Summer Pictures

Just in case you are wondering if the kids are having fun this summer...they are. :)

Andrew loved sparklers on July 4.


Amanda turned into a mermaid at Fernbank.


And Scott found a leaf bigger than his head in the Fernbank Forest...an old growth forest in the middle of Atlanta.

Beach!

I


LOVE


THE


BEACH!!

And, you can see that this love runs in the family.



We just returned from a wonderful trip to St. Simons Island.

With beautiful weather.



And we shared the fun with cousins...Reese & Charlie



and Callie














Simply beautiful...


Ahhhh

Father's Day

We have a dilemma in our house on Father's Day...what do we eat? Derrick loves eating grilled food, but he is our grill expert. So, either he cooks his own dinner or we eat something less exciting for him.

But, this year we found the perfect solution - crock pot pork BBQ. YUM!! Derrick spent all day Saturday outside cleaning yard debris from recent storms and tending to his smoker. He smoked our pork for a couple of hours (in addition to some ribs and brats - dinner for later this week.) Then, we stuck in in our slow cooker for a few hours, shredded and put it in the fridge. All my dishes were washed before bed, so all we had to do on Sunday was reheat - a perfect meal!

And, we had plenty of time for homemade ice cream.


We hosted the family for lunch. As you can see, the kids had a great time playing together.

Recipes

Rec.i.pe

-noun

"A set of instructions for making or preparing something, especially a food dish."

Recipe is the buzz word for the boys this summer, but true to form, they both have different definitions of the word.

Scott really wants to help in the kitchen. He helps with many of our meals. He wants to know the recipe, read the recipe and correct me when I'm not exactly following the recipe.

We made pancakes on Saturday morning, using my trustworthy Better Homes and Gardens recipe. Except, I've made it so many times, I know in my head how to change the recipe to satisfy my tastebuds. The first change, of course, is to triple the recipe! I also substitute white wheat flour and cut back on the added sugar. Scott was confused about the flour substitution. He pointed out twice that the recipe called for all-purpose flour. Once we got over that hump, the rest was easy. After all 1c. X 3 = 3c. and 2T X 3 = 6T (after our lesson about the difference between a t and a T, we added the correct amounts of baking powder and oil). The math wasn't too hard.

When the batter was mixed, I sat down to enjoy a cup of coffee while Scott poured and flipped the pancakes. And the hilarious part was that he wouldn't allow Amanda to sample any before they were finished. Even I'm not so strict!

The pancakes were delicious.

Andrew has a different use for the word "recipe." He LOVES to style his hair. And he has great hair to style. It holds any style, even when just styled with water.

He told me the other day that he has "recipes" for his hair. Below is the "wave."

In Texas, he sported the "dinosaur tail" when we went to lunch for Derrick's Dad's birthday.

Also in his recipe book are the "T-Rex tail" and "Spine." His recipe book isn't complete and he tells me he plans to add more.

a finished project

"All good things must come to an end"

...so they say...and I'm so thankful this "good thing" has come to an end. Our bathroom is FINALLY finished!! Yeah!

Do you remember this post from last summer? June 22, 2010. Almost a full year ago.

Little did I ever imagine that it would take 11 months to complete. But, as they say, "life happens." And we had many soccer games, school events, holidays, traveling, sickness, and other house emergencies that "happened" to us this year to slow us down.

In the process, we learned many skills that we've already put to use in other areas of the house. We couldn't have done the project without the help of our good friends Mike and Cindy. They taught me how to tile...and then I tiled our laundry room in November.

They taught Derrick how to cut sheetrock and he was able to hang our beadboard by himself. The Internet taught us how to cut molding, as skill we have already used in building our laundry room shelves.

I'm not sure we'll ever tackle another big bathroom project, but we certainly have the confidence to do weekend projects around the house.

Next up is to reorganize our basement workshop (Derrick did get to buy some new tools for the project) and paint interior doors. Hopefully that won't take a full year, but we'll be fine if it does.

Books!

I think we may have a problem. We have books EVERYWHERE!!

We have them in the living room here...


...and here...


The boys have plenty in their room (yes, Amanda often pulls EVERY one off of the shelf. I caught her early this time.)

Amanda has her own stash under her changing table...

And we have plenty piled beside my bed. (Most of these belong somewhere else, but are left after bedtime reading. About once a week, I gather all the books and return them to the correct shelves.)

What is a family to do with all of these books? Why, read them, of course!! And that is my goal for this summer. I want to read every book in our house. I'm not sure how realistic that goal is, but we are going to try. I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Milestones

One of the things I love the most about working is the sense of accomplishment that comes with a job well done. Whether it is planning an event or completing a project, I love the tangible results that you can count on your fingers and record in an annual report.

But, those tangible results don't come as often with parenting. I sometimes look back at the end of the day and wonder how the day passed so quickly with so little accomplished. I know I vacuumed, but you can't tell since the Legos are scattered again. I thought I washed three loads of laundry, but the hamper has clothes in it already. Did I tell Amanda 100 times not to do flips off of the couch? If so, why is she flipping again?

The kids grow and change gradually. People who aren't around every day can see progress, but it sometimes slips past without my noticing it. One day, I'll wonder, "When did Amanda's hair get so long?" or "When did Scott start reading two syllable words?" There's not as much satisfaction in realizing something after the fact.

It can get frustrating and make for long days and weeks. But sometimes there is a breakthrough with one of the kids that makes it all worthwhile. This week, we had two!!

Our first moment of satisfaction was Andrew learning how to pump himself on the swing. We have been working on it for six months. I can't tell you how many times I coached him with "pull"..."push"..."pull"..."push". He just couldn't figure out the rhythm. Then, last Thursday, it finally clicked. As he said, "My brain just figured out what to do and told my body what to do!" He was a little shaky on Thursday, better on Friday and by Saturday he looked like an old pro.

The other big milestone was Amanda finally figured out how to go potty!!! I am most excited. Again, this is something we have been working on for six months, with no results. It was frustrating to everyone. (The boys especially wanted the promised "potty treat.") Then on Wednesday, Amanda suddenly "got it." Again, it was like something clicked in her brain. She loves using her new skill (which also makes me really happy.)