Keep us in your...

Thoughts..I think? Prayers? Please pray for the Freemans? All of the above!

Yep...a motorcycle has joined the Freeman Family.

 

I am still second guessing my decision - but I think I always will. Paul actually bought this bike from a childhood friend of mine, Mike Renzi, so a lot of questions were answered, fears calmed, and we trust where the bike came from. Does that make it any easier you say??....ummm....not really....hehe. 

We need a new car since our family is growing - saving on gas is something that is a huge need! A large truck - 16 miles to the gallon - driving 60  miles a day = not a small $$ number!

We will see!!! Training classes are in the bag - now we practice, practice, and practice MORE.

Meanwhile - Paul is in heaven. He has been wanting this for years =)

The Marrow of Life…

Long Post…but you can’t miss the end!!!
“I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
~Henry David Thoreau


I get to thinking sometimes about all the things I have been able to experience in my lifetime and places I have been, and I have come to realize over the years that I feel the most ‘alive’ when I am around our special needs campers – no matter what their diagnosis, no specific ‘category’ makes me feel more alive than others. I love their beauty, their innocence, I love their drive for every day living, their love of small things – how a swing can make someone feel so at peace with the world for hours – their amazing expressions when floating down the river for the first time in their life…something that they have never been given the chance to experience and I know deep inside that they probably never would have gotten the chance if it wasn’t for our Dream coming alive – Caglewood!

And I get sad at times when I think about how people are missing out on such amazing – life ‘marrow sucking’ experiences. Soul enlightening experiences are different for every single person – I would LOVE to see everyone reach out and search for that one thing in life that really takes them to a different level of ecstasy, some place completely unfamiliar, no matter what it is. How peaceful would this world be?!

I see people all the time become completely involved in and advocating for groups of different purposes – I think it is AMAZING!!! But what I see the most of is people becoming involved in these groups because they personally have been affected by these diseases, disabilities, pollution, disaster, etc…
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all just ventured out and learned about, supported, advocated for things that are totally beyond our ‘comfort zone’ – something that has never touched our lives in any way? I feel that our world needs more of that. I am very lucky to have found my passion in life and mine is definitely helping others – doesn’t matter who they are – could be an old person needing food, a child with special needs that has never seen the wonders of nature, a person in the super market that can’t reach an item on the top shelf, a turtle in the middle of the road that needs saving =), venturing out to the jungles of another country a lot less fortunate than our poorest cities, where my life is threatened – just to build a toilet for a village and nurse back to health children that may never have reached their 5th birthday.
All of this makes me feel ALIVE – along with Caglewood which is my greatest passion. I urge all of you to go out and find your ecstasy – Life is so amazing and much more amazing if you get out and truly experience every thread of it. Rather than sitting inside and bitching about what is wrong with the world, what bad things happen, how horrible certain people are, etc…which is so common in today’s world of politics, religion differences, and crap – focus on the good, focus on the marrow that needs to be sucked! Where is it? What is it? And how do I get to my ecstasy??


With all of that off my chest…sorry… On to RACHEL!!!!

Oh Rachel – a little (not so little girl any more) girl whom I nannied, along with her sister Hayley, back in 2003 and 2004 – both summers while her parents were working and on week long vacations. I remember oh so clearly our days at the pool, the stubborn ‘sister fights’, every morning with our sausage biscuits cooked oh so perfectly, and sleeping with earplugs in because Miss Rachel missed her daddy so much that she had to sit on his side of the bed and just watch tv all night long. She and her sister have blessed us with their presence on a few of our Caglewood trips in the past few years, also.


And Hayley volunteering on a Caglewood Trip last year:

Well, Rachel and Hayley are both seniors in High School this year at Dacula High School here in Ga – with around 2000 students, it is fairly large school for these ‘parts’. Friday night – under the Football Lights, Rachel was crowned Dacula High School’s 2010 Homecoming QUEEN!!!! GO RACHEL!!

Here is the video from her news fame!!!! Click below and check it out!!! :
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/local-video/index.html?grabnetworks_video_id=4377645

 
And come to find out…Rachel’s boyfriend Jeffery (who also has Down Syndrome) and who has been her boyfriend for over 10 years (he lives about 4 houses down from her) was crowned Homecoming King at their dance this weekend. If you watch the news story above, you can see it all happen =)

WOOHOOO!!! So cute…and such an amazing story. I am so proud of this little girl but also proud of the student body that she encounters every single day.

My Cup Runneth Over!!!…

Oh my big boy…my big boy made my heart melt today.

He took the time to notice mommy working, cleaning, and trying very hard to get things done around the house – but what is amazing is that he is understanding that mommy is getting bigger by the day and everyday chores are getting harder for me to accomplish.

Today, Elijah was allowed to skip nap time in exchange for ‘quiet time’. Well, he was very quiet and I went to look for him and found him in the kitchen – he had brought his stool in there and I found him doing this…

(excuse the underoos!!)

When I asked him what he was doing…you ready for this???!!!

He said “I am cleaning the dishes, Mommy. I couldn’t find a sponge so I am using a rag. I am doing the dishes so that I can help you out a little bit, to make things easier.”

He even scrubbed the sink when he was finished!!!!!

Then, when I came in later, I noticed that he had moved the burners from the cooktop and had sprayed cleaner on the cooktop and scrubbed what he could reach.

I have cried many times today because of this. I love this precious child…

“Money ain’t got no soul…

…Money ain’t got no heart”

Yes, cute little song from ‘Princess and the Frog’ – which is what we have been watching a good bit of here in the Freeman Household lately….yes, a household full of boys…go figure… But hey, Mama is not complainin’ because it is such a cute movie and it has the word ‘Princess’ in it – something girly, I’ll take it! Even though most of the movie is not too girly.

Since we seem to watch this movie a little too often lately, I have been picking up on little music lines and the line at the beginning of this post is a sweet little song that always gets me dancin’. But even more so…in my stage of ‘nesting’ and becoming a cozy homemaker during this part of pregnancy, I have been devouring the little alone moments I have with my babies that I love OH SO MUCH!!!  The moments that are OUR moments, the ones you can never get back, the ones you can never buy – the ones that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

We have so much to do, so much to finish, but the list never gets shorter – so I am sloooooowly accepting that I cannot always do everything!! Thanks to my Dr. that is constantly demanding me to ‘chill the #%*@ out’ and just sit down and rest -  By accepting this, I have been able to sit back more than I normally do and drink in those special moments that have absolutely NOTHING to do with chores, the camp, something someone else needs, or money!!!!

Money ain’t got no soul baby……But my sweet babies DO!! And I plan to fill my soul with all the special moments spent with theirs. I wouldn’t trade these little moments for the world.

So I scooped my babies up a few days ago and headed out to the park for some desperately needed ‘unplanned fun’ – and oh what fun we had!! We could have stayed for days – the autumn air is here =)

We went hide and seekin’ -

Elijah found Noah… who is not too good at secrets (remember??) He said “Eli…I am going to hide over here!!”

  

And some super fun frizbee throwin’  -

 

 

And in the end…we all snuggled together and watched the sun set…yes, all FOUR of us – not including Paul…

Ladies and Gentlemen…The FREE-AMIGOS in their first picture together:

Sweet Dreams and Milestones…

Ok…..you ready??….

Elijah is READING!! Ahhh!! He and I sat down tonight for our ‘bed time story time’ with a handful of books. His little brother is feeling under the weather, so we were able to read just the two of us. We don’t normally get to do this alone – so mommy took advantage of the time and read slowly, sounding out words, etc…

Within minutes, he started sounding out the words and then told me to be quiet!!! So I just let him go – and away he went!! We worked on books with small words and books with bigger words and he had such a blast. Here is a video of him reading his favorite one from tonight.

 

Oh what fun the future holds!! I am so proud of my big boy….