Thursday, September 24, 2015

Five Years Ago

This was my life five years ago. This cutie was home with me all day, everyday.

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We took walks by the reservoir. We stayed home and played. We were together all the time. It was glorious.

It still is.

Five years ago little Anna came home from third grade and did some homework.  I made her smoothies and muffins and we chatted about her day.  It was such a happy part of our day.

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While I kept Abigail quiet and busy so Anna could do her homework with things like playdoh.

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Anna practiced viola (look at how wittle her viola was!)

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While Abigail jumped on the couch.

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Five years have past and my heart, my life, my days still belong to them. Completely to them. Not much has really changed in five years.

I still

love to be home

to be their mama and his wife

to work every day to make our home a place of comfort and joy

to draw closer to the One who knit us together as a family.

Yes, five years have past and not much has changed. And that makes me happy.


Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Abigail and School

I talked a lot here on this blog about last year for Abigail in school. She struggled a lot with symptoms of her disease and so she struggled a lot in school. Pretty much when you wake up with your "tummy hurting" (for real) and a lot of the time eating hurts it's just plain hard to get through a day of school. But that little girl of ours has so much love bottled in her and so much enthusiasm for life that all that 'hard stuff' just gets washed away.

This year could not be going better! We adore her teacher. (Anna had her years back when she was in third grade too) I actually wrote her teacher a letter this fall telling her all about her influence on Anna those years back. How sharing her own adoption story melted Anna's heart and how she saw forever what a gift being 'the one adopted' in a family really was. So of course when Mrs. Anderson was on the list for Abigail's teacher this year we all screamed!

This year she's talking about recess and reading and how Mrs. Anderson "hides learning." Which pretty much means to me that she's a super creative teacher if Abigail still thinks it's all fun! (and I know they're doing some challenging things by now)

Last Thursday night I got to go to Curriculum Night (open house only for parents) Scott couldn't be with me because his school was having their open house on the same night. So I told him I'd take phone shots of anything that wasn't coming home.

Abigail was super excited about Curriculum Night.  She had prepared so many wonderful things for me to see (along with the talk that Mrs. Anderson would give explaining everything about the year)  She bubbled over that afternoon and days ahead with "you'll have to guess where I sit."  "there are clues and you'll have to go around reading them"  "And then wait til you see my desk!"  "and my writing binder is in there, I finished decorating that. You have to see it."  On and on!

I love the beginning of the school year. The excitement, the clean and sparkly desk, the name tag still new, the binder all tidy. And the way it pours out of her work. I love it all. Just a few things I loved about that night that she had left out for me...

All of the name tags were flipped over so that you couldn't read the names (super cleaver) and this was the letter that let me know it was HER desk.

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(Chicken Noodle Soup is really called "Abigail Soup" in this house. Love how she even changed the name of that soup so that it would be more fun guessing)

We had to send in pictures for her to decorate her writing binder. This is how she decorated it.

Front

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Back

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Inside (ideas to write about)

This nearly took my breath away.

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(I'd say she ran out of time because she left out some important people and ideas .... but God and Jesus... love that in big bold letters for things that fill her heart)

I had to text this to her Auntie Jackie... yup... she's a pretty cool Auntie.

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And how much does her toes peeking out of her sandles look? Love this!

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See, they look exactly like her sandals. (this I took months ago)

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And that dress? Yes, she has a blue dress with a big sparkly star on it.

On the cover of the packet of parent stuff. It just oozes with a joy filled third grader.

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And one more "guess who". This time a poster.

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I love September. Back to school. Newness. Crisp mornings and cozy evenings (now that they're finally here) It's all so good. Once again. I'd like to ask for it to all slow down. This is a happy time in my life. And I'm grateful to God that I KNOW that these are the happy days of my life. Right now I'm not living in the "I can't wait" or "I wish they were on my hip still" (well, maybe a little) They ARE still little. They are my sweet girls. And that's one of the reasons why I blog. To prove it. See those toes on the portrait she colored? Prof positive... she's little!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Weekend Recap

The weather has turned.  We're still wearing shorts but a light sweater feels sooooo good!  It's pretty much weather perfection around here.  I'm not bragging on Connecticut.  Come and talk to me in March and I'll tell you Connecticut has the worst weather in the world.  It's really because March is the end, dead end of a loooong winter.  By the time it's March we are so tired of sweaters and fire places all night and hats, mitten, scarfs.  And we are longing for warm days in the sun.  But now, in September I'm so glad we're done with warm days in the sun.  I'm so glad to take out the sweaters.  And oh by gosh by golly, jeans soon! And right about now (and in May & June) Connecticut is the most wonderful place to live.

Friday

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(Anna's face when she found the piece...)
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Saturday

(math)
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(I take pictures of how they play and what they play and I wish I did waaaaay back then. It's so that I can remember)
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(she was so proud of the little apartment she created on top of the bakery)
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(cousins over for dinner)
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Sunday

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(riding her bike... lesson two ... in Laura Ashley)
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(sewing napkins... in my vast spare time)
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Monday, September 21, 2015

September Means Apple Picking

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This year we picked up the cousins.  Because we love them.  And because we outgrew the toddler hay maze.  And we happen to have a toddler in our family.

Anna read apple books

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To this sweet boy

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If that's not fall... what is?

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Happy

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Anna's face here... yup... she's pretty much delighted in him.

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My postcard picture. I loved how she was leaning against the wagon right there in the middle of the apple orchard.

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He pretty much ate off the trees the entire time.

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While his sister did cartwheels.

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Something about her face here looking like she's growing up.

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Yes, apple picking in September is a must here in New England. And the apple pie that follows is a must as well...

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