2, 6 and 8 grades...not quite ready for starting school days

Gates in 8th, Sadie in 2nd and Riley, 6th. With slick new cuts I hardly recognize the boys.

Students were showing Mrs. Smith they could already count to 100 with their eyes closed (what she claimed they would learn in 2nd grade)

Mrs Smith's 2nd Grade

No bow, no headband, not even a ponytail holder. *sigh

Shucking corn for the big "Thanks for DC" dinner.

i "end-capped" the idea from Southern Living and HAD to make this--in true form--i break the "don't try a new recipe out on company" rule.

The ice cream in which we adding everything dairy from the fridge. Turns out that works. Thanks Don Tays for the tips.

"Jump the Hosepipe" game

Starting school this year seemed to happen so fast and clumsy-like, it was almost like we were caught off guard. No one really needed to gear up on supplies, Sadie sent in a fee this year so we just had to show up. I think in some ways that may have backfired on my family's ability to transition.

We are all having a slow go this year but it did help that day one consisted of not only a new day of school but a house full of family and food that night. A lot of cooking and fun with Tony, Lisa and their family and mom and dad. We had so much fun hearing about every one's first day, grilling and swimming, playing games and eating and eating some more....

Now after one full week is over-- a week surely feeling like a full month. What in the world?? It seems prayerfully we are adjusting a bit better. I have now formed a practice I am not sure to keep up... the kids have an ongoing joke I play into everyday with a note in their lunch-box. To explain the joke...? It involves a small stuffed red happy meal toy from '06 Riley has named "Radish". Just know it's funny to only us.

Here's our little Radish.

Everyday Radish gets in to all sorts of trouble and it's well documented in our lunch notes. Gates' morning consists of coming downstairs--showered and dressed, chores accomplished- unzipping the lunchbox, taking the note out and tearing it into shreds and throwing it in the garbage. He reads it though, and even some day's will ask if it's written yet...I decided if he's reading anything I am writing--i will keep writing. One day the note said only this .."please don't tear this note in to tiny shreds". Still it's worth it.

Riley takes his out every morning and reads it and puts it BaCk in the lunch box to read again later. Bless him. He even said that it makes him feel like I am thinking about him when I send a note. I love my boys-- even though they are like night and day- they both love in such unique ways---ways that help me understand love better. I am always learning watching those two.

I still can't believe how old my children are--sometimes I still feel like that girl who always dreamed of what it would be like to have a baby. Now, I have a teenager, a preteen and Sadie. In some ways I feel like a second grader when I listen to her day and her emotions from it. I am telling her the exact same things my mom and dad would say to me to ease her anxieties. It's one thing to watch the boys- some things I get, some things I don't. But with this girl--she has a lot of my personality and moods and temperament. We even play Barbie's the same. I just pray she likes me for a while longer.

So there it is, I am blessed. Another school year begun, another summer behind us. Off to the next task.

stand in awe

Museum of Natural History, Gems and Minerals:: The Dynamic Earth

I just spent the entire episode of  "Design Star" looking at minerals and gems from the Museum of Natural History. This takes skill. Now...from the above link you will be able to choose your path...  either gems or minerals. You HAVE to see.

You can zoom in on them and--AND---it will tell you where they "mined" them or dug them out.  So far, nothing exciting has been brought out from Alabama. Maybe I should get out the 'ol tools, shovels and such and head down to the caves and river banks. Don't think I haven't considered that.  

I have absolutely always had a thing for rocks. Not like precious stones or anything-- mostly rocks. There's just nothing like finding a flicker of quartz in a nasty rock by the creekside or digging up some crazy rock that you really feel like your hands were the first to touch. Fossils- hello, a piece of the past, embedded. Love it.

Not sure what that is fueled by but apparently it's been passed on to my daughter too. She takes all of her company first to her dig-hole, then to see her room. She set up camp last summer and dug so many holes in the front yard I am sure our new neighbors thought we were up to no good. 

 Now if I had the time, I would hunt down and post the picture of me at about the exact same age and at about the same distance from the road and in the same position -- all squatted down with my hands elbows deep in dirt and (get this) trying to SELL my rocks by the roadside. No lemonade stands for me. I sold rocks. Had a sign and everything. To me, that made so much sense. They were awesome. I didn't sell a rock that day. But one car did slow down...

I could have spent the entire day in the Gems and Minerals section in the Natural History Museum.  Rocks (i will generalize) are just so hidden and mysterious. So clever of God to put treasures in the earth that are unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Someday in heaven these same stones will line the walls of the New Jerusalem along with some we've never seen. I can't wait! Check out the link, no kidding---it's fragments of heaven unearthed on display in DC.