T.G.I.F

It has been one heck of a week around here. Andy (and now Josh) started two-a-day soccer practices. The kids and I began our very intensive, but hands on fun school year. Bob has been working some v-e-r-y long days due to his office having visitors. I have been getting up at 5 am (although today it was 6 am) to prepare the day's meals for everyone so that I don't have to take time away from schooling to actually do so. We are all ready for the weekend and the break that comes with it. We have no plans and plan on keeping it that way. Well, I guess that is not entirely true as there is some yard work to be done (which I am trying to put off until the fall because it is just so hot here)  and for sure the meal planning/grocery shopping for next week's menu will need to be accomplished, and a little bit of housework will need to be caught up on, but THEN we will all just relax and be lazy. The boys especially are looking forward to sleeping in as they have not had to get up at 6 am consistently their whole lives. They have been troopers about it and generally jump out of bed when their alarm goes off, or in the event they forget to set it, when I go in to wake them. We are all exhausted are are looking forward to a weekend of (almost) nothing.

Another beautiful sunset from our backyard. 

Mr. Samuel Gregg

Getting a good petting from Sarah. 

I love when my kids laugh a belly laugh. It is probably one of the greatest joys in my life. Sarah was in the beginning stages of a belly laugh here...

Miss Lily - the beast dog. 

Girls jumping last night waiting for the boys to get home from soccer practice. 

Flowers outside the casita / school room. 

A tomato plant. Smelling tomato plants reminds me of the smell of my grandfather's garden growing up. I don't eat tomatoes very often and planted this plant solely for the purpose of  having the smell and memory of my grandfather's garden. 

H-O-T = HOT

I think I jinxed our family when I wrote about how nice the days were because it was hot, but not unbearable during the day and desert cool at night. That changed, oh, the next day after I posted that blog. Now we reach high 90's / low 100's daily and let me tell you that is a hot unlike any I have ever experienced. That desert sun is a scorcher. Without the protection of the shade it feels much hotter.   Like holy cow how to people survive without central air and pools H-O-T? I venture out only when I absolutely have to because it is just that hot.

 Yes, I completely agree that the heat here is different than back in Ohio because the humidity is so much less here, but hot is hot. So that argument is null and void at this point. This, to me, is like I am living in hell hot. Not. A. Fan. Except that I kinda am because I still get to enjoy the sunshine every day from my windows or from my pool. Spoiled? Yes. Very grateful of that? Yes. I thank God every.single.day. for the life I am blessed to live.

Oh, and the heat has also brought these incredible storms. Last night we had one. It seemed to blow in from nowhere and just hung around for over an hour.  The wind was (to me, but not really) of hurricane proportions. It knocked over our basketball hoop in the front yard. The rain? Man, when it rains here it pours. There isn't really that gentle sprinkle like back in Ohio. You might have that for a few seconds and then BAM! rain that feels like bullets on your back comes down in buckets. It is crazy!!! BUT...it is beautiful to watch the storms come through on the back patio where I can overlook the valley and see the sky for miles and miles.  The lightning here is like nothing I have ever seen in my whole life. It is beautiful and if I think of it the next time it storms at night I will take pictures.

And the sunsets? Gorgeous lately. Our pictures don't do the sunsets justice here, so you all will just have to come down here and visit us to see them for yourselves.

Even the bad weather makes me appreciate my life here so much. There is beauty to be found every where. Even when it is H-O-T hot.

First Day of the New School Year

High school soccer began yesterday and Andy is having two-a-day practices for the next 2 weeks. He is completely exhausted at the end of the day from both the work and the heat. I am proud of him for doing this as Josh went this morning with him (just to get some conditioning in) and is sound asleep right now while Andy is back at practice for the second part of his day. Andy's spirits seem to be lifted now that his days are filled with soccer and school (even though it has only been a couple of days). It makes me really happy to see him doing better. (***I began this post yesterday,  and boy did things change by the time I picked Andy up last night. He was beat...and falling apart both physically and emotionally. The heat, the hard work, the not knowing anyone, the tiredness all seemed to cave in on him  and he had a partial melt down. The coach ended up asking him where "Little Ohio" was (that is what Josh is called by the team/coaches) - Andy is 'Ohio' to them - and the invitation to practice with the high school team beyond just the morning conditioning session was opened up to Josh. So, this morning Josh began his first two-a-days after having only attended the morning conditioning session yesterday. I think that this is helpful to Andy and his spirits seemed a bit better again after this morning's practice. The boys have been getting up at 6 am to get to practice and are then again practicing at 6 pm in the evening until 8:00+. The heat is hard to navigate through as we are dealing with high 90's/low 100's for temps. Andy has been cramping up big time, and we have found some remedies today that seem to help with that. 5 days a week from now until the end of July he will be at it - although after next week it will just be once a day.  Andy though - and now Josh - is a trooper and will make through these tough days and grow and learn about himself and his ability to make it through hard times. As his mother, I just want to coddle him and make life easier for him. I hate to see him in any kind of pain, BUT this is exactly why Andy is the wonderful person he is. Adversity has made him into the exceptional young man he is. Growing pains are good. They are good for us all. It is no fun watching him (and now Josh) struggle through hardship, but I cannot be there forever for him. He has to learn to make it through the tough stuff that life will throw at him on his own. At the end of these two-a-days he will be so proud of himself. I cannot wait till end, so I can celebrate with him.



I bought the kids shaving cream to have a shaving cream fight with the night before school started. The kids had a blast as you can see.

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Bob getting in on the fun.

School started Monday for us and went off without a hitch. It is taking a lot of hours out of my day to get through everything with everyone, but I have been combating that by getting up before everyone to prep for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This has saved me a lot of time during my day and has allowed me to feel that I am maximizing my time.

Josh is hating the fact that I am starting right now, but as Andy says, "We aren't doing anything this summer anyway, so we might as well do school work.". Smart kid. I think Josh will like it much better once he sees that 3 weeks on and 1 week off all year long are a much better gig than a whole summer off and then week after week of schoolwork. Maybe not though...

What our school rooms looks like: 

Science experiment kits!

Just some of our school books for this year. 

Sarah made me a bouquet of flowers for the school room. 

Flowers for my kitchen table. 

Window decorating...

I thought it would help Sarah to learn her spelling if she could do hands on projects. I bought a set of alphabet cookie cutters and several HUGE containers of play dough with which she can cut out the shapes of her spelling words.  This is on of many hands on activities I am incorporating this year for her. 

She loves the having the option of using her hands to help her see and learn...

Elizabeth practicing her spelling letters. 

Josh is thrilled to be doing school work again. 

Footprints in the Sand

When I was a child and young adult this poem always touched me, but I could never understand why. I did not have a strong belief system in God in those younger days.  Our pastor read it at church a few weeks ago as part of his sermon. I hadn't thought of this poem in years prior to hearing it that Sunday. Now I cannot seem to get it out of my head. As my faith grows more and more each day I am surprised by how often God was trying to reach me in my youth, but because I was too stubborn and closed off to acknowledge Him in my life He remained in the background. It brings me so much comfort to know that on the darkest days of my life I was never alone - even when I felt like I was.

I think...

I think:

1. It is going to be a great school year for the kids and I.

2. Remaining calm and not stressed out with the rigorous schedule that I have set up for the kids is going to be a challenge. 

3. If I just remember to take one moment at a time this challenge should not be too overwhelming. 

4. I love buying new school books and supplies.

5. The beginning of a new school year is what I consider a "New Year". January has never really been good marker of a new year for me.

6. We are going to spend out time doing a lot of hands on activities this school year. 

7. We really are going to need to get a second car.

8. That I cannot make Andy like it here. 

9. Andy is old enough to create a life for himself. My job is to provide him with opportunities - His job is to capitalize on that opportunity. 

10. Josh is going to have harder time than he thought getting back into soccer shape. 

11. Elizabeth is growing up too fast. 

12. Elizabeth is changing so much that I cannot believe that she is the same person from even just 2 months ago. 

13. Sarah is starting to become a young woman - and I am not ready 

14. Nothing in this whole wide world makes me happier than to see Sarah smile. 

15. I need to focus on making the most of the time I have here instead of worrying about the next move.

16. Sometimes I struggle with guilt over moving the kids away from their family and friends, especially when I see them sad, but then I remember how good this space has been for me and I know with certainty that despite its challenges this move has been the best thing for us. 

17. I never truly understood how important it was to take care of myself, so that I can better take care of those around me, until I moved to New Mexico. 

18. Nothing is better in life than having a swimming pool and sunshine in your backyard every day. 

19. The sunshine is more valuable than gold to me. 

20. I would have a hard time living somewhere that did not get as much sun as we get in Las Cruces.

21. It would be really nice if there was a direct flight from here to Ohio. 

22. It would be just as nice if flights didn't cost an arm and a leg from here to Ohio.

23. That this last visit back to Ohio was my best yet. It was great to see everyone. 

24. That my mom and dad's house is one of my most favorite places to visit because it brings back so many memories of my earlier parenting days. (When the kids were little Bob worked second shift and I would take my kids up to my parents 2-3 times a week. I have fond memories of hanging out with them.)

25. That someday I need to live among trees and grass and water again. 

26. I don't know why, but trees are very spiritual things to me. Sitting alone in a wooded forest is sacred and touches me deeply. 

27. I love going to church and I never thought I would. 

28. Even when I was forsaking Him - God was always with me. 

29. The poem, "Footprints in the Sand", is very special to me. The pastor read the poem at church a couple of weeks ago and I cried.

30. I love my life. 

31. I am so blessed to be able to live the life I do. Even with all of its hardships I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

32. I love my husband for so many reasons, but one of the biggest is because he is an amazing father to our children. 

33. Like most women, I am superwoman, except I forget to see that all too often. Remembering that is vital.

34. I am the heart of this family. The mood, the tone, the warmth of this home all come from me. It is my job to make my husband and children feel that warmth.

35. I have the best job(s) in the world. 

These Days

As summer appears to be approaching full swing out here in these parts of the Southwest I am embracing all that the season has to offer. Hot days (but not humid and there is a H-U-G-E difference) have found us and I am loving it. It certainly does help that we have central air. (Which we just turned on about 2 days ago and only for part of the day because the heat really isn't too bad. It isn't a bad gig either that we live in the desert and so even though the temps may reach the mid 90's during the day the nights are still pretty crisp. This allows us to have the windows open at night thus alleviating the need for the central air to be on all day/night.) It also really helps that we have a pool and can cool off at any point during our day (or night) for a few moments or a few hours as we see fit. We are blessed. Truly blessed in so many ways and I grateful for what I have.

Summer also allows for me to slow down our family life. For a few weeks no one has soccer practices and I am not running around several days a week taking one child here and one child there. The only activity that we have is the girls gymnastics class on Wednesday nights. This slowed down scheduled has allowed Bob to take the car to work more often than not (instead of me driving him) and in doing so, has given me the luxury of having days and days where I cannot go anywhere that I am not willing to walk because I do not have access to a vehicle. We had discussed getting a second vehicle as of late because I am running the kids and myself around every.single.day., but now that everything has slowed down  I am no longer pushing for that. (I do think that eventually we will have to cave in and get one although in so many ways it has been so nice only having 1 vehicle.)

Another reason for this new slow paced life is that towards the end of the spring I was really wearing myself down. I was just constantly feeling burnt out. I hated the fact that even though we are a homeschooling family and don't have to deal with the hustle and bustle of getting kids to and from school 5 days a week I was still feeling like a chicken with my head cut off running here and there. One of the greatest things about living in NM (and there are many) is that the homeschooling community in Las Cruces is amazing. There are a ton of homeschooling families from all different walks of life, all different economic backgrounds, all different nationalities, and all different family belief systems. It truly is a blessing, BUT on the flip of that is the ability for me to over schedule our family with activities out the wazoo. This burns me out and it burns the kids out. After weeks of feeling icky, as often does, a thought popped into my head that I hadn't really thought about before. And it was this:

By the nature of the way our family is set up, with me being a stay at home homeschooling mama, I am the one who controls the activities our family does each week. Therefore, I am the one who controls how stressed out our family gets. 

With that thought in mind I decided that, with the exception of practices in the evenings, the only days that I am going to commit to activities for our family during the day are Wednesday and Friday (and even then I will be a bit choosy about what we do). The other days of the week we will be at home focusing on family time and other home related activities. I know that by doing so I am going to miss out on some really cool activities with some really cool people, but for my sanity and the sanity of those who reside within the walls of my home I just need to say 'no'. 

We began implementing this plan a few weeks ago and it has been really nice.The kids and I have not done anything on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday for the past few weeks, and I cannot tell you how much this down time has positively affected our family.  There are still some activities I do in the morning (alone) before Bob goes to work such an errand here and there, but I would like to get it to the point where I am doing absolutely nothing outside of home on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of each week. That means all appointments: doctor, dentist, etc...are all scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.

I think that part of the reason things got so out of control here is because I was so intent of getting all of the kids settled into a new life that I wanted to expose them to as many different opportunities as I could to help them transition well. But in doing so I compromised my family by over scheduling us. Now it is my job to right that wrong and get us back focused on the 6 of us with friend time thrown in here and there as a bonus. 

Our family chooses to live the way we do because we don't want to live a life at high speed. We don't want to consume, consume, consume and go, go, go. That isn't a life worth living - not to us anyway. But because that is the pace that our world tends to move it is easy to get caught up in that fast moving life. Sometimes I even ride in that lane for a while before I realize I joined in the race. That is what has what has happened to us. And to be honest, it probably will happen again because unless I am paying attention to it that life just sneaks up on me. It is my job as the heart of this family to keep it beating at a pulse that Bob and I determine to be the best rhythm for what we are trying to achieve as parents : to allow our children to flourish and provide them with a solid foundation from which they can go out into this world and be the people God intended them to be.  

Slowing down by saying 'no' to outside commitments is a step in the right direction.