Here. We. Go.

My annual last day of August chant has begun...

"Where did the summer go?! Where did the summer go?! Where did the summer go?!"

Monday evening was our homeschool group's mandatory meeting...the real kick-off to our school year.
(deep breath)
Praise team for Carrie and William has moved back to its school year schedule of Tuesday evening practice.
(deep breath)
Our homeschool group begins meeting this Thursday.
(deep breath)
William's robotics team had its first meeting yesterday afternoon.
(deep breath)
Carrie will begin basketball in just two weeks.
(deep breath)
All curriculum has been ordered and delivered.
(brown paper bag...hyperventilating!)

Our official first day of school is Monday. We'll celebrate the beginning of our new school year with our annual "First Day of School Tea Party." Can I still call it annual if we missed last year's party? It was the first year since we started homeschooling that we didn't have a tea party. Carrie and William went to the Grand Canyon with Grandma and Grandpa, and, although I intended on having it later in the school year, it never happened.

So we are pushing the reset button this year! It will be our tenth tea party as we begin our eleventh year of homeschooling.
It's very important that we celebrate big this year since Joshua is beginning kindergarten!

KINDERGARTEN?!
And did I mention that Carrie is a sophomore and William is an 8th grader?!

Where has the time gone?! Where has the time gone?! Where has the time gone?!
(Where did I set that brown paper bag?!)

Can I show this to you while I'm thinking about it...and while I'm teary-eyed anyway?



Seriously?
That was ten years ago at our very first tea party!
TEN!
Carrie was a kindergartener and William was Matthew's age...3!

Time really does fly by.
It's a thought that I linger over far too often, I'm sure.

So...

Goodbye lazy days of summer.

Goodbye unscheduled days.

Goodbye staying up until 10:00 (that really is late for me).

Goodbye staying in my jammies until 4:00 before Paul walks in the door, and I run to the closet in search of my clothes so that it looks like I didn't spend the entire day in my jammies (O.K., so maybe I'm not really saying goodbye to that...).

And...

Hello to regular activities.

Hello to scheduled days (I thrive when my days are scheduled).

Hello to early bedtime (I won't say what time, because you will laugh).

Hello to telling everyone that I actually get dressed every single morning before school because, after all, I am the school teacher and need to set a good example of readiness...and then finding myself having to repent because of the lie I told.

May the 2011-2012 school year begin!

Enjoying the last of summer,

Sleepy Boy

Every afternoon around 1:00, Matthew comes to me and asks for a nice book and his bed.

I love that boy...he speaks my language.

After reading the nice book of his choice, he rolls over and this is the view I see every afternoon around 1:15.



On this particular afternoon, as I was drifting off to sleep next to Matthew, I just knew that I needed a picture of the back of his head. All too soon, he will be too busy and too big to take an afternoon nap with his momma.

When I woke up from my nap, I snuck out of bed and went for my camera.
After a couple of snaps, Matthew started to wake up.



Look how drowsy he looks...



I just love that sleepy, contented smile...a smile framed by lunch crumbs.



As he rolled over onto his back, he seemed to be a little confused.



Who are you?



And what are you doing?



Oh! It's you, Mommy!



I see you behind that camera!







Where's my happy bird?



Before nap time that day, something had made Matthew cry.
I can't remember what it was, but I do remember that I gave him my Bluebird of Happiness that I got from Judy many years ago.
He took it to bed with him.

Oh! There it is!



So happy and cozy.



I took this picture for me.
And for the boys.
To remind us that a clean bedroom really can be a reality.
And to remind them of how much they enjoy a clean bedroom.
This cleaning project was the "dump everything out of your room except the furniture and anything that is plugged in and start over" kind of project.
It took us almost one week to complete.



You really don't care if your room is messy or clean, do you?
I love you, Sleepy Boy.



Enjoying clean rooms and sleepy smiles,

Celebrating Six!

Joshua Robert turned 6 years old on Sunday, August 14!
Josh was born six years ago on a Sunday afternoon.
And what a miraculous Sunday that was!

It's been very special celebrating his birthday this year.
Josh is old enough to ask questions and love listening to his story.
Saturday night was full of "This Time Six Years Ago" stories.
And...did I mention that Josh was baptized this year on his sixth birthday?!
Another very miraculous Sunday, August 14, for our family!

Joshua is also one smart cookie!
For the past two years, he has requested a brownie cake for his birthday rather than a cake cake.

I admit...in this context, smart means that he is in agreement with my tastes.
I much prefer brownies loaded with chocolate chunks and frosted with Texas Sheet Cake frosting (a.k.a. Hershey's Fudge) to any flavor of cake.
I'm sorry.

Brownie cake with ice cream and toppings.
Birthday Brownie sundaes!

Josh was so funny this year.
His "take-charge, in-control...tad-bit bossy" personality really came through.
Smart boy.

This year, he had an opinion on EVERYTHING birthday related.
He even decorated his own brownie with his Lego figures--before the frosting was set!

Once I let go of some of my take-charge, in-control...tad-bit bossy tendencies, I decided that he had done a pretty good decorating job!



Josh decided on Tacos for his birthday lunch.
I was leaning toward a slightly less complicated meal...like Chili!
Chewbacca Chili, Josh!
Doesn't that sound yummy?
Nope.
Tacos it is.

And after lunch?
Presents!!

Here's a picture of Josh, ready and waiting for present time, with Grandpa.

Can you guess what I love about this picture?
See that sweet little baby face in the frame above Josh?
That's 10-month old Baby Josh.
He really hasn't changed a bit.



Carrie hasn't admitted to this yet, but I know that Matthew is getting more airplane rides because she is conditioning for a new season of basketball.
I predict that Josh will be next in line for airplane rides.
When I get my turn, then I KNOW that she had an ulterior motive.



Star Wars-related gifts were pretty popular!
Here's the amazing thing...this is his second year of having a Star Wars party.
Christmas was in between.
And still...NO duplicate gifts!
To be honest, I don't think it would matter if he got a duplicate Star Wars anything, because he loves it all so much.



Star Wars Lego shirt!!



I love this!
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, Grandma took Josh out bike shopping.
Josh picked out his favorite bike that day, and he knew that it was the gift that Grandpa and Grandma were getting him for his birthday.

On the day of his party, there was no gift from Grandpa and Grandma.
Grandma asked him if he knew what they had gotten for him.
He made several guesses, but he truly had forgotten what they were giving him!

You should have seen his face when his orange bike was pushed out from behind the love seat.

He was so surprised and excited!



I had to take another picture of the brownie, because Josh kept tweaking his creation.
You will notice to the bottom right of the brownie, C3PO and the other 2 guys with him are now flat on their backs (Lying? Laying? I try to avoid that word and it's verb forms, because I can never remember which to use.)

I asked Josh about this, and he told me that those guys are doing snow angels.
Of course!



Festive picture of the party blowers.
I was being photographically creative with this one while at the same time trying to remain in control of the camera.



BROWNIE TIME!

Here are GG (Great-Grandma), Grandma, Grandpa, and Carrie...



William with one of the festive party blowers...



Grandma...



William loves to light the birthday candles.
He is a pyromaniac.



Look at that gentle blow!
I think that he is using The Force to extinguish these candles!



Did you think that I like to remain in control of the camera because I am a take-charge, in-control...tad-bit bossy person?
No.
It's because Paul has a dark side complete with a strong drive and deep determination to get me looking like a dork (USA pejorative slang for a quirky, silly and/or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends. Often confused with nerd and geek, but does not imply the same level of intelligence).



See?!



Then it was outside to really give that bike a try!



Hey, Matthew.
What do you think of William riding his new Monkey Bike in the rain?



William laid (?????) claim to Josh's old bike, put a new seat on it, and deemed it The Monkey Bike.

What do you think?



No comment.



Happy Birthday to my sweet boy, Joshua Robert!



I love you very much.

Enjoying the special things,

Celebrating Freedom!

Why is it that I am always one scoop short of having 12 perfectly formed lemon poppyseed muffins?

Every time I make muffins using a Betty Crocker mix (You didn't think they were homemade, did you? Oh my, no!), I come to my last muffin paper and have only 2 scoops to feed it. It takes three scoops to make it 2/3 full like the box says, but I always come up one short on the last muffin.

Always.

Then the choice is to...

1) take a spoon and share a little batter from each of the other eleven muffins with that sad twelfth muffin

2) take the batter from the twelfth muffin and divvy it out to the other eleven muffins...then add water to the twelfth muffin spot (something I read somewhere that you are supposed to do if you don't fill all of your muffin spots--something to do with equal distribution of heat or whatever)

3) don't worry about it and take what I get...probably a short, hard muffin which will be mine, since I am the one who either didn't divide properly or didn't scrape the bowl sufficiently

Isn't it funny how muffin tops look like turtle shells as they are rising in the oven.

Oh!

It just dawned on me that I forgot to post the second half of my turtle story before I went to bed last night!
What I consider the best part of the story!

Ah...there are many things that I forget to do before I go to bed.
If you know me, you know that I am a true morning person.
Which you would never figure out by reading the blog posts that I write in the morning.

We knew that we couldn't leave the turtle, deemed Teddy the Turtle, in our yard.
Eventually, Teddy would end up flipped over and tortured by Charlie, or Charlie would end up with a pierced tongue.
I'm making bets on the tongue-piercing.

William grabbed the keys to the truck, we shut the lid of the cardboard box so that Teddy couldn't climb out (he was trying!), and we headed toward the big pond in the neighborhood behind our home.

I wish that I had taken my camera, Carrie, and the little boys with us.
I am so sorry that I don't have pictures of what happened next.

We found a "just right" spot next to a tree and opened the box.
Teddy started walking toward the road.

Walking...is that what turtles do?
It doesn't sound right.
Meandering?
Teddy started meandering toward the road.
Better.
Not perfect...but better.

I picked him up--he hissed at me again--and I turned him around toward the pond.
He took a few steps...stopped...stretched his long beautiful neck...looked to the left and to the right...and then meandered at a very rapid pace straight toward the pond!

Because it has been so dry, there was a little beach area beside the water.
Teddy skipped right over the beach and went right into the water, leaving a mud swish in his wake.
O.K., so he didn't skip. I mean that he didn't stop at the beach. At all. He skipped it.
As he went underwater toward the middle of the pond, William and I saw some really long fish swim by.
Creepy.
Cool...but creepy.

No camera.
Doggone it!
You would think I would know better than to leave my camera behind.

One of these days, I am going to take my camera over to that pond and take a picture.
It is a beautiful pond for a beautiful turtle.

Keeping Teddy as a pet was a temptation.
It always is when we find stray frogs or skinks or anything...except snakes.

The temptation I deal with when I find a snake is to knock it senseless with my garden hoe.
If the garden hoe is within reach, I always give in to that temptation.
Sorry animal lovers.
I don't consider snakes to be animals.
No legs...not an animal.
Don't try to argue with me on this one.
I'm deaf.

Being a homeschool mom, I always think that having an animal to observe would be very cool.
But I can't get over the guilt of taking an animal out of his natural habitat and forcing him into the box with four glass walls.
Maybe if Teddy had never known freedom, it would be different.

Maybe not.

Hmmmm...there's a great homeschool lesson in itself.
Is freedom only freedom if you've experienced it personally?
Do you truly know freedom if you've only been in bondage?

Sorry...too deep for my one cup of coffee brain.

While I go fill up my mug, I will leave you with this.
My favorite kind of turtle is not really the free kind...



Enjoying the sweet things,

Of Turtles and Toes

Birthday posts are the hardest posts for me to write.
The ones with lots of pictures and lots to say.

It's hard to get all of the pictures placed right where I want them.
Oftentimes, I accidentally delete pictures in the process of moving them.

And it's hard to remember which pictures are where.
For every single picture, I have to switch over to "Preview" so that I write the right things above the right pictures.

It's hard to put my thoughts into words.
Especially when I am emotional about the subject and the people I am writing about.

I procrastinate.
Remember how I mentioned my perfectionistic tendencies and my insecurity issues and how I handle them?

So, I am going to work on Joshua's birthday post for a few more days and tell you about what happened this morning!

Several times we heard Charlie barking at something outside.
Carrie checked out the window and said that she was barking at the ground.
I dismissed it as a stupid mole and figured that sooner or later we would have many more stupid holes all over the backyard to walk into.

Later, when Carrie went outside to give Charlie new water, she opened the back door and yelled, "Charlie is barking at a turtle!"

A turtle?!
We've never had a turtle in our backyard!
Snakes? Yes.
Turtles? No!

Check him out!
Isn't he beautiful?!











I know.
Maybe a little drab when you just see the top of his shell, but take a look at this...









Definitely one of God's "Watch this!" creations...



Hang on...I just need to direct your attention to the sweet little toes in the bottom left of the picture.
Matthew toes.
Those are even more beautiful than the turtle, I think.




Painted turtles are another common species, divided into 4 subspecies.
All painted turtles have a smooth, dark green carapace without serrations. The plastron is predominately yellow, with no hinge. The black or dark green skin is striped. The chin is marked with two wide yellow stripes, meeting at the tip of the jaw. Painted turtles prefer shallow water areas with soft bottoms and basking areas. It is not uncommon to see many painted turtles basking on one log at one time.

Oh...and they forgot to mention that they hiss when they feel threatened.

Do you know what all that means?
It means he is beautiful!

Enjoying the beautiful things,

Oh Happy Day!

One of the best things ever happened in our family this summer.
I say one of the best, because it has happened twice before...the same, but different.

On Tuesday, July 19, Joshua asked Jesus to live in his heart!
What makes for a happier momma than that?

It's been a little while coming for Josh.
He had been asking questions and had even told me a couple of times that he thought that he was ready to have Jesus live in his heart.

Have I mentioned before that I suffer from perfectionism and insecurity?
If not, then I do.
I tend to not jump in and try things...or do things...if I am unsure that I can do them just so or at all.
Either that, or I have to think it through in my mind over and over again, add in a little research, and then go when I feel secure.

Sadly enough, that is what has happened each time my children have expressed an interest in giving their lives to Jesus.

I hesitated about asking Josh if he would like to pray and ask Jesus into his heart.
I hesitated because I was afraid that I would leave something really important out.
That I would somehow mess up and not do it right.

I prayed about it, knowing that my fears were silly.
After all, none of it is about me. It's something that is totally between Josh and God.

So, God caught me off guard.
I was playing Candy Land with Josh early one morning before anyone else was awake.
Josh doesn't like to lose, so having me all the way up with Queen Frostine while he was hangin' with Jolly did not make him very happy.
He kept asking me to trade places with him.

I think that some people are born with a "teacher gene."
Every moment becomes a "teachable moment."
I have that "teacher gene"...along with a healthy dose of competitiveness.
This was the perfect opportunity to teach Josh about what it means to be a poor loser and how we can celebrate with our friends...and our moms...when they win.
Which, by the looks of this game, I was going to be the winner.

Suddenly, mid-sentence, the True Teacher, the One in whose image I am created, spoke to me.
What a Teacher He is.
I knew that I was supposed to trade places with Josh.
And not only trade places, but to tell him about how Jesus traded places with us by going to the cross.
I can't even tell you what I said, because I know that Someone greater had the words that Josh needed to hear.
I was just the mouth.

Josh was thrilled when he crossed over into the Candy Castle with King Kandy.
"And someday, we will cross over into Heaven and be with our True King!"

I asked Josh if he would like to pray and ask Jesus into his heart.
He nodded and put his head down on my shoulder.
We prayed.
When we were finished, Josh lifted his head and was all teary-eyed.
I told him, "See? Jesus knocked on the door of your heart, and you answered!"
Josh nodded again...more tears.

Then he asked if he could go watch TV.

The following Sunday, Josh made his public profession during the Invitation.

Three weeks later, on Sunday, August 14--his 6th birthday!--Josh was baptized!

Here's Josh, sitting in the room upstairs behind the baptismal, waiting to get dressed in his robe and his Lego Star Wars swim trunks.



Josh and his extremely happy Mom...



I wasn't sure if Josh was nervous or not.
I always hate asking the kids if they are nervous before they do something big, so I usually don't ask.
Then Josh asked me a question, "Mommy? Will I still go to Heaven even if I don't get baptized?"
Again, the Holy Spirit gave words to this very emotional momma.
"Yes, Sweetie, you will. But remember how Pastor John told you that asking Jesus into your heart makes him the Lord--the King-- of your life? And how now you will do your best to always obey Him? Well, Jesus tells us to be baptized so that other people can see what decision we have made. This is a great first way to obey Jesus!"
"O.K.," Josh says a little unenthusiastically.
Not exactly what he was looking for.

"Are you nervous?"
"Uh huh."



I told him how nervous I was when I got baptized.
I was baptized as a baby in the Methodist church.
But that wasn't when I got nervous.
It was when I was 26 years old. I joined the Baptist church where we attend now. It is the church where Paul grew up and gave his life to Jesus. I was baptized as an adult in December of 1994.
Wow. That was a long time ago.
But I still remember how nervous I was.

It helped for Josh to talk about it.
Then he was ready to get all robed up!



This picture was taken by Pastor John.
He had a vision of Josh's profile against the white wall, but my flash went off.



My good friend, Kari, came in and asked if I would like her to take pictures for me.
Would I ever?!
How wonderful to be able to just enjoy Josh's baptism and not have to worry about flash or no flash?
Kari is an excellent photographer. She was able to capture the vision that Pastor John had.



Sweet boy.



After a prayer with Pastor John and our deacon, Kari's brother, Kenny, we made our way to the hallway behind the baptismal.
Pastor John always dresses in his fishing waders and his white robe.
This is a picture of Pastor John that I took in 2002 when Carrie was baptized. I love this picture!
Back when Carrie was baptized, my dad laughed and said, "She's got something in common with Jesus! She's being baptized by John the Baptist!"
We like to talk about that every time we celebrate a baptism.



Off to the water we go...



Pat, pat, pat...



Pastor John offered Josh his hand, but he walked all the way into the water without holding on.
That is so like Joshua. Very independent.



Pastor John introduces Joshua and talks about the decision that he has made.









Joshua, have you asked Jesus into your heart and indeed asked Him to be the Lord of your life?



"Uh huh. Yep."



Joshua, it is because of your profession of faith...



and the divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...



that I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.








AMEN!

Thank you to another good friend, Kellie, for sending me these pictures from another perspective...one that I haven't seen with my own kids!
I love these pictures!







Here's Joshua, full of smiles and relief, as he plays with the key chain that Grandma and Grandpa gave him...a Jesus fish.
He has learned to spell the name of the One he loves the most with this key chain.

How do I know that Josh loves Jesus more than anyone else?
He told me so.
"Mom, I love Jesus more than I love you. That's O.K., right?"
DEFINITELY!!



Later in the evening, Josh said to me, "Matthew's next!"

I think that Matthew is going to have his own personal evangelist!



Enjoying the really monumental, super-special, all-important, life-changing things,