an update of sorts

While perusing thru old photos to get a head start on Mom's Christmas calendar, I came upon this gem. My Grandma Taylor and her momma. Wasn't her name Joann, Mom? beautiful.

It's fun the pics that end up on your computer when you have a slew of kids plugging their iPhones into home base. These next pics are Will's. This bike above belonged to my dad..Will is the proud new owner of this beaut.

cute #1 and #3.

Will borrowed this from me and I borrowed it from Pinterest. It just really sums up my general apathy toward all the football blather in the coming months. Wish I cared. No, I don't.

The Shire. awesome!

Will dutifully playing Barbies with Molly. That's Mandisa. That guy Barbie really does look like Will.

The crew we took up to New Buffalo/Michigan City area last weekend. Cammi K. got to go and we loved having her.

This is the Stray Dog, a very coooooool restaurant. The building was fabulous and I realized the kind of decor I favor...beach house. Plank walls, white trim, big windows, lotsa little white lights and industrial stuff. 

another gem from Will

and yet another

Once we found the "Riverwalk" area, we could've stayed there all day. This day was beautiful. You could see Chicago across the lake. The clouds were like cotton balls.

Good Saturday morning to ye!

Aren't these clouds delicious lately? 

Blogger is kinda buggy this morning...never quite cooperates as it should. grrrr.

Here's a little snippet of what's going on in this part of America...

David and Mel are currently on a youth retreat with our church. I could say a lot here but won't ;)

We've faced a lot of crazzzzy things with his company and such these past few weeks. Every time we "make" it thru a week, we say "Whew! We faced a lot...hopefully this NEXT week will be quieter/more sane/easy/whatever". And then the week comes we're outta the gate like horses. Crazy horses.

Today, I have the immense pleasure of going to the Wonder Basement. Wanna know what that is? Yeah, I just bet you do....

My friend, Tonya, my fabulous Stampin' Up demonstrator and probably one of the coolest/favorite people I know, has her monthly Scrap-Complishment. I always think I'll get to go but Saturdays are always weird and unpredictable. Someday,when my kids are all grown up/away/married/etc., I will definitely miss this.

So that's what I'm doing today for a bit. I am in total crafty momma mode. 

We took a trip up to Lake Michigan last Sunday. We stayed until Tuesday. I have a boatload of pics that I need to upload but I don't want to right now. Go to Facebook...they're all there till I can get to my beloved blog.

It was such a good trip. We so needed a change of scenery and what scenery we saw. We rode our bikes, we scaled some dunes (oh my, that is so much harder than I thought it would be. I haven't done so since I was 17.) 

Coming up...October. Month of even more crazzzzziness. Birthdays, Harvest Parties, the last month before all the holidaypalooza begins....man, I'm just trying to keep my head above the waters and breathe. 

On a healthy note: I've found a girl that I will be going to for personal training...some might say that this is expensive. I don't know yet...but it's going to be worth it. I have found it is hard to hold my self accountable to my friends/loved ones in this area. Why? Disappointment/vulnerability, who knows...When David, bless his amazing soul, tries to be my Slim Goodbody trainer, it makes for some challenging, ugly days. I love that he wants to put my health first and I love that he is willing to pay for me to get help, which in turn, helps my kids, family and me. 

This is a spiritual matter. more on this later.

So there ya have it...a little blog visit from me. I hate that I'm such a blog loser of late. I really do want/crave to get on here more often than I have but honestly, it is just sooo busy that blogging seems to fall to the bottom of the list. 

My bad.

Thanks for visiting, thanks for encouraging...

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. Psalm 34:3

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8

God bless you!

little bits from the past

strawberry shortcake and huckleberry pie doing some little sundances.

levi was so small in 2009

Molly is the age that Jack would be in these pix. Obviously, he wouldn't be wearing strawberry dresses, girlie hair bands or pony tails...but it's still something to help me imagine life in our house with a two year old.

blurry but the daredevil shows thru...

this was the age when she started pulling her 'tude. 

see what I mean?
and look at all of those goldielocks

ahhhh. these were the days.

when she'd still take naps, suck a binky and had to be wrapped in her blankie, which she still has. I'd hidden it in a tote and we were going thru tote to find things for Baby B and alas! Molly found the love of her life. (she didn't even know she'd been missing it...but all of a sudden? she had to have it NOW!) o well!
Jack would surely plunk himself down on the same living room carpet and get his blankie up by his face to sleep. 

I love this because it hardly looks like her nowadays..is it just me, or did her nose seem ginormous here? it definitely isn't now, it's cute and freckly...but wow. this is the ugly cry.

My heart is heavy on many fronts tonight so I thought I'd sit down and scroll thru old pix tonight.

I don't know if that's ever a good idea but I found these little treasures that made me 1.) Miss old little Levi and Molly and 2.) Miss Jack because he'd make our pictures so much more adorable these days.

I won't blog much, just wanted to put my little flag up to tell you I was still here.

Hope to blog more this week, as the 3 youngers and I are going to our friends' house to get crafty and home ec-ish...surely I will take pictures of that, right?

yeah, we will see.

until then...stay safe, stay sane and stay in the Word.