Summer time.

Ahhhh…..it looks good on these kiddos!

We opened the pool for its first swim on Memorial Day!

I am trying to settle into to this new season of life!

The one where I fill three lunch coolers every morning, send my hubby and two oldest off to work, and spend the day here with the four youngest.

Would someone please tell me how that happened?!?

Chad and I are the new daytime team and doing our best to keep up with everything!

Including training the cutest puppy on the planet!

We have been doing some summer school in the mornings!

These kiddos LOVE “school”!

We have a lot of fun!

My need for a creative outlet blessed the littles very much, because I made new busy bags for them!

We also practice very simple things!

Tate and Eliza would do these things ALL day long if I let them!

We have been doing a unit study with the Little House on the Prairie books!

After I heard about audible on a podcast I listened to, I checked into it.

But it cost money that I wasn’t willing to spend!

So I looked on You Tube and found The Little House in the Big Woods audiobook for free!

I love to read aloud to the kiddos – it is one of my favorite things to do!

Having You Tube do it for me gives me precious time to run around and get some necessary things done!

I have been taking the kiddos to the library weekly.

We love books!!

Addie loved on the littles before work this morning by reading to them!

We worked on Plan B for our move over the long weekend.

We are looking into building our next home!

We took Lane with us as our special helper when we met with the builder on Monday morning!

We have designed a factory built home, and really like it!

Now we will be still and wait on the Lord!

We wonder if He will see fit to make this plan come to fruition!

We have been blessed with rain showers almost everyday this past week.

Not having to water the garden saves lots of time!

I took this photo while at a stop light on the way home from town Tuesday evening.

It was not raining – it was POURING.

I prayed out loud most of the way!

The roads were flooding, traffic was crazy, and it was slow going!

Other than all of those things…..and meals, floors, laundry, littles, laundry, meals, floors….did I mention littles?…..we have also been walking through a new chapter of our health journey.

Several of us have taken Craniobiotic Treatments to help our bodies heal from many different things we have going on – the biggest thing being chronic Lyme disease.

We take these treatments here.

There has been loads of healing going on around here for sure!!

We STAND AMAZED as we watch the Lord bless our efforts with these treatments!

That said, I personally started my treatments almost eleven weeks ago, and had the farthest to come out of all us.

It has been far from easy these last eleven weeks, but the Lord has allowed every need to be met, every commitment to be fulfilled, and each of us to be able to be what we needed to be when we needed to be it!

There has just not been energy for extra things for awhile!

I am starting to feel AMAZING – in a way I never thought possible – and so are some of our kiddos!

Getting choked up typing this – so let’s move on!

Feeling good meant a girls night out for some shopping and coffee!

Shop we did! Drink coffee we did!

Did my heart SO good to be with my girls!

I texted Blake this photo to show Grant, because Grant gave me a coffee gift card for Mother’s Day!

Thanks for the coffee on girls night out, Grant!

So thankful for this season of life!!

It feels like we waited forever for summer to arrive, and now it feels like it is flying by!

One thing I love about summer is that each day is so different than the one before it.

I still strive for a routine, a schedule, and a flow to our days – but we are not doing full time school right now, so it is a very flexible flow.

We also have had lots and lots of appointments to fill our mornings several days a week, and a new puppy to train!

The littles do so good on appointment days!

One appointment this week was for Chad to have some teeth pulled.

He was a trooper, and we had a quiet afternoon afterwards!

About that puppy we are training – we are absolutely smitten with her, as you can imagine.

But seriously now! Can you even resist this?

We have been doing some summer school.

School is always a hit here!

They beg for it.

Crazy kids.

We made some Johnny Cake one morning after reading about it in The Little House in the Big Woods!

We went on a mini field trip to the library one morning when it was hot, muggy and raining.

I love books. It has rubbed off on my kiddos.

I have not been good about taking photos with the big camera again.

Here is my dilemma though!

I took the camera when we went to the hay loft to play one rainy afternoon.

My first photo – no flash.

I didn’t think the coloring was so good! It looks blue.

My second photo – with a flash.

Way different, but I didn’t think the coloring was true either!

My girls can pick up a camera, change the setting and snap away.

Their photos are awesome!

I still took more photos with the flash on.

Well, cause the kiddos are so photogenic, I thought that maybe you all won’t notice the poor photography, ha!

Summer also means projects.

We have been working on moving projects a lot.

This week we cleaned both the attics.

Just not on the same day!

It was a BIG project.

Thankfully I had this girl home to help me!

She did tell me she charges $10 an hour though.

When I yelled “WHAT?” she changed her tune and said I could pay her in chocolate cupcakes.

Ok then.

The problem with cleaning and purging projects is all the fun things you find.

Fun things that may, or may not make you teary eyed!

No thanks to my reminiscing, we still got the project done!

Eleven empty totes, a huge van load dropped at Good Will, and gobs of stuff listed for sale on Craig’s List!

Our mornings are for school and working, and our afternoons are for playing!

The big pool should be warm enough and open soon, but for now the wading pool works!

While they play, I usually am working on something!

I have been making new busy bags – which the littles love, love, LOVE!

After a couple of Friday nights where Blake and I were not able to have a date night, last Friday we were able!

The van was overflowing with grocery! But it was still a great date!

Tonight is date night again!

I better get ready to go!

It’s FRIDAY you all!!!

And a three day weekend!!!

Please remember to think of and thank all of those brave men and women who have served our country as we celebrate Memorial Day.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!!!