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Life lately: April edition

29 April, 2016; Filed Under: family & home

The month of April brought my first completed 10k race, weather beautiful beyond compare, fun times with family, new adventures, and happy news: we can finally announce grandbaby #2 is on the way, due in August! Didn’t big brother Carter do the best job with this announcement of his little brother-to-be?

grandbaby announcement

“Perfect happiness is a beautiful sunset, the giggle of a grandchild, the first snowfall. It’s the little things that make happy moments, not the grand events. Joy comes in sips, not gulps.” -Sharon Draper

Good reading

books:

  • The Language of Hoofbeats – by Catherine Ryan Hyde :: This story struck a chord with me as a foster-adoptive parent, particularly in relation to parenting a foster teen girl. That, and I’ve always been a sucker for horse stories. Anyway, good writing and a heartwarming story.
  • The Art of Racing in the Rain – by Garth Stein :: I’m also a sucker for dog stories. This one told from the perspective of a wise dog who hopes to come back as a human in his next life. {Contains profanity}
  • The Language of Sparrows – by Rachel Phifer :: Sweet story centering around the unlikely friendship that develops between a grieving teen girl and a lonely old man. {Christian fiction}

around the web:

  • A Letter to my Other Children :: Sharla put this into words so well.
  • 4 Absurdly Easy Things I Do That Make Life Disproportionately Better :: A whole lot in life is complicated. But simple things can be bigger than we think.
  • I can solve for X but I can’t do my taxes :: What do kids really need to learn?
  • The truth about hospitality :: I love this take on the meaning of hospitality.

on the blog: (in case you missed ’em)

  • Rethinking creativity :: I’m getting creative about creativity.
  • 6.2 Miles for Mercy, Island Style! :: A race, a hula skirt, and a parrot hat.
  • One year ago: Homeschooling is awesome. (Except when it’s not.)

Happenings at home

As in the quote above, I like to find joy in the everyday things, to sip joy like I sip my ever-present mug of tea. I think that’s crucial for learning to live simply. So I try to appreciate things like the places I get to see while running. Makes lacing up and heading out a bit easier. Sometimes I post #scenesfrommyrun on instagram, too.

scenes from my run

My most delightful new adventure lately is kayaking! I’m learning how much I have to learn. Not just how to paddle well, but how to get where I want to go (and back again!), whether high tide or low is better, where and how to launch the kayaks, how best to transport them… so much! Even before we moved I knew I wanted to start kayaking — and God put us a few houses down from a sweet couple who are avid kayakers and have volunteered to teach me. {Happy dance!}

kayak

This month I went ahead and got standardized testing out of the way for Scout. Although the state of Georgia only required homeschoolers to test every three years, it’s required every year here in North Carolina. We’ll do Kathryn’s towards the end of May.

When the kids aren’t doing school — which doesn’t usually take much more than a couple of hours each day — we’re outside as much as possible. They both ride bikes, skate, or just run on the street in front of our house every day it’s nice enough weather. Often, we all walk or bike down to the beach or the waterway, too.

kids fun

Our town had an Earth Day celebration where the kids got to talk with a beekeeper, meet a couple of permanent residents of our local bird rescue center, learn more about sea turtle protection, and help beautify the park by planting flowers in the butterfly garden.

reading to her brother

I’ve been gearing up for some school changes with Scout next year, which I’ll talk about in more depth later. This, combined with the fact that I believe 7-year-old boys benefit more from free play (Legos! Bikes! Lizards!) than traditional schoolwork, means I don’t do much sit-down work with Jem right now. Which means he likes to volunteer to everyone who will listen, “I never do any school.” So I cringe and try again to explain to him that school is more than workbooks. {sigh}

Little Free Library

Although one-on-one time with every age is important, it can be harder to accomplish in the teen years, and I’ve learned from experience that these years will fly by; in the blink of an eye, Kathryn will be an adult. Our favorite things lately: exploring the town (we found a Little Free Library!), going out for lunch, or just taking the dogs for a stroll down to the beach.

Happy weekend, friends.

Linking up with Kris today.

Jamie

Wife, mama, homeschooler, dog-wrangler. Introvert who finds joy in good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Fitness enthusiast and strength coach. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand.

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Shelly
Shelly
29 April, 2016 12:13 pm

Aww, congratulations! And your grandson is adorable!

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Jamie
Jamie
Author
Reply to  Shelly
29 April, 2016 12:50 pm

Thanks, Shelly! He is pretty doggone adorable. 🙂

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Kerry
Kerry
30 April, 2016 7:59 am

Thank you for sharing! Exploring on foot is so much fun, you get to see all the little things that you miss in a car.

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Jamie
Jamie
Author
Reply to  Kerry
30 April, 2016 9:53 am

Yes, it’s so easy to miss in a car! Thanks for taking time to comment. 🙂

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Mother of 3
Mother of 3
1 May, 2016 8:00 am

That is the cutest baby announcement! I love that. We had my older son (who I think was around 1 at the time) wearing a “I’m the big brother” t-shirt at a family cook out (that we invited everyone to) and just sat back and waited to see how long it would be before anyone noticed.

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Jamie
Jamie
Author
Reply to  Mother of 3
1 May, 2016 8:34 am

Ha ha, that’s great! I love hearing all the fun announcement ideas everyone comes up with. 🙂

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