August Fun!

Summer is rolling right along! It is pretty crazy how quickly July flew by and now school supply signs are up in every store. Speaking of school supplies.....we don't have to go buy some huge crazy, specific list!! Somehow I have a really good stockpile of notebooks and pencils, folders and binders so I think we are pretty good. The supplies we will need will probably be more for science experiments and such:)

We went swimming last week...twice! The first time was at my friend's in-law's pool. It was nice to not have to share pool space with a bazillion other people! It was a mostly fun time (more on that in a sec....)

Swimming time wouldn't be complete with out goggles and noodles!

S getting ready to dive....

Woo!

Big splash:)

They did NOT want to go home!

Eliana sitting on her towel eating lunch with her friend Olivia;) As I mentioned, we mostly had a great time. We haven't been able to afford many swim lessons with the kids. Only a few sessions for the boys and none for Eliana. Samuel has grown in confidence since last summer with swimming but Zakkai has not.

When we first got there, we lathered on sunscreen and then I told the kids they had to wait with my friend while I ran into the bathroom before they could get in the pool. I came back out a couple minutes later to find Zakkai in the water at the edge of the pool, with my friend, still dressed in her cover-up, holding him from behind!

Apparently, he had reached over the edge of the deep end to get a pool noodle or something and fell in headfirst!! Samuel saw him a second later and yelled but no one heard him. Then Z was able to get out a scream for help and my friend dove in. He was very shaken up, as was I!

So, then he was totally fine swimming with a pool noodle the rest of the time until about 20 minutes before we were going to leave, when he got to close to the slide down into the deep end (where the floor of the pool slides down) and he slid down and screamed  and totally panicked! My friend and I reached him at the same time and got him out and calmed down and then we practiced swimming with him the rest of the time. He didn't want to go back in at first but we made him practice his strokes and he was improving by the end!

He was a mess the rest of the night. Teary and emotional. We put him to bed early but he came back down crying and needed another prayer and a long hug:(

We went swimming again this weekend with friends at the public pool and he did completely fine and had a fun time! We definitely need to work on his confidence so this doesn't happen again!

I had a cleaning job the other day at my uncle's parent's house and they put out bubbles for the kiddos to play with. They were blowing some huge bubbles!!

Samuel's first sunflower bloomed!

Eliana and cousin Evy playing my piano:)

Swinging at the park!

A day at the splashpad a couple weeks ago!

Water play outside on a day we were stuck at home!

Exhausted after a busy week and a family dinner on Friday night! :)

My amazing Vitamix!!! We throw all kind of things in there. This one looks like coconut milk, spinach, carrots, grapes, apples, strawberries, pineapple, flax seed and a little honey, etc.

And it turns into this!! It's a different color every day:) So yummy!!

I am trying to find more ways to fight the on-going budget battle so I decided to make napkins so we can re-use them! It took awhile because we have been SO busy lately but I finally finished them last week! 15 napkins made out of some of Ben's old dress shirts, an old pillowcase and some fat quarters:)

Have a great day!

Closing summer and making plans.

 Our boys survived their first week at a brand-new school! This week didn't look anything like we originally thought it would, a couple months ago. I told the boys we would probably be settled in our new place long before school started and have time to scope out the area and meet some kids at the parks, etc.

Instead, we chewed our fingernails to bits (figuratively speaking, of course!), waiting and waiting for the answer to prayer that was sure to come before school started.....only to have the answer not be the one we hoped for. I am SO proud of my boys for doing as well as they did this week. They did a whole lot better than their mama, that's for sure.

The 2nd and 3rd days of school went a lot smoother than the first (the drop-off was frustratingly chaotic) and the boys had some really good things to say. Samuel even got rewarded for good listening at school on a behavior chart all the classes have. He felt really good about that!

My grandma has been hauling us all over town for the past month since Ben started his jobs. The kiddos are in a tight squeeze in the back of her little Taurus, which makes for many repeated reminders that we are in a small space together and need to keep our voices DOWN. But they are happy kiddos, even if ornery:)

Last Saturday, we got to spend some much-needed time with Grandma and the boys cousins! We had a very full day, starting with brunch! We ate, then played at a cute park, went to Target, had frozen yogurt and ended up at the river to throw rocks:)

4 boys and one little princess:) (one boy is missing from the picture!)

That's Eliana carrying her brother's pirate sword around. She's pretty ferocious, isn't she?!

They had so much fun it was hard to tear them away!! We had such a nice day:)

On Tuesday, my trio and I decided to have one last little hurrah before the busy school season started. We headed over to the pool and were one of the first to arrive! It was a pretty low-crowd kind of day, for which we were very thankful.

The boys had SUCH a good time and actually spent time swimming (finally!) and did not want to leave. I feel like they finally got the hang of swimming and relaxing at the pool, only to have the season end!

Buddies:) (Well, okay, let's be honest here. This came after some screaming on Eliana's part and a refusal to scoot over on Z's part. But finally the law won and peace was made.)

Chillin' in his own chair:) He has begged to go back to the pool every day this week!

And something fun! Guess whose book is out?! That's right. Check out that name at the top!

And it's a doozy, too, coming in at 508 pages. Yes, sirree Bob, that's a whole lotta work that went into that book. 4 years to be exact....Oh, well, 5 if you count the painful process of editing!

Don't be asking for a copy anytime soon, though. A) You probably won't understand very much of it:) and B) It costs a whopping $160 a book. Wow.

Ben likes to say that it also doubles as a fly-swatter, a cure for insomnia or a great window-holder upper. His joking aside, I am super proud of him! He accomplished what few people can with his studies and even though we can't exactly see how God will use his knowledge and giftings, we are trusting that someday we will!
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And as for other updates, Eliana got into preschool! It's been very difficult to sign up for anything at all since our whole life has been up in the air but we found a place for her 2 days a week and she is SOOO excited! She was bringing her book bag to her brothers' school open house and wanting to put her supplies inside their desks (break my heart!) so we kept assuring her we would find something soon! This just fell into place a few days ago, very easily. And as I am needing to count all of my blessings right now, however big and small, I am very thankful for this! She starts in just over a week.

Also, we are trying to learn not to be stressed out by deadlines because we are learning that our timelines and God's are apparently not the same. Boo. We only have until September 1st here before we absolutely have to leave. The only way we could get a really brief extension would be if we could tell them a specific date we were moving into a new place. The board has been gracious enough to allow us to stay here all summer but the time has come for us to move on.

Not that we haven't been trying. I admit, I have been incredibly discouraged and frustrated this week by all of the dead-ends and bizarre experiences we have had with trying to find a place to live. We have never ever had trouble like this. Some days I really want to give up and move to England. Please pray, of course, that this would be the week God would open up something for us, but most of all, for me to fix my eyes on Him and not on things that I think would make things easier. Like, I don't know.....having a place to live and being able to settle and make plans. Things like that. I'm having a hard time letting that go and keeping my eyes upwards and I really need some prayer for grace.

After all, drawing close to our Father, in the midst of trials and pain, shows us that nothing here on earth can really ever satisfy us or give us true peace. I need to learn where my true source of Peace is and draw from it (Him), instead of assuming I'll feel peace once my prayers are answered. Tough lesson to learn.

And I think I'd rather learn my lesson asap instead of feeling the way I have this past week or two....

More swimming and sweet teeth.

We are staying busy over here in Ohio. My niece has been spending lots of time with us and thinks her cousins are pretty cool:) We were a bit cooped up yesterday without a car and we were all going nuts by the time Ben got home! He had a 2 day job with my brother-in-law, which was nice.

 

Today, though, he left the car so that I could gain some sanity and get my cooped up birdies out and about!

I decided to snap some pics of our cuties while we were driving back to my grandparent's place the other day. Samuel was being moody but we coaxed a smile out of him and I took a picture to tease him:)

So then, of course, Miss E wanted a picture, too!

Zakkai insisted he wanted a picture all by himself. Poor kid gets stuck in the back of the van all the time because Samuel gets carsick very easily and claims the middle seat. Or dominates, I should say! We try to have them switch every so often, despite the grumbling from elder brother.

The two little girls had a fun bath the other day and neither one wanted to get out!! It will be so fun to see these two grow together:)

We were able to get some swimming in today before more thunderstorms came.

It's such a cute pool and the kiddos have a blast!

This is Zakkai listening to my mom telling him that if he is brave enough to go down the slide, she will go, too! That definitely peaked his interest!

Eliana's glasses matched her bathing suit perfectly!

My sweet Mama!

We had some sad news this week, too. My stepdad's brother passed away unexpectedly 2 days ago, which really shook everyone up. He was only 48 years old. It was really a tragic death and their youngest brother is suffering terribly, as they were beyond close. I will be going to the viewing/funeral on Thursday. He was a really quiet man, like my stepdad, but really nice and I was genuinely looking forward to seeing his brothers again now that we are back here. So very sad. We would definitely appreciate prayers for his brothers. (my stepdad and his youngest brother.) It will be very hard for them. Their parents also passed away at early ages and they only have a few aunts and uncles left.

Most of our family are heading out tomorrow for a family wedding so we will be all by our lonesome selves for almost a week. We keep teasing them that here we just moved to be close to everyone and they are all abandoning us! We may take some time to start hunting for a home. Ben also has a couple of interviews for some part time jobs lined up this week. We are praying things will start to come together soon.

If we stay here much longer, we will have to curb the dessert eating! My grandparents have some serious sweet teeth and it's a very bad influence on us;) We haven't minded too much, of course, as we have our own set of sugar-lovin' teeth but it will be good for us to behave!

Remind me of that when I start craving some of the Caramel Praline Pecan ice cream in the freezer tomorrow.....:)

Strawberry Picking and Swimming!

 We are really feeling at loose ends here in Ohio. It is the oddest feeling to be homeless. We are wanted and loved here and very thankful for the welcoming arms that have enveloped us, however, there is such a sense of displacement that we feel. It is very hard to convince ourselves that we are not just visiting and that soon people won't be asking us, "How soon are you heading back?" Well, hopefully they won't be asking us that! It wouldn't be a good sign....:)

We are really hoping and praying that things (especially a job and a home) fall into place soon because then I think we can truly believe that we are here and begin to find our place to fit in. Thankfully, our kids seem to be doing really well now that we are all a little more rested. Eliana had a very tough time Sunday and through the night. She was beyond emotional, asking when we were going back to our home, and cried and cried and couldn't be more than a foot from me at all times. After a couple of days of naps and good sleep, she is back to her happy self. Although, the question of "home" is a good one...

We have had some happy times with our families though. Yesterday, we got to go strawberry picking nearby which was a first for us!

It was a beautiful day and surprisingly, there were a lot of juicy, ripe strawberries left to be found, picked and eaten!

Eliana only needed to be told once not to pick the small, white berries. She was very proud of her finds!

Cutie;)

My cute little niece came, too, and ate her way up and down the rows! We finally had to put a stop to that so she wouldn't make herself sick:)

Samuel found lots of good strawberries!!

Zakkai did, too, but he only wanted to show off his favorite one:)

We were also gifted with a pool pass here so we went yesterday afternoon! There is a really great kids area with sprinklers and steering wheels and all sorts of fun water play. We had a great time!

Ben was with us, too but during the rest time, he got in for the adult swim while I held the children at bay:) They thought it was terribly unfair that the kids had to get out! But I, for one, am thrilled at the idea of a childless swim period as I am not too fond of being sprayed in the back and head with water guns and splashed! Call me a wimp if you must...

Brothers! They didn't quite work up the nerve to go down the big slide into the pool but I bet that will come by the summer's end! They are hoping we will go swimming tomorrow again:)

Silliness!

Today we spent some good time with Ben's mom (or "Daddy's mommy" as Eliana likes to call her) and Grandma, which was really nice. The kids love to play with his Grandma's collection of stuffed animals and are highly entertained by them! Z also played on her organ, too, which I forsee being a future favorite.

We had lunch with Grandma and got to play a fun game with her. We are so looking forward to spending more time with her!

Now to convince ourselves that this isn't just a vacation.....