County Fair

A few weeks ago the boys and I attended one of our local county fairs.  The thought of loading up my four crazy boys and having charge of them in a public place on my own is an oft daunting process; add to that summer heat, and I nearly talked myself out of making the trip.  But, we went for it, and we had a really wonderful time! 

They got to see a baby calf who had been born the night before.  This is the protective mommy.

We checked out the dairy cows.

The incubator which had hatching chicks inside was a favorite of my oldest two boys especially!

Then, of course, there were the fluffy babies...

And the big, full-grown chickens.

Conrad liked the pony.

Farmer Sam

Farmer Marcus

Farmer Isaac

It's funny, with all there was to see at the fair, one of the most peaceful and fun moments was right here.

Fun, Hot Day Out

Today was a fun day!  I loaded up the 4 boys, and we headed over to a local fruit farm to pick apples, blackberries, play and get the chance to observe beekeeping in action!  The apple picking was fun. It's always such a challenge to not pick too many apples!  The trees had so many on them!

It was very hot!  Thankfully, between the stroller and the wagon, the youngest two stayed in good spirits.  Samuel was my big helper when I needed a hand getting them up the hills.

We enjoyed the playground!  

Next we were able to take a tour of the beehives!  We even got to ride on a trailer pulled by a truck.  Some of my boys found this more fascinating than the bees!  :-)

Our guide showed us one of the many hives, then he opened it up, and showed us the bees inside.  It was pretty cool!

We also got to watch him scraping the wax off of the honey, and then the boys got to watch him process the honey.  They even got to taste it!  The guide was so friendly and open to Samuel's barrage of questions!  I love Sam's eager desire to learn, and I'm always so happy when folks take the time to listen to him talk away and address his many questions.

Blackberry Cheek!

Shorty! :-)

Farmer Sam!

Whew!  Sweaty, wiped out, apple eating chums.

Finding those "me" things to do

Do you ever feel like you don't even know what you enjoy doing anymore?  I think it can be hectic work schedules, trials and hardships that come in waves sometimes, and I think that often moms can find themselves in this place.  I guess I should just speak for myself, but I know I have been there, and still am there sometimes.  I grew up very simply, and I don't need a lot to make me happy.  But somewhere along this mothering journey I've found that I don't often even know what I enjoy doing anymore.  My life is very rewarding, and I wouldn't trade it for something different, but it often comes at me fast and I often feel like I'm frantically paddling, just trying to keep my head above water.  Sometime in this last year or so, I have made a conscience effort to focus more on the gifts and interests that God has given me and to make time for them.  I can only take small bits of time to pursue these things, and I keep my goals very low, but it has helped me to begin to appreciate who I am more.  It's been fun to see my little mental list growing!

I love gardening.  This is something I can only do in small chunks, but it's so rewarding!  I love sharing this interest with my family.  The boys really wanted to grow watermelon and cantaloupe.  This is the fun fruit of our labor!  I love to work with plants, and I find if peaceful to work in the soil and with my plants.  Well, except when the mosquitoes come out.  :-)

I have taken up reading again, and I'm really enjoying this pursuit.  I used to read so much, then I just got busy and forgot how much I enjoyed it.  I have to read in small chunks, but it's been so rewarding!

Homeschooling, (I really enjoy teaching), some deep, theological classes at church, improving my cooking skills are also a part of my mental list of interests.

I also have this beautiful guitar that my husband bought for me a few birthdays ago.  I'm ashamed to say that I haven't played it very much since.  Yesterday, I had a Chris Tomlin song going through my head all day, and decided to employ YouTube to figure out how to play it.  Peter needed to run some errands last night, and graciously took the kids with him.  It gave me some time to practice!  I'm happy to say that by the end of that practice added to my 10 minute session today, I can play a song!  It's rough and slow, but I can do it, and I am enjoying it!

I am thankful for all that God has given me, and I'm thankful that He's showing me how to more fully enjoy the interests and gifts he has given me even in this sometimes hectic season of my life.

Oil change

A few days ago I needed to get the oil changed in our van.  While that in itself doesn't seem like such a big deal, it is when it includes hanging out at Walmart with 4 busy boys in tow.  I wish I could say that the picture above encompasses our experience, but that is far from the truth.  For the first hour we shopped for things we needed, and looked around.  Beyond my littlest's strong desire to stand up in the cart, even with belt snugly attached, we got along very well for that hour.  Once we concluded our shopping, we headed to the back to check on the status of the van.  They let me know that I would need to wait 15 minutes or so.  My boys had been good long enough!  They began to run around, and goof off.  It was nothing that bad, but I'm a terribly self conscience person, and I worry far too much about what other people think.  I kept trying to get the boys to sit on the bench and play with their toy cars.  That lasted for 1 to 2 minutes, if that, then they were up and busy.  I started to think about my insecurity that drives me to want my kids to be "perfect" in public.  I decided to lighten up and just start talking to those around me.  The first was a kind man from El Salvador.  He thought the kids were great, and he wasn't bothered at all.  He has 5 sisters and 4 brothers.  He talked to me about how in his culture families prefer boys.  We both agreed that boys and girls are important and without girls life would cease as we know it.  The next man I talked to was the one behind the counter when he finally called me up.  He was laughing at my busy, crazy boys and told me that he gets it, he has a brother.  "Ah, I see, you have a brother?"  He replied, "No, I said 8 brothers!"  He has 8 brothers!  He was laughing because I had asked my oldest to be gentle with my youngest.  Boys and gentle can be a tough combination!

As we were leaving, I joked to the elderly couple who were waiting in line that the room was about to get really quiet again.  The gentleman looked at me and said, "Why, there's nothing wrong with their noise, they are just being kids."  

Three sympathetic and kind souls; what a blessing to this tired mom.  

I realized through this experience that I do have too strong a tendency to focus on the negative comments and negative people I run into.  I often assume that people won't like the noise and craziness that my kids bring to pretty much everywhere we go.  I assume they are going to see me as some kind of failure.  But, so often they don't, and even if they do, their opinion is not necessarily true!

I think this tendency does stem from insecurity and lack of confidence within me.  I feel a bit like I'm rambling with these thoughts, but I think the bottom line for me is to learn to focus on the kind and thoughtful things said to me rather than the negative, and even more than that, I need to focus on how God sees me, and know that while I can always grow to be more and more like Jesus, God loves me as I am because of Jesus.

Reading update

I am happy to say that I have been keeping up with my reading so far this summer.  My greatest triumph is the completion of Don Quixote!  I found the first half to be the most interesting with the second half not as funny or interesting, but I made it through.  I did look for the story that is used primarily in the ballet, Don Quixote, and amazingly the story of Basillio and Kitri, (her name in the ballet) was only a few pages of the over 900.  It was fun to find it though.

I also read and finished two theological books, The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArther, and Absolutely Free by Zane Hodges.  They were opposing views, but helpful as I continue to study salvation, by grace, through faith alone.  More posts on this hopefully soon.  It's been a busy summer!

I read Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul Tripp.  We have been in a class at church over the summer which has been teaching basic counseling and the call that God has placed on all believers to counsel one another.  Sometimes it will be in a more formal setting, and sometimes in less formal settings as friends.  This book is excellent on many levels, and I highly recommend it!  It really helped me to understand more where I come from, (my humanness) which contrasts so clearly from the grace-filled God who pours out His love on me!

I finished Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.  I read a kid's version as a child many times, and I watched a corresponding video many times, but I don't think I'd ever read the original.  It was dry at times, and very fascinating at others.  And, I also read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.  This is not a long book, but it is an excellent read!

I am currently reading Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift.  It's a little dry and harder to get going, but I am learning to push my way through even books that I don't enjoy as much.  The story is entertaining, and in the book's defense, I have read it the last several nights when I was pretty exhausted and nearly fell asleep reading it.

I am also nearly through Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.  I honestly don't remember reading this book growing up, but I know the movies pretty much by heart!  I am loving this book! What's been really interesting is observing that my son, Sam, has some things in his imaginative, talkative, all-in emotionally, personality that is like Anne.  I'm looking forward to reading more from this series.

There you have it.  For me, this is a great deal more reading than I have done over the past several years.  I'm glad to be back reading more again.  I usually read before bed or when I'm nursing the baby.  It works most of the time.  It's been good for me, and I feel like my brain is getting more exercise these days.  My husband's started reading more, too, and it's fun to have something to talk about other than say....politics!