The try-athlon is over! I'm starting to tick summer activities off the list. This week we are hoping to finish up some 4-H projects before the July 4th weekend! If we get the pop-up, we want to go camp with my sisters for a few nights. The kids are looking forward to seeing their cousins more than I can explain. We only see the Grayless family once or twice a year, so it means a lot!
When we get back it will be the week to take projects to the fair and Steve's brother's wedding. Then we head to Twin Lakes Camp the week after that. When we get back, my friend from Cedarville will be here for a week. I'm trying to think of neat things to do around Kokomo if anyone has any ideas. She has already seen the Steer and the Stump, so what more does Kokomo have to offer? LOL! After that week, it is pretty much a blur, but I know Esther goes to camp and Hannah and Sarah go to camp. In mid August Hannah and Sarah are also heading to Word of Life Camp in NY. We will pick them up and start our vacation from there. There is just never a dull moment around here!
The mudding at church is going pretty well, and I'm hoping I can get out and prime the walls in the next few weeks.
Well, I better go get supper for the kids since it is 7:00 pm. Noah just came in with a bowl of cereal. Shame on me!

Josh

I thought I would celebrate Josh's birthday with a picture of him at about one week. He sure doesn't look 10.5 pounds, but he really was.

Time to finish those projects!

I've given the girls one week to get their 4-H projects finished. Do I think it will happen? Not really! Especially since they have a Spanish final tomorrow and the try-athlon on Saturday. Right now they are all sitting in front of Steve's new laptop watching National Treasure though. What's a mom to do? Stay up late the night before the fair, I guess! :)

I've been taking the kids swimming every day trying to get Esther ready for her swim. I've reached to point where I told her she could just hang onto the lane divider floats. The poor girl is really struggling. She is super strong for a seven year old, but she isn't a fan of putting her face in the water.

I also had two kids finish their reading club cards today. I opted NOT to do the read-on boards! Craziness would be how I would describe our family checking in books at the library.

I think Josh had a pretty good birthday today. He was happy to get to swim and really liked opening his presents. I always loved having a summer birthday, and I think he will too. He did accomplish potty training over the last few weeks, for which I am VERY happy!!

Well, I feel just a bit more sane after blogging for a while. Why is that? This has just been an incredibly busy week!
If anyone has a free morning on Saturday (LOL - does anyone have free time anymore?), Hannah starts her race at 8:30 am and Esther starts at 9:45 am. They swim at Kokomo Beach then ride around Foster park, and finally run around the Beach and back into the park. I'm sure they would love a cheering section!

Forgot to mention that I found my calendar . . . actually, Sarah found it in her bookbag. Hmmmm! Unfortunately, I washed my cell phone tonight though. Yes, I did that to Steve's phone last month too.

Is it really almost July? Sure, the buy one, get five free fireworks signs are all over Kokomo, but didn't school JUST get out? Uggg! I think I need five months of summer!

Tonight we finished up Nathan's baseball season. He really seemed to enjoy it, but right now we are thinking it may be his last year in baseball. Of course, we thought that last year too. :)

Next Saturday is the Try-athlon for Hannah and Esther. I've been trying to get a little training in with them, which just isn't an easy thing around here. Hannah will do just fine, but I'm a little concerned about Esther's swimming. Esther was the second girl in the half mile at Coyote Kids last week, and she can bike forever, so we just have to get that swimming down!

This week we took the kids to First Landmark Baptist Church's VBS. We don't do VBS at our church anymore, so it is always fun for the kids to go to VBS. Of course, they all got to see their friends too.

This just happened to be the week that the cherries were ripe on the trees too. So early in the week I made two cherry pies and a lemon meringue. They lasted all of two hours. I tried it again a few days ago and the same thing happened. I'm planning to make some for Father's Day, but I guess I won't make them until the kids are in bed on Saturday night or Steve might not get any.

A most dreadful thing has happened! I have lost my pocket calendar. It was in my wallet at the library when Ruth got hold of my wallet, so I'm hoping it fell out there and is sitting safely in the lost and found. I am the official calendar keeper of the family, and quite a calendar it is!

We don't get the newspaper, but I happened to see a copy the other day. I was most distressed to read an article about Al and Tipper Gore. Married in 1970 (40 years of marriage), no fault-divorce . . . hmmmm. I read something the other day that said it is a lot harder to get out of a mortgage contract than it is a marriage contract these days. Now, the Proverbs say that a fool vents all his feelings, so I'm not going to do that, but I will say I fall somewhere between frustrated and horrified with the veiw of the holy institution of marriage in our time. Today Steve had a message on the role of parents to teach the Word of God to their children. So just in case there is a doubt, I'm promising to teach my children the Word of God, including the command to remain pure until marriage, to keep the marriage bed pure and to tell the truth when they say "till death do us part" . . . hmmm, maybe people don't even say that anymore . . . it has been a while since I've been to a wedding!

On a more positive note, Hannah and Sarah have blogs now. I thought it would be both good typing, spelling and writing practice for them. Hannah wrote something the other day and is looking forward to comments (not that I know how to do that). I'll try to link her site in here sometime.

The get-away

I used to be such a planner . . . I guess seven kids changes things! Steve and I were talking about Hannah and Sarah late Thursday night. I mentioned how I just wished I could take them away and talk to them for a night. I was almost shocked when he said he thought that was a good idea. This is the same man that would just rather go set up the pop-up in February when I was eight months pregnant instead of go to a hotel (although he did end up taking me to a hotel then . . . and Olive Garden with the fire trucks, etc.). He booked a hotel for us and we spent the night talking and doing a little booklet I put together. I'm really hoping it will be a good investment in that the girls should have a better idea now of what we expect and why we believe some of the things we do.

I don't have much time because Steve asked that I go mud at church for a while. He is really ready to get this mudding and sanding and priming and painting done (none of which he does, by the way, LOL).

I can't believe we have only been out of school for a week and a half and I already feel so refreshed! I certainly believe homeschooling is worth the effort (or I wouldn't do it), but it is an all consuming, draining experience for me.

I've been reading a really neat book lately called "Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Baucham Jr. The last few chapters are devoted to family integrated church (vs. age-segregation for anything). I've been thinking about it a lot over the past few days. I must admit, I probably lean more this way than the average church member. I am obviously very big into the idea of parents being the responsible party for the discipleship of their children (remember that draining homeschooling), but I guess I find value in occationally allowing my children to recieve training from other sources that I consider qualified. :) I value the additional training my children recieve at Sunday School, Bible school, camp and Word of Life clubs. I will admit that the church down the road is using Answers in Genesis VBS this year. I would love to have my kids go to a AiG VBS, but I'm a little leary of the doctrinal differences they may hear.

We are almost at the end of baseball season. I really love baseball, but dragging six kids to 18 games to watch one sibling play has just about done me in with the sport! We may have a few weeks break from sports before volleyball starts in July . . . oh wait, basketball off-season play starts in a few weeks - never mind! LOL!

Hannah finished her skirt for 4-H yesterday. I can't believe how long it takes them to sew! A month seems like plenty of time to finish everything, but who knows! Sarah is still crocheting away too . . . same thing there. Slow as molassas in January as a friend from high school always used to say.

I really need to spend some time up in the attic before the little ones wake up. It is amazing to have free time like this to do these big projects! I love summer! Have I already said that?

Neat Day!

Today our Word of Life missionaries came to award Hannah and Sarah their Steadfast Achievement awards. Good job girls on six years of hard work! After church those ornery folks insisted on taking our family out to CiCi's pizza. What a special treat!

We did get some serious pictures, but I just really liked this one!

After dinner we headed to another graduation open house then back home for youth group.

Asking for pre-teen girl advice from Titus 2 friends

I've got something on my heart right now that I'm going to ask for help with from all my conservative friends. Hannah turned 12 in March and is really growing up. Over the past few months I've noticed some slight attitude changes that I've really been thinking about. I call it the "woe is me" attitude.

I'm not really sure where she has picked up some of her ideas, but I want to deal with them swiftly and Biblically, and I would really like some books to use with her if anyone has some ideas. I guess her biggest complaint has been that she thinks she has to work too hard. I do admit that she has a lot of chores. She is also taking piano lessons and she practices 25 minutes a day, and I still ask that she practice her flute ten minutes a day. I'm trying to teach her to have a servants heart and to work hard. I really believe that laziness is a sin that is easy to slip into, and I don't think the teenage years are an excuse to be lazy. I think if she would work hard, she would have a lot more free time. She mentioned the other day when she was doing a chore for Steve that she thought he should do it himself.

I guess in summary, I've decided that my living a life of submission as a helper to my husband hasn't exactly shown her the biblical role of a wife as I had hoped. I've decided I need to be more thorough in my teaching with her to show her God's design in this area. I have several books already that I can start with (Lies Young Women Believe and A Young Woman After God's Own Heart), but I would really appreciate any other sources that would help me teach these issues.

Slow but sure progress around here

We are making progress on these projects! The girls spent several hours cutting and sewing today. Still no finished skirts or shirts, but I think we might just have them finished in the next month. The garden still has more weeds than produce, but we slogged around in the mud pulling a lot of weeds today. Sarah only has about six more granny squares to go before she can put together her baby blanket.

We are reading in Psalm now for Bible reading (the halfway book, right). Steve is having us memorize Psalm 1 together. I'd like to spend some time looking into what a scornful person is. It is pretty obvious what the ungodly and sinners are, but how would you define the scornful that we are not to sit in the seat of?

June

Here is my little Josh. Three weeks until he turns 3 and still not potty trained *sigh*. So far the three girls were trained at 2, but all the boys have been 3 before they have been trained. So, I'm in a mad rush to get him trained before his birthday! I know I just need to make the leap to no diapers, but what a pain for a family that is always on the go. For some reason, stubborn boys just don't care . . . and Steve and I seem to be really good about getting stubborn boys (just like their dad).