Happy Father’s Day, Robbie

A little surprise for Robbie for Father’s Day.  I frequent the blog by Steven Curtis Chapman’s manager.  Recently, he posted that they were working on a photo montage to go along with the “Cinderella” song.  Be paying close attention around 3:10 of the video

Summer Daze…

We are enjoying summer.  We have been doing a lot of swimming with friends and just general relaxing.  Nate just returned home from camp and had a great time.  Today we’ll head to the library and check out books on our summer reading list.  We’ve gotta keep our reading muscles toned!  It seems like we’ve had a crazy amount of rain for this time of year!  I don’t remember having this much rain in a usual summer. 

This week we head to Memphis for Robbie’s appointment with his orthopaedic surgeon.  This will be the first visit since he cleared him in January.  I am excited to see how pleased his doctor will be with his progress.  He is almost back to 100% and doing  most of what he did before.  I can’t believe it will be one year on August 12.  God has brought us so far!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing summer, too!

We Love & Miss You, Sweet Abby

 

Abigail Grace Johnson

March 22, 1998 ~ June 8, 1998

Unplugged

Nate loves playing the guitar and has become quite good at it.  What is neat to us is that he has really good taste in music.  He loves old-school stuff  like Eric Clapton & Boston.  How crazy is it to hear “More Than a Feeling” blasting from an amp in your 13 year-old’s room ?

He also loves John Mayer (although there is one song we’ve had to ban – you know the one).  Tonight he “played along” with John on “Daughters” -a song I love – and I got some video.  I apologize for the messy audio and the even messier room!

done

The Johnson Cafe

Every now and then when one of the kids asks, “Where are we eating tonight?” Robbie’s response is, “The Johnson Cafe.”  I cook almost every night and we only eat out 1-2 times a week, usually on the weekends.  I have been working on my patio and trying to make it look like my own little outdoor bistro, so I guess I could call it The Johnson Cafe!   Last year I bought an old dining table at a goodwill-type place.  I painted it with outdoor paint and my neighbor drilled a hole in the center for my umbrella.  The bench is from a thick piece of wood on top of concrete planters.  I know it’s not all “matchy-matchy” and that’s the way I like it.

My Bunko group played at my house recently and we ate outside – it was really nice.  Most mornings lately I take my coffee out there and spend some time alone before the kids are awake.  I plug up my little fountain and just have some quiet moments before the noise starts – I really like that time!

Happy 1-0, Steve-O!!

Today is Stephen’s 10th birthday!!!  I woke up for an early morning stroll to Walgreen’s for some bows and a balloon to put on his presents.   We’re going to have pancakes for breakfast to celebrate Stephen.  He was born 14 months after we lost our sweet Abby and God has used his life to bless us so much.  Tonight our Sunday school class is serving dinner to kids in a difficult neighborhood as an outreach that we do once every few weeks.  Stephen said it would be nice to do something for other kids on his birthday, which I think is pretty cool for a kid his age.  Happy 1-0, Steve-O!!  We love you!!

After Photo/Co-Op Field Day

I have the before picture of my yard sale desk in my last post, so I thought I’d show you how the “after” turned out.  I’m pleased with it and it makes a much better tv table.   You can’t see it clearly on the picture, but the antiquing is darker in person, which I like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We recently had our co-op Field Day, and although it was cloudy and a little cool, we had a great time.  Stephen and Betsy both placed in two of their events, and Nate had a great time with the other teens playing ultimate frisbee (and I didn’t get a picture).  Only about 1/3 of our group was there – it’s a big group!  We really enjoy being a part of our co-op!!

Rainy Days and Mondays,Tuesdays,Wednesdays…

It has been raining around here for a year.  Well, not a year, but it sure feels and looks like it.  We had one or two sunny days, but the last few weeks have been soggy at best and ark-necessary at worst.  We are managing ok, but it would be nice to get to be outside for more than 1-2 hours at a time!

Since I’ve had to be inside so much I have turned to some projects I want to get done.  I found this desk at a yard sale last week.  I was taking dinner to friends with a new baby and saw this in the driveway of their neighbor.  Turns out the neighbor is also a friend who graduated with Robbie and that I’ve known since we were kids.  I paid $5 for the desk and I’m going to use it for a tv table in our living room.  I am using paint I already have and got an economy pack of handles at Target for $10.   All together I’ll have about $15 in this project.  I think that’s pretty good.

I recently decided that I was tired of a picture that has been hanging in our living room for a few years.  We have 10- foot ceilings in our old house and this picture is huge.  It fits the wallspace nicely, but the style just didn’t work for me anymore.  Rather than replace it, I decided to paint over it (much to the dismay of Stephen, who screamed, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!!! Yes, that loud).  I already had a quart of chalkboard paint stored away, so I just painted right over the picture and frame. And I love it!  I saw a quote by Jane Austen a while back that I loved, so I took my colored pastels and wrote it on the picture.  The wonderful thing is that I can change it as the mood hits me – with scripture, holiday messages, whatever.  I have had to remind the little budding artists in my home that this is Mom’s!!  I got  into it and forgot to take a before picture, but here it is now.  I’m also lovin’ the fact that I have no money invested in this project!

I am working on my patio when the weather cooperates, and it will hopefully be done soon.  My herbs and flowers are growing because of all the rain, but they really need some sunny days, too!  I am growing basil, cilantro, Italian flat-leaf parsley, dill, and mint.  I love to use fresh herbs when I cook.  Here’s something I like to do with my mint to make my water more interesting:

I let the mint leaves steep for a few days and the water tastes great!  If it’s kept in the fridge the leaves stay good for several days.  After that, I just clean out the bottle and start over with fresh mint. 

Robbie got home a little earlier than usual yesterday.  He spends tons more time on the road now that his territory has changed, but it’s working out fine.  He tried to get some yardwork done between the rainy moments.  Almost 9 months ago he couldn’t even walk.  Wow.

I hope it’s sunny where you are.  If not, a little Karen Carpenter never hurts.

I Just Want to Piddle….

We are nearing the end of our homeschool year.  We started in July and I was so thankful.  When Robbie had his accident we had already started school, so we could keep on trucking.  Betsy has just a little to do in her writing and phonics curriculum and we continue to read everyday.  Stephen is almost done and has really been a diligent student this year.  We changed curriculum with Nate in October (and are so glad we did), so he has to keep working on a couple of subjects for awhile longer.  All in all it has been one of the most rewarding and happiest school years ever.  The kids enjoy our homeschool group and our weekly co-op classes.  They play ball, go on field trips, participate in social activities (they are busier now with friends than they ever were before), and we have learned so much together.  That said, we are all ready for a break!!  I have many projects in the wings and I am itching to get on them.  I have actually gotten started on some when I could, to the detriment of my laundry

Our next-door neighbors also homeschool, so Stephen and his friend Nolan have been working on some things outside:

         

    

This is what else I’ve been doing.   I know it’s not everybody’s style, but I love it and it makes me feel good.  So I’m always up to something like this.  We have had an old cast-iron sink behind our fence since we moved in our house.  I have always wanted to use it, but never really had a place for it in the house.  Last summer, it took Robbie and 2 other guys to move it out beside our patio.  A few weeks ago, I painted the outside and put up the window that had been hanging in my dogwood tree – it was destroyed in the ice storm.  Anyway, it is now my potting sink for flowers and such.  I like how it turned out.

I can’t grow grass very well in this area, so I have started some moss there.  I also took brick that we have from our old fireplace chimney (these bricks are original to the house, probably between 75-80 years old by now – so cool) and made steps leading up to the sink.  Hopefully, the moss and ivy will grow in between and give it some character.  The black pot turned upside down is covering a pipe.  Trying to figure out what to do about that, still.

The project I love the most right now is what I did a couple of Saturdays ago.  I’ve always wanted a fountain on my patio, but they are usually pretty expensive or just flat ugly to me.   We were at Lowe’s and I bought a do-it-yourself kit for turning any container into a water feature.  I found a beautiful urn at Sam’s that looks and weathers like real stone (I put some larger ones like it on either side of the front door, too).  For $60 I now have a great little fountain that is so nice to listen to while on the patio!  This morning after walking, I sat outside and had my coffee to the sounds of the water gurgling and birds singing.   It’s really a nice little escape.

I planted these in the larger planters on either side of the front door:

So, that’s what is going on around here.  I really do need to get to this sometime soon, though:

It’s just not nearly as much fun.

ShareHope

I recently attended a meeting in my town of the ShareHope support group.  This group is for people who have experienced the loss of a child during pregnancy, through stillbirth, or during the first few months of life.  My sweet friend Stacey (great name, huh) who has also lost her precious baby Conley, has worked hard to form this group and to reach out to parents going through this gut-wrenching pain. 

Stacey has been after me to attend a meeting and I’ve had some conflicts, but I have also not been anxious to go.  It’s been eleven years since Abby was born and died, and God has done a genuine work of healing in my heart.  I will never get over my precious first daughter, but by the grace and eternal hope that I have through my faith in Christ, I live with the assurance that I will see her again.  I have some really hard days, still.  Her 11th birthday in March was a tough one for me.  Maybe I was (and am, in some ways) still reeling from Robbie’s accident and coming so close to losing him.  A support group is something I was never drawn to for some reason.

So, I took a deep breath and went to the meeting with one of my bff’s (to use Betsy-speak) Lisa, who delivered her sweet Landon at 18 weeks gestation six years ago.  We were both nervous and didn’t know what to expect.  It turned out to be a time of just talking about our children who had passed away and having the chance to tell those for whom this journey is so new that they will make it.  The one thing I asked was whether or not we were free to talk about our faith, and it is ok.  Without the Lord Jesus, there is truly no hope of being reunited with our children who are in Heaven.  It did make me so sad to experience again the anguish that I know all too well.  But at the same time, it reminded me that God has allowed an experience in my life that can be used for His glory – or as John Piper puts it, that I will not waste my life or anything that has come into it. 

I still don’t know what my role in this group will be, but I know that God expects me to always give an answer for the hope that is in me (I Peter 3:15), and He will equip me to do it.