My Girl (the older one)

Lily is WAY too grown-up for her own good. Or maybe for my own good. :)

She asked Scott to read the story Butterfly Kisses to her. Generally, my man avoids those types of books, especially I'll Love You Forever. (I don't see how any good son who has lost his mother, as my man has, can make it through that one.) He has even been known to hide that one deep in the bookshelf just so that the kids won't find it and ask him to read it. But don't tell them that. :)

So he tries to get out of reading Butterfly Kisses, and she questions him as to why he doesn't want to read the story to her. He answers that it makes him sad thinking about when his kiddos are all grown up and out of the house.

To which she replies, "Well, Daddy, just enjoy me while you may."


I rest my case. Too grown-up.

My Man - The Exterminator

If you can't reach 'em...vacuum 'em.

:)

God is So Good!

Normally, when I have a kids' song CD on in the minivan, I tune out. :) But recently I was actually paying attention to a little child's voice singing the song, "God is So Good." You know the one that goes,

God is so good.

God is so good.

God is so good.

He's so good to me.

This simple little song struck such a chord with me. God IS so good to me. My heart overflows with some special and even "normal" or daily ways that God has been so good to me this week. Here are a few highlights...

These kids had a great week at Bible School...

And they especially had fun bouncing themselves silly in the Moon Bounce at the VBS carnival on Friday night!




We've had quite a bit of free lawnwatering lately. Sent directly from our heavenly Father.

And now our mud/grass is actually beginning to look like a lawn! That first mow really transforms everything...I wanted to stand and watch my handsome man mow every square inch of the backyard on Saturday. So neat! (But don't be completely fooled...there are still a lot of bean plants and bare/thin patches out there!) Still...God is good!

Lastly (I'll stop with this one) the Lord answered a desire of my heart this weekend. Our first house was a twin home, which obviously required a lot less furniture. This house is larger, which is a blessing, but there are a few empty rooms here. Which is not a complaint...it's a good problem to have. But it's not one that we are going to remedy by going out and ordering 3 rooms of new furniture for, either.

We plan to homeschool in our dining room. And we are very much looking forward to using hospitality in our new house, but we were missing a dining room table, chairs, and some sort of homeschool storage.

I had prayed about this and asked the Lord to give us dining room furniture by Thanksgiving. We had the homeschool stuff in cardboard boxes along the wall, and our folding table and a few chairs set up. And I was content to start school with that, if that's what the Lord wanted. But having some way to host a holiday this year, was a personal desire of mine. I gave it to Him, and figured that if He wanted that to happen, then He would work it out in His way and timing. I figured it would be awhile before we would get any furniture for our formal living room. And our old furniture which is starting to tear and fall apart at a few places, was just going to have to do in the family room for the time being. The dining room was what I was praying specifically about.

Well.

Enter The Wondershopper, also known as my sister. :) She found not one, but THREE sets of furniture on Craigslist (my new favorite thing!) for a fraction of the cost of buying new! Most of the furniture was purchased new within the last year, and is in EXCELLENT condition! (The dining room chair cushions still have the plastic on them.) We scouted it all out on Saturday and then stopped at a furniture store's outlet on the way home and found a armoire that will be perfect for our homeschool stuff. It was on a 50% off the clearance price sale...which amounted to a Craigslist price! Amazing!

Once we get it all home, we will have a "new-to-us" sofa and loveseat in the formal living room, a sofa and loveseat for the family room, and the dining room furniture, as well!

I sat out back last night at dusk, listening to the quietness of our new neighborhood, and enjoying the pleasant summer night's breeze, and thinking, "How did I get here? This has happened so fast." Sometimes I almost don't recognize my own life (if that makes sense). I am an immensely blessed girl. And I don't deserve one drop of it. Yet God, Who loves us so perfectly and unconditionally, has chosen to pour out even trivial, earthly, temporal blessings on me this week. I am so humbled. And so unworthy.

Anyhow. Remember that empty dining room? Anyone want to come over for Thanksgiving??

God is SO GOOD!

Lego Love

My man-child got his first lego sets yesterday for his birthday. He began playing with them as soon as he opened his eyes this morning until the time I forced a nap upon him (because tonight is VBS)...barely stopping for meals. Notice the pj's? This photo was taken at 2pm, I'm ashamed to admit.

Oh yeah. He's in love with the lego.

Energy Efficiency to a Two-year old

Here are basic instructions on how to kiss the energy star rating on that new fridge or HVAC unit good-bye. Two-year old style.

1. Start by dispensing water from your most convenient source. Or the only source that your 33-inch tall person can reach.





2. Fill your babydoll's bathtub with this filtered water. She'll thank you for how soft her hair turns out.

3. Be sure to leave the door open during the entire process. And don't worry about any water or mud you may track into the house, either.

4. Now wash your baby thoroughly. You may get soaked doing so. And even though this is the third dress that you have managed to dump or spill water onto today, it's OK. You have a mother who likes laundry, remember?

5. When you are finished, or if it should strike your fancy at any time during this procedure, pour the filtered fridge water onto the grass. This will be a help to your mommy since she spends so much time watering the lawn anyhow.

6. Repeat at least 20 times. And if because you are 2, you lose count? Start again at 1.

PS. Don't forget that your mommy loves every ounce of your water-loving, laundry-producing, energy-wasting, time-consuming, dirt-creating, fun-loving self. :)

The One Word Meme

I saw this one several other places, so I thought I would post it in an effort to revive my blog from it's woefully neglected state.

Hopefully once VBS is over this week, I will get some time to post some house pictures. And today is Joey's birthday and I have been ruminating about my manchild so a post may pop up about that too. Also, we have been blessed by tons of rain this week, so I feel like we have had this week off from our side job of watering. :) The Lord's timing is always best...not sure how I would have watered with Bible school.

Anyhow, without further ado...The One Word Meme...or in my case, The Multiple Word Meme...I never can seem to condense according to the rules...this paragraph being a case and point... :)

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your spouse? sofa
3. Your hair? styled (today!)
4. Your mother? at home
5. Your father? at home too
6. Your favorite thing? isn't a thing
7. Your favorite drink? ice water with lime
8. Your dream/goal? Christ-likeness
9. The room you’re in? Living room
10. Your church? the best!
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? the center of God's will
12. Where were you last night? church
13. What you’re not? tall
14. Muffins? chocolate chip :)
15. One of your wish list items? furniture
16. Where you grew up? country
17. The last thing you did? put the kids to bed with hubby
18. What are you wearing? clothing
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pets? none
21. Your computer? cute :)
22. Your life? blessed
23. Your mood? contentedly exhausted
24. Missing someone? not now that they're all home
25. Your car? dirty
26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
27. Favorite store? Target
28. Your summer? crazy
29. Like (love) someone? At least 4 someones
30. Your favorite color? pink
31. Last time you cried? last week
32. Last time you laughed? today

Whoa Nelly!

Cute background, but the checks? Are the green checks making anyone else see those technopictures pop out of the background?! Hhhmmm...the last background was too much, and these checks are interesting. :) One day soon I will take some more time to fix it. I apologize that you have to put up with my lack of blog-background-follow-through!

Summer Nights

This is what our summer nights have been like in our new neighborhood...

These girls fly past on their bikes...



Down to one end of the street (see them?)...



And then all of the way down to the other end...




(Pardon the dumpster and construction dirt...only three more houses until the whole street will be finished...two are in construction now! It's been fun to see them go up around us. Joey especially loves sitting on his bed and watching the big diggers do their thing. But I am glad that we came in on the tail-end of construction. The dirt will get old after awhile.)

Back to the summer nights...where was I?

Oh yes...this guy just got a new Tonka bike for his birthday next week and is already keeping up with the girls...





Joey's autograph...with the sidewalk chalk "rainbow writer" thing...



You can always tell which yard they are in by this...



And here is our wagon-full of giggly girls from tonight...




As you can see, most of our outside play is being done in the evenings, out front, because, I may have mentioned this once before...ahem...but our grass is still a'growing. :)

You didn't think I was going to post without mentioning the grass/mud did you?! Silly you!

The weeds. The weeds were taking over. And when I say weeds, I really mean corn. There is corn growing in our yard. You think I'm kidding? Look...

Here is our own little corn patch...

And I think there are some beans in there too...maybe soybeans??

I think I should title these pictures, "Solve the fuel crisis, grow your own ethanol."

Or how about, "Stamp out hunger...in your front yard!"

The topsoil stockpile (from which they graded our lot) is located at the back of the development and is virtually surrounded by cornfields. I'm sure that's where the corn is coming from. I'm happy to report however, that my hubs mowed the "lawn"/weeds this morning. Our lawn looked terrible and while most of the grass blades weren't tall enough to even hit his mowerblade set at the highest setting. He couldn't take the weeds anymore. And I'm telling you, the effect has been WONDERFUL! Our yard actually looks like a lawn...especially in the front. The back is a bit drier and the grass is much thinner back there...but we're working on it. Of course I have no "after" pictures of our former corn project. But suffice it to say, it looks SO much better!

And here is a picture of the front of our house. Things are starting to come together a little more each day!

**Alert** -- Non-Grass-Related Post

(I'm not going to talk about our grass (or non-grass or mud, as some would call it) except to say that it's very dry out there and I'm in the middle of the watering process, as we speak, so that I finish before midnight, seeing as we will be away for a few hours tonight. There. I'm finished talking about the grass/mud.)

So about this "settling in" business. It's a process, you know. Kindof a "hills and valleys" type process. Someone might ask me if we are unpacked and "settling in" and at that moment, I might feel like "yes, we are settling in well!" (I was able to locate my shampoo and shoes this morning, after all.) And then 20 minutes later when I still can't remember which drawer the egg slicer is in...or do I even own an egg slicer...or eggs? what are those? At those moments, I'm thinking, "this settling in business is taking some serious TIME!"

But generally speaking, we are indeed "settling in" quite nicely. I like to say that we are "functional"...as in our kitchen, bathrooms, and closets are all in place, as well as my computer :) so all is right with the world, right? And the rest is in some state of organization or location in between. There are parts of our house that are better organized now, 10-days-post-move than they were before. And then there are others that are totally not. Take the school stuff for example. On Monday I realized, "Oh that's right! We homeschool!" Fancy that. We have to start that thing called School in less than 2 months. And this is the season that we call "summer"...I had forgotten about that, what with the moving, and all. But I'm pleased to announce that the school/art/craft/office stuff is fairly well de-junked and organized, albeit resting in boxes on the floor. But until we get some sort of cabinet/storage unit for it, that is where it will be. But at least it's as organized as possible.

There are several factors that make this move easy...increasing our home size and storage has helped tremendously. And being closer to everything has been a huge blessing already. Here are a few of my current favorite things about the house:

-Central A/C - While we have always had window units during our married life, I have never lived in a house with central air, and oh my, may I just tell you that it is a joy! I'm actually cold most days...and I don't have our thermostat set low, either. I especially like that "thhlbt" sound our sliding glass door makes when it "seals up" as I close it. Bliss.

-Linen closets - Not one, but two. We had zero linen closets in our last house and a small bathroom vanity (in our only bathroom) so our storage was rather restricted, you might say. There is a special joy to two, linen closets that I had no clue about, before the move.

-Upstairs laundry - In the words of Anne Shirley, "I don't know how I can ever go back to common life after this, Miss Berry." Me too, Anne. Me too.

-Having my kitchen refrigerator, pantry, and upright freezer (in the garage) within about 10 feet of each other. It makes meal-planning, prep, and grocery-list-making so much easier.

-Lastly, and I'll stop with this one...we have, quite possibly, the nicest neighbors on earth! We have met almost all of them, so far, and they are SO nice! There are a ton of kids on our street and our kids love riding their bikes in the street with them. Our street is the shortest(?) street in our development and the way it is oriented, lends itself to no through-traffic, so it's like living on a cul-de-sac...so quiet and fun! Our kids bike every night and we chat with the neighbors until the sun has long set. It's wonderful and these people are great. We are so excited about living here!

I'll stop with the highlights and spare you the gorey, negative details of moving. But yes, you might say we are "settling in" quite nicely.

(And pictures are deceiving, our grass/weeds/mud is not as nice as it looks. But it is coming in. No complaints, here. "Thrilling" pictures, coming soon.)

The Glorious Forecast!

"Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary."

Psalm 68:9

OK, so maybe I am applying this verse a little out of context. But, this weary mama did almost weep for joy when we walked out of church tonight and saw raindrops falling. Woo-hoo, free, no-labor grass/mud watering...provided by God! Thank you, Lord, I'll take it.

The Story of my Life

The Lake

No one told us when we were buying this home that we would enjoy a lovely waterfront view! Look, a lake has formed in the lot behind us. :) The kids are thrilled and asked to go swimming.

And do you notice the ever-so-slight greenish hue that our mud took on just after the soaking rain this morning? Yup, it's a regular meadow out there.

Ode to the Rain

Hello dear, sweet Rain!

I am so happy to see you this morning! You are such a great help to me. I would be spending my entire day positioning and repositioning the sprinklers across my mud/yard. But because of you, I am able to stay inside and work on the Unpacking Beast. We do so appreciate your presence in these parts, and you are a welcome guest anytime!! Really!


And um, about all of those negative feelings I have had about you and your gray skies in the past...well, I want to apologize for them. You see, it was just a moment or two of, ahem, oversight or maybe temporary insanity on my part, for which I am deeply sorry. Deeply. I promise to never, ever feel that way ever again. I definitely don't prefer that overrated sunshine to you anymore. And blue skies and puffy white clouds? Totally yesterday. So can you be my best friend, now?


We really do love you, Rain. Especially when you come in long soaking showers. I promise my newfound appreciation of you is genuine, heartfelt and long-lasting. Honest. So can you hang around these parts, at least once a day, for oh, say...the rest of the summer?

Sincerely yours,
Abbi

The Before picture...taken a few weeks ago. Grow, grass, grow!

We're in!

Yesterday was the big moving day. As in, all of our worldly goods are now moved, in some shape or form, to our new house and we spent our first night here last night. I am having a hard time figuring out what is my favorite part of the new house.

Last week, I would have said this was my favorite little room...

But then we moved these in (to their new home on the second floor, no less), and I'm starting to think that this takes the top spot...

The girls' room is probably their favorite. Here is Scott last night installing room-darkening shades at the eleventh hour (probably literally).

Pardon the photo material and quality, I have neglected my camera lately, and so last night while we were waiting for the shades, I walked around and snapped a few random pictures.

We are an equal-opportunity house, so here is Joey's room...

(I think it may be his favorite, but I'm not sure.)

Then again, the children may favor the play room. And since I am not too proud, here are some photos of that room...right before I closed the door on it. Oh the joys of the closed door. :)

Now that we have spent one day here, I am having an increasingly harder and harder time narrowing down my favorite spot.

This one's not too bad either. :)

Real pictures coming soon...I promise. Along with a riveting, up-to-the-minute status report of our mud...uh, I mean...lawn/grass(weed)-growing project. Don't miss it. It's sure to disappoint.