Boys and Pools

Any of you trying, unsuccessfully, with lots of medicine, raising a bunch of hoodlums, boys know that a big hole full of water just won’t do on a hot summer afternoon.  Boys must come up with some type of drowning device, water slide, or sling to catapult themselves and their friends into the pool. 

While visiting a friend’s house a few days ago (yep, the same one with the lightening struck tree) I took these pictures of the boys.

All are mine except one. 

There are times as a mom you just have to pray no one ends up in the emergency room and let go.  At times like these all I can do is take pictures and hold my breath. 

These nice floats are supposed to be used for relaxation, contemplating life, or napping peacefully……..

Yet boys must find different purposes for such peaceful things…….

"Let’s make a slip and slide and use the dog bowl to throw water on every one as they slide down the slide"……




"There’s not enough water so let’s get the hose out and use that to make the already slick surface a little more dangerous!"

"Now let’s arrange the floats so we can launch ourselves from as far away as humanly possible."

"Yea!  I think we got it right now!"


Storms and Blessings and Friends

We have a very good friend who lives here:
Isn’t her house beautiful?

And she has this beautiful gorgeous stunning thing in her yard:
Come to mama!!

And lots of these this time of year:

We’re blessed to be able to enjoy her yard during the summer.
There are lots of these around:


And these:

And her yard has cool things you just don’t have when four children run around all the time:
(I often go there to remember what it’s like to be an adult)

The day before yesterday we had a sudden severe storm sweep through our neighborhood/community and lightening struck a tree in her front yard.  This is what lightening looks like when it runs down a BIG tree…..




Here’s the hole the lightening bolt made beside the tree where all the shards are in the above photo:
Freaky huh??

Here’s another angle of the way the lightening bolt ripped the bark from the tree:

One of the scariest things about all of this was that the tree is only this far away from the house:

And sent these all over the yard:




Today a tree guy took the tree out for her saying that it would certainly die, nothing much can survive a strike like that I guess.

I stood in awe yesterday of God’s power, his might and his protection over this sweet couple’s house.

And I just had to share!
IN HIM,


Monday….again!

Hoping to pass through the weekend unscathed was just that…..a hope.  Baby girl woke up from a nap on Saturday and was running a 103 temperature.  She’s been vomiting off and on too.  The natives (boys) are restless after spending so much time inside.  The yellow jackets are loving SC right about now, especially our yard, so we’ve been indoors a little more than usual. 

Where are you football, campfires, marshmellows and falling leaves????

I’m ready for fall……
Anyone else?


Baseball, Lakes and Tongues

I took these at the lake several weeks ago.
Isn’t he cute???


Curriculum Purchased- CHECK!

On Monday I spent two hours buying curriculum for the boys.  We use Abeka so I hauled myself to their display in a local town instead of the lake (which is where I wanted to be) to purchase and save on shipping (about $70).

I was impressed with their new Abeka Academy but it was pricey!  About $1000 per kids.

If I bought the teacher kit and the student kit I was going to spend about $500 per child.  Again, YIKES!

So I sat, burnt the last of my brain cells on their order form, and put together what I’d need for the kids next year.  I had some things I already planned on using so I wanted to fill in the gaps.  I ended up spending about $500 on all three boys which felt like a huge accomplishment. 

Then off to the lake to defog my already taxed brain. 
Ah, thank goodness for the lake.

On a side note my dad asked for silhouettes of the kids so he could paint them.  I thought he wanted a true silhouette so this is what I ended up with but he actually wanted profile shots.  I liked this one though and wanted to share it with you.

Here’s our middle son, complete with his AUBURN hat!


Wishing you a great Humpday!!!


First Saturday happened…

And then Monday happened!
It must be our week for mishaps.
Saturday was bee sting day (read here)
And today our oldest son did this at the lake.  Don’t know how, don’t know where.  But YUCK.
He said he stubbed his toe on a rock.  It bled and bled and bled.

This was taken Monday night after we got home and I was redressing the wound.
There’s a bit of Neosporin on his toe but definitely NO SKIN!!



Tuesday we have a trip planned to the Water Park.  I think I need all of you to pray for a safe trip!!!

PLEASE!


A bad day

Saturday was a bad day here.  Our middle son was stung by a bee while swimming.  You see the results below and then as we were getting in the car to go have dinner we got too close to a yellow jacket nest and I got stung, as did baby girl.  The good news?  My oldest, who is allergic to yellow jackets, did not get stung!!!

Let me tell you those nasty little guys are aggressive!

Here’s our poor baby after his lip was about half the size it started out…..


Today, Monday, it’s still swollen and goes through various degrees of “swellingness” throughout the day.  (I know, that’s not a word!)

Any suggestions?  I’m trying a tea bag as I type.

Thanks,
IN HIM and thankful for HIS protection over our oldest….


Grandbo's Pencils

A few weeks ago I asked my dad to send us some pencils.  You see he has the greatest boxes of pencils EVER and they are my favorite when it comes to pencils for the children’s schoolwork.   So look what came in today’s mail!

I took this of baby girl by the den window.  It’s SOOC without a small boost in saturation!  After all the crummy photos I’ve taken lately this was a blessing.

IN HIM,


Perfection isn’t what it used to be

Before getting married and having kids perfection meant something entirely different than it does now.  Once upon a time it meant that everything was done just so, looked just so and worked just so.

Now it means that someone, something is exactly as they are…..just as God made them.  Photos aren’t perfect, people aren’t perfect, things aren’t perfect…..well, not in the everyday sense of the word.  But things, people and circumstances are perfectly okay.

Take this strand of hair for example…..
I pondered this photo for a long time wondering if I wanted to put the effort into removing it.  Finally I decided I’d rather adjust my idea of perfect and remember the warm windy day, my baby girl’s bed head and PJ’s just as they were yesterday… perfectly designed.  So here’s my baby girl…..in a perfectly imperfect photo!


(If you want to view my Freaky Friday Foto I posted it yesterday.  Just keep scrolling down)

Always in HIm,


Check out this guy, actually girl….

Today while we were outside this thing ran across the driveway.  It was bright reddish orange and about an inch long.  It looked very velvety and had big black stripes.  I thought, "How cool looking!" and yelled for baby girl to get me the bug catcher.  As I was trying to corral the thing I also thought, "How freaky looking!"

After trying to get a good picture to show you I looked it up on the internet, googling "big red furry ant".  And this is what I found out.

It’s a velvet ant or cow-killer by it’s nickname.  Okay, why cow-killer?  Apparently it’s from the wasp family, not an ant at all, and has a sting that hurts so badly people say that it could kill a cow.  They also sting multiple times.  Only the females sting.  The males have wings and no stingers. 

You know, I’m really, REALLY glad I found all this out AFTER I had my lens stuck in the opening of the bug catcher taking photos.  Oh my goodness…that thing’s evil!


Then I carefully shifted her to a glass jar in hopes of a better photo….

Look carefully at her fangs…..you girls know you grow those every month don’t you??  I do!!

Feeling a little buggy!
but always in HIM….
julie


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