2 1/2.

And because he's 2 1/2, I'll be checking the oven before I pre-heat from now on.

Flash Diffuser

My new camera trick!

On of my favorite blogs: Grosgrain  posted the best camera tip!  (a long time ago, I'm just now getting around to posting my pictures!)

Amazing huh?
I have used it many times when I'm trying to photograph the kids in the house- gets rid of those crazy eyes and harsh lighting. 

Click on the Grosgrain link above for the details.

Window On My World

 

Sunrise

September 1, 2011

Really?

"Deb Drinkwine" 

That's your name?

Wow.

Rates right up there with "Divine" and "Stellar".

First Day of School 2011

I wanted to make sure that I "documented" the first day of school here, so I thought I should get busy and check our the photos I took.  I forgot to take a group shot on the first day, so this is the second morning.

So funny!

Elizabeth and William are over the excitement of a new year, and Isabelle is delighted!

Elizabeth 6th grade, William 4th, Isabelle Kindergarten.

Elizabeth and one of her two classmates- loaded with supplies.

And look! They match!

William, the social butterfly that he is, was so happy to see his friends again.

Lining up!



I think she was a little nervous!

I was.

Settling in at the "red" table with her new classmates, "Cree" and "Sebastian".

Jackson and I headed home without shedding a single tear...

And enjoyed the quiet!

My Funny Monday Story

Overheard from the living room: (I was in the kitchen)

Jackson: "Isshabell, Isshabell, ISSHABELL, What you have? What you have Isshabell?"

Isabelle: "None of your beeswax."

Jackson running into the kitchen: "Mom, Mom, MOM! I whan some beeswhax!"

The Low down

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, life is busy.  I feel silly even saying as much- isn't everyone busy? If everyone is busy, then isn't that just life?  Ugh. 

One of the things I've found out about myself in the last 36 years, when my mind is overcrowded it helps to get it out.  Usually in list form!

A summary of the last three weeks in list form.  Kind of. Not in chronological order.

I took 5 kids back to school shopping.  Jackson's attention span was over about 4 hours in, and my patients left just about 30 minutes after that. With a good hour to go.  By the time we left Target, I'm sure several employees had DCS on the line.

The kids went back to school!  YAY!  I now have to get up early.  BOO.

In all honesty, I could have them around a little longer.  Our summer went by way to fast.  I've vowed to better planning next year.

The crazy busy life we had in June, July and August? The very same life that neglected the laundry, forgot house cleaning and fed it's family hot dogs and pizza.  Yeah.  That caught up with me.  Which led to this:

I had a mini meltdown of sorts. Which led to this:

HUGE disagreement with my husband.  HUGE.

I found that when I have a cup of coffee at two in the afternoon, it will keep me up until 3am.  I was very productive until three, but up all the same.

When I stay up until 3am, I crash at 4pm for at least an hour.  Taking a nap that late in the day keeps me up until 2am.  It's a vicious cycle folks.

All that staying up late being productive organized me a wee bit, and brought to my attention that I was supposed to be planning the biggest  fundraiser our school has. I'm a little behind the 8 ball on that one.

Since I realized I was a little behind in my planning, I've been going a hundred miles an hour since trying to get everything together.  Thank God for pinterest.

If Elizabeth's goat eats my plants ONE MORE TIME, I will load it in the trailer and take it to the sale barn myself.

I froze about fifty quarts of sweet corn.  So happy to have that in the freezer.  Now to get some green beans and tomatoes...

I've done a lot of yard sale and thrift store shopping this summer.  I cannot wait to show you all my great finds.

I'm so ready to decorate this house, I've been spending all my "free time" looking at design blogs and pinterest.  I've been collecting things and I am excited to get some of them together.  I'll show you that too!

I also realized about the first of August I did not have a sitter for Jackson this fall.  My friend Rita stepped up and said she could help me out this winter.  Thank Heavens for Facebook.

Ryan and I had a really, really good time at the Journey, Foreigner and Night Ranger concert.  We have another date night planned for tomorrow night too.

Elizabeth started fall soccer.  At least three practices a week.  William and Isabelle will start after Labor Day.  Our color coded family calendar is really coming in handy.  I'm not so sure it has enough room though.

Our long time babysitter, Jaima is getting married in November.  She asked all four of the kids to be in her wedding.  They all are so, so excited.  I'm sad that she's moving to Pennsylvania.

Tuesday, while removing the lead rope (noose) from the basement rafters, I fell. It totally shook me up.  Made me sick to my stomach and all shaky.  No real injuries.  Seriously bruised my butt though.

I'm going to be an Aunt again September 12th! And again the end of January.  One of my favorite cousins is also having a baby the end of December.  And another one of my favorite cousins just got engaged!  Yes, I do have 20 favorite cousins.

hmm.  I think that's all.

I have to go work on fundraiser stuff anyway.

Oops.

It's been almost three weeks since I've blogged... It's been a busy time, and I have some things to catch up on - before catching up, I had to share this:

Isabelle "read" this entire book at bedtime tonight! Jackson added his two cents too- this is how it went:

Isabelle: "Blue hat, green hat, red hat, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"

Isabelle: "Red shirt, blue shirt, yellow shirt, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"

Isabelle: "Yellow pants, red pants, green pants, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"

Isabelle: "Blue coat, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"

Isabelle: "Red socks, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"

Isabelle: "Green shoes, yellow shoes, blue shoes, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"

Isabelle: "Yellow hat, green shirt, blue pants, purple socks, red shoes, oops."
Jackson: "OOPS!"  

Doesn't everyone need a little brother for emphasis?

Monday

I spent the entire day on Monday taking care of all the fruit and vegetables I got in Michigan last Saturday.

My little bean snappers:

I canned/froze all the green beans, made three kinds of jam: peach, apricot & plum.  Canned the rest of the peaches and apricots, and froze ten pounds of blueberries.

Feels good to have some things on the shelf for winter.  Ryan told me on Thursday the corn is almost ready! Then we will have some vegetables in the freezer too!

But not today.

Today, I am taking my nephews home to Ohio, and picking up Isabelle.  Our family will be back to "normal" for a week before schools starts!

...Maybe I should stop at the farmers market on my way out of town...

Lake Michigan

Last weekend while staying with Ryan's parents, we "took in" Lake Michigan.

I miss that lake.  So beautiful. So clean.  I was out chest deep and still could see the bottom.  A far cry from the reservoirs we have here.

It's a quick five minute walk from their back door to the water.  We were there Friday, Saturday AND Sunday!  A few pics from the beach:

The big boys are my nephews.  They went too!

Two weddings were held on Saturday!
I don't think I would have been happy with the two bikini-clad girls in my wedding photos... but hey. Public beach!

Beautiful sunset on Friday night.  And that is when my camera battery died.

I miss that lake.

Memories

Last weekend we headed to West Michigan for Ryan's twentieth class reunion.  Yes, I was a wee babe when we married. Ha!

We arrived at my in-laws on Friday night in time for the kids to have a quick swim in Lake Michigan.

Saturday morning we split ways- Ryan went up to the "old neighborhood", and I went to the local farmers market!

I came home with a bushel of green beans, a bushel of peaches, half bushel of plums, a quart of sweet cherries, a peck of apricots, a few plants and fifteen pounds of blueberries!  So fun, and so much more reasonable priced than home.

For lunch we headed to Country Dairy.  The family farm where Ryan and I met.  *insert smile*  ahh, the memories!

The house I grew up in.  It's had a few changes, but oh-so fun to walk through again!  Thanks Betsy!

Guess who else was having lunch?  Our neighbours!

 

The Hawkins enjoying their "bottomless cup" of chocolate milk.  Turns out they vacation in that area every year. It's a small world after all...

I had enough time after all my running around to enjoy the beach for awhile... I so miss the lake.

On to the reunion!

We had a really nice time catching up with some old friends-  me meeting new ones, and Ryan re-uniting with his classmates.

Does not seem possible that we are this age - but we are, and life is GOOD!

More 4-H

Jackson loves animals.

Especially ones on the end of a rope.

That let him "lead" them around.

Or tie them up.

"C'mon goat!"

(we need to work on that...)

She's All Grown Up!

For awhile now, Isabelle has been asking for a haircut.

Her daddy has been saying: "No, no no!  I like your long hair."
Her mommy has been thinking: "Oh, how easy short hair would be..."

And she asked again. and again. and again.

Her daddy said: "Fine."
Her mommy thought: "Oh no! I like your long hair!"  "It'll never be the same!"  And then her mommy remembered that she was going to Kindergarten in the fall, and she'd have to do her hair every morning.

So we asked: "How short do you want your hair?" And she replied: "Short.  Like Megan's."
And we measured.  She had enough to donate to locks of love.
We washed, combed and took lots of before pictures:

Left

Right

 

Back

 

Front

 

I divided it into two ponytails,

cut, cut, cut!

Bingo!

 

Two ponytails ready to donate.

 

Because the back looked like this,

We went here:

 

and Peyton's mommy fixed her right up!

 

We all love the way it looks -

It matches her personality!



Our little princess has gone to spend the week at my parents.  We miss her goofy little self at home- but I'm sure she's eating up all the one on one attention she's getting!



Creek

It was so flippin' hot here last week; the kids talked me into taking them down to our creek.

And I've regretted it every day since.

What's the big deal?  Gator ride through the field, as far as I could make it go into the weeds, traipse through the thicket, down the ravine- with a HEAVY two year old on my back - mind you.

Just to sit on a rock

with a camera that is too steamed over to get any decent pictures.

Because if you know me, you know I'm not getting in the water unless I can see the bottom.

And after Ruby and Sammy had a turn, you could no longer see the bottom.

The kids got cooled off, and thought I was the best mom ever.  For the rest of the evening anyway.

All I got was mosquito bites.  On my butt.  Wrong day to wear a skirt.