Love.

Man alive, do I love these kids...even if they do forget their lunches, backpacks, and binders on a regular basis!

And this guy is pretty great too!

Waiting for a window.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers at this time.  Let me once again reassure you all that we will be fine and nobody is sick or has died, and no one is getting divorced (especially since it's not football season right now).  We are all doing just fine, but our lives are going through some unexpected and difficult adjustments.  Hopefully we will begin to see some light shining through a new window that God has opened for us.  Until then, all we can do is "just keep swimming" as Dori so aptly phrased it. 

Our sweet children sure keep us going each and every day.  We adore them, and we adore all of you! 

This program is interupted for a family emergency. Regular programing will continue at a later date.

It is what it is.  Asking for your prayers at this time.

We are all safe and sound, healthy, and full of love, but navigating rough waters at this time. 

I'll be back when I can breathe again.

Until then, I wish you all a beautiful Easter!

Weekend of Living Life

This weekend, George brought home his class mascot - Stitch.  He loved dragging that thing everywhere!  And then he even slept with it last night.  Beyond precious!

 

 

Unfortunately, Luke was not well all weekend.  We think it was just a bug, but look how pathetic he was!

And Evie?  Well, she had a birthday party to attend and then a fun sleepover!

 And then there's the whole part where I'm a cooking badass!  I actually made my first frittata ever this weekend and it was quite good, if I do say so myself!

 

I mean, it even looks the the picture on the cover of the Williams-Sonoma cookbook!

The Zoo

After the Brewery, we hit the Zoo early on the Monday of spring break.  There were soooo many people there, but I take comfort knowing that there were more people there the day after.  So fun!

And after all of that, I got to enjoy some sun in quiet of the backyard while the kids watched movies.  This was my favorite day of spring break.

The 27th Line - by BenTaylorBlogs

Luke has been taking the STAAR test for the past two days, and it was the Writing portion of the test.  And let me just say that he's not great at writing.  He will take Math and Reading later this month.  The school has been prepping him with lots of "fun" worksheets that actually say "STAAR Prep" at the top.  We complete them dutifully, but since the last one he brought home had a score of a 54 written in blood-red at the top, I'm not feeling super confident about his performance over the last two days.

I don't like standardized tests, but I certainly don't mind them either.  I've had to take a lot of them throughout my life, not the least of which was the Bar Exam.  I'm okay at testing, so it hasn't been a huge stress on me.  I take the tests cramming everything I know about the subject into my mind for just a short period of time and then I promptly dump it all as soon as I walk out of the room.  The problem is that I know how to "work" the test.  I know how to study for the test.  I do not, however, actually learn all the material in the sense that I will have it available in my brain for the long term.  Seriously, just ask me a math or science question and I'll stare at you with a blank look on my face.  This is not my thing.  Even the Bar Exam consisted of cramming stuff into my brain just so I could get through the test.  Because, let's be honest, if I need the information, I will go look it up not only to remind myself of the details of the law, but also to see if there have been any amendments or changes since the last time I thought about the law.  So, while testing doesn't bother me, I don't actually think it's accomplishing its intended goal.

Nonetheless, testing is important and definitely has its place among society.  In fact, I'm not at all bothered by the fact that my kids will have to take these tests.  Honestly, all the STAAR prep materials are wonderful!  They are focusing on things the kids really do have to learn to go out into the real world - at least when it comes to writing.  It teaches punctuation, capitalization, grammar, etc.  Do I want my kid to have to edit papers for the rest of his life?  Uh, do I have a choice?  I have to edit my work, Chuck has to edit his work, everyone has to edit their work!  So, yes, I definitely want them focusing on this at school even if it is for a standardized test.

Anyway, here's a much more compelling blog post from a teacher whose students took the STAAR test the past few days.  While I appreciate and encourage the learning that the STAAR test is promoting, I also see the perspective of making sure our kids know that their entire self-worth is not summed up in a single standardized test.  I love "The 27th Line"!  I tip my hat to BenTaylorBlogs!

The 27th Line

Spring Break - oh yeah, that happened.

Thanks to Angie's comment, I'm suddenly inspired to post again!

Let me catch everyone up on our Spring Break activities.  We had a staycation which involved a trip to a brewery to support our local Lighthouse for the blind, a trip to the overcrowded zoo with friends, Fossil Rim, Dinosaur World, Chuck E Cheese, bowling, a day of reading after the kids were shitty and ungrateful, and wrapped up with haircuts, a trip to the doctor, and errands.

I have tons of pictures, as you might expect, so here are just the ones from the Rahr Brewery.  This was so fun!  It's a local brewery who hosts a charity each week.  They do beer tastings for individuals (18 and older, I think - I know it is definitely under age 21, which is weird).  We showed up with hundreds of others and hung out for a couple hours.  The kids ran around playing between bags of barley (or at least, I think it was barley).  I'd definitely go again!

Me, Chuck, & Amber

Evie, Luke & G

Evie playing hide and seek in the barley.  Apparently, Luke just found her and you can see his arm pointing at her.

What a fun time!  I really recommend stopping by Rahr for a good cause!

The Normal Life

Wow.  It's been a long time.  It's been so long that my computer's browser didn't even recognize the web address.  So sad.

Sad and shameful.

I'm over it now.  Are you?  Good.

Life has been a whirlwind, but when isn't it, right?

Spring break, Chuck turned 40, Soccer season is in full swing, school work, piano practice, etc., etc., etc.  Seriously, the list is a mile long, but isn't that what living is all about?  Yes, it is!

So, just for you, here are my beautiful babies living it up in our everyday world on the way to school this morning.  Life doesn't get any more normal than this.