pretty, happy, funny, real

I haven't joined the Like Mother Like Daughter p,h,f,r link-up since May!  Surely I can find something for each category on the trusty camera...

Pretty

I love mountains.  From the day we moved here, I've made it a point to remind the girls to look at the natural beauty around us - to keep noticing and not take it for granted.  And now that we are moving, I'm especially trying to soak up all the beauty.  Isn't this just awesome?  It may be a bit much for the heading "pretty", but that's where I'm putting it :)

These babies have been hanging out in our yard a lot lately.  As long as the fence keeps them out of the garden, that's fine with me.

Happy

My parents came to visit a few weeks ago.  That made me happy.  And I could fill this post with photos from their visit, but this one - perhaps - makes me happiest.  All the faces in the photo are happy.  I love my girls.  I love my Dad.  I love that they love him.  I'm so happy to get to see him being Grandpa.  It's just a lot of happiness all around.  Thank you, God, for the gift of family.  Plus, the girls are wearing their crazy yard boots, which makes it even better!

It is a family tradition to attend the Rodeo on July 3rd as the official "kick-off" of our Independence Day celebrations.  Several other families we know go on the same night, so the kids have a section in the bleachers and the adults have a section.  It's a fun-filled evening that makes everyone happy.  I forgot to take a camera that night, but our 12 year old had a camera with her, so I'm using one of her photos.

Rodeo!

Funny

These goats love to climb on things.  What is funny to me is that "Lucy" looks like she got caught doing something she's not supposed to be doing :)

Our middle "cowgirl" riding the mythical creature, the Jackalope.  This thing is housed in a gas station not far from us - it's supposed to be a silly tourist attraction - and the younger girls think it's hysterical.  They may also think it's a real animal :)

Real

Like much of the rest of the country, it is very dry here this summer.  The fact is that summers here are always dry, but we count on the snow-pack in the mountains to melt and run down to the valley, keeping us irrigated.  But the normal amount of snow didn't fall this winter, so things are especially dry.  We haven't been threatened by any large fires, but this grass fire across the road got our attention and reminded us to pray for those suffering from the larger fires in Colorado and Wyoming.

grass fire across the road from our property

A LONG overdue update

It seems that we lost our blogging voice there for a while, huh?  It's been 2 months since our last post - and though we've been silent bloggers - that doesn't mean things have been quiet.  How about an update?

Mark has a new job, we sold our house, and we're moving to the complete other side of the country.

"What!", you say.  But what about the garden, the chickens, the goats?  Good questions.  The bottom line is that we're being called to something new.  It's not anything we expected.  Or looked for.  We strive daily to remain open to God's will for our lives - all aspects of our lives.  This includes Mark's career.  We have been very blessed in this area, for sure.  Though the choices we've made haven't always made sense from the viewpoint of "the world", they've been choices that we made after much prayer and discernment.  And we consistently find that God's plans for us are way better than anything we would have thought up on our own.  This change in position is no different.  We have loved our life, the community,  and Mark's work here in the wild west - and it is terribly difficult to leave - but we are at peace with our decision.  Mark will continue working in the same field: advancing the mission of a Catholic educational institution.

So, where are we headed?  Our nation's capital.  Yep, all the way East.  We have promised the girls that we'll be close to mountains (though not quite the size as the mountains here) and the ocean.  None of us have ever lived close to an ocean, so that is something we look forward to.  We know that moving to a major metropolitan area - after having lived in a remote Western town of less than 10,000 people - will be an adjustment, but we are excited about the opportunities.

Our wonderful home here - lovingly referred to as "Aspen Springs" - was snatched up by a new family the first day it hit the real estate market.  What a relief!  It's a great property, so we had hoped selling it wouldn't be an issue, but we never dreamed it would be the easiest part of this whole process.  So, now we're getting ready to actually make the move: cleaning out closets, organizing, making lists of what stays and what goes, etc.  The animals are on the list of what stays.  The family who is buying the house wants the goats and the chickens.  We are thrilled.  The girls, especially, are pleased to know that the animals get to stay put and will be well cared for after we leave (and we get fresh eggs up until our last morning here!)

So, selling the house was easy.  What's been difficult?  Finding a moving company that will come here.  We started calling the national van lines figuring we'd get quotes and choose the best option.  After the first 3-4 companies told us they couldn't help us, we got a little nervous.  We're still nervous, though a local company has assured us that one way or another they'll take care of it.  Yikes.  Please don't take this opportunity to leave comments about moving nightmares :)

So, there you have it... the reason for our silence lately.  Though this is a big change, normal life goes on, and we'll try to keep the posts coming (somewhat) regularly again.

pretty, happy, funny, real

It's a rainy and overcast Thursday here at our house; a perfect kind of day to take a few minutes to join Like Mother Like Daughter for a pretty, happy, funny, real post.

Pretty

This picture is about a month old now... It would be lovely if the crab apple blooms would last longer, but we enjoyed them while they were at their peak.  This tree is really close to the house - and it's a big tree - so the view of the blooms filled a couple of large windows in the living room.

Happy

We have a "sun room" just off our kitchen.  I put that in quotes because it's not a typical sun room and we're not sure what to call it.  We've been told that the room started out as a true greenhouse, but later a roof and walls were added.  It's still sun room/greenhouse-like because it has a dirt floor with a rock path down the middle and huge windows lining the walls.  When we moved in, the room was a wreck.  The walls and ceiling had never been fully finished, the windows weren't trimmed, and it was used more for storage than anything else.  It was obvious that the room had potential, though.  We've been working on it, but it's not quite complete.  However, I did find some wonderful hanging baskets for the room.  I like white flowers, and these are especially nice because they hang down nearly to the floor.  It's making me happy that this room is "getting there" and looking better with each small project.

How about one more entry for happy?  These 2 are so happy with the nice weather.  Nearly every day when they finish school, they pack up their Bitty Twins and head outside for picnics, tent-building, etc.

Funny

This was given to me on Mother's Day by my 7 year old.  I love it!  She got some things dead-on.  Others not so much, but it's given us all a good laugh.  I suppose you'd have to know me pretty well for this to have the full impact, but I assure you that I'm not a dancer in any sense of the word and that I'm not particularly fond of goats.  Yes, we own 2 dairy goats, but that doesn't qualify me as "likes goats", does it?  The part about collecting eggs is funny too.  I certainly enjoy eating and baking with the eggs our chickens lay, but the collecting duty falls to the girls, not me.  I think I'm mostly touched that she thinks  my eyes are pretty and that I'm smart; what more could a Mom hope for?

Real

The girls and I went to our dentist's office for cleanings/checkups today.  Good news: no cavities.  Bad news: 2 orthodontia referrals.

New toothbrushes are such a treat.

The school year "ends" this week

It's May 22 and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  We are very nearly "finished" with school for this academic year.  The weather out here in the mountain wilderness has been unusually warm this entire month - maybe even a bit longer - so we've not been quite as regimented about school for several weeks now.  Had we kept our noses to the grindstone we'd probably have completed all our courses a week ago.  I'm not complaining in any way; May 31 has been my goal all year, so we'll easily make that.  Plus, for the most part, I enjoy our school days (the girls too).  It will just be nice to know that the formal coursework is out of the way for one more year.  I am planning to keep some sort of school happening over the summer.  We were terrible about that last year, but we had valid excuses: a big family trip to Europe and then the whole process of buying/selling real estate that lead to our move to this house.  2011 was a busy summer indeed.  There is not a European trip in the works this year - or any other extended vacation.  We're looking forward to quality time here on our own property - and in the mountains.

First day of school pictures.  See the 6 fingers for 6th grade?

Once I officially claim each of the girls as passing to the next grade we'll have students going into 1st, 2nd and 7th grades.  In all ways we are reminded that time flies, huh?  I've home schooled for Kindergarten the past 2 years in a row and that comes to an end now.  Kind of sad.  Kindergarten was fun for me and the younger girls. They learned so much, but in such a low-key way.  I have most especially enjoyed working on phonics with my kindergartners.  Reading is such a joy and I was thrilled to be the person to get them started.  I'm hopeful that my constant state of book-in-hand will inspire them to keep it up.  There is so much to be learned throughout life and being an avid reader is a great way to do just that.  A side note: my book club just chose a hefty book for our summer reading (The Cypresses Believe in God) and I'm anxious to delve into it.  Long books are some of my favorites.  The longer the better, when it's a well-written book and a good story, right?

And the first grader, who very appropriately started the year with no teeth in front :)

So, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we are planning to stick with our same curriculum next school year.  We'll have some decisions to make about sacrament preparation, as our middle daughter should be ready for confession and communion and our oldest ready to be confirmed.  At this point I imagine we'll do some prep at home, combined with the classes at our parish.  We're confident that the parish catechists do an excellent job, but we'll also want it to be a family affair.

There is something about endings that cause us to pause and reflect.  In this case it's the end of the school year and I've been reflecting about our decision to home school.  I have an analogy that makes sense to me and I hope it translates in the telling... To a much less important degree, it's sort of like us being adoptive parents.  As newlyweds, we imagined ourselves being parents, but we didn't imagine it happening via adoption.  But once we honestly assessed our situation, we decided we needed to take an alternate route to parenthood.  Pursuing adoption was unknown and terrifying, but we took the leap and thank God we did.  Again, this home school thing is not on the same scale, but when the girls were little and we planned/imagined their education, it didn't involve schooling at home.  However, 2 years ago it became obvious that we needed to go a different route, so we took another leap of faith and it's been a good thing.  These are major life events that have taught us that just because a path in life is unknown (and looks difficult) doesn't mean that it needs to be avoided.

And finally, the kindergartner.  The "k" was harder than the number grades!

I should end this rambling post with a disclaimer: we have not become home schooling hard-liners.  Will we always educate our daughters at home?  We don't know.  We firmly believe that a traditional school can be a wonderful place and a great solution for any family.  But for our family, right now, staying at home seems best.  We have found a curriculum we like, we have support from lots of other families, our girls are good students, we have nice space in our home for schooling, etc.  In short, the lack of a better option "forced" us into home schooling, but we have been blessed by a great many factors that have allowed it to be a success for us.