Projects, Projects, Projects

Summer projects abound at our house this year. We are using the time to build and create new things and finish projects that have been in the works for quite some time. The weather here this summer has been ideal and so much cooler than normal. The Lord has blessed us with early summer rains that have made the landscape greener than our typical brown. It blesses my heart to see His hands at work all around us.

Peter has been doing what he loves most this summer and building all things crafty. He created a garage of his own using popcicle sticks and a lot of glue. It took him several days of hard work but the result is quite good and very sturdy too. It is a joy to watch his mind work to create fun art. So very unlike myself I marval at the creative side of my children and their passion for artsy things.

My project along with some help from Miss Emma has been to get some more flowers growing in our front flower bed. We are working on growing some begonias as well as moss roses and a couple other new types of flowers. We were pleased to see that even after the cold winter many of our annuals were still alive and kicking which is very rare indeed especially for us!! The snapdragons and even some of the petunias are still going strong. We are still not master gardeners by any stretch but we are enjoying the color of the flowers and the process of keeping them flourishing.

Robert's garage is continuing to take shape. The outside is ready for paint and the inside is completely finished yippee!! The last major thing to do will be to get power to the building which will require taking our small shed down and moving all the contents into the new garage so that the wire can be run to the panel on the house. We also still have to string new fence around the building and take down our now quite dilapidated temporary fence. It has been a long hard struggle and we have learned a lot about ourselves and working together through this project. I can't deny that I will rejoice when it is finally complete and we can move on to other things. But as I look at it I realize how much has been accomplished in its building. Not only the building itself but the relationships involved while creating it. What a blessing to have summer days to be fruitful but in a more relaxed way than during the hectic months of the school year.

Summer Renovations

Well I finally was able to get a couple of photos to load on my blog!! I don't know what I did or why it worked but thank you Lord for making it work!! A few weeks ago we decided to go to Ikea to get some bookshelves for the living room. Robert heard my heart and helped me figure out a way to get a small library together until we can get our garage converted to a room which I hope to then have one whole wall devoted to shelves for all my books. But this is a wonderful fix for the moment. We were able to move all of the books out of the kid's rooms and bring them all to one place in the living room. We are all loving it so much. I was also able to leave a shelf open for my next Sonlight Core which will be arriving very soon for the fall. I love the fact that we use a curriculum that allows us to have such a wonderful library. But it is also very frusterating not to have the space to have them all out where the children can actually get to them!! So this is our solution for now, what a blessing.

While we were browsing Ikea we decided to look at some new dressers for the kid's rooms. They were within the budget so we ended up getting two for the girl's room and two for the boy's room. They were all in need of new ones that have a larger capacity than what we had. Funny how as kids grow so do their clothes :). The girls also decided that they wanted to split their bunk beds apart and so the next day we set about revamp the rooms. The result was just perfect. The girls are so thrilled with the way the room looks and the space that they have for their things. I'm thrilled because it looks more homey and not so junky. I will also say they have done a remarkable job keeping it clean and neat and it is such a nice place to be. The boys have two new dressers and their clothes actually fit in the drawers and the drawers even close now! Mom is a happy camper. Funny how small changes can change the whole mood of a house. We have become masters at working with small spaces!

I would love to share some more pics but these are the only two that would load for now. Hopefully I can get some of our other adventures to load in future posts!!

A Decade Old

How can it be that my sweet daugher Emma is already ten?? She had this momentous birthday back in April and I think that part of me didn't blog about it back then because I still couldn't quite get my head around it. I know that I have two children older than she is but because they came into our family when they were nine and almost eight I guess it doesn't seem the same. But with Emma I can't quite figure out where the time went. Why just a minute ago I was feeding her baby food with a tiny spoon and chasing after her as she was toddling around getting into mischief. Now she is wearing a size seven ladies shoe and teaching her younger brother and sister about Christ as well as reading all the books I read to her to them. She is independant and stubborn at times and I see my faults in her so clearly sometimes. But two of the most amazing things about her are her simple love for Jesus and what an amazing big sister she has turned out to be. I was watching her the other day at the YMCA pool. She spent most of her time in the small activity pool with Daniel and Ana playing and playing with them. Either helping to teach Daniel to not fear the water or following Ana down the slide laughing and giggling with glee. She is still a little girl at heart but I see a maturity in her that sometimes scares me. I know that there are so many things that will happen with her in the next ten years and part of me just wants to slow down time just a little so that I don't miss any of it.

There have been so many blessings that have come from adopting our children from Russia. But one of the most unexpected ones is the person that Emma has become because of her brothers and her sister. She is much more adventurous than I believe she would have been with no brothers and she is far more giving and compassionate. God has blessed us so greatly with this loving and faithful daughter and I am one thankful mom to have her in my life.