Some Things We Have Done

I'm glad I took some pictures over the last six weeks, because I had already forgotten about some of these things. (And I'm sure other people in my family have pictures of other activities that I don't have.)

The four of us did some hiking at Dismals Canyon in Alabama.

Mae has come to visit us a lot.

Clay worked in his forge. He made some pliers completely from raw materials. (I need a picture of the finished product.)

We celebrated Clay's 21st birthday.

Mae loves to color.

And be outside.

Big Sam and I have given quarantine haircuts! I trimmed about 4 inches from Leah's hair and 5 inches from Julie's (no picture.)

Sweet Mae again!

Sam and Clay built a rock climbing wall. This is during the construction phase.

And this is the finished product.

The Easter Bunny came.

Leah, Sam, and Mae dyed Easter Eggs.

Clay made homemade bread and this homemade flan, pictured below.

I deep cleaned my oven (not using the self-cleaning feature). It took about three hours! This is the before picture. I am embarrassed to say that I have never deep cleaned my oven, and it is 15 years old!

After--not perfectly clean, but as clean as three hours of hard work, baking soda, vinegar, scrub brushes, norwex cloths, norwex cleaning paste, and elbow grease could get it.

Jimmy planed some boards from trees that had fallen or been cut down last fall.

Leah did a couple of Bob Ross art classes online as well as created much art on her iPad.

All in all, it has been a fun, productive shelter at home experience. I have kept up with my housework and even cleaned out a couple of closets and drawers.  Jimmy pressure washed all our concrete around the house and backyard/pool area, and he also finished a beautiful desk he has been working on for years. Sam built a go cart from an old piece of yard equipment....he attached a trailer hitch to it, and it will pull his four-wheeler. I need to take a picture of it!

So Today We Celebrated Leah's Birthday

Leah turned 14 today. And how can that be? Sam will be 12 in a couple of weeks, and just like that, all of my children are almost grown!  We began our celebration last night with supper at Ichiban.

Today, we enjoyed a fun day with our family of four. I cooked Leah's breakfast request (sausage muffins). I used my one of my oldest cookbooks, the silver Bell's Best. Then she opened her gifts and enjoyed a laid-back morning while I prepared food for her party later in the day. I used my old, tattered and torn yellow Bell's Best for the recipe for the layered chocolate dessert Leah requested. Do any of you readers from Mississippi have either of these cookbooks? It was such a funny coincidence that I saw on Facebook this morning that one of my local friends posted a picture of her well-worn yellow Bell's Best. My copy was given to me as a wedding present from Vicki and Stephanie Huff. They signed the inside!

 my two Bell's Best cookbooks

I have the yellow one taped together.

The top recipe is the one I use---my notes show how I double the recipe for us.

 The birthday girl

 All smiles today!

This is her birthday table.

We ate at Thai Garden for lunch, and then we saw The Greatest Showman at the deserted theater. We were the only four people in the theater! True, there was snow and ice today, and most people just stayed at home, but we had a birthday to celebrate!

Tonight Leah has four friends over for supper and games. They are loud--shrieking and laughing, and having the best time. I am loving hearing their joy.

The day Leah was born fourteen years ago was a cold day too. But Leah has been a ray of sunshine ever since she joined our family.  She was an easy, happy baby, and she has always been a delight!

Happy Birthday, sweet Leah!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Last week we celebrated Sam's 9th birthday.  My youngest child is 9!

We had a nice day celebrating.  The day began with present opening followed by Sam's request for breakfast:  bacon, scrambled eggs, grits, and biscuits.  

I decorated our kitchen table using Sam's collection of Lamborghinis and one of his favorite candies, Twix. 

Julie crocheted Sam a Baymax.  And I don't even know what that is.

Sam spent the day building all his new Lego sets, and then we enjoyed a late lunch at Abner's.

For dessert later that night, we had a fruit pizza with 9 candles on top!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Oodles of Poodles!

Leah has been celebrating her 11th birthday for almost two weeks now! Her actual birthday was while we were at Disney World, so that was fun of course.  Then we had our full day family celebration the day after we got home from Disney.  And her final celebration was today.

My mother, the ultimate party planning extraordinaire, enthusiastically planned a 50's Themed party for Leah.  She carefully attended to every detail….all I did was send the invitations and purchase the party food.  She and my daddy came last night and began the set-up.  We did most of it this morning, and here is the result…...

 This life sized stuffed poodle was the centerpiece of the "photo-op" area.  I took a picture of each guest as they arrived by this little set-up.

Here are a few pictures of the fantastic table setting.  The girls just oohed and ahhhed as they saw how cute everything was!

 The placemats are records with pink labels glued on the center.

 My mama and Leah

(She made Leah's new poodle skirt too, and also brought her a pair of saddle oxfords to wear).

 All of the girls

except two who were running a little bit late

 The party menu:

pink lemonade, cupcakes with pink icing, chips and dip, and ice cream sundaes.

 the girls enjoying their party food

 Mims and Pops

The girls played charades for a little while in our den followed by holding a hula-hooping contest.  One of the girls hula-hooped for over two minutes without dropping the hula-hoop.

Then they moved outside to play with the jump-ropes my mother gave them. Their party favors were part of the table decor and included a pink jump rope, a slinky, and a bottle of pink fingernail polish.  

 some of the girls posing

Here are some of them again.

They played tag and on our playground before coming back indoors to watch Leah open her gifts.

We were so fortunate to have pretty weather today.

A big thank you to my mama for planning and executing such a fabulous party.  Leah talked about it all day….right up until the time she finally went to bed.

It was a good day.

It's My Birthday!

Today I turn 45.  I am sure that I look 45, but I don't feel 45.  Most days I still feel like I am 25, until about 3:00 PM, and then I lose steam…..if I get a cup of coffee, that perks me up, but then I cannot sleep at night, and then I am tired in the morning when the alarm goes off at 5:00 AM, and so the cycle goes….

Anyway.

Today is going to be a fabulous day!

We actually began our celebration last night after supper. Jimmy and the children presented me with two beautifully wrapped gifts with instructions to open them "right now". So I did.  And I was given marvelous presents:  a huge bag of M&Ms, a bag of Hershey Kisses, and the movie Moms' Night Out.  Fun!  Our whole family (minus our college student) gathered in our den to eat chocolate and watch the movie.  Even the third time, that movie is hilarious!  Jimmy and the boys had never seen it, so it was fun to hear them laugh too.  Jimmy even stayed awake for the entire movie!

Today we will celebrate with a birthday lunch at a Japanese restaurant, and then this afternoon we will be watching Julie and Clay run in their first cross country meet of the season.  I slept in this morning, and I don't plan to run or do (much) laundry today.  My children and husband are so sweet to make this day special for me.  I intend to enjoy every bit of it.  Sam and Julie are in the kitchen right now preparing breakfast.

I read the book of Philippians this morning.  This verse stood out:

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Philippians 2:3-4

I think this verse can apply to numerous areas of my life.  From my service to God to my relationships with my husband, my children, and my family and friends.  Dying to self is difficult.  Yet Jesus commands it.

For this my 45th year and for all the remaining years of my life, I aim to keep the following verse in the forefront of my mind:

"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 3:14

Julie's 17th Birthday

We celebrated Julie's birthday last Saturday.  As my girls get older, it is getting more and more difficult for me to think of new and fun ideas for their table decor.  I don't even look at Pinterest!  I try to keep it low key and use items that are actually part of their birthday gifts, instead of buying a lot of decorations that I will have to store.  

Julie has an interest in quilting (she already knows how to piece a quilt and hand quilt it), and she asked for some quilting pattern books and fabric for her birthday.  Both sets of grandparents gave her money for her birthday gift, and so she is going to buy exactly what she wants.  However, I bought a few small items that were quilt related to use for table decorations.

 The Table

The three baskets in the middle came from my party box.

 Each basket held items like yarn (not quilt-related, but they matched the paper goods), quilting pins and needles, a quilting thimble, and some quilting fabric strips.

 The birthday girl with her morning coffee

 Sweet Sam, waiting on his breakfast.

Our family birthday traditions include:

• A surprise decoration of our kitchen table when the birthday child awakens.
• Wrapped gifts (some of them lovingly handmade) stacked in front of our fireplace.  They are opened either before or after breakfast, depending on the wishes of the birthday child.
• All three meals of the day selected by the birthday child.  We will take them to a restaurant, order take-out, or I'll prepare a home-cooked meal, whatever the child wants or a combination of all three.
• A special dessert (with candles) selected by the birthday child
• All other family members doing the birthday child's chores for the day.
• No school if the birthday falls during the school year.
• A day of leisure for the birthday child.  He or she is allowed to spend the day playing/crafting/reading/building, etc. with his or her gifts.  
• The day only comes once a year, and it is an important day, celebrating the life of my precious child, so we try to make a big deal of it.
• Large parties are not necessary, nor do we even have outside the family birthday parties every year.  There is no rhyme or reason to whether or not my children have birthday parties, we just take it year by year and child by child.

 Julie with her gifts.

 Opening a set of books from Olivia.

 Displaying the pot holder that Leah made her.

 The requested birthday dessert:  homemade banana pudding.  I actually made the vanilla pudding from scratch!

Clay decorated the top.

 Singing "Happy  Birthday"!

Jimmy's parents surprised us with a visit, and so we invited them to stay for supper.  We had lots of cooked fresh vegetables (including tomatoes and squash from our own garden) and corn bread. 

Sam, Granmomma, and Leah.

Happy Birthday Julie!