{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.
*Joey and William will be guests here on the blog as they document our Nature Challenge journey for 2016.
The Challenge: Attend the Celebration of Flight (we were not able to make it on September 24th for the kids’ day so we joined in the celebration on the 25th).
W: We went to the Celebration of Flight. We saw hawks migrating.
J: I saw hummingbirds before I even saw a hawk. They were very cute and they were next to the hummingbird feeders. I knew what attracted them at that moment.
W: I saw them first and I pointed them out to Joey.
J: No, you didn’t. Daddy pointed them out to me.
W: Well let’s just assume that I did.
Me: Boys, focus please.
J: We got up to the hawk watch platform and pulled out our binoculars. There was a lady there who knew a lot about the hawks and she helped us find and identify some. I also knew that the lady we met last year must be there somewhere. She was! I was happy to see her again.
W: We saw both ladies?
J: Well, we saw a lady from this year and a lady from last year. So…if you’re talking about a different lady from last year, I don’t think so, but the lady that taught us about thermals last year was there. We talked to her. Don’t you remember? She told us about the tree that has leaves like sandpaper.
W: What? Ooohhh, yeah, I do remember that. And I remember her.
J: After we did some hawk watching and drawing, we went for a walk.
W: We went exploring and Daddy said, “Look!” and we went down a secret passage.
J: It was very fun except I didn’t like the part with the very tall grass. On our way back from the walk, we smelled smoke.
W: It was the beginning of a Native American blessing. First we got blessed.
J: They were burning sage and they used the smoke to give us each a blessing. It was like incense. Then the Native Americans did some singing. Then they did some dancing. They were blessing the hawks’ migration and also sending our prayers up to be carried to Heaven with the hawks. It took almost forever for the ceremony to end.
W: It was very fun to watch them sing and dance.
J: There was a Sun and a Moon represented in the dance.
W: After the ceremony we went to hold snakes. There was a Mexican Milk snake, a Rat snake and a Western Garter snake. They were fantastic. I love holding snakes. There was a lady there who said she was gardening and she stuck her hand in the garden and suddenly heard a rattle. It was a rattlesnake! She told us never to stick our hands into a place where we can’t see what we’re touching because there could be snakes. I think that was good advice. Okay, until next time!
Outside my window…these three are playing happily. {Enter sigh of gratitude here}
I am remembering…a quick visit with friends this weekend. We were honored to be invited to watch Hannah and Rebecca at their swim competition and then we drove out to the beach to splash around for a bit. Dax and William were thrilled to have the opportunity to learn and play Cricket thanks to Tim’s brilliant idea of bringing along his cricket bat and wickets.
I am thankful for…the week we had along a creek that was tucked into the side of the Mark Twain Forest in Missouri. My heart is joyful, my memories are beautiful, and my hard drive is full of incredible photos that I want to share with you. I just need a moment to catch up with my thoughts and reflections. 
I am watching…Joey use the stencils I had as a kid. I remember many rainy afternoons in my childhood with my stencils and my handy crayon box by my side. 
I am listening…to the MacGyver (clarification: the original MacGyver theme song…not sure what the new MacGyver theme music is but the show is certainly not the same so we’re skipping that and still watching the original on Amazon Prime) theme as Katie climbs up and down the playset.
I am wondering…which of my kids had my camera and took this silly shot.
I am laughing…at the contradiction in this picture. A bathing suit with an umbrella? 
I am reflecting…on gratitude and how it’s woven into the inner seams of my life as I ponder my next post for Corpus Christi Moms Blog. (Did I send you over here yet? My picture on there? An excuse to pick up a new shirt during Talbot’s huge shirt sale!)
In the schoolroom…reordering my way of thinking as I journey through Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles. I never realized what a Herbartian educator I am! Changes are afoot.
Around the house…well…the washer had an issue in the middle of the night on Sunday. The repairman just made it out today. That’s a lot of laundry stacked up and waiting to be run. Hate to admit just how reliant I am on that beast of a machine. Shhh, please don’t tell it I called it a beast…I really need it to cooperate.
In the kitchen…gluten free sugar cookies. I hardly ever buy gluten free mixes (they’re so pricey) and I rarely ever buy anything from Immaculate Baking (cause they’re, well, pretty pricey) but for some random reason (which I am not about to question) my grocery store had a blow-out sale on Immaculate Baking’s gluten free cooking mixes…as in $1.24/mix. That’s cheap in the gluten free world! I stocked up and we are enjoying our stash.
I am wearing…today it’s black shorts and a red faded Gap shirt. BUT last week, I was impressively dressed with this beautiful skirt my sister made me (although sadly for the skirt, I paired it with the same faded red Gap shirt I’m wearing today…it really didn’t do the skirt justice, so I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a different shirt to wear next time). 
We are preparing for…Halloween. Decorations are out. Costumes are being assembled. Now I just need to turn their minds toward the meaning behind the celebration as we should be spending our time preparing our hearts for All Saints and All Souls Days.
Someday I am going to miss…conversations like this:
(in the car on the way to Yaya’s)
Katie: Mommy, I NEED you.
Andrew: No, Katie, you don’t NEED Mommy. You need water and food.
Joey: And air.
Mommy: And shelter.
William: Oh yeah, you definitely need shelter.
Andrew: Why?
William (sounding extremely serious and looking like the perfect know-it-all): Because without shelter, you could die from exposure.
Joey: Oh no, what’s that? Exposure?
William: I have no idea.
I am listening…to The Little Paris Bookshop. I love the idea that books can heal our souls.
One of my favorite things…Katie’s heart touches. Ever since she quit nursing (on her 3rd birthday), she always asks if she can give me a heart touch. She kisses me just below my neck and then covers it with her hand as if to seal it. I am going to be so sad when our heart-touching days end.
A peek into my day…caught these two loving each other during Bible time the other day.
Please visit The Simple Woman’s Daybook for more daybook entries.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.
It’s easy to think that voting is just about the here and now. And the here and now feels like it’s more about me raising babies than me being political. But the truth is, voting is about the here, the now, and the tomorrow, the future. My vote affects the future of my children. The future of my grandchildren.
See, that guy (or gal) you voted for (or maybe voted against)? He starts to change things. Sometimes monumental things that have lasting effects.
Take, for instance, Abraham Lincoln. He forever changed the slavery status in our country. Bet there’s a mighty big number of folks who are grateful to the folks who voted in that election.
Does that feel too far removed to relate to? A more relevant topic might be where a presidential candidate stands on abortion. Maria Gallagher, a pro-life supporter, tells how she once voted for Bill Clinton never realizing that his Supreme Court nomination of Stephen Breyer would one day affect the women of Texas in a way she couldn’t morally support.
Really, if for no other reason, you should vote because the future of our Supreme Court lies in this election. Pop on over to Corpus Christi Moms Blog to finish reading my thoughts on why THIS election year is so very important…
Dear Stacie (the younger version),
I went to a restaurant tonight where once upon a time you went. You were 17 years old, fresh with hope and full of life. I walked past the booth where you sat and I could see the ghost of your seventeen year old self, laughing with friends, sitting thigh to thigh with your boyfriend. I saw you throw your head back as you laughed, your eyes bright with delight yet hesitant at the moment. I saw the way you looked at that boy as if the world danced just at the sight of his presence, your mind thinking of a million ways to save his soul, as if you actually possessed the power to save him from himself. I saw the way you pushed your hair behind your ear, insecure at your own presence, wondering what you’d say next. I saw you hesitate after you spoke, wondering if maybe that was the wrong thing to say. I saw how you chewed on your lower lip, leaning in to listen to your friend across the table. A nervous habit, one bred from years of being different, unable to relate to the conversations that teenagers typically indulge in. Yet there you were…trying. Not quite ready to accept who you were, but not quite ready to conform either.
I want to pull you aside and offer you the wisdom that I have now with age. There are so many things I wish I had known then that I know now.
I want to tell you (you, the people pleaser, the eternal optimist about broken people) that you can’t fix it all. It isn’t your job.
I want to tell you that YOU are defined not by what others think, but by what you think.
That moral compass in your heart? It’s guiding you. Listen to it.
Don’t sell yourself short. You are amazing just as you are and anyone who wants to change that should be ashamed.
The way you can carry on a conversation about literature and ideas? That’s not weird. It’s beautiful. Too bad for the people you meet that are too shallow to converse that way.
Your insecurities? They are rooted in deception. You are light, dear girl, shine.
This path that is paved with peer pressure? Sadly it will follow you your whole life. Right now it’s drugs, partying, drinking (Don’t give in! Hold firm to whatever it is you hold dear!) but later it will be careers, money, child-rearing. There will always be some fad, some trend. Hold steady…it’s not about them…it’s about you. It’s you that you have to lie down with each night. Only do the things that bring you peace.
Your soul isn’t to be gambled. Hold tight to your beliefs.
Have no regrets. Allow your mistakes to change you, to refine you, to guide you, but never allow them to dominate you. To drive you. To lead you to regret. There are no shoulds in life…only the promise of a better tomorrow.
Trust in yourself. Stop questioning your every move as if you don’t have an ounce of intelligence. You do. Trust it.
Be grateful. Every day. Find five things you are so grateful for and wax poetic about them.
Stick close to your family. They know you now and they’ll know you twenty years from now and they’ll know you forty years from now. And the amazing thing is…they’ll love you the whole way, so don’t push them away. Let their love lift you up when you feel lost.
Keep a journal. Always. You’ll want to look back and see how much you’ve changed and grown. You’ll want to see the big picture.
Choose wisely. Choose prudently. Choose carefully. But for the love of all that’s good, choose. Just choose something. And then stop second guessing yourself.
Fashion trends change. Inner beauty does not. Spend more time worrying about cultivating your core, not worrying about your hair, your clothes and your make-up.
Make your bed. Every day. Trust me, a well-made bed makes any day look brighter.
Stay busy. Productive busy. Playful busy. Relaxing busy. Just stay busy.
One day you might find yourself in a position that requires self-less love. Give it freely. Don’t hold back. But remember you need nurturing, too. And I don’t mean you need to be nurtured (although that certainly won’t hurt). YOU need to nurture you. Give yourself a break. Cut yourself some slack.
That perfectionism that is driving you today? Yeah, years from now, it’s going to cause some major upheaval in your life. Let it go. Take Voltaire’s advice: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The world will still spin despite your imperfect attempts. Plus, no one is really paying attention. So LET IT GO.
That book you want to read? Read it. That movie you want to watch? Watch it. That place you want to visit? Visit it. That dream you’ve been keeping close to your heart? Live it. Carpe diem. Really.
There are moments you’ll want to relive. And there are moments you will not want to relive. Savor the good memories, release the bad. It’s okay. You are not defined by your moments. You are defined by the essence you emanate.
Your kindness, your creativity, your thoughtfulness. Let those be your allies. Let them stay close by. Even when someone down the road mocks your goodness, hold tight. The world needs more kindness, more creativity, more thoughtfulness.
Your worrying? Some days it is what drives you. But just remember that what you’re spending hours worrying over right now will be replaced by some other worry next week, so is it really worth losing sleep over?
That desire to control? It’s elusive. Learn to go with the flow.
Your heart needs to be guarded. It’s not meant to be given lightly. And it’s only meant to be given to someone who truly deserves it. So stop breaking off chunks of it to hand out randomly. Save it for that someone who will, one day, earn it.
18 years from now your life will look very different than what it does now. You will have grown up, gone off to see the world through idealistic eyes, had your heart broken, experienced college life, fallen in love with a man who actually earned your heart, had babies of your own that make your world seem a million times brighter than you ever imagined. You’ll have changed your mind, questioned your beliefs, doubted yourself, believed in yourself and ignored yourself.
The question is will you find yourself?
Sweet girl, you are the essence of naivety, the spirit of hope, the eternal fountain of believing in good. Don’t lose that. Just learn to be smart about it.
Hold steady to your values, your beliefs, your dreams. Even when you give away your heart and your soul to a man who adores you and children who call you mommy, tuck a little piece of the old you in that newly transformed woman. Because that girl that was once seventeen years old? She was pretty amazing just as she was. Let her light shine. The world will be a better place.
Love, Stacie (the older but wiser version)
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.
*Joey and William will be guests here on the blog as they document our Nature Challenge journey for 2016.
The Challenge: Explore Harriet’s Garden and the yard behind the mansion. Use the plant markers to locate the plants in your mission. Complete the worksheet. Observe the plants and flowers. Sketch your favorite. 
After Goose Island State Park, we headed over to Fulton Mansion although we ended up on a very scenic tour because somehow we drove right past it the first time!
J: After a loooong mosquitoey morning at Goose Island State Park, I was glad to go somewhere that we could go inside. First we all ate lunch outside the museum. We all remembered a funny tale from last year’s nature challenge when Andrew accidentally cut up the direction page for a craft inside the museum (Mommy fixed it, so all was well). He just got so carried away with his scissors that he didn’t realize what he was cutting!
W: I ate peanut butter and jelly with some grapes.
J: I ate beef jerky.
W: Then we went into the museum where they told us to head over to the mansion before it closed. I decided to skip the stroller and walk up the stairs by myself.
J: No, silly, we went down the stairs to the basement first!
W: Oh, yeah, remember how neat the the basement was. Remember the dumb waiter?
J: What dumb waiter?
W: The one where you put the food on it and pull it up and it goes upstairs.
J: Oh the dumb waiter. Not the dumb waiter! It must have been nice for the servants to have a whole basement all to themselves.
W: We went upstairs to the main two floors and got to play an I Spy game as we toured the house.
J: My favorite room was probably the bedroom although it would have been fun to go lie on the bed. I played the I Spy downstairs first then I went up the stairs and I was not scared one tiny bit. I played I Spy upstairs and when it was time to come down the stairs, I threw a fit because I was scared. I am scared to go down the stairs because I’m scared of heights.
W: Good thing we don’t have stairs in our house!
J: That’s true, but Daddy didn’t let me sit on the Fulton Mansion’s stairs like I do when I go to Granny and Pappy’s house. Daddy kept urging me down and then I held my hand and he promised not to let me fall so I was able to go down the stairs.
W: Next we headed over to the museum.
J: I definitely loved building that bridge with Andrew!
W: I helped Granny dress the mannequin and I got to dress up as a cowboy! Then we took Granny’s picture with her head on top of the mannequin. It was funny!
J: It was a good thing I brought my Ironman Lego into the museum with me because then I got to help Ironman cross the bridge after I finished building it. I kind of liked watching Granny dress the mannequin even though I don’t get all excited about that kind of girl stuff. I dressed up as a cowboy which was really fun.
W: Then we finally went outside to the grounds to do the Nature Challenge.
J: We had to find the plants and write their scientific name in the garden. My favorite plants were the firecracker plant and Turk’s Cap.
W: Mommy made us all get together at the end so we could have our picture taken. I loved having our picture taken but I did get a little annoyed because Mommy kept saying one more! One more!
J: I really liked going to the Fulton Mansion. The day at Rockport was full of fun! I’m already looking forward to next year’s nature challenge!
*Joey and William will be guests here on the blog as they document our Nature Challenge journey for 2016.
The Challenge: We chose Challenges #2 and #3:
#2: Complete a Scavenger Hunt. 
#3: Become a nature detective to find out who lives at Goose Island State Park by walking along the trail and looking for clues the animals leave behind. Draw the clues and write down what it was. 
On September 4th, we headed to Rockport, TX to complete our next Nature Challenge. Granny was in town and William had just had surgery 3 days before (that’s why you’ll see him cruising along in the stroller).
We arrived at Goose Island and checked into the Ranger Station. We picked up our scavenger hunts and headed for Turk’s Cap Trail.
J: As soon as I entered the trail, I saw Daddy pushing the stroller as fast as he could and running at top speed back to the trail head. I thought there was a rattlesnake at first but then Daddy said it was so mosquitoey, we’d need bug spray. Daddy whipped out the bug spray and sprayed us all but it didn’t help because there were so many mosquitoes. It seemed like every time we stopped, they started biting again. I got at least a thousand bites on my leg (well, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration!). Near the end of the trail, I got the bright idea to run as fast as I could to the end of the trail. I barely survived those mosquitoes. As for the scavenger hunt, I noticed things as I was zooming by. I did pretty good on it.
W: I was covered in mosquitoes and I complained about it a lot! I pulled up the cover on the stroller so I could observe nature from behind the screen. I saw a gopher hole where I think he was digging for grubs. I haven’t been in a stroller on a nature trail in a long time!
J: William, to the gopher those grubs were “buried” treasure!
W: Ha, ha, ha!
J: Once I got off the trail, I was able to fill in my scavenger hunt. Last year when we got off the same exact trail, we got lost and we did not know anyway back although somehow we stumbled on the car. This year we got lost again but I already knew from last year how fun it was going to be to find the car.
W: On the way back to the car we saw a red Cardinal (a male and a female). There was a bird watching spot and we stopped there to listen and watch quietly. Joey, is the male the big one and female is the cute small one?
J: The bright red one is the male and the reddish brown one is the female.
W: The ugly reddish brown one? And is the female bigger than the male?
J: Well the male has a crest and the female doesn’t. I don’t know if she’s bigger than the male or not, but I know how to tell the difference.
W: Well I know that one is bigger than the other and I think it’s the female.
J: I just looked it up and the male is slightly larger than the female.
W: Oh thanks.
J: Even though we’d already completed our challenge, we went to visit the Big Tree. It’s more than 1,000 years old!
W: No, I think it’s almost 1,000 years old.
J: Don’t make this into an argument!
W: Let’s look at the picture and see if it says…
J: Neither of us were right! It says exactly 1,000 years old on the By the Numbers sign, but on the timeline, it says the acorn was planted around the year 1,000 AD, so that would make the tree actually 1,016 years old. I was right!
W: Wow! That is one impressive tree!
J: It really is awesome! And by the big tree there are a lot of other big trees that are good for climbing. At first I thought another one of the big trees there was THE BIG TREE but then I realized that the one enclosed by a fence was the real Big Tree and although it wasn’t taller than some trees I’ve seen, it was sure big and fat and it had a lot of branches. But don’t climb over the fence to climb it! We wouldn’t want anything to happen to a tree that old.
See you next time to tell you about Fulton Mansion’s Nature Challenge!
I knew, before I’d ever even spoken to him, that one day he’d be my husband.
I can’t exactly explain it. I just knew. I watched him walk into Dr. Tillinger’s Tax II accounting class one day and I just knew. I’d never even directly spoken to him, but I knew. He was written in my heart long before I even knew him.
I had a class with him the previous semester and somehow our paths never converged. In fact, I completely misread him. I thought he was a foreign tennis player. I guess because he sat next to a foreign tennis player. So much for assumptions.
The next semester I walked into Tax II and noticed him again. You have to imagine that Tax II wasn’t exactly a sought after class. In fact, I’d be lying if I said there were more than 15 people in there. There were three u-shaped rows, each a little higher than the previous one. Daxson sat center front row, our mutual acquaintance, Regina, sat center middle row and I sat center back row. He answered a question in clear English without the hint of an accent. So much for being foreign.
One day I was cramming to finish an assignment before class began and I looked up just as he walked in and I knew. I knew. And I thought I was just crazy. I hadn’t even spoken to him. But it was as if time froze for that moment and something whispered in my soul. He’s the one.
I ignored the whisper.
Time passed and I forgot all about that moment. Then one afternoon there was a bit of a panic before class over an assignment. Regina asked for clarification and while the exact issue eludes me, I just remember Daxson replying, “No silly.”
Hearts flashed before my eyes. Over the word silly. Who knew I was so easy to win over? So I leaned over to the guy next to me and whispered, “You know who I think is groovy? That Daxson in the front row.” And my quest became clear. Tax class now had a double challenge…pass the class and find an excuse to talk to the guy who casually used the word silly in a sentence.
My opportunity soon presented itself. Daxson and I had another class we were both taking, although at different times. Auditing. I had it at 8 in the morning while he had it at a decent hour in the afternoon. I ate a taco while trying my best to stay awake each class and eventually giving in to a nodding doze while he sat enraptured by the topic, highlighting all the key points. I passed the assignments while he set the curve. Word gets around. He was super smart. I had an excuse to finally talk to him…I needed a tutor….or at least I could pretend that was what I needed (what I really needed was to stay awake and stay focused but the premise of needing a tutor seemed opportune).
After being thrown into a group assignment together in Tax, I gathered my courage and told him that I’d heard he was doing well in auditing and I asked if he’d be willing to help me out. He agreed and bless him, he pulled out a tiny yellow dictionary to write my phone number in. My heart seriously went pitter patter. A dictionary. How divine.
He called. We met at the library. He tutored me. I stared dreamily into his lovely hazel eyes.
I invited him out to a dinner with a group of friends. He invited me to join him and his friends in Concan. He made a bet with me that if I passed my auditing exam, he’d treat me to dinner and if I didn’t, I’d treat him to dinner (sneaky wasn’t it, the way he was guaranteed dinner with me with a bet like that).
Before I knew it, I was head over heels in love, unable to imagine my life without him. 4 months later he proposed. Exactly one year and two days after our official first date, we were married.
Honestly I can’t remember every detail that led us to our vows at the chapel. But I do remember thinking of that moment when I heard that whisper in my soul and knowing that it wasn’t so crazy after all. Like I said, he was written in my heart long before I knew him.
With Every Intention 