Thankful Catching Up!

I've decided it's time to catch up on this long-neglected blog of mine! So much has happened and yet all is the same! We had some disappointing news in March and were not able to move. We took our home off the market. We ended up owing a ton of taxes and it just takes money to move and we are secure here. (tight and secure) We really had our hearts set on Arizona.  I couldn't even talk to anyone the first couple months without tearing up and getting all emotional about it. It took me time to work through it all.  To work through God's plan for us. It's funny, too, looking back, because we had prepared ourselves even emotionally to move and then when we couldn't move and had to stay, well, it was a whole new set of emotions! I can't even explain some things I've learned about myself.  I didn't think I'd get depressed about something really, in the big picture of life, that is so small.  I had to pull myself out of it.  After lent was over I'd stopped going to daily Mass, and all the extra devotions that I'd done during lent were done. I was dry. And disappointed. And sad. Only God can heal those things. So I started going back to daily Mass as much as I could and started another 54 day rosary novena and before I knew it, I was back to normal.  Happy to be wherever God wants us to be.
(and still dreaming of Arizona)

By June, the 3 oldest kids were in a play and that involved daily play practice and lots of ways for me to keep busy and preoccupy my sadness. The kids were in the play "Brigadoon" (our homeschool theatre group)

Rosie's solo part right here, Kind of hard to hear, but she did wonderful!

Jedi has a fun love song here and if you watch the whole play on YouTube you can see his other solo song, it's a really fun one!

The kids made new friends and so did I! I am so very Thankful for our wonderful Homeschool Theatre and feel so very blessed we were still here in Minnesota to experience it!

 Thankful for my sweet new 10 year old! 10 is such a fun age, she's growing up and at the same time holding onto her childhood play.

 We had a simple birthday party painting birdhouses and having ice cream sundaes after lunch!

 Thankful for summer parades for our unicyclists!  It's such a fun thing to do in the summer.

Thankful for our newest unicyclist!

 Thankful for sidewalk chalk and kiddos that still love to play with it! These 2 littles bring so much joy to my life!

 Thankful for summer campfires that must include s'mores!

 Thankful for stories on the porch

 all summer long!

Thankful for breakfast on the porch, all summer long also!

Thankful for my porch! I love everything on the porch! My husband loves the air conditioning so I love to go to the porch to warm up! I also love to do my morning prayers there and whenever anyone comes over I ask, "Would you like to sit on the porch?"

 So Thankful it's summer and we can spend so much time outside!

 Thankful for my backyard view! Want to know what I'm watching here?

 These cutie pies!  OH, my! Thankful for little $9.99 blow-up pools and water from the hose!

Thankful for joy-filled laughter and pure JOY.

Pure JOY, I tell you, pure JOY!  Isn't this just the picture of happiness and SUMMER?
Go ahead, click on the picture, see the joy!

 Thankful for cute little kiddos on the 4th of July sporting their red, white and blue for our country!

 Thankful the 4th of July means grilling pork chops and spending time together all day!
(after the parade of course)

 Yep, you guessed it, I'm on the porch here.

Thankful for our messy, loud and flawed life.  We are far from perfect, but our goal is holiness.

 Thankful for red, white and blue firework painting! This easy project turned out really nice!

 Thankful for a brand new 14 year old! She's grown up so fast, I just can't believe it.

 Thankful for a "Lake Birthday" party with her friends, because her friend Lily has a mama

that's my friend! Sarah and I spend the whole day talking while the girls were in the water doing this:

 Thankful for photogenic kids.  Oh, my goodness.  "Pretend you are smelling the flower"
"Like this mama?" "No, OK you can really smell the flower, just smell the flower" "No" "That's not how to do it honey."

 "No, never mind, you don't have to smell the flower.  Or eat it."

 Let's just give that up and take a selfie!

 Thankful for sun tea!!  One of my very favorite things.  (to sip on the porch, of course)



Thankful for smart little boys that LOVE to do 1000 piece puzzles with their daddy!
I'm serious, he sits there so patiently and looks and looks.  He put at least 50 pieces in this puzzle.
(Daddy did the rest) Thankful for a wonderful husband that loves to do puzzles!

 Thankful for beautiful sun-kissed freckles on beautiful almost-12 year old girls

 SO very Thankful I got to see one of my very favorite people in the whole world!! SARAH!!  She used to live in Fargo, ND and we were able to drive to see each other a couple times a year, but last year, she moved away to Colorado.  We had not seen each other in almost 2 years!!

 Thankful this beautiful girl got to see her godmother!

Thankful for my beautiful mailbox this year. It was looking so nice until....

The dang deer ate all my morning glories.  NOT Thankful for the deer.  AT all. Not even a little.

 Thankful for vocation camps, theater camps, Sisters of Schoenstatt camps, Steubenville weekends, surprise overnight visits from cousins (above)

 Thankful we spent as much time here playing at the local wading pool, it's already closed for the summer.

 Thankful we were able to meet my cousin Kristin and her beautiful children at the wading pool a couple times!

Thankful my school room is back in order and hopefully we be ready for school in just a couple weeks! Speaking of school, Jedi is starting PSEO classes Monday at our local Community College! He also started a couple weeks ago working his first job! SO many things are going to change in our family this next year as he prepares to get his drivers license and saves for his own car! Thankful I still have him home for 2 more years.  Hug your kids extra, they grow SO fast.  The days are long, but the years are short, so very short.

If you are still here after this very long "catch up" post, thank you, may God bless you!  Thank you to the few ladies that emailed me with their loving concern, you are a gift. I hope to come back soon with my movie reviews!