Busy 4th

Darin had to travel over the 4th of July weekend. Boo hiss! He had a trip to a Smithfield plant to supervise the installations of four new units. Apparently they only shut down the plant quarterly and this was the weekend. SO... while he was supervising this...

...we made the best of our 4th with lots of activity!

We started off our morning with a long bike ride together 

with the promise of "Mommy Eggs" when we got home. 

Darin usually makes the kids breakfast on Saturday mornings

while I'm running, so I tried to fill in and make it fun!

Then we were off to the pool to swim laps. I don't always get in the water with them, so when I do they are thrilled. They hung with me swimming laps for about 15 minutes and then they were off to the diving board. I later followed to take some photos.

 Aaron dove off the diving board for the first time! So proud of him. 

Then we zipped home, scarfed down a quick lunch, and were off to an 

Old Fashioned Fourth of July celebration nearby. 

 A reading of the Declaration of Independence

Jonathan the juggler was a hit as usual. 

From there we went to Grammy and Poppy's for a delicious dinner. 

I realized on the way there I completely forgot to make or 

bring the side dish I said I would bring. Whoops!

And then home to watch fireworks out the window that our backyard neighbors set off in the culdesac. Talk about a convenient location. By this time, I was totally exhausted and so eager to get them in bed but the loud fireworks were hard to ignore. They finally finished by 10pm. phew!

We made the best of Daddy being gone and had a great BUSY day. 

Beach Bums

Following Darin's birthday, we joined my extended family for our annual trip to the beach. We pushed the week of our trip to late June to accommodate everyone's end of year school schedules. That meant warmer temperatures and warmer water. Hooray! All the kids loved riding the waves.

 I'm afraid to put it in writing, but the kids are actually getting to the age that a trip to the beach is starting to really feel like vacation. Well, that is if you don't count all the packing, sunscreen application, and unpacking/laundry when we return. ;) I love love love the beach. The sun, the sand, the waves. ahhh! If these smiles are any indication, I think the kids agree!

A highlight for me was time one-on-one with each of my siblings. A long walk with my younger brother, a run with my older brother, a walk with my sister-in-law, and a run with Darin. I cherish those times without the distraction of kids to talk and share our hearts. 

 The annual family beach photos. Those are some CUTE grandkids!

Ages: 12, 11, 9, 7, 7.5, 7.75, almost 6, and almost 4

We missed having my sister-in-law from Canada with us. She had to stay behind to attend to farm and extended family responsibilities. I was delighted to fill in for her as the hair braiding lady for my nieces. ;)

 My mom made these two matching dresses and the skirt for Irina. Way to go Grammy!

Another week at the beach with family complete. Can't wait until next year!

Thanks for hosting us Grammy and Poppy.

30 minutes after we got home from the beach, I couldn't find these two. 

Would have never guessed they would disappear to the sandbox after a week at the beach. ;)

Another Member of the Club

Back in June we threw a simple 40th birthday party for Darin. 

Here is what I know to be true about Darin. He does NOT like to be the center of attention. He does not personally care for lots of hullabaloo surrounding his birthday. Nonetheless, he has a Momma who is very proud of him and was eager to be with him on/near his birthday. I can totally relate to that, so we invited Darin's family to travel and join us to celebrate. His sister and her family came over too. Darin handled all the attention just fine. :) 

Hostessing does not come naturally to me, so in the midst of all the commotion of prepping food for 15 people, I completely forgot to take pictures. Darin's mom (seen above) was gracious to bring along Darin's favorite dessert. Thanks Mom! 

cherry pie with sour packed cherries and a sweet crumb topping. yum!

The kids and I worked on an iMovie of Darin's last decade of life. So glad to share the job with them.  Luke did all the transitions in the movie and the kids collectively selected the accompanying music. It was a labor of love and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

What do you do when you are getting ready to repaint a room and haven't gotten around to wall art yet? You put a really huge plastic sign on the wall! Can you say tacky? It amused the kids. 

Darin's sister put together a very well thought out gift that was probably the highlight of the day. She wrote a poem to Darin and he had to find items in the basket (seen above) that matched the highlighted words in the poem. Really clever and sweet!

 The rest of the afternoon was spent playing outside. The kids played 

baseball, ran around, some adults joined and we had a game of catch 

(with Darin's new baseball from his basket). It was hot and sticky, 

but it was a nice reunion. We hadn't been together since Christmas. 

the happy cousins!

Welcome to the 40 club Darin! I'm glad you've finally joined us. :)

Keep Out Little Critters

My garden helper showed up with a fence for my garden this week. 

Take that, chipmunks, bunnies, and squirrels! This garden is not for you. Keep out!

Irina was quick to point out that they can still jump in from the fence. Perhaps? 

I'm choosing to look on the bright side. We shall see...

Happy

I think I've always known this, but this week I was reminded how much I love being 

OUTSIDE and being ACTIVE with my family. We have explored new territory 

now that school is over and we have more free time. Somehow, I need to make 

more time for these type of adventures during the school year. It would do us 

ALL such good. My heart is always so happy after our bike rides.

Like, skipping around the house happy. I love being with these kids. 

So thankful that Irina loves being sporty with us! 

Great Ending

What a great ending to our summer day! Ethan volunteered to make supper and he 

made most of it on his own. Wow! This swimming sure does put him in a good mood. 

He made egg salad (for egg salad sandwiches). I had hard boiled eggs in the fridge.

And pasta salad. I cooked the noodles and he cut up most of the veggies. 

(cucumber, celery, red pepper, grape tomatoes and olives)

He informed me that he wants to be a chef when he grows up. 

I think I'm going to take advantage of this stage! Who knew?

Following dinner they all read quietly on the couch while I cleaned up the kitchen.

I only feel comfortable sharing these great moments because of yesterdays 

post about our hard moments. We have a little bit of everything around here. 

Don't we all? I'm thankful for this sweet ending to our day. 

At least the house will be clean...

We're working on consequences over here to sibling scuffles and disrespect towards me. I know I have many strengths, but parenting doesn't seem to be one of them (at least not the discipline piece!) In the moment, it is not easy for me to come up with appropriate consequences to foolishness, impulsiveness, selfishness, rudeness, etc..

Today, I walked away from the latest battle and prayed. I put the two offending parties in time out apart from each other and prayed every minute of that 5 minutes to know how to handle this onslaught of conflict. Lord, help me be patient! Lord, give me few wise words that they will hear. Lord, help me know how to train these precious kids (who are driving me crazy!!!) Lord, thank you for your patience with ME as I mess up. 

No more Charlie Brown teacher voice. "Wah wah wah wah wah wah." Remember that? I think that is all they hear when I talk to them regardless of the words coming out of my mouth. (Which by the way is tricky since I lost my voice today! blah!)

And then it came to me! I ignored the latest brawl and gave them a task. They were given two chores to work on together as a team. For every time there was conflict during the completion of their task, they would be assigned one additional chore. We all shook hands and they got busy.

Oh, I know I need to get to the root of the issue. I know that somehow I need to reach their heart and help them see what causes their reactions towards one another or me. There is a lot of training to be done.

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it." James 4:1-2

My latest realization though is this: Those teachable heart moments may need to happen during a time when they are not so wound up, angry, or upset. I'm certainly not very teachable when I'm upset.  And so, today they worked and worked and worked. There were all sorts of combinations of kids working together as teams. They did get assigned a few extra jobs when they didn't work together as a team well, but in the end Aaron said, "That was fun!"

And so, while this new attempt may only be effective for a short time (if at all!) it has certainly helped in cleaning the house. Bonus!