Who is it?

Some days - most days - parenting is the most humbling experience I've ever had. Throw in a homeschool with a spirited boy, a girl who likes to scream, and a momma in the throes of her pregnancy hormones, and it can be downright defeating.

Driving to the library on Friday, I was taken off guard by my favorite song on one of my children's CDs. I had already asked God why He had decided to let me mother another little girl. Isn't he wise?! I shouldn't be the one getting to do this. My kids had stories for their dad that night about how mom didn't show self-control, but anger instead. The words brought me to tears as I realized they are for me, not just my little ones. I cry even as I write this.

"Who died, and came alive again?

Who came to rescue you and men?

Who came to make all things brand new?

Who did it all for love of YOU?"

You, mom. On your worst day. You.

Here's to a new week. Our last full week of school before we add a new life to our family. May it be a week of singing, dancing, leaping, and running. (Well, maybe not leaping and running.)

Successfully Completed

I do a lot of planning for our little homeschool. Because I have chosen not to use much formal curriculum for preschool, Pre-K, and K, I spend a lot of time looking up ideas and laying things out. My lesson plans always rock...until we get down to the school room with real children! But sometimes, they do go off without a hitch.

A fun lesson we did this year was during our Weather unit; we learned about clouds. These activities took place over several days, and I thought I would share for anyone who wants to check them out or give them a try.

First we read Clouds and made shaving cream clouds on the kitchen table. I was impressed with this book, and we ended up using several others from the series throughout the unit (thunder and lightning, tornadoes, and volcanoes).

 

We read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, one of my childhood favorites. After we read the book, I asked Lee what foods he thought were yummy in the book. I used every ingredient on the list to plan a Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Day.

For breakfast, we ate chocolate iced doughnuts with sprinkles, pancakes with syrup, bacon, and orange juice.

Lunch was hot dogs, sliced cheese, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Dinner was meatballs, rolls, pizza, ice cream, and chocolate pie. Followed by family movie night to view the movie. I won't say it was the best kids' movie I've ever seen, but they did a decent job of sticking to the book, for book lovers like me out there.

The final activity was a cloud picnic. We laid out a blanket, ate a yummy snack, and used our cloud finder to identify the clouds that were in the sky. Hilariously, there was not one cloud in the sky when we got outside, but we had a few appear by the end of our picnic.

 I got on a kick of muffin tin meals (that I need to get back on), and I found this little snack idea. We all loved it. Think large marshmallows, peanut butter, and toppings, and you are on the right track. My favorite combos were PB + toffee and PB + rainbow sprinkles.

And, a little photo of our puny cloud. But the cloud finder made it easy to identify, for sure.

Christmas Card, Every Day

We all do it, don't we? Post our best moments, our cutest kid pics, our biggest triumphs on social media. I am certainly included. And - wow - looking back over the past five (plus) years, I do a LOT of it. A friend once said it is like receiving all of your friends' Christmas letters, every day.

But what if you are not having an oh-so happy season of life? In those times, social media can leave you feeling very lonely. Like the only one who doesn't have it all together. Like the only one who doesn't have a perfect family. Marriage. Life.

It is important to remember in those times that we (everybody else) are not out there displaying our heartache for all to see. For example, take this series of photos from my wall last fall:

I love this picture, our first UGA football game of the season. Who knew we were pregnant? Certainly not we!

A month later, who knew we found out the day before this picture that we had a sac, but no baby? Certainly not you!

Oh, perfect little family outing to visit Santa. Did you know, I was (finally) in the midst of the miscarriage? Man, it felt like it went on forever.

Here I am, finally cleared by the doctor the weekend before Christmas.

Now, my point here is not to share about our miscarriage; it is to let you know that you are not alone. When you see everyone else's post after post or picture after picture of happy life, it is not always the whole story. We are all just living life. And it is hard. But you are not alone.

You will also notice I am cutting back on the Facebook pictures this year - it's my New Year's resolution. More time for real life.

The Fair Comes to Missy Dr

I had been feeling sad for sweet KW that Little Man had such a fun ride around the back yard a few years back when the Mid-South Fair came to Chester Ave. But, she recently got her chance. You can take the mom away from the fair, but you can't take the fair out of the mom!

One New Bloom

"There is not a pretty red ribbon around it, but there's hope."

- Louie Giglio

Hope. It is an interesting thing, isn't it? It doesn't matter what the facts are. How dire. How definitive. How final. There is something in the human heart that refuses to believe. Demands a hold onto that little bit of...hope. Only when faced with an end will the heart finally relinquish its hold on the possibility of a miracle. And, even then, we begin to hope for something else. Something beyond the current circumstance.

There is a hydrangea outside my bedroom window. The summer rains came this year and over-watered the bush, leaving all the flowers dry and brittle. This surprised me; isn't rain supposed to add life and color to a plant? Instead, this plant held dead, lifeless blooms until about a month ago. One morning, I noticed new, green growth. The hint of a bloom. It was already October. I guess no one told this plant that the cold was arriving any day. It didn't care; it saw an opportunity to blossom, and it took it. Every morning when I open my shade, I have watched that bloom grow until it has turned into a bright blue bunch of beautiful tiny leaves. In a season of death for our family, it reminds me that there is always new life. There is always hope. Hope may come in tiny bits, but it always creates something beautiful.

After a cold snap this weekend, I wondered what I would see when I looked out the window Saturday morning. The bloom was still there, and just below it, a new, green bloom, just starting out. There is always hope.