In my life this week…

First of all, did you read about last Saturday? It was a kind of a big deal: Learning what {mothering} really is.

A bit of silliness while shopping at T.J.Maxx, and my Mother’s Day roses:

Kathryn worked as my assistant on a newborn session earlier this week. She is a good and patient assistant, and she enjoys learning more of how to help me. Lindsey sometimes helps Ken with high school senior sessions, but those require a little more height in holding off-camera lighting, and endurance in helping carry equipment, so Kathryn likes the baby sessions better.

Last night, we attended a home blessing for a sweet young couple who just bought their first home, and will be married in just a few weeks. They’ve had wedding showers, so we were asked to bring something for “under the sink or in the pantry,” and guests wrote blessings or verses on sticky notes to put all over the house. Right now the young man is living in the house, and the bride will move in after the wedding. We love these “kids” but one of my favorite things about them is the fact that they are proof that letting God write your love story goes soooo much better than the usual way of doing things these days — and that’s something I really want my girls to see.

In our homeschool this week…

We finished our 180 days last week, but we’re still going. I’m calling this our last week, but really, we’ll keep going til about the end of the month to finish up Kathryn’s math, and then we may go ahead and start next year’s math before we officially begin the rest of next year’s schoolwork.

My favorite thing(s) this week were…

• enjoying a relaxing Mother’s Day, and Kathryn’s excitement in picking out roses for me.
• being reminded how blessed we are to have sweet, true, Jesus-honoring friendships
• sitting on the porch, watching hummingbirds come SO close. (Look for her in the lower right corner of the photo with the feeder)
• listening to Ken play the guitar
• spending more time outdoors in the beautiful weather

Questions/thoughts I have…

You don’t want to open this can of worms. I always have entirely too many thoughts. Just ask my husband. 😉

Things I’m working on…

I’ve started planning our next homeschool year, but I especially need to get busy with planning Lindsey’s upcoming school year, since she’ll be home again and we’ll be trying to squeeze two school years into twelve months. Yes, yes, I’ve been promising to write more about that, and I will soon — after I have this planning done!

I’m praying for…

Many things. But a big specific one is for my Dad; he is miserable every time he eats (with his gastric feeding tube) and has been more depressed lately because he just feels bad all the time. Can I say again that I hate ALS? I just learned that May is ALS Awareness Month; one rather simple thing you can do to help raise awareness is to “like” the ALS Association facebook page. If you want to do more, you could make a donation to help defeat ALS; I did this yesterday and plan to wear one of these bracelets when it arrives.

A photo to share…

I dug up this photo from my mom’s first Mother’s Day (1974).

Linking today with:
– iHN’s Homeschool Mother’s Journal
– Kris’ Weekly Wrap-Up
– Mary’s Collage Friday
– Dawn’s Camera Phone Friday
– Rachel’s friday favorite things

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »