The Blond Ambition Tour

Dooggies, it’s hot.  I just drank a cup of hot tea and ate two oatmeal raisin cookies and I was wondering why I was sweating.  Maybe because it’s 90 degrees outside and I am drinking hot tea.  Go figure. But it tasted good and was so worth the sweat.  I will shower later, after I walk.

We are full swing into summer now.  The pool has been open half days since Memorial day and yesterday was open all day.  We have been there nearly every day at least for a time.  Yesterday we were there in the morning, in the afternoon and then Spice went back at 8pm for a birthday party.  She slept until 8:30 this morning as a result of her big day yesterday.

The girls finished the school year with a bang.  They did great on their end of year tests and each of them had several awards at their banquets.  They were all promoted – 7th, 5th and 2nd grades.  Oh my!  Before I know it one will be graduating.,  But that’s a subject for another entry.

VAcation Bible School starts at our church tomorrow.  It runs in the evenings which is a little hard for us, but we will manage.  Maybe the girls will learn how to sleep in.  I am taking care of registration and Jorie will be helping too.  The other girls are excited to be with their friends.  They love the music that the director has previewed with them and are as excited about that as anything.

The next week we are attending a mission type camp for a week.  The Diva will be staying in town all week with the church group and hers is a service camp where they get together with other churches in the community.  She will have a blast.  The little girls and I are doing a smaller, young kid friendly version during the day – from 9 til 5!  We haven’t done anything like this before so we are anxious to see the Lord work.

Today was a lazy day.  The Diva had a riding lesson this morning and the rest of the day we hung around the house relaxing.  Tomorrow starts two busy weeks so I was trying to lay low!

My Hero is meeting his friend tomorrow and getting the rest of our stuff from Oxford.  I am so happy!  Swim stuff, piano books (which we replaced), summer clothes, hoses for the garden – an extra bed.  Yippy!  I told My Hero that tomorrow would be like Christmas around here.

Speaking of the garden.  WE are harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers now.  And they are good!  I told the girls that’s what tomatoes and cukes were supposed to taste like.  The Diva and Flossy didn’t eat any but Spice and I have enjoyed them!  The cherry tomatoes are what we are eating now but the others are getting bigger and I suppose will be ready soon. 

I am off to do a couple loads of laundry and get things settled for the morning.  Blessings to all -

We are exploring a new place today. Wilmington, NC is near the beach and some camping that we have wanted to check out. We drove down today in the car to check out a camping place or two so we can come back for a weekend. It’s a warm day and the girls are looking forward to getting out in the water. Pictures to come later.

folks.  It’s been a while.  I have missed you.  But I haven’t had much to blog about either.

Just a few things.  It’s raining off and on here today.  Nothing too bad but enough to cancel horse riding lessons.  The Diva isn’t going to be happy about that.  Laundry is finally done and ready to be put away.  Yay for kids who are old enough to take it up to their rooms and put it away themselves.  Now if I could just train the dog . . . EOG’s are done – that’s End of Grade testing here in North Carolina.  My girls both did very well, both scoring 4’s on each of the two sections, math and reading.  Shool is winding down, but there is still some learning.  They are actually enjoying school again.  I am sure the kids who didn’t pass the tests are not as they are in remediation – cramming of information in their heads so they can take the test again with the hopes of passing.  ERG. 

We are planning some summer get aways.  I am looking for inexpensive camping along the coat but I believe it doesn’t exist.  The state parks in N. Carolina seem to be pretty primitive and the resorts are pretty expensive.  Looking for something in the middle.  It’s hard not having camping friends like we did in Oregon and in AL and we had great camps all around us in Mississippi.  I guess it’s just a matter of searching them out. 

It’s almost time for the Blond Ambition Tour to be home from school.  I must change hats and put on the Mama/chef hat as they will have lots to tell and will be hungry!

Blessings -

Was yummy. We ate in Elizabeth City along the river there which we learned is “tea colored” because of the plant life that surrounds the river and decomposes there. Spice preferred to call it “brown” because tea colored didn’t suit her. It was kind of weird looking.

After lunch we enjoyed dessert from a chocolate store in town. The girls and I enjoyed icecream. I took a picture of My Hero’s dessert. Can you guess what it is from the picture?

We are home now and the beach house is already cleaned out. I do need to put away some food but I have laundry started and have weeded some in my garden before we were hit with a diluge of rain. Today is the second day of soaking rains and my plants are loving it.

I woke up Sunday morning to thunder and lightning and RAIN which did not bode well for a promised day at the beach. I prayed for sunshine and that the kids would sleep until 8 and then I went back to sleep myself.

The girls got me up at 8:30for breakfast and as I took the dog outside the sun was poking through the clouds and warming some. We packed for the beach, including fleece blankets, jackets and swimsuits! We ate breakfast at IHOP and then headed to the beach.

It was cool and breezy for about the first hour and then it warmed up enough that I shed my blankets and eventually my sweatshirt. The girls swam and boogie boarded and made sand castles then warmed themselves then swam some more. It never did get hot but was always pleasant.

Thank you Lord!

We spent last evening at my brother’s house for dinner. My niece, Ellie and her boyfriend Bill were there. We visited and played and my sister in law showered my girls with another armload of books on top of the two paper bags full she had sent home the evening before. My bookworms were thrilled.

This morning it is a little rainy, cool and breezy. We pulled out of the campground at about 9:40 and we are already in North Carolina again. I never did get a seafood dinner while we were away so my goal today is to eat seafood somewhere. Which looks like Elizabeth City. We are going to stop and explore the city a little before having lunch and then heading home.

Many blessings and pictures to come.

We attended the wedding today of my brother’s oldest daughter. here are a few pictures that I took before my phone died. I have a couple if videos to post after we get home.

blessing.

come in all kinds of packaging, including white kitchen trash bags.

My neighbor blessed me today with a trash bag full of sweaters and an arm load of pants suits, skirts and dresses that her daughter had outgrown.  Yea for gaining weight.  Her daughter is in banking so she wears business suits and they are beautiful.  I will not be able to wear them all so I am able to in turn bless another with some treasures. 

What has God packaged your blessings in lately?

Our scripture on Sunday touched on the scripture from 2 Cor 6:14 where Paul tells us to not be yoked together with unbelievers.  Our teacher asked us if the ladies in particular, knew of a friend who met a guy and thought that she could change him.  My Hero looked at me and said, “You thought you could change me.”  And he is right!

When I met My Hero I was a babe in Christ, a very new Christian, just learning what it really meant to be a follower.  I had many worldly ideas in my head and I was still living a very worldly lifestyle, having been convicted but not yet following Christ and not completely understanding what it meant to follow Him.  My Hero and I didn’t really like each other at first and I don’t know what changed in him but I thought I could change him.  Even the day I married him I figured I was well on my way to changing him. 

What I didn’t realize at the time was that we were probably unequally yoked.  Sure, I was a Christian and so was he but when we put on the yoke of marriage he went one direction and I went another.  We pulled, pushed, backed up and started over.  I should say I pulled, pushed and bucked while he continued on the path that he had been on all along.  I grew up in a single parent home with a mother who had to take on the role of both parents.  He lived in a home with two Christian parents who took on very traditional roles in their family.  I thought I should be able to make the rules and that My Hero would follow them.  This caused us some grief in the early years of our marriage. 

But God is gracious and He started to mold me and change ME!  My heart was softened towards My Hero and I started to see that the idea he had for marriage was more Biblical than I had ever known.  Through study and other godly friends I started to see what God intended in a marriage and my ideas changed.  Gradually, the yoke of marriage wasn’t such a burden.  Sharing the responsibilty and allowing My Hero to lead as he was meant to made the yoke less of a burden and the load was better distributed. 

Our marriage is not perfect but we are more equally yoked now than we were 14 1/2 years ago when we married.  I am grateful that My Hero didn’t give up on me and that God changed me.  I am grateful for a God who gives clear instruction and second chances. 

Blessings -

I have been trying to write a post about Mother’s Day but my mind has been preoccupied and I haven’t found the words.  Maybe later something will come to me.

In the meantime, to the woman in my life who is my mother and to the ones who have been like a mother to me  . . . happy mother’s day.  I would not be the woman/wife/mother that I am today without you. 

Blessings -

I slept in, went to a few yard sales, watered my flowers and garden, planted the flowers that Spice and My Hero brought home to me, took The Diva to a riding lesson, took a nap, made dinner, tidied up the kitchen and am now hanging on the couch, blogging. 

Now I have to go race Flossy up the stairs to brush her teeth.  She is moving as slow as a three toed sloth.  BRB

I won. 

I just planted my salad greens – according to the package I should be able to harvest in about 40 days.  As hot as it’s been here, maybe it will be sooner if I am diligent about watering.  It was 90 plus here today again.  I enjoyed it but it was hot watching The Diva at her riding lesson.  She did great today even though she missed the lesson last week.  She really loves being out there on that horse and she is beginning to love the horse as well.

Now My Hero is finishing up in his shop, two are in bed and one is not home yet.  I am thinking I need to take my dog for a walk.

Blessings -