Just a quick post this morning before i hit the ground running.

yesterday the boys and Hazel and i went hiking on one of the Steiner trails. it was beautiful! water was flowing in the creeks and the colors were so vibrant, as they are after a rain and on an overcast day. afterwards i took them to P. Terry's in Lakeway for milkshakes, and then on to Bee Caves to join their library. the library in Bee Caves is located in the Galleria, a beautiful outdoors mall. its a snazzy library, even if it isn't that big. we've kinda been spoiled with the downtown Austin library that has every book ever written. just about. so we each got cards and found some books. we had to make quick work of it because Hazel was signing at the top of her lungs and William and John were fighting over a Calvin and Hobbes.

i'm still getting adjusted to living on the west side. we were so immersed in our life on the eastisde, and it's such a culture shock to relocate over here. for those unfamiliar with Austin, the eastside has traditionally been the "bad" side of town, full of drugs and gangs and crime. it's been predominantly Black, and then Hispanic. but times are a changing. Gentrification is driving out a lot of long time residents and people with more money are moving in to the old houses and fixing them up. close-in eastside is now an eclectic mix of artists, musicians, lawyers, doctors, social workers, UT students, as well as professors and employees, people working in the film industry, day laborers, Mexicans "just passing through", and retirees. The sidewalks are full of people waiting for the buses, there are taco trucks, homeless, hippies, hipsters, people on bikes, people on scooters, people in electric cars. the stores are full of people. all types. Over here on the west side you see mostly white folks with a sprinkling of Asians and Indians. the cars are all new, Acura, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Infinity...I feel rather low class driving a new Suburban. Even stores like Target and HEB are swankier. Everyone is moving at a slower pace, women in their workout attire carrying Starbucks and their stylish reusable shopping bags. everyone is smiling, happy to be the 1% maybe?

anyways, as i said, it's been a bit of a culture shock for these two simple folk who aren't of the upwardly mobile stock. but we're making friends and learning where we fit in. learning to mind our manners and not appear too much like hicks.

gonna try to get back into blogging now that we have a new home computer. trying to create blog posts on the ipad or on our lazy laptops just wasn't cutting it.

summer is almost here for Margaret and Samuel. they've been such troopers this last month, getting up early to ride in to town with Brian, hanging around until he gets off work, getting home late. they are really going to enjoy the downtime.

the holiday weekend was a full one. i made three large cakes: a wedding cake, a grooms cake, and a birthday cake. mama came and stayed thursday through saturday to help me out. we had fun running errands, decorating the house, talking while i baked, and going for walks. after church on sunday we had a birthday party for William and John. it was our first party since we moved and it was so very nice to have all the extra room! the cousins stayed the night. its so sweet to watch how they all interact. there is such a special bond amongst them. they are each other's closest friends.

after the cousins went home, we loaded up some floats and the canoe and went over to Lake Travis, really just a five minute drive from Steiner Ranch. we went to Mansfield Dam Park, a park Brian helped design. its always cool to see projects that he has worked on and get an idea of what he does all day.

I've got a full day ahead of me. my childhood best friend's mom is retiring from teaching after 30+ years and the younger set and i are going to the party this afternoon. I've also promised the boys a trip to the pool, then there's laundry to do, house to clean, exercise to get, and grocery shopping to get done. so blessed to have so many people to love that give me so many tasks to do!

We're here in Steiner Ranch now. We still have that feeling as if we're on vacation and soon we'll have to pack up and head home. The neighborhood is lovely, as are the handful of neighbors we've met. There are more than enough opportunities for physical activity: dozens and dozens of the prettiest hiking trails, three swimming pools, bike lanes and side walks, lots of playgrounds. And the lakes.
I have just about everything unpacked and it looks like home. It's amazing how our stuff looks just right here even though our other house was a lot smaller and of a completely different style.

Last night we had our first dinner guests - Brian's parents. It was for a belated Mother's Day celebration. We grilled burgers and I made a four layer fudge cake covered in cream cheese frosting and fondant. We ate out in the backyard and it felt like camping.

It's been a bit of a shock to the system to move from east Austin to an upscale neighborhood as Steiner. Every body drives new, fancy cars and all the women are perfect and wear workout clothes all day. The kids wear clean clothes and have manicured toes. I'm sure we'll have the reputation of being The Hippie Family before too long. My kids go barefoot everywhere, get dirty a don't care, play dress up in the front yard, and ride their bikes without helmets.

I'm loving the super nice grocery stores where they're always handing out sushi, wine, and chef prepared foods. I've always loved grocery shopping, but now I do even more.

Margaret and Samuel have been real troopers. Every afternoon when they get out of school, they either walk to the Y downtown or to a library, and do their homework until Brian gets off work.mThey sometimes stop in at a grocery store along their route and buy each other snacks. I think they'll have some good memories to look back on of this time. They've become the best of friends! They've also grown up a lot this year, starting a new school together mid-year, riding the bus across town and back, and now walking around downtown together.

I'll post pics of the house as soon as I have a chance. Right now I'm off to get the kiddies ready for school.

It's Monday again. I like Mondays: fresh start, order, routine, work to do. Margaret and Samuel are off to the bus stop, and William, Hazel, and John are getting started with their day. We're planning to go help some friends pack for their move this week, but first there's school work to do. We're getting close to being done for the year, which is hard to believe. It's been such a weird year. We started out with such promise. We were doing so many fun things, tackling some challenging subjects, and having such long, full days. That lasted abut two months before the bottom fell out and I couldn't go on. It was just way more than I could handle. The full education I wanted for my kids was beyond me to provide. Then there was a month or two of no school and me going through depression. Then the answer to prayer: Margaret and Samuel being admitted into O. Henry at the time when we needed it most. The second half of the school year hasn't been a walk in the park, but it has been so much better for our family. Margaret and Samuel have thrived at O. Henry this semester and William and John have enjoyed having more attention from me. I'm not certain what we'll do for all the kids next year. Margaret will start high school and Samuel will be a seventh grader at the neighborhood middle school. William really, really wants to start 6th grade at the middle school, even though we've talked about holding him back. He thrives off of competition and challenge so he might do alright. We had talked about keeping John at home, but with his apparent dyslexia and Brian and I feeling at a loss as to how to work with him. I'm thinking it might be best for him to go to the neighborhood school. They have a dyslexia specialist and a very comprehensive program to work with children with the disability. As much as I would love to keep John at home for a couple of more years, I think it might be in his best interest to send him off to school.

Brian's mom came Thursday and stayed the night. She went to Margaret's track meet with us and we shivered together at the Murchison track while waiting for Margaret's events to come up. She finished middle of the pack in the 800, and got second place in the 1600.

I took a run Friday morning, and the spring weather was so delicious I could've eaten it! We went out to the new house later that morning for the inspection. Linda (Brian's mom) loved the house. William, John, and Hazel ran up and down stairs and round the yard making themselves at home at the new place. The inspection went well. There were only minor problems, nothing like the inspection on the Ridgemont house.

The kids ran the Dillo Mile Saturday morning. Margaret won first place in her division with a time of 6:30. Samuel also won first place in his division with a time of 5:49. William dropped out half way through the mile with breathing issues. Poor guy! He so wants to prove that he's as good as Samuel, but he's just such a different person. For one, he has horrible allergies, he's smaller, and he's just made different and has different gifts and abilities that Samuel doesn't have. John ran a 7:37 mile, finishing 7th or 8th in his age group.

The plumbers have been here for the last several days tearing up our house and yard. They tunneled under the slab from the front of the house to the back, and jack hammered the den floor all the way across. Crazy!

Yesterday after church we went out to Commons Ford Ranch and met Thomas and his kids. We took the canoe and the kids paddled up and down some of the fingers off of Lake Austin. We had an appointment to meet our realtor out at the new house to discuss the inspection report, so Margaret and Brian paddled the canoe from Commons Ford up to Steiner Ranch. The kids and I drove out and met them to load the canoe. Oh my goodness, I think we're going to love living out by both lakes and being able to pop the canoe in whenever we want! While we were out at the house we met some of the neighbors. They were super nice! Margaret, John, and I checked out the trail behind our new house. There's a canyon and a little stream at the bottom. We're all very excited about it all! At 3100 square feet, the house is a modest house for Steiner ranch, but to us it feels like a mansion.

Well, that's all the news for today. Off to help my friend Lisal pack up her house. Below are some of the latest pics.

We had such a nice Holy Week. Redeemer had midday services all week. I had intended to go to all of them, but only made it to two since the didn't offer nursery care and Hazel has become such a handful anytime we're somewhere where she's expected to be quiet. There was the usual Maundy Thursday feast as well. The church really goes all out for that one. The deacons a d elders waited the tables, so Brian didn't get to sit with us, a d Margaret was away at a track meet across town. The boys, Hazel, and I sat with some sweet ladies and had a wonderful time.

Roger brought Claire, Thomas, and Patrick over early Friday morning, and my friend Karen and her crew followed us out to my grandmother's place in Blanco. I hadn't been out there is ages. She has a new baby horse, "Prebble", named after her grandmother Prebble Annette. We took lunch and all ten kids, three grown ups, and three dogs crowded onto her porch to dine on sandwiches, Doritos, and generic Oreos.

The Winn kids ended up staying the night with us. We grilled burgers, burned lots of wood in the chiminea, and just enjoyed quality good cousin time. The cousins are more like siblings. When they get together they have such vivid imaginations and create the most amazing games!

William and Samuel helped their Sunday school class host an Easter egg hunt for the neighborhood kids on Saturday morning. After they were done, we took all the kiddos out to Burnet for an Easter celebration with my mom and stepdad and others. Thomas brought his people and the cousin crew was complete. We had lunch, sang, read some scripture, and did an egg hunt. It was rather rushed, but even so, good memories were made.

We got everyone up and out early on Easter morning and went over to mueller for our own little sunrise service. We sang a few songs, read a passage of scripture, and prayed. It's the beginning of a beautiful tradition, I hope.

We went to the the later church service and then met Brian's parents for lunch. After lunch we drove out to my uncle Gene's place at Mustang Ridge for the Evans' Easter. Of our people it was just us, Daddy, and Thomas. I don't know where Leah was, but her kids were with Roger, and Meredith had Thomas' kids. After we got home, Margaret, Samuel, Brian, and I went for a long run. It was a good way to end a busy holiday weekend.

Our buyers option period ended at midnight Saturday, so all weekend Brian and I were on edge waiting to hear of we'd come to agreement on the contract. It ended up going down to the wire, but with three hours left, they signed the contract! We will fix the under slab plumbing leak and contribute half for reroofing the carport. Even so, we'll still make 10k more than our asking price, so we feel pretty good about it all. Closing is in two weeks. In the meantime, we will be waiting to jump on any new listing to pop up in Steiner Ranch. We are going out to look at a place this morning that we both love (from the pics). Yes, it's a new house and doesn't have a lot of charm, but it's big and backs up to the greenbelt, which would be our dream. It's also within walking distance to the elementary and middle school, as well as the park and pool.

Here's the listing.


http://www.ziprealty.com/property/2713-GRIMES-RANCH-RD-AUSTIN-TX-78732/83793966/detail

We're hoping and praying that it works out.

I guess that's all the news to report.

It comes up every month or so that the kids have been in public school: the need to justify our education decisions. Why must I prove to someone else why what I chose is best for MY children? Why must someone else prove that their choice for THEIR is better than mine? This is such a sensitive issue. It is especially touchy in my church full of affluent, highly educated parents who either have the money to send their children to one if the best private schools in the country, or who a capable of homeschooling, especially in the upper grades.
I am just growing weary of all my homeschooling friends constantly trying to prove that their education choice is the best, especially on Facebook where they don't have to look their friends in the face and tell them that what they're doing (in sending their children to public school) lazy, irresponsible, sinful, and is going to cause their children to lose their salvation. They wouldn't dare say this to their friends' faces, but hide behind blog links and newspaper columns. Why must they prove to me and everyone else that their to homeschool their children is best of all? Just because its best for them does not necessarily mean that it's best for all families. Have they been in my home, walked beside me day in and day out? Do they know my capabilities, my weaknesses? My children's capabilities and weaknesses? No. So why do they think they know what's best for my family? Let them prayerfully choose what is best for their family and leave me and my family to do the same.


End of my rant.

I feels like a huge weight has been removed from our shoulders. We've sold our house! Well, almost. We're under contract and the inspector comes Monday. The house went on the MLS around midnight Friday. We had about twenty showings between saturday and Sunday, and five offers. Or realtor came over Sunday night and we hammered out the details of the contract until a out 10:30. We were offered 20K more than our asking price by two different people! We were just blown away by the speed at which everything happened! We are also amazed at God's provision for us. We bought the house for $145K ten years ago and are selling it for $335K!

This house has been Brian and my pet project. We have put so much blood, sweat, and tears (ok, maybe not tears, yet, but those will come when we walk out the door for the last time) into this home. It had been our dream to have an old house we could fix up, and this was the oldest one we could afford in Austin at the time. It has been so much fun! Where were going we won't have the same opportunity. The houses are new, lack character, and won't need major renovating, but I think it will be good for our family. We can spend our weekends playing together instead of working around the house all the time.

Margaret and Samuel went back to school yesterday. I think they enjoyed their spring break even though we didn't do a whole lot. They spent part of it with Brian's parents and part with my mom while Brian and I worked to get the house up for sale. We will owe them some kind if camping trip or some other fun.

Margaret has her first track meet on Thursday. She's running the mile and half mile, I believe, as well as doing the long jump.

Hazel has her fifteen month well check today, although she's really sixteen months old now. When you're not following a vaccination chart you forget to go in for those well checks.

I guess that's all I have time for right now. Happy Tuesday!