What our 'Olive Plants' are up to these days

It seems like there are so many different seasons in parenthood. Once in awhile I like to capture what our kids are up to, so I can remember each of these seasons.
In this season, our older boys seem to be gone A LOT and it is like we are this new little family of 4 which still seems odd but really fun.
This is also the season of care-giving since my hubby's brother is living here for several months at a time  each year. So a lot of the time, we are actually a family of 7.
(I try not to mention the crazy/painful things that happen on the blog regarding this care-giving adventure, but God is faithful and that pretty much sums it up)

Andrew is our movie guy and he's memorized all the movies that have won Best Picture for the last 30 years, if not more. He is a walking movie encyclopedia! -It was so cute one day when he said he wished he had a friend who he could discuss the Best Picture (of such and such a year) with, that would actually know what he was talking about! lol -Pretty sure he hasn't found that friend as of yet though, bless his heart. It is his goal to see all the films that have won Best Picture, except that when you are only 13, you aren't allowed to see a lot of them. : ) In honor of his passion for movies, I'm going to have a little Oscar's party. (and Pinterest has the cutest ideas to help me out) He's already figuring out how he can do two days worth of school in one so that he can sleep in the next day. lol

Joy has always been artistic and she decided she wanted to try painting with oil paints and asked for some for Christmas. We literally did not see her the whole day after Christmas and she's been painting in all her free time ever since. She's sooo talented.

We are just amazed. It must be such fun to realize God's gifted you to do something you didn't know about sooner.

Softball season starts soon. I took her to the batting cages on Saturday. She had to ask me to stop cheering and giving advice. LOL She's sweet like that.  My advice turned out to be a little dangerous when she tried fast pitch...I'll spare you and me the painful details. ; )
The girls she's been teaching dance to performed at Talent Night on Friday to In Christ Alone (Adam Young's version) It was beautiful!!!

Nate is still working at his internship in an audio/video repair store. He's been able to get our PA fixed and this keyboard fixed for free and of course, learn how to do it. He's needing to find a paying job here pretty soon though. (kiddos in our family have to have jobs to save for insurance and a car before they can get drivers license) He is dual enrolling at the community college and enjoying it.

Zac gets up before the sun to work mornings at Starbucks on the days that he doesn't have school. He met Derek Jet*r at work this week!!! He just found out that he made the Dean's List for his grades last semester. Woohoo! Proud of my home school grad! He did an 'outreach' sponsored by Starbucks on Saturday. It was at a laundry mat in a really rough part of town. (apparently even the police don't go to this area when there are gun shots, yikes!) They paid for people's laundry to be done and handed out free Tide pods. Pretty cool.


That's about it!
~Becky