too long...

um... hi?

I'm almost embarrassed to post because it's been so long. I don't know what's happened in blogging world, well I take that back, I DO know.

My 4 yr old doesn't nap anymore and while I admire parents who have this amazing "quiet time" every day? It just doesn't work in our house, or at least I haven't found a practical way to make it work.

So, here we are...
Summer has hit and we are enjoying every minute of it, soaking up the sun, the fun, the water, the swingset, the garden. We are lovin' it!

Levi is almost 4 1\2 now. How did that happen? He's loving learning how to ride his bike, climb trees, and will be taking swim lessons in a couple of weeks. He LOVES to be outside. He asks a million questions all day. Someone recently described him as an "inquirer", and I thought that perfectly describes our son. This past week he participated in his first VBS. He really enjoyed himself, and today alone we've listened to the CD twice, all the way through.  

Ruby will be 19 months this next week. That seems impossible. I often look at her, as she jumps on the trampoline, swings on a big kid swing, climbs the ladder to the slide, and think... you were a lump of nothing last year! My how a year changes things. She is a pistol, a ball of energy, and very much knows what she wants, much to the detriment of the person attempting to figure out what it is she does want. She puts two word sentences together these days, like "all done" "get down" "up please".

Mike is working full-time, and he is also speaking at a weekly vespers service on Sunday afternoons. He is a tireless worker, often out in the garden until 9 at night, while I tidy up the house, clean up, get kids to bed and try to resume some sense of normalcy before we crash into bed ourselves.

I am enjoying summer, teaching a few piano lessons, but mostly, just hanging with the kids, trying to hit the park, the zoo,the lake, the farm, and everything else in between. We recently went strawberry picking was so fun, until my jam didn't set, then it was a nightmare, but thankfully, through some ingenuity of some friends, I managed to get it set.