Seasons of Life

Empty bins sitting in my closet.  Overflowing bins use to sit in my closets, garage and anywhere else I could store them.  Twice a year, I would pull down the bins, empty out my girls' closets and we would spend an entire day trying on clothes and seeing what had been outgrown and therefore passed down or moved out of the closets and what needed to go back in the bins for another time.  I'm now down to maybe a bin in my youngest daughter's closet and what took a day now takes a few hours.

It symbolizes the rest of my life right now.  Instead of juggling multiple daughters and their various levels of learning, I only have 1 to teach and we can be done by 11 a.m. instead of someone still doing math when Daddy gets home in the evening.   I do a lunch out and can splurge on Chick-fil-A instead of figuring out how 5 of us can eat for $20 at McDonald's.  I can run errands alone because at least one of her sisters will be home instead of gathering up 4 little ones and making a run to the grocery store in between naps.

I miss those days!  The house can be so quiet when all of the older girls are off at jobs or school and it is just my youngest and myself.  I miss the girls running in and out of the house with laughter and sometimes tears.  Now I pray a quick prayer as a car leaves the driveway knowing that they are in God's hands, where they have always been but it is so more clear now.

Empty bins - a reminder of a full life that I am thankful for more and more every day!

Recap

Well, it has been quite awhile since I posted on here, almost 2 years.  Lots of life has happened in that time so this will be a brief recap.  When we last were together, it was the beginning of speech and debate season.  We had a really great season with all 3 girls making it to Regionals and then Hannah placing 2nd in the Region with her humorous speech earning a trip to Nationals.  She and I travelled with another club mom and daughter to Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA where Hannah competed and made it to quarterfinals!  This means she was in the top 32 speakers for Humorous Interpretation in the nation.  If you would like to see her speech, click here.

Later that summer, we had a graduation party for Victoria.

                                

It is hard to believe I have graduated 2 of them so far.  She is working 2 jobs at Publix and Maple Street Biscuits.  She is still trying to figure out what she wants to do and looking at possibly going to college in the future but then again, maybe not.

Kemie finished her AA degree this summer and is now working 3 jobs, one of them at our county election office.  This is due to turn into a full time job next fall so we are thankful for the Lord giving her this opportunity.

This leaves me with 3 to school.  Technically, I am only doing 1 because Hannah and Abigail are enrolled in dual enrollment at our local college.  I am still doing speeches with them and helping with their classes as needed.  They have both recently gotten their driver licenses and jobs, Hannah at Publix and Abigail at Chick-Fil-A.  Life has become real fun around here!

So that leaves Gretchen and I learning together and that is where I will pick up once again and try to blog regularly.  I may also throw in my thoughts on things occasionally.