Sickness won't go away!

I thought everyone would be well by now but now I am coughing and my throat hurts. Kaitlyn and Alex are the only ones left of the kids who still have a cough so that is good. I really wanted to get out yesterday and see my friends at park day but I didn't want to get them sick. This week has been pretty busy, maybe I wore my immune system out! LOL I have been going through alot of the stuff in the garage and taking it upstairs to the attic. Boy what a job!! It's hard when you have a belly getting in the way!! Speaking of bellies, I am 28 weeks so I entered into my third trimester this past week. That is exciting. Jason and I both are looking forward to bringing Andrew into the family. The kids can't wait! I have had to stop eating just raw foods because I couldn't gain weight-crazy huh? I am enjoying what I AM eating though-hehehe. It's mostly vegetarian with a piece of steak thrown in for iron. My Dad had his knee surgery this past week and I am waiting to hear an update on him. Last I heard he was recovering well. I am so glad that he finally got it. He has been in pain for a long time. He has a job that is very demanding on the knees so it's important to his livelihood. I will update soon as I hear. This weekend we are planning on taking it easy. We will see. We always end up doing more than we should have and wearing ourselves out!

Rearranging

Yesterday was dedicated to changing the house around. I put Alex in the bedroom with Summer and Toby now! He didn't sleep well last night but I think he will get use to it. I also changed the living room and fireplace room around. We put the couches in the fireplace room and everything else in the living and dining room. What I mean by everything else is the computers, pianos, sewing machine, and the kids toys. In other words-all the toys. LOL I am hoping this will solve our problem of having toys scattered everywhere. Jason really wanted at least one room to be clutter free. I am REALLY trying to make this happen but it is hard! I am putting the school stuff upstairs in Alex's room. Andrew will sleep with us in our room when he gets here.
My plants are growing well! i am going to pick a tomato today. I grew cherry tomatoes and there is about 7-8 of them right now. I am also growing several herbs. My favorite plant right now is the Thai Basil. It is beautiful! I will get a picture today.

Patience

I teach patience to my children but I don't think I have learned the full meaning of the word. I was thinking/praying today about what God wanted me to do with my life BESIDES raise my children and be a good wife. I haven't received an answer back and I think it's because this IS what he wants me to do right now. Not sure yet but I think that he will present the next thing to me in the right timing. So, what's my job right now? I guess it's to prepare and be ready for whenever he calls me to something different, without neglecting my purpose for right now. Is this hard? YES! The reason it's hard for me is because I desire to do more, to open myself up, let my creative juices flow, and feel that surety that says "this is my sweet spot". I feel an emptiness, anxiousness, and stirring within me. Does this mean that God will show me soon what he wants me to do? NO! I have felt this way my whole life. There have only been a couple of times when that hunger inside has been quenched-dare I say from what? Not here, for fear that I am wrong. FEAR- the f word that destroys the most passionate of people. I think it should be labeled a curse word!LOL

Ok, enough soul searching! Jason stayed home again yesterday in the hopes that he will get better. I am tired as well. This has been a couple of hard weeks for me. I am praying that God will lift me up like he has done so many times before. He is faithful. The baby is growing big! He is about 2 lbs now and is really kicking alot. The kids already know him by Andrew so that will be his name. Summer even comes over to me and rubs my belly and gives it a kiss and says "Hey Andrew, Love you". How adorable!! I am going to get them out of the house today because they have been staying in since being sick. Everyone is getting cranky!

New projects

When my Mom came down the other day she gave me a dress that she had bought that doesn't fit anymore. It is really cute. In fact, I think I am going to try and make a template out of it and make some more that might expand with my growing belly. Also, I got alot of plants this weekend and I can't wait to see if they flourish or die miserably. I don't have a very good track record with plants so we will see. They are sooo pretty right in front of the dining room window! I love to open the blinds and see all the green!

Still Sick

Everyone is still sick except for me. I have all sorts of energy from eating raw and nobody to enjoy it with. :( I am going to take the kids out later today to get Jason some more medicine and maybe he will take my advice this time and rest! He keeps staying up so late that his body is not recovering. Today I re-potted some plants and we got to see a praying mantice. It was pretty funny because he kept licking the OFF! I hope it doesn't hurt him. I got a couple of pics before we took him off.

Sickness

Unfortunately we are all sick today. Everyone except me has a terrible cough. I have a mild headache and foggy feeling. I hope I don't come down with the full blown cold. We did do school today but took yesterday off. Jason stayed home so that was great. I think he is going to take tomorrow off as well because he is really not feeling well. I am sooo glad. I picked up a free kitchen for the kids today so they have been enjoying that for a while. I have been encouraged by several family members concerning my Mom and it has helped but I am still dragging myself out of her sinking sand. I am hoping that everyone will be well by Sunday so that we can go to church. I think that will help. Thanks to all my wonderful family who have encouraged me!!

Sarah Ban Breathnach's Mrs. Sharp's Traditions

This was not a book that I would read through completely. It has some great suggestions for establishing traditions. I agree with the aurthor about the importance of traditions and bringing back the roles of women(taking care of the house, making it homey, etc..) and I liked that she had suggestions for things for each month of the year. I don't think I like the fact that these types of books teach the importance of comfort food and memories of that food. Not that this book says that food is the only good memories we should instill in our family but in general, these types of books tend to lean that way. I think that there should be comforting memories that are NOT surrounded by food. We could establish a time for reading, music, playing games, etc... Ok, gotta go get the kids up. Maybe I will write more about this later!

Bringing June to a close

Well, its hard to believe that July is here! June went by so fast. Here are some pics of us bringing it to a close.

Here's Jason and Charlotte pushing the littles



Me and Alex chillin in the sand



Summer looking beautiful as always



Toby stopping for a pose for Daddy.



Kaitlyn having fun and posing at the same time!



Charlotte taking cues from Daddy to get a good shot! Success!



We had a great time this weekend but most everyone, except me, is sick. I hated that! I had so much energy and really want to do more in the yard. We did get a little bit done but not enough! These green smoothies I have been drinking are awesome!! My big sister has started drinking them as well and she seems to have a lot of energy too! I hope that they do her well. She is a single mom and needs all the energy she can get!! Here's to a great start for the week and July!!