G

Austin loves his G.

From the mouth of Austin
G I wuv you.
G Daddy's Home!
G Monster!  Ahhhh.
G I ate all your apple juice!  I haggan your daas (ice cream).
I wanna spend the night with G not Lece.

Reasons to smile

These 2 make me smile everyday.

Sometimes it's just too much.

Yesterday was our first day of summer.  We started at 6 a.m. with breakfast, then the playground at 8:30a.m.  Back home for Khloe to nap and lunch.  Austin never napped.  I took everything except his bed out of his room so that he will see his bedroom is a place to rest, not play.

I don't understand Austin's personality.  It is completely different than mine.  He will fight tooth & nail, bossy, loud, constantly talking.  He has other good qualities too and I love him with my whole life.  He is hard to parent alone, though.  I pray for him everyday that he will use his strong qualities for good.  That he will love Jesus fiercely, know Jesus's love for him, and that I am not screwing him up.

I am parenting alone.

Then there's Khloe who I pray will be sweet and quiet like me.  I pray she will love Jesus fiercely and know the love Jesus has for her.

On top of that I am working on my resume to start looking for a job, and thinking about buying a house.  With that comes daycare, budgeting, making decisions about what's best for the three of us.

So my life is stressful.  Our life has changed, things are different, parenting 2 children under 4 is hard. But life goes on and I have to parent these kids and get a job and take care of this house and myself the best way I know how.

My Dottie loved Frank Sinatra so here's to Dottie and 'ole Blue Eyes:

"The Best Is Yet To Come"
Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum
You came along and everything's startin' to hum
Still, it's a real good bet, the best is yet to come

27 weeks

Whew!
I feel like baby girl is already big & there's 3ish more months to go. I have been working hard at home getting A ready for preschool (potty training) & big boy bed. He's done really well with both of those transitions! I have been cooking more - lots of crockpot meals & using our Brackin beef. We need to get things out of storage & sell some things to get rid of that unit. If we haven't used it in 2 yrs. we prob dont need it, right? Right. We have 3 generic brown wooden bookshelves for the taking if you know of anyone needing one or all 3.  Also a white refrigerator...

I decided to clean off our back porch this morning. I want it to be another play area for A & eating place for us. Pics are on fb & to come.

A finished up Mothers Morning Out last week & starts preschool August 21 which is also his birthday. Hoping he will thrive going 3 days a week.  We are practicing ABC's, 123's, colors, manners daily. He is covered in bug bites & has a scraped knee...very little boy looking these days. He plays loud, likes to throw & is attached to his Daddy the minute he gets home from work.

Yes, husband & Dad is home. Thank you Jesus.

This face.

I love it.

There's never a dull moment with him.



Just some things...

I grew about 10 little tomatoes like this one.


We are spending a lot of our time with friends during the week.


We visited the air museum in Fort Rucker.


Spending some of our weekends at the beach.


Eating popscicles and


Enjoying afternoon thunderstorms


Praying for patience and joy.

Hello Summer.

Our first day of summer was Thursday.  Austin's last day of school was Wednesday.  He brought cookies and hugs to share with his friends.  We celebrated our first day of summer by eating at Krispy Kreme, getting a watermelon at Walmart, riding in Uncle Wayne's big truck, and not taking a nap.

 

We've spent a lot of time together.  This is our normal and with this newness comes frustration.  Let's just face it - I am a pregnant single mom.  I am in charge.

My other half has left and thinks it's purely ok to see his son for two hours at a time.

Frustrated - yes!  But trying to focus on teaching and loving and mothering this sweet little boy everyday - yes!!

 

 Playing with the train at the library

Waiting for our pizza at Hungry Howie's

I also set up our trainset from IKEA,  put up black out drapes in A's room, & watched as a lady blew Austin a kiss from the motorcycle nearby.

 

 

Some things in August

1. Austin's 2nd birthday
2. First trip to Chuck E. Cheese
3. K got sick with a cold
4. I got a migraine
5. I got a job and start in September
6. Survived 2 weeks of no MMO
7. Started 2 year old MMO
8. A moved up to a new Sunday School class.
9. Vacationed in ATL
10. Went to the rainy beach
11. Survived hurricane Isaac
12. Made the video announcements for church
13. We got a new music minister who came from my brother's former church

Kelly Springs Park

A says, "Don't come near my Sonic drink."  Ha.

This morning...
We stopped at sonic and got breakfast burritos and a drink.
We found Kelly Springs park.
It was just us and A liked the playground.
We stopped by Petsmart on the way home.
A watched a Brer Rabbit on Netflix while we cleaned off the back porch.

Thursday Morning

The Goal: Run off some of that energy

8:45a.m. Park - fun, but HOT!

9:20a.m. gym time

10:10 water hose

11:00 snack

The Penny Pinchers Club

 You can find it here.
Finished this book last week.
It's a book about marriage, being honest, and friends who help you out.

Tuesday Outtakes

Energy

He was literally doing laps tonight in the house.

I don't know how I caught him still

AND with a smile!

Thursday. Yay!

After we drink our coffee and watch cartoons
Here's our plan before naptime:

• drop off recycling
• library - drop off A's reading log
• drop off clothes at thrift store
• learn more colors
• clean the kitchen

Blast from the past:
These kids were my students in Dallas.  They were
so much fun and cute and creative.

23 months

You are 23 months old!
You turn 2 on August 12th at 3a.m.
You love to play ball.
Basketball, baseball, and by this picture you love golf like your Daddy.
You wear 2T shirts and 18 month shorts.
We need to get you new shoes!
You wear a 7.5 or 8 shoe.
You are so active and happy.
We love you so much!

Potluck

you can find it here
This was another cute book in the Potluck Club Series.
It has some great recipes in the back.
I'm on the waiting list for the next one.

A's current favorite movie

I admit.  It's cute.  And since we like to go to
the beach so much we can talk about the water,
fish, boats, and helicopters.

Thanks to Aunt D, we watch it all the time on
Netflix.

Hello Giant Cactus Zinnias

Hello Pretty Zinnias

These are the ones I planted from seeds

back in mid March.

They are mostly in one pot.

Some are in the ground, too.

I am thankful for the storm last night

so that I don't have to water them so often.

So Pretty!

Letter

Dear A,

Sunday night I dropped you off at the church nursery.  During the flurry of making you a name tag, putting your bag up, handing you your juice, and making sure the door was locked you looked up at me with tears in your eyes.  Your mouth was pouty.  You reached up for me.  You didn't want me to leave.  If the trustworthy little lady didn't wisk you away about to feed you Bugles, I probably would've taken you with me.  I love you little, Buddy.  You will always be mine.

I love you,
Mama

Guatemala

Our friends and our dear pastor are traveling

to Guatemala tomorrow.

I went 2 years in a row and it is still fresh in my mind.

Can't wait to hear their stories!