Sunday Snapshot: Just Pictures

Five Question Friday

1. What were your school colors?
Orange and black. Not very exciting. Unless it was Halloween...No, not even then. :)

2. What's the best compliment you ever received?
Call me cheesy and sentimental, but there's nothing better than hearing "What a lovely family you have". There's just something about having a complete stranger validate my choice to dedicate my life to raising my girls. ;)   Besides, I know if they saw the way they behaved at home they'd be singing a different tune.

3. Do you buy cheap or expensive toilet paper?
Cheap. I have to save the dollars for the expensive things like printer ink. And containers (hey, honey ;p ) I had to throw that in because my husband thinks I have an obsessive relationship with containers. He just doesn't understand that I could quit buying them any time I  wanted...

4. Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you? Or have you had one for someone else?
Nope. No surprises. My family is lame. Huh. Apparantly so am I.


5. What is one material possession that you "can't live without"?
Material possession? I'd have to say my laptop. We're codependent. There may be an intervention in my future...

My Husband Rocks!

This week for My Husband Rocks I want to talk about what a dedicated, hard working man my husband is.
Every year, thanks to his tireless efforts, we enjoy a bountiful harvest of vegetables fresh from our garden. Now, we call it "our" garden but in reality it's his baby. I love fresh vegetables. I love the idea of having our own garden. But with the exception of the little bit of work I do helping him prep the garden for planting, I'm pretty much a sit back and watch things grow kind of girl. If there weren't any bugs, and if weeding wasn't the most detestable job I've ever encountered-maybe I'd be more hands on. But there are bugs. Lots and lots of really gross bugs. That crunch when you step on them. I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything worse than the sound of a crunching bug.

So year after he year he toils away in our garden without me. And he never complains.  He plants it. He waters it. He weeds it. And then weeds it again. And then weeds it some more. He sits among the plants and sings to them. Ok. So maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but he does have a giant rock that he put at the edge of the garden so he'd have a place to sit while he admires all of his growing plants. Anytime we can't find him, chances are we look out the window to find him sitting on his rock, cheering everything on :)

After hours and hours and hours of endless hard work, we're starting to enjoy the fruits of his labor!
This is one of the many reasons why My Husband Rocks!

Wow! Where has the time gone?!

I can't believe it's Friday already! Between spending days in the lake hiding from the heat and spending time in front of the AC hiding from the heat it looks like an entire week has gone by somehow! Ahh, the lazy days of summer :)




1. What is one food you could eat everyday?
 Pizza! I could seriously eat pizza every single day. For every meal even. Lucky for family there are so many variations.

2. Are you working in the career you thought you would be when you were 18?
Hah. When I was 18 I was expecting my first child. All I wanted to do was make it through alive :)
When I was younger, I always wanted to be a teacher. Homeschooling has given me the chance to do that.

3. What is something that you wish you would have done when you were younger and you didn't?
I wish I had been a joiner in high school. Immersed myself more in the experience. Unfortunately, I was waaay too cool for that. Prom? Forget it. Smokin' pot and being cool was what it was all about. Refer back to number two to see how that worked out for me. Yep. Nothing like learning all my lessons the hard way :)

4. What color are your kitchen walls?
My kitchen walls are wallpapered. Cream and burgandy pattern.

5. Do you remember what your very first favorite song was?
My mom was a big Journey fan when I was like five years old. I remember listening to her records on my little blue record player. It closed up into a little square box with a handle. I had Strawberry Shortcake stories on record, too. I LOVED that record player. It was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever owned. Ever.  Oh. The song? Right. I believe it was "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. Now. About that record player...



For my very first My Husband Rocks! Friday I'm going to tell you a couple of reasons why my husband rocks. First, he rocks because he does cool stuff that I can't. Our house is old. Like 150 years old or so.
 In addition to the work he's done refinishing floors and tearing down and rebuilding walls he has been rewiring each room as he goes.
Thanks to all his hard work, we now have wiring in our living room that can support an air conditioner! Being able to run air conditioning in this old house without blowing a fuse every minute or burning the place down is miraculous. Yep. That's my husband. The miracle man.
Although he likes to tease and call me a cream puff because I complain about the cold and then I complain about the heat (I do, too, I have no shame!) deep down he loves me and hates to see me suffering uncomfortable! He takes such good care of me :)
My husband also rocks because he grills me meals like this:

The last thing I'm linking to today is



It's such a cool idea. If you have a blog you should definitely check it out!

That's it for today. Enjoy your weekend!

Blast from the Past-Forgiveness

While looking through my picture folder for a cute baby picture of one of my girls, I came across this:

The dork on the left is me. The beauty on the right is one of my baby sisters. As you can see by the annoying date stamp, this picture is five years old. The reason this picture struck me tonight is because we look so happy. We were happy. For most of our lives I loved this girl like she was my own.

About two years ago we had a falling out. It was pretty bad. Things were said. Things were done. Awful things. I said things to her I thought I would never say. Ever.

As the time passed we talked. We tried to make things right. But I couldn't get over it. I tried. I cried about it. I prayed about it. I'm supposed to be a Christian. I'm called to forgive others as He forgave me. How could I hold this against her? For a long time I struggled with this. As much as I wanted to do the right thing-to be the person He has called me to be, I just couldn't do it. Every time I thought about her I was flooded with anger. And disappointment. And hurt.

I've been thinking a lot about her lately. I've been thinking that I miss her. I've been thinking about how sad it is that we're strangers now. This girl that I love so much. My sister.

When I came across her picture tonight all I felt was peace.

Maybe it's time.

For more Blast from the Past visit Debbies Digest.

Learning Happens

Learning Happens was designed to show how our children can learn without our guidance or planning.

While attempting to clean out and organize our homeschooling supplies, I came across Sam's Tommy Torso. Or Dapper Dan. (Poor guy. Imagine having no arms or legs and removable organs and being part of a family who can't even remember your name) I put him down somewhere and came back to this. They had so much fun taking all of his insides out and putting them back in again.

We've had some great conversations with Francesca lately about her new male fish that she named colorful baby. She has repeatedly and adamantly proclaimed colorful baby to be female. Talk about gender indentification :)

And while having a cookout the other day Katie created this masterpiece with a piece of slate, some wild raspberries and flower petals.

Isn't it great to see all the learning that goes on naturally?!

Catching Up

Things have been a little crazy around here causing me to get behind on my blog walking. Therefore, I've decided to combine two weeks worth of blogs into one post so I can catch up. Remember, these are all blogs of my fellow Crew members. Take a minute (or thirty!) and take a little stroll yourself. I had a great time visiting the first ten. There are some really talented people with lots of great information out there! Enjoy.

 1.  Growing Fruit
 2.  School Around the Table
 3.  1628 The Story of the Goebels 5
 4.  Learning to Teach
 5.  My Journey
 6.  Morris Family Madness
 7.  Petra School
 8.  Homeschool Musings
 9.  Heartfelt Homeschooling
10. following Him home

 1.  Stairsteps Homeschool Academy
 2.  Peace Creek on the Prairie
 3.  The Cow Queen
 4.  Living Sola Gratia
 5.  Kingdom Academy
 6.  Curriculum Reviews from Oak Creek Farmhouse
 7.  I Can't Decide
 8.  King Alfred Academy
 9.  My Life on a Taffy Pull