Good Day Yesterday

We've had so much fun yesterday. We  painted, practiced cutting and gluing, practiced hygiene,  played, did school and ate and ate. Yes they wanted 6 meals and 347 snacks but that's okay.  Feed them babies.

This big unicorn holds ALL their stuffed animals and some of them are big. It sits like a bean bag

Made the girls some new binders. Got the books, binders and sheet protectors at Walmart. They love them.

Me: trying to say something in French. 

Caroline: "Don't do dat!" 

🙄

Atleighs choice of sound today on the sound machine.....ocean waves 🏝🌊

I felt that.

From scratch chicken pot pie. 😋 I had left over filling for another pie another time. Dallas  said it was terrible but you can clearly see how much he has ate in the last pic.He hungry up in here. 😅😅

I put Hazel to work while I cooked. I cleaned the kitchen as I went to make night time clean up easier. 

This is my new read. 

I love this author. You can check out some more of her books and her husband's from a previous post. 

Today is dear hubby's birthday. 

God knew exactly what he was doing when he created this human being. His Momma, aka...Nanny always said he was special and she was right. I believe with all my heart ❤ he was created just for me. God gave him every character trait and he has excelled everyone.  Especially the ones that he knew he was gonna need to deal with me. 😁 He probably whispered in David's ear, "You're gonna need this and you will thank me for it because I'm sending you a crazy woman to live with the rest of your life!" 😅😅 Naw, he is the most dedicated,  and loyal  husband, father,  best friend, poppie, son...etc. He is excellent at every role he has had to play in life. I know this because my family has been the one to SEE and experience it first hand. If you know him you know what I mean. He takes care of what's his. He fights for and guards what's his. Trust me when I say, I have never met anyone like him. 👍He is there when you need him and never complains. I am a little envious of his kindness sometimes and he amazes me. He never short changes or does anything half way. It's go big or go home with him. He never does anything for praise and doesn't care to have any but he is so worthy in my eyes. He really doesn't get enough of  it. He's so loveable and mushy.  Well, only I would know that. 🥰 

I could go on and on but he's probably getting a big head about now. 

I hope you have a very happy birthday my love.

I don't have the girls today,  Daddy took them fishing with some friends. 

It's just a me day today. 

Have a Blessed Day everyone. 

Summer Has Flown By

 Summer has flown by and I feel like I didn't get to do anything I wanted to do with dear hubby or girls or any family. Gonna have to catch up. School has started back and things want be so crowded. So maybe I can plan some things. We had alot of plans for this summer but it has been hard for dear hubby.  He has been back and forth to the hospital and nursing home with his sister. And about that. I haven't been truly honest so I need to clarify something. You see his sister is really his birth Mother. I can't go into alot of details because it's not my story to tell. It is my husband's. His Grandmother adopted him when he was 18 mths old and changed his name. He refers to her as his Momma as it should be. She is also the one we called Nanny.  He was always taught to have respect for his birth mother. She was more less raised as his sister. He was doted on and taken very good care of when he was a baby. His brothers and sisters is really his birth aunts and Uncles but in his heart they are brothers and sisters. He does  have a half brother by his birth mother. 

 We both had rough childhoods growing up and we had to deal with our own emotions of bitterness. Like I said, it is not my story to tell. Someday maybe we will. We are older and it still never gets any easier. 

With all that being said, we lost his birth mother last week. Sorry I am just now posting this. He and his sister were called unexpectedly to the nursing home to just an hour later she passed. The next day they met at the funeral home and made all the arrangements.  I am in awe of my husband's compassion every day. ❤ He is a very special man. 

We had the visitation and funeral the next day. He saw everything to til the very end. This was a little hard on Dallas our youngest because he and Grandmother ( this is what we called her) because for the past 6 yrs they got pretty close. Atleigh is beginning to understand some things. She has said plenty of times that she just wants Nanny and Grandmother. She went to look at her in the coffin so many times and asked so many questions. I try to explain the best I can. She still says this everyday.  Bless her. I have always loved this pic of Grandmother.  It was in her younger days. 

The few days following, he took care of alot of her affairs. He was so exhausted from the past few weeks, well really few months. Add to that the fact that the passing of his momma is still fresh since we lost her in January. He just needs some emotional peace. 😢

Time came for him to go back to work.  No one was looking forward to that. 

I had a few days that I didn't have the girls so I got to run some errands and got back to scrubbing my house. I got a little lazy and lost focus for a few weeks.  

Today the girls came early this morning.  Since school has started I figured ours could too. 

Gmaws Preschool Academy:

First is self care. Nothing like putting on your makeup with your bestie. Well, one is interested in self care. The other is bouncing around on her horse in a pull up and messy bun. Can't even get her to put clothes on. 🙄

Then teaching a little paint time for Art.

They must have gotten in bed late because today they are full of tired sighs. 😫  They are a little quieter and just  barely making it through activities. I think it's just gonna be a slow play day. Sometimes you go by their lead. 

It was time for lunch. I love making healthy lunches. 

Yes my floor looks like this alot if not worse,  but they have fun here. 😄

After nap snack. 

So, I tried to make up a song while we were riding. I started out,  "Ranger riding buddies..." Atleigh corrected me real quick and said, "Ranger riding Princess buddies!" Excuse me. 😅👸👑💄

So....we love rodeos and trick riding.  The girls like to watch it on TV. So here is where we are. ❤❤❤❤

Well, Dakota (Daddy) came to pick them up. They were headed to go see the cows 🐄.  They will be back first thing in the morning.  

I fixed me and Dallas some supper.  Salmon in the air fryer. And some sauted squash and onions. 

The rest of the night is just me time. Some reading and watching some vlogs on TV that I'm behind on. 

Good night all. 😴

Exhausted Today

 Yesterday we had a fun day. I needed some Vitamin D and so did the girls. When you can't find your sunglasses 😎 and you have to improvise 😁😁😁

Phrases from preschoolers:

Caroline: "Leave me alone! I'm being stubborn right now!".😳

Atleigh: "I found a bug on me and slapped it off!" "I didn't freak out Gmaw!" 

Atleighs choice of sound today on the sound machine is wind chimes. Peaceful.  ❤

After nap time, Daddy came to get them but they didn't want to leave. Atleigh said she wanted to eat supper with us. So, I got to cooking. Dakota hung out with us too. 

Just a girl and her daddy. 

Snow White says, "Whistle while you work."

Whistle while you work. She can do it all.

It was time for them to go home and they still didn't want to go. 🙂 It always helps them to know that they will be back bright and early the next morning.  

I was so exhausted that I just literally crawled into bed and didn't move. 

This morning I was still exhausted and sore. But you still have to do what needs to be done. Poppie was a big help this morning.  

Just a girl and her Poppie. When you do not like to read but you get out of your comfort zone to make them happy.

Then it was playtime. 

Mommy came before naptime to pick them up. They will be back Thursday. This gives me a few days to get my house clean some. It needs it bad. I need to do some organizing too. So if you don't hear from me for a few days, you will know why. 

Dear hubby and his sister Barbara went and had a meeting with the staff at the nursing home that is taking care of his other sister. We found out some things.  She told us that Physical Therapy has not came in one time since she has been here. The therapists told them yesterday that they go to her room everyday and work with her. They said she has been feeding herself, and assisting them when they need to move her. She has been telling Dear hubby that she cannot move and can't feed herself. 🤔   When no one is there she is fine. When we go visit her, she tells us all this and seems helpless. We know that the staff is telling the truth because this is the nursing home that his sister Barbara ran as the administrator for a long time and she knows all the employees and drs. Alot of them are personal friends of hers. If it wasn't for that,  we wouldn't know who was telling the truth except for another fact that she has gained 10lbs since she's been there. So we know she is being taken care of. The only thing now we are most concerned about is the carbon dioxide building back up in her blood. This happens because she is on oxygen 24/7 and it is pumped in. Well, she is a shallow breather and can't exhale hard enough to expell the carbon dioxide.  Therefore it overrides the oxygen in. They will have to keep monitoring this. If it gets too high they will wind up sending her back to the hospital and on a Bipap machine. They do not have one there. That's all I know for now. 

I hope everyone has a good day. 

Great Books

 I have been in a good book lately to study. I love anything to do with Proverbs 31 Woman. This has been great. 

This is an old book and my second time going through it. 

Ok guys, this is for y'all.  Women aren't the only ones who can benefit from reading a good "help" book. We can sit here and read, learn and implement all day long, but y'all can benefit from doing your part too. It's not just the woman's place to cultivate the marriage or any area. So, here's a few for ya then grab your Bibles to go with it. Do your part. This thing is 100-100 if you want it to be great. ❤❤❤❤❤

Today has just been a relaxing day. The girls got here this morning and we went to church. Atleigh finally got the courage to go to children's church but Caroline was 50/50. She went first, then they brought her back out then she wanted to go back a second then back out. Maybe next time. She saw how much she missed out on when sissy came out with a sucker. ☺

Btw: I found every one of these books on Amazon.  You can find some used ones in good condition.  There are study guides to go along with them. 

Just Chilling Today

 Girls got here first thing this morning and ran to Poppie. 

Poppie is more interesting than Gmaw this morning I guess. Of course,  they are looking at horses.

Candy date after breakfast 😋 I was out of a few oils in my diffuser and a local Mennonite store carries them. They have alot of organic things too. And candy. I use to take their Daddy and Uncle Dallas to this store because they would want to spend their lock box money here on candy. 

We got back and played outside for a few minutes before it got too hot. 

Lunch and then nap. 

It's ok to let them make their own menu. Why yes, those are covered sunflower seeds. Then a little school with Scout and Violet. I love Leapfrog educational products.

My lunch, Fresh salad from my Aerogarden and it's resprouting already. I've got spinach and basil going too.

After nap, they played until daddy came to pick them up. 

After they left, we got ready. 

MUCH NEEDED date night for us youngsters. 😁😁 Dinner and a movie. Catch y'all later. 

A Tribute To A Great Man

 

103 years ago a very special human being was born into the Oliver family. His name was Benjamin Franklin Oliver Sr. He is a 4th generation Oliver from the Oliver's of Cades Cove (which makes me a 6th generation). I affectionately called him PaPa (that's how he spelled it). He led a very full life. He worked the fields as a young kid singing hymns my great grandparents taught him. He knew what hard work was and how to live off the land. They had to in order to survive. When he was a young man , he went into the Army and was in WWII.  He was severely wounded when a bomb exploded behind him running to a fox hole. The bomb took his  best friend. 

He was transported to Germany for many surgeries to remove shrapnel from the back of his neck. His two hands were severely burned along with other parts of his body. He lost several fingers on one hand and the other was nerve damage and left it crippled. He learned to write left handed. My grandmother received news that he had been wounded in action and went for a year not knowing if he was alive or dead. She got word a yr later where he was and they sent her a train ticket to come to where he was recovering. My PaPa made a promise to God that if he let him live to see his family that he would serve him the rest of his life and that's exactly what he did. He surrendered to preach. He loved the Lord and his family and lived his life loving others enough to save their souls.  He preached until his health couldn't hold up. He loved my grandmother with a devotion and passion like no other. He raised his kids to love the Lord. His love and knowledge has been passed down to all of us. I learned so much as a kid as I would spend summers and basically anytime I could with my grandparents. I loved seeing him behind a pulpit. That's just where he belonged. My grandmother would brag about how handsome he was. And she was right. Happy Birthday in Heaven PaPa. I love and miss you. I sure could use some of your advice now a days.