The week in pictures - July 24th - August 5th

I'm doubling up because I didn't take a lot of pictures the last few weeks, and I can just get caught up all at once. 

The girl kid and I lay in the driveway and looked at clouds one afternoon. The concrete was warm on our backs and there was a sooting breeze. If I could have summed up summer in one moment, this was it. 

Looked up from reading to reach for my coffee and found this. 

Thank you, middle child. 

The baby kid decided he wanted to learn to do laundry. All on his own. He loves it. 

New driver's license. Those were four hard years. I think it shows. 

I tried to show this to my friend the other night, and she said, "I'm not talking about that picture anymore."

Really? I think a true friend would have discussed this at length with me again. 

I may need some new friends. 

These are my love language. I hide them from my family and get pretty weird and crazy if I find someone using one. 

This may be a problem.

We were supposed to start school last week. My friend had a "back to school celebration" swimming and pizza party. 

They actually started like they were supposed to. 

We didn't actually start school, but we partied anyway.

Hey, it's early. We're still good.

We'll start... soon.

*ahem*

So this is the outside mama cat that got fixed. She has to live in our house for a week to heal before she heads back outside. This was not okay with her or with me.

She paced this house meowing for hours when we first got home from the vet. If I didn't want to deal with the health ramifications I would have just let her back outside immediately.

This is when she finally settled down for a nap.

And probably just before she used the bathroom in a very unfortunate place.

I'm doing this out of love for my Lord and His creation.

The middle kid has enjoyed her being in here. 

So that's good. 

Back yard baseball with Daddy is a favorite thing.

Hubs had to get into some old keepsake boxes we had stored away and found this. 

It started early. 

This is me in third grade. I showed it to the about to start third grade middle kid and he said, "Wow, you had crazy hair."

Says the kid who also has the crazy hair. 

I haven't been exercising as much lately and I really miss the worship and the fellowship as much as I miss the exercise. 

And I miss the exercise a lot. 

Sweet play date with friends we don't get to see nearly enough.

I stay thankful for my friends. 

Found these in the keepsake boxes, along with old diaries and tons of memorabilia. I threw a lot of it away. I have no desire to keep documentation of those years. I didn't have time to go through  all of it, but there were a few things I decided I might keep. 

The kids did enjoy making fun of these old school pictures.

I took it well.

{that is a lot of hair...}

I think I'll save these. 

The week in pictures - July 16th - July 22nd

This week was vacation bible school week. My sweet friend took all my kids to her church, which is our former church, for VBS all week. 

I was without kids each morning for an entire week. 

Day one was an "all my favorite things" morning. I ran at a lake I had been wanting to run at, I went to the thrift store, I got coffee and I went to Target. 

And I did not feel guilty about it. At all. 

This was the first year that all my kids could go to VBS. It occurred to me that I really slacked on my job as an obsessive photo taker because I didn't take a picture of them all leaving. 

So I took a picture of them coming back. 

I'm only a partial slacker. 

One benefit of going to the grocery store alone is you have time to slow down and pick some new things.

This is my new favorite thing. 

It's sort of hard to do Bible study this way.

Someone doesn't love cats. Or the fact that the cat snuggles with me while I do Bible study. 

Someone has gotten a tad possessive. 

 

The middle kid really misses "his" cat. He wanted me to have some pictures developed of Muzzy, and so I surprised him one day when he came home from VBS with a kitten folder full of kitten pictures. 

Yes, the folder is pink. There are no girl colors in this house. And boys can like pink kitten folders.

Yep. 

We got these silly toys from Sonic one night, and the kids and I had way too much fun with them.  It was just a sweet lazy summer night, and why are they so grown up?

They made these rockin' bandanas at VBS. 

I think they loved that they looked like Willie from "Duck Dynasty" too. 

I met a friend downtown for coffee. We passed this store on the way to the coffee shop, and she told me we had to save a few minutes to run in on the way back to our cars. 

I cannot tell you how much I loved this store. 

I am going back.

I mean, don't we all need a vintage Jesus holding a pigeon?

Okay, so maybe not, but this store was full of cool antique stuff, and I really can't wait to go back.

You know why I got to meet this friend downtown at a cool coffee shop and go to this really super amazing vintage store?

My kids were at VBS.

Not only did she take my kids to VBS everyday, she make her famous chocolate chip coconut cookies. 

We don't call her the Paula Dean of Alabaster for nothing. 

I won't lie and tell you I haven't been thinking about these cookies since she made them. 

I mean really, who wants to fit into their old jeans?

Anyway.

I grabbed this at Publix because the name cracked me up and they didn't have anything horrible in them and because the middle kid asked me if I would make them for him for dinner one night. And they were on clearance.

They were the best darn pancakes I have ever had. Better than Cracker Barrel. I need to go back and see if they have anymore. 

Don't let the "As Seen on TV" sticker fool you. Those suckers were delicious. 

Grab me some boxes if you see them. 

I have decided that this is my dream house. It's on a farm. I'm not exactly crazy about the green roof, but other than that, this pretty much makes me really happy.

It's from a television show, and I'm not saying which one so I won't be judged harshly. So I'm not crediting the picture. But if anyone gets cranky about that, I have the info...

We ended the week with a very long Sunday nap, this kitten and I. 

I may love her. 

The week in pictures - July 9th - July 15th

I came around the corner one day to find the baby kid with his school box reading a book. Maybe it's nearing time to start school?

I got to have a road trip with one of my favorite people to go pick up her son from camp. It was such a great morning. I love this lady and her family. They mean so much to me and to my kids too. 

He had a great week! His counselor was awesome. 

Ride home from the pool. This just looks like summer to me. 

Came to bed one night to find this. Stinkers. I guess they got points since it looks like maybe the middle kid was reading a devotion before bed. 

The baby kid decided that he wanted to take notes in church. This may not last long, but it made me exceedingly happy anyway. 

The baby kid made a picture for our friend in Africa. This is the two of them walking under a rainbow. 

We had an impromptu double date with my sister and brother-in-law one night, thanks to my mom staying with the kids. That was good. I love this girl. I'm lucky in that I really like my sister. She's actually my friend too.  

We had an extra boy kid one day, and from where I sat in my chair, I got a great view of the fun they had. They were blurs, running through the kitchen with one game or another. 

I may be a little more in love with this cat than I'm being honest about. 

What do girls do when they hang out? They paint their nails in the driveway, of course.

Soooo, we may have taken the cat in the van on an errand. Or two. She just chilled out the whole time.

I might love that cat a little. 

The boys hung out with the mama cat and she played with the Hex Bugs too. 

I guess cats aren't all that bad. 

The week in pictures - June 25th - July 1st

This picture just made me happy. 

Can you spot the kitten? The girl kid did this. 

Fresh new legal pads make me so happy. I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to show me as I scribble in these pages. 

The baby kid "camped out" on the futon in our room one night. I came in to find the girl kid loving on him. Given their relatively volatile relationship recently, this made me especially happy. 

Perhaps they'll end up friends in the end after all.

Or maybe not. These days, I'm not sure. 

Spent a long time on the porch with this sweet lady one night, taking about the Word and everything else too. 

We are pretending that her departure date isn't looming. 

Science center with friends. 

This just made me happy. 

My ocd wishes I had gotten the panes of the window exactly straight, but that's just silliness.

Or not...

The middle kid came flying in the house one morning excited and worried because a kitten was in the tree.

Despite my assurances that she would come down when she was ready, he tried to rescue her. 

She flatly refused to be rescued. 

(No, I do not see the life/spiritual lesson in this for me. Thank you for asking, though.)

And I'd like to point out that she came down when she was good and ready.

Okay, so maybe she fell out of the tree a little, and would have avoided a scary-ish fall had she accepted the help she was offered. 

I still do not see the connection between the cat in the tree and me. 

So there. 

Saturday morning game of Monopoly.

I don't play, by the way. Never have,  and I have no interest in starting.

My family thinks this is unusual.

I'm okay with that. 

Can I just say that the amount of work it takes to move out the country is mind boggling. 

And doing it by yourself is even more mind boggling. 

The good-bye tour continued with a Flip Burger picnic. 

And true to form, we laughed. 

A lot. 

Some of us are not so serious when we're saying good-bye. 

(It's hard to be serious when you're holding a bag of home grown tomatoes.) 

I'm not going to talk about this good-bye. 

I'm just documenting it. 

I just need a reminder that this lover of winter made it through this heat. 

Yep. 

Sisterly love. 

My goal was to send 66 cards overseas with my friend. I wanted initially to choose a favorite passage of Scripture from each book of the Bible, but the Lord had other plans.

I ended up going through my journal from the last year and a half and writing cards filled with things I've learned.

Or tried to learn.

That was humbling. 

The hubs took the girl kid across town to a spend the night party and came back home to get the boys and take them to a movie. 

There were a little excited. 

(They are sitting in the booster seats that had to go in Hub's car.)

If the shoe (er, glasses) fits... 

Last day at church. 

Tomorrow is the Departure Day.

That day is going to require an entire blog post of its own.