To Play or Not to Play

During the summer when the kiddos are out of school, we are a little bit lax on bed time. On the nights, when they aren't up later than normal for some other reason, we let them stay up 30 extra minutes as long as they stay in their rooms. The other night, instead of playing, all 3 decided they would rather sit quietly and read with their mom. Even though each night I look forward to some alone time once the kids are in bed, Oh how I wish their desire to choose mommy time over play would last forever.

Randomness

I find it weird and a little interesting that our cats have decided to use one litter box for pee and the other for poop.

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I sometime wonder why on days where I have "nothing" to do, my messy house does not bother me but on Sundays when I am rushing to get everyone out of the house on time (by myself because my hus is usually there early to practice music), and therefore have no time to clean it drives me mad.

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Why can't there always be a no talking rule in the car? It seems that my kids, especially my 4 year old, are very aware that this is the time they have a captive audience. It's in the car that the talking is even more NON stop than usual and it's not all stimulating. For example, Elliott, 4, brings up a new topic yesterday by asking, "Mom, can you put shrimp in a wood box?" ?????

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Why do little girls cry so much??

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I am addicted to chapstick. I have been for years.

And Proud of it

I am a southern girl. I always have been. I was born in the south, raised in the south (though most Floridians refuse to include themselves as southern even though they so are) and currently live in the south. I like grits, fried okra, sweet tea (as if there is any other kind), cornbread, fried green tomatoes, and things cooked with back fat. I use Y'all as a proper noun, sometimes have been known to add an extra syllable or 2 to a word and up until as recent as 11 or 12 years ago, didn't know that "fixin to" and "use ta could" were not terms widely used outside of the south. As a kid, I was made fun of because of my accent (even though I didn't and still don't hear it). Know though, that I am Southern, not country or a redneck. There is a difference. I know some country folks and a few rednecks, but I am not one. I think maybe we used to be country before we moved to FL. My dad always wanted a pair of overalls. That's country. He hit a cow with his car once and my mom wondered why he didn't just load it in the trunk. That's country. My brother and his friend once climbed or fell into (not sure which) his friend's dad's pea pickin' machine. That's country. I think he got a pea stuck up in his nose as a result. My dad has relatives known a "Big Sister, Mama, Pappy, Eunice, Honey and Muddy." That's border line redneck.


But all that was long ago. We lived in a little town in Georgia and then 11 miles outside of that town. So we actually lived in the country. We had a little ranch house on close to 2 acres of land. We had neighbor across the hwy named Pauline who my mother would routinely save black, rotten bananas for because she had no teeth and she liked them that way. There was a mangy old dog that we named "Doodle dog" that would visit our yard from time to time who would "doodle" (if you know what I mean) on our bushes. He was harmless to us humans, it was the bushes that needed to be afraid. My brother and I would sit outside on the top of the water well house (a common thing in those parts) and claim the cool cars that flew by. We spent our days exploring the woods that bordered the back of our house, fishin' in the creek with my brother's Snoopy fishing pole and riding our bikes up and down the dirt road that was on the other side of the cow pasture that was next to our house.

So, we were country at one point. Then we moved to civilization. Still a small town but we actually lived in the town, or closer to it at least. We lived in an actual subdivision. We thought that was cool. And so we morphed from being a little bit country to Southern, refined, well mannered, yet friendly and hospitable.

And what, prey tell, has prompted me to launch into a post about my southern roots? I had a visit from one of my northern cousins this past weekend. It was a visit that I very much enjoyed. I do wish they lived closer. Because they grew up in Iowa and I in Florida, we have seen precious little of each other. Still, even though we may go 7 or 8 years between visits, when we do get together, it's very easy and enjoyable. So, when my cousin mentioned that they needed to get some grits before going home (said in a little bit of a northern accent), it got me to thinking. That, and I recently resubscribed to Southern Living Magazine. That magazine always makes me appreciate my roots and sometimes makes me get all nostalgic.

So, even though there are renecks all over the world and counrty folk in every state, there is nothing like the South.

Inspiration

I know I haven't blogged in a while. I just haven't felt like it. Really, I haven't had much to say. (shocking, I know). I don't want my blog to just be about our day to day activities. I have several friends whose sole purpose of their blog is to journal what goes on in a day of their lives. These are great blogs. I do enjoy reading these blogs especially of those friends whom I do not live close to. Often times I get great ideas from these friends on all sorts of levels. Although I do write about such things on my blog, that's just not all I want to it be about. All that said, my blogging thoughts have been stagnant lately. So I am going to simply share a few pics from our summer. This is a bit of an attempt to unblock my bloggers block, thinking that if I write something, anything, that that will get the juices flowing. I think it might be working....I've already had a couple of ideas in the 4 minutes it's taken me to write this much. The catch will be to see if any of those ideas make it down on paper.

So, in the mean time, here are some of our summer pics;

Our first outing of the summer was Memorial Day on the lake. We rented a boat with some good friends of ours from church and spent the day tooling around on the lake. Cute booty review, huh?



Our next and only big outing of the summer so far was our trip to the beach. We spent about a week on Longboat Key near Sarasota, FL. It was very nice. My parents joined us for a bit. But now it's over. And that's the sad part.
Below is 1 of about a thousand sunset pics I took on our trip. I don't like to keep my camera down at the beach for fear of getting sand in tiny places or risk scratching up the lens. And I didn't want to bring it down, take some pics and then have to go all the way back up to our hotel room to return it. So, I would bring my camera along on our nightly strolls on the beach, hence the 1000 sunset pics. That is one thing I love about the Florida gulf coast (or the gulf stream waters as my 6 year old puts it) is the beautiful sunsets over the ocean. You just can't beat it.



And here is literally the ONLY picture I got of all 3 of my girls standing still and looking my way AND smiling.



And here is the view from our hotel room. Isn't the water beautiful!?!



We did have a nice time at the beach. It was very relaxing. And, it was the first family vacation in about 5-6 years where my hus didn't work at all. It was nice. We had beautiful weather, hot, but pretty and no one got sunburn. All in all, a pretty good trip.

After the beach, my sister, her husband and their baby spent some time with us before moving off to NYC. That was fun. We do miss them though now that they are gone.

Since then, we haven't really gone anywhere, just little field trips around town.
We went to the pottery place and painted pottery:



We also went to see a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts with some other friends from church. After the show, the girls got to make a puppet.





And yesterday, the girls and I went just to check out Kennesaw Mountain. I knew it was too hot to really do any hiking (for our taste anyway), but I've been wanting to go see what's up there. It is only about 20 minutes from our house. On weekdays, you can drive your own car up to the top (weekends you have to use the shuttle) and I'm glad we drove. It was a pretty steep incline. Once up to the top though, you have really pretty views of the valley below. We did hike just a bit but decided that maybe we should return in the fall. We managed to bear the heat long enough for a picnic, which when in the shade was actually quite nice and pleasant.







So, that's mostly it. You are up to date. We have a couple more things planned for the summer. We'll see if they make it into a blog post. Until then, I'm going to try to get inspired to write more.

Hike No More

A couple of weeks ago, we went on another hike. It was hot. This one was short. I think the hiking may be done for the summer. I still managed to get a couple of good shots though.

Another, Cheaper Party

With 2 kids who have birthdays so close together (one in May, one in June), you may ask, "why don't you just have their parties at the same time?" That would make sense. I thought it would work out this year, but alas, they wanted different things.

We had a pool party for Elliott again this year. We had a pool party for her last year. I love it. It's cheap, it's easy, it's fun! Similar to last year, we did have a minute of panic when it looked like the sky was going to open up. It rumbled a bit and so we had cupcakes and opened gifts a little bit earlier than I had originally planned but that's ok. It all worked out. Then the thunder moved on and they got back in the pool. And all I had to do was make some cupcakes. If only all my kids had summer birthdays!




So now you know Elliott's real name starts with a "L". Shhhh...don't tell anyone!


You try getting a good shot of mostly 4 year olds.

Sweet Elliott

What can I say about Elliott. Elliott is my baby. My baby turned 4 today.

Elliott came after a very short amount of time trying for another baby and therefore was somewhat of a surprise. My Dr. kept saying that because she was my third and because I had been 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced for 4 freakin weeks that when I went into labor, I'd better get to the hospital in a hurry because she was going to go fast.

Whatever. My water broke around 4 PM and 16 HOURS later, we had our 8 lb. 2 oz bundle of joy and 3rd girl. So much for going fast.

Elliott join 2 very excited and "helpful" big sisters. Grace even celebrated today as not only Elliott's birthday but the day she became a big sister.

Elliott is a very sweet little girl. She loves to give kisses and hugs. She loves to crawl up next to you and snuggle. She's tall for her age so people often think she's older than she is. She's smart. She picks up on things that you think would go right over her head. She has learned things just from being around, things that I took lots of time to sit down and teach her older sisters. She has beautiful, long, flowing hair. She loves to sing. She likes me to sing to her. She loves to tell jokes. They don't really make any sense. We pretend to laugh and so then she tells another and another... She's the most funny when she's doesn't intend to be. She tries real hard to keep up with her big sisters. She sometimes talks like she is a 6 or 8 year old. She's a little bit country. She loves broccoli. She loves candy. She is sensitive and gets a little flustered when we try to brag on her. She may growl at you. She is very good at playing by herself. She can talk NON stop and sometimes she can just sit so quietly you have to check to make sure she is there. She loves her blankie. And yes, she still loves her thumb. She loves her sisters. She loves it when she gets to be the center of attention but is a little more humble about it that some. She loves to dance. She can be really silly. She is scared of thunder. She is our one late sleeper. She still loves to be held even though she weighs about 50 lbs. She's pretty laid back and can usually go with the flow. She's a 3rd child. She is a child of the covenant. She loves Jesus. And Jesus loves her.

She will most likely always be our youngest and therefore our baby.

Happy Birthday sweet Elliott! We love you!