The Downside

Even though our vacation was wonderful in so many different ways, there is a downside to travelling: illness. It seems that after a trip, I have a tendency to get sick. This trip has proven to be no different. A couple days ago, I noticed that my muscles were really sore.  I thought it might just be stiffness from airplane travel, or my body protesting having slept in odd beds for over a week.  I was hoping it was just my body's way of protesting the two solid days of ironing I did when we got home - but, no. I got a bit nauseated, and my joints started to cry out along with my muscles.  Then yesterday it truly hit - a headache that defies words, pain in every muscle, joint, and even bone in my body, and fatigue that knocked me off my feet.  Thank goodness my husband knows how to order pizza with the best of them, or my family would not have had any dinner last night!

I think that next time I travel, I will be fanatical about hand washing and applying hand sanitizer.  At least I have many great pictures to look at while I lay in my bed and moan, so I can remember that I had a great time before I got home and got sick.

The last day in DC, Drew decided his legs no longer worked and he needed to be carried All. The. Time.

On a double decker narrated tour bus that took us through the city.

Me at the base of the Washington Monument.

My four men at Hershey's Chocolate World, getting a tour.

Andrew, wanting to smile at the camera, but having trouble looking up into the sun!

Wordless Wednesday

Mini Post Monday

• Go on and admit it...You figured that after a few posts "back blogging," that I had already given up, didn't you?? Ha!  Actually, I just went on vacation.  I know lots of bloggers schedule posts to publish while they are gone so there is no interruption to the blog, but quite frankly, I'm just not that organized! I barely got my family packed before we had to leave for the airport, much less wrote blog posts.
• I got to go to Washington, DC for the very first time!! I mean, I drove through it at night, on a bus, with my fellow Teen Missions friends on our way from Southern FL to JFK airport, but that doesn't count, okay?  It was amazing! Hopefully, I'll post lots of pictures soon. 

Me and my boys with statues of the George Washington family at Mt. Vernon.

On the steps of the Jefferson Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.

• Did you know you can listen to audio books on a Kindle?  I may be the very last person with a Kindle to discover this! Upon Granny's suggestion, I got A Patriot's History of the United States for free with a trial membership to Audible.com and had it sent wirelessly to my Kindle.  I started listening to it last night.  It will be good to finally get a proper perspective of US history.  I never took a US history class in college, and let's face it - in high school, I was only concerned with finishing, not in actually learning anything!
• We got a new computer! I am typing this post on it, actually.  It is a desktop, which is going to take some getting used to for me, since I have used a laptop for the past 6 years.  But, my old laptop is dying, and it was time for a change.  The really cool thing about this new computer is that the keyboard actually has the "L" key! My "L" key fell off my laptop about a year ago and I managed to figure out exactly how to touch the empty space that should have been an "L" key just right to get an "L" to appear, but it is so very  nice to just type away without thinking about that.
• What are your summer plans? Since I went from school year, to swim lessons every day with preparing for our trip, to travelling, I feel like my summer begins today! I plan to go through ever square inch of my house this summer and purge, purge, purge as well as clean everything! I think every homeschooling mom can understand how things get put off in the cleaning and organizing area of life when school has to get done first.
• I'm sure I'll think of 17 other things to add as soon as I publish this, but those will just have to wait for another day! Have a great week!

Play Ball!

We love baseball at this house!  All of the kids took in their first major league game as infants, we watch baseball on TV, and last year the boys started playing ball as well.  They were both in T-ball last year, but this year, Aaron moved up to coach-pitch.  Both boys look forward to practice and games and just love being on their teams.  Aaron was on the same team this year as last year - most of the kids wanted to stay together.

At bat for the first time with no Tee!

Ethan was on a new team this year because his team from last year didn't have interest in staying together and the coach didn't return.  I'm guessing he'll be on yet another team next year...

Waiting for his turn at bat.

Knock it out of the park, Ethan!

An amazing thing happened the other day. Some kind of a time warp opened up and Abraham Lincoln came right into our kitchen!  He is shorter than I thought based on the things I had read and he has a real baby face.  The funniest thing about talking to him was that he doesn't have a good memory AT. ALL.  I mean, he didn't remember anything about the Civil War, or about being shot in the theater.  Although he told me he was Abraham Lincoln, I had to wonder if he was puling my leg when he couldn't answer any question I gave him.  Either way, he sure is cute, isn't he?

A Year In Review - Work Edition

One year ago today, I started with Premier Designs Jewelry, having my first show - my training show. It has been a wild ride of a year, and I have learned A LOT. There have been times I have had to humble mysef and admit mistakes, and there have been wonderful highs when I felt 100% on top of my game! I started with this business in order to have something fun to do - something that got me out of the house, doing my own thing, and gave me a way to minister to other women.  It has been all of that, and more.  I knew I loved jewelry, but over the past year I have actually learned about fashion.  I knew I loved ministering to women, but over the past year I have learned that you don't need a church program to minister - I have been able to get to know and minister to women through the various aspects of putting together a home show for the hostesses and their friends.  I have been reminded that my tendency to procrastinate is what kills me so much of the time, and I wish I could say I have conquered that, but I haven't.  More than anything, the highlight of the year has been the home shows! I love, love, LOVE the home shows.  I enjoy showing the women new ideas in fashion, getting to know the guests - giving them tips and advice, and the best part, watching women try something they never thought they could pull off and finding out they love it! I still have a lot to learn, and I have many ways to continue to improve, but I am so thankful for this job and how much it has added to my life. 

I am not always very good at doing hands on projects for science with my kids.  We do a lot of science "book learning," but that hands-on stuff is just so messy and time consuming.  Oh, and you have to plan ahead to have all the materials on hand.  BUT...I did actually do a volcano building project with the kids this year! They happened to have one of their best buddies over that day (also homeschooled...and also here as I type this post... :) - We love Nate!), so it was even more fun for them.

Mixing the salt dough and deciding where to put the plastic bottle volcano core.

Packing dough around the bottle.

Great buddies!

The lava kinda oozed pink out of the volcano, rather than blew out all red and destructive.  Oh, well.  Notice all the "burned out trees" on the volcano! Can you tell we visited Mt. St. Helen's last summer? :)

Whether the volcano fizzled or blew its top, this project was a success!



A Budding Artist

Andrew loves to color, paint, and draw.  Here he is painting a masterpiece:

I think I won't post the pictures I have of him making masterpieces on the tile, the walls, our school books, and the bathtub.

Yeah, Andrew...it's a good think you're so stinkin' cute!

The Big 0-6

Ethan made it so easy on me - he just wanted a rectangle cake with green icing.  Look at him eye that candle! He is so excited to be 6 years old!

Make a wish!!

Pile of presents...

Surrounded by the things he chose at Wal-Mart with his birthday money from Grandma & Grandpa Thatcher.

Before...Kind of...

I forgot to take a true before shot of our back patio, but you can see some of it behind the wrestling football players here:

And this is the first part of "during":

Boys Will Be Boys...

It's moments like these that make me extra proud to be a mom to three boys...

Me & my super handsome guys on Mother's Day!

After quite a long bloggy break, I must admit that I miss blogging.  Not because I am such an excellent blogger and have so much wisdom to share, but I miss having documented the mundane, day-to-day stuff that is my life. I like flipping through blogs that are more like an account of what's happening in a life plus pictures than any other kind of blog.  I like flipping through mine to remember the fun things I've done with my chidren, husband, and friends!  I do think the break I took was necessary because there was just too much going on to take time for blogging, but now that we are done with school for the summer, I think I'll go back and fill in the gaps and add things as they are happening!  I am not sure I am going to be able to reconstruct the books I've read, though...there must be about 20 I've read without updating the side blog, so that might be a hopeless cause!

So, even if my Aunt Robin is the only reader I have left, let the blogging begin!