Family and Friends

**warning** MORE sappiness to follow
(maybe I'm a bit hormonal right now?!?) :)

I have become increasingly aware at many points in the last several years about the importance of family and friends. This is one of the biggest blessings that I am thankful for so often; I am surrounded by a great circle of people that I love and care about, and who feel the same about me. I am especially thankful at this stage in our life to have this network of care. Here are a few reasons why...

~listeners! It can be so hard to find a good listener (I know that I am rarely one--need to work on that) but I am so thankful for friends and family that will just LISTEN on those days when you need to vent.

~manpower! Finishing our bathroom....bathroom/bedroom....basement has been quite the consuming task. We know, and thank God OFTEN for the support we've had from family and friends as we've stumbled through this journey. From "manpower", to donating time, resources, money, trucks, encouragement, to painting skills, .... the list goes on! We're closing in on our goal of having a "livable space", and every time I get overwhelmed (which is often, just ask Kyle!) I know that we wouldn't even BE at this place without the help and support of family and friends.

~advice! Entering into this new season of parenthood has been very exciting, and of course scary. Change has been a tad hard for me, so I am continually thankful for the wise advice of many godly women in my life.

~fun! I just LOVE spending time with family and friends. Building memories and relationships with the people I love is something I find so much joy in! I can look back on so many moments with various family and friends, and a big smile will just break out on my face. I love it!

My list could go on and on, but I will spare you more "sap". All this to say, I'm thankful for YOU! Whatever our relationship, know that it means a lot to me. I probably don't say it enough, but THANK YOU!!! Doing life wouldn't be the same without you in it. :)

A Good Reminder...

**warning** a little sappiness coming up :)

We had our "Meet and Greet" night at school on Wednesday. This is a night for all of the students and families to come and meet their teacher, bring their school supplies, and check out the school. It's always a busy night with a whirlwind of activity for 90 minutes straight.

On this Meet and Greet night though I had a good reminder in the midst of the craziness. Several of my students and families from last year came back to my room to say hi and give me a hug. This has happened before, but for some reason it meant a bit more this time. Maybe it's because my class was so challenging, or maybe it's because I'm hoping I can still have an impact on my class this year even though I'll miss 1/3 of it on maternity leave, maybe a little of both.... For whatever reason, seeing them reminded me that this job is a special one. For all of it's difficulties, those moments of reward help you make it through. To have those kids rushing in to give me a hug, to have those families stop by and say "thank you" (a rare thing sometimes), was just the thing I needed to get me ready for the year ahead.

As I continued to meet most of the students in my class for the coming year, I noticed (as teachers do every year) the range of needs that will be gracing my door everyday. Some told me they didn't have money to buy school supplies, while some had parents with matching Cadillacs. Some have already exceeded standards several grade levels above mine, and some are still trying to master their letters and sounds. Some come from loving homes with lots of family around for support, and some come from home situations that are far less than ideal for a little kiddo. Some were very excited and social, others were withdrawn and nervous.

What I do know is that for 5 days a week, 40 weeks of the year, all of these kids need me to love them, to make them feel safe, to help them learn, and to teach them how to be a better person. I know I won't succeed at those things every day, but that image of my former students and families running in to see me gave me a boost of courage to take on another year. Our school's theme for the year is "It's Possible", and I'm sure it's no coincidence that one of my favorite verses popped into mind.... "Now to Him who is ABLE to do IMMEASURABLY MORE than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus..." Eph. 3:20 It's going to be a GREAT year! :)

Door County Vacation

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A little more time off...

As we head into August I am so thankful that there's still small glimpses of time off in the near future. Kyle has finished his last "regular class" for his MBA and has the whole month of August off before he starts his capstone class and project. I am so proud of him! He's been so diligent and perseverant through some really tough courses (and maybe a few boring ones too). I have 2 more weeks of summer school left, but then have a week free of school AND piano lessons. YEAH! And what will we do with all of our free time, you ask? Vacation, reading, work in the garden (some good harvests despite some weird weather), more work on the basement, and maybe even get started on the nursery! :) Life gets so busy, and I'm thankful that before we speed things up even more in the Fall that we'll have a little time for some R&R and getting things done around the house. I hope that you have a few moments like this coming up on your calendar too! :)

Celebrating at Houlihan's--yum!
From the garden to the dinner plate :)

Half way and loving it!

We've passed the 20 week mark and are so thankful for how everything is going so far. Every appointment we've had has been positive, particularly with baby's heart and mine. I had my ECHO today and everything looks good. I was even told that I'm a "boring heart patient"--yay--and won't need any special treatment unless something drastic changes! Baby's ECHO is in 2 weeks and we're praying for more positive news regarding the development and functioning of the heart. Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

20 week picture :)

July Fun

Well July has been going W-A-Y faster than I thought it would :/ but it's still been a lot of fun. Here's a peek at what we've been up to...

Check out the babe! We got our 18 week ultrasound....so cool! Boy or girl?!?!

We had my dad and our family friend come up and work with Kyle for 2 1/2 days on framing the basement. They worked hard and got a lot accomplished. My mom and I got TONS of stuff organized and kept the guys fed too ;)
Bonfires :) No picture for this one, but we FINALLY busted out our fire pit and enjoyed some S'mores last night in our backyard. It was great just to be outside, relaxing, and talking.

There have been many enjoyable moments already in July (reading good books, walking and catching up with friends, being with family, grilling, etc...) and I'm hoping the rest of the month holds more of the same! Hope you're enjoying your July!

So thankful

I've been enjoying a slow morning after a great weekend, and reflecting on the many things I have to be thankful for.... freedom to worship our Creator! I am so guilty of taking this for granted--every weekend! I'm thankful for my wonderful family. We had such a wonderful time walking, eating, boating, talking, etc. over the 4th. I'm so thankful for the relationships we share. I'm thankful for a month off--definitely a HUGE perk of my job :) I'm thankful for Drs. and the healthcare we receive. We just had our ultrasound today and it was amazing to see the babe moving, it's little body forming, all of the healthy organs working away (even the heart!)...Praise the Lord! I hope you had an enjoyable weekend with whatever you were doing, and that you are able to take some time to reflect on what you're thankful for.

Vinegar :)

OK, so I know I'm probably WAY behind on this, but we've been cleaning our tub/shower with vinegar lately and really like it. Then today, a friend told me about a website with 1,001 uses for vinegar--amazing! And it's so cheap! Just thought I'd share....enjoy :)
vinegar tips

More from the kids!

This post has been long overdue...I've been writing down funny quotes from the kids on random scraps of paper, and I'm sure I've lost some along the way, but here are the few that I have left.

Giving a spelling test.....
Me: "hoof" I heard the horse's HOOF on the trail.
Student: "hoof"? Isn't that the sound you make when you sneeze?

I was reading the story Titanic to the kids (we got it at the book fair, but still a tragic story for 1st graders). We had gotten to the part where the boat was going down and all of the women and children got on the boats and the men stayed behind. This led into the following conversation....
Student 1:"Mrs. Hardie, isn't that kind of mean to make all of the boys stay on the boat?"
Me: "Well, it's something people call chivalry. When you're a guy, sometimes you let girls or people smaller than you get to safety first just because."
Student 2: "But ACTUALLY it's because boys are stronger and smarter and so that's why they stayed on the boat because they can swim better and they know more stuff than girls, right?"
Me: moment of silence....."let's see what ELSE this book will tell us about?" :)

One of my little ASD kiddos loves to learn new phrases and then say them over and over and over....this week his new phrase to say when he gets mad about ANYTHING is "That's an outlage!" (I'm pretty sure he means outRAGE--hehehe--but it's so cute!)

I overheard 2 little boys having this conversation on the carpet one morning.
Boy1: "Did you hear that Bretty Favre is a grandpa?"
Boy 2: "What? I don't get it..."
Boy 1: "You know....he's a grandpa. He has a grandkid."
Boy 2: What? You mean like BEFORE he played football?"

Today we read a great story, "When I Am Old With You", about a little boy and all of the things he likes to do with his grandpa. We were discussing the story when one of the kids asked a great question...
Student 1:"How will the boy and grandpa BOTH be old together?"
Student 2:" Well, the grandpa is probably about 46, and then when the boy gets to be 46 he will be old too and the grandpa will still be old."
46?!?!? Sesrously?!!?

These kids definitely keep me on my toes....8 more weeks!

Anniversary, year 2

We celebrated our 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY on Monday. Well, actually we celebrated all weekend by going out for dinner, a movie, trying new recipes, taking Monday off of work, watching our wedding video, and working on our "never ending puzzle" :) Here are a few snapshots of our weekend...and to all of you that continue to pray for us and help us grow as a couple, THANK YOU! We're excited to see what God has in store for the year ahead.

Out for dinner at Red Oak

Our free anniversary dessert--yum!

We tried a new recipe for chicken fried rice
We also tried a new quiche recipe for breakfast
Out for lunch at one of our favorite places....Chipotle!

Almost done with the puzzle....

Quotes from the kiddos

Alas, the kids never let me down with their quirky comments. Here are a few highlights from the past couple weeks....

"Why do they call Dr. Seuss a Dr.? He doesn't help people feel better...."
(They don't miss a thing!)


I was having a conversation with a little girl who is both a piano student, and a student in my First Grade class while she was at her piano lesson.
Me: "I'll have to do that when I get to work tomorrow."
Student: "You don't work!"
Me: "What do you think I do at school all day?"
Student: "You don't work.....you teach!"
Well.....at least I have HER fooled!


While reading a book about George Washington (to celebrate Pres. Day), one of my students inquired.... "Man, he was born a long time ago...who was the FIRST person ever born?" Another student quickly replied, "Obviously God, and then Santa!"

Student:"What do you smell like?"
Me:"Is it my perfume?" (as I wave the scarf I was wearing in front of his nose.)
Student:"Yeah. I don't like it. It smells bad."

Just a few chuckles that keep me pluggin' through each day! :)

5 Day Challenge

Our church has been pushing us to go deeper in our compassion and action through the Micah 6:8 Project. Micah 6:8 says "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."


On Monday we began our (short) journey into living on less than $2 of food per day. To do this we decreased our portion sizes to 8 oz. (1 cup). We ate 3 meals a day of beans, rice, tortillas, lentils, or a few bits of fish or chicken, and tap water. We had many different thoughts during these few days. "This is harder than we thought it would be." "We are SO much more blessed that we realize." "We have so much variety available to us." "We've experienced this....now what? What can we do?" "At the end of these 5 days, we can go back to our grocery store or restaurants and eat 'like normal' again.....for most of the world, rice and beans is it." "I can't even eat these foods 'plain'. I've added brown sugar, or butter, or seasonings." There were many more thoughts and conversations throughout the week, but I guess one of my friends said it best... "Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours." I hope and pray that this doesn't end here. That my awareness leads to an action of some sort. What that is...I'm not exactly sure.......
It's an interesting challenge, and I would recommend it (to those physically able), for even just a day or two. :)

Valentine's Day through the eyes of my kiddos...

Well, today was one of the rare moments where I was able to step back a little bit and observe my kiddos as they celebrated Valentine's Day together. First, we wrote about what "love" means to us. Here are a few things they wrote...
LOVE IS...

• considerate of others
• letting go of your anger
• family and friends, hugs and kisses
• not hurting your animals
• colorless (yes, one of them came up with that on their own!)
• giving presents to people and being nice

Another cute moment today was during Math. I had given the kids each a box of "sweethearts" to sort and graph. I was just walking around the kids letting them do their own thing when I overheard them whispering...

"These hearts are inappropriate for school!"
"Yeah, this one says 'FIRST KISS'!"
"Oh yeah?!? Well, mine says 'HEY BABY'!"

hehe--I guess the kids are still innocent about some things ;)

Kid Stories

Well, it has been a rough couple of weeks, but there are always a few moments that keep you laughing, and keep you going. Here are three from this week...

A group of students were reading a book about an opera singer getting kidnapped. It was a tricky book for them, so I wanted to stop part way through and check their understanding. As we paused, I asked someone to summarize what had happened in the story so far, and one little girl stated (in a very frantic, concerned voice)..."Mrs. Hardie, they kidnapped OPRAH!!!" HA! Guess we need to do a little lesson on the differences between opera and Oprah.

We were working on writing what OUR dreams were for the world, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. One little sweetheart's dream was.... "My dream is for everyone to be treated nice, no matter what color their shirts or their skins are." hehe--too cute ;)

Also this week, a co-worker of mine knew I needed a laugh so she came into my room one morning and told me the following story.... One of her little girls came into her First Grade room wearing a beautiful, pink velvety sweatsuit. She was watching this little girl unload her backpack, and as she bent over, the pants slid down to reveal a THONG! Seriously?!!?? She's 7!!!!! Do they even make them in that size???

I'll keep you posted as more stories come... ;)

Florida with the fam

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