Let's Get Homeschool-y

While most homeschool families are on summer vacay ours is not.

This is what happens when you procrastinate.  This is what happens when you take too much time off for certain things.

But it's (one of) the beauties of homeschooling.  The flexibility of it.

Josh and I were talking about ways to make things flow a little more smoothly for next year, what would help us with our focus, etc.  Often I would think, "oooh, we can go do something in the morning and we'll just school later."  And then later would come but school would not.

I'm not a structured person.  I'm very fly by the seat-a my pants.  My girls, I've noticed, are not like this.  They go with my flow, but they don't like it.  So, while I can be fly by the seat-a my pants for me, I can't be like that for them.  Our days must have more structure to them.

I think it's going to be good.  For all of us.

Just might be a bit rough for my flighty nature.

{choose joy with me today}

I was texting with Megan (my baby sister) last week about life and how sometimes I'm just ready to be done with it.  For the most part, I kinda suck at living.

I'm not the wife or mother or person I thought I'd be.  I had these crazy notions that I would be really good at it, this life thing - and I'm not.

Sometimes I just get super discouraged and think it'd be better to not be kickin'.

But deep down I know I'm here, on this earth, right now, for a reason.  Whatever His reasons may be.

So today I choose joy.  I choose to laugh and love in spite of the stuff that tries to keep me down.  I choose joy on this road that sometimes seems dark.  

I hope today you choose to do the same despite the circumstances weighing on your life, your heart, your mind right now.  

What hard work can do

Today I was looking to find a pic of the "old me" to see if there was actually that much of a difference in how I looked before going to the gym and riding my bike.

I figured Facebook would probably be the best place to find old pics of myself.

I found one from two summers ago, it was taken in July 2010, about seven months before I started going to the gym.

And then I got a current photo, one from our Memorial weekend camping trip.

And then I put them side by side.

There's a difference.  For sure.

It was a good reminder for me today that hard work pays off.  I needed that reminder as I was hauling stuff up from the basement for our yard sale.  Thinking it was a waste of time.

But the hours I spent at the gym and the miles I put on my bike were not a waste of time.  I accomplished something I didn't think I was able to accomplish.  I lost 30 nasty pounds in about 7 months and have maintained that for the last year.

Hard work pays off.

So I'm going to keep plugging away at this yard sale stuff and know that my hard work won't be for nothin'.

Monday, Fun Day. Recap of the weekend.

Less than 3 hours til company arrives for dinner.  Perfect time to sit and blog and not clean up the house.

*eye roll*

Today is such a great Monday.

It was such a great weekend.

Last week our cat went missing.  It's not unusual for us to have animals die around here.  We live on one of the busiest roads in our town and have had a few animals be hit (boo).  But, we didn't see our cat in the road anywhere so we remained hopeful that she was just out there somewhere having a good time.  We walked up and down the road calling for her several times.  We prayed and prayed.  And I cried and cried.

Yesterday, after five days away from home, she showed up!  I cried.  And thanked the Lord!

Saturday I went to a bachelorette party for my friend, Sara.  Oh, goodness.  We were at a country bar and there was a band and there was music and dancing and I don't dance.  But I danced that night.  So much that my body still hurts two days later.  One person tried to teach me to swing dance and all I did was step on his toes and I think the toes of other people too.  Another guy asked me to go to Sturgis with him (because you always ask strangers after 30 minutes of meeting to go somewhere with you, right?!) and I told him to just hold on and I'd ask my husband.  He said he'd ask for me and I laughed and laughed.  Silly him.  We got the bachelorette the most amazing lap dance ever.  I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.  All of us girls were out on the floor and I broke a sweat and realized that maybe I should take up dancing instead of yoga to get in shape.

Holy smokes.

Friday night my sister and I decided at about 9:50 to go for a drive to Taco Bell.  They closed in 10 minutes and I was speeding something fierce.  We got there on time and then my window wouldn't roll down (of course) but thankfully I have a sunroof, so Meg just popped outta that and ordered the food.  And then we took it to a friend's house and ate and laughed and at one point I had to rush to the sink because I was choking on Pepsi from laughing so hard.

My goodness I love to laugh.

I babysat Trevor's boys for a couple of days last week.  He told his co-workers that his ex-girlfriend was taking care of his kids while his wife was gone.  Their response: "Oh, the girl who used to be a pole dancer?"  Apparently he had told all of them about my wanting to take pole dancing lessons last year and instead of it just being lessons, they assumed I was a pole dancer.

Awesome.

I am the pole dancing ex-girlfriend.  I love it.

My living room is full of stuff for a yard sale.  I have one almost every year and I hate them. Hate them.  Hate them.

I love going to them.  I love the money I make from having them.

I just hate actually having them.

Did you know Father's Day is this Sunday?  I did not realize this until this morning.  For some reason I thought it was the next Sunday.  My bad.  Guess I better get to making Josh's gift.

How are you?  What are you up to?

The birthday of all birthdays

The Friday before my birthday my sister and I were to go get matching tattoos.

I was sitting on my sister's front steps waiting for her to show up so we could head off to our appt.

She was tardy.

When she finally showed up, she opened the passenger door and out steps my mother.

Whom I haven't seen since January.

I couldn't believe it.

Just a coupla nights before Josh asked if I missed her.

I told him I did but that the worst part was there was no plan on when I'd be seeing her again.

And that bothered me.

We love having deck parties at our house and it's one of my mom's favorite things to do at our place.

I told her we were having one the day before my birthday and she was sad she couldn't be here.

My step-dad (how weird is that to say?) told her she had to come.

(if I ever doubt that i'm the favorite, i must remember this.)

And so there she was.

And it was like she hadn't been gone all this time.

We bought beer and macaroni and cheese and invited a friend of mine over

and we all hung out outside while Josh built the coolest swing ever.

Early the next morning we went to Starbucks and sat outside.

And I just enjoyed that I had my mama and my baby sister with me.

I also enjoyed that we got 4 semi-trucks to honk at us.

I love Starbucks with my mama and baby sister.  

I just do.

The rest of the day was spent getting stuff ready for the deck party.

Grocery shopping, tidying the house, finishing touches on the new swing.

And lots of laughter.

I bought a new shirt.  And put my hair up.

And I was ready to par-tay!

Megan showed up looking amazing.  Of course.

There was food and friends.  Music and dancing.

Oh, the dancing.

I even got the most amazing present ever.  

During the day I got a text asking for a picture of my bike tattoo.

But I was told not to ask questions.

So I text back with a picture of my tattoo

I get an orange shirt (fave color!) and on it is the outline of my bike, looking just like my tat.

It says, "Ride bikes, drink beer, get awesome."

How cool is THAT?!

Love it.

He's kinda getting favorite friend award.

Of course Amber's gift was amazing as well.

Always good gifts from her.

A Justin Bieber alarm clock because..

who wouldn't wanna wake up to the Beebs every morning?!

There were wheelbarrow races, too.

And the kids went swimming in a pool my husband ingeniously heated for them.

(that's a whole nother post)

And there were S'mores and more dancing.

Then it was time to get up and start the Starbucks routine all over again with my mama and Meg on Sunday.

My BIRTHDAY!

I went to church after coffee time and afterward went home to get ready for more family to come over.

More family.  More presents.

I love presents.

Treena got me a super fun necklace! I haven't taken it off since I first put it on on Sunday.

I'm in love.

I really had the most fabulous birthday.

Surrounded the entire weekend with friends and family.

I'm a blessed girl.

Much love and hugs and thank yous to everyone who made my weekend uh-mazing.

And double loves and hugs and thank yous to Daddy Bill for sending my mama to me.

I kinda like you.

32 and I are gonna be tight.

Hello, Thirty-two.

We're going to be fine friends this year.

This year we're going to enjoy life.

We're going to relax.

Dare I say, we're going to offer ourselves a little more grace?

Yes.  We are.

We're going to let down our curly, frizzy hair and we're going to not be so hard on ourselves.

Thirty-two, we're going to laugh more and probably snort while we do it.

We're going to love harder.

And probably get hurt while we do it.

You and I, Thirty-two, we're going to do more.  We're going to stop being so scared of everything.

Everything = failure.

Thirty-two, are you excited for this?

I know that I am.

I know that I'm ready.

I'm ready to make this my year.

Thirty-two doesn't mean I'll have my shit together.

But it does mean that I can learn from my mistakes.

Offer myself some grace.

Pick myself up, dust myself off.

And try, try again.

I'm still going to forget those clothes in the washer until they've been in for two days.

And have to be re-washed.

I'm going to forget to thaw the hamburger and we'll hafta go out to dinner.

I'll probably buy more Starbucks than I should.

I bet I'll yell at my kids.

And roll my eyes at my husband.

This year I'm going to be intentional.

I want my words and my actions to matter.

And when I screw up my words, and when I screw up my actions, 

I'm not going to berate myself.

Because remember?  This is the year we're easing up on ourselves.

I'm going to accept my crazy self for who I am.

Who I was created to be.

I'm going to quit worrying so much.

I have to.

My life is good and it is full and I really wanna enjoy every minute.

Like, really enjoy.

I think I'm going to like being 32.

Yes I do.