Routine

Wake up, put on bathing suit. Go to bed, take off bathing suit. Repeat.

Birdhouse

Its summer. Kids are one year older. A little bit antsier. Mom a little bit lazier. Watching a little bit too much Dora. Time to get on a schedule......so we headed out to Walmart and got a ton of crafts. I decided its time to get my days organized. Wake up, eat breakfast. Get outside ie; walk, me doing yardwork (while its cool)/kids scootering and bike riding around; just play. Come in do a craft. Eat lunch. Quite time/naps. Pool. Sean comes home=day is over and I relinquish control.

Today was Day 1 of new schedule. Got up, out doing yardwork at 7am, kids played outside all mornig, perfectly....couple hangups, throwing rocks in the street, Skylar almost getting hit by a truck, and me mowing over my new black Gap flip flop.....pretty smooth for a morning, I'd say. Came in and put together and painted a bird house (Walmart purchase). Back outside to swim, back in to eat lunch and have quiet time, back out to swim again......worked great. Great day! I hope it keeps up as smooth. Next time I'm wearing tennis shoes when I mow.....I love flip flops....

Pics of the birdhouse: just needs seeds and it will soon be a happy home to a little bird family...

Skylars side:Calebs side:

Hats

Today my mom calls me and tells me she is concerned about Skylar. Skylar has been wearing a hat of mine around, every day. She wears this hat everywhere...she is obsessed with it. I think it looks adorable on her and I tell her she looks adorable. Well, my mom didn't think it looked adorable. In fact she thought it made her look too old and that she is losing her innocence by wearing this hat, that she is trying to act like a teenager at age 5. Now, my mom is awesome, I love my mom. I respect what she has to say about things and the fact that she has input in mine and my kids' lives.

So I was wrestling with it all morning. Thinking, "am I really corrupting my daughter by allowing her to wear this hat? when all she is wanting to do is mirror what I am doing?....." I was just wishing for SOMEONE to call and talk to about it with who had an older daughter and could give me some advice on this hat. Sounds so silly, a hat.....but its all things that are shaping our kids......so i am just like "who can I call? who can I talk to? I just want some advice". And God is like "I'm here". So I open my Bible and this is what I open it to, in Psalm 32 God says "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you" and I am like HELLO! Thank you SO much Lord! You are here, I don't need to call and "talk" to someone and get "advice" I have my all-knowing Heavenly Father available who knows my daughter so much better than I do and who knows her heart and how she ticks.....all I have to do is seek Him and ask and He will guide me as I guide her.

She is still wearing the hat.....and it looks adorable on her :)

Lake Siskiyou

I feel like my life right now consists of packing, unpacking, laundry, cleaning, laundry, and packing. We just got home late late Sat night and are now packing again to go camping tomorrow. I can't wait. Our good friends the Lances, mountain air, tents, campfire, bikes, lakes, kids being constant dirt balls...doesn't get any better. This is the one thing that redeems summers for me....camping. So much effort and hard work goes into getting everything packed and squared away, but the minute I get out of the truck and set up, all the hard work vanishes into goodness.....aahhhh...ready for goodness.....

Clutter

This is my house after cleaning it ALL day.....the kids decided to make a boat.....

So, as I am cleaning out all our rooms and getting rid of stuff (I hate clutter) it dawned on me that this is like the 3rd time in the 8 months we've lived here that I have cleaned out all our closets. Every time I throw away SO much stuff. How is this happening? Where is all the junk coming from? how are we accumulating THAT much stuff for me to have de-clutter every 2-3 months? Where are my treasures? Am I finding them in stores and storing up my treasures in our closets....where literal moths do come in to destroy them? It started making my stomach so sick as the reality starting settling in of all the CRAP we have. We have closets, we fill them. We have birthdays, we buy. We have bodies, we clothe the heck out of them. We have feet, we put a crazy amount of shoes onto them. We have kids, we think they need every TOY and item of clothing the stores carry, for them to just sit and collect dust in their closets. Why do we continue to buy into what our society tells us we have to have?

God keeps calling me back to simplicity. God lived a simple life. If we are being God's hands and feet....we should start buying a whole lot less shoes.

Ryder

Ryder turned 1 on Saturday.

I have mixed emotions about this. He is my baby....yet no longer a baby. Independent. Strong. I can no longer sit and cuddle with him, smelling his baby smell. He's off to discover the world, picking up the world scents as he goes along...dirt, sweat, bugs, boy.....No longer my baby to coo and awe over. I have to sit back and watch him grow and learn on his own.

So my baby is now a boy. A sweet, happy, funny, strong, curious little man. I can't wait to continue to watch as he groes into the man God put him here to be.

Flyin High

If I could be any superhero with any power.....I'd fly. I love the rush of being up so high, going so fast and having God's perspective at the world He created.

Saying that....we went flying yesterday. One of Seans cooks at the Club is getting his pilots liscence and his dad owns a private plane and flies. So they called yesterday and wanted to know if we wanted to go up. What a stinkin amazing experience!! God is SO beautiful! The Redding He created is so beautiful! Surrounded by all the amazing mountains, seeing Shasta Lake and Whiskeytown lake and Sacramento River from way up there is breathtaking! I was in awe the entire time. What an awesome experience!

Here's some pics:

Caleb Swimming and Ryder Walking

I knew he would just one day start swimming out of nowhere, I really didn't think it would be so soon though! He is freakin amazing!! only 3 1/2 and already tearin it up, crazy!

And Ryder has been trying to walk now for the last month or so....the last few days he has really been working hard on it. He is so determined! Skylar and Caleb both didn't walk till they were 16 mo, so 12 mo to me is amazing!!

Officially Summer

Skylar had her last day of Pre-K today. Its now officially summer. We've never had an official summer. I always imagined me dreading summers when my kids were in school....no longer having those lighter days of only two kids around the house... but now that its here, I couldn't be more excited to have Skylar home. I have actually been counting down the days till the end of school. I've been more excited than Skylar about it..... anyway so they had a bubble/play in the sprinkler party today for the last day. I called over a babysitter and went to spend the morning watching Sklar and all her little friends frollick around in bubbles and sprinklers. Couldn't have been more boring. I found myself wactching my watch more than the kids. But its over. Praise the Lord.

Happy Summer!

The kids and I went out to Tierra Oaks, probably for the last time and had an amazing "Last Day Of School" Celebration lunch. Thanks Babe! I so appreciate you taking care of us and serving us so many amazing meals :0)