Tis the Season.

Living in a household that is run predominantly by the male species, I can quite easily break my life down into two simple categories:  Fishing Season and Hunting Season.

That's right.
My family keeps it simple.

Old Gertie.

 During the Spring and Summer months, my boys live and breathe all things fishing; and during the fall and winter months they have buck fever.  Anything in between is just details.

  Kaden's bass getting pulled in....

We have now entered Season Numero Uno.

Fishing Season is upon us, and this is just about the only thing that every last one of my boys eats, sleeps, lives, breathes, thinks, and talks about.  And because it is oh so very new in the season, there's not a whole lot of wiggle room in those brains for entertaining thoughts of much of anything else.

Big Daddy Pickerel...caught by Big Daddy Kev.

Lucky for them, I'm basically pretty cool with this.
I love my Grampy's old boat.
I love being on the water.
I love being with my family.
And I love eating snacks...which I do a lot of whilst on the boat.

And just today, while we were getting all organized to go on our second-day-in-a-row-even-though-it's-sprinkling-and-even-though-it's-yard-sale-season-and-I-could-be-getting-some-crazy-steals boating trip, Jesse told Kevin:  "Mama's a manly woman." Apparently I am just like one of the guys.  Not sure if I should feel honored by this statement or be completely offended.  Still ruminating on that one.

But, off we went for the second day in a row, regardless.

Our house is literally a mile and a half up the road from a sweet lake with crazy amounts of bass and pickerel, so my boys are seriously in Paradise.  London and I....we're pretty much along for the ride.  And lucky for them, she's always up for a grand adventure.  Although, she's not a real huge fan of her lifejacket, and when she's decided that she's done with the fun -- she is done.  Like zero to sixty in three seconds flat, floppy and wailing all over the place.  That's when things get really fun for me and I start thinking about all of the things that I could have been doing had she and I stayed back at the house....

I'm sure the sight of six Crazies in a 14 foot old metal boat, with three Hoolie boys louder than all get-out with one of them usually riding on the hood, a crazy baby who keeps chucking things from the diaper bag overboard into the brink, hooks catching everywhere, lines tangling like crazy, and a Mama and a Daddy trying to keep their sanity whilst having "the time of their lives" amidst the crampy-est of cramped quarters is a sight for sore eyes for anyone watching or listening from shore.

"I TOLD you I was done a half hour ago!!!"

We surely do have a....er...."presence" on the water, to be sure.
And "in" the water...for that matter...

I looked - and suddenly- he was stripped down to his undies and socks....and into the brink he jumped!
First swim of the season.

It begins.

It's Friday...

I'm in Love.

You know the song...

Field Day.

I have this crazy, quirky friend who grew up in the same neighborhood, same school, same church as me.  I have always known her to have this ah-mazing imagination, a brain that - seriously - never stops going, and this truly raw and real approach to life.

She wears her emotions on her sleeve, she never tries to hide anything, she freely and frankly - and often quite hilariously speaks her mind, she's completely cool with laughing at herself, she raised some pretty cool kids, she's navigated some pretty rough waters in her years, and she's pretty much my standard for the homeschooling Mama that I wish to be.  She marches to the beat of her own drum, she believes that all of life is learning, she's not afraid to branch out and try something crazy or learn something new......

....And she throws some pretty amazing Part-ays.

One of the things that I really always loved in my public school experiences was all of the parties we'd get to have.  Valentine's Parties, Christmas Parties, and especially the end of the year Field Day, and I felt sad that this would be one of the things that the kids would miss out on with me Homeschooling them.

Well.  I worry about that no more, because Wendy....she delivers.
And she delivers in a big way.

frozen bananas with yogurt and sprinkles.  brilliant.

I love everything about her parties.  I love the families who come - all so different and cool.  I love her themes and her crazy ideas.  I love where she lives and the wide open spaces.  I love how she mixes play with education.  I love the blending of all of the ages where the Littles learn right along with the Biggies, and where the older kids play alongside with the younger.

Relay Races.

And I love those few hours getting to visit and talk to all of the other Mamas.
Different walks of life.
Different beliefs.
Different philosophies on education.
All Mamas.  All doing their best on this crazy journey of Motherhood.  And all real about the process.
So encouraging...

That's my Kaden in the green shirt...with his entire FACE blindfolded.

 I also love me a chance to get in on a little bit of the competition and show those kids what a true "Pudding Guzzle - whatever you call it" win looks like.  That's right.  Not afraid to crush my kids in a little bit of friendly competition.

This is my friend Dominique.
She has three big boys and a baby girl herself.  We understand each other.
So, I "volun-told" her that we were going to be partners in the pudding feed....and I was going to feed HER.
She was a good sport about it.
And we won.
Only a teensy bit competitive....

Before we did our relay races and games, Wendy gave us a little lesson on milking goats - telling us all that she has learned this past year in her new adventure of goat raising.  Then, she let whoever wanted to...try some of her raw goat milk.  In true Jesse form, he was up for trying something new, and then proudly declared:  "It tastes like butt!"

Apparently my child has tasted butt before.
Who knew?

I am typically up for trying all things new, as well, but after that informative remark, I politely bowed out.
But, I did snuggle her baby Esme.
Darling, she is.

It was such a fun day.
The rain stayed away.
The kids played hard.
The Mamas had fun.
And we all left for home with our love tanks filled, our hearts encouraged, and allllllmost one more year down in the books...

And...
Wendy has three of these babies for sale that I just might have to purchase from her...
A new adventure of my own methinks....

Now, I just have to convince my Kevy.....

Getting Dirty.

"The glory of gardening; hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.  To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul." ~ Alfred Austin

I love this quote.
And for me, it is so true!

We've been living in this here our new abode for 8 months now, and the thing that I absolutely miss the most - other than my dear, sweet neighbor Lew - is my garden.  That thing was big, and it was beautiful, and it's where I fell in love with the miracle of growing things and of living off the land.  Up until that garden and up until that sweet little old man - I had never planted one thing in my life before, nor had I any desire to do so, and I knew nothing about canning, pickling, or preserving.

Peas.  And I can't sow a straight row to save my life.

 Those four years in that huge garden plot are where I learned so very much, and they are some of my happiest memories to date.  I loved being outside, and I loved watching everything grow.  I loved the picking and the pickling.  I loved the conversations that Lew and I had, and I loved that my boys knew and appreciated where good food came from.  In the move, I just figured that was one of those things that I was just going to learn to let go of, and find something else to replace that love of playing in the dirt with my kids.

The owners here have seven raised beds that they used for gardening, but with our housemates being the ones who are here for the long haul - I was more than happy, and fully expected them to have first dibs on the planting.  A few weeks ago, however, Shandy said to me:  "You should just plant whatever you want in those beds.  I don't think I'm going to use them this year."

Initially, I didn't bite.  I won't just have my three Hoolie boys to contend with trampling and drowning watering my veggies - I will now have five Hoolie boys....and 1 wee Hoolette of a baby girl, who can easily get herself into just as much trouble as they can.

On the loose.  In my garden.  In her jammies.

See?

What, Mama?

 Add to that this crazy beetle problem that ate up all of Shandy's veggies last year....along with the deer population that helped themselves to some little nighttime snacks....and I just wrote the whole thing off as a "Nah. The gardening season of my life is over for a couple of years."

Enter my husband who says:  "Are you kidding me?  You're not going to plant one single thing this year?"
And I suddenly found myself in the seed packet aisles, shopping away to my little heart's content.
Funny how that happens...

So.
Last week, we got our hands...and a whole lot more than that dirty.
We put in all of our cold weather veggies - and oh goodness.  Didn't playing in the dirt with the sun at my back and the ground under my fingernails ever make me happy.

We have downsized significantly....but we are planting what all of the Littles love best.
And I don't have a Lew...but I have all of his wisdom.
And the beetles might win...but my heart is still happy.

So, often I have found - that when I give up things that I love most....the Lord remembers.
And He gives back.  And so often, it's just the little things - the simple things that make my world go round.

My chickens roaming free.
Salad veggies...and all things good to eat right, straight out of the ground.
Little ponds in the back woods for little boys to find newts and frogs' eggs.
Long, long driveways for endless peddling.
Swingsets, and playlands - forests for adventuring.
Big backyards to run wild and free.
And priceless little gifts from precious little hands....

#5176 ~ 5182 - My Joy Journey

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Birthdays and God's Sense of Humor...

Motherhood is a funny thing.
And the journey of motherhood is even funnier...

Our sweet London Faith turned one this past Friday...and in my almost ten years of parenting...what an interesting switch I found myself to be in while birthday decoration shopping.  Suddenly, I am transitioning from dinosaurs and bugs, trucks and trains -  to the Pretty Pretty Princess in Pink aisles, and quite honestly, I'm at a bit of a loss at to what to do.

Gifts from Grammy and a birthday sign from Mama.

Jesse, however, went right straight for the Princess castle birthday cake pan saying:  "She. Will. LOVE This!" I, however, was still not quite really to embrace all things Frozen or Cinderella - just yet - so, we compromised and went with Kaden's choice of a flower cake pan.  I can do flowers.

Behold the Ugly.

What I am not able to do however is create soft, faint girly colors for said cake.  I had no idea those little Wilton coloring pots required so little color to turn the frosting into a such a brilliant shade of Horror. Decorating cakes is most definitely not in my gift mix.  So...much to my amusement, I found myself making my sweet little baby girl a pink and purple birthday cake... which I promptly tried to cover much of it up with piped white frosting.  But, between the pink and purple cake and the first birthday girl decor...we surely were all things pink and girly on this day.

It was a dreary, rainy day outside.
All of  my kids like to have birthday parties or rainy torrent days.
It's tradition.

I think that God has a fabulous sense of humor.
Her birthday bib states it loudly:  "The Princess is One."
A gift from my Marmie....which she found to be quite hilarious.

A birthday page for everyone to write in for her album.

And her little birthday outfit?  Well.....I have had this most adorable little pink princessey dress hanging in her closet for months.  As soon a Mom saw it she said:  "You know you'll never wear this on her to church.  So, what better time for her to wear it than for her birthday?"

I freely admit...SUPER delicious.

So, my beautiful baby girl did indeed end up looking like a Princess on her birthday.
And her Mama stood by... watching all four of her boys melt into puddles...and I just about cried.

Stopping for Lovies.

And then I found it quite amusing how irritated she was whilst trying to crawl around in that thing.
So impractical.  I hear ya, Baby Love..

My kind of pink.  Right here.

It was a sweet, sweet day.
Doting Daddy's, brothers, Grampy's and Grammy's.
Fun little presents and tons of little snuggles.
She was impy.  She was happy.

Simple bbq foodies...

And she thoroughly enjoyed her wee birthday cupcake.
And ate it up, just like a lady.

So dainty and delicate...

Sweet baby girl....
How loved and treasured you are.  Such joy you bring to each one of your family members.  And so many things you have taught this new-to-having-girls Mama.  As your Grampy wrote on your birthday page:  "May you grow up to be just as pretty on the inside as you are on the outside."  This is my prayer, as well.  Watch your Daddy and  your brothers.  Let them take care of you and protect you.  Be strong.  Be brave.  But let them be gentlemen, and treat you like a lady.  Fall in love with Jesus first.  Fall head over heels in crazy love for Him.  Let Him grow you into the godly girl that He wants you to be...and don't try to be anything else -- for anyone else.  I love you, London.  My heart is filled to overflowing with you.  What a beautiful Mother's Day gift you were and you are.  And just like Daddy wrote....."try not to grow so fast next year, okay?"

Happy Birthday, Baby Love....

~ A sweet bit of pink to add to our boy crazy mix.
~ Brothers and Daddy's melting with love.
~ Learning to love pink and frills.
~ A birthday to celebrate the same weekend as Mother's Day - the best kind of gift.
~ A year of blessing and a year of joy.
~ Little girls melting bits of this Mama's heart that she never knew she had.

#5170-#5175 ~ My Joy Journey

She's Like a Puppy.

This little Mama went to waitress.
And this little baby stayed home.

The 3 little boys were watching t.v.
While this little baby did roam.

She found herself some paper for the potty ~
To her delight, it came real easy off the roll.

She shredded it to bits all down the hallway...
And it followed her around throughout her stroll.

She was surrounded by her mess when Daddy found her.
And he quickly ended this activity.

But not before exposing her on camera ~
In all her impy, crazy, girly glee!!!