Sweet Shot: life blooms

The branches look dead and lifeless all winter.

But appearances can be deceiving.

Life bursts forth in due season!

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

-II Corinthians 4:15-17

Faint not. This is just for a moment. Glory is coming.

I Heart Faces: Dramatic B&W

The challenge this week over at i heart faces is "Dramatic B&W".

A little self portrait of yours truly.

I hope nobody ever calls ME dramatic. Ack. I despise drama.

So much so that I physically cannot watch certain television shows without feeling uncomfortable, irritated and just plain miserable. I get embarrassed for the people on shows like Survivor, The Bachelor, American Idol... pretty much any show where there are people expressing their opinions or making fools of themselves.

Okay, I have to end this post now. Just thinking about those people makes my stomach feel funny!

You can see more dramatic black and white's HERE.

When it's time to change...

When it's time to change, you've got to re-arraaaaaange.... la la la la, la la lalalala....

And you still don't "get" it unless I say three words.

Squeaky.

Peter.

Brady.

(Do you get that reference up there now? Not that it really has anything to do with this post. It's just been stuck in my head.)

We have been keeping our ceiling fan on high to stay cool. It is definitely time to make a change.

Goodbye heavy, squishy, snuggly comforter.

Hello lightweight, soft and springy blanket.

Are you making any changes at your house?

I think we're going to tackle the freeze dried flowerbeds next.

Sweet Shot: my big sister

This is my big sister Christine (aka Coco). She is also my best friend.

If she wasn't, I would have just posted this picture all by its lonesome. (And enlarged!)

:)

He doesn't live here anymore.

But my Christian is not lost.

I know exactly where he lives and the kind of company he is keeping.

Oh how I do miss him, though!

Books, Reading and the Wimpy Kid

I am an avid reader. I love the look, feel and smell of books. If I had the choice of a two story walk-in closet full of shoes and a library full of books, I'd pick the library-- along with the cool sliding ladder!

My husband, however, only flips through magazines and Best Buy ads.

You can venture a guess on whose footsteps I want our boys to follow.

When we instituted the token system of reading, my boys read every interesting looking book they could find in this house. I would leave books on the kitchen table and next to the couch in hopes of encouraging them to read what *I* wanted them to read.

We were all happy with this arrangement for a while.

The problem was that although they read with purpose (the purpose of earning a token!), they never got lost in the book. I never heard them chuckling or begging to stay up just a little longer so they could read. They did it but didn't LOVE it.

At least not until I gave in and bought the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series of books by Jeff Kinney.

I resisted the Wimpy Kid books for a very long time because of their general sassy attitude. But the need to encourage reading because it's FUN overruled the other objections I had with the series.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles and decide what is the most important. In this particular case, I had to forgo good literary taste in favor of seeing my boys LAUGH OUT LOUD while reading.

They loved the series so much, they have read each book a half dozen times. This was the first set of books that really captured their interest, made them seek out other "fun" books at the library, and really showed them that reading for pleasure is possible. Even for boys!

The movie? It was eh to me.

The main character was selfish, the big brother was mean, and all the middle school angst was tiring. It wasn't even HIGH school drama, y'all. It was MIDDLE school drama!

And yet my boys laughed and laughed and proclaimed it to be an awesome movie. Just add a dozen !!!!! after the word awesome.

An added bonus from all the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (and movie) is that one child in particular has been inspired to create his own diary journal a la Gregg Heffley. That's something that this homeschooling momma would not have been able to inspire on her own!

The movie was not epic or profound. It was entertaining (more so for my boys) and gave me the opportunity to ask my boys about their feeeeeelings... :snort:

We talked about what it means to be a good friend (Gregg was a selfish friend for much of the movie) and how some people can get too focused on "being famous" rather than being themselves (per Noah).

Do you let your kids read the Wimpy Kid books? Did they like it? Did you like it? Are you planning to see the movie?

Do you even know what I'm talking about? (Especially you mommies of girls.)

Sweet Shot Day: numero uno!

Today is the very first Sweet Shot Day!

I am visiting my family in Fort Worth this week. With my photogenic and funny niece around, I had ample opportunity to catch a few shots.

When I permalinked over @m3b, it wanted me to pick a thumbnail.

Look at how I'm already breaking the unspoken rules by not being able to pick ONE favorite from this week (or even just one from today!).

What do you think?

Go HERE to see more Sweet Shots.

And please tell me if you play along-- I would love to see through your lens!

party at the parents'

I'm visiting with my family for a few days. We've had such a great time together, it's hard to believe that I only arrived yesterday afternoon!

Just a few shots from our day so far...

My double-jointed boy. Doesn't it look like he has a broken arm?!

Coco and her Canon are here.

I love her in spite of her treacherous Canon. (You must overlook some things for the sake of the sisterhood.)

I gave my niece Emily-bemily-boo some new hair clips. She liked all of them.

At the SAME TIME.

Poor Lulu has much dorkiness to adjust to. She's handling it as well as can be expected.

My baby sister and her husband are here too.

I like them together. They belong together. They understand each other. Scary and amusing at the same time. :)

And then there's moi. Fitting right in with my bad self.

(If you know me in real life, you would see how this is SO not me. I hope.)

It's a full house for the moment and the noise, sounds, laughter, and even a constant sink full of dirty dishes make me VERY happy.

Vacation, staycation, stuck in school, stuck in traffic... What's going on with y'all?

spring, sprang, sprung

Darcy asked if Spring had sprung at our house yet. The poor girl suffers in the tundra while I had to cope with this yesterday.

*achoo*

The clouds rolled away...

...and the sun warmed things up to a lovely 76 degrees.

Hank was overjoyed. You could see it on his face.

PS: Speaking of Darcy the Boybarian Queen, she has come up with yet another brilliant idea. You know you don't want to be left out!

PPS: Hey, don't forget to wish Melissa a very Happy Birthday! She has been giving away all sorts of goodies at her blog this week. Better hurry though, she chooses the final winners on Saturday, March 13th.

PPPS:

Wordless Wed: Yeah, I did it.

Posse (homeschool style)

Each week, my boys attend an enrichment program for homeschoolers. They have been going for years and love their classes, teachers and friends.

My little writer informed me today that he's part of a posse.

Visions of a ruthless gang of homeschooled boys shaking the other kids down for their snack money came to mind.

I calmly asked him what he did with his posse.

Oh, you know... hang out, make comics... that kind of thing.

Comics? I am intrigued.

Wanna know the name of our comics? Obama Wars.

He proceeds to laugh like it is the most hilarious thing EVER.

It's like Star Wars but Obama is Darth Vader!!! Luke Skywalker is John McCain!!!

Pretty clever, huh? I thought so.

It's a fierce battle.

O' Vader will not concede.

(It's surprising to see the GOP on the offense, isn't it?)

Oops. I bet that hurt.

Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Would you still let your kid hang out with my kid? I think it's stinkin' funny and yikes at the same time!

I suppose it would be good to have yet another talk about being respectful of the President, even if we didn't vote for him.

(Do you think this is going to set off any red flags at the White House? Do you think they'll suspend my Blogger account? If you don't hear back from me in a few days...)

3 steps to bugging your brother

1. Hide and write key games and names on a piece of paper.

2. Post on bedroom door. While chuckling to yourself.

3. Run and taunt your brother to come see.

The culprit didn't actually win the game, or so I was loudly told. I am sure that's what made this little project SO satisfying for him!

I don't know about your kids, but mine are really big on technicalities. They insist and argue that reports on each other be completely accurate down to the smallest detail.

-I didn't actually hit him, mommy. My hand barely touched him as I was walking past.

-I asked him to give it to me.

-But you didn't say please!

-I did say please.

-Well, it was the way you said it. You said it in a not polite way.

Y'know, that sort of thing.

For the record, if it had been ten degrees warmer outside, I would've dominated their basketball game. It's a little known fact that I can actually slam dunk the ball.

(Did I have you going there for a second? How about a fraction of a second?)