Category Archives: holiday

soggy mountain breakfast

A Grubb family tradition for Labor Day is to get up super early and head to the GSMNP.  We all pitch in and have a huge country breakfast.

Biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, fried pork tenderloin, hash brown casserole, cinnamon rolls, homemade jam…and more.

The food is usually the same, hot and delicious.  The family members have changed. Those who are present have lessened over the years due to death or distance. But the spirit of family, the familiarity of our mountains and tradition are comforting.

My children will hopefully have these times etched into their memories. Deep enough that when they have their own children they will have the desire to carry on these same traditions and feel drawn to create more comforting, peaceful mornings for their families.

It was soggy from rain. We made it through breakfast before the rain really started coming down again. The kids didn’t care. Any chance to be in the river is relished!

a lovely Father’s Day…

 

After church and lunch we headed to one of the most beautiful places, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!

On the way home we stopped for ice cream. Chris said, “this is the best Father’s Day I’ve had in a long time.”

Happy Mother’s Day

I have one thing I always ask for on Mother’s Day and that is a picture before church with all the kids. This morning it only took 20 tries to get a good one! I love being a mom. Winking smile

All we did was ask Parker to be in the picture and he cried and cried like we had done bodily harm to him. Of course, less than 5 minutes later he was smiling. What an adventure it is to be called “mommy”!

He’s Alive!

We celebrate Easter like most other Americans, with food, family, treats and egg hunts.  For me though and for us as a family, Easter is the time to declare that our GOD is not dead!

He is ALIVE!!!

egg huntin’

We enjoyed a beautiful first day of April at Sam Houston Schoolhouse.  An Easter egg hunt with our church friends, made even better because Grammy and Grandad joined us!
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“Happy Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!”

That’s how Theodore greeted Daddy this morning.  We like to celebrate around here.
I found some great resources from this website. We were able to find a biography and a couple of craft ideas.
We joined our friends and read Green Eggs and Ham and made Green Eggs and Ham picture frames.
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All the kids thought it was great that Dr. Seuss’s real name was Theodore.  And we asked Theodore if we could give him the nickname “Ted” just like Ted Geisel. 
Dr. Seuss would have been 108 years old today.
Even though he was never a biological father, he has touched the lives of so many children.  As an adult, I still laugh out loud at his stories.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR.SEUSS!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Happy New Year!

It’s the first day of 2012! This morning in church the pastor spoke about gratitude. He gave several examples of people in the bible that had gone through good and bad times and had all arrived at a place in their lives where they were incredibly blessed and were probably saying “Who am I Lord that you would bless me this way?”
Who am I that God would bless me so? I continually fail Him but He loves me anyway. I see the way He cared for me in 2011 and I pray that I will acknowledge His handiwork in my life in 2012.
I always say that I am not going to make resolutions but I do make them, in my head. I just don’t like to say them out loud or put them on paper (or blog) because then there is an accountability there.  And who likes accountability?

So here goes…my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions…

1) Read 12 books of the Bible from start to finish.
2) Exercise and lose weight.
3) Blog. Every day. 365 post for 2012.

My motivations…

1) To understand God’s truth.
2) To feel better physically and have all those nice clothes in my closet fit again.
3) To have all those memories written down.

I am pretty excited to see where God takes me this year.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. 
                                            Proverbs 3: 5&6

Merry Christmas!

Spring 2011

A birthday celebration for mommy. My beautiful cake…
…made by my some of my favorite people.
We went with 5 candles instead of the 35 that should have been on there!
It seems to have rained or stormed a lot.  So we spent time inside creating,
working on finishing up school for the year or when it wasn’t raining…
…just enjoying the mud.  I hope you can see the big glop of mud that
Theodore decided to dump on Parker’s head.
We had a great day at Dollywood, hardly any lines, not too hot,
one of the best days we have had there as a family!
Easter celebrations at church…
…with Easter egg hunts…
…and with family gatherings.
I hope your family is having a blessed Spring!

Happy New Year!

We had a GREAT Christmas! It was busy, as usual, but it was full of love and goodies and fellowship with family.  Our children were blessed by all of their extended family with gifts and attention.  Katie had a sleepover with the only other girl cousin at their great-aunt’s house.  She had a great time, playing and baking cupcakes for Jesus’s birthday.  A few days after Christmas, Katie, Theodore and Parker went to Grammy and Granddad’s house and Foster and Daddy went hunting. I was here all by myself for 4 whole days.  It was wonderful.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband and children so much and I was ready for them to be home, HOWEVER, I was in organizational/planning mode and I accomplished so much in 4 days.  I cleaned out and shopped and rearranged and planned for school.  Oh and I watched quite a few hours of 18 kids and counting. I absolutely adore this show. And I had only watched it a few times before now because we usually don’t have that channel, but I was able to watch it through NetFlix streaming video.  I know a lot of people probably think they are crazy but for some reason I don’t feel that way. I like them, and I like what they stand for, I usually just find myself wishing I had their kind of courage. To live for God the way they do, unashamed and trying to incorporate higher standards into their lives.  Yes, I know it’s TV and not real life.  But I think if they were in BHEA with me, I would definitely be their friends.

Foster and his Daddy had a great trip. Chris killed an 11-pointer!

This trip also stood out because last year during this “after Christmas” hunting trip was the trip that ended with Chris rushed to the hospital in an ambulance with pneumonia and fluid around his lungs so bad that he could hardly breathe. He ended up staying in the hospital for almost a month.  So yesterday when he was able to get up and go to work for another ordinary day, the kids and I prayed and thanked God for his grace and love for our family.

Solitude does bring a lot of time for introspection.  I didn’t really want to make resolutions but I think I do that anyway at the beginning of a new year.  I feel hopeful as a new year begins.  I have a lot of desires for this new year.  Mainly though I just want to be more present, more content with what and who I have in my life.  I want to take better care of myself physically because it’s the only body I have and not because I was less than 120 pound for 3/4 of my life and now I am REALLY not.  I want to give more grace and accept other’s decisions without being so judgemental.  I am not as harsh with people who are convicted of crimes as I am with other mom’s who don’t make the same sacrifices I’ve made. (there it is.) Then there’s money, it gets on my nerves and I hope that this year with good ole Dave’s help, Chris and I will get out of debt and start having a better relationship with money. While we are at it – teach our kiddos how to deal with it, too.

I hope you are having a great New Year already. I hope to have more people following my blog this year!
I actually had a reader tell me she missed me when I hadn’t written a post in awhile. Is it pitiful that made my day? Oh come on, everyone likes to be liked. (=