New Motto

My son just told me his new motto...

"If it's not dangerous, it's not Fun!" 

I hope we don't live to regret that!   

Halloween 2013

Family

If things don't slow down around here, act surprised when this is our family's Christmas picture!  We were on our way to celebrate our friend Meghan's wedding!  We all had such a good time!  We danced the whole night and took more pictures in the photo booth than should be allowed!  Thanks for getting married Meghan!!

Saturday a.m.

We woke up Saturday a.m. to the natural rhythms of our bodies, which meant some later than others... While the men in our family traipsed up to a neighborhood yard sale selling THOUSANDS (literally) of comic books, my girl & I cuddled on the couch.  She then suggested we get a blanket and go sit in the front yard to enjoy the cool morning.  How could I resist?  How could I resist taking pictures?  Her still sleepy face, and still braided hair?  What a glorious morning!  They should all begin like this!

 

The boys returned home with their yard sale treasures!!

LABOR Day

"See, the problem is that you want me to clean like the King is coming!"

Said to me this morning by my son who was asked to clean his room (on Labor Day no less!)  

Realization

At the risk of sounding morbid I have to say this...I am slowly coming to the realization that my children will grow up and leave us.  I know this is what is suppose to happen, but that doesn't make it any easier!  Right now we are in a "sweet spot" of our lives.  My kids are generally helpful, kind and considerate.  I don't have to wipe any more bottoms, they can shower by themselves, brush their own teeth, make their beds, get their own night-time water, heck, they could even feed themselves if necessary.  Thankfully, though they still need and want me, but for how much longer?  My children are literally growing up right before my eyes.  Seriously, clothes we bought for them a month ago have already been outgrown.  Thankfully, I have two healthy children, but darn it, why do they have to be the tallest in their classes?  

Right now, my girl still wants me to cuddle her, love on her and treat her like my baby.  But for how much longer?  Recently, I photographed a birth and was disheartened by the relationship I witnessed between the mother and her mother (the new Grandmother).  Wasn't there a time when those two were inseparable?  Now, they were so formal with each other - so distant.   I don't want this to be me & my Lou!  I pray that we always have a close and strong bond, that she'll always want me around.   I pray that my son will always want us to participate in his life, that he'll continue to come to us for advice and to share his good news and ideas.

It's really hard for me right now, my kids getting older, their father & I are getting older.  Is this a mid-life crisis?  

~ My Girl ~

Recently,  I've realized that I must clean off my computer.  I tried to register with an on-line storage site and they are telling me that it's going to take me FIFTY-ONE (51) days to upload my computer to their site... 51 Days!  That's a lotta shit on my computer that I no doubt do not need.  So, I've been going through the million+ (the only time I'll see that number in my life) files on my poor Mac and deleting what I can.  It's been like a treasure trove!  All the images I meant to edit of my family & the videos.  Oh, the videos!  Like most kids these days, my kids love to video themselves with my iPhone.  Thank God!!  If not, I might not have any thing to show, no proof of my parenting skills, no proof that they once were tiny, little babies that I could easily lift and hold!   

My newest goal is now to take all these quick videos on my computer and compile them into several videos that I can save forever & ever!  Like this video of my Lou.  It must have been taken about 3 years ago, right after she cut her bangs & we had to give her the cutest hair cut ever!  (I beg her every day to let me cut her hair again in that cute bob!)  She must have been nearly 5 years old.  OMG, I could eat this child up!  It's a wonder that I didn't have 5 more kids after her, just trying to recreate her cuteness!!  

Check her out, singing a college favorite of mine... 

Pickles

Yep, I made these.  Yep, these cucumbers came from our garden.  Yep, I'm pretty proud of myself! 

Edisto Mattress Swing

Recently, we spent a week at one of our favorite places...Edisto Beach.  For the 2nd year in a row we went with some of our favorite Peeps.  Two families we've really grown attached to since moving back to the ATL.  Attached enough to consider vacationing together...  

As we did last year, one afternoon we came in from the beach, showered & dressed earlier than usual and headed out for some vacation pictures.   This year instead of doing the prerequisite beach pictures, I took us inland instead, down a dirt road with delicious moss covered trees.  The quintessential low country look.  In spite of being eaten alive by mosquitoes, I love the way the images turned out.  

On our way back to the beach we passed an Edisto monument, the Mattress Swing.   The Mattress Swing was a landmark for many families, ours included as we made our yearly trek to this wonderful, dreamy island.  This year I had enough gumption to pull off the road, jump out with four kids and cajole them into letting me take their picture quickly!  Well, three kids...one of them, mine, refused.  She pouted, she yelled and she cried.  She was mortified that I would do something like this in such a public place.  "Mom, this isn't even our property!"  "Mom, we don't live here!"  "Mom, even though I'm only 7, I worry too much what other people will think of me..."  Ok, maybe I made that last one up, but it's what she meant.

Finally, she decided she'd join us, but I have to admit...it wasn't wholeheartedly!

Growing up!

Remember when you were little how you wanted to be and do just like your parents?  I remember, when I was 4 or 5, how bad I wanted to be married.  All I knew was that married people got to sleep together in the same bed & I hated sleeping alone in my bed.  My parents regularly removed me  from their bed... I still remember crawling to the corner edge of my mom's side of the bed, hanging on for dear life and hoping that she wouldn't kick me out of her already-too-small-for-2-grown-adults double bed. 

My little girl loves the idea of wrapping her hair up in a towel like her mama does.  For the longest time her head was too small and the towel too big for it to work.  That didn't stop her from trying though.   A few weeks ago she & her sweet friend tried their darnedest and were so proud of themselves for accomplishing this adult task. Another sign they are growing up too fast!

I'm feeling the need to update my blog and I can quickly grab some images from Father's Day.  The kids were excited to give their Dad his gifts.  We gave him t-shirts and a hat from his favorite restaurants in town - he was very pleased!!

Card

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just ordered this card from an image that my sweet hubby just took of a volunteer sunflower in our garden!  Pretty good huh?

~ Surfing El Salvador ~

I'm behind in posting this - I apologize to my son who asks me on a near daily basis "Have you finished my surfing video yet?"   We had a great opportunity while in El Salvador to give Amos surfing lessons for his birthday.  BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER!!!  He had so much fun during those 2 hours!  Cheers to his surf instructor, Emilio!  I wish we could have stayed longer and let him practice more - but ya gotta come home sometime!  I have no doubt that this will not be the last time my boy will surf!

~ Dick Dale & the Deltones ~ Misirlou ~

~ Indian Food ~

My newest obsession...learning to cook Indian food! I made a mean Saag Paneer last week from some of our garden's last spinach and boy was it YUMMY! 

My good friend, Heidi, volunteered to cook an Indian dinner for a class auction project and I volunteered (selflessly of course...) to help her.  Last Wednesday we shopped at a local Indian market and now I have another place to haunt!   It was great visiting the store for the 1st time with her because she explained so much to me and another friend.  The next day, she showed me how to make cilantro chutney. Mmmmm, mmmmmm tasty!! Now, I'm trying to convince her to teach some Indian cooking classes.

New Girls!

YAY!!  We got some more girls last week and once again we are in the chick business!  This time we only have 3 instead of the 9 we started out with last year.  What a difference 6 chicks make!!  We also learned from last time that the more you handle your chicks the friendly they are as grown chickens.  You have nothing to worry about...these girls are getting plenty of love.  Especially, that Sugar, she has found her way to the favorite spot...

Pinterest FAIL!

I, along with every other Mother on Pinterest, thought we'd take a different Easter Egg dying route this year...what an epic failure!!

First we started with the "natural dyes" you know from blueberries & red cabbage...the kind that stinks and not just from the smell of them cooking!  OK, to be fair, the natural dyes did work when we left the eggs in the dye for over 12 hours.  How's that for fun with a 9 and 7 year old?  Patience?  These kids don't even have the patience to wait for me to pee before they start screaming for me to help them with whatever is on their mind at that very moment!  Imagine me trying to convince them that their egg will come out a pretty blue once we return home from church services, the NEXT day!  Epic failure #1

Next, we tried the rolling your egg around a pile of shaving cream with food coloring...Yes, this is a good idea - NOT!  OK, it was fun squirting out all of that shaving cream, something I know a lot of us have dreamed about doing.  But, how many of us sent our kids to church on Easter Sunday with black fingers and nails?  I swear to you people...I cleaned their hands!!  It was the food coloring that stuck to their hands and not the eggs!   Epic failure #2

Next year, I'm sticking to the PAAS Easter Egg dye we all grew up with.  Heck, what's one more unnatural dye in our lives?   It might even cancel out the sugar from the jelly beans and giant chocolate bunnies we devoured the next week!