Memorial Day Weekend

School is out! We are enjoying a quiet weekend at home before all the craziness of driving to Nashville for Matthew's hockey begins.

The men installed Hannah's birdhouse. She is thrilled. It is for Eastern Bluebirds. Hannah taught me the house has to be installed facing east...and here I thought they got their name because the bluebirds live in the Eastern United States...learn something new every single day. (Her outdoor classroom had a gentleman come and teach them about Eastern Bluebirds. He also builds them so we bought one...he was late delivering so he gave us two...They will both be on the same pole and the west facing birdhouse will attract some swallow...I'll have to ask Hannah...I've already forgotten which one...He also taught them Eastern Bluebirds nest about 100 yards apart so I am hoping we don't have a neighbor that already has a bluebird house because I am really looking forward to having bluebirds.)
I think we have missed the window of opportunity for baby birds this Spring since it is now almost Summer. I'll be praying for little bluebirds next Summer. I will see if Hannah will share pictures of her bluebird babies from her outdoor classroom.

I let Hannah have the butterfly bush for her school's outdoor garden. She was thrilled. Unfortunately, her teacher is under the impression a twice a week watering is sufficient for a transplant...I am trying to save the bush now with some magical transplant liquid, some mulch, and some wonderful rain from our Creator. It will be a miracle...most of it had died before I saw its sad state. I pray it will come back because it will be beautiful. I suppose if it completely dies, I can go buy a new one and Hannah will need to go to the school every day to water it...or...we can wait until Fall since the next two weeks are going to be really busy. It will be fabulous if the current bush has a supernatural resurrection.

Hannah's Wildlife Group has put her in charge of the garden and she has done a great job. My girl loves her birds.  I think a bird feeder and birdbath is next up for our backyard. I mentioned it at dinner last night and her face lit up.

Hockey lights up Matthew's face. Greg said his mom asked last night if all the hockey Matthew he is doing was a parent desire rather than his. That question broke my heart...she has no understanding of her grandson (and truth be told...me...I prefer being home to being at the Rink....I love my son and that is the ONLY reason we spend so much money and time on hockey). I tease Matthew he is part penguin...he only wants to be on the ice. He has no desire to do any other sport. At ALL. On that note, God has blessed him with so much talent to play hockey, it is mind boggling. My heart's desire is he will use this talent as an adult to mentor young kids and build their character. He wants to go to the NHL and be an engineer. I will be happy if he is an engineer and coaches kids. I have no aspirations to be the mother of the next Sydney Crosby...of course, Matthew would cringe if he read that because 1) he is a defenseman and not a forward and 1) he hates Sydney Crosby.

Our upcoming week will put many miles on our car...Matthew has Jr Preds Tryouts for the next 3 days, a TPH Prospects Tournament (in Nashville) over the weekend, and Korn Camp (in Nashville). Pray God sustains me as I drive the 122 miles from my garage to the Ford Center and the 122 miles from the Ford Center to my garage. It will be fun, I love the time in the car with my kids...it will be challenging with all the 18 wheelers and crazy drivers...but...thankfully, it is beautiful country...the layers of rocks, trees, and mountains are breathtaking.

Now if I can just figure out what to wear for the wintry rink and the sultry Summer weather when I exit the Rink...life would be perfect.

Some videos from this past week's lesson with Coach Martin (or as Matthew affectionately calls him "The Angry Slovakian") and a video trying to entice a retired youth hockey to come back to hockey.

Matthew's new stick

 Hannah checking on her birds 

Hannah demanded a pirate cake pop from Starbucks

Hannah celebrating first day of Summer...at 7:00 a.m.

Eastern Bluebird birdhouse installation

Videos from my phone...no idea what is on here

Rink Kids

We spend a lot of the time at the Rink. Last night I took two really bad pictures of my two blessings that pretty much summed up their personalities...Hannah, the Helper, running the clock and entertaining the little people...Matthew, the Social Butterfly. Poor Quality Pictures but a a very succinct description of their personalities. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

A Bit Late

School mornings I drive the kids to school and then go workout... I was a wee bit late today so I decided to go walk to make up for missing part of class. My old neighborhood is still my favorite place to walk. My current neighborhood has walking trails and ponds but the geese own them...they hiss and the droppings are hideous...walks turn into very long games of hopscotch. Today was a delightful morning, cloudy, a cool breeze, and some ducklings. No geese.

Busy Weekend

Another hockey filled weekend. The kids both played hockey on Saturday. Hannah played with the Travel boys and she fit right in! She even scored a goal. We had a fun cookout with the other families before the rain (Huge Storm) hit. (The Rink is next to the Tennesse River, you can see in the background of top picture)  Sunday morning was hockey in Nashville, a belated Mother's Day Lunch at Maggiano's and we finished with the kids getting paid to be score keepers for the Senior Open League...Hannah drove home.

Mother's Day

I had a really nice Mother's Day. Greg grilled and surprised me with flowers. Lauren baked me a lemon cake...Yum. Matthew had hockey practice. I served the 11:30 Service at Church and we all came together for the 4:30 Worship Service. What more could a mom want?

Monday

Today? I am a slave driver. The kids are out of school since a "Weather day" was not used. I am making them weed in the garden. The weeds are atrocious and I can't keep up. I believe I have lost my love for garden here in the South. I know Southerners are famous for their gardens but they grew up in heat and humidity and clay soil. I did not. I grew up in dry California where the weather is dry and whispers to you to come outside and dig in the dirt, to weed, to plant, to enjoy...not here. Fire ants, mosquitoes, humidity, terrible soil, steroid like weeds all incite me to flee inside and read a book with a glass of Front Porch Tea. So...I am making my children do what I don't want to do...it's only fair for all the time I sit in a very cold rink so they can do the thing they love...hockey. It's only right, right?

Girl forgot her shoes...she really looks a redneck, perfect

Mother's Day

My sweet daughter posted some pictures of us over the years...seems like ages ago...seems like yesterday.

Seems like my blog has a mind of its own...they're not in order...Think of it as a puzzle and you most put them in chronological order...bonus points if you can figure out what state they were taken in.

Rocketeer

Yesterday was Matthew's last launch for the Rocket Team...the whole family went to support our Rocketeer. Hannah was a little distracted by the wildflowers at first but soon was in the midst of all things rocket related including retrieving the launched rockets (it was pretty windy so there was some serious retrieval distance involved, one rocket was never recovered).

So...if Hannah's love for science doesn't work out...she can switch to engineering...I think she inherited that part of the brain from Greg, definitely not me. I would not have switched to launch rockets like Hannah, I would have been still picking the flowers...