Thanks so much to those who wrote notes of encouragement following my downer post of last Thursday.  I appreciate your words of wisdom and encouragement and it allows me to think of someone other than myself on those days and I can lift you up in prayer!

This past spring we set a goal for Grace to run a 5k this year (maybe I've said that already?).  Well, that race came to pass yesterday.  She ran in the local Race Against Breast Cancer.  This was our first ever official race last year, so we were happy to put Grace in it this year.  Matt kept the other girls and the dog entertained on the sidelines while I ran with Grace.  Our training for her was horribly inadequate.  What with doing "long runs" for short runs, it was hard to motivate ourselves to take her out for a mile or two on our off day.  Anyway, that background to further show how proud I am of her for finishing.  Her training consisted of one 1 mile run a couple of weeks ago and one 2 mile run this week.  She was very nervous Friday night and Saturday morning as we got ready, but she did a great job.  We ran along at a decent pace and I just kept encouraging her forward.  As we entered the third mile she kept saying she was fine, but her face was all "You've got to be kidding me...another mile?!"  We reached the finish in a time of 36:07.  I was very pleased with her, especially since her two previous runs had been at a much slower pace.  (And, yes, I was all about her just finishing this race, I wasn't concerned about her time.  But, I also wasn't very excited about the prospect of running a 15 min/mile with her the whole way.  )  Due to our finish time, and due to the fact that there were some really fast kids last year, I really didn't see a need to stick around for the awards ceremony, but Matt thought we should, so we did.  As they started announcing, they got to the female 12 and under category and said that there weren't any participants.    I did some investigating, like a good mama bear.  Turns out there were several girls 12 and under who ran; apparently the lady doing awards either had a bad print out or couldn't read.  Well, lo and behold, sticking around for the awards paid off....Gracie got the gold!!!  Way to go, girlie!!!!  So proud of her!





Chandler lost her first two teeth this past week.  She's been waiting sooo long and was sooo excited to lose 2 in a matter of a couple of days. 

 
(I was having some photography issues yesterday and could NOT get my camera to focus the way I wanted it to, so this is the best picture I got.  Yes, she does look frightened by that gigantic mouth coming up behind her.  No, she's not in any danger, that's just her very strange father trying to get into the picture.)


I finally got around to taking some Back to School photos a week or so ago.  Here they are...

Grace - 4th Grade


Emma - 2nd Grade


Chandler - 1st Grade


Ellie (who apparently fancies herself a super-hero) - Preschool


Lastly, a current photo of the puppy, Miss CoCo Chanel, who is still a sweetie, but is much more feisty than when we brought her home! 





That's life in our house!  Have a great week!

It's been a long week.  In fact, it's been a series of long weeks.  School got off to a fabulous start almost two months ago, but the past few weeks I've just felt that we need a break.  But I keep pushing forward, not being able to justify a day off (plus...it would mess up my neat and tidy lesson plans...heaven forbid!).  And every Thursday seems to get rougher and rougher.  Add in some mama hormones which feed daughter hormones (even though they really shouldn't have them yet) and it's a long and exhausting day. 

I pinpointed part of the problem today.  I want to be a fun mom.  I want to laugh and play and do fun things with my girls.  Or at least make fun opportunities available to them, even if I just sit by with the camera and "document" the event and laugh from a chair under a shade tree.  In the summer, when school is out for weeks on end, I am that fun mom.  We go and we play and we all love it and I still have time to keep up my housewifery.  But once school is in session, fun mommy seems to go away for about 9 or 10 months.  By the time we finish our school work, I need to move on to my duties as a homemaker and the girls are sent to play by themselves.  And I hate that.  But there just aren't enough hours...  Today we escaped for 15 minutes at a Sonic playplace after a long walk with the puppy and I enjoyed my children.  But then we got back in the car and chaos ensued once again.

I have thought much about whether or not it would be any different if we enrolled them in school.  I really don't know that it would.  I would spend the whole day doing what I want to do, and I'm unfortunately not the type to transition easily out of that mode.  Then I suppose we would need to come home and do homework plus go to any activities the girls may be involved in.  I don't think lack of home schooling is the answer.  At least this way I am spending time with them and by nighttime they are able to relax, have fun, even if it is only with each other.  I know the answer lies within me...in the Holy Spirit abiding in me...

I hate to be a downer.  I feel this is such a depressing post.  Sorry!  Matt told me to take a day next week and go on a field trip with them.  I think I will, even though it will completely mess up the lesson plans I spent days entering in the computer.  *sigh*  It will be worth it. 

Tonight, as I was relaxing, I came across this blog again.  And she says exactly what I'm feeling.  But without being all depressing.  I used to write like this.  I want to write like this again.  But it takes time to hone that skill that seems to have escaped me.  And time is what I don't have right now.  So, like my aspirations to improve my photography, dreams of improving my writing will wait also.  Even so, it is so good to be reminded that tomorrow is a new day and His mercies are new every morning.  God has seemed distant lately, but I know He is still there, unchanging, eternal.  I trust that His mercies and His grace will come like the dawn and that He will use me for His glory, even in the lives of the little girls that see me for who I really am yet still love me.  He is good.