Weekly Wrap-up: September 20-26

Ah, I see yet again why I love blogging so much.  Catching up on these last three weeks has just filled me with gratitude at all the amazing people in our lives, and the wonderful opportunities we have.  I don’t have the words to describe how full my heart gets—and how awed my mind gets—when I reflect on the blessings we have in our lives.  As I write this, we are finishing up an extremely gloomy week, weather-wise, and frankly, I’ve also felt very hormonal.  These last couple days I’ve been battling the doldrums, feeling like I’ve had to fight for the joy in my life, those smiles of thanks just for being alive on this planet, those moments of peace as I look at the leaves or the falling rain, those times of love when my heart feels like it is going to burst as I look at my family.  I have worked to laugh, to dance, to celebrate, when I feel overwhelmed by pointless negativity.  But today I have a “catch up” day to blog and do some cleaning and lesson planning while Greg is at Chris’ house with the kids, and my soul feels very peaceful again.  Seeing all these pictures has been therapeutic!

On Sunday, my kids had some good bonding time with their favorite baby in the world, Everley!

I also stole a picture during church of Anna copying Bible verses into her journal.  She has this whole monthly memorization plan, and since it involves randomly opening the Bible and copying the first verse she sees, she has written some doozies…but I love her heart and her love for God that is already developing so strongly.

I also got to see my WONDERFUL friend, Maria, on Sunday, who was visiting from Hawaii.  We had some good time to talk at church, and that evening, a group of her old friends from college went out to eat:

Words can’t express how good it was to see her.  She just radiates joy, and she is such a blessing to my life!

On Monday morning, amidst our regular schoolwork, we had a free-flowing science lesson on cells.  The kids colored and labeled cells…

…and made a flip book that showed the movement of chloroplasts through a plant cell:

At one point that morning, I was sitting in my room reading while the kids did independent work, and Anna came in and joined me while she completed her assigned reading for the day.  I loved getting to read together with my daughter. 

I also liked this bandage she whipped up for herself.  She had scraped her arm in a bike accident Sunday evening.  Greg had taken the kids to ride bikes at Two Rivers park while I ate with friends.

It was a beautiful day on Monday, so after speech therapy, the kids and I took a “seed walk” around the block.  Anna is obsessed with seeds, so I thought we would see how many different seeds we could find.

There were lots!

Then, Luke tried to whip up a pumpkin pie before tennis lessons, but the fresh eggs that we used were rotten!  The pie mix, of course, was ruined, but thankfully, Greg volunteered to make another pie while we were at tennis.

We came home from tennis to a yummy taco dinner by Greg and pumpkin pie and whipped cream for dessert.  It was delicious!

We have quite a drive to CC on Tuesday, and it finally occurred to me to dig out our old homeschool books that would correspond to the Timeline and History memory work:

That week, the kids had to memorize the geography of ancient Egypt and some history about Alexander the Great, so I marked the appropriate pages for the car ride.  The kids loved reading these wonderful picture books.  I’m so thankful for a reason to use them again.

Here is the table in my CC classroom where I lay out all the stuff we are doing for the day.  I love how full and varied it all looks.

The kids do a lot in three hours!

That day was special because we were writing messages on the tarps we were going to send to Greece.

What I love about CC is that they share my conviction that education should have a positive, moral purpose.  I educate my children to equip to do good in this world.  My bff, Courtney, who is the director of our community, does a GREAT job linking learning to real life opportunities to help.  The first week of CC, the kids learned about the Mediterranean Sea in Geography, and they have also learned several locations in the middle East, on top of drawing Africa every week.  Courtney seized the opportunity to link this head knowledge with real life events, and gave the kids a tangible way to intervene and to send their love.  This, to me, is what learning is all about.  Well, that, and developing a delight in and respect for this world that God created.

My five little CC Apprentices are adorable and so sweet.  There is one little boy, though, who simply can’t stop moving.  I’ve decided to tailor at least one aspect of our class each week to him, and this week’s aspect was our review game.  I called it, “Liam’s Lava Rescue,” and had the kids answer questions to earn ten seconds at a time to walk across the “lava” carpet on chairs to rescue Anna’s stuffed animals:

It was a hit!  Liam is the one sitting on the chair, and he did great!

On Wednesday, we did a cram-day of homeschool, since the kids were leaving on Thursday to spend a few days with my parents.  Both Luke and Anna were beyond excited to go to Macon, and Anna spent most of her “independent schoolwork” time with my phone by her playing, “Tomorrow,” while she belted out the song as well.

I was truly sad to be separated for my kids, even for a few days, and my heart did that thing where it tenses up with anxiety and won’t relax.  Thankfully, once they were safely delivered to my mom north of Atlanta, we had all eaten a lovely lunch at Cracker Barrel, and we were rolling in our separate directions, I was feeling much more at peace.  I really was looking forward to a few days to myself, and lots of time with Greg.  I got home shortly before he got off work.  When he came home, we went for a long hike out at Radnor Lake and then for dinner.  We thought about going to a movie, but there was nothing we wanted to see, so instead, we came home and watched Netflix.

Unfortunately, this is when the gloomy weather started, but Greg and I made the best of it. On Friday, he had to work, and I spent the day catching up on my digital scrapbook, Project Life.  I was waaaay behind…like, mid-March!  And like this blog, Project Life is a weekly record.  I have considered giving it up several times, and I’ve also heard the saying (mostly from non-blogger/scrapbookers) that you can either live life or record it.  I reject that dichotomy.  Yes, it is hard to keep a record of a busy life, but for me, it is so worth it.  I just need a “catch-up day” every now and then to keep that record current:).  I made great progress on Friday, interspersed with some running to make sure I didn’t spend the whole day on the couch. 

Once Greg got home, we went on a date to a cute little restaurant called “Bella Napoli.” 

Afterward, even though it was nasty and drizzling, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood where the restaurant was.  We ended up exploring Belmont’s campus, since neither of us had actually been on it.  Then, we stopped by The Well for some chai tea to warm up before heading home.

We had planned to hike in South Cumberland park on Saturday, but the rainy weather was a deterrent.  Instead, we settled for brunch at one of my favorite spots, The Red Bicycle, before hiking at the much closer Edwin Warner Park, weather permitting.  A few minutes before we left for breakfast, I got a wonderful text from our friends, Melissa and Will:

We had a great time with them, and afterward, the weather was nice enough to go on our hike:

We love hiking with our kids, but it was so nice to be able to hike for miles at our own pace, talking about whatever we liked without having to screen the conversation for little ears:).  Plus, the weather actually ended up being quite nice.  The photos don’t do it justice, but both of us were reminded of a Thomas Kincade painting as we walked through the woods. 

In the meantime, my kids were living it up at Gaga and Granddad’s.  They spent most of their rainy Friday crafting and building LEGO’s:

On Saturday, Anna went to her first “Ladies Day” at church.  I realized that I have quite the old-school-church-of-Christ streak in me when I found myself getting sentimental about Anna’s first Ladies Day!

She and her friend, Sierra, both went.  Mom said the girls really enjoyed themselves and did GREAT sitting and listening…for awhile.  Then, they begged to go play in the nursery, and Gaga acquiesced.  When there was a break, she poked her head in the nursery to tell Anna that Gaga’s singing group was about to perform, and would Anna like to hear her sing?  Anna piped cheerfully, “No thanks, Gaga!  Just come get me when it’s time for the tea!”  Gaga just chuckled to herself.  The little girls loved the tea…but then they wanted to go play again during the afternoon session.  At one point, Gaga tried to talk them into coming back in, but Anna just said, “No, thanks, but come get me when they draw for door prizes!”  I was cracking up at this story.  Believe me, it is every Ladies-Day-attending girls dream to just attend for the food and the prizes:).  Anna’s just lucky enough to have a Gaga who lets her get away with it!

That afternoon, all three kids went to some kind of cultural festival at Wesleyan College (Gaga was unclear on this point), and then Luke and Anna came home for some fishing.

It seems that their weather turned out to be beautiful…

…so much so that those crazies went swimming!

Mom said the water was freezing, but you know her and the lengths she goes for her grandkids.  She hopped right in!  They are definitely blessed to have grandparents who love them so much and who cherish every minute spent with them!

And Greg and I are lucky to occasionally get a few days of time to ourselves!  Still, we were so happy when Gaga brought our hooligans back to us on Sunday.  Thursday-Sunday is the perfect length of time.  I know the kids were not ready to come home, but I missed them too much to let them go much longer!

Weekly Wrap-up: September 13-19

Looking back on this week, I can’t tell if it was crazy or perfect.  Or both. 

Maybe both.

Regardless, it kicked off a new era of cousin adventures.  This was Jack, Tatum, and Hudson’s first full week in Nashville, and while their poor parents had to drive back to Indy, close on and pack up their house, and deal with the headaches of a delayed closing in Nashville, we got to see a lot of the cousins—and a fair amount of Chris and Jill, as well!  And while I hate that Chris and Jill experienced so much stress, I am so thankful for the memories that we made this week!

But first, on Sunday after church, they had a potluck at their new church to welcome them, so we decided to move forward with our plans to have our congregation over for chili after church.  It was my first “three crockpot” gathering:

Even though it was mid-September, we were worried that it would be too hot for chili.  Thankfully, the weather cooled down just in time for Sunday, and it was a perfect day both for chili and to kick of the NFL season.  Everything was so busy that afternoon that I didn’t take a single picture (!), but we had forty people attend, and it was a ton of fun.  I definitely want to do it again fairly soon.

That morning in church, I taught Sunday school:

On Monday morning, we enjoyed a beautiful, peaceful morning of homeschooling outside…

…before driving to Crockett Park to meet Jill and her kids.  They were going stir crazy in Gigi and Papa’s empty, new house, and we all enjoyed being outside in the beautiful weather.

Then it was on to speech therapy, back home for more school, and finally, out for tennis practice that evening.  During Anna’s lesson, Luke worked on schoolwork:

Afterward, we walked to Rotiers for dinner.

Tuesday was CC day, and my class used oil pastels for their abstract art project:

Anna did her presentation on one of her stuffed animals:

That evening, Chris and Jill came for dinner.  The weather was pleasant enough for the adults to eat on the back deck and talk while the kids played with train tracks inside:

On Wednesday morning, there was more schoolwork…

…followed by fun with the cousins in the afternoon.  Chris and Jill had headed back up to Indy early this morning, so Gigi and Papa kept the kids while we did school, and then I picked up the older two while Hudson napped.  We went to Lowe’s to pick up tarps for a collection our CC community was taking for refugees.  Jill had explained about refugees to Jack and Tatum, so they were all for the errand.

That night, we went to church for dinner and a prayer service.  Our row was packed with kids, including our friend, Norah:

For our service, we divided into groups based on our birthdays and went to various locations to pray.  I ended up in the kids’ Sunday school classroom with the group praying for the children’s ministry.  Anna and Tatum were also in my group, and they both took their turns praying.  Since Tatum couldn’t read the list of children’s names, she opted to pray for the refugees.  I texted Jill her prayer afterward, so I still have it:  “Dear God, thank you for the refugees…and help them to find their way to a safer place, and keep them safe, and help them to find a good backyard that is nice and cozy, and help them not to get watered by the rain.  Amen.”  I was dangerously close to bursting into tears while she prayed.  I even teared up just typing it now.  It was so sweet!

Afterward, the adults talked some about the children’s ministry, and the kids worked on leftover material from our Sunday school class:

Then it was time to go home, get everyone bathed, and put them to bed.  I actually put the four oldest to bed before Hudson, since he was sharing my bed.

We were a little worried how he would sleep and what would happen if he woke up in the middle of the night, so he slept with me while Greg took the couch.  I was so relieved that he did great.  He went right to sleep without complaint, and slept all through the night. 

The next morning, I dropped the three cousins back at Gigi and Papa’s before taking my two to piano lessons and then home for school.  That afternoon, we repeated Wednesday’s process, except that instead of going to Lowe’s we went to the dragon park:

Then it was home for more playing, dinner, and Harry Potter night.  The picture above is of Anna on a rescue mission for Tatum, as she had been “kidnapped” by the boy cousins.  After dinner, the kids got dressed for Harry Potter night:

We made butterbeer floats and watched the first movie.  Hudson even sat in there for a few minutes and heartily enjoyed himself:

On Friday morning, Gigi and Papa came to pick up Jack, Hudson, and Tatum, and I took the kids to a dentist appointment, to art class, and then home for some desperately needed catch-up time in school.  We had kept the week flexible for our cousins, and rightly so, but we did have a bit of extra work to do on Friday so that our school year could stay on track.  That evening after dinner, we took the kids to Sweet CeCe’s as an (ironic) reward for having no cavities at the dentist:

Then we headed out to Two Rivers Park to play and “get some steps in,” since Greg and I are wearing Fitbits these days.  Anna and Luke decided to climb a tree while we were there, and Anna had me pass up my phone so that she could get a picture of the sunset. 

One of my goals as a parent is to develop an appreciation of beauty in my children, and it’s honestly going pretty well with both of them.

Then we came home, and I started working on my sample art project for the next week at CC.  It involved watercolors, so of course, Luke and Anna wanted to join in.  Since it was close to bedtime, Greg started reading the next chapter of Harry Potter to us all while we painted at the kitchen table.  Luke has been a delight to read to this time around because he totally gets what is going on and reacts with passion.  This is his reaction when Ron returned after leaving Harry and Hermione:

He was so happy!  (Later, when we read of Dobby’s death, he turned quietly and cried into his pillow, trying not to draw attention to himself.  I love his heart so much.)

But back to this night, the kids wanted to show off their art:

Chris and Jill were supposed to close on their new house on Friday and move in over the weekend.  Unfortunately, their closing got put off, so they were stuck for the weekend in Gigi and Papa’s empty house.  In light of that setback, our family decided to cancel our plans to go to Rock Island on Saturday and instead, hang out with their family.  It was a great decision—we had a lot of fun!

We started off by taking a two mile hike around Radnor Lake:

We honestly hadn’t realized how long the hike was before we started, and it was a little tough for Hudson and Tatum.  But the day was beautiful, and for the most part, the cousins had a great time.

Afterward, we drove out to River Park for a picnic lunch and to let the kids play in the creek (I also wanted to show Jill the amazing Brentwood Library, which is right next door).  I didn’t get as many pictures because the kids mainly worked on the project they had started with Grace and Amelia, which was a little ways down the creek from where we adults sat.  It was also a lot busier that day.

Then, we all went home to wash up before coming back to spend the evening together, via Guys’ and Girls’ Nights.  Since the guys had Hudson, they kept it simple with a trip to Five Guys and then heading back to our house for video games and trains.  And though Greg only took one picture of the night, it was a great one:

By Greg’s report, they had a really fun night.

I think the girls got the better end of the deal, however, because we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner…

…and then to Brushfire Pottery to paint.  Painting pottery is one of Anna’s favorite things to do, and since she took Gigi to paint pottery when Gigi first moved to Nashville, we thought it would be a great thing to do with Tatum and Aunt Jill, also. 

We had such a fun time.  Tatum painted a light switch cover for Jack and a horse for herself, and Anna painted a cardinal ornament for Gaga and an owl candle holder for herself…although she ended up giving both of them to Gaga.  She has her Gaga’s heart for giving gifts!

So like I said at the beginning, I’m not sure if this week was crazy, or perfect, or both.  I know it was crazy—and certainly not perfect—for Chris and Jill, and it also required some rearranging of our family’s plans…but sometimes I think perfection comes not in the times when everything goes smoothly, but in those moments where you can find joy and capture happiness, even in the midst of the chaos and uncertainty.  I think we had so many joyful moments this week, and I am thankful for every one of them.