One more graduate

Cole - May 2024

Well, my days as a homeschooling mom are coming to an end. Mr. C is super close to finishing his senior year. We recently had the Senior Sunday celebration at our church. So it definitely feels like we are winding down on the high school era. Keaton will be attending college in the fall. Cole is still unsure of his future plans. He will take the next year to work and try to hone in on something. 

Cole's pretty much dead center on stage

I really feel like we are in a sweet spot in our parent/child relationship(s). I know I often complain when they come in my room late at night and want to talk when I'm totally ready to go to sleep. But it's that sweet space where we can all discuss things as adults. We talk about faith. Politics. Culture. And I'm watching them mature into a place where it's not so much me telling them what to do, but me asking if they'll help me accomplish this or that. Weird. It's changing. But overall, in a good way.

Here's some other things we did in the last month....

Keaton and I did a quick explore at the "2nd largest canyon in the country". Palo Duro Canyon is about 2 hours from us. Lots of hiking trails there, which we did not partake of this time, but at least Keaton can say he's been there. (Cole stayed home.) Hiking here, is, well, hot. There is literally no shade. We basically drove through the canyon on a loop trail for cars (with the A/C on) and got out occasionally to take a few pictures. Then we drove to Amarillo to see their zoo. Took us less than an hour to walk through. Not much of a zoo, but we can officially check this off our list. 

We also reorganized the garage. Not exciting for you, maybe, but for us, it's so much better! It all started when Cole and I were looking for a box (from the move 2 years ago) that had my wedding dress, Eric's suit from the wedding, and Eric's leather jacket. It wasn't in the house. And we had looked through the garage more than once and still couldn't find it! But after we started clearing things away, there.it.was. And Cole REALLY loves the suit. Aldan wore that suit too for some occasion at church when he was in high school. It has seen better days for sure.

When we moved in, the shelves were quickly set up in the garage and things were kinda dumped on them just so we could unload quickly. Within a few weeks, after moving some things around, I was able to get my car in the garage, but the other half of the garage was never really organized. Cole was determined to get this done! And every day he walks through the garage now, he says, "I love our garage now." Me too, Buddy. Me too.

you gotta make a mess to get organized!

click here for a VIDEO of our special find

DONE!

A couple of other tidbits: 

Keaton got all 4 of his wisdom teeth removed. OUCH. 

It hailed. But no tornados here.

 

It's warm enough to swim!

Oh, and I've got a praise report!  - -  through a lady I met in Bible study, Cole made a new friend, Chris. He likes Star Wars and all things movies, just like Cole and Keaton do. He's also creative in that he likes to make costumes for cosplay. Cole had started making a Stormtrooper costume a few years ago, and Chris has given him lots of tips and ideas to help finish this out. Chris is also originally from the PacNW, so the 3 of them have really hit it off. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. He came over to swim last weekend. Great kid. Thank you Lord, for one friend.

In general, you'll find me complaining about the scenery here, mostly due to lack of trees. And yeah, for sure I miss the ocean. But there ARE lots of what they call "playa lakes". Kind of an ironic term (if you speak Spanish) but that is what they call them. I recently found this one and it seemed so serene. I did see several pretty large turtles and some ducks. We don't swim in these lakes, but the wildlife seem to find refuge there.

So all in all, this last month we have basically been living life. A milestone is coming in that Cole is almost done with high school. My work is going fine. We are trying to serve others. We are learning to maintain our pool. I recently wrapped up a Bible study "Me, Myself, and Lies" by Jennifer Rothschild. The theme is just how to get a handle on our thoughts and how to remake and relabel them in positive ways. It's really amazing how we can trip ourselves up with "stinkin' thinkin". If you have this issue at times, and I do, here's a tip I shared with a friend today from that Bible study: 

When you have that icky feeling of despair or depression, ask yourself WHY am I feeling this way? Check the 4 legs of your "table" and assess each for ways you can improve that mood. Ultimately, we have HOPE in Jesus. We just need to remind ourselves of this.

1) Mental Leg - are you stimulating your brain with worthwhile things?

2) Physical Leg - are you moving and resting in equal balance?

3) Emotional Leg - every "feeling" is not a fact!

4) Spiritual Leg - most important leg, needs daily attention

I had several people contact me after April's blogpost and let me know they are praying for us. THANK you SO much. I may stress and struggle over the day-to-day stuff at times, but I know that God hears those prayers! The thing I need to tackle next is finding a decent 2nd vehicle. Keaton is working 4-5 days/week and will be driving back/forth to school in the Fall. I WANT one of those 4-door Jeep Wranglers. haha! But what we NEED is something reliable (other than my car that has 186K miles on it.) Keep that in your prayers.

Psalm 42:5 "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."