Enjoy Them!

There are constantly things I wish I could do better as a Mom! I know I fall short so often! For example, this summer I had every intention of reading with my children more, especially helping out my oldest in her reading as she struggles with it. That has not happened as much as I would have liked. I often feel guilty about it. But, today I realized that instead of beating myself up for things that I fall short in I need to just really enjoy my kids. Laugh with them, observe them, care for them, ENJOY them! We put so many pressures on ourselves as moms. Our kids need to be potty trained by 2, socially adapt by 3, reading by 4, mastered a musical instrument by 5, and skilled in a sport by 6. Gets me tired just thinking about it! Especially when I have four kids! Maybe I'm the only one that puts these kinds of pressures on myself, and if so it has been a good lesson for ME! Loosen up and enjoy!

Comforter

 

Captured the moment after a fall. Sweet Asha comforts her little brother. His second "mother". =)

Pirates and Wish Rocks

Today we went to the beach with some of our friends. It was a gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky! Pirates and Wish Rocks was the theme of our time! The boys were playing pirates and even had a little ship to play on. At one point I asked Luke, "Do you know what a pirate is?". He said, "No, but that is what we are!" At that age I guess it doesn't matter as long as you have a stick in your hand. The girls were finding wish rocks. This is new to me, but my friend Sarah has a collection of them. They are rocks that have a ring that goes completely around the rock. The picture below is of a wish rock that has two rings around it - double wish rock. =)

 

Lavender Festival

 

 

This weekend I went with my friend Sheila to the Lavender Festival in Sequim. It was beautiful! Just wanted to post some pictures of our time. Here we are picking lavender to bring home. By the way, my husband just helped me so now I can post pictures on my blog. How exciting!

Neighbors

This morning the kids were eager to go out in our backyard to play, and we had to remind them that they can't go back there until at least 8:30am. Last summer our neighbors right behind us asked us nicely if we would keep our kids inside a bit longer in the morning because their boys like to sleep in (our kids are early risers). We totally respect them for asking us to do that. It just reminds me that we live in the city. All of the houses are close together and there is not much that stays hidden from our neighbors. Asha said later, "I love that we have neighbors so close behind us and all around us." A true city girl - like her Ma Ma!

Did You Know?

Did you know that in Greece there have been 1,452 fires since the beginning of July until the 17th!? And yesterday there were 107!. (This interests me because a friend of mine is a missionary there). Pretty sad! I know there has been a lot of fires here too this summer. What is with all these fires!?

Did you know that in stores now you can buy school supplies, back packs and winter clothes? I thought summer just started!

Did you know that in our house we go through about a box of cereal in one day? Almost!

Did you know that in our house the toys that are used the most by everyone in the family are the Match Box Cars? Even the girls play house with the cars almost everyday.

Did you know that Matt and I are going to see Spider Man 3 this weekend in a local $3 theater. We can't wait. We like the Spider Man movies!

Out My Window

Sometimes I like to just sit on my couch and stare out of my big window that looks into my front yard. It is my way of relaxing or maybe tuning out things. Today as I look out the window I hear our neighbor boy playing his drums. It is loud yet he is getting pretty good and it doesn't bother me (today). Today as I look out my window the rain is coming softly down. How nice that I won't have to water the flowers tonight. Today as I look out my window everything looks so green and fresh, even the huge blackberry bush that is coming over our fence from our neighbors yard. Though blackberry bushes are such a pain... my kids love to pick them and eat them. Today as I look out my window I see a tiny wren come to eat out of our bird feeder that is near our window. She was there by herself for a while then she must have called her friends, because a bunch of other little birds came to join her. Today as I look out my window I can hear my son breathing deeply through the baby monitor as he takes his nap. I love that sound of him sleeping and can picture him snuggled in bed with his blanket.

Take time to listen and observe!

Men On The Mountain

Last weekend my husband went with some men from church to camp and hang out in the mountains ("Men on the Mountain" is what they called their time). I was very supportive of him going, but I honestly never look forward to him being gone from us. Usually when he gets back from trips I am more than ready for my own "women on the mountain" retreat. Though, this time I really had some fun times with the kids and the time went by quite quickly. As the kids get older there are so many more things that we can do together, new places that we can explore, and lots of new fun memories we can make together. I took them all to several garage sales over the weekend, and even though it was a challenge to keep them all together it was fun to watch them get excited about new things they found or saw. We like to find cheap or even free treasures (the kids always hit up the free box at garage sales). I also took the girls to their ballet class, and then the boys and I played basketball at our local Rec Center. It was a blast. I forgot how fun of a feeling it is to see the ball swoosh through the hoop! Even though I'm glad Matt is back and doesn't plan to travel for a while....I feel like I've gained a bit more of a tolerance for those times he is a way.

Trip To Texas

Matt and I recently returned home from a trip to Texas to see some of our friends tie the knot. It was a beautiful wedding, and my friend was truly a "princess" (as Asha would have called her) in her wedding gown. I had the honor of reading some scripture on love during the wedding ceremony. I really don't like speaking into a microphone up in front of people (plus it was a pretty large wedding), but it went smoothly and I was blessed to be able to do that for them. Though, two things happened that I was not expecting right before I was to go up front to read. First, I had bought a beautiful hair clip to hold my hair up in for the wedding. Suddenly the clip broke and my hair came tumbling down (what a mess). I had to quickly leave the wedding to find something to hold my hair together. Thankfully I was able to find a rubber band to put my hair back up in. Wasn't as pretty but it did the trick. Secondly, I just didn't realize how moved I would be to see two people that we love come together in such a God-honoring way. I just found myself crying tears of joy, and I had to keep blowing my nose and was worried I wouldn't make it through the verses I had to read. All worked out though and it kept me humble along the way. =) One good thing was that Jeffrey, our youngest son who came with us, did such a good job on the long plane rides (a bit over four hours each way). He spent the hours sitting on our laps, reading books with us, eating and eating snacks, and playing with his toys. What a good little traveler (he even had a cold)! One special memory was being able to dance with my husband at the reception. Not something we get to do together very often. =)

Happy 4th of July

Things you just have to do on the 4 of July:

- Have a BBQ (every person at the store was leaving with buns and meat of some kind yesterday).
- Take a long afternoon nap (that is my personal favorite).
- Make a red, white and blue dessert.
- Sing "Oh, Say Can You See" with your family.
- Watch your neighbors set off illegal fireworks.
- Buy sparklers (those are my favorite - though we can't even have those around here).

The weather is perfect today! Enjoy the festivities!

Writing On The Wall

This afternoon I caught my twins coloring huge pictures of themselves with markers all over our walls downstairs! I thought they had grown out of this! They did it a few times when they were maybe two, but now they are four! What is going on!? I asked each of them why they did it and here are their responses: Lana says, "I just really wanted to draw big pictures of myself." Luke says, "Lana was doing it!" (doesn't that sound familiar). Oh, the joys!