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!