phases

I smiled while blogging this..do you know how many phases my life has passed through with kids? A BUNCH, yet like the moon I still do the same things over and over and over...like this project.. My last time to help with the "phases of the moon".

Seth did a great job!!

Lunch with those I love!

I miss my Granny Holt SO SO much! She was my friend as well as my grandmother. Last Thursday I was able to go to Pickwick and have lunch with this group of people, some of my Granny's most favorite people in the world!! Her sister, Willie Mae (along with husband Floyd, daughter Katrina, Daughter-in-law Donna and granddaughter Ally), and her brother George (along with wife Katherine), nephew Robert Earl and my dad, her son, Marion (along with his wife Clara Ruth) most all pictured above.

It was so wonderful to be with them all. Sure wish Granny could have been there too!! My Granny would have had her birthday, her 89th birthday on the thirteenth of this month.

Compliments

This past week I was standing outside of Scott's office retelling a situation with one of the girls. Sarah(pictured above) down the hall in her bathroom had stepped out to listen. As we talked about the issue and the direction we needed to take Sarah said this:

I really didn't realize it when I was a teenager, but ya'll are WEIRD!!(we smiled, thinking we have been called much worse) I never realized you have WEIRD communication skills!! Other parents don't do that!

Scott immediately replied, "There's only two of us, we gotta stick together!!"

The truth is simple, we have worked hard to maintain the level of communication we need to maintain this big bunch of kids. It is not only convenient to know what is going on, it is a MUST! That maintaining requires many many hours of our week, but it has proved invaluable at times!

So I am now taking compliments that include calling me weird:) Well, in a good way!

Life

Scott's Uncle Howard, age 92, passed away last week. A more incredible man you would be hard pressed to ever find! Howard served in WWII and then worked for the VA hospital for many many years. A servant always, a Christian always, a friend always....a brother, husband, uncle, cousin, a man of many names all of which where good! He exemplified the Fruits of the spirit...truly! He will be very missed!!

We left Savannah right after school on Friday and traveled to Murfreesboro for visitation and then the funeral on Saturday morning. Friday night Chelsae and Bo came to spend some time with Grannie and Pa and visit at the funeral home with family. I so appreciate their love, the love they showed by making the effort to come and be with family. We only saw them for a few minutes, and I did spend those minutes taking pictures.






The only words for these three is MESS...as you can so obviously see:)


On Saturday morning John, Jacob and Sarah drove up to the funeral. Again, I cannot tell describe the sweetness of seeing my kiddos choosing to be there for family! I know we had "lots" of people with us, but it seems so very telling when it is truly a choice (because the little kids did not have a choice) to see my older children stepping up. I love them!!


This is a slight re-enactment of Sarah's passing out at the graveside. Pa Bill was standing beside her and she did not actually fall. The last words Sarah heard were Pa Bill's "Sarah stand up" and she said, "I thought I was standing up!". Scary for Pa who then realized she had passed out. Pretty scary for everyone!! I think it was a combination of an ear infection and locking her knees. She recovered and was silly enough to take this picture with John.


Me and my Scott, I love his so so so so much!!!!

Who Am I?

Commitment. Integrity. Doing the RIGHT thing.

Psalms 25:20-21 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

Doing the right thing, the things we know are right? HUGE HUGE HUGE!! As Christians we are to keep our word, our commitments, to live a life of integrity and plain old DO THE RIGHT THING! Living that life shows that we are walking with Christ. Our character is defined by the way in which we keep our promises and strive to live right before the Lord and before men. This person, the person we show the world? The answer to the "Who Am I?" question.

This week we had a "Who Am I" moment at our house. Those moments, while seemingly easy to define on paper are so hard to see at times when we (meaning everyone) cannot back up and see the big picture of our life. Often that big picture is just blotted out by selfish wants.

Tasha made the middle school softball team. We are very proud of her and her hard work! The same night I stood in the freezing cold to listen to the parent meeting Tasha came to me with a cheer leading form. I had just finished that softball parent meeting where the coach explained we have two weeks until the first game. He of course intended a lot of work to go on in that short period of time.

As I looked at the cheer leading form I just shook my head. I told Tasha I would talk to dad (which I immediately did) and found he and I were on the same page so I called Tasha back to the living room to talk about it. It seemed very cut and dry to Scott and I. I explained we have no problem with her "trying out" or even being a cheerleader and had those try-outs been the week before softball? We would have been fine with her doing both. But, to try-out now would mean missing an entire week of softball and that was not okay. In our minds it was not okay even if the coach agreed, but we felt it was in poor taste to even ask. So our words to Tasha were simple. "It's YOUR choice....you are on the softball team, but it you want to try out for cheerleader? Fine, quit softball and tryout. It's one or the other because you are committed to softball and you cannot leave your team hanging a week."

I suppose I could spend about 19 paragraphs highlighting the comments, pleading, begging, anger, frustration, stomping off and the returning to revamp all the previous arguments. But I will spare us all and say this...it was the RIGHT thing. Scott is always quick to point out that life isn't fair and we truly cannot do everything we want...but we can choose. Choice is huge and sometimes hard.

I am proud to say that Tasha's immediate response was "I am not a quitter!!" We knew that about her. It is one of the reasons she made the softball team...her will is strong! Her words that made me smile? "Call dad and change his mind, he's your husband you can make him change his mind!!" :) I explained I would never try to do that when I agreed with him.

Tasha chose, although she did not feel it was choosing. To her it was awful! To us, to looked like that choice was made with a whole lot of commitment, integrity and just doing the right thing! I think(know)she would tell you that doing the right thing is not easy, or fun and sometimes just makes you mad! She would be absolutely right. Sweet/neat/awful/wonderful/hard lesson to learn at 14.

It's in parenting that we have such a huge responsibility to see that our children learn these lessons. It's a standard they have to learn to place on themselves! We help/force/make them choose and we are the sounding board/judge and jury so often in their young lives. I do know that easy or not, doing the right thing is just the right thing!!!

A Full Weekend!

Friday was tacky day at the elementary school. I do believe Tori (who totally dressed herself) took tacky to a pretty high degree:)


Saturday found us playing LOTS of basketball!

Scott and Seth had a 9:30am game:



Sarah was in Florida with Paden to see Paden's new nephew:


Tori had a basketball game at 11:30. She has a remarkable team this year, so far, with only two games left in the season they remain undefeated.


These girls...my trio of Bella, Lita and Tasha...had a game at 1:30 (which I did not got to...dad did). We were trying to leave for Memphis so I went home to feed the other kids lunch and pack the van.


We drove to Memphis to watch the Lady Tigers play in the sub-state. We lost, sadly. I am so glad we were able to go and support the girls! The lighting in the Memphis Central gym was outstanding!! LOVED taking pictures:)



We stayed the night in Memphis, the kids loved that! We swam in the pool before bedtime:





Sunday morning we ate at the hotel, the kids loved making their own waffles (I wonder how much those industrial waffle makers cost?). We then worshipped at the Germantown Church of Christ. Ironically one of the first people we saw as we walked in the door was Cary Duncan, one of our friends who worships with us in Savannah! He was there with Debbie (his sweet sweet wife) visiting their son. The Germantown family had a guest speak, Mr John Deberry, of the Coleman Avenue Church of Christ. He was really outstanding!

We lunched at Pizza Hut and traveled up to Millington to see Carlton.

We picked up Carlton visiting Sunday at the ranch. We stopped at McDonald's for ice cream Sundays. Can you believe 12 Sundays only cost 13 dollars? A pretty good deal!




This is Ryan in every single picture...until I threaten consequences..

These next two? So typical. Tasha hamming it up and Tori mad. Tasha happened to sit in the chair Tori wanted. Tasha was by no means nice enough to move and give it to Tori and Tori was by no means willing to let the unkindness go, so she pouted. As a mom I am sometimes at a loss as the which bad behavior to choose?



It was a long but really nice weekend! Loved getting to drive in the SAME VAN with Scott! I cannot tell you how long it has been since we got to do that! May sound silly, but I sure did enjoy it:) Now, a big week is ahead of us!

Smotherman Rocks

I found this neat shirt and created it on Ink Pixi. A neat shirt for my drummer John!

John was home from school today getting a shot and x-rays. Over the ski weekend John had a pretty bad fall on the slope and was not recoverying as he needed to be...guess we'll see. Posible broken ribs...aka..no fun!