You Don't See That Every Day

Our summer time adventures have already begun, even though it is still technically spring. This is the one thing we don't procrastinate about! In May I took the two younger girls to a nearby park. Since everyone else was in school we had the place to ourselves. After a special treat of lunch from fast-food, we headed to the playground. We had to throw rocks in the river:  And there were new toys to play on:  And then the tunnel - it's always a hit  And then off to the slides and climbing structures.  Some of the favorite things about this park - they have the old time play toys still - a merry-go-round, and teeter-totters! The kids love to play on these. Our next adventure was this past week; we went to an Heirloom Rose Garden with my newly-retired sister. We spent quite a long time stopping and smelling the roses. There were so many varities and so many good smelling roses!  I could have spent longer there, but the girls were ready for l...

This month went by in a flash. The running season is over now, but wow, what a great one it was! My 7th grader finished her track season the first week of May, giving her more time to focus on her 4-H work, and school work.   The high schoolers kept going for another few weeks. The District Meet was quite exciting, ending the meet with lightning and thunder storm. The Boy ran the 4x400 pretty quickly carrying a metal baton in his hand as he ran the track, seeing lightning in the distance. The boys' team placed 2nd and were on to State. His 4x100 relay team also placed to go to the State Meet! The weather was extremely hot for our region that day, and the individual races for both The Boy, and his sister, did not go as well as we had hoped. The Boy ran the 800 but placed 4th (>). Our Girl Who Swims (and Runs) placed in the 1500 at 4th (?) and in the 800 at 6th (?) We have another runner in the family - the 10 year old signed up for the local annual 3k for children. All of th...

Midnight phone calls don't bring good news. Midnight phone calls set a parent's heart to racing. The call I got last night thankfully was not as bad as it could be. The damage to our car, or our son, could have been worse. A few more inches, and more than just a license plate could've been lost. But it wasn't worse. The phone call from our shaken-up son, the lost license plate (which has since been recovered), the intact car and boy, are all reminders to me of how seconds, inches, can change things - of how precious every moment is - and also reminds me of how important prayer is. It is to God's glory that all is fine here today. I may have aches and tiredness, but our family is all here and for that I am thankful. I am thankful for the unseen protection our son had, and I don't take it for granted.

Two more birthdays happened. Ok, actually a lot more, but in our little house, we had 2 more celebrations. April is one long party around here - so we left the decorations up all month. Even when the house appraiser came to take pictures. We now have 3 teenagers in the house. And there are days that we feel it. The grocery bill is inching its way up, despite my attempts to keep it low. I am really looking forward to summer and the fresh fruits and veggies from the farm! I have plans to can and freeze and dehydrate a lot of goodies this year! But back to the birthday girls. The Girl who Cooks is now 13. Hard to believe my little 9 pound baby is this old. She had school that day and track practice, but we were able to celebrate in the evening with all of us at home. And my baby - my last born - my snuggler - is now 6. Cliche I know, but wow how time flies! For her special day, she did not do any school work (easy to do in kindergarten!) We went out for lunch at Burger King - one of he...

April is a month of birthdays around here. The Mr. had his birthday this past week. It was a very busy day and evening - Wednesday's usually are pretty crazy around here. But we were able to have some time in the evening for cake and presents with my in-laws at our house.  This past weekend the Mr. and I were able to get away to the coast for a short time. It's the first time we have left the kids home alone overnight without a sitter, or 'chaperone'. Now that The Boy is 17 we figured he and his 15 year old sister could handle things for that short time. We did ship the two youngest off to my sister's house, so that I could relax and not worry, and so that the older kids wouldn't have to be responsible for a 5 yr old, and so that there would be less possibility of them fighting while we were gone. It all worked out great. I don't know why we haven't done more of this earlier! The coast was just gorgeous. Cool of course, it IS Oregon after all,...

What happened to our sunshine? You'd think that by now having lived in Northern Oregon for half of my life, I would be used to this rain. But since my childhood in southern Oregon is what formed me, I am missing the sun! We had a few weeks of beautiful weather, until now. Of course, I was sick the whole time the sun was out. This awful cold is just not going away. Twice now I have felt like I was getting better, so I went for a run - and then, bam, a day or two later it was back like unwanted house-guest. How am I suppose to get in shape for all those 5K's that I want to run this year?! Track season has started - my high-schoolers began long before Easter. And the track meets - so far we have been blessed to have sunny and fairly warm meets. But then my poor middle school girl - her track meet this week was an experience. One I told her that she can tell her kids some day. I still remember the track meet where I got to run in the snow and hail. And I never fail to tell my ...

Spring break. Sleeping in. No lesson plans. No grading. Yes, this homeschool mom takes a spring break when the schools do, especially since I have three in school now. But even before that we would take a break around the same time so that we could play with friends; although we would usually wait until the week after to go anywhere! The first day of break was a Friday and I was the one who was gone all day while the kids stayed home! I had errands/shopping to do all morning and then after lunch I headed to Corvallis. Because that is where The Basketball Games were being held. We were able to get tickets to the first and second games of the NCAA women's basketball championships! And our OSU women's team won both games! They were exciting games and fun times with my Mr and later with my girl who swims (but also enjoys basketball) The rest of the week was a much needed rest. I took the girls shopping one day. We rarely have time to go when they are in school, and after-schoo...