SuMmEr TiMe!!

Well we are 1 full month into Summer vacation and it's been Hot, humid, cold, decent, you name it after all it's Michigan. We have done lots of Fun things. Like I took the Girl Scout Troop to Mackinaw Island and Mackinaw City for a fun get away and earned some badges along the way. We had a Blast on the island, eating at the Grand Hotel, taking 2 carriage rides and hear facts about things on the island, visiting an Art Gallery, riding the Ferry, shopping for fudge and spending time together. <3 Seriously a great experience! I would recommend it for anyone to do as a Girl Scout mom or leader. It was also bittersweet as our group will be losing one of our long time members this coming scout year. As the girls get older and grow and change I know that it is always an option that they may not rejoin. It happens but it still makes me sad and I will miss them as they go...and grow! Speaking of change we have been making more on the home front. I have been trying to remember that ALL things change. It's always good but sometimes it's not always easy. I have been helping my Dad tear down and old trailer on our family farm. We have been working closely every day and that has brought me great joy and made me get to know and appreciate him a lot more than I ever have. Not only was this trailer old and run down, it was my first home as a child. Where I came home as a baby, where my brother accidently slipped on a magazine and threw me through the air onto the couch! Where we shared a bedroom and had birthday parties, where we both learned to walk, appreciate family, and farming and all that they both stood for. I am the reason that the trailer has been torn down and don't get me wrong I was so happy to help and get rid of it but being there and hearing so many stories of my childhood, my brothers childhood, my cousins and Dad's childhood and all about how our family farm just came to be. It gave me a whole new understanding and appreciation that I just didn't have. Of course I thought I did but now I know that I didn't. I'm glad to be moving forward and putting down roots in my home town at my Grandparents old homestead. It will truly be an honor that no one can understand unless you do it. More changes that we have been facing is our children, they are growing up before our eyes. Our daughter is a preteen and will be 12 in 21 days now and our son will be 9 in September. We have been facing middle school and all it's challenges. Friends, drama, classes we like and don't, teachers we love and those that we don't, friends that are new and Awesome, friends that we've had for what seems like a lifetime that are no longer there. It's not easy to watch your kids struggle through these challenges and not try to fix it for them. Also some classroom challenges that just make public school and all it's practices seem very archaic and yes it's hard for me to say that being that I work at a Public School building and I Love my job and truly do feel like we do make a difference in kids lives. I couldn't honestly count the little hearts that have melted mine with their sweet hugs or precious goodbyes, nice good mornings or buying lunch with me, asking me to walk them to class. School is Hard! Friendship is Hard! Parenting is Hard! Life in General...HARD! We surely will face more parenting, school and well in general life challenges but at least that means we are alive and here to face them. Thanks God for those that you have placed in my path. I love them all and I don't know what I would do without them! XOXO