Weary to the core!!!

I feel like a walking zombie right now! I really don't remember a time in my life when I have been this tired. For some reason I haven't been sleeping well - awake constantly and just not feeling good at night. Then the days are so cram-packed that I feel like I can barely see straight.

We are trying to make a big push to finish the downstairs by Thanksgiving so we can move our kids into their own bedrooms. We finally got the sheet rock done and now the painting has begun. I painted the ceilings today in between my regular life and working so that tomorrow my kids can get their bedrooms painted. I like painting fine, but painting a house inside and out by hand in a year and a half is enough to give you arthritis in your hands! Honestly, I am so sick of it that I really don't even care any more how it looks. This weekend we are hoping to sand and seal our "basketball" hardwood flooring. I will be sure to post a before and after photo.

Next week we start refinishing the two sets of cabinets that we got for free. Which by the way, match each other perfectly - thank you God for providing. Doing all of this of this in the midst of taking care of a family, working, volunteering, etc is getting to be a little challenging.

We continue to pray for God's provision for us - for a peace in the midst of the storm - for a supernatural ability to trust Him. He is good and has taken good care of us over this last season.

I had better get to bed - I think I hear a Tylenol PM calling my name....

walking for a cure!

Sunday morning, bright and early, a group of us women and girls headed down to "big city" for a very cool fundraiser for cancer research. We stopped at pioneer square for a group photo.

We got to be right at the start line, under the cool balloon arch!

We took lots of combinations of group photos at this point. I think a few of the women around us were not too amused, but we had a great time taking pictures of each other.
Here we are walking down Broadway in the mass of people. It is cool to be a part of something so big!
Then of course, since we were so close, we had to treat ourselves to a little bit of heaven! My daughter will probably want to kill me if she sees this photo?!?!?
We love you saint cupcake!
It was a great time and it didn't even rain a drop on us.

Oh, How I Love Them!!

Yesterday, my dear friend Annette and I went to spend some time "helping" the MOM's ministry girls at our church get ready for the season. I say help them loosely - mostly I just sit there in awe of how much they get done! These women are so beyond what I was when I was a starting out mom! I was lucky most days to just get dressed and make dinner. Many of them do canning, bake homemade bread, have businesses, make all kinds of incredible crafty things and they serve people. I love being around them - they give me energy and inspiration. Yesterday one of them, who is a kindred spirit, gave me this wonderful verse that I want to share:

"Oh, bless our God, you peoples!

and make the voice of His praise to be heard,

Who keeps our soul among the living,

and does not allow our feet to be moved.

For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

You brought us into the net;

you laid affliction on our backs.

You have caused me to ride over our heads;

We went through fire and through water;

but You brought us out to rich fulfillment."

Psalm 66:8-12

Thank you girls for being yourselves and sharing who you are with others!

my song for now

This song is my song for this season of my life. I find myself singing it all the time and it ministers to my soul. I choose to not be moved!

a fun give-away!!!

Click on her name to check out this amazing give-away from my artist friend, Michelle. She does incredible work and is an incredible person as well. We gave my sister-in-law one of her creations last year for Christmas and she llllooovvveeddd it!!!

Sad to see it go....

I don't know what it is about the end of summer every year, but it is such a mixed bag of emotions for me. Fall is wonderful! It brings structure, fresh starts, fun stuff to participate in, soup, chilly mornings with gorgeous days - all things I love! I really do enjoy sending my kids off to a new year of school. But part of me is soooo sad to see it go! My mom and I took the kids to the beach for one last day in the sand last Friday. Time to sit still, enjoy the ocean, build castles and forts, run in the waves - all things we love about the beach!

I am sad to see them go! Sad to have them wake up to alarm clocks and rush out the door all the time. Sad to tell them they cannot lay around in PJ's like when they were little kids. Sad to watch them carry around those heavy textbooks and have all that homework.

I miss them already and it is only the first week!! Here is to a great year of 7th and 5th grade!!