3 Sports in one day!

Our day started on the road at 7:15am for Eddies Rocket Football game for Jack. It was a rainy day. ALL DAY!

Following was soccer games with Jack and Will.

All the games ware fun to watch and they played their best! Jack's teams won football, but lost at the soccer game by one goal. Will's team ended their game in a tie! Will loved squeezing his hair out at the end of the game from all the rain!

Summer Break...where did it go?

Here it is October and I haven't posted since early June. I haven't even decorated for fall around our home! Honestly not sure I will this year... we will see. ????

 It has been an extremely busy summer playing here on the lake, having visitors, travel and camps. We played hard this summer! It was a lot of fun and exhausting too! By the time September arrived I found myself trying to adjust to the kids school schedules, sports and keeping the pace when I was feeling exhausted. It was very overwhelming going back to school. Just now in October I feel I can take a breath and feel the calmness of being (most of the time) on top of things.

I didn't realize that when my kids went to school I would have to return as well! I feel like I am doing school all over ... Learning things I have forgot about or new ways of how things are done. I hope I receive another diploma when our kids graduate! A doctorate degree too! Homework can be a challenge in so many ways and with having a child struggling adds to the frustration to the child as well as mine. I have found that it brings back many memories of my elementary school years.  I too struggled with school, so it is heart breaking to see your own child struggle. I know just how real those pains are. Pains that I don't always like to revisit and here I am revisiting them. It has made me feel like I am failing my child and lost on how to help him. I really rely on teachers, summer school and tudors, since I don't know how to help all the time nor have the patience out of my own fears. I am not a teacher nor was that was the gift God has given me.

Our son has even qualified for Title 1. Which during last nights Presidential debate Mitt Romney made a commit about how Title 1 are important to keep and it is used more for kids with sever disabilities or low in come families. Well we are neither of those. He has no disabilities (He has went through the testing) and we are not a low come family, so Title 1 helps a lot more families than that. I am thankful for all the help because trying to do it on our my own can be intimating and to be that perfect mother with that perfect answers is not me. I know I need help on helping my child(ren) reach their full potential and I am thankful that Tim and I are a two parent home that are a team! It truly takes a village to raise a family. So CHEERS to our education and all the teachers that give so much of their time... We appreciate you!

 Have fun learning and playing during the fall season! Here are a few photos from the summer.

First Day of School...

There are many more photos of friends and families who came to play this summer, but I guess you will have to come for a visit to see all those photos.

Birthday Present Arrives

Happy 8th Birthday Will and 3rd Birthday Grace! Today was a big day for two special birthday kids in our home. At 10am this morning we began building a tree house in the mulberry tree. It was a big success and they LOVE it! Tim even said, "this was a hug hit!" Kyle and our family worked on it from 10am-10:20pm. It was a lot of fun building it and having the kids help from time to time. All five of us helped Kyle out in some way today! On another note ... Grace gave all of us a present late last night and all day...climbing out of her crib none stop! Hello 3's! Good bye down time for mommy. Hope you enjoy our photos from today!

Making something new again

I have this great little white clutch that I love but the handle broke and wanted to add some fun details to it. Before photo of clutch.

To fix the handle I sewed on a blue button to old the ends of the handle together and added two cute fabric flowers. I am really into flowers on all shapes and sizes of purse. After photo of clutch.

I can't wait to use it on my next date night with Timmy...Maybe this week for our anniversary dinner!

The down side of warm sunny weekends and great boating...

This weekend was wonderful! We had a great time swimming, boating, fishing and biking, but like all great weekends it leaves the house in a disaster and loads of laundry to do! One thing I like to do to make folding a little easier is to catch up on a missed chic-flick that I missed when it was in theaters.

Mom and Dad down time.

So when we get weary (if you read a blog earlier) and need a little time away with each other we plan little vacations, but for this year it was a BIG vacation. Tim and I have know each other since Fall of 1990, but got married on May 24 1997... so we are celebrating our 15 year anniversary! When we had gotten married we had promised each other that every five years we would do a big trip with each other which for us it has been traveling abroad. For this anniversary Tim and I traveled to Belgium, Paris and Monte Carlo for 12 days. We had an amazing time with the group of people we were with and most important our time together. Here are my favorite photos of Belgium...

Mom and Dad down time in Paris

Some of my favorite photos of Paris (six photos does not do any justice to Paris - definitely a must see again city!)...

Mom & Dad down time in Monte Carlo

Here are my favorite photos...

Blog Sites

There are so amazing blogs out there to read and sometimes after reading them I look at my blog and think my site is so pre-school level. These moms keep these blogs up to date and write such beautiful things (good or struggles) with completed thoughts and sentences. For my site... it is not a daily or weekly update and my writing... well that is a hole another thing. I can prof read and prof read and spell check and I will always miss something. My dyslexia really shines in my writing, so I tend to write less and post lots of photos. I love to journal and in fact I have been doing it for years. It is the one place I feel the safest in expressing what is happening in my life (or feeling) where I won't feel judged or graded on my grammar and writing abilities or where I can hide my "dirty laundry". From time to time I will look back over the years of my journal writing. I love doing that - it is always fun to go back and read the highs and lows of life. How some of the experiences of life have grown me, left an imprint on me or how I might have not learned a thing and it is something I still struggle with and it comes around once a year to poke at me. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry and sometimes I think maybe I haven't learned anything. I am always amazed of how people tell their life stories for the world to see. I always tend to be guarded with what I share even with my closest of friends whether on a blog site or in person, but for those women who share so openly...Thank you! It is a wonderful feeling to read blogs posts that make me feel I not alone and we all have similar struggles in life and great moments in life. That all of life experiences or feelings that I may be going through are "normal", because someone else was so willing to share their heart made my heart a little lighter. The most recent blog post I read I just loved and was so thankful that Emily put her heart out there. It is not easy being a mom. We are always on 24/7 so there are times when my stay at home job gets me down. I have been so blessed with our 3 little ones and that I am able to stay home, but even I need a time out or down time (mentally and physically) Mommy's get weary at times and Emily did a beautiful job writing about it. Emily's blog site is one of favorite ones to follow. You can read more about "a lesson in losing the weight" at http://jonesdesigncompany.com/thoughts/15479/ . I hope you enjoy reading her post and checking out creative side. Have a great day all you weary mothers!