Happy 4th of July

Happy Birthday America!
I am:

• thankful for our freedoms.
• thankful for those who have served in the military to keep us safe.
• thankful for the people who have sacrificed their lives, their able bodies, their families for our nation, including my daddy & my cousin's husband, Phillip, and their whole family- Regina and kids.
• proud of my daddy who served in Vietnam.
• proud of my pop who served in the Air Force for 20 years.

For me, this is a day of remembering. I will always love the fireworks, but ingrained in my memory is a little girl who wanted to do fireworks and whose daddy finally let her one year. I remember that Momma said he paced inside while I played outside and watched and "oohed" & "aahhed" at all the pretty colors. He let me do something that caused him painful memories. And the next year he was gone.

Each year at 4th of July, I always whisper a quiet "Thank you Daddy" while I watch the fireworks.

So, "Thank you Daddy. For everything."

Monday, Monday

• grad school
• packing up my classroom (tomorrow should see it finished finally!)
• cooking dinner with matthew (oven baked, blackened salmon w/ lemon juice, wild rice, and salad)
• planning tutoring lessons
• working on grad school
• facebooking & blog reading
• going to bed

tuesday's plan includes:

• finishing my classroom
• online grad class (we are supposed to do three to four hours a day)
• babysitting & tutoring
• cooking something yummy for my crew and my two little pals :)
• reading for my grad class

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

My young people are home!

It's Sunday night, and the kids just got home from their youth group beach trip. I made it through the long weekend. I had time with Rob yesterday before he went to work, and we had a wonderful day together today- a quiet day. :) That quiet is now gone with three young adult people home, but I'm okay with that. The dog & cat are happy to see the kids too, and Rob and I have been listening to them all talk about Myrtle Beach. :) The day is coming soon when they'll be gone, but I'm not ready for it yet.

Thanks Momma for texting me and calling me and helping me understand that there is life after children & that those feelings are normal. :)

I made cards :), did grad school homework, watched a couple movies on Netflix, did laundry & hung it up outside (love to do that!), cooked myself something yummy, ate pico de gallo. Rob found a show on Netflix that we LOVE; it is an old BBC show, "As Time Goes By." We have been watching episodes today while we did work. Really enjoying it!

Have a great week!!!

My pretty coneflower was being enjoyed by the bees as well.

Rach, I figured out something to make those cards look better; they were too plain. I am much happier with these now.

This one is my favorite- I love that verse!!!