Bryan's home!

So it was a major dose of testosterone in the Duncan house today. The boys spent the day with Bryan shooting the pellet gun, chopping things down with a machete and attaching little green army men to firecrackers & blowing them up!

They had a blast being with Bryan every second of the day. The weekends seem to go by so fast while the weekdays drag by. I can't wait until this training is over. These boys need their Daddy at home!

Esther

So, I'm starting week 4 in a new Beth Moore bible study. I love Beth Moore. Her studies work for me. I have found that for a few months after the birth of each of my 3 boys, I have had a hard time focusing on prayer and devotions. Maybe its the lack of sleep or crazy hormones, but something causes me to be so scattered in my spiritual life (at just the moment I should be most in touch???). Anyway, this is my first attempt to get back to some sort of "routine" bible study.

And my point is...

I have learned something very important in Esther. If you know me, you know that I am a worrier. I worry about germs, I worry about my children being in a car accident when they're riding with anyone but me, I worry about natural disasters occurring when I'm away from my children, I worry about anything that is out of my control when it concerns Nate, Henry & Luke. I am forfeiting my joy as a mother with "futile speculations". So when I feel that worry creeping in, I am going to say "NO!" I will not be in mental torment over things I can do nothing about.

Something else I've learned in Esther is that I need to be thankful for my overly active guilt complex. That feeling sorry for the smallest offense I make to someone is a good thing. Conviction is designed by God so we would make amends quickly.

I had no idea I would learn all this from Esther!?!? Just thing, there are 5 more weeks to go...

Happy Valentine's Day!

So we "attempted" a Valentine's dinner at a new Italian Restaurant in Clemson called Brioso. I shouldn't say "attempted" because it was a great dinner considering it was all 5 of us. The restaurant was wonderful with pastas and sauces made on site & gelato! Yum!
This is the start of week 4 of Bryan being out of town. I'm hoping for a better week this week. Things got a little crazy last week.
Luke is so proud that he made a new sound today. "Bbbbuuuuuu, bbbbuuuuu." and sometimes bubbles come out!

Here are the boys before bedtime. Luke is wearing a pair of pajamas that both Nate & Henry wore! They are quite a trio.

The Pirate Dinner

Aaaarrrrggghhh!

My friend Elizabeth gave me the idea to have a pirate dinner. She told her children that if they practiced good table manners throughout the week, that she'd reward them with a pirate dinner - where good manners are not required. The boys were so excited on Thursday night to have their own. We had rotisserie chicken (compliments of Walmart), buttered noodles, green peas (a favorite of Henry), kabobs of mango, pineapple, strawberries & marshmallows, crescent rolls & chocolate pudding for dessert. All to be eaten without utensils. No napkins, you were to wipe your hands on the tablecloth (a quilt). If you needed to burp, you went right ahead and feet on the table? No problem! Of course, you know my children, they can't do anything in moderation. Of course it got a little out of control. I'm talking rubbing deodorant on the mirrors on their closet doors. Yes, you give my boys an inch, and by gosh, they'll take a yard, maybe more. We had fun, and the mess wasn't too overwhelming.

Here is Henry sporting a tatoo drawn by yours truly, and I wore a moustache! Nate, of course kept his school clothes on, he's not one to get too wild & crazy.... he's so much like Bryan.

So, we start week 3 of Bryan's training....

Week 1 down, 10 more to go...

Well, I just survived the first week of 11 that Bryan will be gone (for the majority of the time) for training at Duke.

I have been dreading/agonizing over this since Thanksgiving and I really thought that the hardest part would be being lonely. I figured that I could handle the feeding, shuttling, bathing & bedtime for these 3 wild boys, and the hardest part would be after they all go to bed, just missing Bryan's company. Well, I was (naturally) wrong. The week was crazy. I did handle the days routine, but it

was tough. Bryan does a lot. And just knowing he's gonna do one of the things on my to-do list, like brush Henry's teeth at bedtime does a lot for my morale. (Sometimes that a difficult job!!) And, I was lonely at night. But, we survived and I think he missed us as much as we missed him.

There were only a few glitches in the week, including a meeting of my car with our house (Bryan wasn't happy about that) and possibly the least amount of sleep I've ever had in a week. We had a great weekend with Bryan that included some bowling, some Texas Roadhouse (Nate's favorite) and lots of books. So, we'll see what week 2 holds...

By the way, here is a picture of Luke with his first sippee cup of juice. Yes, I know he's a little young for this (5 months now) but we were having fun, and by baby #3, you just don't sweat the small stuff!!