Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

Joining the celebration of weekly contentment at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

This week features our recent photo shoot.  Normally,we have the children's picture taken each Fall.  But this past September we had a baby and that blessed event took precedence.  We made it to the end of the school year and within two weeks of high school graduation.  We had no official baby picture of Christopher, no school pictures and no senior pictures.  Having mostly boys means they would rather not go through the pain of posing but thankfully my husband has a co-worker at work who takes professional pictures on the side.  She came to our house for an hour one evening and we did our best to capture our growing family.  God bless her!

PRETTY

Dan (18)



Dom (16)



Mark (14)



Mike (12)



M.K. (9)



Grace (6)



J.P. (3)



Chris (8 months)



HAPPY

FUNNY

J.P. made sure the photographer was challenged.  At one point he brought her a very large night crawler (earthworm).  She politely shuddered and tried not to drop her camera.

Christopher was a moving target.  He was very shy and started to cry until we brought the dog over beside the camera to distract him from a stranger.  The dog nearly knocked our brave photographer over!

REAL



We celebrated 19 years of marriage this week.  My how time has flown!  These pictures capture our family in its last year of everyone living together under one roof.  Our oldest will leave the nest in the Fall to go out of state to college.  I am thankful this week for the blessings of my loving husband and children. 



Mantid Mania

Michael has always been our bug collector extraordinaire.  His birthday is in early May and most years he requests some sort of insect gift.  We have a collection of insect books, bug catchers, battery operated bug suckers, bug tweezers, a bug projector.....we've hatched butterflies, lady bugs, earth worms and this year praying mantises.  He received two praying mantis egg cases from Amazon that he placed in the Insect Lore butterfly pavilion. 

We were waiting patiently as they sat in a sunny window.  Then just a few days ago one of the children suggested hanging the pavilion on the screen porch as we were having some really hot days. And to our delight we came down in the morning to at least a hundred tiny praying mantis babies.  Three weeks from when we received them in the mail.

The care of so many hungry little mouths is daunting, so it was decided to release all but a few so they could get busy being predators to our "bad" bugs.

 Michael lovingly released the little mantises all around the yard hoping to give them all a good start in life.

The remaining preying mantises will be fed a variety of bugs, some raw hamburger and hopefully we can secure their favorite snack, aphids. 

The End.

But wait......we had a surprise the next morning!  Thank goodness we kept both egg cases in the pavilion because one of the cases had NOT hatched yet!

This hatching was larger than the first it seemed.

More than a hundred little fellas!

They come out hungry!

This little one looked me right in the eyes.

Notice the little hand wanting to help!

Michael released them one by one.

J.P. wanted in on the action but big brother thought he might squish them.

Thankfully a consolation prize was found in the bushes!

The ugliest toad we've ever seen!

The End!



Brother Buds

Growing Buddies



"What do you want to do?"




"Let's get Mommy's camera!"




"I'll distract her and you grab it."




"Ah come on Mom, you know you can't say no to little 'ol me!"



Thank You for Your Sacrifice

Thanking God today for the gift of being born into a nation where I am free to practice my Faith, free to speak, free to be educated, free to have children, free to home educate.....our blessings are so many and they have not come without a price.  Thank you, men and women, for serving our America so that we might enjoy liberty and the pursuit of happiness!  Our prayers and thoughts are for you this day.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.  ~ Ronald Reagan

God Bless America!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

We have been in a whirlwind of activity here.  Soccer is over.  We traveled to several Ultimate tournaments bringing home some trophies!  Our younger children ended Jr. Ulty for the season.  We spent a week camping while our wood floors were refinished.  We've celebrated an 8th grade graduation, sent our son to Prom, baby boy learned to crawl and pull up on anything and cut his first teeth.  We're preparing to graduate our firstborn from High School and planning a trip to the beach.  There also seem to be some Math lessons that will be lingering into Summer.  I'm late to the gate but couldn't miss the fun of joining Like Mother, Like Daughter for a another week capturing little bits of contentment in everyday life!

This week's pictures feature Mark's 8th grade graduation celebration.  He used some Confirmation and grad money to buy an ocean kayak.  We met Grandpa and Grandma at the lake for the maiden voyage.

 

~Pretty~

Mark, proud graduate and captain.

 

~Happy~

Grandpa rigged some poles and the fish were biting!

 

~Funny~

J.P. can't avoid being messy, mischievous and cute!  He's all boy and living three to the max!  He proudly collected snails all evening.  Occasionally one of us would say, "What's that horrible smell?"  We thought maybe the water was a little stagnant.  J.P managed to slip part way into the lake when reaching for one more snail.  Thankfully only his socks were soaked.  When we got ready to leave the lake and head to the restaurant, we couldn't help but check J.P.'s diaper still wondering what the stench could be.   Then we realized there was some black goo on his shirt where he had wiped those sweet little hands.  The smell from that goo could send you hurling!  We had no extra shirt so we wiped it with wipes and proceeded to eat out.  None of the children would sit next to him and I'm pretty sure our waiter was holding his breath!  We may never know what he managed to get into and probably prefer to keep it that way!

Even this little guy knew something was smelly! 

 

~Real~

The older children sat at the opposite end of the table laughing and visiting.  They happened to be sitting in birth order and seeing how big they have become is very real.  It is interesting, unique and beautiful to mother the nursing babe and soon to be starting college student and all between.  What a precious moment in time!





My Hero

I've been thinking a lot about my husband lately.  I hit the jackpot when God brought us together.  He is a wonderful husband and amazing father.  I have learned a lot about being a good Mom from him!  He is gentle and firm.  He knows how to laugh and be silly but no one can outdo him in hard work and energy.  He keeps me calm, tells me everything is going to be fine and reminds me I'm doing a great job.  Many days I don't deserve his patience but I am so thankful that the good Lord knew I needed this man in my life.  He encourages me to step outside of myself and not take life too seriously.

Nothing melts my heart more than seeing the man I love tenderly caring for our little ones.

And the fact that he teaches and grades Math, makes me swoon!