Mom's home....after fighting traffic Friday afternoon for an hour! Oh, it's good to be home! I like to have "all my ducks in a row"....all my children around me, and my husband home....I'm a home loving mom! Much progress was made on the special "Sweet 16" birthday surprise, but much more work is needed until it is completed...so more trips to Grammy & Buppy's house! What will be nice, is that I can trust Meghan to stay away from where I am working on her surprise...and Sara to make sure she does! That way...I'll just take all 4 children with me! They get to visit with their grandparents and aunt (who lives up the street)...Ron can go to work without worrying, and I won't have to miss my children! Of course, we can make little side trips in between work on the surprise...to a couple of parks that are nearby, fishing in the creek, walks thru the fields and a couple of cool antique shops and thrifting stores that are local...fun!
After rushing to see the play "The Music Man" at a local highschool with my older girls and friends Friday night, then yesterday we had a great time at a dear family's birthday party, today was rather quiet...a perfect Sunday! After church, we stayed and visited with friends, then came home to a GF pepperoni pizza and veggies, then while the 4 children rested, I ran out to Half-Price books and got Anna 5 "Raggedy Ann and Andy" books! As I'll explain below, she is now the very proud and diligent little Mama of her own Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls! While I was at the book store, Ronnie played rod-hockey and Anna & Meghan played "pretty pretty princess!" I can't believe how big Anna is getting! I love her HUGE eyes!
After rushing to see the play "The Music Man" at a local highschool with my older girls and friends Friday night, then yesterday we had a great time at a dear family's birthday party, today was rather quiet...a perfect Sunday! After church, we stayed and visited with friends, then came home to a GF pepperoni pizza and veggies, then while the 4 children rested, I ran out to Half-Price books and got Anna 5 "Raggedy Ann and Andy" books! As I'll explain below, she is now the very proud and diligent little Mama of her own Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls! While I was at the book store, Ronnie played rod-hockey and Anna & Meghan played "pretty pretty princess!" I can't believe how big Anna is getting! I love her HUGE eyes!
Princess Anna!
I think Anna won and had more jewelery than Meghan did!
After dinner tonight, we all had our kefir smoothies...tried a new recipe that makes them taste just like 'orange julius's'!
Then all 6 of us played UNO...Ronnie and Anna have card holders that make playing much easier for them...but Anna was being so silly that she was just happy to be included!
Partners in crime! Sara would always wait until we switched directions before having Anna ( she was helping her) put down a "draw 4" card for her dad!
We had a great time! After we took Anna up to read more in her storybooks, we taught Ronnie how to play 'Rat a Tat Cat' card game...he won both times!~The other day, good friends of ours moved into a smaller place, one level living and are having a moving sale....and we were able to 'preview' the sale. All of the proceeds are going to a missions trip our church is taking to Zambia. I feel so blessed by the treasures that I brought home, my friends know their treasures went to a good home and money was raised for Zambia. Here are some of the treasures I was blessed with!
Beautiful, hand-pieced and hand-quilted blue and white quilt.
Gorgeous, hand-pieced and appliqued pink, white and light green quilt
One of my favorites....looks like a grandmothers flower garden quilt...all handmade that my friend, when she was a little girl, slept under....these were her grandmothers. Again, all done by hand....when I think of the hours and hours that went into these, I appreciate them even more.
Ron loved this rod-hockey game....he had one when he was a young boy, now our children can enjoy it too!
The wooden sewing box on the left is a treasure! It opens up like an accordian and is filled with all manner of sewing neccessities! The antique sewing maching works beautifully, and was given to me by a friend who had it in her garage. The certificate of authenticity is dated 1936. Sometimes, I feel as if I've stepped back in time. I would love to have a treadle machine someday....no electricity needed! LOL
Ronnie, Anna, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy having a tea party.
These are two very special treasures! These dolls belonged to my friends daughter. Her daughter is now 45 years old and she got them when she was around 2. At 43 years old...they are in remarkable shape! We had to perform "surgawry" on both of them....one arm needed sewed back on and a foot need stitched...I crocheted black 'shoes' for Andy....now I need a pair for Raggedy Ann....I'm hoping to make some more clothes for them over the summer. Anna loves them so much and carrys them around with her, and tucks them in with kisses at night. So precious that they are loved by another little girl!
And...last but not least! A wonderful small chest that fits perfectly into my diningroom/everything room! It's the perfect place to hold our wooden abacus...which was forever in the way when we weren't using it! Ronnie & Anna's schoolbooks are to the left, and the drawers now hold crayons, rulers, playdough and various other art supplies. It freed up some space in the cabinets in my living room.~While I was gone, I listened to a cd/talk the entire way to my mothers and back again called " 24 hours is all you get" by Mrs. Susan Bradrick. WOW! Was I convicted! One of the things that convicted me the most, was the phrase " I'm sorry, that just will not be best for our family"....she even had everyone repeat it frequently! LOL There were so many scriptures to reference, about being good stewards of our time, our families, and our resources...it was very timely for me. I feel as if we haven't had a workable routine since fall of 2007! Little by little, we're going to put things into perspective...and get into a routine that suits our family the best. Like being free or having lighter days when Ron is off...since he doesn't have off on weekends. That will maximize our family time, building a stronger family.
One of those 'resolutions' is to go to sleep early...and rise early....so I'm off! Will do a quick menu plan then to bed. I think the 'whirlwind' is beginning to wind down....as it will even more when we say "I'm sorry, that just wouldn't be best for our family"! LOL Goodnight! ~Sue~
