Photo Friday {Mandy & Jesse}

Wedding bells are about to ring for Mandy and Jesse.

I volunteered to take their engagement pictures because they are trying to stick to a budget.

It's a strange thing.  Taking pictures of people who do exactly what you tell them to do, who hold still, and who have a never-ending amount of patience.  I'm so used to taking pictures of my kids.  This was a whole new world.

(this is where they always sit in church)

You know you have a quality couple when they want most of their pictures to be taken at church.

I'm still getting to know Jesse (and think he's wonderful), but I've thought Mandy was an old soul since I met her in her very early 20's.  

Whenever there's a way to serve, she's the first to volunteer.

She doesn't need to be noticed.  She's hard working.  I especially like her because she's a nurse and we can talk about dressing changes and catheters over dinner and it doesn't bother either of us.  

I could go on and on.

But suffice it to say, Jesse found himself a good woman.

Inside and out [Isn't she gorgeous?].

These were taken at the spot where he first told her that he loved her.

Lots of giggles reliving the moment.

Congrats guys!

Randomness

The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

Matthew 6:22

I fully realize I'm taking that verse out of context, but it kept going through my mind yesterday when my eye really hurt.  I think I scratched it and it needed a day to be irritated.

Today it's much better.

Random, I know.

Spring has sprung, and the boys are bringing me flowers when they come in from outside.

It's one of those joys of motherhood that has been going on for centuries.

Bringing your mother weeds that look like flowers.

Love these guys!

I'm back with a blast from the past.

It's been awhile.  My family was just in town.  Highlights of all that later.  But suffice it to say adding 6 people to our 3 bedroom house made for non-stop chaos fun around here.

On to other things ...
Let's start off with this glorious photo.

I have vivid memories of feeling pretty on this particular night.

Wow.  I'm not sure what to call that shade of blue.

Chris likes to make fun of me and my college years.  While he went to super cool sorority and fraternity parties, I was touring the country with the Women's Concert Choir at the Moody Bible Institute.  We definitely would not have clicked had we met during those years.

Especially since I had such large, thick eyebrows.

Notice the scrunchy on top of my head.  Remember those.  I had them in so many cool colors.

Erin, Brooke, Katherine ... remember talking like this for hours on the bus?

Why am I showing you these pictures?

Last week, the Moody Men's Collegiate Choir was in town for their spring tour.  I couldn't miss the opportunity to expose the boys to some Moody culture.  The men sang wonderfully.  I got to stand up in the middle of the concert as a Moody alumni (the boys thought that was really cool).  The MMCC guys were so genuine and sweet to the boys after the concert.  We bought their CD and the boys have listened to it as they fall asleep every night since.  Home school.  They don't even know that's not normal.  They talk about the songs like they're top 40 hits.

I asked the driver on our way into the concert if we could go inside the bus.  I knew the boys would like it.  Wouldn't it be fun if they ended up in a Moody choir one day?  [No choir jokes, Chris]  I would be proud if they did.

My floor.

A day's worth of grime on my floor.

Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,

but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

Proverbs 14:4

Some days I wish my oxen would keep the manger a little tidier.

But until then...

they're

fun

to

have

around.

I am blessed.

School Room

This is how my morning and afternoons usually look.  In this particular momemt, they're doing fun stuff.  Normally the table is covered with books and papers, but same idea.  I always enjoy seeing how other home schoolers organize.  Some school in the kitchen.  Some school on the sofa.  Some school in a school room.  Some school outside or during nature walks.  This is where we do it.

(this was taken with my phone, thus the blurriness)

One of the things I've done throughout the years is kept most of my school furniture white.  I've acquired all this stuff at various times, but when you put it all together, it only looks slightly haphazard.

This is taken from the living room.  We are in a rental, so currently, our school is in the entry way.  There's this big open space as you walk in the front door.  Space is limited in our house, so we used it right up and put our school there.  I like it.  It's near the kitchen.  There's lots of natural light.  It works well for us.  This shelf you see is mostly filled with games (as you can see) and puzzles.  Whenever the kids complain about not having anything to do, I point them there.  These shelves are from Ikea.

This is from the inside.  The top shelf is filled with resources we use often, but not daily.  On the right are my photo albums and baby books.  There's really nowhere else to put them in the house, and I didn't want them in the garage.  So there they are.

I opted for the stainless table and have been great with it.  It scratches but doesn't stain like a white surface.

I label the baskets with what exactly should go in them so the kids can put them away themselves.

Plus, labels make me happy.

Can you tell?

This is where I put the kids papers when they're done.  It gives me a place to file them before I put them in their notebooks.

They each have one.  They don't take me too long to make.  Just scrapbook paper, stickers and collages I made on shutterfly.

I do these because we home schoolers don't have the benefit of school pictures.

It keeps me accountable to make sure I have a good individual shot of them per year.  It sounds easy enough, but so many of my pictures end up being in groups.  Or random when their hair or clothes are sloppy.

The back always has a pic of them with their brothers in that same year.

Books.

More books.  And a much needed printer/scanner/copier.  And a good pencil sharpener.  You NEED a good pencil sharpener.

This is my school cart.  It's where I keep everything I use on a daily basis.  I pull it up to where I sit at the table so I don't have to get up and down during school.  Heaven forbid, I exert myself.  The only reason I get up is to reheat my coffee.  I bought it when I started Graham in kindergarten and it's still in great shape.  The drawers are wide and perfect for textbooks.  An Ikea find as well.

And every school room needs pretty pencils in a pretty cup.

The End.

Guns, snakes, & golf

Last weekend, while I was organizing, Chris and the three oldest went on a father/son weekend in West Texas.

West Texas has a distinct landscape.

Such cute boys in their hats.

A sweet father/son pair.

The boys were given riflery lessons.  His first time shooting.

My little men.

He eats this stuff up.

If I had to guess, he was a little scared.

Dads hanging out.

The landscape.  A little prickly.  Did I mention that Sweetwater is the rattlesnake capital of the world?  For real.

And my boys arrived a little late, when all the beds in the house were taken.  Guess where they got to sleep?  Guess who didn't sleep?  (that would be Chris).

They loved riding down the hills in these wagons.

What's not to love?  (Side note:  Graham hit our van with one of these.  The last father/son trip, Chris's phone, keys and wallet were lost at the bottom of a river.  These trips are becoming very expensive).

Standing behind the orange line while others are shooting.  Good idea, dads.

This picture looks very Texas.  The truck, man in cowboy hat, the gun, the brown, brushy stuff.

This stuff is Graham's element.  This smile makes my mother heart glad.

And to top off the boy weekend, they stopped at the Rattlesnake Roundup.  It's a famous event in Sweetwater, Texas.  Chris said it was PACKED!

Who wouldn't want to be in place with rattlesnakes everywhere?

He looks like a man who loves snakes.

From that to playing golf with Papa.  Quite the transition.  They clean up well, don't they?