Memory Keeper

I just got a slew of new "readers" via my blog forward email list... welcome!

I know many of you because I see you often in real life, but many of you I don't see as often.  So here's a small summary of my family and me - the basics.

• We (the devoted Mr. Garland and I) love Jesus.  We want to glorify and serve Him in everything we do.  I feel like my blog often portrays only the "good" parts... fun outings, vacations, good times.  So, let me also say that...
• We are not perfect.  Oh my if you only saw how frustrated I can get with our kids as we homeschool some days.  It's not all happy happy joy joy.
• We have 4 kids (Sarah 8, Josh 6, Zac 4, and Rachel 1) who aren't perfect either, but they sure are a lot of fun.
• I don't blog for comments (although they are very nice) or financial gain (I don't make a cent).  I blog because as the mama in our family, I am the memory keeper.  I'm in charge of recording the good, bad, and crazy moments.  I'm not a stellar writer or photographer.  I blog to record the memories.  It's so important.  
• As mentioned above, we homeschool our kids.  We attend an awesome school that supports homeschooling families, so our school-aged kids (just Sarah and Josh at this time) attend a classroom school (aka "workshop") two days a week.  We love it!

Enjoying the double decker bus ride to Harbor Days last weekend.  This was our first time and we'll totally go again.  One perk was a vendor booth handing out free bicycle helmets (good ones!) to all kids... big time SCORE!

A great tour of a Coast Guard cutter.

The cutter kitchen/family room:  The kids wanted to move in... the cutter had quite the amenities: wi-fi, large screen tvs, Wii, ipads and iphones.  The devoted Mr. Garland would never be able to survive on board with the sub-standard ceiling height.

A big hit was a hovercraft that had been pulled up on the sand.  2 huge fans... oh and 4 human "fans" too.

We are rare eat-outers so when my mom came for a visit, this colorful cinnamon french toast breakfast plate was a treat.  Rachel says "ooooooo!"

Rachel loves this giant pegboard.  This girlie was sick this last week, which has been so hard.  Being sick = super clingy = household chores aren't getting done.  I'm ready for healthy days again.

Tracing Josh's outline for his respiratory system poster.

4 Garland kid posters with lungs on display.

Zac sets up for his weekly speech therapy session.

Every year I try to wake up a smidge early on school photo day to snap some photos of the kids in the backyard before sending them off to workshop for the traditional (blue background) photos.  It's early, and it's iffy if I get anything worth keeping.  But I have to try.  Here's a 1-2-3 progression (bad-bad-better) of our 2011 early morning photo shoot:

A recent nature hike:

Isn't this gnarly tree gnarly?

Recently Josh has put himself in charge of making sure Rachel is "obeying" and looking at the camera for photos.  He's gentle for the most part, but I love how he holds her head to make sure she's not distracted.

Anyone recognize this plant?  "Leaves of 3, leave them be."
Our woods are full of this lovely flora... and I'm always the only one to walk away scratching.
I look at the stuff and I itch.

Have a great weekend!

Running Club

This year we're trying something new:  Running Club!  Once a week we meet at a local park to run for 30 minutes.  We keep track of how many laps (around a soccer field) we run using punch cards.  Cards are collected after every session and it will be so fun to see (and celebrate) how many miles we run as the weeks progress.  The first week alone, Sarah, Josh and Zac all ran nearly 2 miles each.  What?!?  Chatting with good friends as we run, the miles truly fly by.  So thankful for this group!

Photo credit:  Chris Hansen

Go runners go!

Challah

My sister is the bread-maker in the family, for sure. But I've re-discovered the love of bread baking recently. Pizza dough, challah (a sweet egg bread), and refridgerator rolls to be specific. Sarah especially loves pigs in a blanket (hot dogs wrapped in a dough bun) packed for lunch. My former bread-making efforts were a complete Mom-FAIL. My bread would never rise! Argh. You'd think I would have caught onto the problem a little quicker: I just needed new, fresh yeast. And I needed to store it in the fridge, not my cupboard.

I've used this great recipe for my challah a few times already. I find that 40 minutes baking is way too long, because my bread is usually golden at about 25-30 minutes.  And I might need to switch to a bigger bowl to let my dough rise... ya think?  I'm just thankful that it's rising!

Wordless Wednesday

Day Job

Recently...

I love my job as a mom.  But I often see jobs that other people have and think "what would it be like to have their job?"  Believe me, the devoted Mr. Garland hears this a lot.  I'm a "put myself in someone else's shoes and what would it be like" kind of gal.  And I love it when I get hands-on experience.

Enter our AWANA club fundraiser at the local Cold Stone (aka Frozen Rock) Creamery this week, where Cold Stone allowed volunteers to help prepare the ice cream.  Uhm, how fun is that?!  We weren't allowed to make the initial ice cream scoop, but I became a proficient "ice cream smoosher" as I blended the sweet toppings into the ice cream with my two spades.  It's amazing how many kids love the blue bubble gum ice cream with rainbow sprinkles combination.

So.  much. fun.  

But I want to keep my day job.

We got to go out on Grandad's boat in the harbor:

And we saw this very cool tall ship:

The Exy Johnson, twin ship to the Irving Johnson.  We only saw the Exy, but my parents got to see both the Exy and the Irving the next day in the bay.  

Look carefully at the arrow in this photo, and guess what I was thinking: 

Once again, thankful for my day job.

But it still looks fun to try.

Rachel, Josh and Zac below deck:

Sarah at a waterpark this summer.  I just love her smile in this shot, taken by the devoted Mr. Garland.

A great river-side bike trail: 

Labor Day Weekend in Balboa

 Good friends and neighbors.

 Getting ready to board the Balboa Island Ferry.

 It's not everyday you get to see the back end of a boat out your side car window.

 I will never get sick of this place.

I love the fact that we have a place with some history (I have been coming here since I was in diapers) that we visit each year, a place that I hope the kids will remember when they are adults.

 It's our getaway of getaways.

It's not relaxing yet.  YET.  With 4 young kids, we have forgotten how to relax.  We hope to remember again in about 5 years.

Maybe.

 We met this friendly non-stop "throw the tennis ball again" dog, "Bamboo" who loved being in the water.

 We invited friends from church to join us for a day.