Refocusing

I don’t blog very much anymore. It makes me sad, but I just can’t seem to find the time. But this morning I have a lot to say.

I was going to put the following post on Facebook this morning:

“I’m drowning over here. The shopping, the decorating, the baking, the parties… it’s all too much. And these kids…they keep insisting on being fed…night after night after night. I can’t do it anymore!”

But then I realized…I couldn’t leave it like that. That’s not who I am. That’s not who I want to be.

So, I write this blog post, not because you have time to read it. You probably don’t have any more time than I do. But I write it for me.

I write it quiet my thoughts. To remind myself that it doesn’t matter that my living room looks like a bomb went off in there. It doesn’t matter that my kitchen counter is piled high with all the stuff that used to be under the sink because my disposal is broken and leaking. It doesn’t matter that my tree is not up and decorated and that my cards aren’t addressed. It doesn’t matter that I’m not finished shopping or that I haven’t started wrapping.  It doesn’t matter if I don’t reclaim my title for most festive cookie at the cookie swap later this week. (Which might be hard to do if I have to resort to slice and bake cookies… Don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind.)

It doesn’t even matter whether I am creating perfect Christmas memories for my children.

{Gasp!}

Because none of that is what Christmas is about.  So, I write this not only to quiet my thoughts, but also to focus my heart.   What matters this Christmas season is that Jesus was born to live among men and fulfill prophesy.  He became flesh and dwelt among us so he could bring us Good News.  He came to save us from ourselves.

This is what we celebrate.  If I forget that and get focused on trying to make perfect memories for my kids or have the prettiest outdoor lights in the neighborhood or make the most festive cookie, I could get lost in it.  (And, I’m afraid for the last several days, I have been lost in it.)

So, I’m making a conscious effort – beginning with writing this blog post – to regroup, relax, and refocus.  Will you?

Summer rewind: July/August Edition

With all the gray cool weather lately, I’ve been wistfully reviewing photos of our fun July when it actually felt like we lived in the South. You know when you live in Atlanta and start thinking a move to Seattle for sunnier weather seems like a good idea, something is off.

Anyway. After a week to recuperate from our vacation, the kids were off to WinShape Camp for a week. Their tag line is “Best. Week. Ever.” And my kids would definitely agree. This is Evan’s third year and Pressley’s first. She has been looking forward to it since Evan’s first year when we attended family day. They get to pick 3 “skills” to participate in throughout the week. Evan’s skills were fast food, wacky science, and flag football.

Pressley chose fast food, cheerleading, and gymnastics.

They had a blast.

Also in July, the “baby” of my Berry girls group turned 40. We’ve had a really good time over the last couple of years celebrating as each of us turned 40. We had a blast celebrating Jolynn with a girls’ night at the lake followed by a family day. It was so good to see all of our kids playing together and enjoying each other!

We also spent some time in July checking off some of our summer “bucket list” item. We went to Six Flags with friends (more than once):

We went to Stone Mountain with the cousins:

And we made the trek up to Cartersville to the TELLUS museum. Evan had been asking to go there all summer. P was not as excited about the prospect, but she thoroughly enjoyed it once we were there (though I will admit she did not enjoy the planetarium show as much as E and I did…)

Finally, we kicked off the first couple of weekends in August with having more friends out to the lake. First up were some of Corin’s law school friends. It was a smaller group and it was so nice and laid back.

Then, the weekend after school started, we had some friends from the neighborhood come out. We had 16 kids and 10 adults. It was a super fun day. So much fun in fact that I forgot to take very many pictures. I did get a few – and a friend sent me a couple more.

So, that’s it. That was our summer! It was a great one. I hope that the rain will relent and the temps will warm up so we can have a bit more warm weather fun even though we are full-on in the throes of school.

School days

I cannot believe my kids have just started 2nd and 4th grades. We have finished our first week and we’re rockin’ right along. We like our teachers, I’ve been getting lunches made the night before, which makes me considerably less grouchy in the mornings, and we have no tardies yet.

Here are some pictures from their first day – looking decidedly retro in a faux hawk and a side ponytail:

And, here’s a little trip down memory lane. Because you know how much I love a trip down memory lane…
Kindergarten:

Pre-K and 1st:

Kindergarten and 2nd:

1st and 3rd:

Summer rewind: June Edition

So, you may have noticed I took the summer off. I didn’t mean to, but here we are on the eve of a new school year and I realize that my last post was Memorial Day. Yikes. We have kept ourselves extremely busy this summer. When we got home from New Orleans and Orange Beach, I took on another brief-writing project, so June was a blur.

The kids were on the swim team again this summer, so that took up most of our mornings and Tuesday nights. However, because I was a bullpen coordinator and worked my fanny off during every meet, the only pictures I have are ones my dad took when he and mom came to a meet. And one P took of the cake at the end of season party:

The kids went to the yellow river game ranch, sky zone, white water and six flags with a babysitter while I worked.

We had a fantastically fun weekend when my childhood friends and thier families came out to the lake. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am so blessed to have been doing life with some of the same wonderful people for 20, 30, and even (gulp) 40 years now!

At the end of June, we headed off with the fam to the Bahamas via Carnival Cruise. It was a great trip. We capped it off with three days at Fernandina Beach after the ship docked. Fun family memories!

On the ship:

Half Moon Cay stingray experience:

Atlantis:

Fort Clinch:

The town of Fernandina Beach:

Beach time:

The month of July and first week of August were full of hanging out with friends closer to home and making sure we checked off all of our summer bucket list items. More on that next time….(though there may be an intervening post about the first day of school since that is happening in less than 12 hours. Yikes!!)

Let the summer fun begin

Because we had a very different spring break this year, we decided to take off on a little road trip as soon as school got out. Last Wednesday was the last day of school, and we set out Thursday morning for New Orleans. I had never been to NOLA before, so we tried to cram as much as we could into just under 48 hours.

This was the view from our hotel room: We ate dinner the night we arrived at the Palace Cafe. It was delicious.
And we ordered bananas foster for dessert.

After dinner we headed to Jackson Square where P got a harp lesson from a street performer.

The next day, we headed uptown to Camelia Grille for breakfast. Then, after taking a short drive through the 9th Ward in an attempt to educate the kids about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, we headed to Mother’s for po boys and then the Audobon Zoo. The kids loved the zoo. We saw some different animals than we have at the Atlanta Zoo.
We also learned about hawks and owls.

(I’m sad to report the hawk appears to have knocked Misty’s earring out during the beginning of the show, and to the extent she was ever a happy, willing sidekick, the loss of the earring brought that all to a grinding halt. Seems she could have at least smiled for my picture… P.S. I know that is an owl in the picture. The hawk who knocked out the earring was not available for pictures…)And then the kids enjoyed the splash park aka Cool Zoo.
After the zoo, we quickly showered off the ick of the day and went to Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse for dinner. It came highly recommended and did not disappoint.
I’m also happy to report that, despite being worn slap out, our children were delightfully well-behaved at what may have been the fanciest restaurant they’ve ever been to.

The next morning we got up and took a streetcar to Cafe Dumond for beignets to celebrate Evan’s birthday. We were ever so grateful we got there at 8 because we walked right in and sat down at a table whereas when we left, the line for a table was two blocks long.

On our way out of town, we rode the ferry across the Mississippi and stopped at a Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 to show the kids what cemeteries are like in a city below sea level. They enjoyed hunting for the oldest (1830) and newest (2/2013) graves they could find.

Our next stop was Orange Beach, Alabama, where apparently it is well-accepted that you must wait two hours for a table for the privilege of eating fried seafood. We found a place to eat the first night, which turned out to be pretty darn good sushi for only a 30 minute wait – and we managed to get back to the condo in time to let Evan open his birthday gifts and eat a cupcake. The second night, we went out and sucked it up and waited an hour and a half at a restaurant on the water because the view was nice, we had drinks in hand, and there was a place for the kids to play. Aside from the restaurant situation, our time at the beach was fabulous.

Opening birthday gifts:

Fun in the sand:
Fun at the pool:
Waiting for a table at Tacky Jacks:More sand fun:
The last night, Corin and the kids went out after dinner with a flashlight and a net to catch critters. They returned to the condo with these guys in buckets. Thankfully, once I’d sufficiently documented their catch, they took the poor guys back to the beach and released them.

Excerpts from her writing journal

My favorite part of my day so far has been reading Pressley’s writing journal. She has quite a way of expressing herself that I think is so cute. This is from the very beginning of the school year:
(By the way, I love her teacher’s comments too!)

Ugh. It starts early!

That 4th one would be spinach. And she has something against seafood…

Translation: “the weather was so cool that I felt free.”

Because we all know how much homework a first grader has to do…

That “tounatou” was Hurricane Sandy, but whatever.

It’s always hard to know whether you’ve won a game.

From our little tree hugger/ animal lover.

Awww. Sweet Bunny.

Those super bull parties can be pretty wild.

She loves her daddy!

I love that she’s so impressed with herself that she had to stop and point out her big word!

And, this one might just be my favorite:

Tee hee!!

So sweet!

My Sweet Lil’ P is Seven!

Seven years ago today, I arrived at Piedmont Hospital at an ungodly hour to give birth to the pink little bundle that would complete our family.

I didn’t think I could love her any more than I did the moment I met her…

But with each passing year,

I fall in love with her more and more.

She is smart and funny,

sweet and cuddly,

witty and hilarious,

girly and sporty,

and the apple of my eye!

Happy 7th, sweetie! We love you more than you know.

More catching up…

So, I think I mentioned that we went to Disney in January. We went with our friends, the Manns. My kids love them some Mann boys, and Chad and Jennifer are some of our closest friends, so we were really looking forward to it. Plus, the crowd calendars said January is an excellent time to go to the park. So, score… right? Well, the crowd calendars could not have been more wrong. I guess we weren’t the only school system to have almost a full week off after New Years, so I guess everyone had the same idea. And I mean EVERYONE on the planet.

But, Jennifer is a Disney pro. They go there all the time, so our first morning, I thought she was going to be able to navigate us around all the crowds. We followed her – running – to Fantasyland and managed to ride something like 8-9 rides before any lines started forming. It was awesome. But that was where the magic ended. The rest of the trip was one long line and “sold out” fast pass after another. There were several rides we didn’t get to ride: Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom and Soarin’ at Epcot were among them. But, overall, it was a great trip.

We stayed at Port Orleans, and the first night the kids got to roast marshmallows before we set out for Downtown Disney via River Cruise from the hotel.

Here are some of the kids at Downtown Disney. After a failed attempt to get a “first come, first serve” bar table at the T-rex cafe, we gave up and went to a walk-up Irish Pub and then browsed through the Lego store.

Here are some highlights from the Magic Kingdom:

The next day was Hollywood Studios. That morning had us running to get the kids signed up for the Jedi Academy, and boy, was that ever worth it. What a cool experience. Once we got signed up for a time later in the day, we saw the Indiana Jones stunt show and had a fantastic meal at Mama Melrose. (I choose to forget the GIANT melt-down my precious angel baby girl had in line to see the Muppets in 3D. I’m sure there was a child elsewhere in the park having a bigger melt-down… Somewhere. Surely…)

Here they are doing the Jedi Academy. Each kid gets to fight with either Darth Vadar or some evil dude from the prequel movies. (See what a giant Star Wars geek I am? Ha!) Our kids ended up on stage and got to fight Darth Vadar. Evan even got to use the force to push back the Storm Troopers. He was the only kid that got to do that. Must’ve been because he showed such promise with a light saber.

It rained on us that evening, but we still managed to enjoy the light display after we finished eating pizza at Pizza Planet.

The next day was our Epcot day. It was not our best day. It was cold and rainy and I may have promised Chad Mann we would never speak of it again. I blame Mexico. For, if we hadn’t had margaritas during the middle of the day, it may have turned out differently. We thoroughly enjoyed the Crush show in the Nemo area. That is some cool technology. As I mentioned, we didn’t get to ride Soarin’, but due to some technical difficulties on the first time through on TestTrack, most of our party got to ride a second time.

Ahhh, Mexico….

Animal Kingdom was awesome.  We headed straight for the safari when we arrived and were able to get right on.  We stopped to grab fast passes on our way to DinoLand and then rode every ride in DinoLand where we rode Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl (twice).

We had a lovely lunch at Rainforest Cafe, got faces painted, rode Everest (twice), caught part of the parade… It was a lovely way to end the week.

The next morning, the Manns headed back to Atlanta early and the McCarthys headed to Downtown Disney for breakfast at Earl of Sandwich and to pick up some long-promised souveniers.

We made some great memories and can’t wait to go back again.  Disney World is rather addictive…

We Saw Rock City

I found this post sitting in my draft folder. Actually, it was just the pictures; but if you’ve ever loaded pictures into WordPress for a blog post, you know that’s not an effort you want to see wasted. So, here I am to write a little blurb to go with the pictures.

Corin’s parents were “back east” for Thanksgiving and Christmas and had planned to head back to Santa Fe for New Years. But they ended up staying a few extra weeks for a medical procedure, so we figured we should try to see them one more time before they headed out. For various reasons, we were unable to make it to Knoxville, so we met up in Chattanooga on the day they were headed west.

We had planned to have brunch downtown on the river, but one place was closed and another had an hour and a half wait, so we ended up having brunch in a funky little neighborhood at the foot of Lookout Mountain. So, after the McCarthy’s had headed off on their journey, we headed up the mountain for a little sight-seeing. It was super cold, but the scenery was delightful.

Here are the kids on some cannons just before we were told they couldn’t climb on them. Ooops!

Here they are on the monument.

And here are all three of my people looking out over the city. I promise that wasn’t as dangerous as it looks.

Then we decided to See Rock City. It was actually wonderful, kitchsy fun.

It was a great family day!

A different kind of spring break and a funny girl

I just said goodbye to my peeps.  They are going to the Smoky Mountains to go camping for a last hurrah for Spring Break.  I am staying behind because one of Corin’s friends hired me a few weeks back to write a motion for summary judgment, and when I took the assignment, I didn’t realize that it would mean working through the kids’ entire Spring Break.  It wouldn’t have changed my decision.  I still would have taken the project because it is nice to make some money while I’m searching for a more permanent job.  But, still…

So, this is the first year since Evan started Pre-K that the kids and I haven’t taken some kind of trip.  Corin has reminded me numerous times that he rarely gets to go on Spring Break.  But, it has been kind of sad for me because I’ve been shipping the kids off each day so I can get some work done.  So far, they have been to Six Flags and the lake with Corin, the Botanical Gardens and Piedmont Park with my parents, SkyZone trampoline park with a neighbor’s nanny, and to my parents’ house.  And, now they are off the mountains for a fun adventure.

I am grateful to have quiet time to concentrate on work, but sad to see them go. (Not that I’m all that sad to miss camping.  I’m not really a camping enthusiast, but I love my family.)  Anyhow,  when the kids got home from my parents’ house today and were waiting for Corin to get home to take them camping, I was lamenting how much I’m going to miss them while they’re gone.  That’s when Pressley said, “Well, at least while we’re gone, you can eat all kinds of stuff you’re not supposed to have!”  I chuckled and asked, “Why would I do that?  Is that what you would do if you were here all alone all weekend?”  With a sly smile, she answered, “Yep!”  Funny girl.

(I don’t even want to think about what that says about what I’ve been inadvertently teaching them about their relationship with food.  I’d rather just laugh now and deal with that later.)

I better get to work – or get to sneaking naughty snacks . . . one or the other!