Hangin’ on by a Thread….

I'm still here....
My posts are sporadic at best. I hate that...
There is so much whirling around "activity wise" here at the home. The King Fish is still traveling all week and coming home on weekends. Some weeks are great and I manage to cruise through... and other weeks like this one, I am hangin' on by a thread. He's home now, and quite frankly we need a date night. Badly. The kind where you actually "go out together as a couple". Not the "lets stay in and watch a movie" kind of date. I'll see if I can work on that.
The boys and I are winding down on the school year. It has been pretty good, and I have about 9 weeks to push through and finish strong. I am really happy with their homeschool co-op that they are participating in. I think they have learned quite a bit in Science and Creative Writing. In history here at home, the boys should have every president memorized from 1-45 by the end of the year. Yay! I am proud of them. They also should have the entire Constitution of the United States memorized this year as well.
Just kidding.
LOL!
Okay, what else can I share on here? Oh yeah, no sports this spring! Can you believe that? Absolutely none. We asked both boys if they wanted to play baseball and the answer was "Nyet". They need a break and they want to spend time with The King Fish on weekends instead of heading to a ballgame. We left the decision entirely up to them, and it was hard for the King Fish to be hands off and let that decision happen naturally. But he did, and I have to say as the mom who is the taxi driver around here... I am grateful for a break this spring. I think we all are. That doesn't mean we are without sports in 'our life.... we've been watching the NCAA basketball tournament. We all have our brackets. I won last year, we'll see if I can repeat!
Our women's Bible study is such a time of refreshment for me. I love that I am able to host it in my house while The King Fish is out of town. It's been such a blessing to study James. We literally get through about 2-3 verses a night. We go through the concordance and our cross references pulling the meaning and context together. It's amazing how fast the time goes by.
I could write a book.... but I'll stop now.
Here in the south it's going to be a beautiful weekend. I personally am planning to do a bit of shopping! Consignment and thrift store..... wahoo!
What are your plans for the weekend?

Swingset Remodel- Part 2- Building

These are a few photos of The King Fish teaching Jabber Jaw how to put the thing back together. As you can see our Small Fry was a lot younger at the time, and he’s looking on with interest.

When will this thing ever get done?? Will I ever be able to swing and slide again?

Here are a few photos of the guys rebuilding the “swing” side of the swingset. That was the side that was not even in the ground. That was the side that swayed precariously every time the kids got on a swing. The little clubhouse, and slide were in good shape, they just needed to be sanded and stained. You will probably see the new stain color in these photos. Its by Olympic and it’s a deck and fence stain. It’s called Monterey Grey. I wanted something subtle but something that looked more custom, since all the new bought swingsets out there are a type of red wood.
Anyway, in these photos The King Fish is installing this massive beam that he built! We had to get our neighbors to help out so the thing didn’t land on his head! I was safely away on our deck snapping pictures and closing my eyes during the scary parts!

Setting the beam—at least our slide was back assembled by this point.

I swear it looked like the ladder was tipping in these photos!

That brings us up to the present. The entire swingset is miraculously stained the Monterey Grey color. We even have swings hanging. But we still have to add a rock climbing wall, safety handles, a climbing robe, steering wheels for our Small Fry who loves to pretend drive everywhere, a shade tarp over the clubhouse, and perhaps a telescope for our little adventurer. Unfortunately it has rained here all week, so that will not be happening for a couple of weekends. As soon as it’s finished I’ll post the before and after pictures and photos of all the cool accessories! One good thing is we purchased the extra heavy duty swing hardware and swings so even adults can swing on this set. Pretty awesome!

The Joy of Boys

Last night we had some friends of the boys stay over. Their dad and mom were heading to the hospital very very early for surgery. To make the morning routine a little easier they asked if we could watch the boys for the night and throughout the next day. No problem! (As a side note these are friends who watched our boys while we headed to Russia on our court date trip....they blessed us tremendously!)

Anyway, last night after a watching Destroy Build Destroy (a total boys show), I sent all the boys up to bed. I had just put Small Fry down in his race car bed about 15 minutes earlier. Once everyone had brushed their teeth and gotten all PJ'd up... I had them come and sit on the beds in my boys room to pray.
Naturally before a prayer was even said there was a lot of talking. Lots of quick stories and questions....


Mrs. ____ , Have you ever skinned a fish?

Me:  Um, nope and I hope I never do! 

Mrs. _____ have your ever  used a BB gun?

Me:  Of course every woman ought to know how to shoot a BB Gun!  And a bow and arrow.  (You know since I'm so ancient living back in the days of the early settlers.  But apparently in my mind skinning a fish should not be in that skills set.)

Mrs. _____ I have a pocket knife.  Do your boys have pocket knives? 

Me:  Yes they do, and I try  not to think about that too much.

Mrs. ______  have you ever gone hunting? 

Me:  No, but my dad is a great hunter... I wonder if he ever wished I learned how to hunt.....


Mrs. _____ Do you remember when we went camping with your boys?  And Mr. _______  and my dad were cooking the fish over a fire....……  and this and that happened…… and it was so funny!


All this "boy" conversation naturally led me to ask the following question:


Me:  "Can anyone burp on command?"


Both friends could, and showed me how.  Naturally I had to show how I too could excel at such a task. My boys proudly told them how well their mother could belch if she had a can of soda in her hand.   (Aww... thanks guys... glad I make you proud.)


Tons of laughter and belching ensued.


And then I heard Small Fry and his little pipsqueak voice through the closed door across the hall.


"Boys Ki- yet."


"Boys Ki-yet!"


So, I walked across the hall and opened the door to his room. He was sitting up in his little race car bed, and asked:


"Mom, what boys doing? Tell them to be Ki-yet."


Completely bypassing the whole burping scenario, I matter of factly explained that we were getting ready to pray. (How very spiritual of me).   Would you like to come pray with us?, I asked.  He enthusiastically said "YES!". (What three year old wouldn't love the opportunity to hang with the big kids well past his bedtime?  Its a dream come true!)


So, across the hall we went.


Four boys sitting on beds across from each other, Small Fry in my lap. Heads bowed praying for their dad and mom, their dad's upcoming surgery and thanking God for the opportunity to have them stay with us. And then each one went  to their separate rooms, and climbed into bed.  Small Fry jumped into his race car bed and snuggled into his covers. 


One last "Goodnight everyone" ...... and all was quiet on the Southern front.


What a sweet moment....

For more Tuesdays Unwrapped… visit ChattingAtTheSky.com

Swing Set Rebuild … Part One Demolition

This is our old swing set.  It wasn’t too sturdy.

 

See those cinderblocks on the right side.  The swing  set wasn’t even sitting on them anymore!  If my big guys decided to swing, the whole set would rock back and forth…. looking like the entire thing would tip at any moment.  I never let the neighborhood kids play on that thing….. it just was not safe!

So, we began the demolition!  Everything was coming apart to be sanded and rebuilt.

Even with a sling on his arm- Tiger Shark was a trooper!

Check out the wood….. it’s lookin’ old.

Tiger Shark –Day 2 – Sanding with his sling.

Jabber Jaw- Taking out all the nuts and bolts.

Everything down and disassembled.

Stay tuned… next up is the building portion of the swing set.  We needed the neighbors to come help on that one.

Transforming Love….

A scared little boy is placed in my arms, unsure of what his future holds.

Timid and shy, he wonders who these people are… everything around him is different.

Deep within him is a wealth of emotion… some anger, some resentment, some fear…

……but there is also a wealth of courage.

The courage to open his heart,

To begin to trust…

and to let love come in.

And that love begins to transform…

Both him and me.

For more moments unwrapped, visit Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky

Beautiful Snow

Ta Da!!!

I guess I am finally ready to show off a little of the work I have been doing behind the scenes here at The Fabulous Fishbowl.   I have been quite literally obsessed with this project but in a good way!  Meaning I still managed to school my kids and get home cooked meals on the table.  I even managed to keep my house clean for a Bible study that meets here once a week.  No small feat let me tell you!  (Okay, Tiger Shark has been a big help in this area too!)  The King Fish has been so gracious and helpful to me in taking care of the kids on the weekend so I could finish this up!  He managed to do that and many of the much needed things on my “Things To Do at Home List”.  Even though he probably won’t read this… “Thank you honey!” 
There are a few areas on the new navigation bar that are still “Under Construction”.  
Mom Moments will be a place to find all posts about the moments we have as moms.  Good moments, ugly moments, funny moments, and poignant ones as well.  I  hope it will be a place where moms can be refreshed. 
DIY Design will be just like it says.  Some of our remodeling projects, both big and small.  A few ideas might come from something cool I have seen on another site.  I’ll be showing photos of our finished projects and linking back to those sites.  Some posts will just be inspirational photos that I come across to get my creativity flowing and my mind dreaming of future design projects. 
Finally Healthy Me. <sigh> This one I thought long and hard about.  The name says it all…. and I’ll wait to unwrap that package.  :-) 
I have to say I have truly enjoyed designing this!   (Even though some parts are still under construction). 
So take your time and look around.  I hope you like it!
Mama Fish