May 2023 (the First Half!) in Review

Wells Fargo PGA Championship 

Last week, Thomas and Joseph had the very special experience of attending the Wells Fargo PGA championship at Quail Hollow. First Tee, where Thomas takes golf lessons, took all their students (plus a parent) on a big, fancy bus to the tournament to meet a few pros and watch the happenings--and for free!

Our Sweet Dogs

The doggos have a pretty good life.

A Housecleaning Redux

A new generation of siblings learning how to do cleaning chores with Mama! I've recently revamped things around here and all the kids on my cleaning schedule, each one having chores specific to the day.

• Thursdays: clean all the downstairs rooms (vacuuming, mopping, kitchen)
• Fridays: clean all the bathrooms, garage, and cars
• Saturdays: mowing, landscaping, outdoors
• Mondays: pick up and vacuum all the bedrooms

Backyard Fun

The boys have been spending a tremendous amount of time outdoors lately, surely because of this gorgeous weather. One of them remarked to me today, "I never noticed before how much fun out backyard is!"

Bilocation Failures

I have found it mighty hard to bilocate lately, so little elementary age homeschooling has been achieved for the last weeks. The boys have learned about independence, watering the garden, physical education (playing outdoors!), making their own snacks, and social interactions (playing with neighborhood boys in the cul-de-sac). This past week, I took Thomas to three specialist appointments on three separate days, and the prior week I took Thomas and two other siblings to doctors' appointments on three separate days, too. I can't teach if I'm not even home, and this particular month what little time I am home needs to go toward my oldest three who are finishing up so many big projects and studying for final exams for their homeschool courses. My "abandoning" the elementary kids makes me feel pretty terrible about myself. But, such is life: they're all my duties, I can't do them all simultaneously, so I just put one foot in front of the other. On the bright side, Thomas got some really good information from doctors this week! We have improved some areas of his health through diligent treatments over the last six months, and I breathe a big sigh of relief to know that we are able to help him instead of having heard that those problems were getting even worse.

End of Spring Golf

And that’s a wrap on Thomas’s first season with First Tee! We hope to resume in the fall and enroll more of our kids.

Many Snakes

The kids caught a great rat snake today. Made him famous with pictures and set him free again.

Coin Collection

Joseph being introduced to my grandfather’s international coin collection

The Pool is Open

And just like that, our pool is open for the season. I always want to open the pool with all the towels, toys, and life jackets organized—and perhaps a fun cookout. Instead the kids always open the pool unceremoniously insisting they go in one evening when the water is still too chilly.

May 2023 Honor Flight to DC

Yesterday was such a special and well-deserved day for my father-in-law when his two sons accompanied him on a military Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.!

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP3rSYxeogZqMlzV6sY4UZosTgZjqErR5Jna4VtcanQm6Nz_bxQAmdsfsr7kis8tA?pli=1&key=LVlUcFlZbnRZNnZQUFNXYkJYeGN0NGktaVZRVEtn

Ice Cream Truck--Likely Our Only One for the Summer!

We enjoyed visiting an ice cream truck at a nearby playground this afternoon—evidence of our schedule transforming into the slower summer routine. Let me tell you, I’ve cream trucks no longer sell their novelties for a quarter like when I grew up!

Baby Bunny

You never know what adventures await a mama each day. On Friday, Joseph found an injured baby bunny in the road (on the cement). When we could not find its nest—mama rabbits only check on them a couple times a day and nurse them for 5 minutes total each day—we called three wildlife rehab folks. Despite my kids very much wanting to raise the bunny, I ended up driving the cutie to a rehab place at night.

Laying Mulch

Even cute 5-year-old David was finding ways to help us spread pine nuggets today!

Homeschool Formal Prom

Last Friday, I was chaperone at the homeschoolers' high-school formal dance and it was so neat to witness these young people dressed in a beautiful, classy way, listening to decent music, dancing enthusiastically (real, called dances), and interacting with each other in a joy-filled, respectful manner. I am so grateful to the two mothers who organized and the woman who called the dance . . . all of whom were eight months pregnant!

Mother's Day 2023

What a lovely Mother’s Day! I was grateful to have Chris here to join us in between back-to-back weeklong trips. One daughter made our family a homemade cake and the other daughter made me a keto mousse, per my wishes. And the whole family gave me strings of solar-powered party lights to decorate my garden for evening enjoyment!