School lunches

A glimpse into the exciting world of packing a lunch for school everyday 😋 

a standby, pb & honey, spinach leaves, cheezits, grapes, choc covered raisins

noodles & peas, 1/2 protein bar, carrots, pieces cheese, peaches

1/2 leftover hamburger, cantelope, carrots/snap peas, caramel apple slices

cheese and crackers, veggie medley, tomato, cantelope, dried apricots

pb & honey rollup, cucumbers/snap peas, cheesy turtles, grapes, dove chocolate egg

pb& honey rollup, carrots and salad, grape tomatoes, apple slices, twizzlers

cheese and crackers, pistachios, grapes, grape tomatoes, dove chocolate egg

It's hard to think of stuff to fill each compartment everyday! We use this Bento box which he loves, but some of the portion sizes are way too small, oh well. Saving several little baggies everyday!

summer things

 Summer is winding down, August is off to school, I plan to start my pre-K program with Jeanie next week, and my baby girl is ONE today. Life is flying by.

Some pics from our summer:

Visited my Grandpa

Fun with the water table we got free from a neighbor

At the airshow (getting into the back of a giant military plane)

Going to the country music bar dancing with my sister

Got a fun long puzzle as a gift from the neighbor

BOO!!!

Got to see a couple of my cousins at a nice summer get together.

Storytime at the library.

We'd been hosting guys/girls nights for our college ministry group at our church we volunteer with. The girls would be inside eating, talking, praying. The guys would be outside throwing knives or axes or paintball and then have a bonfire and talk about Godly manhood. It was a really nice summer doing that. 

I was SO excited to find 3 of these binders at TJ Maxx. Anyone who knows me knows I try to document the heck out of our lives. With a yearly family yearbook, my 5 year journal, my 5 year journal for each kid, their babybooks, my exercise journal, and this is such a cute was to document the grades as they go by. I'm seriously so excited about it.

We met with our friends at a music in the park festival.

Another day met with other mom kid/friends at the park, they played at the playground (which had one of those free book boxes) and we also played at the waterpark.

Jeanie girl traded in her binky for a new little doll (she alternates calling "baby Lucy" or "Boppa Dabe" (aka Grandpa Dave 😂) but it worked well and she has been sleeping all night without her binky!

My garden was mostly a dismal failure this year, but we do always get good-ol-faithful beans.

Met my bestie and her fam at the hot air balloon festival. It was so gorgeous watching them launch.

Wakeboarded a couple times this summer!

Our friend's neighbor had apparently some epic party with GIGANTIC inflatables, including like a 50ft long obstacle course one, so we all took turns beating each other up on this jousting thing, or whatever it's called, when we had our friends/food/fun/lake day.

And the kids have (for the most part) really just loved being together and playing nicely and it has been wonderful having everyone around so much. My boy is in kindergarten now and I MISS HIM SO MUCH. 

visit from Missouri Jill

 My friend Jill and her son came from Missouri to visit me. We became friends 19 years ago in Oklahoma when we both were working with the church youth ministry, and have been friends ever since. Since I have another friend named Jill, she has been "Oklahoma Jill", then "Kentucky Jill" and now "Missouri Jill" as she has moved around for school and marriage, lol. 

Anyway, it was wonderful to see her and for her to meet my kiddos. The last two times I've seen her I was pregnant, first with Jeanie, and last spring with Lucy. So it was nice for her to finally meet one of my kids beyond utero, haha.

It was a really nice week of busyness with the kids and trying to see some fun local things. 

A few trips to our ice cream place

We checked out the Reptarium, the kids could hold/pet any reptile they wanted and could feed them too for a little extra $.

Lucy with Lucy the snake!

Doug's favorite was the "fish spa" where the fish nibble at your calluses 😬 

We had a picnic at Belle Isle

and went to the aquarium

The DNR adventure center is really cool for kids

And took the kids to the splash pad

It was great to see her and talk and share life together. She hadn't been up to visit since being my bridesmaid 7 years ago. Lots of pictures of the kiddos, but NONE of her and I together! 😩 so she'll have to come back!! 😉

41

Well, 41 sounds older, but it still feels pretty good.

I had a great birthday, my friend Jill had come from Missouri with her son the week before and spent a week visiting us. We had a really nice time together, and our last night was my birthday. We had a pretty good day at home, went with our kids on a walk to the park, and then dinner and cake at my parents with my sister and brother-in-law, and best friend Liz too. Very low key and really nice. 

And one of my favorite times of the day, singing to my kiddos before bed. Her son Micah joined us in the rocker before bed that night.

I'm not sure if I have goals this year. These last couple years have just felt like surviving endless battles against the piles of dishes/dirty laundry/hungry mouths/ and dirty house. It's been a lot. So maybe that will lessen, in some ways, a bit as kids are growing, but who knows. 

Feeling very busy and blessed.

summertime

 It's been busy. I feel busy all the time. These kiddos keep me running, and work is busy and stressful. So it's lately felt like "stress" keeping up with this blog. And it's so frustrating the way this host Blogspot uploads my pictures all willy-nilly and not in chronological order or even the way I click on them and I just don't have the energy to re-do stuff to drag it around in order a second time. So I'm not sure if I'm "done blogging" but it will be, as anyone left reading this has noticed, sporadic!

We've had some nice times lately: 

Me & my babies on Mother's day:

We got new floors. The room in the front of this picture got sanded down and re-stained a less orangey color and the wood flooring was continued into the kitchen and down the hall. Doug had to rip out all the old vinyl all the way to the subfloor and it was SO MESSY and SO MUCH WORK for him. Then the Amish guys laid the wood while we were on vacation. Came home to beautiful floors but dusty everything else. A month later Doug is replacing the shoe molding trim at 10pm at night while the kiddos sleep. But one thing at a time and things eventually get done! They look beautiful. 

The kiddos have been in swim lessons once a month since May. They like/hate it. This day they got to ride in this little boat for a few minutes. Loved that part!

Over Memorial weekend we went to Hocking Hills, Ohio on a first time families trip with friends. It went really well. The kids got a long great, we got lots of hikes in, and it was fun to be together. 

Here are the mamas when we got away for a couple hours by ourselves!

And all together. 

Then in June we went to Colorado to visit my brother, the kiddos had such fun playing together.

We took a day to go down to Colorado Springs and hiked around the Garden of the Gods and visited a couple cousins that live down that way too. It was really nice.

We just got back from 4th of July up North visiting my Grandpa and a couple aunts and uncles up there. It was even semi-relaxing and so nice to see extended family. 

We visited a church up there and August made this crown in his Sunday school class while learning about King David and he has been wearing it non-stop. So cute.

August brought his nerf gun and was so excited to "shoot darts" with Great-Grandpa. I think he loved the attention. 

Busy and blessed!