Yay!

My computer keyboard works...yay! Now I can update ya'll. :) We've had fun lately doing lots of outside things. Today I was given 4 huge tubs of clothes and books. Yes, so that's what I did all afternoon: organize. Justin's going to have to make some more bookshelves this winter! The kids and I love to read. We're currently reading "Little House on the Prairie", a book we picked up at the library. We started w/ "Little House in the Big Woods" a few months ago. After we read a few chapters today, Samuel piped up, "I'm Pa." William chimed in "I'm Ma." (this was while they were making a disaster out of the living room building a fort) Justin's been pulling loong days. He was up at 2 something am and just got finished outside w/ a project (it's about 10 pm)--there was some left-over gravel from his job, so he got permission to make good use out of it here in our driveway. He had all the kids helping. It was very funny. I asked him if he realized how much easier he made my life for the next few days? The kids will be out there digging and getting dirty for hours! We'll I'm exhausted, so that's all the updating for now. I just finished re-reading "Passionate Housewives Desperate for God"--excellent book, if any of you want to borrow it. I've started re-reading "Shepherding a Child's Heart" I forgot how good it was. I think I read it prematurely...sometimes things don't "click" till you're actually in the stage to apply it. :) Off to read and zzzz...

Fa

Summer Faces...

Gardening w/ Gram...

A few pasttimes...

Here are a few pictures from the past week. We enjoyed playing w/ aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents! Picnic in the woods...

I love these cupcake eating pictures of M and G :)

"Heavenly", huh, Grace? Chocolate is a girls' best friend, you know. :)


I think Eva's sugared-out!
We've enjoyed lots of time w/ Grace, George, and Krista! We'll be sad when they have to go back home and resume life. :) Thanks for all the help w/ the garden, guys! I think we have several more batches of jam to make--Mom can take over. :) I think we're strawberried-out over here. :)


~~~~~~~ Strawberry Success!~~~~~~~~
The kids helped me make a very sticky mess, as well. :)
Just this week, I did another quadruple batch of strawberry jam. We have a total of 20 jars in the freezer. After trying 3 different kinds of pectin, I decided that Ball brand is the way to go. (no cooking, twice the berries and half of the sugar) If anyone has a "healthy" way to make freezer jam, let me know. :)
Snitching is the best! 2 busted!
Madeline was cookin' something...

She was very proud of her cooking...
Samuel learned how to make mint tea last week
First you pick the mint, then you wash it, then you stuff it into a jar and pour boiling water over it. After it's steeped for a little while, you can drink it. Yum!

As much as I like a clean and tidy home, I've had to put down my preferences and lower my standards in this area. I want my children to learn how to work and how to do lots of different kinds of things. There simply isn't enough time to do it all. I've decided not to stress about my house. I'm sure there'll be plenty of days when I'm old that I'll miss the messy, loud, chaotic stage I'm in right now. I'd rather make memories w/ the kids. :) (I'm writing this down, so I can refer back to my goal--some days it's not as easy. :)