Winter Wonderland At Stillestead
1 week ago
27 May 2010
26 May 2010
Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
{Psalm 30}
25 May 2010
It appears as though I've been a bit lazy lately.
Let me assure you this is not the case!
We've had our hands full with projects and visitors and our
big summertime boy and little smiley girl.
(Y'all did not disappoint with great suggestions, thankyouverymuch!)
We did try pvc tubing and it was really too heavy. (The hula hoop cut in half was a great idea!) I ended up finding an old playmat at a yard sale the next day and took it apart and stole it's best pieces. (turns out the rods are about 1/4" thick and made of fiberglass.) Anyway, sticking those in the tubes I'd made worked beautifully, and -per your suggestions! - crisscrossing them definitely added extra support!
Two weeks ago (actually, the day after I broke down and asked y'all how on earth you managed with two - or more! - little people) my dear girlfriend Christine left her three small children (two 3-year olds and a 20-month old) in Chicago area to come play with me, wash my floors, play with my kids and work with me in my garden.
There's nothing in the world like a good friend.
She cleaned my house (even washed the baseboards!) so I could play with my kids and rest. She helped me run errands (still totally getting used to having two to get in and out of the car at every stop!) and taught Oliver "Deep & Wide". Then evening came, and we'd get to put our feet up and chat or take a walk or watch "The Office". She even took me up on my plea for a good solid apple martini! (Told you there was nothing like a good friend!)
While she was here she even made clothes for Oliver and Hazel. (She has an adorable little shop on Etsy called Little Miss Fat Bottom). Oliver was delighted with his monster shirt - particularly the eyeball peeking out of his pocket.
Stine left last week and we missed her immediately.
I gotta have another baby so I can talk her into coming again! :)
As for us - we're just chugging along. Enjoying our sweet little blondies, taking lots of walks in the evenings and getting our hands dirty in the yard during the days.
Oh, and we're also trying to sleep here and there when we can. :)
Thanks so much for your encouraging words and practical suggestions these past few weeks. I definitely didn't expect this adjustment from one to two children to be such a challenge, but your ideas have certainly helped.
Have a lovely Tuesday! And try to do something to help a girlfriend out if you can! ;)
11 May 2010
Not a lot of time to post. But, since it's been nine days, I'll let you know I'm still alive and not underwater.
The flood never made it into our house - praise the Lord! Many were not so fortunate. It will be a long road of recovering from this disaster in a lot of very nearby areas.
In the meantime - I'm a mother of two. Have been for 8 weeks now. Um, how do y'all do it?
I'm so tired. So impatient with Oliver. So very much still in my jammies as I type.
Hazel is a fantastic baby most days - textbook and much easier than Oliver was as an infant.
Today not so much.
Today, Hazel wouldn't let me put her down long enough to pee in peace. She took about seventeen 10-minute naps. Needless to say, we're both pretty tired. (although I did manage to find enough time to order some fabric to restock my sewing room. Where are my priorities - buying fabric or getting dressed into regular people clothes???)
Also, I had a random, out of nowhere rough day of missing my girl. Just sort of woke up sad for no reason. I'll be fine tomorrow - just a low day today. It happens.
Also also, Ry just hired a new employee and she started yesterday. It's a good thing (a big step for his business and something we're very excited about!), but it's taking some adjusting. He's more focused now and is working full 8-hour days without so may breaks - doggone him! :) So, I'm getting a real taste of motherhood old-school style. You know - the motherhood many of y'all do every day.
Just me and the kids.
Seriously, how do you do it???
Looking forward to bedtime. And maybe an apple martini. ;)
02 May 2010
This was our backyard last weekend:
This was our backyard yesterday:
Yes, we're being hit HARD by the flash flooding in Middle Tennessee.
We've had about 15" of rainfall so far, and the river behind our house - and it's strong current - has now entered our backyard.
We realized how serious things were when Oliver's sand box toys were floating away and I had to fight the current and the deluge rains to retrieve what I could. See the sandbox lid on the left side of that photo above? It made for an excellent raft as it tried to float away!
This is when things started to get going yesterday:
The water level got quite a lot higher before it got better.
This is the highest photo I have. Taken with my cell phone:
(You can see Oliver's swings and slide floating)
Our street wasn't as bad since it was a bit higher elevation, but it was still flooded.
Here's our yard and our neighbor's yard. That whole fenced area was flooded.
Oliver woke up from his nap to this sight and was totally delighted.
So was Scout.
Once yesterday's rains started to recede, Ry and Oliver played fetch with Scout in the "river".
Things got better overnight, but the rains started hitting hard again today.
We dropped the kids off at my Mom's house (thanks again, Mama!) and walked downtown to check out the situation. For anyone familiar with downtown Franklin, this is the diveway into Pinkerton Park:
This is the intersection of Hillsboro and Bridge/96 at Bank of America. That's not traffic, it's the evacuation of cars from the new and used car lots by Sonic that are completely flooded. (If you click on the photo it's bigger and easier to see). There was water pouring out of these trucks as they were driven up out of the water and some cars were completely underwater. (One car could only be seen because it's trunk was open, sticking up out of the water.)
In the photo below is Sonic (on the right) and
City Cemetary (completely underwater on the left). See the street sign and stop sign?
As I type the rain is pouring down again. Our backyard is a river again - thank the Lord the waters haven't risen enough to reach our house yet! Friends of ours downtown have basements full of water and others have had to evacuate all together.
Please pray for Franklin and Nashville and the surrounding areas as we wait out the rains and try our best to stay dry and help our brothers and sisters who have been less fortunate. For many in our area, this is more than a close call.
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