happy bday to jen!

camping

annual all-church camping trip

annual all-church camping trip

ice cream at the beach

scott decided that we'd all go out and enjoy and evening together since we've all been spread out for the last few weeks. it was such a blessing.

apple picking and making applesauce

we went apple picking... in our backyard!

the little ones and i had fun picking lots of apples. our tree was thankful to be relieved of some of the weight on its little branches! we had so many apples, we weren't sure what to do with them. we were thinking of taking them door-to-door to share with our neighbors. (we'd done that with our vegetables one year when there was a ton!) but i also wanted to try out some recipes. so...

grandma had given us some canning equipment some time ago and today we took the opportunity to use it to make applesauce with the apples from our tree.

special time with the little ones

i get to focus my time on the little ones this week since the big boys went to arizona with grandma. the first evening both ky & sy wanted to perform for us (like we make the boys practice their presentations for CC). ky wanted to recite the books of the Bible and sy followed. we caught both performances on camera and they felt special. it was a fun evening.

each day we played little people games. today, we did puzzles.

it is fun to focus on the little ones sometimes instead of focusing on the big boys and allowing the little ones to try to keep up.

right now, it's really hard to keep any kind of schedule - with people coming and going and pretty much no regular activities. but in the fall, i hope to stick to a schedule and that time doing "little things with the little ones" will be a part of that.

no more free water!

after over 13 months... the water company switched out our broken meter - we'll have to start paying for water again.

in that time, the water company instituted rationing and allotted us an unfair, low amount of water. then they upped it a little when i sent a request for more water, but not to the accurately calculated amount. anyway.

over the last year i have talked to the water company about our broken meter and was basically told it would be fixed when they got to it.

last month, the rationing was changed to "voluntary". and this month we got a new water meter.

the Lord provided more than i asked for or imagined when i was trying to figure out how not to pay a crazy premium for our water! praise God for our broken and now fixed water meter.

as a side note, the guy changing the water meter told me a story of another customer in big bear had also had a broken water meter for a year. when i came inside to tell scott, he said that the other customer was our friend tony! (who recently sent us our dear new housemate!) how funny!

as another side note, he said i was the first customer to ask to take a photo of my old water meter before it left. :)

short 2 kids... again

i didn't lose them! they're spending a week in beautiful (& hot) phoenix with grandma and grandpa. at our parkday today, i kept counting kids and only got to 2. my library experience was slightly different with 2. not better - i was missing my helpers, but not worse - i have 2 hands and 2 kids and could keep track and we traveled together. going to the police station to get my fix-it ticket signed off was quicker with 2. the school supply warehouse was definitely easier with 2!

so i'm using 2 to my advantage, BUT i already miss the older boys!

have fun in the hot, hot sun boys! love you both.