Sayonara, Au Revoir

Hasta la Vista, Vale . . .

                In other words Good Bye July 2013!  It is over to never come again.

We're 7/12ths finished with the year.

This month has brought:

• summer camp for oldest
• VBS for our family ~ 3 volunteers and one Quest
• short weekend camping trip
• couple Sundays of playing Bass for Kevin
• the starts of our 2013/2014 school year
• lots of therapy
• and last but not least, a bathroom remod (don't buy crappy paint it will come back to haunt you!)

Looking forward to August.  How about you?  What are your plans?  We're planning a staycation weekend, lots of fun, lots of good food, movies, fun stuff.
 

Unexpected Blessings!

Have you ever had an unexpected blessing? One that takes you by surprise?  Ever been fortunate enough to have two in a short period of time?

Yeah, that would be me in a short period of time!  One is such a blessing, but when

the second comes along within five days or so, it is such a pleasant surprise!

I have been wanting to get some fun family portraits/pictures done!  Ones that aren't your formal, go to a studio and pick one or two backgrounds.  We've done those in the past, but honestly, that is not where I want our money going right now.  This past Thursday or Friday, while at VBS, I was talking with a friend about wanting fun photo's and wanting to find someone who would know places in the area for fun shots!  Well, my friend said she is wanting to learn how to do people shots as shes mostly been doing landscapes.  She wants to get better at this so she can do it professionally.  Even better, she mentioned that she'd do it for free because she's learning.  Sweet!  Love that idea and will spend some time soon figuring out when, where, and what clothes I want to buy so we look "cool"!

Anyhoot, yesterday out of the blue, another friend called.  Two of her kids are in the same grades as our boys.  My youngest and her second to youngest are like two peas in a pod.  These two boys are great friends and love hanging out!  Kate was wondering, since the middle school kids were going to be gone for a chunk of the day, if youngest wanted to come hang out.  She understands that Mr. Thing Two loves to be entertained and likes to be doing things!  (he's getting loads better about keeping busy, but gets bored easily when his brother isn't around)  She asked if he'd like to come over to hang out during the time period that the other kid is gone.  Wow!  I have down time and don't need to pay a sitter!  I might just be able to catch up with some friends, with chores, or shop or who knows what!  Options are limitless, especially if I plan ahead!!

 

Thankfulness!

A few months ago or so, our church had a Sunday morning Ladies Bible Study that went through "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully" by Ann Voskamp.  What I have taken away from both her book and the Bible Study is that there are always things to be thankful for, things that we may overlook and not even pay attention to.  We should take the time to remember these little things and list them.  Lists of the good things God has provided us ~ little things, like butterfly kisses with our smelly, little boy, or the big things, like answers to prayers ~ are the things we need to remember.  These are the concrete things in life that help us walk through the hard times, the lonely times, the times we just can't seem to sense or feel God.

Well, I seem to go in spits and spurts for jotting these things down.  In the past, I'd troll my facebook status' and update the page I have on this blog.  It has been awhile since I've even done that.  Here are a few of the ones lately, mostly from this week that I am thankful for:

• Vacation Bible School and the guys in my life being excited to go and learn or go and serve
• being able to pinpoint why a part of me aches and fix it
• having a husband who is able to work from home to allow me to volunteer, for long stretches of time, and not have to pay for a sitter or arrange a play date
• going out for milkshakes
• capturing precious moments with the phone camera (why is that one better than the "stand alone one"?)
• quiet moments, at home alone, to get paperwork done

Will move this over to my "master list" in the next couple days.  Will also see what I can find from face book as well.  Wonder what number I'll be on then?
 

Are you a reader or a non reader?

Do you devour books quickly and have a stack waiting their turn?

Are you one that it feels painful to read?  Someone like me, whose brain wanders easily, looses

their place, has a hard time decoding some words?

Here at our house, we are evenly divided between avid reader and "it takes a lot of work" to get through a book.  Am happy to say, however, I may soon be the only one who struggles with reading.  Our oldest seems to be catching the bug!

I will gladly be a loner in that area, in order to see our son read, love to pick up a book, and want to stay up late reading.  He may never be a speed reader, but if there is a love for reading, the speed will naturally come.  Anyway, was totally pleased to here, "Mom, I've finished this Hardy Boy book and need the next one!"  We need to get to the library soon!  It warms my heart to know the series has started over again.  We began, originally, sometime in 2008.  At the time of this post, not sure what number book we were on, but they were so much smaller then.  Now, Mr. Thing One is over 5'6", slender and a teenager.  It took us about 4 years to get through the books (see here).  Wonder how long it will take Thing One to get through the books?

 

Milkshake Monday?

Love this photo ~ each smile expresses the individual so well!

 Should you care, we were at Springfield Chick-Fil-A.  Weird visit, saw no employees we knew and saw no other customers we knew!  Don't think that has EVER happened!
 

Welcome to July!

It's here! The seventh month of the year! Officially over half way through another year, at least by month count!

July is busy and not busy for us!  In prior years, I'd been more actively involved in organizing certain elements of VBS with our church.  It would be very time consuming (can't imagine the hours our co-coordinator's put in if I was putting in those hours!), many hours of phone calls, errands, computer work, meetings, work up at our church.  This year, there is a lot less that I am doing and it is a welcome change!

We successfully got our oldest off to Boy Scout Summer Camp.  It's the fourth year that he has gone, although, he'd correct you that the first year was Cub Scout Camp (but still sleep away).  It has gotten easier to let him go each year, but having a Mama's heart, I still worry, just not nearly as much as I used to.  The leaders that are with our troop are great and they'll all have a pretty good time!  I am totally expecting one worn out, smelly kid back.  Yes, the air purifier and washer/dryer will be going a lot come Saturday!  The washer will get a good cleaning after as well!  :)

Celebrations for July 4th have changed and evolved a lot over the years.  When the boys were very young, we didn't do a whole lot.  There were a few years we were in VA Beach visiting family.  My folks neighborhood would have a parade we'd watch, burgers would be grilled, play in the pool, and watch fireworks on TV.  When Thing One first became a Scout, back in June of 2006, he participated in a local parade.  That was a very hot day!  A Gatorade and play in the wading pool after (under the deck even) kind of day.  We had a family over for grilling later in the day and fireworks in the court thanks to a couple other families.  One year had our son's Cub Scout Den Over for a cook out, water balloons, and such.  We've been invited, other years, to go to the Pentagon to watch fireworks and more recently, kept it way small with just 3 out of the 4 of us (Thing One's Boy Scout Troop goes to camp the week that includes July 4th).  This year, Thing Two asked if we could go over to another street to watch fireworks, if they are having them.  Shary ~ don't know if your read my blog, but he was talking about your old street which I think still does a lot of fireworks.  We can just see them over the trees!

We'll probably get some light school in, too, this month.  ~ reading and introductions to formal writing ~

For now, enjoying the slow pace of only having one child home and he LOVES his sleep.  I love not having to race off for therapy!  A win/win situation!

What things do you love about July?  Is it the fireflies?  The fireworks?  Trips to a lake?  Wish we could do that!