24Sept2017

When I sat down to write about our week I was thinking, it was a pretty normal, nothing too exciting week. (ha) Dane fed Lemon her bottle for the first time and felt so big! He is at such a fun stage, I love that he wants to be helpful and feel included. And he smiles while he is helping. It's the best! Rob is such a hands on dad, I mean he is either wrestling with the kids, or asking about their day, or playing with them, or reading with them. It is so awesome! He comes home after what I can only imagine has been a long day and checks to see if I need help with dinner. He always feeds Londyn so I can eat a hot meal, he always serves the girls first at dinner time and really anywhere we are its always girls first. He takes such good care of us and I truly love him for it! He's a keeper!

Homeschool is coming along great. I have been so pleasantly surprised at how well it is going actually. And i know that it is only going as good as it is because I am receiving extra help from God. I don’t have any other way to say it. Last year when it was time to do homework with Kylie it was like pulling out teeth, we literally but heads the whole 30 minutes! I was so nervous about her being home all day, and how we were going to figure things out. And we haven’t had any problems at all. I should say that there hasn’t been anything major, and I contribute that to all the prayers on my behalf as the kids teacher. Rob gave us all blessings before we started school and i know that has also helped. It’s been a testimony builder to feel the extra amount of help, whether it is patience or kindness or whatever, there is definitely an extra amount of God’s spirit in our home and I love it! 

It only takes between 2 and 3 hours to get thru all the materials and then we can spend the rest of the day doing whatever we want. We decided to learn about the world and have started our adventures in Europe, so this week we learned about France and Eiffel tower. The kids were so excited when I told them we were going to make one out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Dane mostly because after he stuck them all together ate them one by one, pretending that he was roasting them as marshmallows! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, it was pretty entertaining.

We found out that the library does a homeschool group on Mondays and decided to check it out. They separate and do a lesson for about 45 minutes then all come together and do some sort of science experiment. It was fun to get together with other homeschoolers and let the kids interact with other kids. And I didn't mind getting to visit with the other moms either. win. win.  

One of the ladies that Rob works with owns a home out on the bayou and told him we could go fishing there anytime we wanted, they are trying to sell the house so no one is home and we were free to use it as much or as little as we wanted. So nice! I'm telling you if our family out here closer we would probably consider staying. People open their hearts and homes so quickly and are so nice. It's been amazing to be on the receiving end of so much kindness. 

So most of our adventures happen on the weekend with Rob, and I like it that way. 

  

I mean look at that smile! Pure joy! We went to the homecoming football game for Neville High School. They don’t have royalty, the have 1 queen, 1 maid of honor and 4 maids. Kinda different. The girls all dressed up, not in a formal, just a nicer dress, or blazer and each wore a black hat. I’m not sure if that was part of the ritual or not, but it was cool to see what their traditions are. When they announced the queen, we (meaning the whole home side of the stadium) let go probably 100 balloons. It was pretty fun. 

Then we spent Saturday exploring. There was another fish and game wildlife event, this time for Monroe, that we went to. They had a full grown alligator there; they are creepy. It seems so lazy and didn’t move until it was time to load it in the trailer and then it was rolling, and flipping its tail. It quickly reminded me that they are dangerous creatures. The one time it did move before they started moving it, it lifted its head an hissed.:( so weird! The kids held some more baby alligators and they were able to catch bull frogs! Kylie was in heaven again. And unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of Max, but he and Dane enjoyed it also. 

Then we did a little exploring. We went in search of a vineyard that makes muscadine jelly and drove thru the most beautiful country. there were rolling hills covered in green! It was breathtaking. unfortunately the vineyard was having a concert, and we’re cheap college students, so we’ll have to go back another time to get the jelly. Oh darn, another excuse to see the area. 

What is so crazy about the land here is that the trees are so huge, you have no idea what you are driving next most of the time. It could be a bayou, could be someones house, could be cotton fields, or a shopping center. The trees are so thick you can’t see thru them to what’s on the other side. We also went and checked out the Duck Dynasty Duck command. It was pretty neat, they have a museum you can go tour and you can take your picture. We opted for the free part and walked through the gift shop. They had some supper awesome duck calls, t-shirts and hats. It was fun to window shop and just be out and about with Rob. 

We ended our night with a family movie night while I watched the woman’s broadcast of general conference! It got me so excited for General Conference next weekend. I spoke in church today, and got a new calling as the primary pianist, and my topic was on personal revelation. I thought it was perfect timing since its General Conference next weekend. I love that twice a year we get to hear from our church leaders what Heavenly Father needs us to hear. One of the other speakers said that General Conference is pretty much a holiday in her house, and i have to say that i feel the say way! I feel so inspired, like I can be the girl Heavenly Father needs and wants me to be. I always feel like something was said directly to me, and for me. Mmmmm….I get goose bumps thinking about it. So this week we’re going to be doing some prepping. I’ve got to get the kids as excited as I am so it can be a good experience for us all.