Independence Day 2009

There were only a few of us that gathered to celebrate July 4th this year. We enjoyed our usual BBQ'd chicken, salads and desserts.

Here we are just about to dive in, but stopped to pose for my picture for my blog.

After we were stuffed we relaxed. My BIL and SIL tried out the hammock. Her long black skirt covered my BIL up. Looks funny, but they're comfy.

Behind them is my struggling project...my garden in the shade. It is a learning process, but some day I hope to fill this area with all kinds of healthy bushes and Hostas. Takes money for that. I'm going to hit up my friend's SIL for some of her stuff when she starts thinning her garden this year.

This would be one of the desserts. Chocolate cupcakes.

I took a picture because they were patriotic. My SIL made them.
That's cream cheese frosting made from scratch rolled in sprinkles.
They were so good. I admit I ate more than one.
She left them with us darn.

We were finished, but someone had to inspect to see if every crumb had been cleaned away. No he didn't get on the table. He's been pretty good about that. See the American Flag on his license? My hubby put it there.

Some of us went for a walk while some of us cleaned up and then it was time for the second dessert course. My hubby and his little brother eating ice cream cones.

Our H eating her cone. Mmmm mmm good!

My SIL just didn't want her picture taken.

My MIL just before she dozed off on the couch. It was rather warm at our house and our tummy's were full and we all got kinda sleepy.

H wanted to retreat to the computer room, but I suggested a game with everyone first. We played Outburst Remix for a while. Everyone was a good sport about it and it was fun. We were kinda laying around still as we played.

Everyone left by 5:00pm and my sis came to get my daughter to go to a waterfront fireworks display around 8:00pm. Just my hubby and I were home since JB was camping with friends.

We had a few Roman Candles and a few other fireworks so later my hubby and I lit them off in our front yard.

Here I am in my American Flag t-shirt holding a Roman Candle. I'm not real excited to hold pyrotechnics in my hand, but I wanted to celebrate too.

This is how Jack, our cat celebrated the fourth almost all day. Until the firecrackers and M60's kept going off. then he retreated to his favorite hiding spot, way under the bed.

This last picture of Jack is to celebrate his birthday. He spent the morning in this box, another favorite activity of his. He turned one today, July ninth. Happy Birthday, Jack!! We love you.

God has blessed us with a wonderful country and people to keep it safe. Thank you, God and our military forces.

A Walk Down Memory Lane July 8, 2009

Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!
I'm joining Erica over at Scottsville for a Memory Lane post today. As I've mentioned before, I love the ocean. I think it all started way back when I was a kid.

Our family would go camping every summer at a favorite place on the ocean. I took my hubby out there to show it to him before we got married. We've been their once since then. It is still my favorite ocean camp ground and beach.

Here's my sis and me in July of 1963. I was five and she was eight. I think those bathing suits were made of cotton. Black and white pictures bring out a good old fashioned feeling. Too bad they are so small, but that is what I was able to get.

We loved getting all sandy and washing off in the ocean and doing it again. We are holding up Razor Clam shells. I'm sure dad had us do that. He was a bit of a photographer. That's a 1960's action shot, he he!

Hope this brings back good memories for you. I just want to go camping there again.

Home Schooling Days Are Over

When we started homeschooling nine years ago I always thought I'd just take it one year at a time. In the back of my mind, my goal was to homeschool all the way until the kids finished high school.

It became clear to me about a year or so ago that we wouldn't be able to homeschool until twelfth grade because the math was getting harder and more out of our comfort zones (my hubby & me). We would need a tutor to teach them, so what would be the point?

This year, correcting all of the writing assignments was driving me crazy. My head was spinning every time I had to read, revise, re-read, revise, re-read...another paper. My language arts skills are not up to snuff either apparently. Or I'm just not much of an editor.

When I realized that we were struggling financially more than I had thought, it became evident that I should probably find a job. School is out and I've been working on getting a job in one of the school districts as a paraeducator, otherwise known as a teacher's aid. Similar to homeschooling in many ways, but maybe I can keep it on the elementary level.

This leads to a lot of changing and re-arranging. This also means I have a lot of books to send back to the warehouse. And many other books to take to the second hand bookstore or get rid of some way or another if they are out dated.

This is what we have had on shelves and in totes for about 4 or 5 years. Different books every year of course, but the same amount. I will have shelf space and floor space I haven't had in several years.

There has to be some good that comes from all of this. I have let the Lord keep all of this in His care. I will do my best to keep the ball rolling on the job hunt and getting the kids prepared for going to school, but I have peace about it.

It's just sad to see a chapter of our lives close. Homeschooling is a lifestyle. You live it. Your schedule is just as you would like it to be, very structured or relaxed. There are some expectations from the state, but it hasn't been hard to meet those. It was my job, my life, my choice, my daily routine, my time with my kids.

As a new chapter begins, I hope to have the time to blog and share the joys and struggles of my new life. I am excited and sad at the same time. I guess that's okay.

Honest Scrap Award

I'd like to say thanks to Laura over at Goose Hill Farm for sending me the Honest Scrap Award.

I've been blogging about two and a half months and I think Laura has been following me and encouraging me for most of that time.

She's a very kind farm girl with lot's of great ideas and a love for her family and country and most of all her Lord.

I've enjoyed her blog for the last couple of months and you will too, so head over to Goose Hill Farm for a special treat every day.
She has a great blog page too, and she changes it so you don't get bored.

Here are the rules:

1) Say thank you to the presenter of the award and link back to them
2) Share 10 honest things about yourself
3) Present this award to 7 other people whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it. (doing that now)

Here are the ten honest things about myself:

1) Jesus is my Lord and savior. I am a sinner and every day I go to the Lord with the details and sins of my life. He guides me and forgives me and cares about everything in my life. Thank you, Lord.

2) I love my family and I love being a SAHM and homeshooler, but will have to get a job soon and the kids are going to public school.

3) Which brings me to this one, "I don't really like change". I'm going to be experiencing a lot of change real soon.

4) Nan @ momstheword and I go to the same church. Her husband is my pastor.

5) I was in the U.S. Navy for six years. I had jobs as a police officer and a construction woman.

6) I was married once before for almost ten years.

7) I've had one miscarriage.

8) I got saved by American missionaries who were in the Philippines to serve the Americans in the military while they were in the P.I. The place we gathered was called The Overseas Christian Service men's Center located just off the base.

9) I've been married to my hubs for fifteen years. He likes serving so he is very helpful around the house which makes life wonderful for me. He's a dedicated and committed man to whatever cause he is working for.

10) Like Laura, I am familiar with hitch hiking. Only I was the hitch hiker. My friend and I would do this in tenth grade (not my good old buddy of 36 years). I was very afraid to get in cars with strangers, but I trusted her. I was so naive. In addition to that, my basketball coach/PE teacher from junior high school saw me and was very concerned telling me to stop doing it.


Here are the 7 bloggy buddies I'v selected though I'm sure most of them have already received this award. Also, there are more than 7 I would love to select so it was hard to choose. So many have great blogs and have been supportive of me.

1) Nan at Momstheword
2) Erica at Scottsville
3) Andrea at Arise 2 Write
4) Beth at I'm Heading Towards My Destiny
5) Kat at Art's Chili
6) Christy Rose at The Secret Life of an American Wife
7) Mikki at The View From My Beach Chair


I'm selecting one more bloggy buddy because one of our ladies has had the Honest Scrap Award already and she wanted to give someone else an opportunity.

I select Darcy Lee at In This Season.

Have a great week!! Love Mocha Momma

Day Trip To The Ocean

I guess you can tell by the title, we went to the ocean. My son (J) went camping with some friends down at the ocean. I wanted to go so bad. Well I jumped on the opportunity when my hubby came home one day and said he had a four day weekend. Unfortunately one of those was an unpaid day. It was too late to get a campsite at the campground so I suggested going for one day. WE DID!!

We stopped at a place called the Rusty Tractor to use the restrooms. So here I sit on a very old rusty compressor.

This is a, you got it, rusty tractor. It speaks for itself doesn't it?

We walked around the outside of the building taking pictures. I call this the Jello Mold Wall. I'm sure some of you are familiar with Jello Molds. I think someone needed a few this past holiday season and they borrowed some from here. See the empty dark spaces? My mom used to have some hanging in the kitchen for years. Now we never have molded jello. Is it a lost art?

I think this mural is a picture of a wood mill. Of course the handicapped parking sign was in front of it.

We finally made it to the ocean. My daughter (H) brought her friend (JM) so she wouldn't be bored in the car or feel left out once we got there with the boys.

The boys were on vacation time. They were just getting to breakfast at 10:00am when we got there. So we went straight to the beach. It was quite overcast all day, but warm enough to play in the ocean and sand for hours.


Here's the girls. JM on the left and my H on the right. They are one year apart. They have a lot of fun together.

Here's my hubby walking on the overcast beach. I was so hoping for a clear and warm day at the ocean, but those are rare. It was still wonderful since I love the ocean beaches.

Walking back to the campground to have some lunch. We could barely see the campground. We couldn't see the trail head from the beach so we just walked in that general direction and hoped we hadn't gone too far north or south. We passed our son (J) on the way back. He and the boys were headed to the beach now that they had eaten breakfast.

We went back down to the beach after lunch and brought the beach toys down this time so the girls played for a long time in the wet sand.

J and his friend , P were digging. J didn't seem too interested in getting down and digging or getting in the ocean. He just hung out and talked I guess. P didn't want his picture taken.

P thought if he closed his eyes the camera couldn't see him.

J is fourteen now. His birthday was the day before he left to go camping.

Me and my hubby relaxing. I was sitting in very wet sand so
when I got up my buns were soaked. The next
trip up to camp I brought a chair back to the
beach with me.

H and JM spent hours digging. JM had dug a hole, stepped in and buried her feet. She was really short then.

This is pretty much what I saw of H all day.

Now that's a sand sculpture that took a lot of time! Very cute! Definitely an example of H and JM's personalities.

H and JM went to and from the water several times to bring back water to fill their holes they had dug. Since the tide was going out all day they had to walk further and further. Most of the time we couldn't see them because of the fog. They got a good work out.

Arriving back at their sand digging site huffing and puffing after the long walk. I couldn't convince them to move closer the water.

Hard at work.

They finally got warm enough and just played in the water. JM the mermaid. It's time to go!! You can imagine how long it took them to drag themselves out of the water and put all the sand toys away. Then there were a couple of trips back into the water to rinse off. When I mentioned ice cream, they moved a bit faster. We said good bye to J, cuz he was staying at the campground for two more days.

We drove into town and visited the local ice cream place. No ice cream for me, I prefer a mocha as you can see on the table at my spot. It's pretty much a tradition with us to stop at this ice cream place every time we visit the ocean.

There are a lot of chain saw artists in this area because it is where a lot of logging was being done years ago. We stopped at one spot on the way home and took pictures. The guy was real nice about it. I'm sure he'd rather sell some pieces than let us take pictures, but I think he's used to it.

This is my sunburned face on top of this sculpture. I'm just a little broad in the shoulders for this sculpture, but I just had to have a picture. I can't believe I didn't put sunscreen on. I made sure everyone else did. Oh well.

It's hard to see, but that is a shark sculpture chasing H, our actress.

And lastly, my hubby is trying to see the way home. The fog has finally cleared and we can see the way to go. It was hard to leave, but we had to. I love the ocean. Did I say that already? Well I do.

Hope's Idea...Summer Club

I got an idea from Hope over at My Hope Is In The Lord to set up a tent in the back yard and stay out there like once a week for the summer months. She called it Summer Club.

We don't have a tent so I thought for a couple of days about how I could make one. I decided to take all of the twin size top sheets that no one wants to use and sew them together and hang it over the clothes line and use a couple of stakes and some twine and that would be it.

So here the kids are using clothes pins to hang the tent in place so I could get an idea of what I really needed to do.

I wanted to see what it would look like so we put some broom and mop handles in the corners and posed for a picture. Then we showed hubby a couple of days later after the rain and wind finished and it got sunny again.

We noticed that it was too heavy for the clothes line and it needed
more than twine. Hubby had some ideas, he took some
measurements and promised to dig around at work in the
left over wood and PVC pipe bin. Well he forgot for two
or three days and then the weekend came. It took a while
to get back around to it.

One morning I left the house to run some errands for an hour or so and this is what hubby and JB (our son) came up with. I thought it was cute and that it would be perfect. We discussed anchoring it and attaching the covering to the frame because the wind has been crazy this year and he said it blew over on the test run with the covering.

Later that evening I went out and tested it myself so I could take a picture. It definitely needs some more support and anchoring, but I can see that it'll work. So I took the covering off and hung it back on the line. I walked away and the wind was blowing. Then I heard the sound of PVC pipes collapsing on each other. I turned around and saw this...

Ahhhh! I sighed and got the camera. Look at the sheet. It's not moving at all, but moments earlier it was whipping all over and whipped the frame into submission.

Today hubby went back at it in the hot sun which he hates. He put it back together, anchored it into the ground, draped the covering over it again and my daughter (H) crawled in and layed down. There's still more to be done as you can see the sagging, but we're going to the ocean tomorrow for the day. Mr. Tent, you'll have to wait some more.

This might take all summer, but by golly we are gonna play in that tent some day or night and maybe even sleep out there.

Thanks, Hope, for the idea. Maybe next summer I'll buy a tent, if I have a job.
Happy tenting everyone.

Me And My Good Old Buddy

Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!

I want to take part in Erica's A Walk Down Memory Lane tonight. So I have a picture of me and a very dear friend of mine since tenth grade.

She introduced herself to me while we were in P.E. class one morning during that first week of tenth grade and we've been friends ever since. That would be thirty-six years ago. Oh my goodness!

My mom still has friends from high school which would be sixty-six years ago. We graduated from the same high school thirty years apart. Cool huh? And the school is still there. It is a historical building, but was renovated recently and it is still a functioning high school. I Digress. This is a walk down memory lane after all, and I go on some long walks at times.

This picture was taken this past May when Tami and I joined her SIL's church for a retreat. We had never spent time like that together. It was so fun!

She got married and had kids right away. I made Lot's of mistakes and finally married my current husband and didn't have kids until I was in my late thirties. It was difficult to get together. Her kids are all grown now and mine are independent and hubby can handle them for extended weekends easily enough. So I went and it was a great experience.

There is my Walk Down Memory Lane. I hope you enjoyed it. I did! :0)