Oh my a dragonfly!

This year we have had really colorful dragonflies hanging around our home. Dragonflies are the one insect that I am happy to see and hold. Their bright colors and beautiful wings always bring a smile to my face. The kids brought the most enormous one yet to show me the other day! I couldn't believe the size of it. It looks almost prehistoric in comparison to the others. We have had great luck with holding our arms out with a pointed finger and the dragonflies landing and having a little visit with us. The kids learned this at nature camp a few summers back. Try it! It really works.

Xander when he was 6 testing out the pointer theory.

Past encounters with our dragonfly friends

Act of Kindness

Much to my surprise I found this delicious edible arrangement waiting outside my door this evening! Christy thanks for being such a wonderful friend and helping me to feel better after a few bad days!

1. Friends who listen

2. Acts of kindness

3. Alyssa and Alexander to share in my delicious treat

A Child’s Prayer

A Child’s Prayer

Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer ev’ry child’s prayer? Some say that heaven is far away, But I feel it close around me as I pray.

Heavenly Father, I remember now Something that Jesus told disciples long ago:“Suffer the children to come to me.”Father, in prayer I’m coming now to thee.

Pray, he is there; Speak, he is list’ning. You are his child;His love now surrounds you. He hears your prayer; He loves the children. Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of heav’n.

I love this song. The children sang it today after I gave my sharing time on prayer. It carries such a strong spirit with it. I tried to put the MP3 of it on here, but I am not that blog savvy!

Just making an observation

Tonight at the kids school was meet the teacher night. It was fun to go and see "their world" that they spend more time in during the week then with me. Alexander's room is warm and inviting. His teacher has been teaching for 23 years and she is so kinds and loving. You walk in and right away feel embraced and Alyssa's room is well...stark by comparison with very few items up on the walls. Although one wall is devoted to the Red Sox. Go Sox! I find it ironic that her teacher is the only male teacher in the school and his room is pink-just like this font.

That got me thinking about the differences between men and women. Paul said at the father son camp out that the men were so proud of themselves for having only one table with the food on it. They said if the women were there it would have multiple tables with many stations to go to. Hey! So what's so wrong with that?

Back at the pinewood derby a friend and I were discussing how differently we would have done it as women, but for what? To break our backs and go overboard when the basics were met and the kids had a great time. I do feel that on occasion I may go a little over the top on things, but that is half the fun! Having a theme and going with it!

Can Alyssa learn just as well in her classroom without nurturing pictures on the walls? Yes she can. Her teacher is awesome and puts the time into the education not the environment. It is just so interesting how different the male verses female ways of doing things are. Really I am not criticizing just making an observation!

Improvise!

What do you do when the camp out part of the Father/Son camp out is cancelled? Improvise! Alexander had really been looking forward to the camp out this year since last year Paul was out of town. He was so excited to be spending time with dad and camping in a tent! So when the overnight portion was cancelled Alexander was almost in tears. I really think he would have lost it except for the fact that he was at karate and had to go out on the floor. So I called up Paul and asked him if he could set up the tent in the backyard and they all could sleep outside. Mind you I say "they" meaning Paul, Alexander and Alyssa. I would happily accept the task of sleeping inside with the dog since I don't sleep well outside.

So after the fun activities at church (launching rockets, paintball target practice, chips, chips and more chips and Alyssa and Mom's dinner and shopping date) we all met up in the backyard for a sleepover. My idea was to go outside and kiss everyone good night and then venture back inside for a restful nights sleep in my own bed. But to no avail! When I saw our whole family in the cozy tent for a fun nights adventure I caved. How could I resist those sweet smiling faces?

Even the dog got in on the action!

Boy was I wrong!! When everyone else is happily dreaming the night away I am awake due to every noise, wind, thought, teenagers letting off firecrackers in the next yard, first sprinkles then a DOWNPOUR! Finally at 3:45 I call it quits! But first I have to get Thurston out of the tent or else he will pant and drive everyone crazy after I leave. So here I am in the rain, yanking on the dog, trying not to be sick due to lack of sleep and finally I make it up to my bed and melt into my clean white sheets. Only an hour later do I hear thump, thump, thump up the stairs followed by a very tired husband who had to get the kids out of the tent in the pouring rain because he was afraid they would be flooded!

So the morale to this story is yes definitely improvise! But do it on a night where rain is not expected to dampen (literally) your plans! Would I do it again? You bet! It was worth the lack of sleep the next day to see their happy faces the night before. Maybe next time I'll try sleeping pills? Just kidding well sort of...

Nature's bounty

Tonight I am thankful for fresh vegetables from our garden. This is the first year I have ever had a garden. Albeit small with carrots, jalapenos, green chilies and tomatoes, but a garden none the less. We have waited patiently for our tomatoes to ripen and finally for the last two weeks we have had fresh, delicious and home grown tomatoes to eat.

For dinner we decided to have omelets with some of our fresh veggies. We sauteed onions, green chilies, and jalapenos topped with what else? Ripe red tomatoes bursting with flavor. Paul was going to put in jalapenos from the jar and I threw what he diced away and asked him to go out and pick a fresh one! Mmmm... it was delicious but what made it even better is that WE GREW IT! Xander even tried a bit of the green chilies. He didn't like it, but he tried. I love to be able to go outside and get veggies fresh and free!

FORE!

On Saturday afternoon we met up with Christy and Jared for an evening of fun! Since we were going out to celebrate Christy's upcoming birthday I told her to pick the event and location for dinner. She came up with 9 holes of golf and a steak house. I reminded her that it has been before the kids came along that I have golfed and that was only a small par 3. But I was game to go along with the plan. I would be the entertainment for the evening. Even when they were all figuring out whose hand me down golf clubs I would use and the fact that I didn't have golf shoes and wore tennis shoes (hey at least they were new cute Nike's brown and copper with a blue swoosh) I still kept my spirits high and said that I would be the orphan step child of the group. :-) Hey if you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?

So believe it or not I didn't do so bad at first. I had a few really good shots. We decided to play couples best ball so whomever shot the best ball for that couple the other would take their ball and place it next to theirs and shoot from there. Otherwise it would have taken FOREVER! The men have so much more strength than us! Once my ball did go OuT of the course and bounced across the street! I even stopped traffic! We even used a couple of my shots- okay so Paul had some really bad ones and mine were used by default! No I actually won some fair and square. Towards the end my swing was not the best and I had to swing multiple times to just hit the dang thing! But what a great time we had! It was calm and peaceful on the course (well except when the men were driving the golf carts and we had to hang on for dear life! I swear it was like Mr. Toads wild ride. I had to brace myself with my foot and hold onto the bar on the side for fear of flying off!) beautiful surrounding, a night out with my hubby and great friends! All said and done the score was 45 to 50 in their favor. Hey not so bad for a first time golfer!

We decided that we must do it again before the long cold winter is upon us and that terrible white stuff is covering the ground for months and months.