Birthday quilt

I finally finished my birthday quilt.  You can look here for more details, but for my 30th birthday, Rodd had all my friends get me 1/2 yard of material so I could make a quilt (or whatever I wanted) with it.  I had every intention to finish it right away (like back in February) but that clearly never happened. With all the different kinds of material, every layout looked so jumbled and mismatched and I did not know what to do.  In the end, I settled with a simple patchwork and I’m glad I did.

So…drum roll please…this is my new colorful addition to our living room.  It was a fun & relaxing (most of the time) project for me to work on every other month or so.  I wish you could see all the unique material picked out so carefully by my friends.  They did a GREAT job choosing exactly what they knew I would love.  Thanks you, friends!

Magic Tricks

My dad has taken on a new hobby for his grandkids–magic tricks. As he travels around to different countries, he takes his bag of tricks and does it for different kids he sees and they all seem to really like it.  So before S & L went to bed tonight, he showed us some of his incredible magic. I can’t even tell you how HILARIOUS it was! Sydney was laughing so hard and was quite impressed! Rodd and I were laughing equally hard…but not equally impressed. (Actually…some of them are pretty cool.)

 

 

They’re here!

Yay! My parents made it here safely on Sunday night. Sydney had pleaded with us to go to the airport with Rodd to pick them up, so we put her to bed at her normal bed time and planned on waking her up right before it was time to leave.  When the time came, we could NOT wake her up no matter how hard we shook her, so we decided to let her sleep.  (She still made her way into their bed at 4:30 in the morning.) Sydney won’t leave my mom’s side and logan loves his grandpa. There’s something so sweet about watching your kids interact with your parents.

  

There’s a glare on the sign… but it says “Welcome Grandpa and Grandma”

 

We’re glad to have some superheros around the house finally!  It’s a nice change from princesses and ballerinas.

Preparing??

Rodd’s mom offered to watch the kids this morning so we could get ready for my parent’s arrival tomorrow night.  Does spending an hour at Borders drinking coffee, looking through magazines, and prepping for small group on Wednesday count?

 

 Or how about riding around town on the motorcycle?

Ever since Rodd bought the bike I haven’t had a chance to go out with him on it…but this morning was the perfect opportunity, and oh my goodness…it tooootally took me back to my childhood. It was SO fun and brought back many memories! Up until now, I’ve been a little leery about leaving my kids fatherless AND motherless from a motorcycle accident, but after driving with Rodd and seeing his expertise skills I’m not so worried about that scenario anymore.

My sister’s ramblings…

I sent my sister an email a few weeks ago and I forget what I actually said to her in it, but it had been a  long day for some reason and I realized that I felt so drained from being NEEDED all day and being at my kids beck and call.  I had written her a typical conversation/scenario in my house and she responded back to my mom and I with this email.  It made me smile. I’m just going to paste in part of her email here…

“It was so funny cuz the other day I was thinking something similar to you (the constantly needed thing).  I was getting dinner for the kids yesterday (pancakes/eggs), and their appetites are getting bigger so they’re inhaling their food.  I made them each a plate, and then was making milk or something before I got my own plate fixed.  Before I was done, they started, “Mom, can I have another one?…..Mom, can you cut mine (Luke)…..Mom, can I have more drink (Landon)….Mom, he’s taking my eggs (Kade)….Mom, can I have 3 more?(Landon)…Mom, I pilled my dwink all over da pace (Luke)…. Mom, I need my nose wiped (Kade)….Mom, Luke’s putting his food in his cup (Kade)….Mom, can I have more? (Landon)….Mom, I don’t want my eggs anymore (Kade)….Mom, you forgot the syrup…Mom, I need get down, I need go potty (Luke)….Mom, can I have more pancakes (Landon)…. on and on it went…. I hadn’t stopped moving, and don’t think I actually sat down to eat my food til the kids were finally done. 

I was dying – and at one point I even said to Lane, “Oh my word!  When my kids are independent I will NOT know what to do with myself!”  Within one short little meal, more often than not there’s spilled drinks, disciplining for one thing or another, wiping bottoms, wiping noses, fixing food, and lots of training, “How do you ask?  Don’t talk with your mouth full…..stop touching your brother….push your cup back….eat over your plate….what do you say?…..eat it all….stop being silly….etc. etc.  ah, it’s a funny life!  Wow!  We have a big job sis!    But I don’t doubt that someday we’ll miss these busy, stressful, but often hilarious times while our kids are little!  Did you ever miss it,  Mom?”

 

Karrie with one of her three

 

A good read

Treasuring God in our Traditions  is a book I read last summer and since that time I have picked it up and read a chapter here and there.  In this book, Noel Piper gives a lot of practical advice on establishing God-centered traditions (instead of just empty habits) with your family throughout the year.  I don’t usually recommend books, but if I could, I would buy this one for all my friends. I have really enjoyed it!

Here are a few paragraphs  (out of hundreds of really good ones) from the book.

“ We may try to teach our children that the “earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” Psalm 24:1. They may memorize the words and meditate on them.  BUT they learn what the words mean when they see in their own home that our family and our home and our food and our stuff and our time are not ours. They are the Lord’s and that means these things are available for his purposes of love.”

“All of us are training our children both intentionally and unintentionally.  We need to make sure we aren’t leaving the important things to happenstance.  We know it’s crucial that they become familiar with God, our Heirloom and our only hope for real life.  We yearn for them to love and trust and follow Christ.  It would be foolish  just to wait for them to learn that by chance.  We must plan to reflect God and teach about Christ in the repeated events of our lives.”

Planning Session

We set up the kid’s little pool yesterday (Sunday) and drank refreshing slushies while we planned out our week.  It’s definitely a busy one for us…but I love weeks like this.  I’d much rather have things planned throughout the week than nothing at all.  I love the adrenaline of  having guests over, and all that goes into prepping for it…even if it’s not much.  Then I look forward to the time with friends, inevitable laughter, coffee, fellowship, trying to talk over the sounds of the kids playing etc.  It’s all good.  Plus…  I love a clean house and clean bedrooms (that noone will even see) and even the mess and cleanup that follows it all when the night is over.

Over the course of this week Rodd is taking a class in Orlando on ASP.net.  He’s really been looking forward to this, so if you think of him, please pray that he will learn a lot, clearly understand what he’s being taught, and really enjoy this course.  Rodd is not a morning person, so for him to have to be out the door and on the road by 6:30 is rough.  Living so close to NTM, we get spoiled having Rodd come home for lunch sometimes.  We’ll miss him this week. 

 Strawberry Lemonade Slushy: lemondade, strawberries, ice & water all blended together.  SO good on a hot day!

 

 

 

T minus 1 week…

…and definitely counting until my parents get here! We are so thankful we get to see them twice a year, and this Sunday is when they arrive.

Part of this week’s preparations will include: 

• Making cookies for the “cookie monster” (This is a standing joke between Sydney and my dad where she has cookies hid from him when he gets here and even hides a few in the van for the trip home from the airport.)
• Make a welcome sign of some sort            
• Making beds and moving Logan into Sydney’s room
• Cleaning
• Straightening the garage…maybe
• Grocery shopping  (They can basically get anything in Thailand, but a few things they like to get here are good apricot jam & Peppridge Farm cherry turnovers.)

 

ZOO

Rodd and I took a day trip to Melbourne on Saturday and enjoyed a few places that we don’t usually visit.  We used our Sanford zoo pass and spent most of the day at the Brevard County zoo . We had never been there and were not expecting much, but we were nicely surprised and had a great day. The kids loved it! Click on the photo to see pics of a few of our favorite animals and also to see how long our bodies would last in a rainforest with vultures.

Brevard ZOO

Operation Cleanup

The preface to this story is two-fold. 

1. As a family, we want to be more intentional about doing things for others and teaching the kids that life is not just about them.  (This is hard when we as the parents don’t model it enough.) True that they are at young ages and it makes it more difficult–but that just means that we need to be more creative in thinking of practical ways to live this out. 
2. As the president of our HOA, Rodd is aware of all the $$ we are paying.  He discovered that we are paying a company over $300.00 a month to go around our neighborhood and pick up trash that is left  in people’s yards, the street etc.  

Rodd came up with the brilliant plan that this would be a great opportunity for us as a family to do something for others, give us more opportunities to meet people in our neighborhood, and save the community $300/month. We’ve only been doing it for a few weeks now, but Sydney loves it.  She keeps saying, “Mom, we should go pick up some trash today.”   It was actually a great lesson for me too–in humility and serving others. 

So here’s what it looks like.  Sydney is our scout.  She gets on her bike, and rides in front of us pointing out any garbage she sees on the horizon.  Logan is the garbage driver for half the time, and trash finder and stick thrower the rest of the time. Kristie is responsible for keeping Logan out of the street… while picking up trash along the road (always on the lookout for killer dogs of course.) Rodd is the mastermind behind it all–and definitely the one who does the most work.