Odds and ends...

He done his momma right proud...

Sunday night when we had the bible college students over, the first one walked in and after looking around commented, "you really have been cleaning house this week!" *Just so you all know, on record for all of blogdom to know: I clean house every Sunday before they all come over...
At least, I thought I cleaned it...When he dropped this comment, I could see (in my mind) a little smiley face with the hair standing on end with a big 'o' for a mouth! I was alittle horrified that apparently he hadn't thought it was all that clean before. And, I was thinking-"goodness, what would he think if he saw it on Friday before I cleaned it??" I had a good laugh with Sky about it later that night, but I thought-wouldn't his momma's ears be burning over such a statement! Sounds like something my boy would say to someone.

Welcome to Jenny's world, come on in!...

Friday I went to visit my mom with the kids, she lives about 1 hour away, at least she used to live there...

I was driving along the highway, thinking- "wow, everything has changed so much!" I got off on the wrong off-ramp because it all looked different. On the long road up to her house I was marvelling at all of the changes, "that shopping center is new!" wondering in my mind how long had it been since I was at her house, I thought it had been about 6 months...Took the kids through the McD's drive-thru and then headed over to her house. One block away, Larissa says "mom, they don't live here anymore, do they?"

I had forgotten, somehow- they had moved to a new house near my sister, about a year and a half ago!! Away, as in a half-hour away, ...in another city, a completely different house, so different you shouldn't be able to confuse the two..

I had to call someone for directions from her old house to the new, I tried to call my sister, because I am thinking that you don't call my mom for directions somewhere...it would be like calling me for directions...

This is all kind of scary, but oh, so true. Welcome to Jennyville. Sky had a good laugh over this, I knew he would appreciate it. The contrast between his logical linear mind and my...what I've got, is always good material for a laugh.


Four word Meme

I have been tagged for a 4-word Meme by Susan at Living to tell the Story. So, here are the words- This is a word association game, I am supposed to write down the first thing that pops into my head...

Teach My dining room table, where most of our homeschooling happens. I see myself working with my son-who is just learning to read right now.

Shrill Flocks of green parrots in our front yard trees at dusk. They can be prettry shrill. But I love that they live in our neighborhood. I close my eyes and pretend we are on an exotic island somewhere...

memento Our scrapbooks, which help us remember where we have been and what we have done.

Abundance My family gathered around our table for a meal, and all the food we are blessed to have on it.

I am going to tag Becca at And Together we learn
and Mrs. Darling at Dishpan Dribble, and anyone else who would like to play...

Your four words are:

Cozy, field, dream and illuminate
have fun and if anyone else wants to join in, please do!

My cropping weekend getaway

Scrapbook weekend in Big Bear
Last weekend I went to a local mountain retreat for a weekend of friends, scrapbooking and fun! Scrapbooking is the only creative thing I do right now, and it is difficult for me to set aside time to work on our scrapbooks. Cropping weekends or workshops are the only time I work on them. Big Bear is beautiful in the fall, with the trees changing color. I had a really nice, relaxing time hanging out with my Sister-in-law, A and homeschool friends Jennifer and Christine.

We had lots of good food at the hotel, snacks, a starbucks across the way...and we stayed up way too late working on our albums. There were two scrapbook stores down the street...what bliss!! The pajama crop was not quite as wild as the Palm Springs weekend tends to be, so I did not get any crazy pictures to label "cropping girls gone wild"... there is always next year...you can imagine how wild we crop moms can get...

The best part of the weekend was coming home, I was so homesick!!

Thursday Thirteen #5


Thirteen Things about our Amie

1) She is the baby of the family

2) She was our biggest baby at birth- 10lbs. 2 oz.

3) She is our miracle girl because she was delivered cesarean after it was determined she was not going to drop...The Dr.'s found the cord wrapped so tightly around her neck she had a mark.

4) Amie's middle name is Stella, for her grandmother. The spelling of her first name was a compromise between her daddy and I. I wanted the french spelling, he wanted the traditional 'y' ending...'ie' was the compromise.

5) Amie was born with two heart defects. VSD ( a hole in her ventricle) and Aortic bicuspid valve. (she had a bicuspid valve where she should have had a tricuspid)

6) Amie is our miracle girl because at one year of age, after her second echocardiogram-we were told she was fine and that we never had to come back. The only explanation was the first team of Dr.'s must have read her tests wrong up untill then...and, when I called with the news-her grandfather told me what I was going to say before I said it. The grandfathers had been praying for her.

7) Amie is our princess girl. She loves 'princess stuff', and during toddlerhood when she should have been asking to watch Blue's Clues over and over again, she kept asking to watch Ella Enchanted. She often looked in the mirror, flipped back her long hair and said "I Ella" !

8) Her brother Demi who is 3 years older than she, is her best friend

9) Her favorite breakfast is a fried egg and a waffle

10) When Amie was a toddler, she would say to me, "mommy, mommy, mommy!" So I began saying to her "Amie, Amie, Amie!" and I still do.

11) She does a very good impression of 'Spirit' the horse (from the movie)

12) The best way to coax her to do something is to let Demi do it/have it first...

13) She mis-pronounces Demi's real name, and is so very sweet and very hugable. (o.k, I cheated, that is more than 13...

Thursday thirteen is a weekly meme hosted here, hop over to see more Thursday thirteens.

Capturing the magic in the ordinary

What makes a moment meaningful? How do we capture the magic in the ordinary? What makes an ordinary moment magical? These questions were put forth on this blog post at written inc. The post was about pausing to watch a train go by with his daughter, and captured my thoughts because as a mother (and a busy homeschool mother) I am constantly trying to balance my list of 'need to do' with just enjoying my kids and the many moments that make up our life together.

My magical moments of the ordinary occur when I slow down and savor the moment. A zen moment when I simply experience the moment and let the event play out, participating in it fully. To me, it is like time begins to run in slow motion- time almost stands still. Magical moments that become snapshots in my mind to take out and savor again and again.

A circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'engle is on my fall reading challenge. I began reading it this weekend and this passage spoke, I thought to this ability to capture the magic in the moment...

"...I was trying to think out loud about the concentration essential for all artists, and in the very little child I found the perfect example...In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself. He has thrown himself completely into whatever it is that he is doing. A child playing a game, building a sand castle, painting a picture, is completely in what he is doing. His self-consciousness is gone; his consciousness is wholly focused outside himself...When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware;...So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves."

So, I think she is saying that in capturing these moments we are using the skills of childhood. Approaching the moment with concentration (for example an 18 month old intently watching ants) and lack of self-consciousness. This results in the feeling of escaping time and escaping our selves.

These thoughts, and this homeschool blogmom set my mind today to be on the lookout for moments that could be magical. One such moment was a nature walk this afternoon in our neighborhood. Time slowed down as we stopped to really look at a butterfly bush. An ordinary plant we have seen on our own street, but this bush was big and 'bushy'. and had many butterflies hovering around it. So, we paused when I might have ordinarily moved on. We tried to smell the flowers, discussed the scent, discussed nectar, why the bush is called a butterfly bush. We enjoyed the different hues of orange of the flowers. The kids spent time gently catching the butterflies and releasing them. Really, a moment I probably would have missed. I took some pictures, we took home a few flowers to draw and label later for our nature journals.

On the walk home we discovered a cute bird house with a bird family in it, and looked at some brown-eyed susans-discussing the name and relation to the sunflowers in our yard. It was a beautiful, blue fall day. A magical ordinary moment.

As we walked up our path to the front door, discussing the wonders we had discovered on this walk, the boy wonder commented "yes, it was nice...but next time, mom, we should take the van." !!!!!

13 places...Thursday Thirteen!

(graphic courtesy of Kelly@diary of the Nello)

Thursday Thirteen!

13 Places I drove my van this week

1. Dance class

2. home bible study

3. bagel store (yum-and no, not part of my diet)

4. audition hall for daughter's orchestra try-out (couldn't take a valium, I was driving...)

5. Lord's table meeting- we served on children's meeting (an earlier post-they won!)

6. to visit hubby's parents

7. to visit my parents

8. To library B

9. To Library A

10. To Art class (2 separate classes on Tues., 1 on Wed.) my kids will owe me big time some day

11. to target -what mom can stay away! The damage- only $42, I consider that a victory

12. To wednesday night ministry meeting

13. Violin and piano lessons, on same day...again, my kids will owe me big time some day...

Thursday thirteen is a meme designed to get to know others. To check out the big Thursday Thirteen hub and see other participants, go here

She has Strings!!

Meg auditioned this past Saturday for a strings orchestra. We received her acceptance letter today in the mail. We are so excited for her! The opportunity to play as a member of an orchestra is almost priceless and will be a big boost to her playing ability this year.

This was our first experience with audition...and I almost didn't make it. I was a nervous wreck, by the time we arrived at the audition hall I was wishing for a valium or something!

So, for the 2006-2007 season, Meg is a member of the Prelude String Orchestra.

That's my baby girl!