In June (of 2022), Mom, Julia, and I headed to Jekyll Island for a beach weekend!
I love this tradition and I hope we can get back there next year after missing this summer (2023).
We stay at the same hotel each year and eat at many of the same restaurants. We walk the beaches and hang out at the pool and just relax. It is perfect!
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Dear Carson,
Today you are 11!
You are so easy to celebrate. A child with more natural joy and bright personality I have never seen. There are so many things I adore about you, but these are just a few...
* You are likeable. Everyone likes you. And you like almost everyone right back. Very, very rarely you meet someone that isn't your favorite. But you are always kind still.
* You have about a million interests. Currently you love baseball, piano, yo-yoing, rubiks cubes, puzzles, drawing, science, and math.
* You are an incredibly hard worker. All those things above that you love? You work constantly to get better. Practicing all the time. I love it.
* You are affectionate. You love to hug, and to have your back rubbed. You tell me you love me all throughout the day. You get excited when we have one-on-one time.
* You love church. Genuinely love to go to church.
* You are curious about things. All sorts of things. And you love sharing the random things you learn.
* You are an incredible friend. You have so many friends and you love each one of them.
* You are empathetic. You can easily put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand them. And you are compassionate and care about other people.
I could go on and on. You are just that special.
You have grown so much over this last year. You are TALL now...I think you'll be taller than me in the next year or two. You jumped right back into public school this year and you have thrived. Made new friends, stellar behavior, and spectacular grades. We are so proud.
You do still have a temper, just like you always have. But you aren't quick to get mad and you are learning to control it a bit better. You haven't yet reached the moodiness of a typical pre-teen, and I think it will break my heart a little when you do.
You love koalas. I don't know where it came from, but you are pretty close to obsessed with them. Your collection is getting quite extensive.
One of my favorite things in the world is watching you play baseball. You are so good. And you work so hard to get better and better. This quality of working so hard at anything you do makes me feel so confident about your future.
You aren't interested in girls yet, which is fine by me. But I am already praying for your future girlfriends and your future wife. That probably seems crazy, right? But whoever you choose one day will be so incredibly lucky to have you. I may be biased, but I know this to be true. And I want whoever you spend your time with to be exactly who God wants for you.
You are just about to finish up your last year in elementary school and in the fall you're off to middle school. I am not worried about it at all. You are a leader in school. So well-liked but you also are kind and care about others. I have never spent a single second worried about how you treat other people. And I know you are confident in who you are and the choices you make. I have no doubt that you are going to absolutely shine in middle school.
I can't help but get a little sad with each of your birthdays. You're my youngest and I am watching these years of your childhood just fly by. I want to hold on so tight.
But with each year I can see more and more of who you will be one day. And my heart almost bursts with pride. You are going to make an incredible impact on this world, I just know it.
This year the word I am praying for you is discernment. You have a solid history of making really good choices, but getting older sometimes complicates life. Especially in the middle school and high school years. So I am praying that you continue to grow in your faith, that the choices you make and paths you take are based on biblical truths. That you are confident and strong in decisions you make. And that when you do make a mistake, that you own it and learn from it.
You are so precious to me. Just as precious to me now as you were when you were a baby. That will never change.
I hope you know all the way to your soul, that you are loved beyond all measure.
Happy Birthday!
Love, Mama
The night before Carson's birthday we headed to the movies!
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| Herc came for a visit. |
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| Eating on the porch swing. |
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| Snuggles with Bentley. |
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| Gifts for the baseball team. |
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| Bagel breakfast date with Carson! |
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| The absolute sweetest gift from Carver for Mother's Day. |
May of 2022 brought our homeschooling journey to an end. To say it was bittersweet would be a great understatement. I was both ready, and heartbroken for the school year to end.
We made the decision to send the boys back to school (outside the home) for the 2022-2023 school year. And it was the absolute best decision (more about that in another post). But ending these two years of having them home and teaching them and learning together was incredibly hard for all of us.
We loved homeschooling. Absolutely loved it. Some days were indescribably difficult. There were a lot of tears and a lot of complaining. But there were also science experiments, field trips, adventures, slow days, academic breakthroughs, themed days, cooking lessons, life lessons, and so much more. It was, without a doubt, one of the best decisions we have ever made as parents. I will always, always, cherish those two years. What a gift they were to me. And, I think, to the boys as well.
To end our school year, like the year before, we headed out to lunch at Mellow Mushroom and spent the day at the Catawba Science Center in Hickory.
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