Summer Days....

Well, summer has finally arrived!  It's 30 degrees outside, the kids are playing with the hose and I'm sitting inside in the air conditioning!  We got our heat pump last fall so we never got to try out the air conditioning and on a day like today, oh it's nice to have!  Anyway, here I sit in the air conditioning and I thought I better up date my blog. It will mostly be pictures.  I've been trying harder to take pictures with my real camera more.  I found that I was only ever taking pictures with my phone and those were always blurry or pixelly.  So I've started pulling out my big camera and now I have to show them off!

Isn't this just the picture of summer?

A couple of weeks ago, poor "T" caught a virus that left the inside of his mouth and tongue covered in sores.  The poor guy didn't eat anything but pediasure for two weeks.

Last week, I decided to teach "J" how to make a spaghetti dinner.  She did a wonderful job with it.  I had her do all the steps while I documented the whole thing!  

This one was taken by my phone.. see the difference in quality?

She even cut her finger and kept on going!

She doesn't like mushrooms can ya tell?

Opening cans is hard!

Learning to cook is not a clean job!

Ready to eat!

Very pleased with her work!

She even made dessert!!  

Now for today's pictures!  I found an idea to make a sprinkler out of a pool noodle so we set to work.  The kids had a blast with it as well.  

"I" ready to start the hose!

 

 

Love the look she gives "I" after he throws the water in her face!

Lollypop wanted to have some fun chasing kids too.

"I" got knocked to the ground.

Lollypop saw her opportunity and "I" didn't suspect a thing!

AND IMPACT!  Not sure if that was what Lollypop meant to do or not but it was pretty funny!

They got thirsty.. haha no they were just trying to get Lollypop to come and take a drink again so I could get a picture of her.  I had missed it when she was drinking earlier.  

She's a pretty cute puppy all by herself anyway.  Anyway, all in all, it's been a pretty wonderful summer day! And that's all the pictures I have for now!  

Self esteem

I realize I have not posted in quite a while. I've not given up being grateful just haven't found time to blog about it.   There is something I've been thinking about I've been thinking about lately and wanted some input. As "J" is getting older and in that tween stage, one of the things I worry about is how to guide her through this stage and her teenage years while keeping her self esteem intact.   One thing you need to know about me is that I've never really cared about fashion or what looks right. My old roommate used to always ask my advice in what she should wear and it always drove me crazy. Lol. Now I find my own daughter doing it to me.  I usually tell her that I am not the fashion police!  The other day, she was having a fashion crisis and couldn't decide which shirt to wear with her pants and was making quite a big deal about it. I lost my patience and said "who are you trying to impress anyway?"  She said "Myself! And I'm not impressed!"  I laughed but then it occurred to me that this is what I want her mindset to be. Not dressing to impress someone, but dressing to impress herself. I realized by rolling my eyes and telling her I was not the fashion police that I was telling her that how she looked didn't matter.  I want her to feel good about the way she looks but I don't want her to think that looks are the only thing that makes her beautiful. I want to tell her all things about her that make her beautiful.  She is loyal, friendly, kind, generous, creative, polite, talented and much more. She has such a wonderful spirit and these are the things that make her beautiful. So those out there is internet land, how do you or did you instil in your daughters that sense of beauty in a world that puts so much stock in the outside appearance?   Or those of you who don't have daughters, how did your parents nurture your self esteem.  Thanks!

Being alive

Today I'm grateful for little moments like having my two youngest climb up on my lap (the dog tried to as well) with books for me to read before bed. Grateful for these two little beings that make my life so joyful. Grateful to have some time reading a book to my oldest as well. Grateful for the conversation I had today with "T" about being grateful. Grateful....

Leadership

Tonight hubby and I attended the monthly extended leadership meetings for our church. We recently have been asked to join the team as servant leaders.  Tonight I am grateful for our church leadership. The Godly men and women that make up our pastoral team. It is so awesome to see how wise our leaders are and how open they are to our questions and concerns. Being part of this leadership team has really opened my eyes to the amount of work and thought goes into running a church.   It makes me want to pray for our leadership that much more.

Healthy again

I'm back and today I'm grateful that for the first time in 5 weeks, everyone washealthy  enough to go to church.   Although Hubby has the cold that is going around, the kids are all healthy and I am healthy.  I'm hoping hubby will feel better soon.  

Anyway, even though I wasn't blogging it,  I have still purposely thinking about what I was grateful for each day. I know the kids were as well. As I was passing our grateful bulletin board, I noticed some new notes. One said "Dad's mashed potatoes".  So sweet. 

Sick

On top of three kids having chicken pox, I've been slammed with a nasty cold. I'm still being grateful... Just not blogging about it. I'll be back when my house is healthy. Today I'm grateful that hubby is doing dishes in the kitchen while I'm tucked into bed. 

My boys

Today I'm grateful that my boys are pretty easy going when they are sick.