My poor, neglected blog . . .

Oh, my. I had such good intentions to keep up with blogging every few days (or at least once a week!) this summer, and look what happened. :( Just so you know, this post may be very looooong and rambling, so I can catch up with you all!

My brain is in overdrive right now, I think. We are leaving early Friday morning for our trip to Ohio. We will be spending a week with Jim's family, and are all super excited about that! I'm busily making lists, planning, cleaning, cooking . . . and tomorrow, packing. My mom came over yesterday and helped me with a ton of cleaning and dish washing (bless her heart!!). In the meantime, Josiah is getting more teeth and has been having some interesting diapers, which led to an icky rash . . .poor little man! It seems to be better now, and I'm hoping it'll be completely cleared up for our trip.

Jim has had almost no work all summer, and we are praying for wisdom about that. If you guys think of us, could you lift us up about this, too? I would appreciate it! He's applied for a maintenance job and will be looking at other possibilities after we get home from our trip. It's a little weird to be looking for "normal" jobs after 10+ years of being self-employed. I think there is just not enough work to go around right now for the "little guys." We are praying for God's will and leading to just the right thing. I would hate for him to be in a job that he hates, you know? We are thankful for God's gracious provision for us through these months that have been tighter financially.

Being without work has had its perks, too, though . . . we've been getting a LOT of work done in the house!! (Of course I'm using the term "we" very loosely . . . I guess I've helped a tiny bit by handing him stuff or keeping the kids out of his way!) Jim built an awesome closet in our bedroom, and is in the process of finishing the kitchen. Here is the closet (we still need to urethane it; that's why it looks so pale :)).

He also put doors on the master bath cabinet at the same time!!! I have some wonderful new drawers in the kitchen, including this one for spices. Isn't it great?! And these:

I've loved being able to organize everything better. Next step--a few more drawers, and then doors and drawer fronts for the rest of the cabinets!! :)

I completely fell off the wagon with my plans to do some schoolwork through the summer. You know how I had planned to do reading with Sam 2 or 3 days a week? Well . . . it hasn't happened. And I'm really not beating myself up about it that much. :) We've had a great summer with lots of fun and flexibility, and while I'd like for Sam to be further ahead than he is, I'm not going to stress about it. I've caught him sounding stuff out on signs and books now and then, which made me realize he hasn't forgotten everything, anyway! I wasn't really sure what we were going to do for this coming school year. My original plan was to move on to the next Sonlight core (K), but with finances being tight, I didn't know how we were going to do that. Well, last weekend I started looking at used Sonlight curriculum online, and found a lady who was selling Core K . . . and who graciously let me buy just the parts that I needed, and even threw in some extra science stuff, for an excellent price. It looks like we will end up spending around $200+ for everything we need for this year, rather than the $500+ we would have spent to buy it all new. What a huge blessing!!!

I also completely fell off the weight loss wagon!! I SO need to get back on, but I'll wait till after vacation. :) I don't think I've gained back more than a couple of pounds, but I'm still quite a ways from my goal. Here's to healthier habits in the fall! :) I hope to start blogging my progress again soon.

We've done a couple of beach days with friends this summer, and hopefully we'll fit one more in sometime in August. I love our beach so much. Well, it's not "our" beach, but you know what I mean. :) The lake is so clean and it's just an all around nice place. And there's this older lady who works at the entrance gate, who has been there since I was a kid . . . and looks exactly the same now as she did 20 years ago. (Seriously.) Anyway, here are a few pics from our most recent beach day, just because I know that posts with pictures are more fun. :)

And now . . . I'd better get back to work around here so I don't leave all the work for tomorrow! Hope you guys are all having a great summer!! Hopefully I'll have time to update at least once while we're away . . . and you can probably expect a slew of posts and pictures when we get back, too. :)

Oh yeah, and one other thing I just remembered--the mama robin is sitting on three eggs in the same nest again! We won't be here when they hatch, but we should get to see most of the growing-up process again. Yay!