Lightnin' is at the house!

Round 2 of show lamb at the Sweet House!  SweetBoy picked out his lamb for this year.  Picked it out and paid for it himself.  There are lots of perks to this project and learning money management is definetely one of them!  Granddad got to go on the adventure with Dad and SweetBoy.  The seller came off the price quite a bit and Dad said lunch would be on SweetBoy.  When they arrived at the restaurant, SweetHeart said, "I think I'll leave my phone in the truck."  SweetBoy piped up, "I think I will leave my wallet in here too."  The guys got a kick out of that! 

In the meantime, SweetDoll was at home cleaning out the water bucket and filling it up.  And cleaning out the dog poop from the sheep pen.  I told her that would be fine to leave it!  Seriously.

Lightnin' had been in the pen a little while, when SweetTate heard him baa.  He said with all the pride of a big brother, "Mom, it was Lightnin's first baa!" just like he had said his first word.

When we had Snowflake last year, we were between dogs.  It has been really funny to watch Lucy and Lightnin' check each other out.  So far they are holding their own, and yet no one has gotten hurt.

Now I don't know much about sheep--only what I learned from listening to the judge last year at the stockshow--but this looks like a good one!  After a few days, SweetBoy has him walking with him pretty well!

Divin' In!

Here is a little theme music to get you ready for these pics:

I'm divin' in

I'm goin deep

In over my head I want to be...

Yep, that was pretty much a belly flop!

My kids are loving swim lessons!  Today after lessons, they wanted to go off the diving board without the lifeguard teachers down there.  They had to show me they could jump in and swim by themselves in the shallow end.  Then we headed for the deep end.  SweetDoll said, "You'll come in if I need you, right?" 

"Absolutely, Baby, but plan on making it yourself.  Don't jump planning on me getting in the pool fully clothed, but I will if you need me."  And I took off my watch and shoes just in case.  She made it!  Then SweetTate wanted to.  He did ok until he went off the slide and just did circles in the water instead of coming to the side.  Another mom and I were there to reach him and thankfully he made it to the side and we stayed dry!  After that I told them it was enough of the deep end for today.

Here's my little God stop for the day...I watch the kids in the swim class play in the shallow end, jump off the side to their teachers, learning to swim, and having fun.  Then they move to the deep end and a few of them freak out.  Their concern is that the lifeguards will let them drown.  SweetDoll even said, "I was a little worried when we first went off the diving board that they would let me drown."  Even after she had seen them catch and help every single one and knowing that it is their job to be there.  One girl was fine the first day, and freaked out the second day and was fine today.  Her mom said she was tired yesterday.

I have walked with God a long time.  I know His faithfulness.  I know it is His character to love me, to work in me and work things out for my good, to protect me...I know I'm one of His children.  So why do I freak out when He calls me to do what I perceive as a hard thing (especially when I'm tired, I might add)?  Learning and living 1 Corinthians 13 is hard, especially to someone who is hard to love.  I guess I have tried it in my own strength and my own depleted supply of human love, and only spent a lot of energy gasping for air and going in circles.  I have to remember that God is right beside me, reaching out to help.  I don't even have to ask if He will jump in to save me, He already did!  He will give me everything I need.  He pours His love into my heart by His Spirit, and I have to tap into that source (Romans 5:5).  If I'll learn from these kids, it will be much more fun if I do it and learn His way! So into this river of God's love...

I'm divin' in

I'm goin' deep

In over my head I want to be

Caught in the rush

Tossed in the flow

In over my head I want to go

The River's deep, the River's wide

The River's water is alive

So sink or swim I'm divin' in!

~ Steven Curtis Chapman, "Dive," Speechless Album

What's up

I finally got the pictures off my camera.  I mentioned a few weeks ago, we got to go to my grandparents to visit when my cousin and her kids were there. 

We had such a good time.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but these are some fun memories:
*  having ice cream in the fancy dishes!
*  hearing the kids play hide and seek
*  playing on and "cleaning" Granddad's saddle
*  playing Fast Track
*  sleeping on the big feather beds
*  We were cleaning up from supper, and Grandma wanted to throw some greasy/soapy water outside.  I opened the door for her and barely stepped out of the way enough.  Granddad is my witness, she tried to throw it on me!  ;)
*  the kids, especially SweetTate, discovering the door bell.  The door bell has chimes at the top of the stairs.  The kids had asked me what they were and I told them, but right before we left, SweetTate was outside and couldn't get in so he rang the doorbell and he heard them!  They asked what that music was and I told them it was the chimes at the top of the stairs.  They ran to the door, pushed the button, and ran up the stairs to check it out.  SweetTate probably did that 15 times, and every time Grandma and Granddad just smiled and enjoyed the kids being there.  It was the same smile they wore the whole time we were there.  "This old house came to life!"  It was a nice reminder to enjoy my kids and worry about fingerprints on brass chimes later!

We also stole away after VBS and between ball games to go to SweetHeart's home town, and see our new nephew!  He is so precious!

All the family got together to celebrate recent and upcoming birthdays, and we took time out to take a picture of the grandkids.  (Yes, I know better than taking it in front of window, but that is where they landed and when you are trying to herd 12 kids, you take what you get!)  :)

Then it was Father's Day.  SweetBoy was visiting grandparents, so he was not here--we'll get him later.  SweetTate was very proud to be wearing a tie like Daddy.  "It's not a working tie, Mom."  Ok, SweetTate, you'll have plenty of time for working ties later!

Swimming lessons started this week for SweetTate and SweetDoll.  She didn't really like to jump off the side of the pool and anytime we swim he is attached to me.  Day 1 and they are already little fish, going off the diving board and down the slide!  By the end of the week they will be able to jump and get to the side of the pool by themselves!  I see camping out in the deep end in my future! 

A Horse Adventure

This is a story that SweetDoll wrote.  (I think SweetBoy started the first sentence and then she took it and ran.)  I thought it was a pretty good story for someone just out of Kindergarten!  I left her spelling to keep the spirit of it.  And I only added some breaks and interpretation to help understanding here.  The rest is all hers.  Enjoy!

a hors advender
written and ilustraited by SweetDoll
age 6

Once a pon a time in a land far away there lived a hurd that was very smAll but it got biger and biger and it got so big that they had to move and get a biger pese of land

so the hurd just grased (grazed) on it but sumone found a formula that made horses talk and that person spild that foromula on the grass and the horses ate the grass that the persan spild the formula on and the horses All started talking in All sorts of languages

but the persan tride to teach the horses how to speek Einglish but the persan tride so hard that ever day they got beter at speeking Einglish and one day the persan tride so hard the horses All noow how to speek Einglish and sum of the horses spoke drefrent languages on perpes (purpose) just to Eerutat (irritate) the persan

but sooner then you wood think it had ben a years and one of the horses broke a bone and that got beter and beter and tell (until) it was heeld

but more truble kame

the persan kept the horses in a vakeed (vacant) lot and taer (there) was a cowBoy and bekus taer wasent a fents (fense) the cowBoy thot that they wer loos horses and he cot All of them but then the master kame runing out to save his horses

after that the horses wer very tierd and thare master was very tierd from runing so hard

the end

Scripture Memory Team #11

Today is a catch up day.  It is the first day I've been home with nothing in the imediate future I had to prepare for in about a month.  Anybody else feel like they have been barely treading water lately?  I do have things to get to so let me jump to the task at hand.  The next four weeks I'll be memorizing 1 Corinthians 13.  I chose The Message because it is not quite so familiar and it speaks to the heart of some of the attitudes I need to work on.

1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)


1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Long time no see!

Wow!  Where did May go!  I have wanted to jump on here several times, but there was just no time.  Here is what we have been up to lately, and at this point a list is just easier.

1)  First, for the June 1st Scripture Memory team...I'm still working on the last one.  My goal is to learn 1 Corinthians 13 with the kids this summer.  We'll see how that goes.

2)  The end of the school year activities included a field day that was very fun!  SweetTate even got to participate.  SweetDoll's class needed another person for the three-legged race and he was standing there so he jumped in.  Um...he and his partner won...SweetDoll and her partner got second.  SweetTate even got a ribbon!  The faculty and staff did a great job organizing it and the kids had a blast doing all the activities.

Have I mentioned that SweetDoll loves to run!  And she is FAST!  One day she was skipping down the road and told me, "When I get tired, I'll just run."  She does not get that from me!

Little Miss Hula-Hoop

SweetBoy on the obstacle coarse.

SweetBoy in the Sack hop.  He and his partner in the three-legged race were quite a pairing.  They are both very competitive and pretty independent--they were headed two different directions before they got to the finish line! 

3)  Mother's Day

4) Then it was the last day of school and Kindergarten graduation!

5)  We had a birthday boy!

Cool Dude!

6)  Baseball is in full swing!

7)  Mom and I set a record for scrapbooking!  Her parent's 60th wedding anniversary is this summer and we wanted to do a scrapbook for them.  We did one for my dad's parent's 60th last year and it turned out really neat.  This one is very cool too!  I can not wait to see it!  You know, we had a year to do it and we waited until the last month before it was due, but we got it done! Yea!

8) Lucy is growing and doing good.  She is becoming part of the family.

9)  Let the summer begin!

10) My cousin and her girls went to our grandparents for a few days and we got to go up there while they were there.  That was fun to reconnect with them.  And it was good for this mom who is already tired of being referree all day, to have someone point out the good in my kids and cherish the time even when they were being loud and crazy.  I don't even have the pics off my camera yet, so I'll have to share that one later.

11) VBS week...I have never been so not-prepared, but with all the craziness I just haven't put that on the front burner.  Now it is "due tomorrow," actually today.  It is a little bit different to have five in a class that is Kindergarten and under, rather than 3 classes of kindergarten, 2-3 classes of four-year-olds, and all the workers kids babies through three years filling the nursery area.  It is less stressful, but I miss my homegirls working together to pull off a very fun week for the kids.  Don't get me wrong, the people are great here too.  It is just different, and it is something that makes me think of old friends.  Miss you guys!