Journey to Excellence

Last night was such a special night for us! On Tuesday Kyndal had a gender ultrasound, but didn't peek at the results. The tech put them in a sealed envelope that Kyndal delivered to her friend Cassidy. And Cassidy took care of the rest. The theme for the reveal party was "Bows or Arrows". We held the party at our city park. We somehow dodged a rain storm and the wind died down just in time for the party to start. That was a blessing. Family and close friends gathered to watch Collin shoot his bow and arrow into a paint-filled balloon mounted on a painted canvas. Although we would have been thrilled with either a boy or a girl, I think my expression reflects how I really felt about the baby being a boy. I really, really wanted a grandson! Collin hit the target on the first shot. This photo shows how he and Kyndal felt about it. I love his little fist pump. He wanted a boy so bad, and we are all so happy for him (and her)

What are two or three expectations you have of yourself? Esse Quam Videri - To be, rather than to seem, in all I do, and to be the best wife and mom (and grandma) I can be. In what way does your outdoor space need sprucing up this spring? New grass seed in the bare spots in the yard, new mulch, pulling weeds, new gravel in the driveway,flowers in the pots, power washing the house, etc., etc., etc. According to Roadtrippers, six of North America's most wondrous waterfalls are Webster's Falls in Ontario, Upper Whitewater Falls in North Carolina, Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, Multnomah Falls in Oregon, The Lower Yellowstone Falls, and Niagara. Have you seen any on this list? Which one on the list would you most like to visit? Prettiest waterfall not on the list that you've seen in person? The only one on the list I have seen is the Lower Yellowstone Falls. They were pretty. But my favorite place to see waterfalls has been on the Big Island in Hawaii. Rainbo

Happy Easter! Tell me about the best chocolate ever. Or, if you are the religious sort, share some special thoughts on this day. I am not a connoisseur of chocolate. I like chocolate. But, really, any ol' chocolate will do. I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate and definitely the two of them over white chocolate (a bad white chocolate covered pretzel + alcohol incident from my past). Brynne received a cookies 'n cream bunny in her basket this year and she declared it to be the best! I guess I am of the religious sort, but I really just don't have any special thoughts on this day to share. It is an important day for all Christians, celebrating the day our Savior conquered death that could not hold Him, raising Himself to sit at the right hand of God to begin the intercession for me with my Father and secure my place in Heaven. I do not take that for granted and try to celebrate that fact every day, not just on Easter. This Easter Kyndal and Collin spent the week

We are one week away from our Spring Break, not that I am counting the days or anything (8 days, if you are wondering). I can always tell when we are getting close because we tend to start just a tad bit later in the day and do just a tad bit less than I have planned. In other words, we are just sick of school and ready for the beach. But we did put in a full week of learning this week despite our desire to just throw our books in the air and start our break early. No. We can't do that. We have to persevere. We did current events. We did spelling. We did grammar. We did math. We read out of our personal books. We read out loud from McGuffey's . We did copywork. We read a chapter out of The Silver Chair each day. We read about 20 pages from the Diary of a Young Girl each day. We learned about tidal bulges by watching Explain It: How do the tides work? and Tides and the Moon . We did this little demonstration about them. Did you know that the highest point on ear

1. Yesterday we had a brief visit from my sister-in-law Shawna and 3 year old niece Bell. The visit was too short but we got a whole lot of Bell in that amount of time. She is such a spunky fun little girl and absolutely adorable! Makes me miss my brother when he was that age because she is a whole lot like him. 2. Easter has snuck up on us this year and I am less than prepared. I think we might color some eggs tonight. Everyone will be gone on Sunday except for Eli, Brynne, and I so we have plans to go to Sunday school, hunt our eggs, and then go out to dinner Sunday evening. No cooking for me. That's nice! 3. We get to find out the sex of Collin and Kyndal's baby on Wednesday! I am very excited to find out if my grandbaby will be a boy or a girl. I am Team Blue all the way! 4. The stormyish weather this week has had my joints in a snit. Man, I have have been achy all week. 5. In 9 days my friend Megan and I will be making the trip south with our four kids.

Has spring sprung in your little corner of the world? Other than the calendar how would I know? What's your favorite thing about spring? The first way you would know is by the moaning and groaning I am doing from all of my arthritis acting up. The slow-brewing stormy weather of spring and pressure changes makes me miserable! Otherwise around here it is the usual: more green, more birds, warmer temps. My favorite thing about spring? More green, more birds, warmer temps. How does Easter impact you? Photo Credit I saw this somewhere on Facebook and thought it would make a fun Hodgepodge question. Which of the following would you find most disappointing ... a just-stuffed taco shell breaking open and spilling out before you take the first bite? dropping a just-purchased Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts coffee? opening the peanut butter jar and finding it empty? upending a just-purchased ice cream cone? a burnt bagel popping up in your toaster when you're rushing breakf

What's new with you? That's the prompt for this week's Tuesday Coffee Chat . Hmmm ... My life feels pretty ordinary and mundane most of the time without much change. But as I think about this I guess there is some "new", at least to this season. Now that Spring is springing and we have the annual Girls on the Run 5k the first weekend in May, I have hit the pavement again easing myself back into running. This time I have a partner in Eli because he decided that he would like to run the 5k instead of the 1-mile fun run. And Brynne has issued a challenge that her and her two friends are going to beat him. So he and I pulled out my Couch to 5k app and are training the right way. I could get out there and run 3 miles right now, but it sure does feel good to be doing it slow and steady instead. Plus it's fun to see him get better with each run. I am going to be a Nana in 25 weeks! And we get to find out the sex of the baby next Wednesday. That's c

Seriously, I just can't seem to get my Weekly Wrap-ups done these days! This one is going to cover three weeks, so hold onto your hats. We have had some slow and steady days at home with our noses to the grind getting our basic studies done. We have had some days where we have concentrated on some fun unit studies. And we have had one day when we went on a really great field trip. Current events, reading, copywork, spelling, grammar, math, and personal reading happens almost every day. Our mornings usually consist of tackling all of these subjects. We read out loud every single day. The kids read aloud from McGuffey's , we have completed Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, and are still reading Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Brynne continues to read daily out of the Warriors books by Erin Hunter. She is currently reading Dark River , but will quickly be moving onto the next book. She reads these fast! Eli finished the 8th book in the How to Trai