had a big milestone this summer: spending a whole week away from us!  He spent a fun week with his cousins in Indiana.  He fished, played, fished, rowed in the boat, fished, went to the fair, and fished.  He was so excited about the several bass he caught with his cousin.  I think he would have happily spent two weeks!

     Too soon it was back home again, and back to work for Mommy and Daddy!  Lots of paperwork to do, computer programs to learn to use, and school things to get organized.  Let's just say, I didn't know if it would all get done!!  But the Lord is our Help, and with His Help, we were all ready to go on Orientation Night.  We had a great summer, but it was time to get settled back into a routine.

     Thanks for checking back in with us, and I hope you all enjoyed your summer fun too!  I will end this how every student ends their summer vacation essay: "...and that's how I spent my summer vacation."  THE END  :)

Summer Update!

   Well, once again the time has flown by since my last blog post!  I know--you'd think now that it was summer and  I was a SAHM, I would have plenty of time to sit down and do a little blogging...I'm such a slacker!  *eyeroll  But, as I have explained to several people, being "out of school" does not mean that there is no work to do there!  This summer's projects include learning and utilizing a new computer based records system for school paperwork, painting and restructuring the school desks, closing up last school year and opening up this school year, and don't forget the general cleaning out and sorting through that has to happen in the meantime.  Needless to say, we are still putting in a "few" hours over at school.
 
     And let's not forget the home front.  We have decided that this summer would be the time to potty train Little Sister.  And for those of you who have been through that particular fun time, you know what that entails.  We are slowly seeing progress though...I think...  Also, I have started a little side venture of something that I have always been interested in.  A missionary acquaintance of ours is in the process of writing several commentaries on some books of the Bible, and I am his editor.  I am excited about doing this job as editing has always been something I have been interested in.  Plus, I just didn't think I had enough going on in my life...haha!

     Even though we are busy, we have tried to take time to have some family fun this summer.  In fact, the reason I have a little extra time today to sit down and blog is because I am "only" doing laundry and packing to leave for a vacation.  We plan to visit family, see an aquarium and a state park, and (gulp) leave First-Born to stay for a week with his cousins in Indiana.  This will be his first time spending time so far away from home.  Kinda like summer camp, but with people we actually know.  This will be a big change for him, but also for Middle Biscuit, who will have to be the big brother for a week!

    We have done a few fun things already this summer.  A couple of weeks ago, we wanted to go on an "adventure," so we took the kids to a local creek to play for a while.  They had a great time, and are already asking when we can go again!

    One of the highlights of our summer is the Fourth of July.  Besides our country's celebrations, this is the time that my mom's family (who are mostly local to us here) has chosen to have our family reunion.  We always enjoy getting together with family to have good food, lots of fun, and plenty of time to visit.  Not everyone can make it every year as we grow as a family, and we miss those who can't be there.  Family seems to become more and more important as my kids get older.  I want them to have memories of people who have contributed so much to their upbringing.  I want them to know a family that honors God even when we get together for fun.  Family who have stayed faithful even when times have been hard.  This is the important thing that I want for my kids.  To know that it is not just Mommy and Daddy who believe this way, but that they come from a family who makes it their highest priority to honor God with their lives.  

     I hope to make a post about our vacation when we get back.  Maybe I will even get it done and posted before Christmas--haha!  Thanks for reading my musings, and I hope you have a great rest of the summer!  :)

Reflections at 35

   So, in a few days, I will be 35.  Most people consider this middle age, but I guess I have to echo the trite sentiment--"But I don't feel middle-aged!"  But I have never understood what people meant by saying they feel an age...what does an age feel like?  I haven't noticed any marked changes that have occurred at a given age...you know, like 16, 18, 21, 30...the supposed "milestone" ages.  And thank the Lord and good genetics, I have never actually looked my age.  When I was 16, people thought I was 12, which I hated...then.  Then during my twenties, when I was having babies and being a grown-up, people gave me pitying looks like I was a teen mom, or asked questions like "Are those all your kids?!"  (In an incredulous voice, of course.)  So, age has always been just a number for me.

   But now that I am about to reach yet another "milestone" age, I have been thinking about what I might say about such an event.  I mean, according to the "three-score and ten" principle, I am halfway through my allotted span.  So, have I reached any conclusions about life that I could share?  Have I learned any lessons that I can pass on to younger moms and wives to save them maybe having to learn them the hard way?  Are there things that I have yet to learn that I can get busy on in the time I have left?   I have been mulling over these points and thought I might share a few things on my li'l ol' blog.   So, here are a few things I have had occasion to try out, fail at, try again, learn, re-learn, and practice in my life.  It's my hope that something will encourage you, challenge you, make you laugh, or remind you of God's direction in your life.

   1.   God does have a plan for you---even if it not the plan you thought.  This was a big one for me early on in my life.  You see, I am a planner.  But often, God's plan for my life was to change the plan I had.  One early lesson I learned in this was when we moved right before my sixteenth birthday.  This was a difficult time of my life, and I was not very pleased with my parents (and to be honest, God) for disrupting my life and uprooting me just when I felt I was "coming into my own."  Unfortunately, I struggled with this lesson for a while before finally just giving up.  (Yay for a senior trip to the Wilds!)  I decided that it might be easier for me to let God plan my life for a while...you know, just to see what might happen.  Well, things did happen, and three years after that "traumatic" move, I was married!  Which leads me right into my next musing...

   2.  Marriage is good...but hard.  I mean hard.  No one really tells you this.  You hear the trite phrases about love being blind or deaf.  And you expect to have a spat here or there with your spouse.  But no one tells you about the flat-out, gritty reality of marriage and the work that goes into making one work.  The sleepless nights where you are emotionally so drained you think maybe this was a mistake.  The days where nothing goes right and the only thing you can do is take it out on the person whose fault it seems like.  The times where you would cheerfully punch the daylights out of the person you said "I love you" to earlier that day.  But after this is the plain out satisfaction of getting through all that.  Together on the other side...hopefully wiser, closer, more together.  So, all you newbies out there, my advice would be tough it out.  When the shine is off, when the stress takes it toll, when you want to walk away, or wish the other person would.  Stay. Fight. Don't quit. Talk. Yell. Love.  Beat the odds...together.  Because...

   3.  People are watching.  Looking to you, even though you have no clue what you are doing.  This is one I am still not comfortable with.  I don't think I have it "all together" like--oh, I don't know--several hundred other people that are way more "together" than me.  So when the thought crosses my mind that people are looking to me to be a leader, I still kinda freak out.  I don't really want to be one.  Because, let's face it...it's way easier to say "Follow someone else."  But, at some point--although I don't really know how it happened--I was a leader.  People came to me for advice.  They looked to me to set the tone of a situation.  They assumed that since I was there, I was in charge.  When, mostly, I just wanted to say, "Wait...I'm not a grown-up...you can't put me in charge!  I've never done this before!"  I guess this is part of point number one that I am still working on!

   4.  There is no magic formula for parenting.  At some point, early on, maybe even before you have kids of your own, you have already had a mental dialog with yourself about "well, when I have kids, they will never..."  And you assume that there is a set formula of love, patience, discipline, and firmness that you can plug in and out will come a well-adjusted, well-behaved little person.  And there pretty much is...but the formula seems to change everyday...sometimes multiple times a day.  And no one tells you that some days you will just be happy with kids that are still alive at the end of the day...because some days that's an accomplishment all by itself.  It is hard to choose the battles to pick...but critical to win the ones you choose.  And people will give you advice, article, books, dissertations, blogs, and criticisms...all in the name of good intentions.  And you have the best intentions to try and follow it all.  But then life happens.  And all the good intentions go out the window and your husband comes home to find the children in pajamas, in front of the television, eating carrot sticks out of a bag while you just stare at him.  Vacantly.  And he takes you all out for supper, because he is great.  And then the next week you find the "magic formula" one day, and he comes home to happy kids, a warm supper, good dessert, and a clean house.  And he just smiles and says, "How was your day?" because he is great.  So, mommies, hang in there.  The magic formula is simply this--there is no formula.  Pray for, take care of, and love your kiddos...so easy--yet so challenging.

   5.  Life is full of big challenges, but little things are what's important.  As I look back on my life up to this point, I can remember the "big" things most clearly.  Getting married, having babies, losing babies, major illnesses of family members, natural disasters, job changes, moves, conflicts, trials, loss...all the things that make the milestones that people use to measure their life by.  You know, "It's been three years since this tragedy" or "It's been two weeks since that happened."  I guess it's human nature to quantify our life on a timetable of what has happened to us.  But we need to be careful that we don't get trapped in measuring our lives by the negative things that have happened.  If we are simply waiting for the next complication with which to measure our life by, we may miss the everyday blessing that God sends.  The phone call from a friend, the chubby fistful of flowers from your toddler, the new book you started reading, a fancy coffee for no reason at all, a trip to the grocery store by yourself.  The time you wished you had cookies, and the next day a church member brings some to church.  The wonderfulness of your washing machine, dishwasher, or Crockpot.  A thing you have always harbored a secret wish to do, and out of the blue God gives you a chance to do it.  Don't forget these seemingly little things.  Because they are the things that God send us to help us get through those challenging times.  We can store them up and take them out and look at them and remember that God is there, and He loves us, and He will help us through the hard times because look how good He was when we weren't looking for it.  Little things are still important...which is kinda what this blog is about after all.

   I have by no means mastered anything on this list.  I don't know if it is even something that can be "mastered" or not.  But looking back, these are a few things that stick out to me as lessons that I have revisited the most often.  Now I have a place to come and read them the next time I need a refresher course!!  Keep looking for those little things!  And remember, age is just a number! ;)