I’m sad that I haven’t devoted more time to the blog lately, but the truth is I have been overrun with editing. For the past few weeks I have been slammed with work, which is a huge blessing, but it has left me with little time to do much else. On top of that, I am finally putting 10+ years of marketing meetings to use by managing the marketing aspects of our family business. It’s a steep learning curve, but I’m enjoying the process. I’m hoping to get more time for adventuring in a week or so, but until then, I’ll enjoy my air conditioned editing corner during these 100 degree plus days!

Since I moved my computer up to the bedroom, the kids have been interrupting me a lot less. They actually have to go out of their way to get to me. It has been working well, for the most part. This afternoon, though, Baby E had had enough of playing. He was tired and asked if he could come to my room and rest for a little while. I said that would be ok if he was very quiet. As I sat at my desk, he climbed into my bed and made himself comfortable on my pillow. Within a few minutes he was fast asleep, oblivious to my editing in the corner.

I have NO idea what Big E found so appalling about his little brother, but his face is cracking me up! Any guesses what he’s thinking?

When I married Tim, I married my best friend. Which is awesome, because it means I get to spend everyday with someone that’s just as silly as I am!

But seriously, this guy works so hard (have I mentioned the shop doesn’t have air conditioning!) and then comes home in the evening and spends time with me and the kids, reading to them every night and teaching them hymns. Life has thrown us some crazy curveballs, especially over the past few years, but I’d do it all again with him by my side.

“Let’s talk about food,” Baby E said as he plopped down on my lap. “What’s your favorite dinner?”

“Sushi,” I replied.

“Ask what my favorite dinner is?” he said.

“What’s your favorite dinner, Baby E?”

“Hash browns and syrup!!” he said with a huge grin on his face.

This is a conversation we have often, near daily really. His answer is usually the same for every meal. Breakfast? Hash browns with syrup. Lunch? Hash browns with syrup? Snack? You guessed it! Hash browns with syrup. Every once in a while he will throw me by switching out the syrup for ketchup, but nearly all of his answers are hash brown related.

So tomorrow guess what we are having at breakfast?

Hash browns and syrup.

As I laid in bed with C this evening I asked her if she would stop growing. She smiled at me and said “no!” I don’t blame her, really. Growing up is so much fun.

It’s late at night and that’s usually when I get the most sentimental. I miss my little squishy babies, but I am so very thankful I get to be with them everyday!

This summer we had hoped to send the kids to summer camp for at least a week, but that ended up not working out. In lieu of that, I have been trying to find interesting and unique things the kids can do from time to time. That’s why I decided to sign them up for archery lessons!

In our family we have zero bow and arrow experience, but I’ve always thought it would be a really fun skill to learn. Their lessons are about 45 minutes from the house and we didn’t tell them until this morning where they were going. Their eyes got so big. They got even more excited to learn they would be shooting real arrows and not toys.

When we arrived we went over the safety instructions with the kids. C and Big E were the only ones old enough to shoot, so Baby E will have to wait until next year. The instructors took a lot of time with the kids to make sure they knew what they were doing and that they were handling the equipment in a safe manner.

The kids took to it surprisingly quickly. They learned how to hold the bow, load the arrow, and shoot. They did a pretty good job of hitting near or on the target. They tried out a couple of different styles of bows and landed on ones that they really liked. I think they are both looking forward to their next lesson!

This afternoon while I was working, I let the kids play some video games. Baby E wanted in on the action so I made the big kids promise that he could play a few rounds of their game. I told them to make him stick to the tutorial. He was so excited. When I came down to check on them, it was Baby E’s turn. The look of concentration on his face was adorable as he mashed buttons, leaned into every movement, and constantly ran his character into walls. Despite being completely unskilled, he had a lot of fun and had the other kids rolling with laughter.

Over the past several weeks I have had a great deal of editing, which means the kids and I haven’t been able to do the amount of adventuring that we would like. They have handled it well, and while I am locked in my room editing, they are usually playing with neighbor kids and friends. But I have missed my time with them, so I decided that today I would take a few hours off to do something special. We met up with friends at the local pool.

It was such a difference since the last time we were there. Before they had been very hesitant and wary, especially of trying any slides or other activities, but today, they jumped right in.

I’m thankful for the friends we have made out here and the way they have welcomed us into their lives. My previous friendships spanned years or decades, and they were comfortable in their familiarity. There have been many times over the past year that I have missed the easiness of those relationships and have longed to have those friends near. However now that we have hit the year mark in our new town, my friendships here are starting to feel that way too and that familiarity feels so nice.