September School Days!

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My trio and I have been enjoying our school work this fall very much!


It seems so far, though, that my goals are too lofty – because a lot of the good stuff I have in my head is not getting done.

Life is FULL, folks!!

I’m smart enough to know that winter is coming…and we will have plenty of long winter hours for things like learning a new medium in art, and reading aloud the long list of books I hope to read to these kiddos!

I will say that our rhythm is working, expected, a blessing to keep us purposeful, and enjoyed!!

Here is a glimpse of the things that we are enjoying!

Bible memory.

We work on it every school day and these kiddos have dozens upon dozens of verses deep in their hearts.


Chalk pastels.

We have done them as a group twice now – can’t wait to get to this more often!!


A daily morning break to get outside.

We usually take a bike ride!


A new book.

This book is FANTASTIC.

The analogy to salvation is INCREDIBLE.

We are enjoying it fully and it sparks SO much discussion!

Highly recommended.


Library day.

Good books are hard to find, as I am sure you know.

But I work hard at this!

I want our kiddos to enjoy reading and for it to be worthwhile!


Science experiments.

It’s Lane’s love language!

And it stops everything else when he is doing one – because we can’t miss out!


Illustrations and narrations.

They work hard on these – drawing amazing pictures and retelling things perfectly that I have read to them.

I LOVE illustrations and narrations – there is SO much learning going on in drawing and writing about what you have just learned!


Read aloud while doing paint by sticker books.

I’m not sure I should say it’s our most favorite time of our day, well, because everything is our most favorite time of our day – but this activity is high on our favorites list!!


Piano practice and lessons.

These two have made such HUGE strides in this area in just over one year!

They both just moved up to level six after passing their assessment tests last weekend.


STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) class for Lane.

It has been a game changer and I am SUPER glad I am not in charge of it!

Blake is!

I do not speak this language, if you know what I mean, ha, ha.


I get more teary eyed these days than I ever have about things like “school.”

I mean, it’s JUST SCHOOL, right?

But IT’S NOT.

It’s about a lady, who begged God for children when she couldn’t have them, who is now in her mid 50’s spending every single blessed day with the literal answer to those prayers!

It’s about three enthusiastic, full-of-life children whom this teary eyed lady does NOT deserve!

It’s about not only those enthusiastic children’s learning and growth – but MORE about the teary eyed lady’s learning and growth as well!

Our school days just took on a new twist, by the way, as they are now featuring a NaiNai school day where my GRANDBABIES COME OVER AND I TEACH THEM TOO!!!

I know you already know.

There are tears in my eyes right now!!

You all.

I would have never guessed how God would write my story.

EVER.

SO thankful He is the ONE in control!

Thank you, Jesus, for these precious days!!

Looking forward, Lord willing, to many more!!

Our Little Garden Space

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It is hard to believe that garden season is done!

Just for point of reference, it has SNOWED and SLEETED on this thirteenth of October today!

Crazy weather!!

I think that September was the most productive month for our little garden space this year.

Even as we fought the Japanese beetles, we still were able to bring in a lot of produce!


I was thankful for my ever helpful gardeners too.


We worked in the garden Labor Day weekend, and then not again until we cleaned it out to get ready for winter.

I had a moment about that – but then I remembered what joy it had brought us while we were able to care for it, and told myself it was ok we did not finish strong because of my hand surgery.

You can only do so much, right?!

I did get this photo one day – do you see that beautiful bee there?

I so badly wished I had my big camera with me right then!!


Of course we are already talking about an expansion project for next year!!

I’m hopeful for some more yard completion projects come spring, but we have enjoyed everything we have already done to the fullest!!

Hope all the gardeners out there had a wonderful season of gardening too!

So Long August

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Hhheeelllooooo!!!!

Yes, I am aware that we just said so long to September in real life, but I’m a smidge behind, ahem.

I do have a good excuse reason!

I had surgery on my left hand/wrist three weeks ago today, which has given me limited use of my hand.

All is well though!

And I am typing with two hands, praise the Lord!

So, let me get our memories from August in our little scrapbook!

Most of August our dryer was still broken, and we were spending time each week at the laundry mat drying our clothes.

In the middle of August, Blake bought a new washer and dryer for us!

I might have been in the store with him convincing him to not spend too much on them – saying we did not need the bells and whistles and all.

Little did I know that the cheap ones don’t even have a light that comes on inside the washer and dryer when you open their doors!

It’s all good, though.

We are washing and drying all things at home now and I am so thankful for that!

Carrying all that wet laundry up town to dry it and then carrying it all back home to fold it was a big job!

Even though we fought Japanese beetles our gardens did so beautifully and were a JOY to us!

Especially the cut flowers we grew!

I am sure we will choose to do that again!

Speaking of those Japanese beetles…this is what everything they touched looked like.

Our cucumbers did SO amazing this year!

My favorite thing was to just pick things from the garden and eat them right then!

Having green smoothies with some kale from the garden is a favorite too!

We also put up things for the winter.

I shredded all of the zucchini to use later.

Zucchini, green peppers, and jalapeño peppers are my favorite things to put in the freezer from the garden.

Our landscape in front of our home was beautiful too.

I’m so thankful for how pretty it looked all spring, summer and even now!

You know we ate in August, don’t you?

It was cool enough to bring in some of our fall like meals – soup and roasted chicken!

I am super hungry now after looking at these photos!

We fought a bit of sniffles back in August.

I am so thankful because it didn’t last but a day or two and wasn’t that bad!!

God blessed our efforts for sure and I just praise Him for it!!

School continued on, and continues on!

We are really enjoying school!!!

Is there anything better than walking into the kitchen and looking over to see your sweet girl praying during her Bible time?

Lane is still building all kinds of cool things in his STEM class!

It’s during the kids table school work that I do all kinds of things while being completely available to help them too.

One day I put little nuggets all over the house – here are a few of them!

One day, after Grant moved to his house, we did school at his place so we could let the internet guy in to get Grant’s internet hooked up.

We LOVE being there, of course!!

I took a photo of the dining room light they had just hung that week, and Grant’s new (to him!) dining room table that his big sis Kayla had found him on marketplace!

Speaking of Grant’s place – Chad moved in with him at the end of August!

YES – I cried my eyes out – while standing in our walk-in closet – which is where Chad found me when he came to say good-bye that Saturday night after he had all of his stuffed moved down there.

Man oh man did I cry.

But – we are THRILLED that our boys are sharing this season of life together – we are always better together!!

This is the only photo I have of Chad for this post, which is really a photo of Ruby, but I will put it in here for good measure and all, ha, ha.

I miss those boys of mine SO much!!

Our days are ALWAYS better when there are our GRANDBABIES in them!!

This first photo is how you know you had a WONDERFUL Sunday with your grandbabies!!

Kay’s got new wheels too – and we were thrilled when they came to show us!

My favorite is when they pop in and stay for lunch – IT IS JUST ALL SO FUN!!!

Other happenings in August – our annual church baptisms took place in our pool.

My heart about explodes every year as we listen to the testimonies and watch the sweetest people publicly profess their faith!

I also did the HUGE job of the big clothes switcheroo.

Growing children means they have to try on all of their warmer clothes for fall and winter.

Then we have to make a list of all the needs and shop for them.

Then we sell all of the things we no longer need at a second hand store.

Glad that job is done for another season!

We got outside every chance we could in August – the weather here has just been incredible!

I cannot get over how creative our Lord is, can you!?

I mean, just look at this guy!!!

No, I did not touch him!

We had a cooler and rainy summer, but many gorgeous days too.

I know we will be longing for days like these come March!!

On that note….August brought us some of the most BEAUTIFUL skies.

Hi!!

I’m the lady who loves the sky!!

I just don’t understand how anyone could look at it and not see God’s hand there.

Oh my, I have a lot of photos of the sky in August.

Please look at them, though!

They are each unique, God’s handiwork, and declare His glory!!

And there went August!!

It seems like FOREVER ago already and yet just yesterday too.

Life is FULL and AMAZING and CHALLENGING and WONDERFUL and BLESSED and sometimes PAINFUL (hello, left hand).

Couldn’t be more thankful for it all – because I trust the Lord I love with ALL of it.

His ways are higher than mine!!

His ways are BEST!!

And I sure hope I can bring glory to His name for whatever ways He chooses for me.

Happy October and fall, friends!!

Hoping to keep catching up here – all of September memories are up next!!

Happy Birthday Grant Evan and Addison Mae!!!

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At the end of August we had the privilege of celebrating Grant and Addie’s birthdays!

They were born 364 days apart, and have shared their birthday parties their whole lives!

Thank you two for this photo – I love it!

I asked Addie what she would like us to do for their birthdays and she wanted to stick with tradition – so that’s what we did!

We love traditions.

And good food.

And Sundays with our favorites.

So it was perfect!

I made a huge spread of chicken tacos with all the fixings and it was perfectly yummy too.

There were gifts!!

The BEST part about birthdays is getting gifts for the ones you love!

There was cake!

I actually made the cake, but Addie did her magic to make it beautiful!

And she made some grain-free cupcakes so we were sure to have enough dessert to go around.

Once again I wish I had more photos!

Which means I was not thinking of you all as we were celebrating that day.

So sorry, but I think it is good to be present instead of always behind a camera, don’t you?

It was a GREAT celebration!!

How I enjoy gathering around good food with our family on Sundays.

Adding birthdays to that weekly occurrence makes it more special!

Grant Evan and Addison Mae – you bring so much joy, laughter, and life to our lives and we are SO thankful for you both!!

May this next year be a year of growing closer to the Lord as you live out this next season of life!

Happy, happy birthday to you both!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

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