2014

So.

Blogging hasn’t been my thing lately.

There have been a thousand other things to do, and while most of the time there was just NO time, there were moments when I thought about blogging, and felt it would be a selfish use of time. Because saying “I got a blog post written!” doesn’t take care of the pile of clean laundry that hasn’t been folded; or the sink full of last night’s dinner dishes; or the mess in the car that has become a daily obstacle course challenge for my kids to get to their seats.

But, I miss writing. And this year, my theme is GRACE…not meaning that I get to do whatever I would like with my time, but when I want to write, or have something to write about, I’m going to do it. Usually I stress over thinking of a theme or series for my blogging, or try to make myself blog on regular basis. But I’m going to practice grace, and just promise this — I will write when I have something worth writing about. Maybe it won’t even be words – just a picture. Or a quote. But when it matters, I’ll post.

January is almost always a reflective month for me. I think I get that way after the holidays anyway. But add in that I’m about to turn 34, my son will be 7, my daughter will be 5, and our son that we don’t have home with us yet, will be 3 in a week…well, it leaves me with a lot to contemplate. So I’m sure I’ll have “stuff” to write about this month.

Until then, here’s to a year full of grace and being real. 😉

Catching Up.

Clearly, I stepped away from blogging for awhile. I haven’t really had much to say, because I haven’t had much time to think! Life stepped in and got very, very busy. But don’t worry – most of it has been really good.

Zach turned 6 and Rebekah turned 4 last month, and I’m still staring at thank-you cards that I need to mail out from Christmas (yikes), my birthday (embarrassed), and the kids’ birthdays (my mother did not raise me like this!). I WILL get them sent out this weekend.

I got certified last month in Group Fitness, and got my CPR certification as well. Now I am teaching a dance fitness class twice a week at Jess Dance Studio! It’s so fun, and I still can’t believe it sometimes, since 2 years ago I was just trying dance fitness / Zumba for the first time, and NEVER expected to end up instructing! But I guess it’s true – Never say never!

Our adoption of our sweet Daniel is still happening, it’s just a lot of waiting. The Korean government is making a bunch of major changes to their international adoption policy. So there is a lot of uncertainty right now. I’m thankful that the uncertainty is about WHEN we will get Daniel, and not IF we will get him. Daniel just turned two, and we are just hoping and praying that we’ll be able to get him this year. I can’t show you a picture of him, but we just got a couple of new pics, and I CAN show you the shoes he was rockin’ in the photo:

I am so thankful, however, that while we wait, we know Daniel is being taken care of, and loved in a foster family. Not in an orphanage. So many other children are waiting for the international adoption process to move forward, and are in much more dire situations. There is an organization, called Both Ends Burning, and they’ve put out a documentary called “Stuck”. They are currently touring the U.S. and showing it in different cities along the way. But you can also purchase the documentary online. This documentary is definitely bringing to light the issues within international adoption, and they do an excellent job of making this a human issue – not a political one. Governments with their processes and red tape, sometimes forget that behind all the paperwork are children and families that need each other. Anyway, I’ve included the trailer, and if you’re near a place where it will be screening soon, please go see it!

October Photo Challenge

The October photo challenge at Rock the Shot is “Something Orange”. Luckily, there is a lot of orange found in the fall colors, as you will see in the trees in my photo. I took the kids out to a new part of our neighborhood – they’ve cleared it for homes, but haven’t started building yet, so the tall grass and backdrop of trees are great for photos. Happy October!

www.rocktheshotforum.com

 

 

 

Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there – and especially to the one in this house! 🙂

The kids filled out a questionnaire about their dad as their gift to him – thought you’d enjoy seeing their answers:

Dance Fundraiser for Olivia

Last night, three local dance instructors got together to put on a 2-hour “zumba-thon” – raising money for Olivia Menard’s family. Olivia is 10 months old, and has a rare genetic disorder which is terminal. Children who have it usually don’t live past 6 months old. Olivia’s family has to pay out-of-pocket for preventative RSV shots for the winter, and it is a heavy financial burden. Here is a local news article that explains more in detail.

In spite of it being so close to Christmas, over 100 people showed up to support Olivia’s family. Chick-fil-A even sent over a Santa cow! I was blessed to be a part of it, and got to take photos. So, I put together a slideshow of the event, and wanted to post it here. It was so great to see people coming together for a family they don’t know, and in tough economic times. We were able to raise $1350 for Olivia!

Even though the fundraiser is over, you can still donate to the family by sending a check to:
The Olivia Mae Menard Fund
c/o KS Bank
PO Box 1178
Clayton, NC
27528

Five Years…

This past weekend, it had been five years since my grandfather passed away. I put together a slide show for the funeral, and thought I’d post it here as a way to remember him. Looking forward to seeing him again some day!

In Memory of Richard Shurtz from Jennifer Thompson on Vimeo.

Hurricaned

Hurricane Irene visited North Carolina this last weekend. I was pretty excited about getting to experience a little bit of a hurricane – not really interested in experiencing the full blown storm. We got the western edge of the storm, and experienced some pretty wild wind. On Friday, I took down my hanging baskets on the front porch, moved potted plants and our trash can into the garage, and worried about whether to tie down the trampoline or not. The size of hurricane Irene was insane – it was so weird to have clouds and breezy conditions on Friday afternoon from a hurricane that wasn’t supposed to make landfall until early Saturday morning. I snapped this picture of the sunset Friday night:

The calm before the storm...

We did run to the store to grab a few things on Friday, and I wish I had snapped a picture of some of the aisles. I do not understand why the threat of a hurricane would compel people to buy every last 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke, or wipe out the cookie aisle completely. Soda? Cookies? Really? In an emergency, I’d be looking for water and shelter. I wouldn’t be hunting down the last can of Coke or be willing to kill for Chips Ahoy.

Anyway, we decided to have a movie night with the kids on Friday night, so we picked up some microwave popcorn, the last bag of cookies on the entire east coast, and a Redbox movie (The Indian in the Cupboard). We set up the movie in our master bedroom, and watched the movie in bed with the kids.

Yes, we let them eat popcorn and cookies on our bed.

Yes, I am still finding crumbs.

In spite of that, it was a lot of fun. Saturday morning, we woke up to Irene, after a long night of brown-outs and howling wind. We were pretty safe in our area of the state, but it was still amazing to watch the trees move with the wind. Several branches came down, and a few trees in our neighborhood snapped. My poor crape myrtle was really whipped around by the wind, and I ended up having to cut a ton of broken or bent branches off of it.

But all in all, we were thankful for little to no damage. We just had a messy yard to clean up. I am pretty sure the kids love hurricanes now – because it means sugar and a movie! The coast was definitely hit hard though, as you can see from some of these pictures. And the northeast has had to deal with horrendous flooding. We are hoping life will return to normal for them as soon as possible.

I had to laugh at the t-shirts now being sold on the east coast: “I survived an EARTHQUAKE and a HURRICANE in the SAME week!”

How many times can you say that?! Hopefully that will be it for awhile!

Childhood

Childhood, sweet and sunny childhood,
With its careless, thoughtless air,
Like the verdant, tangled wildwood,
Wants the training hand of care.

See it springing all around us —
Glad to know, and quick to learn;
Asking questions that confound us;
Teaching lessons in its turn.

Who loves not its joyous revel,
Leaping lightly on the lawn,
Up the knoll, along the level,
Free and graceful as a fawn?

Let it revel; it is nature
Giving to the little dears
Strength of limb, and healthful features,
For the toil of coming years.

He who checks a child with terror,
Stops its play, and stills its song,
Not alone commits an error,
But a great and moral wrong.

Give it play, and never fear it —
Active life is no defect;
Never, never break its spirit —
Curb it only to direct.

Would you dam the flowing river,
Thinking it would cease to flow?
Onward it must go forever —
Better teach it where to go.

Childhood is a fountain welling,
Trace its channel in the sand,
And its currents, spreading, swelling,
Will revive the withered land.

Childhood is the vernal season;
Trim and train the tender shoot;
Love is to the coming reason,
As the blossom to the fruit.

Tender twigs are bent and folded —
Art to nature beauty lends;
Childhood easily is moulded;
Manhood breaks, but seldom bends.

~David Bates

Exploring

Yesterday, I thought we should go to a nature trail just outside of town.

In spite of it being August.

In spite of the 100 degree temps.

In spite of a 2 year old daughter with a tendency to whine.

What can I say? I tend to ignore facts sometimes. 🙂

The nature trail was beautiful, and although is was pretty hot, we had some cloud cover and shade from the trees, so we weren’t drenched in sweat until the end.

Tyler wanted me to get a picture of Zach sitting on a bridge railing. Zach is a very cautious boy. He did not want to sit on the railing – even though Tyler was holding on to him. In the picture series below, you will take note of his death grip on the railing in the first picture. The second picture is Zach’s pitiful attempt to smile for the camera after I told him to sit up straight. The third picture was when he was able to hold onto Tyler for support – note the white-knuckled fist holding on to Tyler’s shirt.

 

We did take the chance to talk to him about being brave even when he feels scared…especially when we are there – we would never let him get hurt. So, we’ll work on that.

Here is a “family photo” we took with the camera on a timer. You’ll notice one member of our family missing. Please refer back to the statement about a 2 year old that whines. She was sitting on the ground near the camera, crying because “Idon’twanttotakeapictureorgotothecarIwanttostayoutsideandZachislookingatme” I think that covers most of it – sometimes it’s hard to decipher.

Oh well. Maybe we’ll get a family photo some day. The rest of these are just pictures I took during our walk.

 

Not three minutes after Rebekah’s meltdown, Tyler was running down the trail with the kids, Rebekah was literally being dragged/carried, and she was squealing with delight. Go figure.

So what do you do on these long, hot August days?

Beach Days, Fossils & Family

Tyler and I have never been beach people. Honestly, going to the beach was a chore in California. Not that the beaches weren’t beautiful, but we’re not surfers or body-boarders, so that meant we sat on the beach with a TON of other people. We’d get sunburned, get annoyed at the inevitable rude people who run by you and kick up a bunch of sand, and put our toes in the freezing Pacific ocean only to run back to our towel to warm up again. Not really our idea of a good time.

Unfortunately, the beaches here in North Carolina do have sand. And I hate it just as much as I always have. But the ocean water is warm – comfortably warm. We have found a beach that is 4×4 vehicles only, and on a Friday afternoon, it’s virtually empty. So we take the kids. They adore the beach.

We were lucky enough to get a visit from Tyler’s brother and sister-in-law, along with their four girls. They did a cross-country trip from California. We totally had to go to the beach. In case the beach wasn’t cool enough, we came home and set off an awesome July 4th fireworks display! The kids had morning glory sparklers which last forever, and we ate sandwiches and blueberry pie with homemade ice cream. It doesn’t get much better than that!

While they were visiting, we also went to the Aurora Fossil Museum, where we all got to dig for shark teeth and sea shells. The kids found a lot!

To cap our time with family, we spent a couple of days down at Myrtle Beach. It was a blast, but we never actually made it to the beach! The kids had fun in the pool by our condo, and we spent time eating ice cream and shopping around Barefoot Landing. Oh, and I ate crab lung by accident. Really gross, and a story for another time because I’m still bitter 🙂

We had a lot of fun, and I think many memories were made. Enjoy the pictures!