LIVE A LIFE OF NO REGRETS!!: May 2019

Quote from "Stepping Heavenward" by Mrs. E. Prentiss

"She says I shall now have one mouth more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music and drawing.

Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other.

Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which dwells is worthy of all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other dear darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, wondrously blest!"

Monday, May 20, 2019

Year Of Adventure - February

This year Cindy & I decided to redo the camper for our summer plans, hence our Glamper Project. We had so much fun picking out fabrics, and then getting together to sew, paint, pressure wash, and glam the place up.

Opening up to pressure wash

Pre-pressure wash

Post-pressure wash

Before the Glamping begins

Before

Cushions before

Curtain materials

Voila New Covered Cushions

Looking good in the hood

Then we painted

Fresh Look!

Even this came so clean with the pressure washer

We also spent a weekend in North Carolina for Christopher's birthday, and celebrated Emily's as well. North Carolina always has adventure for us to go hiking, swinging, sledding, 4 wheeling, or just hanging out on the beautiful huge back porch of Chuck & Kathy's with the view of the mountains. It's one of our favorite places in the world to hang out.

4-Wheelin'

He's ready to roll!

Birthday Boy!

Birthday Girl!

3 generations of Rusty's people :)

Emily loves her Kathy

The drive is beautiful

I love pictures of farms and cows and mountains, oh my!

Told you! What a spectacular view. It's like a vacationer's dream.

Hanging out!

And from trees.

The swing takes you waaaaayyyy up

Em's shadow

And more swingin'

And even more

Delicious pimento cheese from Chicken Salad Chick. It was sooooo good!

Lastly in February, I received a call from the church that they were in the emergency room with Michael during their out of state ski weekend trip. They were playing games, and he got elbowed in the face and it loosened many teeth. It appeared he was going to lose one or two front top teeth! He was in serious pain, but was playing it cool. I told him I'd come up and get him (the littles and I were roller skating when I got the call), but he said, "No Way!" He hadn't even had a chance to ski yet. (Enter hand on my face emoji here, lol). So being the loving over-protective mother I am, I let him stay. He did end up losing one tooth entirely (poor fella!) I'd post a picture, but I've got to live with this boy!

We spent the rest of the month doing school, Michael & Emily were involved in track & field, I worked, and we planned for Thailand. I CANNOT wait to tell you of that adventure. It was Uhhhh-mazing! Stay tuned my friends. Until next time, Michelle

Monday, May 6, 2019

2019 - A Year of Adventure - January recap

Somewhere as the last year was wrapping I decided that 2019 would be our Year of Adventure. Last year was a more of a year of healing, and figuring out what would our normal be without my Rusty (deep sigh as I type). I'm absolutely sure that our normal isn't very normal at all, but it seems to be working for us as I juggle work, home schooling, church, and more on most days.

Adventure #1: January took off and we decided to embark on our first adventure by walking a 3.5 mile ranger led walk at Mistletoe State Park, GA. My friends Susan and Frankie met us, and we enjoyed walking through the woods on a brisk winter morning. If you are interested in beautiful woodsy walks, you can probably check out your local state or national parks for group walks on their website.

Adventure #2: One Sunday evening we decided to walk some local trails around the lake where we live. We (my youngest kiddos, the grandkiddos, a friend of theirs and I) had a great time. We also learned a lot when we were far from where we parked, and "nature called" one of my little fellas. His older sister learned from her camping trips with American Heritage Girls what to do, and instructed him to make a cat hole and wipe with leaves. Note for next trip: pack a little TP in the back pack for just in case stops in the future. We left our home nice and clean, and came home muddy but happy.

Adventure #3: Lunar Eclipse. It was spectacular. The grands were over and they made it to about midnight with Christopher, but Emily and I were up for hours braving the cold to get pictures. It would take two of us to adjust the telescope, hold the phone and focus with it's camera, and shoot a good picture. It was a lot of work, but we had so much fun.

Stay tuned for our February adventures which will include the completion of our Glamper project, North Carolina fun, Michael's ski trip, and our out of country trip to Thailand.