Time marches on

Sitting here tonight reviewing past posts I realized just how quickly time feels like it passes. We get so wrapped up in day to day living that things get forgotten. In the time that has passed, children have grown, the oldest is off to college and a new school year has started. Disappointments have been faced and challenges have been met, some with success and others with lessons learned.

The goal is to restart and share stories and memories so that in the everyday the little joys no longer get lost.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day my kids bought me the movie Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Now that we have seen all of the movies it's time to read the books and show them how different the actual stories are. I also have a larger memory card for my camera (don't have to worry about running out of room now.) thanks to my oldest. She knows I can be paranoid about deleting pictures. It was a nice quiet day. I got to talk to Randy while he was prepping for work.
Each time I see him, I regret the amount of time I wasted on anger and resentment, but unfortunately we can go back, only move forward. So plans for Seattle are set and I pray everything works out so that he and I can reconnect and move forward in our future.

Mom's graduation

YEA!!!!! Amma graduated today with her associates degree and has made a goal of finishing her Bachelor's Degree and is considering a Master's Degree. It was nice to be able to drive down and see her graduate. We also got to spend some time at the park having a picnic lunch with her and with my Uncle Sam. Life is going well.

Helen Ga

Cierra had asked to visit Helen while we were on Spring Break this past week. We drove down (I only got lost 1time going and coming home) with amma and the kids just to have a little break. While we were there we got to play putt putt (one of my favorite games), visit all kinds of little shops, and a train museum. The train museum was phenomenal. There were 2 viewing levels and I'm pretty sure we still didn't get to see everything. The kids are begging to go back when daddy comes home so he can see it too. After walking around a little while we hopped in the car and drove about 5 minutes up to Anna Ruby Falls. Ok so I was nervous driving on the mountain roads but it was worth it. We hiked about 1/2 mile up the side of the mountain to get to the falls. It was a nice hike and the kids noticed many different flowers and trees, as well as a skink eating a worm. Cameron was fascinated with the water flowing down the rock faces from out of 'nowhere'. We didn't make it to the Cabbage Patch Hospital but maybe we can make it the next time we go.

Mysteriously flying frogs

Okay so I have this magnetic book mark with a frog on it. I like it because a frog reminds me to: Fully Rely On God. Anyway, I use it in my Daily Bible even though logically I could just look up the date but I like the frog. SO last night after I finished reading the chapters of the day, I looked for the bookmark to put on the pages. Not laying next to me where I had seen it earlier. Strip the bed and remake to see if it got tangled up. Nope. Check living room, kitchen, kitchen table, computer desks, bathroom, front hall (you get the picture). No frog bookmark. Okay, I surrender. I will look in the morning. So I lay back on my pillow and glance at the ceiling. You guessed it, there stuck to the air conditioner register is my frog book mark. I love kids with imaginations.

Lesson learned.

This one I regret but it was a lesson learned (by all involved). We had driven in to our neighborhood coming home from church and as when came around the (randomly placed) median I looked in the rear view mirror to see Cameron sprawled across the top of the back seat like a cat on a window sill. Well I was fed up with the disobedience of unbuckling the seat belt while I am driving. So I hit the brakes HARD. I should have looked at everyone else in the car before making that snap decision. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Caitlin flying face first into the back of the front seat. My first thought was oh great I probably just broke her nose. I pulled over and walked around the van feeling like the worst parent in the world to check on her. Thankfully God watches out for fools and idiots (and I fit both categories on occasion) so she was fine, in some pain and scared, but fine. I let her sleep with me so that I could keep tabs on her thru the night (just in case). This is where I figure I did my penance because she sleeps all over the bed. Therefore, I slept very little on any of it.

Hail!

So tonight the weather was suppose to include thunderstorms and high winds. The temperature change was so quick that we got hail instead. The kids were watching it out the back door and so we grab a few pieces so that they could hold and see it first hand. Caitlin looks down and in awe says "It's ice, made by God." Corbin pipes in with "Can we eat it?" Leave it to a home school kid. After crunching it around in his mouth his verdict was "It tastes a lot cleaner than normal ice". Cameron's 2-cents: "God makes everything clean, except dirt". Love the logic of kids.