We have a lot of stress in our lives, just like any family.  But… we also live a pretty quiet life.  Yes, we’re busy and such but, we also just get to spend a lot of time together.  Even if that time is just doing mundane things, we’re together.  I’m so thankful that, for the past five years, Anna Grace and I have just been together.  I’m sure she wishes we were doing something more exciting on some of those days but I’m just thankful that I have gotten to see her grow, explore, learn and change. 

So…what’s been going on in our little slice of the world?

Well… besides pregnancy stuff, we have been taking advantage of every opportunity to be together, grow together, spend time with others and do new things.

Anna Grace and I went on a field trip with her little school group.  The Orlando Rep. Theatre puts on plays based on childrens books and you have a room full of kids seeing one of their favorite books come to life.  I have to admit, I think I was more excited about this than Anna Grace because we were going to watch one of my favorite stories: Charlotte’s Web.

The play was wonderful and AG did great.  She has never been to a play, heck…she’s never been to the movies… so I wasn’t sure if she would sit through the whole show.  She did a great job.  Her favorite part?  Wilbur.  Mine?  Charlotte.

Anna Grace started ballet classes this year.  She is in a beginners class and she loves it.  I love it as well because I can see that it really is great for her.  Some remaining coordination issues from the apraxia appear to be resolving.

I apologize for the next photo but it was just so cute…..

The teacher has the girls put on different skirts or fairy wings, etc and they act out various classical music through skipping, gallopping, etc.  Anna Grace loves it and loves her teacher (if you ask her about “Mrs. O” she’ll just say “she’s so special. I love her so much”.)  On this day all the girls put on little tutus and danced around the room.  It was very cute.

Anna Grace decided that sock washing was wicked fun.  I am not sure if my socks will ever be the same.  It was, however, a lot of fun just hanging out with her and playing with the suds.

A local pottery studio (one of those you paint it, we fire it places) is working on a fundraiser for the homeless.  The program is called Empty Bowls and locals can come, have a gourmet soup dinner (prepared by a local chef) for a small fee and they take home a handmade or hand painted bowl.  All the proceeds then go to feed the hungry. The studio owner, however, needs help getting all the bowls made and/or painted.

Send in the kids.

For the past 2 Fridays, Anna Grace and I have joined our friends from church and lended a hand.  Personally, I think the studio owner was serving us more than we were serving them because look at that face!  That is one happy kid.  Folks can come in and make a bowl or paint a bowl for free and then the bowl is given away as part of the Empty Bowls event.  Anna Grace has had a blast and so have I.  Afterall, my child is happy and I get to spend a Friday afternoon visiting with those folks that I love spending time with.

I am still working on the Order to Chaos shawl but honestly…I’ve set it aside for a few weeks.  We have had a “hotter than Hades” heat wave around here and, when you combine that with my menopausal pregnancy hot flashes, I cannot tolerate having that thing sit on my lap.  So, when Mother Nature decides to pony up and give me back my autumnal temperatures, I’ll pick this thing back up.

We did find a way to cool off though.  One of Anna Grace’s friends had a birthday party at Kelly Park.  Kelly Park surrounds one of Florida’s many natural springs, Rock Springs.  A little river forms from the spring and you can go tubing down the river.  While the water temperature (a constant 72 degrees year round) is initially a shock to the system, you adjust and it is a lot of fun.  I actually did something I swore I’d never do… I put on a bathing suit while pregnant.  It was too hot for vanity and I got in that water and cooled off for the first time in days.

I started a striped sock project using Artsygal Stripes (color 090642).  I decided if I can’t knit the shawl right now that a sock project would be perfect. 

Anna Grace and I read a wonderful book by Allan Say called Grandfather’s Journey.  It is about a man who moves from Japan to California but then…misses Japan.  So he moves back.  But then…he misses California.   It tells the story of “Grandfather’s” life and it is just a great book.

Now that we are finished, I decided that we should plant a letterbox in honor of Grandfather’s Journey.  I carved the stamp yesterday.  We haven’t planted it yet, and probably won’t for a few days, because 96 degree temps (with a 102 heat index) tend to put a damper on all letterboxing activities!

(The picture is a picture of “Grandfather” when he was young.)

We haven’t planted a box in a while because in our recent books I couldn’t figure out what picture to use.  I really wanted to make a box for Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel but there aren’t any really great pictures of Maryann in the book and I thought you wouldn’t be able to tell what it actually was…so I gave up.

 

Finally… we still see the sunset sometimes.  With it getting dark earlier, we are often eating dinner during sunset but this past Friday we got a treat.  We walked through downtown Mt. Dora for the “Art Walk”.  That activity was a bit of a bust because, due to our weird heat wave, there were very few artists.  (It didn’t help that after the sun went down…it was still 93 degrees! )

In spite of that there were some fun times.  We got an ice cream at our favorite little ice cream store and we got to see this beautiful sunset over Lake Dora and the Mt. Dora marina.

Well…that’s about sums up what’s been happening around here.  What have y’all been up to???