reasons why I love summer

1. It's 8:39 p.m. and Todd and I are alone in our house.  Graham is at camp, Drew is at the park with a ton of kids from church and the youth pastor, and Jonah and Noah are swimming.

2.  We can swim, and if we swim at night, well then the level of coolness was just multiplied by a hundred.

3.  We spend a lot of time with friends.  A lot.  Today we swam with a group of people from church, and as always, fun was had.

4.  I love that the boys get to stay out at night.  Drew is at the park right now, and it's dark, so the fact that he's still allowed to hang out is way cool to him.

5.  I get to participate in an online summer Bible study!  It's going to be really good, and even though I'm still doing the chronological Bible reading plan, this paired with it is not too much.  I started it tonight~I'm doing Beth Moore's latest study, Children Of The Day.  It's on 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and already I can tell you that it's going to be amazing!  I purchased the session one download from Lifeway and watched it tonight.  She's my favorite.  I took a picture of my afternoon view while dinner simmered away on the stove.

6.  I have no reason why I should go to bed at a reasonable time.  Well...except for tonight.  I have to get up early to go to my last post-op appointment in the morning.

7.  I read more books.  I always read books, but our schedule in the summer is much more relaxed, so I have all the time in the world to sit and read.  Well...after I've made myself do everything else that needs to be done, like housework and laundry.

8.  The kids have friends over.  I love that they always want to have friends over!

9.  I don't have to wear makeup much, because I have a little sun on my face.  I wear sunscreen, yes, but I still get a little darker on my face and it takes away the need for makeup.  I still wear some, on special days, but I love just lathering on some coconut oil and going.

10.  My kids seem like they are always at church.  Or with someone from church.  And if ever there were a place to be or a group to hang out with, this would be it.  I love it and I am so thankful for our church and pastors.

11.  I was going to go with ten, but I thought of another, and that is camp.  I love all things camp and I am so glad our boys get to go each year!  This kinda goes along with number ten, and once again, let this be a huge shout out to the church leaders we are so blessed with.  I love all of them.

Love to all.

fun day Monday

I feel so much better about myself as I write this post~I finally met the new neighbors last night!  For those of you on Facebook, you might remember a post about me not feeling Martha Stewart enough and not wanting to meet them because of that fact (dumb, I know, but at the time I was hormonal).  And by that I mean that everybody else took them something, but I am not that with it, and that thought never occurred to me.  Anyway, I met them last night and we ended up talking for almost an hour and a half.  I even got a tour of their house, which I have never been inside, in the eleven years we've been here.  (I love looking at other people's houses!  Random tidbit about me.)

Yesterday was a really fun day for us, even though it was so long for me!  Graham and I had to wake up at five a.m. to get him to church by six fifteen.  I kinda thought I would nap later, but later never came.  :/  I took Jonah, Noah, and our next door neighbors Myles and Zander swimming at my mom-in-love's neighborhood pool.  We had to run to the grocery store first for dinner ingredients and sinus medicine for my dad-in-love, we came home to pick them up and drop off the groceries, then we ran some medicine up to him at the golf course he was at.  There was a tournament yesterday for a rehab center here that he's on the board of, and he was stuck there with a headache.

We ate lunch then headed to their pool.  And all proceeded to get sunburned.  :(  Seriously, I really did use sunscreen on all of us.  I took a few pictures.

My happy place~outside by a pool.  Any pool, in fact, not just this pool.  We get to do it all over again today, this time with friends from church.  And with LOTS more sunscreen, to prevent a burn.

We came home after this and I got started on dinner for us and for a friend.  But imagine my surprise when I came home and found this goodie waiting for me on the front porch.

I was a member of the launch team to get the word about Beth Moore's latest Bible study, and as a 'thank you', I got this for free!  I can't wait to start it.  :)  I love me a Beth Moore Bible study!  This one is on the books of first and second Thessalonians.

After dinner it started pouring down rain, but with no lightning and thunder, so I let the kids do this:

They put on their swimming trunks and ran to play in the puddles of water on our street.  This is what life is all about for kids~these little moments of unexpected joy.  That is the kind of thing memories are made of, and I am so thankful for that!  The laughter and the looks on their faces filled my heart with such happiness.

Have I mentioned how much I love summer?  I do.

Today we're going to swim some more, and I plan on maybe us all having game night after dinner.  What are your plans for this hot day?  Whatever they may be, I hope you enjoy yourself and take the time to soak up the moments with your kids.  I know I plan to.  Love to all!

on the go

Much of my life is wrapped up in those three little words~"on the go".  I remember when my kids were really young, thinking how crazy my life was with them all under the age of six or seven.  But looking back, it really wasn't a big deal.  I was easily able to contain them, and at that time, they had zero social lives.

After years of being warned, "Just wait until those boys are teenagers!", I can say that the time has officially arrived.  I feel like my life is spent on the road.  As crazy as it is, it's also wonderful.  I am so thankful for this season and I'm soaking up every minute.  What is so strange to me is that this time next year it won't be this way~Graham will be driving himself everywhere by then, in his own car.  He'll be able to drive his brothers around too.  Something else that is insane to me is that in the fall, Jonah and Noah will be moving up to the youth group.  (How did that happen?  I still forget and accidentally call them "the babies".)

Anyway, I thought I would share the highlights of our weekend.

Saturday found us at home with three of our boys.  Graham had to work from two to seven, so after we took him to work, Todd made arrangements for us to meet some friends at Jerry's Sno Cones.  (And no, there is no picture to prove that we were there, although I've certainly taken them in the past!  I figured if you've seen it once, you've seen it a million times.)

I did take a picture of Jonah's face after he ate his shock tart flavored snow cone, but I promised that I would not share it.  I am a mom of my word, if nothing else.

We started heading back home afterward, but Toddley was kind enough to stop at Lifeway for me to buy a couple of non-fiction books to add to my summer reading list.

Multiply, by Francis Chan and Kisses from Katie, by Katie Davis.  I'm already on chapter three of Kisses From Katie.  I started it Saturday night and had to make myself put it down.  I try to read at least one non-fiction book a year.  It's not my favorite, but I feel like it's just something I need to do, because of all the other books I read each year.  I know, I'm weird.

Jonah, Noah and I went to my mom's and step-dad's for dinner.  Todd stayed home so he could pick Graham up from work.  I took this picture on my way home from their house~the sky was amazing!  It had been raining on and off, and there were some dark clouds that stuck around.

Sunday morning found me up at the crack of dawn for a shower and a homemade breakfast.  I made a double recipe of this stuff:

We love monkey bread!  I left some at home and took one pan to church for the ninth and tenth grade girls.  We had both classes that morning in our Bible fellowship class.

After church, Jonah and Noah invited their friend Ben over, and I think Crash was glad~Ben found this toy in our backyard.  This is his favorite toy, I think, and he seemed so glad to have it.  :)  I love how he appears to be holding it.

I had a Backyard Kids Club meeting at church at 4:30, then after that we had our first small group swim party of the summer.  We didn't have anything planned for the Bible study portion of our night, so we spent time writing Bible verses and prayer requests on note cards.  We exchanged cards and are going to memorize the ones we received.  I also suggested that we keep them in our Bibles and that it'll serve as a reminder for us to pray for one another.  Afterward we spent some sweet time in prayer for the things going on this summer.  There are so many opportunities for these amazing kids to serve.  I am so excited at what all is going on...it's such an exciting time to be a part in their lives.

And here are some of the awesome girls I am so privileged to get to feed into:

Some were at camp as junior counselors for the middle school kids, some were at home packing for their trip to camp they left for today and some just couldn't come.  But I love them all and am so thankful I get to be a small part of their lives.  I don't know if they know how much I love them~I mean, I think they do because I tell them all the time and they tell me the same thing back, but I LOVE THESE GIRLS!  Words cannot express how much.

Graham and I finally made it back home by nine ten, and he packed up for camp.  And this morning we left home at ten minutes until six to go to Kroger for snacks and for him to get some cash from us.  I also took him and Jonah to Chick Fil A for breakfast.

I said goodbye, hugged him and put him on this bus.  And at seven ten, they pulled out of the parking lot and began the trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama for five glorious days in the sun and sand.  I am a bit jealous, I must admit.  Next year I will be accompanying them, mark my words.  I will not be recovering from surgery so that I am able to do that!  Also, this is the first year in eight years that Todd has not gone with our boys to camp.  Sniff, sniff.  They really are growing up.  I am so thankful for the fun they will have and have had this week...Drew should be home tonight by about nine thirty.  I cannot wait to see him!  I have missed that boy so much.

Well.  I guess I had better get off here and get started on my day.  I've been enjoying the peace and quiet, but Noah just woke up.  He informed me that Jonah was back in bed, sound asleep.  God love him...he insisted on going with me to take Graham to church this morning.  He said he was going to stay awake, but you see how well that turned out.

I hope you have a great day!  Hopefully we'll be going to the pool with my mom-in-love today.  :)  Love to all!

????

I can't ever seem to think of a title.  Oh, well.  I love Friday's!  Because it means two things: I get to see my dad and it's the weekend and Toddley is home a lot.  :)  Yesterday for lunch my dad, the boys and I went to Backyard Burger.  It was packed!  We have become spoiled to having places to ourselves during the school year, so to walk in and see all the school aged kids was a bit of a shock.  And it was really, really loud in there.  

It's funny how no other fast food place compares to Chick Fil A.  They got our order almost completely wrong, and they offer too many choices, like what kind of bread, what kind of fries and what kind of sauce.  The sauce I can understand, but all the other ones make me crazy.  It's difficult to order there, so when the order comes out all wrong, it's kind of frustrating.  It's probably only difficult because our orders are always big.

First world problems, I know...moving on now.

The rest of our day was lovely!  We came home and chatted, Daddy took a nap on our new couches and I took a shameless selfie to win an Erin Condren life planner for next year.  

She is having an Instagram contest and I entered it.  Because I am obsessed with this planner!  I love it and how it makes my life so much simpler.  I even use it for homeschooling.  I will be getting another one, regardless of whether or not I win the contest.  I'll just use my birthday money to buy it.  :)

Anyway, I amused myself while Daddy napped.  

After he left, Toddley came home, then I left.  A sweet girlfriend and I went out to dinner, then on to see a friend from our Sunday school class who had surgery yesterday.  And can I just say that I don't miss being in the hospital?  

I came home and Graham and I ran to Kroger to buy this:

I might be slightly addicted to Nutella.  I usually eat it in small amounts, but when I pair it with vanilla ice cream, I use copious amounts.  I crave this stuff in the middle of the night.  It is that good.

The boys played Minecraft on the X-Box and I sat and watched and read.  I finished my book last night, the one I have been reading for weeks, it seems.  I was so glad to finally get to the end, because I had already picked out what I was reading next.

This lady is probably my favorite author.  She wrote my favorite series of books, The Yada Yada Prayer Group series.  This book is a continuation of those.  

Except for that when I started reading it, I started falling asleep.  

Oh, well.  There's always today, right?  ;) 

I am looking forward to this day, and spending it with the people I love most, minus the one at beach camp.  I hope yours is great!  Love to all.  

from a full Wednesday to a loooooonnnnng Thursday

Remember I mentioned that we made a decision that altered our summer plans?  We backed out on the family mission trip we were supposed to go on.  I've had this nagging feeling in my brain that would not go away, and on Tuesday when I found out that we would not be riding in a bus that I could stand up in (like a church bus), but in a fifteen passenger van, I was forced to make this decision.  There is no way that I can sit for two days straight, even with lots of stopping, and I don't even know if I could have ridden for two days in a bus in which I could stand.  Since making this decision, so many people have told me how glad they were to hear this, and I feel complete peace.

I did, however, spend some time on the phone with my sweet man, crying by eyes out to him.  Again.  And once again, he reassured me and was so kindhearted and tender with me.  

Sigh.  

He seriously is my Super Man.  I don't think I tell him that enough.  (More about that in a minute.)

The good news in all this, is that because of us not going, Graham and Drew are able to go on their beach trips for camp.  

Back to Wednesday, though.  Todd's great aunt Lydia passed away last weekend.  She was one hundred and five years old.  We celebrated her life Wednesday morning at Memorial Park funeral home in Memphis.  During the service, we sang this old hymn, which is one that I love.  

My kids even knew it!  I love that they know old hymns.  I don't know that they love them, but they at least know how they go.  

If you live near me, have you ever been to this cemetery?  It is beautiful!  It's a great place to take your kids~there's a cave they can go inside of and a little pond, and it's so peaceful.  If you've never been, or your kids have never been, I would encourage going to visit.  

Jonah was taking pictures as I was driving to the grave site.  We need to work on his picture-taking abilities, apparently.  Even though this happened on accident, I think it's a cute picture of him.  

And during her grave side service, Noah told me that he really wanted to go climb this tree.  I think it's beautiful and could not agree more.

After the service, my mom-in-love's cousin had the family over to her house for lunch.  We stayed for a bit, and when Todd decided to not work that day, he stayed so he could pick Graham up from work.  I brought Jonah and Noah home.  

And this young man landed his first job!  Say hello to Chick Fil A's newest employee.  :)  He will be working at the Germantown store, and my life just got so much busier!  I am so proud of him.  

I had everyone home for a couple hours, then it was time for church.  After dinner, Drew, Jonah, Noah and Alex decided to walk to church.  However, when it started to rain, they ran back home and just rode with Graham and me.  Speaking of church, this was my first Wednesday night back in over a month!  It was such a treat to listen to our sweet women's director teach.  I just adore this precious woman of God.

Graham and Drew each got invited to different places after church, so when Graham still wasn't home at close to nine thirty, I went and got him from O'Charley's.  We had to run to Walmart and I was going to let him run in while I waited in the car...however, this deterred my plans a little.

And this happened.  Something slit my tire while I was in my car, in their parking lot.  Remember my Super Man?  He had to come rescue us.  This turned out to be a huge ordeal and we were in that parking lot until almost eleven thirty.  We had to leave my car there overnight because my spare was stuck under the back end.  Todd finally got it all taken care of (and with a new tire) by noon Thursday.  

And because of the fact that I was stuck at home, I made myself this fancy schmancy burger for lunch.

It's a French onion burger.  And it was delicious.  If you're wondering how to make it, you just add two packets of French onion soup mix to two pounds of ground beef, along with an egg to bind it all together.  And the flavor is pure awesome sauce.  

Last night I dropped Drew off at church at eleven.  He left for camp at midnight and they should be arriving to Panama City Beach in the next hour or two!  I know he'll have a blast.  Graham leaves for his camp Monday morning.  

Well, enjoy your day!  I'm going to go clean up some before my sweet Daddy gets here.  Love to all and happy Friday!

friend~filled summer days

I am always on the lookout for a couple of things: a good book to read by a new author (I am VERY selective about what I read!) and ways to have inexpensive or free fun in the summer months.  It has to be inexpensive or free because usually I have a car full of kids with me.

So when a sweet friend texted me on Tuesday asking if we wanted to meet at the park, I quickly accepted.

We packed a picnic, threw everything in the back of my car and headed to the park.  The weather ended up being perfect!  It was a little overcast, and we sat under a pavilion, so the breeze was heavenly.  It ended up raining on us, but we all agreed to let our kids play in the rain, so that was just the icing on the cake.  It was a really fun afternoon.

The next time we go, I might throw it out on Facebook or Instagram, and if you're local to me, you should join us!

Graham took a picture of all the kids in the rain.  Have I mentioned that my phone is waterproof?  Not the case, the phone.  It is.  And I love it.

These are some pretty amazing kids.  I happen to love every single one of them.  :)

Later that day we also went to a church league baseball game.  One of my most dearest friends of all time has an awesome son, whom my boys love, and since we love him and my friend and the sport of baseball, why not?  The weather was still amazing, thanks to the afternoon showers.  After the game, that they won (!!), we went to a nearby park and let the boys run around.

This is her!  Sweet Andrea.  We talk or text so often that my kids automatically ask, "Is that Mrs. Andrea again?"  And it usually is.  I adore her.

So the point in my second blog post today is this: there are tons of things for inexpensive or free that you can do with your kids to keep them from being bored this summer.  And if you throw in some friends to that mix?  Perfection.  I am going to post two links to inspire you.

http://eastmemphismoms.com/featured/free-activities-summer-2014/  There are some great ideas on here, and some of these things we've done for years.

One last link is the blog of my friend Kelly.  She's a mom of six kids and has lots of fun and practical ideas to keep kids from being bored during these months off from school.  Read her blog.

http://crazedeight.blogspot.com/2014/05/day-2-of-summer-break-crazy-yet.html?spref=fb

Hope to see some of you in or around our town soon!  Love to all.

(I promise to try to not post any more bloggy things today.  Maybe.)

the purpose of reading the Bible

Perhaps my most favorite thing about the summer season is the quiet time I am able to leisurely enjoy each morning.  I have this time on school mornings, too, but that time always feels a little more rushed that what I would normally prefer.  I like to bask in the quietness while I read the word of God.  I also love the silence that surrounds me as I pour out my heart to Him.

I was thrilled when I saw that I was opening my chronological Bible up to Proverbs.  I love this book that is so full of wisdom and good advice.  In fact, it says that there in the second verse of chapter one, the purpose of this book is "to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive words of understanding."  The Bible is truly the book of all books~it's the instruction manual for life.  I didn't always know this, and I didn't always soak up the words like I do now, but one of the things reading through the Bible teaches is Bible literacy.  When we know the word of God, we know God.

And when we know God, we can teach our children to know Him.  I heard a quote once that struck me, and it was that our children only have as much of God as we (the moms) do.

Hearing that quote made me think, "What do my kids see me doing the most?  Do they see me browsing on Facebook?  (Yes.)  Do they see me doing nothing but watching my favorite news show each morning?  (Sometimes.)  Do they see me spending quality time with my Creator?  (Yes.)"  I'm sure most people already know this, but kids are sponges and they will do what they see their parents doing.  Whether that something is good or bad, they will mimic the behavior they see.

If I only say one important thing on this blog today, let it be this: Make much out of the Lord.  Read His word, praise Him, thank Him, ask for His forgiveness, pour out your heart to Him in front of your kids.  Then they will know that they, too, can do that, and that He will hear every word they utter.  And if the Lord gives you a direct answer to something you have prayed for, tell that to your kids!  I think of the verses in Deuteronomy that tell us to bind these words on our hearts, on our doorposts and talk about them night and day.

I didn't intend for this to be the topic of my blog post today, but I'll go with it.  I know sometimes the lighthearted posts are more fun to read and for me to write, but I pray that this encourages someone to pick up their Bible.  I said earlier that I didn't always read my Bible like I do now, but only because I didn't have anyone telling me how important it was.  So...have you had some time with the Lord today?  If you're looking for a place to read, the book of Proverbs is wonderful!  It's where I was this morning.  I also personally love the book of Colossians.

If you have YouVersion on your phone, you can use one of their reading plans.  The important thing is to just read the Bible.  I promise, it will be time well spent.  Love to all.