Taking it Easy....

H aha haaa.... (like that's really possible)

I look around my house, and I can tell that I've been under-the-weather..... the laundry needing to be folded is stacked high, the floors need to be vacuumed, the kitchen counters are cluttered (which drives me nuts), and my to-do list requires more energy than I have :)So what do I do......

I take the kids outside to play with finger paints,





to run through the sprinkler,




and to eat Popsicles.....




and then blog about it while they nap :) I took some fun pictures of Chris, if you need more entertainment today, I thought they were cute so I posted them in my flickr album.

Off to do some housework and more preparations for our very busy July:)

Duplos Keeps Siblings at Play

While cooking dinner the kids asked if they could take out the Duplo blocks. I keep these blocks away for "rainy days"!!! Anyway, since I was busy in the kitchen I let them kids play...... and I really didn't see them or hear anything but laughter and make-believe play for almost half and hour. It's then that I found this:)























Ahhhh, after a hard day it's nice to see them playing together and having fun:)And the Duplos have been soo nice (a borrowed toy from Grammie). In fact Grammie has collected more Duplos and the kids had a BLAST with them while we were at her house last weekend!!!

And we had a few successes, Christopher did pretty well with some potty training! So that's pretty exciting:)

Disciplining Challenges

Man, we've had a challenging morning. I'm not sure why.... but this week (starting on Sunday) has been soo challenging. Sunday evening Christopher wouldn't even walk into the front doors of the church..... Brian had to take him back out before we even got IN!!

It's hard to really desire a loving, gracious, and peaceful home and then listen to the whining and arguing that occurs on a regular basis. And what I find even more draining is that some days I find myself constantly having to discipline, correct and referee.

My comfort has been these few verses:

"If you refuse to discipline your son, it proves you don't love him; for if you love him you will be prompt to punish him." Prov 13:24 (Living Bible)

"Discipline your son while there is hope" Prov 19:18

"My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right." Prov 23:15

My theme with the kids this week has been "Being Peacemakers"! I've already heard Anna telling Christopher, "That's not nice, you're not being a peacemaker!" So, they're listening and hopefully starting to understand how and why as we talk about it throughout the week.

Conserve Gas, Travel Together!!!

Yes, it is possible to fit 7 people, including 5 "car seats", into a mini-van :)


Let me just say that the three kiddies in the back.... had their boosters in tight. But they had their own car seat space and they were fine. They also all got along VERY well which makes a BIG difference:) And it was nice for Momma to have some adult conversation:)

And on the way home we had the five kids (of course) and a van load of groceries!!! So hopefully my family won't have to make any grocery trips out......

Weekend at Grammies

We took a mini-vacation last week....we headed up to see Grammie:) We'd been battling colds and fevers for the last two weeks so we all needed to get out:)

At Grammies we had a FULL vacation...we had swimming, movie date for Brian and I, steak dinner, biking at the beach, hamburgers and milkshakes late at night (like 11:30... Grammie's a night owl), time at the playground and more swimming..... we came home last night exhausted!!!

Enjoy some of our favorite pictures....and watch our little fish. Even Anna (once she knew she could touch the bottom) ventured into the middle of the pool (at least the middle of the shallow end)and Christopher is fearless!!

Summer memories saved at www.OneTrueMedia.com