A taste of things to come

It is sunny today and 50-something degrees. So we headed to the play ground with some wonderful friends to soak up all we could out of this day.

My friend has 2 kids who are very close in age to my elders (her daughter and Jacob are like 4 days apart) so they ran, they played, they hid-out in a play house, they turned over picnic tables, they played on the swings, basically, they had a blast.

It was a little chilly with the wind but in the sun it was glorious, the kind of glorious that makes you want to linger for a large period of time and when things aren't so glorious you think about this particular time that it was glorious. It was that kind of glorious.

Haley's kids are great which makes playing with them even more fun. Her kids are happy and they just love life, you know, they just enjoy everything they're doing and they do it with such excitement. They're real kids, the kind that we want our kids to be. They're excited about little pleasures and nature and a visiting cat on the play ground. They're really neat.

I know my kids had a great time and I really did too. It was such a great little taste to remind us that spring is not far away! If I could say that out loud right now I would be yelling with excitement and you would have to hold on to something to keep from being blown away. Just so you know.

Haley home schools her kids and I have a feeling she'll be a very valuable asset to my homeschooling adventure. She let me borrow a book called The Ultimate Book of Home Schooling Ideas by Linda Dobson which I plan to start reading after I finish writing... its calling me! I think Haley and I have always had similar parenting styles, if you could even call it a 'style', but it encourages me that she feels so confident about her kids education. I'm sure that as I research and ask questions I will eventually embrace this adventure.

So I feel like with spring fever bubbling up from with in me and new adventures around the corner, this year is going to be the best yet. And let me tell you people I've had some great years!!

Today

Today i went in to put my elders to bed and this is what I found:

Precious. They love each other. Our "rest time" in this house is comedy. Anna sleeps (like a rock), I get things done or depending on the business of the day, I rest myself and Zaya and Jacob play their hearts out in their room. They don't fight, they just play, because they know that if they don't work it out and I have to intervene it means nap time. No good in the life of an almost 3 and 4 year old.

Lately I have been toying with the thought of homeschooling. I don't feel like I'm a "homeschooler". I'm not that good. I always feel like if I go that route I'll miss out on something in their education. But let me say that our lives are BUSY.

Every morning of the week we are off to do something, except for Wednesday. Wednesday is our day of rest... sort of. It is the day that we try to cram in everything we should have done through out the rest of the week. So home schooling seems like it may free us up a little bit and give us more family time. And I do love family time.

So today I set up the art easel with paints and paper and let the littles have at it. They loved it. They painted, they enjoyed one another. And all the while I was sitting at the table writing a curriculum that we could possible use one day and Anna was eating strawberries.

Maybe we'll give it a go over the summer and just see what happens! Maybe we'll love it and they'll love it and we'll get to go to the zoo again... dang we miss the zoo.

Oh, and P.S.- I have a camera people!!!! A real camera! Good-bye point and shoot! Now as I escape the confines of the kiddie pool and slip into the vast ocean of real photography, I'm a little nervous and playing cautiously. But let me say this is an adventure and it is a GREAT one. My dreams are coming true!

Today is our day!

Being a mom is wonderfully hard. Most days I feel like I'm paddling my canoe through mud with 3 very active passengers. Not the most ideal set up but we work hard and make it work. 

  

In this new season of our lives we are learning how to make life work for us and we are having more and more adventures.

 

Today we headed out to take daddy to work with only half of our clan dressed... I wasn't one of them!

Finally after the plumber came to fix the water heater, I took a quick (cold) shower and we decided to do whatever we wanted. It didn't matter what we thought could be done. We had time, we had each other and we needed to just go. Anywhere. Everywhere. Whatever. We were ready and we had mardi gras beads, nothing could stop us.

Our plan was to go to Bugaboo Creek which much to our dismay had closed with out my knowledge! So Applebees it was. Where we drank Sprite and laughed.

There was coloring to be done and silly faces to be made.

 

And chocolate chip sundaes that needed us. We just did it. People stared and many older ladies wished me luck.  I laughed inside because they had no idea how good I have it, that I was on an adventure.

 

 We had to take more potty breaks than you could imagine but we decided to do today with out fear of how it might turn out. And it wasn't perfect.

  We tried to watch a movie but had to leave early because of a little miss who wanted to play the entire time. When she wasn't allowed she wept loudly in the ear of the poor man in front of us. I knew we could not endure. So 45 minutes into our movie (after taking 1 potty break) we headed back to the car. 

 No worries, just wondering what we would do next. We opted for quiet time in tents watching Happy Feet. Not bad. 

Today was a day that we reclaimed fun. We did things just because we could. It was a good day and we made it! We lived to tell about it but most importantly, we had an adventure.

Goodbye... Hello.

So, it snowed... in Georgia... more than an inch. Now our little town has shut down. Schools are closed, grocery shelves are bare, life as we have known it has stopped and the life that has risen out of it is AWESOME! It is full of boots, mittens, scarves, wet clothes, hot chocolate, sledding, snowmen, being confined with good friends, walks in the snow and, my favorite, icicles!!! This time as been wonderful and magical and I feel like a kid again.

So up until yesterday evening the snow kept falling and our house was warm and cozy. When I would look out my window it was COLD, you know, it just LOOKED cold. The clouds we beginning to head to another winter wonderland and we were beginning to get little glimpses of the sun. But still, it was cold.

Today is cold and beautiful with the sun battling back to regain its stolen territory. I think I like it that we don't get snow too often because then it wouldn't be an EVENT. It wouldn't be a vacation. It would become something you have to endure. No good. Snow is too awesome to just endure it.

  This is my view out the front of my house and I love it. By tomorrow it will be mostly gone, my icicles are dripping away. It makes me a little sad because for a brief while my house was decorated more elaborately than I could ever imagine. I had what looked like strings of diamonds dripping from every corner of my house. I think that means we need new gutters but wow, it was amazing.

So now my decorations bid be a fond farewell and my life speeds back up to make up for the lost time spent playing. It was such good playing. 

 I got to eat up every bit of little people fun. Goodbye my little icicles.

 Hello sunshine. Welcome back.

2010... a year in review

Good bye 2010. I kind of think I should use an exclamation point because I'm kind of glad its over but when I think about the year as whole, it definitely had its beauty. It started off rocky with marriage problems and the trials of having 3 kids with the oldest being 3. We plowed through those first months wondering if we would survive, trying desperately to keep our heads above water. John Mark and I completely lost touch with each other and we suffered... we all suffered. Finally Spring came and the sweet rains of redemption and grace poured over our family, our marriage, our children, all of it. When we entered into the joy of freedom and restoration, I realized how long we had been suffering. It hadn't just been a quick season of our lives, it had been a slow build up of business, hurt, disappointment and eventually we hit despair. At the rocky bottom of despair is when you have to stand up battered and bruised and look around to assess the damages, to see if anything is worth salvaging and make a plan of action. As the spring time of our souls arrived we decided to flee this place we call despair with everything we had left in us. So we clung to one another and fought for our lives. Here I am 9 months later and it was totally worth the fight. I would endure it all again for the beauty that I behold today, for the promise and hope I have the horizons of tomorrow. We called upon our magnificent God and said, 'Whatever it takes, whatever the cost, we will follow you, just for a glimpse of your beauty again.' He does not disappoint.

So that was the big turn around of 2010. There we so many other events that captured my heart and made this year amazing.
 In March my little man turned 2! He went from a toddler to a big kid over night. At two years old, he was tall, he was chatty and he was all boy. He's awesome.

We celebrated in typical Nysewander fashion... zoo and Sapporo

In April we started marriage counseling with the amazing Melissa Hubbard. If your marriage is on the rocks or even if you just feel you need a bit of a refresher, she is amazing and SO insightful. Totally worth it!
Both elder kiddos are in pre-school and loving it! They both have some wonderful teachers who we are so thankful for.  Zaya and Jacob are also in gymnastics (shout out to Gymnastics Academy of Atlanta!) and Zaya does ballet at Woodstock Baptist church. As you can see, life gets crazy in these parts and we're hoping to slow down and enjoy the little things a bit more :) I'm looking forward to 2011 and all the "little things" it has to offer.

Ready for the first day!

In August we celebrated 7 years of marriage and, let me tell you, it deserved celebrating! It made both of realize the need to celebrate. Period. The small victories we have together, the things we overcome as a couple. It is all worthy of a celebration. Happy # 7 to us!

In September my big girl turned 4! What? She is becoming a beautiful young lady and I love the little performer who is starting to grace the home.

John Mark and I both rolled over another year (we're only 2 months apart) and I refuse to own to my age. But its already proven to be a great age... We're a fine bottle of wine... just getting better and better!
In December I took Zaya to the Nutcracker for her first encounter with the live stage. She LOVED it! The fox is a magical place for a little girl... I remember it well.

December was also the month, my baby, my little bitty girl turned 1!!!!!!! She is awesome and remarkable and I just loving breathing in all of her wonderful hugs.  She has blessed our lives in immeasurable ways. Needles to say, with her birthday being in December, she had many milestones this year: rolling over, crawling (she did this super early... I like to brag on her a bit!), first teeth, first steps, first everythings. My girl accomplished more than most in one short year. I'm not ready to think of who she will be next year at this time... for now she's still my baby.

First meal!

First Spaghetti dinner

Halloween as a monkey

First Birthday!!!

 With all the joys and sorrows of last year, I'm ready to take on 2011. I'm ready to dive into truth and to find my place among those contending before the thrown of God. I'm ready to breathe in this life and these lives that surround me, to glean every bit of joy that I can out of each day. I'm ready to embrace the blessings in my life and to see the hurdles as what they are and not turn them into mountains. This year has so much promise, not because I have the power to make it anything more than a complete and utter disaster, but because it is a year given to me by God. A year spent with God. There's nothing better.

Edwards=Awesome

THE EDWARDS CLAN!!!

 This is Lydie Bug. She is Anna's best friend. They love each other and that is perfect. She is perfect.

 Her beautiful mom is one of my very closest friends. The kind of friend that you never have to work at to maintain the friendship. The kind of friend that will ALWAYS be a friend... even when we're 85.

 I love them, I love all 3 of them. They bless my life and give me great perspective. I don't think i would enjoy this life near as much with out them... God totally knew that!

 I look forward to walking our kids to school together one day and trying to figure out what to do when they start having crushes on boys. The great thing is that I will get to figure it all out with a friend.

 Lydie, you have a great family! You are surrounded by love and I can't wait to see who you and Anna become... its sure to shake this world!

LOVE!

Anna is 1!!!!

 

 My baby is 1. My little perfect Anna is 1. Yesterday she crossed over that huge milestone into the world of years.  She is a picture of beauty from the inside out and she has been this way for her entire first year.

 I don't have the words right now to express how much I adore this girl. I have realized that I have a deep love for each of my babies and for each of them that love is irrevocably theirs. I don't love one more than the other. I love them each completely, whole heartedly with the love that is theirs. I don't feel like their is a 'favoritism' issue because I truly can't love Jacob with the love that is for Anna or Zaya and I can't love Anna with the love that is for Jacob or Zay. Its weird. My heart is given to each of them and that love that is theirs will never go away, it will never diminish for the love of something else, it will remain invested in each of their lives forever.

 So as I sit here and try to figure out how to put my love for this beautiful one into words I know that there is no pressure to do it now or perfectly. The words will come from that deep place that limbos between elation and heart ache. The place your heart fears to go because once it enters it no longer has control. It is lost. Lost to the love of another person. Its a good place to lose your heart, scary but good.

 Anna, you are treasure. You have captured my heart and I adore you completely! Happy first birthday my littlest princess, you changed my life a year ago and I am so much better as a result of it! Your smile lights up this house and your laugh is like the best medicine money can buy. Your presence heals me. I thank God everyday for the huge blessing of you. He knew how much you were needed here :)