Easter 2014

 We were blessed with an incredibly beautiful Easter Day.  We went to the early service at church and were then privileged to see one of Matthew's best little friends be baptized at the second service.  It was an incredible morning....14 seconds after getting out of the car Willie and I look over to see these crazy children relieving themselves beneath our Japanese Maple.....boys will be boys right?

Next up was our annual Easter photo shoot.  These boys are getting so big but we so proud to be wearing ties like Papa!!

Later in the afternoon a few friends joined us for Easter dinner and a little egg hunting.  

The "big" kids hid the eggs for the little kids.  They did a GREAT job.

At the end of the evening we challenged each family to build an egg protector out of popsicle sticks and rubber bands, I have never seen all of these kids sit so well...and are they not adorable???

And the first drop!

The mulch pile served as an excellent egg hiding area, who knew?

 Little egg hunting buddies

 

 That little basket I made him when he was little is getting a bit small.

CANDY!!!

 

I think this song is by far my most favorite "easter" song.  It humbles me every time I hear it!

Chicken Tune Up

So, our little chickens are under the false impression that my toenails, when painted, are appetizing treats.  I do NOT agree with them, after being the object of their enthusiasm a few times I am a little apprehensive to say the least.

Yesterday we were outside gardening and they were following us around.  It sounded like this:

Me: "Noodle, if you peck my toes you are going to get a tune-up."
(We use the term tune-up when referring to spankings.)
Matthew:  "Mama, how do you tune-up a chicken?"

No words, simply no words.

Paying the President

So, tonight I was working on our tax file, you know I procrastinate until the night before our appointment even though every year I swear I will have my spreadsheets populated monthly, receipts collated according to property, etc, etc, etc.  So, in walks Matthew wanting to know what I am doing.  I explain that I am getting all of our personal and business tax information together.  He wants to know why, so I explain that we pay taxes to the government on any money we make.  What are taxes for he asks.  I explain that taxes pay for A LOT of things like the soldiers that keep us safe.  He seemed satisfied and walked away.

A few minutes later he returned and asked,  "Mama, how much money do you have to pay the president?"  I lost him when I attempted to explain that for every dollar we earn we have to pay at least 25 cents in taxes.

2013 = LESSONS

When I reflect on 2013, the word that keeps coming up over and over again is LESSONS.  I/we learned a lot of lessons last year.

LESSON #1:
I pride myself on being a learner, I am always reading/researching something.  I enjoy teaching myself and others how to do new things so my biggest LESSON this year should not have come as a shock to me, but it totally did.  After much prayer, thought, reading, research we took the leap and decided to homeschool Matthew for kindergarten.  We started in mid-July and it took a few weeks to get traction but we have established a groove and are moving through our curriculum at a steady pace.  I never understood why people homeschooled until I was standing at the precipice of Kindergarten and realizing that the ramifications of my decision were  

So, if you are not friends with any "weird homeschoolers", congratulations, now you are!  To be honest, I think I might have been considered weird WAY BEFORE this designation.

LESSON #2:
Sometimes you need to just DO IT already.  We have talked and read, talked and read about getting chickens and one day, my very spur of the moment husband, while at the feed store no less said hey, let's get chickens.  I looked at him, with my "are you nuts" eyes and he said "come on, we will never be totally ready, just like having kids".  Well, we came home that day with two adorable little furballs that took up residence in my bathtub for a few months.  (Notice the theme.....WEIRD seems to be our modus operandi).  I digress, so we went from a family of 4 humans, 2 canine and 1 feline, to chicken people overnight and yes, we named them CHICKEN and NOODLE.  I will admit, while there was a learning curve we have thoroughly enjoyed the feathered ones.  Willie built them a really cute A-frame coop from 80% recycled material.  I am still amused by their personalities and how they, just like all the other animals, want to be right with us when we are outdoors.  We did lose a bird to a predator right before Thanksgiving and replaced her with three younger hens.  I have a chicken post in the works right now so stay tuned.

LESSON #3:
Sometimes, procrastination pays off, sometimes.  When we bought our current home 5 years ago, we knew the HVAC system needed to be replaced in a bad way.  We just couldn't ever pull the trigger and cough up the funds to replace it while it was working, I use the term working VERY lightly.  In August it finally went kaput, totally kaput.  As it just so happens, my in laws were scheduled to head here a few weeks later, and just happened to be camping 30 minutes or so away from the HVAC company that employed me for 10 years in Texas.  So, because we do NOTHING normal, we imported our new bigger, badder, WAY more efficient HVAC system from Texas.  We spent 3ish weeks without air conditioning and it was well....interesting.  Sitting here today, a few months later with a manageable electric bill and no space heaters chugging out heat all winter I am thankful we had the funds, thankful we had the connections, thankful we had family willing to move a trailer load of equipment and thankful for CONDITIONED AIR!

We hope your year was full of blessings and that you recognize all those lessons as the blessings that they are.

THAT MOM

IT IS OFFICIAL....

I am becoming that mom, you know the one, the weird homeschooling one.  Come on, you all know that one person who you all think is CRAAAZZZZY that homeschools her kids.  Not that normal has ever been my MO, but once again I am going against the grain.

You want to know what I find the most funny?  The girl who is forever trying to be accepted by others, have the approval of people I care about could actually CARE LESS what everyone else thinks.  It is nice to have this conviction that you are doing the RIGHT thing for YOUR family.

There are 8 million reason why I am sitting where I am sitting today....but the biggest one is the most simple.  No matter what, hands down, the best method of teaching is one on one personalized tutoring and really, who cares more about the education of my sons than their mother?

I know, I know what about socialization?  Really, our life is not going to change that much, he just won't be forced to spend most of his waking hours with a very small and not very diverse group of people his age.  

Bliss x 15

Today we celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss.....hah!

So anyone who has been married more than a week or two knows marriage is not about bliss.

It is completely and totally about choosing to DO LIFE with the strange-cute-frustrating-charming-annoying-loving-silly-relentless-weird person that was made for you.  It is about leaning on each others strengths while forgiving each other for their weaknesses.  It is recognizing that the goal of marriage is to HONOR GOD with this relationship that he blessed us with.

In every marriage more than a week old, 

there are grounds for divorce. 

The trick is to find, 

and continue to find, 

grounds for marriage. 

 ~Robert Anderson 

This union we are in is not quite perfect but is very real.  Real can be so beautiful and so terribly not, regardless, we have learned to do real and I hope to be doing real with this guy until death do us part.

$20 Motorcycle

Kimber:  Mama, how many do I have to be to ride a motorcycle?

Me: 20!

Matthew: 20 dollars?

In the back seat talking amongst themselves, if we save our "monies" together we can get one faster.

Me:  20 years old....not $20!!!!!

Matthew:  But mama, 20 is SO OLD.