Home again

I drove home from our camping trip in NY.  Steve slept, everyone slept because it was a hard night with loud groups of people sleeping in tents next to ours and sea gulls flying around and kids waking up with turf wars.  I had more sleep than Steve so I drove. 

It was raining very hard, I had my hazards on a few times.  Some drivers chose to park on the side of the highway to wait it out.

When we arrived home some hours later, it was still raining, and the floors were not dry.  They were beautiful but we could not walk on them. While we were gone the polyurethane was not drying because of the wet weather and so it put the whole schedule behind.

The only way to get upstairs was to walk around the outside of the house in the rain and go through the sunroom.

In the kitchen we had stored the two sofas and dining room table, so to get to the cupboards and sink/stove you had to walk through a very narrow gap, and only in one direction, almost on your tiptoes so you could fit in.

I took the picture above of the kids eating their dinner in the sunroom, while Steve unpacked in the rain.

I thought of Lucy Swindoll's book, she talks about being a child and going out in a boat with her father and being stuck out there in a terrible storm.  He father said "Oh Lucy imagine the stories we will be able to tell when we get back!"  It was very difficult to not have a normal house when we got back but I knew that it was a great adventure at the same time.  It inspires me how her father's attitude made all the difference for her, she was scared and uncomfortable but now all these years later she looks back on it as a good memory because her father was teaching her how to see.

The next day I decided to spend the day away from the house.  We crashed at Julie's house.

My Dad came and picked up Elvis and Jeff to take them for a hike on the Appalachian trail.  They came home at the end of the day wiped out and singing trail songs they made up.

When I got home I planted beans in the backyard I am training them to climb up the wood teepee Steve made last Summer.  I kept laughing at myself that we had asked John who refinished our floors to water our bean seeds the whole time we were gone! So in our kitchen behind the sofas and table and all the stuff piled on top of the sofas were these bean plants growing all over the kitchen.

Julie's daughter Ally

Coco and Ally, I like how Coco has her toes wrapped around the pedal and Ally's squinty smile!

It was VERY tense having the kids home and not letting them in the house, I had so much to get done I told them they could not come in, the floors were still wet and I was trying to function in the kitchen.  Elvis wanting to still be near me set up the foyer as his VIP lounge and "owned it" for the rest of the day, allowing passes to the other kids and so on. Oh I miss that kid...  He gave me a pass and we sat together in the VIP lounge eating popsicles together.

My very cool friend Sherry who rocks at Basketball spent time with Elvis later in the day.

In the evening we got together with my family at a local park.  Elvis spent most of the time putting a plastic cup behind the bike wheel and riding around with a loud motor sound.  He would return to the table to stuff his pockets full of potato chips and then be off again.

I took the above photo of almost every cousin on my side of the family except precious Mikayla.  Left to right Elvis, Jeff, Eti, Nate, Angelina, Chloe, John, Ally.

His last full day here. Steve took them out to see Wall-e.

I talked to him a lot on this day, I was sad, and he was sad, he missed his mom and knew that he was going to miss us.  He felt torn between these two homes.

Steve said I am looking more beautiful every day it's ridiculous, and that was the very best thing that happened to me all day.  The sofas can stay in the kitchen for months, it can rain every single day..I am married to my best friend and so the sun shines for me.

Elvis is trying to be cool and that is the biggest smile I could get out of him. Jeff is over smiling, Chloe has that look she gives me when I am trying to talk to her seriously and she doesn't want to listen, and Eti WHAT IS UP WITH ETI?!!!!

Camping for a few nights at Lake Ontario

Eti and Jeff way up on the life guard chair, Coco and the other little ones couldn't get up there so the boys were feeling "king of the world".

Learning about  the life of Joseph with Grandpa.

It was so nice to have most of the family there.  For this second camping trip Grandma R's and Shel and James came.

Shel and James bring with them their great humor and sense of fun, and of course the clams, Tandoor chicken, and wonderful watermelon salsa!

Ethan getting pails of water for sand creations.

On July 12th we spent seven hours at the beach, at the end of the day right before falling asleep I wrote in my journal, "My eyes sting and skin feels hot from all the sun, my lips are chapped, but I feel like I lived well today and full..going to bed happy."

One of the afore mentioned sand creations, Steve built them a pirate boat

Elvis with Shel's youngest.  Shel has a family like ours, two boys and then a little girl named Madeleine

That is Simon and Chloe out in the water, most of the day I could hear Coco humming to herself over the sounds of the water.

Chloe, Jeff, Etienne, cousin Simon, Elvis holding cousin Madeleine, cousin Ethan.

Steve is not in the picture but he is doing something hilarious behind my head.

Most likely he was dancing a jig, and I am wondering now if that would have been a more entertaining photo.

Steve was yelling from the shore all the weddings I still have left to do this Summer and how dangerous it was to be out so deep in the water with my camera. But the day was so monochromatic it was really soothing and wanted to see if I could capture what it was like to swim in such a wide open space all to ourselves for most of the day with the sky matching the mood of the water.

Only about a month behind

It amazes me how my mood changes instantly when I am in open spaces in nature.

The wide angle views of water

the sand and the smells.

We went to one of the shores on Lake Ontario to watch the sunset.

Mom walked with me out on the pier. I sat up in the lifeguard chair.

It was so high my heart was racing as I climbed up.  The wind was whipping my hair around my face, I had to constantly have a hand in my hair to hold it back.

I love looking at all the different stones, the colors, texture, shapes. In the past I would have made a collection to bring home, but I know that I will forget where they came from and they always loose some of the romance when taken out of context.

The boys spent their time skipping stones with Steve and Dad.

Karate kid

Steve and his Dad

We went to Shel's (Steve's Sisters house) Elvis loved the Playstation set up that Shel and James have.  Shelley is great fun to be around and she and elvis played Singstar (Elvis creamed her).

In the afternoon we went to a birthday party for Shel's son Simon.  Elvis was begging me to drive to the playplace (where the party was) with the side doors of the van wide open, insisting that it is legal and everyone in NYC does it.

No, I didn't do it, but it makes me laugh to remember the things he would come up with!

Simon and his brother Ethan

Simon

My kids

David Crowder Band

Last year around this time we went to   Creation   which is a very large group of Christian artists gathering together for the purpose of bringing glory to God.  We went with some of our favorite  Missionaries . who turned out to be the very best of all people to go with!  My favorite group and reason for going was The David Crowder Band.

I pulled these photos out of my archives because Elvis remembered  every word of every song that we played for him by David Crowder two years ago.  He begged me to buy him a CD so that he would not have to go so long before he could hear the songs again.    Most of the time Elvis would sing the words at the top of his lungs, when he was in the shower you could hear him all over the house and even in the yard.  Sometimes he would just listen, for example in the car he would sometimes look out the window all quiet, and I would pause the song and we would talk about the lyrics and what they meant.

Chloe even knows some of the songs (that is how often we listen to Crowder) Her favorite song is "You Never Let Go" from the newest  Remedy  album. 

David Crowder Band, does not make videos that I know of.  On You Tube it is other people who made videos using Crowder songs.  I chose this video because it is exactly how I feel and think  when  I hear this song.

I have never posted something on this blog that my children are not allowed to see, but I thought this video fit the song so well.  The reason the kids aren't allowed to see it is because it is a battle scene from The Lord of the Rings, and Steve will not let the kids see the movies until he has first read them the books.  He is strict about letting the kids' imagination paint the picture before it gets "locked in" by a director's vision.   Someday when they are older, my kids will see this movie.

 Steve said if I post this video I get points for being a super cool wife...who can resist that?! 

This song below is currently our favorite song by David Crowder, and every time I hear it I think of these verses

Romans 8:22-25   "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.  For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."

2 Peter 2:13   "But according to His promise we are looking forward for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells."

Psalm 31:24   "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord"

Psalm 39:7   " And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in Thee."

Happy Monday everybody!

I asked Steve if I could blow this photo of mine up HUGE and hang it in our living room.

I also thought about printing this as a card and sending out some happiness in the mail to all my special people.

But in the meantime, here you go.

*I have no clue who this kid is he just agreed to pose for me, after I passed by him holding this sign.