Rain doesn't stop us...

I guess maybe being a Washingtonian for most of my life means that rain doesn't stop me from venturing out. This was so true last week.  While in Seattle we decided to go to the downtown zoo the day before Thanksgiving.  It had been pouring outside the few days before and even that morning, but I was sure that the rain would clear up for us...I was wrong.

It was pouring outside and we had 12 of us all huddled under 3 umbrellas trying to stay dry as we walked around the zoo.   Needless to say we only made it to the first exhibit, the penguins (which the kids got to feed), before we had to regroup and make new plans.

We headed into the one indoor play area that the zoo had and while the kids played we came up with a plan B.

We packed up and headed to the Seattle Science Center, an all indoor, interactive kids paradise.   First we stopped for lunch and the kids got food at the coolest food court ever.  Neal and his cousins all got sandwiches made in cool animal shapes.  I think Amie and I were more excited about their sandwiches, but it gave me some good ideas for fun lunches at home.

Then the rest of the day was spend at the science center looking at dinosaurs  butterflies, and all sorts of other exhibits.

So maybe my Washingtonian blood is going away since the rain did eventually force me inside.  But no matter what we did we had a fun day with my family and we have lots of fun memories and laughs about the whole day, besides eventually the rain did go away and the afternoon cleared up a little.

Thanksgiving

It has been about 10 years since I last spend Thanksgiving with my family, so this year was really special to be back home.  Tyler, Neal and I all got to stay in Seattle after Anna's wedding and had a wonderful time relaxing and celebrating Thanksgiving together.

The festivities began early on Thursday with the making of gingerbread houses (or in this case Graham Cracker houses).  The kids loved decorating them, Neal like eating the candy mostly.  Thankfully Grandma was right at the table with everyone otherwise I'm not sure any candy would have made it on the houses.

For every piece of candy that actually made it onto Neal's house there were at least 3 that made it into his mouth.  This resulted in a busy/hyper rest of the morning, but what would gingerbread house making be without a little candy tasting.

I didn't get any pictures of the amazing meal we had, but as you can guess it had all the wonderful traditional foods like: turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and pie...lots of pie.  We tried a new pumpkin pie recipe this year and it is a keeper (it makes a creamy pumpkin pie, almost cheesecake like).

We felt so fortunate to be able to spend the week with family.  It is always nice to go back home.

A Beautiful Wedding

We just returned from Seattle where we joined with family to celebrate in the my sister Anna's wedding.   I can't believe that my little sister is now married!

It was the most beautiful wedding and my sister was a stunning bride.   I was so happy to be able to stand up next to her and witness her commitment and marriage to Matt.

I haven't lived near Anna for over 10 years so I haven't really had a chance to spend much time with her and Matt together.  It was so fun to see them together on their wedding day and to see how much they love each other, not only by their words but also in the way they look at each other and interact together.

My favorite memory of the wedding day was Matt stopping me throughout the day, as we prepared for the wedding, asking me how Anna was doing and if there was anything he could do for her to make her day perfect and stress free.  It really showed me how much he loves my sister and how he cares for her.  

It really was a beautiful wedding, and besides the bride, the ring bearers were the best part of the wedding in my opinion.

Anna and Matt will be living in GA (a short 9 hour drive away from us, haha).   I am excited that at least we are both on the east coast, the closest we have lived to each other in years.  This means we get to spend holidays together!  I can't wait for Christmas and to have my sis and new brother-in-law join us to celebrate here in NC.

I have lots of fun memories with my sisters from growing up, life has changed a lot for us all over the years but being able to all be together again, celebrating such a special day was wonderful.

A Little Reality

I was readying a great article the other day called "Reality Mothering".   It talks about how it is easy to fall into the sin of comparison.   Evaluating our mothering based on our worst days and comparing our mothering to what we see from others on their best days is a easy trap to get caught in.  

Think about it, what we mostly post on Facebook or blogs are stories of peoples best days.  We don't often post about the craziness of life, the days where we can't get out of our pajamas, where your child just continues to disobey, and the days where you house looks like a war zone because you can't seem to keep up with the mess and demands of life.   These moments happen far more often then people mention, and nobody wants to blog about the tough days.  

I look back on my blog here and see that if you only knew me from my blog you would think that life here is great and that I appear to have it all together.   Well, while everything that I have written about and the pictures I show are all true it doesn't really give you a complete picture of our lives.   There are many times where you will find my sink full of dirty dishes (for several days in a row), dirty laundry overflowing the hampers, a toddler in tears (or timeout) and even me in tears sometimes on those really tough days.  Life is great but it isn't as simple and neat as it may appear.

So, I encourage you to read the article on "Reality Mothering" and remember that each day is a gift from God.  He give you everything you need to make it through each day and remember life can just be really messy and isn't always picture perfect.

Here is a bit of my most recent reality moments (actually caught on camera)....

(A not so happy "little chef") 

(A half roll of toilet paper, destroyed...the culprit was caught red handed)

10 on the Tenth

I saw a fun little idea on a friends blog last month.  It's called "Ten on Ten" and it means you take one photo every hour for 10 hours on the 10th day of the month.   I thought it was really fun to get a little glimpse at daily life through pictures so I decided to try it myself.

Here was our day on November 10th shown in photos (the 10th happened to fall on a Saturday this months so the pictures below represent a saturday, and a unique one at that...so not a real typical day but it was a really fun day).

7:00 AM 

(Feeding the Fish "Nemo")

8:00 AM 

(Playing in his Fort)

9:00 AM

(Silly faces and laughing together in the Fort)

10:00 AM 

(Saturday Morning Cartoons)

11:00 AM 

(Learning to ride his bike)

12:00 PM

(Neal organizing his barn animals on the dishwasher while I do dishes)

1:00 PM

(Nap Time)

2:00 PM

(Laundry - which means clean sheet night!...my favorite) 

3:00 PM

(Getting ready for "Date Night" with Tyler...first actual date together, without Neal, in almost a year)

4:00 PM

(Pulling up to drop Neal off at his friends house for our date night)

If you want to see what others have done you can find the official "Ten on Ten" linkup below.  (I didn't link our blog to this but you might enjoy seeing what others have done)

The Thankful Tree

November is always a month that brings about a mind focused on Thankfulness and reflection on all that the Lord provides.  I see a lot of posts on Facebook and friends blogs sharing about things that they are thankful for and blessing from the Lord, especially as Thanksgiving approaches.   So, how do I live a life in a way that speaks the praises, goodness and mercy of God?  How can you remember to praise the Lord for both the big things in life and the little everyday mercies, gifts and blessings?  Like it says in Psalm 105: 1-5a 

"Oh give thanks to the Lord; 

call upon his name; 

make known his deeds among the peoples! 

Sing to him, sing praises to him; 

tell of his wondrous works! 

Glory in his holy name; 

let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!  

Seek the Lord and his strength; 

seek his presence continually!  

Remember the wondrous works that he has done..."  

I wanted to find a way to start to teach Neal about the importance of giving thanks and praising God each and everyday of our lives.  So, we stated a "Thankful Tree" at our house.  The idea is simple, each morning while we eat breakfast I have Neal pick a leaf out of the cup and then tell me something he is thankful for that day.  At first, Neal didn't really understand so I gave him a few examples, finally he started to get the idea.

Some days he says the first thing that he sees around him, like "my milk" or "my doggie jammies".   We are working on thinking about all the things that the Lord gives us and the people who love us and as I help direct his thinking he has been able to think of some really great blessings and gifts God has given him.

Grandma & Poppa, GiGi & Grandfather, and Puppy were among one of the first things to be put on our Thankful Tree.   We also have a few other more random things such as "my bat & baseball" or "Adam & Eve".   It has been a great way to begin teaching Neal about how everything we have comes from God.  Lately at random times Neal will come up to me and ask to put a leaf on the tree or will talk about the things that he remembers putting on the tree.

It has been a great way to start our day off focusing on God, the giver of all things.  It has helped to focus my mind on the gifts and mercies of God which makes my heart more thankful, caring and gracious to Neal, Tyler and others that I interact with during the day.

Saturday Festival

Fall time is so beautiful around here.  I love all the colors and the cooler weather.  The leaves have such vibrant colors now and I love the fact that we can enjoy the beauty of fall here for longer then just a few weeks.  While Tyler was traveling with TWR a few weeks ago, Neal and I got to go downtown on saturday with our neighbors and enjoy the Fuquay Fall Festival.  

It was a ton of fun filled with all sorts of activities and games for kids.  The best part, besides the great company of friends, was that everything was free!  We enjoyed the morning watching the kids jump in the bouncy house, slide down the big slide, ride a train, "fish" for goodies and make masks.  

It was a fun day out but we were even more excited to welcome daddy back home a few days later.  We had lots of stories and pictures to share with him of our fun day and week while he was away.  What better way to spend the evening with the family all together again then curled up by the fire enjoying a family movie night.