- I slept super late this morning. There was still laundry to do but not the dishes. We are some how off on our dishes routine so I am having to run the dishwasher at odd times during the day. Hopefully tonight we can get back on our running the dishwasher at night routine.
- Whitman and I did our work together this morning. After we did our spelling, I helped him with his math. I do think that he has little motivation to do things quickly-this makes me crazy! I am afraid that I will be constantly telling him to do his school work when he is in the 5th grade still! I don't know if I can take it!
- We all made time to do our together work this morning. That is mostly my favorite time of the day. I enjoy the books that we are reading, and I enjoy us all being together. When they was over the kids worked on their chores for a very tiny bit. And I say "very tiny" because it is looking like chores are being dong a "very tiny" bit around here.
- Around 2, we loaded up to go to the pool. We did stop at Sara's to pick up our chairs from last night. When we pulled up, I said "only my boys will get out of the car." I meant my big 2 since I planned on them putting the chairs in the car. Sara passed two chairs to Graham and the next boy in line to get chairs was Whitman. I guess he knew he was supposed to help too-he is a boy after all.
- We swam for about an hour and fifteen minutes when they closed the pool. I blamed Graham for pooping in the pool so we could go home. He did not instead the pump is broken. So that means no swim team for tomorrow-another day of sleeping in!
- When we came home, Robby was working on putting together our new smoke shack furniture. It is pretty nice-I think that Robby will be spending even more time out there now. Often during the day, he disappears only to be found in his shed!
- Tonight we went to Raymar for the kids to celebrate their last Terrific Tuesday. The kids enjoyed playing-but here's the highlights for me: Whitman played with some boys his age (he usually plays with the bigger boys) and Campbell picked up a load of trash without anyone asking her. Good things.
- Reagan had Kennedy and Alyssa spent the night tonight. So currently, the girls are upstairs chatting away while we are letting the others stay up a bit later!
- Oh, what a wonderful rainy day. I do love rainy days, and I think that my kids enjoy rainy days as well. Whitman climbed in our bed fairly early this morning. It actually wasn't that early, but there wasn't anyone else awake so Whitman sure wasn't going to go in the living room alone.
- When the morning started, my first task was making black beans for supper tonight. My beans took all day long to cook. I didn't turn them up high enough at first so they did take longer than planned. That was fine though so they just simmered all day long-and I will say that they were pretty good for my first real time at making dried beans (I know, I'm 40 something years old and have never made dried beans.)
- I worked with Whitman this morning while Campbell and Keaton did their little school work. We are doing a bit this summer, but our break is so, so nice. Fairly early this morning, Robby did help me make some cookies for tonight.
- Before I knew it, it was already lunch time. The plan had been to go to the pool today at 1 and then at 3, but the rain didn't stop so there was no pool. We did have some excitement though. Robby was working outside on the shed patio (also known as the smoke shack.) I went out and pointed out that the ditch was overflowing.
- Robby jumped up and grabbed his shovel to flatten out the rocks. (He had added some since the last rainfall.) At this time the rain was pouring down. He quickly fixed the rocks, and the water started flowing down the ditch and all was well again. Water safety measure #2 (the ditch) did briefly fail, but the others worked well.
- A few minutes later, Robby had to run inside the house for a conference call. Before I knew it, he was back outside telling me that he lost an air pod (one of his earphone things). We only imagined where it would be-flowing down the ditch. He had to take the call so I was just about to don a raincoat and start searching. It was a crazy few minutes, but thankfully Robby found the missing ear thing in the house, and all was well again.
- Anderson and I did work on some Lego's today. We didn't get very far today since almost every piece was hiding from us. Between rain storms I did run to Sara's to drop off some chairs.
- Tonight our life group said goodbye to the Hamblins. Kim and her family are moving to Kentucky so we had a celebration for them. There was lots of food and lots of kiddos! My kids had so much fun that Whitman fell asleep on the short ride home!
- Church morning and no one was stirring when it was time to wake up. I am not sure why my crew sleeps in more on the days that we have to go somewhere, but today they were sound asleep. Even Graham who is always the first awake was sleeping so hard that it took me a good while to wake him up.
- There was a nice breeze today during church so it didn't seem that hot. It is still different having church outside. Since they passed out water bottles, I told Robby that if they sang one more song, then I would have to go to the bathroom. They did and I did!
- The kids enjoyed playing for a few minutes with their buddies before we headed over to Nonna and Pops' house for Sunday lunch. They had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill along with beans and dips. For dessert, Nonna had chocolate cake and quite a few choices of ice cream to choose from.
- Pops even had a watermelon to slice. By this time I was pretty full, but most of the kids had some. Anderson and Keaton were no go on the watermelon. I did get Whitman to try a bite at least. The kids do think it is the strangest thing to put salt on a watermelon which is delicious.
- Once we made it back home, we straightened for a bit. Then took a little bit of a nap. It wasn't long after I got up that the kids headed outside to play with the neighbors. They were outside off and on all afternoon.
- Robby straightened and piddled in his shed. I tried to "piddle" in the house, but I am not very good at it. I did get a few things ready for tomorrow along with working on a little craft project. I am not sure what all I did do, but I stayed busy until 10 tonight-maybe I am better at piddling than I thought!
- The kids went to bed around 10 so Robby had his supper then. I just skipped supper and had our last bit of ice cream. We are now ice cream-less in this house. Robby is working on a printer while I am typing. It has turned out to be a busy little day.
- Ole swim team practice-gracious me. I am not too sure why we signed up for this. It is just early, and I am just tired. I hope that I do get a few days to sleep in before school starts again-or maybe I will have to start going to bed earlier.
- I had one quick errand during swim team. Now, I do wish that more stores were open at 8 in the morning, I could accomplish a few more things. I made it back to see the younger group swimming and getting timed. Campbell, Keaton and Whitman all swam together during one of their strokes.
- After swim, we came home. Robby was working in the yard while I found a few things to do around the house. I may have possibly taken a short nap, but soon I was in the garage staining one final board for our door.
- Around 2, we started hanging the barn door. Things went well-really, things went fairly well when the hung the door....all 3 times! Ha! Finding studs was a bit tedious, but then we had one board secured on the wall.
- The first time we the door was too low so we had to raise everything. The second time the door was almost perfect, but the wall that it was next to was crooked. That meant that the gap was small at the top and pretty big at the bottom. It would have worked since we can't really fix the wall, but we tried one more time.
- This time we angled the track up just a tiny bit to hopefully over compensate for the crooked wall. We did this knowing that we could cause the track to be crooked which would make the door slide on its own. Thankfully, the door didn't slide, and it looks absolutely perfect.
- We knew that making the door would be the easy part, and we also knew that hanging the door would be the difficult part. It wasn't too hard-though I just mainly held the tools that Robby wasn't using. The door is up, it is secure and it looks really good.
- Tonight Reagan asked what our next project was. Outside we have the gaga pit, but inside I am not sure what the next project is. I have to work on the door some more-touch up painting mostly.
- We had hung the door for the second time when we loaded up to go swim. Most of the crew was there tonight. The kids all had so much fun swimming tonight. Well, maybe not Whitman-he has just been struggling a bit lately. He gets so upset over the smallest things-they must be big to him because his reactions are huge.
- Robby picked up supper for us from Arbys. We devoured everything that he bought. We must have been starving. We stayed until the kicked us out of the pool-well, actually they closed for the evening.
- On the way home, Robby called and his car was stopping at Arby's to pick us up root beer floats. That was a perfect little treat for our drive home. And that probably gave us the energy to finish hanging the door!
- Tomorrow there will be no hanging of anything on the walls! Maybe there will even be a nap...or two!
- I did sleep as late as I could this morning, but I was still awake before any of the kids. I started on the laundry mound but sound found my self working on spelling with Whitman. We are getting pretty close to finishing.
- The next big event at the house this morning was the termite man coming by. We can officially say that we have termites. There has been a spot on the window molding that has looked like I banged it with my car door. I could never figure it out because my door really would never be close to hitting it.
- Anyway, the other day we started looking at it closer and you an just push your finger through it. I guess our termite money that we pay each year will come in handy. They will respray the house next week, but then the fixing people will come and work on the repair. Hopefully, the repair is an easy fix.
- After he left, there were more chores in the house. I did finish repaint my kitchen window sill. I am perfectly pleased with it despite the different trim color. Robby did say that he figured I would eventually paint all of my cabinets to match. I was honestly tempted to paint the kitchen door today, but that would have led to the baseboards which would have eventually met those cabinets. I sure want my cabinets painted, but I think that they need more than just a fresh coat of paint-they need a match!
- Around lunch, I went to work on sanding my barn door. Then I used the saw to cut out a few things for my kids' teachers' Christmas gifts. Campbell and Keaton both found some scraps that they wanted and went to town painting.
- This afternoon/evening Robby and I ran to Kroger to pick up the sale items that we needed. Then we ran into Lowes to buy stain for the door. I thought that maybe I would have 5 stain choices and was quite overwhelmed with the 20 or so that I had. While Robby was loading up his cart with other things, I moved a few of my choices together. Robby picked one color from the list and I found a similar color from my choices.
- I was a bit doubtful of our color choice, but it was absolutely beautiful. Or at least I thought so, and Robby agreed. Now, Graham and Reagan both kind of made faces as the barn door when we moved it into the house tonight. Children!
- Reagan spent most of her day making bracelets, while Anderson spent most of his day playing on the xbox with a friend from church. Graham was pretty bored today since the neighbors didn't come out-well, they did but only for a bit.
- This evening I made a blueberry pound cake. I normally wouldn't eat or make a blueberry cake, but it was delicious. Shannon came over to help us enjoy our cake. Graham did like my cake, but Campbell was the only other one who even tried it! Children! Ha! That is fine because that just means more for us.
- Those dreaded words were heard last night: "(Insert any child's name here) just threw up." This time though it was Keaton downstairs waking us up. She is usually the one sick. Last night it was Whitman.
- It was around 2, but Reagan still seemed wide awake. She is usually the one who just tells Campbell that it is her turn to get us and lays in bed during all of the activity. Last night, she was trying to gather the soiled bedding when I opened the door. She had already gotten Whitman to the bathroom and was working on getting Keaton another spot to sleep by the time I left with Whitman.
- I slept pretty good, but did wake up each time that Whitman made any noises last night. He slept fine though and leaped into our bed at 6:30. If he climbed into our bed in the middle of the night, or anytime really, he climbs over me to get in the middle. He will not lay on the edge at all-it is like he needs the protection of both of us. That makes sense though because he piles his pillows into a wall at the edge of his bed each night.
- The kids all slept in a bit this morning. It was nearly 9 when people starting stirring. Campbell and Keaton made chocolate chip pancakes. I started on my huge laundry pile. Then moved on to painting my kitchen window sill. I don't have the right paint, but any paint would be better than the way it looked!
- At 1, I took Campbell and Keaton to Lily's birthday party. They were super excited about it-played with baby kittens, tie dyed a shirt and played in the water. Reagan drove us to drop them off, but then ended up going to the pool with Candice. She never wanted to go to the pool last year, but this year you can't keep her away.
- Graham and I then ran to Nonna's house to drop off some meat for them. Their painter man was there so I watched him paint without taping anything. I sure can't do that at all despite all of my painting practice that I have received lately.
- Robby and I went to work on our barn door building. We were able to cut most everything before I had to leave to take the boys' fishing. Graham had been asking for a while so I took him and Anderson down the road.
- Graham was the only one who caught a fish. Then his hook got caught in the fish-bless, he tried and tried to take the hook out. They both had fun and even asked if we could go back next week. The weather was pleasant so we might just go back soon.
- Robby and Whitman picked up pizza for our supper. I ate quickly and then picked up the girls. Reagan had come home and left again-she went to a Bible study with Alyssa tonight. Quite a busy schedule she had today.
- It was almost 10 when Robby and I finished our door. We still have to sand and stain it-but that is tomorrow's project! Right now it is bedtime.
- Another busy day around here. Swim team happened this morning-it seemed super early. I didn't have any errands to run while they were swimming, so I just sat and watched. Whitman's main/best teacher wasn't there today, but they still worked hard. Whitman was super pleased because someone said that he had the best dive. I am not sure if that someone was an adult or another child.
- Graham and Campbell seem to just fly down the pool. They are fun to watch when they are racing each other. Now, Keaton isn't as fast as they are, but she sure does seem to love swim team.
- When we came home, I did a few things inside but soon ended up outside painting! Ugh! When will we be finished painting? Today I painted the back door red-we probably should have chosen a more neutral matching color, but why not have some fun. You only live once!
- Grannymom and Grandpa even stopped by for some lunch. Before we ate, Grandpa did help Robby put in one more light in the shed. Then we had some leftover bbq for lunch.
- I had to rush off for my dentist appointment. Gracious, there are so many other places I would rather go than the dentist. So, so many other places. I didn't need any new work so that was good.
- Robby took the kids and Brett to the pool while I was gone. When I arrived at the pool, they were turning people away because it was already at capacity. Thankfully, Robby had already signed me in so I barely made it into the pool. As soon as I did arrive, Robby did leave.
- We stayed our two hours then hurried home. We dropped Brett off because he had a baseball game to get to. Then my big 3 had about 20 minutes at home before Candice came and picked them up for church.
- Tonight was the first summer Wednesday night that Graham's group was able to go to, and he was super pumped about it. They all had fun-especially since Candice stopped at ChickFilA on the way home.
- There was no need to feed my kids because the church brought us a ton of food again tonight. Chicken nuggets was the main dish-Campbell, Keaton and Whitman were so excited. I guess if I just make food and put it in a box then they will be that excited about my suppers. I guess that I will have to start sending some of my tithe to the food bringing church!
- Robby and I finished our day time projects tonight-touching up the shed paint and water sealing the whole thing. I also cleaned the rest of the garage so that is two more things marked off of the list.
- Once the others came home, they had some downtime before it was finally bedtime. 10:30 is the normal bedtime around here. And I wonder why my crew is sure sleepy in the mornings!
