Summer Fun

Like most kiddos, my 4 Things love to play in water in the hot summer weather! So, in classy ghetto style, I give you them in their little pool in the garage/carport...(it was the only place that we could put the pool that wouldn't kill the grass and BONUS, it kept me from having to apply sunscreen, woohoo!)

Ahhh, a cool pool in the 90billion degree eleventyhundred percent humidity!

Everybody was getting in on the action-they don't call it the dog days of summer for nuthin'! (also yes, he takes up most of the pool, what a lummox....)

Does this pool make my hair look big???

What are YOU doing to stay cool this summer?

Blueberry Bitterness, Fundraising Success, and the Holiday Weekend

Well, I lied. I did not come right back and write about blueberries. I am sure y'all were on the edge of your seats waiting, but the pain was too fresh. Ok, well, I am partially kidding--I DID have a horrible time picking blueberries with Thing 4 and didn't really feel like re-living it through telling the story. She screamed the entire time and was miserable, it was swelteringly hot and I lost my very favorite silver earring, one I purchased in Africa on our trip to get our daughter and it had huge sentimental value to me so it really made me so, so sad. See why I didn't come back and share my awesome story? ;) However, it has a semi-happy ending because I did go again, ALONE, to pick berries and it was fabulous and then I baked a blueberry almond cake which was even more fabulous so I have now forgiven the blueberry patch. Almost.

Anyway, on to exciting news-my hubby rocked his triathlon-WOOHOO! He did GREAT and through that and some other generous friends, has now raised all the money needed to pay for his trip. THANK YOU to all of you who have given to his trip! But, here is the fun part-$ is still coming in for his trip so he is working to raise an extra $2000 to put toward some special projects while there like goats, water, home improvements, etc. It is SO awesome to see his excitement and enthusiasm to serve the fatherless. I cannot wait to send him off, even though I hate the thought of him being gone. (However, I will let you in on a secret. I am super excited to pack his stuff. No really. I LOVE packing for Africa-I cannot explain it and it is weird and not normal, but it is like a fun game for me to make it fit all small and organized and airline approved. I know, seriously not normal.)

Aside from all the fascinating blueberry news I have to share (I may even go again tomorrow-I know, I am FASCINATING! ;) ), we are just gearing up for a fun 4th of July weekend. My sister in law is here in town with us for the weekend so we are excited to have fun swimming and doing parades and sparklers and cook outs and all the fun things that go with July 4th. I love the 4th because it is just fun, no stress with presents and fancy foods-just having fun outside and celebrating! I am off to go plan what foods we will be making for the cookouts and what fun other stuff we will be doing. What are YOU doing for the long weekend??

A CRAZY Prize For YOU and Just Our Regular Craziness, Too

Oh my goodness, I remember when summer used to be about being lazy and just hanging out having fun. Well, making sure my kids are having all that fun is EXHAUSTING! This week has been our church's inaugural "Summer Kids Club" and it has had an amazing turnout (over 240 kids!!) from our church and all around the community and has really been a ton of fun. My oldest Thing, however, opted out of the SKC for....middle school volleyball camp. Now, my kids go to an AMAZING private Christian school that is a fabulous community to be part of and I am so happy about her desiring to play volleyball and her spending time with those awesome girls but....did you catch the "middle school" in there? THAT is where I am not happy. I am not sure at all when my sweet little baby became a middle schooler but I am pretty sure I am not ready. Sigh. Anyhoo, the days have mostly consisted of getting sleepy girls up, driving one to volleyball (and feeling sad about it, every day-yes, I am that kind of mom...I know), driving the others to church and checking them in, then taking Thing 4 to do some other sort of crazy thing like blueberry picking (b/c I am not in my right mind...I will write about that disaster tomorrow-try to control your anticipation...) then turning right back around and doing the picking up of all the said Things and then feeding them all and then collapsing from tiredness. We were just not built to be a family that is on the go all the time-it makes me tired and maybe sometimes a wee tiny bit crankyish, possibly...

However, we have one more BIG EXCITING thing to end this week of crazy and this is where YOU come in!!!! If you have been around this blog much in the last couple years, you know we have a big heart for Africa and for some of the people living there who are in need of things we cannot imagine being without-things like clean water, food, PARENTS!! I have gone to Ethiopia a couple of times in the past year and now this summer my hubby is going to Uganda and Ethiopia. You can read about his trip and the background to his going on the trip and doing the Tri here. (he has his own blog now, how fun!) To help fund his trip and beyond, he is doing another triathlon THIS SUNDAY!! WOOHOO! The cool thing is that by him doing this triathlon, YOU could win some AWESOME stuff pictured below:

THE MEGA PRIZE PACK OF AWESOMENESS!!
•Any 1 Item from The Mama Sheep Shop – your choice!
•“Got Love” Beach Bag
•1 lb. bag of authentic Ethiopian coffee – whole beans or ground (BEST in the world, no joke)
•“Go-Mug” stainless steel and wood grain travel mug from Gobena Coffee
•Dude Perfect T-shirt – you pick the size – and bumper sticker
•Living Water International 25 oz. water bottle
•Baby Juddah’s Mustard Seed basket
•Gary Smalley book collection: 'Change Your Heart, Change Your Life', 'Great Parents, Lousy Lovers' and 'The DNA of Relationships'
•Mystery item from Uganda, to be revealed soon!
•who knows maybe something else, too…

Here is how it works-for only $10, you can enter the prize pack giveaway by guessing the time in which he will complete the race. The closest guesser to the actual time wins all that awesome stuff in the picture above and more! And as the donation amount increases, your number of guesses you can make (read:chances of WINNING) increases. And you don't even have to run, bike or swim. Oh yeah, for reals. Go to his site HERE-NOW! Go! and enter your guess-the tri is in just 4 DAYS! (I am considering entering a guest under a secret name so maybe I can win it all...but he may be suspicious when he sees the stuff around our house, hmmm....) If you don't want to do the guessing/winning the prize thing, there are also opportunities to sponsor him or his good friend who is also joining him to help raise $ (but who is not going on the trip, he is just doing it to help my hubby-what an AWESOME friend!) so you can jump in there, too. I feel as though my summer-induced exhaustion has made this whole explanation make not much sense so, go here to his blog and read for yourself and get in on the mega prize pack of awesomeness!

Are you still here? GO ALREADY!

But please come back tomorrow for the riveting story of blueberries and tears...I mean, who would want to miss that, right??

Check, Check....Is This Thing On?

Anyone? Anyone?......Bueller?.....

(one of the best movies ever, btw)

Well, I meant to take a bloggy break, but before I knew it it turned into almost 6 (much needed) months off! But, I have missed my bloggy peeps and lots of life has happened in those months so I thought maybe we might just pick right back up again, what do y'all think? If you are still around to say hi, give a shout out in the comments.

OH! I also need to catch you up on a cool prize opportunity you can get in on THIS week, too! I shared it on facebook but wanna share it here too so look for that in the next day or so :)


Missed y'all! :)

Hi!

It has been awhile, I know. I decided to just let some things go this holiday season, namely anything other than just hanging out with my family and cooking and enjoying my kiddos' Christmas break and time off from school. It was FABULOUS! Just to drop a lot of expectations I have put upon myself and just BE. It made the holiday break an amazing and resorative time for our whole family. However, getting back into school and the busyness that comes with that schedule has been less enjoyale. I was just not built for getting up before 9 am, particularly not in the winter, sigh....Anyone else wrestle with the cold, grey monotany of winter like I do?? Ugh, cannot wait till spring! BUT, this winter might just fly by a little faster because right now we are getting ready for a certain little guy named Juddah and my good friend Cherrie to arrive here Thursday evening and get things rolling on his surgery-God has been so amazing! We are really getting excited and my children have just really been so sweet about it-they went to the store this weekend and bought him little stuffed animals all on their own, it was their idea and they used their own money. I love their heart for others, not much more you could ask for as a mom!! The link to Juddah's blog is here and you can read about his arrival to the US. While you are praying for his arrival and such (and I KNOW you are ;) ), please pray for our family-two have fallen victim to a tummy bug and we have to have a healthy house for he and Cherrie to come stay in so pray it right out of here ASAP!! Thanks for the 2 of you still checking in here and hopefully next post will be a little sooner in coming! (AND have pictures, I know....lame)

Updates

I know I have been scarce around these parts but I wanted to stop in to say hey and share some exciting stuff. Since I last posted, my littlest Thing turned 2!! Woohoo! She has a huge personality and 'tude, loves anything she can fiddle and mess with, and also has had a verbal EXPLOSION in the past 3 weeks and has been hilarious with the new whole phrases she is coming up with daily. She was pretty behind on her language development so when all the sudden she has started not just saying some words but whole sentences, and hilarious ones with great inflection at that, it has been absolutely amazing. One of our favorites is when she runs up and literally pounces on you like a cat and says, "I gotchoo!" SO. STINKIN'. CUTE. Here is a picture to show off her 2 year old cuteness:

She keeps us running ALL the time though because she is a tornado so my energy and time to write is very very scarce right now. No worries, I know I will have more time again for writing some day!


Another VERY AWESOME thing that has been consuming my time is working to get little Judah (remember him? read about him here and here if you don't...) from Ethiopia some medical help. He has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus and fused cranial sutures and cannot get the life-saving surgery he needs there in Ethiopia. Please check out his blog here and read what has been going on. The most recent post shares the most incredibly awesome news though-there is a hospital here where I live that is willing to consider treating him and doing his surgery (donated!!) and so Cherrie, a friend with a deep passion for Korah and with whom I hung out with in ET in October, is flying here to go with me to a meeting with the hospital execs on Monday!!! Yeah, Lord!!!! Way to show off! Cherrie's multiple flights to ET in the last year have made it possible for her to fly here free so she is hopping on a plane in the morning. I CAN NOT WAIT for this meeting-it is surreal!!! I have no other words than PRAISE THE LORD! (And also maybe I better lay off the ALL CAPS and exclamation points!!!!) I will let y'all know how it goes! Please pray for all systems to be go b/c we still have a lot of hurdles to clear with his medical visa, TB and HIV tests, etc.

A Confession and Some Special Links

Y'all are great-I loved the comments about what things you look forward to about the holidays! Go read them from yesterday's post if you didn't have a chance so you can see what everyone shared! I should use more exclamation points!!!! And no worries about being super "spiritual" in your holiday traditions-we totally watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving weekend, too, haha!!! Also, my friend Kelly in the comments MIGHT have been being a teensy bit sarcastic about our housegroup because I will let you in on a secret-I HATE CHRISTMAS CAROLING!! I really do. I LOVE to sing, and I LOVE music, and I do lots of sing-y things, but I loathe Christmas caroling. I just hate tromping around ringing on doorbells and such and having to awkwardly stand there singing cheesy Christmas songs at people while they try to smile and not feel awkward also while they listen to you. The whole thing is weird to me and I am not a fan, sorry. I realize I may have just lost most of my 3 followers with that admission...;) But I am happy to be the one who stays behind and make hot chocolate and cider for the weary carolers to come back to at the end-does that count for anything??? (Oh, and in regards to the other part of the comment about miming, do not even get me started on how I feel about miming....)

Ok, now that I have painted such a lovely picture of myself, how about I share a few links that I think are worth taking a look at. First up is something that is VERY dear to my heart and is the exact post I have been trying to write for about a month or so now. It is a post written by a woman who is a missionary in Haiti and the post is about mission trips and working with impoverished people in other countries and a great book that we, too are reading. I have written, fretted over, edited, and ultimately deleted a post several times that was trying to say the very same things the author shared in this post so when I read it I was thrilled b/c now I don't have to try to write it, I will just link y'all to it and tell you to go read it! Ha, it is not being lazy, it is being efficient... I do believe it is worth your time to read it if you are at all interested in missions. Go ahead and read-I'll wait here.

One other link that I wanted to share is to my internet friend Christie's blog. Christie is moving to Uganda in just about 2 weeks to live and work in a village called Bugabo. She has partnered with local people there to help build a school and she will be teaching at this school as well. The children in the village need sponsors to pay for all the needs that go with getting an education. Now, before you say no thanks, get this-sponsorship for a child in ONLY $100 FOR A YEAR!! Hmm, that is less than $10 a month. $100 will cover tuition, uniform, shoes, school supplies, a meal during school, and medical/dental visits (as needed) for one year. That is a pretty sweet return on a small investment. I know not everyone can do this, but for all those of you who wanted to sponsor kiddos in Korah but missed the cut off, here is your chance in Uganda! Christie will be living in the village, with the children and families, in their culture, and being a part of helping them help themselves. In a time when everyone is looking for a "good deal", this is a pretty AMAZING deal for $100. Christie is very open to answering any and all questions about this, too, if you need more info so feel free to give her a shout about it. She has literally given up everything in her life, the entire American dream and all that comes with it, to live among these people she loves. Let's help her do it! Go check out her blog now, if you would please!

And since I have written several posts without pictures, I will leave you with one of my weird kids on Halloween just so you can have a complete picture of how our family rolls :)