Afternoon snoozes

The altercation downstairs at the moment.

Lydia is whining because Millie keeps trying to burp her. Sam is explaining to Millie that we don't need to burp each other. Only Eli. Hillarious, these kids of ours. I love listening to the conversations going on down there as I work up here in the office.

Big 5!

Could she be any happier about her birthday party? They all had a blast!

Has it really been since August...

This is for Sam - who is as I type on his way to Chicago for a week of work with superstar Jimi Allen on he and Kate's beautiful home. 

He's been loving the work up there (it's finish work - his favorite!)  but struggling with the time away from home, me and the girls. We went up together with the girls the last time and it certainly helped -- but this week we're back to Sam in Chi-land, and I and the girls in KY. So far we're planning: movie night (tomorrow), cupcake and ice cream for dinner night (Friday), and paint your nails night (Sat). The weekend will fly and starting Tuesday we have family coming in for Thanksgiving, so all we really need to do is get through to the end of the week. 

In the meantime, I'm going to be all sappy and post the words to our first dance... almost ten years later, I'm still so happy that he's strong when I'm weak, the words when I can't speak...and the anchor of my soul. Love you and missing you tonight.

You are the air I need to breathe
the river of life inside of me
you are the half that made me whole
you are the anchor of my soul

and you are strong when I am weak
you are the words when I can't speak
you never fail to see me through
that's the love I found in you

you are my shelter from the storm
you are the road that leads me home
and baby with you here face to face
Oh I know I've found my place

and you are strong when I am weak
you are the words when I can't speak
you never fail to see me through
that's the love I found in you

and once in every life
you find the one that's right
and when you say forever it's true
That's the love I found in you

sick sleeping beauty.

Anyone who's been around Millie for more than ten minutes knows that this isn't how she's supposed to look at 10 in the morning. We can barely convince her to miss the happenings around her to take a nap in the afternoon, much less lay down just 2 hours after she woke up.

She was sick some over the weekend, and we thought it had passed, but apparently not. She woke up glassy eyed, ate a few bowls of oatmeal, then proceeded to wander around the house until snuggle time....sleep time. Sam took Lydia to work at the store with him this morning, and I got some quick snuggle time with little Millie that quickly led to her falling asleep in our bed.

While it's admittedly nice to have a snuggly 2 year old, I miss our crazy Millie and hope she's feeling better soon.

PS. I love the elbow dimple.

painting pictures.

I love this song by Sara Groves. It is the song of my heart the past few weeks and months as we've gone through transitions in several areas of life - occupations, roles in our marriage, our growing family. This is where I'm at:

I don't want to leave here 
I don't want to stay 
It feels like pinching to me either way 
The places I long for the most 
Are the places where I've been 
They are calling after me like a long lost friend

It's not about losing faith 
It's not about trust 
It's all about comfortable 
The place I was wasn't perfect 
But I had found a way to live 
It wasn't milk or honey 
But then neither is this

I've been painting pictures of Egypt 
Leaving out what it lacked 
The future seems so hard 
And I want to go back 
But the places that used to fit me 
Cannot hold the things I've learned 
And those roads closed off to me 
While my back was turned 

The past is so tangible 
I know it by heart 
Familiar things are never easy to discard 
I was dying for some freedom 
But now I hesitate to go 
Caught between the promise 
And the things I know

Blue.

Can you guess what this means?

The sounds of our summer.

Right now, it's this:
- The girls playing in the pool in the backyard or up in the green room with their little people village...
- Paul Cardall or Norah Jones on pandora at night while I work on corn, tomatoes, peaches, pickles, or whatever else we're putting up at the moment
- Traffic outside the open windows that has returned to our road again now that school is going again (boo! We enjoyed the quiet of the summer)
- Book pages being turned
- Boxes and furniture being shuffled around and sorted through as we move rooms around to prepare for baby
- The single rain noisemaker in the girls room - they're finally sharing a room and it's going great. There's nothing sweeter than hearing them chat each other up while they're falling asleep.
- Cicadas. Loud ones. Good thing I love their noise!
- Dumping cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden on the butcher block counter. Every day.
- The girls talking in our little thankful time prayers at the end of the day. Millie can finally verbalize what she's thankful for - it's usually the see saw at the park and sometimes the pool. So sweet.

It's so funny. We spend half the summer preparing for camp, and then once camp is completed, we feel we can really "begin" the summer. Only the kids here go back to school the first week of August. So to everyone else, fall has already arrived. But we're blissfully ignoring their schedule and enjoying our second half of the summer. We are truly rich - healthy kids, good food to eat, a sweet home we love on the side of a mountain, a faithful and steadfast God, and really good internet access. ;) (That's my thankful time list for tonight!)