Good at Multiplication

I will start with my family, though I am the youngest.




Next...My oldest brother, Randy, and his wife, Brenda:



Randy, Brenda, and their five kids and daughters-in-law


Randy, April, Marti and Brenda, Tim (R and B's oldest) where are their two boys? I'll have to dig for a photo of them...Ah! This one is from our family mini-reunion on Memorial Day Weekend. This is out on our deck.




Randy's middle son Greg and his wife Shawna, boys Gabe and Grant

Youngest son Jeremy and his wife Alisha

...and their sweet kiddos!


Randy's oldest daughter (kid #4) Cass and her son Zeb

Randy's youngest dd Kinni


And now my sister's family:


Kevin and Tammy and their granddaughter, Ava





Their oldest son Matt, his wife and his kiddos. He lives the farthest away, now.




Brian and my sis's daughter, Tiff

Sweet Ava with her mom


April (my sis's youngest) and Jeremy, Hayleigh, Kaylee, and Aiden We just got to enjoy their visit for a long weekend!


and their newest edition this spring. He loves to be held :-)



This is my next brother in line, Steve, and his family


Steven, Chris, Andraya with Holden, Steve, and Stephany. This was taken at our house.



Next is my brother Greg and his wife Laura:



Their daughters Rachel and Nichole

Their sons Chris and Aaron

This is our grafted in family, who have been a part of our family's lives for about 25 years.

Mike, Bryce, Gina, Gina's hubby Pat (one of the newest to the family) and Connie
I've known the kids since they were born!

And here are a big lot of my family who got to be at (and sing in :-) Gina's "Big, Fat, Tulsa Wedding" last summer:



Notice our Mom and Dad just to the right of center by the gorgeous bride :-)

Anniversary

My nephews and nieces: Jeremy Andraya, Gregory and Stephany in the back, Matt and Tiff, and Timothy (who did a reading for us during the ceremony ~ he was nine at the time, and he did great!). They were all little attendants, and stayed up front during the whole ceremony. It was fun!


ALL the nieces and nephews at that time (hahaha). Let's just say that our family tribe continued to grow. A lot! The two extra itty bitty ones are April and Steven. Almost all of them have their own kids, now...and I get to see most of them this coming weekend!

Steph, Auntie, April, Tiffany, and Andraya
May 18th, 1985

Transition Time Again

Transitions can be exciting, they can be scary, they can be frustrating...sometimes all three of these things at the same time.

This is another big transition time for our family, as our second oldest is about to graduate from high school and move in with friends in a rental home. The friends want to start a ministry community, and it is a neat time for them. In the meantime, the siblings and the parents are dealing with the little disappointments (and promised or hoped for time spent before she moves away) in one way or another! ha.

This month of waiting for things to happen, house leases to come through, etc., has been a little disconcerting to our end-of-year school plans, especially those toward graduation. No matter, things will eventually work out...but transition times are almost too tempting in that those taking the biggest steps really need to finish a chapter completely before they begin the new one in earnest, otherwise they may be tripped up and fall before the finish line.

Why can't kids seem to see this??? The future really is too exciting sometimes.

I'm also of the belief that we humans will learn and do what we are really interested in. We will push hard when things are hard *if* we are fairly successful all along the way. But if we take too many breaks and begin the next chapter too soon, we will not finish well, and may need an editor to fix a chapter or two of our lives. hehe. The things that most challenge us sometimes cause us to choose to move on too early, or we shut down almost completely. This happened to me in college. I became ill but kept forging ahead...and I ended up shutting down because the pressure was too great for far too long, and powers-that-be did not keep their end of a couple of educational agreements, which meant the final nail in the coffin for a couple of degree-required classes. I should have majored in my minor instead, but the timing was not right then. (It is now, and that is a whole other post! I will get a degree in liberal arts with an emphasis in Bible and Spanish as soon as I take two more classes! My minor was Spanish, BTW.)

But this transition for our next graduate in line...it's exciting and frustrating. We are still getting used to her leaving the nest soon! It's almost like it would be better to end the "iffyness" right now, just cut off the kite string a couple of weeks early and move on, because that kite wants to fly now!!

I'm happy for her, proud of her in so many areas, and know that she will learn what she puts her heart into all the rest of her life. She loves learning, so I'm thinking her educational years were actually quite successful!

:::sigh:::

I did say that it will all work out...in faith, I believe that! It has always been Hubby's and my mantra that it is not our place to be forcefully controlling of our children's lives. Help them each step of the way by placing before them a wide vatiety of books, some containing deep ideas and a wide river of things to learn, not hindering their interests, but encouraging them. Guide them, yes. Lead them to the Lord, yes. Let the Holy Spirit prompt and guide as we release them bit-by-bit. It's a very nice balance for life.

God knows the bigger picture in each and every one of our children's lives. What a comfort THAT truly is!! It's not really up to me at all, Thank the Lord! Saves a lot of guilt all along the way, don't you think?

Now on to the physical efforts of getting everything ready for all our company for dd's graduation party this next weekend, whilst we wrap up the homeschool year and high school Spanish classes.


Praying for strength and stamina!

Javamom

Visiting Mallards

They love our deck and hang out with the rest of the birds near the seeds.

I finally captured the humming bird!

The Dread-Pirate Sparsebeard has been putting out feeders for hummingbirds this spring, and we finally had some come around. They are difficult to catch by camera, as they are so fast.

I observed one Sunday last just outside our bedroom window. He landed and rested on a crepe-myrtle branch briefly, but my camera was nowhere near to retrieve it in time.

These photos are taken from the front door, where the feeders are hanging out on the front porch. This little guy has a shimmery, green back, and is the same one I saw on the crepe myrtle on Sunday.

Enjoy!

Javamom