Days To Remember G's Blog

Saturday we went to Downtown Disney to check out the Lego area and visit the splash pad. The kids loved both areas. Maggie particularly liked the Splash Pad. Enjoy!

The following song is like candy to my ears. I call it my EAR CANDY! Not sure if you have ever had that experience with a song but it just really allows me to sense everything about it. Crazy huh?

This week on the way to and from taking Hezekiah and Eli to school we have been listening to a CD a friend had sent me a few years ago. Anyhow, I have been loving it because it sets me in such a wonderful state of worship while on our ride. It is really soothing, but also awesome to hear my little ones sing along and get those precious words in their hearts and minds. Anyhow, I was looking through some pictures of Maggie Beth and remembering her birth and just praise God for her, that umbilical cord was wrapped around that sweet little neck twice and her heartbeat kept fluctuating and My God protected her. Oh, I just want
to declare the beauty of the Lord. He is so faithful! Here are the lyrics.

We Have Come To Declare

by Shane Barnard

Your heart was torn

Forgiveness was born

Yet through your pain

You called us by name

That we would be free

Yes free indeed

Free to run with you and be all that you created us to be

In you it is true we are free

Oh, we've come to declare the beauty of the Lord

Declare the beauty of the Lord

Oh, we've come to declare the beauty of the Lord

To Declare the beauty of the Lord

Hallelujah, we sing Hallelujah,

Yes we praise you oh Lord singing Hallelujah

We are free Oh Lord we are free

This morning we visited McKee Botanical Gardens, I had gone there years ago to a senior student banquet when I was teaching. It is really a nice garden to visit. My favorite part is the Hall of Giants and the outdoor Spanish kitchen. I really love it and it would be so awesome to have a party there and a dinner party in this hall. I love the huge Mahogany table and the structure of the building itself. The outdoor Spanish kitchen also looks like it would be a fun place to cook a meal. Anyhow, here are some pictures of our morning get away.

Friday we visited Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. You use to be able to take a tour of their facilities, but since the hurricanes in 2004, they had a bit of damage so they are not doing the tours right now but hope to do them again in the future. They have an interactive area there for the kids and has information on the research they conduct at their Institute. Hezekiah came home Tuesday from school with a fever. So we went to the doctor Wednesday and got Tamiflu and he had not ran a fever since Wednesday evening. Since the doctor gave us an excused note up until Monday I decided we should have some fun and not stay cooped up at home, so Page came along with us on our adventure. We had such a good time that today we visited McKee Botanical Gardens.

Today was Eli's first day of preschool.  He was super excited and his face was beaming with a smile from ear to ear.  He has waited for 2 years now to go to preschool, watching his older brother attend.  Walking his older brother to his classroom each day and then picking him up from his fun day away.  But now it is Eli's turn and there was no turning back.  There was not even one hesitant bone in that little boys body.  He got in the classroom and he found his cubby and put his bag away, went on in and started playing and planted kisses upon Page and I and he was fine!  I was a bit surprised I have to admit, I thought for sure there would be a bit of hesitancy.  But no, he was so excited.  So, since the little guy was so content Page, Maggie Beth, and I took off.  I really felt such a weird sense of accomplishment, with two little boys now in school.  I also felt this whole welling up of a new stage though, kind of surreal and it makes me a little sappy.  I miss my little guys a lot (and really that is an understatement).  It really gives me teary eyes to think about it.  They have been so much apart of my life that it is difficult to share them with others, but it is important for them to learn and make friends and right now with Maggie Beth at the age she is she is a pretty needy little thing wanting to be held by "Mooo MY!" as she would say.  So, I am pulling some apron strings these days and oh my it is a difficult thing and it gets me choked up a bit.  

When I picked up Eli from school today he was still beaming from ear to ear.  He had a beaded necklace on and a picture that he had made at school today, it was a flower he had made and he billowed as he got into the car, "Mommy, I made this flower for you and I am going to make one for Daddy tomorrow!"  Again, a proud but tearful mommy.  I asked him how he liked school, and he smiled and said "I had fun!"  He said he read a Curious George book, played on the playground, and has a new buddy Garret.  He had fun making his flower and he said he also made a heart.  He has 6 girls in his class this year and he has one other boy with him, Garret.  I think he and Garret will need to pair up and stage a coup against dress up.  Crack me up!  Anyhow, he has some cute kids with him in his class and he is already looking forward to tomorrow.  Since he looks forward to school, it definitely makes it easier on Mommy. 

What a milestone we have come to this 13th, day of August 2009, Hezekiah's 1st, day of Kindergarten. The emotions of allowing him to go to Kindergarten, seeing him all dressed with his backpack and uniform just makes me proud, giddy, and weepy all at the same time. It boggles my mind the immense love that I have for my child. I often think about God and His amazing love for us and just wonder how it must have felt for Him to be separated from His Son, Jesus. And also for those He has created, us to be separated from Him because of our sin. Now, I know Hezekiah is only at school 6 hours of the day. Six hours that we are separated . . . . but man he is just my little buddy. When I think of him there are just so many precious memories from birth 'til now that billow forth into my mind that make me smile and make me just want to kiss his little soft forehead. I miss my little man. So how much does it break our Father's heart when Jesus on the cross took upon our sin, He was separated from Jesus at that point because our Father cannot even look upon our sin. How beautiful that our Lord sent Jesus so that through Him we may be ONE with Christ and no longer be separated from Him. Oh, how I know how much my heart wells up for my little one going to Kindergarten and how much love I have for him. It amazes me more that My God loves my little tyke even more than me and is his Protector, his Guide, and his Shield. A part of me wants to keep him to myself. I wonder if God wanted to keep Jesus to Himself. (Of course not, His plan was much bigger!) I am thankful God has given me the strength today to let my little boy walk through those doors of his Kindergarten classroom. I am a proud mommy today, but yes a bit weepy. How amazing it was to be the first mommy in line today to pick up my baby and hug him and say, "Now, we are going home baby." When we arrive in heaven I can just picture God embracing us with His almighty love and welcoming us home. Oh, how I can learn from God about His amazing love.

Ephesians 3:14-18: For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and the depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

So, I asked Hezekiah how he liked school and he said he got to listen to African music and it was like Madagascar. He listened to it while he laid on a carpet (quiet time). He also said he got to play with some candy puzzles, fire engine puzzles, and tools with screw drivers. He told me they read a book and that he did not get to finish his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He also said they got to play outside and there was a yellow slide and some rings. He told me he made two new friends, but does not remember their names. After we got home though he had a bit of a meltdown telling me he did not want to eat lunch at school because he did not get to watch a show. (I let the boys watch a cartoon at lunch). I informed him that Eli did not get to watch a show today either, and that seemed to make everything fine. All in all I think he did fine. Mommy, me, well I am still thinking 6 hours is a bit too long. Therefore, I had a little extra cuddle and hug time with my little man. Oh, Kindergarten what do you have in store?

The new superhero look is here. Eli walked out of his "quiet time room" this afternoon wearing this outfit. I said, "Well, Eli you are the most adorable cat I have ever seen." I was informed, "I am not a cat Mommy, I am a superhero. I am Cachoung." Whoever Cachoung is? So, just in case you were wondering this is the new look for this fall season in regards to superheroes.  P.S.  He wore this to Kid Fit today.  Silly boy!

A little Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie dough anyone? Our family will do anything for a bit of ice cream. Ben & Jerry's in our town was having their 3rd Birthday today and celebrated with a ice cream eating contest, and awards for best tie dye, chubby hubby, ice cream face, etc. and they were also giving away free ice cream to anyone's whose birthday was in August or whose name was Ben or Jerry if you had a legit birth certificate or driver's license. So, I am game for free ice cream or having a good time with tie dye. So Eli and I sported our tie dye t-shirts and received free coupons for the next time we go for ice cream. The kids and I love the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, Maggie Beth pretty much devours my ice cream. It will soon be time for her to get her own cone. Eli had a coupon for ice cream tonight since he got an award from Book Bucks at the library, so he enjoyed some free ice cream tonight. There were also clowns and a magician. Fun time!

We have been wanting scones and cream for awhile so yesterday we got our ingredients to make our blueberry scones & cream! The boys and I had a good time, but it did take a bit longer than I had anticipated. It took us probably a good hour from start to finish (including baking time). Page arrived home just in time to eat a scone right out of the oven so we had a scone party. It took a bit longer for our scones because we did make a streusel topping and we also had to make the cream. However, the cream I made I did not like. Page made another one later this evening and it was awesome. Anyhow the recipe for these wonderful scones is from joyofbaking.com (blueberry streusel scones) and there is another recipe I found that I am wanting to make which is Lemon Blueberry bread again on the same website. I could not get my scones into a triangle shape so instead we made biscuit shapes. I did find this nice scone pan in Palm Bay this past weekend though while Page and I were on a date, but I was not going to pay $35 for it. Maybe a prize for the future. The recipe for the Devonshire cream for scones was found by Page. I made another one it had rum extract and I think I put too much in it, I did not like it. But the cream is 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1 Tablespoon of powdered sugar (or more), and 3/4 cup of sour cream. Whip the cream until you have soft peaks, add powdered sugar and whip more, and then add sour cream and beat until fluffy. Happy scone eating!

Well, the water slide day was canceled, but plan B was go to Chic-fil-A. So Cindy, Adam, and Charity made it to Chic-fil-A to play. Again, sorry no pictures. But last night I went to scrapbook night at church. I have not been in over a year and had a good time. Got 13 pages done! Yeah, hooray! But it is pathetic that I had to plan a month in advance and write it on my calendar so that I would not forget about it. Tis life! So, this morning I asked the boys if there was anything that they would like to do and Hezekiah said, "I want to scrapbook." So, I got out my supplies and each of the boys made a page. So now my secret plan is to have them do all my scrapbooking for me and I will never fall behind!!! Crack me up! But they really did a great job. They selected pictures themselves, placed them, put the sticky tabs on, and put stickers on! Then they went outside an helped Page with his reloading of his bullets, sizing and cutting the bullets and a bunch of stuff that I really do not understand..........but they had fun. So it was a morning of passing on our hobbies to our boys,while Magpie napped.