The steady rhythm of school makes the freedom of the weekend so much more beautiful in the fall...
The girls and I scored free paddleboating at Hyland Lake Preserve during the Target Book Festival. I got full-time pedaling duty, Tori and Isabelle took turns, and the Mace steered the boat.

Well, it is awful quiet at my house which can only mean one thing..school is back in session!




We were up and ready at the house in plenty of time. Tori had to make a last minute outfit change because the weather was a little chillier and windier than we originally anticipated. Isabelle woke up excited to open her special package from her teacher. We were showered, fed, and packed but somehow got a little behind in getting out the door. As we started down the street we saw the tippy top of the bus about a block away from our stop and we knew we had to book it. So, on the first day of school, in their beautiful new school outfits with their supply-filled backpacks and perfectly packed new tin lunch boxes, the girls and I ran to the bus stop (so much for their perfectly combed hair).




Thankfully, it is the first day of school and people must have been taking pictures or something because the bus delayed at that stop for just enough time for us to get to our stop and snap a quick picture. It seems the girls are not the only ones that have to get used to an earlier routine. :)



Have a great year girls!!!



I asked Macie how she felt about the girls being gone at school, but she didn't answer. She was too busy texting her friends that she and puppy once again rule the roost! ;)

I surprised her!
Jamie was at a baseball game so I told the girls we would go for dinner. Abegail was playing at a house that just happened to be on our way. ;) The girls, of course, noticed when I steered off the regular path so I told them I had to pick something up (I was just bursting inside at this moment as you can imagine). I had expected Abegail would be playing outside but she wasn't, so I told Tori to come with me so she could help me pick up my something. She assumed I had bought an item off Craigslist. So when she heard a voice say "Hi, Tori" she sort of waved and said "Who is that?.....Abegail?". And then the big what-in-the-world-is-going-on smile came over her face and she looked at me and ran over and gave me a hug before going in to reunite with her friend. There was chatting and giggling almost instantaneously. ***sigh***.



They sat alone at dinner so they could catch up on some chatting. My heart was so happy watching them talk I had to sneak over and snag a picture. :)



I had a grand idea to take them to the American Girl Bistro for dessert, but when we got there it was closing. That was disappointing. My apologies to Sue, Abegail's mother, for the American Girl Store visit. Sue and I had always stayed strong together staving off the girls constant requests for American Girl dolls. We had even both bought them the Target version a Christmas or two ago to appease some of their longings. But Jamie gave in and we bought Tori one for her birthday this year and I thought Abegail had got one, too. Oops. (Sue she may have said to me, "Now that Tori has one, my mom will have to buy me one"). My deepest apologies. :)



Most of their night was spent in their tent. I would love to hear all that they talked and giggled about inside those blanket walls but that would take the joy and mystery out of preteen girlhood. Of course I asked Tori what they talked about this morning and she gave me the staple pre-teen answer, "Nothing really".



Thanking the Lord today for sweet friendships that cross miles. Their style may change and their topics of conversation may, too, but their hearts will be forever bound by first grade, Mr. Suzuki, soccer, and hand jives. We love you Abegail!

Tori thought the highlight of the last weekend before school starting was going to be watching the premiere of Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, but little does she know that tomorrow she is going to have a surprise sleepover with her BFF Abegail. Abegail moved to D.C. a year ago and Tori has never really recovered. :( She is going to freak out and I can't wait!

Praise the Lord that Abegail's dad is a crazy Twins fan and is coming in to watch them play in their new stadium!

Pics to follow....:)

Today doesn't feel any different than most other summer Fridays, but today is a special day. More than 2 years ago God started to plant in my heart a desire to write a book. Not just a book to write a book, but a book that I hoped God could use to help people connect with Him in their everyday lives through the practice of journaling. It has been a long two years and I have experienced a lot of excitement and come against some discouragement in the process. There were days I wondered if the book would ever be complete. But God is good and all things happen in His time and today Wide Eyed releases officially!!!!!

So tonight I will celebrate with friends and family what God has done and what we pray He will do through Wide Eyed. It is going to be a good day. :)

I intended to write earlier this week about my disgusting run in with a decapitated bunny, but days quickly pass and the next new adventure hits, so I will have to save that story for a rainy day. :) (I know you are so curious...)

But anyway, tomorrow the Miller family will take off on their first ever family camping adventure. The girls are pumped. The mom is semi-intrigued. And, well, the dad is not so pumped (it will be his third such outdoorsy adventure this summer- that is a lot for a city boy and its supposed to be like 90 bajillion degrees, record hot temperatures, blah, blah, blah tomorrow). But moving on...

Tonight we set the tent up in the backyard so we could seal the seams. We have had the tent since Christmas and intended to do this earlier in the summer, but just didn't get around to it. So, I made my first ever trip to REI to buy the sealant earlier today and after dinner and a quick trip to the chiropractor we began our tent preparation.

The tent set-up was pretty okay. We shouldn't have a problem setting her up tomorrow. But the sealant part...well, all I am going to say is that I had a minor mishap when I was trying to puncture the seal and open the sealant. And all I can tell you is that my hands would have probably stayed pretty dry and watersealed if I happened to get stuck in a torrential downpour, which may have been an okay thing, except that they were also so sticky that when I just had to go to the bathroom (because you always end up just having to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune times) the toilet paper was sticking to my hands and I had to strategically use my elbows to remove it. I couldn't even hug the girls goodnight for fear I would not be able to release them from my clutches. Oops.

So, my hands have now soaked in multiple solutions and I think they are going to survive, eventually. But I am not so sure about my odds of surviving this adventure since we haven't even driven a mile outside of suburbia and I have already had my first camping mishap. Uffdah! There are some things about me that will never be Minnesotan I guess...

This is my 3rd year of planting a vegetable garden in our backyard. It has been a wonderful experience and I have enjoyed many yummy veggies from our hard work. But Jamie awoke me from my peaceful slumber this morning to show me something in my garden that falls way beyond my realm of gardening knowledge:
There was a deer eating the leaves of my luscious tomato plant!



I wanted to scare him away, but I also wanted a picture. So as quickly as my first thing in the morning body works I located my camera and snapped a shot through the foggy door. The deer knew that we were there. My first thing in the morning body does not move that fast especially when my just woke up brain is trying to remember where the camera is. So the deer had looked over at us a couple times--it was not going anywhere until we made some sort of effort to scare it away. Jamie asked if I wanted to take a picture with the door open so it was clearer. He said he would open it slowly and I could snap it quick. Then he warned me that it would probably freak me out when the thing took off. I got in position, took the quick picture and then started making noise to scare the stupid thing away. It looked up and literally sauntered across the yard and slowly leaped over the neighbor's fence. I think it would have let me come out there and pet it. I should have taken a picture of it just moseying across my yard, but with each slow step the deer was infuriating me (and I was still operating with my just woke up brain).

So, I don't know if it will come back. I haven't done much reading on deer invading your garden and their tendency to return. I hate the bunnies that attempt to come and I tell my neighbor to sick her cat on them. So now what in the world do I do with Bambi?

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I knew this day was coming and I have been dreading it. I knew I would log on facebook and see her name- Penny Hoffman born June 23, 1970. And I knew this was going to be a very difficult day for many who knew and loved her. So, part of me doesn't want to say anything, but the bigger part of me wants to say something in honor of her beautiful life.

I was reading the paper this Sunday and I came across a story written by Harlan Coben about his father. He said he was writing an uplifting Father's day story. He wrote how his father had passed away when he was 10, I think, and he was talking about how seeing a picture of him and his dad made him break down into sobbing tears. I really resonated with some of the words that he wrote and so I want to share them with you but in reference to Penny:

Wait. Didn't I say this wasn't a sad story? So here is the uplifting part: It's okay to feel this pain. In fact, when you have been as lucky as I was in the sister-in-law department, it would be an outrage not to cry. You can't have an up without a down, a right without a left, a back without a front- or a happy without a sad. This is the price you pay for having a great friend/ sister-in-law. You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments- and you get the tears at the end, too. My sister-in-law, Penny is worth the tears.

Happy Birthday Penny. We love and miss you. Thank you for all the sweet memories.

It has been an exciting last month with Poetry Parties, Drama Club presentations, Awards Assembly, Field trips, and all kinds of other fun activities to close out the year. Here are some random pics from some of the festivities:









BUT NOW...

No more classrooms
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks-

SCHOOL'S OUT! (finally, and don't they look smarter)






Way to go girls! We are so proud of you.

We took a walk last night around our neighborhood. We do this pretty frequently. The older girls usually fly ahead on their scooters, Macie rides her scooter for about half a block and then she retires to the wagon, and Jamie and I bring up the rear. We have tried several different routes around our house, but we always seem to end up on one particular route because of the "big hill". In the beginning I used to warn them when we got close, but I never really give the girls a warning about the hill anymore. They are very careful and I have seen them go down it unscathed at least 50 to 100 times. But sometimes I guess you can just sense that there is going to be trouble as a parent. And the girls were being extra competitive last night so Jamie told them as they headed for the hill, "Don't race down the hill. You could get hurt".

Now normally I can see the girls go down the hill, but Macie decided she wanted to start riding her scooter again, so we were getting her situated and fell a little behind. Then sure enough I hear Isabelle's cry--which may or may not mean anything is wrong. And then sure enough Isabelle is walking up the hill without her scooter- stil crying and looking a little scraped up. I picked up my pace to meet her and between tears she exclaims, "We both fell on our scooters and Tori is bleeding". I didn't hear Tori so I started to run with the wagon to where she was. She was at the bottom of the hill with dirt on her legs, shirt, shorts, hands--everywhere. Her big toe was covered in blood and obviously torn up pretty bad. She wasn't crying but looked upset. She tried to blame the fall on the mud at the bottom of the hill, but admitted to Jamie that she and Isabelle were racing down the hill when they fell. I am pretty sure they heard an "I told you so" along with some other choice words of instruction and I am pretty sure their scooters are in time out, too.

We finished our walk home and as soon as we entered the sanctuary of the house, the tears began to flow and flow and flow. It took me about 20 minutes to get them to trust me enough to clean all their wounds and get band-aids on them. Tori had a minor scrape on her elbow, her knee, her shoulder, and her hip along with the toe injury. She claimed she was only going to be able to take cold showers and she was not going to be able to sleep last night. Her pain was unbearable until thankfully Grandma called and apparently a talk with Grandma heals a multitude of wounds. :) Isabelle did not nearly get it as bad, but almost her entire chin was scraped up so her wounds were a little more obvious to the naked eye. This morning she was trying to walk around with her hand over her face and finally realized that probably wasn't a feasible solution for a 7 hour school day.

We are calling it "The Scooter Accident of 2010". I think they learned their lesson. But if not I will keep reminding them what happened the last time they didn't listen to their parents--that should get me at least a day or two of good behavior. :)

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day. Thank you to those who have served or who are serving our country.

Every year the first grade classes at Washburn perform "The Three Piggy Opera". It is a highlight of their year. Isabelle was the mother pig this year. She did an awesome job on her solo- unfortunately she was just a wee bit quiet so you couldn't really hear her. Of course I knew every word so it sounded clear as day to me. :) I am so super proud of her! Great job Ponsi and all the other 1st graders in Ms. Hindt's class. You were awesome!!!!

Isabelle and her friends

The big, bad wolf (he was so cute!)

And my sweet mama pig passing out programs.


***For the listening pleasure of Grandma's and Grandpa's..If you are very quiet you can faintly hear a little ponsi voice. Isn't she precious????:

A conversation with Macie:

Me: Macie, did you put something in the EZ Bake Oven?

Macie(smiles cutely, but ignores the question)

Me: Macie, tell mommy the truth.

Macie: I don't know the truth.

‘Normal day,
let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you,
love you,
bless you before you depart.
Let me not pass you by
in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you while I may,
for it may not always be so.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth,
or bury my face in the pillow,
or stretch myself taut,
or raise my hands to the sky and want,
more than all the world, your return.
~Mary Jean Iron

NOTE: Special thanks to Becky, my blogging friend extraordinaire, for the pic and poem. Thanks Becky!

Against my strongest manipulations to keep Macie my baby, she, like the other two, is quickly moving towards independence. She loves to tell me "I can do it all by myself" and I love to tell her "sometimes you need a mama".

You can get the milk out all by yourself
And you can put the lid on all by yourself
But you don't know how to pour and you can't twist the lid tight so it doesn't spill
So sometimes you need a mama

You can put your panties on all by yourself.
And you can put your pants on all by yourself
But you can't get your shirt on and sometimes both your legs get stuck in the same hole
So sometimes you need a mama

You can climb the playground all by yourself
And you can go down the slide all by yourself
But you can't push yourself really high on the swing or give yourself an underdog
So sometimes you need a mama

You can go potty all by yourself
And you can flush the potty all by yourself ( I am in big trouble if I try to help with that one)
But at times you need help, well, you know, cleaning up
So sometimes you need a mama

You can read books all by yourself
And you can play tea party all by yourself
You can ride your scooter all by yourself
And you can sing songs all by yourself
But doing it all by yourself is not always the most fun
So sometimes, sweet Mace, you still need a mama

And I can promise you-mama still needs you too.