these pictures may look like it was a great day at our house….
but i don't think it was.
there was a principal's office visit,
a very moody teenager,
a very whiny family,
an argument over playing on a baseball team this summer,
and a super crabby mommy.
the pictures sure don't look like that.
i see a refocus is needed in myself when i look at these.
there are so many good things here…ladybug catching,
flowers for planting,
a repentant child,
hugs and kisses,
sun shining on us bright and warm,
pizza in the park,
children getting along and playing together as the sun sets.
refocus.
i went to a few garage sales on friday morning with a car full of mamas…that was fun!
and i brought home this HUGE chalkboard from a school (said the home owner).
for FIVE dollars!
i love it so much.
it is 8 feet by 4 feet!
now i guess i am all set to begin homeschooling, right?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
i am so funny.
homeschooling and ME will never happen…for my children's sake.
we'd have art all day.
with extra long recess and coffee shop studies.
and long naps after that.
it would resemble School of Rock but with crafts.
a scene like this can only mean one thing at our house…
there is a birthday coming up.
scott turns 11 tomorrow.
i tried to skip his birthday instead of share mother's day with him but he didn't like that idea.
Lisa - I HAD A CLOSE FRIEND WHO SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT HOME SCHOOLING. SHE ALSO HAD A CHALK BOARD JUST LIKE THE ONE YOU FOUND AT A LAWN SALE. GUESS WHAT SHE ENDED UP DOING? YUP. I WON’T EVEN SAY THE WORD. AND YOU KNOW, ART ALL DAY WITH A COFFEE SHOP BREAK AND A LITTLE SIESTA CAN BE GOOD.
HUGS FROM MAINE
wendy - LOVE that chalkboard! And for only $5? What a steal! And don’t underestimate your potential to home school. We did it for a year and LOVED the heck out of it. The kids are back in school now but that was one of our very favorite experiences of all time! I’ll just leave it at that. 🙂
carissa... brown eyed fox - i wanna go garage sale hunting….. wahhhhh… wahhhh!
way fun… and MY WORD… scoRRRRRRe… that chalkboard!
i can only find them on Ebay… after a million dollars to ship… ha! 🙂
the fun they… and YOU will have with that! neato!
i was grouchier that you… nanny nanny boo boo!
girrrrrrl… !
Elisa - The great thing about school is that they can go away, and you get a chance to miss them, and then they come back. Perfect.
megan - speaking of focusing… what camera and lens did you use for these shots… they are BEAUTIFUL!! makes me want to jump through the screen and into your yard with you!
Heidi Jo the Artist - Great photos! I hope you had nice Mother’s Day and fun celebrating your son’s birthday!
It is crazy to me how many people think they can NOT homeschool. We DO homeschool and I once too was in that mindset that we would NEVER homeschool. But, my husband opened up my eyes to the school system and how sadly broken it really is. My husband is a teacher (yes you read that right!) and sees many things first hand and we wish the school system was different for the sake of this country’s future. I’m sure it could be worse, but we most definitely think it could be better too. And anyone that says they cannot homeschool, I say to them…DO YOUR RESEARCH (on the internet or in books- anything by John Taylor Gatto is great, start with “Dumbing Us Down” which is a great start and an easy read)!
There are many ways of homeschooling besides the traditional textbooks. We personally choose a more relaxing homeschooling environment, “unschooling”, and it works for us thus far. It is amazing to watch your child/ren learn on a day to day basis. I love to see the light bulb go off when my son gets something! I love when my son asks me questions, and if I don’t know the answer we look it up together. I think it is fun to learn and I still consider myself to be a student and I will for the rest of my life. I don’t know everything, and neither does any teacher teaching in a school. You can teach your children so many things that can’t be taught in a classroom and they will get much more one on one attention.
I have days that aren’t perfect too, I think we all have bad days sometimes, but without the bad, I think we wouldn’t appreciate the good. Refocusing is great, I like that! 🙂
Oh and I love your chalkboard find too! I found a really nice LARGE bulletin board for FREE while out and about one day, but I gave it to my husband for his classroom. If I find a big chalkboard or marker board it won’t be leaving our home unless we move! 😉
Heidi Jo the Artist
My Shop ~
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Reducing, Reusing, & Recycling
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Our Journey as a Christian Homeschooling/Unschooling Family
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Laura - there is no fooling me!! I have learned that behind and in between our beautiful pictures, are the REAL pictures of our every day.
But how great that we have cameras to capture those fleeting moments of happiness, sanity, and creation. Some days, that is all that gets me through.
Lori McDonough - Ok, why have I never discovered your blog before this? You rock…I’ll be back! Have a super day!
Lori
anne - i love how your family twinkles. 🙂
Georgia - Hi Meg,
I was wondering what software you use to make the photos into a collage / montage. I use photoshop, but me and photoshop dont seem to get on very well … lol
Look forward to hearing back from you 🙂
Georgia x
chas at the wild raspberry - glad you found the bright side
🙂
chasity
evan - i feel the same way about homeschooling my kids. school of rock but with crafts. so funny! you are a beautiful mom. i hope your mother’s day was amazing. actually i’m sure it was 🙂
Jerusalem Greer - another reason I am thankful for my blog, when I look back over it, I see so many good things and so few not so good. helps to keep things in perspective!
Staci - I have to re-focus every day it seems 🙂 This moving stuff makes me VERY grumpy and very short with my kiddoes these days 🙁 I know once we get settled (will we EVER?) I won’t feel like yelling so much 🙂 My red stove makes me very happy though 🙂 Hope your Mother’s Day was good and that Scott has a very happy 11th birthday!!!! Thanks again for always keepin’ it real Meg!!!!!
chelsea - beautiful photos and GREAT chalkboard find!
gina - oh “fun” girls’ day of shopping eneded with me carrying a kicking screaming 4 yo out of Target today. But on the good side… breakfast in bed, by the same 4 yo and her sisters and dad, lots of thoughtful and wonderful! presents, the 6 super big mugs I plan to use as bowls at Pier 1 BEFORE said meltdown. 🙂
Love the chalkboard- what a find!!
Shayla - your pictures are so pretty! I love the layout they are in!!
and that chalkboard—for FIVE bucks! what a great steal!!!! :] I hope you enjoy it!!!
Rach - Happy Mother’s Day!! May it be as wonderfully chaotic as every other day with a bundle of kids. 🙂
Amber - so glad i’m not the only mom out there who needs to refocus. happy mother’s day to you!
Leigh - I am with you on the whole situation that is going in your house! My youngest turned 13 today and I have 3, 14 year olds…attitude. I think I will go have a nap now. Hope you have a good mom’s day.
Trish - NO way $5 I need to go garage saling with you… although we’d probably always be racing out of the van trying to find the best deals before the other does… a little competition never hurt 🙂
yes I believe that is what homeschooling would look like for me too. Although I would probably incorporate some internet lessons. Requiring them to have their own laptop and start their own blog 😉 how fun would that be!?
Happy Mother’s Day… thanks for sharing your “mommy” stories with all of us!
Sarah - It’s the “end of school” crabbies…it’s happening at my house too…so don’t despair! Love the pics anyways, deceiving or not…sometimes it’s nice to deceive ourselves!!! 🙂
kat - Wow! That giant chalkboard is a great score indeed! Those are lovely pictures! I often need a reality check as well as sometimes it can be all to easy to get bogged down by the negative details while all the lovely ones dance around the periphery.
I too know what it is like to share celebrations with my children. My anniversary and Olivia’s birthday are the same day and Lauren was scheduled to be born on my birthday until the doctor took mercy and delivered her three days earlier so we could each have our own special day. We still celebrate together anyway and it is special for both of us!
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
P.S. I made your cheesy shells earlier this week and they were totally delish!
Beth - I just have to comment again, on this Mother’s Day morning. I find such meaning in the ability to find blessing among the brokenness, and thank you for putting it to words so the rest of us remember to do that too. I love this story and it reminds me to find the good, look for the blessings, every day:
One day some people came to the master
and asked: How can you be happy
in a world of such impermanence,
where you cannot protect your loved ones
from harm, illness or death?
The master held up a glass and said:
Someone gave me this glass;
It holds my water admirably
and it glistens in the sunlight.
I touch it and it rings!
One day the wind
may blow it off the shelf,
or my elbow
may knock it from the table.
I know this glass is already broken,
so I enjoy it — incredibly.
~Achaan Chah Subato
Ruth - you are a wise lady… and hilarious 🙂
love that picture of talby, the light is incredible.
good luck with the birthday!
Lori Danelle - Pizza at your house too? Little Ceasar’s $5 pizza every Saturday right before we head to church. I think my two year old likes it a whole lot more than I do!
I love your honesty. So many would go with the story the pictures told, but that’s not real life. . .at least not in my house!! Our downs happen more often than we’d like, but the ups make the downs worth fighting through.
http://loridanelle.blogspot.com
Traci - i love your posts. they are always so honest. beautiful photos meg – it does look like it was a wonderful day. and it was, when you refocused. i need to refocus. i have a very moody teenager here to, yet she is almost 19 so you’d think she would be way over that stage. no such luck. happy mothers day!!
Christina - That is a sweet chalkboard! I wish I could find something like that. Wow.
I love your honesty! Isn’t it funny to look at pictures like that and know how it “really was”? I like to take the moments at the end of the day and reassess, though; it helps with the perspective. Have a wonderful Mother’s Day.
Starnes Fam - Happy Mother’s Day to one crafty mama. You are blessed.
Kate - Seriously. You crack me up. You rock the big blue sky.
Beth - So good to be able to refocus and see the good when things seem to be falling down around you — so healing. Your pictures speak the truth. I also laugh hard when I think of myself and homeschooling. Thank goodness for public school. We share our wedding anniversary with Emma’s birthday. Was always a challenge when she was little, but she’s ok with sharing with us now 🙂
Happy Mother’s day to you and Happy Birthday to Scott!
Jess - My birthday is tomorrow, I don’t look at it as either one of us is missing out. I see it as taking care of two birds with one stone. I’d be with my family anyhow, might as well take care of two things at once!
Jody - ok, i’m falling more in love with you…:-)
my friends also break out into hysterical laughing when my name and homeschooling are mentioned in the same sentence.
Mary - You really spoke the words I’ve been thinking.
Refocus
I’m dealing with a bad case of mommy burnout,
Glad to hear I’m not the only one that has those days
Cate O'Malley - I totally hear you about refocusing. Had a mess of plans today and instead we were all house-bound and both kids were sick. Tomorrow is another day. Love the chalkboard find!
aimy - what is the name of your etsy shop????? 🙂
Melanie - You sure would have had us fooled. Those pictures look so beautiful and we would have never known that you didn’t have a happy household. I hope you have a great Mother’s Day and a good birthday for the birthday boy.
Lori - Thanks for keeping it real! We all need to refocus now and then. My kids are teenagers now, and I look back at pictures when they were little and get all teary-eyed…forgetting the hard days when nothing seemed to go right and I felt like a bad mom. AND I feel much better that other people recognize that homeschooling wouldn’t work for them. I have always said I would love for my children to be homeschooled, just not in my home by me! ha ha. Happy Mother’s Day!
Kelly Anne - Ha! My brother’s birthday is the 10th, as well, so we’ve had to deal with the occasional holiday overlap for a while now (he’ll be 21 tomorrow). Think of it this way: if he’s anything like Casey, he’ll reach an age when birthdays mean a special day AWAY from parents. So that’ll be a treat! :oD
Joni - Thank you for the refocus….don’t we all need that sometimes. On my blog sometimes I feel like I should add the following disclaimers to some of my photos and indicate what real life was like that day!
XOXO
Joni
jamie - Sounds like a Regular old day in the life of many families! Im with you..No Way would this Mom ever be a Home Schooler.. We would Kill each other after a week! Happy Mothers Day.. I always Enjoy your Posts and Pictures are Amazing.. Jamie
Jenny Wenzel - So jealous of the chalkboard…$5??? That is a crazy GREAT deal!
jennymama - you make me laugh. i love it! that’s exactly what our homeschooling would be like! ha! happy mother’s day!!
Angela - Oh, thank goodness someone else knows that she’s not cut out to homeschool! LOL
Great pics. I loved them!
lauren - oh my gosh! my favorite photo is the 2nd row down, the one of your daughter. the lighting is gorgeous and her expression has so much character. love love it.
oh yea, and i do like the city life. but your life sure looks like fun! i am lookin forward to the day that i am back in texas and can sit on the porch and watch the sunset. and when i want to feel the grass in my toes, i just run outside! and when i can actually see all those stars up in the sky at night… sigh.
anyhow. hope you’re having a beautiful and relaxing saturday.
amy - LOVE the giant chalkboard. What a great find!
I’m just curious…when you post photos on your blog in a “collage” like this post, do you have an action or template for that or is it all you?? I love that look!
PamperingBeki - Haha!
My blog post a few minutes ago was very similar to this.
Soooo time to refocus here.
Last week kicked my butt.
I can’t wait for summer.
erica - thank you for the encouragement to refocus. i, too, needed that this week. and i understand you having to share a holiday w/ a kids birthday- my oldest son was born on my anniversary! if something gets skipped, it’s usually our anniversary (to a later date lol)
patricia - No wonder, I come back here.
You are honest, when things are good and even when they are not.
I guess, I am attracted to those photos and then your honesty.
I could use a photographer like you to capture the good.
pve
amy (not corey) - Is Talby playing “Guess the Missing Word,” by any chance? 🙂
Keri - I know what you mean about how pictures can be a bit deceiving. I’m hoping when I’m old and gray I’ll forget the “back story” behind those kind of shots, and just see the happy.
Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow – and b-day to Scott, too!
Kelly - It’s always hard to focus on the good instead of the harder moments. It’s a worthwhile thing to strive for, as I’m sure you know!
My little girl has that rainbow shirt, but in white, it is her favorite shirt and she wears it constantly!