Last days of Summer 2015

Well, the summer is coming to an end for all my kids.    

But until then, we've been cutting, cutting, cutting. 

 With all the fruit we've been getting from Birch's, we ended up getting a dehydrator.  We eat as many as we cut, so it takes a bit longer to prep than I thought.  And I haven't worked out all the details that might change the length of time the fruit is drying... but it is so yummy! 
 We are all loving it.

Katy is preparing for Senior pictures with Aunt Priscila. We tried on MANY dresses this week and found a few lovely ones.  She has a friend coming over to help practice make-up and hair today and tomorrow.  So excited!

Mom is excited if I think about it in baby steps.  Look, Senior pictures.  Look, new class schedule. Look, you need all my financial information for scholarship paperwork.  

But if I think about how she won't be here next year.... sadness.

Jacob is having a wonderful month.   Swimming, friends, sleepovers, cousins and food.  What more could a boy ask for!  That's him on the rope swing.  

My new phone/camera - is a lower quality than my previous phone.  That's ok.  It's a choice I made, and for the most part, I am enjoying not being on my "phone" all the time.  But I miss the camera from the Nexxus.  Guess I'll have to start carrying around a real camera, now. 

 Whoa... that feels so old school.

Emily and Becca, both have their own devices - not for calling or texting yet, because they are always with us!  But they have email, google hangout, Pinterest, and Spotify. 

It keeps them real "busy".  

Let me know if you need their contact info.

Amanda is off to camp this week.  It is the first time she's been gone 5 nights.  She's been to this camp before (twice) but as a jr. camper and it was only for 2 nights.  She was SUPER nervous this past week and kept worrying about it.  Sometimes, alternating between tears and laughter.

So Darren talked with her about Philippians 4:6-7

Which means one day we were driving home and she says, "I'm really nervous about camp."  Then proceeds to bow her head, put her hands together and say, "Jesus, give me peace." 

 I LOVE that Amanda!   

Once I dropped her off, she still needed hugs, but she found her friends and she was off.  She did stop to turn around and wave to me.  My heart be still.

Claire has turned into a great swimmer this year!  Her favorite is the mermaid (dolphin) - but she's getting better at freestyle and back stroke, too. Claire also decided to get a pixie cut as well, she wanted to match the sisters.  She looks a little like Fantine. 
 It's just hair.  It will grow back.

This is how I feel, too.  Every time someone asked for a pixie cut....

Darren has started a new client, who lives on the East coast.  So his mornings will be starting 2 hours earlier, which just about coincides with the new school year.  No one wants to get up early.  

We want to soak in the last few days of summer!!!!

We got to visit with a friend yesterday that just moved out of the city, onto their own little farm.  We sat in the hammocks and talked in the shade.  All the kids want to move to a farm now.  We are pretty sure the ratio of work:hammock is something like 3:1 or 5:1 maybe even 10:1.  

They don't believe me.

Hope you enjoying your last days of summer, too. 

Sing the Word

We've been talking about how to get more scripture into our life.  Specifically, where we can see it -so we can read it and say it out loud and memorize it! 

My personal favorite is using a dry erase marker on any surface I can get way with  - 

white board, mirrors, windows, washing machine (so far it comes off ours), 

so I can see it as I walk around my house.

But there was a time when I had more kids in diapers than out... and they couldn't all read very good.  Well, some of them (KATY) came out reading, but a few of the others have had to learn.
It was our first year using Sonlight and we got the best scripture memory cd  -
 "Sing the Word from A to Z".  

Now, being married to a musician means that the music in your home might have to pass certain ...criteria.  For example, a certain purple dinosaur was never allowed (even I have ears)
but we still sing songs we learned from The Backyardigans.
"There's an echo, there's an echo, in this canyon, in this canyon."

So, of course, that magical criteria spilled over into any music we listened to in our home.
We looked for real songs with real musicians and real singers.
Including, the sweetest bible memory CD - "Sing the Word" by the Harrow family. 

The parents were real musicians and they put scripture to music for their kids to sing.
Do you remember seeing the  twins sing the books of the bible?  Sing the Word.

Jacob loved "Iron Sharpens Iron" and "The Battle is the Lord's" (about David and Goliath).  

Jacob and I read and sang and talked and acted out David and David's mother sooooo much,

that we even went through a season of being Goliath and Goliath's mom. 

 Of course, I have no pictures of those scenarios, but here's a few others you might enjoy. 

Everyone needs a turn to fight Goliath.

Do not even point out that David used 5 smooth stones. 

We all know the story, but Dad is always Goliath...

and we all have to practice taking down the bad guy.

*****Now back to MORE SCRIPTURE IN OUR LIVES. *****.

We still sing some of those songs we learned.  I think we ended up with 4 or 5 of their CDs.  

Sadly, CD's get scratched, lost and even forgotten.
But with our new push to get more scripture in, guess what Katy made me on Spotify....

my own playlist of all our favorite Sing the Word songs.

Isn't it sweet how some songs bring back a memory AND a memory verse with them. 

xoxo Jenn