The Peach Parents

Sunday, June 19, 2016

VBS and Art Camp...more cruise pics!

The past two weeks have been a whirl wind and didn't feel like summer at all ...yet they were great times of learning and growing and FUN.

We loved the Submerged theme at our church and the kids had so much fun learning how to dive in deep with God and let him test their hearts and thoughts. Each day they wanted to go back and every day that got more comfortable with the songs...so much so that on the last day Baby Boy ran up on to the big stage..without being invited and led worship in front of at least 1000 people. It was precious. Now, everytime we get in the car they BEG to listen to the VBS cd and we all do the motions..which tickles Adam as he watches us make up new motions since we can't remember them. Every day after VBS we had somewhere to be or someone to meet which made for a very loonnngg week and with everyone sleeping HARD!!!

This past week was ART CAMP. Last summer my kids asked me to teach a Princess themed art camp and a Superhero themed art camp..and I did and it was successful. This year it was beyond successful and between the two classes I had 31 campers and 11 helpers!!! I had 11 sets of siblings including my own kids and most of that was brothers who liked to be superheros who punch and roll around on the floor :). I am so thankful for sweet 8th and 10th grade girls who wanted to come help me!!! They made it fun and were so eager to help all of the little ones glue, cut and draw. I also had a good friend who is working on her teaching degree come observe me and she jumped right in to help as well! It was beyond exhausting and I went through my breathe throat drops and peppermint oil every day when we got home.

Which brings me to the next big part of our lives. Our new reliance on essential oils. (I am not allowed to write about the brand since that is not being compliant with the FDA rules but we all know I use d-----a:). I love that these are pure and that and that my company provides jobs to severeal impoverished areas and believes in putting money into people instead of marketingI use them because I am soooo tied to the fact that God gave us everything we need to survive and heal ourselves in the natural food he gave us and in the plants and minerals he provided on the earth. That belief drives my whole way of thinking.....its why we believe and have faith in God and God alone. Its why we believe in educating our kids through a biblical worldview. Its why we are predominantly paleo (i can't tell my kids not to eat cake at a birthday party and Chick Fil A/Subway occasionally happens on our road trips to AL) and eat lots of veggies, fruits, meat, nuts and seeds. Its TOTALLY WHY WE USE OILS NOW. Its a lifestyle of trusting in God instead of the man made things that are now harming us.

I have been to 4 or 5 classes now in oils, have been reading all about them and listening to webinars when I run. I am convinced that we can use oils in place of modern medicines. Modern medicines have not been around that long....oils have been around a lot longer and besides skin sensitivity for some people there are no other side effects. Not the case with the meds I had been pumping into my body for soooo long without knowing was was really in them.

A few ways that we have been using our oils are...
Baby Boy fell face first off the bar stool and into the tile...busting his gyms...and we used OnGuard to rub into his gums to ease the pain and strengthen the roots.

Big Man LOVES THE OILS and has recently been talking about wanting to become a natural doctor to help people heal!! He uses oregano on his wort on his finger and its starting to shrink. He also uses melaleuca on his acne. Recently he had a blister and we rubbed frankincense on it and he never complained of it again. He also uses deep blue on his legs after an intense workout.

Big Girl is becoming my mini me and I LOVE IT. She loves to do Yoga with me after an intense run to loosen up. She LOVES watching cooking shows and helping me cook! She loves all things ART!!! She also loves to use lavender on her forehead to help her fall asleep. She uses a combo of lemon/lemongrass and lavender as bug spray and reminds the boys EVERY day to use it as well. She loves to rub our "Cheer" oil into her hands when she is feeling down. (I totally believe in the power of scents as mothballs (weird eh) reminds me of all of the sweet times I had at my grandparents home in Pensacola, FL...digging through their closets, trying on my grandmas shoes and jewelry and learning how to play the piano. I also am very into the smell of patchouli as it takes me back to the days of when Adam and I were dating, if I am in a bad mood, patchouli makes everything all right :))

I use oils DAILY. I use frankencinse on my face and body every day, mixed with coconut oil as my make up remover and as a moisturizer. I use oregano on my skin tags to get them to fall off (maybe thats too much info :)). I use wild orange and cumin and lemon to cook with. I diffuse cardamom and peppermint when we are congested or when I have a headache. I rub peppermint on the bottom of my skull to relieve all headaches, no meds necessary. I diffuse OnGuard in my classroom to ward off airborn germies and I put it on my own kids feet every morning. I use the OnGuard to brush my teeth and to clean my countertops...hey hey, TWO FOR ONE. YES, I clean my house with the same thing that I use to brush my teeth. ITS THAT SAFE AND NATURAL.

I love how we aren't pumping meds in and how we have become dependant on these oils and created a lifestyle where we are prepared...we have oils for everything. NOW, I need to say that these oils can not replace surgeries or other times when we will need to seek out medical advice...but I do think that creating a healthy lifestyle and treating minor things with oils is allowing us to be more dependant on the Lord and not so fearful of "when the next virus or bug hits"...because now we are prepared.

My computer decided to let me have these pictures from our cruise...FINALLY!

Yummy plaintain salad with avocado, cantalope and strawberry smoothie!

Everyone headed to the beach.

Buttcracks everywhere!

Mommas just chilling....I love these girls!

The sweetest friends.

My mini me.

My running buddy!

A sandcastle we found and spruced up!

Getting ready to board the ship!

THEY LOVED THE WINDOWS!!

All 3 of my guys snorkeling!

We found a mermaid in a shell.

Climbing on sculptures around the boat.

In our pjs riding up and down the glass elevators.

PO!!!

Scaling the wall in record time then descending like a pro!

Waiting for the bellyflop competition!

Loving life!

Lots of deep thinking going on I am sure!

Waiting for our turn to ice skate.

Our own litltle piece of paradise!

BEAUTIFUL!!

Eating breakfast while docked at Cozumel

Chankanaab...fantastic family spot!

Looking at the crocodiles!

Goofin around.

We loved the balloon artist!

We wanted to be as close to water as possible!

CRAZY HATS!!

Holding parrots!

A little shopping at islaCozumel!

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Cruising Day 7

In Summer news we FINISHED VBS and dang we are tired. It was an amazing week but between PK4 class for Baby Boy....1st grade for Ribbit.......Wild Week for Goober and Mom directing 121 first graders daily we are TIRED. I loved watching the kids learn the worship songs and all the motions. We also managed to book something for every single day after VBS...lunchdates, workdates for mom, oil meetings and buying supplies for art camp next week.

To sum up our cruise though, Saturday was another full day at sea and we took full advantage of it and stayed busy the whole day.

I woke up and got in 4 miles while watching a beauitful sunrise and then did a CrossFit WOD in the fitness club with the rower and weights. The kids were still asleep so I went back and did the AB class which kicked my booty. We all headed to a late breakfast and then to towel animal folding class. The kids loved it and helped the crew name the animals. From there we got in another game of putt putt and swimming. At noon we, along with 8 other families ran all over the ship for the Family Scavanger Hunt. we couldn't use elevators and we had 7 floors to explore for the hunt. We had some of the youngest kids and therefore Adam carried Baby Boy and flew up and down those stairs....he was covered in sweat by the end BUT WE GOT 3rd place!!!!

We ate lunch and headed over to the theater to watch Kung Fu Panda 3 in 3D. The Kung Fu Panda movies are the best and my kiddos love them as adoption is a theme througout all 3. We then swam our little hearts out until dinner. After dinner the kiddos went to adventure club one last time and Adam and I headed to another comedy show and the farewell show. We then went back to the room and packed up both rooms without the kiddos. We decided to do early disembarking and carry our own luggage off the next day so we had to pack WELL. We grabbed the kids, let them love on and thank their adventure club workers and headed to bed.

The next morning, I woke up really early and felt really good. I had told myself that it would be really neat to run a half marathon while on the cruise ship. Therefore I headed to the jogging track and knocked out 59 laps (which equals 13.1 miles). There were several people up on the track from 4:39 until I finished around 6:15 and they were all watching the cruise dock at Galveston. Watching it dock actually made me feel really sick as we pulled in past the dock and then backed into the unloading pier.....running forward in circles while the ship was going backward made me feel pretty sick actually. But I finished!!! We ate breakfast on the ship, got in the line to get off and 1 hour later we were in our car heading back to our home.

We LOVED every minute of the cruise and every time someone ask the kids "what was your favorite part of the cruise" they get this terrified look and say "thats not fair, I cant pick just one"..."can I tell you my top 3 or 5?".

I forgot to post our favorites from Cozumel..
Daddy-snorkeling with his boys
Mommy-Baby Boy wore his spider man wrestling hat to dinner and all the waiters lined up and clapped for him yelling "spidey"
Goober-seeing statues underwater while snorkeling
Ribbit-swimming with mommy
Baby Boy-snorkeling

Last day favorites..
Mommy-watching all kids play together in the pool and thoroughly love on one another
Daddy-Family scavenger hunt
Goober-Watching Kung Fu Panda 3
Ribbit-Towel folding class
Baby Boy-Swimming

Learning how to make a bat, elephant, dog and monkey!

Playing in the waterfall in the kids area.

3rd place at family scavenger hunt!

They wanted their picture taken in this frame couch.

At dinner with Spidey and Ribbit and I showing off our matching necklaces from Cozumel.

Look I am a walrus!

Friday, June 10, 2016

Cruising Day 6

We woke up to a new place again, Cozumel! We had been here before with Goober on his Disney Cruise but we docked at a different port. However, we already an idea of what we wanted to do and how to get there!

I woke up and got in 3 miles while watching a beautiful sunrise!!! We all had breakfast and got off the ship and straight into a Taxi. We had read about Chankannaab Natural Reserve and wanted to take the kiddos there. They all loved being squished in the backseat of a small taxi with me, without seatbelts while Daddy rode up front. We got to beautiful Chankannaab, about a 10 minute drive away, paid our entrance fee and took off to explore.

We first went to see the archeaological ruins and replicas. The kids loved reading the names of the ancient Mayan gods but were so sad to learn that people worship false gods or idols. They loved looking into replica huts and finding real people in them making tortillas from scratch or telling them stories about steam rooms. We finished exploring and decided to jump in the awesome looking pool until the sea lion show started. We cooled off and headed into the sea lion show dripping wet. It was a great show and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when the seal sang. We didn't know it but we all got to get a Sea Lion Kiss at the end of the show which was a great bonus. We the found shaded chairs close to the lagoon and snorkeled in the shallow water for a bit, finding beautiful crab shells, fish, coral and really neat growth on rocks. The boys wanted to go deeper, out past the lagoon into the 16 foot water that was CLEAR and beautiful. Ribbit had had enough of snorkeling and wanted to practice her tricks back in the pool. So the boys and girls divided and had lots of fun. The boys saw underwater cannons and statues. They saw barracudas, parrotfish, coral and loved being out in the ocean with their daddy. Ribbit perfected her swiming and flips and was quite content having mommy to herself. We met back up after an hour or so and headed to see the Crocodiles...which our kiddos know all about since they watch Wild Kratts and soak up information about animals like sponges.

We knew we wanted to go back to Margaritaville for lunch since we had done that with Goober and had a lot of fun. However, this was time was less fun as 4 ships were docked at Cozumel that day and the college age kiddos were dancing very inappropriately and playing drinking games. So we turned the kids towards the water, thank goodness we ate out on the dock, and they sang and danced along to every song, not knowing what was going on behind them. When the clown and balloon artist showed up everthing got better and the food was great as we remembered.

We then started our long trek to find the stores we wanted to hit. We literally walked over a mile in the blazing heat, most of the time with one or both us holding kiddos. We got Ribbit the free charms and necklaces she wanted with her coupons from the ship. We found the Del Sol store where everything changes color in the sun. We found Adam his cigars, the boys their batman and spiderman wrestling caps and Ribbit a dolphin shirt with a mouth that opens. I also found the vanilla that I bought there last time and was almost out of at home!!! The boys both learned how to barter after Goober accidentally told one of the shop owners how much money I had on me....and then Baby Boy would ask all the owners "Is this cheap?"

We got back on the ship, dead tired and sweaty BUT we knew we had to enter the Family Gaga Ball Tournament. We had a blast and ADAM won...way to beat those 11 year olds babe ;). We headed to the nice dinner and the kids looked dead tired the whole time...in fact Baby Boy fell asleep in my lap.

After that the kids wanted to go to Adventure Club and Adam and I went to a Trivia Game, looked through our pictures that the cruise staff had taken, settled our on board accounts and all fell asleep watching Doc McStuffins and basketball.