So, so much has happened in the last few months. I look back at my pictures and feel exhausted. Oh wait. I am exhausted. With or without pictures. There has been short times of respite here and there, enough to keep us going. But for the most part it has felt like a marathon where we are sprinting the whole way. While I do love this weather and the fact that I don't have to wake up the kids early, I am looking forward to starting school next week and finding a routine. It's not a matter of getting back to a routine, it's finding a new one!
For anyone who hasn't heard, we bought a house and moved in June! It was not an easy process to shop for a house and when we got this one, we were filled with such relief and thanks. It kind of took us by surprise as it was not really what we were looking for, but for right now it is perfect for us.
A quick(ish) recap of the end of spring and summer.
Yay for when the weather warmed up! I think after living in Haiti I am more of a warm weather girl than I used to be. This is the first time in my life that I can remember where I'm not longing for cool fall days. I will enjoy them when they come, but I'm not longing for them yet!
Summer turned 7 on May 23. And she never got a blogpost or even a FB post about it. That's a first for me I think. Sorry, Summer!
But she was more than satisfied with the semblance of a party that was thrown together:)
We decided that when you turn 7 you get to go to SkyZone. It was so fun!!
The kids built these forts by themselves with sticks and dead pine needles. I was impressed.
We hit up the air show. Tucker liked the planes but did not appreciate the sun in his eyes.
We swapped out Tanner for Brooklyn for the day and that was an excellent choice!
Enter the crazy two weeks of VBS. This was the first year for any of our kids to go. They're all hooked now:)
During the in between weekend of VBS, I spent a day in IL for High School Girl's Camp where I was, of all things, a speaker. It was super fun and the minute I got there the memories came flooding back and I really want to go be a counselor like in the days of yore! Also I got to see Mara so that was fun:)
We celebrated Danny's birthday, too!
Somewhere in there we closed on our house and started a little redecorating. A little wallpaper to take care of and a LOT of painting. We had some rock star painters come help us though and we knocked out the whole house in four days! Also the ladder could not be up if Tanner was around.
The house even came with a fenced in yard with a playset! The playset has this little picnic bench on it that perfectly fits all four kids when the grown ups would prefer a quiet meal occasionally:)
The second weekend of VBS was the program and also the benefit dinner for Harvest Call's dairy program in Haiti. My dad is on the dairy board so he and my mom came out for both of those!
We spent July 4 weekend in IL and met up with Herrmann's for the day. It was good for our souls.
Hand me down patriotic shirts in mint condition? Yes, please!!
Then it was time for the lakes! The first couple days we were there by ourselves with Danny's parents. We kind of enjoyed having that time before the chaos of having everyone. I mean, we love the chaos too but we had never been there when it was so quiet!
We went out fishing one afternoon. It was cold and rainy. Not great circumstances to try and convince me that it's worth it.
But actually it was kind of fun. Albeit a little stressful with toddlers and fish hooks in close quarters.
Tucker proudly caught the only fish of that excursion.
Also in those first couple of days we went to Shipshewana to the Amish zoo. I think it's actually called Dutch Creek Farms or something like that but it's run by an Amish family so that's what we call it. You definitely need to go if you're in the area.
Buddies:)
A kayak ride over to Turtle Island for some swimming.
We got made fun of because we were so cold. We don't normally keep our air conditioner up as high as some of the other prefer it!
Cute little lifegaurds.
We watched BJ the week after we got back while his family was still at the lakes.
One day Tucker came in and told me Tanner was being naughty because he was drinking BJ's water. I came out to this. Yep, he sure is drinking BJ's water.
Getting ready for Kindergarten!
Sawyer got a new to him bike from a new to all of us neighbor. It didn't have training wheels but he wanted to learn how to ride without them anyway so that was fine. One morning when there were no grown ups available he said "I'm going to go ride my bike!" And he did. Summer gave him a couple pointers and away he went!
I loaded up all four kids and went out to IL again during the week for corn day. Freezer corn from my dad's field is just a small step above the 3 years expired canned corn we had a never ending supply of in Haiti. Okay it's more than a small step, actually:)
One morning I just didn't know what to have for breakfast. So we went to the doughnut shop! That should probably happen more often.
Just being honest, the summer has not been really easy. There's been plenty of good things happen, so it hasn't been bad, just not easy. After one particularly hard day I went grocery shopping by myself. A dream come true, right? When I walked out of Wal*Mart I was greeted by this rainbow. I just had to say "Thanks, God!"
Last night I found myself really missing Haiti. There's a few different things I could pinpoint as to why, but one of them I think is that 3 years ago today is when we moved down there. And sitting on this couch I'm on, writing a blogpost about our lives here in small town, Indiana is just not what I thought I would be doing three years ago!
But I'm also looking forward to this next phase of life. I don't know why God sent us down only to bring us back so quickly, but I love what we're doing now. He's not finished with us yet!
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"
1 Thessalonians 5:24 "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."
