Grandma

Today, Greg's our Grandma died. She was Great Grandma to our boys. I realized today that I knew her longer than I had known my biological Grandfather {who died when I was 11}. Grandma R was one of the most amazing, wonderful, and kind women I have ever been privileged to know. To feel loved by her, and treated as her true grandaughter was a gift.

This past Easter was also a gift. Normally, my brother hosts Easter in Syracuse and that is where we spend our day. This year, for various reasons Easter was being held at my mom's home....which meant we would drive home for the day, and also get to spend time with Greg's family. We feel so blessed to have been able to sit and chat with Grandma, to tell her we loved her one last time. In fact, I remember kissing her and saying goodbye....only to quickly return and tell her I wanted to give her one more kiss. Our world all ready feels very different without Grandma in it.

 

Whirl of a Weekend

We decided to make a quick trip home for Easter. The day before we left, we said goodbye see you in a year....to dear friends.

                                              {I adore this sweet gal}

                                 {can't imagine the year without them....:( }

We left Saturday morning and arrived at Great Grandma's by 3pm. The boys had a fun day with their little cousins.....and we loved seeing all of our families.

                                           Singing happy birthday........

It was great Grandma's birthday.....she celebrated with a shrimp shaped cake {she loves to eat seafood}. We cannot believe she just turned 98. She's amazing.

                                We also went outside for some football fun.

 

We took the game very seriously..... actually, most of us had no idea what we were doing.

 

The next day we egg hunted, munched grandma's traditional treats, and played some more football with my side of the family. We are thankful that both sides of our family live in the same city. Makes visits home so easy.....tiring, but easy.

 

                                    Loved spending time with all the cousins!

 

 

                       And now back to reality....and getting back into our groove.

I Need Pictures

I noticed that I hadn't posted a picture in forever!! What's up with that? Again, part of that non existent blogging mojo. I decided to upload a few random pictures.....photos that I planned to blog about, but never got around to it.

See those cookies up there? Yes, that mess up there.....and yes, I'm sure they are cookies. One of my many Pinterest fails. Why can't I make a decent chocolate chip cookie? I swear I follow the recipe. Any suggestions?

Ok, I didn't take this photo. Y'know who did? My sweet husband. One of Greg's pet peeves is chaotic cupboards. I seem to have a little habit of just throwing my bowls and pots in the cupboard. Sort of a no rhyme or reason theme. My excuse is that I'm busy and have other things to think about. Yeah, really I have no excuse. Greg wanted to do his own "before & after" photo shoot.

This is his after photo. C'mon, is there that much of a difference?

I'm loving this little beauty. A couple of months ago {during my birthday}, I was contemplating purchasing myself a Kitchenaid Mixer. Greg encouraged me to do it, but I had a hard time justifying the purchase. I went back and forth deciding.....and then forgot about it. During a visit home, my mother in law and I were chatting about recipes, and I mentioned that I had been thinking about purchasing a mixer. She replied  "just take mine, I never use it!".  How cool is that?! I can't explain how awesome it was{thank you God}......I had this little desire on my heart {the mixer} yet couldn't get myself to spend the money{on myself}. Little did I know that this sweet mixer was sitting unused in my mother in laws cupboard. My father in law said he had been wanting to get rid of it! I only wished I had shared my desire for a bread machine before they actually did get rid of theirs. One person's trash is another person's treasure!

In Which I Babble ON and On

I'm glad I wrote about my endo. I've tucked it away on it's own page at the top of my blog....right next to our adoption story. Lately, I have not been feeling much like blogging. I lost focus of what I was even blogging about......was it the ongoing homesick saga of a 40 something mama? Or, was it about our many adventures and fun we keep trying to fill into our new life? Actually, maybe it's a blog about my never ending whining thoughts about moving from our large space to a small space?? I've almost completely stopped writing about homeschooling.....it's such a big part of our life, not sure why it never gets any blog space.

I guess it's a blog about all of the above, and much more. Mostly, it's just a place for me to get some thoughts off of my mind. A place to share with friends/family near and far. Lately, I've had so much on my mind....I have not known where to begin.

Are you following me here? Confusing, huh?

I want to write about some new thoughts on homeschooling. Basically, less is more....in my opinion.

I want to share our new easy delicious Shepherds Pie recipe. Sam found this awesome{non chemical filled} seasoning packet in the International aisle. So good. I just made a big batch in my cast iron pan....and planned to take a picture, but Sam is busy making a stop animation movie with my camera.

That's another thing I wanted to share....Sam has a new passion.... stop animation movie making. He uses everything from Legos to mini wrestlers to his own mom.

There are so many things I want to blog about, but just haven't. Any down time I get, I find myself vegging with a book or an episode of House Hunters, or trying to fit in a real live phone conversation. So, dear friends and family.....my blogging may be sporadic, but all is well. Just living life. Hoping to get my blogging mojo back soon!

Today is Named Random

Today, we woke up to brown water. It happens now and then. Something to do with a line breaking. I've gained some wisdom by this brown water education. I've learned to remove the clothes from the washer and let it run a few times. I have some blotchy clothes from my pre-wisdom days.

We have some new downstairs neighbors. They are super nice, but I wish they didn't have so many cars. They now take up 3 parking spaces in our already cramped parking area. I'm thankful for legs to walk....as we've had to park a bit of a distance away.

I met a very interesting gal today. She started off nice enough.....remarking on how cute she thought the boys were. The next thing I knew, she was asking me why I did not conceive my own children. She asked our race/nationality....when she heard that I was Italian she informed me that her husband's mistress is Italian. She then started a whole speech about random things. It was at this point that I realized her eggs were not all in her carton (poor thing). I realize that I am way to trusting, and too easily talk to everybody.

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party for our neighbor's 2 sons. We ,thankfully, have some very nice neighbors. All of their friends were very friendly and chatty. I learned that they all grew up together, and seemed to know each other so well. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly homesick. Ahhhh, it comes and goes. I'm so thankful that my friends still keep in close touch, but I miss being able to spontaneously visit or meet up somewhere. My desire for roots is getting pretty strong. But where will those roots be planted?? The never ending question. Until we find the answer, we will enjoy this experience..... it is one I cannot even fully put into words.