Ok so the camping was just on our back deck and the fishing was at the lake down the road but still a fun couple of days. We decided at the tail end of our beach vacation to top it off with a little tent sleeping and fishing with the kids. This is the first time they have been fishing and they had a blast. Our friends, the Harpers, happened to stumble upon us at the park and Wheat got hold of my camera which explains the odd pictures of water bottles and cheese crackers. He loves taking pictures. The boys each caught a few fish and Lake caught “the one that got away” which probably weighed about 10 pounds, no lie. His little Transformer fishing rod couldn’t hold the weight so it snapped the line. Somewhere in the lake that fish is sitting at a bar with buddies and a fat hook hanging out of his mouth talking about his escape. 
We went to Rosemary Beach again this summer with my family. We always have a super fun time and the boys love playing and being with their cousins all week. The beach house we stayed in also had a Nintendo Wii so that was a huge hit, literally. So many inacent bystanders were nailed in the face, arms, belly as we walked in front of a kid playing tennis ir baseball. It’s wha all the kids are sking for from Santa now.
Click the “Photos” link at the top of the page to view our beach album….there were simply too many pics to choose from to only list a few so I had to create their own page. Enjoy!
Can you guess who is who? LOL
Our best friends threw their 5 year old a mud party for her birthday. I know what you are all thinking but you’re wrong. It is GERMs that I despise…not dirt! LOL How could I despise dirt with 3 boyz? I have become ONE with the dirt…embracing it fully. So this was without a doubt the most interesting, coolest, dirtiest party I have ever been to and our boys had a blast. Wheat (who is ONE with cleanliness) even got his hands dirty. It was good for all of us…very therapeutic. My BF Heather, however, was probably wiping dirt still many weeks later from all sorts of places. (We rinsed kids with the hose initially but then they had to be carried in to the bath tub…mud tracks were inevitable).
There just won’t be any still, calm, every-child-looking-at-the-camera Easter photos around here…heck, there weren’t even nice outfits until the evening before (courtesy of Gap Kids, hand-me-downs and leftovers from my brothers wedding:). Because our church is extremely casual, our boys do not keep any dress clothes on hand. We had only recently bought them new sneakers so they were still clean and pretty. They all clean up pretty well, I think!
Happy Spring!
Long time no blog, I know. We are alive and well, we have just been super busy and are getting busier. Soccer has kicked off several weeks ago and is in full swing and while all of the administrative responsibilities I have with AYSO have dwindled away (I am a board member, assist the Registrar, the U5 & U6 coordinator, a coach and a ref) now we have two practices a week and games all day on Saturdays. Fun! I guess it is something I have to come to terms with being mom to three boys.
We have been blessed once again with a fantastic Winter. We have been very lucky to bypass illnesses all season although we have spent a great deal of time at home which we love. That has helped a lot. I also believe, and I find much truth in the research backing this, that everything revolves around diet. I have been wanting to blog about this subject for quite some time. If you are someone who knows me well, you know how important it is to us to have an excellent diet. We were always active and ate healthy before our kids were born but when they came things changed even more. Why even bother puting anything in their mouth that will not directly benefit them? I have always asked this question to those who badger me for not letting my kids eat candy and junk food. What are they missing? Nothing at all. Those same people who just 7 years ago mocked me for desiring to strictly breastfeed Wheat the entire first year and never let him have a bottle of formula and then only feed him organic baby food or mashed fresh fruits and veggies are coming to me all these years later for advice on how they can better their eating habits and lifestyles because they see how healthy our family is, how well our children have been all winter and how calm and focused our children are instead of bouncing off the walls. I am not a saint, nor do I have all the answers to anything. However, I am gleaming and very proud of the good habits that we have instilled in our children thus far. If we eat out in a restaurant, which is seldom because no restaurant is “good enough” for mom’s expectations, our kids choose steamed vegetables instead of fries and never eat poorly. Older generations of folks walk by our table every time and compliment us on how well our children are behaved and how amazed they are to see a 7 year old stuffing broccoli in his mouth like candy. We spend a great deal of money on good food, real vitamins and whole food suppliments but it is very important to us. At the same time, not one of us have been to the doctor since August 2007 so that is a savings of potentially hundreds in co-pays and prescriptions that we have avoided this winter. We also do not spend money on fancy clothes or theaters or myself on expensive make-up or anything we do not need to simply survive. Our money is spent only on what we need. Besides us passing around pink eye over the last few weeks, our kids have not even had a common cold. We also did not get flu shots last Fall. I have never liked them and finally read enough to stand up against such a nasty thing and avoid it and this is the first winter we have all been well. This has also been the first winter in 7 years that I have not had an infant so that decision was easier. How have we managed to stay well? Well, it’s not because my house has been spotless and sanitized regularly because that is the polar opposite of the truth in my busy world. My home has been messier than ever this winter. Who could possibly work nearly full time from home aside from preparing/cooking 3 meals a day and homeschooling children AND manage to keep a clean house? If spending time with family wasn’t a very important thing to someone it might be possible but when I have a moment without anything to do I find it better spent reading a book to River or talking to Wheat about his drawings or pushing Lake on the tire swing. This has been an incredible winter. We haven’t gone out much, but we did not need to. We have missed our friends at church over the last several weeks, but with everything that has been traveling around from home to home we have decided we are better off here until Spring. So Spring has sprung and off we go….our ants are back waving tiny little flags that read “Happy Spring…we’re back” (we do not use pesticides around our home) …flowers are blooming…birds are all over our feeders…thoughts of a summer garden and eating fresh tomatoes right off the vine are coming to mind…it’s a beautiful time of year. So get ready for some Baileys because we’re coming out. And for those of you who do not believe that a healthy diet of fresh, organic, non-processed foods are important….well, I have to disagree and I believe that my family is a perfect testament to the fact that it DOES make a difference. It is NOT a gimick or a sales tactic. Simply pick up a book and educate yourself a bit on the effects of unnatural chemicals in foods and beauty products in the human body…it is real and isn’t going away. We can fill our minds with the purest of thoughts and prayer and verses of scripture but at the end of the day if we do not have the energy to proclaim our faith because we are tired or ill then what good is all of that knowledge? At the end of the day if we didn’t have the ability or energy to run outside with our children and kick a ball or go on a family bike ride then what example are we being to them?
Stay tuned for my next vent on mass produced super hero costumes vs. a simple piece of fabric for a cape and a wooden stick…it’s only getting more interesting….
Dollywood Season Passes – $300
Hundreds of very cool, natural, eco-conscious, battery-free & imaginative toys – $Thousands
A .59 cent pair of glasses Jason & I bought years before we even had kids knowing one day we would and they would love them – Priceless.
I guess if our boys are going to see snow ever in their childhood we are going to have to haul them to Utah or something. I say Utah because I lived there as a child and OH how pretty and the conditions were perfect for snow play. The snow could be several feet deep, perfectly sticky, and we would be out playing in sweatshirts and blue jeans because it did not feel cold at all. I can’t imagine what life might be like without this Tennessee humidity. So I caught just a few minutes of snow play before it melted and it literally did in a matter of minutes. Jason shoveled some and packed it on a slope to try and form a sliding path but it just didn’t work for us. Maybe next year…
have my children heard about groupies?!?! Wheat asked me today..
W: “Mom, was dad in a band when you guys were in high school?”
Mom: “No.”
W: “Well…was he a groupie?”
M: “No.” (laughing)
W: “Well…what is a groupie?”
M: “It is a person who doesn’t have a job or any belongings or anything who runs around and follows their favorite band from city to city to hear them play over and over and hang out with them.”
W: “Ugh. That is crazy. So they don’t have a job so they are lazy. They just don’t know what they are missing, do they mom?.”
M: “What they are missing? What ARE they missing, Wheat?”
W: “Well, they could be somewhere having kids or eating food or buying a house or adopting a kid or renting a movie or buying a TV for their house so they can just be lazy at that.”
So, after my mad dash to my desk to jot down all his ramblings as fast as I could I realized he just might be getting the big picture of what we are trying to teach them about what is important in life. Is he getting it? He thinks having kids and a family is important – good. He appreciates having good food to eat – good. He just might be getting on board the adoption train that he has never been too keen on – good. He appreciates renting movies instead of buying them or going to a theatre – really good for us! And, he knows watching TV is being lazy….what more could we ask??? Yau’ll check back in another 10 years and we’ll review and see if he still feels the same about all this. LOL
