Williamsburg, Virginia

This was one of our favorite cities. After studying Early American History this seemed to make it all come alive. We stayed at the Williamsburg Colonial KOA and spent a full week down in colonial Williamsburg. We first went to Mary Dickenson's dress shop to have the girls outfitted for their trip back in history. The girls wore their outfits for most of the week, and Thank the Lord we no longer have to dress our children in that manner. It took quite a bit of time adding all the layers each morning

Poor Ethan was left out of the dress up. Baby boys often wore white gowns to facilitate ease of diaper changing and potty training. We opted to not put him in a dress at this time =)

Hiddenite, North Carolina

We panned for Emeralds at the Emerald Hollow Mine in Hiddenite, NC. We didn't run across any emeralds but lots of cool rocks.

I Ordered My Quilting Material

I just placed my order with Hancocks of Paducah. I have no idea of the layout, and I figured whatever was left I can incorporate into the actual quilt.

Feed Your Baby

I have been reminded this week of how judgmental "mothers" can be. I am not even talking about the older generation, but ourselves that are currently in the trenches. Often I find myself looking enviously at the mom who shows up to the park with neat and well behaved children who never raises her voice or yells, "stop hitting your brother with that stick". She will pull out a well balanced lunch with fruits & wheat bread sandwiches, and they will sit quietly on the blanket until lunch is over then help tidy up. Ok, I may be over dramatizing but we all have dreams of the perfect "mom" and we may even know a few that are pretty close to our ideal. I sadly am not even close at this moment. I fed my kids poptarts this morning, slept until 8:30, and let the baby sleep until 10:30 so I could chat on the phone while drinking my second cup of coffee. I had hoped to start school this week, but please refer to my prior procrastinating post, as to why I am waiting til Monday to resume classes. But I digress, I had a mom friend of mine sit and bash someone for sending their kids to a "public" school, and in the same week another friend was upset because her children would be attending school this year and some other moms' felt that was akin to child abuse? On a side note, Ethan just came in and whacked me in the leg with a wet toliet brush, I am definitely not meeting the ideal mom standard today. So my pearl of wisdom to both friends was an illustration that is close to my heart. Breastfeeding!Many who know me may laugh because none of my children breastfed beyond 3 weeks. I was very stressed by breastfeeding, I knew it was the ideal for my baby, and I also knew that my 2 liter coke bottle breasts would probably smother, or emotionally scar my babies for life. It did not come easy, in fact my lovely pediatrician with Olivia said in wonderment that I could almost lay Olivia on my lap and breastfeed her! How he thought this was helpful, I do not know. After shopping for the best support bra on the planet I resigned myself that I was going to bottlefeed and deal with it. Lucky for me I had a wonderful friend who pointed out that the method is not important, but the goal is "to feed your baby". So, I say to people "feed your baby" does it matter how it happens? Educate your child, does it matter the method that is best for your family? Is a classical approach better than Abeka? Is private better than public school? We all have our opinions, but that is just it, it is OUR opinion not the gold standard. Just as there are many methods of child rearing, coming to know Jesus, educating your child, all that matters is the goal and the supportive friendships along the way. So ladies "feed your babies" and love their mommas.

I Found My Quilting Motivation

After returning from our quilting instructional meeting at Steph's house I was a little apprehensive about attempting my first sewing project. I was talking to a friend on the phone lamenting my lack of skills when my sweet dear husband heard I was attempting to sew a quilt and burst out laughing!! Not amused I cornered him and demanded why he thought I could not succeed at whatever I put my mind too? Sensing he was in danger, he immediatly began extolling my praises at scrapbooking, however the damage was done. I am now going to produce THE best squares, EVER!!! On a side note, my dear hubby has always been the one to sew in our family. He could repair a button, or minor sewing repair better with one arm, than I could with two, so I guess he thought the idea of my becoming a quilter alittle humorous at the time. We shall see!!!

The Adam's in Maine

We visited our friends Tonya & Steve Adams in Maine during our trip. They moved from the our area three years ago, to move to coastal Maine. Tonya, much to our disappointment, has stated she will NEVER move back to FL. I can't hardly blame her it was 73 degrees in July!!!
I thought those of you who knew them would appreciate the update.

Dusting the baseboards is necessary for teacher planning!

Why am I procrastinator, and what am I procrastinating? It is like breathing for me. I do not function well unless I am down to the last minute. Do I like chaos? Well... maybe.... I am currently procrastinating planning my school year and a friends baby shower. Now, I have until Monday to put together a evening baby shower (no sweat) and have at least a couple of weeks of lessons spelled out. All week I have attempted to tackle our upcoming school plans, however dirty baseboards and dusty ceiling fans have been taunting me. Yes, my husbands sock drawer DID need to be organized! Anyhoo, by tomorrow I should be sufficently down to the wire enough to get alot accomplished. So, if anyone has any household chores I can do before I settle down with all my books just let me know..=)

The Highest Point In Georgia

Brass Town Bald, Hiawassee GA. It was at least 10-20 degrees cooler up here, and it was only in the 70's at the bottom of the mountain.

Helen, GA

I love Helen. It is beautiful in the mountains. We camp right on the creek and the kids love wading in it.

From Florida to North Carolina via Alabama

No, we are not directionally challenged, well I am but Mike isn't. We went to the Lake house first and celebrated Memorial day with the family! It took us 14+ hours because the van was not hauling our monster camper well, and we had ALOT of sway. We hoped to settle it once we got to Alabama and added some "helper springs" to the van.

Highlights from our neverending trip

Hope You Enjoy

Were Back

Well I know I haven't posted since the spring, but what a crazy last few months. We finished up school- sort of. I am worse than the kids when it comes to spring fever. It just is not right to be stuck inside during our glorious spring season. I know God wants us to be outside or he wouldn't have made it so amazing. Anyway we broke for a week during spring break and had a real hard time getting back into the school habit, so we didn't! We left Memorial Day for the Lakehouse and then began our summer long eastern seaboard vacation. Pictures soon to follow!! Oh and Mike and I are still married~~yeah, we survived 8 weeks camping together with the 3 kids!

TREASURE

This last weekend was our neighboring town's "city wide yard sale" . Well I have waited all year for this sale. I even contemplated ditching my mom, and out of town relatives to go yard saleing. Luckily they cancelled their trip due to the weather, so I was free. Anyway Maddy, Livvy and myself got all our money, our little purses and headed out at 6:30AM to the community center. Now, living in Fl we would assume the weather would be beautiful, WRONG it was 50 and raining all day. We, as in me and Livvy were determined to persevere (vocab word) .Maddy would have prfered to go eat breakfast in a warm, dry restaurant! She gets that from my Mom. We went to the Community Center and got the map of all the yard sales in the city. Olivia, wide eyed exclaimed, Oh good you got the treasure map! She examined it, and asked if I brought the shovel!! Almost peeing my pants at this time, she proceeded to tell me that pirates mark the spot with an X, and we would need a shovel to dig it up! So we spent the day treasure hunting!!!