August 2017

The boys discovered my scrapbook from college when I was in the Lifeline Players (touring drama team).  They thought it was pretty amusing to see what I did when I was "young." 

Ben always says I shed worse than a dog.  Abby helps him with the lint roller before he heads off to work.

I'm so sad. :(  My beautiful grass died.  Once the nights stopped cooling below 70, I think it got a fungus that killed it.  I got a spray that was supposed to help, but I think it was too late. :(  We'll try to aerate and then spread some more grass seed in the fall.

Abby LOVES any grocery store that has the tiny carts!

The Y in Clover opened up a new water park.  It took us about half an hour to get there, but it was great!  And I could see the kids no matter where I sat.

Painting night with some friends.  Megan did a cute watermelon.

Since we didn't end up hiring Karl to lay the flooring (we did better than we thought we could!), there was some room in the budget to go to Ikea!  Bookcases, curtains, a couple of new pillow covers, some storage boxes, and a plant.... it went a long way!  It makes me so happy that a project we did actually turned out BETTER than I had hoped!

Trip to Ohio!

Hanging out with cousin Chloe.

Micah and Chuckie playing basketball.  Almost exactly like Chuck and Ben and that age.

The boys needed haircuts.  They love the rare occasion of actually getting it done at a real salon instead of Mom doing it.  

And Abby loves that they give lolipops there.

At the Buckeye museum.  Before I snapped this picture, Abby was jabbering away on the phone making all sorts of hand motions and facial expressions... but of course she stopped as soon as she saw me about to take a picture.

Checking out one of Chuckie's football games.  He's the JV quarterback.

Ohio in the summer is so nice!  Perfect for dinners outside...

Micah played cornhole ENDLESSLY (and got a little sunburnt in the process.)

And the tradition continues.... another flat tire on the way home:

At CC's orientation... Baby Selah was all the rage with the girls. :)

My friend Jennifer brought me these beautiful flowers from her garden as a "first time directing" gift. :) 

We were just a little excited when our little friend Caedmon came over and he was wearing this shirt!  Yay for another baby!!!

End of summer swimming....

I often wish we had a bigger living room.  But we still somehow managed to fit about 17 people in our home for a baby shower for Tess...

A house divided.... (Micah is so ashamed.) :)

Solar eclipse!  If we had driven just 45 minutes, we could have seen the "totality" where the sun was 100% covered.  I'm still kicking myself that we didn't just go that distance.  It was something like 99% where we were in Rock Hill.  We made cereal box viewers...

A little science lesson on what an eclipse is:

And of course our solar sunglasses...

It was really weird to hear the crickets chirping because they thought the sun was going down, and to see everything in such a dim eerie light in the middle of the day (around 2:30.)  The shadows the leaves left on our house were pretty cool... all the crescent shapes of the sun shining through.

I put the solar eclipse glasses over my camera to take a picture.  That little sliver is what was left of the sun:

First day of CC - 5th grade, 2nd grade, kindergarten, and my first day directing!:

Ballerina pose:

Miss Tina whispering a clue to Micah in Essentials class:

Robby Dawkins weekend!  Right after CC started, our church hosted Robby Dawkins to come speak to us for a few days.  He talked a lot about praying for the sick and listening for prophetic nudges when you pray for people. (Robby has seen absolutely crazy miracles... he just shared story after story.)   Micah especially LOVED it, and he wanted to pray for everybody!  

Lunch with Robby.  While we were there, Robby asked the waitress (Brittney) if he could pray for her.  She broke down crying, told us how she had been addicted to drugs for years, got arrested, got clean, and has been going to NA meeting (Narcotics Anonymous)... one of the steps talks about having an encounter with a "higher power" and the night before we came to the restaurant, she told her group that she still hadn't had an encounter like that yet but wanted one.  So when Robby prayed for her (and felt led to pray against depression and suicidal thoughts), she realized it was real.  She accepted Christ on the spot.

Micah telling the story at the conference of praying with Brittney:

Lunch at our house Sunday before Robby flew out....

Skipping rocks down by the river...

Saw this guy on our walk.  Yuck!  Not sure if it was a copperhead or not, but it had similar markings.

This is the first year I've had to "officially homeschool" 3 kids, so I decided to make an actual schedule to keep us on track.  We'll see how long this lasts... :)