my blessed life

Is your summer flying by as quickly as ours is?!  I am kind of sad that it's already almost the end of July.  It has been such a busy summer for us that there hasn't been much relaxing getting done. However, this week has slowed down for us quite a bit {thank goodness!!} and the schedule doesn't look too terribly bad through the end of August.  I think that we even have a real vacation in there somewhere! Anyway, I thought I'd post a little update on what we've been up to this summer so far. Reading: My personal reading list for this summer is clicking right along.  So far I've read: Just RISE UP! by Sarah Francis Martin  {motivating and inspiring} Life of Pi by Yann Martel  {captivating story, twist in end really got me} Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie  {loved ...as I love all of her books} Crooked House by Agatha Christie Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie Miss Marple, the Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christ...

From the archives. This was originally published on June 27, 2013. (just yesterday here in Kentucky) Family picnics : these words may bring various visions to our minds depending on our families.  For my family these words bring visions of fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans , mac & cheese, pickles, olives, deviled eggs....mmmmmm  Yes, as long as I can remember this has been my mom's standard picnic fare. We ate A LOT of picnics when I was growing up.  My family owned a camper and traveled quite extensively when I was very young.  We hit every state park and national park that we could find for picnics.  And my mom would even whip up the a fore mentioned menu in our camper--amazing! I've been hungry for one of those picnics recently and just yesterday my mom was gracious enough to make it happen (see top photo!) .  She fried up the chicken and made her world's-best-potato-salad, I baked some beans and made the deviled eggs and we a...

This week has been full and fun!!  We began Mr. B's 10th birthday celebration on Sunday (a day early) with our special meal out with my parents and sister (my parents are so awesome to take us all out on each birthday!).  Mr. B picked Chili's this year.     On his actual birthday, Monday, he opened his gifts here at home.  Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (his total fave!) where we also enjoyed a birthday cookie cake.  Yes, celebrations around here involve LOTS of good food! :) Then Monday evening we drove to Union City, TN to spend the night and visit the Discovery Park of America on Tuesday.  The whole family went and we had SO much fun!!   If you have never heard of the Discovery Park of America it could be because it's practically brand new!  It's been open only about a year and a half.  It's located in a small town about 3 hours west of Nashville but it is well worth the drive!  And the ticket prices...

So this week we did a clean out of our 'games and puzzles' closet.  We needed to get rid of a few ...and we did.  But the biggest result was that it reminded my kids of how much they love to work puzzles. And now our library room looks like this (and more!).  :) Does this happen to anyone else?

I've been wishing for more of those lazy days of summer, but even though it's been super busy around here we are having a good summer.  Just not a lazy one ;)  I'm completely tempted to give myself an extra month of summer an not start back-to-{home}school until October.   I'm kidding.   Maybe.   So thought I'd give you a little peek at what we've been up to lately.   We love Christian Way Farm!  There's always something fun to do there!   And playing mini golf in 90+ degree weather is definitely fun ~especially for kiddos who score holes-in-one and get a freebie from the drink cooler! The Princess has begun guitar lessons from my dad.   She is liking it so far, although she did confide to me that she  didn't realize it would be "that hard".  Ah, the joys of practicing.   Did I mention that we start piano lessons next month? We are starting to harvest some pretty little cherry tomato...

While we wrapped up our homeschool year lesson-wise on May 30th, our year with our homeschool group didn't officially wrap up until this past Friday at our annual Field Day and Yearbook Release Party.  We had been looking forward to this day for quite a while and it did not disappoint!   Well over 50 kiddos from our group and their families turned out for some good ol' outdoor fun--you know, the relay race-type-of-fun!   It was a great way to finish up our year and get to hang out with friends--some of whom are moving away this summer.   At the end of the games  one team was awarded a Good Sportsmanship Award.  We were grouped by PreK/K5, 1st-3rd, 4th-6th, and 7th-12th.  Each age group competed amongst itself.  And each team was awarded with a very nice participation medal.  My kids were so proud of their medals!  They had a total blast! And before everyone headed home we rounded out Field Day with picnic lu...

This has been quite the winter!  And this week proved that it's not over yet.  On Sunday night we got hit with freezing rain, sleet, and snow ...several inches of it!  We've been wanting a really good snow all winter long and just when we were starting to get in the mood for spring ...it came.  ha!  So we have just been enjoying it as much as we can.   Early in February we had some winter-y weather, but it was during that extremely busy week of travel for our family and the kiddos didn't get to enjoy it at all (except from the car window).  So since they haven't taken a single snow day this year (our local public schools have been out for over 2 weeks all together now!) , I thought it was high time!  We took off Monday, partly to celebrate Vince's birthday and partly to enjoy playing outside.  Then we took off Tuesday, partly to go sledding on our local golf course and partly to finish celebrating Vince's birthday with dinner at his...