JM is officially a big rover… and now that he’s 4 I hope to not see faces like this anymore!

It has been far too long since I’ve been here. I don’t think its even possible to bring the blog up to speed, but I’ll do my best! Those who have checked in, thank you for doing so! Life is good. Life is busy. And as many of you know… life goes by way too fast. I don’t want my children to look back on their childhood and picture me behind a computer. I think I’ve told y’all that we haven’t had cable television here at the beach for over a year, but we’ve also not had a phone line or high speed internet. Which has certainly helped cut back on my computer time drastically, which I feel certain is for the better. If you’d like to cut back on your computer time, just turn off your internet! We use our cell phones as “hot spots” to access the internet and while it’s convenient, it’s not that practical for everyday use. Especially if you run a web-based business and write a blog. Our cell phone internet is SLOW, like slower than dial up… uploading pictures takes FOREVER! It’ll make you either want to not open your computer or throw it out the window. I’ve dropped in the public library from time to time to do some high speed surfing and it’s lightening fast… I’ve almost forgotten what a fast connection is like!

I’m here to report the kids are BIG. They are such precious blessings to us, each with their own spunky personality. They keep us on our toes, asking good questions and making us laugh all the time. It has truly been a treat to step away from the computer and be able to invest that time with them. They enjoyed their schools here at the beach, made knew friends and learned so much! Just as school was out for the summer we did VBS at the brown house {not literally} and we did VBS here at the beach. I taught the upcoming Kindergarteners here at the beach and have a renewed appreciation for school teachers & VBS teachers! Whew! There were 21 4 & 5-year-olds in my group and they about did me in. I came home everyday, made lunch and crawled in bed as soon as JM was down for his nap. It was a good & it was hard!

We are still living at the beach and love being here, it is the beach after all! Like I’ve said before, I’d be amiss if I didn’t admit that it’s complicated. We have a home, friends, family, a church, and I have a business 3 & 1/2 hours from us and we are trying to juggle both while maintaining sanity and stability for our kids {& ourselves}. We travel back the brown house about once a month and it still feels like “home” to us, even though we are just visitors breezing in and breezing out. If we knew the duration of our stay here on the coast the obvious decision would be to relocate here while the job is here, but Justin was hired almost two years ago for a 3-month duration… and those 3 months are looking more like 3 years everyday. This “unknown time frame” is not the fault of anyone, just the nature of a massive oil spill and its ripple effects that last for years.

Before sitting down to write this post I went to grab my camera bag {with camera, hard drive, & cords} and quickly realized I couldn’t find it anywhere. I’m sure hoping it’s at the brown house! So for today it will be all phone pictures {that unfortunately look a little grainy}! In a nutshell we’ve been: celebrating birthdays, riding bikes, fishing, hosting friends, hitting the pool, hitting the trail, playing softball, seeing family, sneaking in boat & island time, traveling to see friends & family, and doing our best to soak up sweet summertime before it’s over!

All of these are from Instagram {darby613 if you’re so inclined to follow along there}. If you put your mouse on the pictures below a little caption will pop up, officially called a “mouse over”. Thank you Auburn University’s Marketing on the Internet course that I took in 2001. Hugh Guffey would be proud, maybe.

Really neat tracing pads from the sweet girls at Trio Design Studio… a long overdue THANK YOU! We love them! They have provided hours and hours of entertainment for the children!

If you didn’t know, my twin sister is a total rockstar! She’s been super busy these last few months and all her hard work on the Coastal Living Ultimate Beach house has paid off! It’s open through October in Rosemary Beach, FL and it’s simply amazing. She is so incredibly talented and the house shows that. So very proud of her! This picture was taken the night of the opening party and we all had a wonderful time!!

That kind of brings me up to speed on family life! I will try not to be such a stranger and as soon as I get my paws on my camera bag and hard drive I’ll fill you in some more! And I’ve got a couple recipes to share as well!

My dear friend Lindsey is holding down the fort back at Honey Bee Tees and keeps me in line as best she can. Thank you for your continued support of Honey Bee Tees despite my major lack of blog activity. The good news {for you} is that we have oodles and oodles of inventory {including super cute dresses, new designs & new colors} and it’s time to move some out and make way for fall. So here’s a little something that I think will help! Code: SUMMER30 at checkout to save 30% through Saturday {7/14/12} at midnight!

{ps- word went out on Facebook about the sale first, be sure to follow us there to be in the loop!}

I truly hope to not be such a stranger!

I would be amiss not to admit that we miss our friends dearly and I do miss my brown house. Thankfully we get to visit about once a month, cramming about 28 days worth of things that need to be done in 48 very short hours. But one day we will return and I’ll probably miss the beach, funny how that happens.

I gave myself a pep talk last Thursday to get out my “real” camera and shoot some pictures. I will share those below… but my list today is long so my words will be few today. Also, Sister and I are road-tripping it up big time tomorrow. Our husbands will have the kids and we will sneak away for a few days, back to Louisville, KY, where we spent the majority of our childhood. We hope to have an absolute blast visiting old friends, romping through our old stomping grounds, going to the wedding of a dear friend… and hopefully many little stops along the way! Erika will be driving and I’ll be riding shotgun. I’m an excellent driver but she should be medicated to ride shotgun and thinks anyone who’s driving the car can’t see the car in front of them, the road beside them, the car behind them, the cars slowing down 1 mile ahead {you know the type? are you the type?}. So I’m sure the trip will be much more enjoyable with her behind the wheel.  I look forward to reporting back next week on our little getaway!

Here’s what we’ve been up to …

One day JM colored vertical whiskers on his face and came to show me with great pride.

The coloring starts early, I think this was around 6:30.

Number 19 {we have about 482 of these around our house}.

Breakfast with sleepyheads and Cetaphil {?}.

While they ate their breakfast I packed their lunches, sometimes we wear our sunglasses in the kitchen when the sun is coming up… it’s a good problem to have!

School Easter parties were a big hit and this the golden egg I thought I hid up high in a good spot, someone found it in about .5 seconds.

Rover always sits quietly in the corner at the girls’ class parties, not disrupting.

Thankfully Paige’s sweet teacher knows about little siblings who wish they were in kindergarten and lets them in on all the action.

2 beautiful Easter prizes JM made in preschool.

Over the weekend at the brown house the girls and I dyed eggs while Rover napped.

We had colorful eggs Easter morning for breakfast, and also tore into Easter “sand pails”!

Justin’s parents had us for Easter lunch after church. The cousins always have a blast together.

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating a risen Savior!! Then it was time for the dreaded task of packing up, cleaning out, and loading up… all while trying to make it back to the beach at a decent hour {which we still haven’t mastered yet!}.

Upon on return, we are always so thankful to be welcomed by our “second” home and we try to slide back into life here! Our “traveling” softball team is in full swing and my heart melts when I see these little girls in their full-blown uniforms. We’ve only ever played tee ball and for that we received a shirt as our “uniform”. To our surprise Morgan got the whole shebang… visor, jersey, pants, & socks. The girls look so put together out there on the field! We had an 8-1 victory Monday night… the perfect way to start the season. I’ll have to remind myself of that tonight when I have to travel for our 6:45 game and we probably won’t be home until well after bedtime!

Ok, time to run… here’s one more!

I recognize that I have been allowing myself to get so far behind on posting that even siting down to write a post in attempt to catch up seems to be a monumental task. But I’ve come to conquer tonight. Last time I was here I told you that Justin’s family was coming for the weekend to celebrate his mom’s birthday… well, sadly she came down with a nasty virus, and she & Justin’s dad didn’t even make it to the weekend in her honor. The rest of us enjoyed the weekend but missed them greatly! In a nutshell, we stayed in a sweet condo on the beach.  The cousins had so much fun swimming & playing together. We went to an art festival {where Morgan won a ribbon for  a piece the school submitted!}. We shopped, we ate, and we enjoyed all being together! Oh, and of course, we laughed a lot and I only took a few pictures with my phone…

The following week I got my braces off! Hip, hip, hooray! It was my second round of braces {this set was bottom only} and will undoubtedly be my last. When they were yanking the brackets off I thought they were going to accidentally pull out a tooth. Looks kinda scary doesn’t it?

We’ve also been on the road a lot, back and forth between the brown house and the beach. I ride shotgun and try to keep peace in the backseat, but even great attempts at doing so seem to fail sometimes. Speaking of failing, Paige failed a vision screening at school and the scary words they sent home on her report would have made you think her eyes were in serious need of attention. Thankfully our good friend, who the kids call “Dr. Joe”, is a pediatric ophthalmologist and worked us in on a Monday to see if the Raiger had any issues with her vision. She was very brave and did exceptionally well and walked out with a clean bill of vision health & a handful of stickers!

She unfortunately was under the weather the week following and got lots of TLC, like lunch in bed and popsicles at 2 am!

Everything tends to run together when you don’t keep up, but one week Justin was away in New Orleans for work and I did my best to let him know I was holding down the fort ok and that we made it to softball practices. JM is a total clown and I fear for his future teachers. We’re thankful for a few more years before big boy school and we hope to have him a little more refined by then.

We’ve also had many laughs over JM and all his newfangled Nascar gear. A kind reader from Nascar headquarters graciously sent JM a box of official Nascar gear. One night I took him to the softball fields in this… {sporting what he calls his “race car man” face}. You can’t tell from the picture but even the sunglasses are Richard Petty! There’s no doubt he thought he was the coolest kid at the park.

We’ve had a few rainy days here and there…

But when it’s not raining we are outside…

I still have to pinch myself when I walk outside…

The first weekend of spring break our friends, Krista & Michael came over from Fairhope for an impromptu slumber party. We spent the day on the water and found enough food in the pantry for dinner. Krista and I scavenged clothing for her three children from my children’s drawers and we stayed up until the weeeee hours waiting for our husbands to arrive safely home from sea. Justin and Michael took the boat to a bluegrass festival, left at sunset and arrived home around 1:30 am where we were holding vigil for their safe return {I joke, kinda}. If it hadn’t been for Ricky Scaggs I don’t think they would have made the journey from Orange Beach to Dauphin Island by boat, which is a far shorter distance by sea than by land, but it still took them over 2 hours each way, and Mobile Bay was fairly unkind to them that night. They came home looking a little forlorn and shocked that we were still awake. We were thankful they were home safe, and equally thankful that we weren’t with them being tossed about in the pitch dark. Instead, we were snug in the bed {with a confused baby girl sporting JM’s pirate jammies} catching up on life.  After a very late night, we offered them a small loveseat and some coffee on the porch Sunday morning. They’re about the kindest people you’ll ever meet… but next time Michael may turn down the bluegrass festival by boat invitation!

The days following I loaded up the kids {with one minor detour to the brown house} and headed over to my sister’s spend a few days with my parents who were down visiting from Illinois. Justin has been very busy with work so we escaped without him with hopes that quiet evenings at the house would afford him a little extra time to catch up on work…  but we sure missed him! We got to spend lots of time with sweet Sloaney B while Sister was away on business. We hit the ice cold pool {I swear kids have completely different thermostats than adults… cold water never, ever seems to bother them}, spent a day by the bay, dined at the Airstreams in Seaside, played on the green in Seaside, celebrated Mom’s birthday, loved on our greatly missed pup who’s in the loving care of my parents while we are renting our house, and spent lots and lots of time outside! The weather was glorious!

The kids and I journeyed home and made it just in time to meet our dear friends for dinner who came to visit for a few days!  Dr. Joe {who gave Paige a clear bill of vision health}, his wife, Susie, and their three kids were also on spring break and we were thrilled to have them here with us for a few days. We did a lot of this…

We laughed a lot and caught up on lost hang time over the last year. We almost made a trip to the Florabama but much to my dismay {I jest} we didn’t make it! Maybe next time!

The last weekend of spring break was spent as a family enjoying our “back yard”!

And before I go…

Monday’s field trip was a success. But can I tell you that our very kind principle drove our bus and when I boarded I asked him if the air worked better near the front of the bus. He laughed a little and kinda looked at me like I was crazy. It was like a sauna and I really wondered where the best seat was. He asked me if I was joking and explained I could turn on the air by putting the window down. Y’all, school buses don’t have air conditioning… still. It’s 2012 and I figured they did by now. I rode a bus to school from kindergarten to 5th grade and for some reason I figured that was decades ago and by now they’d have air. They don’t. And it was hot. But it was fun and I was so thankful to get to spend time with Morgan and all the other little first graders!

Ok, now I’m going to challenge myself to pick up my real camera and see if I can get back into the groove of taking pictures with something other than my cell phone!

Good Morning! I stayed up LATE last night working on a post… a very comprehensive post that nearly overwhelmed me. You know, when you get so far behind catching up will do that to you! I made it through the first weekend of Spring Break and then decided to crash. I thought I’d finish this morning but I’ve now got a family to feed, backpacks to pack, library books to locate and an all-day field trip to attend {on a school bus, oh boy!}. My intentions were to let y’all know in my post that there is a whole slew of new inventory in stock at Honey Bee Tees and orders placed near the beginning of this week will more than likely arrive in time to stuff our colorful little tees into colorful little Easter baskets! There are even more new designs than pictured above so be sure to click over and check it out!

I let our Facebook fans know over the weekend that we were restocked with new designs, so if we are out of what you want you’ll have to blame them or follow us on Facebook.  Anything that is low in stock has already been reordered and will hopefully be listed within a week. Also, all long sleeve shirts are on sale, including the pink “Craft Supplies” tee, which is one of my all time favorites. The girls wear it all the time! It’s a perfect weight to slip on for a chilly nights with shorts. One-piece creepers {aka “onesies”, which is a word we can’t officially use} will be listed within a couple days!!

Now I’m off for the day and will hopefully wrap that other post up tonight! We’ve had absolutely gorgeous weather… there’s much to catch up on!

I used to be such a better blogger and now I’m just here when I can get here, which seems seldom these days. For the sake of time I will throw a few random thoughts into bullets…

• TODAY is our 10th anniversary! Wow…  it simultaneously seems like yesterday and a long time ago! It has been 10 wonderful and refining years, and I’m thankful to walk the road of life with Justin! Life hasn’t slowed down much. I just looked down and counted with my fingers each street we’ve lived on… we are currently residing in our 7th residence. This may be why I’ve had to invest in new face potions.
• We also recently celebrated Justin’s 34th birthday, he was thrilled with the killer cooler he received from me. It’s a bear-proof and Darby-proof cooler. I’ve been lifting weights so I can maneuver the handle back to get the ice-cold contents. He also made me laugh really, really hard the other night. He joined LinkedIn. I was laying in bed and he was working away at the Coleman camping table that we have set up in the corner of our bedroom. It’s like a makeshift “office” in the corner. Anyway, he proceeded to say something like, “I’ve just become LinkedIn, and people say it’s a really good networking tool.” This is probably all true and not funny at all, but Justin has always been adamantly opposed to social networking. Me… not  so much, so I welcomed him with a hearty laugh and told him it’s not so bad after all. He’s already reconnected with an old friend who plays for Redeemer Church {www.riseoburiedlord.com} in Knoxville, and we have thoroughly enjoyed their album! If you like Red Mountain Music or Indelible Grace be sure to check them out.
• The sale at Honey Bee Tees in February was a huge success… thank you! I will certainly have to do that again. New & old designs are in the process of being restocked! I am so grateful my friend, Lindsey, continues to run the whole operation in my absence very smoothly from the garoffice.

• I have re-enrolled Rover in preschool here at the beach in the fall. This means we think we may still be here.  Does this mean we will definitely still be here… we’re not sure. Nothing is really sure when you are dealing with an oil spill. I’m learning lots of lessons about taking things one day at at time, but when it comes to planning things {like school} for your kids, not knowing how long you will live somewhere can be a tad challenging. I also really miss doing anything to my house… not big projects, but little things like hanging wreaths on the door or changing bedding. We are trying not to accumulate a lot of stuff here, I tend think we have few personal belongings here but when we move out and have to get a uHaul for our bikes, strollers, & toys I’m sure I’ll be convinced we do have a lot of our personal stuff here!
• When we were at the brown house last month I ran a quick errand to drop Justin’s boots off at the cobbler. While I was there I realized my boots needed new heels too, so I slipped them off and walked out in my socks. I climbed in my trusty chariot and took off to pick up lunch. Just a few minutes later I realized that my “LOW COOLANT” light was legit all those days and I almost burned up my car with no shoes on. Justin came to my rescue with water, coolant and the kids.

• She’s back in working order after a water pump replacement… next major service for the ole girl will be a complete shampoo of her carpet because milk has been spilled and if you’ve ever experienced milk in the carpet of a car you know it smells like roasted brussels sprouts or a dead mammal.
• Rover is undoubtedly a lefty. He has become completely enamored with coloring and it makes me so happy. He will sit still for the longest periods and color and draw…. mostly race cars and letters that don’t spell anything, but he asks me 100x a day what things “spell”, and I have to make up words with the letters he’s drawn and then he gets all excited and says, “I spelled HSYTOP”! We celebrate because I’m just glad he’s writing letters! Next we will work on the proper way to hold a pencil!

•   I try to volunteer at the girl’s school as often as I can. I love to be there with them. It reminds me of my elementary school and I love to see them interact with their friends and classmates. The kindergarten classes all share an extra classroom and call it the “Fun Friday room”. It’s huge and full of different play stations. JM always tags along and never wants to leave. They have awesome vintage toys in there… and its the best reward for good behavior for the kids! {The Dr. Seuss “green eggs & ham” were for Dr. Seuss day… recipe source.}

• I still have braces on my bottom teeth… I hope they come off really, really soon! I go next Wednesday and my fingers are crossed but thankfully my teeth are not.
• I am officially a “softball mom”. The kids haven’t really been involved in extracurricular activities since Morgan played tee ball three years ago. We were all excited about softball this year… but friends let me tell you something I didn’t expect for a 7 & 8-year-old city league softball team: practice every night and 2/3 of the games are played away at different towns! Both of these are because we are the only girls softball team in Orange Beach in our age bracket. We have no competition for a practice field, hence the practice every night, and we have no teams to play so we have to travel to play the surrounding cities. Nothing like easing our way into an extracurricular. We’ve decided three practices a week will suffice! The good news is she loves it!
• Justin and I have become completely hooked on Downton Abbey. {thanks to your recommendations} He betrayed me the other night and watched an episode without me after I fell asleep. We have two episodes left in season 2 and I hope I don’t have to wait long for season 3 to be released on netflix. I think you can probably watch them online but our internet connection is through our cell phones and it’s SLOW as molasses. Streaming anything is nearly impossible. And we don’t get any tv stations on our tv at all… not even PBS.
• I found these bars at TJ Maxx {of all places} they are hands down the best “healthy” bar I’ve ever had. I’m sure you can buy them places we don’t have like Trader Joes or Whole Foods… but I will be ordering them online if I must. Earnest Bars… look them up people, they’re so good!

• I also found some shoes at TJ Maxx for 2 weddings. I usually running anything I like by Erika for confirmation that they are as cute as I think they are…

• These sunglasses I didn’t need her confirmation for… I’ve been eyein’ them for a while. I leaned over the dock a month ago to scoop up some minnows for Rover and my first pair of “good” sunglasses flew off my head and into the cold, deep water. They still lie deep beneath and are probably covered in barnacles. So, these are their replacements. Now Rover, Daddy Boy and I all match.

• We have a neighbor here named Bob. We call him Mr. Bob. He and his wife feed a heron, and I consider that heron their pet. He waits for them on their upper deck handrail and looks in their windows waiting for food and fresh water. When they are out of town we try to take care of their bird. I’m pretty sure he’s the same one we fed minnows to last summer. Anyway, I pulled in our garage last week and was walking upstairs when I noticed he was on our back patio and just a tad too close to my seedlings. I just watched him a while to make sure he wasn’t going to mess with them… he must have been more interested in his reflection in the glass than the plants. Whew!

• Today is also Justin’s parents anniversary and they are coming this weekend, along with his brother and sister and their families!! They have rented a beach-front condo, and we are looking forward to an action-packed weekend with them!
• Last weekend we took a little trip up to Auburn. It was so wonderful to take the kids there. Justin and I have rarely been back. It’s such special place to us—full of wonderful memories of meeting and dating there. We were there for a wedding of our dear friend Jack {and his wonderful new bride Bethany} and the whole weekend was such fun. Before we headed off to the rehearsal dinner Friday night we dropped the kids of at a bustling apartment complex filled with Chi Omegas and we knew they were wonderful hands! The rehearsal dinner was wonderful and there were so many old friends there, some of which I hadn’t seen in over ten years. It’s always so neat to see how lives are orchestrated, how lives are changed, and how people are brought together. Justin and I had the pleasure of sharing a booth in the back  of the restaurant with Dr. and Mrs. Peter Doyle. Who we loved getting to know and hearing of their life adventures. Dr. Doyle has been a PCA pastor for years but also writes adventuresome children’s books that walk though significant historical events! The wedding was beautiful and held at First Presbyterian of Opelika, which is a small, old church with lots of charm!
• On the way home from Auburn we detoured to the brown house to check on things, including the bees.

• I will leave you with this PRECIOUS video! Rebekah was a pledge sister of mine at Auburn {later she transferred to to UT}. I have followed along with their adoption adventures of both Caleb & Isaac. This video is so powerful I can’t help but share! Such joy, such love, such encouragement!!!

Hello folks! I’ve been waiting for the shop to be completely restocked before offering this 30% off coupon… and we are well-stocked and ready to go! With the 30% off code you can get super cute tees for less than $10 a piece! This would be a great time to stock up for Easter baskets or birthday parties. And as soon as some of the inventory is cleared out we’ll have room for summer designs!

I’m not sure where January went and in a matter of days I’ll probably wonder where February went too. It’s been unseasonably mild here, much like the rest of the country, which has freed us to spend a decent amount of time outside enjoying the sunshine. I believe the car was already dusted in yellow pollen by  mid-January! I’ve snapped a few pictures here and there, not nearly as many as I wish I had. The kids are growing so fast, changing every single day. The little Raiger has learned to read like a champ at the tender age of five, and her voice, as she goes from word to word, is the sweetest sound to her mother’s ears. I want to freeze the moments. Morgan loves to read too and teach. “School” commences in the family room every afternoon when they get home from school.

Her classroom is a well-stocked, and somewhat-organized, fun place to play and learn. She’s very thorough and we’re working with her on tenderness and patience with her pupils who are sometimes berated when they lose interest in her game.

The little man is an aspiring race car driver, matchbox car collector, and patience-tester extraordinaire. We also call him Murray as needed. He verbally protests to his new name, which is only used when necessary, because he knows all about Murray. You see Murray is The Boy Who Cried Over Everything. If you have a three-year-old son {or daughter} who may be in a stage where they cry over things like: having to get dressed, you opening their yogurt {instead of them}, picking out the wrong spoon, having to wear shoes, not getting a treat at the store, having to take a nap, not having hot dogs for every meal, shall I go on… then I recommend you introduce your child to Murray. You see Murray seems to cry over everything. Rover knows that Murray’s behavior is not becoming of a young man… that crying over things that aren’t cry-worthy is not good. Little did I know that the book would have such an impact on him. Today at the library when he started in it only took a simple and gentle reminder of who he was acting like to dry him up. In the end, Murray figures out when it’s ok to cry over things and when it’s not. Now, if Betsy Childs and Dan Olson would take Murray to church and help him figure out how sit quietly, and be respectful during “Children’s Moment” at the front of the church, I’d be delighted. If they need any ideas of things that  Murray might do to interrupt the congregation I’d be happy to fill them in with a few of Rover’s secrets.

Here are few pictures from a Friday afternoon about a month ago at our community pier near the end of our street.

And a couple weekends ago we ran over to spend a weekend with Erika, Chance, & Sloane in Rosemary Beach… it was an awesome weekend but I only snapped a handful of pictures!

This is “Murray” trying to figure out how to share with Sloane.

I believe she walked away empty-handed and he was the torpedo victor so we have progress yet to make!

In other news, Justin did WAY better this year for Valentine’s Day! If you weren’t around last year, I received a cheese & sausage basket all in the honor of LOVE from my husband. He has heard a small amount of grief over this for the past 12 months. This Valentine’s Day I was thankful to receive dark chocolate, Twizzlers and a card! His dad, probably in fear that cheese and sausage would be on the agenda again, sent the girls and me the most gorgeous arrangement! It has made me smile ear to ear for days.

We are still without cable television {almost a whole year!} and Justin and I have been helping boost the Redbox & Blockbuster Express earnings. We fear before long we will run out of options. Last weekend we rented Jane Eyre and both loved it, if you haven’t seen it you should. Finding a decent movie, that is entertaining without trash is becoming increasingly difficult. We’ve also enjoyed Contagion and Courageous, although Contagion may have been a little intense at times.

We transitioned straight out of Valentine’s Day into Mardi Gras. This is our first Mardi Gras experience and I’m certainly an amateur when it comes to all things Mardi Gras. Paige & JM both had to make floats for their class parades. Without my usual arsenal of crafting supplies we resorted to the toy box for Paige’s float… I introduce to you The Mystic Order of Majestic Mares, they’re obviously a wild bunch!

Alright… time to pack up for 4 days at the brown house! Our first trip “home” in over a month!

The beach tends to lose a few of it’s redeeming qualities in the winter, but so far we’ve been pleasantly surprised by January… with mild temperatures, sunshine, and still no shortage of things to do! One of which has been watching the croakers. Monday night they were out in rare form. The weather was perfect, so we had a family pow-wow on the dock and entertained ourselves with their presence.

It looked a little something like this…

We’ve been watching the croakers for about a week now. They swim against the tide, and have been most prominent when the tide is at its peak, either coming in or going out. Monday night the tide was coming in and they were facing/swimming south. The tides are fascinating. The croakers are fascinating. All of nature truly is fascinating to me. We had a great time soaking in the wonders of the multitude of fish swimming at the dock. And Justin, as you can see in the next couple pictures, is as swift with a net as he is with a gig. We were able to put a few croakers away in our deep freezer and we hope they come in handy when snapper season opens.

Paiger was all over the minnows and the minnows were all over her.

Of course, baths followed Croaker Fest.

Ahhh, it’s good to be here. I’ve been thinking a lot about coming to this place and posting, but life is full, and life is busy, and there may be a touch of chaos in the mix too. I can talk myself out of sitting down to post about 9 times out of 10, mainly because I feel my responsibilities elsewhere take precedence. These three little children seem to grow up overnight. As many of you know, they come with great responsibility and in the last few weeks I feel my position as wife & mother have left little room for much else, which is ok, because this is where I am now. One day I know I will be lonesome for my precious children, so while the responsibilities are great the rewards are far greater!

We are also making great efforts to wear out our suitcases. We are still living at the beach, with our main home 200+ miles away, and we find ourselves attempting to be here {the beach} which is where we live 90% of the time and still manage a home and business that are there back home. I’ve often felt like I’m either preparing to travel {packing} or recovering from travel {unpacking & laundry}. The kids are so resilient and never show signs of being affected by this going-back-and-forth life we live right now. They are eager to go and equally as eager to return, and for that we are so grateful. They make it easier on us, and anything that makes this easier on us is appreciated! We are still loving living here at the beach and all it has to offer, but I would be amiss if I didn’t admit that I miss my friends, church, and Community Bible Study. I remind myself these are all things to look forward to when we return home. And while we are living in a somewhat unpredictable situation, still unsure of how long we will be here, I am thankful for the promises of God and His unchanging word, and how it becomes afresh again and again. Last week I read and prayed through Psalm 139 and it was such a sweet encouragement to me… he searches us, he knows us, he hems us in & he never leaves us.

I took the kids to the park on Sunday afternoon to play and an added bonus of our park is that it’s also waterfront. Despite a dense fog, we had a blast, I sat in the sand with a book and they enjoyed a frisky little kitty that wasn’t afraid of the water and literally followed us everywhere.

I’m also reading two books right now, the one pictured above, Last Child in the Woods and Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Spy at my mother-in-law’s high recommendation.  Both non-fiction, both thought-provoking, both encouraging… but in different ways. I’ll report back when I’m finished reading.

Backing up to December… we packed up and headed to the brown house the week before Christmas, and then we packed up again a few days later and made the journey to Illinois to spend Christmas with Mom & Daddy Boy and my extended family. Its a hike to get there, especially loaded down with Christmas loot. It had been over a year since we had traveled there, and when you have growing children that great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins hadn’t seen in over a year its worth any heartache to get there. Erika {my twin sister, if you happen to be new} already posted on Christmas here. Her pictures for the most part tell the story and she has many more than I do, but I will add a few of my favorite things from Christmas…

:: Christmas Highlights ::

A night with friends celebrating Christmas with a fire, carols, & Christmas stories before journeying north–family {love, love, love ‘em}–Bingo–Dirty Santa & soup on Christmas Eve–the schoolhouse–Cousin & George’s “Christmas sweaters” from JCPenney–Christmas morning chaos–snow–tractor rides– Daddy Boy’s never-ending projects–children bundled in down jackets–the man shed & its wood burning stove– food–the triplets–sunsets–fires

That’s all for now and I’m going to try not to be a stranger!!

A big thank you to Beth & Anna at Viv-Vah-Chey for our Christmas cards this year!!

This if my favorite version of Come Thou Long Expected Jesus by Red Mountain Music… if you have time to listen, please do!

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Hello folks! I’m here to report that I should do nothing after dark, that includes typing on the computer. I told Christy Reid, the very kind and gracious writer who wrote the article about our family in the Mobile Bay Magazine,  that the Maple Cinnamon Pecans go back in the oven the second time at 200 degrees but really they go back in at 300! I thought I double checked everything, but somehow I missed this typo. I made them today and was going by the magazine recipe and realized the mistake. I let the magazine folks know, and they’re going to update the website. There are just a couple copies of the magazine floating around… if you’ve clicked over to the blog because your pecans are still sticky, I am so sorry! At 300 degrees they will get bubbly in the oven and then you’ll set them out on parchment to dry and they will actually dry. At 200 they stay a little sticky, still edible, still delicious, just a little sticky!

I also, inadvertently, left Christy out of the equation yesterday when I mentioned the kind folks at Mobile Bay Magazine, she is a very talented writer and we are so grateful for her story! Justin {my blog editor-in-chief} tells me all the time I need a class on syntax, I may see if Christy can help a sister out!

Pecan post {with proper temps} coming soon…