Our Summer

Wow, It has been a while since I have posted. Last post was on us attempting seeds. We tried. Twice. All died. I bought two tomato plants which have not produced anything, but my basil from last year reseeded and I have five great plants. My oregano is still alive, and I think 4 watermelon plants are starting to grow from seeds we spit into the bed the seedlings were supposed to be. Maybe next year I should just pour seeds on the ground and water them! Needless to say, I have been enjoying visiting the two organic farms in town and the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

Cameron with some garlic we braided!

We have all been doing great. The summer is winding down, and we are trying to fit the last of the activities in before we start back to school. Here are a few hilights:

• Cameron went to Vacation Bible School and a worship for kids camp at Hope Church.
• Robert spent a week with Raeley at Mosaic, a service-oriented mission trip with daily teaching and worship. He also spent a week at a rock climbing adventure camp at Camp Lake Stephens.
• Raeley, along with Mosaic, went to an art camp at the Gumtree Museum of Art. She will be spending a long weekend with her grandparents and aunt soon. Robert, Jonathan, and Cameron already spent a long weekend with them recently.
• Jonathan is leaving for his white water rafting adventure camp at Camp Lake Stephens tomorrow.


• We went to Birmingham to go to the science museum and Mark took Raeley to photograph the tornado damage. Birmingham is my new favorite close big city. Sorry Memphis

Cameron and our neighbor in the wind tunnel at the science museum.

Robert riding a balance seat at the science museum

Two of my sisters came to stay for a few days and I had a blast!

Our friends who moved last year came in for a weekend and it was GREAT seeing them. I miss having them as neighbors!

A college friend of mine, we were in each other's weddings, came in this summer also and our kids all played great! I'm hoping she can come again soon.

It has been nice spending less time on the computer. I have less duties in the business and I am working on relinquishing control. I've been using that extra time reorganizing the kitchen and utility room. Reorganizing is not my strong suit, and gets me very anxious. I finally realized to just pray and give it to God. It may seem insignificant, but in order for me to handle it, I had to bathe it in prayer. And it's taking me forever, but it's getting done. I just wish I had thought about praying about it sooner. Praying about cleaning house? Even in the little things, God is with us. He is our help WHENEVER we need it.

4th of July

This is my immediate family (my parents, sisters, their husbands and kids, the kids' husbands or wives and their kids)

We all went to Angelina River Lodge with my family for the 4th of July, and stayed a week. It was a great weekend with my family - 32 of us and everyone got along great! It was so, so much fun. One thing about my family - since my parents started having kids, there has not been more than 10 years without babies around. We are on the 3rd generation. It is fun to watch my nieces and nephews with their kids now.

It is very special to me to be able to spend this time having so much fun with family. I am so blessed that our family wants to come, and wants to spend this time together. It is the highlight of our year. Cameron now says the Angelina River Lodge is better than Disney World. She tells everyone about it!

The new things this year:

My mom riding the zip line! It's really high off the ground! It goes really fast!

My dad put up a zip line that is 160 feet long. Robert wakes up now and goes fishing with the early morning crew. We found a new inlet, too. Thanks, Google Maps, and Kevin and Kimberly! Robert, Raeley, and cousin Emily learned to water ski. I got up on skis, too! Third try! But my back didn't like the fall too well and I succumbed to rocking on the porch for a few days.

You see how excited she looks? It really is that much fun!

Post from last week

Here is a post I started last week. I was waiting to upload a photo Raeley took of the seedlings. Since then all but a few have died. So now I am posting without any photos. Why make old news even older? And why show off what is no longer? Although it is a pretty cool photo!

You should see how well the seedlings are doing. (Remember, that is from last week. Only a few remain alive.)

School has been going well. The boys have been writing a report so they have not been liking that too much. It was pretty disappointing when they both picked topics on Scandinavian topics and after working on the papers a few days, we went to the library and found ZERO information that was age appropriate. They both decided to switch topics and had to start over.

I jumped Cameron up to easy reader chapter books, and they are quite harder. I told her it was either that or more sam, pam, rat and pat. She now has a much better attitude about it being so much harder, and she is learning faster. Funny how that works.

Raeley, well I don't know when she does her work. She stays so busy. I guess she will do school all summer. She is really excelling at her new job. It, in itself, is a great learning experience.

That's about all with school.

On a personal note, we found a place to get raw cow milk. I am so, so, so excited!

The kids love it.

Cameron's birthday

Cameron's birthday was March 22. I forgot that she was expecting breakfast in bed - the traditional "name in the shape of pancakes" breakfast. I remembered before she came downstairs, though. I thought, our social little Cameron, surely she would want to be with everyone. I sent the kids upstairs every ten minutes to check on her and after the second time she asked that we just leave her alone. It was "freaky" in her words, someone coming up that often.

We took her and Hazel out to lunch at Atlanta Bread Company. Then we picked up cupcakes at Custom Cakes and went to ballet. We added paper decorations to the cupcakes - swirly wrappers and ballet slippers. Adorable!

That night she wanted Chinese so she could have sweet and sour chicken and fortune cookies, and then it was gift time!

Go Fish, Lost Sock Style

During chore time, the kids were sitting in a circle, and it sounded like they were gambling. They turned the chore of folding socks into a game of Go Fish, lost sock style. Our socks usually don't get folded, they live in the bottom of the laundry basket, and get dug through frantically before walking out the door.

The next time I walked through the room, they came up with a proposition for me:

Mom, now that most of us wear the same size socks, what if we give away all of the socks that we have right now and buy all the same socks so we don't have random socks to sort through and fold. If all the socks were the same style and same size, this would be so much easier!

We've talked about it and we are all willing to throw in some money to buy new socks and we can give all these socks away to people who need them.

Brilliant, I tell you! Simple brilliance. Why have so many different kinds of socks? Trash em all and get all the same kind of sock. This could revolutionize the time between yelling (up the stairs, not at the kids - right?!!) "Everyone get in the car!" which my kids know means mom found her keys and her coffee's still warm, and the time when we actually get in the car.

For those households who already do this, SHUT UP and don't tell me. I don't care that you are already that much smarter than me.

So, that necessitated our run to Memphis to go to Target after I raided the kid's piggy banks. And guess what Target was running low on? Socks. And no, I really didn't take money from the kids. Their genius was enough for me. I love it when my kids are smarter than me.

Remember to always listen to your kids.