Journey to Excellence

In the 90's I watched a movie that will forever be my favorite: Indian Summer . I even have it recorded on a VHS tape. (Remember when we did that? And when we paused the recording during commercials? Yeah.) This movie has an ensemble cast with my favorite actress, Diane Lane, and some other popular actors and actresses of the time: Alan Arkin, Bill Paxton, Julie Warner, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollack, and Kimberly Williams before she became a Paisley. The story unfolds when Uncle Lou, the owner of Camp Tamakwa, invites back several "kids" from the Golden Era of the camp for a reunion. The grown-up kids now all have adult issues of their own and a week back at camp is just what they need. They participate in camp pranks, old camp activities, and even crushes are rekindled. It is primarily a drama, with some sweet humor, and just a nostalgic visit back to the days of summer camp and the angst of real life as it unfolds in the lives of the characters. Indian Summ

The sun finally came out this week and it actually got hot enough to turn on the air conditioner. Although I am not a huge fan of the heat, my garden and flowers sure appreciated it! However, last night we had a storm come through and the temperatures dropped. We slept with the windows open and it was fabulous! The Past Week in our Regular Life This was a much busier week. Last weekend was filled with celebrations for Rick's birthday and Father's Day. Brynne had a hot softball game on Monday night. And we worked at the softball dinner and silent auction on Thursday night. We were also much busier during the day, as well, with library classes and other activities. Then this past weekend Rick spent the majority of the weekend painting the exterior trim of our house while I helped Kyndal and Collin get ready for their housewarming party that was yesterday. The house is looking so fantastic! We are painting all of the burgundy/purplish trim gold and green. It takes a lot of

I am not going to say much here, because I say it all the time. I love, love, love my home. In fact, as I sit here and type this I just look around and feel so happy. It is small, it is simple, and it has everything I could ever need. And, it's just darn cute. Who would have ever thought that my favorite place to be would be a $30,000 tiny home in a not-so-desirable neighborhood in the boring little town where I grew up. Wanna know what makes this house a home???? …. … the people who come in and out of it on a regular basis. They are the heartbeat of this home. And my heart is happy. We are doing all kinds of little cheap cosmetic changes to the exterior of the house. It's still a work-in-progress because we are working on it here and there when we have time. But so far I love it!

Today Rick and I are celebrating 13 years of marriage. The unlucky 13? I think not. In fact, I think I am the luckiest woman around. Although Rick and I will not get to spend our anniversary together, he gave me my gift this weekend. He bought me a Ninja Master Prep Professional so that I can quickly whip out my smoothies. And this one chops and stuff, too. It's awesome! He is planning a surprise for me if I can ever not overfill our weekends with activities. I will be giving him his gift when we finally celebrate. So, cheers to 13 years of marriage, babe! I love you so much!

Today was a day to celebrate the important men in my life … those Fathers who make my life and the lives of my children special. Let's start with this guy. My dad, Bill. He is a rock solid man with a big ol' soft heart who loves his kids and grandkids. I am not sure what we would do without him some days. He's the guy to call in times of trouble and he's the guy with the answers. Then there is Collin's dad, Tracey, who has spent the last three weekends in a row at Collin and Kyndal's house making sure everything is running smoothly and looking good. He has raised a good son for my daughter and I am grateful to him. And, finally, there is the daddy who makes my babies' lives shine. Rick is a great husband, but he is also an amazing father. I have never known anybody who puts his children first the way that Rick does. He gives up his own comfort and pleasure to do whatever it takes to be there for his children whenever they need him (and that is

Yesterday was Rick's 44th birthday. For his birthday I saved my pennies (literally) and took him to Kansas City to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and to a comedy show at Improv Comedy Club. Rick loves comedy and we had a really fun night just being together, sharing a good meal, and laughing. The rest of the day was busy, as well. We started out with a softball double header for Brynne. On the way to Kansas City we stopped at Lowe's to look at screen doors. I don't know that we have ever gone on a date that we haven't stopped at Lowe's. On the drive home from the show, we stopped to view the strawberry moon, stopped again to try to figure out what some mysterious flying lights were in the sky (UFO's maybe? nah, just planes from the nearby air force base), and then stopped yet again to pick up the lawn mower out of the back of Collin's truck where it sat after breaking down. Funny story, my sister was on the way back from Kansas City

I love to garden. I love starting something from virtually nothing, nurturing it, and producing fruit. It is soothing to me and makes me very, very happy. My garden area is special to me, a place where I can retreat by myself and wander amongst my raised beds, stopping to clean up this one, water that one, and pull weeds from yet another. My garden gives me a sense of accomplishment and peace. I thoroughly enjoy any vegetables and fruits that come from my garden, but even in those years where my production has been low I have enjoyed just watching my garden grow. So far this year I have already harvested all of my lettuce. I have carrots that are a few weeks away from being ready. My tomato plants are monsters!! And there are cherry tomatoes popping up. I have two types of pepper plants, some cabbage and brussel sprouts that I hope to keep the bugs and other critters from eating. The green beans are coming along, and I need to plant some more. T

It has been a rainy, rainy week! Literally every day it has rained. Today is the first day we have seen any sunshine. I can't really complain because, as you know, I am a major homebody and am always looking for an excuse to stay home. This week provided it. We didn't have any evening activities and other than a couple of trips to the library, we really didn't leave the house. The Past Week in our Regular Life The only problem with having nothing scheduled to do is that it causes me to stay up later at night getting sucked into a t.v. series (right now it's Orange is the New Black on Netflix … warning, it is raunchy and I have to fast forward through some scenes) and reading. But then that has me not wanting to pop up early in the morning to get my quiet time before the kids get up and so I feel rushed all morning to get us starting school by 10:00 a.m. Oh, the tragedy, I know. I do prefer an earlier morning schedule and going to bed earlier at night. I really hav

As you know, my parents have a house in Pensacola, Florida. Since they purchased it a few years ago, the little kids and I have been able to go there for 7 to 10 days a couple of times a year. It always astonishes me how at peace I feel when I am in Florida. I'm just in a completely different place emotionally when I am there. Thankfully my kids are homebodies and not real interested in running around all the time. We have a few places we like to visit, and we love to go to the beach a couple of days. But we are usually all tuckered out by early afternoon and ready to head back home for some dinner and showers. Our routine is to sleep until 9 or so in the morning. The kids play while my mom and I take a long walk. If we are going out for the day, we try to get moving around late morning or just after lunch. We head out to our destination for a few hours or to the beach. We try to get home by about 4:30 in the afternoon. We fix an easy dinner, sometimes go for another walk,

This post is overdue. It is from last week! We have started back to school, but summer activities are also in full swing. Although we are more relaxed in some ways, we are extra busy in others. Therefore, this post is late. The Past Week in our Regular Life It was a rainy and stormy week which gave me a chance to get quite a few things done in the house. We have lived in our house for two years and I finally got around to painting the back entry way to our house leading down to our basement. It was a yucky job and I realized why I had been putting it off for so long. But, it's done. Finally! The Schooling Basics Our schooling basics this summer consist of Bible, math and reading. We are using a review product from Veritas Press for Bible (which is fantastic). In math we are finishing up our division concepts with CTC math and then will be going back to do all of the 4th grade materials to get ready for 5th grade math in the fall. And the kids will be reading …. doin