Growing up

This girl of mine, she's only 12 ("and a half"). But sometimes I feel like she is light years ahead.

a little 'broom' guitar

And some days not so much.

Every time we go to the farm no, she asks to drive Grandpa's tractor. One of these days, he's going to let her. This week while we were there, she asked to drive ... the pickup. I just shook my head.
But then, I surprised her. On the way out the long (straight) driveway, I stopped the pickup, climbed out and shooshed her over into the driver's seat. Yeah, she was beaming by then. We went over the foot pedals and what they did. And she drove. About 500 feet or so. There was minor whiplash when she stopped. But not enough to send me to a doctor.

Today she took another big step. I was probably more nervous and worried than she was - or appeared to be. She went off on her very first weekend-long church retreat. She was excited to go. And here's the thing - she didn't think any of her buddies were going to be there. Oh, there were people going that she knows, but not any that she really hangs out with. I was quite excited to see one of her best friends there when we went to drop her off. I almost cried tears of relief. It's hard for this momma to let her chicks out of the coop.

In other news, little sister is getting eyeglasses. We were doing school earlier this week and the 7 year old said, I can't see the board. We have a whiteboard on the dining room wall. She was at the table and couldn't see. It was about 8 feet away, maybe. So she went in for an exam today, and the doc confirmed my suspicions. Yes, she needs glasses. So we'll go pick some out next week. I was around her age when I got my glasses.

And finally. I've been cleaning out a closet today. It's all part of the scheme to get my spare room organized, to get books put away and stuff removed. I finally found the 2 last boxes of books that we had packed up years ago when we thought we were moving. I felt like I had hit the jackpot! I didn't have any idea they were in there! I also came across some memorabilia of my childhood and school years. There were a few things in there from our wedding days too; of special interest was a letter my niece wrote to me, probably about 16 years go. She is now a near-graduation college student, so it was fun to read and remind her of it. An excerpt: "I'm glad I'm like you and I hope I will always be like you and maybe when I grow up I can get married to somebody as nice as G."  So sweet ! I know my own girls look up to their older cousins now.

Joke of the week

Here's one my girl got out of her schoolbook.
It made me laugh!

What do you call a scared deep sea diver?



Um, what?



Tuna.



Tuna!?!?



Yep - Chicken of the sea!


hahahahahahahaha

Mom's weekend

We spent Saturday farmin'
This is what the younger ones farmin' looks like:

I'm told it was a volcano.

My sisters and I spent the time weeding the garden.

The rows seem to stretch on forever, so the good advice was to not look up ahead very far. Kind of like the advice when you are on a bridge and they say don't look down. Sort of like that.

The next day was much more relaxed. Thankfully. Mother's Day isn't a huge deal for our family. In the past years the kids and husband make sure I don't have to cook. Sometimes we go to the beach. This time around we stayed local; took a nice long nap (It's official, I'm a grown-up, I enjoy naps.)

In the evening 3 of my girls were in their final choir performance/play. The oldest girl had one of the lead parts. My 2nd girl had a role, a silent role, but it was hilarious. And the third got to sing a line solo, and then sang with the choir.

These girls make me laugh. And they make me so proud! I was blessed to see and hear my children singing praise songs to God, shouting them loudly alongside their friends.

In My Corner

Has it really been 7 days since I last posted?? This week has flown by.
We spent a day out at the farm, weeding garbanzo beans working on our muscles. Homeschool PE. It's awesome. It involved a trip to a certain burger restaurant, which was a good motivator for some of my minions.
We finished up a couple of our school books. It looks like we might actually be on track to finish school around the same time that The Boy does in June. Miracles do happen.
We went to The Boy's last regular season track meet. It was the first meet where we didn't freeze our toes, or get soaked in the rain. And he ran really well, making some PRs in his races (the 800 meter and the long relay). There is a chance that his relay team qualified for a meet of champions ... more info pending.
We made a trip to the library and now whenever I look around I see a girl with her nose in a book. Yes reading is a wonderful thing, but there are times when they should be doing something else and the book gets in the way. Takes me back to my childhood.
Last night on our way home from the meet I saw one of those I-WISH-I had-my-camera things. A man riding a motorcycle, and on the back of it, a little dog, like a chihuahua/poodle was riding in a specialized box/seat. On the back of the motorcycle. And, what really got me - the dog had on goggles. It was hilarious. If only I had a phone that could actually take real pictures.....
It's National Clean Your Room Day. (Seriously, whoever thought of this is a genius.) So we will be cleaning every room in the house. That's MY plan anyway. We'll see how far we get ... with books and all being part of the cleaning ....

Spit and Grit

My husband would be so proud of the little ladies we're raising

I took them out to the farm today; on one of the car rides I hear one girl say to her sister, "I'll spit out the window and see if it hits your hand."

The other sister replied, "OK"

and I said, "Gross!"

Then I heard laughter throughout the pickup. 

We helped weed a few rows of garbanzo beans today. The kids have a plot that they are suppose to tend for the summer. They'll reap the benefits if they see it through to the end. My dad sells the plants and beans to someone, and so there might be some school money coming in at the end of the season. That's the plan anyway.

Such a gorgeous sunny day! We also helped Grandpa plant string beans.

The gunslinger was quite excited to get a chance to go out and shoot her birthday gift. This year she got a pink (yes! Pink!) "gee-yuu-enn."  It's only bee-bees of course; our family rule is you have to be 10 to get one of those. Although she was kind enough to let her younger sister have a try too.

 

 And I'll leave you with an awesome question from my 3 year old.
 In the car (again,) she asks, "Mom, why do you have polka dots on your elbow?"
Silence,
and then it dawned on me... "Oh, those are just moles on my skin."

Dreams

So how do you handle stress?
Some people I know wake up at 3 am and don't go back to sleep.
Some people I know get cranky with everyone else.
I internalize, and then I have these dreams. They are not fun dreams either.
I used to dream I was driving a car,
from the backseat,
in reverse.
Waking up from those I would realize I was stressed about something.
Thankfully I haven't had that dream in a long, long time. But I guess it has taken a different shape, because I have had similar dreams in the past couple of years like this one:
Last night I dreamed my husband and I were in college, but weren't married. And here we had all these kids. And then he tells me he's leaving, and I'm on my own.
And I don't handle that well. (Remember it's only a dream)
And then I tell him he can't go because we are married.
And then, this is the crazy part this time around, I actually woke up, in a bit of a haze you know, when I was still probably half asleep, and I had to ask myself, We are married right?
And I knew I was, and it was all not-for-real. But what an awful feeling I was left with, with the remnant of that dream still floating around.
I'll figure out eventually what stress led up to this.

4 Birthdays and a Wedding

So among all the birthdays we have in April, we now have another anniversary to celebrate

My nephew married a very sweet girl on Saturday, and we went to the wedding.

The church was way out in the country, so it was a beautiful drive (once we got out of the city!) on a beautiful day. We got to see relatives we haven't seen in awhile, and eat some terrific food, and cake. Oh my! the Cake! This girl knows cake! Not just one wedding cake - oh, there were choices! And so yummy.

But really this isn't just about the cake. 

The wedding was beautiful, not just because it was family, but I liked the music - how could you not like Princess Bride?! And the flowers were gorgeous, and the bride was stunning. And the groom was awesome (how many other overused terrific adjectives can I use?!)

We also had a lot of fun with the twist on the popular 'photo booth' that many wedding receptions use these days. They had a board with different relatives wedding photos on them. The photo in between my husband and my girl is my parents wedding picture. 

And here they are 58 1/2 years later.

And of course we needed ours taken again.

Ooh! Cake! (Have I mentioned cake enough times already?)

Whoever did the figurines got them perfectly. They are better than a picture.

I love it when my husband and son get all spiffed up. The Boy was wearing a tie earlier, but ditched at the first possible moment. I wish he believed us when we say it makes him look really sharp.

And here's part of the clean-up crew.

My niece(s) can always make the mundane seem fun.