Dear Carver: On Your 9th Birthday

Dear Carver,

Nine years old tomorrow. It seems impossible. Unthinkable. Sometimes I wish I could go back to when you were a baby, not to change anything, but just to get to experience it again and again. Those were sweet days and months and years.

But there is a certain sweetness that is very different to these days too. We have real conversations now. You ask really good questions and you like to talk. especially at night when you are snuggled up in bed. You have a kind heart-- you care about people who you think are less fortunate and you have a big heart for animals. And we are working on getting you to be a bit kinder to your brother :)

This last year has been hard-- for you and for me. You have been slowly struggling more and more with a quiet sadness and I have struggled more and more with not knowing how to help you. Parents want their kids to be happy and content and worry-free, so when you are sad I am right there feeling it with you. My heart hurts for you, but we are going to figure this out. That's one thing I can promise you-- I'll always be around to help you navigate through the hard things.

A surprising recent development is that you actually like school now (woohoo!). You rarely ask me to homeschool you anymore-- and I am very thankful :) You are doing well in school both with grades and friends, and we are very proud of you.

Your greatest love right now is video games. This is not my favorite. I am hoping your interests eventually change. I do love that you have something you really enjoy though.

This year the word I am praying for you is optimism. You and I are so much alike and I struggle with this too. Sometimes it is so easy to be negative or pessimistic....to look around and see the sad or the dark instead of the good and the light in the world. But I want you to be hopeful, to choose to view life in a positive way. Instead of seeing the things that go wrong in your day, to instead focus on all of the many things that go right. The many ways that you are blessed every single day. So that is my big prayer for you this year.

I tell you all the time that since the day of your birth these have been the very best years of my life. I am so very lucky to have you and I will always do the very best I can for you and your brother. Being your mom is the hardest best thing I have ever done.

I love you to the moon and back. A million times over.

Love,
Mama

August Phone Dump

Carpet was installed upstairs!! One step closer to finishing the upstairs phase of home renovations.

The boys had an impromptu pirate day.

Tourists game with all of the Ridgecrest people.

He wore his Santa hat-- I have no idea why,

Blaze pizza and Launch Trampoline Park with Becky, Ande, and Graham.

Mt. Mitchell! Picnic and a hike up to the summit. It was a beautiful, sunny, day.

They have the cutest picnic area.

Meet the Teacher. And the only picture I took was of this absurdly ginormous car tag for Carver.

Dinner entertainment.

These two are tight.

We started routine chores this year. More about that in another post :)

This came home with me from Hobby Lobby. It now lives in the bunk bed room in the basement. I love it.

Affection mostly comes when they are unaware...

Family Vacation 2018-- Lake Norman, NC

Since all of my family lives out of state, most of our travels really center around visiting them. It isn't very often that we take a trip that is just the four of us. This year the summer flew by-- my workload was heavier than usual, Lyle got married, the boys went to two camps, and we went to Florida for a week. So we were quite busy. We decided to stay close for our trip, so we booked a VRBO on Lake Norman and headed there for 4 nights.

I was a little hesitant about our accommodations because they were in the basement of someone's house-- seems so weird. But it ended up being great. The apartment we stayed in was perfect-- it had an outside entrance, it was right on the lake, and we had plenty of room and all we needed.

I don't enjoy water sports of any kind, but I do find the atmosphere of lakes relaxing. The setting was beautiful and the weather was great and Bentley was able to come along. I've got a way-too-long list of places I want to take the boys one day, so I am not sure if we will be able to do a lake vacation again, but the boys absolutely loved it and will no doubt beg to go back :)

The boat did not phase him at all...

Carver was super sweet, helping Carson every time he fell off of the tube. Going right to him in the water. 

Hanging out under the table when he joined us for a dinner at a restaurant.

Family game night.

One day we met Daniel's parents at the North Carolina Zoo inn Asheboro-- it was a fun day!

Lunch stop on the way home. Mountain Burrito-- so so good!