Last Week in Pictures

 Using stickers to make a Pirate Lookout.  Ahoy!

 Gardening and playing in mud puddles

 Playing catch inside because of so much rain.  At least his arm is improving :)

Every southern woman plants crape myrtles...  This one has been shooting up mighty fine.

Why are these two so daggum perfect?

This summer has been so weird for North Texas.  Typically July is spent in sweltering heat of 110*.  That doesn't even include the heat index.  And rain?  Well North Texans typically don't remember what rain is until about October.  But God has blessed us mightily this summer with a low 90s summer and an amazing blessing of rain.  Lord knows we still need more to get our lakes and rivers back up, but He is Providing.  Hallelujah!

Incidentally, you may notice my blog changing.  There for awhile, I considered growing my blog, and I kinda did start to.  And then I realized something- I hate blogging for that.  Don't get me wrong there are a handful of people I am beyond blessed to be 'friends' with now.  I love those people.  But the incessant need to keep up with this link up and that link up and make sure I comment on X number of blogs so said blogger and I can continue to build a 'friendship' got to be overwhelming.  With a few exceptions, I just began to wonder why am I concerned more about online stuff than people I know in real life.  Silly.  

So now I blog when I want.  And I write what I want.  And if there happens to be a link up I already know about, I might do it.  But if not, no big deal.  I say that because if I am not really keeping up with sharing my button with you or yours with me, it's nothing personal.  I just don't feel the need to blog all the time.  Or if I don't comment as much as I once did, it's because I want to focus on real life.  I appreciate all of you who have kept up with me.  I'm still going to be blogging, and if you follow me, you will see it.  But if you don't, thats ok too.  I'm excited for all you who have found your niche with blogging.  It's been pretty wild to see some of you grow so fast!  And that's awesome.  I just wanted those of you to know that I am still reading, but not as closely as before.  Or at least not commenting as much.  But in my heart I do adore you all :)  May God use your blog in amazing ways!

Thankful- summer week 2

This week has been difficult.  Not in any specific way.  Just in an annoying way.  In an --of course that would happen now gah can't I just get a minute to think-- kind of way.  I'm about the worst person in the world when it comes to adapting and going with the flow.  I do not do change of plans well.  I'm what you might call 'obsessive compulsive type A'.  Needless to say, I am having to be intentional about trying to be thankful.  Intentional about remembering to breathe.  Intentional about getting out of the house.  Intentional about art journaling, because seriously, that is so good for me.

Getting out of the house is going to be a must for me this summer.  Today I took Jude to the library, which was great.  He picked out books.  Plus, we have the moments of reading them, which gives us intentional activity.  We also went to a friend's house this afternoon which was fun.  Tomorrow I am going Target-ing for trip needs.  Friday I have book club and friends coming over.  Yippee.  I officially am one of those people who needs to get out of the house as often as possible to stay sane.  Bring all your fun summer toddler activities my way people.  For real!

Despite my stir crazy- I have had awesome moments.

Thankful for this past weekend:  Jude was with his dad Saturday night.  And while that ended up being a pretty huge headache, it did afford me some awesome time with Jimmy.  We went boot scootin' (heckyes) in good ole CowTown (Ft. Worth).  And even better Mark Chestnut was playing there that night.  It was a spur of the moment plan, but it was pretty fun to see him.  I have 100% given up on country as of like 2004 when it became riddled with shizzy pop disguised as country.  However, bring me all your fiddle playing/steel guitar picking/90s country.  Love!  To all you other girls in other parts of the world, I am sorry that you do not get to gaze at your man in boots on the regular.  That is a tragedy for so many Americans.  Two stepping makes my life worth living.  And also makes me love Jimmy more and more.

Monday and Tuesday we were greeted with rainy mornings.  Just a little bit of background- Texas has been in a severe drought state for the past 2 years or something.  I live a bit in the country where two lakes happen to somewhat meet up.  In order to get anywhere, I have to cross parts of the lake.  When I first moved here 3.5 years ago, it actually looked like a lake.  At this point, it is literally mostly dry land.  Not-even-joking.  Severe.  I literally pray everytime I go across (which is at least twice daily basically) that God send rain.  He has answered that prayer soooo much! this spring!  And is still answering it!  I have lived in NTX nearly 10 years.  I've never seen a wet June here in my life!  And to top it off our highs are like 88-93.  Also never happened in the 10 years I've been here.  Highs in the summer here range from 95-100 for June and 100-115 through July and August.  I mean I literally am in heaven right now.  I just kind of want to do a thanksgiving dance on my lawn pretty much daily.

 And then I came inside and saw this.  And I died a little bit.  Why yes I would love to watch my toddler cozy up to Sid the Science Kid while it rains outside and I sip my coffee.  Why no I'm not sure I can think of a better way to spend a summer morning.  Thank you Jesus!!!!

Disclaimer:  This cuteness being said, I'm pretty sure the fact that we've had 2 rainy mornings and have been unable to do fun stuff like go to the pool has been a large reason I am going stir crazy.  That in no way makes me unthankful for the rain.  Still praying for more of it!  But it definitely has shown me that on rainy days, I need to plan ways to get up and go!  Or have ingredients on hand to make cookies just in case?  Something!

This picture is just because.  Cutest sleeping kiddo.

Summertime

Now that I am officially moved out of my classroom, have helped with interviews for possible Lee teachers, and have turned in my classroom keys, summer has begun.  My garage is full of books upon children's books and files upon teacher files.  I hope you weren't planning on coming to visit me this summer, because my guest room is basically full of 'guests' from my classroom.

Summer is my time to be productive.  I'm not much of a 'relaxer'.  I have a hard time just sitting.  Not that I am a social butterfly, because I definitely am not.  I just like to work.  Today I literally had the best day.  I intentionally woke myself up at 6:30, got Jude and I up, dressed, fed, and out the door by 7:30.  I was the very first oil change of the day at good ole Wal- Mart.  I accomplished some of my leftover grocery shopping from yesterday (I never remember everything I need).  We were home by 8:45.  I unpacked the groceries, and dug up all the hedge grass on the side of my house as seen in the above photo.  By 10:15, I had finished that project and then had gotten Jude and I to our neighborhood pool :)

After a couple hours at the pool, we came home.  He ate lunch, took his nap.  I cleaned up a few things, did my quiet time, and took a nap.  He woke up and we went to the library.  He picked out 2 train books and a dragon book.  Of course.  And I found the book I believe my teacher book club group will be reading for June.  Score!  (although I am also reading a book of my own choosing.  Anyone else out there read multiple books at a time?)

When we got home, coffee was necessary.  I brewed a pot and did some laundry, got Jude dinner, got my dinner ready.

If you saw my IG post yesterday, I mentioned that I drink tea on the regular.  Today I brewed a wee pot of pomegranate black tea, which incidentally is probably my very most favorite.  Unsweetened, of course.

After dinner, I got back to work on my garden.  I watered my plants that I have in pots, as well as my hydrangea I bought this weekend.  I should have taken a pic of it, as I am ridiculously excited about it.  I love them, but it's so hot here.  I think I found the perfect place to plant them though.  It's pretty shady and the soil there stays fairly wet.  If it continues to thrive, I will be buying a few more!

Jude and also planted some ivy and flowers along the side as seen above.  Not pictured will be the lattice I will need to buy in order for the ivy to have something to climb.  Jude loves to help with gardening, although I mostly just let him fill up his watering can.  It will be fun as he grows to teach him to care for things.

On the right side of the picture above you can see all the random plants I have.  I found a packet of wildflower seeds in my garage back in March and decided to just plant them and see what happens.  It's a big of a mess, and I have no idea what to do about it.  Some of them are pretty like these.  Some of them just look like the weeds they are.  I'm not really sure what I want to do with it, and I'm not one to act quickly, so who knows what I will do with it.

What I do know is that I am enjoying gardening.  I like working and cultivating things and seeing how they turn out.  I like pruning and trimming rose bushes (although I have a lot to learn...).   And I can't help but think that this is a bit of a worshipful experience since our first job was to cultivate the earth.  In fact, gardening was our job before the fall even happened.  Heck, our first home was right in the midst of a garden.  It's interesting to think about.  Like it's where we belong.  It's also interesting how fulfilling a good day's work really is.  It's a good reminder that we aren't created to just take take take all the time.  We were created to do something, whatever that something is.

Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord ~ Colossians 3:23

To The Rescue

Is this not the cutest picture!?  I am pretty sure it's going to get framed soon!  This picture is from a couple weeks ago when we had a rainy Saturday morning.  We all wandered out in to said foreign wetness despite the cold.  And well, Kyah needed to go outside.  It was lovely.  Jude wore his boots, and while we were only outside maybe 120 seconds, I was able to get some cute shots!  I love the view of life behind my good camera!