On the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday...

I don't really FEEL 39 and I guess you're only as old as you feel right? I had a fantastic low key birthday today. Never been one to make a fuss over birthdays and so my mama coming over to help clean my screened porch today was the perfect gift.  I LOVE my back porch but it'd never really recovered from the ice storm mess with tools and gloves and all sorts of leftover junk that mysteriously appears when a house has to run on a generator. Ugh. Flashback. Not happy. Breaking out in hives. Wait it was 91 here today. I for one could not be happier about it. I will not complain about the shake and bake this summer. Bring it. 

May was very busy leading up to the end of the school year. The girls racked up...

The barn burned down.. 

Well sort of... the equipment under the hay shed burned. Luckily the barn is metal and is still standing..

Addie got new Legos for earning all As on her report card. 

Ali did great in her spring dance recital..

Since school's been out we've had some fabulously lazy pool days...

Some goat chasing...

and a great camping weekend with friends and family...

And I just have to say this... a couple weeks ago I had a friend on facebook make the comment "I hope one day to be as good as you."  Ummm I'm not sure what she was referring to.. Like as good as me as a mother? Please. My kids eat popsicles for breakfast and I sent my youngest off to her grandmother's without her toothbrush this week. Like as good as me as a housekeeper? Ummm have I not mentioned I had a goat running loose in my house recently? Look- I might look like I have it together, but if it's all together, it's just by zebra print duct tape. I've got just as much fool going on around here as anyone. Right now I have dishes in my sink that may or may not get loaded into the dishwasher tonight. I'm past the point in my life where I worry about such minutia. God bless you if you do. I just don't. Maybe it looks like I have it all together from the outside looking in. I don't. But I AM happy. Happy as I've ever been in my life. Maybe that's why life looks so good even when you're enjoying brunch by the pool and a baby goat is laying on your feet. Maybe that's why everything still seems wonderful despite the fact that I spent this evening scraping macaroni off the ceiling because one of my daughters thought this an appropriate way to test whether the pasta was "al dente".  It's about perspective I guess. When life is good on the inside, it looks beautiful on the outside, even if it's not perfect. 

I saw this quote on Pinterest yesterday while looking for some porch ideas. Love it. I wish I had a canvas of it to hang on my porch! Aren't we awful about glorifying busy? As if busy is better than sitting under the ceiling fan reading a book on the porch? When it gets down to it, I don't like busy. I like slow, wake up when I want to, nothing to do but be home kinda days. I like home.

 And finally, thanks to some great friends who've made this week wonderful. Besides creeping ever so close to 40, I've had a lot going on this week with some personal decisions that had to be made and even though the issues resolved themselves quite nicely, I'm thankful for this experience because some true friends have really shown up this week. Y'all know who you are.

Indeed.

Savannah, Social, and Smiles

You all know small children make me nervous right? Give me a bunch of high school knuckle heads any day. Third graders? Mercy. I had to suck it up though when Addie begged me to go on a field trip to Savannah and Tybee Island with her class. I mustered up the courage, asked for prayer, and loaded the bus! Thank goodness her teachers are great organizers and her classmates are just precious. Not one problem. Here they are acting silly on the beach. Apparently this is a Savannah trip tradition!

Addie and her classmates were able to sift through the tidepools and find all sorts of funky ocean critters..

Here's a picture of Addie and her friend Lillie just after arriving on River Street.

Addie and her friend Noah Kate had a big time at Old Fort Jackson.

The "corporal" in charge of our tour was fabulous! He had the entire "regiment" walking the line. The kids learned so much!

More Tybee tide pool exploring...

We were up and at school by 6am and didn't get home until almost 10pm, but it was worth it. Addie and I had a blast. She really is blessed with great teachers and such a great group of friends.

And then there was Saturday... and NO. I was not watching the Derby. I LOVE the Kentucky Derby.. but no.. not today. 

Ali Grace's Spring Social in Augusta. Lawd mercy I wasn't sure I was going to make it. We had to get up early to be at grand march practice by 10am. Not an easy task when you live in the sticks. We made it though and then had to run all over Augusta getting all sorts of things.. You see one does not simply "run into town" to get a blinged out hair clip, a pair of dancing heels, a gorgeous necklace and earring set, or a Caesar panini for lunch for that matter.. nope not in the bird dog capitol of the world!  We are an hour out of Augusta so there was no way we could get back home and get hair done and then back to the arena by 5. So, in rides the cavalry. I'm telling y'all I have the best family in the world. My sister in law, Jessica agreed to do Ali's hair and so we used her house in Harlem as a staging ground!  We got Ali all jazzed up and then Nanny and Poppy drove up and met us. Jessica went with us to the formal while poor Uncle David was stuck with Addie, Emma and Sarah! He was a champ though and I don't know if I could have done it without them.

This is Ali and Christopher during the grand march. Ali is in purple. 

Although it was stress to the max, I wouldn't take a million bucks for it. Ali Grace had a ball and her dance partner was fabulous! They did a waltz, then a fox trot, and many more. I was thoroughly impressed and I'm so thankful she was afforded this experience. 

These two have grown up so much since their very first Social class back in late summer last year.

We finally got home around 11:00 last night. Pete came home from the Georgia FFA Convention last night too. Hey did I mention I conquered this weekend with my husband out of town?? Yep. I rocked it.

Since David and Jess were coming down to bring Addie home anyhow, we decided to fire up the smoker and break in the swimming pool. Luckily it FINALLY started to hit 90 degrees today!

Emma, Sarah, Addie and Ali all had a great day playing together in the pool. Today was just what I needed to recover from the past two days of INSANITY!  Fourteen and a half days until Summer Break! I think I can I think I can! 

Where the Screen Door Slams

The kids had a good week back at school considering this week followed spring break. Even though it's unseasonably cold, we've planted flowers on the porch, cleaned out the cobwebs and I've really enjoyed sprucing everything up. We're looking forward to summer. I love summer break. There are few benefits to being a teacher these days, but one of the few remaining is summer break. When I saw this picture posted a few days ago, I instantly thought about what a slamming screened door sounded like. I must have heard that sound ten thousand times growing up and now ten thousand more times since having my own children. Addie in particular, will get out of bed in the morning and head outside without telling a soul she's even awake yet. The slamming screen door is official notification! Praise the Lord she's able to do that here. 

We are counting down the days.. 

Literally...

Check out my new hummingbird feeder...

And the new blooms on my orchid...

My foxglove is blooming!

Our power went out during last night's downpour. Came back on around 2am I think. Nights like that make me have fleeting thoughts of city living.But, then that Great Horned Owl will perch high in a tree in the backyard and I could sit on the porch and listen to him "hooHOO, hooHOO" all evening. The older I get, the more I appreciate things like that. Maybe in my younger years I was just too busy to notice. Life, even at its best, can be stressful. What a blessing it is to come home to the country every day where a screen door slams behind me.  When we decided to leave Effingham and move here close to grandparents, the decision was easy but actually doing it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I was leaving wonderful friends, a great job, and headed for something totally unfamiliar. We took a leap of faith. There's no other way to say it. My heart still kinda hurts when I think about it. When we came here, my daddy said there was 6 acres across the dirt road he'd let me build on but he had no idea whether it'd be fit for anything.  The woods were thick. There wasn't even a path through them. Once we hacked around with a machete, and got a good look, I knew it would be beautiful. Beautiful it is...

But we carved this place out of the bush... quite literally. AND the bush is constantly trying to reclaim it. Briers grow every day. Sweet gum saplings appear overnight. Poke salat grows out by the chicken coop by the hour. It really is a constant battle to beat back the bush. However, right now in the middle of a cold snap in the middle of spring, I am thankful for this place. Thankful for new friends who haven't replaced the old but brought something totally different to me in a different stage in my life. I'm thankful for my husband who can fix anything and that even though he says repairing the tile in my kitchen is "the eighth circle of hell", he loves country living too. I'm most thankful that we enlarged the screened porch on this house and that we put a wooden screened door on it. What a blessing that the spring is broken and it slams loud enough to hear it all over the house. I won't be asking Pete to repair it. It's all about perspective I guess. 

Easter is a perfect time to reflect on perspective. 

Happy Easter everyone! 

Sleeping with the Ag Teacher

This past winter was the worst winter ever. At least the worst one I can remember. We missed a lot of school, went without power for almost a full week, and the last throes of winter are still trying to hang on with a death grip. Yesterday I wore a skirt and a cute pair of sandals in utter defiance. I wore white before Easter. I bought the girls new swimsuits even though we haven't opened the pool yet. I've done everything I know to do and the temps just won't stay in the 80's! I really ought to check my GPS coordinates to make sure I haven't been relocated to Minnesota. Yesterday was sunny but chilly. Pete and I went to the hardware store and bought some gorgeous geraniums and he brought me some ferns from the greenhouse. There are a FEW advantages to sleeping with the ag teacher. Those FFA kids know how to grow a fern. They are just gorgeous. So after shaving the scab off of a mosquito bite this morning, I officially declare spring here- 80 degrees or not.

We've had a few spurts of really warm weather over the last month and we took advantage of it when we could.. The girls enjoyed ambling about on Peaches all over the farm.

We put up a few jars of strawberries...

Addie's friend, Lillie, came to the farm for a visit..

David, Jess, Emma and Sarah came over for supper and s'mores...

I tagged along with The Teacher of the Gifted for a few days at Jekyll Island with some really awesome students..

It took a good soaking bath to scrub the island off of Addie. (notice the Pepsi can).. 

This spring break week our beach plans kinda blew up in our face, but a little time at home is nice too. I need some time to recharge before the crazy two weeks of testing starts at school. The girls have enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in.. Today we're going over to The Big House to help open the pool. I'm just wondering when it'll ever be warm enough to swim.