Spring 2023

Good morning! Before I get too far into summer, I need to record our spring season. Today I’m going to quickly run through some spring highlights and then the rest of the week I’ll go back and detail some of my daughter’s graduation stuff a little more. I’ll go ahead and apologize for the length of this post. It’s a big one!

In early March my daughter and I took a girls’ trip out to Texas to visit my married daughter and son-in-law. We had such a fun visit, and they took us to Homestead Heritage, a self-sufficient Christian community which is also open to the public. It was amazing! We enjoyed shopping in their many shops including the quilting barn (below), general store, grocery store, cheese shop, gristmill, woodshop, pottery shop, weaving shop, leather shop, and blacksmith.

As you can see from the rocking chair below, the craftsmanship is exceptional! All of the crafters in the different shops were so friendly too and stopped to have conversations with us about their work but also were very interested in us and where we were traveling from.

We ate lunch at the Homestead Cafe and their chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes were too delicious for words!

While my married daughter and SIL were tied up with appointments one morning, my other daughter and I spent a couple of hours at Magnolia Silos. We’ve been several times now and really know our way around the place so now we can just go straight to the shops we want to see.

The spring tulips were really putting on a show!

We always have to sit for a bit in Magnolia Press with a good coffee and pastry. We tried a couple of pastries–a lemon blueberry roll and an almond croissant. Both were good but the almond croissant was out of this world, and we still talk about it.

Back at home spring soccer season revved up and we were on the road a couple of times a week traveling to different cities for games. Such a special season since it was our daughter’s senior year! She’s going to miss it so much and we’ll miss watching her. She worked so hard and we’re so proud of her!

The little brothers enjoy the soccer games every bit as much as the girls. Our son had his little gang that hung out, played hard, and hit the Kona Ice.

Our March field trip with our co-op was to American Village in Montevallo, Alabama. We LOVE this place and never tire of it. You can tell it was early spring with all the pollen pods in the trees.

My birthday was in March and the hubby and kiddos fixed me a delicious birthday breakfast of French toast with all my favorite toppings–fruit, lemon curd, and cream!

I mentioned back in December that we’d had several tornadoes in our area and unfortunately spring brought more. This was the cotton gin our field trip group had toured just last fall. Such devastation. So sad.

In early April our soccer team had senior night to honor the seniors. That week my daughter had started complaining of a painful spot in her back. We thought maybe her back was just sore from the season and I gave her some back massages and showed her some P.T. exercises to do (I’ve had lots of back problems myself through the years). The morning of senior night, she woke in tremendous pain, could hardly walk, and said there was a huge lump on her spine. I lifted her shirt to see a very swollen and almost purple lump on her back the size of an egg! After some calls that morning we were sitting in a surgeon’s office that afternoon. He said she had a cyst that had been deep under the surface (the reason we had not known about it) but was now infected and needed to be operated on the next day. He drained it as much as he could and gave her a numbing shot to get her through her soccer game that night. She was determined to play in that game and below is a picture of her doing just that! I feel so much emotion and admiration just seeing her in this picture. She left the field so happy that night (they won!) and we were thrilled for her, but by late that evening the shot was wearing off and she had a miserable night. The next morning, we headed to the hospital for a long day of waiting for her surgery. It was a terrible day, poor girl.

I brought her home that night after a long day at the hospital and the cats made sure she was not alone. They watched her day and night. This was Good Friday.

It was Easter weekend, and my mom was hosting lunch after church. Joel stayed home with our daughter while my son and I went to my parents for a couple of hours for Easter lunch. We enjoyed a little family time and a wonderful spread of food!

My daughter didn’t feel like eating for many days after her surgery so the following week I prepared a simple makeup Easter meal for just our family. My friend, Rivers, gifted me the sweet tablecloth you see in the photo below. I just love it!

I made a fun twist on a seder meal– a charcuterie seder! Lamb meatballs, boiled eggs, spring veggies, unleavened bread, etc.

For dessert I pulled out leftover Easter dessert I’d taken to my mom’s. Bunny bait that my son and I made and some Cadbury cookies–a new recipe for me this year that was so good!

Our April field trip was to the McWane Center in Birmingham, another favorite of ours.

And since my daughter and I had a girls’ trip back in March, my husband and son took a guy’s trip to the Corvette Museum in Kentucky and had a blast!

Spring calls for banana pudding and I made this one for our end-of-the-year soccer banquet. Yum!

The banquet was so nice and bittersweet since our daughter was finishing her last season. Back at home we honored her with flowers and a cookie cake. She had such a fun 4 years playing with so many sweet girls that became good friends!

One of those friends has been by her side longer than 4 years though. I’ll share more in another post about how they met and grew up together, but this sweet family would be moving after graduation, so my mom hosted a luncheon for the moms and daughters of both our families before they moved.

It was such a beautiful and delicious luncheon! My mom is a wonderful cook and she truly spoiled us that day with tasty food and a pretty table.

Beta Club had their last ceremony of the year to hand out honor cords.

In early May we had a delightful little visitor–Liberty’s sister! My sister, Allison, has a dog (Lucy) from the same pack as our Liberty. Lucy came for a visit and the girls had such a fun time taking walks, playing in the water hose, and napping together.

Isn’t she a cutie!

My friend, Kelli, whose daughter is the life-long friend of my daughter that I was just telling you about, hosted our life group mothers and daughters for a luncheon for our graduates. Kelli has a beautiful home, and she threw a lovely party which will get its very own post this week! So, more details to come but here’s a sneak peek.

Kelli and I put our heads and our party efforts together and since she was hosting the graduation luncheon with the life group ladies, I hosted a graduation party with the soccer friends. We both helped each other with both events for our girls. The one at my house was an evening tea which I’ll share more about soon.

Our final field trip of the year with our co-op was to a farm that raised goats, chickens, turkeys, and snakes. Yes, snakes! The farm is owned and run by a veterinarian who specializes in snakes and he had all kinds. The kids learned a lot and the vet and his wife were wonderful to teach the kids so much and let them experience a day on the farm.

We hosted my husband’s side of the family for Mother’s Day, and I had fun setting a frilly feminine table for the ladies. I’ll share more on that gathering soon.

And then there was graduation. I can’t believe this sweet girl is all grown up! She was such a teeny, little girl with her dolls and princess dresses in her little make-belief world. What a blessing to watch her grow up and to get to homeschool her. She is smart, creative, loyal, and tender-hearted and we are so proud of her! She has decided to pursue an online degree in psychology and work with children with special needs through animal therapy.

Two days after graduation we hit the road for her family senior trip out west! I will have several posts to share about this trip so get ready! It was so much fun!!

Ok friends! Thanks for hanging in there with me on this long post! I’ll be back soon with more catching up.