hanging out in the backyard

enjoying my lemons! I love this tree and I love sharing my lemons...



my new umbrella..it was a birthday gift from my dad. He picked it out! It is a really cool mustard color and...

he picked out a granite umbrella stand too..

Matt's plant box has one little sunflower that reminds us of the little engine that could.

my tomatoes are coming!

pretty white flowers are popping up

my new grill ready for the pork chops...

neighborhood girls that pop up over the fence to say hi... I love that!

sometimes I wish I was not married in the early '90's

Weddings are so much more creative now than they were when I got married. Really, when Luke and Laura have the hyped up marriage look.....and what boring photography we had!

tule along the pews is as creative as we got...

and the dresses were....well, mostly like this

IF I could have another wedding (don't get me wrong - same man) , it would show more personality. I ran across this blog and quickly saved it to my favorites and titled it "the cutest wedding ever". Casual/adorable outdoor table setting...

a photo booth at the reception! love this!

late night 'smores

anyway, you will have fun looking at their blog with more cuteness, ideas and even a cost breakdown - that is one of the saddest parts for me, my church hall reception cost more!

cutest wedding ever

another little birthday

Today is the birthday of my little blog. I certainly had enough birthday food and fun this past weekend, but hey, what's one more. I started hopes fulfilled blog with the idea of having a place to share my thoughts, my hopes and what makes me happy.

I wanted to blog for one year and then, on my 40th birthday, I would make it into a book as a present to myself. Well, since that time making a blogger blog into a good quality book is a little harder - but I am working on it.

I never kept up with my journal or scrapbooks - but I have with this blog. I have been able to share myself and my little life with people I know and love, people I am just getting know and total strangers, many of whom are not strangers any more.

Looking back...

• My very first post - I could never read that quote too often



• My first "I Heart Saturday..." post



• My most personal post



• My favorite memory of a post - Amy Grant tickets wanted - such sweet friends
• My "day in the life of" post

Sometimes I have a thought that I want to write about and it goes into my "draft" file. In that file today I found posts titled...

• A post on being a homeschooling/working mom



• Junk food for the soul - I think this was to be my thoughts on my TV watching



• Prayer sticks - a post about our family's way of praying for others

How do I have time to blog? Sometimes I blog when the dishes are not yet done, yet I do go back and clean them. I blog while sitting next to my husband while he watches music related videos/blogs or listens to a sermon podcast. Other times I blog late at night when I am supposed to be working on an appraisal report and I just get too bored with that.

Right now I am blogging when everyone is quiet in their rooms, husband is not yet home from work and I am not sure if anyone has had dinner yet. Oops - I better go figure that out.

I Heart Saturday AND....she colors my day

happy 8th birthday sweet girl!

celebratory cuisine and a birthday prayer

This week is full of fun and celebrations and so of course - eating out. In the past two days you could find me at:

lunch with friends after our last co-op

breakfast with the kids after MRI for Nate's knee

lunch with Niki 'cause she is 17

and today

'cause it's free for me

and Bria's pick for her b-day on Saturday! Do you feel sick yet?

So, today is the day I turn 40 and I am sharing my birthday prayer.

When I was 20 I might have thought my prayers would sound more like this by now. Firstly, that I would be "old" at 40 and secondly, that my sanctification would have resulted in such utterances by now. It turns out I am not that grown up yet.

It is my prayer though and I can only hope that it becomes more of my prayer for the next 40 years.

Lord, You know better than I know myself that I am getting older and will someday be old. Keep me from... the fatal habit of thinking I must say something in every subject and on every occasion.

Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but You know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind from the recital of endless details-give me wings to come to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter.

I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me to endure the with patience. I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.

Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I will be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint-some of them are so hard to live with-but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil.

Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And give me the grace to tell them so.

From Elisabeth Elliot's little book "Gateway to Joy".

It is attributed to a seventeenth-century nun.

off to Neverland...here we go!

The Corona troupe never let's us down - it was an awesome production of the classic musical and we just loved it! We said "here we go", we wanted to be the mother to all the lost boys and tell them stories and we clapped really hard and said "we believe" so that tinkerbell would not die.




and then we ate cake




Because it's our birthday week- that's why!

I Heart Saturday AND......shipmates

The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son Francis Kirwin Seeley, ship's cook first class, U.S. Navy, is missing following action in performance of his duty and in the service of his country. The department appreciates your great anxiety, but details not now available and delay in receipt thereof must necessarily be expected. There has been no casualty report concerning your other son, Lewis Everett, ship's cook first class, U.S. Navy.

Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs,
Chief of Naval Peronnel
Arlington, VA 4:14 pm

This was the telegram sent to my Great Granmother Seeley (my Dad's grandmother) in 1943. Later she would learn that her son Francis "Bob" Seeley was dead.



My Great Uncle Lewis, the surviving brother, wrote this book regarding the sinking of his ship and the passing of his brother. It is such a great book and easy to read. (available here at amazon.com) I love that he was brave enough to face his sorrows in retelling the story of these brave men. I will read it again this weekend and think of not only these men, but all of the American soldiers who have died fighting for our country.



On September 11, 1943, Lewis E. Seeley and his brother Bob, were serving their country aboard the destroyer USS Rowan, DD 405. Shortly after one in the morning, the ship was torpedoed by German e-boats, and sank in forty seconds. Two hundred and four men died almost instantly. Bob was among them. Wracked by grief and guilt, Lewis spent the next four decades trying to forget that night. But eventually, he found himself unable to ignore or resist the insistent nightmares of that night. He realized that to put the ghosts to rest, he would have to seek out the company of his shipmates to help him remember.

a new room for the girl

The girlies birthday is coming up and as a birthday gift, I told her we could re-decorate her room. So, for the past few months we have been looking around at options and ideas for bedding/style.


this is what I had in mind...



this is what she had in mind...

While our style choices may be different and I will give in and she will obey :) I think we found a cute happy medium (by the way, I am really liking that chalk board stripe on the wall in the pottery barn example above)

I can get my pink and white and she can get her green, brown and more "tween" look. Today we are off to look at paint options - she is wanting every wall a different color...aahh..here we go again!

I Heart Saturday AND.....Matt's Blog

Snickers and Me

Matt has a blog! I only walked him through it once and then he was on his way. He has even added a playlist of his favorite songs and his own links. It is so cute.

This will be fun to see what is important to him and have him try his hand at writing, journaling, and spell check! I'm sure he would be surprised by a comment or two- so please feel free.

My favorite posts so far:

How the Violin Works

Boardsliding Skills

Grammar Assignment (I gave him the option of typing it as a post or writing it on paper - he had to take a boring paragraph and add description words)

fashion show fun...by bria

It's a Frugal Fashionista Party at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

I love fashion and my mom loves when I find clothes at the goodwill store on half-price friday! I love Selnea Gomez outfits - her look is easy to get without spending a lot of money.



all of these clothes we got at the Salvation Army. At first I complain when we go in, because the cutest clothes are sometimes hard to find. There are times when we go in and do not get anything. Last week though...we find all these cute things...

I got this jacket for $1.25....





then we found this sweatshirt with owls on it for $0.50



..this is my smart look - this pink jacket was $1.00. I am wearing it with a pink dress, but I could also wear it with jeans



summer t-shirt.$0.25 which goes perfect with my new shoes



This is me in my new "free love" t-shirt that I love and we found perfectly matching plaid shorts :) Total outfit was less than $2.00 and I love it!





...this is my brother Matt. He got this cool shirt and shorts for under $3.00. He looks good - I guess.



It was so fun having my mom take pictures of my new thirft store clothes!
bye

a little sad and something to cheer me up

I woke a little sad this morning.
It seems to happen at the end of every school year.
I think I could have done a better job with the kids.
More than birthdays, buying the next year's grade curriculum
reminds me they are getting older - fast

Nate almost done with freshmen year in high school -
I'm getting a little nervous
driving soon?
can we afford that?

I do not like the heat
I love the cold

I turn 40 this month
I am starting a diet today

that is my grumbles for this morning

this little viedo made me smile and tear up a bit because I am wierd

I Heart Saturday AND ........being the mom

Time is going so fast. The kids are growing up and changing everyday. What a blessing to be the mom to these three.

trading card

an early b-day present from an artist and friend....i love this! It is a hand painted artist trading card with the reminder that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. thank you kristen....

I Heart Saturday AND .......jolly beggars

"Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our Need, a joy in total dependence. We become Jolly Beggars."

C.S. Lewis

(picture taken from our friends property in Tennessee)