Life At The Circus

For as long as I can remember, I have loved my birthday.  Seriously, I count down the days starting at least 6 weeks out.   Now, that I am a mom, I find I love their birthdays pretty much as much as I love my own.  And I try my best to make their day as special as I can.  This week my son turned 11.  I already wrote about his party earlier, but I just can’t stop reflecting on it.  11 feels big to me.  I know 10 years from now when he’s 21 and having his first beer  with us on the back patio, I’ll look back at today and say, “11, gosh he was just a baby then.” But, the mere fact he is only 10 years away from drinking a beer, is an indication of just how old he is.  Sheesh! I remember holding him that first night in the hospital.  My heart a big muddle of mush.  He slept all evening as we had proudly showed him off to all our friends and family, and then when we were ready to sleep ourselves, he was wide awake.  I rememb...

Today we celebrated my oldest son’s 11th birthday.  How is it that I have been a mom for 11 years now?  I have no idea…. but today isn’t about me.  It is all about him.   He wanted a nerf gun party.  I was so thankful for picture perfect weather on party day.  It was a ton of fun to watch them all racing around the yard shooting each other.      They played several games including target practice, hunger games, duals, kill the captain and capture the flag.  Scott always does such a great job of running the games at birthday parties.  He is so much fun and I love watching him run the parties.  My role is one of planning the theme, gathering the supplies prepping the food.  Then I step back and watch him actually run the show.  And he does it so well.  He is truly in his element on party days.   I love the look on his face when the birthday boy ran triumphantly back with ...

The kids and I spend a good amount of time in the van.  And sometime last year I felt like maybe I was gonna pull my hair out as we fought over everything from whose turn it was to ride in the middle row, to whether or not we wanted the air blowing from the vents or not.  Someone would inevitably kick someones seat, someone else would break out into an annoying song and before long ALL of us were grumbling and complaining. Then one day in the church library I stumbled across a cd series called Johnathan Park .  It was about a boy whose dad was an archeologist and it explained the science behind Creation.  I instantly thought of my niece who was obsessed with all things dinosaurs and thought we could listen to it to see if it was any good. The kids were hooked.  The ended up listening to all 9 cd sets.  It got a little crazy in the adventures the family went on (a trip to outer space, really?).  But it did stem many wonderful conversations. ...

It was 3 years ago this month that we accidentally stumbled across our house.  And we fell in love with it. There are many things I appreciate about our house, but it was the backyard that captured my heart.  And truthfully still holds my heart 3 years later.   When Scott looks back there, he often is just overwhelmed with the work that needs to be done…. but I guess since those chores don’t typically fall on my plate, I honestly never see them.  Instead I see this…. I had been thinking of going in to DC yesterday to see the Cherry Blossoms…our schedule was open, the weather was gorgeous and the blooms were at their peak.  But, then I just felt like resting… like going nowhere, doing nothing and just being home.  The kids were out back pretty much from when we got home from church until it was time for baths and bed. It wasn’t a particularly notable day… the boys rode bikes and skateboards, the girls made up a routine on the trampoline and then...

I can’t believe I am more than half way through my 6th year of homeschooling.  Seriously, how did that happen?  I feel like I am learning so, so much…. and I also feel like this is the first year where I have felt truly comfortable in my skin.  Mind you, that is a FAR FAR FAR cry from feeling like I have it together or have it down.  That I do not.  But, I feel like I am now more comfortable and confident and am thus willing to think outside the box.  I taught for 3 and a half years before becoming a stay at home mom.  And one thing that I have seen in the traditional classroom as well as the homeschool classroom, is that the third quarter is, for me at least, one of the hardest.  I am thankful that we have one quarter left in our school year.  The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is starting to peek through!!!!!  This year I had a strong desire to spend a great deal of time prior to Easter preparing my heart, my mind and tho...