Dirt, flowers, little joys

He loves the dirt. You should see our bathtub after his soak. 

A church here in town has a little community garden and a park that we love! We discovered it this summer and that park offered a shady lunch spot for us. A walk through beautiful flower and vegetable gardens! It offered a place for Hazel to do her thing on the monkey bars. And swings too which Oren loves. Their gardens yesterday evening looked so beautiful.

New camera, new fun

Vance "Can you tell a difference between your new camera compared to your old one?"

My answer "yes"

Vance bought me a new camera in Spokane yesterday! I have had my current, well now previous, camera almost seven years. I would guess I have taken 80,000 pics on that camera. It has been great! A Canon, this one is also a Canon. 

Last night I think I probably took 150 pictures. When he handed me the camera I went right out to the chickens. I think I scare my husband sometimes.

But then I found this cute little 3 year old who actually WANTED to pose! 

He's dabbing here.

 The smile started to get cheesy. Gosh, those are the best.
Side note about Oren. We brush his teeth every night and he still fights it, every night. I mentioned this at the dentist. They said "well, if you brush them every night, he will get used to it and will not fight you." Evidently they don't know Oren aside from the 6 month dental visit.

Tuesday

Baseball in Spokane was beautiful! Perfect weather. Great ball playing!

The days are flying by. 

The responsibilities are great. For kids and for parents. 

I sometimes wish for a bit more down time, but mostly the days are full in a positive way. 

The memories we make, good friends, and PRAYER get us through! 

An orthodontic appt for Merit today. Willem has a football game, a night game! Hazel and Willem have color wars at school today. It is spirit week. Hazel will wear orange. I think we are going to make her hair orange too and Willem's color is blue. Oren is ready for pushing trucks, being silly and hanging with mom.

I watched a mother and her adult daughter Saturday spending a relaxed weekend day together...although happy for them, I got this heartsick, homesick feeling. It happens sometime. Kind of like my stomach hurts and I miss my mom so much. We can't really anticipate the days or times when this may come on. 

My sister Lesha told me about waiting on a couple at Fairway Cafe a month or two ago. The husband wife were friends of my parents years ago. She probably had not seen Lesha in the past 20 years. She discovered who Lesha was and made the connection who our mom was. The lady just started crying. Lesha told me that was a day that Lesha was doing just fine waiting on customers, enjoying her job (I love that she does!) but this woman became emotional, thinking of her friend who had died and then seeing her friends daughter. 

Yesterday my friends Maria and Shannon and I were texting about some big stuff then little stuff. Funny stuff then heavy stuff. It made me think that this is the odd, sometimes challenging, balance we have to be okay with. Each day has big concerns, sometimes hurts too but there is so much good to be seen and enjoyed also. Raising these kids is hard! And great! And although sometimes we may be pushed to our limits or spread a bit thin, there is a lot of JOY in this day to day stuff! And there is a lot of community in good friends. Between my girlfriends, sports friends, the parents I connect with through the kids school, it is a great sense of support.

These kids are creative outside! Building trails, making up games...

HAPPY TUESDAY!! 

I think all we needed was a Saturday

My kids play some of the most strange, most fun made up games! Maybe all kids do! I know the five of us, me and my siblings, did when we were kids. We actually still do.

They ran around with totes and buckets, trying to catch falling leaves...

Oh Golly! Merit may not like it that I am posting these pics. ha ha! 

They laughed and laughed! 

I think we all really needed a Saturday!