Our Newest Adventure

The two youngest Pressons have embarked on a new and exciting adventure! Homeschool!!  I am on the journey with them and loving it!  My heart yearns to be at home, and I also love to teach!  The combination of the two equals homeschool!  Riley is in the fifth grade and Landry in first.  Riley enjoys all things literature and history and detests arithmetic, a boy after mine own heart.  Landry loves every single litte aspect of learning, which makes teaching him so much fun!  We have now been in school for a month.  Many changes have been made since our first day.  I am learning to try things differently and be open to adjusting our schedule.  I am so thankful for this special time with Riley and Landry!  It is not always perfect and smooth, but I know the three of us are learning so much, especially about each other. 

The following pictures are a tour of our classroom that my incredible husband built downstairs, with mucho help from our nephew, Brad!

 Landry's job is to update our day and weather each morning.

 Shhh. He is taking a Penmanship Test.

 The Popular Art Station

 Landry is marking his vowels and special sounds.

 Ready for the day!

 My shelves - my favorite part of our room.  Thank you, Brad!

 My desk :)

 Landry is DEEP in thought!

I pray that the Lord will bless our time together!! 

Battle of the Shoes

The battle of the shoes has been ongoing at the Presson home since school was back in session.  I will not name any names to protect the innocent.  I will just call him Son. 

Son needed new shoes to start the school year that matched the uniform code.  Mom was surprised at how much his foot had grown over the summer!  She was even more surprised when the full impact of the cost of "mens vs boys shoe price" sank in.  Sadly, this was not the only shoe surprise with Son. 

Son made the Soccer team at school.  Much excitement was felt, and this required another trip to the store for the beloved soccer cleats!  Two weeks into school, the uniform shoes were MIA.  Gone. Vanished.  Mom reminds Son of cost of new shoes.  She then tells him to wear his Sunday go-to-meetin' black shoes with his school uniform.  The next day, only ONE of the church shoes makes it home in the gym bag.  Now THREE shoes are MIA.  Mom is not happy.  Nope, not happy at all.  She refuses to go buy MORE black shoes.  His only choice was to wear non-uniform brown Wednesday go-to-meetin' shoes to school, and hope that the administration does not notice Son's blunder.

The much anticipated first soccer game day approaches.  Mom reminds son to get all necessary school and soccer items packed in his school bag.  Son gets frustrated at Mom's constant reminders.  Mom and brothers pick up Son from school and take him to his first soccer game.  Amazingly enough, the family arrives early to the game.  Mom (always trying to save time when time can be saved) tells Son to go ahead and get his brand new awesomer than awesome soccer cleats on, so he will be ready to hit the field when the rest of the team arrives.  Son digs through his gym bag.  The soccer cleats are no where to be found.  They are MIA, along with the uniform school shoes, and one of the Sunday go-to-meetin' shoes.  Son quickly remembers that he left his cleats at home, even after all of the friendly reminders from Mom.  Mom drives WAY over the speed limit to get home, grab the forgotten cleats, then drives WAY over the limit AGAIN to give the cleats to Son before the game starts. 

The next day Son is tired from the hard exhertion of his first soccer game.  Mom is tired from the battle of the shoes.  In his state of tiredome, Son forgets to pack his P.E shoes for gym class.  At this point he knew better than to call Mom and ask her to bring his shoes.  Instead, he "sells" part of his lunch to a class mate in return for borrowing his shoes for P.E, and comes home from school very hungry. 

Thankfully, the trauma of the loss of food prompts him to recheck the school lost and found.  Son discoveres all 3 missing shoes!  Mom is happy.  Son is happy. 

Son has only been in school for four weeks.  Please stay tuned for the next episode of the Battle of the Shoes in the weeks to come, and kindly add Mom to your prayer list.

Happy Birthday to You, and you, and you, and you!

September is my family’s month for BIRTHDAYS! This birthday month became popular back in 1886 with the birth of my great-grandmother Alice Matilda Smith. Later her daughter, Edith Wood, (my grandmother) was blessed with three of her four children born in September. My Uncle Dan, (September 2nd), Aunt Ruth (September 6th), and my mom (September 10th).

Mom continued the September birthday tradition with her firstborn, Lisa LaDean (my sister) on September 20th. My middle man, Riley Lance, was born the day after her birthday on the 21st. Lisa’s youngest grandson (at the moment), Cooper, just celebrated his 1st birthday on September 8th. Randy (my brother-in-law) was born on the 5th, and my cousin Vanessa celebrates her big day on the 22nd, and her neice (my cousin) Bailey was born on the 26th.  Whew! 

AND, I married into the Presson family, and they also favor September! Clark’s mom was born on the 18th, and his dad on the 26th. Papa Don also shares his birthday with his first-born grandson, Drew. Riley shared his birthday with Lilly, the boys Great-Grandpa Presson’s wife.

As you can tell, we blow out a lot of candles, buy a lot of presents, and do hours of partying in September! Today we are celebrating my mom’s 70th birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Mom!!! She doesn’t know it yet, but Lisa and I are surprising her with breakfast this morning, and inviting Faye and Ray over. It is going to be delicious. Later, Lisa, Leslie, Amy and I are taking her to the Melting Pot for her special birthday dinner! Yummy! It is going to be a Girl’s Day Out ONLY, and we are excited about it!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you and I am blessed to have you for my mom. No one in the world loves me the way you do! I pray this 70th year is full of laughs, blessings and good health!

I made the most AWESOME oatmeal cookies on our rainy Labor Day.  The recipe came from my sister-in-law, Sharon Presson.  I have had a couple of ladies ask for the recipe.  Hopefully, Sharon will not mind my sharing it with you.

Granny's Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients: 
11/2 cup of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups quick cook oats
1 cup shortening
2 eggs beaten
Pecan halves

Directions:  Sift flour, salt, baking powder and soda.  Cream brown sugar and shortening.  Add beaten eggs and vanilla.  Beat well.  Stir in dry, sifted ingredients and oats.  Chill dough.  Form into balls the size of a walnut.  Roll in powdered sugar until coated.  Gently press a pecan half in top of each cookie.  Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 for 8-10 minutes. 


Yields 5 to 6 dozen

Thanks, Sharon!!

P.S.  I am getting close to my 100th blog post!  I will have to plan a special celebration!