Happy Fall, friends!!

If fall is the season of change, I feel like we may have taken that a little too literally this year. This fall finds our family in a new house, just down the street from our old house. Also, I took a new job! This is my first in-person job in eighteen years.

Oh! And our oldest son went away to college, and Alan changed jobs. But then, Alan changes jobs every one to three years. The military is crazy like that.

What better way to celebrate fall and a new house then sprucing our new place up with a beautiful garden?

Okay. I don’t actually have the beautiful garden part all set up yet. In fact, our playroom still contains about six cardboard boxes and two plastic bins to go through. I’m in desperate need of more time at home to work on our house.

So instead, I have an expert guest blogger here from Warrenton, Virginia to share fall gardening tips with us! Hurray!

Let’s all give her a warm welcome and see what we can learn. I’ll scatter in here a few photos from outside my new house as well as a few inspirational photos with the perfection I have not yet achieved!

15 Inspiring Garden Ideas for the Fall

As the summer heat fades and crisp autumn air settles in, many gardeners find themselves reinvigorated and ready to tackle new projects. Fall is an excellent time for gardening, offering ideal conditions for many plants and providing a perfect opportunity to prepare your garden for the coming spring. Let’s explore some fantastic garden ideas to make the most of this beautiful season.

1. Plant Spring-Blooming Bulbs

One of the joys of fall gardening is planting bulbs that will burst into colorful life come spring. Tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths are all excellent choices. Plant these bulbs in well-draining soil, about 6-8 inches deep, and water them thoroughly. Come spring, you’ll be rewarded with a vibrant display of flowers.

2. Create a Fall Vegetable Garden

Many vegetables thrive in cooler temperatures, making fall an ideal time to start a vegetable garden. Consider planting cool-season crops like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, and carrots. These hardy vegetables can withstand light frosts and will provide fresh produce well into the colder months.

3. Enhance Your Landscape with Fall-Blooming Perennials

Add pops of color to your autumn garden with fall-blooming perennials. Asters, chrysanthemums, sedum, and goldenrod are excellent choices that will bring vibrant hues to your landscape as other plants begin to fade. These perennials will return year after year, providing reliable fall beauty.

4. Implement a Composting System

Fall is the perfect time to start composting, as you’ll have plenty of leaves and plant debris to work with. Create a simple compost bin using wooden pallets or purchase a ready-made composter. Layer green materials (like grass clippings and kitchen scraps) with brown materials (like fallen leaves and small twigs) to create nutrient-rich compost for your garden.

5. Plant Trees and Shrubs

The cooler temperatures and increased rainfall of fall create ideal conditions for planting trees and shrubs. These plants will have time to establish strong root systems before winter sets in, giving them a head start for robust growth in the spring. Consider native species that are well-adapted to your local climate for the best results.

6. Design a Rain Garden

As autumn brings more frequent rainfall, it’s an excellent time to implement a rain garden. These specialized gardens are designed to capture and filter rainwater runoff, reducing erosion and pollution while creating a beautiful, low-maintenance landscape feature. Choose plants that can tolerate both wet and dry conditions, such as cardinal flower, swamp milkweed, and Joe-Pye weed.

7. Create a Cozy Outdoor Living Space

Extend your time outdoors by creating a comfortable seating area in your garden. Add weather-resistant furniture, outdoor rugs, and throw pillows to create an inviting space. Consider installing a fire pit or outdoor heater to keep warm on chilly evenings, allowing you to enjoy your garden well into the fall season.

8. Install Garden Lighting

As the days grow shorter, garden lighting becomes increasingly important. Solar-powered path lights, string lights, and lanterns can create a magical atmosphere in your fall garden while also improving safety and visibility. Use lighting to highlight key features of your landscape, such as trees, water features, or architectural elements.

9. Build Raised Beds

Fall is an excellent time to construct raised garden beds. These structures offer better drainage, warmer soil temperatures, and easier access for planting and maintenance. Fill your raised beds with a high-quality soil mix enriched with compost. According to Gateway Home and Garden Center that sells gardening soils and mulches in Warrenton, VA, using the right soil blend is crucial for the success of raised bed gardens.

10. Implement Water-Wise Gardening Techniques

As you prepare your garden for fall, consider incorporating water-wise gardening techniques. Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater for irrigation, group plants with similar water needs together, and use mulch to retain soil moisture and suppress weeds. These practices will help conserve water and create a more sustainable garden.

11. Create a Fall Container Garden

Bring color and texture to your porch, patio, or entryway with fall container gardens. Combine ornamental cabbage, pansies, mums, and ornamental grasses in large pots for instant autumn appeal. Don’t forget to include some evergreen plants to maintain interest throughout the winter months.

12. Establish a Wildflower Meadow

Fall is an excellent time to sow wildflower seeds for a beautiful, low-maintenance meadow garden. Choose a mix of native wildflowers suited to your region, prepare the soil by removing existing vegetation, and sow the seeds according to the package instructions. The seeds will lie dormant over winter and sprout in spring, creating a diverse and colorful habitat for pollinators.

13. Plan and Plant a Spring Cutting Garden

Use the fall season to plan and prepare a cutting garden that will provide beautiful blooms for arrangements come spring. Plant a variety of annuals and perennials known for their long stems and vase life, such as zinnias, cosmos, dahlias, and sunflowers. Prepare the soil now and sow hardy annual seeds or plant bulbs for early spring flowers.

14. Create a Sensory Garden

Design a garden that engages all the senses by incorporating plants with interesting textures, fragrances, and sounds. Plant lavender, rosemary, and thyme for their aromatic foliage, add ornamental grasses that rustle in the breeze, and include plants with interesting bark textures or seed pods that create visual interest in the fall and winter months.

15. Implement Vertical Gardening

Maximize your garden space by incorporating vertical gardening techniques. Install trellises, arbors, or wall-mounted planters to grow climbing plants like clematis, honeysuckle, or even fall-bearing raspberries. Vertical gardens not only save space but also add visual interest and can create privacy or define garden rooms.

As you implement these fall garden ideas, remember that this season is also about preparation for the coming year. Take time to clean up garden beds, divide overgrown perennials, and protect tender plants from frost. With thoughtful planning and care, your fall garden efforts will set the stage for a beautiful and bountiful garden in the seasons to come.

I want to thank our guest blogger again for her wonderful ideas.

For the first time ever, I actually did buy boxes of bulbs. Maybe tomorrow I will finally get those buried in the ground!

What all are you planting or designing in your yard this year? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section.

The post 15 Beautiful Garden Ideas for Fall appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Thank you for joining us for the 12 days of jumping into fall and recovering from summer!!

So who is ready for this hurricane? As a military wife, I have about 20 friends who are in North Carolina, and we are praying with you all!

We live in the D.C. area, so we might be a little affected too. We have a completely dead tree in our front yard. Limbs fall from it regularly. We’re renters, but even still we should probably do something about that. In the meantime, our plan is to have the boys all sleep in the basement with us during the hurricane.

Guess what I did last night.

I stayed up until past midnight working on ancestry research, so today I have the energy level of a “baby momma”, and I’m hating late night April who wanted to stay up so late and follow that genealogy trail.

Why do I live to torture myself?

What is this thing inside of me that says, “Yes!!!! Sign up for ALLLL THE THINGS!!!”

Alan came home last night, and said, “Hey, I noticed you got a lot of volunteer emails today…”

“I did? What did I get?”

Total sign up amnesia is also a thing with me.

“There was one about a field trip to Baltimore. Who would sign up to be a chaperone for that?”

“Me. I did.”

“April, just because the kids went to school doesn’t mean you have to do all this mess because then inevitably it’s going to interfere with all the other kids. Someone will be sick that day. Every time.”

I blinked. I mean I couldn’t argue. That does tend to happen.

“What other emails were there?” I asked him. I mean, sure, I’d replied to them all, but again, I get the sign up amnesia.

“Something about the library…”

“Oh yeah!” I nod enthusiastically. “I’m going to volunteer in the library. So excited.”

Alan looked at me warily.

Selfies with the boys at Joshua’s flag football game. They weren’t all that interested in making sure I was in the photo.

Alan and I also just joined a local church, and we both know that means we should find a place to serve there. What I want to do now is choir. I’m actually not planning to sign up to teach any other classes this year.

Moving is hard.

Yes. It is hard, even when you’re returning to a place you’ve lived before. My heart is leading me to choir, but the idea of working Awana makes me want to pull my own eyelashes out, so I’m going to wait on that. I need to sit in a Bible study and learn. My pitcher needs a refill.

Then you know what will happen? I will start to relax. Life will start to make sense again, and then I will know where I should serve at church.

People can’t make our sign up decisions for us. We must live proactively and serve in a God-honoring way. Serving because we feel our arm twisted or guilt-tripped is not the kind of service God wants from us. It’s the kind that will allow us to live in dread. Life is short. I’m not interested in living in dread.

John David at AWANA game time

So last night was the 2nd week of Awana.

…And AWANA has always caused a great deal of drama, weeping, and gnashing of teeth at our house. The kids do the whining, and I do the teeth grinding.

By the time I get them all to church, I’m doing all I can to not burst into tears, okay. You do not want me to teach a class.

I know that’s hard to imagine if your children have gone to the same church since they were born, and maybe they love AWANA. But that is not our story, y’all.

Church is a place packed with strangers for us every 2 years.

It’s terrifying for some of us. It’s not so scary on Sunday morning because you can sit with your parents, or you can attend a nice Sunday school class with just a few kids your own age, taught by a smiling lady. The boys, while they don’t actually want to go to Sunday school, they always leave there fairly happy. It’s a peaceful place.

Wednesday nights are not so peaceful at all at most churches we’ve gone to for the children. It’s loud and noisy because hundreds of kids who do not attend church on Sunday morning suddenly appear on Wednesday night for AWANA.

Being the new kid + being required to spout out memorized verses +coping with a super loud environment +your teachers are also stressed because of the super loud environment = stress.

Okay. It equals stress. There’s no way around it.

Some years we participate, and some years, it’s too much. This year we are determined to make it, and the youngest has had tears both weeks so far.

Once we get past the initial stress and chaos of it all, their participation in AWANA will make them feel way more connected to our local church and the body of Christ in general, but in the meantime…it’s hard.

The first week I stayed with John David the entire 2 hours because I couldn’t bear watching him walk in that line bawling his little eyes out. Nope. Not doing it. I whisked him into my arms and tagged along for all of their classes.

For week 2, John David did not cry at drop off, so I was free to find a class for myself to attend.

I was barely holding it together, honestly, but I found a quiet room downstairs with a few ladies gathered for a Ladies’ Bible Study. It felt providential.

The group leader asked us to write our information and prayer requests on an index card. My heart was feeling a bit raw, so I spelled out three solid requests, in detail. This is unusual for me. In meeting a new group, I would usually just say that I do not have any prayer requests.

It turns out that two women of the 6 who were there have had an ablation before! Now I’m not actually planning to get an ablation, but I have to go deal with the heart doctors this week. Doctors make me surprisingly nervous. I’m such a medical chicken, but I’m not all that worried about the outcome of the appointment.

I’m more concerned that all of my childcare arrangements will work out and everyone’s okay without me. It was supposed to be storming by this afternoon, but now it’s looking like it won’t be. Thank God for that!

This Bible study group felt like a good fit for me last night.

I needed this, so I’m glad that I didn’t sign up to teach AWANA. You know what I mean? They do need more workers, and I feel bad for them. Maybe next semester I could help, but at this time I need to refill my pitcher. There’s a time for everything, right?

When I picked John David up last night, he melted into tears in my arms. I am his safe place. He’d put on a brave face allll day long, and he was done. I wanted to sit down in the floor and cry with him, but I held him for a few minutes and then gathered my peeps, and we made our way to the ol’ minivan.

You know, moving is hard, and it’s sometimes hard for others to understand, but that’s the place we’re in now. All six of us are going to be fine. No, we’re going to be far better than fine–even stronger and more compassionate for having done all that we’ve done. And this is simply what that process looks like.

There is no magic formula for adjusting to a move. We all have to walk at our own pace. Dive in, but not so hastily that we hit our head on some unexpected log. Observe. Take small steps, but get in there.

A year from now, we’ll find ourselves waving hello to more people. Strangers won’t be strangers anymore. There will be fewer of those. We might even find ourselves giving directions to a newer person. Always give it a year to feel transitioned, but give it two years to love it. Some places take longer than others. This particular place won’t take long at all.

Still keeping it fun, no matter where we go

Do you feel like your family is going through an adjustment phase with a new school or new teachers or even a new location like us? We’d love to hear your best coping strategies in the comments section!

The post Day 5 : Adjusting to the Move appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

hahaha! What does it say about how much I did not love summer this year that I’m blogging a whole series on “recovering from summer.”

I feel like I should explain that it has more to do with moving this summer and leaving so much undone and waiting for “after the kids start school.” But really, is there ever an end to projects?

Plus, I spent a large amount of time outside this year, and I want to whine about how hot it was. I’m a fall person, I can’t help it. I AM SO READY FOR FALL!!!!

Lately there has been a little more time during the day for me to be alone with my thoughts. Not only that, but as I’ve been talking with my friends, I’ve been listening to the words that I’m saying. With the boys at school all day, I have time to reflect on what I’m hearing and saying.

I realized as I was talking the other day that I actually believed that I’m not good at anything at all. 

So much happened in the 4 years we were gone from this place. They weren’t bad years, but they were growing-up, maturing kind of years. Actually, just moving 3 times in 4 years was tough, and that’s not even the part that I focus on most. It feels like I walked about a billion miles to get from there to here, and my body wants to sit down and soak in a bath and just process it all.

Life brought challenges, new tasks, hardships we’ve had to see the boys through, and relationships that changed how I interact with others.

Both difficult and wonderful things have happened, and I internalized so much of it in a negative way. I let it bring me low, not humbled, but defeated and rather sad.

You, my blog readers, are also my friends, so I want to share a little of what I’ve been dealing with. Maybe you can relate.

There were several things I felt like I failed at, then there was the heart scare, the not being allowed to exercise, the weight gain, a difficult person I had trouble with, seeing my parents deal with the fire, the constant moving, and maybe I didn’t handle it all that well. I tried to act like I did.

Low Self-Esteem

My self-esteem became ridiculously low. You might actually call it an inferiority complex. The things I have been saying to myself were HORRIBLE. These are lies I’ve believed.

“You are an inadequate housekeeper.”

“You’re not good at anything.”

“You’re so chubby.”

“Alan doesn’t approve of me.” (These are lies. All of them.)

“Everyone hates your blog. Stop writing it.”

“You were pretty when you were young. Now you’re ugly.”

“You’re annoying. Don’t talk so much.”

“Your views are controversial. Don’t tell people what you really think.”

“No one would hire you even if you tried to get a job. You have no skills.”

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

What to do about low self-esteem

I’m no expert here, but I think the first step is realizing that this is a problem. It’s not a little problem. Living defeated is a BIG BAD DEAL when it’s stopping you from fulfilling your purpose.

I heard people talk about a book called “Girl, Wash Your Face.” (I make like 12 cents a copy if you buy it through that link. lol) I haven’t actually read the book, but the statement made sense to me because in the practical sense, I often skip washing my face in the interest of accomplishing something I deem more important. In the applicable sense, you can tell from the title alone that this is a “Get back up!” sort of message.

You know I love YouTube. So I went there, and I typed “girl, wash your face” in the YouTube search bar. A long list of videos by Rachel Hollis popped up. I watched a random video about finishing the year strong. I don’t even know which one it was.

She kept talking about how she tells herself things like, “You are super fit.” or something like that.

That got me thinking to the crap I’ve been telling myself, just horrible lies I’m believing about myself, rather than believing anything GOOD about who I am and what I can do.

I was in my kitchen, baking cookies for the kids, and I realized, “I have to make a list! A list of how to fix this and a list of POSITIVE thoughts about myself.”

List #1

Healing Self-Esteem Issues

1. Pray about this.
2. Ask God why you have this problem.
3. Identify how you have been dishonest with yourself.
4. What lies or unimportant truths are you listening to?
5. Make a list of what makes you valuable & what you do well.
6. Tell yourself new truths to replace the lies.

I made this list for myself through tears of determination. Yes! Why have I been stumbling? “Who am I?”

What have I been doing? How did I allow myself to come to this place?

It’s OKAY to be sad. I might even still feel sad for whatever reason, but believing evil lies about yourself is helping no one.

You are of high value!!!

List #2

The Confidence List

On this page, I wrote only solid, positive truths about myself.

Things like this:

“I make delicious no bake cookies.”

“God greatly loves me.”

“My children adore me.”

“Alan thinks I’m pretty.”

“I have courage.”

“I am not fake.”

“I put myself through college in 3 1/2 years.” (Answered prayers!!)

“I share my lessons with others on my blog.”

And I actually wrote way, way more than that. I wanted to pass these ideas along to you, in case you need to make those lists too.

After I made these lists, I also sat down with Alan and discussed this struggle with him, so he could understand what’s going on inside my head and my heart.

Life is tough, but we don’t have to believe the lies. We CAN live victoriously.

I firmly believe there are both good and evil forces in this world. God wants only what’s good for you, and the devil knows that the worse you feel about yourself, the less likely you are to do anything bold and beautiful for others. He wants us cowering in a corner, but that is not what we are built for.

I know I can’t overcome my low self-esteem in one weekend, but by golly we can forge ahead, right? I hope you’ll make your confidence list too!

Is this something you’ve dealt with? Tell us in the comments section how you rise above it.

The post Day 2: Tackling Low Self Esteem with Truth and List Making appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Today is the 5th day of school, and guess what.

It is definitely time to recover from summer.

And you know what else? It’s going to take me way more than 12 days to recover the basement playroom and the stacks of papers from a summer of neglect.

There are about a billion cluttered surfaces in my house that I’ve saved for “when the boys go back to school.” And you do not want to see the storage room where I shoved all the bins of items I didn’t have a place for when I unpacked them from the move. “I’ll find a place for those when the boys go back to school.”

Ah yes, that day has come. Time to put my working hands where my mouth was.

Do you listen to music when you clean?

I HAVE to.

Like it or not, cleaning must be done. It’s quite important, so I find it imperative to distract myself with some fun, upbeat tunes from people with better voices than my own. And of course, I will be singing along, sometimes even dancing, and not just because I like to watch my children roll their eyes.

My big accomplishment of the day wasn’t just cleaning though.

(Cleaning is the never-ending job.) It was this YouTube playlist I put together of a few (like 14) of my favorite songs to listen to while I work! After all, who pays hundreds of dollars for music when you can listen for free on YouTube?

It’s super simple to do. I thought about typing up an explanation for how to make a playlist, and then I figured that’d be time-consuming, and it’s already been done. Here’s a link for how to make your own YouTube playlist.

Here’s my playlist below. What’s on yours? I’d love to hear more ideas for songs to add.

Link to my playlist:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIigYXl0ipjUCeVz0lttQ71FPZZD7JRr8

1. Someday by Michael Bible and Meghan Trainer (love those 2!!)
2. I Wanna Go Back by David Dunn
3. Grace Got You by MercyMe
4. Tell Your Heart to Beat Again by Danny Gokey
5. A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman Soundtrack
6. The Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole
7. Hold Me by Jamie Grace and Toby Mac
8. Little Ol’ Me by Jamie Grace
9. Fight Song by Rachel Platten
10. You Belong with Me by Taylor Swift (The high school girl inside of me finds this song quite relatable okay)
11. Still That Girl by Britt Nicole (Skip the first 30 seconds of the song and then listen. LOOOVE the rest. She could’ve had a huge hit with this one if she’d chopped off the intro, in my humble opinion..)
12. Better Place by Rachel Platten
13. This One’s For the Girls by Martina McBride
14. Keep Walkin’ On by Faith Hill & Shelby Lynne

I need more songs for it. I’ve already listened to this whole list twice in the last 24 hours. What should I add??

The post 12 Days of Summer Recovery: Day 1 is My House Cleaning Playlist appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Fishin’ With DaddyO

These weekends were just as beautiful as the photos appear. Alan took our youngest two boys and went camping with DaddyO in Alabama. They fished, they cleaned the fish, they ate the fish, they learned about the importance of gun safety while shooting cans, and they got to sleep in a tent. It looks so good, it almost makes me wish I had gone too.

But then I remind myself that I don’t touch worms, I don’t clean fish, I don’t sleep on the ground, I don’t like being cold, and I don’t do well with bugs, and then I’m okay with my decision to pass on the camping.

A successful day of fishing! The boys are still talking about this.

Look at all those leaves!

After living on the California coast for two years, we have a fresh new appreciation for fall foliage. I can’t get enough of it!

happiest moment ever

Pick-up trucks are an essential part of a Southern campout.

I know. It almost makes me nervous too. But if you knew Alan, you’d know how good this actually is. I guarantee you those two little boys now no more about the danger of guns and gun safety and the purpose of guns than most adults do. Alan is such a thorough teacher. He is an amazing dad.

Pioneer Dad

Daniel shows off the target afterwards.

You see why Alan and Daniel called this “the man trip.”

You should’ve heard Daniel talking about this trip the day before. “We are going on a MAN trip. We’re going to do MAN stuff.  MAN stuff!” Can’t you just hear Tim the Toolman Taylor saying “far ra rar ruff!”

The big boys missed out on the camping trip. However, they all went with Alan to Providence Canyon State Park last weekend while I got a desperately needed day off! Here are a few photos from that!

They took turns being statues. I think Daniel was the Statue of Liberty.

“They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.” ― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. I want to tell you how thankful I am to be starting to feel settled in my new home. It’s been four months now, and the depression that came with moving has passed. I have a modicum of energy again, and I cannot tell you just how much I am enjoying these incredible fall colors.

I’m sitting here staring out the window. The trees in front of me are orange and red, mixed in with pine green.

It reminds me that if I am thankful for fall, then I must be thankful for change. No matter how we resist it, it is simply one of the seasons. We know it’s coming. Look for the beauty. If every change were as beautiful as autumn, that wouldn’t be so hard.

These recent changes in my life actually are a thing of wonder. The boys are growing. Our family is closer. I’m doing a little outside work for the first time in 11 years!! The places and faces I see everyday are new, but they will soon be familiar.

“It was November–the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

The post Fishin’ with DaddyO Photoblog appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

November is quite possibly my favorite month of the year.

Why? It all boils down to 2 primary reasons.

#1. It is not SUPPOSED to be 90 degrees anymore.

I’d do anything to get these temps turned down. ARE humans causing global warming? I don’t know. I don’t care anymore. If there’s a chance it might work, here, take my car keys……. Wait……. Does that mean I have to home  school again? No, never mind. You can have my electricity, but I am going to have to insist on driving my kids to school. The gas guzzling minivan actually does take precedence over global warming after all. Sorry, y’all.

But seriously, bring on the blue jeans weather!!! And leggings! And boots!

fun times spent with family

It’s so refreshing to be nearer to our peeps.

#2. Low maintenance holiday.

Yes, it is. Eat with friends or family. Share the cooking responsibilities. No one has to buy presents. We don’t have to take out any loans. Just be thankful.

And you know who invented Thanksgiving?? Why, President Abraham Lincoln, of course!!  

Not making that up. I read about Lincoln all the time. I never thought about presidents of years past until we moved to Washington, D.C. Plus, Caleb adored Lincoln, and it rubbed off on me, sort of like Joshua’s fascination with animals. I love the way my children have changed me!

“…I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed….”     –President Lincoln, Oct. 3, 1863

You have to love a man who was called “Honest Abe” even while he was still alive.

He was greatly loved and equally hated in his own time.

In fact, in our current political system, he would have never been the Republican nominee. How do I know? Because he was elected at the convention, not from the sort of primary system we have now. Nope. The delegates at the Republican convention put in a first ballot, and the person with the most votes was Seward. William Henry Seward. He became President Lincoln’s right hand man, but at the convention it was Seward who won the first round of ballots.

The delegates then haggled and regrouped and voted again and again, allowing the delegates to switch their support. Lincoln won on the third ballot.

Funny how differently it was run back then, isn’t it? I dare say we would have a different nominee if that old system were still in place, actually.

I’m thankful it was Lincoln that won on that third ballot.

I heard in a video on the internet the other day a cartoon character remark that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Ugh. Wrong.

Of course, it IS. It was ALWAYS meant to be. You want a non-religious holiday?? You have Halloween, which is not a bad holiday. It is a time when we come together and fellowship with our neighbors, something we could also use a little more of.

People often cite how terribly divided our country is right now, but remember, it is not “the most divided it has ever been.” We aren’t having a Civil War, now are we?

Be thankful! Give thanks to our beneficent Father!!!

I could go on and on about Lincoln, because he was wonderful, but I’ll save that for another post. Today I just want to wish you a happy fall, remind you to enter my giveaway (because I love to give good things to my friends and readers), and encourage you to pray for our country, just as President Lincoln asked us to so many years ago.

Will you vote this year? I know. These choices are so unpopular. So unpopular I’d be embarrassed to endorse either of them. But it is our civic duty to vote and even more so to pray.

God bless! And bring out the turkeys!!!  🙂

Win a brand new cutting board!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Global Warming, Honest Abe, and the Best Month Ever appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Baby snakes have been hatching around our house. *Shudder*

It has officially been three months since the move, and we are still adjusting to Georgia life. The other day we went outside, and Joshua said, “Hey! Mom! Look a snake!”

That is not what you want to hear first thing in the morning.

But then I saw it.

“Is that a worm?”

“No! Look how it moves!” Joshua insisted.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right, but that has to be a baby snake.”
By that time, all the brothers had arrived. Caleb grabbed a tennis racket, and well….poor baby snake. But you see, when you don’t know what kind of snake it is, you have to kill it. Better the snake than your children.

Caleb the snake slayer

Okay, one baby snake, killed quickly. I didn’t worry too much more about it….

Until a week later, when I found a slightly bigger one.

In my life time I have spared almost zero seconds of thoughts on snakes, snake species, or what to do about them. I left them alone. They left me alone. We were good.

I was out in the backyard with barefoot John David. John David is ALWAYS barefoot, when I spotted this thing in my grass. I might have freaked out (in my head) a little bit.

As I mentioned before I don’t have a lick of knowledge about snakes. Therefore, I decided it was best to assume this one was deadly, a poisonous Copperhead for sure.

I closely examined this animal, which seemed to be frozen in place, and then I whisked JD out of that grass and into the house where I proceeded to quickly google copperheads. I found a few pics of infant copperheads that looked very similar to this. So I decided that this one must die, just to be safe. My kids play back there all the time.

“I MUST SAVE THE CHILDREN!!!!” I thought wildly. It’s time to be a hero!!!  This is my moment!!! I looked frantically for a weapon.

Alan has hidden all of the shovels from our children because they like to use them to dig holes, so I had to settle for a puny fireplace shovel. I made JD stay on the porch while I bravely headed out with my pathetic weapon choice.

This was so hard for me! Aside from the occasional spider, I’ve never killed anything in my life!! But I knew that if it were a copperhead, I could not let it live, so I took that shovel and beat that tiny defenseless snake against a rock. In my mind, I was like Joan of Arc or something.

It was traumatizing for both me and the snake, but at least I did live, while I am both proud and sad to tell you, tiny snake did not.

The harmless, tiny, docile brown snake: eats worms and such

I came back in and Google-searched a little harder. Next time I need to know what I’m dealing with. Apparently, snakes are a common occurrence here.

I was both relieved and guilty-feeling to learn that this was actually just a harmless little brown snake, extremely common in the Atlanta area.  Also, it’s a protected species in Georgia. Ummm….oops….yeah…okay…protected unless the killer thinks it is poisonous and then I can assure you the killer makes no apologies.

This site was masterful at explaining how to tell the difference. By the way, in Australia, there is a snake species also called a brown snake that is deadly. So know your snakes according to where you live!!!

Here’s the site you should check out, in case this happens to you! Juvenile Copperhead Vs. Brown snake

See, you CAN learn important things on the internet!

***********************

Thankfully, there are also many advantages to moving here. First and foremost, we get to be there for family events. Remember that wedding where I couldn’t decide what to wear? Here are a few pictures.

By the way, when I went to get dressed that day, my hips were so swollen I couldn’t wear any of my regular dresses. Arthritis is a terrible disease.

Here’s my handsome little man, wearing the same outfit his daddy wore at his age, smocked by his great-grandmother.

Our favorite family of all red-heads

Alan, reunited with his college friends

I found this bench at a yard sale for $10!!! I was so excited, I bought TWO of them!

The kids have all been taking turns being sick. I held him in my arms as he slept and enjoyed it so thoroughly.

We had an “all night party” with Caleb, the night before his EEG. See, he was supposed to be sleep deprived. We only managed to keep them awake until 12am. They all had a contest to see who could stay up the latest. I lost.

The EEG results were normal, and Caleb is now coming off of Keppra gradually!!!  This is very exciting for our family. However, we are still watching him closely, as he may have more seizures as he coming off of the medication. In which case, he’ll have to go right back on Keppra. Seizures are not good for your brain, so this matters.

The boys are making more and more friends all the time. How adorable are they, playing with this family of three boys, exactly their ages?

Since it is fall, we’ve been collecting pumpkins. Caleb likes to draw faces on the pumpkins and gourds.

I think I’m going to go ahead and create our thankful tree this week. After all, it is fall already, and there is something about a constant reminder to be thankful that I need in my life. Don’t you?

We’ve been back in the South for over three months now, and after 7 years of living away, it’s an adjustment! At first, I was bogged down in the signing up for this, signing up for that, finding doctors, finding a grocery store, and using my GPS just to find my way home. During that time, it was hard to even smile. 

And by the way, Southerners, I am convinced, smile way more than other people do. I like that about us, but at first I did not appreciate it. It got on my nerves, bigly. (hehe)

My thoughts went like this, “Ugh, we got four boys dressed and loaded in the van, made three wrong turns to get here, and now everyone expects us to look happy. What kind of sick joke is this?”

Moving is hard, y’all!!  We don’t know which streets are parallel and which ones curve. When you have four kids talking to you, it’s super easy to miss a turn.

And the heat! Oh, man was it hot!

Thankfully, fall is finally here. I need to spend today digging through bins for toddler pants.

I’ve met so many new people, and I’m starting to get everyone’s name right on the first try. Plus, I have just enough comfort level now that I’m starting to smile again.

Moving truly takes a year to fully settle in. We’re 1/4 of the way there.

Today we are thankful. Thankful for fall, for Google who tells us when to worry and when to not worry about a snake, thankful for adorable children, and thankful for a Father in Heaven who made us and loves us.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.  Psalm 28:7

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The post 3 Months Since the Move: Snakes, Pumpkins, and Smiling appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.