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Showing posts from April, 2011
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The first stop on our April vacation was South Carolina. While we were there, we visited my family and stayed with old friends. One afternoon, we visited my sister at Cypress Gardens (again), but this time with my mom and dad (who is out of the hospital and doing much better.) Dwayne paddled me, the kids, my mom and dad through the swamp with my help (but he'd call it "interference") at times. At one point, we got the boat stuck sideways between two cypress trees. Very funny. We saw a small gator in the water in front of us, so we paddled fast and caught up to him. It was cool to watch his tall swish back and forth as he swam. He dove under the water right after I took this photo and he disappeared from view after he was under only a few inches of water. Disturbing. I think these are called "snot weeds." When you feel the underside of them, they are covered in a slime that feels just like thick mucus. Fascinating. This little blue heron was breathtaking. T
My Resolutions for 2011. I'm trying not to give into the urge to forget this list even exists, trying to keep it in front of me so I may actually accomplish all these things. Let Norah play outside . Doing well with this. Norah's been outside everyday (that it hasn't rained) since we've been home from vacation. Read through the entire Bible . I'm supposed to be using this plan . But, I am very behind schedule. I think I am almost done with reading for the month of January. Like I said, I'm very behind. Pray . I've enjoyed the prayer times I have had since I've been home from vacation. I find it hard to be in my "secret place" with God while in hospital rooms, hotel rooms or other people's homes. Read . I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in January. In February, I read "The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "Needless Casualties of War." In March, I read "Dumbing Us Down" and started &qu
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I started the other day still bummed that my vacation was over and not entirely ready for "real life" to begin. But after encouraging one friend, praying with another, planning a visit with a new friend the next week and planning to make lunch for an old friend and her family after church that coming weekend (and all this done by lunchtime), the Holy Spirit shook some sense into me and whispered as I was sweeping the kitchen floor, "You can't live the life I want you to live and be an effective friend if you travel all the time." I realized that my friends are here and God has called me to be a friend... So, that's all it took to settle the conflict in my spirit. I was happy to be home again.
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Avril about to eat some fried chicken at the Easter Eggstravaganza.
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This is a photo of Norah at our church's Easter Eggstravaganza last Saturday afternoon. She was inside a huge soccer-type ball that she rolled by crawling forward. A good friend of ours took this photo and sent it to me today. The church had a bunch of festive activities for the kids indoors and an egg hunt outside (once it stopped raining long enough.) The girls are still eating the candy they got that day (and probably will be eating on it for another week).
There is always someone I know who needs my prayers. One friend is grieving the loss of a young niece, another is struggling with the prospect of months of sickness, another is battling negative emotions. I don't understand all that happens in the spiritual realm when I take another person's name and dilemma to God over and over again. But, I believe the power of prayer cannot be underestimated. That power doesn't come because of who I am. It comes from the compassionate, powerful God I pray to. But, my comfort in using prayer comes from who I am or rather, how short my sin-list is. The longer I follow God, the more I realize that I do not spend time in God's presence for my own sake alone. Of course, I benefit from time spent with God and the clean conscience that time brings. But, even when I don't feel the need of holiness or friendship with God for my own sake, I must remember to continue to pursue Him so that when I am called on to pray for others, I c
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My daughter didn't go to school for three whole weeks!!! But, these are only some of the books she read while we traveled: The Minstrel in the Tower Magic School Bus Polar Bear Patrol Magic School Bus Wet All Over Corn is Maize Horses and Ponies Spotter's Guide Magic Tree House Tonight on the Titanic Magic Tree House Research Guide Pirates Why I Sneeze, Shiver, Hiccup and Yawn Puzzle Train Let's Go Rock Collecting Mysteries and Marvels of Plant Life Usborne Hotshots Swimming Best Knock Knock Book Ever National Geographic Almanac 2010 Magic School Bus Blows its Top Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive Pippi Longstocking Mr. McBroom's Wonderful One Acre Farm A Chair for my Mother How Mountains are Made Usborne Internet linked Dinosaurs Hill of Fire Clara and the Bookwagon Meet Molly Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake Molly Learns a Lesson Molly's Surprise
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You will have to forgive me for not posting the last several days. Along with computer and camera issues, I guess I had lost interest. I am trying to settle back into reality and begin finding joy in the everyday things that used to humor me (like blogging). But, I find myself staring out the windows a lot. My body may be here in Connecticut, but my mind is often still on a beach in the Caribbean. I fear that the two may not reunite for much more than a few minutes at a time from now on... unless we go on another cruise so my mind and body have no desire to separate.
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Easter Sunday - 2011
I'm making a real effort to grow my collection of Usborne books. They're timeless books, the kind that every one of your kids, regardless of age and gender can read and reread through the years. Many of the best home school curricula (The Well Trained Mind, Sonlight, etc.) rely on Usborne books heavily. If you are interested, you can click here and look through the links on my friend's Usborne website, seeing what's in their online catalog. If you order anything from that link during the month of April, I will earn credit towards more Usborne books for my family, actually... So, please! Order! Note: If you are a family member of mine and you just want to order something for Norah directly, I am maintaining a wish list here . You can choose the books off the list that you want to provide for us, order and pay for them, but have them sent to our address. (My Aunt Patti already did this... She got eight of the the ten books I wanted the most... I actually need to
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I got my Insect Lore catalog in the mail the other day. It inspired me to settle my plans for this spring/ summer. #1- I ordered the Frog Hatchery Refill before we left for vacation. It should arrive by the time we get home or right after. We have to send the coupon back for them as soon as we get home. I need to send for the frogs as soon as we get home... and start them as soon as we can so we have the whole summer to watch them grow. They take three whole months to grow into mature frogs! We already have a sturdy, plastic tub from our praying mantis that we can move the large tadpoles into and watch them grow to frogs. I also ordered the book called One Small Square: Pond . I already own From Tadpole to Frog and Why Are Frogs Wet . We will read these books over and over and can watch our frogs grow then release them into a nearby pond sometime at the end of July (or give them to friends who want them.) We will probably keep one or even two, but I just don't think we c
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You can't see the mess she made on the floor in order to make enough space for herself in that drawer. I cropped the photo. But, I didn't really see the mess anyway. At least, I wasn't focused on it. I happened to have a positive perspective that day. But, I mean really . Even their mischief is something to be thankful for, at times, right?
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Instead of using her own finger to point to the pictures on the page, Avril insists on holding mine and putting it where she wants it to be.
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When Norah gets a new book, the first thing she asks now is, "Is it internet linked??!!" Usborne internet linked books have ruined her love for normal books. She's always more than a little disappointed if a book doesn't have things she can look up and do online. She even has a tab on her desktop now that will take her straight to the Usborne quick-link page .
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This photo just screams "New England!" to me. See Norah's hair blowing... and her eyes shut tight against it. The wind was freezing that day. But, if the sun is out and the ground isn't covered in snow, we are just compelled to go outside anyway.
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One of my recent thrift store finds... This was only $3, still in the box with everything , even the paint and brush. It was solid white then, but Norah spent two days painting, letting it dry, painting it some more. On the morning of the third day, I thought for sure that she was done, so I threw all the paints away and cleaned up her art station. She came into the room and questioned me. I told her, "I honestly thought you were done..." To this, she said, "But there was still some white left on it!"
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This is Avril's new favorite book (and mine, too). We read it at least twice a day right now. I found this for $3 at the thrift store last week, so I grabbed it right up even though we already have at least three other alphabet books like it. (Books that have a letter on each page with pictures that start with that letter, etc...) But, before I got this book, I hadn't realized that I was actually avoiding reading to Avril because I was so bored with the books we already had after reading them over and over for years... But, now that we have this new book to explore, I find that I have rediscovered my love for reading to my daughter and it's such a joy to sit down with Avril for fifteen minutes at a time (or more!!! Gasp!) and read through the book and talk about it. So, learn from my mistake... If reading to your kids is starting of feel like a chore, consider changing your books.
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Norah finally got to do the "jumping-thing" at the mall. She's been wanting to do this for years. She paid for it with her own money, too. She had $13.50 burning a hole in her pocket when we headed to the mall that day. She was very satisfied with purchase and even has $3.50 left over.
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My eyes are so color-starved right now! The only thing that isn't monotone is the sky. I can't wait to come home from vacation to spring in Connecticut. By the time we are back, I expect this backyard to look very different. One of the first things I will do when I get home is buy a new liner for this planter and fill it with fresh black dirt and colorful annuals.
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I am hijacking this blog for a few minutes to pledge my undying love to the keeper of this blog. Thank you for ignoring those who said we had just met, or were too young, or too poor, or too immature to make it work. Thank you for seeing past my being a yankee, and a Star Trek fan. Thank you for allowing us to be together in our most formative years.  As Christians we believe that the marriage union acts as a metaphor to our relationship with Christ teaching us about love, joy, sacrifice, respect, honor. It truly is my honor to share these 10 years with you, my friend and lover. What a privilege to be looking forward to the next ten with the best woman in the world. I love you!
We're going on 10 years of marriage this month. It's hard to believe. We got married one Saturday morning smack dab in the middle of our junior year of college, so we never had a honeymoon, officially (unless you count that Monday we skipped all our college classes and stayed in bed). We had to choose between furniture or a honeymoon and we chose the couches we still have in our front room today. I remember telling Dwayne, "You will just have to take me somewhere really nice on our 10 year anniversary..." And, in my youthful ignorance, I remember thinking that it would certainly be so much easier to get away by the time we had been married for ten years, certainly. But, now, ten years later, with dentist bills and doctor appointments and commitments and a mortgage and a career and two kids and home school, it's much harder to get away now than it was even then. But, Dwayne kept his promise and he's taking me on a "second honeymoon." But, re
Second kids are notorious for not talking as early as the first. But, I asked the doctor if Avril was normal anyway. He asked me, "What do you mean?" I said, "She doesn't talk as much as Norah..." To this, he laughed and said, "No one talks as much as Norah." Well, that made me feel better about Avril, at least. But, that said. Avril doesn't really talk much at all and I am on and off worried over it, especially now that she is two, officially. (By now, her sister knew all the names and sounds of the letters in the alphabet.) But, I know Avril can talk. She just doesn't . The other day, I hadn't given the kids breakfast and it was going on 11am. (I know. It's just shocking.) So, Avril walked into the bathroom where I was... um... where I was. And she said, plain as day, "I want some num nums." When she said the word "I" she pointed to her chest. When she got to "num nums," she pointed at her tum
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Now. Then. Now and then I compare my pictures. This shows me how quickly my kids grow, how what seem like insignificant minutes add up to hours, days, years... So, I am reminded that every moment is significant. For what is your life? It is a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. James 4:14
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A photo of my daughter Norah and her baby sister Avril playing dress up this morning. Keep in mind, Norah is home schooled, so she has no idea that she should be embarrassed by this photo. - The article at this link is a little sarcastic and one sided. If I sent my kids to public school, I'd be miffed by it. But, it makes some interesting observations, none the less. I hadn't realized that my home schooled daughter was as weird as she really is until I read this article and was reminded. You see, my daughter has no idea who Justin Beaver is. (I know it's Bieber.) But, for real, she doesn't know he even exists and I have no plan on telling her. She could care less whether or not her clothes say Abercrombie. (Just as long as her shirt is pink. It must be pink. Or have horses on it... but most of the time she is in pajamas anyway.) Her self esteem is entirely independent of what she has on. She doesn't even know that people connect their self-esteem to what
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When Norah leaned in for the picture, Avril put her arm around her, smiled and just squeezed with all her heart. I'm glad I caught Avril's joy on camera. Avril just loves her big sister.