"Family Fun"

We have been enjoying the warm season that we welcomed with much anticipation! The kids are now running around barefoot and the long sleeve shirts are ready to be packed away!

The warmer season also brings a growing spurt to our surroundings! The yard and garden have kept me so busy but it is such a "Fun" type of busy! The mulching is done and adds so much to the flowerbeds. The wood chip areas are mostly done to all but around the garden which will be an ongoing project all summer...:) Flowers are planted and starting to come alive with beauty. Grass grows so fast that even mowing twice a week is hardly even enough! I let the boys do the mowing the other day while I did other outdoor things. It felt strange but I think I'll get used to letting them do all the mowing.

I am still the one that does all the edge trimming and I don't think I will be handing this one off anytime soon...:) Indoors is not getting used as hard since we spend countless hours outside! It's nice to finally be able to run off energy outdoors! 

The DOG!!??? How is she??? I still don't like her!! She makes a mess in the garage!! She chews stuff up out there and even though Dave is faithful with taking her out to the field every morning before he leaves for the shop she still pees and poop's in the garage all day!! She steps in it to and then she walks around in the garage and drags it around!! She has enormous feet, she gets her feet wet in the fish pond, then she walks in the dirt then up onto my back porch leaving her trail as she goes!

She is calm though and stays here nicely when we go away. We can let her roam free and she stays within her boundaries, which is nice. She is never locked inside the garage which makes me wonder why in the world she has to do her business in there!!??  The boys do great with feeding her but I have yet to see to much training take place from them!! The cat has disappeared to!! This makes me so sad! I haven't seen her all week!

Javon had "Family Fun" day at his preschool today... They had a puppet show which was fun for him. I stayed at school with him this morning to watch the show then we had snack and fellowship afterwards. It was a shorter day for him but with the longer "Lunch Bunch" days he has been having lately a shorter day is nice today.

Justin was with his class all day yesterday. The went shopping for graduation shirts after school and ate at Apple Bees for supper. They went to some laser shooting place in Lancaster somewhere and when he arrived home around ten o'clock last night he just couldn't get over how much fun this night was!! I wanted to listen to him talk about his day but I was so tired and trying to get everyone else to bed before it was really to much later! Ten thirty is just to late a bed time for my first grader!!

I wanted to talk to him this morning over breakfast but after he just didn't appear to the kitchen I sent Jordan up to see if he is here and he found his bed empty again! This means he went with his dad to work at five o'clock this morning. He has been going out to help with chicken coops since they are behind with these out there. Jonathan comes home for breakfast most mornings so Justin comes home with him, rushing in the door ten minutes before we need to leave for school!! He showered and wolfed down his breakfast on the road to school this morning!!...Guess I will catch up with him sometime!??

Jordan has been doing well for the most part. He had a slight set back from the out of routine mountain trip. His system is so touchy and it seems anything out of routine can cause stomach problems. He was eating all "his type food" but sometimes he eats to much of the sweet stuff or maybe even different water? I'm not sure what it is but something seems to set him off when he does week end trips away.

I had a good talk with him again about his body and how he will most likely need to live with stomach issues. He seems to realize this but I'm finding when I ask him how he is (after trying a new food) he always tells me all is well, even when I know it is not! (I watch him like a hawk, poor guy) I had to tell him "I'm not punishing him" I'm only trying to help his body heal. He tries to hide things from me just so I won't limit his diet so much again. And he so loves great tasting food with the real sugar! I so badly want him to read his own body and then realize how important it is when he eats something bad, that he then needs to recognize what it was rather then ignore the issue and do more damage to his healing "Leaky Gut". We are starting something new once school is over to help continue the healing. This will again bring some food restrictions for a while.

Another thing I have discovered about Jordan... He is taking on some extra Bible Memory at school to try out for Quiz Team next school term. He is a whiz at memorizing two weeks after his infusion and I tell him he will be a great quizzer!  The lower last two weeks before infusion it just won't seem to click for him!! He has to work so much harder! It seems when his body is lower he cannot memorize as well! I help him with his studying every week and I took notice of this pattern! We might soon start the every week meds that we can learn to do here at home ourselves just to keep it more regulated for his body. It only takes a little more then an hour to drip and is done weekly rather then the monthly. He can learn to do this himself which might be nice as he gets older...?

Jenika was "Student of the Week" this week at school! She got lots of extra privileges and she got to read a story to her class today. She brought home "Mr. Wigglesworth" (a big stuffed worm) She carried this thing all over the place last evening! Even to the barn to visit the goats! He was already dirty when he arrived so I asked her if she would mind if I "Gave him a Bath!" ? She said sure I could so I stuck him in the washer and he came out so much cleaner and brighter looking!! It made me feel better as I tucked them both into her bed last night to know he was cleaner!...:)

The story that she took to read to her class today came from our stack of library books for the week. I started adding "I can Read" books to our library stack and I often find her in a corner alone reading!! I love that she is taking such an interest in reading! Maybe her dad's daily "Book Report's" will be something that she actually enjoys once she jumps on board with the boys and the daily book reports...:)

We are still going to the chiropractor. We are on a three week schedule which is going well. We are blessed to have Dr. Steve and his staff working with Jordan and his food allergies. I feel confident without him we would be having lots of problems where Jordan is concerned and we are seeing this upper cervical chiropractor as a BLESSING!

This week is another juicing spurt at our house...:) I get my moods and when I feel like I need a cleanse I juice more...:)

I love this...

 Summer is coming!!... We have lots of "Family Fun" things on our calender!

We are excited to hangout at a fun cabin with our great friends coming up soon! I just received the details in the mail (Thanks Lori) and to say we are excited is an understatement! School activities are keeping us busy and with all the other things going on in May we will be so happy to see the school year end!!

We have Africa Family coming home for some of the summer weeks!! We are so excited to see you all Dave and Rose!! The calender also looks busy with the Zook family for the weeks that Dave's will be here!! I hear they are ready to come home to Lancaster to slow down the pace of life!! They are so busy in Africa and they are looking forward to some quality family time which is much deserved!

We look forward to seeing you Africa Crew!

 I think they must have forgotten the busy fast pace of Lancaster County!!

The one thing that amazes me when I do early morning runs is all the traffic out so early leaving for the work place! The traffic is so busy leaving the county for a day of work somewhere else!! People are drinking coffee as they drive and people reading newspapers in the passenger seats. I have to try to imagine at times how it would be to be them,?  Leaving the house for the day versus coming back home to the demands of packing lunches, serving breakfast, doing laundry and all the other house work, plus outside work to right now! I will not complain...  I love "My Job"!! It's just at times I see this place as "My Workplace" and I have a harder time enjoying it in the same sense that Dave does, this is his "getaway". For me here my work never ends. It seems when I do sit on the porch with him in the evenings (which I love and treasure) I'm always thinking of things I should or "could" still be doing. It's not like we "Homemakers" ever really leave our "Workplace".  I think we all love short get away's and vacations but I think they mean more to the "Stay at Home Mom's"... since we then actually do get to leave the workplace for a few days...:) So YAY for some upcoming Summer getaways on our calendar!!

 Can you tell I'm excited..??...:)

Have a BLESSED Day...