VBS ( So Far) in Pictures...

Our "Lodge"

Nifty balloon moose. 

The 5th Grader

Recreation

Worship with 1335 kids and volunteers.

My guy! 

Getting there pretty early! 

This Week At Home, 2012, Number 26

Little notes I write each day to remember each precious one!

This week was kind of a special one with lots of extended family time.

Monday...

The big news of the day is that Grandma (Jeff's mom) is finally able to come down for her regular summer visits. We're going to the ceramic store and Panera!  Daddy was able to join us at lunch, as well, since he is still working at a nearby client's office again this week.

The heat remains a factor this week.  It's going to be in the upper 90's and 100's all week.  All I can think is,"Lord have mercy on us!"  If only the 20% chance of thunder storms would turn into something, I could bare it better.  The last one we had cooled things off for a little while.  I feel sorry for so many of my local friends who did not get any rain this past weekend.

Tuesday...

Going swimming with good friends to beat the heat!  Oh the pool was so lovely!  The water temperature was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.  I only regret that we could not stay more than a couple hours, which actually turned out to be enough.  We also had to go do a little cook out shopping and Grace needed to get her friend a birthday present as she is going to a slumber party Thursday evening.

The heat is really difficult this week.  I am eager for a change in this pattern.  It's so hard to take the humidity and soaring temperatures.  It's like the dead of winter and we can't enjoy being outside! 

Wednesday...

Happy 4th of July, America!  We had family over for a very hot cook out.  Then at 9:45 and still near 90 degrees, we saw fireworks in town.  Not much else to report about this very laid back day.  Oh, we did go for a nice bike ride in the morning before the heat of the day. 

Thursday...

Today was our day to visit Grandma at the nursing home with Mom. Grandma is physically doing OK, but mentally, she is not the same as even a month ago.  She is still all smiles, but making even less sense, if that is possible.  I know she enjoys our visits.  She doesn't want us to leave.  On the way home, Mom treated us to Starbucks, such a treat on yet another hot day.  I could drink decaf iced coffee all day! 

Friday...

I had a VBS meeting in the morning. I picked up Grace from a slumber party.  I dropped her off at home so I could go get some fruit and vegetables, and then, called it day!  Well, not actually, but my running in the hot outdoors was over.  Jeff came home for lunch and then Grace and I watched two episodes of Little House on the Prairie, while the boys did their computer games.  Tonight will be a quiet evening at home, as there is no small group tonight since all our other small group members are out of town.    

Saturday will be a simple day to enjoy one another.  Jeff wants to take us all Frisbee golfing in the morning.  I know he's very excited about this, but if it is 80 degrees and 90% humidity, I will pass.  The course is in the full sun, too.  Thankfully, we don't need to do a lot of running on Saturday.  Maybe we can go to the library, too.   

Sunday afternoon is all hands on deck for VBS.  I am going to be working in Trevor's 5th grade class.  I love those kids!  So, next week, I am not going to be around the blog world much.  I will do Facebook and Twitter as I can do those from my couch on my phone! Yes, I will be on the couch a couple hours each day trying to recover and rest up for the next day!  Those 1000+ kids will keep us 300 workers hopping all week.   So please don't think me rude if I don't visit your blog and leave comments next week!  If you want to follow me on Facebook, send me an email! ( jenn4him at gmail dot com )

Have a great weekend!  

Wordless Wednesday: Life in Action Shot

Some words are needed, I think.   Here we have a rare picture of the three of them interacting.  I chose this picture, not for its quality, because that is clearly poor,  but for the fact that is shows Ryan helping Grace with her water gun as well as giving computer instruction to Trevor, a rare moment of sibling harmony! 

I wish you all a very happy Independence Day!  We'll be grilling in the 100 degree heat and then off to see fire works, if they are not baned due to the drought.

This Week At Home, 2012, Week 25

Little notes I write to remember each precious day!

Ah, water! 

Monday...

A day at home, my favorite kind of day, by the way, although, I do enjoy visiting others.  Today we worked on our summer enrichment work. And, we spent as much time outside as possible as there is a heat wave on the way later this week. As usual, I had plenty of laundry to do, and I worked on keeping the dishes out of the sink. It still got to 86 degrees today, but with the humidity low, it didn't seem too warm. 

Grace is in the window. 

Tuesday...

The heat wave staring us in the face, I made a conscious effort to make the most of being outside today.  We spent a lot of time just enjoying the cooler air of the morning, a new favorite part of summer for me.  I spent time laying on the hammock watching a honey bee in the mint.  One nice thing is that Jeff is home for lunch this week as he's working at a client's office ten minutes from home.   After lunch, we took our little friend to a park that has a water feature.  Very nice way to spend a couple hours.  The threat of tomorrow's heat makes me dread this heat wave.  I really don't enjoy temps over 90.

Happy boy!

Wednesday...

My day to run!  Ten in the morning, Trevor had to be at a play date across town. I happily dropped him off, and then Grace and I went to visit our newly relocated grandparents.  If only we did not have to dash off so quickly, as we were having such a lovely visit!  But, we had to get back to make lunch for Jeff who was coming home again to eat with us.  After lunch, I went back across town to pick up Trevor.  Four hours went very quickly!  We got home and had a little down time before the evening rush.  As a favor to a friend, I picked up her son, fed him dinner, and took him to church tonight with my oldest two, and took him home.  It's getting hot, so we stayed inside a lot today.  I am glad we were outside a lot Monday and Tuesday.  This evening, Jeff made the difficult call to cancel our camping trip this weekend due to extreme heat and possible thunder storms at the lake.  Bummer. 

Bouncy!

Thursday... Record temperature, 104F! 

If we must survive this very hot day, then having friends to play with inside is a must.
I dropped Grace off at a friend's house, after a quick run through a nearby grocery store and a stop to give my mom a hug.  The friend's brother was dropped off here at our home by his grandmother after their morning 9 holes of golf!  Thankfully, their mom came to get them in the evening. Jeff and I did go to Trader Joe and Costco after dinner. 

Love this park!

Friday...

Another day in the 100's.  This is just so rare for Indiana.  And now the humidity is on the rise, which is not a good combination.   Today we are trying to get outside before 10AM to water and get fresh air.  Then, we are going to work on the house.  It needs a deep clean.  I really dislike having the house shut up and the air on.  The air conditioner is old and if it is really hot outside, it only cools the house to the low 80's, but the humidity is lower,so that helps. I feel for others who don't have any air conditioning in this heat.  We will be inside a lot for the next week, as we will be in the 90's until next Friday, Lord willing a break comes!  The average high for this time of the year is 85. 

Walking in the water. 

We're sticking close to home this weekend.  As long as we are together, we'll make the most of our time.  :-) 
~Jenn

Wordless Wednesday: Dorothy Rules!

This is her annoyed face.  

She's a constant blur! 

Sweetie!  

With her favorite toy, Mr. Piggy Pants.  

Note:  Dorothy is settling in just fine.  We really enjoy her youthful energy, except in the middle of the night, when she will bring us a toy and howl until we play.  That's why her toys get inventoried and locked up each night before bed.  :-)

A Summer Weekend

I think weekends are the best.  Even weekends that don't go according to plan.
Plan C, prevailed, when A and B fell apart.  Plan A was to go camping with our small group.  Plan B was to have the camp out at our house.  Plan C ended up with small group at our house around a fire pit, celebrating a boy's 10th birthday.  But that's not all.  

Saturday, Jeff and the other guys from the group took the kids fishing.  I think it was my kids first time for real.  They caught lots and released them all.  I was surprised how long they were away.  It seems like they all had a great time. 

License to fish!

The anglers. 

While they were away, Ryan slept and I had a quiet morning to myself to exercise, read, and get laundry started.  When he woke up, we went next door to our neighbor's garage sale.  They had a table full of old computer components and out of the blue, gave it all to Ryan.  What a haul.  As a matter of fact, I am writing this on the laptop they gave us.  Ryan lugged it all home and assimilated it pretty quickly. It was a joy to watch him go to work.  He took parts from some of our older computers that weren't working and made two great computers.

Dorothy approves. 

Jeff got home with the other two and we ate a nice lunch of leftover chicken brats.  Then we went to the library and hardware store.  The hardware store was on my list to get light bulbs and wire cages for my tomato plants.  I still need a couple more, but they were more money that I planned.  I may just do an old fashioned stake.

The rest of the afternoon we just hung out until it was time to start the Saturday afternoon grilling ritual.  We're really enjoying our little Smoky Joe grill.  We can grill quite a lot:  6 big chicken breasts, 4 brats, 4 hamburger, 2 peppers.  Not all at once, but in stages it gets the job done. 

Sunday ...  We got to sleep in today!  We went to church second hour, which is a treat.  We got home and enjoyed some of the grilled bounty for lunch.  The rest of the day was spent just enjoying the day together.  Ryan had evening church for youth group.  When he got home, we had blueberry ice cream and watched an episode of Deep Space Nine. 

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Not the one we planned, but the one we needed!

This Week At Home, 2012, Week 24

Little notes I write in order to remember each precious day!

Had the pool all to themselves! 

Monday...

It's 90+ degrees today. I am not a fan of this kind of heat!  So, I was very thankful when my Mom called to invite us to swim at her pool.  Refreshing!  Relaxing!  Just what we needed.  Before swimming, we had a spelling test, did some math, and I worked on laundry.  It was nice to get a little lesson work done.  We didn't do much last week.   I am also happy to report that I am feeling better.  I still need to be careful to keep hydrated and to eat more frequently. 

Noodle fun! 

Tuesday...

Another hot day ahead of us.  It's running about 10 or more degrees above normal for this time of the year.  And, did I mention that I don't enjoy hot days in the 90's?  So, I've decided we must make the most of these cooler mornings.  Everyone went outside to enjoy the cooler air this morning.  I felt thankful for a little break in the heat.  Since I knew the afternoon would be rather hot, we decided to watch The King and I after lunch.  It turns out that the boys were not interested and it was just Grace and I.  The boys built Lego ships or something.  I love it when they are playing together, nicely!  Anyway, Grace and I enjoyed the movie.  The costumes are my favorite part.  

Wednesday...

It ended up being a low key, stay at home and rest day.  I am really enjoying the coolness of the mornings.  We've taken to watering our plants and then I swing on the hammock and the kids (mostly Grace) bounce on the trampoline, until the sun comes over the tree line.  It's glorious! 

We are really loving A Reason For Spelling, well, at least I am!  The kids are motivated to work on improving their scores from the pretest to the post test.  Grace even took the initiative to do extra work.  I like how the lessons are laid out.  I enjoy the story that we read before the pretest.  I think the sentences that they use for the tests are interesting and complex. 

It's still really hot and we are just doing our best to stay cool. 

Thursday...

Another quiet day at home.   It reached 90 again, but there was a little relief in the evening with a line of storms that came through.  I am thankful, of course, but we need so much more! 

Jeff and Grace went to get groceries in the evening.  What a blessing that was to me! 

Friday...

Tonight we are supposed to have our small group over for a back yard camp out. We were all going to go to a state park for the weekend, but, there are a few issues to work out with the other families, like a child with a 103 fever last night!  Another child coming straight from a week of camp.  And I am still feeling a little worn out myself.  The idea of a camping weekend did not appeal to me.   So, we will see what the day brings! 

Have a great weekend! 
Jenn