Our weeks ~ October 21, October 28, & November 4

Our weeks have been full of many things...

Beautiful autumn colors (this is in our backyard)

 Abigail's second round of Botox on her left leg (see her faithful nurse?)

 Adorable cats who entertain us by playing in catnip, jumping windows in pursuit of insects, watching the printer in fascination, and (best of all!) snuggling

 A working weekend retreat in the lovely north Georgia mountains

 The magic of the first frost of the season

 The slow-paced fun of our latest science experiment (aka snail terrarium)

as we study animal classification

 Tree climbing (David is in the tree on the left)

 Schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork

 A 'mission of mercy' trip to cheer up my parents since my dad is down for the count with a foot infection and my mom is busy being his nurse:

With Grandpa during his daily IV treatment

 David and Grandpa hanging out at the pool

My first batch of 'real' soap (lye based soap with goat's milk & orange scent)

 The kids making pretty glycerin soaps with Grandma

 A fun picture from their yard, just because I like it!

Cousin/nephew/niece-love (and uncles and aunts, too)

 Back in Georgia again, to our chilly (but pretty!) fall weather...

from about October through March, if I am wearing pants,

you can be pretty sure that these are hiding underneath. :)

Football!  David wore his Broncos hat to cheer for Peyton Manning.

 The conclusion of our fall soccer season

Even a little bit of sewing & embroidery got squeezed into the schedule

 That's those three weeks in a nutshell! :)

Our week ~ April 8

This week was our first one this spring that was full of wonderfully warm weather...and we couldn't help but get outside and enjoy it!  We met friends at the playground after school on Monday...

...and more friends at another playground on Tuesday!

Abigail has been having a tough time with spring allergies, as she usually does.  Her allergic reactions got worse and worse until we decided it was time for some help.  Her allergist put her on a few days of steroids and that has done the trick in helping her body to get over the worst of it.

Abigail showing us how she was feeling while at the doctor's office...

...and David wanted a turn to make a crazy face since his sister got to!

This is why everyone's allergies have been so bad.  Look at the jump from almost no pollen in the air to a LOT.

My little girl is growing up so quickly.  She took off all by herself for her soccer field this week with a "Bye, Mom!" and a wave and that pretty 'new' ponytail swinging jauntily behind her.

We stopped at the library this week, which we haven't done in ages.  The kids were so thrilled to be back in the midst of that treasure trove of books...and we carted home 61 books between the three of us. :)  I LOVE that both of the kids got the reading gene!

Mindy likes it best when we stay home and she can be near us.

Yesterday I opened a kitchen cupboard to get a dish out and felt someone looking at me -- I looked up to see this cute little face staring down at me from amongst my canned tomatoes.

 It was a busy week but in lots of good ways!

Our weeks ~ March 11 & 18

Our calendar has been insanely full, but we are surviving and even enjoying the togetherness in the midst of the busyness!

Our spring soccer season has started, so Thursday afternoons are spent at Homeschool Soccer League.  The kids love playing; I love that it is only 2 hours every Thursday afternoon, with no extra practices/games on other days of the week.  Unfortunately, the weather for our first two sessions reminded me of my soccer days in upstate NY -- COLD!!!  Both days had wind chills in the 30s!  I am thankful that my two kids' age groups are playing on side-by-side fields on the parking lot edge of the ball fields, so I sat in the van and watched them instead of sitting outside.  It makes for not-so-good pictures...but it's better than freezing. :)

 

We have a neighbor who has access to too-ripe-to-sell and/or overstock produce at one of our local grocery stores, and when she gets an overabundance, she shares it with neighbors -- I was very excited to find this at my front door one morning!

The kids and I made a quick trip to Florida to see my grandparents one more time before they head back to NY (they are snowbirds).

David enjoyed working on the new shed with Grandpa Minota and Great-Grandpa O'Gorman (getting to use a power tool was a happy thing, too!).

My brother Caleb and his wife Cassandra celebrated their first anniversary while I was there, so my mom and I got to keep my niece -- their surprise honeymoon baby :) -- overnight.  It was wonderful!

The kids went swimming.  Well...Abigail tried but couldn't bear the cold water.  David swam like a polar bear.  I sunbathed and didn't even try to swim -- I don't like swimming until the water hits 90 degrees!

We celebrated Abigail's birthday a few days early with some of our Florida family.

I failed to get any pictures of the kids with my parents -- grrrrr -- but here is a nice picture of my parents!

Since we got home, Bruce and David have been working on the building that will soon be our new church home.  David loves these workdays!

We finished these two weeks with Abigail's 9th birthday, but that event warrants its own blog post. :)