June.

Hi guys. I thought I'd throw a little update out there on what's going on within these walls. It has been busy. The month of June is a biggy for us but this year more events were added in. Our anniversary, Father's Day, and Lauren's birthday is a normal June. This year has been the above with the addition of my parents moving, my dad's surgery, my brother getting married, and the first steps being taken to build our own home. In a way, I wished I could have closed my eyes and suddenly June would be over. But what's the fun in that, right? I would miss the memories being made. I mean, come on, Lauren will never have another 6th birthday and I'll will never have another 7 year anniversary. So, I took a breath and fully embarked this month and thus far it all has been smooth. Our anniversary was sweet & funny. If he and I are together--it doesn't matter how romantic or sentimental we try to make it, we'll find ourselves laughing. It's just who we are. Everyone was busy Father's Day but I decided to take time and bake pies anyways. We were on the highway of convincing Lauren to do a small family birthday party this year, she sweetly agreed and over the weekend I decided to mail invites to every friend of hers I could think of and throw a shin dig right here in the backyard. Like I said, I wanted to blink and skip June, but amongst those thoughts my heart frowned. I wont get these moments back---embrace them. I have. I am.

On another note--we have been doing family time or family worship in the evenings after supper. God had put it on my heart a long time ago and I finally pushed it one evening and it's been a habit ever since. As soon as suppers over, Lauren cleans the table off, we grab our bibles and meet in the living room. Funny how we don't prepare a big teaching session for these evenings, it just happens. We all share something. We sing. We pray. We memorize scripture. We ask how each other is doing. It's been good. Sometimes it's long--sometimes it's short. Sometimes it's deep--sometimes it's surface. None-the-less, we all connect and put God as the center of our bonding time. We have always done devotions, bible reading, scripture memorization, songs, prayer and things like that before the girls went to bed---but to them it was just a quick routine like brushing their teeth. We always tried to make supper the "bonding" time around the table but a, "How was your day? what did you do today?" just wasn't cutting it. We wanted to really know how everyone was doing spiritually. Also, after supper seemed to be chaos time. I don't know why. Once Jus and I were full we felt the length of the day hit us and ironically that's when the girls got a burst of energy. It was tired, chaos time. Now after supper we have a plan and it seems to give Justin and I that last "umph" we need and the girls are calm getting ready for couch time. I'd love to know what your family does for stuff like this if you do. I know everyone is different and does what works for them. We're still feeling our way along but so far so good.

I also got real sick awhile back & couldn't figure out why. Once it was over I decided it was time to take care of myself physically. I cut back on sugar, used honey as much as possible, got back on vitamins (it's been over a year since I've been on vitamins), started carrying a water with me as soon as my coffee cup was empty in the mornings, started doing breakfast (still a tough one to stay consistent with for me), instead of chai lattes every afternoon I mix it up with other hot teas that are healthy, and I close my eyes in the afternoon if it's possible, usually it's not but 5 minutes helps. Sometimes. I have felt better just from those small changes. I buy more fruits and veggies for snacks. I still buy ice cream too---it's just not what's laying around for grabby fingers. Small changes. Better choices, when I can. No where near perfect but I do realize I have to take care of me to take of the rest. Exercise you ask? hahaha, are you kidding me. I'll get back with you on that.

Homeschooling. I'd love to know your favorite, EASY, second grade curriculum. I'm going to be mix matching Lauren's this year. I'll also be putting a reading list together--book friends, ideas please. :)

Lovely afternoon!