A very special 5 year old

Tina asked tonight if she could look at my blog and I had to tell her there wasn't much to see on my blog. I guess this is writer's block? But I told her I'd write something.

John caught this feisty little snake while he was mowing the lawn. It would coil up and then try to strike. David told us the snake was saying "Do you want a piece of me?"


David hog-tied Skeeter and then this happened.



Loving summer with all its deliciousness. We've had salad with fresh garden veggies, cantaloupe, watermelon, corn-on-the-cob, peaches, blueberries. It's so easy to pass on the dessert when you've already had it for dinner in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables.

We've been to the beach, the lake, a friend's pool, another friend's water slide. Tina and Rebekah have been to a sign and dance camp. So have the little boys. Taryn has started a karate class. The girls have been to sewing lessons. We went to the science presentation at the library last week and one about snakes, reptiles, and bugs this week. We celebrated a special 5 year old. I thought that once summer arrived we would slow down and not be so busy. I have never been more wrong.

Kids are funny


Ditto


Hope you are enjoying your summer too!

Post-Vacation Analysis

Don't worry, I'm not going to make you look at all 387 pictures that I took.

Day 1: Travel and swimming at the hotel upon arrival


Day 2: Leave the camera in the car not once, but twice while visiting Fort McHenry and the Maryland zoo. Go swimming again at the hotel.

Day 3: Visit the Constellation, an historic ship in the Baltimore harbor, walk the Inner Harbor, celebrate Andrew's graduation, walk to the park to play, walk to Fell's Point and get lost on the way back to Andrew's, swim at the hotel

Day 4: Swim at the hotel in the morning before packing up and heading north to Grandma Munn's, attend a concert at her small country church

Day 5: Enjoy the country, dig worms, go fishing, eat outside, sleep outside, help Grandma Munn with yard work

Day 6: Watkins Glen State Park in New York

Day 7: Repeat Day 5

Day 8: Leave Grandma's heading south toward Hershey Park, Chocolate World first, then the park, meet Deannie, my first childhood friend, and her husband, drive until we can't hold our eyes open and sleep so soundly that 7/8 of us slept through a fire alarm in the hotel around 1 in the morning.

Day 9: Drive the rest of the way to Luray Caverns in VA. Spend the day exploring and dragging the kids out of 3(!) different gift shops. Decide we've done enough, find a hotel in Charlottesville with a pool and you guessed it, went swimming. Also ate Mexican for dinner.

Day 10: Tour Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, then head the rest of the way to Home, Sweet, Home. Last stop and still smiling!

Joseph's Prayer: Thank you Lord that we didn't crash even once.

I might have worded it a little differently, but we are all so thankful to the Lord for every detail of this trip.

Piano Recital

When Tina saw her picture she said, "Oooh, I'm pretty. I knew I looked good, but I didn't know I looked that good."

Nope, no self-esteem issues here.

Videos of the kids' performances are uploaded on youtube for the Grandmas (start with Joe and you should find the others if you look at all videos uploaded by farmers1995)

Spontaneity

John called home on his way home from work with a "crazy idea". He had read in the news that the local strawberry farm had a beautiful crop of strawberries and suggested we go pick some - that night. Our normally scheduled activity for that evening was cancelled, so it worked out perfectly. We left dinner on the stove and off we went. We found the news report to be absolutely true. The strawberries were large, ripe, and plentiful. We picked 3 gallons. And had fun doing it.





Then on the way home we went by the Clemson University horse farm. The kids hopped out of the car and petted the foals.


Finally, we drove past the lake to see the sunset.

Sometimes it drives me crazy that we don't live a more structured life. But on nights like this, I realize our carefree personalities fit well together, we love to be spontaneous with each other, and we find great joy.

Overheard

Wow! I've had this "Overheard" post sitting in my draft list since October of last year. I figured it was time to finally post it. To go with it, I'm loading some pictures from January that never made it to the blog.

Here are several one-liners. I no longer remember the context in which these were said or who said them, but they are still amusing:

"Quit! Your breath has too much water in it."

"I didn't know it, but I'm good at drawing Chinese clothes."

"Mommy, you are the best laundry folder. It's like underwear origami."

"No, it doesn't stink. It smells like Mommy...." [pause] "... when she's clean." I'm wondering what sort of looks the other kids gave to necessitate the little addendum there.

A malapropism from Taryn. (Who says teens can't be just as hilarious as a little kid learning to talk.)
"Their marriage wasn't circumcised until after Jesus was born."



A Taryn malapropism while studying the human body:
The muscle in your bottom is the Gluttonous maximus.

True, that.



Rebekah got a Wave board (one of those 2-wheeled skateboards with a pivot in the middle) for her birthday (see I told you this was an old post). The girls got the hang of it in about one morning. They made it look easy is what I'm saying.
So, I jumped on to try it. Through their laughter they tried to coach me. "You're not really doing the wave, Mom, you're just kind of jiggling."

I was helping David in the tub and noticed several scabs on his back. I asked him about how he got them. "I fell into the toilet but it's okay. I climbed back out."

See, there are benefits to having a gluttonous maximus. I've never fallen into the toilet and had to climb out.


Tina was playing with 3 smaller girls and was giving horsey rides with them on her back, 2 at a time. Joseph told her he would have been strong enough to give all 3 of them rides at once. She retorted, "So could I! I'm just not 3 buns long!"

Bullet Point Observations

• My kids have caught both a snake and a mouse today. They released the snake, but are making the mouse comfortable in a cage. Hmph.


• None of our okra seeds sprouted. Of all the seeds we planted, it was the only variety with 0% to sprout. I'm thinking this could be sabotage on the part of one (or all) of the kids... or their effective prayer.


• There is actually such a thing as being "a pro" at eating Fun Dip (and Taryn declared herself to be one).


• You might be a redneck if you live in a state which has a "Venison for Charity" credit for taxes.


• You might need to consider some way to boost your brain power when even the 4 year old thinks you are an easy opponent at Memory.


• Yesterday one of the boys could not find his shoes as we were trying to head to the playground and his brothers and sisters were already in the car waiting for him. All we could find that fit was an old pair of girl tennis shoes which were blue and black. He was distressed. A compassionate mom may have sympathized. At that moment I was not a compassionate mom. I said, "You're lucky they are blue and black. I wish they were bright pink."


• I don't know how southern kids ever learn to read or write. Today Tina spelled drink d-r-e-e-n-k. No matter how I emphasized it, she could not hear a short "i" sound. "That's what I said, Mom!"
  
• Observation by David: "The Titanic wasn't the goodest boat. [pause] They thought it was the goodest boat but it got sunk because it scratched the mountain of iceberg."