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The Bean Family Chronicles | “Playground Playdate, or She Discovered the Swings”

sheenamariebean — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:34:40 +0000

Lugging around my “Big Girl Camera” is something I don’t do very often unless i’m using it to shoot a photo session. For multiple reasons, I am pretty cautious about where I bring it and when I use it. Besides the size of the camera, I can’t really afford to replace it should it break or should it get lost. That said, I do feel a little bit guilty sometimes that I own such a nice camera and don’t use it more to take day-to-day pictures of my kids. When a last minute playdate popped up with some of our favorite friends, I took the opportunity to bring along The Beast and get some lifestyle type snaps of the kids playing. Noakea, unfortunately, wasn’t with us this morning, so this post is definitely Banyan and Avenlea heavy.

If you have a DSLR camera and don’t know how to use it or are afraid to to bring it along with you, I can’t encourage you enough to learn to use your camera and start carrying it around. I heard it said once that “the best camera is the one you have with you,” and I couldn’t agree more, but in a world where most of our snaps are on our phones and we rarely print them, I believe that taking the effort to take quality pictures of the day-to-day interactions of our families is well worth the effort. Pictures like these are the ones i’m going to look back on and be transported back in time by the smiles and faces i’ve captured. Sometimes I’m worried about being seen as that mom on the playground snapping pictures instead of interacting, but I think it’s possible to do both at the same time. I don’t take the camera with me very often, but these precious moments frozen in time sure bring me a lot of joy and I know they will for years to come.

The swings…..we have one in the backyard, but for some reason, she’d never used one until today. Fell. In. Love.

I’m a sucker for symmetry.

Oh, Banyan. His looks have spared his life x1000 times, at least.

Avenlea and Callie have a love/hate/love (more love than hate) relationship. They were feelin the love today <3 <3

Must be first. All the time.

The Bean Family Chronicles | PRYC Sailing Camp 2014

sheenamariebean — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 19:01:05 +0000

One of the highlights of the summer for us is attending sailing camp. We live on a lazy little river that leads out to the Albemarle Sound, and every July the river gets overrun by rascally kid learning how to sail. There is a lot of boat tipping, a lot of crashing, and a TON of fun! This is Noakea’s second year participating and we are so thankful for the awesome volunteers who make it possible. If you ever wondered what it’s like to teach a bunch of 7-16 year olds how to sail, just imagine trying to get a herd of cats to play freeze tag…..its pretty hilarious and a little bit chaotic. That said, the instructors somehow manage to impart to the kids a love of sailing and it seems to be all they can talk about for weeks to come. I snapped a handful of shots of the kids toward the end of the day last week, most of them unedited…..just like the kids

The Bean Family Chronicles {Across the Water, or I’ll Miss That Dining Room Table, but Not Too Much}

sheenamariebean — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 18:24:41 +0000

“You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail

And there I find you in the mystery

In oceans deep

My faith will stand

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever you would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior”

- Hillsong United, Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

It’s February, 2014. Those lyrics have played over and over and over in my head since I first heard the song a couple months ago. I’m not the only one, of course, who feels that the popular worship song was written just for me. Just for this season. Nevertheless, I feel like the song was written just for me. For us. For this crazy season of life we find ourselves wading into. The ocean. The water. So literal. He’s calling us, this family of five, out upon the waters.

In one year, February 2015, the Bean family will be doing something we had previously considered possible only in our wildest dreams. Someone once told me, “If your dreams aren’t big enough to scare you, they probably aren’t big enough.” So dream we did. We dreamed bigger. Crazier. Dreamed of taking a step toward something that, by every thing thing our culture tells us is of value, was worthless and futile. We’d be giving up so much, they said. A steady job. A reliable income. A lovely home. Being close to family. Cherished friends. Retirement. Health care. Predictability. 3 bedrooms. 2 bathrooms. That beautiful dining room table we pined for for months. Our children’s beds. So much to give up. So much to gain.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

- 2 Cor. 5:7

A year ago I painted the oft spoken verse from Corinthians on a wooden sign and hung it on our front porch. A year ago I had no idea that that verse would be come my life verse. It would become my goal. My aspiration. It would become the voice in my head that said “press on” when the scope of the calling became more than I could wrap my mind around. It would become my silent prayer when the fears of, “What if my child gets sick?” or, “What if my husband has to work 60 hour weeks,” became loud in my mind. Walking by faith. Dying to fear. Every day. Still.

You see, for so long, my whole life really, things have been predictable. Stable. I never wondered what was coming next. We had a 1-year plan, 5-year plan, retirement plan, ect. The bills were always paid. There would always be a job. I could buy new shoes for my wily boys when they wore out their third pair of the year. If I am really honest, I have never been in a place where I had to look at my situation and say, “God, if you don’t come through for me, I don’t know how I am going to get by.” The thing about working for the military that is so enticing is the consistency. The paycheck comes twice a month. A predictable amount. The healthcare is good. Really good. No copay good. Free ER visit good. When you grow up as a daughter of two military officers and then marry a military man, the thought of getting out seems unthinkable. Irrational. Irresponsible. Ignorant. Foolish. Risky.

When I share with people what we feel God is drawing us into, their reactions range from thinking we are making a terrible mistake to enthusiastically encouraging us to “wave the crazy flag” and go for it! Interestingly enough, my thoughts often do the same thing. Then I am reminded that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” So we keep moving forward. We keep selling things. Keep praying. Keep texting and calling the precious friends and family who encourage us with their prayers and remind us of our first calling. Our first love. The One who will never forsake us. The One who spoke all things into being can certainly provide the needs of our family.

In February 2015, Austin will be getting out of the Coast Guard. We will be moving to the island of Kauai in Hawaii to step in the direction we feel God leading our family. Our ultimate goal is to have some kind of ministry centered around sailing. Maybe in Kauai forever. Maybe throughout the South Pacific. Who knows? God knows. So we go. He has made it very clear to us that our time in the military has come to an end. He has made equally clear that the next step we are to take is to Kauai. We don’t know how long we will be there or what we will do when we get there. What we do know is that He has promised that he will direct our paths. We want to know what it feels like to truly live by faith. To take the proverbial “playing cards” of our lives and spread them on God’s table. To truly trust without borders. No more playing it safe. No more staying in a job because we are scared to get out. No more spending more time thinking about where to retire. It is for freedom that we have been set free.

My reasons for sharing this is not so that the reader would read these words and think that the Bean family has it all together or that we are some kind of spiritual savant disconnected from the very real necessities of raising three children on one income. I share this online for the same reason I have been sharing it with our friends “in real life,” because we earnestly covet your prayers as we begin this faith journey. One thing I have learned thus far as we take the first baby steps into the unknown is the great value of the prayer and support of friends and family. I can not articulate how much we have been encouraged by the uplifting words of support and life that have been gifted to us my our faithful friends and family. On the days where we look at each other and wonder if we are really making the right decisions, when we find ourselves on our faces before God asking Him to show us again and again that this is, indeed, His path for us, it is the prayers of friends and family that reminds us that we are not alone.

To those of you who have been so faithful with your prayer and encouragement, thank you from the deepest wells of our hearts. You have no idea how much your thoughts and prayers have sustained us. We humbly ask those of you who read this and feel so led, to please pray for our family. We deeply desire to follow the call of God wherever and however He leads.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more

than all we ask or imagine according to His power

that is at work within us…”

-Eph. 3:20

The Bean Family Chronicles {The End of My Twenties, or The Blessing of Friendship}

sheenamariebean — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:27:08 +0000

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. I remember when my mom was 29. Now I am. It’s weird. Not weird as in “dreading my 30′s” weird, but just realizing that, in all likelihood, this is the end of the pregnant/nursing/baby mommying era of my life. I always hoped that I would enter my 30th year as a married woman with a gaggle of kiddos, and I am so thankful and awed that God has granted me the desires of my heart.

To celebrate last night, we just had a little family fiesta at a local Mexican restaurant. I almost said family/friends fiesta, but left it at family because that is really the only word to describe how we feel about our sweet friends who joined us for dinner. Being raised in a military family and now being a military spouse myself, I don’t take close friendships for granted. I don’t think many people do, but I am especially cognizant of the value of a good friend because I have had to say goodbye to so many of them. Every time we leave one town and move to another, I always see-saw between fearing we won’t make as good of friends as we left behind and knowing that God will, again, provide.

We have been mulling around with future plans as of lately, and thinking and praying about what God’s next step for our family will be. One of the hardest things about taking new steps and moving forward, whether it be with the military or otherwise, is the pain of leaving friends behind. While I know from experience that God always brings people into our lives who love on and care for our family, it is still hard to think about leaving such precious gifts behind.

In the last week we have celebrated both Banyan’s and my birthday and I have been reminded of what a treasure a faithful friend is. As we celebrated my little boy’s special day in the backyard, I looked around and just said a quick prayer of thanks to God for each and every person who was in the backyard. My children have so many aunties and uncles who treat them like their own children and who support, encourage, and even chastise them with necessary. Austin and I would not be the couple we are, the parents we are, or the people we are today with out the constant presence of committed friends.

I want to be the kind of friend who is quick to lend a hand, who will remember kids birthdays, who sends a gift just because, and who builds up the people God has graciously placed in my life. There are so many days that I want to be a more thoughtful and intentional wife, sister, mother, and friend, but I just get overwhelmed and busy with the daily tasks of kids, school, photography work, ect. I have been praying that God would mold me into a more selfless person in general, but specifically into a more selfless and generous friend.

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:12-15

Photos taken with iphone 5

My mommy was my first best friend. She surprised me with a special birthday bouquet. Thanks, mom!!

I hope that this little lady calls me her best friend one day <3

My hubby is my current BFF <3 He DIYed this amazing gift just for me. So thankful for a man who isn’t afraid to dream with me.

Random birthday mail…..feta cheese!!

How blessed we feel to do life with this amazing family and their crew of silly kiddos. It’s such a sweet gift from God to be able to hang out with people who “get” us and love us “as-is.” It doesn’t hurt that their kids are just as loony as ours.

Even Lil’ Mamma has her baby bestie at her side. She can be a bit of a bully to Callie sometimes. I guess that’s what happens when you have two older brothers.

I hope that, one day, she will count her brothers amongst her best friends. That day, obviously, hasn’t arrived. Poor little lady

The Bean Family Chronicles {First Day of School, or A Letter To My Firstborn}

sheenamariebean — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 23:35:32 +0000

Dear Noakea,

You don’t know it yet, but one day you will. One day you will hold your child’s hand and walk them down a florescent lit hallway, through throngs of 10 and 12 year olds who suddenly seem much older than they did the day before. One day you will wake up in the morning and start imaging all the things your child will hear and see that he has never seen before and wonder how he will handle it. You will wonder if the lessons you have taught him in the last 6 years will still stick once he is out of your home. Will he remember to say “yes, ma’am” or “thank you?” Will he remember not to always push to the front of a line to be first? Will he stand up for someone who is being picked on the same way that he rushes to aid his litter sister when she is being bullied by her 2 year old brother?

You will wake up even before that 6 am alarm goes off and start praying silently in your heart as you get dressed and make the first of many school lunches. You will pray that God will help your little child to seek justice. You will pray that your child is the one who remembers that every other child in his class is someone’s precious baby and that each child in his class deserves to be cherished, loved, and cared for. You will pray that your son lends a hand to a classmate in need, that he remembers to tell his teacher how much he appreciates her hard work.

You will pray that your rambunctious and opinionated son remembers to love mercy. You will pray that he is quick to forgive when a classmate wrongs him. When he is inevitably left out of an inside joke, you will pray that he keeps loving the jokers who left him out. You will pray that when he hears other kids teasing, he steps in with compassion. You will remember all the times that he has instigated arguments or quarrels with his brother and hope that he doesn’t do those things to his classmates.

You will pray that your self-assured, confident, outspoken, miniature version of yourself will walk humbly. You will pray that he doesn’t act prideful if he is smarter than someone else. You will pray that he doesn’t blurt out every right answer, just because he knows them first. You will pray that he uses his knowledge and intellect to help a friend who is struggling.

And, Noa, as you comb your sons hair that morning and as you watch him eat a special cinnamon bun breakfast, you will hold back tears knowing that this is the beginning of a path that will one day end with him leaving the house for good. You will wonder if you should have home schooled him, if you should keep him under your wings a little bit longer. Until he’s a little bit older. Until he’s a little bit more able to discern wisely when tough decisions or temptations befall him. You will remind yourself that he goes to a great school. With great friends. And great teachers. And that it’s, thankfully, only a 3 minute walk away.

Noa, you will drop your oldest child off at school and watch so proudly as he goes straight to his seat and gives you a hurried kiss before darting across the classroom to check out all the new and exciting displays, books, and art supplies overflowing from the shelves. You will walk away from the classroom and look at your spouse and smile and know that you did the right thing. You will thank God for a strong, smart, healthy child and pray that he is a beacon of hope and a face of joy to everyone that he meets.

And, then, Noa, after 7 hours that seem like a year, you will sit on the front porch and watch your son come riding up the driveway on his scooter with a huge smile plastered across his face. He will give you the best hug you’ve had all day and tell you he had the, “best day of my whole life ever.” His mouth will run 1000 words per minute telling you about his day and you will hug him tightly and listen with anxious ears. You will sit on the couch and ask him a million questions about a day that is curiously unfamiliar to you. And that night, as you tuck your son into bed before another day of learning, you will pray again, but this time with a heart of joy, thanking God for His hand of provision on your son’s life and on your family. You will sleep peacefully and dream of your child’s future; a future full of hope, opportunity, and adventure.

You will wake up the next morning and make the 2nd of 10,000 school lunches.

The Bean Family Chronicles {A Morning Walk, or Keeping It Real}

sheenamariebean — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 15:44:07 +0000

Phew! This morning was rough. I subtitled this post, “Keeping It Real” because I was going to post about how much I enjoy our morning walks (and i’ll get to that), but instead of starting there, I’m just going to say that we went on a walk this morning because we all needed to get out of the house asap. Between the thrown bowl of cereal, the fighting over yesterdays birthday presents, the dog pee on the floor, and the baby pulling all the trash out of the bathroom, some fresh air was all but a necessity.

I did a post a couple weeks ago about how much our family enjoys sailing together, and someone commented that it looks like i’m a “perfect” mom. I cringed reading that, and it even grieved me a bit, because it’s so far from the truth and I have tried to be intentional when it comes to internet stuff to not paint a overly rosy picture of our family and our lives. The truth is, life with 3 young kids is anything but perfect, but I don’t think it was ever meant to be. Most of our days are messy, noisy, and full of the mundane things that never make it onto the instagram feed or the facebook wall. The kids argue, the baby cries, the hubby and I have our differences, but at the end of the day when the kids are sleeping and Mr. Bean and I are sitting on the couch enjoying the hour of quiet, it’s all worth it.

So, the walk this morning, while beautiful and refreshing was not taken because I live some fairy tale family existence where i buckle up the three kids for nature walks every morning. Far from it. We went for a walk because it means Biggest Brother could ride his bike and get some energy out, and because Big Brother and Little Sister were buckled into a stroller meaning no arguing and crying about her taking his new toys. Sigh! By the end of the walk, everyone was in a better mood, she was ready for a nap, and the brothers were ready to be amicable again.

About our walk, now. Let’s see……well, when I was in high school I used to come for walks in the neighborhood we now live in many evenings. My best girlfriend lived not far from here and I would drive to her house and we’d walk and talk for a couple hours. When we were living in Hawaii and found out we were going to be getting transferred back to Elizabeth City, I knew that I wanted to find a home in this part of town. It’s far from the nicest area, and it’s not like we have sidewalks or anything like that that makes it super walkable, but it’s right by the river and it’s one of the older parts of town, which, in my opinion, makes it the perfect place for the Bean Family to dwell. Most mornings, after breakfast and getting dressed, I like to wrangle up the Tres Frijoles and get a little 30 minute walk in before naps.

I feel compelled to take a picture of them together any time they are all clean and all happy.

This beautiful home is just around the corner from ours. It’s actually a B&B, “The Pond House Inn.” My in-laws have stayed there when they visit us and it’s so beautiful. When the little pond isn’t full of algae, it’s even more lovely.

Mr. Precious and his favorite snack. So glad that Big Brother taught him to eat it like this. Much easier than cutting it up every time.

Loves her stroller, this one

“Mommy, we never take pictures of you and me together.”

My kids love these colorful flowers. I think they’re called Lantana.

The Pasquotank River. The water may look blue, but don’t be fooled. It’s brown. Dark brown. Can’t see your knees when you’re waist deep brown.

Noa’s favorite part of the walk is when I let him ride ahead to his little beach. It’s just a 10 foot stretch of sandy shore behind these weeds, but’s to him it’s an adventure waiting to happen.

So many pretty homes around here. We are so thankful that we get to live in this part of town. God blessed us with a great neighborhood, amazing neighbors, and His gorgeous artistry.

Cracks up our kids every time.

Cicada shells. We used to cover our clothes with these things as kids. I love that the boys do it now. It’s the little things.

The biggest mushroom i’ve seen around here. He couldn’t wait to squash it.

His favorite fishing spot.

Home, sweet Home <3