Riverbend Ramblings

Labels: Daily Life, Family Life, Special Days, The Kiddos, Travel

Labels: Daily Life, Outdoor Life, This N That

Labels: Daily Life

Labels: Daily Life, Special Days, The Kiddos, This N That

Labels: Daily Life, Favorite Things, Fun Stuff, Outdoor Life

We had a full weekend. Steven officiated a wedding on Saturday. Shay was the pianist, and I sang a solo. It was a very sweet ceremony, and we were thrilled to see the happy couple joined in marriage and to be a part of their special day. Sunday was, as always, a very busy day for our family. I needed a slow, quiet Monday to regroup.

Other than driving the kids to and from school, I spent the entire day at home. I washed and dried a couple of loads of laundry and then spent the rest of the day cleaning off my desk and going through a ton paperwork. The paper shredder got a real workout. I was worried that the motor might wear out. I have such a hard time throwing things away, but I was brutal about it while cleaning out my desk drawers. I found a receipt for something I purchased back in September 2009 in one drawer. Yikes! It feels good to have my desk all tidy, especially since it's in the kitchen.

I had one exciting moment today. As I opened the door that leads from the garage out to the backyard, this little guy dropped down from above the door and brushed against my arm before it dropped to the ground.

I admit it -- I screamed. Then I went inside and scrubbed my arm with soap and water. Just a bit of drama in my otherwise quiet day.

 

Labels: Daily Life

It is the summer's great last heat,
It is the fall's first chill: They meet.
–Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt

The calendar says it's officially fall, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the thermometer. We won't see much of a change in the weather here in Florida for at least another month. It's hard to wait for cooler, breezy days. In the meantime, I've set out my fall decorations and try to keep a yummy-smelling candle lit. It can at least seem like fall inside the house.

 

Labels: Daily Life

I took a break from blogging last week and got caught up on some things around the house that had been neglected. Most of my mini projects were simple things that just need tackling every once in a while, like the pantry. It's the room that seems to get treated as a dumping ground since it's the first room we enter from the garage. I gutted it and got it all organized last summer, but it was time to tidy it up again. Now we can find what we need. I keep food items along one wall. Paper goods, cleaning supplies, household items, and small appliances are on the shelves on the opposite wall. Apparently I deleted the picture I took of that side of the room, so just imagine that those shelves look nice now, too.

I'll add some more projects to my to-do list once the kids are back in school. Hopefully we will be sticking to just the fun stuff the next two weeks as they enjoy what's left of their summer vacation.

 

Labels: Daily Life, Keeping the Home

For those of you who prayed for us while we were on the road yesterday, thank you SO much! I'm not sure when I last felt like I needed prayer so badly. I thought I had everything planned out well for this trip, but there are some things that happen that we just don't have any control over. This is a hard lesson that I think the Lord must really want me to learn. I truly felt His hand of protection over us yesterday.

The morning started out with a snag when my truck wouldn't crank. I'm not sure if a light got left on inside the night before when we were loading it or what. Steven charged the battery, but he didn't feel comfortable sending his girls off with a potentially problem battery. The garage we use to service our vehicles was closed for the long weekend, so Steven decided to swap out batteries with the one in his truck. That took a while, so by the time we got to my mom's house and loaded her stuff in the truck, we were about an hour and a half behind schedule.

I had dreaded the holiday weekend traffic, but it really wasn't any worse than usual. Our drive on the turnpike and I-75 was going fine until an unidentified flying object hit the windshield. It sounded like a tiny piece of gravel. Suddenly, there was a crack on my windshield. It got longer. And longer. And longer. I stopped at the next rest area to take a closer look. You can't tell in the picture below, but the crack is about two feet long.

Stuff like this worries me. I like to feel safe in a vehicle. This was one of those times I really wished my husband was driving. He always does a good job handling situations that I would stress about. I called Steven, and he thought it would be safe for us to continue driving. The crack spread a little bit more during the day, but I was still able to see fine through the windshield. I'm going to check into getting the windshield replaced once our insurance agent's office opens on Monday.

We changed time zones and hit some rain as we got into the panhandle and arrived in Panama City Beach after an eight hour drive. I had some trouble getting our resort reservation confirmed prior to our arrival, so I had no idea what to expect. I'll share more details about that in my next post. For now, here are some pictures I took last night of fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico. The fireworks were postponed on the 4th due to bad weather, so we were blessed to get to see them last night. A beautiful way to end a rough day.

 

Labels: Daily Life, Travel

I'm hitting the road this morning to vacation with my mom and the girls. We've got a seven hour drive ahead of us on the first leg of our 15-day trip. I'll share more when we reach our destination. If you think about it, please pray for us as I'm sure the interstate will be busy this holiday weekend.

 

Labels: Daily Life, Fun Stuff, This N That

My hubby sent me these pictures he took early this morning. He's fishing over on the east coast today. Just lovely!

 

Labels: Daily Life

It was pretty quiet at my house this week. The girls were all at our church's youth camp. Hope and Bryn were campers, and Shay was a junior counselor. Case was happy to have the house (and all the ice cream in the freezer) to himself. Here are five of my favorites from the week.

1. I'm thankful that the girls had a great week at camp. They made lots of fun memories and came home spiritually encouraged. Hope had a little incident one day during the tube pull and slightly imbedded her braces in her cheek for a minute, but she's a tough cookie and is doing fine now. Bug bites and sunburn are all part of the experience. I'm also thankful for the volunteers who help make our camp such a great one.

2. Peace and quiet. I missed the girls, but they are NOISY!

3. A trip to the salon. There's nothing like a good color and cut to brighten your week.

3. Date night involved filet, lobster, and a sweet potato. A bit of a splurge, but it was worth it.


4. It rained just about every day this week. Some parts of the country have had severe storms, but we've been blessed. One morning it was already 81 degrees when I got up at 5:30. The evening showers cool things off just a tiny bit.

5. I had time to tackle a few projects this week. The three girls share a bedroom and a closet. The closet is a monster. It gives me nightmares. I save everything and pass it down to the next girl. The girls don't wear a lot of the clothes in the closet because they can't even see what's in there. I took everything out, sorted it, and then put back in the essentials. I have five huge trash bags filled with clothes and shoes to donate to the local thrift shop on my next trip to town. After removing all the excess, they each still have plenty to wear. Here are before and after pictures.

Labels: Daily Life, Friday's Favorites, Keeping the Home

The sky is overcast today, but I'm not complaining since it's been rather dry here lately. It looks cold out, but it's not. I spent the morning making visits to some of our church's winter visitors, and now I'm going to wrap a few presents before the kids get home from school. I hope you are having a great day no matter what the weather is like!

Labels: Daily Life

Labels: Daily Life, The Kiddos

of the paper variety. A fun diversion on a rainy afternoon.

Labels: Daily Life, Fun Stuff, The Kiddos

Siesta Key

It's been a little while since I've posted, so I thought I'd give a quick update. We've had a great summer. The kids have enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in. They all went to our church's summer camp out in the woods. We spent the most relaxing week ever at a condo on the Gulf coast. I could have stayed there forever.

I think my friends up north have over a month left of summer break. We start back to school on August 20, so the kids have just over two weeks left to be lazy. I actually won't be going back to school with them. I officially hung up my principal hat at the end of July. I'm sure I'll still have plenty to keep me busy, but I am looking forward to the change of pace.

There are some really good back-to-school sales right now during Florida's tax-free weekend on clothes and shoes. I have some $10 off coupons for Ko*hl's and hope to find the tennis shoes for all of the kids there. Wish me luck!

Labels: Daily Life, Family Life, This N That

We haven't had to turn on the heat yet this winter--until this week. Only in Florida can you go from temperatures in the 80's one day to below freezing the next. Yesterday morning the thermometer read 28 degrees; this morning it was 32. Steven got the fireplace going for us to enjoy. There's just something wonderful about snuggling up in front of a fire.
Tonight I made something new for supper that The Pioneer Woman shared the recipe for earlier this week: cheeseburger salad. So simple and delicious! I can't believe I've never come up with something like this on my own before considering I've made taco salad about a million times. The kids loved it, and I'm thrilled to have a new, easy recipe to add to the rotation. If you try it, make sure you use the crunchy deli-style pickles and quality sharp cheese; you'll appreciate the good stuff. And, if you're lucky, you'll have diced pickles left over to much on while you do the dishes.

Labels: Daily Life, In the Kitchen

May is the busiest month of the year for our family.  School gets out a week from tomorrow, and then I'll be able to visit with my blog friends more often.  ;)

Labels: Daily Life

Dusk is approaching.

Curly Girl, Lil Nut, and Mickey feed the fish.

What is she looking at?

Baby frogs!

Labels: Daily Life, Fun Stuff, Outdoor Life, The Kiddos

I love Saturday mornings.  I got up early and enjoyed the quietness of the house, spent some much-needed time with my Saviour, sipped some delicious coffee from my favorite mug while reading the paper, and now it's time to get moving.

Today I'm taking Bookworm and Curly Girl to a big piano event.  They will be judged in aural theory, written theory, and will also audition.  Curly Girl is finishing up her first year and hopes to pass the primer level today.  Bookworm will reach level 6 after today's evaluations.

The piano event is in a town about 30 miles away, so we plan on making it a "girls day out" with lunch and a little shopping later on.

For my friends who may still be wearing long sleeves today, take a look at our weather forecast and today's high.  Anyone want to trade places?

Labels: Daily Life, Favorite Things