The Rest of the Month of May

My FAVORITE kind of post to make!!

A post about the happenings of just everyday life.

We keep life full, but the things we choose are purposefully thought out.

It’s the little things that add up to BIG things – so we try to make sure the things we are doing and not doing are lining up with the goals we have for our family and children and grandchildren!!!

The three youngest kiddos (and Addie and I!) have chores everyday to keep up with the things of our home.

This is something I am so glad I was taught about as a young Mom many years ago!!

It just takes the stress out of house keeping and makes our home company ready anytime!

Lane, Tate and Eliza are at the age where they know their chores, do them well, and hardly ever have to be checked on anymore.

Don’t you just love how efficient Tate is in this first photo??

Carrying down his clean laundry while also dusting the stairs, ha, ha!


Speaking of keeping up with things around here – the first weekend of May it was finally warm enough to clean up outside and get ready for summer!!

The guys power washed the deck and patios, Tate, Eliza and I cleaned the garage and outside furniture, the guys got the mowers ready, and they also installed a new basketball pole Blake and I had bought on date night!

The bird restaurant finally was taken down as well, which meant it was time to pull the snowflakes off of the sliding glass door windows.

It was a very productive day and SO nice to get ready for the change of seasons!!


School continued on throughout May!

We will also have a couple days a week that it will continue on through the summer.

It just makes starting full-time school in the fall SO MUCH EASIER.


Eliza had a piano assessment in May, passed, and moved up to level seven!

Now she and Tate are at different times for their piano lessons.

Her lesson went from 15 minutes a day, to 45 minutes a day!

Tate is not far behind her – his assessment will be this month.

We are going to need to get an electric keyboard once he moves up, because they both will need their own place to play during that 45 minute lesson a day.

I never really considered what piano lessons would be like in our daily routine, or had an idea in my mind of what we could achieve!

We seriously just jumped in two years ago this month, and have never looked back!

Tate and Eliza have had ZERO frustration in this learning process and have loved their lessons and practice times VERY much!!

How cool is that???

It is exciting to see where this will go and what they will be able to do one day with all the hard work they have put into this!!

After Eliza passed her assessment (first photo), I got the things she needed printed and laminated and she started level seven the next day!


We spend A LOT of time outside!

We wait so long for this weather – who could blame us!!

Twin Oaks is a sweet place to be, inside or out.



The outside of our new building has been finished and our GOATS ARE HERE!!

Back in May, they were still working on the outside of that building.

It turned out PERFECT.

You will have to stayed tuned to June posts for a photo of the building completely finished, roof and all!


We spend a lot of time at our library!

Of course with Lane working there, that makes sense, but we love books and love to read too.

It is a wonderful thing that the children enjoy reading!

I hope they keep that passion all of their lives like I have!


Friday night date night has changed!

Blake and I now have two or three sidekicks with us for date night!

I am not complaining!!

But I do think Blake and I should find another time to look at each other once a week, ha, ha!

We have fun with this younger trio of ours!

And they get to watch the sunset over the river with us!

Don’t worry, we buy them ice cream too!


Hymn Sing is still a once a month blessing.

It has been more hit and miss for most of the families as of late – and I miss the big joyful noise we all could make together!

It is still SO fun to be at our friend’s place once a month – one of my favorite places to be!!

We were in charge of dessert for May – strawberry peach dump cake was a big hit!


I am blessed to spend time with some sweet friends when we can!

One of my absolute besties and I met in town to take a long walk on some trails one Friday morning.

It started to rain right as we headed out, so we went and had coffee instead!

I cannot tell you how important it is to HAVE FRIENDS!!

Here is the best thing – I have friends from SO many seasons of life, places we lived – and we are all still friends!

So thankful!!


We had some appointments in May – as always.

The eye doctor rechecked my eye and all is stable!

I also had a yearly blood test check-up and all was great!

Sadie had a vet check-up too!

Lane has had some orthodontic appointments as well – the photos appear in the order of this list!

I am always glad when I can check all of these things off my list.


I was sad to notice that our large flour crock was cracked on the inside.

I had to throw the whole thing away!

I threw away the other two as well after looking at them closely and seeing how chipped up they were.

We have had them a LONG time and use them daily!


I do not have many more May photos of Miss Saige Grace, but just a few.

Just look at all her hair!

Someone grabbed a photo when Chad got to hold her for the first time too.


I have a cute one of Aspen and Chad too!!

Those grandchildren love their aunts and uncles so much!!


Ready for some food photos??

All those people in all these photos need to be fed, you know!!

Many times a day, ha, ha!

I am feeling inspired in the kitchen again these days – I have some yummy plans for June!!

But look at all this yummy stuff from May –


I have a confession to make.

I take WAY too many photos of the sky!

Is this really a bad thing though??

I think not!!

At least photo storage is now digital, right?

Can you imagine the boxes of printed sky photos I would have?!

I LOVE THE SKY.

It just says “God is with me” every time I look at it!!

Please take time to look at the sky too!


That was 20 photos of the sky in May and I only chose my favorites, ha!

Ok, it might actually be a problem!!

Addie Mae took this last photo below and I love it for SO many reasons.

First of all, everyone else was in shorts, t-shirts, and barefoot that night.

Notice my winter clothing.

I am clearly a pint low of something inside of my body – whatever the stuff is that keeps you warm!

Also, I did not even know that Addie was there!!

She captured a photo of me doing what I love – and I was totally lost in it as well.

Is taking photos of the sky just a mid-westerner thing?

Maybe, maybe not, but I bet the muck boots are!!


THAT WAS A LONG POST!

If there is anyone reading this, you all are crazy!!

Just kidding.

I just can’t leave anything out though, you know?

All of these things are BIG awesome things to me!

It’s the little things that are BIG things!!

I hope you all see the big in the little, and are enjoying the season change too!!

Happy June, everyone!!

SUMMER IS HERE!!!

Grand Fun!!!

You know we always enjoy those grandchildren of ours!

Just to be clear, we enjoy David and Kayla toooooo!!!!

I should take more photos of those two, ha, ha!

We have so many fun days with our grands.

I grabbed the boys one afternoon in May for a sleepover with their besties!

Clyde’s facial expressions in pretty much every photo I have ever taken of him is certainly a good memory too.

He cracks me up!


Please notice the eagle at my feet in this photo – Clyde asked me to watch it for him.

The things I never want to forget!


Kayla sent me this photo of River dead asleep right after he had returned home from our fun sleep over!

I figured that my job as their NaiNai had been successful!!


Addie was in charge of the whole clan one day so that David and Kayla could have time away before Saige’s arrival.

Oh my goodness, I LOVE typing that baby girl’s name!!

They went to Costco in Madison that day and stocked up on ALL the things – good grief, where did they learn their date ideas from??

Guilty as charged!

I did make them promise to do something a “little more date-like” too – and they did have a wonderful lunch out!

I bet Kayla had a notebook and planner with her, just saying!

We sure enjoyed those kiddos while they were gone.


When Saige came into the world, Addie and I helped with the other kiddos during Kayla’s labor.

Seeing Saige’s arrival through her siblings eyes was the best thing ever!!


The day that Saige was born, I brought all the kiddos back to our home for the day.

I had two friends come and help me that day – which is one of the sweetest memories I will have!

There were A LOT of emotions for the kiddos during that time, as you can imagine, and having my friends at the house with me was truly such a gift!

It kept the kiddos distracted and busy.

One friend helped with lunch too.


When the wheels started coming off the bus in the late afternoon, I had everyone rest, except for myself because I had more important things to do!

Coffee and chocolate for me, a nap for some littles.


Did you all know that when Kayla was a teenager she and I used to verbalize our dreams about this season of life?

The things that we dreamed about are exactly what the Lord has allowed!

Dreams do come true!!

God has been SO very kind!

It is so wonderful having them so close by and being able to be a part of daily life with them.

Such a GIFT!!

I have plans to be over helping Kayla tomorrow as it will be David’s first day back to work since Saigey girl arrived!

I CAN’T WAIT!!

Sweet grands, NaiNai LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Memorial Day Weekend Camp Out!!

Memorial Day weekend my guys did NOT have to work on Saturday OR Monday.

That meant we needed to have some family time and some FUN!!

I planned a camp out, and then asked David and Kayla if I could steal the boys for it!

Dreams do come true!!

It all started after church on Sunday afternoon when we started to set up, prep for dinner and breakfast around the fire, and play outside!


Pretty soon it was time to drag those kiddos out of that pool and have dinner around the fire!

It was fun cooking our sausage and hot dogs – and we had beans, chips, and watermelon too.

Of course there were smores for dessert!!


Somehow we squeezed nine bodies and two dogs in that tent, ha, ha!!

IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!

Things great memories are made of, right?

We managed to get to sleep around 10:30 p.m.

I cannot say that everyone slept all night long, but we did pretty good!!

This first photo is my early morning sky view at 4:30 a.m.


Next up was breakfast around the fire.

Filling bellies is my full time job!!!

Addie Mae made some amazing cinnamon rolls to go along with the eggs, bacon and sausage.

We forgot to put out the fruit we had prepared – ooops!!

I had made a smoothie, though, to tide over the tummies while we cooked breakfast!


The kiddos played and swam all morning long before we had a late lunch (also outside!)

After lunch I ran Clyde and River home and then we cleaned up everything to get ready for the work week ahead.

What a beautiful weekend we had weather wise!!!


We are already talking about camping out again!!

It was SO MUCH FUN!!

We laughed so much and just enjoyed ALL being together!!

It was not lost on me that day, however, why the guys were off work.

A time to reflect and remember those (and their families) who have sacrificed SO much and gone through unimaginable things just so we can live the way we do.

Just one day a year to honor them is not enough.

I hope that you all had a great weekend – the kick off to SUMMER!!!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Our Garden

I cannot even believe it is time to garden!!

Summer is HERE!!!

The week before Saige was born, Kayla and I and all the children hopped in her bus and went to the greenhouse together.

It was a very fun and purposeful outing!!

We got all of the plants that we wanted for our gardens that day.


We still have strawberries in our one garden bed from last year, and we had our chives come back beautifully.

Besides getting our garden plants that day with Kayla, Tate and I planned and ordered seeds and 75 more strawberry plants from Johnny’s Seed.

So exciting!!

We planted our garden this year on May 20th – which is something I like to know from year to year.

We moved our square foot garden to the other bed this year, and filled the side where it used to be with strawberry plants.

We are not growing cut flowers this year, unless I decide to put them somewhere else.

I made a quick sketch in a notebook that day to plan it all out, and we just went for it!!


Our strawberries arrived on May 22nd, and we planted those this past weekend.

We also already had to replace all of our marigolds, and some sweet little bunnies are eating all of our cilantro and kale – drats!!


I cannot wait to take more photos in just a couple of weeks when, Lord willing, this garden is flourishing!!

I will say that I have had moments when I think of the japanese beetles from last year with dread – hoping they do not come back.

What are the chances of that though, really??

Sigh.

Here’s hoping!!!

This year I am LOVING being outside more than ever!!

I am not sure why!!

Even Blake told me when we have been outside working on things in the yard that I just look so happy and like I am having so much fun!

I am!!

SEE – I am really a Florida girl at heart – warm weather is MY THING!!!

Stay tuned to see how our little garden does this year!

I hope you are getting outside in the summer weather too – it is SO good for you!!