Encourage Me, Please

If you look at the date and time of this post (which I never ever do on blogs) you might see that it is a Sunday morning.  I am not at church, which is extremely rare, since my husband is the pastor, and it just doesn't work for us to skip very much, not that I would want to.  It is a joy to be with other believers on the Lord's day.  But he is at youth camp and yesterday we (me and the my three amigos along with my parents) traveled to south Alabama and back.  We visited some very long-time family friends in Tallassee and before that made a very quick stop in Birmingham to pick up mom who was visiting with some of her friends.  It was a long day to say the least, but fun and filled-up and now I have some very tired children who are recovering from yesterday, so we took a break from the usual today.


I am on the computer at mom's house enjoying her Mac while Andrew sleeps and Ellie and Luke are pretending various things in the other room.  I have been wanting to get back to this website that LB introduced us to, and by going to that site, I began exploring this other site.  And you know how it goes, on and on and on.  From one to another until I am completely overwhelmed.  In case you don't click on these sites, basically I was wanting to read about organic milk and is it worth it, not worth it?  And I have been thinking and hoping it is(because it is the one thing I buy organic).  Now it seems organic milk is not really the answer, but raw milk is best.  Sigh.  Will I ever get there?  So I began the research on that, and there is none to get in this area (I guess).  If anyone wants to share a local source, I would be much obliged.  So I then moved on to whole grains.  I am all about that, but it is such work.  I mean, we do brown rice and whole wheat bread, but from what I'm gathering, this is not even the best.  Buying, soaking, grinding them is where it's at.  And again, we do not have access here in this small town to much or any of that, really.  So instead of coming up with a game plan, I decided to blog and vent my frustration to you all.  Any suggestions?

Stayin' Cool

Is it as hot at your house as it is at our house?   How are you surviving the heat?  We've pulled out the baby pool on several occasions.  We have also been to big people pools, but as you can imagine, I can't exactly take all three by myself.  So on days when it's just the four of us and there is no extra adult help, we make-do with the baby pool.  There is definitely less packing involved.  You know, getting ready for the pool is a ton of work.

 And when you're at home with no neighbors, bathing suits are optional. 

 Everyone was very happy with pool time until it turned into bath time.

 Andrew was especially upset about it when I had to borrow the hose.

 

 

As hot as it is, I will take it over winter almost any day.  Who can resist all these fresh summer fruits and vegetables?

 

 Andrew adores blueberries.  More, please.  He has the sign for "more" down pat, just not the one for "please".

 

And guess what else we have now?  (Just in time to enjoy those 95 degree late afternoons.)

Remember this... 

 

and this...

You might not remember, because if you will notice, the date on the bottom of the picture says October 6.  Over half a year later...TA DA!

Our swing is painted and hung.

 

 

Mom came over for a visit this afternoon.  Of course, we had to show her the swing, heat and all.

 

It took Andrew about two seconds to learn where the swing was.  It was hung yesterday afternoon and we swung until we could no longer stand the heat.  After dinner I said, "Andrew, do you wanna swing?"  He toddled straight to the front door and pressed his little pointer finger onto the glass.  

Tomorrow is a big day for us.  We are going tomorrow night to see Toy Story 3.  Luke is beyond excited.  He keeps asking how many more times he has to sleep before it is time.  Last night I told him two more nights, and he whined, "But you said only one more week."  He wants to wear his Buzz get-up to the movies.  I might have to take a picture. 

Did I also mention the air conditioner upstairs is broken?  That means everyone is sleeping downstairs.  Not so bad, I kind of think it is fun for a few nights.  Of course, Ellie and Luke are loving it and would be fine like this for quite awhile.  The air conditioning people said they are swamped and will be here as soon as they could.  Hope your air is working-if not, you can come over and join us in the baby pool. :) 

A Week Later

Hello, all.  Sorry for the blog absence.  We've been VBSing it all week.  I'm sure you know how that goes or can imagine.  It went very well and I found it a huge blessing, although I am glad for the break tonight.  Good to be back on our "normal" evening routine.

There isn't much to say about anything else.  VBS has pretty much been it for awhile.  Last Saturday night Steven and I traveled to a wedding of one of my dear college roommates.  It was a treat for several reasons.  One being we were able to spend about four hours in the car having uninterrupted adult conversation.  But mainly I was able to briefly catch up with a handful of college girlfriends who I haven't seen in years.  I teared up when we got in the car.  I didn't realize how much I missed my college friends.  My friend, Lindsey (the bride), was stunning.  She is super tall and has the arms and legs that go on for days.  I wish I had a picture. The wedding was beautiful and instead of a groom's cake...a tier of Krispy Kreme donuts.  Steven didn't get one, so we made up for it and stopped at the real deal on the way home.  Heavenly.

Sad to say, Ellie was not cast in the production of Peter Pan.  Not super surprised, she was very shy about it, but thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.  I wasn't going to tell her until she asked.  In the car the other night on the way to church, she said, "when are we going back to play practice?"  So I explained to her and she was truly disappointed with lots of tears and "but I want to be a mermaid!".  Oh, the rejections in life.  Probably the first of many.   

It has not stopped her living room performances.  Check it out...

Ellie and Her Audience

Tomorrow evening I am taking Ellie to audition for a child's production of Peter Pan.  I have a friend, Jennifer, whose daughter has been a part of several productions through this company and loves it and speaks very highly of it.  That is how we knew about it and it seems like it might be right up Ellie's alley.  I don't know for sure and I am very intimidated to say the least. Also, the whole "stage mom" thing freaks me out and I can see us getting there and her not wanting to do it at all and then it looks like I am one of those moms who is pushing her child to do something she doesn't want to do.  Anyway, we are going to give it a shot.

Here is Ellie this morning, performing for us with the remote in one hand and the music blaring in the background.  The pictures are blurry, but I had a hard time getting her to be still so I could take a few pictures.  She does this on a very regular basis.

Later, after she has added a headband to the getup.  With breakfast in one hand, she begins to pose calling these "action shots."

 "You can put these on the computer if you want,"  she said. 

 Before the performance started, she was attempting to make a shirt to wear out of scraps of fabric and scotch tape.  Needless to say, it wasn't working out so well.  So she settled for some sort of undershirt/bra, I guess?  It was the only thing that would stay taped on.  I did not ask her to show me that, by the way.  We really do promote modesty here at our house.  

 

 And here is her audience.  Less than amused.  Well, Luke seems a little amused.  Andrew has an ear infection.  So he doesn't have as much to offer.  Can you believe out of three children and five years this is the first ear infection we've had? 

 

Andrew got distracted by a fly, I think.  That doesn't say too much for Ellie's performance.

 

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! 

Summer Is Here

And I think we've jumped in head first!!

While Steven Was Away

Steven did a youth camp in Arizona this entire week.  I haven't done a blog post because I didn't want to mention he was gone in case there were any crazies out there who might be interested in that information.  I didn't really have a chance to blog, well, that and the fact that he took the computer.  But things get a little crazy around here when he is gone.  We eat lots of food out of a box...

And run around the house in circles...

 Don't you want to come to our house??!!   No, seriously, I always have lots of help when Steven is away.  Kate is home for the summer.  She is a recent Auburn University graduate and we are loving having her for a short while.   In a few months she is moving to Wake Forest University to become an RUF intern.  You can read all about that here.  And I don't know that I have mentioned my sister, Sarah, moved to New Orleans.  It made us all incredibly sad, but excited for her, since living at home with her parents and spending lots of time baby-sitting my children, wasn't exactly what she had in mind after she graduated.  She is working at Starbucks, but obviously her long-term goal is to just work on and sell her artwork.  She is very talented.   But don't just take my word for it, you see for yourself.   I am adding a link to both of her shops on my sidebar.  Or if you are in reader, click on it here.  And her other shop is here.  Sorry this has taken me so long, Sarah. 

Okay, so while I have been trying to figure out this post, I have had Ellie and Luke on top of me wanting to see everything I was doing.  I can't take this many feet on me anymore, so I am going to end this post.  Have a good weekend!!  BTW-if you have never made that Jell-O no bake Oreo dessert, you should!