This dog here…I have so many mixed thoughts on her. Mostly good. Only sometimes bad. I compare her to all other dogs we have owned. Not fair. She likes to dig. No other dog has. She loves to yelp loudly and constantly when she is excited. I can’t take it. She sneaks away, and it’s a good thing she always comes back. She is cautious and will bark at you before she licks you. She’s a great guard dog. She likes to know where you are AT ALL TIMES. It’s her job and if she got paid for that, we would all be rich.

We left her out of her kennel (which we have been doing lately) for 2 hours while we went to church. If only we could have recorded her antics. Let’s just say she had a party with a magazine and some kids toys. It looked like a paper shredder took over the den.

And if Luna looks big to you it’s because we realized Mabry was feeding the dogs double food!

It’s hard to believe we have been in Savannah for 8 years. And in those 8 years, we have only moved twice. Usually we are up and moving every 3 years so the fact that we are going on 4 years in the same house is a record. We’ve had some work changes lately that have left us with a lot of questions and decisions. As Rad’s resume was about to go out to the world, we both put our feet down to stop the process and evaluate what we truly value. It’s an eye opening exercise. You should try it. And I dare you to put what you value against how you are currently living and see if those things add up.

We LOVE where we live. There is access to water and boating and so many coastal things to explore. I just took a women’s boating class and docked my first boat. There is sailing every Sunday that Rad and Gress can take part in. But most of all we ADORE our neighbors and many of them are like family to us. How do you give that up? And what would we give it up for? More money? A bigger house? Security? We really want to put down roots. We have prayed for several years that more kids would move into our neighborhood. Just a few weeks ago a family with 4 kids moved next door and play happens every day in all our yards. Other neighbors have noticed and since then we have had more kids from further down the street come to play. For the years we have been here, there was just 1 kid to play with, and there are now 13 kids in any direction to come over…and they do. It’s chaos…and crazy fun. So many of our neighbors sweetly remind us that this is how life used to be lived out on the back island. These neighbors have become our friends. We share life together. And take care of each other. To us, that equals a rich life.

I don’t know where we will land. We are praying hard we get to stay and that heading back into the entrepreneurial life will be rewarding for us. We find that working for ourselves brings: flexibility, ownership over our schedules, and the freedom to live our lives on our timeline. A few weeks ago, my neighbor, her grandson, my kids and I all took a bike ride through an old Dairy Farm. It was quite the adventure under 200+ year old oak trees and over marsh land. It’s makes my heart swell to see these friendships amongst my kids growing. For that I cannot buy. 

Life happens so quickly over here that I often forget all we did in one day. As hard as I try to slow down our days, the clock keeps ticking. We have a little over a month before we head into summer and as excited as I am for carefree days, structure sure does help with the flow of our routine and the happiness of all involved. We aren’t taking a break with everything (math and reading) because we have such good momentum with certain subjects and it’s just too hard to pick that back up when the next school year starts. Trying to stay calm and nice as I cram everything in I want to finish. Nobody wants a mean teacher, do they? (oh boy) I know every year is a new start and excited to end this year and dream about what next year looks like for this crew. 

How could this puppy be bad, right? WRONG! She is meant to work. And work for her is chasing, and barking, and running faster than your 10 year old can so she can beat him to the new balsa airplane he just threw and rip off the tail and then speed away. She only comes when called if there is food involved. If she is in trouble she plays the fastest game of tag you have ever seen and you end up feeling like a complete fool for chasing her. I don’t understand her at all. She is strong willed and very very strong as we found out when we went to trim her nails. My neighbor came running over thinking someone was getting hurt by the dog only to find me in a heap on top of her with clippers in hand and gasps and cries coming from the hidden dog. She is always assessing, waiting to see what your next move will be. If you ask her if she wants to go outside, she will stand there and wait for your next 3 moves before she makes up her mind what she wants. She is the ultimate escape artist. Once you have secured all the gates, you turn around to find her standing right next to you. What in the world? Maybe I need a cattle farmer to help me explain what goes on in the mind of a cattle dog. Clearly there is an unspoken language I haven’t yet learned. I am starting to think she is smarter than me and this is her game to see how she can play me. (And no, she is not allowed on the furniture but sometimes she doesn’t listen and she’s too cute for me to make her get down for the moment). Doesn’t her look make you think she knows more than she shows

He is RISEN! We have been reading a lot of stories about Jesus’ life these last few weeks and what a gift to be able to celebrate Him today. I am thankful for a God who chooses us into a life with Him and for new beginnings every day!

I never know what she is going to say. We were all playing a question game the other night at the table. Gress read the question, “who is the moodiest in your family?” I already knew hands down the answer was me. Then someone said Mabry and she screamed and cried at the top of her lungs, “I AM NOT MOODY!” Ok, so maybe it isn’t me. HA!

This girl LOVES to draw and color and craft. She would do it all day if you would sit next to her. And I love to see what she creates. It always makes me smile really big!

From full days of homeschooling to meandering through marshland and forts with friends on 2 different occasions, to a meet-up with other moms who homeschool and digging deep into how we can refine our teaching, to FINALLY getting some of our bigger house projects started and one almost complete, our weeks have been pretty full. We finally hung the world map on our wall and Gress has been visiting it several times a day to find out where things are that we have read about in our books. I love seeing curiosity spread. We are trying not to take life too seriously over here. There’s a balance with fun and work and all the stuff in between.

Remember the puppy we got? What happened to her? She is not so little anymore! 

When you are the third child and everyone else is riding bikes faster than you, there is certain quickened timeline that makes you want to be able to keep up with them. Mabry practiced on her training wheels for less than a month. She used their assistance mostly to help her master holding her up on the bike while she started pedaling but those extra wheels rarely touched the ground. This week she asked for the training wheels to be removed and graduated to full fledged super fast bike rider. Rad told her when the wheels came off, we would paint her bike any color she wished. Purple shimmery it is! We are so proud of this brave girl!

Disclaimer, no one was harmed in the speedy riding of her bike without a helmet. She did however run into a bush and scratch up the side of her face.

Fun moments to remember:

An all day visit from our friends! Oh I love our sweet farmer friends. Those kids…adorable!

All our kids love to cook in the kitchen. The other day for our the farmer’s visit, Gress made an angel food cake, homemade whipped cream and cut tons of strawberries! We believe strongly in making these kids self sufficient by the time they leave home! Way to go Gress!

Mabry got Mcree’s old bike. Rad told her when she can ride without training wheels, we can paint the bike any color she wants. She is pretty much riding without them now! (Hurry up, take them off before she notices!)

Mcree has been saving his money. The other day he asked if he could buy a drone with it. Let’s just say he was pretty amazed at how cool it was and how fun it is to drive! He is practicing so we can attach the camera soon!

On any given day, you never know which toys will be displayed on Mabry’s dresser. The other day she asked me to play with her and while using my “play voice” she said, “you sound weird and legos don’t talk like that.” HA!