You Don't See That Every Day

Hello old friend,  I came across this post I forgot to publish way back in July. I decided to go ahead and publish it now and then come back and update ... How have you been? I've been gone awhile. Sorry about that. I think this spring and summer have been the busiest, most stressful time of my life. Ever. So many things have fallen off my To-Do lists and down into the cracks of the abyss, you being one of them. Not because of anything you have done. No, it's all me this time. My mind has been traveling too fast, for too long. over too many roads. Our daughter graduated from high school this past June. We've been through the process once before, so you would think I would be prepared for it. And I was! I had the announcements ordered in time, and her grad party planned out ahead of time. Of course, I put it on a weekend when a lot of people were not in town - Memorial Weekend. Not a smart move there, but we got it done. It still amazes me how much is involved in gradu...

I finally found a moment to sit down and write. Since June and July were busy with basketball and swimming, August has been our vacation month. It all started with family coming to visit at the end of July. Cousin time was so precious. The youngest two had a blast together, and Little K was quite sad when the time came to say goodbye.  The older kids had a fun time with the older cousin, incorporating a wild made-up game that included Risk, Poker, Battleship, playing cards, dice, and more. Movies, jokes, ice cream, and a long walk at the park rounded out the days. We finished up swimming with the finals on Aug 1 - the girls brought home a boatload of various colored ribbons. We then headed over to my brother's house to hang out with family. And play an impromptu game of charades. The fun of that weekend didn't stop there. The next day more family came to our house to visit with my niece who hadn't been 'home' in a long time. Sadly, no charade games t...

I know it has almost been a month since I have been here. Where, oh, where did the summer go?! I had planned to write about our August adventures, but something more pressing has been on my mind today. And yesterday. And for the past few weeks actually. There is drama in the neighborhood and it is something I haven't really had to deal with much, outside of my family. A new neighbor moved in during the summer and the daughter is near the age of our 3rd and 4th kids. So it was fun getting to know her/them at first. But as novelty wears off, personalities come out. And along with that seems to come drama with these girls. We've had more of it this summer with 8, 9, and 10 year olds than my middle schooler did all the past year in school. The situations have brought up plenty of opportunities to talk with our girls about bullying, and gossip, and priorities, along with what a real friend looks like, and how to be a friend. Being in a homeschool world hasn't afforded us too ...

For weeks we had been looking forward to this weekend. Our church was having a special speaker, we had a dessert night that G and I were going to; and there was a city-wide service day planned for Saturday. And then the chips began to fall. First the oldest girl got sick, and was up at night coughing and hacking. The littles got it next. So last weekend it had run its course through all of the girls. We had high hopes for the upcoming weekend (which is now). We even signed up to help serve in a retirement home in town. But alas, the bug wasn't done. G and I came down with the cough and sniffles. By Thursday evening I had no voice left. I couldn't even cheer at my son's last football game. And by Friday morning we knew we should not be around the older folks on Saturday. We managed to make it to the Friday night dessert and not shake hands or cough on anyone. We heard Luis Palau speak on the amazing things God is doing in Portland. We went home energized to see ...

We all scream for ice cream; because, really, what's better than ice cream to shout about? at least in the food arena...  And yes, that is a lot of ice cream cones. A lot . Guess what we'll be going through for the next few months? If you come to visit, we'll be offering cones for dessert. So we had a neighborhood ice cream party on our block this past Monday. I scored some great deals on Tillamook ice cream at the local Albertson's. You think you have great ice cream in your neck of the woods!? Oh no ... this stuff is so much better than anything else out there. Seriously, Tillamook beats them all, hands down. Try it, you'll see.  So anyway, we stocked up with a bunch of cartons, on sale, and then hauled them out to the street Monday evening. With some chairs, some whipped cream, and toppings from another neighbor's kitchen, we sat and waited. Since the kids had gone around the 'hood earlier in the day handing out invitations, we didn't hav...

  Here are the kids working on their cars before turn-in day. We had a short time to do the work on them, and we invited the neighbor to join in on the fun. (We?! oh, yeah, it was the kids and G who did it all. I was just transportation and chef.) Saturday started bright and early. A little too early for me, after I was up late Friday night at an OSU gymnastics meet - fun times.  Here Miss M is getting ready to throw a beanbag at the pin in the middle: The two older girls had Awana games all morning. And they did awesome! Their teams placed 1st and 2nd. Here is S, preparing for a relay. She did a lot of running this year, and her legs hurt afterwards  On the drive between Awana events Little K found an innovative way to hold the lunch Mom wanted her to eat, and the snack she wanted to eat. She did manage to eat them both eventually.  She and I were able to take a little break at home, to feed the dogs and get some drinks. I just love the look ...

(our front yard) I realized I never informed some of you in far-flung places about the latest on our house-for-sale. The house had been up for sale since March 8, or so. In the first two weeks that the sign was up, we kept the insides very, very clean. Clutter was gone, trash was put out regularly, even the lovely smell of Febreze refreshed us often. We had one realtor call for a walk through. And then time went by, and my baby-belly grew, and I got a little tired. And no one called to look at the house. And more time went by and I had a baby born, and I was very tired. And the house looked like 5 kids and no grown-ups lived here. And then I had a 6-week old, the house was not looking much cleaner, some clutter was creeping back in. But. No one came to peek at these wonderful living quarters. Not a one. Nada. So we dropped the price. We looked at various home around the area. And still no one came to see our place or make an offer. So we took the house off the market. We can survive in...