Sweet, Sweet Summer

Summer is ending.

Yesterday felt like fall.

I might have cried a little.

This has been my favorite summer in CO since we moved here 12 years ago.

It has been HOT, and I have LOVED it!

The kids and I have had a good balance of activities.

We have done lots of fun things.  We have served others.  We have spent a lot of time doing play dates and sleepovers.

We have not had a lot of structure, and that has been really good for us.

We have had late nights and have slept in.

We have maintained our chore system, but the kids have been able to play outside with friends a lot riding their bikes and playing games.

The 3 bigger kids have had various jobs throughout the summer to earn money.  That has been a really good experience for them.

My tan is fading.

Leaves are turning.

The weather is changing. (Anything below 75 degrees is cold to me!!)

Sweatshirts and jeans are coming out.

Kids are going back to school next week(I am a bit excited about that one because I will be having 2 1/2 hours a day to myself Mon. - Thurs. each week!!)

They are ready to be back in school even if they don't realize it.

Bringing back some structure will be good, as well.

I will deeply miss sleeping in.

I know it has to happen, but today, I am a little sad about it.

I plan to enjoy it as long as I can.

I did this activity with Isaiah and Laila recently.
Drop vinegar tinted with food coloring onto a pan filled with baking soda. Sheer minutes of colorful fizzy fun!"

 They loved it

 It kept them occupied for quite a while

 Cheap, easy entertainment.

This is what it looked like when they were done.

 Sam is now practicing in pads, so adorable!

Abby's garden is coming along nicely.  I think we could have lots of pumpkins for Halloween this year!!  We are beginning to enjoy the fruit of her labor.

cucumber

With her zucchini, I made a regular loaf of zucchini bread(left side) and a loaf of gluten free(right side)

I also made zucchini cakes.  They were yummy!

Abby has been working hard all week on a club house.  This chick is so creative and will have a beautiful home someday.  I am amazed with the work she has done with junk.  Let me give you a tour:

The entrance

She made a storage closet to keep her tools and cleaning supplies

It wouldn't be a good clubhouse without rules.  These made me laugh!

My favorite is "no punching people."

This is the main area.  There is a dry erase board, candy box, tool box to hold essentials, a gate to keep them from falling in the window well, and a nice roof on top to protect from sun and rain.

She found these old containers to hold items and put in nails to hang things on.

She said Isaiah was stinking up the place so she got some lavender from her garden and put it as an air freshener in the roof covering.  She is one clever little girl!

Right now, she is out there alone, reading.  It really is quite cozy.  I wish she had made it earlier so she could enjoy it longer!

Did I mention that summer is ending?

Compassion Tour

This week has gone nothing like I expected.  This is our last full week before school starts next Tuesday.  I had ideas of lots of fun stuff to do with the kids to end our summer well.  That was before Lauren broke her arm(mark off all the fun water/messy ideas that were on my list).  That was also before I came down with the ultimate coughing sickness.  It started last Friday.  I did pretty well through the weekend.  After a sleepless Sunday night, I got up on Monday morning feeling like a truck had hit me.  I don't think I have stopped coughing for more than 5 minutes since Sunday night.  My stomach muscles are sore from coughing.  What I thought was croup(and may have actually been that) has mutated into something exhausting and horrific(mark off many other ideas on my list because I don't have the energy to do them).  

To top it off, I have been in 5 different doctors offices between Monday and Wednesday for various kid checkups.  I am still completing school supply and uniform shopping.  It is so hard to find school uniforms that my kids are comfortable in!  That doesn't leave much time for fun or rest!! 

All of that to say, I am exhausted.  I need sleep.  I have 6 kids who are going stir crazy.  I can't seem to fight off this sickness.  I cannot even begin to sift through the pics and do a post about Family Camp, so I am going back to last week to catch up on some things I missed.  

I took the kids to Compassion International to take the free tour that they offer.  We have this amazing organization right in our town.  We should have taken advantage of this long ago.  

Outside the Compassion building

(I gave up on trying to get a "nice" picture)

 Isaiah in Jesus' lap (he looks so innocent here)

 Laila dancing with a statue

 Cody doing "buddy Jesus" with the Jesus statue

 This was a really cool part of the tour.  They had a mock setup of a typical homestead in a 3rd world country that the kids could go in.  It was built the same size as many homesteads.  It was eye opening for our kids who have not been to Swaziland yet.

 It cracked me up to take their pic with their juice boxes in the homestead.  Crazy Americans!

 Throughout the tour, we learned of Compassion's ministries around the world.  We saw pictures the kids have drawn, heard some personal stories of kids, saw the people at work processing letters, and saw a quick video.  My favorite part came at the end.  They had a replica of one of their care centers in Africa.  We were able to walk in and see what the children would experience through Compassion's ministries.  It was so cute, when Isaiah went in,  he said, "Is this really Africa?"  He immediately grabbed instruments and began dancing around the room.  It brought tears to my eyes because I know that is exactly what he would be doing if he was in one of those centers in Africa.

 Laila found a baby to play with

 The kids were allowed to play and touch anything in the room.  I wish I had taken a picture of the whole room, but I didn't think about it at the time.  They also had a big screen TV with some of their African children singing and dancing.  Sam was playing an instrument, too!

 We ended our time with some frozen yogurt at I Top It.  It was delish!

Whirlwind Weekend

We went to Young Life Family Camp over the weekend.  It was a blast in so many ways.  I will dedicate a whole post to that.  

I came back with Croup.  I spent most of the night last night on the couch propped up because I couldn't stop barking.  I was at 4 different doctors offices today and none of the visits were for me.   

Today I took Cody for his sports physical.  He is officially as tall as me now.  It is so weird to look him in the eye when I am trying to be his mom.

Abby went to the asthma doctor for a check up.  She is doing very well and her asthma is under control.

Laila is the best toilet paper deliverer in the world.  

 Lil' Licious in da House

 Oh, and one more tiny little detail.  Lauren broke her arm last night.  Oh, yes she did!  

This chick made it through a whole weekend of activities(high ropes course, zipline, rock climbing walls, gigantic swing, etc.) without a scratch.  Last night at a cookout, she slipped as she was kicking a soccer ball and caught herself with her wrist.  It broke the bone completely in half.

This cast is not going to match her school uniforms!  She is such a rebel.  This was one school supply I didn't plan on buying.  I am really glad she is left handed!

Acts of Service

In addition to doing fun things this summer, it was really important to me that my kids be involved in Acts of Service to others.  Earlier in the summer, we started off by participating in "Live the Mission" weekend with our church where we did a day of yard work at 2 different homes of single moms, then we went shopping for toys for fire victims, we helped some friends move, we have helped out some neighbors with various projects, collected food for fire victims, made breakfast for one of Rick's staff meetings, and we are always collecting items and money for Swaziland.  Next weekend, we are participating in a Feed My Starving Children Event where we will help package meals for children around the world. 

On Monday, we had the opportunity to help Abby's piano teacher with some work in her amazing yard full of flowers, gardens, and greenery.  I just love this woman.  She inspires me and challenges me to become better as I am older, not bitter.  She truly is an example of a woman of God through good and bad times. She could have a list of reasons to live as a victim over the circumstances of her life, but she CHOOSES not to.  She has changed my view of my own life and given me an example to aspire towards.  It was a privilege for us to be able to do this small act that would ease some of the work she has to do.  

The crew, ready to work(Cody was already working on a project in the  yard) 

 Our job was to dig up and remove all the random Aspen trees that are growing throughout the yard.  We had a competition to see who could get the biggest root.

Laila with one of her roots.

 Do you see the bounce sheets pinned to our shirts?  

Those keep the bees away!  Who knew?

I am learning all kinds of gardening tips from Mrs. Hall!

 It is a amazing to me how a tiny little tree can have such deep and strong roots.  It gave me an opportunity to talk to the kids about the roots they are creating in their lives and how if they are not "rooted"to the right things, they are going to have a mess later on.  Rooted properly, those little tiny trees were not going anywhere!  It was a lot of work to get them completely out.

 Cody worked on the biggest ones for us

 Sam found a really long root

 Abby was so sweet to work with Laila the whole time

 Sam's root collection

Somehow I didn't get an individual picture of Isaiah.  Maybe it was because he was talking non stop and I was trying to keep him from pulling out the good flowers.  That boy keeps me on my toes.  I told Mrs. Hall, she might the whole afternoon to recover from his shenanigans!

Afterwards, we sat on the porch cooling off with some ice cold lemonade and popsicles.  Mrs. Hall even handed out quarters to the kids for their hard work and Cody won the root contest. You would have thought that Isaiah had won the lottery with his response to the 5 quarters he got!!  He was thrilled!

We are going back once the leaves fall for a boys against girls competition in raking them up!

On the way home, I thanked the kids for their hard work.  They all agreed that it was more fun than they thought it would be and they actually enjoyed themselves.  I look forward to more projects like these in the future.

Could he be any cuter??

This boy is going to play tackle football this year.  Yes, tackle football.  I think he is adorable in his helmet.  Wait until you see him with the pads, too!  I am not sure "cute" was the "look" he was going for, but he is absolutely adorable.

I am pretty sure that watching all 5 seasons of Friday Night Lights was the only thing that caused me to agree to this.

Life Group

We have a group of people that we have been journeying together with for the last 18 months.  We have gotten together at least twice a month during this time.  We have laughed A LOT.  We have cried.  We have worshipped together.  We have prayed for each other.  The guys have done a special Valentine's Dinner for the ladies.  We have painted and helped one of the couples move into their first house.  We have welcomed a new baby.  We have grilled together.  The group truly has been LIFE to me during a very difficult season of transition in my life.  2 of the couples were able to attend our new church with us on our first day.  I cannot even express how comforting it was to have some familiar faces on that very "new to us" day as we embarked on our new ministry journey.

We mostly get together as adults, but periodically we bring all the families together.  Last Sunday night, we did just that at our house.  There were 9 adults(Garrett, you were missed) and 14 children.  

I love seeing the older children and younger children hanging out together

 I love this picture

 Sydney and Hartley

 Love these ladies

 Some of the younger ladies

 The big boys and the baby

 There was no agenda for the night, just hanging out.

 As I was getting some hamburger meat out for the burgers, it looked like this:

 As I was eating dinner, I looked down at my hamburger and saw this:

I have witnesses that can testify that I did not do this on purpose!

We had a great time and look forward to many more laughs, tears, and celebrations together.

Friends in "Real Life!"

There are people in my life that I would call "friends."  The funny thing is, I have never met some of these people "face-to-face" or "in real life" as I like to call it.  We have met through my blog, have a shared  passion for Swaziland, have a shared passion for adoption, we have similarities in our stories, or they are a "friend of a friend."  I think that is a pretty cool part about the whole blog, Facebook, internet world.  We can literally be friends and develop relationships with people that we have never met who live all over the world.  I have had a couple of opportunities to meet a few of the people from those realms and so far so good.  We have clicked just as I expected.  I guess we wouldn't be drawn to each other in the blog world if there wasn't a strong possibility that we would connect in the real world.   

This week, I had one of those opportunities again.  This family has a special place in my heart because we have adopted from the same country.  Even though we have never met, we just jumped right into friendship.  It was amazing, actually.  I am so thankful for this opportunity for myself and my kids.  

This is Kelly.  She lives in Germany right now. She is my friend. 

She knew all my kids names already!

 Here is Max with some of my kiddos

 These two hit it off right away.  Sam immediately connected with Max, took him under his wing and was a good friend and leader to him throughout our time.   We started on Monday night with some late night swimming at their hotel.  Taking pictures was impossible.  We were busy monitoring 6 crazy children in a pool.  

Here they are playing Pirates

 Sam is teaching him how to throw the disk

 Sam even took the time to teach him how to ride a scooter

 Meanwhile, Isaiah made some friends of his own and learned a new skill

 Sam brought this to me, so appropriate!

 I just loved watching them play together.  It meant a lot to Isaiah to have a fellow Swazi to hang out with.

 The time was way too short.  There was so much we didn't get to talk about.  I am thankful for the opportunity to connect.  Now, when we email or comment on each others' blogs, I really know her.  I have that "real life" relationship.  There is just something special about having children from the same country.  She and her husband actually lived in Colorado Springs at one time.  They were married here.  We hope they come back some day.

Nothing like dinner together at the dining room table!!

Here's to the Racelas!  Our friends in "Real Life"!