PJ Jonas – Page 134 – Teaching Families to Work Hard Together

My Daughter

I was sitting on the couch taking a rest when Jade appeared. She climbed up next to me and grabbed my face in her hands. She looked me right in the eyes. Jade: “I am going to hide behind your back. And then you are going to say, ‘Where is my daughter?’. And then you…

August 22, 2010

Good and Bad of Youngest Rule

Jim hates long hair, especially in the summer when it’s so hot. He also hates it when the boys get scruffy looking. But haircuts would be on his list for weeks before he finally got around to them (he’s a tad bit busy). So he invoked the youngest person rule (the youngest person capable of doing…

August 21, 2010

Topsail Island

We rented two houses on Topsail Island. One house held my parents, my brother and his family, and my aunt and her family. Our house had my family, and for part of the week, another brother and his family, and my sister and nephew. It was absolutely wonderful. Our house was a duplex, so we…

August 20, 2010

Vacation, the Next Phase…

When the wedding was over, we all went back to the hotel. There was quite a bit of laughter with all of us crammed into one room, just hanging out: And then it was time to leave Florida and head north – destination Topsail Island in North Carolina. Jim and I talked everybody into a…

August 19, 2010

My Brother’s Wedding

My brother’s wedding was the second marriage for both he and Shannon. Pete doesn’t have any children and Shannon has five kids. Our family adores Shannon and her kids and we think they’re wonderful for Pete. The wedding was a small, casual affair (which worked great for me b/c I didn’t need to pack fancy…

August 18, 2010

Swimming at the All Sports

After spending the night in Atlanta, we drove on to Orlando. My brother was getting married right near Orlando, so we had made reservations to stay at Disney’s All Star Sports Resort. Unfortunately, once there I got sick and spent two days in bed. The was a silver lining to me getting sick there. First,…

August 17, 2010

Chattanooga

Our marathon vacation all began because of my brother, Pete. He decided to get married in Florida. Since we wouldn’t miss it, we began to make plans. And the plans kept growing… and growing… and growing! We left our house and start driving to Florida. Normally we drive straight through, but we decided to do…

August 16, 2010

Hewitt Stories

Hewitt just turned six – I can’t believe he’s so old! How did that happen? (Ok, I know how it happened, I’m just struggling to accept it.) Brett and Emery made him cookies for his birthday. After lunch they were all allowed to have one cookie. Hewitt finished his and then came up to me…

August 15, 2010

Vacation Hangover

We had an incredible vacation. We played very hard. I think Jade came home and experienced a vacation hangover: Then the children got a hold of the kittens and ran them all over the place, so that Ginger experienced a post vacation hangover too: If Brett had thought to take the camera and…

July 20, 2010

Confidence

During our vacation, we visited good friends of ours who are living on a 300+ acre Christmas tree farm outside of Blacksburg, Virginia. Cole and I were walking down one of their hills together. This was our view: Off to the right, there was this big sloping part, with lots of trees on…

July 20, 2010

The Goldfish Saga

I just had to share this Jade story from our vacation. We were sitting on the beach one day. My Aunt Gina had just finished sharing her box of goldfish with Brett. Jade saw this and told (not asked) Gina that she wanted some of Brett’s goldfish. Gina told her that they weren’t Brett’s goldfish…

July 19, 2010

Number One

I don’t know how long this will last, so I had to document it: Can you see what that is? That’s Goat Milk Stuff in FIRST place when you do a google search on “goat milk soap“. Isn’t that exciting? OK, you may not think that’s exciting, but I’ve put in hundreds of hours on…

June 23, 2010

The Youngest Person Rule

Most of the moms that I talk to are overwhelmed and exhausted. They feel like they are always behind and always rushing to try and catch up. As a result of this, many mothers feel like failures. I think it’s because of these feelings that the one question I am most frequently asked is, “How…

June 22, 2010

Substitute Blanket

We’ve been having trouble lately with Indigo and Jade losing their blankets around the house/soap room/yard. It’s not a pretty picture when it’s bed time and the blankets are nowhere to be found. So Jim told them they had to leave their blankets in their room. Today I discovered Jade curled up on the couch.…

June 20, 2010

Charlestown State Park Balloon Glow

Yesterday, Jim was pushing us to finish our work early so we could have a family surprise. What was our surprise? The Charlestown Hot Air Balloon Glow. It was a hot, muggy evening with no breeze. (On a side note, we used our bug off lotion stick b/c the bugs were awful and they worked…

June 19, 2010