Pajama Airplanes

Last night he was ready for bed a little early.  Since the evening was so nice (and cool), we went out for a bit to check the chickens and wait for Dad to get home.  He ended up pretending to be an airplane, flying all over the yard, in pajamas and flip flops. 

Loving summer evenings on our gravelly road.

Wordless Wednesday: Sliding Smile

More silly things he says...

While at the 4th of July parade, my kiddo noticed all the "Little Miss" and "County Princess" type floats and declared, "Look!  All the princesses came out of their castles to be in the parade."


"Someday I want to catch a deer so I can measure it up to Daddy and see who is taller."  This was followed with a long conversation on how he thought he was going to catch and tame a deer (with mostly carrots) so it would stand still long enough...


One evening he was sitting at his little table and said,
"Mom I'm writing a rule book....
Always stick together.
Follow the rules.
...
Never say Hos-sit-tality.  Its a mean, mean word."
(the next day I found out they had talked about hospitality at VBS, apparently he missed something)


*Big Yawn* "I'm not tired. That wasn't a real yawn.  It was just my alarm clock yawn to make sure I'm awake."

Five Minute Fridays: Present

Five Minute Fridays is hosted by Lisa-Jo Baker, encouraging bloggers to write on a prompt unedited for five minutes.  This weeks prompt is present.

GO

My husband gave me an extravagant gift for Mother's Day.  At least it felt that way to me.  A brand new fancy camera, one I had been wanting for a long time but couldn't justify the cost.  I'm having so much fun learning how to use it, loving the beautiful pictures it takes.

After one month though, I already struggle with one thing.  When I put that camera around my neck, I slip into observer mode, watching the scenes around me, waiting and watching for that "perfect" picture.  Framing the world around me through the lens can be such a joy.  Still I need to constantly remind myself to be present.  Not just the observer, recorder, and documenter of our family's summer.

So I'm working on making sure to step out from behind the camera -- putting it aside so I can be present and play.  Sometimes I still put my old point-n-shoot camera in my back pocket, not having to worry about if it gets dropped or a little dirty on our adventures together.  I take my son's hand in mine and we are off -- exploring the woods, working in the garden, playing on the swing set.  Yes, I'm likely missing a whole host of beautiful shots, but instead creating something even better -- memories that I will treasure for ever. 

STOP

Garden Update - One month later

I realized its been about a month since I wrote anything about the garden so thought I should...

Everything is growing like crazy and I love it.  Of course that means the weeds are also growing, even more so with being gone several long weekends lately.  Good thing my kiddo helps me weed, especially if I let him try the cultivator :)  His next favorite job is dumping out the bucket of weeds when its full (thankfully he also hauls it to where it should be dumped!).

The first set of snap peas are growing over the fence, with some peas to pick later this week .  The second set is growing great too.  The zucchini is blooming with a few zucchini about 6 inches long already, tomatoes are starting to produce small tomatoes, and the squash and cucumbers are getting ready to bloom.  I picked my first batch of lettuce last week.  The beans are blooming and the sweet corn looks like its doing well (haven't grown sweet corn before so have nothing to compare it to).

Its work, but I'm enjoying our garden on the gravelly road.

Random bits of encouragement and prayer

I've tried to finish this post several times now... instead it just keeps getting longer.  So here's some random quotes, articles and thoughts for today :)

I stumbled upon this quote while reading a book from a friend recently:

"There is something incredibly powerful about waiting.  It keeps our hearts ready and open.  Waiting and wondering are treasures to us when we are not overly focused on 'getting there' ."

-- Fresh-Brewed Life: A Stirring Initiation to Wake Up Your Soul by Nicole Johnson (emphasis mine)

I've also been loving reading through Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess by Stacey Thacker and Brooke McGlothlin.   The pure honesty in the book is refreshing.  I feel like I could "head nod" my way through each chapter.  Here's one such part in Chapter 8, after a discussion of Luke 5:1-9 (Jesus asking Simon to cast his nets again after a long night of unsuccessful fishing) -

"... sometimes I feel hopeless.  Sometimes I get angry at God when He doesn't do what I know He can do on my behalf.  I get tired of casting the same net over and over again and coming up empty.

And then I remember the magnitude of what He has already done for me.  I remember all things ultimately bring Him glory, and whatever He does do on my behalf is to make Himself known in all the land."

This article titled "Dear Moms of Adopted Children"


I've also been poking through a new blog.  MOPS recently launched a brand new MOPS blog, Hello Darling.  Go check it out, even if you're not a MOPS mom (MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers).  Moms in all walks of life need encouragement, to know they are not alone.  MOPS has been an encouragement to me and an amazing way to make connections and friendships after we moved.  Rumor has it that there might even be some giveaways coming...



I don't know where you are at today, what you're going through, or if you're day is full of more sun or clouds.  I pray that God fills you to overflowing, right where you are, in your mess or crazy day. 

Camping in the Northwoods (photo overload)

We spent a long weekend camping in the north woods.  The four day weekend was long enough to do most of the normal camping activities (campfires, hikes, bike rides, enjoying the lake, etc) plus add in a few other fun day trips (a mine, a wolf conservatory, and a bear sanctuary).  We had a lot of fun and pretty good weather.

I think visiting the bear sanctuary was my favorite.  It was so fun to watch the baby bears climb the tall trees.  I loved that the mama bear in the top left pic sat at the bottom of the tree to watch her little ones climb... and so high.

This was the first time our son and dog had taken a canoe ride.  Its something my husband and I used to do much more frequently before becoming parents.  Thankfully our dog did not try to jump overboard.  Our previous dog tried that -- wet dog smell in the camper is not fun.

The true blessing was having so much family time completely unplugged (my husband's phone was off and mine had no service -- love it).  In fact, we were so unplugged that on Friday morning we unintentionally became the "annoying early rising family" in the next campsite.  We woke up with no idea what time it was -- no watches and my phone was dead.  The sun was up and we all felt well rested so assumed it was around 7:30am.  We got dressed and ready for the day, made coffee, ate breakfast, cleaned up and started packing up the car for the day's adventure... my husband comes back to the camper and tells me its 6:45am.  No idea how early we actually got up, but much, much earlier than intended.  Sorry neighbors!

So many fun memories together but its good to be home on the gravelly road.