I am having some technical difficulties. I think they are mainly on my end...but when I try to look at my own posts, outside of the editing page, my internet crashes.

This happens on various internet pages.

Especially if there are pictures or videos involved.

The computer also runs slow, so I am told by others who use it.

So bare with me. I am going to try and wipe the slate clean, literally removing everything from the hard drive and re-installing everything.

I've known for about 10 months that I needed to do this. And there is no promise that it will fully solve the issues.  It just might help. Obviously I feel very confident in my skills to start this process which is why I have jumped all over it.

However, we are on fall break and I am having too much fun playing school, planting plants, dreaming big and staying busy to put this at the top of my to do list.  The time has come, I must try and jump start my computer by erasing everything and starting over.  I will do it.  Right after I finish my homework of separating odds from evens.

Peace

Source: pinwheelsforpeace.com via Briana on Pinterest

I can't bring the world to peace myself, but my goal is to bring as much peace to our lives as we can and those we meet. Being content, kind, and generous ourselves and each other and people we meet along the way. I might also pull out some fun paper and we'll make pin wheels together. May you find peace today!

Happy Birthday Air Force

Recently it was the USA Air Force's birthday.  Here is a fun look at all the wonderful perks Eric gets!


Click here to see the video

OUCH!

There was an incident this evening.  The little guy had a small toy in his mouth. I told him to spit it out. He refused. So being a "good" mommy and trying to keep him safe and not choke, I stuck my finger in to sweep it out.

Well, today he made the bad choice to chomp down on my finger.  He even broke the skin!  He hasn't been a biter, which is why I felt okay trying to get the toy.  OUCH does my finger still hurt!  I'll live.  Don't start making plans to attend any party thrown due to my demise, just yet.

However, it did remind me of this gem of a video that several years ago made the rounds.  In fact, since then my dad has had this as his ring tone for when we call him.

And for my mom, he still doesn't want to be called Chuck.

Ordinary days

We have been pretty busy with basic ordinary days around here. This afternoon I will be headed to parent teacher conferences for a particular first grader.  Her teacher is handing out pictures and report cards.  I am going to guess, that due to CJ's enthusisam for first grade and general good reports I have gotten, that this conference will go pretty smoothly.  Her progress report also indicated that academics are going well.  In fact, I do know she has been selected for tricky team. This is a group of students who are ready for more of a challenge. In addition to their regular school work they get a tricky team folder of extra workmmjjfhrequired to also finish throughout the week.  She is still taking piano lessons and will have a fall recital Oct 27th.

 A morning of curls, ironically it began to rain as she got to school.

Her other main activity is gymnastics and she has figured out how to control her strong muscles allowing her to do more and more skills. Last night she rang the bell for her back handspring.  Her coach is really excited for her and mentioned that she will be moving to the next step sooner than I was expecting to hear that news.

Sweetness has joined a preschool group music class and loves it! Wednesdays there is no issue with her getting her chores done, she will happily list all what she has to get done before going to music.  In this regard, I love Wednesdays too! Without preschool 4 days a week, she gets in plenty of play time. We still work on academic skills at home, however we have time to focus on areas she is interested in. She recently mastered counting by 10s and enjoys doing more and more complicated mazes. She will even show her little brother how to get through a maze, after she is done with it.

I volunteered one day in CJ's classroom and took Sweetness along. She had a great time and even got to go to recess on the big playground. As we walked together I noticed that Sweetness was as tall as the first graders. Which then lead me to notice that CJ was the tallest in her class.  I know this height business doesn't come from me!

Sweetness got moved up in gymnastics from the rec side to the "other" side.  She is now in a 90 minute class called Hot Shots. The first couple of weeks were rocky, but she is loving it now! She has a gentle coach which Sweetness will do nearly anything for.  Despite the photo above, Sweetness will tell you she does NOT like bars.

And this guy is just busy busy busy. He plays with his trains. I think he dreams about trains. He currently likes to play "ghost train" which I have learned, the hard way, is when one train hides in the tunnel, makes ghosts noises and chases away any other train that may try to go through the tunnel.  He can also be a big help!

Yes of course each of the kids have chores to do. They also help out on tasks they find fun. Garbage duty is one of them for him.  He is also wanting to give up his nap on certain days.  When those days fall on gymnastic days, we run into issues.  Like this day, he was upset that we were just sitting in the van and not going home. He made it very clear that he was ready to go home.

He also seems to be rather tall for his age.  He was as tall as the other 4yr olds in Sweetness's music class, but since she was 3 or 4 inches taller than the other classmates, I had not realized how tall he was until they were all standing together after music class.

 Being silly while waiting at gymnastics

 After covering himself in aloe, he washed himself with the dirty crock pot soaking water.

All smiles and generally pretty happy all around.

Unfocused

I have been thinking all week how I should tackle today in blogging world.  Several ideas, but didn't want to appear to be trivial either, even though this little blog is pretty trivial in general.  Our week rushed by with lots of things going on.  So I decided I will tackle today with an unfocused approach and mention everything.

1. The end of an era and I mourn it.
Fully I celebrate Great Grandpa Ed's life. I do.  How could one not?  He was 3 weeks shy of his 100th birthday. He lived a full life, that deserves to be celebrated.  He was married to his sweetheart for over 65 years. I haven't been able to get an exact year due to everyone busy with funeral activities. He farmed. He was a WW II vet. They had 7 beautiful children and 19 grandchildren, and amazingly 18 of the 19 were able to make it to the funeral.  I am not sure how many great grandchildren he had, but I know 3 cute ones live with us.

Oct. 10, 2009

This is what I mourn, we live 3 days away from all the grandparents and until Wednesday night, our kids were unique in not only having 2 sets of grandparents that love them dearly, but also 4 sets of great grandparents.  They had 6 grandmas and 6 grandpas loving them. Each still with the one they chose so many years ago.  Eight of them lived in the same little town in Iowa.  So the fact that our kids have generations of grandparents and yet because we live so far away, I mourn that they haven't gotten the chance to truly forge close relationships with each one.  They know them, the kids love their grandparents, but as an adult, I know how amazing it was for them to have so many great grandparents, and my heart aches that they only see them in quick visits.  Oh I recognize how full of blessings all of our lives are and they are still incredibly lucky with the role models they have in grandparents. I just wish we could be closer than three days away.

2. Ten years.
For so many, this day ten years ago is as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.  Many are reflecting on what they were doing when they heard. (I was at the dog park and another dog owner asked if I had seen or heard about it, I had not, but promptly gathered up Panther and went home to find out more). Shortly after the attacks is when Eric decided to join the military. So in many many ways our lives were drastically altered. In the 9.5 years he has been in the military, he has barely been home, training and protecting our freedoms we hold so dear.  He has been to 2 basic trainings, 2 different survival schools,  2 technical schools, instructor school, AC upgrade school, 8 over seas war deployments plus others, and at least 20 TDY's  which have lasted from a few days to several weeks or months.  Prior to joining, he was a preschool teacher for 3 yr olds. We had bought our first house a mere 3 months earlier.

I miss him. We miss him. However, we are accepting of his choice to remain in the service and protect our country. We'll never get rich doing so. He'll miss more holidays, birthdays, piano recitals, and more, he has volunteered to do so, so that others may sleep at night.

3. Moving forward
The truth is, even though we live where we live due to Eric's career and he joined because of September 11th, 2001, we have not actually talked to the kids much at all about that day.  It is hard. The images are graphic. The words to describe it all are strong hateful words. We are doing our best to raise loving, caring, generous, accepting children. And this day does not represent those things.  The years of war do not convey a message love and acceptance of others. So how do we balance it?

Something amazing happened today. God knew 10 agonizing years ago, that today would be Sunday. God knew that we would still be struggling as a nation, as a world. God knew we would need a different message for today if there was a chance we could move forward.  In our church we have a 3 year rotating lectionary series. This year is year A. This year Easter was as late as it could be. This year, the tenth anniversary of a horrible day in history, the scripture reading was already in place. It has been in place for decades...dare I say generations?  God's message today:

forgive.

Forgive. Not once, not twice, but seventy seven times.

Matt. 18:21-35  NIV -I did the bold facing.

    21.Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
    22. Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times.
   23. "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with this servants. 24. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
   26. "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27. The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
  28. "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denari. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
    29. "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
   30."But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
   32. "Then the master called the servant in. 'you wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33. shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34. In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
   35."This his how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

And so, I ask you, is it time to heal our hearts? Can we now forgive? Can we, as the song says "And they'll know we are Christians by our LOVE"? Can we start to love our neighbors. Can we love those who are different from ourselves? Can we forgive and let go of our paralyzing fear that his griped us? Can we reach our hands out to others. Can we find common ground? Can we work together? Can we forgive each other, from our hearts?

4. I wish each of you a very blessed week.  Find the good in each and every day. You'll probably find God's thumbprint there too.

Reading reward

 This summer the kids dutifully read and filled out the library's summer reading program.  One of the rewards was to go to the zoo on a hot Saturday morning and have extra, passport events.

 We saw costume characters from books we read!

 He was very serious about checking the map each time we saw a new animal.

 Not sure if this is an emu or what, but it was a new animal for us to see!

 Arts and Crafts

And stamps from around the world

We are very excited about the zoo expansion going on. Can't wait for it to open and to see how it all works together!

The many faces of. . . .

 A ham?

 A goofball?

 Wait, who is this kid? With a normal smile and chocolate syrup on his face? Can't be the same one can it?

Oh, there he is! And he is all of 2!

Good bye summer

As Labor Day weekend closes the official feel of summer ends too.  I have been busy taking care of produce.

Such as Green Chilies from New Mexico.  Something this Midwestern girl did not know, the skins are not to be eaten. To store, one must first roast the chilies to get the skin peeled off.  I either did not roast them long enough, or it was too long, or just some tough chilies since no matter how much I wrestled, I could not get the skins to peel right off.  They are frozen for future use with the note, to not actually eat them, just use them for season.

I tried my hand at a berry pie. Homemade crust and all.  Not the prettiest, but there was nothing left!

 And I made pesto, and he was my good helper! A wonderful neighbor was pulling up her garden and shared some fresh basil with us.  We'll use the batch in the jar this week, the rest was frozen for future yummy meals.

I also did up another big batch of freezer corn and to keep everything in balance made a batch of cookies somewhere in there as well.

I hope your summer was filled with adventures. We ended with a trip to the local water park. The kids earned free passes through the summer library reading program and it was the last weekend they were open.  We all had a blast and want to go again. Hopefully Daddy can go next time since I think there are a couple of girls eyeing the really big water slides!

September 1, 2011

Just wanted to make sure you all knew that today is September 1, 2011.

Soon some of you will be experiencing crisp mornings, turning leaves and Friday night football games.

I'll admit it, I'm a bit jealous of those.

But I am excited that it is September. 

Fall break is nearly here, 3 wonderful weeks when the weather may be tolerable and no school to get up early for.

Grandma Martha is coming to visit, shhhhh don't tell the kiddos, not yet.

Have a fantastic September!