Catchin' Up

In the past 24 hours, I've had two different people tell me that they read my blog. : ) Makes me happy! So, I figured I should do a better job of writing. This is a busy time of year. Here's what we've been up to lately:

**Homeschool Day at Six Flags (photos)! Last year was our first year to go on this day and we'll never go on a different day. The weather is perfectly warm, but not blistering. There's no big crowds or long lines and the people are all NICE! It's wonderful! Last year, the boys were totally clueless and enjoyed every minute of their new adventure. This year, they each had an agenda which made things more difficult. We ended up splitting up, so I didn't get as many pictures this year. I'm bummed that I missed the family photo in front of the big chair.

**Wrapping Up the school year. I can't believe our 2nd year of homeschooling is coming to an end. I have a long ways to go before I'm a veteran, but I feel like we've got a good routine going. Our co-op is amazing and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful "family" of local homeschoolers. Noah still puts up a fight, but I just think that will be school with Noah from here on out. We have loved the Sonlight curriculum which was new to us this year. We have read TONS of great books and loved every minute of it. I'm still planning next year and not sure how that schedule's going to look. I really like the idea of year-round and taking more breaks with long stints in between.

**Extreme Home Makeover: McCraw Addition
When Baby Girl gets here, that will make 4 kiddos for us and only 3 bedrooms, so we're adding on. We have a great contractor that does business with us and he's drawn up some very creative plans. We're adding on to the north side of the house--master bedroom and bathroom. We'll probably shuffle a little afterwards and move Noah into our current bedroom so Gracie can have his room. Still thinking on that. I know a girl needs more space than a boy when she's older, but she won't need much space at first. Luke and Jonah will still bunk together, but their room is expanding which is a good thing. I am trying to be excited, but I am a bit nervous. I'm just not a spatial/artistic thinker and when Robby draws the diagrams on paper, it's really hard for me to imagine it in real life. I've always told him that the thought of building a house is very daunting to me and I think it would really freak me out. Starting with a blank canvas is just too much for me to contemplate! If you show me 2 pictures from "Southern Living", I can tell you which I like best, but just dreaming up a bedroom and bathroom in my mind is really mind-boggling. That's why we go together so well. Robby is super excited and ready to start picking things out and I'm just trying to wrap my brain around it all. As of now, the plan is to start mid-June and the contractor says it will take 60 days. I know contractor-speak. It will be more like 90 days, I'm sure, with several setbacks in between. I'm prepared for that. It will be such a blessing when it's all finished, but it will stretch me, that's for sure!

Another project I'm tackling this summer is painting the brick wall/hearth in our living room. It's very dark and I've dreamed of painting it since we moved here. I've been researching it online and it doesn't seem that difficult. It will really brighten up this room with the dark floors. We haven't picked a color, yet, but we're thinking a really light buttery yellow, similar to our living room in our McKinney house. We're going to use the same color on the living room walls and in the kitchen/school room, too. I painted the kitchen red about a year ago and it's just too dark. Needless to say, this will be an interesting summer!

**Make new friends, but keep the old: one of my best buddies that I grew up with is saying goodbye to the city life and moving back home! We grew up across the street from each other and I'm so excited that we'll live close by again. She has 2 boys and homeschools, too. It's all good!


**Waiting......still.
No news from Haiti as of now. From the timeline they gave us, the end of May would be the EARLIEST we would receive our referral. So, I'm not even getting the tiniest bit hopeful til then. I have several "friends" in our GLA Yahoo Group who've been waiting more than 3 months on their referral. I know God can do anything, but I'm trying to be realistic, too.

That's all I've got for now. If you've read this far, bless you.