Ice Cream Thursday
Posted: May 17, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Charlotte 2 Comments »Last week Charlotte’s class hosted a Tea for Mother’s day. Afterwards I took her out for ice cream {any excuse for ice cream!} and to my delight she picked a flavor that matched her dress. It’s the little things, you know?
And yes, she is a little Sarah/Sissy {my sister}, in more ways than one!
Oh, for the LOVE!
Posted: May 15, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: catch up!, Charlotte, misc, sam 4 Comments »I am so, so sorry to those of you who check this blog. I am sure seeing the same blog post for over a month is nearly driving you crazy. I know you come here for the pictures, not the waxing poetic about a singer you never heard of.
I have been wanting to write. Every single day I think, I should write something today. But then the dishes need washing and some child needs either dropping off or picking up, and the dog wants to go out and my pile of laundry is eating the inside of Tim’s closet. And I have been doing lesson plans and we’re about to start leading a care group and, well, sometimes the lure of being somewhere else but my house is too much.
So here’s the latest, with pictures:
1. Sam is doing great at school. He has about three weeks left of being a first grader. {Insert “where does the time go?” comment here.}
2. Charlotte will finish up with preschool tomorrow. Gah! The baby is done with preschool.
3. My public speaking class ended last Friday, and they have asked me back for more next year. I will be teaching speech again first semester, and then debate second semester. We’ll see how that goes!
4. I will also be teaching kindergarten next year! Charlotte has enrolled in the inaugural class of the Tousey School of Arts & Sciences. {Which means I’ll be homeschooling, if you didn’t get that all ready!}
5. I will not be homeschooling Sam. You can all exhale now.
6. Summer plans are already in the works; Sam will be going to a week-long camp for fly fishing. He will be riding a bus to camp each day, so I am interested to see how that goes. The kids will also be spending weeks in Florida and SC, without mom and dad. {Woo hoo for all of us!}
7. I am calling this my “swan summer.” I am in dire need of some fitness, so we rejoined the Y, and I will be back to spin class today, and I am going to take up running again… something this body with an extra 30+ pounds needs desperately! I am also having some extensive dental work done. I have a veneer on my front tooth that is about 25 years old. The children sweetly refer to it as my “golden tooth.” I am looking forward to finally being able to smile and converse without being so self-conscious. I will have before and after pics for you later.
8. This Friday night Tim and I will be launching our new care group. Our church has a series of small groups that all members are asked to join. Last summer we did the training to be care group leaders, and two weeks ago we were gently “kicked out” of our care group and given the blessing of starting our own. We would covet your prayers for this group; these are unique groups in that we do provide care for one another, and this can mean walking with others through difficult circumstances and issues. We want to be attuned to God’s voice as we open our home and our lives to our little group of friends.
9. I have some final speeches to grade now. Have a great day!
{I realize now that most of my photos are on my phone… I’ll post more later!}
Lyric Love {Sara Groves}
Posted: April 8, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: love, lyrics, music, reminiscing, Sara Groves 8 Comments »It started in 1985… or at least that’s as far back as I can remember. I had Whitney Houston’s debut album. An actual record. I can still sing every song word for word.
1987 brought Belinda Carlisle and her first solo album, Heaven on Earth. And yes, I still know all those songs word for word, too.
I have been a lyrics girl for as long as I can remember. I would put a record on the player and lay in my floor with the album liner, or with the cover open; wherever the lyrics were printed is where my eyes would stay from beginning to end. I would pore over the lyrics to every song, from the dearly loved to the merely tolerated; I loved the way the words were crafted and set to music. My record collection tended to the popular- Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Whitney Houston, Belinda Carlisle, Madonna. {Mama had the more edifying collection of Larnelle Harris, Truth, Sandy Patty… and yes, I devoured those lyrics, too.}
This obsession with lyrics continued through the cassette tape phase, through CDs, and endures today.
It’s rare these days that I purchase an entire album; rather I tend to pick and choose individual songs, but occasionally I will find an artist that I like enough and buy their whole record.
I have been listening to an album lately that has me pining for those days with nothing to do but lay in my floor and listen to music for hours on end. Sara Groves’ Invisible Empires has been on repeat in the house and in the car for the past few weeks. I have checked the lyrics so many times now that the lyrics website shows up on my “top sites” page. I have been thankful time and time again to find a video on YouTube of Sara explaining the “why” for almost every song.
Invisible Empires is like my favorite antique store in Leesburg… every room is filled with treasures, and I can spend hours in there carefully examining each nook and cranny for bits of beauty that are overlooked by others.
There are songs on this album that are spellbinding, phrases that are breathtaking, and lyrics that are just smart and deep and full of meaning. I have found myself checking a dictionary a few times {barcarolle, anyone?}, and yet there is nothing pretentious about this work at all.
I am just so in love with this album because it is stripped-down and beautiful and uncomplicated {well, Scientist in Japan is a little complicated…} and it’s about God and love and beauty and life. Just everyday, real life.
My two favorite songs are Precious Again and Obsolete.
Precious Again is about seeing the beauty in every day, about not missing the wonder that is words from your children or the glory in a sunrise. My favorite lines:
Press mud with holy fingers
Light the ineffable
Fused in the ordinary
So much to wonder
Oh, what a wonder
And Obsolete speaks to the heart of this wife/mama/woman as I try to remember that my value comes from being wholly loved and accepted by Christ. I don’t have to put on a show of perfection, or compare myself to other wives/mamas/women.
It’s hard to feel obsolete
It’s hard to feel your skirts are showing
You pull and tug to hide the works
That keep the whole thing going
And you don’t know where you stand
And you feel so small and thin
And if you are dismissed
Will another take you in?
Anyway, I’ll stop going on and on about it, but I honestly haven’t found an album like this in a long time, one that takes me back to my ten-year old self with no where I’d rather be than in my room with a record player.
How about you? Are there any albums out there that you can’t get enough of these days? Any songs you just ruminate on for days at a time?
Sweet Sixteen
Posted: April 6, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anniversaries, love, mushy gushy, Tim 4 Comments »Sixteen years ago I had a mighty big weekend. My boyfriend from home had come up to visit; it was his first time visiting me at Winthrop and I was excited for him to meet my friends and see the “sights” of Rock Hill.
His primary reason for coming to Rock Hill was not to see me, however; he was in town for a softball tournament, and that was one of many reasons our relationship was heading for a swift ending.
So as I said goodbye to boyfriend-from-home that Saturday afternoon, I was already planning an outfit for a date on Sunday.
And on Sunday, April 6, 1997, Tim Tousey drove his roommate’s Altima to the Lee Wicker parking lot and picked me up for our first date. We took a thirty-minute drive into Pineville, a suburb of Charlotte, NC, to eat at Applebee’s. Because I was a worldly and cosmopolitan 19-year old, I ordered the chicken finger basket. Tim had the turkey club.
I don’t remember all that we talked about, or everything I felt, but I do remember there not being a lull in the conversation and I remember that he made me laugh a lot.
Sixteen years later, he still makes me laugh like no one else.
That time the Tooth Fairy traveled up the mountain…
Posted: March 27, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Banner Elk, family adventures, family time, friends, vacation, Valle Crucis 2 Comments »Sam told me he doesn’t believe in the Tooth Fairy.
Except he still wants her to bring him money.
Silly boy.
She had to make quite the trek in the snow and wind yesterday to deliver a single dollar to the toothless wonder.
He lost it playing in the snow on the giant deck.
Here are a few more pictures of the kids playing on the deck… it’s a huge deck and it was covered with probably eight inches of snow at one point. We were loving being able to send the kids out there with no worries of anyone escaping.
Then we let them play out front for a while too. You can see the gravel and other bare spots because the wind was gusting at over 25 miles per hour at one point and actually blew it all away. Crazy!
Tim said today that he was sorry I wasn’t somewhere warm and tropical for vacation, but I wouldn’t trade this week for anything. It’s been two years since we’ve seen snow like this, and I have missed being able to ride around and gawk at the beautiful snow-covered scenery. And the time we are having with our friends is priceless.
We did finally venture down the mountain today into Valle Crucis and Blowing Rock. Tomorrow we are going to have brunch with even more old friends from Raleigh, and we are all very excited about that.
Spring Break Snow Squall
Posted: March 25, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: family time, sam and charlotte, snow, spring break, vacation 3 Comments »Today is our first day of Spring break… well, it’s actually Sam’s Spring break, we’re just along for the ride. Last year we did not plan anything for his break, and while it was nice to have a week off, it was also kind of boring. This year we decided we would go somewhere as a family and have a vacation somewhere warm.
Except “warm” didn’t exactly work out, so we decided to take the week to catch up with some of our favorite people in the mountains of NC.
We wound our way up to the top of some mountain in between Banner Elk and Valle Crucis yesterday just before the snow came. Our sweet friends from Raleigh are coming today, and we are praying they make it up here safely.
This really is our kind of vacation… nowhere to be, nothing to do except hang out and enjoy each other’s company. Tim and Sam have been tying flies and are now locked in a fierce battle of Mario Kart. Charlotte spent the morning playing with her horses and goofing off before passing out in one of the recliners upstairs.
I have been reading, taking some pictures and enjoying the fact that I don’t have to clean anything but the breakfast dishes.
The house where we are staying is just unbelievable. It’s a relatively new home, but it feels so cozy and rustic with wood everywhere and gorgeous views out every window. The house is built onto the side of the mountain, so it’s quite amazing to look out over the mountains and see so many tree tops below you.
We were expecting to see some snow, and day one has provided plenty. We’ve even seen a few snow squalls, which are fine when you’re safely indoors, but not so much if you’re on the road.
I hope to catch up on some reading and writing this week. I’ll be sure to check in with more pictures soon.
Have a great week!
