Friday, July 14, 2017

Popping in...

The problem with setting goals (at least blogging goals) is that I feel super guilty when I don't meet them.  Yeah, like that little goal of posting here once a week...you know, the one that lasted for about 6 weeks, and then I didn't post anything from the beginning of March until now?  And then I feel like I'm so far "behind," and there are so many things I missed...Sam's birthday and our Ohio trip and VBS at church and, and, and... Then it's hard for me to jump in and just post SOMETHING!  But anyway, here I am...popping in to say hi to anyone who might still have my poor neglected blog in their newsfeed somewhere. :)  I'm not even going to recap the past few months right now, I'm just going to ramble a bit for a few minutes and see what happens.

It's chilly here today, in the low 60s.  This is pretty rare for July!  We've had a pretty rainy/cool summer so far, with just the occasional day or two of hot, muggy weather.  I can't say I mind the cooler weather, though it would be nice to see the sun a little bit more often. ;)

And I also want to know WHY summer goes by so crazy fast?!  June didn't seem too bad, but July is flying by like it's out of control.  I have/had so many things on my to-do list for this summer, and there are still lots of them I haven't had time to tackle yet.

I'm sure everyone is eager for some kid pics, so we'll start with Miss Ari:
 This girl cracks me up so much sometimes!  One day she was tired and decided to lie down on the couch with her...blender?!  I posted this on Facebook with the caption, "What? Doesn't every girl snuggle with her blender when she gets sleepy?"
Another day this happened while I was vacuuming...she actually took a pretty long nap like this! 
Ari is now 2 years and 8 months old.  (Just another example of how time goes by crazy fast.) Everybody tells you the days are long but the years are short, and it's all too true!  She is becoming such a big girl these days.  I had two goals for her for the summer: get her potty trained and get her weaned (yes, she was still nursing once a day...longest I've ever gone with any of the kids!).  Well, I'm happy to say we have tackled both and accomplished both, before the end of the summer!!!  Yay, Ari!!  Oh, she still has the occasional little oopsie in her undies, and I still put a diaper on her at nights, but she usually wakes up dry.  I'm so proud of her.  It feels so good to have her at a more independent stage, and it also feels SO GOOD to finally be getting a full night's sleep almost every night!!!

The big kids are all having a good summer too.  I had planned to keep them going with some schoolwork, but that lasted until almost the end of June and then we took a break.  It's all good...we'll just jump back in where we left off in a few subjects and start fresh in others.  They did their CAT (academic testing) the last week in June and that went pretty well.  It's nice to be taking a break from school for a bit, although I am already in planning mode and have that on my mind a lot.  I will have an 8th grader this coming year, which means high school is looming, and THAT makes me a bit nervous!!  Here are a few random pics from this summer:

I got my hair cut in June, and later that week I bought a flat iron to play around with.  It's been fun to straighten my hair on occasion, and I can also make curls with it!  I like playing with curls on Julia...so pretty! :)
 When we got back from Ohio in mid-May, the bugs had just come out and they were BAD.  Julia was not impressed!  One weekend we worked on the flower garden and got it looking beautiful for summer.  My bleeding hearts were gorgeous this year!
 A little collage from one Sunday in May.  I received the beautiful bouquet from my secret sister at church!  Also, this was my first time doing a bun in Ari's hair...she and Julia loved having matching hairstyles. :)
 We got new chicks after we got back from Ohio.  Ordered 18, they sent 20, and 1 died, so we ended up with 19.  We had them in the house for a couple weeks till they got too big and stinky, and the kids had fun with that!
 Julia and Josiah each ordered 4 chicks of their own (different breeds)...Julia brought some of hers in her room to snuggle a few times.  I think she wished they would stay little longer!  
 We had a lot of rain/flooding in our area the weekend of July 4th.  We dressed up for the holiday for church that Sunday and got a few pics in front of the flooded river.  Down there where the flagpole is, there is a little amphitheater where the college does outdoor plays sometimes, and it was pretty full of water.  The church kids had actually been playing games down by the flagpole at VBS the week before!
 Less shadowed pic, but the sun was in their eyes!
 Family selfie

With that I will stop for now, because I have a kitchen in great need of some attention!  I'll try to post again soon.  Oh, it's felt so good to sit down and chatter a bit!  I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer so far!!


5 comments:

Mrs.T said...

Yay, a post from Carrie!!! Answer to prayer!

And yes, July does feel as if it's out of control. It is just GOING! Way too fast.

So enjoyed reading the post. Ari's strange substitutes for stuffed animals while napping are very interesting!

Carrie said...

Well that was fast! :) Yes, Ari is a nut with her choices of what to snuggle with! I don't think she actually ended up napping when she had the blender...it wasn't long before bedtime and she was just tired. The other time, I managed to extricate the wooden toy from her grasp after she fell asleep and subbed in a stuffed animal instead. ;) Thanks for the comment! I hope to post more consistently soon!

Mrs.T said...

Woo hoo!!😂

Nikki said...

So happy to see you had updated. :)

Carrie said...

Thanks, Nikki! It's good to be back. I'm glad you're still reading! :)