emerald lane

Three years ago today, Seanie was born.  Years from now I hope I remember what he was like at three; the fun, energetic personality that just pours out of his little body.  For instance, tonight at dinner, he ran around the table with only a shirt, his new “Diego” hat, and his “school” backpack yelling, “SUPER SEANIE!”  We all watched in awe at how much fun he was having.

We love you Seanie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I dub thee “The Day of Craft”.  The boys are boating the babe is napping and I am off to my sewing room to sew until my heart is content.  Happy weekend to all and I hope to have some craftiness to share during the coming week.  Since this blog is supposed to have a little craft in it as well as all the cute baby/family stuff too!

We are still trying to stay cool these days.  The children are enjoying the pool, the library and the air conditioning.  Ian is diving down to the bottom of the pool and swimming like a fish on his own, Sean is “practicing” as he calls it, without swimmies and Erin loves for Mommy to take her in the pool to cool off.  We usually make it to the library once a week for a bag full of books.  Which, usually gets me a couple of stares and a few, “you have your hands full”, as they see me with three children under the age of 5; carrying one, lugging a huge bag of books to the checkout, and quietly yelling to one, “stop climbing up the counter” and telling the other, “stop hanging on my arm or I will tip over.”  I just smile and try to gracefully get through the checkout process and to the car without losing, dropping or tripping on a child.  On to the air conditioning part of our summer.  Yes, we spend these hot days reading those books that we check out inside away from the heat our Florida summer.  I just need to remember how nice it is in the Spring and Winter!

Remember last weeks meltdown?  Well, I was inspired over the weeked at a local conference for Homeschoolers.  This was a two day conference with seminars and a large set-up of vendors dedicated to serving homeschooling families.  We have not attended a conference before this one for obvious reasons, Ian still has another year until he officially starts Kindergarden and the idea just scared me.  We both enjoyed it, especially the seminars.  Two of the speakers were especially encouraging, Todd Wilson of Familyman Ministries and Valerie Bendt, who has written books on unit studies, early reading and preschool activities.  Our family really helped us out by watching the boys for the weekend, we were able to stay one night and we even had a nice dinner out here, because one of my sister’s watched the baby for us.  Thanks Sister!  We came out of the weekend refreshed, renewed and encouraged for a new season.

This new season includes a new business venture, which is to start a Computer Troubleshooter franchise in Clay county. Here is a web-site to the company: http://www.comptroub.com. Owning a franchise means having your own business, while running it with the support of the franchisor. Some of the benefits to going about it this way are having a proven system, the support of a national network, and receiving the business and marketing training that Jay would lack if he just went out on his own. 

As the name implies, the core of the business is computer and network setup and maintenance work, targeted to both the residential and business markets. The work will almost certainly include web-site development and other general software consulting tasks as well — really any need that a business may have regarding technology.

Most of you know that Jay has wanted his own business for some time, since we lived in South Florida, which was 4 years ago.  We have been waiting and trying to be patient for the right business plan to come along.  I will be on my own in the house again, since Jay will set up shop in an office off his Dad’s medical office.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we transition and move forward!

This is what happens when your big brother is into pirates and has some free time on his hands.  Ian and I could not stop laughing once we put the beard on on the babe.  Doesn’t she make a cute pirate?

She is pretty much mobile these days. Not full on crawling, but she can get where she wants to go by pulling up on her hands and knees and plopping herself forward.  I keep telling the boys they better pick up their stuff!  This morning she was after their snack, so I had to feed her a banana, then it was on to the grog!

I am feeling much better after my bad day last week.  I got some much needed rest and relief over the weekend; tried not to over do it and I think that helped my mental spirit.  Thanks to those who gave me the encouragement I needed!

Today was one of those days that I just wish I could re-do.  I had a few meltdowns, the kind that my two-year old usually throws.  I know it comes from doing too much and being tired and just having high expectations of myself and my children.  I just wonder why I have to go through it?  Why can’t I learn to act like a grown up when I’m stressed or too tired to deal?  I’m sure there is some growing going on inside and later, maybe next week or even a year from now I’ll look back and realize how silly I was and laugh at myself.  But for now the wounds are too fresh and real and I just need to heal some and share.

The house is quiet now, it’s late and the boys are watching a movie.  It’s my night to put the boys to bed, so I took the easy route and put in a movie.  I’ve been browsing some blogs and came across this post about 10 Things.  Things that we are grateful for or happy about.  I started thinking about my day and if there was anything about it that I’m thankful or grateful for?

Here it goes:

• A home that I can rearrange whenever I want.
• A husband that loves to play Legos as much or more than the boys.
• A baby that smiles at me when I look at her.
• Friends that are honest.
• NY style pizza takeout.
• Naptime for me and the babes.
• Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast.
• Friends that are positive.
• A call from a sister just when I needed it.
• Quiet time at night to write out some thoughts.

Drivers are you ready?

Start your engines!

GO!

In the words of a 4-1/2 year old, “This is the coolest toy car EVER!”  I sure would love to capture that kind of enthusiasm and bottle it up to remind him how excited he was about a paper car on ‘Push-Up Pop” wheels that was powered by a pink balloon!

This car was our after dinner activity, once we ate 4 “Push-Up Pops”, which the boys and the babe did not mind doing I might add.  The idea came from The University of Florida’s Engineering Department.  They send all Engineering alumi a publication called The Florida Engineer and this one had a bonus activity book.  It included this cool car and other activities for engineers to have fun with their children like cook hot dogs with aluminum foil, a cardboard box, a metal rod and graph paper, also known as a Parabolic Oven.  You might see one on this blog someday!  But, I’ll asure you it won’t be done by me; too much math involved!