Sayings and Happenings. . .

Jaden's current favorite phrase "I hate to break up the party but. . ."

Ashtyn's current favorite phrase "You just don't understand me!" (we are in trouble when she becomes a teenager if she already feels that we don't understand her and displays such drama)

We've been busy with summer activities. It has finally turned to summer weather here so we've been enjoying using the pool several times a day. The pool water was up to 89 degrees yesterday! We are all sporting a little pink after all our time in the sun swimming this weekend. We had a great "quiet" Father's Day just together as a family enjoying the pool and just being together.

The boys just started a second session of swimming lessons, their front and backstrokes are starting to really come along now that they are able to practice at home as well. They all love being in the water. Ashtyn is always asking me to teach her swimming too so that she can catch up with her brothers, hopefully we'll be through with the floaties before the end of the summer. She still hates to have her face in the water so we are trying to work over that fear. I just discovered a "cheaper" movie theater not too fat away (Only $3.50 for a regular adult ticket) so maybe we can even go see a movie as a family soon and check it out.

We've been enjoying tons of strawberries from our garden for several weeks now, but they seem to be winding down. It's amazing how wonderful a freshly picked strawberry tastes, still warm from the sun, I think I've been ruined on store bought strawberries forever. But the peas and beans look like they'll be ready in just another week or two, and our tomatoes are coming along well too. What I'm looking forward to the most though is our black raspberries! They are just about ready for picking and we have a ton of them on our bush this year. The kids and I can't wait! And since I'm on the topic I have to report that our apple tree we planted last fall has over 20 apples on it! I thought it would be years before we saw a single apple so we are anxiously waiting for those to ripen (hopefully the dog doesn't decide to eat them before they are ready to be picked).

ADHD medication side effects and Chiropractic as an alternative

The Miracle Of Ants

Yes, I do believe in even small miracles. . .
Joshua noticed a trail of small ants outside our patio door yesterday evening, so he went and found the bug spray.
He decided to make sure that no ants had found their way inside by doing a sweep of the basement windows with the bug spray.
While doing the sweep of the basement he noticed a small puddle by the water bladders (where the well water is pumped into the house). It appeared to be a slow drip but rather safe than sorry decided to call our plumber even though it was a Saturday night.
He managed to reach the plumber on the cell phone and he promised to head right over, but to make sure that we turned off the water to the house and drain the pipes.
In the 20-30 minutes it took for the plumber to make it to the house the slow drip had turned into a small spray. When the plumber touched the pipes to look at the leak the whole pipe completely fractured.
Now this may not seem like a miracle to most, but just imagine if we hadn't discovered the leak for several more hours or even the next day (as it was in the utility closet in the basement which we rarely enter). With as quickly as it seemed to be progressing what kind of damage would we have had. Then add to that that God has given us the best plumber ever who doesn't mind a Saturday evening call, didn't charge us any extra for it. And in fact our bill for the whole repair (parts, running to the store to get the right fitting, time at the house on a Saturday night) was only $75. Yes, $75 still hurts right now, but it could have been so much worse. So here's to the miracle of God sending the ants. . .

Garage Sales

Yesterday and today were our annual neighborhood garage sales. Now I have to admit I've never been much of a garage sale person-either in hosting them or in shopping them. But the kids dragged me out to visit the neighbor's sales yesterday. Really I should have been trying to sell our stuff, but I just couldn't get organized enough this week to do it.
Walking through numerous garage sales with the kids yesterday and today I was reminded of the importance of perspective. While the "treasures" my kids were begging me to buy for them appeared to be just junk to me (and probably to the people selling them), they really were great treasures to my children. They were so thrilled that their couple of quarters could actually buy them something "wonderful." So we did end up coming home $3.25 poorer, but the kids had their treasures-for Jaden it was a Pokemon book, Colten a C3PO Pez dispenser and cap gun, and Ashtyn had a Barbie and a Polly Pocket Candy Shop. They couldn't be more thrilled!

Pictures at the Park

We took the kids to our favorite local park to try to get pictures of the 3 of them together. . . thought I'd share what we were able to get. Enjoy!

Summer

Summer has started here. We had a wonderful weekend with Joshua's parents, and now are starting to settle into some summer routines. The kids sat down with me to decide on their summer "chores" and talk schedule. It is always so much fun to sit and have these meetings with them, it reminds me of how much they are growing up.
I don't want them to forget all their "school" stuff over the summer months so we talked about when would be the best time to do a little "school" work. So our summer days look a little bit like: get up and ready, swimming lessons, home to play, lunch, nap for Ashtyn while the boys do some school work and then quiet reading/activities while Mom catches her breath, then when it gets warm enough swimming in the afternoon. They are happy enough doing school work as long as I keep it short review stuff, and nothing too long and drawn out.
We have been having issues with sibling fighting lately, but we are working on being considerate with each other, patient, and using our words to express what we need/want instead of just yelling, pushing, etc. They really do play great together most of the time, but since they are home and together all day we are seeing and having to deal with it more than during the school year. I think it's mainly just the close proximity to each other all day long.
Jaden started tennis lessons this week and is really enjoying it! He only has one more week of those. Both boys start swimming lessons on Monday and those will be every weekday for a month so they should hopefully really be great swimmers by the end of the summer between lessons and swimming in our pool in the afternoon.
The kids wanted to make sure that we'll plan several day trips to the beach this summer so I need to figure out some good days for that inbetween everything else going on. I have a feeling summer is going to fly by quickly and we'll wonder where it went come school time in the fall.

Serving. . .

OK, I haven't been great on keeping up on the blog lately, and to be perfectly honest I haven't really wanted to. I've been feeling stressed and self-absorbed lately and just wasn't ready to share or elaborate. To be perfectly honest, I'm still not sure I want to enter into all of that on the blog, but I have been feeling the pull to snap out of it and help others.
So that raises the question of how to help and encourage those around us, especially when we feel in need of that ourselves. I've had a hard time seeing the silver lining in the clouds lately, but I know that it is still there. I know that God is guiding us through these times, we don't face them alone. I'd like to let others know that they aren't alone, but just not sure how to do this. . . any suggestions?
I find myself being cynical and not hopeful, and I don't like it. So I'm going to do my best to find that hope for a better tomorrow, and pray that I feel God's encouragement in a way that I can then turn around and share that with others. I live a blessed life, I have more than I deserve, and I don't want to cling so hard to that that I miss the real living that I should be doing. And really I would love simple ideas on how to touch another's life with encouragement.

Just had to share

Ok, I've been given permission to share Troy and Vanessa's exciting news. . . they are expecting another child, well I should say another 2 children! They found out this week that they are expecting twins! Although they aren't due until mid-December, I'm expecting to have 2 new nieces/nephews just after Thanksgiving. We're all very excited for them! Please keep them in your prayers. . .