Family Musings

It's been a busy week in our house and the pace won't be slowing down for at least a couple more weeks. But, looking over our schedule, I wouldn't change anything. Everything coming up is good stuff. The first big thing is my Christmas present from last year. Bruce is sending me to The Gospel Coalition 2012 Women's conference in Orlando . I'll admit to getting pretty emotional when I opened the envelope and Bruce filmed it . It's not particularly flattering, but it reminds me how sweet my husband really is. Can I tell you that I am really looking forward to going? Because I am. Bruce has been lovingly teased me this past week because I've kept the conference schedule open and look at it several times a day. But every time I look at it, I'm reminded by what a blessing it is to go and hear so many gifted and blessed speakers share from their heart. The theme is "God's Revelation of Himself in Scripture." And the list of speakers is a wh...

When I was a little girl my family spent a lot of time at the beach. I even had a fringed shirt that said "Beach Bunny" on it! One of the many activities that kept my attention was digging a hole to China. Did anyone else ever do that? I can't be the only one. Can I? It occurred to me that no one ever told me I couldn't do it. I don't have a single memory of any grown-up saying that it was impossible to dig a hole through the earth and end up in China. In my head, I started to form a metaphor about letting kids have dreams and ambitions. About never letting them think anything was impossible and the adults all wishing they could have the hope of a child. But then, suddenly, I realized why no one ever told me that digging a hole to China is impossible. Think about it. What reason can you think for not telling a super chatty child that she can't actually dig a hole deep enough and that she'd die from the molten core long before China was even an op...

Going on a frugal vacation with a toddler and baby in tow is not my idea of fun. You're basically asking the mom to do everything she does at home, but with fewer resources. It never really turns out to be much of a vacation for aforementioned mom. I know, I've been her before. However, I wasn't her last weekend! My husband surprised us and took our family away for 2 nights at the Disney All-Star Sports resort. He also purchased the Quick Service Dining Plan for our family so that I didn't have to prepare a single meal. It really was a vacation for this mom! I walked away from last weekend feeling wonderfully rested, something I'm not accustomed to after a family vacation. In fact, everything went so smoothly I can't find a single thing to complain about. Nothing went wrong. It's as if we were meant to have this fun, relaxing weekend together as a family. No distractions in the form of wi-fi hot spots or accommodating 4 other adults preferences for what ...

I hate packing. I know I will forget something and have to go out and buy it at full price. Or, I'll pack too much and regret having to schlep it all over the place. So, that is why, as I watch my #MOPScv twitter friends proclaim that they've already started, a full 3 days before I have to leave, I am getting a little twitchy. Each of these friends mentions something that I just have to  remember, but I'm so worried I won't! So, here is a list of the things I want to try and remember. Please, please, please, if you've been to MOPS convention before (or something similar), chime in with a comment about what I'm forgetting or really ought to leave behind. Poo-pourri: I know that sharing a hotel room with 4 other ladies has its challenges, and if I have just this one thing with me, I won't have to worry about injuring my room mates nostrils. Ever since I first tried it, I knew it would be on my convention packing list. And good news, I'm working with t...

When the weather is beautiful, all I want to do it be outside. When the girls are cooperating, all I want to do is take cute pictures of them. And a Tennessee pumpkin patch in October is the perfect place for both of these variables to come into place. Here are the photos in no particular order, with random commentary as I felt like it. :) This is my niece Rebekah. I LOVED her dress (and her too!). Turns out, it is from Gymboree and my sister-in-law bought it at a consignment shop. I think it was a great choice for some time spent with pumpkins. These have got to be the 2 ugliest pumpkins I have ever seen! I've been asked to work on providing more sensory input to Mary and to try and get her used to more textures. So, much to my mother's horror, I left her barefoot to walk around the patch. She didn't seem to mind it as much as I expected, which wasn't what I expected. In the past she has hated to be sat in the grass! I don't know where Charlotte was ...

Getting out on a boat makes me feel so free. It is wonderful to get closer to nature in that way, so long as no one drives too fast. I guess that is why pontoon boats suit me just fine. Over Spring Break (yes, I realize that was  5 months ago!), my parents treated us to an afternoon of pontoon boating with the family and we all had a great time. Over and over, Charlotte remembered the boat ride in Nicaragua when she got to play with the monkey. I think her memory is more fond of the monkey than she really was, but I don't bother to correct her. If she wants to think she and the monkey hugged and played and she loved every minute of it, then so be it. My blog post from last summer will always be around to testify to the truth. :) We had two small babies on the boat with us, Mary and her cousin Rebekah. Both of them wore infant sized life vests. Charlotte had the same size! It was a gorgeous day for picture taking... I hope you enjoy these. I enjoyed reliving the afternoon as I...

We waited until the second weekend to go and it. was. crowded. That was probably because no one went the first weekend due to horrible FL weather. The day we went was chilly but beautiful. The first thing we did was head to the kid's area so Charlotte could blow off some steam after 2+ hours in the car. She enjoyed the bounce house immensely and made friends with some of the worker's kids. While Charlotte bounced, Mary got her first tattoo. Calm down... it was just airbrushed. And like last year, Charlotte also got her Bike Week Tattoo. That's it. Yep. There are no pictures of motorcycles. Not sure how that happened, but oh well. This is Family Musings, not Motorcycle Musings. :)

A week before our trip to Nicaragua, Charlotte and I accompanied some friends on a road trip to North Carolina. Since this blog functions as my scrapbook of Charlotte's life, I figured it was better late than never to post some photos and stories from that week. The trip to Franklin, NC is about 10 hours, which is Charlotte's longest car ride to date. About half-way through, she was still smiling. One of the days, we drove up to Highlands, NC. The weather was absolutely beautiful and even though it was mid-June, a light jacket or sweater wouldn't have felt out of place.   Stephanie and Charlotte had fun the whole week. Charlotte adores her and calls her Nee-Nee.     We also had a chance to go gem mining.  The water made this a fun treat except Charlotte liked to see what happened when she dropped the rocks into the water run... it was hard to keep up with her. Thanks Angela and Stephanie for inviting us to join you on your last trip to Franklin!

I haven't been feeling very bloggy lately... sorry about that. Tonight though, I feel like sitting down at the computer and pounding away a few posts for the next couple of days. Still not back to editing my photos into beautiful pieces of art though, so these are all pretty much straight-out-of-the camera (except for some cropping). These are the last of our photos from Nicaragua that I want to share with you. I'm just putting them all in one post though so I don't overwhelm the next week with old pictures. On the first day, we took a tour of the city . Charlotte rode on the baxi (bicycle taxi) with me for most of it, but she did insist on walking for part of it.   This is one of the neighborhood boys who followed along on the tour. He really took to Charlotte and wanted to be with her the whole time. He even offered to carry her around a few times.     See how Charlotte loves riding the baxi? The look of pure joy over her first bicycle ride? After this trip, she as...