Just Stuff in May...

the 5 yr. old spent all his birthday money on this...

 

{and he loves it to pieces}

 

my house in bloom...

 

 

 

fish hatchery...

 

 

 

 

exploring...

 

{an old homestead}

 

 

 

monkey # 3's school paper...

 

 

sk8ters...

 

redneck pool...

 

and more pictures to share of our visit to a lovely farm soon :)

 

 

 



when God flips you inside out and guts you like a fish...

yes,

God guts you sometimes.

i know it's not a pretty picture...

it's not supposed to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

my heart has been stirred lately by a handful of events happening at once.

 

 

 

first,

i have seen some of the most amazing, Godly women be chastised for their past sins or life choices.

and i honestly can't stop thinking about it.

 

the church {and by church i mean body of Christ} should be there to guide and direct and at times confront.

what the church should not do is make blanket statements without considering the person's life.

this pin yesterday said it perfectly!

 

 

{unfortunately i am not able to link the original source}

 

 

as far as past sins...

i wonder if these churches would turn away King David if he were to walk through their doors?

would we admonish someone with a past who God himself has forgiven and set free?

 

just something to ponder...

 

 

 

i also have had my heart stirred by a friend's facebook status in regards to Christians slamming the president with rude and hateful and derogatory words.

that made me a little sick.

oh, i don't like the president either.

i laugh at the funny cartoons and quite honestly, i think the humor is fine.

but the Christians who are saying truly disgusting things that resort to name calling rather than stating their problems with the issue???

probably not the best way to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a nation already growing daily more hostile to Christianity as a whole.

it is such a fine line to walk between being firm in our faith with the political issues we feel strongly about and discussing them maturely, and resorting to a less than Christian way of expressing our frustrations.

we are called to be firm and gentle.

we should make every effort to behave better than the rest.

it is not an easy task but i would hope that we try to remember in seasons like this that we already have so much coming at our faith, let's not give them any more ammunition...
the battle is God's

 

 

as for the real gutting...

it is happening here at home.

it is happening in my heart.

i find that i have come to the very end of me,

only to find Him.

why oh why do i keep thinking i can do it?

i can't!

and i am finally resting in the fact that that's okay.

i have nothing left to give this child that presses me at every turn.

we are in the hardest testing stage yet.

and you wanna know what's ironic?

somehow...

i am enjoying him more than ever.

God is providing grace through me to him, that i certainly am not extending on my own.

he is more maddening than ever and i am loving him more than ever.
it is not of me, but of the Lord.
i have been found lacking, but He is filling.  He is teaching me how little i really know, how incapable i really am.
this gutting me is quite humbling and yet so desperately wonderful.

 

there are seasons we all need to go through, battles we all need to win,

even if means God flips me inside out and guts all i know about me to conquer it.

 

 



Mom's Summer Fun List

it's almost time for sprinklers and watermelon.

bring it on.

Mom’s Summer Fun List:

Read at least 4 books from my list
{side note-i've already read 13 this year!  woo-hoo.  interesting, i've never actually kept record before.  see my book list tab to see what i've read/plan to read!}

Swim in union creek

Walk. A lot.

Tickle tackle my babies in the grass

Sleep under the stars

Weekend away with the man

Junking with my friends

Plan lots of fun kid things

Swim in applegate lake

Take a country drive

Pick berries

Make strawberry jam

Scrapbook the whole last year {yikes}

Make lemonade at least twice a week

Work on my book

linking up with alicia:

being a mom to boys means...

that the slide will inevitably end up upside down or on it's side and used improperly.

{a}

that i will find random things all day...such as a cut hose with sewing pins sticking out of it, on the kitchen island.

{a}

that quiet will sometimes mean that you walk into a room and find a boy sitting on the table playing with pez dispensers {which were, curiously, put up very high?}.  because apparently the table is the only suitable place for pez play.

{t}

that the butterfly habitat is now home to an assortment of...bees.

{a}

that shoes are spread hither and yon.

no matter how much nagging they have been subjected to.

{a}

that cleaned out pockets will mean bullets, a carved soapstone, grass, a hair band {probably used for a rubberband}, and a football mouth guard will be placed on my hutch shelves.

{a}

that bar graphs are what the chalk is for.

{c}

all in a days work.

x three.

it means working from son up til son down for sure.

and i enjoy {most every}  minute of it.

blessings,

mandy

how does my garden grow?

through my husband's hours upon hours of hard work mainly.

excuse the pictures, as this is a major work in progress...

our starts are in this window,

right behind my couch.

which is not quite as annoying as i had not-so optimistically expected;).

we do all our veggies from seeds.

by we i mostly mean my hubby.

left side of the front yard:

big flower box, border flower boxes,

unfinished picket fence,

basket ball,

and the 2 herb boxes are the smaller ones

{can you believe how huge last years herbs are already?!}

i grow peppermint,

rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, thyme, oregano and will put  basil and chammomile in this year.

 we are putting in crushed granite in the pathways later this week.

view from road:

ignore all construction junk on porch ,

hubs has been working on all the border boxes.

strawberries, last year we had a major earwig issue in our strawberries,

ewwwwwwww.

right side of the yard are our veggie/fruit boxes.

view from front walk

view from porch

{there is another big one you can't see behind that hideous ponderosa pine tree}

there will be tomatoes, cilantro {i know that's an herb},

yellow squash, zucchini, bell pepper, jalapenos,

watermelon, pole beans,

cabbage,

etc.

i can't wait until everything is fruitful and multiplying!

i will show you then!

playing along with alicia!

come play too:)

how does your garden grow?

blessings,

mandy

i hate my bangs and other such nonsense...

so.

 i asked the girl who cut my hair

{first hair cut in a year!},

to leave me a long side bang.

uh-huh.

i look like a puppy from the 1950s.

i'm not really sure what that means, but it's what i thought of.

it's a good thing i'm not one to pitch a fit or whine about things like this.

  i do hate them, but whatever.

it's hair.

it grows.

{those forehead wrinkles, however, will just continue to get worse.  let's pretend they don't exist, m'kay?}

and now onto a question i keep getting asked:
How did the gluten free thing go and are we still on it???

answer:

awful.

and no, we're not still on it.

we did it for 8 weeks, and we {the hubs and i} did not feel any difference.

it was supposed to be beneficial for his crohn's disease, and for my

multitude of problems.

but, no, we felt no changes.

no clarity of mind, energy, weight loss,

or any of the other benefits everyone else apparently sees after a few weeks.
and, we did not feel headachey, bloated or yucky after reintroducing gluten.

i honestly wasn't sure if i was livid or relieved.

go back to carbs and regular cooking?

yes please!

no easy solution to seeing health improvement?

uhhhhh!

but i am still on my supplements, and hoping that by the time i return to the dr., that my levels will at least be getting closer to normal.

and despite my thought process earlier in this stuff,

i do believe that when finances are better, i will return to my neurologist to get an official diagnosis.

if for no other reason than my own peace of mind.

and yes, this was the nonsense part of the post;)

blessings,

mandy

in case you doubt my dorkiness...

may i reaffirm that for you.

a friend got a dog today.one of his names is jasper.

ahhh, jasper.

this post will forever remind my children how fortunate they were that dad had an opinion on their names.

my top boys names if mr.bossy pants didn't have mercy upon  our children's souls.

boys:

 jasper.

tucker.

{yep, i know. still, i fought hard for this one.}

oliver.

riley

{but then it had to go all over to the girl's side and screw that up.  you know why i liked riley?

because of riley roberts in the t.v. show the torkelsons.  which, apparently, i am the only person in the history of the world to remember} 

and

wait for it...

willoughby.

i never even tried with that one.  he may have died laughing.

girls:

well, my daughter was supposed to be cecily.

i still mourn that name.

avonlea.

{i never brought up that one either, just kept it hidden in my heart til now.  don't you feel fortunate?;)}

josie.

elsie.

{which are not dorky names like my usual}

and elizabeth was always to be my daughter's middle name.

in the end we chose elleanor,

which has the same feel.

so, what did we name our kids?

well, here on the blog we keep that private.

but i will tell you once.

this shall be the only time ever on this here publication.

aiden andrew.

{who is nearly 11 by the way.  we were waaaay ahead of that game;)}

and i still love this name, though he was almost  a noah.

brynna elleanor.

love her middle name.

like her first.

conner ryan.

i thought conner too trendy, but liked it well enough.

have always loved the name ryan.

trevor isaiah.

i really like trevor.  kinda cowboyish.

loathe the name isaiah.

that was all his daddy.

{i'm sorry trev, mommy still loves you}

so, as you can see,

i still put entirely too much thought into names when i shall never bear more children.

but now, my dorkiness is documented for all time,

and my boys will know how close they came to utter humiliation and be indebted to their father for all eternity.

amen.

blessings,

mandy

oh ryan...

via

i don't think i'll ever be sick of these.

seriously.

just thought i'd share.  go to the site , there are so many more!

blessings,

mandy

chickens and poop. but not chicken poop...

well,

meet the newest members of our family.

we have Dagger,

Hamburger,

Bear Grylls,

Fluffy

and Spring



little adorable chickies that will soon be ugly annoying hens.

but i'm all for free eggs!

and the kids are trying to kill them off quickly...

love the heck out of them.

changing subjects,

i've had a few emails asking how i'm feeling on the gluten free thing.

you all know i'm honest.

and that's where the poop part comes into my post.

that's how i feel.

not better,

not more energetic.

i haven't lost even an ounce.

i'm craving sugar one minute, and the next i feel like i might throw up.

i wake up with bad headaches.

i feel exhausted and sluggish all day long.

i would describe it best as feeling pregnant.

and no, i am not.

i'm counting on this just being a detoxing phase, and that i will see a big turn around very soon.

but for now?

totally sucks.

my husband has been off  gluten the same amount of time, and has not had any bad side effects.

totally mean of him.

i hope to make the next update a happy one!

blessings,,

  mandy

like most days...

i have laundry to do.

but i can see the bottom of the pile

{what? you don't find maxi pads, a cheerio encrusted spoon, magazine pull outs, hot wheels, baby dolls, travel tooth paste, a flute holder thingy and super man gear at the bottom of your baskets? what's wrong with you?!}

2 cups down.  still sluggish.

like most other day ,this little one is very proud at his reading skills.

he said "mom, do you remember in the beginning when i was just learning words like am?"

to which the three year old replies "like in ammo?"

oh ya, teaching them great things we are;)

 {last night, #3 said "is it like your voice box forgot it's job?" in reference to laryngitis.}

unfortunately, when you do manage to get to the bottom of the laundry pile, the worst is yet to come.

there's a chair somewhere under there. it may be MIA for a few days. {like most other days}

like most other days,
 this has already been administered once.
and threatened twice.
i'm great at threats.
it was either become a mom or a hostage holder.
but i'm pretty much a push over, so mom it was.

like most other days,
cuddles with giraffey.

not like most other days...

ugly carrot muffins for my breakfast.

while not pretty, they were pretty tasty.

no dairy, rice flour and farva bean flour!

 

i love that the monkeys {especially the oldest, like most other days, ask for tea.  he usually drinks a few cuppas daily!}

once again, scary looking, but yummy!  kale chips!

like most other days,

  these babies will be brought down at least once.
notice the one on it's side?
ya, it no longer has a stand from being dropped repeatedly.

like most other days,

i'll also see this bear grylls pocket knife at least 20 more times.

we're only at three so far.

like most other days,
  this darling impresses/scares me  with her wardrobe selections.
always fun to see what she comes up with.

 and i don't want my kids to look back on this blog one day and think i hated their pets{because that's only kind of sort of, 90 % true}, so here

like most other days
my plans for tonight include a little reading and a movie.
we're working through north and south. if you love bbc productions, or anything like jane austen, give the elizabeth gaskell ones a go.
so grateful i have a hubby that likes my chick flicks.
it's a fair trade.  i love john wayne and shoot em up movies too.

also like most other days,
i am totally blessed...

blessings,
mandy