Cross Country

Chandler is on our area homeschool Jr. High cross-country team. His first practice was yesterday in LR. Yes, to those of you who are wondering how a homeschooler can be on the track team. We do have those things. Socialization is definitely not an issue. In fact we have baseball, basketball, volleyball, yearbook clubs, drama, and lots of other "stuff". We have 3 scheduled meets this fall one in LR and the other two possibly in Conway. One he will miss due to Grandpawpaw's 100th birthday, but he'll make the other 2. He's excited, ran well, & had lots of fun. Chandler likes to stay busy...not sure which parent he got that from! ;o) As usual, Chandler gives 100%. He was raring to go and made sure he had all of his equipment with him. He wore his Garmin which lets him know how fast he runs and exactly how far. One of the kids said, "hey, cool" Then he wanted to know if Chandler was afraid he was going to get lost in the church parking lot thus needing the Garmin. We laughed & laughed. Of course he wasn't serious, but it was cute.

Clay could run on the elementary team, but not sure he's that in to it at this point. I'm sure once he sees Chandler and the other kids out there, he'll want to run. Of course Clay is Clay, he does his own thing and really doesn't care about competition the way Chandler does. We encourage both of the boys to try new things & see exactly what they are interested in.

We've started a new 4H club with other homeschoolers, and the boys are going to be involved in that. Chandler has also joined the Shooting Club which has competitions in rifle, pistol, shotgun, muzzle loader, and archery. He and a friend from church are going to do that together. Another of Chandler's friends, who is 13 & lives behind us, just won the state competition in the long bow competition over-all. He beat out even the adults. What an accomplishment! Clay wants to join the shooting club, but isn't old enough yet. He can still practice though so he'll be ready when he's old enough.

So...this week we're running, shooting, and homeschooling!

Holiday Weekend!

As soon as I got off work Friday we hitched up the tractor and headed up to the cabin. It seemed like it took forever to get there but we finally made it. As soon as we arrived I did my final inspection of the "indoor" plumbing and then turned on the water!!!!! That's right, we now have water. I have contracted a local man to dig our water lines and put the septic tank in place. Well, we now have water and the septic tank will be put in it's place this week. (hopefully the rain from Gustav will hold off for him!) I can not tell you how great it feels to have hot water to take a shower in!!!! Oh yeah!!!!

I mowed the property again and burned off some of the debris that was left around. I must say it is slowly but surely getting there. During my cleaning and mowing, I came across two "yellowjacket" nest and I got a little too close!!! I was running around the property like a mad man. Stephanie and the boys were looking at me like I was crazy and later she told me that she and Chandler were saying..." he better not run toward us bringing those things with him"!!!! It wasn't funny at the time, but I wish they would have had a video on me... we might be ten thousand dollars richer!!!!

My next trip will be to complete the plumbing under the cabin as it drains into the septic. Indoor plumbing is a glorious thing.

These pictures are a progression of the land as we have been working on it!!

Cabin Work...

Yesterday it was the "boys night out" at the cabin. On our way up there we stopped at a store in Clinton, AR that I have been dying to see. Needless to say their idea and my idea of bargains were worlds apart. We didn't leave empty handed though, we bought a sign to hang at the cabin and Clay got to pet and feed a fawn!!! We arrived late afternoon and installed the kitchen sink and new cabinets. Stephanie and I found the antique sink at a "used furniture" store. It took some work but I think it paid off!! After a few quick odds and ends we headed into town for dinner at Pizza Hut! Needless to say the boys had pizza for dinner and a "midnight" snack! Once we got back I unpacked the new toilet and put it in it's place. It will be ready to hook up as soon as the water is turned on. The rest of the evening I worked on our upstairs rails. I have been needing to do this for awhile, I have just never got to it until this weekend. I finished around one am and finally got into bed and watched the ending of a movie with Clay. The last I looked at the clock it was 2:15!!!! Thank God Steph called and woke me up this morning otherwise I wouldn't have made it to the lumber store!! After I got dressed I made myself a few notes and heading into town.

After my "quick" trip to the lumber and grocery" store I was back at it. I bought some wood to put under the stair so it will enclose the bathroom. I finished that rather quickly, then it was on to my next project of completing the interior and exterior plumbing. I now have everything ready to hook my lines up to the water meter. I will have a local man come out this week to dig my water line trenches and a hole for the septic tank and field lines. We are so close I can taste it!!!!

Cabin update

I am now the proud owner of a "tractor and bush hog"! Stephanie and I went to the cabin late Thursday evening so I could try it out on the over grown fields! Well... I think I got the hang of it after a day and a half! I finished up mid afternoon today because of a flat tire!!! Oh well, I went longer than I thought I was going to!

When we arrived yesterday we noticed that someone had been digging on our property. Needless to say, we were ticked until we noticed... It was the workers laying pipe for our WATER!!!!! Yes that's right... We Have Water!!! I am going to redo the interior plumbing (this was on my to do list, but now I will be moving to it sooner since the water has arrived!) then I have to run about 4o yards of pipe to the meter. Not too bad considering we thought it would be at least next year before we could "flush" a toilet!!

We will be heading back up there next week and I will keep everyone posted!!

Everyday Miracles?

Do you ever feel like you’re continuing life as always? Business as usual? Same ole same ole? Don’t you imagine that Peter felt that way? Fishing again, on this boat again, Day in day out, I fish. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I do. It’s just routine. I know what to expect. I have this all figured out. Then one day, Jesus, who is a carpenter by the way, tells Peter, the fisherman, to do something he’s been doing…all night…”push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch”. Peter, being just like us, has to state the obvious and says…”Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” No sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They yelled to their partners for help and they filled both boats until they were beginning to sink. (Luke 5:4-6 NKJ, MSG)

Isn’t that just like Jesus? We’re living life as usual, going to work, being a mom or dad, doing laundry, dealing with “stuff” and He comes in and says…why don’t you go to work, be a mom, do the laundry, deal with “stuff”? And we being all so wise think…what’s so great about that? That’s what I always do. In fact, I’ve been doing that forever and well…I haven’t even caught a minnow. Do we continue as Peter and say “nevertheless, at Your word”, I’ll do it? Or do we grumble and complain that life is routine, same ole same ole? Are we as Peter was? Just one regular, routine, average day or simple, obedient action away from a miracle? To our boats or lives filled to capacity? Do we miss what Christ has for us because we’re continuing life as usual and miss the adventure He has for our lives?

As I look out at the ocean with abundant life everywhere, I wonder what Christ has for me, for you. I know He has so much more that we are missing. It’s not that we don’t want it, for we do. We just get caught up with business as usual and miss the very fact that Jesus performed miracles in the very ordinary…as ordinary as a job of a fisherman casting his nets. Peter had to continue casting his nets to bring in the treasure. I hope that on days when life is habitual, tedious, and predictable that you and I remember that Jesus performs everyday miracles for those of us who are continuing business as usual. ~ST

Taking it all in.

Vacation forces me sit still for a time and think about what all I have done and what all I need to do. I know that baseball takes up the majority of our spring but my thoughts on this are... my boys are only "little" for a small part of our lives, and if this what they want to do we will support it 110%! On our way back home we will be stopping in Tennessee to pick up our new tractor so we can head up to the cabin to work there for a few days. There is always something to do. You know me... stay busy so I can stay out of trouble!!!

We are slowly waking up this morning just sitting on the balcony watching the beach come alive. The boys are slowly moving about and we are trying to figure out what we will be doing first. One problem here is the "jellyfish"! They have invaded the beach! The boys brought their skim boards to ride on the beach, but with all the jellyfish being washed up on shore it presents a problem. We think we will rent a couple of sea kayaks and paddle around for awhile. The waves are "flat" so we can not ride them either. Oh well!!!

Baseball Season has come to an end!

As the earlier post stated, we played the #1 Seeded team Wednesday around noon. I must say it started off going down a road that WE didn't want it to. As both teams were warming up outside the park one of their players yelled at one of ours a "racial" slur!!!! Yes, that's right... "get the ball "...."!!!! We the coaches went over to discuss this with their coaches and put a stop to it. The coach said that he would look into it and get back with us. He came back and said that one of their players "nick name" was ... "Chigger" and therefore we miss understood! (we all thought it was funny that the coach has never heard that "nick name" before!) Needless to say the game was starting off very badly!

The first two innings started off pretty good, they hit then we hit! They mouthed the whole time but I told our team to just talk back with their bats!!! Chandler hit a two run Homer and just walked from third to home. It was his way of saying "Back at ya!!!" Well the third inning came around and we just fell apart. It was the inning that would never end! Oh well it happens!

After that game we fell into the losers bracket and faced the OK Titans. Again, we came out swinging. We were up 4-1 in the fourth when one of their players hit a 3 run shot to tie the game. You could see the wind taken out of our sails! They scored two more and we couldn't answer back. The final was 6-4. We finished in the top 8. Not bad since we started with 20 teams.

We are now in Pensacola taking it easy and NOT thinking about baseball! (well, I'm trying not to) I have already received two calls looking for Chandler to play on other teams for next year! I think I just want to sit and enjoy my time with the boys while I have them. They are growing up to fast!!!!