June

So, it has been a long time since I have blogged, yet again! Our summer has been busy, but I really have just not felt like writing when I do have the time.

I have always liked word puzzles, but never been interested in crossword puzzles - until now. So now, in my spare time, I find my book of crosswords and can waste away 20-30 minutes without even knowing it.  I have actually became burnt out on other types of word puzzles that I used to do, so I may eventually burn myself out with these also. I also have been reading magazines and a couple books. I have been trying to get a study of James by Beth Moore done (that I began quite a while ago), but the lessons are really long, so it is difficult to really finish them in one setting, especially when you have to stop every 5 minutes to answer a question, break up a fight, or get a kid a drink.

The only regularly scheduled activity we kept from the school year over the summer was Elias' drum lessons.

I was going to just do one blog post that was a quick synopsis of what we'd done so far this summer, but I realized that the post was getting extremely long, so I decided to make this post just about June.


So all summer we have had neighbor kids at our house practically every day, sometimes multiple kids at multiple times in one day. I never grew up in a neighborhood that had kids and always wish I had, so I try to remember that when my house is loud and the door is sitting open again and again. When our neighbor kids aren't here, we often have the kids school or church friends visiting too. Some days I have had to tell the kids that the neighbors have to go home, just because I would like to see my own kids and have a conversation with them! They don't understand this, but I don't like putting them to bed and feeling like I barely saw them all day!

We started the summer off busy as usual! We attended my friend Cassi's 30th birthday party on the first Friday of our summer break. Josh took Elias to travel soccer try outs, but they came afterward. (As a side note, I was really proud of Elias. He tried out for travel and made the team, but decided he would rather play on the local team and turned it down.) Then Saturday, Josh ran a soccer tournament while I took Bella yard saling. Then we went to our friend Bella's dance recital. It was quite a full weekend!

Cassi and Bella at Bella's dance recital.

The week after school ended, the kids had swim lessons every morning. The first week of lessons, the kids went to a VBS that they go to every year and they kept inviting friends, so by the end of the week, we actually had to take 2 cars to transport them all! I got tons of exercise that week, because I walked on the track beside the pool in the mornings during the kids lessons and then Josh and I walked on the rails-and-trails in the evenings.

This is Elias with his swim teacher, David. He really liked him a lot. This is the picture I seem to have taken at swim lessons. I thought I had taken more, but there are none in my files.

On the second week of lessons, we had use of our friend's pool who was on vacation. So we would leave lessons and then head out to her house to swim. I continued to walk on the track that week. It felt great to get regular exercise, that was so convenient to do!

At our friend's pool.

The following week, our church had "Big Kicks Soccer Camp". Basically, it was VBS with a soccer theme. It was a crazy, HOT, busy week, but it was so much fun and we actually had some great family time that week. Josh coached and I helped with registration and the food for the special events and the kids both participated. Elias was on Josh's team and Bella was on "Coach D's" team. She is a teen who used to be in the youth group when we were leaders and Bella really looked up to her a lot. She is not extremely interested in soccer, so I was really glad that she enjoyed it. And the only night that the camp was completely rained out was Friday. We just went to the church and had ice cream and watched a slide show of pictures, which we had planned on doing anyway outside at the park. I think it actually worked better at the church, so it was actually a blessing in disguise.

Josh and his assistant coaches

Bella and Coach D

Elias got his face painted during the hot dog dinner, which occurred before camp started on Wednesday and he had sweat it almost completely off in the first 5 minutes of playing!

Also, that week I babysat for a friend's baby all day Monday. My kids were great helpers for the first 5 hours and kept saying they wished they had a little sister or brother, but by afternoon, their enthusiasm to help had waned quite a bit! But she was a great baby and the day went amazingly smooth, even though we had two different appointments that day - one being a dentist appointment for me, which I was the most worried about! She sat in the stroller and seemed enthralled!

Elias kept putting his hat on her and taking pictures while I was getting my teeth cleaned. I was so afraid he was going to end up frustrating her by doing it, but she was a trooper and never fussed once!

Then on Thursday of that week, my friend, Dawn, and I went to a Harry Connick, Jr. concert. I had scheduled it with her before I realized that the camp was the same week. We had such a good time. She was one of my first friends that we made when we moved to Fairmont and we used to meet on a weekly basis for Bible study and accountability, etc. But since I had Bella, we hardly ever get together anymore, so it was so nice to have some dedicated time with her and we seemed to pick up right where we left off.

And, finally, on Saturday of that same week the kids and I attended a birthday party for our friend, Bella, who was turning 5, at a gymnastics center. Josh stayed home to help a friend move.

So that is what our June looked like! Look for the July post to follow!