The Bright Eyed Brunette

We spent the day before my Dad's surgery (9/20) swimming and visiting with him. He knew it would be his last time in the pool this year. It was plenty warm! I believe it was around 95 that day. Not exactly fall-like temps! Going shopping at Walmart with these two always proves to be interesting.  I finally cut my hair! Well I didn't cut it but I had it cut. I'd say a good 7 inches, maybe more. It looks and feels so much healthier.  Makena got her Halloween costume in the mail last week. Now we just have to work on her car decor for Trunk Or Treat! While my Dad was in the hospital, we kept Toby. He is the funniest, sweetest, most silly dog ever. I was pretty happy when he got to go back home Sunday night though! He liked Carlie a lot too! When Trey and Carl go check game cameras at the farm, I usually get pictures like this. Of course it makes me a little sad because he looks so grown up. He loves being "big" though. ...

The other day while on lunch break from our homeschooling, I heard a commercial that said something to the effect of "Stop the harassing phone calls from bill collectors. Call ### and press the reset button."  We have been struggling financially and there seems to be no end in sight.  Our house is in desperate need of a new floor but there is just not enough money to fix it right now.  My parents have been nothing short of life savers for a good while now and I know that it has to be getting old for them. If I let myself dwell on these things I would absolutely drive myself into a hole. Depression is very real and for someone who already suffers from depression and anxiety, this can push you to the edge. So I go about my days, pretending that things are okay, giving tests and teaching life lessons (although most days I don't feel qualified because I'm FAILING at life), helping my parents and grandparents when I can, preparing for my Wednesday night Discovery class...

My Dearest Trey,      Where has the time gone? Just yesterday you were a little boy riding your little red fire truck through the house pretending to be a fireman. Now you are as tall as I am, looking more and more like a man and less and less like my little boy. I am so proud of you.  As you enter your teenage years, there are a few things I'd like you to remember. Character Matters "A good name is more desireable than great riches: to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." Proverbs 22:1 Integrity is important.  Be the man in private that you display to the public. Love God.  Respect others. Be honest.  Show yourself true to your word.  These character traits will take you far in life. Keep Your Mind Pure "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." Psalm 119:9 With more freedom and access to technology, you will have more opportunity to view images, read books, and watch  movies that are...

Last Friday night the family and I loaded up and headed to our rival town to watch some football! Now since we are homeschooled we don't actually "have" a team per say, but we always cheer for my high school alma mater. So we were all, "Go Birds!" for this game. It was the first game of the season and a big game for our county. Since we were the visiting team we were all squished in a small section of bleachers. A lot of people were standing around a fence that surrounded the field...it was a big (nonconference) game. We got stuck very close to the where the high school students sat (ugh). Spoiler alert: the rival team won for the first time in 27 years!The game wasn't really exciting to me at all. I would rather people watch anyway. Do you want to know what I saw? The equivalent of a bunch of robots. Now yes, as a whole everyone was wearing the same colors to support our team BUT this... well just let me tell you how it was. This is just mostly for the girl...

Wow, this summer really did fly by! We spent lots of time at the river, pool, and finally the beach. Because we ordered our curriculum a few weeks late we put our start date off a week later than we normally would have...and those appointments that I talked about in my previous post. Here are a few pictures of our weekend before back to school: Makena wanted her desk painted, so of course we waited until 4 days before school started to do it! Grammy made the most delicious fried apple pies! Grammy also fixed us breakfast for dinner one night.  Of course it was delicious!  She loves our family well and we are thankful to have her and Papa actively in the lives of our children. We also went to the river with my parents and the Simpson kiddos. The boys could have spent many more hours building things in the sand. We went to visit Carl's parents in Wynne and got to meet his great-nephew for the first time.  He is the sweetest little baby. ...

I am a procrastinator. I know this but rarely try to change it. I feel like most of the time my best work is done at the last minute. So in true procrastinator form, I waited until the last minute to schedule our bi-yearly/yearly appointments. So here we are the week before school starts and we have had dental appointments and yearly check ups....all in one week (we still have eye appointments next week). You know what I hate about these appointments? When the appointment is rolling along, nurses and doctors rattling off this and that and then they start talking school and you mention that you are *homeschooled*...and then crickets.... For example, yesterday Carlie had an appointment for ovarian cysts she has. No biggie; it was mostly to just get some refills on her meds. She was wearing her senior shirt so we started talking about plans and then the "where do you go to school?" question comes up. I pretty much expected it. When you mention that you homeschool in any clinic...

We made a quick trip to Gulf Shores, AL last week and had a blast! Of course it wasn't nearly long enough, but I think all five of us made our time count.  Carlie is still our little group activity leader. She likes to browse venues and suggest things that we all might like to do.  I shutter to think about our family vacations as we know them ending soon.  If all goes as planned (haha) she will be starting the Baptist Health School at the beginning of next July.  It is a scary thought for this Mama, but more on that in another post! We left early Monday morning and came back Thursday night.  Carl and Carlie both worked on Friday...boo! I think that is the shortest time Carl has been off for vacation, EVER.   Here are a few pictures I took while we were down on the coast. Due to our circumstances, I was determined to spend more time enjoying my family than taking pictures of my family enjoying vacation, does that make sense? Ready to be out o...