The Liptac Family

This is my third year in a row taking family pictures for Cheris! Her family is just gorgeous, and I’m glad to count them among our friends.

Green Friday ~ The Long Version

Thanksgiving was a quiet, dark and rainy day. The morning after, our house was dark and disastrous. (We didn’t host Thanksgiving dinner, but just getting OUT of the house seems to produce a disaster…) I felt like I had three million things on the to-do list at home (including cleaning up the disaster), and getting out of the house with all the kids is a huge undertaking in itself. But I saw the sun peeking out and I KNEW that we needed to get some fresh air.

It was our traditional Green Friday. Lola took her morning nap. I got a few things together. We left the house just after noon. The drive was beautiful. The sun was shining. Christmas music was playing. The boys and I had some deep conversations about land zoning (and the difference between commercial, industrial, professional, residential, and farm zoning), euthanasia, the Deity of Christ, and inertia. (Yep, really.)

It was a bit overcast when we first arrived at our favorite nature hike spot.

Leif wasn’t sure a nature hike was on his agenda for the day, but it helped that his favorite Ivy was along to keep him company.

Lola was excited to participate for the first time.

And so we set out.

The little kids played. Ilex helped. Holly gathered. I took pictures, including a kajillion of Lola. (More of those later.)

Halfway through our walk, the sun came back out to play. It was glorious.

Then we meandered back to the truck. Levi observed that ‘excessive use of legs results in pain.’ Yeah, that’s my boy.

We ended our afternoon with snacks and hot chocolate at Aunt Holly’s house.

Living. Lovely.

Drowning in Real Life

…. Or at least the laundry. But these moments are the moments that all together make a good life. And a good life it is.

Maybe she can teach me how to text.

I have a bunch of pictures to post, including two family sessions, but my computer is hating me and all my photos right now. My hubby has to work some magic on the memory situation (if only he could do that with my actual memory…).

Breathe.

Green Friday~Take Three

Three years ago, my sister and I began our Green Friday tradition: a nature hike on the day after Thanksgiving (instead of shopping). Last year, the weather was nasty and I had a bitty baby.

This year: the weather was GORGEOUS.

I have a multitude of pictures to post, but this is all I’m getting to right at the moment.

Quiet Moments

We had a very quiet sort of Thanksgiving. Well, as quiet as it gets with three little boys. We missed my grandparents, who were unable to travel up from California (love you Grandma and Grandpa!!); we missed my sister, Holly, and her family, who were spending time with the other side of their family. My dad just had open-heart surgery two weeks ago. So, we kept things simple.

My brother-in-law, Casey, made the turkey and delivered it to us before heading to his parents’ house. My sister, Shannon, made twice-baked potatoes and roasted green beans. Mom made bread dressing and candied yams. I brought hot rolls and our traditional jello salad. We set the table with my grandmother’s dishes.

I didn’t snap very many pictures.

It was dark and rainy. Not the best weather for our traditional walk after dinner. It’s a good thing Aunt Shan and Uncle Ben were such great sports and played games with the boys. Mastermind is the current favorite. When there is only one game board and only two people can play, a Mastermind iphone app comes in handy…

I am blessed. Yes, I certainly am.

The View From Our Kitchen Window

Do they not know what day it is?!!!

Happy Turkey Day! {grin}

A Song in My Heart

More Than a Holiday

Because Thanksgiving is More than a Holiday by Ann Voskamp @ {In} Courage

Then the stress roils and I’m heavily under the influence of speed, then is the time for the stress intervention, and I’d breathe deep and I’d say it out loud:

“Thank You for crazy towhead kids. Thank You for ridiculous legos. Thank You for socks even if they mismatch. And thank You that we’re here together, breathing together right now…that there’s now.”

And I’d be doing that, breathing deeper.

Giving thanks is profoundly life giving.

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Another Day

Uploading photos without any editing, and without feeling obligated to share a bunch of commentary, was liberating (and fast!) yesterday. I think I'll try it again today.

Only the beginning, people. Only the beginning.

Luke’s breakfast creation:

Snack time in the studio:

(This is a boy who hates to write. But he loves All About Spelling, his writing has improved by leaps and bounds this past year, and he is so proud of himself!!)

Just Because

Life unedited and without commentary. Grin.

ETA: I’ve started attempting to diagram our weekly CC history sentences. It gives me a chance to stretch myself in the grammar department. Not only that, but I’ve found that, because I am a visual learner, I memorize the sentences much more quickly when I have a concrete, organized picture of them. This week’s sentence is rather awkward (like most of my own). Often, after I take a picture, of course, I realize I’ve misdiagrammed. (Is that a word? Maybe it’s mis-diagrammed. See, I’m always second-guessing myself…)  Anyway, I was thinking that ‘realized’ was a subject complement, a past participle being used as an adjective with a linking verb predicate, but it is part of a verb phrase. Yes? No? It is really frustrating being on a 4th grade level in grammar. Sigh.

Have you ever had one of those days…

When things just got worse and worse....

And then all the world's problems were solved with a piece of buttered toast?