The Summer Heat and the Summer Beat

The beat of children's footsteps are all over our house 24/7 now. They are "out of the gates" and enjoying the summer so far.

My oldest daughter is busy finding new recipes and has been making us at least one meal a day. She finds the recipes, organizes my cupboards, gets a shopping list together and shops with me too. She has been a huge help this summer and I think that helps her too, considering she doesn't have a job, so it keeps her motivated and busy. Her cooking is delicious!

My oldest son got a job at the local supermarket and is driving a lot more, hoping to try for his license another time. He is happy to have a little money in his pockets (and half is required by us to go into his bank account).

This week I took the children for a swim in a friend's in ground swimming pool. My friends are on vacation for the week and are away from home. They invited our family over anytime for a swim in their absence. The children loved it.

I also brought the children over to a couple's home who attend our church. They have chickens, ducks and the husband is a bee-keeper. He has also worked with sheet metal for most of his life so he showed us his tools and some of his "tricks". They also showed us how they "grafted" different types of apple branches on their apple tree. One tree produces at least three different kinds of apples now! It was a pretty educational experience and fun too.

We have set up a badminton net in our backyard and we have had a lot of fun with it.

My next to oldest son was helping to mow the lawn yesterday and the handle on the mower broke. He tried to move the mower by lifting it up and didn't realize how hot the muffler can get. He got blisters on all five fingers! Luckily he is feeling better today and is no longer in pain.

My oldest daughter called to say that she was in an accident this afternoon. Someone missed a stop sign and drove into the side of her boyfriend's car (Her boyfriend was driving). Luckily he has side impact air bags and a tough car. I am so thankful that God spared them any injuries. The people in the other car were OK except for a few burns on the hands of the other driver from the air bag.

My third son now reviews books for an online review site called Flamingnet.com. He loves to read and now posts his reviews, which show up on different places online, such as Amazon, etc. He has read nine book so far this summer (not all of them were for Flamingnet--some just on his own from the library).

My youngest living son is involved in a summer basketball league and loves it. His first game is on July 7th.

We had my husband's parents here today for some fun. My sister in law came also with her two children. We had such a nice time and beautiful weather. Burgers, hot dogs, potato salad and some desserts made by my daughter.

I have two sisters and both of them were looking for jobs. They both found jobs last week! I'm so thankful that they will have paychecks coming in and benefits, etc. They both have health issues and really need health insurance, so this truly is a blessing!

My one year old daughter is doing great. She never stops moving, until she literally just about passes out at bedtime or for her nap. She loves having the children home for summer vacation. This is Elisabeth playing with her bear. He is sitting in an Adirondack chair that my father made for my older children when they were about her age. She loves it. I've peeked on her rocking in it on the deck when she is "by herself".


What is Elisabeth looking at????

Her new favorite habit, having wrapped her hair elastics around her toes/foot!

We recently replaced out kitchen stove. We had that stove for 23 years! My in laws bought it for us when we were married. It cooked thousands of meals for our family and did a beautiful job. I was a little sad to get rid of it, but not necessarily just because it was a familiar appliance...

One of the things that seems to make me sad since losing Caleb is losing the things that were around, or that he had a part of or touched when he was here. I did not wash the front of the stove for so long after Caleb died. He used to touch the front of the stove with his sticky fingers and I could see the evidence of "him" on it. Months went by and finally I couldn't see them anymore :(. I finally washed the front of it off, but the memories remain and I remind myself they will still remain when the stove is gone too.

I have gone to the cemetery and taken off many of the stuffed animals, etc. that are faded. It is sad to see how time has faded the toys and some of my memories as well. I know that I am finding it harder to remember what he was like and the things he did. I feel blessed that I do have several scrapbooks filled with pictures of him and our family during his life. They help to bring back some of the memories that I have forgotten. Having a large family helps too because we all remember different things that were/are important to us in Caleb's short life.

I have started reading a book called Sandpaper People--Dealing with the Ones Who Rub You the Wrong Way by Mary Southerland. It is really teaching me a lot about patience, forgiveness, being humble, etc.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:8, 20

With love and Hope my blogging friends,
Cheryl