.Home Sweet Home.

After twelve days away, five of which were spent in a minivan, we are home! We are sun kissed and all probably ten pounds heavier. Buhahaha. I love my family - my little family of five, and my extended  family. It struck me while on vacation that this was the longest I have been able to be with my sister in over ten years. It was amazing! And this was the longest I have ever spent with my niece and nephew - both who are hysterical! We had the best time. We were able to spend one day at Magic Kingdom, thanks to the generosity of some sweet family members. I got teary in the very first line as I held Jamesy and marveled that he was there with us.(Oh, and if you have a child with a disability - for example Jamesy is legally blind and has a sensory processing disorder and therefore has trouble in crowds or lines - you can get a special pass. We were able to sit in the front seats at shows and skip to the front of almost every line!) Jim and I were able to splurge on a date night, and then the rest of the time we pretty much lazed around in or by the pool. It was perfect. Absolute perfection.  And our children are champion travelers. We could not believe how well they did in the van for FIVE days!! So it is home again, and with such a full, wonderful time away, I am recharged and ready to start our crazy life back up.

....and ADD to the crazy! While on vacation I read Seven: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker (a fellow AWAA adoptive Mama and author/speaker extraordinaire). I wish I could make you all read it, really I do. It was so NOT a book to read on vacation, but I did it cringing much of the time as I sat surrounded by excess. Her book is not a guilt trip, though, it really isn't. Jen's experiment is completely Christ and cross-centered. It takes seven months where one area of excess is targeted every month: clothes, shopping, waste, food, possessions, media, and stress. Jim and I are jumping in and joining the experiment....starting tomorrow {gulp}. We are starting with food. We will choose seven foods and seven foods only, and that is all we will eat for the month of May (and coffee does not make the cut. I am shaking already just thinking about that). It is a fast of sorts.  A fast in which I pray opens our eyes to the ridiculous excess around us and binds our hearts closer to the heart of our Father. I think this is a perfect way to prepare our hearts for our mission trip to Ethiopia. I am going to blog my way through it, for accountability, for reflection, and for fun - cause writing is what I do. That is essentially what Jen did with her book - she wrote her way through the experiment in real time. Again you SHOULD read the book. I think Jim and I have narrowed our seven foods down (thankfully we have had friends who have gone before us in doing this and we have stolen some of the items they wished they had chosen).

For the month of May Jim and I will be eating:

1. Chobani Yogurt (A little sneaky here as we did not choose a flavor {ahem}, but Jen emphasized spirit of the law not letter!)
2. Chicken
3. Avocados
4. Whole wheat bread
5. Sweet potatoes
6. Peanut butter
7. Apples

Only water to drink.

Tomorrow I will be back to write after I survive day #1. I am terrified of the coffee withdrawal, so much so I contemplated making coffee one of my seven foods! Ummmm.....yeah. 

Pray for me? 

Join me? I wish I had a group of like-minded friends that were into this! {hint, hint}

. . . . And she's back.

I am back. Back from a wonderful two week vacation in Florida and then a week and a half of organizing and rescheduling our life to fit in the blessing of home school. I am officially a home schooling mommy! We have a week under our belt. It went so well. There were a few bumps with scheduling, and I am still not enjoying having to do my cleaning in the afternoon now, but over all it has been wonderful. Cadi is eager to learn, and she loves the special attention from Mommy.

I am using a wonderful curriculum called hands on home schooling. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to incorporate a lot of activity into their preschoolers education. There is not a whole lot of sitting or pencil work. It was exactly what I was looking for in a curriculum. We have a cooking class every week, a dramatic play class, PE, music, and the normal preschool classes such as phonics, math, basic science, etc.

My Cadi turned four last week, while I was away from blogging. I really cannot believe how quickly these past four years have flown by. It has been a blink. I hope to be able to sit down and do a nice birthday post and video for her. Scotty is changing and growing so much since returning home for the summer. He is finally crawling and pulling himself up. He is all over the downstairs of our house. He has really begun to take on quite the personality as well. Two of my favorites right now is his fake laugh that eventually completely overcomes him and becomes real laughter, and the way he has started wrinkling his nose when he smiles. He is a darling boy.

I am also excited this fall to continue pursuing my hobby of photography. However, I really need to figure out what to do with all of our photos. I am so behind in scrapping. Yet, I do love it. I am just not sure if I have the time. So I have been debating whether or not to print some photo books. Also this fall, I am determined to sew my window treatments for the kitchen and finish up the little house projects that remain. I would really like to make the small room that attaches to our bedroom a nice little nook for my quiet time. I have a few other sewing projects in mind as well. I want to try my hand at making Cadi a cute pair of bell bottomed pants with ruffles on the hem. I am no good at following patterns, though. I usually sew free hand. I am thinking the pants might be a bit too adventurous! I also am trying to figure out a way to craft the verse Matthew 22:37 for my childrens' rooms. Any ideas?

A big blessing in my life is my dear friend Bethany. She is the best girl friend I have ever had, and I thank God so much for her. The wonderful thing is the same is true for Jim and her husband. God has truly blessed us with their family. It is so nice to be moved back home and be able to spend more time with her and her family. We have even started a mini book club/ study and are reading through and discussing Crazy Love
The discussion part is a stretch for both of us being introverts, but we had our first discussion last week. It was such an encouragement to me, and I really enjoyed our time together. I am excited to see what blossoms from it.

Oh boy - two minutes until school starts. It felt good to write again.