Where’ve you birds been???

We had a Rawls Family Reunion this weekend. It was more than I could have asked or thought. My Aunt Ruth and her son Michael were the first ones up. The kids love them!   Christian called the house looking for Michael. My mom said that he wasn’t there so he asked for Aunt Ruth. “She’s not here either” my mom said.  “OK ,  buh-bye” said Christian.  Aunt Becky came in with her sunny smile followed by Uncle Steve and Aunt Melissa and their son Thomas and his wife Heather.  All my dad’s family were very involved playing with the kiddos and also were so good dealing with them! They refereed and pushed swings with the best of them.  My mom did a bang up job on the food.  Dad’s sibs are referring to her as “Paula Deen”.  I love hearing all the stories and could listen to them over and over.  I hope I can share some here.  I am so happy to see everyone and I hope we get together very soon.  Pics will follow soon as my camera is missing again. 

Mother Daughter Tea Party

Whirlwind

I just got home from my parents. I was visiting with Aunt Ruth and Aunt Becky.  We laughed ourselves silly!  The stories……that will have to be for another time.

We went to Parks Bentley House on Thursday for a History Mystery and for a presentation on the one room schoolhouse. When we were leaving Christian said “Mom, that made what we were reading about come alive” :-)

Today Christian had piano, then we went to visit our friends at the Nursing Home.  We made a  few new friends.  One man, Mr. C was in the Marines during WW2.  He is always there visiting his wife, all day. She had a stroke and he sold his house to his son and got an apartment nearby so he could be with his wife. What a dear man!!  At one point Christian nudged him and said “kids” referring to his sibs “what do they know about life?”  (a direct quote from Andy Griffith). The boys also got their haircut at the salon in the nursing home. Christian took Sophie around the lunchroom to say hello to the residents. I enjoyed seeing Mrs. O, our old neighbor. She always lights up our day.

Gilli and Christian are spending the night at Nana’s making hot tamales.  I am probably delirious by now. If you see the Freihoffer Run for Women tomorrow be sure to cheer extra loud for TEAM LESLIE!!! You go girl!! :-)

I cannot be the only one

hastily throwing together scones while yelling “no water balloons”  (!) at 7 am.

Nature Hike

We took a Nature Hike in Wilton.

 

First the rules were laid out, mainly *no touching*. There are many species of endangered plants. 

Lady slipper

Columbine

Forget me not

Abby, who Christian and I took turns carrying (while Sophie was in her usual perch on my back). She perked up when Burger King was mentioned.

Ollie

Chen

A newt Christian caught

It was fun, I am tired. These women who set this up are amazing. They have high expectations for the children and they rise to meet them. They also are relaxed and fun moms :-) 

Good Finds

I squeezed in a quick yard sale stop. I found some treasures! 

1. vintage Tuperware

2.lots of fun tiny glass juice cups

3.assorted Corell, I always grab it when it isn’t hideous and the price is right

4. vintage muffin tin for a craft

5. what I hope is a jadite plate for a friend

6. a French bingo game with a tape. We will be studying Latin again next year but we seem to have a strong interest in French.

Gilli bought a book, a cute vintage apron, an umbrella,and a flower arrangement for me.  I also bought a small vac (I am a sucker for any implement  which will help me and the family clean) and a pair of Clarks sandals.  All for well under $10.

Whatsoever things are lovely……

Gillianne and I used a balance and counting tiles in math review today

We did some surface tension experiments.  I could not get the needle to float ~sigh~

Ollie was not able to skate after making a bad choice so he passed time at the rink reading.

Christian

Gillianne

We had fun with friends!

Nana and Sophie

In the interest of full disclosure I was feeling very gnarly inside. Nothing inhaling 3 of my husbands giant diet ice-cream  bars didn’t help :-)

Butternut Squash Spice Muffins

Ollie and I made muffins for breakfast today.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spiced-Butternut-Squash-Muffins/Detail.aspx

How much food for Sunday breakfast?

*2 loaves of bread

*4 eggs, milk, vanilla

made into french toast

*2 blenders full of smoothie

I can’t imagine how much I will be cooking when they are teens….. 

Humor

is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility

~James Thurber

Exhilaration

 

Colorful

~Soaring~

Harbinger of spring

Bobbing on waves of wind

Makes my heart pound

laughter

joy

a

    w

          a

                y

             I

g

      o

More 4-H Pictures

A Two Week old calf , she was huge!

Everyone wanted to touch the cow

Sophia hanging around

The pony was a big hit. I never knew that ponies are stronger than horses and can live on barely anything.

Gilli loved milking the goat. She is begging for one.

Christian milking the goat

Gilli and Grace holding hens.

*Thanks for the pictures Nanette :-)

We should never be embarrassed if our child misbehaves.

We should only be embarrassed if we fail to deal with our child’s misbehavior.

~Donna Jones, Taming Your Family Zoo

 

Happy Wednesday

Christian studying Lewis and Clark

Ollie making cranberry muffins

Christian on the deck

 

Abby :-) 

Dad and Sophie

Gilli got her hair trimmed, her hair is so long she couldn’t sit. she had to stand.

I hope you all had a great day!

Field Trip!

Today we met Nanette and Gracie for a field trip at the 4H Training Center. The nice Glens Falls Cop-op set it up.:-)   It was awesome!

One of the highlight was the children milking goats, pictures are forthcoming.

We popped over to my Dad’s house on the way home. Christian and Gilli love to “ride” in my dad’s Chevy truck.

School

A read aloud always sounds better with fresh popped popcorn. I use red palm oil so it is healthier.

 

Science is always more memorable when goggles and fire are involved.

Thank you

Thank you Christian, Gilli, Ollie, Abby and Sophie (Keith too) for being patient and forgiving as I muck things up,  for forbearing and supporting my notions.  Thank you for cuddles and sharing your excitement (Mom, you *HAVE* to see this). Thank you Keith for working hard to support all seven of us so I can be home with our children. Thank you for listening and helping me formulate plans. Thank you for doing math with Christian and for how you have been cheerfully encouraging the children.  Thank you to my friends for listening to the same. things.over.and.over.  and for laughing with me! Thank you for gently lifting my chin and raising my eyes to the Lord.

 

I made bread pudding and served it in my Nana’s Sundae glasses.

It was a hit.

This was on the back of our church bulletin today:

Mother’s day is when everyone waits on mother and she pretends she doesn’t mind the extra work.

Lastly I am thankful for all the moms in my life, particularly my mom and Keith’s mom.  God has used them so much in our lives. I am purposing to show them :-)

BFF

The Five Days of Mother’s Day

5. Albuterol treatments

4. episodes of vomiting

3.ear infections

2.cases of pinkeye

1. grateful mom

You had to be there

No one else will understand the hilarity of this .

My mom and Aunt wanted me to relax so they sent me for a facial. I never had one before. I do not like to be massaged by anyone except my husband but a facial sounded appealing. When I got to the spa my appearance must have shouted “Coupon!” because the first thing the spa girl asked me was if I had a voucher for a free facial (I did). Thankfully I stopped at Lynne’s on the way. She pointed out a huge brown spot on the back of my skirt and promptly provided a new one.

Back to the spa. I walked into a dimmed room and she said

“Take everything off from the top down”.

Certainly I must be misunderstanding. I am getting a *facial*, not a full body rubdown. I will spare you the details on my attire but I only partially complied. She was nice but cool, an artist originating from the suburbs. She started lotioning and rubbing. Suddenly she was shooting hot steam in my face, for about 5 minutes straight. . All the while there was a machine massaging up and down my back. Zamphir was twittering away on his pan flute. The next step was poking my face with a toothpick. “I am removing your blackheads” she said. I didn’t know I had blackheads!! “I see everything” she told me.

My skin looks better than it has in a long time and I had a lot of laughs afterward :-)

How to be an Early Bird

1. Get an annoying dog

2. have children in rapid succession so someone is always waking you up

3. Have anxiety so when you accidently wake up at 4am you can’t fall back asleep

4. Get your husband involved in hunting or some other sport which requires him to get up and leave before dawn

*This post is purely fictional. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.