Atlanta Aquarium

About a month ago, while Thomas was on his 3-week out of the country trip, I packed up and took the kids to Atlanta for a couple of days. We stayed with a great friend from college, Katherine. The kids enjoyed exploring her house and playing with her cat toys. :) We also went to the Georgia Aquarium, and Katherine's Mom and niece and nephew (about the same ages as my kids) met us there. For those of you living in the Southeast- find a time to go - it is amazing! Katherine volunteers there a couple of times a month, so we had our own personal tour guide!








The moving sidewalk was almost as exciting as the sharks, rays, and fish swimming around and above us...

Hannah Beth's First Day of School

Hannah Beth has started her third week of school already! It's hard to believe. And I have obviously not been keeping up with my blog! I have a couple of other things that I want to post, so hopefully I'll catch up on those this week.

Hannah Beth loves school. It is such a blessing to drop her off and pick her up with a smile on her face. Nathaniel and I miss her a lot, though! We are getting used to our new schedule, though, and figuring out how much to go do things and how much to stay home.

Hannah Beth has wanted me to send her lunch every day instead of buying it. I am actually surprised that she hasn't asked to eat that food, but I'm glad! Some day I'll go eat with her, and that will be fun. I love that she is still happy to have me around at school. The other day Nathaniel and I went over to her school to bring her something and her class was out at recess. We went out there and she was so excited to see us. She introduced me to some of her friends and begged me to let Nathaniel stay for a while - I thought that was so cute!

Our property backs up to the school's property. There is a middle school closest to our house, and then is Hannah Beth's school. So, we walk Hannah Beth to and from school. Above, about half way across the grass is a path that goes from our neighborhood to the schools. Then we pass the middle school (below) and the last picture is Hannah Beth's school, taken from our pool deck. It would take me longer to drive her to school because of the car pool line than it does to walk - and it automatically builds some exercise into my schedule (you have to start somewhere, right?!).

Learning About Myself

I used to feel some pride about being organized and keeping up with things well. Now I can assure you that that pride is completely gone and I am humbled! As I reflect on the last few years, I realize that I have come a long way - in the wrong direction. Maybe my being well-organized was just an illusion, or maybe I did it well because it was easy when it was just me, or even just me and Thomas. Then we had kids, who (in my opinion) were not easy, relaxed babies, and they were not interested in schedules. And we went to Indonesia for almost a year. And came back. And then moved back to SC.

I am not trying to blame my circumstances, but I am just realizing how I have responded to each of those things and how just letting things go, or just taking what comes each day instead of making a plan and taking charge of each day (in response to the Holy Spirit's leadings and promptings) has led me to feel overwhelmed and unorganized. Now, I like to keep things picked up and I don't like a lot of clutter, so often I would appear on top of things if you were to come to my house. But there are some areas around the house (and yard) that I don't have a good place for, or I'd really like to change. But beyond "stuff" is my meal planning (or major lack thereof I should say) and my schedule.

SO, I am totally in the mood for "fall cleaning" - just like spring cleaning but now, as Hannah Beth starts a new school year and we are adjusting our schedules, etc. anyway. I don't usually even look at the little papers in fortune cookies, but Thomas and I were eating Chinese the other night (all by ourselves!) and I looked at the paper from my fortune cookie. It wasn't a fortune, but it said something like this: Approach every area of your life with a bold excitment this year. I thought that was a good idea! I don't want to just take things as they come. I want to be ready, organized, and plan ahead, and be excited about what God has for me. I know that even when you plan ahead things don't always go as planned and crazy times still come, but if I can minimize that it will help.

So...some of my goals for the next couple of weeks:
-Work on organization around the house, get more storage containers for items that don't have a place, and get a bigger bookcase for the kids' room (and move that smaller one to our dining room) even if we just start with a cheapo bookcase from Craig's List or yard sale.
-Plan my menus at least a week ahead, using things I already have in the house (as much as possible)
-Plan out a general schedule for my time, outings with Nathaniel while HB is in school, etc.

Think I can do it? :)

A New Perspective

Last night I sat in a meeting and experienced a new side of things.

Hannah Beth starts kindergarten in 5 days, and we had a parent orientation meeting. I have been a student before and I have been a teacher before, but now I am the parent and will have to begin the "letting go" process of my little girl growing up.

We thought and prayed long and hard about whether to homeschool this year or to put Hannah Beth in the public school system. We have done research on the school and the school system and we have looked into some homeschool curriculums. I really had a hard time figuring out what was best, and in the end really felt like the Lord was telling me that she would be fine either way. A few things helped me with our decision (Thomas came to the same conclusion, but I can only speak to my process!). I have been realizing a lack of organization in my life (which I will save for another post) and didn't want Hannah Beth to end up getting only "just enough" to get by. Nathaniel is 3, and I know that people homeschool all the time with little ones running around, but I don't know how they do it. I don't want to cause him to miss out on the reasons I stay home while they are little - although maybe I could figure out how to make that work ok. And Hannah Beth is SO social - she still cries when she has to leave a friend's house after a play date or sleepover. I know she will absolutely love the classroom environment and interaction. I suspect her main discipline problem will be talking to her friends during class!

And finally, I really want Hannah Beth to be a light to those she is around. I really want her to learn to be an example and to be able to take in all the different behaviors and issues around her and make good decisions regardless of what others are doing. I want her to take the love of Jesus into the public school (and hopefully there will be other little lights there, too!).

However, it will be hard to have my little girl away from me until 2:45pm 5 days a week. It will be hard to let go of some of the "control" I have, but I am trying to trust God to take care of my little girl, to only place her in situations that He knows she can handle (through Him), and to grow her and develop her into the girl He wants her to be.

We are happy with what we see so far with the school and her teacher, and we know that things are not set in stone. It may be that we homeschool in the future, but for now this is what God has for our family.

And so I am learning a new side of school, and I'm sure God will be teaching me just as much as He did when I was on the other side(s) of things. He showed me again today that He can work in a 5 year old. Hannah Beth came home from a sleepover and started throwing a fit over not getting to watch a movie. Thomas sent her up to her room because she wasn't calming down. She came back down a little while later with a whole new attitude. She came over to me and wanted to tell me what helped her change. She said she prayed to God to help her to change her attitude and also to be patient until she could watch the movie! I love seeing how God works in her life at such a young age! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER!

My sweet sister's birthday is today, and I thought I'd share some pictures of her! I wish I had more from when she was little and had those "chipmunk cheeks", but unfortunately most of those are at Mom's house. She is doing a great job with her school, work, church and everything else she does to stay busy. I am very proud of her! Happy Birthday, Heather Foo Foo Snappy!

Nathaniel Turns 3!

Our sweet son turned 3 toward the end of May! We went to the beach for the weekend with Grandma and Pop and celebrated there just with the family. He kept telling me that he wanted a fire truck cake - even though he had one last year, too! I usually don't get a second shot at making these cakes, so it was kind of fun to work on improving from last year's (which I believe I accomplished). After a LOT of red food coloring, we finally got a red fire truck. I made it the night before, and I think it actually got redder overnight! Nathaniel was very excited when he saw the cake, and we had a very hard time keeping him from eating it all morning - it's a good thing we had planned the birthday stuff for after lunch instead of dinner for my sake! :)

Just a little help from his sister with blowing out the candles!

With a 3 year old, quantity of presents is really more important than quality, so instead of one big gift from us, I got him a bunch of small things. Grandma and Pop got him a fire station to add to his Thomas the Train set. I was really amazed - it seems like usually when the kids open presents on Christmas or birthdays when they get a number of them at once, they usually take to one or two right away and the others sit for a while. But after Nathaniel opened his presents he and Hannah Beth played with every single thing! It was fun to watch. He is growing and learning like crazy and we are so proud of our son!

A Little Gosling

Hannah Beth had her big dance recital last week. The whole dance studio presented a ballet called "The Proud Princess." Hannah Beth was a gosling, and was very cute. This was her second year doing ballet. I kept asking her for a couple of weeks before her performance if she knew what she was doing and felt comfortable with it. Her answer every time was, "I don't know." (And she's not even a teenager!!) So, I was not sure what to expect, but she did great. You can see from one picture that she was looking over to her teacher for direction, but that is the only time I remember her doing that.

She continues to tell me now that she wants to do gymnastics next year instead of ballet, so we'll see. Maybe we'll get to see what she can do in the gym and if that is something she'll enjoy.

You might be able to see in this last picture that she lost her other bottom tooth - just a couple of days before her recital.