Sunday On Vacation

We are not at home on this Lord's Day. We are on vacation at a Florida beach. As a result, we truly rested today.

We had a family church service here in the house where we are staying. Joel led us in music with his guitar. We then read and discussed a story from the Bible.


Afterward, it was a restful day of naps, leisurely bike rides, and a stroll on the beach at sunset.




At the end of the day, I read a friends blog and listened to this song. What a fitting song for a blessed day!

O Day of Rest and Gladness

O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright:
On Thee, the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy, to the great God Triune.

On Thee, at the creation, the light first had its birth;
On Thee, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
On Thee, our Lord, victorious, the Spirit sent from heaven,
And thus on Thee, most glorious, a triple light was given.

Thou art a port, protected from storms that round us rise;
A garden, intersected with streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain, we view our promised land.

Thou art a holy ladder, where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet refection, thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection from earth to things above.

Today on weary nations the heavenly manna falls;
To holy convocations the silver trumpet calls,
Where Gospel light is glowing with pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing, with soul refreshing streams.

New graces ever gaining from this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises to Thee, blessed Three in One.

The Beach Is Our Classroom!

Thanks to the continued generosity of friends, we are once again enjoying time at one of our favorite beaches! This is the first time I've ever been at the beach in the fall, and I like it! The weather is perfect: not too hot for being outside, not too cold for being in the water!

We've been riding bikes, playing on the playgrounds, swimming in the pool, exploring the beach, hiking trails, lounging around, and enjoying the company of friends!

A highlight of a recent trek on the beach was finding this:


Yes, it's an OCTOPUS! We have never seen a real octopus, so this was very exciting!


We were fascinated by the suction cups thingies (yes, I am aware that is not the scientific name for them) on its under side.

Another family on the beach actually inadvertently caught the octopus. The dad of the family found a PVC pipe floating in the ocean. When he picked it up, he noticed the octopus inside. He brought it to shore to show his family, and we walked over to investigate (be nosy).

This picture shows one of the daughters with the octopus. It gives you an idea of the size of the octopus...on the small side, but still very fascinating.


When we returned to our lodging, we read a book about sea life and drew pictures of an Octopus. Here is our daughters rendition:

We Are...

...doing a lot of this:


and this:



and this:


Wish you were here!

Headed Here

We leave today for one of our favorite places! I'll try to keep you posted while we're gone. But, if I don't make it to the computer, you'll know where I am!

Birthday At the Beach Revisited

One of the fun things about our family beach trip this past month was that it was in the same place we stayed on vacation six years ago. In fact, this year we stayed in the house right next door to the one where we stayed six years ago. It was at the same time of year too! We celebrated our daughter's first birthday while we were there.

I took the picture on the left on the beach that day. I had written birthday wishes to her in the sand and sat her down for a picture. You can tell that the bright sun hurt her blue eyes, and she wasn't so happy.

I remembered this picture during our recent trip and decided to replicate the picture (on the right). Her blue eyes still don't handle the bright sun too well, but she looks little happier. And a lot older...and a lot taller...and a lot more grown up........can't keep her a baby forever, can I?

The Beach

Our lives have been in a little transitions lately, so I have not taken the time to write many blog posts. You see, we are transitioning from a laid back summer routine (full of lots of fun) to the more scheduled routine of school. And while I LOVE the flexibility and spontaneity of summer, it's always good to return to the structure of the school year.

So, before I get too far into the school year, I must finish telling you about our summer. Our most recent trip to the beach was a wonderful time for us. We met my hubby's family at Surfside Beach, South Carolina (near Myrtle Beach) for a week of togetherness. We rented a large house with a pool one block from the beach. All twenty-two of us gathered for family fun, and we're glad we did.



Right away, we gathered on the beach at evening for some family photo opportunities. You can check out how it turned out by clicking here and here and here and here and here and here. (Hey, if that's a lot of "heres" so you could just click on over to my photography blog and read and scroll until you've seen them all)
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We also had our Christmas in August celebration, and were excited by how much fun that was. You may recall that everyone was to buy a gift for the person whose name they drew. The only rule was that the gift could cost no more than $1 to buy. It's amazing how much fun it was to bargain shop and use coupons to accomplish this task.

Here's the run down on the gifts we bought:

To our nephew, our son gave a battery operated boat...perfect for playing in the pool or bath tub.

Our daughter gave one of the nieces a Barbie doll.

My hubby gave his brother-in-law 4 micro-fiber cloths for washing his vehicles.

I gave my sis-in-law a recipe package which included 3 cookbooks, index cards, pens and fingernail polish.

All of the items we gave were paid for with ECB's at CVS. When you sign up for a CVS card and purchase select items, CVS gives you Extra Care Bucks that can be used like cash at your next visit. I had accumulated enough of these for us to get our gifts and spend no money out of pocket.
Want to know more about playing the "CVS game"? Check out this tutorial at moneysavingmom. I highly recommend this program at CVS as a very effective way to save a LOT of money! While you are at it, check out all the other ideas for saving money on moneysavingmom.com

The gifts we received at the Christmas in August celebration were great, too!

Our daughter got a diary complete with a lock and key. She was THRILLED!

Our son got a child-sized basketball with the Florida Gators logo on it. He was THRILLED!


Joel got an autographed poster of Tim Tebow. He was THRILLED!


I got goodies for a pedicure, a manicure set and a pretty toothpick holder (its a pineapple, which I love....a great southern icon which symbolizes hospitality). I was THRILLED!

Everyone had fun giving their gifts and telling how they had purchased them for $1 or less. It's amazing what you can did when you get creative!

We also celebrated our daughter's birthday while we were at the beach.


She turned seven even though I didn't want her to. I made a sand bucket cake since we were at the beach, and she opened gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins.


Nana and Papa and two other families pitched in to take her to "Build-A-Bear."


She's been wanting to go for a long time and knew exactly what she wanted to get. It was fun to see her having so much fun.


I think this is the longest blog post in recorded history. Thanks for sticking around long enough to read it.

And We're Off!

Today's the day! We are leaving bright and early to trek across the Southeast to Myrtle Beach. I hear we have internet access at the beach house, so I hope to keep you updated. If all goes as planned, watch for portraits of the whole clan on the beach, great $1 Christmas in August gifts, and birthday party pictures.

Now, gotta go see if I packed the sunscreen!

Step Four: A Birthday On The Road

Our daughter will turn 7 while we are gone on this trip. Because we don't live near my hubby's family, our daughter doesn't usually get to celebrate her birthday with them. Needless to say, she is very excited! She will be partying with her nine cousins!

So I am gathering all the things I need to decorate and celebrate! We sent invitations earlier in the week which our daughter helped to color. We will decorate the table with beach items and I'll be making a "sand cake" in a beach bucket. Gotta make sure I take the candles.....

Step Three: Christmas In August

My hubby's family is taking this rare opportunity of being together to celebrate Christmas...but with a twist. We all drew names for buying gifts. Here's the twist: we could only spend $1 on each gift. Sound impossible to you? We did it... and we got some pretty neat gifts to give! It has been fun to find deals, and I can't wait to tell you what we bought (since the family reads my blog, I can't divulge, yet)! I also can't wait to see what other creative shopping took place. Off to wrap the gifts.

Stay tuned.....

Step Two In The Journey....

One of the ways I am preparing for our trip to the beach is to plan for the food we will eat. Since so many families are sharing a house at the beach, we have agreed on a way to streamline cooking. There are five siblings and each one is responsible for preparing supper on one night. We will take food for breakfasts and lunches for our own families then prepare one supper for the entire group.

So, this week I have been grocery shopping and cooking and planning. For our breakfasts, I made one of my kiddos favorite things: banana chocolate chip baked oatmeal. This is a breakfast fare that was introduced by my friend Connie several years ago. Over time, it has evolved and grown into many variations, but my kiddos love this one best.

After baking the oatmeal in muffins and mini muffins,


I flash froze them, then placed them all in a container in the freezer until our trip. They will thaw quickly and satisfy my children's appetites as they begin each morning.

As for my meal, I will be cooking Caribbean Chicken, Cheesy Potatoes, Fruit Salad and peas. As a shortcut, I will make the marinade for the chicken beforehand and take it with me. I have also recruited my hubby to grill the chicken!!! I've already bought all the ingredients I need and will transport them in a cooler to our vacation beach house.

One last thing I will do as we get ready to leave: I will pack us a lunch for the road to the beach (this will save us time and money).

Edited to add: I also found time to bake Crisp Cookies! Check them out on my recipe blog.

The Journey To The Journey

Isn't it amazing how much work must be done in preparation for a trip? About a week before we go anywhere, I start to stress about all that must be done before I leave. There's laundry to do before I can pack it in the suitcase. There are groceries to be bought before I can make food preparations (which I'll tell you more about later). There is house cleaning to be done before I leave so that I can come home to a clean house. There are endless lists to be made so that I don't forget anything important (which I usually do anyway) and lots of decision making and second guessing...and so on. Of course everything mentioned has to take place on top of all the normal activities of our house.

In the end, it's all worth the time, thought and stress....getting through it is the hard part. And getting through it is what I'm doing this week. This Saturday we leave for a vacation with my hubby's family at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My hubby has 4 sisters all of whom are married with children. The whole clan including Mom, Dad, siblings, in-laws and kiddos are gathering in a rented beach house to spend a week. It is a rare occasion that ALL TWENTY-TWO of the clan are able to be in one place at one time, so this is a special treat! I can't wait to get there, and I can't wait to tell you all about our fun. But in the meantime, you'll be hearing about the steps on my journey to the journey.

Step One:
Start a pile. I have cleared my dining room table and have begun to gather items that come to mind as I go through the week. As the week goes along, my pile grows and grows, but when its time to fill the suitcase or pack the tubs, everything is in one place.

Stay tuned for nail biting (probably not) posts about food preparation, a vacation birthday party, plans for family portraits and a special family activity while at the beach.

Portraits at the Beach

There is no better subject in my photos than my children. There aren't many better settings than the beach. So I took the opportunity during a recent stay in Destin, Florida to photograph my children. Gaze on the most adorable children in the world (in this Mom's eyes, anyway) by clicking here.

OK, So We're Really Fascinated by Marine Wildlife

If you could care less about the creatures that live in and near the ocean, then don't read this post. We are really enjoying our stay at the beach, and we are all learning so much.

I have never seen a jellyfish in person...ok maybe at the aquarium...but in its natural habitat, never. Last year, I saw these jellylike things in the sand.


There are many of them in the sand left behind by the water, making the sand look shiny and shimmery.

After our daughter's incident with a jellyfish yesterday, we all had a renewed respect for them when we returned to the beach today. Instead of playing in the water, we walked along the beach searching for the treasures left behind by the ocean.

We found this:



I assume it is a jellyfish, but it is not at all like the one I saw sting my daughter.

And then we saw this:


It is what got a hold of my firstborn baby yesterday. Look at those tentacles! I don't know if its because we were on the lookout for them or if they were more in abundance today, but we saw a LOT of these jellyfish in various sizes.

And look what else we saw!


The dark thing under the water is a stingray.

Too Much Marine Wildlife

We spent some time today on the bay. The place we are staying allows us to check out kayaks and life-jackets and take a little jaunt around the bay. We enjoyed paddling through very shallow water and seeing the little critters that live there. We collected lots of hermit crabs:



and this very strange creature that our friends said was a slug. This is what it looked like when it would move outside the shell. It was slimy and icky, but fascinating.


Our son loved paddling the kayak as well as wading around in the murky water.


Our daughter, however, wasn't so excited. She had left the house without her sunglasses which is a big mistake for her. Bright sunlight is really hard on her light colored eyes, so she sat on the pier with my sunglasses on and a towel draped over her head.


Later in the day, we went back to the state park we had enjoyed so much yesterday (I took my camera this time...hope to share pics later). The water was not a calm as the day before, so it wasn't possible to see any wildlife in the water. The kiddos liked the choppier water, because they could jump in and/or ride the waves.


That is, until our daughter got stung by a jellyfish! I saw it being washed toward her by the surf, but was unable to warn her in time. It was about the size of a grapefruit with six to eight inch tentacles. This was a much too close and personal encounter with the marine wildlife!

You can probably imagine the screams that ensued! This just wasn't her day! While screaming and crying she said, "I don't ever want to do this again!" I thought (but didn't say), "yeah, that's what I said right after you were born." Later she told me, "tomorrow, when we go to the beach, remind me not to get in the water."

I'm happy to report that she is fine now. The appropriate creams worked their magic and it wasn't long until she was back to herself. She's even almost let me convince her that one bad event doesn't have to ruin her whole trip to the beach.

The Beautiful Beach

The kiddos and I are staying with friends at their beach house in San Destin, Fl. this week. My hubby was unable to come, because he is at youth missions camp. We wish he were with us.

Today we went to a different beach than we usually go to when we are here. This one is part of a state park. We had such a great experience there.


When we arrived at the beach, we were the only people on this long stretch of beach. As a result, we were able to see some great wildlife up close and personal. The water remained shallow for a good distance away from the shore allowing us to see fish, jellyfish, stingrays, dolphins and even a shark. All of these animals were close enough for us to notice and observe which was so amazing to us. We also saw seagulls (of course) and pelicans. We caught hermit crabs and sand crabs and chased a few of the larger crabs. We combed the shore for driftwood and shells. We built sandcastles, rode/jumped the waves and just sat and enjoyed the day.

I especially loved how natural the view was. The view was unimpeded by hotels or other buildings. As a result, we were able to see the emerald color of the water contrasted by the blue hues of the sky and the white of the clouds and the sand dunes. It was spectacular beauty! What a great reminder of God's awesome power and creativity. I love being in the great outdoors that He created!

(I would have LOVED to have had my camera with me today, but I was afraid of the sand and water getting in it and damaging it.)

Garden of the Gods

Another stop on our Colorado adventure was Garden of the Gods. This is a fabulous place where I could see myself going once a week if I lived nearby. It is a free park owned by the city of Colorado Springs, and has much to offer its visitors: hiking, rock climbing, wildlife viewing and awesome vistas!

This is Balanced Rock and of course, we had to do the tourist picture of us "holding up" the rock!

This formation is called The Three Graces. There are many of these unusual formations here. They are a beautiful red/orange color which contrast beautifully against the Colorado blue sky.


We noticed a lot of these large black and white birds. It turns out they are magpies. I don't think they are a very well loved bird, but they are very pretty to look at.


This is one of my favorite pictures. It shows my adventurous husband hiking at Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the background.


Our son got so excited about any wildlife he saw. This time it was a chipmunk in the bushes that had him enthralled.


This place was spectacular and I had a lot of fun with my camera. To see more pictures of Garden of the Gods, check out my photo blog...the one where I play with my camera and photoshop so I can avoid doing the dishes!

Highway to the Sky

One of our favorite activities during our time in Colorado was driving up Pike's Peak. This road is a two lane road that is paved in some areas and not in others. To me the non-paved areas were nerve-racking, because as we were going around one curve, on a rutted dirt area, the car fish-tailed slightly. Therefore, for the rest of the trip I was worrying it would happen again. And when the road is at such an incline that you feel like you are driving into the sky, fish-tailing is NOT what you want to be doing.

Aside from my nerves, however, this was a spectacular trip! The vistas were amazing and the view from the top vast. It was, however, 28 degrees at the top (and windy) so we were quite cold.


After perusing the gift shop at the top and taking lots of pictures, we started our journey back down. This was much more fun. It didn't feel quite as treacherous, somehow! We took our time going down, stopping often for pictures and even a little climbing on nearby rocks.


Do you see me? I LOVE to hike, and really wanted to spend more time here exploring these big rocks.


We were just amazed at the amount of snow on this mountain. Remember, we never see snow in our neck of the woods, so this really thrilled us!

Besides the absolute beauty of the vistas, we were also thrilled to spot some skiers on Pike's Peak.


This guy was snowboarding!

The arrow indicates the slope they were skiing down. When we got further down the road, we saw the guys loading their equipment into their car. We stopped and talked to them, which was a lot of fun. My hubby was wishing he could join them. I thought they were crazy!



**On another note: It seems that when you are gone from your home/regular routine for a month, it takes you another month to catch back up. I have not forsaken blogging, but am too occupied with other responsibilities to be here as much as I'd like. Please don't leave me....I'll be back to regular posting as soon as possible!