Birthday Girl

Birthday #5 for a certain little princess.  Daddy had an overnight meeting in Davenport at the historic Hotel Blackhawk.  He wanted to make it a date night with his hot wife.  Then he realized it was his princess' birthday.  Guess who came along?  That's right, our birthday girl.

Some one-on-one time with Mom and Dad.  What could be better? Upon arrival at the Hotel, she told the woman at the front desk that her birthday was the next day.  Claudia, the clerk, let Bethany know that she'd send something to her.  As we were getting ready to head down to the pool, there was a knock at the door. The staff of Hotel Blackhawk made this little girl's day!  A plate arrived with a huge chocolate chip cookie with "happy birthday" written on it, a cake pop, a princess glow-in-the-dark wand, and a blinky ring.  She was even excited about the strawberry garnish and raspberry syrup.  Hardly able to sit still, here she is with her first birthday gift.

We spent a few hours in the pool.  Well, not the whole time.  We went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth a bazillion times from the hot tub to the pool.   She was loving it even though she can't swim and was a bit scared at moments.  We went back to the room in time for her to play in the big spacious shower before we got ready for supper out with Daddy.  When we got back to the room after supper, she was WIRED again as she played with glow sticks, pranced around in a "movie star" robe, and had 100% of our attention.

This morning we bored her with a bit of business on our way back home.  But we eventually had a little more fun with her in Dubuque where she got to ride a cable car to the top and overlook the city and the Mississippi River, stopped at an ice-cream shop and then finally headed home to get the boys.

Even though it wasn't all thankfulness overflowing from her heart and mouth, we thank God for blessing us with this sweet girl.  We love you Bethany!

What kids, rotting stench, and food have in common

Often when I wake up, I lay there and plan out what I can accomplish with such an early morning.  This morning was no different.  And like most mornings, I snuggled in under a blanket long enough that my early was gone and it was just another normal morning.  Except that my kids slept in.  Which is awesome.  While planning my day, I had decided to spend a few hours in the garden.  With Ryan gone, I didn't exactly want to be out in the garden while my kids were in bed.  Mostly because I didn't want them scared nor did I want them too independent if they woke up and couldn't find me.  

I stayed in the house, quietly accomplishing life.  Then Scott came downstairs.  With the kids sharing a bed, they almost always come downstairs together.  This morning was different and I asked Scott if he wanted to have a little "date" with mom.  He was excited about the opportunity so long as I didn't call it a date.  Silly boy.  Over a bowl of cereal, we looked through his scrapbook from his first two years.  Yes, a scrapbook.  I had time to do that when I had just one kid.

After breakfast, I forced the kids outside to play even though my eldest gave me 3 reasons he should stay inside.  His words: #1 I'm allergic to grass, #2 I have no-one to play with, and #3 I seemed to have forgotten the third.  My peaceful time in the garden wasn't so peaceful as my 3 kids whined and bickered the entire time.  I would have required them to pull weeds with me but then I'd have to hear the whining up close and I didn't want that either.  

With tons of weeds left in the garden, I headed in to make lunch.  Our friends, JB and Blake, joined us for a Thai dish that was almost a big 'ol failure.  I came in the house 1/2 hour late, my chicken hadn't thawed, thawing in the microwave was taking way too long, I had a pregnant lady to feed and a husband who had plans for 1pm.  Finally I grabbed some leftover italian marinated chicken, cut it up, and hoped the marinade wouldn't ruin the thai peanut butter taste.  Finally at 1pm, I was ready to serve lunch.  It was fun to chat with friends, eat good food and just live life.

After our friends left, I headed back to the garden for a few more hours of pulling weeds.  The other day, I thinned some weeds and found my rows of garlic.  I had kind of forgotten about them.  While weeding that area, I found my rows of of bellpeppers.  I had totally forgotten about those.  I even found 5 or so volunteer tomatoes growing from last years crop.  Speaking of volunteer tomatoes, I have a very nice one growing out of the side of my compost bin.  It looks great but it's a sign that my compost didn't break down perfectly.  

I came in from the garden, cleaned up, and headed to Decorah to pick up my girl.  She left with her Grandpa when he stopped by mid-morning.  With a stop at the grocery store where I didn't stick perfectly to my list, and grabbed enough items to throw together a pizza for supper.  I left my in-laws with a bucket of iris's.  The stinky water was mostly dumped out but it still stunk in the van of nasty rotting vegetation in water.  The little ones entertained themselves by pinching their nose closed and talking to each other seemingly thinking pinching their nose meant they couldn't hear anything.  By this timef it was LATE, so I stopped by the golden arches to grab some junk food for my kids.

Once home, I put away groceries, started the sprinkler on the garden, and began preparing pizza - with the chicken that was finally cooked and moist as could be.  Finally at 945, Ryan and I sat down to eat supper.  I'm tired.  Writing this down makes me more tired.  I got a lot done today.  But at the same time, I still have folded laundry to put away, bed sheets that didn't get washed, and my house isn't looking as clean as I was hoping it would.  It was a good day though.  I made some much needed progress in the garden, the kids were loved on, my hubby was well fed while he worked hard on the garage, and I am joyful tonight.

P.S. Here's last Sunday's picture:

Place of Peace

It's amazing that this place is a place of peace:

I missed my Wednesday night in the garden last week.  I think.  When Saturday morning rolled around, I really, really needed a few hours in the garden.  After all, with the help of a sprinkler and the Rain Maker, it had been well watered.  With a house in disarray and 5 guests staying the night that night, there was no way I could take time for the garden.  You can imagine how weedy it was when I walked out there tonight.  My mouth dropped.  Even though my back hurt like mad, I was ready to bend/kneel down and start pulling all the nasty weeds.  Since Lori and I are having a thistle growing competition, I had to take special care of those bad boys when I pulled them out, without gloves, trying to remove the tap root along with it.  All the weeds drive me crazy but the quiet time in the garden was priceless.

While I was busy in the garden, my kids were busy in their "new pool":

Nothing says country bumkin like kids swimming in a livestock water tank!  In two hours, I pulled lots of deep rooted, well growing weeds.  I also managed to find my rows of garlic amongst the weeds, train the tomatoes back into their cages, thin the junk out of my nicely growing cilantro, encourage the peas to grow towards the wire fence, and start pulling the masses of growth from the patch of asparagus.


When 8pm rolled around, we headed in the house, heated up some left overs, ate a quick meal, slathered the kids with aloe vera lotion and headed for a COLD shower.  


P.S.  Here's a pic of Ryan's Father's Day gift:

Only, the print never did get printed.   When we headed to town yesterday, the bigger town with a wallyworld, we didn't stop by right away.  Then when I went back to town before supper, I forgot the camera card and by time Ryan got to town and I got back inside, the photo center was closed.  One-hour pics was an option except Ryan's family was all headed to supper so I couldn't wait around for an hour.  Not able to get the pic printed, Ryan got nothing for Father's Day.  A big fail for me on getting a gift for the man I love.  Children of mine, when are you going to think to do something on your own for your parents to celebrate them on Mother's Day and Father's Day?

Taking Down the Barn

There's nothing a John Deere...

and two farm-boys (or should I say men)

can't accomplish.  In this case, it was taking down the old barn 

on Kim's school farm 

The first tug from the lower floor did move the floor and it's contents quite a bit.  You can't see it well in this photo but the floor is sunk in the center about 3-4 feet in a V shape.  Don't miss the details of the hand-cut 100+ year old beams.

Time to move the the upper floor and start doing some damage.  Here, Mark is about to wrap chains around the beams of the main floor from the bucket of their trusty tractor.

Then it's time to link the two chains togehter, hook them to the tractor, and give it another tug.

I was videoing as the barn fell but the result was dust, straw and lots of stuff floating on the breeze causing a few kids who'd been watching the whole thing to cover their faces.

I wasn't the only one videoing.  Ms. Lois was also recording it all with Kari's ipad.

 Here is Farmer Mark and Farmer Kim checking out the aftermath.

Sometimes things fall the wrong direction and you bump into something you were hoping to avoid:

Look at those big 'ol beams that were held together wooden pins/stakes.  

We also found square nails.  It was really neat to see the history.

While Daddy and son check out the cool pieces of wood...

 Grandpa puts the tractor away for the night.  

Thanks friends for including us so the kids experience just a little bit of farm life.

Brothers

While Ms. Priss joined her daddy this morning, the boys and I had a few minutes before leaving for church.  Since they were dressed, had clean faces, and weren't gumpy, I thought it would be a good opportunity for a few pictures.  Scott picked all but one of the locations where we snapped a few pictures.  

With a 16 gig card FULL, I guess I'll be cleaning the camera card this afternoon.  It has pics on it from the Sweet heart Supper in February :)

racoons, garages, gardens and more...

It's been almost a month since I've posted but I think about posts regularly.  I even come up with a list of things to talk about in bullet point fashion but it's not when I'm free to write.  Let me get started on some random, fun things to share and see where we end up.  In bite sized fashion like SMF taught me:

Harley, our beloved pup
Working in the garden, I hear Harley's normal barking like he does when he's playing with the cats.  When Harley, the australian shepherd, wouldn't give in to barking at the cat, I finally looked up and saw that it was a small grayish dog.  Hmm, where did that come from?  No sooner than I finished that thought, I realized it was a racoon.  Yes, my sheep dog was having a stand off with a hissing racoon.  I couldn't call the dog off, nor could I scare the racoon off with my awful aim throwing twigs and empty ice-cream pale.  Harley must have thought he was a coon dog and was tree-ing the racoon.  Finally, the gentle doctor Ryan came out and kindly took care of the gray, hissing, creature.  Thanks love.

Memorial Day in our Memory
Our local cemetary does a Memorial Day service.  On Saturday morning I took the kids down to put the flags on the crosses that were put out for Memorial Day.  On Monday, we attended a small country cemetary service.  Twenty-plus years ago, that little country cemetary held no service.  The men from the Legion would come out, pay their respects, shoot off the guns, and move on to the next cemetary.  That changed when a new bride wondered what the gun shots were about.  That new bride just graduated her youngest from high school and there was no longer young children to put poppies on the graves of the soldiers.  It was an honor to have my 3 little ones take on the task this year.  It was short and sweet and most certainly a good memory for the kids.  Later that morning we went to the one in town where they'd put the flags up on Saturday.  It was a very nice service, complete with sharing how "taps" came about, songs from the Keystone chorus, and once again putting poppies on the grave.  The most memorable part of the service came at the end.  Sadly, it's not a good memory, but one of a mean-spirited lady who thought it was better to yell at my children for grabbing at the waving flags than to be thankful they were there.  And if once wasn't enough, she chose to yell at them a second time AFTER I had just told her they were mine, I was watching them and kindly but firmly told her not to yell at them.  Grr.  It overshadowed the day and was the memory Bethany had.  I hope that I don't have such tunnel vision for perfect obedience of my children, that I fail miserably at letting them enjoy life so they continue to desire to participate in things like Memorial Day services and things like that.


Growing Things
Not sure what all is growing in my garden outside.  In the past few weeks it's been quite neglected.  One night a  week in the garden just isn't enough during this early growing stage.  While I do have things growing that I purposefully planted, I also have lots of volunteer weeds and pain in the hiney thistles.  I pull the thistles by hand and wonder each time why I didn't find my gloves first.  Last week we put down newspaper and grass clipping around 1/2 of the growing veggies as it threatened of rain.  This week, I found beans growing in my garden which I had planted but forgot all about.  Maybe tomorrow I can sneak out there and find something else growing amongst the weeds!  Other growing things include this little boy's hair.  It's long!


Indianapolis
There are a few friends I'd love to get together with who live on the Eastern side of the country.  Indianapolis isn't really half way.  Nor is it that close to the Creation Museum that we want to go to.  Regardless, it might be a meeting spot for some really cool families to hang out.  The thought of seeing people like Megan, Jamey, Kaight, and others has me giddy!  I just remembered I have been to Indy before so I might be up for picking a different spot too...


Pinning Ideas
Why is it that I have a sewing project on my dining room table, no time to sew it, but time to pin more ideas on that addictive little website???  I've been putting some of those creative ideas, and a few of my own creative ideas into practice lately.  Yes, I'll admit that I might be a tad bit creative.  I used an old pepsi box for kids art supplies to go into.  I bought some index cards to put in a box with one card for every day and then you write something on a card each year and by year 3, have some cool memories to read back through.  I also bought the kids each a binder.  The idea is to gather all their "stuff" throughout the month.  Then, at the end of the month, they can choose one item to keep.  That one item will get put into the binder and all the rest of the prize-winning drawings can be recycled.

Monkeying Around
The kids have been busy hanging around, playing in the sprinklers, having water balloon fights, and venturing through the new "garage" to see it's progress each day.  It's been wonderful to be outside.  Not too hot, not too humid.  It's perfect outside.  That is, until I have to walk a half mile, through grass in full pollination that's taller than me and making me sicker than snot.  Oh, and those bumps on my arm, who knows if it was poison oak or poison ivy, both of which were growing like mad, kinda like the thistles in my garden.  Ryan has managed to mow lawn a lot so far this summer and it's looking amazing right this moment out there.


Milestones
We've had several milestones in the last month.  The kids all received awards at the end of the AWANA year.  Scott memorized the 3rd most sections of any child.  While I'm thankful he did so, I'm hoping those verses get etched onto his heart as well.  Bethany graduated preschool and her teacher finished her 1st year of  teaching.  Judah continues to grow - in height as well as his hair.  The pictures of his picked out hair don't do justice.


That boy has Skills
Last night while fixing supper, the kids were working on a craft.  Any craft.  I didn't care as long as they weren't whining about being hungry.  It involved the basic stuff - glue, construction paper, and crayons.  Wanting Scott to work on his hand writing, I asked him to write a story before he did the craft.  So, he wrote down 5-6 sentences about great white sharks before he cut out the blue and white construction pieces, glued them together and drew in the gills, etc.  The googly eye he added at the end made it that much more fun to see.  I'm hoping to do more of this with Scott, while teaching Bethany not to glue things to the table and teaching Judah not to color one big blob, but to actually draw and have shapes/susbstance to the colored wax he puts on the paper.


Suffering
I am blessed beyond measure.  When we put our June 1st Ethiopia trip on hold, I knew that God had the plans and I just needed to follow.  I didn't know how significant or involved that would all be.  In the past few weeks, we have witnessed lots and lots of suffering.  Considering it pure joy while facing those trials hasn't been easy.  But being right here in Northeast Iowa (and not across the globe) to be there for my friends who are suffering has given me joy.  While I don't pretend to be the one suffering, I do feel like there's a spiritual battle going on around me.  Having my character called into question, having allergy craziness, being emotionally and physically exhausted when I leave work, and life happening around me.  I thank God for sustaining me and I thank my husband for all that he does while acknowledging that I just need some time to myself.

 My kitchen is clean again tonight.  My kids are in bed.  There are piles of laundry in my living room, a shower that needs scrubbed, and seeds that need planted.  But at the end of the day, I'm able to give and receive a little more love today.

Drowning

As I sit and write this post it's January and we're about to get our first real snow. No swimming around here anytime soon. But I'm going to write the post and save it for later because I can't get the mental picture out of my mind.

I saw a link to a site about identifying your kid drowning. And it had this picture with it

And it's not the picture above that sticks in my mind, but the picture permanently etched into my mind of my son almost drowning. And that's what will give me bad dreams tonight. So, I'm going to share the story with you so that you don't go through what we did.

Last summer while visiting some friends, we headed to the community pool. It was a cool spot with shallow areas that got progressively deeper, fun slides, and all kinds of kid entertainment. But this momma was at a pool with 3 kids who couldn't swim and I was nervous. Fortunately my friend's kids could swim so she was able to help me with mine. Scott had gone down the slide several times after we finally moved away from the super shallow area. As I stood nearby chatting with my friend, I watched as Scott was playing in the water. He was having tons of fun jumping around in the water and splashing like crazy. I was glad he was having fun and kept chatting with my friend. And then I realized what was going on. And to this day it takes my breath away.

He wasn't jumping and splashing.

He was drowning.

He can't swim. He was sinking, hitting bottom (which wasn't too far down) and jumping back up in panic gasping for air. And I thought he was having fun splashing! I watched him do this for at least 10 seconds, but what seemed like minutes after the fact, before I realized it. I rushed over and grabbed him, moving him a few feet closer where it was shallow enough for him to stand.

My kid can't swim. It's odd to think of because I was practically a fish growing up. As I type this, I shared the story briefly with my husband. He has no clue how scared I was. Neither does my girlfriend or my son. But I was scared. It still scares me to think of it.

So, what should I do next time? What should you do?

Get your child swimming lessons. Learn to recognize signs of drowning. And don't assume they're splashing in the water.

Artificial Twins

When you adopt a child within 9 months of age of an existing child in your home, in the adoption world they call that artificial twinning.  It's not recommended, or allowed, by some adoption agencies.  Not understanding why, I asked Holt (our agency) why that had that unwritten rule.  The concerns are for that newly adopted child to have his own identity.  To be in his own class at school.  Like most moms, I thought I knew best.  I argued that Holt's theories while valid, weren't flawless.  After all, with Bethany and Scott having summer birthdays, they could go either way on their grade.  I argued that if we home-school some day, they won't have separate classes anyway.  In the end we have our two youngest who are seven months apart.

Identity so far hasn't been an issue for Judah.  In fact, being so close in age has really helped him.  He is bonded TIGHT with Scott.  While Scott tends to be his security blanket, Bethany is his favorite playmate. I heard the two little ones playing last night and as I walked by the stairs, I saw two little kids coming down the stairs on their bottom like a train.  It was adorable so I had to grab the camera.  Check out my two little artificial twins who, almost 2 years after bringing Judah home, seem to have no identity issues.

The only identity issues are Bethany's.  Besides clarifying that she's 4and a half, she also likes to dress herself.  Much to her momma's dismay, she doesn't always match perfectly and her style is a little eclectic.  When I saw her getting dressed yesterday morning she had a striped shirt and the striped tights.  I asked her to pick a different shirt cause stripes and stripes don't match.  This is what she came down wearing:

Add caption

Mexico City

Our church is partnering with a church in Mexico City.  This week, some of my friends are there on construction and painting trip.  I loved my first trip to Mexico City and Huixquilucan in 2008.  I look forward to being able to go back in the future.  Until then, I have a few pictures to share from their week so far:

Painting the church is a big task!

Love this!

2 walls went up and water tanks set (top right).

Doing something with wire...

DramaGirl

She may be my mini-me, but that drama must be thanks to her Auntie :) My wild little girl has had quite the week, including the song she's singing about me not knowing anything but God does and then stopped to ask me if God's disciples know anything. So, she's not just drama, but also RANDOM! And maybe trying to stay awake.

This week she had a rough week. On Monday Judah hit her in the head with a plastic bat. Ryan caught it on video and pasted it to facebook. Then last night, after getting trouble and confessing to the sitter that she couldn't sleep with the boys when she gets in trouble, she was moved to the spare bedroom. At 130am, she some how fell out of bed and was screaming like mad. I was super tired and not wanting to be awake. Snuggling her in bed didn't quiet here and in those few moments, I wished that she was still breast-fed so I could let her latch on and hush her up! Tired mom + being woke up in the midnight hours = grumpy mom. She managed to scrape her side of her foot, had a little gash in it, and complained of her fore-head hurting. Did she hit that bruised bump she got from the baseball bat?

This morning she told me her face hurt when she swallowed. I picked her up tonight and the side of her face is bruised. I guess that's where she hit when she face planted. So we get home and we have a big puddle on the concrete slab where our garage will be built. Clearly each child was told to stay out of it. As soon as I got done with a potty break, I watched all 3 of them choosing to disobey. The boys were running through the center of the 2" deep puddle, wet up to their calves, and running over to grab mud to throw into the water. Bethany was racing through the puddle on a trike. I watched them have fun for a few minutes before going out to stop them. While stripping down to their skivies on the porch, Bethany says amusingly that they probably wouldn't get to have their planned movie night. Imagine that!

Inside for supper, she thinks we should snuggle and assures me that I need someone to snuggle with until Daddy gets home. Oh Bethany, I will gladly lay alone in bed until Daddy gets home! She insists and as I type, she's curled up next to me wiggling around non-stop. I think I'm going to let her fall asleep, then sneak out of the room so that her daddy can snuggle with the wiggle worm when he gets home :)

Tea/Coffee Party

When I informed my daughter that some kids would be coming over to play, she immediately began preparing for a tea party for the girls. She was so precious and she ran around paying attention to each small detail. She had her finest mis-matched tea set on the table. Like her classy momma, she knew that the party needed a little more than tea. Not knowing exactly how many girls were coming, she grabbed a hand full of the following items for her friends: a baby doll to play with, a hat, and a bag of goodies.

Our friends arrived - 3 of them girls and 3 of them boys. You can imagine the excitement in the house between the 9 kids. Bethany took on hostess duties immediately handing out her goodie bags. And no sooner than the tea party started, the kids were all headed out to the trampoline. That's how it goes sometimes. We get all prepared for what we want to do and what we think our friends want to do but it doesn't happen that way.

A few hours later when all the friends had gone home, Bethany became one sad little girl. She was heart-broken that the girls didn't have a tea party with her. It was so sweet watching her and so sad seeing her sadness. So, the two of us had a simple little tea party while I ate my supper and I promised her a full out tea party Sunday afternoon.

This afternoon came and we both almost forgot. As supper time rolled around, I was reminded of my promise. I stopped what I was doing and began preparing for a tea party. With fancy Ethiopian coffee dishes.

She was so excited as we prepared for the party. She cleaned off her dollies and toy tea sets, we grabbed a table cloth, brewed some watered down coffee, added some milk and began enjoying our coffee/tea party with Judah along for the fun. She served like the kind-hearted little girl that she is.

Judah did better at drinking coffee than serving.

They were both careful and serious about this party. Bethany couldn't wait to have the sugar that was in the coffee (there was none).



And like the knight and shining armor that he is, when Daddy came home, he joined his precious little princess for a cup of coffee. She adores him as you can tell in this picture:

"Cheers"... do you do that with coffee the same way you would with a glass of wine???
And if you can't tell by this picture, the adoration is mutual between these two. Oh how I love them.

Easter Pics

What a day to celebrate --- the risen Lord. We were down in central Iowa for the weekend hanging out with some new friends and with family. This morning we started the day off right with St@rbux, I mean, worshiping the King who rose from the grave. After church, and a big lunch with Ryan's side of the family, we have a very simple Easter egg hunt. I'm so thankful that my kids were excited for their piddly, but cute, little baskets. Here are a few pictures:

The first is of Judah having sat on this concrete yard decoration. The turtle "bucked" him off and he winced but got right back on and I caught this look with the camera... do you think he was mad at the turtle for bucking him off?

As usual my 3 are hard to get pictures of. Someone's (if not all of them) usually not participating! So, we're thankful for any decent individual or group pictures. Here's Scott.
I looked at the camera after snapping this short and loved it. When I looked at it on the computer tonight, I loved it even more. If you fast forward 20+ years, this could be a wedding photo shot. If you would have seen the picture that's more zoomed out, you'd know her dress isn't fluffed around her at all and she's not sitting very lady-like. Oh well, she's still stunning.
And my little cheeser. Such a fake smile for him. But a handsome little boy regardless.
And one of all 3. There really wasn't a "best" one at all. But they're mine and I love them.
Happy Easter everyone. Thank you Uncle Mike and Aunt Betty for once again opening your home to all of us!

Crummy Day

Yesterday was a crummy day for me. At the end of the day, I couldn't remember all the crummy moments. Not because I was such a good mom and made a point to forgive and forget. No, I couldn't remember because the moments were so many. I thought about blogging about it and giving a few examples. And then at the end of the day, as I was getting ready to put the kids in bed, I got a phone call from a friend.

My friend told me about her crappy weekend. My heart aches for all the crap they're going through. I can't imagine having people be so hateful to me. A righteous anger fills my mind when I hear about they're hurt. And in those moments, I don't dare share about my crummy day.

As I hang up the phone, I know that my day could be worse.

Today I talked to my sister on the phone. My nephew has been in the hospital almost a week. Dealing with the emergency room docs, my nephew's GI issue, and his severe pneumonia have made for a rough week. Doing it as a solo parent doesn't make it any easier.

As I hung up the phone, I know that my day could be worse.

May these two stories help me remember how truly blessed I am.

My Plan

Maybe I haven't shared much about what my plans are for the June trip. I have a lot planned and am hoping to get it all done but I know it's a lot. My three main things are:

1. Check in on my widows I've trained in the past, provide some additional training.

2. Set up a drip irrigation system and water collection basin by installing gutters on the metal roofs of the orphanage and school buildings.

3. Check in on a site donated for widows to grow coffee trees. It's the best coffee growing area. This one I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet because I know NOTHING about growing coffee trees.

The other things I hope to do include:

1. Meet with the local ag specialists and get my ladies into a formal training program.

2. Identify some leaders of my existing ladies who will train others in the community.

3. Learn more from locals about their existing bee keeping practices.

And of course, I'll love on the kids, chase them around and play soccer pretending to be much younger than I am. I'll drink some STRONG coffee, and listen to traditional singing before they drag me into the circle to dance with them. I'll hang out with the doc while she checks kids over and follow Ryan around while he checks on the livestock. It will be exhausting but worth every ounce of energy and every penny.

Fun-filled day full of firsts

The morning started with me finding dirty little paw prints that had been in the shower and drinking out of the toilet. I checked and all the cats were outside. Having been asleep when Ryan came to bed, I assumed a cat snuck in during the day and he threw it out while I was sleeping. Imagine our surprise when we came home from church and after playing on the old hay rake with my joyful little girl...

we found this:

Bethany found the cookies on the floor and scattered on the counter. I informed Ryan that something was inside the house and told him about the paw prints. He wondered how you catch a critter that you don't know what it even is. Bethany called Grammy to inform her that she needed some new cookies. All of the above ones had the frosting licked off and partially eaten.

After lunch, I took these two wiggle worms outside for 5 minutes of swinging before they had to take naps.

With the littles tucked in bed, I headed outside to play in the skid loader. I've never driven one before. Before I was much experienced in driving it, I thought I'd make our garden twice the size by removing the top 6" of grass and soil, hoping for a clean seed bed.

After naps, we jumped in the truck and headed to Echo Valley State Park to enjoy being outdoors as a family together. We don't get to do that enough. Our stroll down the trail wasn't without lots of complaining from 3 little kids. I knew it would be worth it if they would just endure the journey cause I knew what was to come. Oh, how that reminds me of our journey with God... he knows what plans he has for us, we just need to enjoy the journey.

We did a little stream stompin'

Hung out on a log checking out the stream

showed momma their muscles

checked out the fish, or frog, or some other type of eggs on the bank

Dug our fingers into the mud in the bottom of the stream bed

while momma enjoyed watching the kids have fun

and daddy enjoyed the scenery

My least adventurous kiddo splashed in the water

and while we explored a short section of stream, there were some non-photo moments too. A boy learned to water a tree in the timber, a girl decided she wanted to sit her butt in the stream and asked if she could just take her shorts off and take a bath, another boy lost his flip-flop multiple times, and no child wanted to leave. So, a while later when no one wanted to leave such a fun place, we reminded them that ice-cream at DQ would be waiting for us. Oh yes, that's how to BRIBE your kids to do what you want. And this momma didn't just want to walk up the hill listening to more whining so I challenged, not another bribe, Scott to a race. For each checkpoint that he could beat me to, I'd give him money. Oh yeah, we ran the whole way back up the hill to the truck.

After dinner and ice-cream at DQ, we got home just in time for Ryan to capture this.

I love sunsets. One thing I love about them is that it means it's bed time for our little ones. Daddy bathed them and I tucked them in. What a great day!