Peace Through Pictures

When I was uploading these pictures I was listening to Pandora (rend collective station) and there was a gentle stream of contemporary praise songs playing in the background.  I was overwhelmed by the goodness of God and the goodness of our life - the many people and experiences by which we are blessed.  Even if we remember it only in pictures as Joy in the mundane feels hard to come by....thank you Lord.  I pray you can find similar life bringing pictures for your past few weeks.  

Something about music playing while looking at pictures....it may be female in me....but I often tear up.  Thank you Lord for glimpses of your nature through beauty and the love of others.

Take A Picture With A Hay Scarecrow For Me!

I miss you Steppe Orchard!  But it is starting to cool down here as well.  We don't have colored leaves yet, but they will come.  We caved this week and made our first batch of pumpkin bread, and got some tissue paper to substitute for those colored leaves in our craft projects!  We are also headed to Atlanta this weekend to visit good friends from NC, and go to a Braves game.  They have promised to bring me a bag of my favorite NC apples!  Next year we'll have to make a trip up there during picking season!

Wanted to report that Sam is doing well.  It took Mama much longer to adjust than it did Sam!  He has been a trooper and I haven't heard him complain yet.  He is still doing school, with his chin, mouth, and left hand.  He is still playing and two days ago, much to his mother's dismay, he even made it down a fireman's pole with one arm.  When I asked him what would happen if he fell, he assured me he would hold on with his feet.  Oh to be a little boy!

So much to tell!

Sorry for the lack of posts guys!  I will blame that on homeschooling and keeping my house going.  But we are doing well!  We had people over for dinner every night this weekend and Steven turned in his first paper.  And most days I really like schooling them.  So we're headed in the right direction.

We have added several notches to our Birmingham belt, which include going to the last Barron's game, running the bases, , starting soccer, and a visit to the Children's Hospital ER.  Sam fell from the top of the monkey bars during Steven's practice.  I suppose soccer season may be a bust for this little guy!  He was a trooper though.  He is on his way home from the ER right now with Daddy.  I think tomorrow will be a movie and ice cream day for sure!

He choose this outfit for church.  I feel like he should be "mucking" in a wetland for LL Bean.  At least the rain boots match his shirt.

At the game, the players threw them all a ball!

Learning from Poppy

Does Eliza look like she is melting?  Because we were.  Our car said 100 when we got in after the game.....I do believe it was wrong....but seriously?!  100!

They had great General admission tickets!

We had to cool off with some ice cream in a ball cap!

Don't worry, we hadn't washed this yet......

Then we all rounded the bases!  Well....they all did.  Steven is about to touch third.

Way to go Sam! 

Eliza even did it!  I was actually kind of surprised!  She was a super star!

Loved this one.

Life here is good.  We are settling, making new friends and if any of you know me.... you know we're never too short of things to do.  Hope you are doing well too!

I'll let you know how homeschooling a kindergartner with a cast half way up his bicep goes (which will not start tomorrow)!

Sweet Home....

We have ventured out into our city and found great things.  This morning we had a field trip to the zoo.  It's a great zoo!  They had all the major animals, and the exhibits were easy to see.  I must admit, that our field trip was prompted by mom getting over a fever and not having the patience to work through all our subjects this morning.  We are also eagerly awaiting my parents arrival and it kept us occupied.  We were pleased to find lots of circles in which to stick our heads.

 Their primate exhibit was awesome.  There were so many different monkeys, lemurs etc., including a gorilla with a pacemaker!

They also had this a lorikeet exhibit where you could walk into their habitat.  Steven and I both got to let one rest on us!

This animal rode in the stroller the whole time.

If you paid $3, you could feed the giraffe lettuce, but we didn't do this.

 We also have made some friends through church and our home school group.  We have been to 2 birthday parties!  This one reminded me of a similar party we attended when I was pregnant with Sam....we had just gotten back from NYC and were working back into our new lives.  Our good friends invited us to their son's 4 year old party.  I had to take pictures imagining that 3 years from now I would remember this party that way.

Drive fast Nanna and Poppy!

We have also found amazing libraries (overwhelming they are so huge) that will be a great resource for us as we school, and a 4 level Science Center!  We haven't ventured out the Botanical Gardens yet, but I am sure we will!