I love this picture of Clay.
The birthday kids!!!
I LOVE this picture. This summarizes Athanasius so well.
My sweet sweet girl!!
It is hard to get Athanasius to take a picture so I really cherish these.
She is finally getting brave and walking along furniture!
Birthday cake is so thrilling.
This girl melts me. :)
This is Felicity scooting on her bottom to get around, she is actually pretty fast.
The kids birthdays were this month. Eleanor turned 8 and Athanasius 6. I would give a lot to spend one hour with the baby version of them. They have grown so much, I don't just mean physically, but as people. They have these little inside worlds that I don't completely know about, thoughts and perspectives all their own. Clayton took the kids to our weekly Tuesday night story time and I am blogging. It feels so good. The kids birthdays were great. I love birthdays, I love spoiling them. We had some dear friends over and I think the party went wonderfully!
We are still homeschooling through the summer, but we only go four days a week. I like it. I am liking our routine more and more. I am trying to meal plan more to make life more peaceful and reduce some of my stress. It is "loose meal planning" meaning only dinner. I like it, it feels good to have some sort of plan. I have discovered the amazing and beautiful world of audio books! I have been a mother for eight years and just now, NOW, am listening to audio books?? This is going to sound strange but I have to breath in a paper bag for thirty minutes everyday, doctor's orders, really. Really everyone would benefit from it. But it is helping work on very specific health issues. Anyhow, I hate it. Thirty minutes feels like an eternity. One day I was complaining that I can't read my novel while I breath in my bag, so my hero came to the rescue and found it for me on audio! Thank you Husband! It was like a whole new world opened up to me.
There is a lesson I keep having to learn..LET GO. I will think I have a handle on it and then am shown that no, no I do not. But I am taking baby steps and that is what matters. My motto for my days is LOVE, PEACE, and HOPE.
I turn 29 in July and feel old. I know 29 isn't old but I kind of feel it. I asked Clay, "Where did my twenties go?" I look at our kids and see where my twenties went. :) I was a Mommy by twenty and four babies later here I am. I didn't take trips around the world or get a masters but I am surprisingly okay and at peace with that. I have learned a lot of amazing lessons a long the way and have loved and been loved, none of which comes with out hardship and suffering. But there is beauty in having peace with our stories.
The first is Thunder From the Sea. I particularly liked this one because it was about a little boy and sometimes I feel like we read a lot of books about little girls. I could be off on that though. This book will make you consider getting a Newfoundland, or at least it made me do so. :) This book is about becoming part of a family, forgiveness, and perseverance. It contains a lot of adventure so whenever I would pause the kids would yell, "keep reading!!" I loved it. 
The second book we just finished is Because of Winn-Dixie. I feel badly about this, but I judged this book before we read it. I remembered checking the movie out from the library and thinking it was stupid. I should have known the book would be so much better. In fact, I loved it! Her characters are so well developed! I just grabbed this off the shelf because we had just finished reading Thunder and we were in a pinch. It turned out to be wonderful. I love the lessons you learn from this book. We are all suffering, you may not know how someone is struggling, but we all need love and forgiveness. 
