At the pool

That's how we're spending our afternoon, you?

Lather, rinse, repeat

Goodness, look at that picture of Lee. That was last year, my how my little girl has grown up!

Sorry I haven't been on here much lately.

For some reason this summer it has felt a bit like Groundhog Day, remember that movie with Bill Murray.

In a good way though.

Leaving me at a loss as to what to share, let me know if you have any idea, k?

Every morning Abby comes into my room asking me to get her milk ready.

Then Ainsley follows asking for her juice.

Then I get up and start getting everyone ready for the day.

Meds, clothes, hair brushing, etc.

Almost everyday finds us at the pool, battling Abby for nap time, laughing at children's antics and settling sibling disputes.

Pepper in a phone call or two with K and you have my day.

It's a lovely day.

Simply lovely.

Some days are harder than others, yesterday was rough.

Sprinkle in some laughter.

Abby is still into pirates, K put an old Harley Davidson biker do-rag thing on her proclaiming it had "pirate tails" on the back of it.

Imagine Abby with a wrinkled up nose, her raspy little voice saying, "Argh matey!"

There are the sad times too, my sister-in-law, Betsy's uncle passed away on Thursday suddenly.

My heart is broken for her family.

It seems like only yesterday that our family was going through our own period of sadness following deaths, sickness, hospitalizations and divorce.

I can empathize with the heartache Betsy's family is going through.

Loss is painful.

There is uncertainty in life.

It makes me start to worry, which is a battle I am fighting.

I have faith, I need to set worry aside.

It has no place in my life, battling it.

We still haven't heard the pathology report for Tiffany.
My heart is anxious, but there is faith.

Overwhelming, blanketing faith.

Most of all though, there is peace and joy.

Knowing that right now we are where we are meant to be.

Knowing that we have been blessed with our children {even if they make me want to rip out my hair, ha ha!}.

Knowing that even when times are stressful that there will be times of peace and a husband who likes to surprise me with margaritas.

These lazy days of summer and oh have they been lazy have been a balm for my soul during the busyness that is the school year.

It has been a good summer, very good in fact.

Full of laughter and hugging and friends with only a small smattering of tears.

How has your summer been going?

The Good, the Bad and the Funny

The Good: we've been spending a lot of time at the pool, the girls are loving it and I am as well. I did the Pilates class again last night with my friend Jennifer, it was intense and so good. We finally got a break from the 108 degree weather, ouch. K and his dad went to the All Star game on Tuesday night, they had a blast. I was so happy to hear that they had such a great time together. Adison has been doing VBS this week, she has been learning a lot and having fun making new friends.

The Bad: the fighting, goodness gracious. The last two days it's been Abby and Ainsley. You don't like me anymore. I don't like you. on and on and on. I'm not sure what to do about it right now, they are only 4 and 2. We keep talking about using nice words and making Jesus happy, but it continues. Poor Abby fell today and scraped her knee pretty bad, she cried and cried. We had to call Daddy on the phone, she was so sad.

The Funny: K and I were talking yesterday evening when Ainsley walks in, pointed at her eyes than at K while slowing backing away from him. It was a riot, I have no idea where she picked that up from. 

growing in love

At church/small group/L3 journal, we just gone done with spending 6 weeks in 1 John.

It's one of my favorite books in the Bible.

It never ceases to amaze me how you can learn new things while reading the same thing over and over again.

It just goes to show you that the Bible is a living thing.

The Word reveals new things to you all of the time.

It all boils down to love.

Love for the Creator, love for His Son, love for one another.

Love.

Love that has been given to us, love that we are to give to others.

The sweet simplicity of this word, love.

I feel changes in my heart, a growing and stretching.

The understanding of what exactly we are called into so much more clearly.

It keeps running through my mind what we discussed last night at small group:

Love, obedience, assurance.

Loving God and others, obedience to do what God commands and assurance as to our future.

1 John 3:23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

 

Summer so far

So far this summer we have spent a lot of time at the pool.

A lot.

The girls are little mermaids.

We've also been spending more time at the library.

Abby came down with what we think was Fifth Disease.

No symptoms other than turning lobster red.

She's all better now.

I put raspberry colored streaks in my hair for fun.

I really like it.

The idea of it freaked out Adison for a bit but she has come around.

Summer toes.

Summer sandals.

Hot as can be. 

 

The 4th

Adison.

Loved it.

All of it.

The sights, sounds, lighting the fireworks.

All of it.

Ainsley.

Still the most hesitant.

Loved the sparklers didn't really like anything else.

Towards the end the fountains were okay by her though.

Abby.

Loved the "sticks" aka sparklers.

Wasn't too afraid except for the really loud ones until she caught Ainsley's freak out.

Then, she didn't really like anything except the sparklers.

Happy 4th!

Happy Independence day!

I love celebrating the 4th.

Grilling, laughing, fireworks.

Oh the fireworks, my favorite.

Last night we lit off some fireworks, Abby was not a fan.

Like, not at all.

No tears, but a strongly toned dislike.

She did, however, really like sparklers. 

Can you believe how bitty my babies were last year?

I don't have a new picture of this year yet.

Ainsley got to stay with K's parents for a couple of days, so we will pick homegirl up in a bit.

I'm ready to smoosh kisses into her cheeks.

And to see if she will like the fireworks this year.

Be safe my lovelies.

Have fun!

Color Run~ I did it!

The Color Run, my 1st 5K.

I did it.

I. ran. the. entire. thing.

I think the above picture sums up my feelings perfectly.

I went up with my friends the night before.

We picked up our race packets, grabbed some dinner and headed to our hotel sans kids.

We jumped on the beds and had all sorts of fun.

It was a blast, seriously.

We got to bed around midnight and my alarm went off at 6:00, yawn.

But, we got up and got ready and I attempted to drink some coffee, no me gusta hotel coffee.

Then, we were off!

Before we left the hotel, I was serious.

Or not.

Ready to run the 5K, the whole thing, at the end of June, in Kansas.

H.O.T. & H.U.M.I.D.

I know the picture is not the greatest, but all of those little dots in the background.

They're people.

They had 30,000 people sign up for The Color Run.

They raised $$$ for Ronald McDonald House.

Great charity!

I didn't get many pictures as I had my phone in a backpack because it was a messy morning.

Everything that looks flesh-colored on us is actually pink.

This is me and one of my besties, Clara, we were running buddies.

I didn't get a pic with my other best friend Jennifer, sorry J!

They had the run broken up into 5 increments and there they would have a color station set up where you would get doused with a different colored powder.

The above picture is at the end of the race.

Everyone was given a bag of color to throw at the end.

It was so much fun.

The music was loud, the color was everywhere and the feeling of not just completing but running my first 5K was exhilirating.

I may or may not have danced like a worn out fool when some of the music that I work-out to was blasted over the speakers.

It was so much fun, I loved it.

I'm a bit sore but I can't wait to do it next year as well!