Back to a Schedule

We have officially started school this week. We had been doing little bits of schoolwork all summer, but now we are back to a full 4 hour day and complete curriculum. Today was our first day of art class. Emily's assignment for today was to draw a farm scene. She really is a brilliant artist for her age. Paul says he doesn't mind if she is below average on every other subject, but if she loves art then do it every day. She probably loves it so much because it's the one thing I have zero ability at and cannot teach her anything about it. The art curriculum we use is on DVD and came with all the materials. It's great.

She also started soccer practice last night. I think she was the tallest kid on the field with all the teams in town. She has two friends on her team (one boy, one girl) and I'm pretty sure she knows at least one kid on all the other teams. Our favorite soccer coach is not coaching this season, so that was a bummer. He is taking his son on a missions trip to China so I guess we will just have to be ok with that. He was Emily's very first soccer coach when she was four. Lily is wanting to play soccer, and is about as good of player as Emily is good at art, but she will have to wait until she is four.

I took Nolan to the doctor today for no reason. He fell off a statue of a dog yesterday at the Library (he fell about 1 foot) and was limping all day and asking to be carried everywhere. He was still limping today so I took him to the doctor. He's fine. Nothing wrong. At least I didn't take him to the ER for nothing. In the picture he is playing the piano with his bottom. Such a boy.

My Little Corn Huskers

The cornsilk matches their hair.

Alright, I said I would never put up any naked pics of the kids, but this was just too cute! I guess it's not any worse than those Anne Geddes calendars that anyone who wanted to see a naked baby bottom could just go buy. Usually when I walk into a room and they are doing something cute, I have to run to get my camera and they aren't doing it by the time I come back. I was lucky on this one. Nolan has been taking his diaper and clothes off by himself lately. I haven't had to clean up any messes yet so it's not too bad. I'm sure if I brought out the training potty he would probably loose intrest. I've had better luck waiting until after 2 years old. Lily has a bib on backwards and says it's a super hero cape. Last night at dinner, Lily said "y'all" correctly in a sentence without me teaching it to her. At least one of my kids is Texan. You can also see the giant card that the girls made us for our anniversary.

We have been spending a lot of time lately trying to get the homeschool room organized so we can "officially" start school. We are also cleaning up a little extra today because we have friends coming over that are visiting from Winston-Salem. They were some of our first friends when we moved here to Toccoa. I guess I shouldn't get too stressed out about what my house looks like because they also have 4 kids. I have been keeping up with the tidying each day much better than ever before and enforcing the kids' jobs, so today won't be as crazy to clean as usual. I really just need to mop, spot check the front bathroom and windex the many handprints off the glass backdoors. I will also be closing the door to my bedroom. That cleaning would just put me over the edge today. I better stop talking about it and get to it! 24.6 weeks 'till new baby is here!

Cool things that dads do and moms don't

Blowing bubbles in the house before bed. I just threw him a towel and said the kids have to wipe the floor when y'all are done. The last picture is Nolan's reaction when Daddy stopped. Is it strange that I think they are adorable even when they are crying?

My Husband Is A Genius!

I always dread having to ask anyone to watch our kids while we have date time. My kids are really well behaved so I don't know why I feel like I'm burdening people. Yesterday afternoon, Paul called and asked if I had started cooking dinner yet and what it was. I told him yes and that it was beef tips (Catrina's recipe), Parmesan rice and peas, and maple braised carrots. A little while later he called back and said to pack up the dinner and that we were taking it over to another couple's house and after we all ate together we would leave the kids with them and go out for dessert. It worked out really well. They got a free meal and we got free babysitting for about 2 hours. I'm so glad he had that idea, but watch out.....we might bring you dinner sometime.

I got a new juicer yesterday and I love it! It's so easy to clean and really gets absolutly all of the juice out of the fruit or vegetable. It's quiet and the chute is so big that you can put a whole apple in it. I know, eww gross, what about the seeds? The seeds have more vitamins and nutrients in them than the whole apple. Last night we all made juice together as a family. We made apple juice, apple carrot juice, and apple carrot orange juice. It was all wonderful and the kids love it, too. I saved the pulp and today I'm going to use it to make muffins.

So what kind of juicer has me so excited? Well, make fun if you want, but it's a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer and yes I bought it off the infomercial. I have quite a few infomercial products that I really like.

Paul put up some more pictures of the cabinets that he has done on his blog if you would like to take a look. He really does make some beauitful cabinets.

My kids never cease to amaze me

Nolan has no fear when it comes to animals. Well, maybe the black moron dog, but that's about it. He has a strange power over animals that allows him to beat them up and they don't mind. Just now, he was out in the yard dragging a stray cat across the grass by its hind leg. The cat never even tried to get away. I didn't want Nolan to get scratched, so I called out "Come get your juice!" Nolan dropped the cat and came running. The weirdest part is that the cat came running after Nolan because it still wanted to play! Of course, it is 100 degrees outside and maybe the cat was delirious.

The other day Lily asked how the baby got into my tummy. I said "What, honey?" I guess she forgot that quickly because she then asked me when is she going to have a baby in her tummy. Paul said if she asks again to tell her that mommy and daddy give each other a special hug and then God puts the baby in the tummy. I'm afraid if I tell her that she is going to be chasing down all the boys at church to give them hugs so she can get a baby in her tummy.

I also overheard Emily today preaching to the neighbor girls about how it's better to have friends than money and how everyone should treat each other. I guess some of it's sinking in there.

Wedding Pictures

These are the only pictures that I got of the girls at the wedding. Every time one of us tried to take a picture, someone would step in front of the camera as the picture was taking. Also, there is some kind of delay on it that I'm going to have to figure out.

I made Paul's birthday cheesecake today and I did a great job, if I do say so myself. I have some practice because I make him one every year for his birthday. I make them other times of the year, but I go all out for his birthday cheesecake. It's a two-layer strawberry swirl cheesecake. Maybe I'll put up a picture when I take it out of the springform pan. I guess I am just so excited about it because I'm pregnant and I want to eat it. I've only gained 5 pounds so far so I doubt I will hold back.

I'm Back!

Due to popular demand, I am back to update you all on what's happening in the Rollins world. I have just been so sick and so exhausted that I have barely had the energy to do the things I have to do, much less posting. I haven't even been checking my email as often as usual. To be perfectly honest, I have been quite hormonal, so I haven't been checking anyone else's blogs until this week. Depressed is not the right word for it, more like my emotions have just been turned off. I didn't feel sad but I didn't feel happy either. Kind of numb. I believe that it has everything to do with being pregnant and overly tired. Things are starting to feel better, though. Sunday will be the first day of my second trimester, so I'm looking forward to that.

We closed on the loan for our shop last week. That in itself is a gift from God. It's 8 months earlier than we had agreed upon. We also bought a 20 ft. box truck. Tonya, I don't know if you remember, but right after the fire you prayed for the perfect box truck to be sold to us at a great price. Well, we got it! It even lines up perfectly to our loading dock.

Earlier this week, Paul and I went to Indiana to look at some new equipment. Yeah, I get excited about woodworking equipment. Some of these new automated machines are really amazing. Also, I have a new "Farthest Point North" to put on my record. Dale, Indiana is the farthest city north I have been to yet. There is lots of corn in Indiana. Sadly, it is all genetically modified and each field proudly displays the sign of the genetic company they use. We really have no idea what we are putting into our bodies when we don't eat organic.

That reminds me of Christy. If you're reading this, there is a recipe I want from you. Two years ago, I was having lunch over at your house and you served me a wonderful piece of blueberry pie. You said the crust was only made of wheat flour, cream cheese and butter. What amounts of which, please?

We have not had a lot of harvest from out garden, but today we found a lot of deer tracks. We are excited about that. We are going to all be staked out at the windows from now on to peek on our dinner guests. If I had any experience with bow hunting, I might try to get one from the girls' bedroom window.

That's all I can think of for now to update. The girls are in a wedding tomorrow, so I'll try to post some pics this weekend.

Thanks, Catrina for pulling me out of my blogging slump!