Category Archives: general

This morning, at about 10:05, I almost got a perfect shot of Dave crossing the finish line of the Minneapolis Triathlon 2011…

I had a beautifully clear shot, turned away for a minute, and all of a sudden the announcement, “Dave Horsman, from Bloomington,” – 10 minutes before I expected it! – had me scurrying to compose a shot of the finish line, and the lovely gentlemen on the righthand side of the frame. Bummer.

Oh well. I guess the camera mounted on the ladder there, was getting a photo of each athlete as they finished. Hopefully we can get one of Dave.

Anyhow…

Dave finished the race!  In just under an hour and 45 minutes too. His time for the swim was 16:09 (his goal was 20 min), the bike, 52:06 (his goal was 1 hour) and he narrowly missed his goal for the run by just a minute and 22 seconds, doing it in 31:22. Wow!  Here he is just seconds after crossing the finish line, rehydrating and feeling grrreat!

You’ll notice the word LIFE embroidered on his headband. (You might be familiar with The Silent Siege?) We believe in LIFE for every unborn child, and to us, adoption is the logical solution to the ending of abortion here in America. We’re at a crucial time in history. The Church, in particular, has the opportunity to rise up and essentially say, “We want the unwanted.”

I’m going to be bold and say that every Christian couple/family should prayerfully consider adoption.

And if you’re unable to adopt, then prayerfully consider helping adoptive couples/families. Give financially! You can still donate to Olive Tree Adoptions and help Dave reach his $5000 goal by going here.

‘Nuff said.

Way to go Dave. You’re our hero!

So…now that my hundreds of photos are finally off of my camera and onto my new Mac, I can’t find them.  I mean, I can find them – I can look at them – but I can’t figure out how to import or export them. Booo!  (I’m booing myself, by the way, and not my new computer.) And actually, I probably could figure it out, but it’s 9:30 pm, and putzing around on a computer when I’m tired is not something that I enjoy doing.

Anyhow, summer continues to be lovely.  The boys just finished up two weeks of swimming lessons.  They rocked it and I got some great pictures of them and everyone by the pool, but those will have to wait till next week.  Tomorrow I’ll be getting us packed up for a very spontaneous trip down to IHOP in Kansas City.  We couldn’t pass up some free lodging that was offered to us and the chance to eat Chick-fil-A.  Yum!

See you next week…probably 5 pounds heavier.

Ah…summer, how I love thee.  Freckles.  The lingering smell of sunscreen. Towels drying on the patio.  Eating outside.  Sun-bleached hair.  (You should see Noah’s!)  The yummy, sleepy feeling that envelopes you at the end of a day spent entirely outside. Mmmmm.

So, it’s just dawned on me that as a homeschooling mom, my perspective on summer vacation will be entirely different from that of a mom whose children go to school.  Right now, I really do feel like I’m on vacation.  It’s been so lovely to have noting to do but be a housekeeper and mummy and not a schoolmarm!   I could really get used to this.  :-)

Dave and I are committed, though, to homeschool through the next school year.  Yes, it takes a lot – A LOT – out of us, but we’re loving the connectedness (is that a word?) that we feel as a family.  It’s worth it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to blog more about this sometime. Hopefully being the key word.  I can’t make any promises…I have five kids y’all!

I have tons of photo’s waiting to be shared too.  Right now they’re stuck on my camera (almost 1000 of ‘em!).  Our computer died a while ago, and Dave’s laptop is in serious danger of crashing if I upload anymore onto it. But never fear, Dave has ordered us a new MacMini and it should be here soon, so stay tuned.

P.S.  Going to Fort Snelling tomorrow, a local living history museum.  Excited!

What’s this?  A rare photograph of the blog author herself!  And, yes, I got my hair chopped off.  It’s been way too long since I’ve done this.  I love it!

This is by no means a great photo, but it gives you a little glimpse of what we saw this morning across the way at our park.  A doe with her brand new little baby fawn following on very shakey legs.  It was so cute.  At one point the fawn even laid down for a rest and I had a great opportunity to snap a better photo, but my CF card was full!  Doh!

Lego, lego here and there
Lego, lego everywhere
On the floor and in the sink
And even with the milk I drink

I CANNOT stop reading this book.  It’s so incredible.  You must read it.  Seriously.

Check out our new wall decor…

I’m feeling rather proud of myself for actually getting some 8x10s of the kids developed and mounted on the wall.  Well, Dave did the mounting on the wall part.  Aren’t they lovely?  Quite the most beautiful art specimens ever to grace a wall in my opinion…but I’m a little biased.

Ah, the weekend.  Not that parents of five can actually have a relaxing weekend (although tonight we’re off to a friends birthday party with only the baby in tow…fun!) but it’s nice to slow down a bit. Life is busy and hectic and crazy and hard work right now but also full of those ‘ordinary miracles.’   (It’s about time to make another one of these!)

…After reading the last couple chapters of Charlotte’s Web and writing a letter to Charlotte’s children to tell them about their mother, we’re watching the movie.  The 2006 version with Dakota Fanning as Fern.  The kids are teetering back and forth between loving the visual effects of Charlotte building her web and disliking the fact that “everything is happening too fast.” 

We made it through last week with only Noah and Elijah falling victom to the stomach flu.  I was pleasantly surprised, since this thing is spreading like wildfire, and very thankful. 

Anyways…duty is calling.  Lots to do.

P.S.  The song “Ordinary Miracle” in Charlotte’s Web reminds me of this.  I’m going to watch it today and probably bawl my eyes out.  My kids are growing up way too fast.  *sigh*