Happy 18th Birthday Kate!

This one, my only girl child... she turned 18 in February. 

Yeah, 18. I can't believe it either.

Myrtle Beach After Christmas

I thought I'd share some highlights from our recent trip to Myrtle Beach. We had some points left over from our vacation club, enough to book a 2-bedroom unit for 3 nights, so we decided to pack up and go. The boys didn't want to tag along, so it was just Mike, Kate and me. Kate had some Christmas money and she wanted to hit up the outlet mall, I wanted to see the Christmas lights and decorations at Broadway at the Beach, and Mike... well he said he was just along to be our chauffeur :).

Welcome to South Carolina!

Summer Fun 2013

Well, summer is over and school is back in full swing around these parts. I really hate to say good-bye to summer! I love the lazy, laid-back days of just doing much of nothing :).

Of course, I do enjoy the fall. The nice mild-weather days. The structure and habit of daily routines. Well... we eventually get there!

I've been looking back through my pictures from our summer travels and I thought I'd share some of our highlights.

Vacation to Orlando

It's been a while since we've been to Orlando, Florida, so that's where we spent a week at the end of May. It rained and stormed our first day there, but only for a little while. We were able to get out and explore the resort late in the afternoon. What a lovely place!

view from our balcony on a rainy afternoon

 

Back to the Blog

Wow! I haven't been around here in quite a while! I can't believe it's already the end of June and the last time I was here was near the end of April. Wow!

I have to admit... I've kind of gotten caught up in the Instagram craze. Kind of easy to keep up with friends and family through the posting of pictures. But I realize I sure have missed blogging. A lot has happened around here since April.

Winter Storm in the South

We certainly don't get much in the way of winter storms down here in the deep south, but when we do, we tend to get a little excited. We didn't get any snow (of course). It rained during the night, but the temperature here at my house hovered just above the freezing point. So when we awoke this morning, there was nothing to be excited about.

Until about an hour later. Around 7:30 am, the temperature began to drop and it was still raining a little, and the wet trees began to freeze. But that was all. Apparently the ground was too warm to freeze and the rain stopped. I thought at one point there appeared to be some tiny little snowflakes fluttering around. But if so, that didn't last long at all.

The tops of pine trees don't handle frozen water very well. Some of them were bent over from the weight of the ice. I wonder if some of those tree tops popped off and fell on some power lines near my house because our power went out around 9:30 this morning, and stayed out until around 2:00 pm. I have a heat pump, so needless to say, it became a little chilly in my house.

We did school all bundled up in our fuzzy pajamas! We closed the bedroom doors and lit lots of candles in the living room, kitchen and bathrooms. The candles did put off a little heat and helped a little, but it was still cold. I put Lizzie's little coat on her and she took turns snuggling with us as we read and did our lessons.

So we made memories today. I love it when out-of-the-ordinary days happen along and we have a chance to learn to make the most of whatever comes our way.

The Last Days of Summer

Although it is still HOT down here in south Georgia, our summer break has officially come to an end. I thought I'd share what we've been up to these last couple of weeks of our summer...

My dh's sister and her two daughters came to visit and stayed with us for a few days the last week in July. We absolutely LOVE them and we had so much fun!

Here they are with 2 of my kiddos in the pool

Kate & Will, with their Aunt Debbie

on our evening walk down our dirt road... the doggies

always join us!

We made one last day trip to the islands off the coast of Georgia. I say "last" but I really hope we can make a trip back in the fall, when the weather cools off... maybe to bike ride around the island. I have some friends who spent a few days there recently and they really enjoyed biking there.

on the beach at St. Simons Island

supper at Spanky's Seafood Restaurant after a day of touring the islands

I feel like the older I get, the faster these seasons of life seem to whirl by. It seems as if we hardly had a summer break at all :) But we made lots of memories, and that's so important. Especially now that we are going in different directions this fall (one off to college, one off to school, and one still at home with me).

...Thanking God for these days with my family.

Merry Christmas!

Wow! Where did the time go? I mentioned before that when basketball season kicks in, it gets very hectic at our house! My dh coaches varsity b-ball at our local Christian school, and right now we are having 3 games per week! Plus my daughter and son both play on Upward b-ball teams, so we are out of our house all the time it seems like! We've been in b-ball season since November, but the really hectic time (3 games per week w/ dh plus children's Upward games) only overlaps through January! It's crazy around here, but we do seem to survive!

Here are the kiddos posing for the Christmas card photo this year

I hope your Christmas season was a blessing to you as it was to me! I absolutely love Christmas! And although we didn't get any snow (we never do), it was actually cold here for Christmas! That's a record for us, because here in south Georgia, it is usually very mild, if not warm! This was a special Christmas for me because we went "home" for the holidays! We packed up on Christmas Day and traveled home to be with our families. That was quite interesting traveling on Christmas Day! It was also kind of strange, because we are usually at our house (so far away from all family) and I always cook a traditional meal for our Christmas dinner. On this day, of course, there were no restaurants open; the only restaurants we found open were in a bigger city just off the interstate and they were Waffle House and Hong Kong Palace. So...we had Chinese for our Christmas dinner! Something we will definitely always remember!! I love making memories.

my kids with my dear daddy

my kids with my dear father-in-law

A big change for us over the holidays was having our oldest son move BACK home again! After all my fretting and being so down over the summer because he was moving out in the fall, and here he is, back at home! He decided dorm life was not for him...yet. And since we are only about 40 miles from the college he attends, he decided that he'd just move back into his room and commute to classes each day. So, at first it seemed strange, having him back here again. But I've had the holidays to adjust. And an adjustment it has been! College kids....they keep the strangest hours! (LOL...it really has not been THAT long that I have forgotten what it was like!) It's been nice having him back home.


Another highlight for us during the Christmas season was having the Children of the World International Children's Choir back in our town again! We were able to host the same two little girls in our home again! What a joy they were...and what a privilege for us to be able to share in their lives! Our church raised enough money (since they were here back in October) to put in a well in a village so that 1,000 people can have clean drinking water! God used these children to touch our lives in a way that we could never have imagined... I'm sure you remember reading my post about them back in October!

my family with Pashi and Aljane and yes, we wish so very much that we could adopt them!

College Registration Today

Though not exactly a great day for being out, today was early registration at Brewton-Parker College, where my first-born will be attending this fall. We had to be there by nine, so the oldest of my children and I headed out alone this morning. No rain, but plenty of dreary grey skies covered us on our journey. It was a fun time for us and very informative, as well.

We got the full tour of the college campus this time around. The rain held off for the tour, but once we were on our own, the rain came. Downside to this...my son and I looked like two drenched rats by the time we left this afternoon. And we even bought one of those big umbrellas with the college logo on it at the campus bookstore! Upside to this...the memories I'll always have...the two of us huddled together, my son holding the umbrella over our heads, me stepping in every puddle along the way, lol! It was great!

Well, he's scheduled for the classes he wants to take when fall semester rolls around in August; he's signed up for the dorm he wants to be in, with the room-mate he requested; he's excited about college. Me? I just feel like we haven't yet closed the door on one chapter of his life before opening the door to another. I'm going to try to be brave and not succumb to the tears right now.

God promises His grace is sufficient. I will rest in that.

A Week to Remember

Well, here we are at the end of the week. We leave today to take my father-in-law and my brother-in-law part of the way home. We'll meet my sister-in-law at an interstate connection to drop them off with her.
The week seems to have flown by! The kids have had so much fun with Granddaddy. He always shares some tidbit of his history that we never knew about! Especially interesting was how he was a small child during the Great Depression and the memories he has of the stories his father shared with him of what life was like during that era. I suppose I should have gotten out the video camera and recorded all that he shared with us...lost opportunity now.


We had a lot of fun while they were here....listening, sharing, going. I'm so thankful that my kids have grandparents who take an interest in them. Even though we live so far away and only see Granddaddy a few times a year, we never feel disconnected from him. I know these years are fleeting and I'm so glad that we have an opportunity to make the most of them.


Joy and blessings be yours in abundance!