Time with Mr. G

Last weekend, was the first time ever that all 3 of our children were away all at the same time.  It was truly surreal around our house.   Friday evening when I returned home from dropping the kids off at camp, (I know I'm weird here...) I truly wrestled with cleaning my brains out or resting.  I had briefly thought of calling my husband and talking with him for a moment to see what he needed me to do before making my decision, but honestly...(sigh)  I knew he'd tell me to rest.  Later, I found out I was right!  

While I waited for my beloved to get home from work I snacked on pistachios and watched CSI: NY.  Shortly before he arrived the Netflix went out.  I tried fixing it, but it just wouldn't do anything.  I got online to all the different websites the thing told me to, but it wouldn't work.  Mr. G decided to surf the other Wii channels and we found out we could download YouTube on to our Wii console.  The rest of the evening we watched Mark Lowry clips.  What fun we had laughing together!  And boy can that Mark Lowry S.I.N.G!!!

The next morning was busy writing bills, balancing the checkbook, then heading out to a Sunday School meeting.  After that we decided to head north and make some stops on the way to pick up the kids.  We stopped for lunch at a convenience store for something quick on the road.  Strangely enough they had just what we wanted--salad and sandwich.  LOL  We continued up the road until we came to the turn off for Kinzua Bridge.  Hubby decided to take the turn and follow the signs.  I figured he was going to the auction by the way he was going, but I sat quietly to figure out where he was headed.  When we passed by the auction I figured he'd seen something else.

When we arrived at the packed parking lot, he noticed a plane and decided to take a bunch of pictures because it looked neat with the wispy clouds in the background.

We were both amazed at the lack of leaves through this area too.  Further up the road there were leaves on the trees still, but not through the Kinzua Bridge area.  It makes one wonder if the weather patterns are different through this area. 

The bridge was destroyed by a tornado some years back and they refurbished it only out to a point so people can walk out on it and not only enjoy the view, but marvel at God's creation and the fierce force of nature that took down the MASSIVE steel, bending the supports over like play dough in a child's hands.

I didn't see the steel beams until we arrived at the end, but I marveled at the devastation that took place that is still apparent years later.  This tornado didn't last long by the looks of the land, but the wind sheer could be seen even through the trees at the top of the hill where we'd walked from.

They'd kept the original part of the bridge in tact, but built a walk way around it.  This picture is looking through the rails to the ravine below.

We were not sure if this was a foot bridge or a log that someone had placed over the stream.  Mr. G took a picture to blow it up and see if it was a bridge or a log.  LOL

A truly humbling, terrifying sight for me that took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes.

It left me awestruck with a humbling reverence for my God.  I didn't see this until we made it to the end of the foot bridge.  Even though I saw the tornado's path, I still didn't gain a full understanding of the true magnitude of the tornado until seeing this. 

Awestruck...

Walking back, the plane passed by a few more times.

We stopped at a store that was going out of business to find that their prices were not indicative of a place that wanted to get rid of their merchandise.  We also stopped at a thrift store and found a few items of clothing for the children.

We arrived at our friends' house to visit and help make dinner because we knew that everyone would be famished when they came back from camp.  What a lovely and wonderful time we had of fellowship and laughter.  I won't post the last picture my husband took of our friends together.  Lisa would kill me!  LOL

Over all our time together was bitter sweet...more sweet than bitter though.  It simply wasn't long enough.  I'm looking forward to the time when the kids will be able to go to camp again and my Mr. G and I can have more time alone together. For some reason we don't have that very much, but hopefully we'll be able to fix that soon.

God Bless,

When to Rest

Years ago a wise friend counseled me to guard my time.  Make sure there is time for family, meal times and times of worshiping together.  I've tried to consistently be aware of those time stealers and guarded how much the children were involved in.

Times are changing.

Our kids are getting older and beginning to test their wings.  Our oldest son owns his own car now.  He bought it with his own money, but my Mr. G wants him to have more behind-the-wheel time in his car in hazardous driving conditions before allowing him to take his behind-the-wheel driving test.  He could pass it right now, but my husband would prefer to have the peace of mind in knowing that he knows what to do if he ever needed to drive in weather.  

Once he gets his driver's license he will be "cut loose"--in a manner of speaking--to head out and find a job.  He is a senior in high school this year, but he needs to have a job to pay for his vehicle expenses.  With his up and coming job, time together as a family is at a premium at this point.  He won't be able to go with us on many more vacations or family outings.  It will be time for him to spread his wings and fly.  In the mean time, we cherish every moment of time we have together as a family.  Once he spreads his wings, our family dynamic will change.  It's both exciting to see, but also bittersweet for this Momma's heart.  

Time is so very elusive.  Sometimes it runs by fast and other times so very slowly.  Time to make sure everything gets accomplished that is needful is right where I am right now.  The schedule for our comings and goings is getting busier, so time spent together as a family will have to be rethought and moments in the vehicle capitalized on as best as possible.  Discussions need to be made the best of with purposeful meaning or with erupting silliness.  The times together in this way need to be planned out whether it is to listen to scripture, Christian radio, sermons, or a young person's choice of venue.  Purposeful discussions need to be planned out in advance with topics such as is needful whether political in nature, therapeutic or character development.  

With all of this coming and going with activity, it begs to question "When does someone rest?"  In my humble opinion, rest is not only wanted, but desperately necessary.  In six days the Lord worked to create the entire earth and universe, filling it with every kind of creature as well as man and woman.  On the 7th day, He rested.  My Mr. G and I have come to the conclusion that "our" 7th day is the day we'll rest.  Since his schedule is not really set in stone as of yet, we follow what it is for that given week.  While I try to rest for half of my Sundays while he is at work, I also try to rest with him on his 7th day.  Yes, I know the Lord rested on the 7th day.  Yes, I know He didn't break his resting up in to two half days.  However, the Lord knows my heart and I'll let Him be the guide for me of when to rest.  In a couple of weeks things will change again, then my rest days will change.  For now, though, I rest on half days.  

My young folks rest their minds from school on Sundays.  They work hard on everything every day, so they need a brain break.  They've decided to join Civil Air Patrol and with all the work involved with that program, their work load (and subsequently mine) will increase depending on their rate of progression in ranks through the program.  They need brain breaks on Sundays.  It's a good thing. 

God Bless,

Finished Bolero

In the Spring I decided to make a lovely Victorian Bolero for my daughter.  Forgive me, but I've lost the link and cannot find it.  I promise that when I do find it, I will post it!

This is my first piece of "clothing" that I've ever knitted and finished.  I'd started a grand task of making her a sweater about 5 years ago, but it didn't pan out.  So here I am, making her something cute that I know she'll like.  =0)

This is it with some tails that need to be woven in.  I had lost my needle, so I waited until I could find it before finishing.  =0)

Close up.  For those of you who knit, yes, you're seeing correctly.  I had to undo things half way up and the loops twisted making that lovely line straight across in the middle.  To this day I still don't know how to undo  it when that happens! 

The other side.

All of this was made my hand, sewn together with a needle--no sewing machine.  The yarn would have been sucked up by the feed dogs on my sewing machine and I'd be sitting there in tears.  I figured I'd better take the safe route and sew it all together by hand.  

And she loves it!

What's Up?

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I've blogged!  I've certainly been busy and just plain filling my time with lots of lovely things to do.

We've had a couple birthdays--my sweet daughter's and mine.

She's decided she likes her hair red, so we dyed her hair last Sunday.

She loves it! :)

As for me, I've been reading and reading and reading when I get a free moment.  I finished Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership book, I'm working on two more books for Sunday School and Wednesday night Bible Study, then in my free time, I'm re-reading Dating vs Courtship.  I am super excitedly waiting to be able to buy Trim Healthy Mama because I've heard so many good reviews/reports about it.  

I continue to look at curriculum and make note of things that I need to purchase and/or change about a few things in our home schooling.  That's one of the things I love about home schooling is the flexibility to stop where you are, switch gears, and go another direction.  Well, we're there now with our oldest son.  We need to do some rethinking, nothing major, but a different direction nonetheless.

We began our year at our home school group, called "Co-op".  For those of you who are not familiar with it, we meet twice a month.  Every parent volunteers to either teach or help in the variety of classes offered each year.  Every parent is placed on a "team" to help with the various extra duties that need to be tended to--like setting up and tearing down after our group has been at the church we meet at, communications team (newsletter--which I write...hence much of the reason I haven't blogged in a while), support team (much like nurturing the group through prayer and sending cards to those who need it, among other things), events team (field trips and performance night), academic team (standardized testing, academic fair and more), and I know there is more, but I can't remember.  Anyway...I get to teach the 8th grade Physical Science Lab which is based on the Apologia Physical Science curriculum.  I also get the privilege to help in the Kindergarten/First Grade Literature class.  I absolutely adore this age, so this is right up my alley!  Over all, with all the activity, by the end of the day I'm exhausted.  The kids on the other hand are needing some quiet time to process their day.  They're not exhausted like Mom, but they need some "down time" nonetheless.  This last Monday Mr. G had off work and had an absolutely TO DIE FOR scent wafting out to the driveway when we came home!  He made us a wonderful delectable pork roast with all the trimmings for dinner while we were gone.  He's definitely a keeper!

I have also finished the pieces to a Bolero I've been working on for my daughter.  I have to wash and block them, then sew them together and knit the edge ruffle.  I probably won't get to it until Monday since Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle A are coming for a couple of days over the weekend.  I'm not sure how long they will be here, but I'm hoping they'll be able to stay for a bit.  

I guess that's about it for now.  I'll leave you with this lovely picture of my daughter's beautiful flowers she grew from seed.  

I won't be canning any more for this season.  The deer decimated our garden, so my youngest decided to take the sickle to it.  Here are the culprits~

They brought all of their friends one evening!  We had 7 of them in the back yard!

Guess who is having lofty thoughts of building a nice fence next Spring?

Beginning our 12th Year of Home School

The beginning of our school year is in full swing.  We started our book work on Monday August the 5th with very light school and very low expectations.  I gave them only 2 days worth of school, but months ago we were planning to go camping and we've had to wait to see what new schedule my husband was getting since his promotion.  I just kept the original plan of 2 days of school in place and had them work at their own paces to get their feet whet for school this year.  Now that we have 2 full weeks of school under our belts, we're well on our way.

I've counted days for school since July 1st, however.  We've done tons of things that are education related like field trips, work, drama, VBS, consumer math, hospitality, among a host of other things.  Our "book work" began in August.  How can I "get away" with starting to count days on July 1st?  We live a lifestyle of learning every day.  Each thing we do establishes a learning opportunity.  Even though every day can be different, it is still bringing us learning experiences.

I have a Senior, a Sophomore and an 8th grader this year.  I have very little to help them with daily because they're independent learners now.  I check their work to see what they're having problems with, explain and teach when necessary with the older 2.  With my youngest I have a bit more to do, but it is decreasing with each passing year.

As much as I enjoy not having as much teaching time, it leaves me with time to sit on the front porch with my hubby talking, enjoying our coffee and doing our Bible study together.  It is such a blessed time for me to spend time with my husband studying the Bible together.

I didn't take "first day of school" pictures at all.  I use to do that, but it has fallen by the wayside this year.  I think it is just because our first day of school came and went without fanfare.  However, I do have a picture that I took with my phone of the 3 children together not too far from July 1st, at a wedding at the end of June.  =0)

From left to right:  JL(14), HJ(15), & Daniel(18)

My husband tells me that once our children turn 18, we can address them online by their first names.  Daniel just turned 18 on August 19th.  We took pictures when we woke him up, but I don't think he was ready to wake up.  LOL 

Needless to say, he and Mr. G continue to look for just the right car for him.  Of course it has to pass Mr. G's expectations.  Once he gets a car, he'll take his behind the wheel exam a second time.  He took it with our Suburban and when he parallel parked, the front driver's side corner was sticking our 6" too far and forgot to turn his blinker on once, so the tester failed him. :0(   Now, we wait until Daddy can find a car for him. =0)

This school year began with a rotating schedule for my husband.  Now that he's been promoted, he has regular predictable days off each week.  I've adjusted our school schedule to accommodate Daddy's days off so each of us can rest, have fun, and work together on a variety of things.  Since this is Daddy's 2nd week in his new position, it has left my kids a little out of sorts.  While we usually take Sundays off, rarely have we taken 2 days off in a row on a regular basis.  They were looking around and at times, wandering around wondering what they could do with themselves.  LOL

As time moves along here in the next week, we'll probably increase the amount of canning that we're doing with the tomatoes ripening.  We count canning time as school too.  I just remove their computer school work from the day so it doesn't "pile up" on them.  Young folks learning how to can the produce from the garden is important, so we integrate that in to our days in the late summer.

A life style of learning is something that has allowed us to not be encumbered by limiting our learning to just school times, but has expanded our learning to all parts of our lives.  Just this morning I left the weather loop on the computer for the kids to see when they came past.  Daniel found a map of water temperatures when upon closer inspection, they discovered where water currents are due to those currents being a different color.  

Life is full of learning experiences.  It encompasses each of our daily lives.  What a wonderful blessing, if we recognize those potential learning opportunities and embrace them with thankfulness.

Busy Summer

Lately I haven't come close to completing a post (shame on me!) with everything going on.  Lots of our friends are returning to public and private school next Monday, so we needed to squeeze one last trip to see friends.  We needed to hug them and visit and let the kids play.

While we were at our friends' house, my youngest was riding his bike carrying his "Rip Stick" to the skate park to ride it.  When he tried to ride his bike with Rip Stick in hand, through the portal/gate/doorway, his foot hit the pole and some sort of wire went through the top of his foot.  We quickly got him cleaned & bandaged up and headed home.  We didn't go to a local hospital because none of the ones in the area knew his shot history and my husband was not comfortable taking him anywhere else other than our family Dr.  I forgot when his last tetanus shot was and I knew our Dr's office would know, so it's all fine and well.

We called Friday morning, got him in early, tetanus shot administered, x-rays taken, cheeseburger ordered and antibiotics taken.  We were home by about 12:30PM.  Everything was taken care of, he needed to keep it up and iced off-and-on throughout the day, so they watched cop shows for the rest of the day.  The older two children had completed chores and school work while I was gone in the morning, so I didn't mind.

I tried napping as well, but just couldn't bring myself to do so.  I decided my time would be better served by doing some planning for our vacation next year.  I decided which route to take based on my husband's preferences, my own needs to get up and walk around a bit, make sure we're at our destination at a reasonable hour, and so that we're not traveling 13 hours a day.  Those long days of travel are torturous on my knees and ankles.  They swell up as big as balloons and it isn't good for me.  As much as my husband doesn't like the shorter traveling times, he'd just like to get there and get home, he's quickly realizing that we're getting older and need to make concessions for our own personal physiological needs.  Yes, the vacation is going to be longer than our trips to Florida, but it's full of rest, relaxation, visiting, hugging family, seeing sights, reading, snoozing, walking and making lots of food over a campfire!  :)   Besides, with all the family and friends within a reasonable drive for us, it makes sense to utilize the distance to our advantage. We need to stop regardless, so we have a wonderful plus of being able to see family and friends along the way.

All of these plans are causing me to ache to see my family again.  Many of the family we're planning to visit I haven't seen since before my parents divorced in 1983.  Thirty years is a very long time!  I've reconnected with family on Facebook, which has been a complete blessing to me.  I get to see how they've changed, how their kids, grand kids and great grand kids have come along.  It is simply amazing to me how God has drawn all of us back together.  It blesses me so much.  I'm excited to see each one, hug them, catch up and pray for them.

If there is nothing else that is earth shattering that I do in my life, I count it a privilege and a blessing to my soul to be able to hug a loved one and pray with them.  There are lots of cousins, aunts and uncles on both sides of my parents' families, so there's lots of hugs to give and lots of prayers to be shared.  I want my husband and my children to meet all these wonderful people who are a part of our family history.  My children have asked me about my side of our family and they fill the dry erase board with names connected to Grandma and Grandpa.  Now they want to put faces to names and make connections with family.  I don't blame them.  Family is important.  We've lived virtually alone without family around us almost all of our 23 years of marriage, so it's time to see family and invite them to come see us too.    

With that, I'll leave you today with a picture I took of my black-eyed susans this morning.

A "double" or is it a "triple" eyed Susan?  

God is good, all the time!

Blessings,

Regina

The "G" Family Birthday Bash

After the cleaning and preparing food were done, the kids and I spent time out in the back yard filling around 300 balloons for the sling shot and water balloon fight.

The two volunteers needed  to hold the sling shot while all the little ones had a chance to sling a water balloon.  What fun!

If you can't tell, I absolutely love watching the kids.  

They quickly figured out that in order for the balloon to stay in the sling, they had to kneel down on the ground.

Fun!

Needing big brother's help.

She didn't need help!

Neither did he! 

Priceless!

I love the expressions on their faces!

So much fun!

Quick, Mom!  I need to give you my head band!  

Lots of balloons....

Lots of water...

Lots of running...

Lots of fun...

...and wet kids!

The expressions are wonderful!

JL just has to try and get Ben!  LOL

Time for water guns!

What the adults did while the kids played.  =0)

Beautiful little girl!

Sitting around the campfire enjoying friends.

The next day, we had more friends over.  This time they played with Airsoft guns in the woods.  We pretty much kept the campfire going all day.  They came and roasted hot dogs, shot at soda cans and bottles and enjoyed shooting aisoft pellets at one another.

Roasting Time

Of course they had to shoot everyone's guns just to try them out.

Peaceful house...they were all in the woods!  LOL

Shooting at plastic bottles.

The clean up crew!  Rustie does such a good job, too!  The only thing he won't clean up is olives.  LOL

Everyone in camouflage of some sort...

The young man in blue jeans is my oldest son.  He'll be 18 in a couple weeks.  How time flies!  He just began his Senior year of high school yesterday. =0)

Smoke in the eyes...poor little Biscuit too.

While the kids were in the woods, Mr. G and I walked around the garden to check out all the things that the deer haven't eaten, which isn't much.  We had placed newspaper around each of our tomato plants this year to keep the weeds down.  It worked!  This is among the first of the tomatoes to ripen.  What a wonderful blessing!

A late arrival brought all kinds of ammunition with him.

Back resting

Inspection time...while another is deep in thought.

They're growing up so fast!  I remember these guys when they were little guys! 

Got to try and mutilate that soda bottle!

My handsome Mr. G looking on at the young men around the fire.

Caught him off guard.

Since she'll be 16 this year, she wanted a shorter cut.  The hairdresser down the road from us asked if she wanted to donate her hair to locks of love and she is!  I had fun trying to get pictures of her, catching her while she wasn't looking at me, but at the boys....still trying to shoot one another, even when the neighbor came to join them.  They had to do it all over again!  LOL

A swimming pool that only 24 hours earlier held water balloons is now a human shield.  LOL

Brother's hat...silly girl!

Precious treasure!

I love her smile!

I like this one too.  She's always deep in thought.

The boys are reloading...HJ sits out.  She's had enough.

Over all it was a memorable weekend.  Little did I realize that the Birthday Bash would turn in to a weekend event.  LOL   Thank goodness we had leftovers from the party! 

Perhaps we should plan for it to be a weekend event next year?!   

Any suggestions on events to plan?