Christmas Break

I had planned on starting to blog as soon as school was out.  It was a rough semester and I just wanted it to be over.  I was tired though.  Really tired.  I did not want to write or even read for pleasure.  Instead I did a bit of baking.

Crisp Baked Apples

I enjoyed spending some time making things that did not require analysis or spell checking.  Just simple and satisfying handiwork.  I made pins to hang Christmas cards to give as gifts.

Barry and I wrapped presents until we were a little sick of paper and bows.

 

But they all looked pretty under the tree.

And I had extra time to spend with this lot.

Along with my personal superhero.

I believe I am officially in burnout recovery.  I am starting to get antsy to write again, but the past few months have been worrisome for me.  My assigned writing has not been up to par and I have not felt like writing for pleasure at all.  I am hoping this rest will help me get over my creative gridlock.  I have been toying with some blog topic ideas.  Maybe a marriage series leading up to Valentine's Day and some tutorials for the projects I have had so much fun with over the holidays.  I have decided to keep creating in one way or another.  I want to make presents year round and have a good little stockpile for next Christmas.

Even better, I felt a poem brewing in my brain today and it excited me.  

So, I will try to start up again.  Little bits at a time.  

Cradling a dragon's wing

 She came to me cradling a small piece of red cabbage in her hand.  Nothing special, just a peeled back layer of Brassica oleracea boiled to make a pH indicator for a science experiment, yet it brought a little wonder into our home.  It was not simply the alchemy of acids and bases, of magically changing colors, it was the pleasure in her eyes when she said in a quiet voice, "This is what a dragon's wing would feel like."    

 

Anatole France said, "To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act."

We stood in the kitchen holding a piece of cabbage and feeling the leathery hide of dragon; tracing its veins, observing bone structure and the power of latent musculature.  

I am thankful that I did not react as I have all too often...with a hurried reply or an easy dismissal.  I stopped.  And listened.  And loved what I heard.  In that moment we were not just mother and daughter, we were kindred spirits of imagination.  Imagination sparks dreams and I was able witness the spark simply because I did not smother it.

My own One Thousand Gifts.  One through eleven are a bit personal but #12 - #15...

~ Summer rain

~ End of drought- earth drenching rainstorms 

~ A little girl who loves ducks because her daddy does

~ Another who sees a dragon wing in an everyday thing

  

Looking On The Bright Side

Our air is out and has been since Saturday. Bad news? We have to replace the entire unit. Good news? It will be more energy efficient. We have had problems with our heat and air the past couple of years and it is finally a goner. I am looking forward to possibly having a unit that can get cooler than upper 80's in the heat of the summer. Bad news? We have to borrow from our savings to pay for it. Good news? At least it is there. My only looking at the bright side highlight of the day? It is so cool outside right now that with the windows open and the fans it is actually cooler now than with air. The humidity is high even though it is cool...everything is tacky to the touch. I look like a French poodle that stuck its paw in a light socket, but at least I don't have to ponder hairstyles.

Love,
Shawna

Panic Time

panic (pan′ik) noun: a sudden, unreasoning, hysterical fear, often spreading quickly.

This is what I am trying not to do. I am trying to transition from thinking about Nicole and recovering from that packing ordeal to packing the four of us for our trip to Houston & Galveston. Sigh. I am stressing, but trying not to stress everyone else out. My OCD really stands out when I am having to do something like this. Trying to wrap up all the details for the trip, make sure we have all of our wedding gear and getting everything packed.

Another weird hangup that I have is having the house as clean as possible before we leave. Sheets have to be changed and house cleaned so I can come home to a tidy house and not a horrid mess.

Off to work on that!

Love,
Shawna

Provision

It is really amazing how the Lord provides for His people. Ya'll know I was concerned about our schoolbooks because it is not something I usually put off, but this year I was planning on paying for them with my extra summer income from work. Typically I have the money set aside by spring for the next year and many years I have my curriculum picked out and ordered by now to beat the fall rush. Our focus this year was to pay off all debt.

Today I found out that we have an overage check coming to us from an unexpected source and it is two or three times more than I will need for school books! Thank you Lord! I am so thrilled. Now, to make that shopping list...

Why Did He Do That?

A couple of days ago I was running my bath water and Bitsy was in the bathroom with me. She was supposed to wash her hands but did not. I told her to come back and wash them. She asked how I "always know." I looked at her and in a rather serious voice said, "The Lord helps mommy know when you are not being honest so I can teach you the right way." Her eyes got big and she huffed in an exasperated voice, "Why did He do that?"

It was one of those moments when I had to bite my lip to keep a straight face.

Ahh, kids...

Love,
Shawna

M&M

No, this is not going to be a post about the candy that "melts in your mouth, not in your hands..." This post is going to be about all the fun my girls and I have been having with my niece and nephew this week. My sister-in-law Carla had surgery on Monday (Everything looks good, she is concentrating on recovering now.) I have been helping my mother-in-law keep the kids occupied. Monday we laid Me-Maw's library doubts to rest. She thought I was being a little overly optimistic when I told her how much the kids would love the library. She was surprised when we almost had to make them leave. They were enthralled by the sheer number of books and the fact that they could find so many books about a single subject. I think Miles has about wiped out the Nascar section, and Marissa's new found interest in cats has become a well informed interest. We walked around the park and had something cold to drink. I then went with my in-laws to take their kids and my younger two to see their parents. Carla's surgery was done at a hospital about an hour away, so we loaded up in the minivan and headed that way, library books in tow. We had a good visit with Bud and Carla. At the end of each lobby there is a wall of glass, and the kids were looking out it, pointing out neat things to each other when a nurse came up. I was worried we were going to get in trouble. The kids were being good, but kids and hospitals are not always compatible-even though it has improved vastly since my days as a child. She didn't get onto us, she took us down the next hallway to show us a better view. The hospital has a small pond, walking trail, gazebo and labyrinth! It looked so beautiful from above. We went back to the room and the kids took everyone who could walk to see it. We talked Pa-paw into taking us down for a closer look as we were leaving. It was a beautiful little area. There were people walking their dogs and jogging. As we were getting out of the van Marissa said something that I will treasure. She told me that she was glad I was her Aunt. She told me that she was glad that I taught and showed her things. I almost cried. It was just a sweet spontaneous moment. We enjoyed our time there. It is pretty enough that I would like to stop by there some day and take some pictures of the kids. Today we went swimming, back to the library and to eat at Taco Bell. The kids had signed up for the Summer Reading Program and had reached their first level of five books. We then came home-tired as could be possible- and they watched a couple of movies. We had so much fun! I have to work half days for the next two days, but perhaps we can squeeze in something else this week. I want to start a day of the week that we get together for the summer. It was like mini-day camp. There is so much we could do here at home or locally that we could explore. Summer can be so fun!

Love,
Shawna

Our Girls at Easter

Easter 2008 Picture

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday at our house: We always go to church in the evening, then come home and finish watching the game. Barry watches pregame and the beginning of the game, runs to the vehicle as soon as church is over to listen for the score, then it is off to the house. When we first started dating I was shocked that he went to church on Super Bowl Sunday. Even when Dallas plays! I can now see it from a different perspective and say that he expects faithfulness and he models it to his family. He is one of the most faithful people that I know.

Our Super Bowl Snack was yummy. We made homemade pizza. We use a great recipe for dough recommended by Jodie. We also tried a new recipe for Grace that is wheat free. It was okay, but it called for more water than was needed, or there was a misprint in the ingredient list. I had to add more alternative flour, was out of rice flour, and had to use buckwheat. Buckwheat's strong flavor makes it less of a favorite with Grace. I will try it again and add small amounts of water.

A recommendation for any pizza crust recipe: Always precook your homemade pizza dough for about seven to ten minutes before topping it. When we have not done this in the past, we end up with a doughy pizza. Yuck.

Barry opted for a simple meat and two cheese combination. Turkey Italian sausage, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Bitsy shared that with her daddy. They are very alike in their food preferences. Grace, Coley and I were a little more creative. We used Roma tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, black olives, onions, and mushrooms (Only on my end the rest of my family pass on eating fungi. All the more for me.) It was great. It also has to be healthier, even though we do use white flour when we make our dough.

Since we do not have cable television, Barry had to listen to the game on the radio. We get Fox with our antenna, but evidently they broadcast the game on digital because we could watch pregame and postgame, but when the game was on we had a blank screen.  Poor guy!

Gotta close and prepare for tomorrow!
Love,
Shawna

Just Today

I had to take Beth to town today for a birthday party, so I dropped by school and turned in my tutoring request forms. The lady at the LAC is SO sweet. She was really encouraging and also gave me information about drop in tutoring. They have quite a few sessions a week and I can go to as many as I am able to.

The bread was a hit today. Barry said that it smelled wonderful, he could smell it even before he was in the house. I will post the recipe on Petite Maman.

I found some books today that I had ordered during the summer that I wanted to use this year. Just supplemental things, but it still bothered me that I had forgotten about them completely!

The weather is clear tonight, but it is a very chilly 24 degrees. We had a tea time today. This weather begs for warm and cozy activities. Audrey, our only non tea drinking girl, had her favorite cranberry juice.

I am done with work for the week. It is so nice to have it over. I have big plans for the rest of this week...now to get them accomplished! (I think I need to log off here to get anything done!)

Oh! I discovered that a homeschool mom and friend of mine has an excellent blog...you should visit it. I found hers while visiting The Taggs blog. (Another must read!)

Night!
Shawna

Santa Picture 2007

My Husband's Other Wife

Bitsy loves to run errands with her Daddy. Even more so since he has gone back to school and she doesn't see him as often. They went to Wal-Mart over Christmas break and were on their way back out to the truck. The conversation went like this:
"Do you know what I think?", Bitsy asked her daddy. "No, what do you think?" asked Daddy. "When people see me with you, they think I am your wife" she stated. Now this flustered her daddy. "No, I think that when they see you they think you are my pretty little daughter," he quickly came up with. "Nope," she stated, "they think I am your wife."

Too funny! She is really territorial when it comes to Barry. Don't get me wrong. She is a Mama's girl too, but she is in love with her Daddy. She plans on marrying him some day. When she comes and invades our bed in the mornings, she gets between us. If we kiss she gets between us. If we even think about alone time she has a sensor that kicks in. I was joking with her one day and told her that Daddy was all mine and she looked me up and down and said that she did not think so. I swear.

We aren't even to mid-life crisis yet and already I am having to worry about a younger blonde!

Did I Blink?

It feels like I blinked and 2007 whisked by while I wasn't looking. To catch up from the last catch up post: the play went well, school went well (straight A's for us both!), a little sickly at Christmas. Now it is time to start it all again (minus the play!) and I don't feel quite up to the job. It has slowed down a lot by just being done with the play. I have so much around here to do; I need to organize a lot in the house. It is not that I do not have any time now, I just do not know where to start. I look at it and I am paralyzed. AAARRRGH!

I will try and post some pictures of the play and Christmas soon. I have to find our December picture CD that Bekah made for us.

Things I have already learned this year:
1. You can fall up stairs and I did.
2. Just because you can talk a preschooler into taking medicine does not mean they won't be sick two minutes later.
3. Even if milk doesn't smell bad, don't taste it if it is after the expiration date. Twice THIS YEAR (!) I have drank spoilt milk.
4. College Algebra stinks and it has been 17 years since I have had a math class.
5. Speaking of stinking, it is possible to have four plumbing incidents in the span of the first week of a new year that are all unrelated. Oh yes, it is. It is a good thing my husband is good looking, brilliant and handy around the house.

Love,
Shawna

Life Here

Wow! Time flies by when you are...ridiculously, insanely busy. We are just focusing on getting through the next three weeks around our household. What is going on? Here is an update, by family member...

Audrey: Our little pixie is growing up fast. She just recently celebrated her fourth birthday. Her hair is getting longer, but despite Grandma Mary's insistence, it is still blond and has not changed yet. What has changed is her eye color. She had blue eyes for the longest time. Before they ever started to change, she insisted that they were green. Well, they are green now. Kind of green. They are very much like her father's eyes only lighter. A greenish, bluish, gray color. I think it was sheer will that changed her eye color... She is enjoying K4 and is learning how to read. That is going pretty well. She is constantly tickling us with odd, off the wall comments about everything you can imagine. Her latest comment will have to be a post in itself...

Bethany: Our drama queen is plowing through life as always. Her favorite subject this year is science. She is performing in a homeschool drama group production of A Christmas Carol, and has a good part in our church Christmas play. She is in juniors in Girl Scout this year. She just earned her Sign of the Star and is working on her Bronze Award, which will probably be completed next year.

Nicole: Our eldest is having quite a year. She deserves a few postings of her own, just to chronicle all of the major events that have happened in the past few months. Her favorite subject this year is history. (Comes by it naturally with two parents who are history majors!) She is getting better about planning out her school work and actually getting it done. ;) She has chemistry this year and is most assuredly taking that as an outside class. (She has an instructor other than me!) We are looking at concurrent enrollment for at least one class next year, depending on how her ACT goes. She is also in both Christmas plays. Some very exciting news, she was chosen by our local Girl Scout council to go to England next year for 22 days! So much going on with her...

Shawna: Well, I think I have lost my mind. We are all in A Christmas Carol. (Nicole, Bethany and myself.) If you are local friends or family, we really hope you come to see this! Contact me for the nights that we will all three be performing. I am splitting my role with another woman since it is during my finals weeks. I still have Girl Scouts and I am directing our church Christmas play. I pray that all goes well there, because there will be two weeks while we are working on the other when I will be almost non-existent around our own church. I am currently taking World Lit and US History II. I am so close to being finished with this semester! I have to finish reading Hamlet, one discussion question due on that and a quiz, write an analytical essay, take my Lit final and my history final. I can do it...I can do it...I can do it...

Barry: My darling has three more weeks of work and then will be laid off until the second. It will be a nice break for him. He is taking nine hours this semester and the upper level classes have so much more writing. As usual, his grades are stellar. He is taking Arkansas History, History of the American West (or something... it is about the west...) and Intermediate Spanish. I could not be more proud of him, but we do all miss him. We have roughly 18 more months until he graduates and we are biding the time. Duck season has started, so he is happy about that. I will have to try and find his myspace and copy and past his only entry that he posted from last year at this time. He is such a wonderful writer. Brains and looks, is it any wonder that I am head over heels???

Well there is a run down on our bunch. As you can see, life has not given me much time for writing lately...unless it is a paper! Hmm... Speaking of, I have one on Beowulf that needs to be dealt with. Sigh.

Love,
Shawna

Listening to Crickets

It is relatively cool in the house right now, which is amazing, considering the fact that our air is out! A family friend from church is coming tomorrow to try and fix it, but for the moment we have windows raised, fans on, and have sent the girls to the much cooler house of Memaw and Papaw. If I closed my eyes it would sound like camping. The crickets actually sound quite melodious tonight. Isn't it odd how one cricket can be annoying, but listening to a cricket chorus at night is quite a lovely thing to hear.

I had big plans for tomorrow so I will have to keep it short here tonight so I may wake up early enough to sort through the mess on my dining room floor and table. I had pulled out everything from my "currently in use" bookshelf in our dining room a.k.a. the school room. Little piles were everywhere...English, art, math, history, art supplies, organizational helps (HA!), things that look neat but I am not sure what to do with or if I will ever use them... All you homeschool moms know what I mean.

Well, even if tomorrow does not go as planned I am off work this week (Praise the Lord!) and can catch up on it eventually. Rather than a rest oriented vacation, this is a sanity vacation. I have to put the house in order and get everything organized for the school year. I should have already done this but I was foolish enough to take two summer courses (What was I thinking??? I do lesson plans in the summer?!) so I am having to do things as I go along. I also hope to do a bit of cleaning, such as cabinet fronts and pulling out the washer, dryer and fridge to clean behind them...coils and all that type of thing.


So far classes are going well for all the Mason family. Coley has started and we are adding things here and there, but we have a good general plan. I was not going to start Grace until this week, but she actually wanted to start sooner, so we started a few subjects with her last week. We will incorporate the others this week. Bitsy has things from last year to finish up until her books get here. There was a mishap in the ordering of her K4 curriculum, so we are making do with leftovers and some little store bought workbooks for PK. I am enjoying my classes so far this semester. US History II and World Lit to sometime in the 1600's (In other words, I am not going to go look for that book.)

Barry has a hard bunch this semester. Arkansas History, Int. Spanish and History of the West. He needs all the prayers he can get. He is a tad nervous. His History of the West professor actually is particular enough to tell them how to staple their paper (at a 45* angle) and he has to write a 10 page research paper in there. I may have to shoot him with a tranquilizer gun if he, he who makes straight A's and goes to work 40 hours a week, and still finds time to play with his kids, and pay attention to his adoring wife, and help around the house, says one more time that he may fail. Yes, it is a run-on sentence, but I do not care. I wonder if they sell tranquilizer guns on e-bay?

How a man with such a loving and supportive family, who did wonderfully in school before and is now on the Dean's list despite all his other responsibilities, who is funny and brilliant, can be so truly negative about himself is beyond me. Do I have to have a license for that type of gun? I have never understood that. I am not saying nice things just because I love him, he is very intelligent and "practically perfect in every way", to the point of actually annoying me at times just because he is so GOOD. I wonder if it will come with darts, or will I need to order them? He thinks I just say all these things because I love him, but they are true. Just ask his mom, we agree completely on this subject. I wonder if that gun will kick much.

Love,
Shawna

Bethany's Birthday

Grace's birthday is long past (June) but I had intended to blog about it so I will now. We had a big girl day. She and I went to town and went shopping. We took our time looking at things. No other plans and by ourselves, it was not a bad trip. (I am not a shopper!) Barry met us for lunch at Olive Garden. Surprisingly this was her choice, not ours. It worked for me! She had a "wheat weekend" since it was her birthday-she could eat wheat the whole weekend. I think she was more excited about that than her presents. We let her open her present at lunch-an MP3 player. This was a big girl present year. An MP3 player, digital camera, earrings, Hannah Montana CD, clothes and money...

I look at her and it is hard to believe she is 9 years old now. She has taken the most energy of all my children, but life with Grace is never boring. I love that life is an adventure for her. She loves to learn and has fun with life. She reminds me most of myself as a child of all of my girls, only where I internalized everything, she is an open book! Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I think the reason I believe she is most like me is that she feels everything so deeply and sharply. While everything is an adventure, it is often a painful one. It took me years to learn to guard my heart against the constant buffeting of life. I pray that the Lord will find her a more willing and workable subject.

Love,
Shawna

Away too long!

My oh my, I did not realize how long it has been since I posted. Summer has been more tiresome than restful and has gone by entirely too quickly. I am actually procrastinating by typing this. I have finals tomorrow and should be studying.

What have we done this busy summer? Well, my baby brother was married in St. Louis so we went and spent a week there. It was a great adventure. There is so much to do there. I will try to write more about it later and post pictures of the girls and wedding.

The two littles and I went to Girl Scout day camp. It rained all week! It was fun though. We are already planning next year. It will be a mix of FS history with Indian facts, US Marshall, and the history museum.

Nicole went to camp for three weeks. It was rough without my helper, but she had a good time. After a while. She did not initially! I think it was a good experience for her. She worked with the younger girls and received training. She moved up two or three levels in swim, earned her Red Cross first aid and cpr, and learned a lot of things that will help us with the troop this year. (Lots of silly songs that are crazy but fun.)

I worked more than I wanted to this summer, and that will continue throughout the fall. One thing that extra money will go toward is reducing debt. Barry and I want to work harder to get out of debt so it will be of use.

Barry and I both took summer classes. I have finals tomorrow, but things seem to be going well. I do not think I will ever take summer classes again! I need this time to plan for school. My classes were pretty easy classes, but having everything crammed into the shorter summer time made it more difficult. Especially with the wedding trip right in the big middle. I don't actually know what I was thinking.

Barry, of course, made straight A's. He has made straight A's since going back to school. He also made the Dean's List. That letter is pinned on my bulletin board. I am so proud of him! He took Spanish II and Ethics Across the Disciplines. That last one was a stinker. Of course, he was worried about his grades and ended up with like a 96% average I think.

Well, I had better study. Sigh. Then a couple of weeks of freedom (planning and cleaning!) before school starts all over again. Sigh again.

Love,
Shawna

Love Is In The Air

I received this e-mail from Chuck and Denise today. As most of you know, Chuck is Barry's cousin.

"We wanted to share our good news with family and friends.

As most of you know by now Haley (Chuck's daughter) and Zack are now engaged. Zack flew in from Sacramento last weekend to Houston and drove up to College Station. Her friends took her on a "birthday scavenger hunt" that ended at the Century Tree and Zack... the traditional place to propose on the A&M campus. Since Haley now bleeds A&M maroon that was the perfect place.

They are not getting married until summer of '08. The deal is they both have to have their bachelor's degrees first and both are hoping to graduate May '08."

We were all really excited about the news. Zack is a great guy and we love him like he is one of our own already. He has even been duck hunting with the guys. He has attended our annual Christmas party and Fourth of July Extravaganza. All that is left is marriage!!

As you can imagine, he has wooed all the ladies in the family with that proposal. How romantic! Spring and such a creative proposal leaves me feeling a little twitterpated too.

Love,
Shawna

Sweet Sixteen Party

Cole's birthday party was on Saturday evening and I believe I had as much fun as she did! We had 11 teens at our house and they are the best bunch of kids. Barry thought he might escape after a while and go get a haircut or study, but he ended up chatting with the guys and having a nice time. (Although he did have a conversation with Meg about Star Wars! I think he was going to challenge her to a Star Wars trivia contest but I think she wowed him with her knowledge on that subject! Go Meg!!! :) 


We had dinner and a movie. Dinner was great. We had Indian tacos with frybread~but with all the regular taco fixings also. I way overcooked! I have rice and beans in the freezer. We had tacos on Sunday evening and had Memaw and Papaw over to help us eat. We all had it for lunch the next day also! I think we were a little relieved that it was gone at that point. The next night we had beans and cornbread to take care of those. Our tacos and frybread were a hit. I will be posting that recipe. It was not regular taco meat seasoning, we used curry powder and various other spices. The frybread is not quite a health food, but it is good. It reminded me of the frybread I had when I went with Grandma C. to visit her relatives in Stilwell and Tahlequah. That is a story for another time... (Little old Cherokee aunts, hunting watercress, frybread...good memories.) 


The Village was the movie of choice for the evening. It was fun to watch with a group because of the suspenseful moments. There were a few squeals and jumps. It was great!
M. Night Shamalyan is truly a talented movie maker. His use of color, sound and suggestion are better than all the special effects money can buy. (Meg and Barry might disagree!)

I even had extra helpers that day. Britt, Brandon and Bekah came early and helped us get ready and cook. I think we are going to have to do this type of night more often, but potluck next time! Cole requested once a month, but I believe every six weeks is more negotiable.


Love,
Shawna